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378559 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric%20Harris%20%28disambiguation%29 | Eric Harris (disambiguation) | Eric Harris (1981–1999) was one of the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre.
Eric Harris may also refer to:
Eric Harris (gridiron football) (1955–2012), NFL player
Eric Harris (rugby league) (1910–?), rugby league footballer who played in the 1920s and 1930s for Western Suburbs and Leeds
Eric Harris (athlete) (born 1991), American sprinter
Eric Courtney Harris (1970/1–2015), African-American who was a victim of a police shooting in Oklahoma
See also
Erick Harris (born 1982), American football player
Erik Harris (born 1990), American football player
Eric Harrison (disambiguation) |
378561 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric%20Harris%20and%20Dylan%20Klebold | Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold | Eric David Harris (April 9, 1981 – April 20, 1999) and Dylan Bennet Klebold (; September 11, 1981 – April 20, 1999) were an American mass murder duo who perpetrated the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999. Harris and Klebold killed 13 people and wounded 24 others, at Columbine High School, where they were seniors, in Columbine, Colorado, United States. After killing most of their victims in the school's library, they later committed suicide. At the time, it was the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history, with the ensuing media frenzy and moral panic leading it to become one of the most infamous mass shootings ever perpetrated.
Harris and Klebold were both born in 1981. Harris was born in Wichita, Kansas, but moved around frequently as a child due to his father's occupation in the United States Air Force, while Klebold was born and raised near Columbine. Harris' family eventually settled in Colorado. Shortly after, Harris and Klebold met, while they were in the 7th grade. Over time, they became increasingly close. By the time they were juniors, they were described as inseparable. There are differing reports; some say Harris and Klebold were very unpopular students once they were upperclassmen, and frequent targets of bullying, while others say they were not near the bottom of the school's social hierarchy and each had many friends. From their journals, Harris and Klebold had seemed to begin planning the attack by May 1998, nearly an entire year before the attack. Throughout the next 11 months, Harris and Klebold meticulously built explosives and gathered an arsenal of weapons. Both Harris and Klebold each left behind several journal writings and home videos, ones they made both alone and together, foreshadowing the massacre and explaining their motives. Harris and Klebold hoped this content would be viewed by the public extensively, although much of the evidence has never been released by authorities.
After the massacre, it was widely believed Harris and Klebold were part of a clique in school called the "Trenchcoat Mafia", a group of misfits in the school who supposedly rebelled against the popular students. This turned out to be untrue, as neither Harris nor Klebold had any affiliation with the group. The pair's aforementioned writings and videos gave insight into their rationale for the shooting. The FBI concluded that Harris was a psychopath, who exhibited a lack of empathy, narcissistic traits and unconstrained aggression. Klebold, however, was concluded to be an angry depressive, who showed low self-esteem, anxiousness and a vengeful attitude toward individuals who he believed had mistreated him. However, neither Harris nor Klebold were formally diagnosed with any mental illnesses prior to the attack. In the following years, various media outlets attributed multiple motivating factors to the attack, including bullying, mental illness, racism, psychiatric medication and media violence. Despite these conclusions, the exact motive for the attack remains inconclusive.
Harris and Klebold have become pop culture icons, with the pair often portrayed, referenced and seen in film, television, video games, music and books. Many killers since the shooting have taken inspiration from the pair, either hailing them as heroes, martyrs and gods, or expressing sympathy for the pair. Harris and Klebold also have a fanbase, who have coined the term "Columbiners", who write fan fiction and draw fan art of them. Others have also dressed as the duo for cosplay or Halloween.
Early life
Eric Harris
Eric David Harris was born on April 9, 1981, in Wichita, Kansas. Harris's parents were both born and raised in Colorado. His mother, Katherine Ann Poole, was a homemaker. His father, Wayne Harris, was working in the United States Air Force as a transport pilot, forcing the family to move around the country sporadically. In 1983, the family moved to Dayton, Ohio, when Harris was two years old. Six years later, the family relocated to Oscoda, Michigan. Michigan pastor William Stone lived across the street from the Harris family while they were located in Oscoda. Stone recalled them as "great neighbors" and would often see Wayne very engaged with his sons. The Harris family then moved to Plattsburgh, New York, in 1991. During his tenure at Stafford Middle School, Harris played Little League Baseball, regularly went to birthday parties and was "part of the crowd". Kyle Ross, a former classmate of Harris, said, "He was just a typical kid." The Harris family finally settled back in Colorado the next year when Wayne retired from the military.
On a 1997 English class assignment, Harris wrote about how difficult the move was from New York to Colorado. "It was the hardest moving from Plattsburgh. I have the most memories from there", Harris continued. "When I left (his friends) I felt alone, lost and even agitated that I had spent so much time with them and now I have to go because of something I can't stop." Harris, in a basement tape, blamed his father for moving the family around, forcing Harris to "start out at the bottom of the ladder." Harris also added that kids would often mock his appearance.
The Harris family lived in rented accommodations for the first three years that they lived in the Littleton area. While Harris was in 7th grade, he met Klebold. In 1996, the Harris family purchased and settled at a house south of Columbine High School. Harris' older brother, Kevin, attended college at the University of Colorado. Harris' father took a job with Flight Safety Services Corporation and Harris' mother, a former homemaker, became a caterer.
Harris entered Columbine High School in 1995 as a freshman. Columbine had just gone through a major renovation and expansion. From all accounts, he had many friends and was left forward and mid-field on the Columbine soccer team for his freshman and sophomore year. According to one of his teammates, Josh Swanson, he said Harris was a "solid" soccer player, who enjoyed the sport a lot. Harris, during his freshman year, met Tiffany Typher, who was in his German class. Typher later recounted that Harris quickly wooed her. Harris asked her to homecoming and she accepted. After the event, it appeared that Typher was no longer interested in seeing Harris anymore, for reasons never disclosed. When Typher refused to socialize with Harris again, Harris staged a fake suicide, sprawling on the ground with fake blood splashed all over him. When Typher saw him she began to scream for help, at which point Harris and his friends began laughing, prompting Typher to storm off, shouting at Harris to get psychological help.
Dylan Klebold
Dylan Bennet Klebold was born on September 11, 1981, in Lakewood, Colorado, to Thomas and Sue Klebold. On the day after the shooting, Klebold's mother remembered that shortly after Klebold's birth, she described what felt like a shadow had been cast over her, warning her that this child would bring her great sorrow. "I think I still make of it what I did at that time. It was a passing feeling that went over very quickly, like a shadow." Sue said in an interview with Colorado Public Radio. Klebold was soon diagnosed with pyloric stenosis, a condition in which the opening between the stomach and small intestines thickens, causing severe vomiting during the first few months of life. Sue later assured herself that the feeling she had that her son would bring her immense sorrow, was that her son would be physically ill.
Klebold's parents had met when they were both studying art at Ohio State University. The two quickly became smitten. After they both graduated, they married in 1971, with their first child, Byron, being born in 1978. Thomas had initially worked as a sculptor, but then moved over to engineering to be more financially stable. Sue had worked in assistance services with disabled children. Furthermore, Klebold's parents were pacifists and attended a Lutheran church with their children. Both Klebold and his older brother attended confirmation classes in accordance with the Lutheran tradition. As had been the case with his older brother, Klebold was named after a renowned poet, Dylan Thomas.
At the family home, the Klebolds also observed some rituals in keeping with Klebold's maternal grandfather's Jewish heritage. Klebold attended Normandy Elementary School for first and second grade and then transferred to Governor's Ranch Elementary School where he was part of the Challenging High Intellectual Potential Students program for gifted children. According to reports, Klebold was exceptionally bright as a young child, although he appeared somewhat sheltered in elementary school. When he transitioned to Ken Caryl Middle School, he found it difficult. Fellow classmates recalled Klebold being painfully shy and quiet, often to an uncomfortable degree. Klebold's parents were unconcerned with the fact that Klebold found the changing of schools uneasy, as they assumed it was just regular behavior among young adolescents.
During his earlier school years, Klebold played baseball, soccer and T-ball. Klebold was in Cub Scouts with friend Brooks Brown, whom he was friends with since the first grade. Brown lived near the house Harris' parents had bought when they finally settled in Littleton, and rode the same bus as Harris. Shortly after, Klebold had met Harris and the pair quickly became best friends. Later, Harris introduced Klebold to his friend Nathan Dykeman, who also attended their middle school, and they all became a tight-knit group of friends.
Background
Personalities
Both Harris and Klebold worked together as cooks at a Blackjack Pizza, a mile south from Columbine High School. Harris was eventually promoted to shift leader. He and his group of friends were interested in computers, and were enrolled in a bowling class.
Some described Harris as charismatic, and others described him as nice and likable. However, Harris also often bragged about his ability to deceive others, once stating in a tape that he could make anyone believe anything. By his junior year, Harris was also known to be quick to anger, and threatened people with bombs. Classmates also related that Harris was fascinated by war, and wrote out violent fantasies about killing people he didn't like.
Klebold was described by his peers and adults as painfully shy. Klebold would often be fidgety whenever someone new talked to him, rarely opening up to people. Klebold was also exceptionally nervous in front of the opposite sex, sometimes avoiding a confrontation with girls altogether. In the last year of his life, many noted a change in Klebold's behavior. Unlike before, Klebold became short-tempered, often prone to sudden outbursts of anger.
Friendship
Much of the information on Harris and Klebold's friendship is unknown, on their interactions and conversations, aside from the Basement Tapes, of which only transcripts have been released. Harris and Klebold met at Ken Caryl Middle School during their seventh grade year. Over time, they became increasingly close, hanging out by often going out bowling, carpooling and playing the video game Doom over a private server they connected their personal computers to. By their junior year in high school, the boys were described as inseparable. Chad Laughlin, a close friend of Harris and Klebold, said that they always sat alone together at lunch and often kept to themselves.
A rumor eventually started that Harris and Klebold were gay and romantically involved, due to the time the pair spent together. It is unknown if they were aware of this rumor. Judy Brown believed Harris was more emotionally dependent on Klebold, who was more liked by the broader student population. In his journals, however, Klebold wrote that he felt that he was not accepted or loved by anyone. Due to these feelings, Klebold possibly sought validation from Harris. Klebold's mother believes Harris' rage, intermingled with Klebold's self-destructive personality, caused the boys to feed off of each other and enter in what eventually would become an unhealthy friendship.
Columbine High School
At Columbine High School, Harris and Klebold were active in school play productions, operated video productions and became computer assistants, maintaining the school's computer server. According to early accounts of the shooting, they were very unpopular students and targets of bullying. While sources do support accounts of bullying specifically directed toward Harris and Klebold, accounts of them being outcasts have been reported to be false, since both of them had a close knit group of friends.
Harris and Klebold were initially reported to be members of a clique that was called the "Trenchcoat Mafia", despite later confirmation that the pair had no connection to the group and furthermore did not appear in the group's photo in Columbine High's 1998 yearbook. Harris' father erroneously stated that his son was "a member of what they call the Trenchcoat Mafia" in a call he made on April 20, 1999. Klebold attended the high school prom three days before the shootings with a classmate named Robyn Anderson.
Harris and Klebold linked their personal computers on a network and played video games over the Internet. Harris created a set of levels for the game Doom, which later became known as the "Harris levels". The levels are downloadable over the internet through Doom WADs. Harris had a web presence under the handle "REB" (short for Rebel, a nod to the nickname of Columbine High's sports teams) and other online aliases, including "Rebldomakr", "Rebdoomer", and "Rebdomine". Klebold went by the names "VoDKa" and "VoDkA", seemingly inspired by the alcoholic drink. Harris had various websites that hosted Doom and Quake files, as well as team information for those with whom he gamed online. The sites openly espoused hatred for people in their neighborhood and the world in general. When the pair began experimenting with pipe bombs, they posted results of the explosions on the websites. The website was shut down by America Online after the shootings and was preserved for the FBI.
Initial legal encounters
On January 30, 1998, Harris and Klebold broke into a locked van to steal computers and other electronic equipment. An officer pulled over the duo driving away. Harris shortly after admitted to the theft. They were later charged with mischief, breaking and entering, trespassing, and theft. They both left good impressions on juvenile officers, who offered to expunge their criminal records if they agreed to attend a diversionary program which included community service and psychiatric treatment. Harris was required to attend anger management classes where, again, he made a favorable impression. The boys' probation officer discharged them from the program a few months ahead of schedule for good behavior. Of Harris, it was remarked that he was "a very bright individual who is likely to succeed in life", while Klebold was said to be intelligent, but "needs to understand that hard work is part of fulfilling a dream."
A couple of months later on April 30, Harris handed over the first version of a letter of apology he wrote to the owner of the van, which he completed the next month. In the letter, Harris expressed regret about his actions; however, in one of his journal entries dated April 12, he wrote: "Isn't america supposed to be the land of the free? how come, If im free, I cant deprive some fucking dumbshit from his possessions If he leaves them sitting in the front seat of his fucking van in plain sight in the middle of fucking nowhere on a fri-fucking-day night? Natural selection. Fucker should be shot. ".
Hitmen for Hire
In December 1998, Harris and Klebold made Hitmen for Hire, a video for a school project in which they swore, yelled at the camera, made violent statements, and acted out shooting and killing students in the hallways of Columbine High School. Both also displayed themes of violence in their creative writing projects; of a Doom-based story written by Harris on January 17, 1999, Harris' teacher said: "Yours is a unique approach and your writing works in a gruesome way — good details and mood setting."
Acquiring arms
Harris and Klebold were unable to legally purchase firearms due to them both being underage at the time. Klebold then enlisted Robyn Anderson, an 18-year-old Columbine student and old friend of Klebold's, to make a straw purchase of two shotguns and a Hi-Point carbine for the pair. In exchange for her cooperation with the investigation that followed the shootings, no charges were filed against Anderson. After illegally acquiring the weapons, Klebold sawed off his Savage 311-D 12-gauge double-barrel shotgun, shortening the overall length to approximately . Meanwhile, Harris's Savage-Springfield 12-gauge pump shotgun was sawn off to around .
The shooters also possessed a TEC-DC9 semi-automatic handgun, which had a long history. The manufacturer of the TEC-DC9 first sold it to Miami-based Navegar Incorporated. It was then sold to Zander's Sporting Goods in Baldwin, Illinois, in 1994. The gun was later sold to Thornton, Colorado firearms dealer, Larry Russell. In violation of federal law, Russell failed to keep records of the sale, yet he determined that the purchaser of the gun was twenty-one years of age or older. Two men, Mark Manes and Philip Duran, were convicted of supplying weapons to the two.
The bombs used by the pair varied and were crudely made from carbon dioxide canisters, galvanized pipe, and metal propane bottles. The bombs were primed with matches placed at one end. Both had striker tips on their sleeves. When they rubbed against the bomb, the match head would light the fuse. The weekend before the shootings, Harris and Klebold had purchased propane tanks and other supplies from a hardware store for a few hundred dollars. Several residents of the area claimed to have heard glass breaking and buzzing sounds from the Harris family's garage, which later was concluded to indicate they were constructing pipe bombs.
More complex bombs, such as the one that detonated on the corner of South Wadsworth Boulevard and Ken Caryl Avenue, had timers. The two largest bombs built were found in the school cafeteria and were made from small propane tanks. Only one of these bombs went off, only partially detonating. It was estimated that if any of the bombs placed in the cafeteria had detonated properly, the blast could have caused extensive structural damage to the school and would have resulted in hundreds of casualties.
Massacre
On April 20, 1999, just weeks before Harris and Klebold were both due to graduate, Brooks Brown, who was smoking a cigarette outside during lunch break, saw Harris arrive at school. Brown had severed his friendship with Harris a year earlier after Harris had thrown a chunk of ice at his car windshield; Brown reconciled with Harris just prior to the shooting. Brown approached Harris near his car and scolded him for skipping his morning classes, because Harris was always serious about schoolwork and being on time. Harris replied, "It doesn't matter anymore." Harris followed up a few seconds later, "Brooks, I like you now. Get out of here. Go home." Brown, who felt uneasy, quickly left the school grounds. At 11:19 am, he heard the first gunshots after he had walked some distance away from the school, and informed the police via a neighbor's cell phone.
By that time, Klebold had already arrived at the school in a separate car, and the two boys left two gym bags, each containing a 20-pound propane bomb, inside the cafeteria. Their original plans indicated that when these bombs detonated, Harris and Klebold would be camped out by their cars and shoot, stab and throw bombs at survivors of the initial explosion as they ran out of the school. At noon, this would be followed by bombs set up in the pair's cars detonating, killing first responders and other personnel. When these devices failed to detonate, Harris and Klebold launched a shooting attack against their classmates and teachers. It was the deadliest attack ever perpetrated at an American high school until the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on February 14, 2018. Harris was responsible for eight of the thirteen confirmed deaths (Rachel Scott, Daniel Rohrbough, teacher Dave Sanders, Steve Curnow, Cassie Bernall, Isaiah Shoels, Kelly Fleming, and Daniel Mauser), while Klebold was responsible for the remaining five (Kyle Velasquez, Matthew Kechter, Lauren Townsend, John Tomlin, and Corey DePooter). There were 24 injured (21 of them by the shooters), most in critical condition.
Suicide
At 12:02 pm, Harris and Klebold returned to the library. Of the 56 library hostages, 34 remained unharmed, all of whom escaped after Harris and Klebold left the library initially. Investigators would later find that Harris and Klebold had enough ammunition to have killed them all. This was 20 minutes after their lethal shooting spree had ended, leaving 12 students dead, one teacher dying, and another 24 students and staff injured. Ten of their victims had been killed in the library. It is believed they came back to the library to watch their car bombs detonate, which had been set up to explode at noon. This did not happen, as the aforementioned bombs failed. Harris and Klebold went to the west windows and opened fire on the police outside. No one was injured in the exchange. Between three and six minutes later, they walked to the bookshelves near a table where Patrick Ireland lay badly wounded and coming in and out of consciousness. Student Lisa Kreutz, injured in the earlier library attack, was also in the room, unable to move.
By 12:08 pm, Harris and Klebold had killed themselves. In a subsequent interview, Kreutz recalled hearing a comment such as, "You in the library", around this time. Harris sat down with his back to a bookshelf and fired his shotgun through the roof of his mouth; Klebold went down on his knees and shot himself in the left temple with his TEC-9. An article by The Rocky Mountain News stated that Patti Nielson overheard them shout "One! Two! Three!" in unison, just before a loud boom. Nielson said that she had never spoken with either of the writers of the article, and evidence suggests otherwise. Just before shooting himself, Klebold lit a Molotov cocktail on a nearby table, underneath which Ireland was lying, which caused the tabletop to momentarily catch fire. Underneath the scorched film of material was a piece of Harris's brain matter, suggesting Harris had shot himself by this point.
Suggested rationales
There was controversy over whether Harris and Klebold should be memorialized. Some were opposed, saying that it glorified murderers, while others argued that Harris and Klebold were also victims. Atop a hill near Columbine High School, crosses were erected for Harris and Klebold along with those for the people they killed, but the father of victim Daniel Rohrbough cut them down, saying that murderers should not be memorialized in the same place as victims.
Overview
Harris and Klebold wrote some about how they would carry out the massacre, and less about why. Klebold penned a rough outline of plans to follow on April 20, and another slightly different one in a journal found in Harris's bedroom. In one entry on his computer, Harris referenced the Oklahoma City bombing, and they mentioned their wish to outdo it by causing the most deaths in US history. They also mentioned how they would like to leave a lasting impression on the world with this kind of violence. Much speculation occurred over the date chosen for their attack. The original intended date of the attack may have been April 19; Harris required more ammunition from Mark Manes, who did not deliver it until the evening of April 19.
Harris and Klebold were both avid fans of KMFDM, an industrial band led by German multi-instrumentalist Sascha Konietzko. It was revealed that lyrics to KMFDM songs ("Son of a Gun", "Stray Bullet" and "Waste") were posted on Harris' website, and that the date of the massacre, April 20, coincided with both the release date of the album Adios and the birthday of Adolf Hitler. Harris noted the coincidence of the album's title and April release date in his journal. In response, KMFDM's Konietzko issued a statement that KMFDM was "against war, oppression, fascism and violence against others" and that "none of us condone any Nazi beliefs whatsoever".
