Showing posts with label Crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crime. Show all posts

Saturday, October 31, 2026

Tuesday, October 31, 1876. Johnny Ringo arrested. Bengal Cyclone kills 200,000.

The Llano County, Texas Sheriff A. J. Strickland and a party of Texas Rangers captured Johnny Ringo and George Gladdin of Tombstone fame.  He'd been participating in the Mason County War.

The Bengal Cyclone of 1876 struck Bangladesh killing approximately 200,000 people.

Last edition:

Monday, October 30, 1876. Grant revoked the Chiricahua Reserve.

Thursday, October 29, 2026

Tuesday, October 29, 1901. Leon Czolgosz executed.

Leon Czolgosz was executed for murdering William McKinley.

For last words the delusional Czolgosz reportedly stated; "I shot the President and I did it because I thought it would benefit the poor people and for the name of the working people of all nations. I am not sorry for my crime. That is all I have to say."

A train carrying Buffalo Bill's Wild West show was wrecked near Lexington Virginia, killing several of the Sioux party in the show, and injuring Annie Oakley to such an extent it ended her career.

Last edition:

Saturday, October 26, 1901. Depositing the proceeds of a train robbery.

Sunday, October 29, 1876. California Joe Milner murdered.

Moses Embree "California Joe" Milner was shot in the back by Tom Newcomb at Ft. Robinson in what was apparently the terminal episode in a feud between the two men over who was responsible for the murder of John Richard and his nephew, Alfred Pallardie at a Sioux camp.  Newcomb blamed Milner and Milner blamed Newcomb.  

Milner was from Kentucky originally but had been in various Western locations since age 14.  He'd serviced as a scout for Custer and Crook.  He was 47 years old.

Last edition:

Saturday, October 28, 1876. He wants a change too.

Tuesday, October 27, 2026

25th Amendment Watch, 28th Edition. CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 162nd Edition. "The Case Against Donald Trump Emerging in the Epstein Files and DOJ's Desperate Efforts to Cover It Up"

I'm only going to post excerpts of this.  It'd be too long to post the entire document, and you can look it up.

The excerpts are enough.  The rest, however, does really set the tone.  Much of what it notes, we have noted here before.




Let's jump ahead here.



I'm reminded in this about stories about the Playboy Mansion and some of the people who attended parties there. Bill Cosby, Jim Brown.  This went on for a long time.  Hefner even managed to escape being exposed during his lifetime.

I'm particularly reluctant to accuse people of horrible acts simply based on reporting  But here, in order to believe there's nothing to this, we have to wilfully disregard the women involved. 

Is it possible this is all a fable? Well, such things can occur, although by this point this would be an extraordinary fable.

Be that as it may,  Trump is now 80 years old.  He's destroyed the Republican Party, which has gone from being a Conservative Party to a Fascist Party.  His dementia is crossing over from the noticeable stage to the raging stage.  So, what will occur with all of this, given the status of his mind?

He remains the purported President of the United States and in that capacity he's steadfastly refused to cooperate in the release of the Epstein files.  All the current poll data suggests that the GOP is going to lose the House and may very well lose the Senate.  If the Senate remains in GOP hands Trump is safe from impeachment.  If there's a "blue wave", as some feel there may be, he isn't.

It's not that there would be so many Democrats in office that they could impeach him on their own.  No, rather, it's to what degree the remaining Republicans in the Senate, and the House for that matter, would be willing to cling to a sinking ship, or if you prefer in Trump terms, to be on a sinking electric car in which there are sharks in the water.  After the election, the GOP is going to have to take stock on the results, and if things are really bad, and they look like they may be, the same noodle backed politicians who have gone along with Trump will be looking to save their jobs.  Some will switch over to being anti Trump in that effort, if a solid reason to do so is presented.

The story of Beatrice Keul provides ample reason to do so.  She's a named adult, and has little to profit by having revealed her story.  Indeed, she's the former Miss Switzerland.  While I'm not a fan of pageants, having a title such as that lends credibility to her accusations.  And the accusations are brutal.  She maintains that she was ushered into a private suite and that Trump grabbed her from behind and outright raped, not groped, her, leaving her bleeding as a result.  In order to discount this, you have to be willing to believe that Keul just flat out made this story up.

 The story about the 13 year old is so horrific that if it is further developed, and is true, that would certainly provide ample reason to impeach Trump, as well as an ample reason to prosecute Trump.  That story, as noted, has been out for awhile and so far has not been deemed sufficiently established, however.

When the Democrats take the House, it will undoubtedly be the case that these stories will be more fully developed.  MAGA's will howl.  It's like Rebecca Bextel believing that NASA hasn't made it to the Moon, knowledge is a dangerous thing and would hurt their world view.

