The FBI has released videos of two suspects, that may have participated in the Boston Marathon bombing earlier this week.
The agency is seeking help from citizens, that may have seen the suspects and anything that they may recall about the two individuals.
It is imperative that these two suspects be captured, as soon as possible to prevent them from leaving the country, if they are international terrorists or go into hiding if they are American citizens.
We should know more about these suspects, now that those there at the Boston Marathon may remember them and may have even have their photos in their cell phones.
The main thing is to get these people off the street, so they can be brought to justice, if they are the perpetrators behind the Boston Marathon bombings.
A bomb explodes near the finish line at the Boston Marathon on Monday.
The Boston Marathon is usually a cause of celebration, but two bombs exploding near the finish line turned the day into an unspeakable tragedy.
Earlier that day the Boston Red Sox had played the Tampa Bay Rays and the players heard the explosions as they left Fenway Park, after playing the traditional Red Sox game, that coincides with the Boston Marathon.
27,000 runners had converged on Boston to participate in the 117th running of the Boston Marathon. After the bombs exploded near the finish line nobody was even thinking of who won the race, but everyone was concerned about the three killed and 148 injured, according to the latest reports.
New York Times photo and overhead shot of where the two bombs exploded.
The mood of the crowd changed from euphoria as they cheered the runners crossing the finish line, to utter shock as two bombs exploded near the finish line. The reports of the injuries to those wounded in the bombings are too graphic to recount in this article. I heard some gruesome accounts of what witnesses saw in the aftermath of the bombing, but no need to detail their accounts, since the terrorists would enjoy hearing the gory details, of what pain and suffering was caused by the bombings.
Now the focus turns to who committed such a cowardly act, that led to loss of life and injuries that may force some of the injured to be crippled for life.
Is Anyone Really Safe?
This latest tragedy caused by terrorists once again reminds us of how fragile life is. People were having fun one minute and then utter chaos ensues after the bombs do their damage to innocent people, who only wanted to enjoy a day off from their work, only to have it end in such a tragic manner.
We don’t know whether international terrorists or national terrorists are responsible for yesterday’s tragedy, but we do know it was a terrorist act, whether by an organized group or one or two individuals.
There certainly was a state of fear on Boylston Street in Boston yesterday, when an idyllic day turned into a day that will never be forgotten, but never to be forgotten for the wrong reason.
United States has been the scene of terrorism in the last year or so, from those shot or killed at the Aurora, Colorado movie theater, to the students and teachers who lost their life in their school in Newtown, Connecticut and now this terrorist act on Boylston Street in Boston, Massachusetts.
Even though the theater and school murders were executed by lone gunmen they still were acts of terrorism in my book and while the bombings in Boston seem to be the work of organized terrorists we still don’t know for sure how many were involved.
What we do know is that theaters, classrooms and downtown streets are no longer safe. Is there really a safe place that can be regarded as terrorist free? The terrorists have answered that question with a resounding no.
I could point out the many places that invite terrorism, but why give terrorists ideas of how to inflict more loss of life. It is difficult to understand the mind of a terrorist, since most people may not like a situation they are in, but would never take the extreme measures, that terrorists take to inflict their will on their victims.
All we can do now is to hope that the government agencies can track down and arrest who were the masterminds, behind the tragic murders of innocent victims yesterday in Boston.
That doesn’t mean that other terrorists won’t continue to strike fear into American citizens, with other terrorist acts like the one, that was committed in Boston yesterday.
Twelve years have passed since 9/11, but the world is no safer than it was on that Tuesday morning, when terrorists ended the lives of thousands of Americans, who were on routine flights or had gone to work in downtown New York or in the Pentagon and the policemen and firemen who gave their life that day.
Life is very fragile and we learned that again, from what happened in Boston yesterday.
I was born in 1944 and lived the first 18 years of my life, during the old time radio era, which ended on September 30,1962, when the last two dramatic shows, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and Suspense were broadcast for the last time.
There are no recollections in my mind, of our family gathering around the radio, like the family pictured above, but I still can recall hearing some of the programs. I can remember hearing Dragnet, Bob Hope, Arthur Godfrey and the Breakfast Club with Don McNeill. I can also recall my mother listening to the soap operas of that era, as she listened to Just Plain Bill, Stella Dallas, Lorenzo Jones, Pepper Young’s Family and One Man’s Family.
1960 would see the last five soap operas leave the radio airwaves, including Ma Perkins and Young Doctor Malone.
Arthur Godfrey was the most popular talk show host during the old time radio era.
Arthur Godfrey Time and Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club were the two best-known early morning shows and were often heard in our house in the mornings, though they must have been on at the same time at some point. The last Breakfast Club was broadcast in 1968, while the last Arthur Godfrey Time was broadcast in 1972.
There was something about Arthur Godfrey, that made him seem like a family friend and he could sell anything, since he came across as being someone you could trust.
Interest in Old Time Radio Rekindled In 90′s
My interest in old time radio became rekindled in the 90′s, when my mother let me listen to a set of old time radio shows. I bought a few tapes of my own, but didn’t really start collecting old time radio shows, till I found that I could buy MP3 CD’s of old time radio shows on eBay for nominal prices.
That is when I became serious about collecting old time radio shows. Previously cassettes and regular compact discs could hold very few shows, but the MP3 compact discs made it possible to record fifty half-hour shows onto one MP3 CD. I also bought the shows at MP3 CD sellers online, who were selling the shows for bargain prices. For instance, I was able to buy over 800 Jack Benny shows for only $12. To buy that many shows on a cassette or regular compact disc would have cost hundreds of dollars, before the advent of MP3 CD’s.
One key to buying old time radio shows is to always go to lowest price plus shipping, when searching for shows on eBay. For instance 441 shows of Boston Blackie and The Shadow on a DVD can be bid on for only 99 cents and this price includes shipping. The price could still go up, but probably not that much, since there are only three days left in the bidding, on this particular DVD. DVD’s hold even more shows and enable a collector, to build a large collection even faster.
I also bought a lot of shows from otrcat.com, which offers a complete sample show to listen to, of almost every show available at the website. The site also has excellent descriptions of each show, so you will know the history of that show before buying it.
The front page of the website has a New Additions feature, that sells shows that have added previously unheard episodes or obscure shows, not usually sold online by any dealer.
I have a filing system with my collection, with about 175 MP3 CD’s inside one large folder, which holds over 17,000 shows. I keep a notebook folder with loose leaf paper, with a sheet of paper for each show. I write the name of the show, the name of the episode and when it was listened to. That prevents me from listening to the same show more than once, unless I like the show enough to listen to it more often.
At first I listened to the episodes on a portable MP3 CD player, but later switched to a MP3 player, which plays the shows after the digital files for the shows have been uploaded into the MP3 player. Once they are in the MP3 player, the names of each episode is shown in a list on the MP3 player. After listening to the show, the show can be deleted from the MP3 player, to avoid having to go through so many shows to find one particular episode.
When I select a MP3 CD to listen to I insert the CD into the CD drive on the computer. It then shows up in the Windows Explorer files and I send the shows I want to my MP3 player, which has been connected to the tower. I can manually highlight the shows I want transfered to MP3 player and after writing the information for each episode of that show into the notebook, then manually drag the episodes of that show, into the MP3 player. In my case I use the Sony Content Transfer folder as the ultimate destination on the desktop, which is really the MP3 player.
I have a list of all my shows and how many episodes and how many CD’s and hours there are of each episode.
For example, there are 869 Jack Benny Shows in my collection on 9 MP3 CD’s which total 433 hours of Jack Benny shows.
My Favorite Old Time Radio Shows
My favorite old time radio show is This Is Your FBI, which tells true stories of FBI cases of that era and especially features stories of soldiers, who have returned from war who have been swindled out of their money, by con men who conspire to take their money.
The shows feature both the criminals making their plans and squabbling among themselves and the FBI agents working to capture the criminals. The shows are easy to listen to and keep your attention, since the shows are so well-written.
Boston Blackie is one of my favorites, because I enjoy the interplay between Blackie and Inspector Faraday. The inspector immediately suspects that Blackie committed whatever crime is being committed, because of Blackie’s criminal history as a safe cracker. However, the inspector is always proven wrong by the end of the story.
Night Watch was a precursor to COPS, with the main difference, that it is an old time radio show from the 1950′s that uses a reporter in the police car to record every word spoken during a night on patrol.
The show will touch the listeners emotionally, as it touched me. One of the episodes is about a lady who leaves her kids in the car, while she goes into a bar. The older child is trying to watch out for the younger child.
Another emotional part of the shows is when parents are told, that their child is in trouble for breaking a law. This show is one of the more riveting shows of old time radio but it wasn’t on the air long, so all we can do is enjoy the shows, as the policemen question the victims and criminals to get to the truth of whatever situation is being heard. This is true reality radio at its best.
The Great Gildersleeve is my favorite comedy of old time radio days. Harold Peary’s portrayal of Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve is right on the money. His character was first heard on Fibber McGee and Molly, but he later had his own show with him, as the water commissioner of Summerfield, less than two years after his first appearance on Fibber McGee and Molly.
Gildersleeve’s home consisted of his nephew Leroy and his niece Marjorie and the cook named Birdie. Gildersleeve comes off as a bombastic oaf, who likes to be in charge of whatever is going on at the time. He also has an eye for the girls and is intent at Christmas time to maneuver the girls, to where they will be standing under the mistletoe.
I never tire of hearing the same Christmas shows, since they represent so well, what Christmas was like in the 1940′s and 1950′s. It is funny hearing Gildersleeve worrying about how much someone is spending on his Christmas present. He is determined to spend not one penny more than what someone spends on him
Richard LeGrand who portrays the local druggist Richard Peavey is one of my favorite characters on the show. The mild-mannered Peavey is an excellent contrast, with the more in-your-face Gildersleeve. His drugstore is an oasis away from the turbulent Gildersleeve home, which always seems to be in chaos.
Judge Hooker played by Earle Ross and Gildersleeve have a tempestuous relationship, that keeps them from being on good terms most of the time. He is also the opposite of Mr. Peavey and I can’t recall the two of them interacting much on the show.
The show to me seemed to lose its spark, when Harold Peary left the show. I have nothing against Willard Waterman, who was in a lose-lose situation trying to replace Peary, but nobody could really replace Peary.
I have only listened to 38 of the over 500 shows in the series.