An April 22, 1999, article in The Washington Post described Harris and Klebold:
They hated jocks, admired Nazis and scorned normalcy. They fancied themselves devotees of the Gothic subculture, even though they thrilled to the violence denounced by much of that fantasy world. They were white supremacists, but loved music by anti-racist rock bands.
The attack occurred on Hitler's birthday, which led to speculation in the media. Some people, such as Robyn Anderson, who knew the perpetrators, stated that the pair were not obsessed with Nazism nor did they worship or admire Hitler in any way. Anderson stated, in retrospect, that there were many things the pair did not tell friends. In his journal, Harris mentioned his admiration of what he imagined to be natural selection, and wrote that he would like to put everyone in a super Doom game and see to it that the weak die and the strong live. On the day of the massacre, Harris wore a white T-shirt with the words "Natural selection" printed in black.
Bullying
At the end of Harris' last journal entry, he wrote: "I hate you people for leaving me out of so many fun things. And no don't ... say, 'Well that's your fault,' because it isn't, you people had my phone number, and I asked and all, but no. No no no don't let the weird-looking Eric KID come along, ooh fucking nooo."
Klebold said on the Basement Tapes, "You've been giving us shit for years. You're fucking gonna pay for all the shit! We don't give a shit. Because we're gonna die doing it."
Accounts from various parents and school staffers describe bullying at the school as "rampant". Nathan Vanderau, a friend of Klebold, and Alisa Owen, Harris's eighth-grade science partner, reported that Harris and Klebold were constantly picked on. Vanderau noted that a "cup of fecal matter" was thrown at them. "People surrounded them in the commons and squirted ketchup packets all over them, laughing at them, calling them faggots", Brooks Brown says. "That happened while teachers watched. They couldn't fight back. They wore the ketchup all day and went home covered with it." In his book, No Easy Answers: The Truth Behind Death at Columbine, Brown wrote that Harris was born with mild chest indent. This made him reluctant to take his shirt off in gym class, and other students would laugh at him.
"A lot of the tension in the school came from the class above us", Chad Laughlin states. "There were people fearful of walking by a table where you knew you didn't belong, stuff like that. Certain groups certainly got preferential treatment across the board. I caught the tail end of one really horrible incident, and I know Dylan told his mother that it was the worst day of his life." That incident, according to Laughlin, involved seniors pelting Klebold with "ketchup-covered tampons" in the commons. However, other commentators have disputed the theory that bullying was the motivating factor. Peter Langman also argues against bullying being the cause of the attack. Other researchers have concurred.
Journals and investigation
Harris began keeping a journal in April 1998, a short time after the pair was convicted of breaking into a van, for which each received ten months of juvenile intervention counseling and community service in January 1998. They began to formulate plans then, as reflected in their journals.
Harris wanted to join the United States Marine Corps, but his application was rejected shortly before the shootings because he was taking the drug fluvoxamine, an SSRI antidepressant, which he was required to take as part of court-ordered anger management therapy. Harris did not state in his application that he was taking any medications. According to the recruiting officer, Harris did not know about this rejection. Though some friends of Harris suggested that he had stopped taking the drug beforehand, the autopsy reports showed low therapeutic or normal (not toxic or lethal) blood-levels of Luvox (fluvoxamine) in his system, which would be around 0.0031–0.0087 mg/ml, at the time of death. After the shootings, opponents of contemporary psychiatry like Peter Breggin claimed that the psychiatric medications prescribed to Harris after his conviction may have exacerbated his aggressiveness.
Klebold entitled his journal, A Virtual Book: EXISTENCES. Klebold's first journal entry was March 31, 1997, over a year prior to when Harris began his own writings, and in it, he talks about his depression and suicidal thoughts, over two years prior to the massacre. For the rest of his writings, Klebold often wrote about his view that he and Harris were "god-like" and more highly evolved than every other human being, but his secret journal records the aforementioned self-loathing and suicidal intentions. Page after page was covered in hearts, as he was secretly in love with a Columbine student. Although both had difficulty controlling their anger, Klebold's anger had led to his being more prone to serious trouble than Harris. After their arrest, which both recorded as the most traumatic thing they had ever experienced, Klebold wrote a letter to Harris, saying how they would have so much fun getting revenge and killing police, and how his wrath from the January arrest would be "god-like". On the day of the massacre, Klebold wore a black T-shirt which had the word "WRATH" printed in red. It was speculated that revenge for the arrest was a possible motive for the attack, and that the pair planned on having a massive gun battle with police during the shooting. Klebold wrote that life was no fun without a little death, and that he would like to spend the last moments of his life in nerve-wracking twists of murder and bloodshed. He concluded by saying that he would kill himself afterward in order to leave the world that he hated and go to a better place. Klebold was described as being "hotheaded, but depressive and suicidal".
Some of the home-recorded videos, called "The Basement Tapes", have reportedly been destroyed by police. Harris and Klebold reportedly discussed their motives for the attacks in these videos and gave instructions in bomb making. Police cite the reason for withholding these tapes as an effort to prevent them from becoming "call-to-arms" and "how-to" videos that could inspire copycat killers. Some people have argued that releasing the tapes would be helpful, in terms of allowing psychologists to study them, which in turn could possibly help identify characteristics of future killers.
Media accounts
Initially, the shooters were believed to be members of a clique that called themselves the "Trench Coat Mafia", a small group of Columbine's self-styled outcasts who wore heavy black trench coats. Early reports described the members as also wearing German slogans and swastikas on their clothes. Additional media reports described the Trench Coat Mafia as a cult with ties to the Neo-Nazi movement which fueled a media stigma and bias against the Trench Coat Mafia. The Trench Coat Mafia was a group of friends who hung out together, wore black trench coats, and prided themselves on being different from the 'jocks' who had been bullying the members and who also coined the name Trench Coat Mafia. The trench coat inadvertently became the members' uniform after a mother of one of the members bought it as a present.
Investigation revealed that Harris and Klebold were only friends with one member of the group, Kristin Thiebault, and that most of the primary members of the Trench Coat Mafia had left the school by the time that Harris and Klebold committed the massacre. Most did not know the shooters, apart from their association with Thiebault, and none were considered suspects in the shootings or were charged with any involvement in the incident.
Marilyn Manson was blamed by the media in the wake of the Columbine shooting, and responded to criticism in an interview with Michael Moore, in which he was asked, "If you were to talk directly to the kids at Columbine and the people in the community, what would you say to them if they were here right now?", to which he replied, "I wouldn't say a single word to them—I would listen to what they have to say, and that's what no one did", referring to people ignoring red flags that rose from Harris and Klebold prior to the shooting.
Psychological analysis
Although early media reports attributed the shootings to a desire for revenge on the part of Harris and Klebold for bullying that they received, subsequent psychological analysis indicated Harris and Klebold harbored serious psychological problems. Harris and Klebold were never diagnosed with any mental disorders, which is overwhelmingly uncommon in mass shooters. According to Supervisory Special Agent Dwayne Fuselier, the FBI's lead Columbine investigator and a clinical psychologist, Harris exhibited a pattern of grandiosity, contempt, and lack of empathy or remorse, distinctive traits of psychopaths that Harris concealed through deception. Fuselier adds that Harris engaged in mendacity not merely to protect himself, as Harris rationalized in his journal, but also for pleasure, as seen when Harris expressed his thoughts in his journal regarding how he and Klebold avoided prosecution for breaking into a van. Other leading psychiatrists concur that Harris was a psychopath.
According to psychologist Peter Langman, Klebold displayed signs of schizotypal personality disorder – he struck many people as odd due to his shy nature, appeared to have had disturbed thought processes and constantly misused language in unusual ways as evidenced by his journal. He appeared to have been delusional, viewed himself as "god-like", and wrote that he was "made a human without the possibility of BEING human." He was also convinced that others hated him and felt like he was being conspired against, even though according to many reports, Klebold was loved by his family and friends.
Lawsuits
In April 2001, the families of more than 30 victims were given shares in a $2,538,000 settlement by the families of the perpetrators, and the two men convicted of supplying the weapons used in the massacre. The Harrises and the Klebolds contributed $1,568,000 to the settlement from their own homeowners' policies, the Maneses contributed $720,000, and the Durans contributed $250,000. The Harrises and the Klebolds were ordered to guarantee an additional $32,000 be available against any future claims. The Maneses were ordered to hold $80,000 against future claims, and the Durans were ordered to hold $50,000.
One family had filed a $250-million lawsuit against the Harrises and Klebolds in 1999 and did not accept the 2001 settlement terms. A judge ordered the family to accept a $366,000 settlement in June 2003. In August 2003, the families of five other victims received undisclosed settlements from the Harrises and Klebolds.
Reaction of Sue Klebold
Sue Klebold, mother of Dylan Klebold, initially was in denial about Klebold's involvement in the massacre, believing he was tricked by Harris into doing it, among other things. Six months later, she saw the Basement Tapes made by Harris and Klebold, and acknowledged that Klebold was equally responsible for the killings. She spoke about the Columbine High School massacre publicly for the first time in an essay that appeared in the October 2009 issue of O: The Oprah Magazine. In the piece, Klebold wrote: "For the rest of my life, I will be haunted by the horror and anguish Dylan caused", and "Dylan changed everything I believed about myself, about God, about family, and about love." Stating that she had no clue of her son's intentions, she said, "Once I saw his journals, it was clear to me that Dylan entered the school with the intention of dying there." In Andrew Solomon's 2012 book Far from the Tree, she acknowledged that on the day of the massacre, when she discovered that Klebold was one of the shooters, she prayed he would kill himself. "I had a sudden vision of what he might be doing. And so while every other mother in Littleton was praying that her child was safe, I had to pray that mine would die before he hurt anyone else."
In February 2016, Klebold published a memoir, titled A Mother's Reckoning, about her experiences before and after the massacre. It was co-written by Laura Tucker and included an introduction by National Book Award winner Andrew Solomon. It received very favorable reviews, including from the New York Times Book Review. It peaked at No. 2 on The New York Times Best Seller list.
On February 2, 2017, Klebold posted a TED Talk titled, "My son was a Columbine shooter. This is my story." As of March 2021, the video has over 11.5 million views. The site listed Klebold's occupation as "activist", and stated: "Sue Klebold has become a passionate agent working to advance mental health awareness and intervention."
Legacy
ITV describes the legacy of Harris and Klebold as deadly, as they have inspired several instances of mass killings in the United States. Napa Valley Register have called the pair "cultural icons". Author of Columbine, Dave Cullen, called Harris and Klebold the fathers of the movement for disenfranchised youth. Harris and Klebold have also, as CNN referred to, left their inevitable mark on pop culture.
Copycats
The Columbine shooting influenced several subsequent school shootings, with many praising Harris and Klebold, referring to them as martyrs, heroes or Gods. In some cases, it has led to the closure of entire school districts. According to psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey of the Treatment Advocacy Center, a legacy of the Columbine shootings is its "allure to disaffected youth".
Ralph Larkin examined twelve major school shootings in the US in the following eight years and found that in eight of those, "the shooters made explicit reference to Harris and Klebold." Larkin wrote that the Columbine massacre established a "script" for shootings. "Numerous post-Columbine rampage shooters referred directly to Columbine as their inspiration; others attempted to supersede the Columbine shootings in body count."
A 2015 investigation by CNN identified "more than 40 people ... charged with Columbine-style plots." A 2014 investigation by ABC News identified "at least 17 attacks and another 36 alleged plots or serious threats against schools since the assault on Columbine High School that can be tied to the 1999 massacre." Ties identified by ABC News included online research by the perpetrators into the Columbine shooting, clipping news coverage and images of Columbine, explicit statements of admiration of Harris and Klebold, such as writings in journals and on social media, in video posts, and in police interviews, timing planned to an anniversary of Columbine, plans to exceed the Columbine victim counts, and other ties. 60 mass shootings have been carried out, where the perpetrators had made at least a single reference to Harris and Klebold.
In 2015, journalist Malcolm Gladwell writing in The New Yorker magazine proposed a threshold model of school shootings in which Harris and Klebold were the triggering actors in "a slow-motion, ever-evolving riot, in which each new participant's action makes sense in reaction to and in combination with those who came before."
Fandom
Harris and Klebold have also spawned a fandom who call themselves "Columbiners", mostly apparent on blogging site Tumblr. While some just have a scholarly interest in the pair or the event, the vast majority of these individuals, mostly young women, express a sympathetic, or sometimes even sexual interest, in Harris and Klebold. There has been homoerotic art drawn of the two, fan fiction created on the pair's future together had they not gone through with the shooting and costumes created on the outfits Harris and Klebold sported the day of the shootings.
"I relate to their feelings of hopelessness, being angry and not being able to change it, and wanting to be accepted and appreciated", an 18 year old Tumblr user wrote on Harris and Klebold. "No one noticed they were struggling, and no one took their suffering seriously", added another user. News site, "All That's Interesting" said on the fandom, "Many of these Columbiners have no positive feelings about the massacre, but are instead focused on the troubled inner lives of its perpetrators because they see themselves in them." The fandom has received much criticism, by allegedly inspiring shooting plots by heroizing Harris and Klebold, such as the Halifax mass shooting plot.
In popular culture
The 2002 Michael Moore documentary film Bowling for Columbine focuses heavily on a perceived American obsession with handguns, its grip on Jefferson County, Colorado, and its role in the shooting.
The 2003 Gus Van Sant film Elephant depicts a fictional school shooting, though some of its details were based on the Columbine massacre, such as one scene in which one of the young killers walks into the evacuated school cafeteria and pauses to take a sip from a drink left behind, as Harris did during the shooting. In the film, the killers are called "Alex and Eric" after the actors who portray them, Alex Frost and Eric Deulen.
In the 2003 Ben Coccio film Zero Day, which was inspired by the Columbine shooting, the two shooters are played by Andre Kriegman and Cal Gabriel and called "Andre and Calvin" after their actors.
In 2004, the shooting was dramatized in the documentary Zero Hour, in which Harris and Klebold are played by Ben Johnson and Josh Young, respectively.
In 2005, game designer Danny Ledonne created a role-playing video game where the player assumes the role of Harris and Klebold during the massacre, entitled Super Columbine Massacre RPG!. The game received substantial media backlash for allegedly glorifying the pair's actions. The father of one victim remarked to the press that the game "disgusts me. You trivialize the actions of two murderers and the lives of the innocent."
The 2016 biographical film I'm Not Ashamed, based on the journals of Rachel Scott, includes glimpses of Harris' and Klebold's lives and of interactions between them and other students at Columbine High School. Harris is played by David Errigo Jr. and Klebold is played by Cory Chapman.
See also
List of attacks related to secondary schools
List of school shootings in the United States
Notes
References
Further reading
External links
Crimelibrary feature
Eric Harris at Find a Grave
Dylan Klebold at Find a Grave
1981 births
1999 suicides
20th-century American criminals
American arsonists
American male criminals
American mass murderers
American murderers of children
Articles containing video clips
Bombers (people)
Bullying and suicide
Columbine High School alumni
Columbine High School massacre
Criminal duos
Criminals from Colorado
Youth suicides
Joint suicides
Murder–suicides in Colorado
People from Littleton, Colorado
People from the Denver metropolitan area
Suicides by firearm in Colorado |
644791 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph%20Mascolo | Joseph Mascolo | Joseph Peter Mascolo (March 13, 1929 – December 8, 2016) was an American musician and dramatic actor. During his long career, he acted in numerous motion pictures and television series. He was best known for playing Stefano DiMera in 1982 on NBC's soap opera Days of Our Lives and Massimo Marone in 2001 on CBS' soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful.
Early life
Mascolo was born on March 13, 1929, and raised in West Hartford, Connecticut. His parents, Anna Mascolo (née DeTuccio; 1910–2010) and Peter Mascolo (1901–2008), were immigrants from Naples, Italy, and had their 80th wedding anniversary shortly before his father died. Mascolo had one sister, Marie LaVoie. He attended the United States Military Academy after graduating high school. Mascolo attended the University of Miami. To support himself financially, he studied acting under famed acting coach Stella Adler in New York City. He originally was trained in classical music and opera.
Career
Theatre
Mascolo was in the 1962 production of Night Life as Kazar and the understudy of Neville Brand. He was in the 1966 production of Dinner at Eight as Ricci. Mascolo was in the 1969 production of The Time of Your Life as Blick. His final theatrical appearance was in 1972's That Championship Season as Phil Romano.
Film
Mascolo's first film appearance was in 1968's Hot Spur as Carlo. He was in 1972's neo-noir action crime–drama film Shaft's Big Score! as Gus Mascola. Mascolo was in 1973's The Spook Who Sat by the Door and 1978's Jaws 2 as Len Peterson. He was in 1981's Sharky's Machine as JoJo Tipps and 1982's Yes, Giorgio Mascolo's last film appearance was in 1986's Heat as Baby.
Television
Mascolo was best known in the recurring role of Stefano DiMera on Days of Our Lives from 1982 to 1985, returning briefly in 1988, again from 1993 to 2001, and making appearances again since 2007 until Stefano's death in 2016, making his final appearance on February 9, 2017, airing 2 months after his death, and won three Soap Opera Digest Awards. He has also played a wide range of roles on many different series including (but not limited to) a Stefano-like villain named Nicholas Van Buren on General Hospital, and Carlos Alvarez on Santa Barbara. Before achieving his fame, he was seen in the earlier soap operas Where the Heart Is and From These Roots. He also made primetime television appearances on All in the Family, The Eddie Capra Mysteries, Lou Grant and The Rockford Files.
Mascolo portrayed Massimo Marone on CBS's The Bold and the Beautiful beginning August 2001. He decided not to renew his contract with the show in July 2006, due to a lack of storyline and decided to return to Days of Our Lives, where his character Stefano DiMera was resurrected after six years.
Mascolo also appeared in The Incredible Hulk in October 1979, as Mr. Arnold in the episode "Brain Child". 10 years later, he would appear again in NBC's The Trial of the Incredible Hulk, as Albert G. Tendelli, a police confidant of Daredevil.
He also appeared in an episode of Hart to Hart on 1/3/84 as villan Mr. Rhodes.
Personal life and death
Mascolo married Rose Maimone in 1953. Together they had a son named Peter. Maimone died in 1986. In 2005, he married his second wife, Patricia Schultz. In January 2016, Mascolo told Soap Opera Digest that he had suffered from a stroke in the spring of 2015. "During my rehab, I thought this would be a good time for Stefano to leave."
Mascolo died on December 8, 2016, in Santa Clarita, California at the age of 87 after years of battling Alzheimer's disease. Mascolo was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills).
Theatre
Filmography
Film
Television
References
Sources
External links
1929 births
2016 deaths
American male film actors
American male soap opera actors
American male television actors
American people of Italian descent
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Male actors from Connecticut
People from West Hartford, Connecticut
University of Miami alumni
Military personnel from Connecticut
Deaths from Alzheimer's disease
Neurological disease deaths in California |
1063371 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph%20Massino | Joseph Massino | Joseph Charles Massino (born January 10, 1943) is an American former mobster. He was a member of the Mafia and boss of the Bonanno crime family from 1991 until 2004, when he became the first boss of one of the Five Families in New York City to turn state's evidence.
Massino was a protégé of Philip Rastelli, who took control of the Bonanno family in 1973. Rastelli spent most of his reign in and out of prison, but was able to get the assassination of Carmine Galante, a mobster vying for power, approved in 1979. Originally a truck hijacker, Massino secured his own power after arranging two 1981 gang murders, first a triple murder of three rebel captains, then his rival Dominick Napolitano. In 1991, while Massino was in prison for a 1986 labor racketeering conviction, Rastelli died and Massino succeeded him. Upon his release the following year, he set about rebuilding a family that had been in turmoil for almost a quarter of a century. By the dawn of the new millennium, he was reckoned as the most powerful Mafia leader in the nation. Massino became known as "The Last Don", the only full-fledged New York boss of his time who was not in prison.
