WALMART FLASH FICTION CHALLENGE

I hadn't written any fiction in a while, so I decided to take part in Patti Abbott, Gerald So, and Aldo Calcagno's Walmart Flash Fiction Challenge. My story is posted below. Be sure to check out the rest of the stories too. You can find links to them at Gerald's blog.

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I've taken down my story, "WWGD?", but it's available as part of an anthology called Discount Noir that's for sale as an e-book from Untreed Reads.

THIS DAY IN CRIME HISTORY: NOVEMBER 29, 1933

On this date in 1933, the bound and mutilated body of outlaw Verne Miller was found just outside Detroit, MI. Miller, the chief suspect in the Kansas City Massacre, was a decorated World War I veteran and former lawman. After a short stint as sheriff of Beadle County, SD, Miller turned to a life of crime. He started out in bootlegging, then moved on to robbery. Eventually he wound up as a trigger man for organized crime. The list of people with motives to kill him was long, but Miller's murder was never solved.

Further reading:

Wikipedia: Vernon C. Miller

FBI Famous Cases - Kansas City Massacre - Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd

Vern Miller—Sheriff, Moonshiner, Hit-man

Lawman to Outlaw: Verne Miller and the Kansas City Massacre, by Brad Smith

Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34, by Bryan Burrough

FRIDAY MOVIE QUOTE

"I have a little rule about killing people. Actually, I have two rules. One, I don't date musicians. And two, I do NOT kill people!"

-Jordan Tate (Erika Eleniak), Under Siege (1992)

THIS DAY IN CRIME HISTORY: NOVEMBER 27, 1934

On this date in 1934, Lester Gillis, better known as George "Baby Face" Nelson (and don't even think about calling him "Baby Face" to his baby face) died after being shot by FBI agents. Nelson was shot 17 times in a gun battle that also left FBI Inspector Samuel Cowley and Special Agent Herman Hollis dead. Nelson's body was later found in a ditch, wrapped in a blanket.

Further reading:

FBI History - "Baby Face" Nelson

truTV - Baby Face Nelson: Childlike Mug, Psychopathic Soul

Wikipedia - Baby Face Nelson

FBI Hall of Honor - FBI Agents Killed as the Result of an Adversarial Action

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. If you plan on eating your Thanksgiving dinner on a ping pong table, you might find the video below very instructive.

THIS DAY IN CRIME HISTORY: NOVEMBER 26, 1933

On this date in 1933, the people of San Jose, CA took the law into their own hands and lynched two men. Thomas Thurmond and John Holmes were being held in connection with the kidnapping and murder of 22 year old department store heir Brooke Hart. The townsfolk, already enraged by the nature of the crime, whipped themselves into a frenzy when rumor spread that the two men were going to try an insanity defense. On the night of November 26th, they stormed the jail, broke down the door, and took the two men. The crowd brought them to a nearby park, where they hung each man from a tree. No one was ever prosecuted for the lynching. In fact, California Governor James Rolph, who had refused the Sheriff's request for National Guard troops to hold off the mob, praised the action and promised to pardon anyone charged with the lynching.

Further reading:

Wikipedia: Brooke Hart

truTV: Brooke Hart

San Jose PBA: The Hart Murder and Lynching

BABE OF THE WEEK

This week's babe played Supergirl in Smallville. I've never seen Smallville, but I had no problem figuring out that Laura Vandervoort is super. She's currently appearing in V, playing yet another alien babe with a secret (the secret being that under that beautiful exterior, she's not exactly a smokin' hot babe). If you want to see more of Laura, check out her official website.

FRIDAY MOVIE QUOTE

"Adventure. Heh! Excitement. Heh! A Jedi craves not these things."

-Yoda (Frank Oz), Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

BABE OF THE WEEK

This week's babe is Swedish-born actress Malin Akerman. Malin is ranked number 4 on this year's Maxim Hot 100. She was also recently seen in The Proposal, a chick flick I was forced to watch last weekend. Actually, it wasn't too bad. For a chick flick.

THIS DAY IN CRIME HISTORY: NOVEMBER 18, 1978

On this date in 1978, members of the People's Temple cult in Guyana assassinated Congressman Leo Ryan, who had traveled to the South American country to investigate allegations of abuse made against the cult.  While he was at an airstrip waiting to fly home, Temple gunmen opened fire, killing Ryan, three journalists, and a Temple defector.