If the blue wave is big enough, and it it looks like Trump will drown in it, both big ifs. that brings us back to the 25th Amendment.  It's the saving door for Republicans.  If the cabinet comes out and states, "gosh, he's nuts", there will be no impeachment.  He'll be ushered out the door, and a grateful nation will quit looking at the wreck.

But on the upcoming election, candidates strongly backing Trump, or backed by him, have to answer for this.  That's very difficult to do.  If you say you flat out don't believe it, you have to provide a reason for such certainty, which is different from having doubts.

A person can't just turn a blind eye to rape.  If there's reasons not to believe these stories, and they are now cumulative, what are they?

Last edition:

25th Amendment Watch, 27th Edition. The Disinhibition as evidence of Dementia edition.


25th Amendment Watch, 25th Edition and CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 161st Edition. The Time is Running Out Edition.

Wednesday, October 27, 1926. The measured voice of Calvin Coolidge (and, as a special comparison contrast edition, the bat shit crazy ramblings of Donald Trump, 25th Amendment Watch, 26th Edition)

Calvin Coolidge delivered an address before the American Association of Advertising Agencies.

Members of the Association:

Sometimes it seems as though our generation fails to give the proper estimate and importance to the values of life. Results appear to be secured so easily that we look upon them with indifference. We take too many things as a matter of course, when in fact they have been obtained for us only as the result of ages of effort and sacrifice. We look at our economic condition upon which we are absolutely dependent for the comforts and even the necessaries of life, and forgetting that it all rests on industry, thrift, and management, dismiss it lightly as a matter that does not concern us. Occasionally our attention is directed to our political institutions, which have been secured for us through the disinterested exertion of generations of patriotism, and, going along oblivious to the fact that they are the sole guarantees of our rights to life and liberty, we turn away with the comforting thought that we can let some party committee attend to getting out the vote and that probably the government will run itself all right anyway. When perhaps we are attracted by the buildings erected for education, or the temples dedicated to religious worship, and without stopping to realize that these are the main source of the culture of society and the moral and spiritual life of the people we pass them by as the concern very largely of schoolmasters and clergymen. We have become so accustomed to the character of our whole, vast, and intricate system of existence that we do not ordinarily realize its enormous importance.

It seems to me probable that of all our economic life the element on which we are inclined to place too low an estimate is advertising. When we come in contact with our great manufacturing plants, our extensive systems of transportation, our enormous breadth of agriculture, or the imposing structures of commerce and finance, we are forced to gain a certain impression by their very magnitude, even though we do not stop to consider all their implications. By the very size and nature of their material form they make an appeal to the senses, even though their import does not reach the understanding. But as we turn through the pages of the press and the periodicals, as we catch the flash of billboards along the railroads and the highways, all of which have become enormous vehicles of the advertising art, I doubt if we realize at all the impressive part that these displays are coming more and more to play in modern life. Even the most casual observation, however, reveals to us that advertising has become a great business. It requires for its maintenance investments of great amounts of capital, the occupation of large areas of floor space, the employment of an enormous number of people, heavy shipments through the United States mails, wide service by telephone and telegraph, broad use of the printing and paper trades, and the utmost skill in direction and management. In its turnover it runs into hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

When we stop to consider the part which advertising plays in the modern life of production and trade we see that basically it is that of education. It informs its readers of the existence and nature of commodities by explaining the advantages to be derived from their use and creates for them a wider demand. It makes new thoughts, new desires, and new actions. By changing the attitude of mind it changes the material condition of the people. Somewhere I have seen ascribed to Abraham Lincoln the statement that "In this and like communities public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed; consequently he who holds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed." Advertising creates and changes this foundation of all popular action, public sentiment, or public opinion. It is the most potent influence in adopting and changing the habits and modes of life, affecting what we eat, what we wear, and the work and play of the whole Nation. Formerly it was an axiom that competition was the life of trade. Under the methods of the present day it would seem to be more appropriate to say that advertising is the life of trade.

Two examples of this influence have come to me in a casual way. While I can not vouch for the details, I believe in their outline they are substantially correct. One relates to an American industry that had rather phenomenal growth and prosperity in the late eighties and early nineties, being the foundation of one or two large fortunes. In its development it had been a most generous advertiser. A time came when various concerns engaged in this line of manufacturing were merged and consolidated. There being no longer any keen competition, it was felt that it was now no longer necessary to explain to the public the value of this product or the superiority of one make over another. In order to save the large expense that had been made for that purpose, advertising was substantially abandoned. The inevitable result followed, which all well-informed trade quarters now know would follow. But the value of advertising was not so well understood 25 or 30 years ago. This concern soon became almost a complete failure. As I recall, it had to be reorganized, entailing great losses. This line of trade was later revived under the direction and counsel of some of its old managers, and with the proper amount of publicity became a successful enterprise.