In July 2004, Massino was convicted in a RICO case based on the testimony of several cooperating made men, including Massino's disgruntled underboss and brother-in-law Salvatore Vitale. He was also facing the death penalty if convicted in a separate murder trial due to be held later that year, but after agreeing to testify against his former associates, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for both indictments in 2005. Massino testified twice for the government, helping to win a murder conviction against his acting boss Vincent Basciano in 2011, and was resentenced to time served in 2013, though he will be on supervised release for the rest of his life.
Early years
Joseph Massino was born on January 10, 1943, in New York City. He was one of three sons of Neapolitan-American Anthony and Adeline Massino. Raised in Maspeth, Queens, Massino has admitted to being a juvenile delinquent by the age of 12 and claimed that at 14 he ran away from home to Florida. He dropped out of Grover Cleveland High School in tenth grade.
Massino first met his future wife Josephine Vitale in 1956, and married her in 1960. The couple had three daughters. Massino also befriended Josephine's brother, Salvatore Vitale, who, after briefly serving in the Army, became one of Massino's most trusted allies. While athletic in youth, Massino was an avid cook, and grew overweight in adulthood. His weight gained him the nickname "Big Joey", and during a 1987 racketeering trial, when he asked FBI agent Joseph Pistone who was to play him in a film adaptation of his undercover work, Pistone joked that they could not find anyone fat enough. By 2004, Massino was suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure as well.
After he turned state's evidence, Massino claimed his first murder victim was a Bonanno crime family associate named Tommy Zummo, whom he shot dead some time in the 1960s. The killing aroused the ire of Maspeth-based Bonanno caporegime Philip Rastelli, but he remained unaware of Massino's participation, and a nephew of Rastelli ultimately helped Massino become his protégé. Rastelli would set Massino up as a lunch wagon operator as part of his "Workmen's Mobile Lunch Association", an effective protection racket; after paying a kickback to Rastelli in the form of membership dues, Massino was assured no competition where he operated.
Bonanno crime family
Rise to power
By the late 1960s, Massino was a Bonanno associate. He led a successful truck hijacking crew, with the assistance of his brother-in-law Salvatore Vitale and carjacker Duane Leisenheimer, while fencing the stolen goods and running numbers using the lunch wagon as a front. He also befriended another mob hijacker, future Gambino crime family boss John Gotti. Increasingly prosperous, Massino opened his own catering company, J&J Catering, which became another front for his activities. In 1973, boss Natale Evola died. On February 23, 1974, at a meeting at the Americana Hotel in Manhattan, the Commission named Massino's mentor, Rastelli as boss. On April 23, 1976, Rastelli was convicted of extortion, and on August 27, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. In his absence Carmine Galante, a former consigliere and convicted drug trafficker, seized control of the Bonannos as unofficial acting boss.
In 1975, Massino and Vitale participated in the murder of Vito Borelli, who Massino claimed was primarily executed by Gotti at the behest of Paul Castellano of the Gambino crime family. The Borelli hit was significant for Massino in that he "made his bones"—proved his loyalty to the Mafia by killing on its behalf—and put him close to becoming a made man, a full member, in the Bonanno family. Massino also arranged the murder of one of his hijackers, Joseph Pastore, in 1976, after having Vitale borrow $9,000 from him on his behalf. While later acquitted of the crime, both Vitale and Massino would admit to participation after turning state's evidence.
In March 1975, Massino was arrested along with of one of his hijackers, Raymond Wean, and charged with conspiracy to receive stolen goods. He was scheduled to go on trial in 1977, but the charges were dropped after he successfully argued that he had not been properly mirandized, disqualifying statements Massino gave to police from being used in trial.
On June 14, 1977, Massino was inducted into the Bonanno family along with Anthony Spero, Joseph Chilli Jr. and a group of other men in a ceremony conducted by Carmine Galante. He worked as a soldier in James Galante's crew, and later worked in Philip "Phil Lucky" Giaccone's crew. Massino nevertheless remained loyal to Rastelli, then vying to oust Galante despite his imprisonment. Fearing Galante wanted him dead for insubordination, Massino delivered a request to the Commission, the governing body of the American Mafia, on Rastelli's behalf to have Galante killed. The hit was approved and executed on July 12, 1979; Rastelli subsequently took full control of the family and rewarded Massino's loyalty by promoting him to capo.
By the beginning of the 1980s, Massino ran his crew from the J&S Cake social club, a property just behind J&J Catering. The building was seized in 1988 during a crackdown on the Bonannos' gambling activities.
Three capos and Napolitano murders
Following the Galante hit, Massino began jockeying for power with Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano, another Rastelli loyalist capo. Both men were themselves threatened by another faction seeking to depose the absentee boss led by capos Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato, Dominick "Big Trin" Trincera and Philip Giaccone. The Commission initially tried to maintain neutrality, but in 1981, Massino got word from his informants that the three capos were stocking up on automatic weapons and planning to kill the Rastelli loyalists within the Bonanno family to take complete control. Massino turned to Colombo crime family boss Carmine Persico and Gambino boss Paul Castellano for advice; they told him to act immediately.
Massino, Napolitano and Gerlando Sciascia, a Sicilian-born capo linked to the Montreal Rizzuto crime family, arranged a meeting at a Brooklyn social club with the three capos for May 5, 1981. They had four gunmen, including Vitale and Bonanno-affiliated Montreal boss Vito Rizzuto, hiding in a closet to ambush them. When Trinchera, Giaccone and Indelicato arrived with Frank Lino to meet Massino, they were shot to death, with Massino himself stopping Indelicato from escaping. Lino escaped unscathed by running out the door. The hit further improved Massino's prestige, but was marred by both Lino's escape and the discovery of Indelicato's body on May 28.
Massino quickly won Lino over to his side, but Indelicato's son, Anthony "Bruno" Indelicato, vowed revenge. Napolitano assigned associate Donnie Brasco, who he hoped to make a made man, to kill Indelicato. "Brasco", however, was in fact an undercover FBI agent named Joseph Pistone; shortly after the hit was ordered, Pistone's assignment was ended and Napolitano was informed of their infiltration.
Already skeptical of Napolitano's support of "Brasco", Massino was deeply disturbed by the breach of security when he learned of the agent's true identity. Vitale would later testify that this was the reason Massino subsequently decided to murder Napolitano as well; as he would later quote Massino, "I have to give him a receipt for the Donnie Brasco situation." In his own testimony, Massino instead claimed Napolitano was targeted for trying to take over the Bonannos himself. On August 17, the former renegade Frank Lino and Steven Cannone drove Napolitano to the house of Ronald Filocomo, a Bonanno family associate, for a meeting. Napolitano was greeted by captain Frank Coppa, then thrown down the stairs to the house's basement by Lino and shot to death. Napolitano's body was discovered the following year.
Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero, who helped Pistone formally become a Bonanno associate, was also targeted, but was arrested en route to the meeting where he was expected to be murdered. On February 18, 1982, Anthony Mirra, the soldier who first "discovered" Pistone, was assassinated on Massino's orders. Mirra had gone into hiding upon Pistone's exposure but was ultimately betrayed and murdered by his protégé and cousin, Joseph D'Amico.
Fugitive and Bonventre murder
On November 23, 1981, based on information gained by Pistone's infiltration, six Bonanno mobsters, including the then-missing Napolitano, were indicted on racketeering charges and conspiracy in "the three capos" hit.
In March 1982, Massino was tipped off by a Colombo-associated FBI insider that he was about to be indicted and went into hiding in Pennsylvania with Leisenheimer. On March 25, 1982, Massino was also charged with conspiracy to murder Indelicato, Giaccone and Trinchera and truck hijacking. In hiding, Massino was able to see the prosecution's strategy and better plan his defense as well as eventually face trial without association with other mobsters. Pistone later speculated Massino also feared retaliation upon the revelation that his associate, Raymond Wean, had turned state's evidence. Massino was visited by many fellow mobsters, including Gotti, and Vitale would secretly deliver cash to support him.
On April 21, 1983, Rastelli was paroled, and he and Massino ordered the murder of Bonanno soldier Cesare Bonventre. Still a fugitive, Massino summoned Vitale, Louis Attanasio and James Tartaglione to his hideout and gave them the order. By this time, even though Rastelli was still officially head of the family, Massino was considered by most mobsters to be the family's street boss and field commander in all but name, as well as Rastelli's heir apparent. According to Vitale, Massino had Bonventre killed for giving him no support when he was in hiding.
In April 1984, Bonventre was called to a meeting with Rastelli in Queens. He was picked up by Vitale and Attanasio and driven to a garage. En route, Attanasio shot Bonventre twice in the head but only wounded him; he would kill Bonventre with two more shots when they reached their destination. The task of disposing of Bonventre's corpse was handed to Gabriel Infanti, who promised Vitale that Bonventre's remains would disappear forever. However, after a tipoff, the remains were discovered on April 16, 1984, in a warehouse in Garfield, New Jersey, stuffed into two 55-gallon glue drums.
For his part in the hit, Massino had Vitale initiated into the Bonanno family.
1986 conviction and 1987 acquittal
Through Gotti associate Angelo Ruggiero, Massino was able to meet with defense attorney John Pollok in 1984 to negotiate his surrender. He finally turned himself in on July 7 and was released on $350,000 bail. That year, Massino and Salvatore Vitale secured no-show jobs with the Long Island based King Caterers in exchange for protecting them from Lucchese extortion.
In 1985, Massino was indicted twice more, first as a co-conspirator with Rastelli in a labor racketeering case for controlling the Teamsters Local 814, then with a conspiracy charge for the Pastore murder that was added to the original three capos indictment. The second indictment also charged Vitale as a co-conspirator in the hijacking cases.
The labor racketeering trial began in April 1986, with Massino as one of 12 defendants including Rastelli and former underboss Nicholas Marangello. While Massino protested in confidence to other mobsters he never had the opportunity to profit from the racket, he was implicated by both Pistone and union official Anthony Gilberti, and on October 15, 1986, was found guilty of racketeering charges for accepting kickbacks on the Bonannos' behalf. On January 16, 1987, Massino was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, his first prison term. Rastelli, also convicted and in poor health during the trial, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Around this time, Massino was believed to be the Bonanno family's official underboss. With Rastelli in declining health, Massino was also reckoned as the operating head of the family, though consigliere Anthony "Old Man" Spero was nominally acting boss.
In April 1987, Massino and Vitale went on trial for truck hijacking and conspiracy to commit the triple murder, defended by Samuel H. Dawson and Bruce Cutler respectively. Prosecutor Michael Chertoff, describing Massino's rise in his opening statements, would characterize him as the "Horatio Alger of the mob." Raymond Wean and Joseph Pistone testified against Massino, but both proved unable to conclusively link Massino with any of the murder charges. On June 3, while both men were convicted on hijacking charges, they were cleared of the murder conspiracy charges. Further, the only proven criminal acts took place outside the RICO act's five-year statute of limitations; without evidence that the "criminal enterprise" was still active in this timeframe the jury returned a special verdict clearing Massino and Vitale of these charges as well.
During Massino's imprisonment at Talladega Federal Prison for his 1986 conviction, Vitale functioned as his messenger, effectively becoming co-acting boss alongside Spero. On Massino's orders, Vitale organized the murder of Gabriel Infanti, who had also botched a 1982 hit on Anthony Gilberti and was suspected of being an informant.
Bonanno boss
The family regroups
During his meetings with Massino in prison, Vitale, on behalf of the Bonannos' capos, urged his brother-in-law to become boss in name as well as in fact. Rastelli had spent all but two years of his reign behind bars, and many felt Massino would bring the family stability. Massino was reluctant to take over as long as Rastelli was alive. Not only was he respectful of Rastelli's sponsorship of his Mafia career, but Mafia tradition dictates that a boss keeps his title for life unless he abdicates. However, in the spring of 1991, Massino ordered Vitale to "make me boss" as soon as Rastelli died; Rastelli died on June 24, 1991. A few days after his funeral, Massino instructed Vitale to call a meeting of the family's capos, and Massino was acclaimed as boss.
Massino was granted two years' supervised release on November 13, 1992. During that time, he could not associate with convicted mafiosi. To get around this restriction, Massino named Vitale underboss and retained him as his messenger for the duration of his supervised release. While the FBI suspected Vitale was a mafioso, he had never been convicted of a Mafia-related crime. The FBI would thus have no reason to be suspicious of him associating with Massino since they were brothers-in-law. He returned to his job at King Caterers, and in 1996 became co-owner of Casablanca, a well-reviewed Maspeth Italian restaurant.
Massino was 48 years old at the time of his accession, and knew that he potentially had a long reign ahead of him. With this in mind, he was determined to avoid the pitfalls that landed other Mafia bosses in prison. Inspired by Genovese boss Vincent Gigante, Massino forbade his men from saying his name out loud due to FBI surveillance. Instead, they were to touch their ears when referring to him. Massino gained the nickname "The Ear" because of this. Massino took a great number of precautions in regards to security and the possibility of anything incriminating being picked up on a wiretap. He closed the family's longtime social clubs. He also arranged family meetings to be conducted in remote locations within the United States. In some cases, he held meetings in foreign countries, and had his capos bring their wives along so they could be passed off as vacations. Remembering how Pistone's infiltration had damaged the family, he also decreed that all prospective made men had to have a working relationship with an incumbent member for at least eight years before becoming made, in hopes of ensuring new mafiosi were as reliable as possible. Unusually for bosses of his era, he actively encouraged his men to have their sons made as well. In Massino's view, this would make it less likely that a capo would turn informer, since if that happened the defector's son would face almost certain death.
To minimize the damage from informants or undercover investigations Massino decentralized the family's organization. He created a clandestine cell system for his crews, forbidding them from contacting one another and avoiding meeting their capos. He would instead create a new committee that would relay his orders to the crews. In contrast to his contemporaries, particularly the publicity-friendly Gotti and the conspicuous feigned insanity of Gigante, Massino himself was also able to operate with a relatively low public profile; both Pistone and mob writer Jerry Capeci would consequently refer to Massino as the "last of the old-time gangsters."
A side effect of these reforms was the reduction of Vitale, in his own words, to "a figurehead." By the time of Massino's release the Bonanno family had grown tired of Vitale, regarding him as greedy and overstepping his authority. In the new structure of the family, Vitale lost the underboss's usual role as a go-between for the boss, as well as the share of the family's profits those duties entailed, and Massino made it clear to Vitale his unpopularity was a factor in these changes. Vitale remained loyal, however, and helped Massino organize the March 18, 1999 murder of Gerlando Sciascia. Massino indicated to fellow mobsters that Sciascia was killed for feuding with fellow Massino-confidant capo Anthony Graziano, accusing him of using cocaine, while in his own testimony Massino claimed Sciascia was killed for killing another mobster's son. Sciascia's body was not covertly buried but instead left to be discovered in a street in the Bronx, an attempt to make the hit look like a botched drug deal rather than a Mafia-ordered hit, and Massino had his capos attend Sciascia's funeral.
Shortly after becoming boss, Massino announced that his men should no longer consider themselves as part of the Bonanno family. Instead, he renamed it the Massino family, after himself. Like many mafiosi, he was angered at family namesake Joseph Bonanno's tell-all autobiography, A Man of Honor, and regarded it as a violation of the code of omertà. He told Vitale that in his view, "Joe Bonanno disrespected the family by ratting." The new name was first disclosed after Massino was indicted in 2003 and did not catch on outside the Mafia.
Relations with other families
Before Massino became boss, John Gotti was one of his closest allies. Massino had backed Gotti in his plot to take over the Gambino family, and as Gambino boss, Gotti tried to get Massino a seat on the Commission as the Bonannos' acting boss. Gotti was reportedly infuriated that Massino had been officially promoted without him being consulted, and Massino would later testify he believed Gotti conspired with Vitale to kill him. Gotti, however, was marginalized by his 1992 racketeering and murder conviction and consequent life imprisonment. Massino, for his own part, was angered at Gotti's high public profile and later criticized Gotti for killing Gotti's predecessor, Paul Castellano. Massino also had a poor relationship with Vincent Gigante, who had backed the opposition to Rastelli and blocked Gotti's attempts to bring Massino onto the Commission.
The Bonanno family had been in decline for the better part of the last quarter century since Joe Bonanno's ouster in the 1960s, and it was kicked off the Commission altogether following Pistone's infiltration. By the late 1990s, the situation was reversed and the Bonanno family was now reckoned as the most powerful crime family in New York and the nation, in no small part because Massino was the only full-fledged New York boss who was still on the streets. As it turned out, being thrown off the Commission actually worked in the Bonannos' favor; they were the only family whose leadership wasn't decimated in the Mafia Commission Trial. Wary of surveillance, Massino generally avoided meeting with members of other Mafia families and encouraged his crews to operate independently as well. In January 2000, however, Massino did preside over an informal Commission meeting with the acting bosses of the other four families. As the most powerful Mafia leader in both New York and the nation, Massino was in a position to make general policies for the Five Families. Under his direction, the Commission tightened qualifications to become a made man, requiring candidates have full Italian descent (previously having an Italian-American father was the minimum requirement) and imposed restrictions on initiating associates convicted on drug charges.
According to Capeci, the murder of Sciascia soured relations between the Bonanno and Rizzuto families. Originally considered merely a Canadian Bonanno crew, the Rizzutos responded by taking even less heed from New York.
Run-up to prosecution
At the beginning of his reign as boss, Massino enjoyed the benefit of limited FBI attention. In 1987, with the Bonannos weakened, the FBI merged its Bonanno squad with its Colombo family squad, and this squad was initially preoccupied with the Colombos' third internal war. Another dedicated Bonanno squad would be established in 1996.
The Bonanno squad's chief, Jack Stubing, was well aware of the measures Massino had taken to avoid scrutiny. He therefore decided to go after Massino with a rear-guard action. He convinced his bosses to lend him a pair of forensic accountants normally used in fraud investigations, believing that they could easily pinpoint conspirators in the family's money laundering schemes. Stubing believed that the threat of long prison sentences would be sufficient to get any conspirators to turn informer, and thus make it easier to trace how the money flowed to Massino. In the meantime, the FBI also targeted other members of the Bonanno administration. In 1995, consigliere Anthony Spero was sentenced to two years' imprisonment after being convicted of loansharking, then to life imprisonment in 2002 for murder. Graziano would assume Spero's duties, but he too plead guilty to racketeering charges in December 2002 and was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment. Vitale would also plead guilty to loansharking charges in June 2002. Vitale was not immediately sentenced, and was placed under house arrest in the interim, but the relatively low maximum sentence he was eligible for led Massino to wrongly suspect he was cooperating with law enforcement. He secretly ordered that, if he was arrested, Vitale was to be "taken down"—demoted or killed.
Until 2002, the Bonannos had been the only family in the modern history of the New York Mafia (i. e., since the Castellammarese War) to have never had a made man turn informant or government witness. Massino used this as a point of pride to rally his crime family. That year Frank Coppa, convicted on fraud and facing further charges from the FBI's forensic accounting investigation, became the first to flip. He was followed shortly by acting underboss Richard Cantarella, a participant in the Mirra murder, who was facing racketeering and murder charges. A third, Joseph D'Amico, subsequently turned state's evidence with the knowledge that Cantarella could implicate him for murder as well. All of these defections left Massino, at last, vulnerable to serious charges.
2004 conviction
On January 9, 2003, Massino was arrested and indicted, alongside Vitale, Frank Lino and capo Daniel Mongelli, in a comprehensive racketeering indictment. The charges against Massino himself included ordering the 1981 murder of Napolitano. Massino was denied bail, and Vincent Basciano took over as acting boss in his absence. Massino hired David Breitbart, an attorney he had originally wanted to represent him in his 1987 trial, for his defense.