CBS Radio Workshop was one of the most innovative shows during the old time radio era. I liked Program #6 The Voice of the City in which life on New York streets was recorded. I also enjoyed Evening on Broadway and it probably better depicted the sounds, of people talking to each other on a busy sidewalk.
The Enormous Radio program in the series of shows on the CBS Radio Workshop was about a radio that picked up the conversations of neighbors, instead of regular radio programs.
Ex-Urbanites was a dramatic presentation of how city-dwellers moving to the suburbs, found out that the suburbs were not as great, as they expected and the travel especially became a burden.
There are too many excellent programs to mention them all, but this first link will take you to where you can read about the CBS Radio Workshop and the second to a website, where you can actually listen to the shows.
Those who want to only listen to the shows and are not interested in buying them for themselves, there are many websites, that make it possible to hear hundreds and in some cases thousands of shows for free.
Archive.org is one of the best sites online to listen to free old time radio shows.
OTR.net has over 12,000 free old time radio shows to listen to, including 442 Fibber McGee and Molly shows, 610 Jack Benny shows, 468 Great Gildersleeve shows and 406 Gunsmoke shows.
Radiolovers.com does not come close to the content of the above two websites and you will notice many of your favorite shows, that are missing from the list of shows. However there are some lesser-known shows that are on the list, that may not be found elsewhere on the internet.
The following website is the best resource for old time radio information, since it lists most of the shows, that were ever broadcast on old time radio. The site may not be all-inclusive, but it is the closet thing out there. There are lists of old time radio programs and who was heard in each show and a list of actors that tells how many shows and lists the shows they were heard in.
What old time radio means to me can be found in the old time radio shows, that remind me of a simpler time, when families ate dinner together at home and not at a crowded restaurant, except on special occasions.
What old time radio means to me…..
Listening to Gildersleeve arguing with Judge Hooker or Fibber McGee over the price of a Christmas present.
Listening to Kingfish trying to pull a fast one on the gullible Andrew H. Brown on Amos and Andy.
Listening to Joe Friday questioning a witness or criminal on Dragnet.
Listening to Mrs. Brooks the teacher talk in the car, as her student Walter Denton drives her to school. How many students drive their teachers to school today?
Listening to the criminals on This Is Your Life plan their next crime.
Listening to the sounds of Broadway on CBS Radio Workshop.
Listening to a live big band radio remote, when big band era was thriving.
Listening to the incessant doorbell ringing on Fibber McGee and Molly.
Listening to the contents of the closet crashing to the floor on Fibber McGee and Molly.
Listening to Boston Blackie and Inspector Faraday make sarcastic remarks toward each other.
Listening to Richard Diamond serenade his girlfriend Helen, after solving the crime for that show.
Listening to the Bickersons bickering with each other endlessly on The Bickersons.
Listening to Chester A. Riley act like a nincompoop in front of family and friends on Life of Riley.
Listening to the great organ music on Nick Carter.
Listening to Groucho Marx ask the same question over and over to a You Bet Your Life contestant.
Listening to Johnny Dollar itemizing his expenses out loud on Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.
Listening to the great sound on Gunsmoke…probably the best sounding old time radio show.
It is hard to comprehend that 48 years have passed, since President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on Nov. 22, a Friday morning that will live forever in history. I was subbing for the company postal clerk, who was on vacation, for the 25th Administration Company of the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii on that date and was the first to tell the company commander about the president being shot, after hearing the news on the radio. Meanwhile the regular postal clerk was flying military standby back to the mainland. He was trying to make a connection to New York City, from California, but was routed to Dallas, Texas of all places, arriving there about the time of the assassination.
Reading Warren Commission Report
I had a copy of the Warren Commission Report, that I had never really read until this last week. President Johnson commissioned the report a week after the assassination.
President Johnson was eager to have the Warren Report released, as soon as possible, to avoid having it contain any conspiracy theories, that might create doubt among the American public.
There is plenty of circumstantial evidence, that makes it appear that Lee Harvey Oswald fired the rifle, from the six floor window, of the Texas Schoolbook Depository building. Some witnesses on the ground reportedly saw a figure holding a gun, but as far as I know, nobody identified that figure as being Oswald. It is doubtful anyone could see someone inside a sixth story window, then be able to identify that person, since only their arms and the gun would be seen.
I am not saying that Oswald didn’t fire the shots, that killed President Kennedy and also wounded Texas Governor John Connally. He just appeared to be the one most likely to have fired the shots.
Lee Harvey Oswald: Portrait Of An Assassin
Lee Harvey Oswald had all the credentials of an assassin. He was a loner, that was an activist in liberal causes. He was a frustrated individual, who never really fit in with most political groups. He was living in Russia, thinking he had found a better way of living, but left when he saw their government didn’t care about the little people like him.
It wasn’t until after the assassination, that it was found out, that Oswald had attempted to shoot General Edwin Walker in his Dallas home on May 10, 1963. This shooting and the Kennedy assassination, proved that Oswald would just as soon shoot a conservative like Walker as well as a liberal like Kennedy.
By now everyone knows, that Oswald who never had a driver’s license told his co-worker Wesley Frazier, that he needed to go to Irving, Texas to pick up some curtain rods. He normally went to Irving on Fridays, but he needed those “curtain rods” for work on Friday, ostensibly to kill the president of the United States. Everyone also knows now, that those “curtain rods’ turned out to be the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle found inside the sixth story window, of the Texas Schoolbook Depository building.
Why was Oswald in Mexico City two months before the assassination? It is still a mystery, to my knowledge, what he was doing in Mexico City. It is known that he was trying to secure a visa to Cuba through the Cuban embassy, but there is little record of what he was actually doing in Mexico City. There are even reports that another individual, had used Oswald’s name, during the time he was in Mexico City. If there was a conspiracy, this may have been where it was planned.
Patrolman M.L. Baker was in the Texas Schoolbook Depository, looking for the shooter, when he encountered Oswald in the lunchroom. Oswald from the reports I have read, showed no signs of being under duress, while Baker was holding a gun on him. His coolness in that situation sealed the fate of both Officer J.D. Tippit, who would be killed less than an hour later, when he stopped Oswald on a Dallas street. If Oswald had exhibited any fright or seemed to be in distress, it is likely that Patrolman Baker would have arrested him in the lunchroom.
Oswald would have been without a weapon and presumably would have been taken to the police station without incident. However, Oswald may have tried to take the policeman’s gun, which could have been deadly.
There are so many incidents that day that could have changed history. Officer Tippit could have just as easily killed Oswald, instead of being gunned down himself by Oswald. That would have prevented the circus that ensued at the police station, after Oswald was arrested at the theater. History would have changed if Officer Tippit had stopped Oswald before he had a chance to receive his gun from the North Beckley residence.
Oswald allegedly fired his first shot at President Kennedy at 12:30 PM Dallas time. He encounters Patrolman Baker in the lunchroom and is leaving the Texas Schoolbook Depository by 12:33 PM. The building is reportedly sealed at 12:48, enabling Oswald to make his getaway. President Kennedy arrives at Parkland Hospital at 12:38 PM. Dallas Police homicide chief, who is awaiting the arrival of President Kennedy calls at 12:51 to ask if Kennedy is still coming to the Trade Mart for the luncheon in his honor, but is told it is very doubtful and in reality, Kennedy was dead nine minutes later.
By 1:00 Oswald has killed Officer Tippit and is seen entering the Texas Theater, while President Kennedy is being pronounced dead at that same minute.
Dallas police car #207 honks horn twice outside the Oswald house. This doesn’t sound very believable, so may not have even happened. Since when do police warn a criminal that they are outside their house?
The following timeline gives an interesting look at the events of that day. However, it can’t be taken too seriously accuracy wise, as it has Oswald arriving at the Texas Theater, ten minutes before Officer Tippit is found dead in the street, which doesn’t sound right to me.
Rose Cheramie was en route to Dallas with some other criminal types and said this about her reasons for being in Dallas:
“She said she was going to, number one, pick up some money, pick up her baby, and to kill Kennedy.” (p. 9 of Fruge’s 4/18/78 deposition)
While at the hospital Cheramie predicted the precise moment the assassination would take place:
At the hospital, Cheramie again predicted the assassination. On November 22nd, several nurses were watching television with Cheramie. According to these witnesses, “…during the telecast moments before Kennedy was shot Rose Cheramie stated to them, ‘This is when it is going to happen’ and at that moment Kennedy was assassinated. The nurses, in turn, told others of Cheramie’s prognostication.” (Memo of Frank Meloche to Louis Ivon, 5/22/67. Although the Dallas motorcade was not broadcast live on the major networks, the nurses were likely referring to the spot reports that circulated through local channels in the vicinity of the trip. Of course, the assassination itself was reported on by network television almost immediately after it happened.) Further, according to a psychiatrist there, Dr. Victor Weiss, Rose “…told him that she knew both Ruby and Oswald and had seen them sitting together on occasions at Ruby’s club.” (Ibid., 3/13/67) In fact, Fruge later confirmed the fact that she had worked as a stripper for Ruby. (Louisiana State Police report of 4/4/67.)
There is reportedly no mention of Cheramie in the Warren Report. You would think someone who accurately predicted the moment President Kennedy would be shot, would be taken more seriously by the Warren Commission, but then that would back up the conspiracy theorists, which the Warren commission avoided at all costs.
It is not so much a matter if Oswald shot Kennedy but more of a matter, of was he aided by a conspiracy. Kennedy had a myriad of enemies, who wanted him dead. They included the unions, mobsters, Castro, KGB, possibly the CIA who were peeved at Kennedy for withdrawing air support for the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Even President Johnson has been mentioned as someone, who would like to see Kennedy dead, since he had the most to gain (the presidency). One online report even states that Oswald was seen at Johnson’s ranch in Mexico. That may be a false report, but worth looking into.
Jack Ruby Becomes Prosecutor and Jury, Killing Oswald
Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby, showed up at the police station on the Friday night of the assassination, to see the Oswald press conference. Ruby became emotionally distraught over the death of Kennedy and decided the American people would never have the chance to know if there was a conspiracy, behind the assassination of Kennedy.
Ruby singlehandedly started a wave of books about the assassination, since Americans would never know about any conspiracies, since Oswald was dead and dead men tell no tales.
