A Brief History On October 19, 2011, Zanesville in Muskingum County, Ohio became hunting grounds for lions, tigers, bears, leopards, mountain lions, and even monkeys when the owner of an exotic animal farm released his private zoo into the open and then shot himself. Digging Deeper Muskingum County was the home of Terry Thompson, a Viet Nam War vet who had maintained a private farm of dangerous and exotic animals.  Among his successes were handling animals on the Rachel Ray Show and providing a lion cub for a photo shoot which featured Heidi Klum (click on her name for a link to the video).  Despite these moments in the sun,…

A Brief History On October 17 or 18, 2012, Sylvia Kristel, the first soft-core adult film star, died at age 60.  A lifelong smoker of cigarettes, she had developed throat and lung cancer that was detected in 2001 and treated with chemotherapy and surgery.  She passed away in her sleep a few months after suffering a stroke. Digging Deeper Sylvia Maria Kristel (her real name) was born in Ultrecht in the Netherlands in 1952.  She claimed her first sexual experience was at age 9 and began modeling when she was 17.  A beautiful young woman, Kristel won the Miss TV…

A Brief History On October 17, 1931, Mobster Al “Scarface” Capone was convicted of income tax evasion and later sent to Alcatraz Federal Prison.  Authorities had long sought to arrest and convict this famous gangster for the murders, extortion and bootlegging he was involved in, but they never had enough evidence. Finally, law enforcement hit on the idea of going after him on income tax evasion. It is not a surprise that a career criminal would have income-reporting irregularities, but what about seemingly non-criminal people?  Here we look at  9 celebrities, not from the criminal underworld, who have had problems…

A Brief History On October 16, 1968, two U.S. Olympic athletes on the medal podium raised a black-gloved fist during the playing of the American national anthem to protest the status of human rights in the U.S., particularly in regard to African-Americans.  What is hardly remembered is that both African-American medalists also wore no shoes and instead stood there in black socks to symbolize Black poverty in the U.S.  Both of the Americans as well as the silver medalist from Australia wore “Olympic Project for Human Rights” badges and some other symbols of protest.   An irate International Olympic Committee expelled…

A Brief History On October 15th, 1917, the famous exotic dancer and courtesan Mata Hari was executed by firing squad after having been found guilty of espionage.  Digging Deeper In our three previous articles from this series, we have already listed 31 women famous for being naked or who, at one point in their lives, had famously been naked.  In this article, we again examine 10 more such ladies.  These lists on History and Headlines are different from conventional naked ladies lists in that the main prerequisite for being considered for these is less the actual nudity itself and more its social, cultural or historical significance.   For the latest installment…