Three more Bonanno made men would choose to cooperate before Massino came to trial. The first was James Tartaglione; anticipating he would shortly be indicted as well he went to the FBI and agreed to wear a wire while he remained free. The second was Salvatore Vitale. In custody Massino again put out the word, to a receptive Bonanno family, that he wanted Vitale killed. After learning of Massino's earlier plans to kill his brother-in-law from Coppa and Cantarella, prosecutors informed Vitale. Vitale was already dissatisfied by the lack of support he and his family received from Massino after his arrest. On the day he was arraigned with Massino, Vitale decided to flip as soon as it was safe to do so; he formally reached a deal with prosecutors in February. He was followed in short order by Lino, knowing Vitale could implicate him in murder as well. Also flipping was longtime Bonanno associate Duane Leisenheimer, concerned for his safety after an investigator for Massino's defense team visited to find out if he intended to flip.
With these defections, Massino was slapped with a superseding indictment charging him with seven additional murders: the three capos (this time for participation in the murder itself rather than conspiracy), Mirra, Bonventre, Infanti and Sciascia. Of particular interest was the Sciascia hit, which took place after a 1994 amendment to racketeering laws that allowed the death penalty for murder in aid of racketeering.
Massino's trial began on May 24, 2004, with judge Nicholas Garaufis presiding and Greg D. Andres and Robert Henoch heading the prosecution. He now faced 11 RICO counts for seven murders (due to the prospect of prosecutors seeking the death penalty for the Sciascia murder, that case was severed to be tried separately), arson, extortion, loansharking, illegal gambling, and money laundering. By this time, Time magazine had dubbed Massino as "the Last Don", in reference to his status as the only New York boss not serving a prison sentence at that point. The name stuck.
Despite a weak start, with opening witness Anthony Gilberti unable to recognize Massino in the courtroom, the prosecution would establish its case to link Massino with the charges in the indictment through an unprecedented seven major turncoats, including the six turned made men. Vitale, the last of the six to take the stand, was of particular significance. He had spent most of his three decades in the Mafia as a close confidant to Massino, and his closeness to his brother in law allowed him to cover Massino's entire criminal history in his testimony. Brietbart's defense rested primarily on cross-examination of the prosecution witnesses, with his only witness being an FBI agent to challenge Vitale's reliability. His defense was also unusual in that he made no attempt to contest that Massino was the Bonanno boss, instead stressing the murders in the case took place before he took over and that Massino himself "showed a love of life...because the murders ceased." Vitale had admitted to 11 murders, but for his cooperation, was sentenced to time served in October 2010, and entered the witness protection program.
After deliberating for five days, the jury found Massino guilty of all 11 counts on July 30, 2004. His sentencing was initially scheduled for October 12, and he was expected to receive a sentence of life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. The jury also approved the prosecutors' recommended $10 million forfeiture of the proceeds of his reign as Bonanno boss on the day of the verdict.
Turning state's evidence
Immediately after his July 30 conviction, as court was adjourned, Massino requested a meeting with Judge Garaufis, where he made his first offer to cooperate. He did so in hopes of sparing his life; he was facing the death penalty if found guilty of Sciascia's murder. Indeed, one of John Ashcroft's final acts as Attorney General was to order federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Massino. Massino thus stood to be the first Mafia boss to be executed for his crimes, and the first mob boss to face the death penalty since Lepke Buchalter was executed in 1944.
Massino subsequently claimed he decided to turn informer due to the prospect of his wife and mother having to forfeit their houses to the government. Mob authors and journalists Anthony D. DeStefano and Selwyn Raab both consider the turning of so many made men as a factor in disillusioning Massino with Cosa Nostra, the former also assuming Massino had decided to flip "long before the verdict". Massino was the first sitting boss of a New York crime family to turn state's evidence, and the second in the history of the American Mafia to do so (Philadelphia crime family boss Ralph Natale had flipped in 1999 when facing drug charges). It also marked the second time in a little more than a year that a New York boss had reached a plea bargain; Gigante had pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice charges in 2003 after prosecutors unmasked his long charade of feigning insanity.
At his advice, that October the FBI revisited the Queens mob graveyard where Alphonse Indelicato's body was found, and unearthed the bodies of Trinchera and Giaccone as well. They also hoped to find the body of John Favara, who accidentally killed Gotti's son, and the body of Tommy DeSimone. Massino also reported that Vincent Basciano, arrested in November, had conspired to kill prosecutor Greg Andres, but after failing a polygraph test regarding the discussion he agreed to wear a wire when meeting the acting boss in jail. While Massino was unable to extract an unambiguous confession regarding Andres, he did record Basciano freely admit to ordering the murder of associate Randolph Pizzolo.
By the end of January 2005, when Basciano was indicted for the Pizzolo murder, Massino was identified by news sources as the then-anonymous fellow mobster who secretly recorded his confession, to the public disgust of Massino's family. Further confirmation of Massino's defection came in February as he was identified as the source for the graveyard, then in May when the Justice Department dropped the threat of the death penalty regarding the Sciascia case. In a hearing on June 23, 2005, Massino finalized his deal and pleaded guilty to ordering the Sciascia murder. For this and his 2004 conviction he was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, with a possible reduction depending on his service as a witness. That same day Josephine Massino negotiated a settlement to satisfy the forfeiture claim, keeping the homes of herself and Massino's mother as well as some rental properties while turning over, among other assets, a cache of $7 million and hundreds of gold bars both of which were kept in his Howard Beach home, and the Casablanca restaurant.
Massino was not replaced as Bonanno boss until 2013 when Michael Mancuso, who had replaced Basciano as acting boss, was reported to have formally assumed the title.
Massino's testimony and release
Massino was conspicuously absent from the prosecution witnesses at the 2006 racketeering trial of Basciano, the prosecution deciding he was not yet needed; he was also expected to testify against Vito Rizzuto regarding his role in the three capos murder, but the Montreal boss accepted a plea bargain in May 2007 before Rizzuto's case went to trial. He finally made his debut as a witness at Basciano's trial for the murder of Randolph Pizzolo in April 2011; Massino's testified both during the trial itself and, after Basciano was convicted, on behalf of the prosecution's unsuccessful attempt to impose the death penalty. During his testimony Massino noted, as a result of his cooperation, "I’m hoping to see a light at the end of the tunnel."
Massino testified again in the 2012 extortion trial of Genovese capo Anthony Romanello, primarily to provide background as an expert on the American Mafia. While Massino had not worked closely with Romanello, prosecutors decided to use him after another mobster-turned-witness was dropped; the case ended in an acquittal. Massino had also been considered as a witness in the 2013 murder trial of Colombo acting boss Joel Cacace, but was dropped after he was unable to fully remember the meeting where he claimed Cacace indicated his involvement in the murder of NYPD officer Ralph Dols.
In June 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a request to Judge Garaufis for a reduction of Massino's sentence; prosecutors cited both the impact of Massino's unprecedented cooperation and his failing health as reasons for a reduction of his sentence. Garaufis granted their request on July 10, resentencing Massino to time served and supervised release for the remainder of his life.
References
Sources
External links
Joseph Massino – Biography.com
The Bonanno Family – Crime Library
1943 births
American Mafia cooperating witnesses
American crime bosses
American gangsters of Italian descent
American money launderers
American people convicted of murder
Bonanno crime family
Bosses of the Bonanno crime family
Capo dei capi
Gangsters sentenced to life imprisonment
Federal Bureau of Investigation informants
Living people
People convicted of murder by the United States federal government
People convicted of racketeering
People from Maspeth, Queens |
1220101 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph%20Maxwell | Joseph Maxwell | Joseph "Joe" Maxwell, (10 February 1896 – 6 July 1967) was an Australian soldier, writer, and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry "in the face of the enemy" that can be awarded to members of British and Commonwealth armed forces. Often described as Australia's second most decorated soldier of the First World War, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 8 February 1915, and served at Gallipoli before being transferred to the Western Front. In just over twelve months he was commissioned and decorated four times for his bravery.
An apprentice boilermaker before the war, Maxwell returned to Australia in 1919 and worked as a gardener. In 1932, he published Hell's Bells and Mademoiselles, a book written in collaboration with Hugh Buggy about his war experiences. Attempting to enlist for service during the Second World War, Maxwell was rejected on the grounds of his age before enlisting under an alias in Queensland; his identity was discovered, and after a short period in a training position, he sought discharge. In 1967, aged 71, he died of a heart attack.
Early life
Maxwell was born in the Sydney suburb of Forest Lodge, New South Wales, on 10 February 1896 to John Maxwell, a labourer, and his wife Elizabeth, née Stokes. A member of the Senior Australian Army Cadets for three years, he worked as an apprentice boilermaker at an engineering works near Newcastle upon leaving school. For two years, he served as a member of the Citizens Military Forces, and on 6 February 1915, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force enticed by the prospects of better pay.
First World War
Training, February 1915 to Western Front, May 1917
Having received his initial training at Liverpool Camp, Maxwell was allotted to "B" Company of the 18th Battalion as a lance corporal, and embarked for Egypt aboard HMAT Ceramic on 25 May 1915. The 18th Battalion trained in Egypt from mid-June until mid-August, before proceeding to Gallipoli, where they landed at Anzac Cove on 22 August. The battalion fought its first battle on the same day, staging an attack on the Turkish-held Hill 60. The engagement lasted until 29 August, with half of the battalion becoming casualties, and Maxwell briefly assuming the duties of a stretcher bearer.
Maxwell served at Gallipoli with his unit until 2 December, when he was admitted to 5th Field Ambulance and evacuated from the peninsula suffering from jaundice. Admitted to 3rd Auxiliary Hospital, Heliopolis, he remained there until 11 December, when he was posted to a convalescent camp at Ras el Tin. He rejoined the 18th Battalion on 5 January 1916, which had been evacuated from the Gallipoli Peninsula on 20 December the previous year and posted to Egypt. On 4 February, Maxwell was admitted to the Australian Dermatological Hospital, Abbassia with venereal disease. He returned to his battalion four days before it embarked for France, and the Western Front on 18 March.
Arriving in Marseilles, France, Maxwell was admitted to 7th Australian Field Ambulance and then transferred to the 3rd Canadian General Hospital following wounds sustained during battle. He was moved to the 1st Convalescent Depot on 2 May, and then discharged to Base Details eleven days later. He was later found guilty of breaking ranks at the 07:30 parade on the same day and being absent without leave from 08:00 until 13:00 on 24 May; for this transgression, he was reduced to the ranks. Rejoining his battalion on 1 June, he took part in the Battle of Pozières and received a promotion to sergeant in October.
Suffering synovitis to his right knee, Maxwell was hospitalised for two days and posted to a training battalion in England on 28 November 1916. He stayed there for five months before embarking for France on 9 May 1917 and rejoining the 18th Battalion five days later. Maxwell was only briefly in France before being selected for officer training. Shortly after arriving in England, he attended a boisterous party with a group of soldiers. The military police raided the party and called the local police for assistance after confronting Maxwell's group. Maxwell was fined £20 and sent back to his unit for his actions.
Western Front: May 1917 to August 1918
Maxwell was again selected for officer training, and on 5 July, he was posted to No. 6 Officers' Cadet Battalion. He was promoted to company sergeant major on 7 August, before rejoining the 18th Battalion on 11 September. Nine days later, he was engaged in action near Westhoek during the Third Battle of Ypres when he performed the deeds that earned him the Distinguished Conduct Medal. In the battle, the commander of a platoon was killed; Maxwell took command and led it into attack. Noticing that one of the newly captured positions was under heavy fire, Maxwell dashed to it and led the men to a safer and more tactically secure position, thus minimizing casualties.
Commissioned in the field as a second lieutenant on 29 September 1917, Maxwell took part in the engagements around Poelcappelle, Belgium, the following month. He earned promotion to lieutenant on 1 January 1918 and was admitted to the 7th Australian Field Ambulance on 10 January suffering scabies. Having been discharged from the hospital, he rejoined the 18th Battalion on 17 January.
On 8 March 1918, Maxwell commanded a scouting patrol that was operating to the east of Ploegsteert. Having obtained the required information, he ordered the patrol to withdraw. He and three of his men were covering the withdrawal of the main body when he noticed about thirty Germans nearby. Recalling the patrol, he led an attack against the party, which had sheltered in an old trench; the Germans quickly withdrew, leaving three dead and one wounded prisoner of war. Maxwell was awarded the Military Cross for his actions during this engagement, news of which was published in a supplement to the London Gazette on 13 May 1918.
Throughout the spring of 1918, the 18th Battalion was involved in operations to repel the German offensive. Maxwell took part in these actions until he was granted leave and went back to England on 17 July. He returned to France and rejoined the 18th Battalion on 1 August, before taking part in the Battle of Amiens where he was to earn a Bar to his Military Cross. On 9 August, the battalion was preparing to attack near Rainecourt. Maxwell took command of the company after all of its other officers became casualties. Under his leadership, the company was able to attack on time, despite being subjected to heavy fire. A tank that preceded the advance immediately became the object of enemy fire and was knocked out by a 77 mm gun. Maxwell, who was in close proximity, rushed over and opened the hatch, allowing the crew to escape. After escorting the tank commander to safety, Maxwell returned to lead the company in the attack, which succeeded in reaching and consolidating their objective. The award of the bar was published in a supplement to the London Gazette on 1 February 1919.
Victoria Cross, October 1918 to repatriation, August 1919
On 3 October 1918, the 5th Brigade—of which the 18th Battalion was part—became engaged in its last battle of the First World War when breaching the Hindenburg Line close to Beaurevoir and Montbrehain. While taking part in this battle, Maxwell was a member of the attacking party along the Beaurevoir-Fonsomme line when he performed the acts for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
Early in the advance, Maxwell's company commander was severely wounded, resulting in Maxwell assuming control. Reaching the German barbwire defences under intense machine-gun fire, the company suffered heavy casualties, including all of the officers except Maxwell. Pushing forward alone through a narrow passageway in the wire, Maxwell captured the most dangerous machine gun, killed three Germans and took another four as prisoners; thereby enabling the company to move through the wire and reach their objective. Shortly afterwards, it was noticed that the company on their left flank was held up and failing to advance. Gathering a party of men, Maxwell led the group in an attempt to attack the German force from the rear. They soon came under heavy machine gun fire, and, single-handedly, Maxwell dashed forward and attacked the foremost gun. Firing his revolver, he managed to shoot five of the crew and silence the gun.
Later in the advance, Maxwell learnt from an English-speaking prisoner that a group of Germans in the adjacent post wished to surrender, but were afraid to give themselves up. Accompanied by two privates and the prisoner—who was to act as an interpreter—Maxwell approached the post. The three Australians, however, were immediately surrounded by a group of twenty German soldiers and disarmed. They seemed set to become prisoners themselves, before an artillery barrage fell on the position. Taking advantage of the resulting confusion, Maxwell pulled out a concealed revolver and shot two of the Germans before escaping with his men under heavy rifle fire; one of the privates was subsequently wounded. Organising a party of men, he immediately attacked and captured the post.
The full citation for Maxwell's Victoria Cross appeared in a supplement to the London Gazette on 6 January 1919, it read:
The 18th Battalion was training away from the frontline when the Armistice was declared on 11 November 1918. On 8 March 1919, Maxwell was invested with his Victoria Cross by King George V in the ballroom of Buckingham Palace. He headed for Australia on 1 May aboard HT China, disembarking at Melbourne on 8 June and proceeding to Sydney, where he was discharged from the Australian Imperial Force on 20 August.
Later life
Following demobilisation, Maxwell worked as a gardener in Canberra, Moree and the Maitland district. Having described himself as a reporter, Maxwell married 19-year-old tailoress Mabel Maxwell (unrelated) in a Catholic ceremony at Bellevue Hill, Sydney on 14 February 1921. The marriage produced a daughter, Jean, before being dissolved in 1926 upon Mabel's instigation.
On 11 November 1929, Maxwell attended the New South Wales Dinner for recipients of the Victoria Cross in Sydney, and 1932 saw the publication of Hell's Bells and Mademoiselles, a book written in collaboration with Hugh Buggy about his experiences in the war. At the time, Maxwell was working as a gardener with the Department of the Interior in Canberra. The book was a success, but Maxwell soon spent what money he made from it. In the late 1930s, he wrote the manuscript for a second book entitled From the Hindenburg Line to the Breadline. The book was never published and the manuscript was lost when it was lent to someone to read.
In 1933, Maxwell acted as a defence witness in the trial of Alfred Jamieson, who was accused of housebreaking. Maxwell was Jamieson's former platoon commander and testified that Jamieson had been of good character but had been strongly affected by the war.
After the outbreak of the Second World War, Maxwell made several attempts to enlist, but was unsuccessful due to his age, and deteriorating health. He eventually travelled to Queensland, where he enlisted under the alias of Joseph Wells on 27 June 1940. However, his identity was soon discovered and he was given a training position; dissatisfied, he took his discharge on 9 September 1940.
In 1952, Maxwell joined the contingent of Victoria Cross recipients invited to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. On 6 March 1956, describing himself as a journalist from Bondi, Maxwell married widow Anne Martin, née Burton, in Sydney. Three years later, he attended the Victoria Cross centenary celebrations in London, before later re-visiting the battlefields in France. In 1964, together with his wife, Maxwell attended the opening of the VC Corner in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. He was determined that his Victoria Cross would not wind up in the collection, believing that the award would be devalued by "lumping" them together.
On 6 July 1967, Maxwell collapsed and died of a heart attack in a street in his home town Matraville, New South Wales. He had been an invalid pensioner for some time. His funeral service took place with full military honours at St Mathias Anglican Church, Paddington. Having been cremated, his ashes were interred at the Eastern Suburbs Crematorium in Botany. Anne Maxwell presented her husband's medals to the Army Museum of New South Wales at Victoria Barracks, Paddington, and subsequently the medals, together with a portrait and a brass copy of his VC citation, were unveiled by the Minister of Defence, Allan Fairhall. In 2003, Maxwell's medals were presented to the Australian War Memorial on a permanent loan basis.
Notes
References
Further reading
External links
1896 births
1967 deaths
Australian Army officers
Australian boilermakers
Australian Army personnel of World War II
20th-century Australian non-fiction writers
Australian recipients of the Distinguished Conduct Medal
Australian World War I recipients of the Victoria Cross
People from New South Wales
Recipients of the Military Cross
Burials at Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park |
1241553 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry%20Jackson%20%28colonial%20administrator%29 | Henry Jackson (colonial administrator) | Sir Henry Moore Jackson, (bapt. 13 August 1849 – 29 August 1908) was a British army officer and colonial governor.
Biography
Jackson was born in Barbados to Walrond Jackson, who became the Anglican Bishop of Antigua, and Mary Shepherd. He received his education in England at Clifton College and the Royal Military Academy. After his education, Jackson went into the military, serving for the Royal Artillery from 1870 to 1885, reaching the rank of captain. In 1880 while still in the Royal Artillery he was also appointed commandant of the Sierra Leone police.
It was after his military service that he became involved in the rule of British colonies. Starting with his appointment as commissioner for Turks and Caicos Islands from 1885 to 1890 and later Colonial Secretary of the Bahama Islands from 1890 to 1893. His next appointment came in 1894 when he was appointed as Colonial Secretary of Gibraltar from 1894 to 1901. Here his education in science proved useful in implementing a plan to construct a new harbour. In August 1901 he was appointed Governor of the Leeward Islands, but his tenure there was short as in June the following year he was appointed Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner of the Western Pacific, combined with the position of Consul-General for the Western Pacific Islands. He arrived in Fiji to take up the position in September 1902, and is credited as having promoted the idea of British rule to the natives of Fiji. The last position he held was Governor of Trinidad and Tobago, which he held until his death on 29 August 1908.
Jackson received several honours, including: Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1899, promoted to Knight Grand Cross in 1908, and member of the Order of St. Gregory the Great in 1904.
Family
In 1881, Jackson married Emily Shea, daughter of Sir Edward Dalton Shea. He was the father of Basil Jackson, chairman of BP.
References
|-
1849 births
1908 deaths
People educated at Clifton College
Governors of Fiji
Royal Artillery officers
Governors of Trinidad and Tobago
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
Commissioners of the Turks and Caicos Islands
British colonial police officers
Grenadian people of British descent
Grenadian emigrants to England
High Commissioners for the Western Pacific
Colonial Secretaries of the Bahamas
Colonial Secretaries of Gibraltar |
2308506 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron%20Fike | Aaron Fike | Aaron Fike (born November 24, 1982) is an American racing driver, a former competitor in NASCAR and USAC. The younger brother of A. J. Fike, he was suspended from NASCAR competition from 2007 to 2012 due to a drug-related arrest.
USAC career
Fike began racing in 2001 in the USAC Silver Crown Series, where he became the youngest driver to win a Silver Crown race (breaking Jeff Gordon's record). He finished tenth in points, earning him the Rookie of the Year award.
In 2002, he won seven midget feature races in addition to winning the Badger Midget Auto Racing Association championship. Past Champions He also won a race in the IRL Infiniti Pro Series.
In 2003, Fike won the World Championship Midget Feature in Auckland, New Zealand, and the USAC Night Before the 500 race.
NASCAR career
Fike made his stock car debut in an ARCA RE/MAX Series race at South Boston Speedway, where he finished 9th.
He began racing part-time in the Busch Series in 2004 in the #43 Curb Agajanian Performance Group car, and for GIC-Mixon Motorsports. His best finish that year came at the Stacker 200 Presented by YJ Stinger, where he finished 17th.
For 2005, Fike signed a driver development contract with Brewco Motorsports, and split time in their #66 Duraflame Ford Taurus with Greg Biffle. He recorded his first top-ten finish at the Salute to the Troops 250 Presented by Dodge, where he finished eighth. He also ran 17 races with the #43, his best finish in that car being a 14th at Homestead. At the end of the year, he was released from his contract at Brewco.
He started 2006 driving the #43 for Curb, but soon signed with Kevin Harvick Incorporated for a limited schedule. He was released after two races.
Fike drove for Red Horse Racing in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2007, where he had four top-ten finishes. He was arrested in the parking lot of Kings Island in July 2007, and subsequently suspended by NASCAR and released from his contract.
Legal troubles
On July 7, 2007, Fike and his long-time girlfriend and fiancée, Red Horse crew member Cassandra "Casi" Davidson, were arrested in the parking lot of Kings Island in Mason, Ohio. Fike attempted to evade police when asked to exit his truck, striking an officer with the mirror of the vehicle; upon being stopped and searched, syringes containing brown liquid, which Fike admitted were heroin, were found within the vehicle. Davidson stated that the heroin was used by both her and Fike. Both were arrested on charges of possession of heroin and drug paraphernalia.
On July 11, 2007 Fike (as well as Davidson) was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR for violating Section 12-4-A (actions detrimental to stock car racing) of the 2007 NASCAR Rule Book. Red Horse Racing released Fike from his contract the following day. On August 29, the misdemeanor possession of drug abuse instruments charge was dropped by prosecutors.
Though he initially pleaded not guilty, in November 2007, Fike pleaded guilty to possession of a drug abuse instrument and a reduced charge of attempted possession of heroin, both misdemeanors. He admitted that he'd spent 4 months in treatment for the addiction, and publicly stated that the habit almost killed him at least once. He was sentenced to two years of probation after agreeing to establish a non-profit anti-drug group, Racing Against Drugs.
In an April 2008 interview for ESPN, Fike admitted to years of painkiller abuse, as well as heroin use on race days.
Fike returned to racing midget cars at Angell Park Speedway and the USAC national tour after his NASCAR suspension; he was tested upon arrival at the track for every race.
Fike was reinstated by NASCAR on August 21, 2012, upon his successful completion of NASCAR's Substance Abuse Policy Road to Recovery Program. Despite the reinstatement, Fike has not competed in NASCAR since.
Motorsports career results
American Open-Wheel racing results
(key)
Infiniti Pro Series
NASCAR
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
Busch Series
Craftsman Truck Series
Busch East Series
ARCA Re/Max Series
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
References
External links
Living people
1982 births
People from Galesburg, Illinois
Racing drivers from Illinois
NASCAR drivers
Indy Lights drivers
American sportspeople in doping cases
Doping cases in auto racing
ARCA Menards Series drivers |
2410126 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis%20Lopez-Fitzgerald | Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald | Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald is a fictional character on the NBC/DirecTV soap opera Passions, portrayed from 1999 to 2008 by original cast member Galen Gering. Debuting in the series' premiere episode, Luis is introduced as an honest, hard-working Irish-Mexican police officer who bitterly blames the wealthy Crane family for his father and elder brother's disappearances. Luis is forced to re-examine his prejudice against the Cranes, however, when he falls in love with the beautiful but willful Sheridan Crane.
Luis and Sheridan's love-hate relationship made the pairing one of the soap's leading supercouples, along with Ethan Winthrop and Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald, early in its run. However, after two failed weddings and the birth of a son, who is subsequently kidnapped by Luis's ex-girlfriend, Luis and Sheridan end their relationship in July 2005. Following the break-up, Luis eventually finds love with Sheridan's niece, Fancy Crane, though their relationship is threatened by Sheridan and Pretty's jealous desire to have Luis for themselves. After Pretty is revealed to be suffering from a serious mental illness and Sheridan reunites with her presumed-deceased first husband, Luis's older brother Antonio, Luis and Fancy marry in July 2008, and Fancy reveals that they are expecting their first baby together in the series finale.
Character history
Early life
Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald was born in Harmony, New England, in the early or mid-1970s to Martin Fitzgerald, an Irish-American employee at Crane Industries, and Pilar Lopez-Fitzgerald, a Mexican immigrant and housekeeper at the Crane mansion. Luis was the second of five children born to the working-class couple — Antonio Brian Lopez-Fitzgerald is about one to three years his senior, while younger siblings Theresa, Miguel, and Paloma Lopez-Fitzgerald are all approximately a decade his junior. Though never wealthy, the Lopez-Fitzgerald brood were a loving, tight-knit family, contrasting the rich but cold Crane family. Pilar raised her children to be proud of their Hispanic heritage, instilling in them her devout Roman Catholic faith, cooking them traditional Mexican dishes, and teaching them Latin dances.
Shortly after the birth of Luis's youngest sister, Paloma, Martin disappeared, leaving Pilar emotionally devastated and struggling to care for five young children on her own. Eventually, she chose to send baby Paloma to live in Mexico with her sister, Maria, and Antonio took on the roles of the man of the house and paternal figure to his younger brothers and sister. Despite his father's absence, Luis continued to flourish; in high school, his excellence in academics and sports made him a popular and well-liked student. Luis dated Beth Wallace during this time, and though the two were deeply in love, Luis feared that he would leave Beth like his father had left his mother and broke up with her.
After graduating from high school, Luis had hopes of attending law school and becoming a lawyer. However, Antonio, too, disappeared shortly after Luis's graduation, and Luis was forced to join the Harmony Police Department and take up the man-of-the-house role that Antonio had abandoned. His unexpected responsibilities embittered Luis, and he came to hate the Cranes for the poor wages they offered his mother, their head housekeeper and Ivy Crane's close confidante, and blame them for his father and brother's disappearances.
Relationship with Sheridan
Initial dislike, 1999–2000
Luis and Sheridan first meet in mid-1999 when Luis pulls Sheridan over for speeding upon her return from Paris. Sheridan is haughty, believing that her status as a Crane will persuade Luis to take a bribe. Luis, however, sees Sheridan as just another Crane believing herself to be above the law and places her in jail, seeking to have her punished to the fullest extent of the law. Sheridan tries to fight the ticket in court, but she loses and is sentenced to six months of community service at the local children's center, of which Luis is head. Sheridan's attempts to bribe her way out of community service are thus dashed; though Luis dislikes spending time with her, he wants her to pay for her crime.
Though Luis and Sheridan's chemistry quickly became obvious to onlookers, the two remained oblivious and reveled in their dislike for one another. While working at the community center, Sheridan began dating Luis's best friend, Hank Bennett, unaware that Hank had become entangled with the French drug cartel. As a result of her relationship with Hank, several of the cartel's hitmen began to target Sheridan. The FBI appointed Luis as Sheridan's private bodyguard, and though both objected to the arrangement, Luis eventually decided to put his job ahead of his personal feelings. Sheridan was unable to do the same, however, and frequently placed herself in dangerous situations while trying to distance herself from Luis.
Just as Luis and Sheridan finally reconcile their feelings for one another, Sheridan is apparently assassinated by one of the cartel's hitmen. Luis is devastated by Sheridan's death, but is overjoyed when, at Christmastime, he discovers that the FBI faked Sheridan's death to thwart her would-be assassins. Free to be together, Luis and Sheridan become engaged.
Engagement and Sheridan's apparent death, 2001-2002
Though Luis and Sheridan are happily in love, Sheridan's father, Alistair, disapproves of their relationship; Alistair fears that Luis will use his position as Sheridan's husband to uncover some of his nefarious business dealings and forbids Sheridan from seeing Luis. Luis and Sheridan defy him, however, and Alistair hires an actor, whom he fits with a mask of Luis's face, to trick Sheridan into believing that Luis is using her only for her money. The pair eventually catch the double but are unable to prove whether Alistair or Sheridan's brother, Julian, had been behind the plot.
Unable to separate the couple, Alistair resorts to murder and laces Sheridan's wedding ring with a quick-acting poison that will be activated by her DNA. The summer 2001 ceremony is a double wedding with Sheridan's step-nephew, Ethan Winthrop, and Luis's younger sister, Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald, however, and Ethan's mother crashes her car into the church, believing that Theresa had revealed his paternity to the tabloids; the wedding is ruined, and Sheridan never puts on her ring. Luis and Sheridan decide to reset their wedding date, but go to their honeymoon in Bermuda anyway.
Determined to end the couple's relationship, Alistair rigs Luis and Sheridan's rented boat with TNT. The boat explodes, and Sheridan's body is later recovered and cremated, leaving Luis devastated. As he grieves, Luis is comforted by his ex-girlfriend, Beth, who is still in love with Luis even though their high school relationship ended several years earlier. The two eventually become engaged, though Luis still pines for Sheridan.
Sheridan's return and marriage to Antonio, 2002–04
Luis discovers that Sheridan is still alive when she returns to Harmony in July 2002 with his once-missing brother, Antonio. After the boat explosion, Antonio, a fisherman living under the name of Brian O'Leary, had rescued Sheridan from the Atlantic Ocean and taken her back to the island of St. Lisa's, where Sheridan had awoken with amnesia and had subsequently become engaged to Antonio. Though Luis is quick to break things off with Beth, Sheridan is reluctant to do so with Antonio; Antonio is slowly dying, and any shock is said to be possibly fatal.
Sheridan remains engaged to Antonio, and Luis reunites with Beth, though Luis and Sheridan carry on a clandestine affair with one another. The couples eventually plan to be married in another double ceremony, and Luis and Sheridan, unable to be without one another, decide to secretly marry at the courthouse. The two miss each other, though, and each believes that the other had gotten cold feet. As a result, Antonio and Sheridan are married on January 9, 2003; before Luis and Beth can be married, Beth's mother, Edna Wallace, suffers a heart attack, and the two call off their engagement.
Sheridan eventually finds herself pregnant and unsure as to whether or not Antonio or Luis has fathered her child. When Beth hears of Sheridan's pregnancy, she drugs Luis and makes him believe that he's slept with her, later claiming that she's become pregnant as a result. Afraid that the baby will unite Sheridan and Luis, Beth kidnaps Sheridan and holds her captive in a pit in her basement until Sheridan gives birth to a son on September 9, 2003. Beth then dumps Sheridan in the harbor and fakes the baby's death so that she can pass the child off as her own. The ruse works, and Luis believes that the boy, whom Beth names Martin Lopez-Fitzgerald, is theirs.
Sheridan feels such a strong connection to Marty, however, that she comes to believe him to be her own son; as a result of her claims, she is placed into a psychiatric ward, where Alistair has her brainwashed into believing that she is in love with Antonio and not Luis. Luis is unable to accept Sheridan's new personality and continually hounds his sister-in-law, eventually leading Antonio and Sheridan to decide to leave town. Just as they are about to leave Harmony, though, Sheridan remembers her love for Luis and leaves Antonio, who decides to leave town anyway. Alistair, believing that Sheridan is on the Crane jet with Antonio, has the airplane blown up, supposedly killing Antonio on June 24, 2004, and making Sheridan a widow. Because Antonio's body is never recovered, though, Sheridan must to go through the lengthy process of having Antonio declared legally dead, and Luis and Sheridan are unable to immediately marry.
Second chance and Marty's maternity, 2004–05
When Pilar is diagnosed with a fatal blood disorder, Luis and Sheridan fly to Puerto Arena, Mexico, to retrieve Luis's youngest sister, Paloma, and bring her back to Harmony to comfort their mother after Antonio's death. There, Luis and Sheridan meet Bob and Ellen Wheeler, who have helped Luis and Paloma's aunt Maria raise Paloma. Paloma is initially unwilling to return to Harmony and only agrees to leave Mexico on the condition that the Wheelers return with her.
Once back in Harmony, Luis eventually discovers that Bob Wheeler is none other than his father, Martin Fitzgerald. Luis is furious with his father for abandoning their family and demands an explanation, but Martin refuses. Martin's reason becomes apparent at Luis and Sheridan's second, and ultimately failed, wedding ceremony in December 2004, when Ellen Wheeler is revealed to be Sheridan's late mother, Katherine Crane. Martin, seeing the abuse that Katherine had suffered as Alistair's wife, helped her to escape her abusive husband, only to realize that he would be killed if he returned to Harmony; the two then became lovers in Mexico. Sheridan is thrilled to have her mother back and wants to bond with her, but Luis objects, furious at Katherine for tearing his family apart.
Sheridan, meanwhile, begins again her claims that Marty is her son and not Beth's. A DNA test is eventually performed, and the results come back showing Beth, not Sheridan, to be Marty's mother. Despite the results, Sheridan continues to claim Marty as her own, but Luis, faced with DNA evidence, sides with Beth. Eventually, it is discovered that Alistair had fathered Beth, making Sheridan and Beth half-sisters — the DNA test had only examined Beth for kinship, not for maternity. Luis and Sheridan set off to reclaim Marty, but Beth flees with the boy; when they catch her at a cabin in the mountains, Luis is unable to shoot her, allowing Beth to escape the country with Marty. Sheridan is furious with Luis for his inability to believe her and ends their relationship. Luis is wracked with guilt and leaves Harmony to search for Marty; at the time, actor Galen Gering and NBC had become engaged in a contract dispute that had nearly caused Gering to leave Passions. Although he eventually re-signed, the writers had been forced to plan for Gering's possible exit and wrote Luis out of the scripts for over seven months. As a result, Luis makes only brief phone appearances in August 2005 before Sheridan and the Lopez-Fitzgeralds are told that Luis has been murdered in Tangier in October.
Search for Marty, 2005–06
Luis does not resurface until March 2006 when Sheridan and Chris Boothe rescue him from a Crane compound in Hawaii that they've believed to house Marty; Alistair had abducted Luis and faked his death. Luis is thrilled to be reunited with Sheridan, and the two are quickly married on March 27. Luis is overjoyed to be free of his prison and reunited with his family, but he is devastated when he learns on April 13 that his marriage to Sheridan is invalid — Sheridan married Chris on February 22. Luis tries to convince Sheridan to leave Chris, but she refuses, explaining that she has become a mother to Chris's young son, James, and is expecting Chris's child. Believing that Sheridan will be forced to leave Chris if he finds Marty, Luis sets off for Rome, where he believes Beth and Marty to be hiding.
In Rome, Luis searches for Marty alongside an unexpected companion - Sheridan's niece, celebutante Fancy Crane. The two become good friends, bonding over their respective relationship woes with Sheridan and Noah Bennett. Luis and Fancy eventually discover that Alistair, who fell into a coma early in the year, is well and plotting to become omnipotent. Luis and Fancy, along with several others, foil Alistair's plot and set out to capture him, Beth, and Marty. Luis, Fancy, and Noah are close to capturing Alistair when a drone airplane appears and fired missiles at a bridge, causing the train that Alistair, Beth, and Marty are traveling in to fall into a ravine and kill them on July 17, 2006. Luis is devastated by his son's death and broken by the fact that he will never be able to win Sheridan back. His guilt is further intensified when Sheridan suffers a miscarriage after learning of Marty's death, and Luis makes plans to leave Harmony.
Relationship with Fancy
Development, 2006
Upon returning to Harmony, Fancy realizes that she has feelings for Luis and, with her aunt's blessing, begins to actively pursue a relationship with him. In furtherance of this goal, she joins the police cadet training program, which is headed by Luis. Luis is annoyed by Fancy's participation, believing that she isn't serious about joining the police force. However, Fancy comes to love police work, and Luis comes to respect her as a cadet. The two become attracted to one another, but, due to police academy rules, are unable to date until she is graduated.
Luis's budding feelings for Fancy are complicated by his lingering love for Sheridan, however. Though she is committed to her marriage, Sheridan has trouble seeing Luis move on, often giving him false hope for their future. Luis finally realizes that he is in love with Fancy, however, when she goes missing in November after pursuing the man that James identified as Chris's shooter and Phyllis's murderer. Sheridan is disturbed by the fervor with which Luis searches for Fancy and drugs his tea; while asleep, however, Luis and Fancy's souls are able to connect, and he realizes that she is in an abandoned mine shaft. As she lie ill from internal injuries and hypothermia, Luis professes his love for her, telling her that "I think you're saving [my life]".
Blackmailer storyline, 2006–07
When she returns to work, Fancy is as determined as ever to prove herself to Luis, her superior, and switches places with another officer, taking part in a sting to catch a peeping tom. The operation fails, however, and Fancy is brutally raped before Luis can arrive and save her. Physically and emotionally traumatized, Fancy falls into a coma, devastating Luis, who stays by her side at Christmas. Fancy awakens in time for the holidays, the Christmas miracle of 2006, but the attack devastates her; Luis, aching for Fancy and furious with her rapist, vows to apprehend her assailant.
Upon returning home, Fancy suffers from terrifying nightmares and becomes convinced that her rapist has returned. In one struggle, she rips one of his buttons from his shirt and drops it to the floor, but Sheridan, by this time consumed by a jealous fury toward the depth of Luis's love for her niece, finds and hides the button and convinces Luis that posttraumatic stress, along with an abuse of alcohol and sedatives, have led Fancy to imagine her attacks, also insinuating that Fancy may have made up the assaults for attention. Fancy is furious at her aunt and confesses to Luis that she overheard one of Sheridan's jealous tirades while comatose, but Luis is unable to believe that his former lover has changed so radically.
When Luis finds Fancy asleep with sliced sheets, he realizes that her attacker has indeed returned. Luis takes Fancy to her "princess room", where he intends to sleep on her couch and protect her during the night. Fancy's attacker injects Luis with a drug, however, which causes him to hallucinate that he is making love to Fancy while the attacker rapes him and collects his semen. After dragging Luis away, the attacker then rapes Fancy for a second time, during which time he inseminates her with Luis's semen. Chad and Whitney hear Fancy screaming and find her alone but bruised, and when they search the mansion for her attacker, they find Luis, unconscious and dressed as Fancy's assailant, in the kitchen pantry.
At the hospital, doctors perform a rape kit on Fancy and find Luis's semen. Because Luis and Fancy admitted earlier that they have not consummated their relationship, Luis is arrested for Fancy's rape and then released on bail. The two believe that they have found proof of Luis's innocence when Rae Thomas claims to have information about Fancy's attacker, but the attacker murders Rae and frames Luis, who is arrested and held in jail.
Luis awakens in his cell one night to find his door open and his clothing reeking of gasoline; fearing that he is about to be set up for something, he heads off to the home of Dylan Flood, a Blue Note bartender to whom Rae had left some information about Fancy's rapist. By the time Luis arrives, however, Dylan is dead, and the attacker has set fire to the apartment. Harmony Police are called to the scene, and they see Luis inside and believe him to be the arsonist. When a box of ammunition explodes in the heat, Fancy, unaware that the apparent arsonist is Luis, returns fire and shoots Luis. Though Luis makes a full recovery, he is charged with arson and an additional count of murder.
