This week (February 20-26) in literary history – Poet Dylan Thomas arrived in New York for first U.S. readings (February 20, 1950); Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay was born (February 22, 1892); Johann von Goethe died (February 22, 1832); Poet John Keats died (February 23, 1821); Novelist James Herriot died (February 23, 1995); Wilhelm Grimm was born (February 24, 1786); John Milton married Elizabeth Mynshull (February 24, 1662); Sylvia Plath met Ted Hughes (February 25, 1956); Tennessee Williams died (February 25, 1983); Christopher Marlowe was baptized (February 26, 1564); Victor Hugo was born (February 26, 1802).

Highlighted Story of the Week –

On February 25, 1956, Sylvia Plath met Ted Hughes, at a party in Cambridge, England. The two poets fell in love at first sight and married four months later. Plath was born on October 27, 1932 in Boston, her father was a professor at Boston University and was an expert on bumblebees. Plath’s father died at home in October 1940 after a lingering illness that consumed the energy of the entire household and left the family penniless. Sylvia’s mother went to work as a teacher and raised her two children alone.

Sylvia was an outstanding student and won a scholarship to Smith, published her first short story, “Sunday at the Mintons,” in Mademoiselle while she was still in college, and then won a summer job as “guest managing editor” at the magazine. After the job ended, she suffered a nervous breakdown, tried to commit suicide, and was hospitalized. She returned to school to finish her senior year, won a Fulbright to England, and went to Cambridge after graduation, where she met Hughes. They married on June 12, 1956. The couple moved to Boston in 1958 and Plath attended poetry workshops with Robert Lowell, whose confessional approach to poetry deeply influenced her. Hughes won a Guggenheim fellowship in 1959, and the pair returned to England, where Plath had her first child.

Her first poetry collection, Colossus, was published in 1960 to favorable reviews. The couple bought a house in Devon and had a second child in 1962, the same year that Plath discovered that her husband was having an affair. He left the family to move in with his lover, and Plath desperately struggled against her own emotional turmoil and depression. She moved to London and wrote dozens of her best poems in the winter of 1962. Her only novel, The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical account of a college girl who works at a magazine in New York and suffers a breakdown, was published in early 1963, but received mediocre reviews. With sick children, frozen pipes, and a severe case of depression, Plath took her own life in February 11, 1963, at age 30. Hughes edited several volumes of her poetry, which appeared after her death. Plath was buried at the Heptonstall Church cemetery in West Yorkshire, England.

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 Literary Legends of the British Isles and America’s Literary Legends.

This week (February 18-24) in Hollywood history – Winners of the first Academy Awards were announced (February 18, 1929); Lee Marvin was born (February 19, 1924); Bob Hope married Dolores Reade (February 19, 1934); Elizabeth Taylor married Michael Wilding (February 21, 1952); Ann Sheridan was born (February 21, 1915); Greta Garbo made her U.S. film debut (February 21, 1926); Drew Barrymore was born (February 22, 1975); Madel Normand died (February 23, 1930); Director Victor Fleming was born (February 23, 1889); Variety magazine announced that MGM had purchased the rights to the film version of The Wizard of Oz (February 24, 1938).

Highlighted Story of the Week –

On February 21, 1926, Swedish actress Greta Garbo made her U.S. screen debut in The Torrent. Born Greta Louisa Gustaffson in 1905, Garbo grew up in a poor family in Stockholm. At age 13, she started working as a lather girl at a barbershop and later moved to a department store, where she was asked to appear in a publicity film for the store. Later, she appeared in a publicity film for a bakery. Pleased with her success, she applied for and won a scholarship to the Royal Dramatic Theater’s acting school, where she was discovered by director Mauritz Stiller, one of the most powerful directors in Swedish cinema. He cast her as the Countess Elizabeth Dohna in his critically acclaimed 1924 film The Legend of Gosta Berling, which ran some four hours; he also gave her the now-famous stage name of Garbo.