Shortly after the murder of Ryan, People's Temple leader Jim Jones led the group in a mass murder-suicide.  Over 900 men, women, and children died.  It is believed to be the largest murder suicide in history.


Further reading:

PBS - Jonestown: The Life and death of the People's Temple

The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy

Wikipedia - Jonestown

A-LIST

I've been a fan of USA's Burn Notice for a couple years now.  Jeffrey Donovan is great as Michael Westen, and Bruce Campbell...well, he's kickass in every role I've seen him in.  But after seeing this post over at Blackfive, both guys are on my A-List.  Celebrities who take the time to travel overseas to less than hospitable places to visit deployed troops will always get a thumbs-up from me (even if I'm not a fan of their work).  Oh, and check out this post too.  Very cool of those guys.

WOULD YOU LIKE FRIES WITH THAT?

I don't know about you, but this kind of thing happens to me all the time.  From the Albany Times Union:

Woman who mistook cop for Sonic car hop faces DUI

ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. -- A woman who mistook a police officer for a car hop at a Sonic drive-in was charged with DUI and possession of drug paraphernalia. A caller to 911 Saturday reported the woman nearly struck several vehicles before pulling into the drive-in.
     
The Johnson City Press reported Elizabethton Police Officer Sarah Ellison found the woman slumped over the steering wheel. When Ellison tried to get the woman's attention, the woman handed her a $20 bill, continuing to offer it even after she identified herself as an officer.

The woman was arrested and the officer found a syringe, a spoon with white powdery residue and numerous bottles of prescription medicine in the car.

What I want to know is this:  Are they going to arrest that cop for impersonating a Sonic car hop?  If that's not a crime, it ought to be.

HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13TH

Try not to walk under any ladders or break any mirrors today. And whatever you do, stay away from Camp Crystal Lake.

FRIDAY MOVIE QUOTE

"Listen, I'm a politician which means I'm a cheat and a liar, and when I'm not kissing babies I'm stealing their lollipops. But it also means I keep my options open."

-Jeffrey Pelt (Richard Jordan), The Hunt for Red October (1990)

THIS DAY IN CRIME HISTORY: NOVEMBER 12, 1941

On this date in 1941, Murder Inc. associate-turned stool pigeon Abe "Kid Twist" Reles went on a flight. Out the window of room 623 of the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island. It was a one-way trip. And no frequent flier miles for old Abe. Reles, who had flipped on his former Murder, Inc. associates, was under police protection at the time. Did he jump, or was he pushed? Did the cops look the other way, or did they take a more "active" role? Did Reles's fellow snitches occupying the "Squealers Suite" at the Half Moon have a hand in it?  Thanks to a thoroughly shoddy investigation by the police and the Brooklyn D.A., we'll probably never know for sure. But one thing we do know is that "Kid Twist" traded in his nickname for a new one: "The canary who sang, but couldn't fly."

Further Reading:

Wikipedia - Abe Reles

The American Mafia - Abe Reles

FBI Files on Abe Reles

The Canary Sang but Couldn't Fly, by Edmund Elmaleh

BABE OF THE WEEK

This week's babe is Brazilian-born actress Morena Baccarin, currently starring in V on ABC. She plays Anna, the alien leader.

THIS DAY IN CRIME HISTORY: NOVEMBER 10, 1924

On this date in 1924, Chicago North Side gang boss Dean O'Banion was shot and killed in the back of the Schofield flower shop (pictured above), which served as his headquarters. Apparently, the Chicago Outfit, which ran the South Side, decided it didn't like the competition. They sent some of the boys to visit O'Banion in his shop. They gunned him down as he was working on a floral arrangement for mob luminary Mike Merlo's funeral.  The hit touched off a gang war between the two factions that would last five years, and would come to an end in the wake of the 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Dean O'Banion Online

Wikipedia - Dion O'Banion

Graveyards of Chicago - Dion "Deany" O'Banion

ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL

Since today marks the 20th anniversary of the demise of the Berlin Wall, I thought I'd post some pictures of my spring 1988 trip to Berlin. This first one is of the wall itself. Check out the graffiti.