Due to the Blackmailer's machinations, Luis is tried jointly with his brother, Miguel, despite the fact that Miguel's charge of striking Fox Crane with his car is unrelated. Fancy provides Luis with helpful testimony on the stand, but a jealous Sheridan destroys her niece's credibility while simultaneously admitting that she still wants Luis for herself. Luis is convicted on all five counts and becomes furious with Sheridan for her antics.
Luis, hoping to spare Fancy the pain of seeing him in prison, removes her name from the visitors list. Fancy is determined to be with Luis, however, and disguises herself as a quasi-lesbian prison guard, thus allowing her to both see and protect Luis from the prison's violent guards. The two are about to have sex in the prison infirmary when Sheridan sees a live feed on Fancy's laptop of the two and calls the warden. Fancy is ejected from the prison, and Judge Reilly orders that Luis be executed as soon as possible.
Though only able to see Luis as a visitor, Fancy is able to bribe her way into the prison late in June, when she and Luis finally consummate their relationship. Luis's time is quickly running out, however, and the Blackmailer continues to elude all who seek him. By late July, all of Luis's appeals have been denied and his execution is imminent. Desperate to savor their remaining time together, Fancy proposes to Luis, and he accepts. They are set to be married in early August, but Fancy's younger sister, Pretty, returns to Harmony just as Fancy is prepared to walk down the aisle in a double wedding with Noah and Paloma. Pretty blames her sister for an accident that left Pretty permanently disfigured on the right side of her face, and she threatens to tell Luis about what Fancy did. Earlier, Pilar had begged Fancy to let Luis die believing in his "angel", so Fancy cancels the nuptials.
Luis is executed on August 6, but Endora Lenox, saddened by her half-sister's loss, turns back time inside the execution chamber so that Eve Russell can confess that her long-lost son with Julian, Vincent Clarkson, is the mysterious blackmailer who murdered Rae and Dylan, set fire to Dylan's apartment, and twice raped Fancy, his own half-sister. Vincent is arrested, and Luis is freed, much to the joy of Fancy and his family.
Complications and resolution, 2007–08
Shortly after his release from prison, Pretty tells Luis that Fancy threw pool chemicals in her face in a purposeful attempt to scar her. Luis doesn't believe Pretty until Fancy confirms the story, though she denies that the attack is intentional. Fancy tries to break up with Luis, afraid that the so-called "Crane curse" will cause her to harm Luis, but Luis convinces her that such fears are unsubstantiated, and they continue their relationship.
Their relationship quickly becomes complicated, however, when Sheridan presents Luis proof that Marty, now aged to seven years, is still alive. Sheridan, hoping to drive a wedge between Luis and Fancy, forbids Luis from telling Fancy about Marty under the guise of preventing Alistair from discovering what they know. Luis's secretive behavior and magic-induced trysts with Sheridan, coupled with Fancy's random and violent outbursts caused by the mind control chip that Alistair implanted in her brain, creates so much strain on their relationship that Fancy breaks things off.
Although miserable without Fancy, Luis is determined to find Marty; when he receives word that he will have to give up his life in order to get Marty back, he goes to a basement and prepares to do so. However, all he finds there is Fancy's younger sister Pretty, who is working with Alistair to break up Luis and Fancy. Alistair tells Luis that he will have to impregnate Pretty in order to gain their freedom, which he reluctantly does, despite the fact that Pretty is a virgin. Fancy and Sheridan eventually find Luis and Pretty, and Fancy is horrified by Luis's actions.
On Christmas Eve, in a last-ditch attempt to recover her daughter, Tabitha Lenox performs good magic on Luis and Fancy, on whom she previously cast spells to make them have sex with Sheridan and Noah, respectively, allowing Fancy to overcome her reservations and reunite with Luis. Luis also receives a second miracle that night; Alistair returns Marty to Sheridan's cottage. Luis is thrilled to be reunited with his son, and looks forward to becoming a family with Fancy and Marty.
Pretty, however, falls in love with Luis after their tryst and seeks to destroy her sister and win Luis. Using Alistair's mind-control device, she forces Fancy to lash out at Luis and Sheridan and to scare young Marty, infuriating Luis. Still, Luis is determined to understand what is wrong with Fancy and refuses to give up on her, even after finding her kissing Noah on the wharf. Eventually, Luis comes to realize that something is desperately wrong with Fancy when she begins running into walls and barking like a dog on the wharf, and when she stops breathing, it is his declaration of love that brings her back. Pretty plans to have Fancy murder Paloma, but Sheridan, discovers Pretty's plot, and throws the mind-control remote into the ocean, causing the device in Fancy's nose to short-circuit and fall out. With her free will returned to her, Luis and Fancy are able to reunite once more, which also leads to a reconciliation with Sheridan.
After reuniting, Fancy begins thinking about having a baby with Luis. Although she is eager to become pregnant immediately, Luis is hesitant, preferring to fully recover from the past few months' drama before fathering a second child; Fancy understands but privately fears that Luis believes that her violent mood swings will return. During this time, Pretty decided to fake a pregnancy to rip her sister's relationship apart. Fancy is devastated by the news, fearing that her relationship will be torn apart by Luis's families with her sister and aunt, but Luis vows that Fancy is the only one for him, proposing to her on April 30. Fancy and Luis eventually discover Pretty's treachery, and after Pretty tries to scar Fancy's face with acid, Sheridan reveals that Pretty's scar has been fake all along. Luis and Fancy quickly realize that the youngest Crane child is mentally unwell, and Pretty is sent to a mental institution. The couple are deeply upset by Pretty's plight, but are also happy to be free of her machinations, and begin planning for their imminent wedding. Fancy and Luis are married on July 23, and Fancy tells Luis that they are expecting a baby in the series finale.
See also
Lopez-Fitzgerald family
Crane family
References and footnotes
External links
PASSIONS CAST - LUIS LOPEZ-FITZGERALD at Soaps.com
Who's Who in Harmony: Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald at Soap Central
Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald Cast Bio at NBC
Soap Star Stats: Galen Gering at Soap Opera Digest
Passions characters
Fictional bodyguards
Male characters in television
Fictional police detectives
Television characters introduced in 1999 |
3501669 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin%20Burton | Justin Burton | Justin Burton is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera, Hollyoaks, played by Chris Fountain. Justin arrived in 2003 and departed on 3 June 2009. Justin arrived in a family of six, however by September 2006, the Burton family had left the show. It was announced in March 2009 that Fountain had decided to leave the show and would depart in a 'major storyline which echoes the fire which killed his sisters'. Fountain was credited in a flashback episode broadcast on 1 December 2010.
Storylines
Justin arrives with his mother Liz, identical twin sisters Mel and Sophie, Liz's partner Richard Taylor and his children Darlene and Ali. Justin often rivals with the pair and always finds it hard to accept the Taylor clan as part of his family. Justin's world is torn apart after he discovers that his father had committed suicide, as Justin thought he died of a heart attack. Feeling confused of why his father had done this and angry that his mother had hid the truth, Justin's behaviour goes out of control as he begins to take drugs and skips school. Justin starts stealing from his family to pay for his drug habit and his bad attitude begins to unsettle the family. Justin starts to hang around the wrong crowd, including his new best friend, Macki, who Justin buys his drugs from. Macki encourages Justin to distract the others in their class including Justin's stepbrother Ali and his friend Nicole Owen. It is not long before his actions take a serious effect. During Darlene’s 18th birthday, Justin pushes her through a window which leaves her face scarred. Liz tries to force him to apologise so Justin hits her. This leaves Liz with no choice and she forces Justin to go to a boot camp. When he arrives, Justin makes friends with a girl called Paula. The pair start to rebel against the camp counsellors. One of the counsellors reads a letter Darlene had written about Justin. He slowly learns about the mistakes he made and realises he has to do a lot of making up to his family. Justin returns home and tries to convince his family that he has changed for the better, but they need more evidence. Gradually, Justin begins to gain his family's trust He builds a close relationship with Ali and he also contributes money towards Darlene’s plastic surgery for her scar. Justin begins developing a crush on his teacher Becca Dean when she starts helping him with his GCSEs.
Justin stays out of trouble until Macki tries to get him to hang around with him again. Justin refuses so he can hang around with Ali. Macki starts to bully Justin and Ali. He is racist towards Ali and tries to frame Justin for a fire he starts in the school. Macki takes a picture of Justin trying to stop him turning on the gas taps before the science laboratory blows up. Macki sends the pictures to Becca. Justin manages to convince her not to report him until he could clear his name and he eventually finds evidence to support his claims and manages to get Macki expelled from school. The next term, Macki returns to school and wants revenge. The bullying gets worse and Macki gets Justin beaten up by his friends. Justin and Ali decide to keep the bullying to themselves. Justin buys a knife as the bullying get out of hand. Richard finds the knife and confiscates it. Ali finally has enough of the bullying and finds the knife. He leaves in search of Macki. Ali finds him and offers a one-on-one fight. Ali leads Macki off to a quiet area. Justin discovers the knife is missing and, with the help of Darlene, they go off in search of Ali. Ali turns his back on Macki, picks up a brick. Justin arrives and shouts to Ali to watch out for Macki and the brick. Ali turns around quickly and accidentally stabs Macki. Justin urges Ali to run as he takes the knife. Ali then runs across the road without looking and gets hit by a car. Darlene turns up just at the same moment. She calls an ambulance. Justin hides the knife in the toilets at the hospital. Justin is informed that both Macki and Ali died. Justin returns to get the knife and he is arrested for Macki's murder. Justin tries to tell the police that Ali killed Macki in self-defence but they do not believe him. Darlene does not want to believe her brother is a murderer and accuses Justin of lying. Justin is remanded to a youth detention centre, where he is bullied by his cellmate. Justin is beaten up and ends up having to go to the dentist to fix his teeth. While there, he sees a chance to leave and he escapes.
He makes contact with Becca who tries to convince him to turn himself in, Justin is almost caught. Mel and Sophie give Justin some supplies and he is almost caught again. Justin approaches Nicole and asks her to get him food. Nicole assumes they are going to run off together and when she finds out Justin does not love her, she calls the police. They arrest Justin and he goes back to prison to await trial, where he is visited in secret by Becca. At the trial, Macki's friends make out that Justin bullied them and Macki, however, Justin's lawyer shows the court a video on Macki's phone showing his gang beating up Ali. The prosecution put Justin's cellmate on the stand and he tells the court that Justin confessed to Macki's murder. Nicole and Becca are put on the stand, and the prosecution insinuate that Becca is having an affair with Justin. Darlene sees the video of Macki's gang beating up Ali and realises that Ali killed Macki. Darlene then lies in court that she had seen Ali stabbing Macki. The jury find Justin not guilty and he is freed from prison.
Justin sets out to win Becca's love. Nicole tells the school she slept with Justin. Justin tells her it's in her head. Becca confronts Justin about his treatment of Nicole. Justin asks her if she is jealous and they end up sleeping together on Christmas Day 2005. Jealous over her marriage to Jake Dean, Justin begins a relationship with Becca's sister, Nancy to make Becca jealous. Justin and Becca continue their affair. Becca becomes pregnant and is unsure over the baby's paternity. Becca ends her and Justin's relationship after Grace Hutchinson dies and she decides to stay with Jake to raise the baby together rather than run away with Justin. Nicole finds out about the affair and tells Nancy, who then tells Jake. Jake attacks Justin. News of their affair spreads around the village. Justin and Becca continue their relationship and he moves in with Becca and Nancy after Liz moves to Colchester. Justin and Becca get into financial troubles when Becca is fired from her teaching job for sleeping with a student. They live off of Justin's child benefits and his income from a part-time job at Il Gnosh. Becca gets a job at a fast food restaurant.
The relationship becomes rocky when Justin befriends Sonny Valentine. Becca realises how immature Justin is and feels he is not ready to be a father to her baby. Justin's behaviour becomes worse after Mel and Sophie die in a fire caused by Sam Owen. Justin discovers that Sophie's boyfriend, Russ Owen was sleeping with Mercedes McQueen when Sophie died. Justin's behaviour spirals out of control and he vandalises a mural painted by Nancy's boyfriend, Foz for those who died in the fire. Justin waits outside the Student Ball with Sonny for Russ to show so they can beat him up, but when Kris Fisher tries to get them to leave, he takes out his frustration on him. Sonny runs off, while Justin is arrested and spends a night in the cells at the police station. Justin proposes to Becca just as she is thinking about dumping him. Feeling sorry for him after his sisters' death, she accepts.
Becca dumps Justin after he threatens Jake after seeing him and Becca discussing their divorce. Enraged at being dumped, Justin gets revenge by filing a case against Becca for having sex with a minor. Everyone turns against Justin and he is kidnapped by Jake, who does not want his child to be born in prison. Justin escapes and testifies against Becca but decides not to report Jake. Becca is found guilty and is sentenced to two years in prison where she gives birth to a boy named Charlie. During Becca's trial, Justin moves in with the Valentines and Sonny's sister Sasha falls for Justin. Justin and Sasha share a kiss, although he has no true feelings for her. Justin builds up a friendship with Sonny's father Leo and the two start drinking and gambling together. This makes Sonny's brother, Calvin angry as Justin tells him he will spend time looking for a new job and home. He goes back to smoking cannabis and when Calvin finds his stash, Sasha lies and tells him it is hers. Justin sleeps with Sasha, who is under-age. Sasha wants a relationship with Justin but he refuses telling her she is too young. Becca decides to let Charlie live with Jake. Justin grows jealous when he sees Charlie with Jake. Later, Justin sees Jake's car unlocked outside Drive N' Buy. He and Sonny take it joyriding and discover Charlie in the back. Justin holds him in his arms and realises that he is Charlie's father. Justin asks Jake for a paternity test. When the results return, Jake does not open it but tells his family that he is Charlie's father. He then gets rid of the letter.
Justin is befriended by local gangster Warren Fox, who is running The Loft with Clare Cunningham. Warren gives Justin a job. A drunken Justin confesses to Warren that he lied about Becca sleeping with him when he was 15. Warren is disgusted and forces Justin to confess to the police. They start procedures to release Becca. Becca ends up in a fight with her cellmate, who then pulls out a knife and stabs her. Becca is rushed to hospital but sadly dies. Justin, unaware of her death, asks Jake how Becca was doing, Jake turns to him and tells him she was killed. Justin tries to apologise to Nancy. Angry that he caused Becca's death, Nancy attacks Justin. At Becca's funeral, Jake bursts into the Valentine home and plans to kill Justin, but Calvin stops him in time, as Justin discover that Beeca's true love was Jake, and didn't love him, and was devastated. Feeling guilty, Justin goes to Mel and Sophie's graves and tells them that he has nothing in his life now.
Justin is thrown out of the Valentine's when Louise Summers, Becca's best friend, moves in with boyfriend Calvin. She insists Justin moves out, Justin is taken in by Warren. Justin finds himself caught up in a feud between Warren and Clare. When Warren goes to Spain, Clare seduces Justin in an attempt to get him on her side and get information on Warren. She finds Sean Kennedy's wallet while snooping in Warren's flat. Clare becomes suspicious over the whereabouts of Sean. Justin lies to Warren that someone had taken the wallet. Clare gives Warren the wallet back. She becomes even more suspicious. Warren finds out about Clare and Justin sleeping together, he takes a terrified Justin out into the woods and tells him to dig. Justin believes he is digging his own grave and that Warren will kill him. Warren reveals that he is digging up Sean's body and wants Justin to dig it up for him and throw it in a river. Justin does what Warren asks because if he does not, Warren will kill him. Shaken Justin tells Warren he will not tell anyone about Sean's murder.
A new girl arrives in the village who Justin takes an instant like to. Unfortunately she turns out to be Warren's sister Katy Fox. Justin tries to avoid Katy but they end up dating secretly. Katy talks to Louise Summers about her relationship but is upset when Louise tells her about Justin's role in Becca's death. After speaking to Justin about it, Katy sees that Justin has changed and is willing to give their relationship a second chance. However, Clare finds out about the relationship and tells Warren, who beats Justin up.
Justin and Katy plan to run away together away from Warren. They arrange to meet on the same night of Mercedes McQueen's hen night. Justin returns to Warren's flat to retrieve Mel's bracelet. Justin hides behind the sofa as Warren sleeps with Mercedes. Justin slips out of the flat unnoticed. The same night, Clare is pushed from The Loft balcony in an attempt on her life. Shortly after Clare's attack, Justin is hit by a van in front of Katy near the train station. In hospital, Warren admits he was driving the van, having discovered Justin and Katy's plan to run away after finding Justin's mobile phone and reading text messages from Katy. Katy stays with Justin while he recovers in hospital. When he is released, Justin and Katy depart Hollyoaks together.
Justin has to return to Hollyoaks with Katy to be told what will happen to him for lying in court about Becca. The police drop the charges. Justin and Katy go to The Loft where Nancy is with her friends. Justin tells her that he thinks about Becca every day. Nancy attempts to slap him but instead hits Katy. Justin tells Katy that no-one, not even Becca, could replace her. Justin continues to live with Louise, who moved in with them, and Katy as Warren faces trial for supposedly pushing Clare. Katy tries to convince Justin to testify on Warrens behalf. Justin comes up with an excuse for him to leave. He tells Katy his mother is ill ad leaves. On his return, he discovers that Warren was released. On Katy's birthday, Louise, Warren, Justin and Katy go for a meal at Il Gnosh. Warren announces that he and Louise plan to buy The Loft from Clare and asks Justin to work for him. Justin refuses but later they talk and decide for Katy's sake they will work together. Clare is made to sign over The Loft and prepares to leave Hollyoaks. Clare tells Justin that he is as worthless as his sisters. Justin then follows her outside and tells her that it was not fair that she survived the fall, while Sophie and Mel had died. He then reveals to Clare that he was the one who pushed her. He tells her he had returned to The Loft to steal money after leaving Warren's flat and overheard Clare's argument with OB, where she bragged that Mel would still be alive if it was not for her and claimed that Mel and Sophie's deaths were "two for the price of one."
Justin accepts the manager job at The Loft. During a party, Justin receives a text from who he thinks was Katy saying that she has bumped into an old friend and that she will be along to the club later. Justin and Warren return home and find the flat trashed but no sign of Katy. Justin, Warren and Max Cunningham search for Katy and receive a phone call from Clare. Clare tells Warren that she has Katy to punish Justin because he pushed her over the balcony. Justin sees Warren's face, realises he knows it is his fault Warren was in prison and Katy has been taken, and runs away. Warren and Max rush after him. Warren catches Justin and gets another call from Clare who tells Warren to kill Justin and she would give Katy back. Warren pretends to kill Justin. Clare wants proof so asks Warren to kick the "body". Warren kicks him but Clare asks Max to kick him. Max knows he cannot so Justin gets up and runs to save Katy. Clare drives towards him and runs him over and drives off. Warren, Max and Justin drive after her. Clare skids past bikers and plummets over a quarry into water. Warren and Justin jump in after Katy, who they rescue. Max jumps in to save Clare but watches as she vanishes beneath the water. Unbeknownst to them, Clare survives and leaves for an unknown destination.
Katy's near death experience not only destroys all her trust in Justin. Justin becomes depressed and has failed attempts to make it up to her. Katy is invited to a party in the Halls of Residence. Before, Danny Valentine does some maintenance on a gas pipe. At the party, the gas begins to leak and everyone falls unconscious. Justin decides to apologise to Katy and finds everyone unconscious. Justin pulls Katy to safety as everyone else gets out. Katy decides to give Justin another chance. She tells Warren that she still loves Justin and they ware back together. In January 2008, Charlie is revealed to have an acute form of leukaemia. Nancy and Jake plead with doctors to run tests to see if either of them are eligible to donate bone marrow to Charlie. The doctors discover that Jake cannot donate bone marrow as he is not Charlie's biological father, confirming that Justin is in fact Charlie's dad. Nancy finds Justin and tells him he is Charlie's dad and that he has leukaemia. Justin goes to the hospital and is found to be a perfect match for a bone marrow transplant, however, he is scared. Justin meets his son and cries with happiness. He tells Katy he is happy that something still exists of his relationship with Becca. Nancy and Jake break up on their wedding night after he tries to rape her. Nancy begs Justin to help her fight for custody of Charlie, Justin refuses. Justin tells Nancy that he cannot help her get custody because everything with him lying about Becca will be brought up and they will lose. Justin visits Charlie and tells him he will be better off without him.