In 1924, Louis B. Mayer of Hollywood’s powerful Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio hired Stiller on contract and brought him to the United States. Stiller only accepted the job on the condition that MGM contract Garbo as well. Mayer agreed, although he reportedly considered Garbo too full-figured to succeed as an actress in America at the time. In The Torrent, a silent film co-starring the Latin heartthrob Ricardo Cortez, Garbo played a Spanish peasant girl who becomes an opera star. Her charisma, beauty and acting talent made an immediate impact on the filmmakers, so much so that they raised her salary even before the movie was released. When it hit theaters, Garbo was an immediate sensation. For his part, Stiller had been prevented by Mayer from directing The Torrent, and clashed with the studio repeatedly during the filming of a follow-up picture, The Temptress. Fired mid-production, he had an unhappy stint at Paramount before being forced to return to Sweden, where he died in 1945; the loss reportedly left Garbo devastated.

Unlike many of her contemporaries, Garbo successfully made the transition to sound after becoming a star during the silent film era. Her first talking picture was Anna Christie in 1930, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Romantically linked with numerous fellow celebrities, including her frequent co-star John Gilbert, Garbo never married. Reserved and withdrawn, she recoiled from publicity, cloaking herself in dark glasses and large hats when she traveled. “I want to be alone,” a line from her 1939 film Grand Hotel, has often been used to sum up her aversion to fame. Garbo’s reclusiveness only heightened her mystique. Although she retired from moviemaking in 1941, she was chosen by Variety in 1950 as the best actress of the first half of the 20th century. She became an American citizen in 1951, and was honored with a special Academy Award for her “unforgettable” work in 1954. Greta Garbo died on April 15, 1990 in New York City from pneumonia and her cremated remains were buried at the Woodland Cemetery in Stockholm Sweden.

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

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of six nonfiction books and includes the award winning Fade to Black: Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950.

This week (February 16-22) in crime history – Old west gunslinger John Wesley Hardin was released from prison (February 16, 1894); Union leaders are arrested in connection with the assassination of former Idaho governor Frank Steuenberg (February 17, 1906); Arsonists sets fire to South Korean subway train killing nearly 200 (February 18, 2003); Green River Killer Gary Leon Ridgway pleaded guilty to killing his 49^th victim (February 18, 2011); Murder of rancher John Tunstall ignited the Lincoln County War (February 18, 1878); Former U.S. Vice-President Aaron Burr was arrested for treason (February 19, 1807); Chicago Seven were sentenced for inciting riots during the 1968 Democratic National Convention (February 19, 1970); Reg Murphy, editor of The Atlanta Constitution was kidnapped (February 20, 1974); Malcolm X was assassinated (February 21, 1965); Double agent Aldrich Ames was arrested for leaking secrets to the Soviet Union (February 21, 1994); The Securitas Bank depot in Kent, England was robbed of 53 million pounds (February 22, 2006).

Highlighted Crime Story of the Week –

On February 16, 1894, old west gunslinger John Wesley Hardin was pardoned and released from a Texas prison after spending 15 years in custody for murder. Hardin, who was reputed to have shot and killed a man just for snoring, was 41 years old at the time of his release. During his lifetime, Hardin probably killed in excess of 40 people beginning in 1868. When he was only 15, he killed an ex-slave in a fight and became a wanted fugitive. Two years later, he was arrested for murder in Waco, Texas. Although it was actually one of the few he had not committed, Hardin did not want to run the risk of being convicted and fled to Abilene, Kansas. Luckily for him Abilene was run by a good friend, Wild Bill Hickok. However, one night Hardin was disturbed by the snoring in an adjacent hotel room and fired two shots through the wall, killing the man. Fearing that not even Wild Bill would stand for such a senseless crime, Hardin moved on again.