Here's the famed Brandenburg Gate, which sat in East Berlin, just beyond the wall.


Here's an East German patrol boat, standing ready to intercept West Germans attempting to sneak into the Worker's Paradise by swimming across the Spree River.


"You are leaving the American Sector." Are you really sure you wanna do that?


Checkpoint Charlie, scene of so much fictional, and real-life, Cold War intrigue.


I went back to Berlin in the fall of '88 with my friend Mike. I have some pictures from that trip too, but I can't find them at the moment. If I run across them, maybe I'll post one or two.

IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED

Try, try again.  And again. And again...

Woman passes 950th driving test

A South Korean woman is celebrating after passing the written exam for a driving licence - on her 950th attempt.

After four years of trying, 68-year-old Cha Sa-soon finally managed to secure the 60 out of 100 points needed to pass the test.

The grandmother has spent more than 5m won ($4,200, £2,600) on application fees for the test.

She still has to pass the road test, but you have to admire Mrs. Cha's tenacity.

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent.

-Calvin Coolidge

THIS DAY IN CRIME HISTORY: NOVEMBER 6, 1982

On this day in 1982, Shirley Allen was arrested for murdering her husband Lloyd. The murder weapon? Poison. Anti-freeze, to be precise. The motive? Lloyd's life insurance policy.

It seems that old Shirley had lost a previous hubby, John Gregg, under mysterious circumstances in 1978. Unfortunately for Shirley, Mr. Gregg had replaced Shirley as beneficiary on his life insurance policy shortly before he died.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Shirley took another crack at whacking a husband while married to one Joe Sinclair. Joe noticed that his coffee tatsted a little off, and went to the police. He elected not to press charges and filed for divorce instead.

For Shirley, third time was the charm. And you can bet she did her homework and checked into Lloyd's insurance policy before she offed him. Gotta love a woman who learns from her mistakes. But Shirley never got to spend the money. Her daughter saw Shirley putting the antifreeze into Lloyd's drink and turned her in. An autopsy confirmed that Lloyd Allen had consumed a lethal dose of anti-freeze. Shirley Allen was tried and convicted of murder. She was sentenced to life in prison.

Maybe we shouldn't judge Shirley Allen too harshly. Her real motive may have been altruistic. Maybe she thought her husband needed anti-freeze in his system. After all, look who he was sleeping with. One. Cold. Bitch. Brrrrr.

Article on Black Widows at tru TV'S Crimelibrary

History Channel: A woman ices her husband with anti-freeze

Comment from Lloyd Allen's niece to my 2006 post on this crime

FRIDAY MOVIE QUOTE

"The cities are full of women. Middle-aged widows, husbands dead, husbands who've spent their lives making fortunes, working and working. And then they die and leave their money to their wives, their silly wives. And what do the wives do, these useless women? You see them in the hotels, the best hotels, every day by the thousands. Drinking the money, eating the money, losing the money at bridge, playing all day and all night, smelling of money. Proud of their jewelry, but of nothing else. Horrible, faded, fat, greedy women"

-Charlie Oakley (Joseph Cotten), Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

THIS DAY IN CRIME HISTORY: NOVEMBER 4, 1928

On this date in 1928, notorious gambler Aronold Rothstein lost his biggest bet.  When Rothstein, thought to be the brains behind the 1919 World Series fix, showed up at room 349 at the Park Central hotel in Manhattan, he was greeted with a bullet to the abdomen.  The shooting was allegedly motivated by an unpaid gambling debt.  As the story goes, Rothstein--the ultimate gambling fixer himself--thought that the poker game where he lost three hundred large was rigged.  As a result, he balked at paying.  Another theory has it that the Rothstein hit was perpetrated by rivals looking to take over his rackets.  Either way, Rothstein died the next morning.  He refused to name the shooter.  Four indictments were handed down in connection with the murder, but there were no convictions.  The case remains officially unsolved.


Further reading:

The American Mafia - Arnold Rothstein

Crime Magazine - The Last Hours of Mr. Big

DavidPietrusza.com - Rothstein

V

The last thing I need right now is to get hooked on another TV show. But with Chuck and 24 on hold until January, I guess I can deal with just one more. And this one looks really good.