In February, Nancy asks him again but Justin refuses. After witnessing and argument between Jake and Nancy, Justin goes to see her and tells her he is scared of getting close to Charlie and then losing him like Ali, Mel, Sophie and Becca. After noticing how cruel Jake is to Nancy, Justin tells her he will not let a monster like Jake raise his son and he will join her fight for custody. Due to Justin being busy with Charlie, Katy begins feeling rejected and gets closer to Zak Ramsey. Katy and Zak end up kissing. Justin apologises to a guilty Katy for not being there enough for her. Brought together with Charlie's leukaemia and custody battle, Justin and Nancy share a kiss and end up sleeping together, at the same time Katy is sleeping with Zak. Justin does not tell Katy he is helping Nancy get custody. He tells her he is going to fix a leak at Il Gnosh and leaves for Nancy's. At court, Justin tells Nancy that no judge will let a sick child be looked after by Jake. Nancy and Jake go into court and Justin sits outside with Jack and Frankie. Justin talks with Jack and Frankie asks him why he is even there. Jake begins to wind up Nancy in court and verbally abuses her with Frankie outside, Nancy runs off and Justin follows. Justin returns home where Katy asks him where he has been. He continues to tell her he was a t Il Gnosh but she reveals she went there and he was not there. Justin tells her the truth. She is disappointed but they make up.
Jake realises he is going to lose the custody battle and kidnaps Charlie. In his car, Jake tries to kill himself and Charlie. Justin and Katy rush to Nancy's and find Jake lying on the floor, Charlie in his cot and a panicking Nancy, who believes she has killed Jake. The paramedics turn up and Jake is nowhere to be seen. In April, Louise finds Katy in Zak's bed. She exposes their affair to Warren. Katy is furious to discover Warren killed Sean and also when Louise agrees to be an alibi for Warren on the night of Sean's death. Katy wants Warren to hand himself into the police and pay for his crimes. She verbally attacks both Warren and Louise, before hitting him. Justin catches Katy and Zak kissing each other in the student Halls, and flees, devastated while Katy calls after him. Katy and Justin talk as he decides to take her back. Katy realises she loves Justin and Zak so leaves in a taxi. Louise and Warren then stop the taxi and confront her. Katy tells Warren and Louise she can never forgive them and she hates them. She then leaves for good. The day after Katy's departure, heartbroken Justin moves back in with the Valentines.
Justin befriends Ste Hay and moves into his flat. Leila Roy develops a crush on Justin and accidentally knocks him over which gives him slight memory loss. Leila visits Justin in hospital and tells him she is his girlfriend. Ste is shocked as he does not think she is Justin's type, however, Justin reveals he has his memory back and he starts to make her do his washing and shopping. Justin tells Leila he knows she lied. The pair make up and agree to be friends. Leila gets Justin a job at the SU Bar. Justin begins to be jealous when Leila starts a relationship with Gilly Roach. At a fashion show at the SU bar, Justin is speechless at the sight of Leila while she walks down the runway in a bikini. Justin sees Leila breaking up with Gilly and takes the opportunity to ask her out, instead Leila turns him down saying the only reason he is asking her out is because he is shallow.
Leila calls on Justin's help to paint a portrait of her family to cover up her studying Art instead of Law, which her father, Govinda, thinks she is doing. Justin paints it and sneaks out with the painting in order for Leila to paint on herself, however, Govinda catches him but instead of being angry, Gov is happy his daughter is doing something she loves and tells Justin all he has done, is shown how much he cares for Leila, mistaking him for her boyfriend. Justin and Leila return to the halls where they share a kiss and begin a relationship.
Leila and Justin's relationship started to die. Justin began to notice feelings for Hannah Ashworth at Josh Ashworth and Sasha Valentine's double 18th party at The Loft. Justin and Hannah kiss behind the bar at the SU Bar in April. Hannah's boyfriend, Ash catches the pair kissing, however does not say anything. Justin and Ash begin to compete for Hannah's affections and Ash challenges Justin to a bike race. Justin spends a week preparing an old bike and nearly pulls out, however he turns up for the race. Ash tampers with Justin's bike so he will not win. Hannah decides to have a go on Justin's bike and sets off. Ash tries to stop her but she ends up crashing and ends up in hospital. Ash tells Hannah's family that he saw Justin tampering with the bike. When questioned by Calvin Valentine, Ash admits that he did not actually see Justin tamper with the bike. Leila discovers Ash is responsible for the accident and sneaks Justin into Hannah's hospital room so he can tell her. Hannah does not believe Justin and throws him out. Suzanne asks Ash what he said to the police about Justin. He is forced to tell her he did not tell the police he saw Justin tamper with the bike. He then covers up by telling her Hannah has not been eating. When Hannah finds out, she realises Ash tampered with the bike and breaks up with him. Hannah apologises to Justin and tells him Ash told her family that she was not eating. Ash gets a call from the police informing him that the investigation has been dropped. Ash begs Hannah not to go to the police. Ravi Roy hears Ash's confession and he is horrified by what his brother had done and punches him. Hannah tells Justin she wants to be with him, however he is still angry with her for not believing him. With the help of McFly, Justin and Hannah finally get together when they make up.
Justin is invited to a meal with the Ashworths, however he feels guilty when he punches Rhys. Ash decides to make the Ashworths think Hannah is having a relapse of her anorexia by hiding food in her room. The Ashworths then think Justin is to blame. Justin and Hannah decide to leave Hollyoaks. He is approached by Warren, who tells him he will give him money if he gives him an alibi as they burn down The Loft. Hannah discovers Justin is doing a deal with Warren. He tells her it is one deal and they can leave. Justin heads to The Loft. On his way, he meets Calvin, who warns him to stay away. Calvin does not tell him that Clare is back and has tied Warren up and poured petrol around The Loft. Justin changes his mind and heads back to his flat, on the way he is seen by Sasha Valentine. Hannah waits at Justin and Ste's flat with her bags. Hannah realises Justin is at The Loft and leaves to find him.
Hannah enters The Loft but is knocked out by Clare, who assumes it was Justin. She comes round and attacks Clare, who drops the match setting The Loft on fire. Hannah and Clare fight and crash through the banister and drop to the floor below. Justin rushes from his flat to The Loft, which he and Ste discover is on fire. Justin enters The Loft. Justin finds Warren tied to a chair and begins to untie him with Hannah nowhere to be seen. Warren tells Justin that Hannah is not in The Loft until he hears Hannah's cries for help and realises that Warren has lied. Justin rushes to Hannah's aid and finds her at the bottom of the stairs not being able to move. He tries to go down the stairs but they collapse. Justin jumps down and picks her up. Justin pleads with Calvin on the other side of the door to unlock it. He finally does and Justin gets Hannah out. An ambulance arrives, however Ste tells Justin she is dead as the paramedics struggle to revive her. Sasha then accuses Justin of starting the fire as she saw him outside before. Justin then runs away, thinking Hannah is dead. Justin goes to Mel and Sophie's graves, where he is joined by Russ. Russ informs Justin that Hannah did actually survive the fire and is recovering in hospital. Justin goes to visit her but her family believe he is responsible for the fire even after she tells them that it was Clare. Josh helps Hannah leave hospital without being seen to pack a bag and leave with Justin. Justin and Hannah meet in the cemetery and she tells him that she wants to go with him. Justin is wary knowing that she will have to leave her family and go on the run, something he could never ask her to do. He tells Hannah he loves her and to say goodbye to his sisters. Justin leaves and hides behind a wall when he hears a car pull up. Russ comes out of the car and approaches him. Russ, who has taken his son Max from Jacqui McQueen offers him a lift. The pair get in the car and drive off, leaving Hannah devastated.
Reception
Chris Fountain has been nominated for various awards including 'Sexiest Male' at The British Soap Awards in 2006, 2007 and 2009. In 2008, Fountain won the award for 'Best Actor', an award he had been nominated for in 2006 and 2007. In 2006, Justin and Becca's affair won 'Best Storyline'. He was also nominated for 'Best Actor' in the 2007 and 2009 Inside Soap Awards.
References
External links
Character profile at E4.com
Character profile at Channel4.com
Character profile at Hollyoaks.com
Character profile at What's on TV
Character profile at the Internet Movie Database
Hollyoaks characters
Television characters introduced in 2003
Fictional criminals in soap operas
Male characters in television
Male villains |
3558437 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph%20Magliocco | Joseph Magliocco | Joseph Magliocco (born Giuseppe Magliocco; ; June 29, 1898 – December 28, 1963), also known as "Joe Malayak" and "Joe Evil Eye", was an Italian-born New York mobster and the boss of the Profaci crime family (later to become the Colombo crime family) from 1962 to 1963. In 1963, Magliocco participated in an audacious attempt to kill other family bosses and take over the Mafia Commission. The attempt failed, and, while his life was spared, he was forced into retirement. Soon after, he died of a heart attack on December 28, 1963.
Background
Magliocco was born in Portella di Mare, a frazione in the comune of Misilmeri, in the province of Palermo, in Sicily. Magliocco's nickname, "Joe Malayak," came from the word Maluk, which meant "ruler". Despite weighing over 300 pounds, Magliocco was described as being very energetic and decisive in his work and physical gestures, someone who exuded danger and confidence.
Magliocco lived on a six-acre waterfront estate in East Islip, New York. He was the silent partner in a liquor company, Alpine Wine and Liquor, and a linen company, Arrow Linen Supply. In 1963, it was suspected that Magliocco was using his clout to force bars and restaurants to buy from both companies. According to Joseph Bonanno, Magliocco was an excellent Italian chef and loved to eat.
Magliocco's son, Ambrose Magliocco, was a capo. Magliocco's second cousin and brother-in-law was mob boss Joseph Profaci, founder of the Profaci crime family. Magliocco was an in-law of consigliere and underboss Salvatore Mussachio, related by marriage to Buffalo crime family boss Stefano Magaddino, and uncle to the wife of Bonanno crime family founder Joseph Bonanno.
Early years
As a young man, Magliocco became involved in illegal gambling and union racketeering.
On December 5, 1928, Magliocco and Profaci attended a meeting of New York mobsters at the Statler Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio. The main topic was dividing the Brooklyn territory of the recently murdered boss Salvatore D'Aquila without causing a gang war. By the end of the meeting, Profaci had received a share of the open territory, and named Magliocco as his second-in-command—a post he would hold for the next 34 years. When the Cleveland Police raided the meeting, Magliocco was briefly detained on an illegal weapons charge.
In 1931, the Castellammarese War began in New York between two powerful Italian-American gangs. Both Profaci and Magliocco attempted to stay neutral during this conflict. By the end of 1931, the war was over and the New York gangs were divided into five crime families supervised by a Mafia Commission. Profaci and Magliocco were confirmed as boss and underboss, respectively, of what was now known as the Profaci crime family.
Colombo War
In 1957, Magliocco was arrested with 60 other mobsters who were attending the Apalachin Conference, a national mob meeting in Apalachin, New York. On January 13, 1960, Magliocco and 21 others were convicted of conspiracy and he was sentenced to five years in prison. However, on November 28, 1960, a United States Court of Appeals overturned the verdicts.
On February 27, 1961 the Gallos led by Joe Gallo, kidnapped four of Profaci's top men: underboss Magliocco, Frank Profaci (Joe Profaci's brother), capo Salvatore Musacchia and soldier John Scimone. Profaci himself eluded capture and flew to sanctuary in Florida. While holding the hostages, Larry and Albert Gallo sent Joe Gallo to California. The Gallos demanded a more favorable financial scheme for the hostages' release. Gallo wanted to kill one hostage and demand $100,000 before negotiations, but his brother Larry overruled him. After a few weeks of negotiation, Profaci made a deal with the Gallos. Profaci's consigliere Charles "the Sidge" LoCicero negotiated with the Gallos and all the hostages were released peacefully. However, Profaci had no intention of honoring this peace agreement. On August 20, 1961 Joseph Profaci ordered the murder of Gallo members Joseph "Joe Jelly" Gioielli and Larry Gallo. Gunmen allegedly murdered Gioilli after inviting him to go fishing. Larry Gallo survived a strangulation attempt in the Sahara club of East Flatbush by Carmine Persico and Salvatore "Sally" D'Ambrosio after a police officer intervened. The Gallo brothers had been previously aligned with Persico against Profaci and his loyalists; The Gallos then began calling Persico "The Snake" after he had betrayed them. the war continued on resulting in nine murders and three disappearances. With the start of the gang war, the Gallo crew retreated to the Dormitory.
Family boss
On June 6, 1962, Profaci died of liver cancer and Magliocco became the family boss. However, the Mafia Commission did not endorse him as the new family leader.
Afraid that the other New York families viewed him as weak, Magliocco increased the tempo of violence against the Gallo faction. In turn, car bombs, drive-by shootings, and other murder attempts were made against Magliocco men such as Carmine Persico and his enforcer, Hugh McIntosh. In 1963, with the jailing of Gallo and several associates, the hostilities temporarily ended.
Commission plot
In 1963, Joseph Bonanno, the head of the Bonanno crime family, made plans to assassinate several rivals on the Mafia Commission—bosses Tommy Lucchese, Carlo Gambino, and Stefano Magaddino, as well as Frank DeSimone. Bonanno sought Magliocco's support, and Magliocco readily agreed. Not only was he bitter from being denied a seat on the Commission, but Bonanno and Profaci had been close allies for over 30 years prior to Profaci's death. Bonanno's audacious goal was to take over the Commission and make Magliocco his right hand man.
Magliocco was assigned the task of killing Lucchese and Gambino, and gave the contract to one of his top hit men, Joseph Colombo. However, the opportunistic Colombo revealed the plot to its targets. The other bosses quickly realized that Magliocco could not have planned this himself. Remembering how close Bonanno was with Magliocco (and before him, Profaci), as well as their close ties through marriages, the other bosses concluded Bonanno was the real mastermind.
The Commission summoned Bonanno and Magliocco to explain themselves. Fearing for his life, Bonanno went into hiding in Montreal, leaving Magliocco to deal with the Commission. Badly shaken and in failing health, Magliocco confessed his role in the plot. The Commission spared Magliocco's life, but forced him to retire as Profaci family boss and pay a $50,000 fine. As a reward for turning on his boss, Colombo was awarded the Profaci family.
Death
On December 28, 1963, Joseph Magliocco died of a heart attack at Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip, New York. Magliocco is buried in Saint Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York.
In 1969, the authorities exhumed Magliocco's body to determine if he had been poisoned. This action was taken based on FBI phone tapings in which DeCavalcante crime family boss Sam DeCavalcante suggested that Joseph Bonanno poisoned Magliocco. However, no traces of poison were found in the body and it was re-interred at Saint Charles.
In popular culture
Magliocco was portrayed by Michael Rispoli in the second season of the 2019 TV series Godfather of Harlem.
References
Further reading
Bonanno, Bill, Bound by Honor: A Mafioso's Story. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999.
Capeci, Jerry, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002.
Cirules, Enrique The Mafia in Havana: A Caribbean Mob Story. Melbourne: Ocean Press, 2004.
Bureau of Narcotics, U.S. Treasury Department, "Mafia: the Government's Secret File on Organized Crime, HarperCollins Publishers 2007
1898 births
1963 deaths
Bosses of the Colombo crime family
American gangsters of Sicilian descent
People from Castellammare del Golfo
Colombo crime family
People from East Islip, New York
Burials at Saint Charles Cemetery |
3646886 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason%20Jones%20%28actor%29 | Jason Jones (actor) | Jason Pierre Jones (born June 3, 1967) is a Canadian actor and comedian. He was a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 2005 to 2015. From 2016-2019, Jones starred in the TBS comedy series The Detour, which he created with his wife, Samantha Bee.
Personal life
Jones was born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario. He attended Hill Park Secondary School and then Ryerson Theatre School in Toronto. Jones is married to Samantha Bee, the host of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee and fellow former The Daily Show correspondent, with whom he has three children: daughter Piper Bee-Jones (born 2006), son Fletcher Bee-Jones (born 2008), and daughter Ripley Bee-Jones (born 2010). In 2014, he became a United States citizen.
Career
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
In September 2005, Jones joined The Daily Show cast as a contributor. When his wife left the show in late December for family leave, Jones was promoted to a full-time correspondent. Thereafter, he won a significant following at The Daily Show, thanks to a few pieces on the Denmark cartoons, Carl Monday, and Laguna Beach. Before Rob Corddry left The Daily Show, he said: "Jason Jones has raised the bar too high. I just can't say the things he says to people." His exposé on the real values of Wasilla, Alaska remains one of the most popular pieces on the Daily Show website. In 2014, Jones temporarily left The Daily Show to appear in a pilot for the sitcom Love Is Relative.
In June 2009, Jones was sent to Tehran just prior to the controversial 2009 presidential election. Jones' reports in Iran included an interview with Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari, who was arrested after the disputed June 2009 presidential elections. During Bahari's time in prison, his interrogators charged him with espionage and used Jones' interview as evidence against him. It was later clarified by Bahari that the charges were fabricated. Jones appeared as himself in the film version of Bahari's ordeal, Rosewater, encountering Bahari prior to taping their interview. The film was written and directed by Daily Show host Jon Stewart. Another segment in Iran poked fun at Iranians' greater knowledge of the United States compared with Americans' knowledge of Iran. That segment, along with a 2011 piece in which he invited cameras to his vasectomy, are regarded by TV Guide as his signature segments on the program.
On October 7, 2014, he co-hosted The Daily Show with his wife Samantha Bee, in the absence of Jon Stewart. He also disclosed on that episode that he had recently become an American citizen.
Jason Jones announced that he would leave The Daily Show in 2015 to begin work on The Detour, a TBS show which he co-wrote and will executive produce with wife Samantha Bee.
2014 Sochi Olympics
Jones was sent as a mock reporter to cover the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Through his visit, he often lampooned Russian culture and its perceived police state. For example, in one episode, Jones attempted to find a protest area in Sochi and was forced to drive well outside of the city to an abandoned parking lot which was designed as the zone for protesters; however, even then he was approached by police officers and asked to leave due to not having appropriate documentation. During his interview with opposition figure Alexei Navalny, the crew's cameras and other electronic equipment were jammed as they entered an apartment to conduct the interview. Jones also managed to hold a mock interview with Mikhail Gorbachev where he insisted Gorbachev put up the wall, a play on president Ronald Reagan's plea to Gorbachev to "tear down" the Berlin Wall. Alexei Navalny was arrested several days after conducting the interview with Jones, which was also satirized by Jon Stewart. Jones was able to interview Sergey Markov, a prominent Russian politician and academic. During the interview, Jones questioned Markov about Russia's stance on gay rights, to which Markov responded that there are no issues with gay rights in Russia and that "you are absolutely free to make sex with this table." The statement has since achieved notoriety with regards to Russia's stance on LGBT rights. During the program Jones also described Russia as a conservative paradise, noting the nation's relatively low flat tax, pro-gun stance, opposition to gay marriage, and the powerful influence of the Orthodox church. He also remarked that Russia may be the "ultimate red state."
Other work
Jones has also done various television work with his Canadian sketch comedy troupe The Bobroom, and was the host of Craft Corner Deathmatch on the Style Network in 2005. He also co-wrote, co-starred in, and co-produced the 2004 film Ham & Cheese with fellow Bobroom alumnus Mike Beaver; the film was nominated for six Canadian Comedy Awards in 2005. He has also had minor roles in numerous feature films, such as the 2002 Syfy original film Terminal Invasion and the 2003 film Public Domain, the latter of which also starred Don McKellar, Nicole DeBoer, and Beaver.
He appeared in the TV show Queer as Folk, as well as appearing on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother as "Tony". Jones has appeared twice on the NBC series Law & Order as Len Pewels, host of the fictional Len Pewels' America. In 2008, Jones worked on a CBS sitcom about a celebrity chef (to be played by Jones), with his wife (to be played by Samantha Bee). Jones and Bee starred as husband and wife in a movie entitled Coopers' Camera (USA Cooper's Christmas), in which their Christmas was recorded on a brand new (1985, at the time) camera.
