This week (March 23-29) in crime history – Chilean Ambassador to the U.S. Orlando Letelier’s assassins were sentenced (March 23, 1979); Mexican Presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio was assassinated (March 23, 1994); The Jonesboro Arkansas School shooting (March 24, 1998); The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the Scottsboro Case (March 25, 1932); King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was assassinated by his own nephew (March 25, 1975); Torture chamber found at the Philadelphia home of Gary Heidnik (March 26, 1987); Mass suicide of the Heaven’s Gate Cult (March 26, 1997); First use of finger print evidence solved murders of Thomas and Ann Farrow in Great Britain (March 27, 1905); Members of the Duke University lacrosse team were suspended following sexual assault allegations (March 28, 2006); The Mad Bomber stick in New York City (March 29, 1951).

Highlighted story of the week –

On March 29, 1951, a bomb explodes at Grand Central Station in New York City, but injures no one. In the next few months, five more bombs were found at landmarks around the city, including the public library. Authorities realized that this new wave of terrorist acts was the work of the Mad Bomber.

New York’s first experience with the Mad Bomber was on November 16, 1940, when a pipe bomb was left in the Edison building with a note that read, “Con Edison crooks, this is for you.” More explosive devices were found in 1941, each more powerful than the last, until the Mad Bomber sent a note in December stating, “I will make no more bomb units for the duration of the war.” He went on to say that Con Edison, New York’s electric utility company, would be brought to justice in due time. The Mad Bomber made good on his promise, although he did periodically send threatening notes to the press. After his flurry of activity in 1951, the Mad Bomber was silent until a bomb went off at Radio City Music Hall in 1954. In 1955, he struck Grand Central Station, Macy’s, the RCA building and the Staten Island Ferry.

The police were unsuccessful in finding the Mad Bomber, but a private investigative team working for Con Ed finally found him. Looking through their employment records, they found that George Peter Metesky had been a disgruntled ex-employee since an accident in 1931. Metesky was enraged that Con Ed refused to pay disability benefits and resorted to terrorism as his revenge. Metesky, a rather mild-mannered man, was found living with his sisters in Connecticut. He was indicted for 47 counts of attempted murder but was declared legally insane and incompetent to stand trial. He was then committed to the Matteawan State Hospital where he stayed until his release in 1973. Metesky died on May 23, 1994 in Waterbury, Connecticut at the age of 90.

Check back every Monday for a new installment of the “This Week in Crime History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of six nonfiction books that includes the award winning Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.

This week (March 16-23) in crime history – Lastania Abarta shot and killed her former lover in Los Angeles (March 16, 1881); Robert Blake was acquitted of murder (March 16, 2005); Judge Roy Bean died (March 16, 1903); Raymond Clark II pleaded guilty to the murder of a Yale University grad student (March 17, 2011); Yosemite Murders (March 18, 1999); Nazi General Friedrich Fromm was executed for helping plot failed assassination of Adolph Hitler (March 19, 1945); Tokyo subway was attacked with nerve gas by terrorists ( March 20, 1995); Alcatraz prison closed (March 21, 1963); Seven teachers were indicted for child abuse at the McMartin preschool (March 22, 1984)

Highlighted crime story of the week –

On March 18, 1999, the bodies of Carole Sund and Silvina Pelosso are found in a charred rental car in a remote wooded area of Long Barn, Califonia. The women, along with Sund’s daughter Juli, had been missing since February when they were last seen alive at the Cedar Lodge near Yosemite National Park. Juli Sund’s body was found thirty miles away a week after the car was found. Compounding the mystery, Carole Sund’s wallet had been found on a street in downtown Modesto, California, three days after they had disappeared.

Police initially focused their investigation on a group of methamphetamine users in Northern California, but this changed in July when Joie Ruth Armstrong, a 26-year-old Yosemite Park worker, was brutally killed near her cabin in the park. The discovery of her body led detectives to Cary Stayner, 37, who worked at the Cedar Lodge motel, where the Sunds were last seen. Stayner was tracked down and caught at a nudist colony in Northern California. He confessed to the murder of Armstrong and then surprised the detectives by admitting that he was also responsible for the murders of the Sunds and Pelosso.

Years earlier, Stayner had been on the other end of another high-profile crime. His younger brother, Steven, was abducted in Merced when Cary was eleven years old. Steven Stayner was held for more than seven years by a sexual abuser, Kenneth Parnell. Following his escape, a television movie, I Know My First Name is Steven, dramatized the incident. Steven Stayner died in a tragic motorcycle accident when he was twenty-four. Cary Stayner pleaded guilty to the Armstrong murder in 2001 and was convicted of the other three murders in 2002 and was sentenced to death. He is currently incarcerated at San Quentin Prison awaiting appeals of his conviction.

