Browsing: Crime

A Brief History On July 21, 1865, a real life showdown resulting in face to face gunplay happened for the first time, the first of the classic duels we have come to know as a Wild West gunfight. Digging Deeper Wild Bill Hickock, later one of the West’s most famous characters, was gambling in Springfield, Missouri, but not well.  Hickock lost his money playing poker, and owed his friend Davis Tutt, also a Civil War veteran but from the opposite side. (Hickock was a Union veteran, Tutt a Confederate) money to repay loans.  As collateral, Tutt seized Hickock’s  pocket watch,…

A Brief History On April 14, 1772, the building tension toward open rebellion of Americans against the British erupted in New Hampshire in an incident known as The Pine Tree Riot.  The dispute at the core of this incident concerned the protection of Eastern White Pine trees of 12 inches or greater diameter, setting these aside for the exclusive use of British shipbuilders.  Obviously, colonists thought they had better uses for the wood growing in their own backyard! Digging Deeper Britain, an island nation of immense naval power, had largely stripped its own land of trees suitable for building ships,…

A Brief History On July 19, 1919, England celebrated Peace Day in honor of winning World War I.  Unfortunately, her veterans were not so thrilled, and expressed their unhappiness by rioting and burning down the Luton Town Hall. Digging Deeper British commoners were drafted to fight in World War I, for low pay and under horrible conditions.  Treated like cannon fodder by politicians and generals that did not understand modern warfare, they died and suffered en masse.  Soldiers with trench foot, pneumonia, and other serious illnesses were treated with contempt at recovery centers and were made to engage in physical…

A Brief History On July 18, 1969, Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy of Massachusetts, possibly the next Democratic presidential nominee, drove his Oldsmobile off a bridge over Chappaquiddick Creek, killing his passenger, a young woman not his wife.  This scandal mixing a woman and booze may well have cost Kennedy a chance to ever earn the Democratic presidential nomination that he felt was his.  Many times over the years famous politicians have tainted their legacies by sexual scandal, and here we list 10 of the most egregious and most famous indiscretions.  Today, when surveillance video and cell phone recording capability are…

A Brief History On July 18, 1984, hungry customers of the San Ysidro, California McDonald’s got more than they expected when a gunman began shooting people.  (San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego.) Digging Deeper In yet another case of the mental health system failing the patient and the public, 41 year old James Huberty was feeling as if he needed mental help, and his wife suspected he may have been mentally ill.  Huberty called a local mental health facility and was promised a prompt call back, but when he had waited for hours beside the phone and no return call…