Jones did further work in a series of television advertisements, including a series for beer brand Molson, and appearing as Greg Gregger in Budweiser's short films The Best Man and The Company Man, as well as in some 30-second commercials. Jones had a supporting role in the 2009 movie All About Steve. In early 2010, he starred in a sitcom pilot for ABC called How to be a Better American, but it was not picked up as a series. He also made cameo appearances in the 2012 film Pitch Perfect, its 2015 sequel Pitch Perfect 2, the 2013 film The Art of the Steal and the 2015 films Hot Tub Time Machine 2 and The Night Before. In 2014, Jones starred in the pilot for the sitcom Love is Relative as the character "Nate".
He worked with his wife, Samantha Bee, on development of a show for TBS, The Detour. TBS ordered the pilot, written by Jason Jones and Samantha Bee in October 2014. The show is based on the real life couple's own experience with family vacations. It was picked up for ten episodes in February 2015. On April 6, 2016, the show was renewed for a second season, ahead of the first-season premiere the same month. The second season premiered on February 21, 2017. On April 25, 2017, TBS renewed the series for a third season, which premiered on January 23, 2018. The fourth and final season premiered on June 18, 2019.
References
External links
1973 births
21st-century Canadian male actors
21st-century American comedians
American humorists
American male comedians
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
American television writers
Canadian emigrants to the United States
Canadian expatriate male actors in the United States
Canadian humorists
Canadian male comedians
Canadian male film actors
Canadian male television actors
Canadian male voice actors
Canadian satirists
Canadian television personalities
Living people
Male actors from Hamilton, Ontario
People with acquired American citizenship
Ryerson University alumni
Writers from Hamilton, Ontario
American male television writers
21st-century American screenwriters
Canadian sketch comedians
21st-century Canadian comedians
Comedians from Toronto
21st-century American male writers |
5384103 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John%20Joseph%20Mathews | John Joseph Mathews | John Joseph Mathews (November 16, 1894 – June 16, 1979) (Osage) became one of the Osage Nation's most important spokespeople and writers, and served on the Osage Tribal Council during the 1930s. He studied at the University of Oklahoma, Oxford University, and the University of Geneva after serving as a flight instructor during World War I.
Mathews' first book was a history, Wah'kon-tah: The Osage and The White Man's Road (1929), which was selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club as their first by an academic press; it became a bestseller. His second book, Sundown (1934) is his most well known, an exploration of the disruption of the people and their society at the time of the oil boom, which also attracted criminal activities by leading whites in the county and state, including murder of Osage. In 1951 Mathews published a biography of E. W. Marland, noted oilman and governor of Oklahoma in the 1930s. His book The Osages: Children of the Middle Waters (1961) was a life work, preserving many collected stories and the oral history of the Osage.
In 1996 Mathews was posthumously inducted into the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame. The cabin in the Osage Hills where he did much of his writing was acquired about 2014 by the Nature Conservancy of Oklahoma. His gravesite is next to it. Both will be preserved within the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.
Early life and education
Mathews was born at Pawhuska, Oklahoma as the only surviving son of five children of William Shirley and Eugenia (Girard) Mathews. His banker father was part Osage, the son of John Allan Mathews, a noted trader, and Sarah Williams, the mixed-race daughter of A-Ci'n-Ga, a full-blood Osage, and "Old Bill" Williams, a noted missionary and later Mountain Man who lived with the Osage. Because the Osage had a patrilineal kinship system, the Mathews descendants were excluded from belonging to one of the tribe's clans, as their Osage ancestry was through the maternal line of A-Ci'-Ga, rather than through a direct male ancestor.
Mathews' paternal grandparents had met in Kentucky, where "Old Bill" Williams had sent his daughters for school after his wife A-Ci'n-Ga had died. John Joseph Mathews' mother was Pauline Eugenia Girard, whose family had immigrated from France. The family had an "active interest in Osage culture." The Mathews children were one-eighth Osage by ancestry, as well as Anglo-Scots-Irish and French; they all attended local schools in Pawhuska.
John had three sisters and one brother. His brother was killed as a child by a mountain lion that attacked him near their family home. Two of his sisters, Lillian and Marie Mathews, did not marry and lived in the family home at 911 Grandview Avenue in Pawhuska until their deaths.
Service in World War I came before college, and John Mathews became a flight instructor and second lieutenant after time in the cavalry. Afterward, he went to the University of Oklahoma, graduating with a degree in geology. He studied (at his own expense) at Oxford University in England, graduating in 1923 with a degree in natural science. He also studied international relations at the University of Geneva and the Graduate Institute of International Studies. In addition, he traveled in Africa before returning to the United States, determined to study the culture and traditions of the Osage.
Marriage and family
In 1924 in Geneva, Mathews married an American woman, Virginia Winslow Hopper. They first settled in California, where their two children were born: John and Virginia. The couple divorced.
Mathews returned to Oklahoma in 1929, where he lived for the rest of his life. Years later, in 1945, he married Elizabeth Hunt. She worked with him on much of his research related to the Osage and their forced migration from Missouri to Oklahoma. He treated her son John Hunt, from her first marriage, as his stepson.
Mathews died in 1979 and was buried at his request near the cabin in the Osage Hills where he did much of his writing. He had five surviving great nieces and nephews: Fleur Feighan, William Feighan, Major (U.S. Army, Retired) Howard J. Schellenberg, III; Jeanne (Schellenberg) Hulse, and Maria Schellenberg.
Career
After his return to Oklahoma in 1929, Mathews began writing in the late 1920s. As a member of the tribe, he had headrights and received money from leases for oil wells, which enabled him to buy land, build a stone cabin, and pursue his writing career.
He published his first book, a work of literary non-fiction, Wah'kon-tah: The Osage and The White Man's Road (1932), with the University of Oklahoma Press. This was the first work by an academic press to be selected by the new Book-of-the-Month Club, and with that secondary publication, the book became a bestseller.
His most well-known work is Sundown (1934), his only novel. Mathews is described as introducing "the modern American Indian novel", a pattern for future works by Indians. It is marked by its realism, as Mathews wanted to represent the Indian in a way that had not been recognized in European-American cultural stereotypes.
The semi-autobiographical work is about Challenge "Chal" Windzer, a young Osage man of mixed-blood ancestry. After leaving home to study at the University of Oklahoma and serve in the military, Chal feels estranged when he returns to his tribal community. He suffers from alienation and hopelessness as his life takes a downward swerve. The novel is set during the turbulence of the oil boom that took place on Osage land in Oklahoma in the early 1920s, which generated great wealth for the many Osage enrolled citizens who had headrights. It depicts the frictions and disruption within the tribal community that accompanied this bonanza of wealth. In addition, it portrayed the swindles and numerous outright murders of Osage during the 1920s, a period they termed the "Reign of Terror", as white opportunists tried to get control of the Osage headrights.
(Note: see Osage Indian Murders. Failing to get relief from local law enforcement, the Osage appealed to the federal government for help, as their people were still being killed. Extensive local and corruption has been documented in conspiracies to get control of Osage headrights, involving state many leading whites of the region: ranchers, lawyers, judges, doctors, police, undertakers, and more. Agents of the new Federal Bureau of Investigation were assigned to investigate the murders and successfully prosecuted three men, but many more crimes passed without investigation.)
During the 1930s and the Great Depression, when Mathews was still living in his cabin, he was very politically active within the Osage Nation. As the people took advantage of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 and the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act, Mathews helped the Osage Nation restore its self-government. He was elected to the Tribal Council, serving from 1934 to 1942. He helped found the Osage Tribal Museum, which opened in 1938 in Pawhuska, and donated numerous artifacts to it.
From 1939 to 1940 Mathews lived and studied in Mexico on a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1940, Mathews served as the United States representative to the Indians of the Americas Conference at Michoacan, Mexico.
Later, Mathews concentrated again on his writing. His work Talking to the Moon (1945) is a retrospective account of the ten years he spent in the "blackjacks" of his homeland, observing nature and reflecting on the influence of the environment on Osage culture. He wrote much of this in the stone cabin that he built in the Osage Hills in 1929. This area is now preserved as part of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. The book is a combination of autobiography, philosophical treatise, and observations by an amateur naturalist. Some critics compared it to Henry David Thoreau's Walden. Lee Schweninger noted that Mathews used irony to create distance between the narrator and himself as the subject of autobiographical reflection. He also wrote about himself as a settler, and critiqued European-American culture, while committing actions similar to those of other settlers who disrupted the natural balance.
Mathews's Life and Death of an Oilman: The Career of E. W. Marland (1951) was his only biography; it explores the life of a multi-millionaire Oklahoma oilman and politician, who also served as governor of the state in the 1930s. He created a social scandal by marrying his much younger adoptive daughter, Lydie Marland.
Based on years of collecting information from tribal elders through the oral tradition, in addition to conducting historical research, Mathews wrote The Osages: Children of the Middle Waters (1961). It has been described as "his magnum opus and a pioneering achievement for both its reliance on the oral tradition and presentation of a particular tribal history from an Indian point of view." His book was the produce of his working with tribal elders to preserve and interpret their common culture.
Two books of Mathews have been published posthumously, in efforts to bring his work to a wider audience. Another autobiography, Twenty Thousand Mornings was published in 2012, edited by Susan Kalter.
In the 1960s Mathews wrote a number of short stories, some drawing from folk traditions of the Osage and other cultures, including Scotland. Selected stories from these unpublished manuscripts were published in 2015 as Old Three Toes and Other Tales of Survival and Extinction. Mathews told these stories from the point of view of bird and animal protagonists, an act of imagination that decenters human life.
Works
Wah'kon-tah: The Osage and The White Man's Road (1929)
Sundown (1934)
Talking to the Moon (1945),
Life and Death of an Oilman: The Career of E. W. Marland (1951)
The Osages: Children of the Middle Waters (1961)
The following were published posthumously:
Twenty Thousand Mornings (2011), autobiography, ed. Susan Kalter
Old Three Toes and Other Tales of Survival and Extinction (2015), short stories, ed. Susan Kalter
Legacy and honors
1996, Mathews was posthumously inducted into the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame.
In 2017, a biography, John Joseph Mathews: Life of an Osage Writer, by Michael Snyder was published by the University of Oklahoma.
The stone cabin where Mathews did much of his writing is in the Osage Hills. The cabin and gravesite were acquired about 2014 by the Nature Conservancy of Oklahoma and added to its Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, which it administers. The cabin and gravesite will be preserved.
Notes
References
, November 2005, Air Force Museum
Native American Authors Project, Internet Public Library (accessed 6 March 2008)
Fredrick W. Boling, "Tribute to John Joseph Mathews: Osage Writer", Western Writers of America ROUNDUP Magazine, at Frederick Boling's website
"John Joseph Mathews", Enotes.com
Guy Logsdon, "John Joseph Mathews", Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture
Further reading
Bob L. Blackburn, "Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame John Joseph Mathews," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 74 (Fall 1996).
Bob Foreman, "Mathews' New Book Will Be Whopper," Tulsa (Oklahoma) Tribune, 3 November 1958.
Guy Logsdon, "John Joseph Mathews: A Conversation," Nimrod 16 (Spring/Summer 1972).
Michael Snyder, "Friends of the Osages: John Joseph Mathews's 'Wah'Kon-Tah' and Osage-Quaker Cross-Cultural Collaboration," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 88.4 (Winter 2012-11).
Michael Snyder, John Joseph Mathews: Life of an Osage Writer, University of Oklahoma Press, 2017,
External links
Book about Osage writer will be released Thursday
John Joseph Mathews, Western American Literature Research
1894 births
1979 deaths
People from Pawhuska, Oklahoma
Osage people
Native American novelists
American military personnel of World War I
University of Oklahoma alumni
20th-century American novelists
American male novelists
Alumni of the University of Oxford
University of Geneva alumni
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies alumni
20th-century American male writers
Alumni of Merton College, Oxford |
7040085 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel%20Joseph%20May | Samuel Joseph May | Samuel Joseph May (September 12, 1797 – July 1, 1871) was an American reformer during the nineteenth century who championed education, women's rights, and abolition of slavery. May argued on behalf of all working people that the rights of humanity were more important than the rights of property, and advocated for minimum wages and legal limitations on the amassing of wealth.
He was born on September 12, 1797, in an upper-class Boston area. May was the son of Colonel Joseph May, a merchant, and Dorothy Sewell, who was descended from or connected to many of the leading families of colonial Massachusetts, including the Quincys and the Hancocks. His sister was Abby May Alcott, mother of novelist Louisa May Alcott. In 1825, he married Lucretia Flagge Coffin with whom he had five children. Author Eve LaPlante, who wrote several books about his sister Abby May Alcott and a book about Sewall ancestor Judge Samuel Sewall, is one of his direct descendants.
Education and early career
May was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1797 to Joseph May and Dorothy May (née Sewall). When he was four years old his six year old brother Edward died while they were at play in their barn. May claimed that the loss of his brother and the dreams he had following the fatal accident led him to devote his life to God and inspired his passion to "rectify the world's wrongs." He started attending Harvard in 1813 at the age of fifteen; during his junior year he chose to become a minister. In addition, while he was at Harvard and afterwards, he taught school in Concord, Massachusetts. During this time, he met many prominent Unitarians and activists, including Noah Worcester, who instilled in May the idea of peaceful opposition. He was in a party that was one of the first to travel on the Crawford Path, opened in 1819 by Abel and Ethan Crawford as a route to the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire, and today considered to be the oldest White Mountains trail in continuous use.
May graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1820 and became a Unitarian minister. (See Harvard Divinity School and Unitarianism.) Following his graduation, he considered preaching in New York City and Richmond, Virginia, prior to accepting a position in Brooklyn, Connecticut, as the only Unitarian minister in that state. He came to the forefront of the Unitarian movement and became well known throughout New England as he attempted to make reforms and establish Unitarian churches.
In 1825, he married Lucretia Flagge Coffin, with whom he had five children: Joseph May, John Edward May, Charlotte Coffin (May) Wilkinson, Rev. Joseph May and George Emerson May. Their eldest son named Joseph died young. They also named a later son Joseph, in honor of him and May's father, Colonel Joseph May.
Early reform
May began a biweekly publication, The Liberal Christian, in January 1823; its main goal was to explain the Unitarian theology. He helped in the formation of Windham County Peace Society in 1826; in 1827, May organized a statewide convention for school reform in Connecticut, and he started a series of lectures in 1828. Meanwhile, he also belonged to the American Colonization Society, whose purpose was to send free blacks to (not "back to") Africa. May's belief in perfectionism through imitation of the life of Jesus Christ strongly influenced his involvement in reform movements. A pacifist, he actively participated in establishing peace societies, speaking out against the death penalty, and advocating nonresistance. He practiced this last belief to the extent of rejecting self-defense. He became a leader in the temperance movement, believing it to be a form of abolitionism, since he saw men as "slaves" to drink. He was perhaps most renowned for his work in education reform, as he sought to improve facilities, teachers, and curriculum in public elementary schools. May believed schools should be racially integrated and coeducational, and he advocated the philosophy of Swiss theorist Johann Pestalozzi. He spent time tutoring his sister Abigail May in philosophy and the humanities and wrote in a letter to her, "What you say relative to the need for universal education is certainly true. Nothing is of unimportance in the formation of the mind."
Involvement in abolitionism
In 1830, May happened to meet and create a strong friendship with Wm. Lloyd Garrison, which pushed him into the abolitionist movement. Although his abolitionist views alienated his family, friends, and other clergymen, he remained true to his beliefs. He helped Garrison found the New England Anti-Slavery Society, the American Anti-Slavery Society, and the New England Non-Resistance Society, in addition to working for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. He served as one of the writers for the constitutions of some of these societies, and as a lecturer and general agent for the New England Anti-Slavery Society. Fighting for racial equality and better schools, May assisted Prudence Crandall in the 1830s when residents of Canterbury, Connecticut, through the state legislature, made it illegal for her to run her Canterbury Female Boarding School for "young Ladies and little Misses of color".
This experience caused him to abandon his support for the colonization movement, since Andrew T. Judson, Connecticut's leading colonizationist, led the attack on Crandall's school. May was one of the delegates from the United States who attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840.
May became pastor of the Unitarian Church of the Messiah of Syracuse, New York, in 1845, serving until 1868. He fought the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 by making announcements during his sermons of fugitive slaves in the area and taking collections on their behalf, as well as aiding escaped slaves along the Underground Railroad. As a prominent abolitionist in the city, May, with the help of many Liberty Party members, including Gerrit Smith and Samuel Ringgold Ward, planned and successfully executed the rescue of Jerry McHenry, a man arrested as a fugitive slave, from the police. In addition to fighting for the abolition of slavery, he fought for the equality of free Blacks in his congregations by allowing them to sit in the front as opposed to the segregated rear pews. This act resulted in his reproach by white congregation members and also in his quitting some of his parishes. These actions, particularly late in the 1850s and immediately after Lincoln was elected President in 1860, led abolitionism's opponents to violently attack May as well as burn him in effigy.
Work for women's rights
In addition to speaking and writing pamphlets and articles concerning abolitionism, May was a leading advocate in women's rights and suffrage. Most notably, he wrote The Rights and Condition of Women in 1846 in favor of giving women the right to vote and allowing them equality in all aspects of life. May's work with the women's movement prompted him to move towards socialist economic views including redistribution of the nation's wealth, overhaul of the legal system, and a "soak-the-rich" income tax. He published a variety of other writings including "Education of the Faculties" (Boston, 1846); "Revival of Education" (Syracuse, New York, 1855): and "Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Conflict" (Boston, 1868).
Final years and legacy
By the time of the American Civil War, May had long been torn between his commitment to pacifism and his growing belief that slavery could not be destroyed without violence. He felt that the use of force against the Southern rebellion was necessary. Following the war and success of emancipation, May continued his work for racial, sexual, economic, and educational equality until the end of his life, including service as president of the Syracuse public school district.
Samuel Joseph May died on July 1, 1871, in Syracuse, New York. He is buried at Oakwood Cemetery, Syracuse, New York.
The May pamphlet collection
May donated a collection of more than 10,000 works to the Cornell University Library in 1870. These included pamphlets, leaflets, and other local, regional, and national anti-slavery documents. Abolitionists Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and Gerrit Smith issued an appeal for additional contributions to the collection so that the literature of the anti-slavery movement would be "preserved and handed down, that the purposes and the spirit, the methods and the aims of the Abolitionists should be clearly known and understood by future generations."
In 1999, the Cornell University Library received a $331,000 grant "to catalog, conserve, and digitize the collection." This has been completed, and the collection is available online..
Legacy
In 1885, the Unitarian Church of the Messiah, in Syracuse, was renamed in May's honor to May Memorial Unitarian Church; it is now the May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society (MMUUS).
See also
Fugitive Slave Convention
Unitarian Meetinghouse
References
Notes
Further reading
Mumford, Thomas J. (1873). Memoir of Samuel Joseph May. Boston: Roberts Brothers.
Yacovone,Donald. (1991). Samuel Joseph May and the Dilemmas of the Liberal Persuasion, 1797-1871. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Yacovone, Donald. (2000, February). "May, Samuel Joseph," American National Biography Online. Available by subscription: http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-00454.html.
External links
Samuel Joseph May. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, September 12th, 1797. Died in Syracuse, New York, July 1st, 1871. Syracuse: Syracuse Journal Office, 1871.
Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection, Cornell Library
Collection Description
May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society
Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography
1797 births
1871 deaths
Harvard Divinity School alumni
Abolitionists from Boston
Activists from Syracuse, New York
19th-century Unitarian clergy
Underground Railroad people
Clergy from Boston
Burials at Oakwood Cemetery (Syracuse, New York)
Sewall family
Quincy family
Alcott family
American temperance activists
American suffragists
Underground Railroad locations
African-American history of Connecticut
People from Brooklyn, Connecticut
Religious leaders from Connecticut
Religious leaders from Syracuse, New York |
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