But let us turn from the unfortunate experience of the loss that occurred through lack of advertising to an example of gain that was made through the shrewd application of this principle. In a somewhat typical American community a concern was engaged in an industrial enterprise. Its employees were not required to be men of great skill. Oftentimes they were new arrivals in this country who had been brought up to be accustomed to the meager scale of living abroad. Their wants were not large, so that under the American rate of wages they found it possible to supply themselves and their families without working anywhere near full time. As a result, production was low compared with the number employed and was out of proportion to the overhead expense of management and capital costs. Some fertile mind conceived the idea of locating a good milliner in that community. The wares of this shop were generously advertised through window display, newspaper space, and circularization. I suppose that every head of a family knows that a new bonnet on the head of one of the women in the neighborhood is contagious. The result in that community almost at once was better wearing apparel for the women, which necessitated more steady employment for the men. The output of the plant was greatly increased, its cost units were reduced, its profits were enlarged, it could sell its product to its customers at a lower figure, and the whole industry was improved. More wealth was produced. But the reaction went even further. The whole standard of living in that locality was raised. All the people became better clothed, better fed, and better housed. They had aspirations, and the means to satisfy them, for the finer things of life. All of this came from the judicious application of the principle of advertising.

The system which brought about these results is well known to the members of this association. You have seen innumerable instances where concerns have failed through lack of advertising and innumerable others where they have made a success through the right kind and amount of publicity. Under its stimulation the country has gone from the old hand methods of production which were so slow and laborious with high unit costs and low wages to our present great factory system and its mass production with the astonishing result of low unit costs and high wages. The preeminence of America in industry, which has constantly brought about a reduction of costs, has come very largely through mass production. Mass production is only possible where there is mass demand. Mass demand has been created almost entirely through the development of advertising.

In former days goods were expected to sell themselves. Oftentimes they were carried about from door to door. Otherwise, they were displayed on the shelves and counters of the merchant. The public were supposed to know of these sources of supply and depend on themselves for their knowledge of what was to be sold. Modern business could neither have been created nor can it be maintained on any such system. It constantly requires publicity. It is not enough that goods are made; a demand for them must also be made. It is on this foundation of enlarging production through the demands created by advertising that very much of the success of the American industrial system rests.

It will at once occur to those who have given any thought to these subjects how important it is to the continuing success of the business which this gathering represents, and to the general welfare of the country, that the conditions under which these results have been secured should be maintained. It is our high rate of wages which brings about the greatest distribution of wealth that the world as ever seen and provides the enormous capacity for the consumption of all kinds of commodities which characterizes our country. With our improved machinery, with the great increase in power that has come from steam and electricity, with the application of engineering methods to production, the output of each individual engaged in our industrial and agricultural life is steadily increasing. The elimination of waste through standardization has been another most important factor in this direction. If we proceed under our present system, there would appear to be little reason to doubt that we can continue to maintain all of these high standards in wages, in output, and in consumption indefinitely, and with our home markets as a foundation increase our foreign commerce by a greater exchange of those commodities in which we are peculiarly favored for the commodities of other nations in which they have a special advantage. But nothing would appear to be plainer than that this all depends upon the maintenance of our American scale of wages, which is the main support of our home market.

It is to be seen that advertising is not an economic waste. It ministers to the true development of trade. It is no doubt possible to waste money through wrong methods of advertising, as it can be wasted through wrong methods in any department of industry. But rightfully applied, it is the method by which the desire is created for better things. When that once exists, new ambition is developed for the creation and use of wealth. The uncivilized make little progress because they have few desires. The inhabitants of our country are stimulated to new wants in all directions. In order to satisfy their constantly increasing desires they necessarily expand their productive power. They create more wealth because it is only by that method that they can satisfy their wants. It is this constantly enlarging circle that represents the increasing progress of civilization.