On May 26, 1874, Hardin was celebrating his 21st birthday when he got into an altercation with a man who fired the first shot. Hardin fired back and killed the man. A few years later, Hardin was tracked down in Florida and brought to trial. Because it was one of the more defensible shootings on Hardin’s record, he was spared the gallows and given a life sentence. After his pardon, he moved to El Paso and became a successful attorney. But his past eventually caught up with him, and on the night of August 19, 1895 he was shot in the back of the head by former outlaw and Constable John Selman Sr., as revenge for a petty argument.

Check back every Monday for 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 true crime book, Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.

This week (February 9-15) in crime history – Adolph Coors III, grandson of the Coor’s founder was kidnapped and murdered (February 9, 1960); Former Boxing Champion Mike Tyson was convicted of rape (February 10, 1992); Nelson Mandela was released from prison (February 11, 1990); Radical Emma Goldman was arrested for distributing birth control information (February 11, 1916); Actor Sal Mineo was murdered (February 12, 1976); War crimes trial of former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic began (February 12, 2002); Serial Killer Tom Luther attacked first known victim (February 13, 1982); The St. Valentin’s Day Massacre (February 14, 1929); President-elect Franklin Roosevelt narrowly escaped assassination in Miami (February 15, 1933)

Highlighted Crime Story of the Week –

On February 12, 1976, actor Sal Mineo was stabbed to death in West Hollywood, California. Mineo was parking his car behind his apartment when neighbors heard his cries for help. Witnesses described seeing a white man with long brown hair fleeing the scene. Sal Mineo was a famous teen actor in the 1950s and co-starred with James Dean in Rebel without a Cause and Giant. His transition to adult roles was not easy, but he later appeared in films such as The Longest Day and Escape from the Planet of the Apes, and was a regular guest actor on television series. On the night of his murder, Mineo was returning from a play rehearsal.

For two years, Los Angeles police detectives searched in vain for clues to the killer’s identity. At first, they suspected that Mineo’s work for prison reform had put him in contact with a dangerous ex-con. Then their focus shifted to Mineo’s personal life. Investigators had discovered that his home was filled with pictures of nude men, but the homosexual pornography also failed to turn up any leads.

Then, out of the blue, Michigan authorities reported that Lionel Williams, arrested on bad check charges, was bragging to everyone that he had killed Mineo. Although he later retracted his stories, at about the same time, Williams’ his wife back in Los Angeles told police that he had come home the night of the murder drenched in blood. However, there was one major discrepancy in the case, Williams was black with an Afro and all of the eyewitnesses had described the perpetrator as a white man with long brown hair.

Fortunately, the police were able to unearth an old photo of Williams in which his hair had been dyed brown and processed so that it was straight and long. In addition, the medical examiner had made a cast of Mineo’s knife wound and police were able to match it to the description of the knife provided by Williams’ wife. Lionel Williams was eventually convicted and given a sentence of life in prison. He was paroled in the early 1990s but rearrested after committing other crimes. Today, Williams whereabouts is unknown.

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, 1849-1949.

This week (February 6-12) in literary history – John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men was published (February 6, 1937); Charles Dickens’ Sketches by Boz was published (February 7, 1836); Charles Dickens was born (February 7, 1812); Ann Radcliff died (February 7, 1823); Emile Zola was charged with libel and brought to trial (February 7, 1898); John Grisham was born (February 8, 1955); Fyodor Dostoyevsky died (February 9, 1881); Brendan Behan was born (February 9, 1923); Alex Haley died (February 10, 1992); Laura Ingalls Wilder died (February 10, 1957); William Congreve was born (February 10, 1670); Charles Lamb was born (February 10, 1775); Voltaire returned from exile (February 11, 1778); Sylvia Plath committed suicide (February 11, 1963); Judy Blume was born (February 12, 1938); Cotton Mather was born (February 12, 1663).

Highlighted Story of the Week –

On February 6, 1937, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the story of the bond between two migrant workers, was published. He adapted the book into a three-act play, which was produced the same year. The story brought national attention to Steinbeck’s work, which had started to catch on in 1935 with the publication of his first successful novel, Tortilla Flat. Steinbeck was born and raised in the Salinas Valley, where his father was a county official and his mother a former schoolteacher. A good student and president of his senior class in high school, Steinbeck attended Stanford University intermittently in the early 1920s. In 1925, he moved to New York City, where he worked as a journalist while writing stories and novels. His first two books were not successful.