Check back every Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of six nonfiction books that includes Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.

This week (March 13-19) in literary history – Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts opened in London (March 13, 1891); Sylvia Beach was born (March 14, 1887); Max Brand published his first novel (March 14, 1919); Nathaniel Hawthorne published The Scarlett Letter (March 16, 1850); Novelist Paul Green was born (March 17, 1894); John Updike was born (March 18, 1932).

Highlighted Story of the Week –

On March 16, 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter, a story of adultery and betrayal in colonial America was published. Hawthorne was born July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. Although the infamous Salem witch trials had taken place more than 100 years earlier, the events still hung over the town and made a lasting impression on the young Hawthorne. Witchcraft figured in several of his works, including Young Goodman Brown (1835) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851), in which a house is cursed by a wizard condemned by the witch trials.

After attending Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, Hawthorne returned to Salem, where he began his career as a writer. He self-published his first book, Fanshawe (1828), but tried to destroy all copies shortly after publication. He later wrote several books of short stories, including Twice Told Tales (1837). In 1841, he tried his hand at communal living at the agricultural cooperative Brook Farm but came away highly disillusioned by the experience, which he fictionalized in his novel The Blithedale Romance (1852).

Hawthorne married his childhood sweetheart Sophia Peabody in 1842, having at last earned enough money from his writing to start a family. The two lived in Concord, Massachusetts, and socialized with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Branson Alcott, father of writer Louisa May Alcott. Plagued by financial difficulties as his family grew, he took a job in 1845 at Salem’s custom house, where he worked for three years. After leaving the job, he spent several months writing The Scarlet Letter, which made him famous. In 1853, Hawthorne’s college friend, President Franklin Pierce, appointed him American consul to England, where they lived for three years. Hawthorne died in Plymouth, New Hampshire on May 19, 1864 and was buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery on Poets’ Ridge in Concord, Massachusetts, near many of his friends and contemporaries such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott and Henry David Thoreau.

Check back every Friday for a new installment of “This Week in Literary History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of six nonfiction books that includes the award winning Literary Legends of the British Isles and the recently published America’s Literary Legends.

What is it that makes a great writer? A great work of literature? When asked this question, perhaps the first name that comes to mind is Shakespeare. But he was not the only great and it might be argued by Shakespearean scholars that perhaps his words were not his own. Besides, there are a lot of ‘greats’ outside of Great Britain. Even the United States had its great writers. If one is to compare the era of Shakespeare (the sixteenth century), historians will note that the United States was recognizing its own literary beginnings not long after with the poetry of people like Anne Dudley Bradstreet (1612-1672), considered to be one of the earliest noteworthy American poets. Her writings remained unrivaled by any other American woman writer until the emergence of Emily Dickinson in the 19th century. And, along with the early settlers, the pilgrims and the explorers, there were others who wrote letters (a literary work of art in itself), journals, poetry, stories, articles and much more.

So where does one begin in discussing the ‘greats’ of American literature? With the historical personages like Bradstreet, but also with the American classics like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, whose epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha, sparked generations of Europeans who relished the romantic ideal of the noble savage. Then there’s Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, sparked the abolitionist cause of the Northern States.

Michael Thomas Barry has done an incredible job bringing together the literary ‘greats’ of American literature from the first settlers well into the twentieth-century. Did he leave any out? Definitely. His book reveals interesting tidbits, quotes, information, photographs and burial places of fifty American literary ‘greats’. It’s just a taste to spark the reader’s interest. His layout and informative discussions lead the historian, the literary enthusiast, and even the curious reader, through history. It is an easy and enjoyable read for both the intellectual and the general interest audience.

Using author quotes from Washington Irving who wrote, “Great minds have purposes; others have wishes,” and Nathaniel Hawthorne who wrote, “Words – so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them,” the author provides the reader with insight into the lives, the literature and the birth and burial places of these literary ‘greats’. This is an outstanding, interesting and informative resource on some of America’s great literary geniuses.

Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers’ Favorite

This week (March 9-15) in crime history – Rapper Notorious BIG was shot and killed (March 9, 1997); James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. (March 10, 1969); Dr. David Gunn was shot and killed at his abortion clinic (March 10, 1993); Terrorists bombed train in Madrid, Spain (March 11, 2004); Teenager Elizabeth Smart was found alive (March 12, 2003); Czar Alexander II was assassinated (March 13, 1881); Impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson began (march 13, 1868); Mass school shooting in Dunblane, Scotland (March 13, 1996); Jack Ruby was sentenced to death for killing Lee Harvey Oswald (March 14, 1964); FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List debuted (March 14, 1950); Birmingham Six were released from prison (March 14, 1991); Julius Caesar was assassinated (March 15, 44 B.C.)

Highlighted Story of the Week –

On March 14, 1950, the F.B.I debuts the “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list in an effort to publicize particularly dangerous criminals. The creation of the program arose out of a wire service news story in 1949 about the “toughest guys” the FBI wanted to capture. The story drew so much public attention that the “Ten Most Wanted” list was given the go ahead by J. Edgar Hoover the following year. As of 2015, 494 criminals have appeared on the list and 463 have been apprehended or located, 153 as a result of tips from the public. The Criminal Investigative Division (CID) of the FBI asks all fifty-six field offices to submit candidates for inclusion on the list. The CID in association with the Office of Public and Congressional Affairs then proposes finalists for approval of by the FBI’s Deputy Director. The criteria for selection is simple, the criminal must have a lengthy record and current pending charges that make him or her particularly dangerous and the FBI must believe that the publicity attendant to placement on the list will assist in the apprehension of the fugitive. Unless a “Top Tenner” is captured, found dead, or surrenders, they are only removed from the list when they meet one of two conditions. First, the federal process pending against the individual is dismissed. Second, they no longer fit “Top Ten” criteria. When a fugitive is removed from the list, another candidate is added. Only eight women have appeared on the Ten Most Wanted list and Ruth Eisemann Schier was the first in 1968.

Check back every Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of six nonfiction books that includes Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.

This week (March 6-12) in literary history – Pearl Buck died (March 6, 1973); Louisa May Alcott died (March 6, 1888); Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born (March 6, 1806); Ayn Rand died (March 6, 1982); Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born (March 6, 1928); Robert Frost published the poem “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening (March 7, 1923); Thomas Wolfe published Of Time and the River (March 8, 1935); Virginia Woolf delivered manuscript to first novel The Voyage Out to her publisher (March 9, 1913); Ernest Hemingway divorced Hadley Richardson (March 10, 1927); Mary Shelley published Frankenstein (March 11, 1818); Erle Stanley Gardner died (March 11, 1970); Jack Kerouac was born (March 12, 1922)

Highlighted Story of the Week –

On March 12, 1922, novelist and poet Jack Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. Kerouac was the son of French-Canadian parents and learned English as a second language. In high school, Kerouac was a star football player and won a scholarship to Columbia University. His athletic career was cut short by a severe leg injury. During World War II, he served in the Navy but was expelled for severe personality problems that may have been symptoms of mental illness. He then became a merchant seaman. In the late 1940s, he wandered the western U.S. and Mexico and wrote his first novel, The Town and the City. It was not until 1957, when he published On the Road, an autobiographical tale of his wanderings, that he became famous as a seminal figure of the Beat Generation. His tale of a subculture of poets, folk singers, and eccentrics who smoked marijuana and rejected conformist society was written in just three weeks. The book is filled with other Beat figures, including Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs. Kerouac wrote five more books but none gained the mythic status of On the Road. A heavy drinker his entire life, he died on October 21, 1969 in St. Petersburg, Florida, age 47 from a hemorrhage caused from cirrhosis of the liver and was buried at Edson Cemetery in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Check back every Friday for a new installment of “This Week in Literary History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of six nonfiction books that include Literary Legends of the British Isles and America’s Literary Legends.

This week (March 2 – 8) in crime history – Charlie Chaplin’s body was stolen (March 2, 1978); Congress banned sending obscene material through the mail (March 3, 1873); LAPD officers are videotaped beating Rodney King (March 3, 1991); Louis “Lepke” Buchalter was executed (March 4, 1944); Martha Stewart was released from prison (March 4, 2005); Jim Morrison was charged with lewd conduct in Miami (March 5, 1969;); Trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg began (March 6, 1951); Defense rested in the trial of Andrea Yates (March 7, 2002); Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez “The Lonely Hearts Killers” were executed (March 8, 1951); Old west outlaw and bank robber, Emmett Dalton was sentenced to life in prison (March 8, 1893)

Highlighted Story of the Week –

On March 2, 1978, two men steal the corpse of silent film actor Charlie Chaplin from a cemetery in the Swiss village of Corsier-sur-Vevey, located in the hills above Lake Geneva, near Lausanne, Switzerland. A comic actor who was perhaps most famous for his alter ego, the Little Tramp, Chaplin was also a respected filmmaker whose career spanned Hollywood’s silent film era and the momentous transition to “talkies” in the late 1920s. After Chaplin’s widow, Oona, received a ransom demand of some $600,000, police began monitoring her phone and watching 200 phone kiosks in the region. Oona had refused to pay the ransom, saying that her husband would have thought the demand was preposterous. The callers later made threats against her two youngest children. Oona Chaplin was Charlie’s fourth wife and the daughter of the playwright Eugene O’Neill. She and Chaplin were married in 1943, when she was 18 and he was 54; they had eight children together. The family had settled in Switzerland in 1952 after Chaplin was accused of being a Communist sympathizer.

After a five-week investigation, police arrested two auto mechanics, Roman Wardas, of Poland, and Gantscho Ganev, of Bulgaria. On May 17 they led authorities to Chaplin’s body, which they had buried in a cornfield about one mile from the Chaplin family’s home in Corsier. Political refugees from Eastern Europe, Wardas and Ganev apparently stole Chaplin’s body in an attempt to solve their financial problems. Wardas, identified as the mastermind of the plot, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years of hard labor. As he told it, he was inspired by a similar crime that he had read about in an Italian newspaper. Ganev was given an 18-month suspended sentence, as he was believed to have limited responsibility for the crime. As for Chaplin, his family reburied his body in a concrete grave to prevent future theft attempts.

Check back every Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of six nonfiction books that includes Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California.

This week (February 27 – March 5) in literary history – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published “The Valley of Fear” (February 27, 1915); Novelist Ben Hecht was born (February 28, 1894); E.M. Forster travelled to India for second time (March 1, 1921); Theodor Geisel was born (March 2, 1904); Poet James Merrill was born (March 3, 1926); Ernest Hemingway completed “The Old Man and The Sea” (March 4, 1952); Khaled Hosseini was born (March 4, 1965); Charlotte Bronte refused to marry Henry Nussey (march 5, 1839)

Highlighted story of the week –

On March 2, 1904, Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. Geisel, who used his middle name (which was also his mother’s maiden name) as his pen name, wrote 48 books, including some for adults which have sold well over 200 million copies and been translated into multiple languages. Dr. Seuss books are known for their whimsical rhymes and quirky characters. Geisel graduated from Dartmouth College, where he was editor of the school’s humor magazine, and studied at Oxford University. There he met Helen Palmer, his first wife and she encouraged him to become a professional illustrator. Back in America, Geisel worked as a cartoonist for a variety of magazines.

The first children’s book that Geisel wrote and illustrated, “And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street,” was rejected by over two dozen publishers before making it into print in 1937. Geisel’s first bestseller, “The Cat in the Hat,” was published in 1957. The story of a mischievous cat in a tall striped hat came about after his publisher asked him to produce a book using 220 new-reader vocabulary words that could serve as an entertaining alternative to the school reading primers children found boring. Other Dr. Seuss classics include “Yertle the Turtle,” “If I Ran the Circus,” “Fox in Socks” and “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.” Some of his tackled serious themes. “The Butter Battle Book” (1984) was about the arms buildup and nuclear war threat during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. “Lorax” (1971) dealt with the environment. Many Dr. Seuss books have been adapted for television and film, including “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” and “Horton Hears a Who!” In 1990, Geisel published a book for adults titled “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” that became a hugely popular graduation gift for high school and college students. Geisel, who lived and worked in an old observatory in La Jolla, California, known as “The Tower,” died September 24, 1991, at age 87. His remains were cremated and the disposition is unknown.

Check back every Friday for a new installment of “This Week in Literary History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of six nonfiction books that includes the award winning Literary Legends of the British Isles and recently released America’s Literary Legends.