A great power has been placed in the hands of those who direct the advertising policies of our country, and power is always coupled with responsibilities. No occupation is charged with greater obligations than that which partakes of the nature of education. Those engaged in that effort are changing the trend of human thought. They are molding the human mind. Those who write upon that tablet write for all eternity. There can be no permanent basis for advertising except a representation of the exact truth. Whenever deception, falsehood, and fraud creep in they undermine the whole structure. They damage the whole art. The efforts of the Government to secure correct labels, fair trade practices, and equal opportunity for all our inhabitants is fundamentally an effort to get the truth into business. The Government can to much in this direction by setting up correct standards, but all its efforts will fail unless it as the loyal support of the business men of the Nation. If our commercial life is to be clean and wholesome and permanent in the last resort, it will be because those who are engaged in it are determined to make it so. The ultimate reformers of business must be the business men themselves. My conception of what advertising agencies want is a business world in which the standards are so high that it will only be necessary for them to tell the truth about it. It will never be possible to create a permanent desire for things which do not have a permanent worth. It is my belief that more and more the trade of our country is conforming to these principles.

The National Government has a large interest in all these problems, though many of them are confined in their jurisdiction to the States. The general welfare of the country, its progress and prosperity, are very intimately connected with the commerce that flows from agriculture and industry. Unless that be in a healthy condition, constantly expanding, securing reasonable profits, employment begins to fail, sooner or later wages begin to fall, markets are oversupplied, movements of freight decrease, factories are idle, and the results of all these are that want and distress creep into the home. You can easily draw the converse of this picture. It has been the almost universal experience in American life of late. Local conditions here and there have brought contrary results, probably unavoidable for a long time to come, but in the main the country has been and is prosperous. Perhaps the most creditable aspect of our present prosperity is that wages are high while profits have been moderate. That means that the results of prosperity are going more and more into the homes of the land and less into the enrichment of the few, more and more to the men and women and less and less to the capital which is engaged in our economic life. If this were not so, this country could not support 20,000,000 automobiles, purchase so many radios, and install so many telephones. From a recent fear of being exploited by large aggregations of wealth, the people of America are learning to make such great concerns their most faithful servants. This problem is not entirely solved yet. Here and there abuses occur, but business is gradually being taught that the only method of permanent success lies in an honest, faithful, conscientious service to the public.

You are familiar with the efforts which the Federal Government has been making to contribute to peace and prosperity during the recent reconstruction period. We are steadily reducing our national debt, cutting down the interest charges. We have released hundreds of thousands of people from the unproductive field of Government employment to the productive field of business life. The burdens of taxation have been so far removed that they are now for the most part lightly borne, and the disproportionate charges formerly made to supply the public revenues have been released to flow into the avenues of trade and investment. We have supplied large sums for the rehabilitation of Europe and the financing of South America to the advantage of our foreign commerce, which now stands at a peace-time record. Through international covenants limiting naval armaments we have reduced the cost of national defense and made large guarantees to the peace of the world. All of this has been a program of constructive economy, beneficial alike to ourselves and to other people. In making this economically possible, in spreading its benefits, in carrying its fruits into the homes of the land, advertising has supplied and will continue to supply a very important part. Without the advantages that accrue from that art these accomplishments would not have been possible.

But Americans are never satisfied with the past or present. They are always impatient in the future. Our history has been that of an increasing prosperity. There have always been fluctuations in trade, but with our present system of banking and our enormous capacity for consumption such fluctuations will apparently be much less violent and are unlikely to sink to the level of depression. We can not tell what a particular month or locality may develop, but over the broad face of our country seedtime will be followed by the harvest, the productive capacity will increase, and our people will become more prosperous.

These results, however, can not be considered as guaranteed by our material resources alone. They will accrue to us, not because of our fertile agricultural fields, our deposits of coal, iron, and precious metals, nor even from the present state of our development of trade with its accompanying supports of manufacturing, transportation, and finance. We can not rely on these alone. They could all be turned into instruments of destruction. Our chief warrant for faith in the future of America lies in the character of the American people. It is our belief in what they are going to do, rather than our knowledge of what they are going to have, that causes us to face the coming years with hope and confidence. The future of our country is not to be determined by the material resources, but by the spiritual life of the people. So long as our economic activities can be maintained on the standard of competition in service, we are safe. If they ever degenerate into a mere selfish scramble for rewards, we are lost. Our economic well-being depends on our integrity, our honor, our conscience. It is through these qualities that your profession makes its especial appeal. Advertising ministers to the spiritual side of trade. It is a great power that has been entrusted to your keeping which charges you with the high responsibility of inspiring and ennobling the commercial world. It is all part of the greater work of regeneration and redemption of mankind.

Compare the measured remarks of President Coolidge the insange babble issued last night by his claimed successor:


Trump is insane.

 Queen Marie was coming to Casper.


Gangs were combatting each other in Illinois.

Last edition:

Sunday, October 24, 1926. Charles Russell dies.


Monday, October 26, 2026

Saturday, October 26, 1901. Depositing the proceeds of a train robbery.


Della Moore, girlfriend of the Wild Bunch's Kid Curry Logan, was arrested in Nashville, Tennessee, after she attempted to deposit thousands of dollars in cash at the Fourth National Bank of Nashville. 

The teller consulted a list of serial numbers of stolen bills and confirmed that the money was part of the $41,000 taken in a train robbery near Wagner, Montana on July 3.

Her subsequent life is not well known.  Having taken up prostitution at about age 15, she'd left it by this time, but at least temporarily resumed it after being released from prison. She seems to have died in 1926 at about 45 years of age.

This event demonstrates the extent to which at least some people traveled much further than we might supposed in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.  The money she was depositing had been stolen almost clear across the country.

Russia announced it had reached an agreement with China on Manchurian concessions.

Last Edition:

Wednesday, October 23, 1901. A howling wilderness. Ordering atrocity.

Friday, October 23, 2026

Wednesday, October 23, 1901. A howling wilderness. Ordering atrocity.

Brigadier General Jacob H. Smith directed Major Littleton Waller of the U.S. Marines to lead a battalion of 300 men to take control of Samar Island, and, further, to turn Samar into "a howling wilderness" and "to kill everyone over ten" .

Smith in 1901.

"I wish you to kill and burn, and the more you kill and burn the better you will please me. I want all persons killed who are capable of bearing arms in actual hostilities against the United States."

Waller would be court martialed for the death of eleven Filipinos in 1902, at which time Smith's order was revealed.  He was subsequently court martialed as well, but ultimately allowed to retire.

Smith was an old soldier at this time, being 61 years of age.  He volunteered to serve again in 1918 but was rejected due to this event.  He died in 1918.  He was twice wounded during the Civil War.

Waller

Waller was acquitted in his court martial.  He retired in 1920 and a U.S. Navy vessel was named for him in the 1940s.

Member of Parliament Winston Churchill denounced the British involvement in the Boer War.

Yale conferred an honorary Doctor of Law degree upon Theodore Roosevelt, who had in fact studied law but who had not completed his studies.

Last edition:

Tuesday, October 22, 1901. Handcock and Morant arrested.

Thursday, October 22, 2026

Tuesday, October 22, 1901. Handcock and Morant arrested.



Veterinary Lieutenant Peter Handcock. and Harry Morant.

Bushveldt Carbineer troopers Harry "Breaker" Morant and Peter Handcock were arrested for the  murder of eight Boer prisoners and a German missionary.

It should be noted in this story that both men were technically in the British Army.  The Australian Army only came into existence in March, 1901 and Australian soldiers serving in South Africa up until that time, and in many cases after, were in the British Army.

The Second International Conference of American States (Pan-American Congress) opened in Mexico City.

Last edition:

Wednesday, October 16, 1901 Booker T. Washington dines at the White House with Theodore Roosevelt.

Friday, October 16, 2026

Saturday, October 16, 1926. Fighting in Eastern China.

Xia Chao, Governor of Zhejiang province, declared it's independence in rebellion against warlord Sun Chuanfang.  He allied himself with the Kuomintang.

Sun Chuanfang

The Chinese troopship Kuang, which was carrying troops commanded by Sun Chuanfang, exploded with a large loss of life.

The era of robbing mail trains had begun.


Prices at the Piggly Wiggly:


The same location, and building, today:

"U Bett It Hurts" Tattoo parlor, formerly Casper's Piggly Wiggly.

 


This building appears to be empty, and it also appears to have been divided into sections.  The portion to the left of the photo was clearly once part of the overall business front.

That business was Casper's Piggly Wiggly.  It appears to have been stores second location, an earlier one was downtown on 2nd Street.

At some point it became a tattoo parlor.  I can recall it being that, but I can't recall when.  The art advertising the tattoo parlor is horrible, so I doubt it attracted many customers in and of itself.

Last edition:

Thursday, October 14, 1926. Winnie-the-Pooh.

Monday, October 16, 1911. Plot against Taft and Progressive Party meets for the first time.

A railroad detective discovered a plot well in progress to detonate a rail line that President Taft was to travel over later that day.

The National Urban League was created.

The first meeting of the Progressive Republican Party occured.  It endorsed Senator Robert La Follette for President, but that would not stick.

It's odd to think that in 1911 the Republican Party was a center right party that was been threatened by Republicans to its left.  The Progressive Party was an outright liberal party.

Today, of course, there's an attempt to threaten the Republican Party in Wyoming with a challenge from the very hard right.


Philadelphia took game two of the 1911 World Series.

Last edition:

Sunday, October 15, 1911. Battle at Tepoztlán.