In 1930, he married Carol Henning, the first of his three wives, and moved to Pacific Grove, California. Steinbeck’s father gave the couple a house and a small income while Steinbeck continued to write. His third novel, Tortilla Flat (1935), was a critical and financial success. In 1939, Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize for The Grapes of Wrath, a novel tracing a fictional Oklahoma family as they lose their family farm in the Depression and move to California seeking a better life.

His work after World War II, including Cannery Row and The Pearl, continued to offer social criticism but became more sentimental. Steinbeck tried his hand at movie scripts in the 1940s, writing successful films like Forgotten Village (1941) and Viva Zapata (1952). He also took up the serious study of marine biology and published a nonfiction book, The Sea of Cortez, in 1941. His 1962 nonfiction book, Travels with Charlie, describes his travels across the United States in a camper truck with his poodle, Charlie. Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in 1962 and died from heart failure in New York in 1968. Steinbeck was buried at the Salinas Cemetery.

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.

This week (February 2-8) in crime history – Film director William Desmond Taylor was murdered (February 2, 1922); Details of the FBI’s ABSCAM operation were revealed to the public (February 2, 1980); Barnett Davenport committed mass murder in Revolutionary era Connecticut (February 3, 1780); Outlaw Belle Starr was murdered (February 3, 1889); Patty Hearst was kidnapped by members of the Symbionese Liberation Army (February 4, 1974); Medgar Evers assassin was convicted (February 5, 1994); Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega was indicted on drug charges (February 5, 1988); Josh Powell kills himself and his two sons at his Graham, Washington home (February 5, 2012); Mary Kay Latourneau was sent to prison for violating terms of her sentence (February 6, 1998); Dalton Gang committed its first train robbery (February 6, 1891); Nevada carry’s out first execution by lethal gas in the United States (February 8, 1924).

Highlighted Crime Story of the Week –

On February 2, 1889, Belle Starr was murdered, when an unknown assailant fatally shot the famous old west outlaw with two shotgun blasts from behind. As with the lives of other famous outlaws like Billy the Kid and Jesse James, fanciful accounts printed in newspapers and dime novels made Belle Starr’s harsh and violent life appear far more romantic than it actually was.

Born Myra Mabelle Shirley on February 5, 1848 on a small farm near Carthage, Missouri. She received an education in the classics and became a competent pianist. Seemingly headed for an unexciting but respectable middle-class life, her fate was changed by the outbreak of the Civil War, which ruined her father’s business as a Carthage innkeeper and claimed the life of her brother Edwin. Devastated, the Shirley family abandoned Missouri for a fresh start in Texas.

In Texas, Belle began her life-long pattern of associating with men of questionable character. In 1866, she met Cole Younger, a member of the James-Younger gang that was gaining notoriety for a series of daring bank and train robberies. Rumor had it that Younger fathered Belle’s first child, Pearl, though the father might have actually been another outlaw, Jim Reed. Regardless, Belle’s relationship with Younger was short-lived, and in 1866 she became Reed’s wife. Belle was apparently untroubled by her new husband’s reputation and she had become his partner in crime by 1869. She joined him in stealing cattle, horses, and money in the Dallas area. Riding her mare, Venus, and sporting velvet skirts and plumed hats, Belle played the role of a “bandit queen” for several years.

In 1874, a member of his own gang killed Reed, and Belle was suddenly on her own. Pursued by the law, she drifted into Oklahoma Indian Territory, where she led a band of cattle and horse thieves. There she met a handsome young Cherokee named Sam Starr, who eventually became her common-law husband and new criminal partner. The Starr’s managed to elude capture for nearly a decade, but in 1883 they were arrested for horse theft and both served five months in the Detroit federal prison.