THIS DAY IN CRIME HISTORY:NOVEMBER 3, 1883

On this date in 1883, infamous outlaw Black Bart robbed his last stagecoach. Bart, whose real name was Charles Bolles, began robbing stagecoaches at the ripe old age of 46.

He committed his first robbery in 1875 in Calavaras County, CA. The stage from Milton to Sonora was his target. He stopped the stage by pointing a double barrel shotgun at driver John Shine and calling for his accomplices--hidden in the bushes behind him--to open fire if Shine made a move for his gun. Seeing six rifle barrels pointing at him from the bushes, Shine decided that discretion was the better part of valor. He turned over the strong box and mail sack without incident and headed on down the road.

When Shine returned to the scene of the robbery, he saw that the rifle barrels were still protruding from the bushes. When he noticed they weren't moving, he moved in closer. That's when he realized that the rifle barrels were really sticks stuck in the bushes. Black Bart was working alone.

Over the next eight years, Bart committed twenty-seven more robberies. Bart never shot anyone, but he was shot twice. And he never robbed any of the passengers. In fact, during one robbery, a terrified female passenger threw her purse out the window to Bart. Bart picked it up, walked to the stage, handed it back to the lady and said " "Madam, I do not wish your money. In that respect I honor only the good office of Wells Fargo." What a guy!

Bart wasn't just a robber, he was a poet, too. At the scene of his fourth and fifth robberies, he left behind poems he had written signed "Black Bart, the P o 8." Here's a sample of Bart's verse, from the fourth robbery:

I've labored long and hard for bread,
For honor and for riches
But on my corns too long you've tread,
You fine-haired sons-of-bitches.

Pure Shakespeare. Old Bart was a true renaissance man. With a shotgun.

Bart's eight year robbery career came to an end in 1883, when he robbed a stage on Funk Hill, in Calaveras County, the scene of his first heist. Bart got shot and fled the scene. He left a number of personal items behind, including a handkerchief with a laundry mark. Wells Fargo detectives traced the mark to a laundry in San Francisco. Once they found the laundry, it wasn't long before they were on the trail of a "C.E. Bolton," who lived in a local boarding house, and was known to take frequent business trips. Business trips that just happened to coincide with twenty-eight stage coach robberies.

Charles Bolles eventually admitted to being Black Bart, and to committing several of the robberies. Wells Fargo pressed charges on his last robbery, and Bolles was tried and convicted. He wound up doing four years in San Quentin. He disappeared shortly after his release in 1888.

Further Reading:

BLACK BART: California's Infamous Stage Robber

Wikipedia article about Charles Bolles/Black Bart

LITTLE BRO ON TV

My brother Phil called me today to give me the heads-up that he'd be on TV. He was playing guitar at a rally in NY-23 for Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman. John Rich (of Big and Rich) was the main act, Rod Richmond opened for him. Rod asked Phil to sit in on guitar. In the picture above, Phil's the one standing on the left, behind the reporter-babe. You can check out the video from WWNY Channel 7 here. They were also on FOX News (Special Report, with Brett Baer), but I couldn't find any video online.

Update: It looks like WWNY, in it's infinite wisdom,took down the video and replaced it with one featuring John Rich. And so ends Phil's 15 minutes of fame.

BABE OF THE WEEK

This week's babe is actress Tiffani Thiessen, formerly known as Tiffani-Amber Thiessen. You can see her Friday nights on USA's new show White Collar.

JURY NULLIFICATION

On the surface, this story seems to defy logic.  From the Albany Times Union:

Man who threw feces in CA courtroom gets 31 years

SAN DIEGO -- A man who sneaked a bag of his feces into a San Diego courtroom during his home-invasion robbery trial, smeared it on his lawyer and threw it at jurors has been sentenced to 31 years in prison.
    
Superior Court Judge Frank Brown on Monday sentenced Weusi McGowan for robbery, burglary and two assault charges stemming from the feces-flinging incident during his January trial.

McGowan, who attorneys say suffers from mental illness, had asked for a mistrial because he believed jurors had seen him in restraints when he entered the courtroom.

OK, upon closer examination... this still defies logic.  I don't care how prejudiced a jury is after seeing a defendant in restraints, it can't compare to how they'll react to having poop thrown at them.  You don't have to be Johnnie Frickin' Cochran to figure that out.