Hundreds of books have been written about the assassination. The Warren Commission Report has focused on proving that Oswald was the lone gunman in Dallas 48 years ago. They seemed to have glossed over any conspiracy theories. Oswald was a very shady character, who was all over the place and may have been covering up for some sinister group of conspiracists.
It is still a mystery of how Ruby was in the basement of the Dallas Police station on Sunday, November 24 and how he got in there. He reportedly arrived in the basement a couple of minutes before Oswald was to be moved to another facility.
Ruby said he killed Oswald, because he hated that Jackie Kennedy would have to return to Dallas for the trial of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Summary
I am not saying that the Warren Commission was a complete cover-up, but it seemed to be intent, on promoting the lone gunman theory. By not admitting a conspiracy was possible, it took a lot of the enemies of Kennedy off the hook, including the new president Lyndon B. Johnson, who was relegated to being a do-nothing vice president, until Kennedy’s death, propelled him to the presidency.
He was no longer the second banana to President Kennedy and his inner circle. The only reason Kennedy chose Johnson as a running mate, was so that he could garner some southern votes, attracted by Johnson being on the ticket as vice-president.
After 48 years, there is still no smoking gun that I know of that points to anyone besides Oswald being the assassin. I have heard for years about shots coming from the grassy knoll, but don’t think it is even mentioned in the Warren Report.
There are a lot of what-ifs that came into play on November 22, 1963:
What if it had rained that day and the bubble-top would have been down, ruining any chance of any assassin shooting the president?
What if Patrolman Baker would have arrested Oswald before leaving the schoolbook depository, which would have saved the life of Officer Tippit?
What if someone had walked in on the shooter from the sixth floor window seconds before the first shot?
What if the Dallas Police department had kept the crowds under control at the police station, during the interrogation of Oswald?
What if someone had stopped Ruby from entering the basement of the police station?
What if someone had taken Rose Cheramie seriously and prevented the assassination?
JFKLancer.com has some very interesting observations about what the Warren Commission Report failed to tell the American people:
Alger Hiss who was convicted of perjury in 1950 after a House Un-American Activites committee which included Richard Nixon sent the case to a grand jury and eventually led to his conviction.
Richard Nixon was a first term Republican congressman, from California, when he was appointed a member of subcommittee of three to investigate the Alger Hiss case. Nixon, Edward Hebert of Louisiana and John McDowell from Pennsylvania were given the job to determine whether Whittaker Chambers or Alger Hiss were giving truthful testimony.
They found enough evidence to bring the Hiss case to a grand jury, even though FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover had told them, he was told to not cooperate with the committee. The committee investigators unearthed enough evidence, to bring the case to the grand jury.
Alger Hiss had advanced into a high position in the U.S. government, serving as an assistant to Secretary of State Edward Stettinus. Hiss accompanied Stettinus,to the Yalta Conference in February of 1945. The purpose of the conference ,was for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill, to plan the defeat of Adolf Hitler, which came a couple of months after the conference.
Hiss would later be found to have given intelligence to the Russians as early as the 1930′s. The fact that reached such a high standing, in the American government is troubling. It was alarming at the support he received from top government officials during his trials.
Chambers would produce five rolls of micro-film, which would become known as the “Pumpkin Papers”, since Chambers had hidden them inside a pumpkin.
This website has extensive information about the Pumpkin Papers:
A grand jury indicted Hiss on two perjury charges, but he wasn’t charged with espionage, because of the statute of limitations. Hiss then went to trial on May 31, 1949 and ended in a hung jury on July 7 of the same year.
The case against Hiss seemed to take a turn for the worse, when the key government witness, Chambers admitted he had given false testimony in the past. Hiss had friends in high places, in President Harry Truman, who called the trial a “red herring” and Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, who thought Hiss was innocent.
The second trial which started on May 17, 1949 ended on November 17, 1949 and it ended on January 21, 1950.
Typewriter Key Evidence
The key evidence against Hiss was that experts identified his typewriter, as the one which had been used to type stolen documents, then the top-secret papers were given to the Russians. Hess claimed until he died, that he had been framed and that the government, had committed forgery with his typewriter, to make it appear the documents, had been typed on his Woodstock typewriter.
Hiss Receives Five Year Sentence
Alger Hiss was convicted of two counts and sentenced to five years in prison, on January 25, 1960, on two perjury counts. He would be released 44 months later on November 27, 1954. Ironically, Hiss would be allowed to practice law in Massachusetts d on August 5, 1975. Hiss died on November 15, 1996 in New York City, claiming his innocence to the end.
Richard Nixon handout from his first Congressional election in 1946 in California which he won.
Nixon Rises to National Prominence
Richard Nixon made the most, of his first national exposure and would be elected a U.S. Senator from California in 1950. Two years later in 1952 he would be chosen to be the vice presidential candidate in the 1952 presidential election in which Dwight D. Eisenhower would become the first Republican president, since Herbert Hoover left office in 1929. Nixon would serve as vice president until 1961.
Checkers Speech
Nixon would make the headlines many times in the future. Nobody who was around back then, can forget his “Checkers” speech, when he addressed questions about his campaign finances.
Nixon Attacked in Peru, Venezuela
He would make news again when he confronted anti-American demonstrators in Peru, then his limousine would be attacked in Caracas, Venezuela, with both events in 1958.
Kitchen Debate With Khrushchev
Who can forget Nixon’s famous “Kitchen Debate” with Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev, over the merits of capitalism and communism in 1959?
Lost 1960 Presidential Election
Nixon would win the Republican nomination. in 1960, but after a poor performance in the first presidential debate, would lose the presidential election, to John F. Kennedy by a slim 120,000 votes.
Loses By 300,000 Votes in California Governor Race
Many wrote the obituary for Nixon’s political career, when he lost to Gov. Pat Brown in the 1962 gubernatorial race, by a margin of 300,000 votes.
Rises From the Ashes in 1968
After his loss in California, Nixon practiced law and supported 1964 presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, then supported 1966 congressional candidates. He was nominated to be the 1968 Republican candidate, while Senator Hubert H. Humphrey was nominated by the Democrats, at a tumultuous convention, in Chicago due to demonstrations, by anti-Vietnam war protesters in the streets of Chicago. Nixon wins by a half million votes over Humphrey.
Wins Overwhelming Victory in 1972
Nixon would win every state except Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, in an overwhelming victory over Democratic candidate George McGovern.
President Gerald Ford, Betty Ford, Pat Nixon and former President Richard Nixon walk toward helicopter, that would leave with them for the last time on August 9, 1974 after his resignation.
Watergate Ends His Political Career
Five men broke into the Democratic National Convention offices, in the Watergate Hotel on June 17, 1972. There was no reason for the break-in as Nixon won the 1972 presidential election easily.
Nixon would use every political trick imaginable to cover up, White House involvement with the cover-up of the break-in. Nixon’s tactic was to deny, deny and deny some more, that the White House was involved. His own taping system in the White House came back to haunt him. We will never forget his famous “I Am Not A Crook” speech, but eventually admitted he was a crook by leaving office in disgrace, becoming the first president to resign from office. We can only imagine, what Nixon and his wife were feeling as the helicopter, left the White House grounds, for the last time.
Some Big Brother 13 fans take the game more seriously than others. TMZ reports that Shelly Moore’s family has received death threats, since Shelly’s vote to evict Jeff Schroeder on last Thursday’s show, which resulted in Jeff leaving the Big Brother house.
Shelly’s daughter has even been threatened, which is carrying hatred, way too far. Her boss has been called by these overzealous fans, requesting that Shelly be fired for voting against Jeff.
Big Brother 13 is not true reality and fans should realize this. Reality shows are being manipulated for the highest ratings.
That is why house guests like Brendon Villegas are allowed back in the house this season and Rachel re-entered the house last season. Rachel coming back into the house last year was a ratings ploy, to get viewers to tune in to see the house guest’s reactions to seeing Rachel walk back in the door.
Rachel has been one of the most hated house guests ever, by both the house guests and Big Brother fans. She is also is a very pathetic person, who takes the game way too personally. Her highs and lows during the game show she is not able to handle adversity well. When she wins HOH she is ecstatic, but when she is put on the block she has a pity party.
Last night’s show was another example of the Big Brother 13 producers manipulating the show. With Rachel gone, the ratings would have plummeted so they come up with a Pandora twist. The twist was if Porsche, the HOH accepted the $10,000 prize money, the house would receive a consequence.
Porsche may have won $5,000 with the other $5,000 going to Kalia, but may have knocked herself out of a chance to win $50,000 as the second place winner or $500,000 for the first place winner.
Now she is a target after winning POV and HOH in succession then winning the $5,000.
Back to Shelly….She has made deals with all the house guests and it finally backfired on her this last week, when Jordan and her got into a verbal confrontation.
However, that doesn’t excuse fans making death threats to her family. It only shows that some fans take this game more personally than they should. She will probably question if she should even went on the show, when she hears about the death threats.
Hopefully, the fans that made the death threats, will be apprehended and spend years not months in jail.
Marla Cooper whose uncle L.D. Cooper,may turn out to be the D.B. Cooper who hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines flight has given investigators a guitar strap and photos of her uncle. If L.D. Cooper’s fingerprints and/or DNA match those the FBI has in materials that are in FBI possession.
Ms. Cooper recalls her uncle and another uncle planning something mysterious. The hijacking took place the day before Thanksgiving on November 24,1971. She said her uncles had left to hunt turkeys a day before the hijacking. They returned a few days later with L.D. Cooper having claimed he had been in a car accident, because he bloody and bruised.
This paragraph from the Wikipedia article on D.B. Cooper, ends with a line about someone remembering an odd uncle and that apparently is exactly what has happened.
While FBI investigators have insisted from the beginning that Cooper probably did not survive his risky jump,[6] the agency maintains an active case file—which has grown to more than 60 volumes[7]—and continues to solicit creative ideas and new leads from the public. “Maybe a hydrologist can use the latest technology to trace the $5,800 in ransom money found in 1980 to where Cooper landed upstream,” suggested Special Agent Larry Carr, leader of the investigation team since 2006. “Or maybe someone just remembers that odd uncle.”[6]
Another interesting fact about the hijacking is that the Northwest Orient flight departed from Portland, Oregon for Seattle, Washington and that Marla Cooper had suspicions that her uncles were plotting something at her grandmother’s house in Oregon. So it is plausible that her uncle could have been the D.B. Cooper that hijacked the flight.