Freed from prison, the couple immediately resumed their criminal careers. In 1886, Belle again lost a husband to violent death when Sam Starr was killed in a gunfight with an old enemy. Belle wasted no time in finding a third companion, a Creek Indian named Jim July, an outlaw who was 15 years her junior. In 1889, July was arrested for robbery and summoned to Fort Smith, Arkansas, to face charges. Belle accompanied her young lover for part of the journey but turned back before reaching Fort Smith. On her way home, someone ambushed and fatally wounded her with two shotgun blasts to her back. No one was ever arrested or convicted of the crime.

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 author of six nonfiction books that includes Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.

This week (January 30-February 5) in literary history – Frank Nelson Doubleday died (January 30, 1934); Zane Grey was born (January 31, 1872); A.A. Milne died (January 31, 1956); Lord Byron’s The Corsair was published (February 1, 1814); Mary Shelley died (February 1, 1851); Alexandre Dumas married Ida Ferrier (February 1, 1840); James Joyce was born (February 2, 1882); Samuel Clemens began using the pen name Mark Twain (February 2, 1863); James Joyce’s Ulysses was published in Paris (February 2, 1922); John Keats becomes aware that he has tuberculosis (February 3, 1820); James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans was published (February 4, 1826); Norton Simon was born (February 5, 1907); Thomas Carlyle died (February 5, 1881).

Highlighted story of the week –

On January 31, 1872, prolific western novelist Zane Grey and author of Riders of the Purple Sage, was born in Zanesville, Ohio. The son of a successful dentist, Grey enjoyed a happy and solid upper-middle-class childhood, marred only by occasional fistfights with boys who teased him about his unusual first name, Pearl. (Grey later replaced it with his mother’s maiden name, Zane.) A talented baseball player as teen, Grey caught the eye of a scout for the University of Pennsylvania baseball team, who convinced him to study there. In 1886, he graduated with a degree in dentistry and moved to New York to begin his practice.

Grey’s interest in dentistry was half-hearted at best, and he did not relish the idea of replicating his father’s safe but unexciting career path. Searching for an alternative, Grey decided to try his hand at writing; his first attempt was an uninspiring historical novel about a family ancestor. At that point, Grey might well have been doomed to a life of dentistry, had he not met Colonel C. J. “Buffalo” Jones in 1908, who convinced Grey to write Jones’ biography. More importantly, Jones took him out West to gather material for the book, and Grey became deeply fascinated with the people and landscape of the region.

Grey’s biography of Jones debuted in 1908 as The Last of the Plainsmen to little attention, but he was inspired to concentrate his efforts on writing historical romances of the West. In 1912, he published the novel that earned him lasting fame, Riders of the Purple Sage. Like the equally popular Owen Wister novel, The Virginian (1902), the basic theme of Riders revolves around the transformation of a weak and effeminate easterner into a man of character and strength through his exposure to the culture and land of the American West. Grey’s protagonist, the Ohio-born Bern Venters, spends several weeks being tested by the rugged canyon country of southern Utah before finding his way back to civilization. Venters, Grey writes, “had gone away a boy-he had returned a man.” Though Riders of the Purple Sage was Grey’s most popular novel, he wrote 78 other books during his productive career, most of them Westerns. He died on October 23, 1939 at the age of 67, from heart failure at his estate in Altadena, California. After his death, Grey’s works continued to be extraordinarily popular for decades to come.

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 the award winning Literary Greats of the British Isles and the recently published America’s Literary Legends.

This week (January 28-February 3) in Hollywood history – Gloria Swanson married Henri de la Falaise (January 28, 1925); Paul Newman married Joanne Woodward (January 29, 1958); Elizabeth Taylor divorced Conrad Hilton Jr. (January 29, 1951); W.C. Fields was born (January 29, 1880); Victor Mature was born (January 29, 1913); Gene Hackman was born (January 30, 1930); Samuel Goldwyn died (January 31, 1974); Clark Gable was born (February 1, 1901); John Ford was born (February 1, 1895); Gene Kelly died (February 2, 1996); Boris Karloff died (February 2, 1969): Philip Seymour Hoffman died (February 2, 2014).

Highlighted story of the week –

On February 2, 1996, Gene Kelly died at the age of 83 from a stroke, at his home in Beverly Hills, California. Born in Pittsburgh in 1912, Kelly graduated with a degree in economics from the University of Pittsburgh during the Great Depression. With jobs scarce, he worked at a dancing school partly owned by his mother, who had insisted that all of her five children take music and dance lessons throughout their childhood. On the side, he formed a dance act with his brother Fred, appearing in local nightclubs and theater productions. In 1938, Kelly decided to try his luck in New York City. He got his first Broadway job in the chorus of Leave It to Me, starring Mary Martin.

His first starring role on Broadway came in My Pal Joey. He then signed an exclusive contract with the producer David O. Selznick and headed to Hollywood. Selznick promptly lent Kelly to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, a studio best known at the time for its large-scale movie musicals. MGM put Kelly in his first film, For Me and My Gal (1942), co-starring Judy Garland, and soon bought his contract from Selznick. Two years later, the studio lent him out to Columbia Pictures to choreograph and co-star in Cover Girl, opposite a then-unknown Rita Hayworth. This film was Kelly’s first major big-screen success and his first collaboration with the director and choreographer Stanley Donen.

Kelly continued his trail-blazing in the world of movie dance in his next big hit, Anchors Aweigh (1945), performing a dance routine with the animated mouse Jerry from the popular Tom and Jerry cartoon series. The eight-minute sequence cost MGM $100,000 and took two months to film, but it was celebrated as a breakthrough moment in cinema for its combination of live action and animated footage. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Kelly returned to the silver screen with 1948’s The Pirate, again opposite Judy Garland. He also made two more films with Frank Sinatra (his Anchors Aweigh co-star), including the hit On the Town, which Kelly directed and choreographed with Donen.

In 1951, Kelly headlined An American in Paris, which won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Kelly picked up a special Oscar, in honor of his “extreme versatility as an actor, singer, director and dancer, but specifically for his brilliant achievement in the art of choreography.” At the pinnacle of his career, Kelly cemented his iconic status with his work in what was arguably the last great movie musical, Singin’ in the Rain (1952). The movie featured one of the most memorable scenes in film history: Kelly dancing and singing alone on the street during a downpour, with only his umbrella for a prop.

As the popularity of big-budget movie musicals waned, Kelly’s films during the 1950s, Brigadoon (1954), It’s Always Fair Weather (1955) and Les Girls (1957), met with varying degrees of success. Kelly and Donen fell out after working together on their last film, It’s Always Fair Weather, partly for personal reasons: Kelly and Donen’s wife Jeanne Coyne fell in love and were married in 1960 (Kelly was previously married to the actress Betsy Blair). Kelly worked on other projects intended to raise the profile of modern dance, including the dialogue-free Invitation to the Dance in 1956 and an NBC television special, Dancing is a Men’s Game. He also choreographed for the ballet in Paris and San Francisco.

After Jeanne Coyne died of leukemia in 1973, Kelly focused on projects that would keep him close to Los Angeles, where he was raising their two children. Late into his career, he continued to make film appearances and direct the occasional movie, including Hello, Dolly! (1969). Kelly’s last big-screen role was in the kitschy Xanadu (1980), in which he performed a dance routine on roller skates. Kelly died on February 2, 1996 and his remains were cremated. There was no memorial or funeral, and the disposition of his ashes are not known.

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 Fade to Black Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950.

This week (January 26-February 1) in crime history – The Mad Butcher of Cleveland claimed third victim (January 26, 1936); The Vampire of Sacramento claimed final victims (January 27, 1978): Charles Starkweather and his teenage girlfriend kill three during their murderous crime spree (January 28, 1958); Brenda Spencer kills two and injures none in San Diego school shooting (January 29, 1979); Indian Prime Minister Mohandas Gandhi was assassinated (January 30, 1948); Guy Fawkes jumped to his death just prior to his execution (January 31, 1606); Ted Bundy murdered Lynda Ann Healy (February 1, 1974); King Carlos I of Portugal was assassinated (February 1, 1908).

Highlighted crime story of the week –

On January 27, 1978, Richard Chase, who becomes known as the “Vampire of Sacramento,” murdered Evelyn Miroth , Daniel Meredith, as well as Miroth’s 6-year-old son and 22-month-old nephew, in Sacramento, California. Chase sexually assaulted Miroth with a knife before killing her and mutilating her body. He removed some of her organs and cannibalized them. The previous year, the 28-year-old Chase had been found in the desert, naked and covered in cow’s blood. His behavior did not come as a complete surprise to those who knew him. As a child, he had been known to kill animals, drinking the blood of a bird on one occasion. He had been in and out of psychiatric hospitals for most of his life.

Chase’s first known victim, Ambrose Griffin, 51, was killed in a drive-by shooting in December 1977 in the drive way of his home. He committed his second known homicide on January 23, 1979, when entered the East Sacramento home of 22-year-old Teresa Wallin, who was shot to death and then mutilated and partially cannibalized. After several tips from the public, Chase was apprehended on February 1, at his apartment. Police found his home covered in blood and filth. On May 8, 1979, a jury found him guilty of six counts of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death. Chase committed suicide in his cell at San Quentin prison on December 26, 1980 by taking an over dose of anti-depressant medication.

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, 1849-1949.

This week (January 23-29) in Literary history – Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott was born (January 23, 1930); Edith Wharton was born (January 24, 1862); Virginia Woolf was born (January 25, 1882); Robert Burns was born (January 25, 1759); Oscar Wilde’s “Duchess of Padua” premiered in New York City (January 26, 1891); Dante was exiled from Florence (January 27, 1302); Lewis Carroll was born (January 27, 1832); French author Collette was born (January 28, 1873); Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” was published (January 28, 1813); Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” was published (January 29, 1845).

Highlighted Story of the Week –

On January 27, 2010, J.D. Salinger, author of The Catcher in the Rye, the classic American novel about a disillusioned teenager, died of natural causes at the age 91. Prior to his death, the best-selling writer spent some 50 years shunning the spotlight and living reclusively at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire.

Jerome David Salinger was born on January 1, 1919, in New York City, the second of two children. As a teen, he flunked out of a Manhattan private school and was sent to Valley Forge Military Academy in Pennsylvania. The school would later serve as a model for Pencey Prep, which Salinger’s famous character Holden Caulfield is expelled from in The Catcher in the Rye.

In 1939, Salinger enrolled in a writing course at Columbia University, and soon began publishing his short stories in magazines. In 1941, after previous rejections, he sold his first essay “Slight Rebellion off Madison” to The New Yorker. This story marked the first appearance of Holden Caulfield; however, the magazine put off publishing the story until 1946. After being drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942 during World War II, Salinger saw combat duty in Europe. Back in New York after the war, he continued writing, and by the late 1940s was a regular contributor to The New Yorker.

In 1951, The Catcher in the Rye was published and became a best-seller. As The New York Times described the book in Salinger’s obituary: “With its cynical, slangy vernacular voice (Holden’s two favorite expressions are “phony” and “goddam”), its sympathetic understanding of adolescence and its fierce if alienated sense of morality and distrust of the adult world, the novel struck a nerve in cold war America and quickly attained cult status, especially among the young.

Having achieved literary success and fame, Salinger soon soured on it. He ordered his publisher to remove his photograph from his book’s back jacket, and in 1953, he moved from Manhattan to New Hampshire, where he built a tall fence around his property and rarely gave interviews to the media. The Catcher in the Rye was the only novel ever published by Salinger, who married three times and had two children. Salinger died on January 27, 2010 at his home and his burial location 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 and includes Literary Legends of the British Isles and America’s Literary Legends.