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Huddie Ledbetter, aka "Lead Belly", was granted a full pardon by Texas Governor Pat Morris Neff Neff for having served the minimum seven years of his prison sentence for the 1918 killing of Will Stafford, a relative of his, in a fight over a woman.
It was a least his second period of incarceration, with his first being in 1915 for carrying a handgun, something that would not be a crime now.
While in prison for homicide, he'd be stubbled in the neck by another inmate, resulting in a permanent scar.
The pardon came about due to Ledbetter writing the Governor and seeking the same, and the Governor visiting him more than once in prison.
Ledbetter would return to prison in 1930 for attempted homicide and 1939 for assault.
Perhaps not a pacific man, he was the greatest American folk musician and one of the greatest blue musicians of all time. He was personally responsible for the survival of the twelve string guitar. He was principally a bluesman, but the blues had not quite stabilized into its form at the time, and not all of his music fits the genera. Indeed, this so much the case that at least one of his songs that is typically preformed as a blue piece, The Midnight Special, was not performed quite that way by Leadbelly. He became known to the general public due to John Lomax's recordings of him in 1933, at which time he was again in prison.
Leadbelly was born in Louisiana in 1888 or 1889, and died of Lou Gehrigs disease in 1946 at age 61 or 62. He took to music early and learned to paly the mandolin, accordion, guitar, harmonica, Jew’s harp, piano, and organ, with his principal instructor's being his uncles, Bob and Terrell Ledbetter.
His songs are widely preformed to this day, and once were part of the American music canon taught to school children. Interestingly enough, he's associated with the first recorded use of the word "woke", in a spoken item after a song in which he stated; "So I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along through there—best stay woke, keep their eyes open."
Italy passed a bill giving double votes to academians, professors, those with diplomas, knights, military officers, those with any military decorations, officeholders, certain business personnel, all those paying a direct tax of 100 lira or more, and fathers of at least five children, triple votes to members of the royal family, members of high nobility, cardinals, highly decorated war veterans, high officeholders, or anyone who met three conditions for double votes.
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