That would also explain why no body was ever found near the money that was found. If her uncle was the one that hijacked the plane, he may have left some money at the scene, that was later found, to make it appear that he had not survived the landing.
L.D. Cooper reportedly has been dead for ten years, but if the other uncle is alive, the FBI will surely question him as to what he knows.
It is surprising that Marla Cooper has chosen to tell her story to the news media, so close to the 40th anniversary of the hijacking. It seems like the family has been protecting the uncle. This case still isn’t solved, even with the latest revelations, but if the FBI can prove L.D. Cooper and D.B. Cooper are the same person, it will be another case of the FBI getting their man, even if he died ten years ago.
There are questions surrounding the latest lead from Marla Cooper. Why did she wait so many years to go public with this information? What happened to the rest of the money that wasn’t discovered? If L.D. Cooper did have the money, how did he keep from spending the money too fast to avoid suspicion?
Had Marla or any other family members been questioned by police or FBI previously? Did they answer questions truthfully, if questioned by police or FBI?
This will be an interesting story to follow in the coming days and weeks, to see if 1971 hijacking is solved once and for all.
November 24th will be the 40th anniversary of a Northwest plane being hijacked by a man calling himself Dan Cooper and more commonly known today as D.B. Cooper.
The FBI hopes to have solved the case before the 40th anniversary as they have a new suspect whose fingerprints they are currently testing.
This could be just another promising lead that fizzles out as there is a chance the item the FBI is testing may not even have fingerprints still on the item.
Still, it is good to know the FBI has a lead that could lead to the arrest of the suspect, if he is still alive.
Lyndon B. Johnson shown with Jackie Kennedy taking the oath of office after President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated earlier that day in Dallas, Texas.
The long list of enemies assassinated President John F. Kennedy had at the time of his death showed he had made a host of enemies, while in office in two years and ten months of being president.
The following list may leave out someone unintentionally, because it is not easy to remember all of his enemies. Some people may not regard some of these people or organizations as JFK’s enemies, but to me they had reasons to have him assassinated.
President Lyndon B. Johnson – When Lyndon B. Johnson was defeated in the 1942 race for the U.S. Senate, he was losing in the vote count. However, 202 votes mysteriously turned up in alphabetical order with all the votes being for Johnson. The election judge admitted 35 years later in 1977 that the 202 votes were fraudulent. The voters whose names were on the fraudulent ballots were all deceased.
The reason I even mentioned the 1942 Senate race is that LBJ was not that happy being a second banana to the Kennedys, when he accepted the nomination to run for Vice President in 1960. The 1942 race also shows that LBJ would do whatever it takes to win an election.
I am not saying that LBJ orchestrated the assassination of JFK, but he had the clout to make it happen if he wanted. One obvious fact is that nobody profited more from the assassination of JFK than LBJ. He went from being a pawn in the Kennedy administration with little or no power, to becoming the most powerful man in the United States.
The following paragraph may or may not be true, but if it is true LBJ was in the middle of the planning of the JFK assassination:
There is no doubt that of all the individuals who personally benefited from the Assassination of JFK, Lyndon B. Johnson was highest on the list. Johnson is the answer to the proverbial question Cui bono or who benefited? Johnson is known to have attended a final pre-assassination meeting on November 21, 1963 at Dallas oilman Clint Murchison’s home. Two separate witnesses have independently verified that LBJ was present at the meeting including his former mistress Madeline Duncan Brown who stated on multiple occasions and in various venues that LBJ told her on the night of November 21, 1963 “after tomorrow those Kennedy boys will never make a fool of me again.” – JFK Assassination Conspiracy Update
Cuban Freedom Fighters – The invasion of the Bay of Pigs in Cuba was doomed from the start because of news articles like this being printed:
JAN 10, 1961: The New York Times publishes a front page story entitled “U.S. Helps Train an Anti?Castro Force at Secret Guatemalan Air?Ground Base.” Written by Paul Kennedy, the article reports that “Commando?like forces are being drilled in guerrilla warfare tactics by foreign personnel, mostly from the United States.” – National Security Archive
This is tantamount to printing in the New York Times that the Allied Forces are preparing for an invasion at Normandy, France. This must be the fault of the CIA to have leaked this sensitive information so Cuba would be aware of the impending attack.
It must be noted that President Dwight D. Eisenhower was still in office when the plan to invade Cuba was instituted. Despite JFK”s eagerness to blame the CIA for the crushing defeat of the invasion force, the president is ultimately the one that must accept the blame.
By his failed invasion, JFK infuriated Fidel Castro and the Cuban Freedom Fighters who abandoned them as they fell into the clutches of Castro’s henchmen and many of them were executed.
Fidel Castro – It was a huge coincidence that on the same day JFK was assassinated, Rolando Cubela Secades an employee of Fidel Castro was handed a poisoned pen by CIA agents in Paris, for Secades to use to kill Castro.
Castro had to know of the assassination plots against them, so naturally he would assume that JFK was behind the plots. It was clear that Castro had caused JFK to go through the October missile crisis of 1962. The Russians finally blinked, but it was Castro who allowed them to set up their missiles, just 90 miles from our shore.
His ex-lover Marita Lorenz smuggled a cold cream container with poison pills inside. However, Castro discovered the plot and gave her a gun to shoot Castro, but she couldn’t pull the trigger.
Those were just some of the assassination attempts against Castro. If there was anyone that had reason to assassinate JFK, it would be Castro.
American Mafia – There were many angry mobsters not happy with the way Robert F. Kennedy was prosecuting Mafia chieftains. The two names I have heard mentioned the most were Sam Giancana and Carlos Marcello as the masterminds behind the JFK assassination.
Judith Exner was reportedly the mistress of President Kennedy and the girlfriend of mobster Sam Giancana.
Judith Exner was introduced to President Kennedy by Frank Sinatra. Exner’s activities were being watched closely by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who was using his knowledge of the affair to potentially blackmail the president to protect his job security. That explains why he was FBI director for so long, since he had blackmail material on every president he served.
Exner was a girlfriend of Giancana, so her affair with JFK may have been one more reason that Giancana reportedly conspired to kill JFK. It was 12 years after the assassination before Exner was publicly linked to JFK, but apparently Jackie Kennedy knew about the affair while JFK was still alive. The following paragraph from anusha.com infers that Jackie knew what was going on:
Exner has been treated unfairly by history. She never sought to capitalize off the fact that she was JFK’s mistress. She kept this hidden for years. Jackie knew about her, of course. Once, when Jackie found a woman’s pink panties in her pillow case, she turned to JFK in bed and said, “Would you find out who these belong to, because they are not my size?”
Louisiana mobster Carlos Marcello had a huge motive for assassinating JFK, since JFK’s brother Robert the attorney general, had Marcello deported to Guatemala.
Marcello made the following statement which shows that he was serious about having JFK assassinated:
In September 1962, Marcello told private investigator Edwin Nicholas Becker that, “A dog will continue to bite you if you cut off its tail…,” (meaning Attorney General Robert Kennedy.), “…whereas if you cut off the dog’s head…,” (meaning President Kennedy), “… it would cease to cause trouble“. Becker reported that Marcello, “clearly stated that he was going to arrange to have President Kennedy killed in some way“. Marcello told another informant that he would need to take out “insurance” for the assassination by, “…. setting up some nut to take the fall for the job, just like they do in Sicily”. – Wikipedia
The above statement shows that Marcello wanted JFK dead so his death would deter his brother from pursuing his vendetta against organized crime figures in the United States. The assassination played out just like Marcello mentioned in that a patsy named Lee Harvey Oswald took the fall, while the ones planning the job celebrated.It is just too much of a coincidence for me that Oswald was killed by Ruby who had close connection with the Chicago mobsters.
The FBI investigated Marcello after the assassination and came to this conclusion:
After Kennedy’s assassination, the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated Marcello. They came to the conclusion that Marcello was not involved in the assassination. On the other hand, they also said that they, “… did not believe Carlos Marcello was a significant organized crime figure,” and that Marcello earned his living, “… as a tomato salesman and real estate investor.” As a result of this investigation, theWarren Commission concluded that there was no direct link between Ruby and Marcello. – Wikipedia
It is ludicrous that the FBI would state that Marcello was not a significant organized crime figure. Even more preposterous is that they said he made his living as a tomato salesman and real estate investor. Then to cap it off the Warren Commission said that Jack Ruby and Marcello had no direct link.
FBI – The FBI may not have fired the shots that killed JFK, but J. Edgar Hoover had information about a plot to assassinate JFK just 13 days before the assassination, but apparently did nothing to act on that information. Retired FBI agent said that Joseph Adams Milteer had told William Somersett, a FBI informant on tape that the best way to kill JFK was to shoot him from an office building with a high-powered rifle. It is not surprising to me that Milteer is not even mentioned in the Warren Commission Report.
The FBI agent asks if there were plans to assassinate JFK and Milteer replied that they were in the works. Milteer was shown in the crowd at Dealey Plaza, the day of the assassination. Why would he be there to see JFK since he hated JFK? It tells me that he wanted to see for himself that JFK had been assassinated.
Adams also says he has information from FBI reports verifying that Lee Harvey Oswald, not only didn’t fire any shots from the Texas Schoolbook Depository Building, but was seen in the break-room at the exact time of the shooting.
Knowing that the FBI director Hoover, who was no fan of the Kennedys, had this information and sat on it tells me he was not intent on stopping the assassination. Why didn’t Hoover pass on this information to the Secret Service so they would be extra cautious on November 22, perhaps going so far as to leave the roof closed on the presidential limousine?
Hoover almost certainly knew about JFK”s connection with Judith Exner and Marilyn Monroe, but with Kennedy dead he didn’t have to use that information, since his job was safe.
CIA – The CIA had motive to assassinate JFK or let someone else assassinate him unimpeded, because only two years earlier JFK had vilified the CIA after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. The president had said the air strikes were not vital, which doomed the invasion. However, he was intent on blaming the CIA, saying he wished he could shatter the CIA into a thousand pieces. Several high level CIA officials handed in their resignations, including CIA director Allen Dulles.
So now the CIA has the motive to assassinate JFK, because he showed he was mad enough at the CIA to possibly even dismantle the most secretive intelligence organization. If the CIA was involved in trying to assassinate Fidel Castro, it would not be surprising, that they would entertain thoughts of assassinating the president who had dissed them publicly.
