A Brief History On January 13, 1964, a 14-year-old Pamela Mason was murdered in New Hampshire, her alleged murderer later having his conviction overturned on the basis of 4th Amendment rights regarding police searches in a Supreme Court case called Coolidge v. New Hampshire in 1971. Digging Deeper The murder conviction was overturned over the concept of when and when not the police are allowed to search a person’s car, truck, or other vehicle. The times it is perfectly legal for the cops to search your car starts with a properly issued search warrant, signed by an unbiased authority. Thus,…
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A Brief History On January 6, 1994, American figure skater and favorite to win the US Figure Skating Championships, Nancy Kerrigan, was attacked by two men hired by the ex-husband of her rival, Tonya Harding, beating the skater’s leg with a metal baton. In trying to clear the way for Harding in the US championships and presumably onto the Olympic team, the thugs failed to prevent Kerrigan from headlining the US Olympic figure skating team, although she was out of the US championship contest due to her injuries. Digging Deeper Athletes have been attacked, assaulted, or forcibly robbed many times,…
A Brief History On December 30, 2024, we take a look back at the ones we lost this year, and instead of trying to amass a giant list of everyone and everything, we aim to keep this list limited to those of particular note, at least to us! Digging Deeper Former President Jimmy Carter, age 100, was a fine person who showed his true morals and values in the years since leaving the White House. Baseballer Rickey Henderson, age 65, Major League Baseball’s all-time base stealer, was probably the greatest lead off batter of all time. Richard Simmons, exercise and…
A Brief History On October 22, 1910, a murderer named Hawley Crippen became the first person captured via the help of radio to be convicted of a crime. A sort of quack doctor, Crippen worked in homeopathic medicine in the US but was not allowed to practice medicine in England when he moved to London. Digging Deeper Authorities in Canada were alerted via radio that the fugitive was on board an ocean liner and Crippen was arrested on arrival in Canada, the first known instance of an arrest facilitated by radio. Other notable crime fighting firsts include: The first use…
A Brief History On September 7, 1876, the infamous James-Younger gang attempted to pull off a bank robbery in Northfield, Minnesota, but an alert and irate group of citizens quickly armed themselves and foiled the robbery, killing three of the robbers and wounding others. Digging Deeper Frank and Jesse James eluded capture, but two Younger brothers were caught and sent to prison. The gang had previously served the Confederate States during the American Civil War as “bushwhackers,” basically land based pirates attacking and robbing Union forces and anyone believed to be Union sympathizers. Infamous bank robber Willie Sutton explained why…