This week (February 25 – March 3) in Hollywood history – Zeppo Marx was born (February 25, 1901); Jack Haley married Florence McFadden ( February 25, 1921); Mary Astor married Kenneth Hawks (February 26, 1928); Shirley Temple singed contract with 20th Century Fox studios (February 27, 1936); Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert win Oscars (February 27, 1935); Ruby Keeler died (February 28, 1993); Gene Tierney divorced Oleg Cassini (February 28, 1952); David Niven was born (March 1, 1910); Gloria Swanson divorced Wallace Beery (March 1, 1919); Charlie Chaplin’s body was stolen (March 2, 1978); D.W. Griffith married Evelyn Baldwin (March 2, 1936); Birth of a Nation premiered in New York City (March 3, 1915); Lou Costello died (March 3, 1959)

Highlighted Story of the Week –

On February 27, 1936, Shirley Temple receives a new contract from 20th Century Fox that will pay the seven-year-old actress $50,000 per film. Temple was born on April 23, 1928 in Santa Monica, California, and began appearing in a series of short films spoofing current movies, called Baby Burlesks, at the age of four. At six, she attracted attention with her complex song-and-dance number “Baby Take a Bow,” performed with James Dunn, in the 1934 movie Stand Up and Cheer. Based on the film’s success, 20th Century Fox signed Temple to a seven-year contract. She would appear in a string of films that year and the next, including Little Miss Marker, Change of Heart, Bright Eyes and Curly Top. By 1938, Temple was the number one box-office draw in America. The public loved her, and she routinely upstaged her adult counterparts on the big screen.

Temple’s career began to fade in her teenage years and in 1950, she retired from movies. That same year she married naval officer Charles Black, changing her name to Shirley Temple Black. (She had been previously married to Jack Agar. In 1967, Temple Black launched a political career, running as the Republican candidate for a congressional seat in San Mateo, California but lost the election. The following year, President Richard Nixon appointed her an ambassador to the United Nations; she worked for the State Department for more than two decades. She was the first woman to ever serve as chief of protocol, a post she held for 11 years under President Gerald R. Ford, and President George H.W. Bush named her ambassador to Czechoslovakia in 1989. She became a spokeswoman for breast cancer awareness after she discovered a malignant lump in her breast in 1972 and underwent a mastectomy. In 1999, Temple Black received a medal from the Kennedy Center for lifetime achievement to the United States and the world. On February 10, 2014, Temple died at her Woodside, California. Her remains were cremated and given to the family.

Check back every Wednesday for a new installment of “This Week in Hollywood History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of six nonfiction books that includes the award winning Fade to Black Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats.

This week (February 23 – March 1) in crime history – Abraham Lincoln avoided assassination attempt (February 23, 1861); Jean Harris was convicted of murdering Dr. Herman Tarnower (February 24, 1981); Actor Robert Mitchum was released from jail after serving sentence for drug possession (February 25, 1949); World Trade Center in New York City was bombed for first time (February 26, 1993); Trayvon Martin was shot and killed (February 26, 2012); Federal agents raided the Branch Davidian compound in Waco (February 28, 1993); Baby Lindbergh kidnapping (March 1, 1932); Salem Witch hunt began (March 1, 1692)

Highlighted Crime Story of the Week –

On March 1, 1932, the young son of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped from the family’s home in Hopewell, New Jersey. Anne Lindbergh discovered a ransom note in their child’s empty room. The kidnapper had used a ladder to climb up to the open second-floor window and had left muddy footprints in the room. The ransom note written in poor English, demanded $50,000. The crime captured the attention of the entire nation and the Lindbergh family was inundated by offers of assistance and false clues. For three days, investigators found nothing and there was no further word from the kidnappers. Then, a new letter arrived which demanded $70,000.

Dr. Condon, a retired teacher and coach from the Bronx who had volunteered, acted as the go-between. After Condon and Lindbergh delivered the ransom money on April 2, the kidnappers indicated that the child was on a boat off the coast of Massachusetts. However, after an exhaustive search of every port, there was no sign of either the boat or the child. Soon after, a renewed search of the area near the Lindbergh home turned up the baby’s body. He had been killed the night of the kidnapping. The heartbroken Lindbergh’s eventually donated the home to charity and moved away.

The kidnapping looked like it would go unsolved until September 1934, when a marked bill from the ransom turned up. The gas station attendant who had accepted the bill wrote down the license plate number of the car. It was tracked back to a German immigrant, Bruno Hauptmann. When his home was searched, detectives found $14,000 of Lindbergh ransom money. Hauptmann claimed that a friend had given him the money to hold and that he had no connection to the crime. The resulting trial was a national sensation. The prosecution’s case was not particularly strong and the main evidence, apart from the money, was handwriting experts and Hauptmann’s connection with the type of wood that was used to make the ladder. Still, the evidence and intense public pressure was enough to convict Hauptmann. In April 1936 he was executed in the electric chair. In the aftermath of the case kidnapping was made a federal offense.

Check back every Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of six nonfiction books that includes the award winning Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California.