Secret Service – There are some that think that the Secret Service was involved in the assassination and Roy Kellerman in particular. Kellerman reportedly turned around to the front after looking back and seeing JFK had been shot, rather than responding immediately. Conspiracy theorists also say Kellerman took JFK”s body from Parkland Hospital by force.
William A. Greer the Secret Service agent driving the limousine, slowed down and then brought the limousine to a stop. It is thought that the stopping enabled the killer or killers time to make the fatal head shots.
It is difficult to believe that the men hired to protect the president would play a part in his assassination. I can’t see why any of the Secret Service agents would have motive to assassinate the president. It is because of this fact, that I rule out any involvement of the Secret Service in the assassination.
KGB – Any list of possible conspirators would have to include the KGB, since Russia had been more or less forced to withdraw their missiles from Cuba only 13 months before the assassination. This had to be the main motivating factor for them to be a participant in his assassination.
There was no doubt that Khrushchev was angered at JFK for placing him in the position, where he had to withdraw Russians missiles from Cuba as can be seen in the following portion from scientciapress.com.
According to Ion Mihai Pacepa, at the time deputy director of foreign intelligence for Gheorghe-Dej’s Romania, in his book Programmed to Kill: Lee Harvey Oswald, the Soviet KGB, and the Kennedy Assassination [1], Dej was visiting Moscow at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Pacepa writes:
“According to Dej’s account, when Khrushchev finished reading that cable [from the KGB in Washington saying that Kennedy had ordered a naval quarantine of Cuba], his face was purple. He looked inquiringly at [KGB chief] Semichastny, and, when the terrified general nodded, Khrushchev ‘cursed like a bargeman’. Then he threw Semichastny’s cable on the floor and ground his heel into it. ‘That’s how I’m going to crush that viper,’ he cried. The ‘viper,’ Dej explained in telling the story, was Kennedy.
Goading himself on, Khrushchev grew increasingly hysterical, uttering violent threats against the ‘millionaire’s whore’ and his CIA masters.” – Scientiapress.com
Lee Harvey Oswald reportedly gave the Soviets the intelligence they needed to down the U-2 plane of Gary Powers in 1960. Powers himself said Oswald could have been the one that gave the Russians intelligence they needed to down his plane.
The KGB more than likely knew that Oswald intended to assassinate JFK, but did nothing to inform Washington of the impending assassination, since it removed JFK from the scene after JFK had shamed Premier Khrushchev the year before during the Cuban missile crisis.
Summary: This November 22 will be the 48th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It will be six more years till the last files pertaining to the JFK assassination will be released.
It is amazing that President Kennedy could have incurred the wrath, of so many enemies in less than three years after being elected.
The Warren Commission took the easy way out and concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone on November 22, 1963, to kill the president of the United States.
Oswald’s own statements after being arrested, if they are considered to be truthful, imply that he was only a patsy, which inferred that there was at least one other person involved if not an entity like the CIA or FBI. Evidently, the Warren Commission did not think Oswald was being truthful, because they ruled out any conspiracy theory.
If Oswald was a patsy, he was perfect for the job. He had moved to Russia after being discharged from the Marines, which could have gave him access to the KGB. Even though the KGB was suspicious of Oswald, they knew he could be used to further their plans of assassinating President John F. Kennedy.
The fact that Oswald was in the Texas School Book Depository Building, by itself doesn’t mean he was the one that pulled the trigger that day. With the shooter surrounded by boxes, it was not likely the shooter was ever seen while shooting. It has been assumed all these years that Oswald killed Officer Tippett. He may have but after reading the following article, I am not so sure it was Oswald:
48 years have passed since President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, but there are many who are not willing to accept the Warren Report conclusion that Oswald acted alone.
The fact that Allen Dulles, the former CIA director was on the Warren Commission, skewers the report beyond recognition considering he was there to steer the commission from probing too much into CIA documents related to the assassination.
Even President Lyndon B. Johnson said in this statement, probably without thinking that he was saying the Warren Commission Report was not completely truthful about Oswald acting alone.
Lyndon Johnson, president:“I’ll tell you something about Kennedy’s murder that will rock you…..Kennedy was trying to get Castro, but Castro got to him first.” - from How CIA Plot to Kill Castro Backfired, 2 Aug 1976, by Harry Altshuler, quoting Howard K. Smith interview of LBJ.
That statement tells me that he thought Oswald did not act alone, if he was blaming Castro for JFK’s assassination, since Fidel Castro wasn’t in the Texas School Book Depository Building the day of the assassination. LBJ is insinuating that Castro was involved and by doing that he is saying that some of Castro’s people may have planned the assassination of JFK with the Cuban government making sure Oswald had what he needed to assassinate President Kennedy.
The following Warren commission members later rejected the lone gunman theory:
Richard Russell, Senator and former Warren Commissioner:“We have not been told the truth about Oswald.” - Whitewash IV, by Harold Weisberg, p. 21.
Hale Boggs, Majority Leader and former Warren Commissioner:“Hoover lied his eyes out to the Commission – on Oswald, on Ruby, on their friends, the bullets, the guns, you name it…” - Coincidence or Conspiracy?, by Bernard Fensterwald Jr. and Michael Ewing, p. 96. The quote comes from an unnamed aide to Congressman Boggs. The book also quotes Bogg’s wife Lindy, through a colleague, as saying “He wished he had never been on it [the Commission] and wished he’d never signed it [the Report].”
John Sherman Cooper, Senator and former Warren Commissioner:“On what basis is it claimed that two shots caused all the wounds?…..It seemed to me that Governor Connally’s statement negates such a conclusion. I could not agree with this statement.” - The Zapruder Film, by David Wrone, p. 247. Cooper was commenting on a draft of the Warren Report. Wrone is citing the papers of J. Lee Rankin, wherein Cooper’s written comments appeared.
This website has a wealth of information about the many different conspiracy theories:
History-matters.com also has a page that tells where the witnesses thought the shots were coming from and several said they came from the grassy knoll:
This page also from History-matters.com shows how the government and non-government witnesses differed on how many heard shots from the grassy knoll with non-government witnesses outnumbering government witnesses 143-73. However the non-government witnesses who thought there was gunfire from the grassy knoll was 44, while the government witnesses only 8 thought the gunfire came from the grassy knoll.
The Mary Fennelly Foundation website has the most complete archive of documents, phone calls, photos, essays, audio and video of any JFK assassination site I have seen:
There are so many conspiracy theories that we know that we know they can’t all be true. We may never know what actually happened on November 22, 1963 other than President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. However, we can formulate in our minds, from what we read, that we think happened.
This article has too much information to read at one time, so might be a good page to bookmark for future reference, especially to the links at the end of the article.
Dorothy Kilgallen was born July 3, 1913 in Chicago, Illinois. She started writing her Voice of Broadway column for 146 syndicated papers.
She hosted the radio program Dorothy and Dick on WOR in New York City which was first broadcast in 1945. Her husband Richard Kollmar co-starred on the program. Kollmar was known for portraying Boston Blackie on the old-time radio show with the same name as the character he portrayed.
The show was on the air for 18 years before it ended in 1963. Meanwhile she was one of the panelists on What’s My Line a CBS television show hosted by John Daly which began in 1945. She appeared on the show until her untimely death in 1965.
Kilgallen was active in newspapers, radio and television simultaneously, so was well-known long before she interviewed Jack Ruby. She hated country music with a passion and when some stars of the Grand Ole Opry appeared at Carnegie Hall, she called them “hicks from the sticks”. Patsy Cline didn’t take kindly to her words and said ” And if I have the pleasure of seeing that wicked witch, I’ll let her know how proud I am to be a hick from the sticks.”
Published Ruby’s Testimony Before Made Public
Her five minute private interview with Ruby is supposedly the only interview he gave without the presence of sheriff’s deputies. Somehow she got hold of the transcripts of Ruby’s testimony before the Warren Commission, then had them published before the Warren Commission Report was published.
J. Edgar Hoover considered Kilgallen a threat and had her moves watched closely for 25 years before the assassination. Kilgallen charged that the mafia had been recruited by the CIA to assassinate the Cuban leader Fidel Castro. That was later proven to be true.
Ruby Met With Officer Tippett Before Assassination
The most shocking revelation revealed by Kilgallen was that Jack Ruby, J.D. Tippett (the police officer who was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald) and two other men had met at the Carousel, Ruby’s nightclub three weeks before the assassination. This makes me wonder just what Oswald and Tippett were talking about before Oswalt fatally shot Tippett.
Kilgallen Found Dead With JFK Notes Missing
The JFK assassination notes of Kilgallen were gone, when her body was found on November 8, 1965. She had bragged to many people that she was about to blow the JFK assassination case sky high with the information she had.
Even in death, there was controversy surrounding her autopsy. James Luke the medical examiner who spent 45 minutes at the death scene did not sign the death certificate, as Dominick DiMaio another medical examiner signed the name of James Luke.
No Official Cause of Kilgallen’s Death
No official cause of death has been determined, with it possibly being a combination of Seconal and alcohol causing the death. It is still not known whether it was suicide or accidental. There is also a possibility she may have had a heart attack concurrently with the effects of the barbiturates.
Since no witnesses were present at her death, that we know of, it may be that she was forced to take the overdose by the same people that took her JFK assassination notes.
The following paragraph from Wikipedia’s article on Kilgallen tells me she learned something that not even her husband would discuss after her death:
One of two known comments Richard Kollmar made about his first wife after her death was later recalled by Bob Bach, who booked the mystery guests for What’s My Line?. At Bach’s home several hours after her funeral, the television producer asked the widower to discuss his wife’s interest in the assassination, and Kollmar replied, “Robert, I’m afraid that will have to go to the grave with me.”
November Marks 48th Anniversary of JFK Assassination
In conclusion, this November will mark 48 years since the death of President John F. Kennedy in Dealey Plaza and 46 years since the death of Dorothy Kilgallen who apparently knew too much about that day, for her enemies to let her die of old age.
The day JFK was assassinated, I was a 19 year old soldier working in the company post office in Hawaii, when I heard the news of his death on the radio in the post office. I will be 67 when Nov.22 comes around this year. However, I have no more idea of what truly happened that day, than what I knew 48 years later except a U.S. president was assassinated on the streets of Dallas, Texas.
I have a feeling many people with knowledge of what really happened that day have died, many mysteriously, but as the years go by fewer and fewer of them are left. Someone 40 years old on that day would be 98, if still alive. Anyone 50 or older then probably have already taken any secrets they knew underground with them.
JFKresearch.com has more information on the life and death of Dorothy Kilgallen that may help fill in some of the gaps.
The Miranda rights or warning was enacted after the Supreme Court ruled that the 5th and 6th amendment rights of Ernesto Arturo Miranda had been violated when he was arrested for rape and kidnapping.
When making an arrest a police officer doesn’t have to cite the Miranda warning in a certain order, but needs to convey to the arrested person their rights, in a way they can understand.
The Miranda law was enacted after the Supreme Court ruling in the Arizona vs. Miranda decision in 1966. There have been numerous court rulings in different aspects of the law since then, but the basic Miranda rights still apply today.
Ernest Arturo Miranda whose arrest culminated in the reading of the Miranda rights to suspects when being arrested.
The state of Virginia has a line that allows a suspect being questioned to terminate the interview at any point and exercise their Miranda rights.
There are some circumstances when a suspect may be read their rights, but may not be capable of understanding what they mean because of a developmental disability. It is not clear to me what would be done in this situation, but someone reading this may be able to clarify the situation.
Sometimes a police officer has to take the safety of the public into account when arresting someone, so the Miranda warning is not read until after the suspect has been handcuffed.
The following paragraph from Wikipedia outlines the six factors needed for Miranda to apply:
The Miranda rule applies to the use of testimonial evidence in criminal proceedings that is the product of custodial police interrogation.[10] Therefore, for Miranda to apply six factors must be present:
the evidence must have been obtained while the suspect was in custody[12]
the evidence must have been the product of interrogation[13]
the interrogation must have been conducted by state-agents[14] and
the evidence must be offered by the state during a criminal prosecution.[15]
Undercover law enforcement officials do not have to read the rights to a suspect, since the undercover official may jeopardize his own safety by revealing he is a police officer.
ERNESTO ARTURO MIRANDA
The first time Ernesto Arturo Miranda was arrested for kidnapping and rape the Supreme Court ruled that suspects should be read their Miranda rights in the Miranda vs. Ariz. case. Miranda was retried and convicted, even with his admission of guilt being thrown out.
He was sentenced to 20 to 30 years, but was out on parole in 1972 so didn’t spend much time behind bars. Miranda saw a way to make money off his name, by selling autographed Miranda rights cards for $1.50.
Miranda was later arrested for gun possession but the charges were dropped. He was still sent back to prison for a year for violating his parole, but it is confusing as to why he would be sent to prison if the charges were dropped.
Miranda’s life would come to an end when he was stabbed during a card game in a Phoenix bar. Ironically he had several Miranda cards in his possession at his death. Even more ironically the suspect used the Miranda rights to remain silent and was released. The murderer was never apprehended.
His life ended 10 years after the Miranda rights law had gone into effect.
Readers are welcome to comment and give additional information about the Miranda rights.
Richard Jewell went from being a hero for discovering a pipe bomb at the 1996 Summer Olympics and apparently saving lives of many by evacuating them, but was later looked on as a suspect by the FBI and the media.
Richard Jewell was a 33-year-old security guard for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
Next month will be the 15th anniversary of that day when a terrorist put his terrorist agenda ahead of the safety of innocent bystanders there to enjoy the 1996 Olympics.
However, Jewell was in the right place at the right time, or the death toll may have been much higher when the bomb left by the terrorist exploded shortly after midnight on July 27.
Life Changed Forever
Jewell’s life would be changed forever on July 27, 1996 when he discovered a backpack underneath a bench in Centennial Park. The backpack contained a pipe bomb.
He immediately alerted the Georgia Bureau of Investigation about his discovery and helped evacuate the area, even before Eric Robert Rudolph, who later admitted being the bomber had made his 911 call to warn about the impending bomb explosion.
One of the mysteries that day was how Alice Hawthorne was killed by the explosion and over a hundred were injured since the bomb didn’t explode till 13 minutes later. A cameraman also died while running to cover the situation.
Mystery Why So Many Bystanders Were Injured, One Killed
It may have been a case of spectators wanting to see what was going on with their curiosity getting the best of them, rather than getting as far away from the scene as possible. It seems like law enforcement officials and security guards could have made sure that the area was empty as possible, since they had 13 minutes to evacuate the bystanders.
Richard Jewell at first was regarded as a hero, but then the FBI and the media combined to make him the prime suspect in the bombing. Their theory was that he planted the bomb then alerted authorities so he would become a hero.
Never Formally Charged By FBI
Jewell was never formally charged by the FBI with the bombing. He even reportedly passed a lie detector test, which should have cleared him of any wrongdoing. His case was that of FBI profiling gone wrong. The FBI was so intent on proving that Jewell fit the profile of a lone bomber that they were focusing on the wrong man.
Piedmont College President Raymond Cleere and college spokesman Scott Rawles were sued by Jewell for giving false information to the FBI with Cleere describing Jewell as a “badge wearing zealot” when he called the FBI about Jewell.
Eric Rudolph admitted to bombing at the 1996 Olympics in a plea bargain which gave him life imprisonment in exchange for the Justice Department dropping their request for the death penalty which exonerated Richard Jewell.
It was 1998 before the FBI even made Eric Rudolph their main suspect in the bombing at Centennial Park. It would be five more years before he would be arrested in 2003 after hiding in the woods of North Carolina.
Rudolph agreed to a plea bargain in 2005 admitting his guilt for the bombing at Centennial Park in exchange for the Justice Department dropping their request for the death penalty.
Filed String Of Lawsuits
Once Jewell had been cleared of being the Centennial Park bomber, he filed a string of lawsuits against the media who had taken a FBI leak blaming Jewell for the bombing. That lawsuit ended with him receiving an undisclosed settlement.
His lawsuit against NBC and Tom Brokaw resulted in him receiving a $500,000 settlement. CNN also settled with Jewell, for an undisclosed amount.
Purchased Home For Mom With N.Y. Post Settlement
He also received a settlement from the New York Post. It was enough to pay his legal expenses, plus he bought a new home for his mother with the settlement.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was able to avoid paying Jewell a settlement in 2007 when Judge John R. Mather dismissed the case in December of that year. By then however, Jewell had died four months earlier.
Died Due to Natural Causes
His death on August 29, 2007 was due to natural causes. He died in Woodbury, Georgia at the age of 44.
It is bad enough when someone charged with a crime is tried in the media. But in Jewell’s case, he was never charged but still vilified by the media.
The last 11 years of Jewell’s life were a nightmare, since he was portrayed as a criminal by most of the media, without being charged.
Hopefully, the media learned their lesson from the Richard Jewell saga, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Despite his nickname Pretty Boy Floyd was neither pretty or a boy. He was a hard-boiled criminal who was first arrested at the age of 18 for stealing roll of coins from a post office.
Floyd had been born in Adairsville, Georgia on February 3, 1904 but grew up in Oklahoma.
When he robbed a paymaster the victim told police that one of the robbers was a “pretty boy with apple cheeks” and he was Pretty Boy Floyd the rest of his life though his friends called him “Chock”. Floyd hated the Pretty Boy nickname, not exactly the way he wanted to be portrayed.
Attempted To Find Work
Floyd married 16-year-old Ruby Hargrove in 1921 and when times got tough for the young couple Floyd started his life of crime. He had tried to find work, but became discouraged after not finding work.
With no work in sight, Floyd took a train to St. Louis where he would rob a Kroger store of $16,000. but was arrested when he was seen with new clothes and a new car. Officers found what was left of the money from the robbery.
He served five years in prison. While he was in prison his wife gave birth to a son, Jack Dempsey Floyd and divorced him. There were no reports of her being arrested, since she had to have known the money came from the robbery.
Used Bank Officials To Shield Him
He sometimes made bank officials stand on running boards of his vehicle as he made his getaway to avoid being shot at by law enforcement. He was known as the “Robin Hood of Cookson Hills” a name which he liked and he said that he only robbed moneyed men. He never wore a mask to conceal his identity, sometimes even introducing himself to his victims.
Although he had sworn he would never return to prison, he was sentenced on November 24, 1930 to a 12-15 year sentence for robbing a Ohio bank. However, he escaped and in March of 1931 was a suspect in the murders of two bootlegging brothers, Wally and Boll Ash of Kansas City.
Car used by Pretty Boy Floyd while getting away from FBI.
Killed Three Law Enforcement Officials
Members of his gang or Floyd himself would kill three more law enforcement officials starting with the murder of patrolman R.H. Cashner on April 23, 1931, then went on to kill ATF agent C. Burke in Kansas City on July 22, 1931. Then on April 7, 1932 an attempted ambush on Floyd, resulted in the death of former sheriff Irv Kelley of McIntosh County, Oklahoma.
Targeted By FBI After Kansas City Massacre
It wasn’t clear that Floyd had been involved in the “Kansas City Massacre” of June 17, 1933 but he was suspected as being one of the killers who killed four police officers at the Union Railway Station in Kansas City. The FBI made an even stronger effort to arrest Floyd, although it is questionable if he was involved even though he was in Kansas City at the time.
Bank robber Alvin Karpis claimed that Floyd admitted he was involved in the massacre, but there has been so much conflicting testimony that it is unlikely we will never know what really happened.
Floyd And Accomplice Encounter Police In Ohio
Four days prior to his death, Floyd and Adam Richetti left Buffalo, New York on October 18, 1934. They were driving through heavy fog and ran into a telephone pole. They asked their female companions to get a tow truck, since they didn’t want to be recognized. The tow truck driver would then bring the females and the car back when it was repaired.
However, someone calls the police when they see the two men on the side of the road, thinking they were looking suspicious at dawn on October 19. Wellsville, Ohio Police Chief John H. Fultz and two officers arrive at the scene to investigate. Floyd’s accomplice Richetti runs into the woods with two of the officers running after him.
Floyd fires at Fultz, wounding him in the foot and then runs into the woods. Meanwhile, Richetti is eventually captured, but Floyd is still in the woods hiding from police.
Floyd Gunned Down In Cornfield
Pretty Boy Floyd’s death was as controversial as the Kansas City Massacre. The only thing known for sure is that Floyd was killed in a cornfield on October 22, 1934 in East Liverpool, Ohio.
