Wednesday

                         Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you do you will be successful”

                                              Albert Schweitzer

A couple of days ago I mentioned that USMC 1^st Sgt. Daniel Daly had been awarded two Medals of Honor. Here is how he got the first one:

During the Boxer Rebellion Daly's unit was sent to an American legation building in China to protect it from attack. It was Daly and one other Marine assigned to protect the wall. Daly had one corner and the other Marine had another corner. The other Marine as wounded and that left Daly alone. He had a bayoneted rifle and a pistol. He was on the wall all night repelling one attack after another. The next morning he was relieved with over 30 people lying dead on the wall or on the ground below it. He was awarded many medals for his bravery but he always said “This is no need for all this foolishness.” He never married, his bride was the Marine Corp for 32 years.

             This Date in History   May 3

1992 Four days before Exxon executive Stanley Reso was kidnapped from his driveway in Morris Township, New Jersey while picking up the newspaper. He was shot in the arm, bound and gagged and put into a wooden box with minimum ventilation and the box was put into a storage vault where his yells could not be heard should he had been able get the gag off. The perpetrators were a husband and wife named Arthur and Irene Seale. They begin sending ransom notes demanding $18.5 million in various denominations. On this date Stanley Reso died of suffocation but the Seales continued to make their ransom demands. The FBI was able to identify the DNA on the ransom notes with samples taken from a pay phone at an Exxon station near the home of the Seales. The pay phone was staked out and the Seales were caught and arrested. There were over 100 FBI agents investigating this case. As you might suspect, the police tried to get Irene to roll on her husband but New Jersey law forbids a person testifying against their spouse so the case went to a federal court where spousal testimony is allowed. Irene agreed to testify against her husband for a reduced sentence and took the police to where they had stashed Stanley. Arthur Seale was convicted and sentenced to 95 years plus a fine of $1.75 million and Irene got 20 years. Say what you want but that ain’t fair. Speaking of what ain’t fair, more than 100 agents on one case because the victim was wealthy ain’t fair either.

Now here is where it gets really weird. The Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court Sol Wachtier got mad at his mistress, Joy Silverman and began sending her harassing notes very similar if not identical to the ones that the Seales sent out. The judge was fascinated with the Reso kidnapping and fashioned the harassment of his mistress as the Seales designed it. In fact, the NYPD first thought that the Seales were somehow involved. They eventually ran down Judge Wachtier and charged him with stalking Joy and her teen aged daughter. The judge resigned and went to jail for 3 years. Can y'all imagine what kind of life the judge had in jail being there with inmates that he had sent up?

1863 In the previous lesson I described how CSA Generals Lee and Jackson had out-foxed US General Joe Hooker at Chancellorsville, Virginia. What I did not describe was after the US army was routed and ran like hell for two miles before stopping the Confederate advance General Stonewall Jackson went out to inspect his troops a little after dark and was shot in the arm by his own troops by mistake. Jackson’s cavalry commander, CSA General J.E.B. Stuart, assumed command of Jackson’s division. On this morning Stuart led a cavalry charge on the US artillery position on Hazel Grove, the highest ground around and was able to dislodge the Union artillery positions. Stuart then brought up Confederate artillery and began shelling the hell out of the Union troops. Even with this, Hooker had a chance of mounting a counter-attack and defeating Lee because of his vastly superior numbers but he was defeated psychologically since Lee had anticipated his every move. Hooker ordered a retreat out of the Chancellorsville area and Lee again was able to defeat the commander of the Army of the Potomac. Lee suffered a tremendous loss because General Stonewall Jackson died of pneumonia a week later, a loss the Confederates could ill afford and his death went a long way toward the defeat of the CSA.

1886 After several days of simmering tensions between the striking workers and the scabs at the McCormick Reaper Works in Chicago, a rally was called by the strikers in Haymarket Square. The police were there in force because it was likely that there would be trouble. Someone threw a Molotov cocktail (fire bomb) and the Chicago PD opened fire. Eight police officers were killed and 10 wounded along with scores of strikers. The police arrested eight people that they believed were the troublemakers. Four of them were convicted and hanged. The workers were on strike for an eight hour work day. Many people were wounded and killed in the past so you can have a decent life today.

1951 On this date the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committee opened hearings on the firing of General Douglas MacArthur by President Harry Truman. This hearing was primarily to give General MacArthur an opportunity to present his side of the issue. What happened was this. When the Korean War erupted Truman sent MacArthur to command the Untied States military. China warned the US to not approach the Chinese border. The US army attacked the invading North Koreans and drove them back into North Korea and continued to drive them further north toward the Chinese border. Truman told MacArthur not to approach the Chinese border but he kept driving and disregarded Truman’s orders. One day 250,000 Chinese troops swarmed across the border and inflicted heavy casualties on the Americans while driving them back to a very small perimeter in South Korea. MacArthur told Truman that he wanted to bomb China, nuclear if necessary, to cut off their supplies. Truman said no and MacArthur began to publicly criticize Truman and what he called his “weak response” to the Chinese invasion and disallowing him to bomb China. Finally Truman got fed up and ordered MacArthur to meet him at Wake Island. At that meeting Truman told MacArthur that he was essentially an employee of the US government and he did not make foreign policy, relieved him and sent US General Matthew Ridgeway as a replacement. MacArthur was a very popular General with the US public and his firing did not go well. That is until he testified before this committee and the public saw how arrogant he really was.

Born today:

1907 US columnist Earl Wilson. He said “Success is just a matter of luck, ask any failure.”

1928 US entertainer James “The Godfather of Soul” Brown. He said “Sometime you have let your hair do the talking.” James had some real fancy hair from time to time.

          Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow