A Brief History Blair Witch (2016) is an American found footage psychological horror film being released in the United States on September 16 by Lionsgate. Digging Deeper Having seen the original and sequel, we were eagerly awaiting the latest installment of the “Witch.”  Slightly slow at first, the movie develops the characters, or should we say, victims, college age kids pursuing the mysterious disappearance of the sister of one of their group in the original incident.  The found footage “real” camera work is shaky and at times disorienting, but the effect on the audience is pure terror as it is easy…

A Brief History On September 19, 1692, Giles Corey, age 81, became a footnote in the history of America by becoming the first and only man to be “pressed” to death during legal proceedings.  Caught up in the infamous Salem Witch Trials, Corey and his wife, Martha, were accused of witchcraft when one of the other accused witches, Abigail Hobbs, named the old couple as warlock and witch. Digging Deeper As you may already know, witches convicted during the Salem Witch trials were put to death by hanging, as was Martha Corey, and not by burning as the popular myth…

A Brief History On September 18, 1944, the British submarine, HMS Tradewinds, torpedoed and sank the Jun’yo Maru, a Japanese cargo ship transformed to carry prisoners.  Over 5000 people died in the tragedy, of which 1377 were Dutch prisoners of war, another 64 victims were British and Australian prisoners of war, and 8 were American prisoners of war.  Most of the rest of the victims were Javanese slave laborers, around 4200 of them. Digging Deeper Obviously, the skipper of the Tradewinds did not know the targeted ship was carrying prisoners, as the Japanese did not mark POW ships in any…

A Brief History On September 17, 1862, the same day that the bloodiest one day battle in American military history was fought (Antietam, or Sharpsburg) the civilian population of suburban Pittsburgh was touched by the worst civilian disaster of the Civil War when the Allegheny Arsenal blew up, killing 78 workers, mainly women (down to 15 years old). Digging Deeper A cartridge making industrial plant, the Allegheny Arsenal employed over a thousand workers and supplied the Union forces fighting in the Western half of the conflict.  Cartridges at the time consisted of greased paper containing a charge of black powder…

A Brief History On September 15, 1966, President Lyndon Johnson, in a now all too familiar response to a mass shooting incident at the University of Texas, called on Congress to enact “Gun Control” legislation that would have absolutely nothing to do with preventing such incidents. Digging Deeper On August 1, 1966, mentally disturbed Charles Whitman killed his wife and mother, then went to the University of Texas where he climbed up to the 28th floor observation deck and proceeded to shoot and kill 14 more people and wound a further 32 before he was finally killed by a police…