FBI agent Melvin Purvis regarded as the man who got John Dillinger, another notorious criminal in the era, was there when Petty Boy Floyd met his death.
To sort out the different accounts of his death, it would be easier to read the accounts at Wikipedia than for me to confuse readers, even further by my interpretation of the events:
General Walker was in his home when Lee Harvey Oswald attempted to shoot him seven months before John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
General Edwin Walker was a controversial conservative who commanded combat troops in World War II and the Korean War.
He was arrested by the federal government after making some inflammatory remarks when James Meredith was the first black admitted to the University of Mississippi.
General Walker was charged with insurrection and sedition, plus two additional charges.
Lee Harvey Oswald attempted to kill General Walker on April 10, 1963, seven months and 12 days before he allegedly assassinated President John F. Kennedy during a motorcade in Dallas from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.
The Warren Commission Report said Oswald was the sole killer of JFK, but Oswald never faced trial since he was killed two days after the assassination by Jack Ruby.
If Oswald had killed General Walker, he probably would have been apprehended and arrested, but he never was formally charged with the attempted murder of Walker.
We do know that Oswald admitted to his wife Marina that he did shoot at Walker. If Oswald had been behind bars on November 22, 1963, it is likely that John F. Kennedy would have lived to finish his first term and possibly be elected to a second term.
JFK was 46 at the time of his death and would be 94 this month if still alive. However, if there was a conspiracy and Oswald was only a patsy to take the blame for the assassination, while someone else did the actual assassination, it would not have mattered if Oswald was behind bars.
November 22nd of this year will be the 48th anniversary of the assassination. Though the Warren Report claims Oswald was the killer, I still not fully convinced that he acted alone.
Even an 18 year old that was in Dealey Plaza that fateful day will be 66 this year, while a 40 year old that day would be 88 this year. So time is running out on any witness that might refute the Warren Report and prove it was a contrived effort by the U.S. government point the finger at one man, rather than a government of any country.
Just a few of the people and organizations that have been mentioned as the ones behind the assassination are:
Lyndon B. Johnson (who didn’t like playing second fiddle to JFK)
Cuban refugees (who didn’t like the way JFK handled the Bay of Pigs invasion and reportedly asked for less air support which halved the 16 planes being used in support of the Cuban invaders down to eight planes. Then after the invasion failed JFK pointed at the CIA for being the reason the invasion didn’t work, while he was the one that wanted less air support for the invasion. He fired several top CIA officials, including the director Allen Dulles after the invasion failed.)
E. Howard Hunt of the CIA (who reports say was at the grassy knoll the day JFK was assassinated and also took part
Organized crime in general since Bobby Kennedy, the attorney general was fighting organized crime with a passion.
Ku Klux Klan
There is no doubt that JFK had a large list of enemies who were angry enough with him or his brother Bobby to celebrate the death of JFK.
It wouldn’t surprise me one bit for someone to point the finger at his own vice president Lyndon B. Johnson who knew he would take over the presidency if JFK was assassinated.
On the other hand 48 years have passed and no smoking gun has emerged yet. It will take a deathbed confession now, more than likely to ascertain who the killer was if it wasn’t Oswald.
The last old time radio show aired on September 30,1962. Next year marks the 50th anniversary of Suspense and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar being the last old time radio shows to be broadcast.
The poll today breaks down by age groups of people who have heard old time radio shows either live from 1920′s till September 30, 1962 or media such as MP3 CD’s and downloads:
This morning I listened to the Used Baby Racket episode of This is Your FBI on my MP3 player.
The story tells about a lady who sells her baby for $1,000 to someone who wanted to avoid the long wait to adopt a baby.
Her husband sends a recording on a record saying he is coming back home from Germany. She is worried because she has sold their baby to a stranger, and needs to buy the baby back, since her husband is coming home.
She tells her brother about her problem and he comes up with the idea of pretending to be an FBI agent, and tell the lady that the baby was kidnapped. His plan works perfectly as the lady gives the baby back to him.
They then resell the baby to another mother. Then the husband calls and says he is at the airport and will be home in 20 minutes. The lady and her brother were planning on reselling the baby again, but the husband coming back ruined their plans. So they take off with the baby, so they can sell it again.
They had a list of parents who wanted to adopt babies, making it easy for the criminals to sell the same baby several times, then use the FBI ploy to take the baby back free and then resell again.
This was a true case in the FBI files and the entire episode can be heard at this website:
The show was originally broadcast on April 4, 1947. Babies are still being sold 64 years later by criminals who are out to make money off of mothers desperate to have a baby.
Forty years ago this November, D.B. Cooper hijacked a Northwest Airlines flight enroute from Portland, Oregon to the Seattle – Tacoma, Washington airport.
In January of 1971 All in the Family debuted on the CBS television network. The Colts defeated the Cowboys in Super Bowl V that same month.
That March the Ed Sullivan Show was seen for the last time. Then in April Charles Manson is sentenced to death but his sentence is commuted to life imprisonment in 1972.
Amtrak starts inter-city passenger service on May 1. On August 11 construction is begun on the Superdome in New Orleans.
Walt Disney World opened in Florida on October 1 of 1971. Then on November 24, 1971 D.B. Cooper’s hijacking of a Northwest Orient plane makes the headlines.
Still Missing After All These Years
Only D.B. Cooper knows if he is still alive. He may have succeeded in the only unsolved hijacking in world history, or he may have died the same night he parachuted out of the plane enroute to Seattle-Tacoma airport.
His ticket cost for the approximately 150 mile trip was $18.42 plus tax.
The hijacker was said to have been in his late 40′s which would place him in his late 80′s if he is still alive.
U.S. News Online published this article in 2000 that names Duane Weber as the hijacker and is considered to be the one most closely resembling the D.B. Cooper sketches:
Archive.org will keep a reader entertained for hours.
Archive.org is probably the best source for audio and video online this side of YouTube. The home page for the website as I write this article has a link to an audio version of a Grateful Dead concert at Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum at New Haven, Connecticut on May 11, 1981.
The concert is only one of 803,305 audio recordings at the website. There are 2,214 old time radio related links to old time radio shows and magazines that were printed during the height of the popularity of old time radio.
One Roy Rogers episode has been downloaded 74,882 times showing that the website is available for downloading many of the old time radio shows we grew up with.
Old time radio fans will love looking at list after list of old time radio shows available for downloading including some of the more obscure shows which have very few episodes in existence.
The live music archive features 88,813 archives while the moving image archives total 451,934.
Avid readers will enjoy knowing that there are 2.694,639 texts including books and ebooks. The new Bookreader at the site includes Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin and is the example shown of how the Bookreader works.
There is an audio version of some books but the one I listened to was not of the best quality and seemed to be a computer generated voice which probably would be tiring to listen to for an entire book.
Most readers may not enjoy the voice and instead opt to read the books without sound. For those that like the audio they should enjoy the feature that highlights the portion of the book being read by the voice.
The Mega Reader iPhone app provides access to the 1.8 million free books at archive.org so they each iPhone user can have their own personal reader.
Each volume of the Warren Report investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is available to read.
The site is an excellent source of reading material for educators and students who are looking for books that are no longer copyrighted.
One word of caution: it could take hours just to look at what is available at archive.org. This website may have the most content of any website online and is worth going to the website to see for yourself what is available.
It has been seven years since I purchased my Creative Nomad Zen Xtra Jukebox MP3 player and it is still working great in 2011.
The 40 GB player may not be as slim as the MP3 players being sold today but it has 4,092 songs in it that I recorded from CD’s I had in my collection which has used only 14 GB of the space in the player.
I have found that Windows Media Player is best for ripping the songs from a CD into the computer and then after that process is completed going to My Computer will find the music in the My Music folder.
Right clicking on the music folder for the album and sending it to the player is all that is needed for it to copy the music into the player.
The sound quality to me is excellent and the music can be listened to in many ways. FM transmitters can be used to play the music in a stereo system, from non MP3 radios and other music sources.
However I have encountered problems getting the exact frequency on the transmitter to listen to the music so seldom even try to use them.
When my wife bought me a record player a couple of years ago it had an MP3 connection in the back enabling me to just plug one end into the MP3 player and the other into the MP3 connection on back of the record player.
There are many speakers today that are easily connected to a MP3 player. At one time Dollar Tree had one for a dollar that while it wasn’t the best sound but it did work.
Last year I found a I-Pod radio selling at a garage sale for only $3 which also has a MP3 connection in the back and it is great to listen to music and old time radio shows.
The old time radio shows on MP3 CD’s go directly into the My Music folder in Windows after the CD has been inserted into the CD drive. So with the MP3 player connected to the computer and the folder for the old time radio shows on that CD open right clicking will send the shows to the MP3 player.
Most MP3 CD’s will hold 100 old time half hour radio shows which is 50 hours of listening pleasure. For instance I have over 800 Jack Benny episodes on 8 or 9 discs.
One MP3 CD in my collection has an entire baseball game between the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees in 1934 with legendary Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson as an announcer. 77 years later it is still possible to listen to a game in which Lou Gehrig is playing but Babe Ruth was out with an injury that day.
There are also MP3 CD’s that are packed with radio shows that announce the bombing of Pearl Harbor and another about the Normandy invasion and you can hear the news broadcast those days over 60 years later.
Another MP3 CD includes a typical broadcast day from 1939 which includes every show that day that was broadcast from sign on till sign off and gives an idea of what it was like 71 years ago.
With my collection of over 17,000 old time radio episodes of many different shows it is easy to transfer several episodes of a particular show to the MP3 player and then after listening to them delete them from the player since they are on a MP3 CD so I can tell immediately if I have heard a show since I have heard it the episode would have been deleted.
If someone wants to buy old time radio shows it is much cheaper to buy them in MP3 form than on a regular audio CD since an audio CD may hold only four half hour shows and a cassette tape will only have a half hour show on front and back of the tape depending on how much the tape will hold.
2GB MobiBlu Cube MP3 player.
Move the calendar ahead to 2011 and MobiBlu has on the market a very small 2GB MP3 player that only weighs .063 ounces and it is a .94 of an inch square.
The MobiBlu player shown in the photo is currently being sold at Amazon for $111.22 which seems a bit too pricey for such a small player.
The player includes an FM radio and a clock. It also includes a built in microphone and a voice recorder.
The radio also can save music or talk shows into the player for later listening.
The price still is a little steep for a player that holds only 32 hours of MP3 music and 64 hours of WMA music.
To me it is more of a novelty than a practical MP3 player.
My clunky looking Creative Nomad Zen Xtra Jukebox may not be as small as the MobiBlu player but it has provided a lot of listening pleasure the last seven years.
Someday my Creative player will be obsolete since it is not compatible with Windows 7 the last I knew and I am already getting not compatible with Windows Media Player messages already but it does still work with it.
The only problem is that I have misplaced the installation CD for the player and since our computer was repaired after the virus the software is no longer in the computer so I can’t download music and old time radio shows till I find the missing software.
However I can still listen to the music and old time radio shows in the player for many years to come. Buying electronic products can produce a myriad of problems but I can truthfully say the Creative Nomad Zen Xtra Jukebox is working as well today as when I received it in the mail back in 2004.
1941 Philco console radio.
I can still listen to old time radio shows that go as far back as 1928 which is 83 years ago. The MP3 CD’s have been a amazing development that enable listeners in 2011 to go back in time to the good old days of old time radio which lasted from the 20′s till September 30,1962 the day old time radio died.
I can still recall visiting my grandparents at their Allendale, Missouri farm in 1959 and listening to radio shows and Kansas City Athletics baseball games as they were broadcast on a radio similar to this 1941 Philco console radio.
However the MP3 player enables me to relive those days 53 years later as I listen to the same great old time radio shows that were being broadcast back then.
It is exciting to listen to the old comedy shows like Fibber McGee and Molly, Great Gildersleeve, Amos and Andy and the Jack Benny show.
Detective shows of that era come alive again as Boston Blackie, Dragnet, This is Your FBI and dramas likk the Family Theater and Lux Radio Theater can be heard today bringing back memories of the good old days when life wasn’t so fast paced.
Listening to the Christmas shows from those days are a special treat like A Christmas Carol, Amos and Andy Christmas show in which Amos recites the Lord’s Prayer to his daughter on Christmas Eve. Another favorite was the Lum N’ Abner show where neighbors walk through the snow to help a destitute family.
The Family Theater Christmas episode of A Daddy For Christmas will bring tears to your eyes as a mother and her son try to make it after her husband is killed in World War II and the son’s mom winds up marrying a department store Santa Claus.
MP3 technology has made it possible for us to hear those shows on MP3 CD’s that are nominally priced with Ebay showing 621 items under the old time radio CD’s listing.
Some of the sellers are selling huge numbers of shows on MP3 CD’s and DVD’s. One seller is selling 852 episodes of Jack Benny shows for $4.89 using Buy It Now with only a $1.69 shipping charge. The only caveat is that these episodes are all on one DVD while it would take about nine MP3 CD’s for these same episodes which would drive the price higher.
These shows will play on a computer but it will take more technical knowledge than I have to play these shows on other devices but most audiophiles should have no problem.
Anyone who misses the good old days of radio can listen to the old shows at several websites if they can’t afford or don’t want to purchase an MP3 player.
OTR.NET is one of the best to listen to old time radio programs for free with over 12,000 free shows to listen to including 610 Jack Benny shows.
OTRCAT.com is one of the best places to sample shows where almost every show sold on the site has a free sample of that show.
Tim McCoy and John Wayne seen in Two Fisted Law in 1932 in the first part of the movie. Wayne was 25 at the time of the filming and another veteran actor Walter “Real McCoys” Brennan was 38.
Tim McCoy was born on April 10, 1881 in Saginaw, Michigan as Timothy John Fitzgerald “Tim” McCoy. He was the son of an Union soldier and served in World War I and World War II.
McCoy appeared in 20 films during the silent movie era. 1927 would find him in five movies, six movies in 1928 and he made nine movies in 1932.
At one stretch from 1926 to 1936 he made 26 movies and was paid $4,000 for each movie. This was during the height of the depression earning $104,000 during that span.
The Internet Movie Database lists McCoy as having been in 91 movies during film career spanning from his debut in The Thundering Herd in 1925 till his last movie appearance 40 years later in 1965 in Requiem for a Gunfighter.
During various points in his career McCoy would appear in a circus and different wild west shows one which he had a financial interest in lost $300,000 according to McCoy.
He married Inga Arvad in 1945 after divorcing his first wife Agnes Miller in 1931. Arvad had a very controversial past before marrying McCoy.
Arvad who was a Danish journalist had been investigated for being a possible Nazi spy since she was seen with Adolf Hitler at the 1936 Olympics. She been married several times before their marriage.
She had enough connections with Hitler henchmen Hermann Goring and Joseph Goebbels to be the first to scoop the news of the wedding of Goring and arranged through Goebbels an interview with Hitler. In her article after the interview she stated about Hitler:
”You immediately like him. He seems lonely. The eyes, showing a kind heart, stare right at you. They sparkle with force.”
Her being shadowed because of her Nazi connections led to her being discovered that she was having an affair with John F. Kennedy in 1942. FBI director had the couple photographed and had hidden microphones installed in the bedroom but they apparently knew they were being taped since they would sometimes say “whoever is listening.”
It is a mystery of how a Danish journalist who had been seen with Hitler and had an affair with John F. Kennedy would wind up marrying a cowboy hero in Tim McCoy. She died of cancer in Nogales, Arizona in 1973.
Tim McCoy died on January 29, 1978 at the age of 86 in Fort Huachuca, Sierra Vista, Arizona.
McCoy was another of the early cowboy stars who appeared in both silent films and talkies. B-westerns.com has an excellent website with pages and pages of information and photos about Tim McCoy.
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed on June 19, 1953 for conspiring to commit espionage to aid the Soviet Union.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were born in New York City in 1918 and 1915 respectively and were the children of Jewish immigrants.
He met his wife Ethel Greenglass in 1936 when both were members of the Young Communist League. Julius was instrumental in obtaining thousands of top secret reports from Emerson Radio and those reports helped Russia develop a proximity fuze and that information was used to shoot down the U2 plane that Gary Powers was piloting in 1960.
Rosenberg recruited many individuals into the KGB. The Russian intelligence learned that Rosenberg’s brother in law David Greenglass was working at Los Alamos National Laboratory on the Manhattan Project which was a program to develop nuclear weapons. Rosenberg was asked to recruit Greenglass to obtain top secret information from the laboratory and Greenglass agreed after Rosenberg had Ruth Greenglass the wife of David Greenglass assist in recruiting Greenglass.
Ruth Greenglass contacted her husband in 1944 and Klaus Fuchs meanwhile had been giving the Soviets information about the Manhattan Project during World War II while working as a British operative there.
David Greenglass testified at the trial that Ethel Rosenberg had typed the reports he had given Julius Rosenberg. He had drawn a sketch of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki and gave it to Julius Rosenberg.
The U.S. Deputy Attorney General William Rogers said Ethel Rosenberg had called their bluff when they arrested her to put pressure on Julius to implicate others in the conspiracy. Neither of them would give names of additional conspirators.
The Rosenbergs were convicted on March 29, 1951 and were sentenced to death by the electric chair by Judge Irving Kaufman who said the Rosenbergs were responsible for all the deaths in the Korean War.
They were executed 26 months later on June 19,1953.
The Rosenberg children who are not identified by name in this photo but were named Robert and Michael.
The sons of the Rosenbergs were left as orphans after the execution and changed their last name to Meeropol and would be adamant in professing the innocence of their parents till 2008 when 91 year old Martin Sobell admitted he had spied for the Soviet Union and said Julius Rosenberg was part of the conspiracy but said Ethel’s only crime was being the wife of Julius.
There is much more information available online about the Rosenbergs and the second link is about the trial itself.
This video shows the granddaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg as she tries to learn more about her grandparents.
John Dillinger who terrorized the midwest by robbing banks and stealing guns, rifles, ammunition and bulletproof vests from police stations across the midwest.
John Dillinger was born on June 22, 1903 in Indianapolis , Indiana and had a troubled childhood after his mother died when he was three and he resented his stepmother and he would later be sent to prison for attempting to rob a grocer. He spent over eight years in prison and then was released from prison on parole on May 10, 1933.
He robbed a bank in Bluffton, Ohio and was captured by police on September 22, 1933 and incarcerated in the Lima, Ohio jail. The sheriff in Lima was shot and prison escapees who had escaped from the Indiana state prison unlocked Dillinger’s cell and he was freed by them on October 12 of that year.
He escaped from another prison in Crown Point, Indiana on March 3, 1934 when he pulled a wooden gun he had whittled on prison guards and forced them to open his cell door and stole two machine guns while making his escape.
Dillinger made a mistake when he stole the sheriff’s car and crossed into Illinois from Indiana when the FBI became involved in the case.
Even though Dillinger was apparently trapped at the Little Bohemia Lodge 50 miles north of Rhinelander, Wisconsin after a tip informed the FBI that there was suspicious activity in the building he was able to escape before the building could be completely surrounded.
Anna Sage whose real name was Ana Cumpanas contacted the FBI on July 21, 1934 saying that she knew that Dillinger would be at either the Biograph or Marbro theater the next evening.
In exchange Sage who was running a brothel and was harboring Dillinger asked the FBI to assist her in avoiding deportation if she gave the info on Dillinger to the FBI.
She told them she would be wearing a red dress to make it easier to spot Dillinger and that another lady who would turn out to be Polly Hamilton would also be with Dillinger.
Sage would later call the FBI and tell them she wasn’t sure of which theater they would be attending so FBI agents were present at both theaters but when Dillinger, Sage and Hamilton entered the Biograph theater the agents at the Marbro theater were dispatched to the Biograph.
Dillinger entered the Biograph at 8:30 PM and would leave at 10:30 PM. When special FBI agent Melvin Purvis spotted Dillinger leaving the theater he lit a cigar to warn the other agents to close in on Dillinger. For some reason Dillinger sensed something was wrong and reached for the gun in his pocket and began to run. Three FBI agents fired five shots at Dillinger with three hitting him and Dillinger fell to the ground and he was pronounced dead at 10:50 PM.
The reign of terror of Dillinger ended that night about ten months after he robbed his first bank. It turned out that Sage who had delivered Dillinger to the FBI was still deported despite her assistance in nabbing Dillinger.
The FBI website clears up some myths about John Dillinger:
