Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"Moving on is an easy thing, what you leave behind is hard."

                                 Dave Mustaine

Back in January of 2006 a 63 year old South Carolina attorney was whooping it up with some of the "good ole boys" in a local strip club called Chastity's Gold Club in Columbia, SC. Dewaine Herrin had chosen to take "sofa dance" with one of the dancers in a private room. The dancer sent a silent signal when things appeared to be getting out of hand and the bouncer and the owner, John Johnson, Jr., opened the door and there was good ole Dewaine standing there naked as a jaybird. Dewaine was given a minimum amount of time to get some clothes on and the owner and the bouncer unceremoniously threw him out. On his way out Dewaine promised to kill someone for this "outrage". Dewaine retrieves a handgun from his car and fires a few rounds through the door, one of which struck the owner in the head killing him instantly. In 2007 Dewaine went on trial and was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in the joint. His attorneys appealed the trial and sentence stating that the dancer had put a "date rape" drug into his drink which led to his bizarre behavior. This week the South Carolina Supreme Court rejected Dewaine's appeal and sustained his sentence of 30 years. What lesson can we learn from this guys? Do not go out with a group of "good ole boys" to a strip joint? Do not go to a "sofa dance"? Do not take off all your clothes at said "sofa dance"? Do not pack a hog-leg in your car without taking a course in anger management? All the above? By the way, Dewaine has been disbarred and is working part time as a bouncer at Chastitiy's. Just joking.

A couple of months ago a Baptisit minister from Lavonia, Georgia named Jonathon Ayers was seen in Toccoa, Georgia dropping off a known drug merchant. After dropping her off, the preacher went to a convenience store. Georgia drug enforcement agents blocked Ayer's car. Ayers went into reverse and rammed one of the cars and started moving toward another one. One of the agents opened fire and Ayers was killed instantly. Monday a Grand Jury confirmed that the Ayer's shooting was justified. What can we learn here? It is that even preachers can be "mules" or junkies.

I went to lunch with a friend on Monday afternoon to a fancy-schmantzy steakhouse near my house. As far as I am concerned the best dish in the house is their pot roast and that is what my friend and I had for lunch. Later on that afternoon I attended the meeting of the 4 o'clock Club at another location. After a while I decided to go home but to stop by the steakhouse and get something to take home with me. I placed my order and waited...and waited...and waited. I was reassured by the waiter several times that my order was on the way. After waiting for at least 30 minutes I told the waiter that I was leaving and he again reassured me that my order was just seconds from arrival. About15 minutes later there was still no food so I got up and walked out. It is Justin's Steakhouse, y'all. I will not go there again for dinner...I will return for the lunch. The food is great...but the dinner service sucks.

Good news:

Up in Wellsville, NY near Buffalo, a woman of about 60 walked into Hart's jewelry store and bought 10 pieces of fine jewelry. The owner asked her where she was from and she said "The North Pole". He said "No, really, where are you from?" She said "The North Pole, Santa sent me." She then turned and gave two upscale rings to customers in the store, hugged them and wished them a Merry Christmas and left in a shiny new Mercedes. Everyone believes it is the same woman that gave a restaurant waitress a check for $50,000 in place in northern Pennsylvania last week. Christmas spirit is alive and well, y'all.

This date in history December 22

1984    On this date a 45 year old white man named Bernard Goetz is surrounded by four young black men on a New York subway car. The thugs demanded money from Goetz. Instead Goetz whipped out a .38 caliber revolver and opened fire wounding three of them and the fourth was cowering in a doorway when Goetz said “You don’t look too bad, here’s another” and shot him in the back severing his spinal cord. This eighteen year old black man was named Darrell Cabey who was paralyzed from the waist down and had brain damage. Goetz fled the scene but turned himself in eight days later at a police station in New Hampshire. In the subsequent interview that was videotaped Goetz admitted that he was scared and when the four smirked at him he wanted to “kill them all” but felt he has just protecting himself and pled innocent to attempted murder at his arraignment. Goetz’s actions was racially motivated according to the District Attorney but many people in New York and around the country agreed with Goetz and money flowed in for his defense. Goetz’s act was very divisive to the city of New York where racial tensions were very high at the time. In 1987 Goetz went to trial and was acquitted of attempted murder and assault but was convicted of a violation of New York’s Sullivan Law that forbids unlicensed firearms in the city. He served a little over eight months in prison for that indiscretion. After his release he was sued in a civil suit by Darrell Cabey for damages to the tune of $14 million. Goetz promptly declares bankruptcy and disappears into the woodwork. I can assure you that if that scenario happened here in Greenpatch I doubt that the shooter would be arrest but if he was, he would be released on his own recognizance. If it happened to me, I would shoot first and take whatever heat comes later. I will not be mugged by some undisciplined jackasses that had rather rob someone rather than work. They are nothing but pimples on the ass of society.

