Tuesday

                           Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“When told that his son Lamar Hunt had lost $1 million a year for the last three year on the Kansas City Chiefs (Lamar was the owner) he said, “That is pretty bad, at that rate he will be broke in 250 years.”

                                            H. L. Hunt (Lamar's father)

On January 15 in 1781 super-patriot Daniel Morgan began assembling a 1,000 man army to attack the meanest British officer ever to step foot in America, Colonel Banastre Tarleton. After a two day march Morgan’s army prepared a trap into which Tarleton and his army quickly fell. This trap was sprung near the town of Cowpens, South Carolina and a near annihilation of Tarleton and his troops resulted. Morgan was a hell of a fighter and it was he that formed up a team of snipers. He was clearly instrumental for the Patriot victory at Saratoga by sniping at the Indian guides bringing the British down from Canada causing them to flee and then targeting the British officers. Saratoga was probably the most important victory in the American Revolutionary War because this victory brought France in the war on the side of the Patriots. The English thought that Morgan’s targeting of the officers was “ungentlemanly”. Too damned bad, y’all, it got the job done. The killing of English General Pakenham by a sniper early in the Battle of New Orleans insured a victory for US General Andrew Jackson and his army of great variety.

A columnist for the Charleston, S.C. newspaper wrote a piece saying that we South Carolinians should feel guilty about our ancestors firing the first shots of the American Civil War in January of 1861. I wrote him back. Here it is:

Mr. Burger,

I read with interest about your opinion that everyone presently in that area roughly bounded by the Catawba River, the Savannah River and the Atlantic Ocean should feel guilt because of what happened in 1861. I may be a bit off track but I am a native South Carolinian (Greenville) and embarrassingly I feel no guilt. I am a historian especially the War of Northern Aggression and the American Revolutionary War. I have read tomes of material about both events but I still cannot tell what was in the minds of the typical foot soldier before, during or after an engagement. But of those that I was able to glean it was pure horror. Of the diaries of the Union soldiers it is mostly about the preservation of the Union, and of the Confederate soldiers it was they felt like they were being invaded. I am not in denial as you suggest, I just know what I read. Unlike you, I cannot read the minds of those who initiated the revolt; I only know what they wrote. I suggest that you read "Company H" by Sam Watkins (Confederate) and nearly anything by Elijah Hunt Rhodes (Union) if you haven't already. They had an insight into reality that neither you nor I can experience. I simply cannot believe that a young man from a hardscrabble farm in Tennessee would fight with unparalleled ferocity so that some fat cat in Mississippi could keep his slaves. There is a documented event where a company of Confederate soldiers were surrounded and being cut to pieces until only one soldier was left. He ran out of ammo and began swinging his rifle like a club. When he was overwhelmed they asked him why he fought so fiercely, he DID NOT say “So we can keep our slaves” what he DID say was "Because y'all are down here". Why did he and thousands like him fight to a standstill armies that had them outnumbered two or three to one? Anyway, my maternal ancestors came from Henderson County, North Carolina and my fraternal ancestors came from the Marshall, North Carolina area both were farming families and not slave owners. I apologize again for not feeling guilty. I think you wrote this article just to stir the pot, it worked, thanks for listening,

Al Campbell

This Date in History January 17

1950 After nearly two years of “casing” the Brinks Armored Car Service main office in Boston, Massachusetts, career criminal Arthur “Fats” Pino decided it is time to knock it over. Fats went out and hired ten other career criminals and on this date they went in and committed one of the most successful and profitable robberies ever executed up until that time. They walked out of the building with $2.6 million dollars and left absolutely no clues. They were all wearing rubber Halloween masks, long black overcoats and chauffeur hats similar to those worn by the Brinks armored car drivers. The only thing they left was a few strands of rope that they used to tie up the office personnel. Fats and the other robbers agreed to hide their share of the money and not touch it for 6 ½ years when the statute of limitations expired. One of the conspirators named “Specs” O’Keefe gave his share of the money to one of the others to hold for him while he went to prison to serve 6 years for another crime. All the criminals laid low for 6 years and just days before the statute of limitations ran out, Specs gets cold feet and does not believe the guy he gave his share to still has it and wants proof or he will blow the whistle. Well, Fats ain’t going to sit still for that and sends a “hit man” to the prison to kill their compatriot. The “hit man” only wounds Specs and then he really does “blow the whistle” and the Boston PD begins rounding up the other conspirators. A couple had died in the interim but all of those that were left went to the slammer for a long stretch. Only a couple of thousand dollars of the take was ever found. It is legend that the rest of the money is hidden in the hills north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, but who can tell.

1966 On this date a US Air Force B-52 that had been on patrol over the eastern Atlantic was attempting to hook up with a KC-135 tanker to re-fuel and head back its base in North Carolina. Something went wrong and the B-52 ran into the re-fueling boom and the incoming fuel ignited and the B-52 exploded killing all four of its crewmen. The explosion also destroyed the KC-135 but four of these crewmen were able to bail out successfully. The real downside was that the B-52 had four 70 kiloton nuclear bombs aboard and when the plane came apart the bombs fell to earth near Polamares, Spain. None of the bombs were armed but if the bomb comes apart, highly radioactive Plutonium escapes. Two of the bombs landed in an open field creating two craters and did indeed come apart spewing radioactive dust into the air. Another one of the bombs landed in a dry creek bed and the mud in the creek bed prevented that bomb from coming apart and it was retrieved almost intact. The fourth bomb fell into the ocean and was never found. Within a matter of hours Polamares, Spain was swarming with Air Force personnel and nuclear specialists. The United States chose to scrape tons of soil from around the two craters until there were no more indications of radioactivity and hauled the dirt out of there. This was not the first nor will it be the last “Broken Arrow” incident. “Broken Arrow” means that a nuclear weapon had been lost or damaged. On another occasion another B-52 accidentally dropped its weapon is a bay near Wilmington, North Carolina and that puppy has never been found to this day.

1977 Earlier in 1972 the United States Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was a violation of the 8^th Amendment because it was cruel and unusual punishment and was therefore banned. In 1977 with almost 70% of the American public favoring the death penalty, the Supreme Court re-instated the death penalty. There was a man on death row in Utah named Gary Gilmore. Gary shot and killed an elderly couple because they would not loan him their car, for crying out loud. Gary had been sentenced to death by firing squad and on this date Gilmore was marched out to a post in the middle of a field inside the Utah prison grounds tied to a post and was shot through the heart by twelve riflemen. Gilmore was the first person executed after the death penalty was re-instated. Gilmore was arrogant to the last. When the guards came to get him to take him out to the post, he said “Let’s do it”.

Born today:

1860 Russian writer Anton Chekhov. He said “I do not know much about ballet, all I know is that during intermission the ballerinas smell like horses.” Thoroughbreds, I am sure.

1899 US super criminal Al Capone. When asked if he had ever been to Canada he said “I don’t even know what street Canada is on.” Al, shut the hell up.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.