1894    On this date a French Army Captain named Alfred Dreyfus is arrested and charged with treason for giving military secrets to the Germans. Four months later Dreyfus was convicted on the flimsiest of evidence and sent to infamous Devil’s Island Prison on the north coast of South America. Captain Dreyfus was guilty of nothing but being Jewish. The French military hierarchy was vehemently anti-Semitic. Two years later newly found evidence pointed to a French Captain Esterhazy as the culprit in giving secrets to the Germans. The French Military had no choice but to put Esterhazy on trial who was acquitted in four hours. The French military was not about to admit that they had made a mistake with the Jew Dreyfus. When this trial was made public the famous novelist Emile Zola printed an article in a Paris newspaper labeled “L’Accuse” accusing the French courts of being under the thumb of the French military. This caused a division in the French people. The nationalists and the Catholic Church supported the military and the Republicans, socialists and those interested in religious freedom for just as opposed and lined up to support Dreyfus. In 1898 A French Captain named Hubert Henry who originally found the evidence against Dreyfus admitted he had forged most if not all of it and then committed suicide. Esterhazy had log since fled the country. The French Military brought Dreyfus back for another trial and again convicted him and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. But this time a new administration was in place and they immediately pardoned Dreyfus. In 1906 the French courts overturned his original conviction. This whole debacle brought social reform and a reduction to the power of the military. Formal laws were passed that provided the permanent separation of church and state which in my opinion, was the main problem all along.

1775    On this date the Continental Congress votes to form a Continental Navy commanded by Esek Hopkins as commander of the fleet. This fledgling navy only had four vessels, the Alfred, Columbus, Andrea Doria and the Cabot. They had four captains, Dudley Saltonstall, Abraham Whipple, Nicholas Biddle and John Burrows Hopkins. They had only 8 lieutenants but one of which was to become a national hero in John Paul Jones. Esek Hopkins was an interesting man; he was also a very wealthy man from Rhode Island. He married a very wealthy woman but he made a fortune during the Seven Years War. He bought a boat with his wife’s money and became a privateer sailing up and down the east coast. As a privateer he was essentially a pirate working for whoever paid him the most or allowed him to keep a majority of the booty he captured. The Continental Congress wanted him to continue this enterprise working for the Colonies and again offered him a percentage of the take. What they were really after was warships and that is exactly what Hopkins and company did, especially John Paul Jones. They would sneak aboard British warships, assassinate the Captain and any of the crew that objected and sail the ship into Continental waters and take command. Our navy did not begin in an auspicious manner but look at us now. In this case, crime paid.

1978    On this date a man named John Wayne Gacy confesses to murdering about 24 young men and boys and burying their bodies under his suburban Chicago house. Law enforcement officials did indeed find the bodies. Gacy was tried and convicted and sentenced to death. Gacy spent 14 years on death row where he painted pictures of clowns that sold for thousands of dollars. Gacy was a clown in charity events from time to time, if you can believe that. Finally after all of his appeals were exhausted he was executed by lethal injection in the prison in Joliet, Illinois and hell rejoiced at the new arrival. For a while Gacy was the worst serial killer in American history until George Ridgway, also known as the Green River Killer, was caught and convicted of killing over 48 women that were mostly prostitutes in the Pacific Northwest. He is visiting John Wayne Gacy as we speak.

1884    Earlier a mover and shaker in the old west John Chisum is born in Tennessee in 1824. When he was six, his family moved to Paris, Texas. After he grew up he became involved in construction for a while then he decided that he wanted to raise cattle and started a cattle ranch on the Pecos River in Lincoln County, New Mexico. Chisum was very successful and was soon running over 80,000 head. The problem was that running a herd that large over such a wide range invited cattle rustlers and it soon became apparent that Chisum was losing about 10,000 head a year to rustlers. Chisum found that this unacceptable and tracked down the culprits. The culprits were a group running a mercantile establishment known as “The House” in Lincoln County. The House was really not a mercantile business; it was a clearing house for rustled cattle that were sold to the US Cavalry under exclusive contract meaning that Chisum and the other large ranchers were undercut by The House. Tensions flared and one of the employees of Chisum shot and killed one of the employees of The House. This shooter was Billy the Kid. After this shooting a war broke out between the large ranchers and The House forever known as the Lincoln County War. The war raged for several months but it became apparent that The House would prevail because they had the backing of the US Cavalry and the war ended. Devastated by the Lincoln County War and the continued loss of cattle, John Chisum moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas to retire. He died three months later. Even then he left an inheritance of over $500,000 indicating the enormous wealth he had accumulated.

Born today:

1639    French writer Jean Racine. He said “Often it is fatal to live too long.” That stupid statement sounds like a Frenchman doesn’t it?

1912    First Lady Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson. She said “Children are likely to live up to what you believe in them.” Lady Bird was a class act.

1945    US Journalist Diane Sawyer. She said “I guess the one lesson I learned was that there is no substitute for paying attention.” Indeed, Diane, indeed.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow