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- Infamous Chicago gangster Al Capone was born in the tough Williamsburgh section of Brooklyn, NY, the fourth of nine children of Italian immigrants from Naples. Capone was a born sociopath. In the sixth grade he beat up a teacher and promptly quit school. He picked up his education from the streets, "making his bones" when he joined the notorious James Street gang. This was run by Johnny Torrio, who later graduated Capone into the even more notorious Five Points gang. It was here that Capone became friends with Lucky Luciano, another who would become a hallmark in the '30s gangster era.
By his late teens Capone had been hired by Torrio and Frankie Yale as a bouncer at a saloon / brothel in Brooklyn. In 1918 he was involved in a bar fight over a prostitute with hoodlum Frank Galluccio. Gallucio went after Capone with a knife, resulting in Capone's picking up the moniker by which he would be known for the rest of his life--"Scarface" (although that word was NEVER used in his presence). Capone, however, would attribute the scar to wounds he received in battle while fighting with the famous "lost battalion" in France during World War I (the fact that Capone never spent one minute in the army was a minor point, apparently). By 1919 he was already suspected by New York police of at least two murders, so he moved to Chicago to work under Torrio's uncle, "Big" Jim Colosimo, a Chicago gangster who ran a string of brothels. Torrio and Colosimo had a dispute over bootlegging during the Prohibition era--Torrio was for it and Colosimo was against it. Torrio hatched a plot with Capone to have Colosimo "rubbed out" and they got their old pal Frankie Yale to do it. Over the next few years the new Torrio-Capone regime went to war with rival bootlegging gangs in Chicago. In 1924 they killed Charles Dion O'Bannion, head of the Irish North Side gang. That didn't end the war, however, which went on for several more years. Capone's younger brother Frank died in a hail of rival gangsters' bullets in 1924. In February 1925 Torrio, who had been badly wounded in a shootout, decided to retire. He told Capone, "It's all yours". At the tender age of 26, Al Capone found himself in control of a sophisticated crime organization with 1,000 gunmen at his command and a $300,000-a-week payroll. He was up to it, however, and made a smooth transition from a simple gun-toting leg-breaker, pimp and killer to a "business executive" (his business card stated that he sold "second-hand furniture"). It was estimated that at one point he had approximately half of Chicago's police department on his payroll, and his reach extended to the highest levels of Chicago's city government and even into the Illinois legislature (he was also suspected of having the Illinois governor "in his pocket"). He controlled the local political process by terrorizing voters into voting for candidates he picked. So great was his power that he claimed he "owned" Chicago, and once publicly assaulted the mayor of nearby Cicero--who was on his payroll--on the steps of City Hall for doing something without his clearance, while the local police looked the other way.
Capone was probably the first "equal-opportunity" mob boss. While many of his fellow Italian and Sicilian gangsters would only hire those from their own ethnic group, Capone hired Jews, Irish, Poles, Slovaks, blacks--as long as he considered them trustworthy, they could work for Capone. He even purged the Chicago organized crime scene of "Mustache Petes", the old-time Sicilian gangsters who he didn't think were capable of running a "modern" crime organization. Capone ran Chicago's gambling, prostitution and bootlegging empire, getting rich giving people what they wanted. He was soon wildly popular among the citizenry and was even cheered at the ballpark, while "respectable" citizens like President Herbert Hoover were not. Capone absorbed smaller gangs into his own--sometimes by negotiation, other times by gunfire--extending his reach to outside the Chicago environs and expanding his empire even further. He was, however, always concerned for his own safety and surrounded himself with trusted bodyguards (including Frank Gallucio, the man responsible for his nickname, "Scarface"). Several attempts were made on his life by rival mobsters--one time a convoy of cars full of gangster Hymie Weiss' gunmen shot up a restaurant at which Capone was dining; the place was destroyed, but Capone came through unscathed. Another time would-be assassins poisoned his soup, but his luck held out again.
On Valentine's Day in 1929 Capone ordered the bloody "St. Valentine's Day Massacre". His underlings found out the location of the warehouse of his rival George Moran (aka "Bugs" Moran) and that Moran was to attend a meeting there at a particular time. Capone sent a carload of his gunmen dressed as police officers to the address. Once there they lined up the seven men they found, but Moran wasn't among them; he was on the sidewalk heading towards the building when he saw the "police car" pull up in front and he quickly ducked into a nearby store. Nevertheless, Capone's gunmen machine-gunned them to death. Following the massacre (when Moran was later asked who he thought was responsible for the murders, he replied, "Only Capone kills like that"), public opinion about Capone began to change. He was not above killing on his own, either. When he was informed that his bodyguards John Scalise and Albert Anselmi were part of an assassination plot against him, he decided to take care of the matter himself. To put their minds at ease, he threw a banquet in their honor. While delivering a glowing testimonial to them, Capone suddenly pulled out an Indian club and beat both men to death.
Although local and state authorities had been trying to bring down Capone for years, the federal government finally managed to do it by prosecuting him for income-tax evasion. He was tried, found guilty and sentenced to 11 years in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, GA. In 1934 he was transferred to Alcatraz, a federal prison on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay that was set up to hold the nation's worst criminals. He never finished out his sentence, though. In 1939 he was paroled because of the ravages of neurosyphilis, a disease he contracted while running Torrio's and Colosimo's whorehouses. He lived the last eight years of his life as a virtual zombie at his estate in Florida, his brain almost totally destroyed by the disease. - Al was the son of Santo Tomaini and Maria Bossone. He was one of seven children, all of whom were normal with the exception of himself. At the age of 12, he was taller than his father, who stood six feet and one inch in height. He had a Great grandfather in Italy who was also a very large Giant. His parents called in a physician who, by taking x-rays, found that his pituitary gland was working overtime, causing him to become a giant. With a height of eight feet, four and one-half inches (weighing 356 pounds and size 27 shoes), Al spent most of his life as a circus giant. He was working with a circus at the Great Lakes Exposition in Chicago, in 1936, when he met his future wife - Jeanie Tomaini. She was born without legs and was only 2'6" tall. After retiring from the circus life, he and Jeanie settled in the circus community of Gaint's Camp, Gibsonton, Florida. There he was an extraordinary community booster, donating the town's first ambulance, served as fire chief, helped build the community hall, and for a time was president of the Chamber of Commerce. He was owner and operator of Giant's Fish Camp, a TV repair shop, and a tourist-trailer court on the banks of the Alafia River. His death in 1962 at 44 years of age, came after extensive treatment for a pituitary tumor. He adopted his children.
- Albert DeSalvo came from a violent and abusive home. His father 'Frank DeSalvo' beat his wife and kids frequently. 'Frank DeSalvo' was in jail twice and his parents finally divorced in 1944. As a teenager Albert was arrested for breaking and entering. At 17 he joined the army and was stationed in Germany, where he met his wife, a German girl whom he brought back with him to the US. In 1955 while posted at Fort Dix, New Jersey he was charged with molesting a 9 year old girl. No charges were pressed and he was honourably discharged in 1956. He was arrested twice more for robbery when he became short of cash. Albert then began his "measuring man" crimes. He would pose as a talent scout and approach women with a measuring tape. He would then take vital measurements and in the process fondle his unsuspecting victims. No charges were made despite complaints as no violent assault had occurred. On March 17, 1960 he was again arrested for burglary when he confessed to the "measuring man" crimes. He was sent to prison for 11 months. After coming out he began his "green man" crimes as he wore green clothes while perpetrating the crimes. Over a period of 2 years in the neighbouring states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticutt and Rhode Island he raped around 300 women. The "Green Man" raped up to 6 victims in one day. The "Boston Strangler" crimes involved 11 women who were killed between June 14, 1962 and July 1964. They were raped and strangled with one victim being stabbed. The ligature around their neck had a bow. Victims ranged in age from 19 to 85 years. There was only 1 black victim, the rest white. There was a $110,000 reward for any information leading to his arrest. On November 3, 1964 Albert was arrested for a "Green Man" crime, as one of the victims described it resembled a "Measuring Man" crime. He was put in Brigdewater state hospital for observation. There a fellow inmate George Nassar turned him in as the "Boston Strangler". However a sole survivor from February 1963 couldn't pick him up from a police line up. A psychic Peter Hurkos too felt that it was someone else. Psychiatrists claimed that the "Boston Strangler" had a mother fixation
- which was why some of the victims were quite elderly, but DeSalvo
- Along with his adopted cousin Kenneth Bianchi he was part of "the Hillside Stranglers" pair. When he was young his parents divorced. His mother got custody of him and took him across the country from New York to California. He began stealing cars by 14 and was in a youth reformatory by 16 for grand theft auto. He became fascinated with his "idol" sex offender Caryl Chessman the "red light rapist" and began to emulate his techniques. He had several children, legitimate and illegitimate and frequently abused his wives and girl friends. In 1977 along with cousin Bianchi he began the infamous 'hillside slayings' in Los Angeles. When Bianchi was arrested in Washington state in early 1979 he confessed to the crimes and 'betrayed' Buono. Angelo Buono was arrested in October 1979. After his trial in 1983 he got 9 life terms without parole.
- Annie Besant, English writer, socialist and feminist activist, was born in 1847, the only daughter of William B. P. Wood, a non-practicing physician, and the former Emily Morris. Both were Anglo-Irish Protestants. Annie was raised a devout Anglican, and religion remained an important factor throughout her life, providing the decisive spur to her pioneering work for social justice. Educated privately by Miss Marryat, sister of the novelist Frederick Marryat, Annie Wood married Frank Besant, a clergyman, in 1867. The marriage produced two children, a daughter, Mabel, and a son, Digby. Frank's mental cruelty and physical violence led to a legal separation in 1873 and Annie's abandonment of her naive Christianity. She was associated with the radical atheist Charles Bradlaugh (1833-1891) and the socialist Fabian Society. Besant and Bradlaugh published a treatise advocating birth control and were prosecuted; as a result she lost custody of her daughter. In 1889 she became a disciple of the Russian spiritualist and mystic Madame Blavatsky. Thereafter she went to India where she founded the Central Hindu College in 1898. Her Theosophy and the New Psychology was published in 1904. She became president of the Theosophical Society in 1907, a post she held until her death. She also became involved in the Indian independence movement, established the Indian Home Rule League in 1916, and became the only British woman to serve as president of the Indian National Congress in 1917.
- Former NBA player Anthony Mason stood 2m 3 cm tall. His alma mater was Springfield Gardens H.S. (NY) where he often returned to address students and athletic teams. He graduated from Tennessee Sate College in 1988. Mason was initially selected by the Portland Trail Blazers in the third round (53rd pick overall) of the 1988 NBA Draft. He played for the New Jersey Nets (1989-1990), Denver Nuggets (1990-1991) and New York Knicks (1992-1996), Charlotte Hornets (1996-2000), Miami Heat (2000-2001) and Milwaukee Bucks (2001-2003). He was a big baseball fan, with Yankees Craig Nettles and Chris Chambliss his favorites as a youth. He was also an avid New York Ranger hockey fan.
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Ancient Greek poet and comic dramatist Aristophanes was the son of Philippus of Athens. A leading exponent of the Athenian "Old Comedy," Aristophanes lived most of his life during the Peloponnesian War against Sparta (431-404). Some of his works include "Acharnians" (425), "Knights" (424), "In the Clouds" (423), "In the Wasps" (422), "The Peace" (421), "The Birds" (414), "In Lysistrata" (411), "The Thesmophoriazusae" (411), "In the Frogs" (405; it won the first prize at the Lenaean festival), "In the Ecclesiazusae" (392) and "In the Plutus" (388). He is the only exponent of the Athenian Old Comedy who has left us complete plays. In his day comic plays were performed at Athens annually at the festivals of Dionysus and Lenaea, at which occasions five poets competed, each producing a single play. The targets of Aristophanes' humor includes notable politicians (Pericles, Cleon, Hyperbolus), poets (Euripides) and philosophers (Socrates), to name a few. Aristophanes often makes fun of cultural innovators (although the construction of his plays shows that he was one of them himself), whereas the characters with whom he expresses sympathy are usually people who just want to be left to enjoy themselves in traditional ways.- Indian nationalist, scholar, and philosopher. He was born in Ratnagiri during British rule of India in 1956. After teaching mathematics, he was owner and editor of 2 weekly newspapers. A militant member of the 'extremist' wing within the Indian National Congress (and a member of the famous 'Lal, Pal and Bal' trio), he was twice imprisoned by the British for his nationalist activities. He helped to found the Home Rule League in 1914.
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Standing 6 feet 9 inches tall, Garrett grew up in Woodland Hills outside of Los Angeles. His father was a hearing aid specialist working in geriatrics and his mother was a housewife. Garrett spent a whopping six weeks at UCLA before going into stand-up comedy full time. He began performing his act at various Los Angeles comedy clubs, getting his start at the Ice House in Pasadena and the Improv in Hollywood. In 1984, he became the first $100,000 grand champion winner in the comedy category of Star Search (1983). This led to his first appearance, at age 23, on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), making him one of the youngest comedians ever to perform on the show. In 1986, Garrett told a joke the talent booker warned him against and he hasn't been on the show since. Following his "Tonight Show" appearance, Garrett's career took off, garnering him headlining gigs at several national venues as well as opening spots for legends including Diana Ross and Liza Minnelli. He has headlined at Bally's Park Place and co-headlined with The Temptations at Trump Plaza. He has also worked at The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas with Frank Sinatra, Caesar's Palace with David Copperfield, and Smokey Robinson, Harrah's with Sammy Davis Jr. and The Beach Boys, and Radio City Music Hall with Julio Iglesias. In 1989, the Las Vegas Review Journal named him the Best Comedian working on the strip. Changing gears, he made his way into the world of television. He struck gold with Everybody Loves Raymond (1996). Apart from his supporting role in sitcoms, he has also done voice-overs and appeared in a few films. In 1998, Garrett made a real-life proposal to his then real-life girlfriend, Jill Diven, on the set of Everybody Loves Raymond (1996). Garrett currently resides in Hollywood, California with his two Labradors Retrievers, Gus and Mabel.- Actor
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Carel Struycken was born in the Hague, The Netherlands. When he was four years old his family moved to Curacao, an island in the Caribbean. At age sixteen, he returned to his home country, where he finished high school. He graduated from the directing program at the film school in Amsterdam, following which he did a year at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles.
After school, he collaborated on a number of projects of writer/director Rene Daalder. He was "discovered" as an actor at the corner of Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles by a lady who had abandoned her car in the middle of the street, calling after him, "We need you for a movie!". The movie was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978). The turning point in his acting career however was Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985), a George Lucas film. In addition to cinema, he has also appeared on television, notably as the recurring character, valet Mr. Homn, on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).
Carel has also helped in hardware and software development of virtual reality systems.- Writer
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Cassius Dio was a Greek historian and Roman official. He was the son of Cassius Apronianus, governor of Cilicia and Dalmatia, and may have been a descendant of the Greek orator and philosopher Dio Chrysostom. Dio Cassius came to Rome at the age of 16, in the early years of the reign of Commodus (180-192 AD), under whom he subsequently became a member of the Roman Senate. During the brief principate of Pertinax (193) he was nominated to a praetorship, which he held in the following year after the accession of Septimius Severus. In 205 he served as consul, and during the reign of Severus Alexander (222-35) was appointed successively to the governorships of Africa, Dalmatia, and Upper Pannonia. In 229 he became consul again, as the colleague of the emperor himself. However, he did not spend his year of office in Rome, since the unpopularity of his strict discipline with the soldiers and praetorian guardsmen prompted the emperor to suggest that he should absent himself from the city. Leaving the public service, Dio withdrew to his native Bithynia, where he apparently remained. He wrote, in Greek, a Roman history in 80 books (of which 26 survive), covering the period from the founding of the city to AD 229, including the only surviving account of the invasion of Britain by Claudius 43 BC. Dio's history took him 10 years to prepare and 12 more to write. The principal value of the work lies in the period from A.D. 180 onward, during which time Dio's own official career enabled him, as an importantly placed eyewitness, to collect firsthand information. Dio also wrote a biography of Arrian, and an account of the dreams and portents of Septimius Severus, but both these works are lost.- Chinese philosopher who was born Kong Qiu, with the formal name Kong Zhongni, in the state of Lu in what is now Shandong province. The second son of a minor aristocratic family that had fallen from power, Confucius was orphaned as a child and grew up in relative poverty. A voracious reader, he educated himself, eventually becoming a private tutor for the sons of wealthy gentlemen. Distressed by the division of China into fiercely competitive and often warring states, Confucius, like many other thinkers of his era, devoted much time to pondering ways to restore order to the chaotic world in which he lived. For a decade beginning when he was about 55, Confucius wandered through neighboring states, attempting to convince various rulers of his worthiness for political positions through which he could introduce his planned reforms. Though by most accounts his travels never resulted in an offer for political office (some sources say he became a minister of state), Confucius was able to gather a substantial number of students who devoted themselves to his school of thought. Though it has been described as a religion, Confucianism is more of a political and social philosophy based on humanism, rationality, education, and virtuous example. During imperial times, Confucius was lauded as the "First Teacher" and the "Uncrowned King".
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Darwyn (Dar) Swalve began in community theater and his dream was to be in a Broadway play. His acting agent Keith Wolfe placed Darwyn with actor-turned-agent, Morgan Paul, who had contacts in the theater, as well as films. Darwyn's dream of being in a Broadway show was realized when he landed a role in the award winning Broadway show, "City of Angels." He played six months at the Shubert Theater in Century City and toured for one year with the show. In the movies in which he played he also did some of his own stunts. Darwyn also did commercials including one for Ford Mustang with Katherine Zeta-Jones. He had just finished a TV series project for Nickelodeon Productions ("The Journey Of Allen Strange") a few weeks before he passed away in May 1999 from a heart attack.- David Berkowitz was born as Richard David Falco. His mother had him out of wedlock when she had an affair with a married real-estate agent named Joseph Klineman. Her husband Tony Falco had left her a few years before that. His mother gave him up for adoption to Nathan and Pearl Berkowitz who named him David Berkowitz Chicago. Being rejected by his birth mother caused David to develop an inferiority complex especially with women and thought he was unappealing to them. He worked as a postman and a security guard. In 1974 he 'heard voices' in his head that ordered him to kill. Berkowitz began to blame these voices on his neighbor Sam Carr's black Labrador that kept him up at night by its barking. He would send hate letters to Carr and in April 1977 even shot and wounded the dog. On July 29, 1976 he killed his first official victim. His modus operandi was to approach unsuspecting people late at night, pull out a gun from a brown paper bag and shoot them at point blank range. Most of his victims were couples, necking in their cars or in a park late at night. His female victims tended to be brunettes with long hair, which caused a scare in parts of New York and had women 'blonding' themselves and cutting their hair short to avoid being targeted. Couples were also advised not to stay out late at night by the local authorities as the serial killings escalated. They were all shot with a .44 caliber bulldog gun and hence his first nickname by the press - ".44 Caliber Killer". Most crimes occurred in the boroughs of Bronx and Queens but other parts of the city felt the terror too. The police task force for the case - 'Operation Omega' was formed. Inside the car of one of the victims the police found a letter. One was addressed to Cpt. Joseph Borelli and another to NY columnist Jimmy Breslin (June 1, 1977). The killer identified himself as "Sam's" and now the press had a new moniker - "Son of Sam". The last "S.o.S" killing took place on July 31, 1977. A witness had seen a young man (David) near the crime scene walking away with something tucked under his jacket. He was observed removing a parking ticket from a yellow Ford Galaxie that had blocked a fire hydrant. The police traced tickets in that area to Berkowitz address in Yonkers. Inside the car they found a loaded .44. They waited for him and when he approached the car they arrested the pudgy unassuming postman. He surrendered without a fight and confessed to being 'Son of Sam'. Though diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic he was found sane enough for trial. On August 23, 1977 he was sentenced to six life sentences.
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US cult leader, David Koresh was born in Vernon Howell located in west Texas. His mother Bonnie Holdman was only 14 when his illegitimate birth occurred. Koresh's childhood was disruptive. A dyslexic he dropped out of school in the 9th grade. He was kicked out of his SDA church for "ranting and raving" and went to Hollywood to be a rock star. After failed attempts at obtaining his dreams he went to Mt. Carmel religious commune outside Waco, Texas in 1983. It was run by a splinter faction from the SDA church who called themselves Branch Davidians that was formed by Bulgarian Victor Houteff in the 1930's. Koresh began to preach at Mt. Carmel. He even claimed to be an angel sent by God and wanted to combine rock and roll with religion. Koresh was expelled from Mt. Vernon along with 25 disciples. They went on an aimless trek until they stopped at Palestine, Texas. On Tuesday, November 3, 1987 Koresh and his followers tried to take over the Mt. Carmel commune by force. They fired machine guns at the commune, and in turn, they were fired upon. The local authorities intervened and jailed members from both sides. However Koresh got out on bail and finally took over Mt. Carmel. His rival was deemed mentally unsound and charges were dropped in the 1988 trial. Koresh was now in total control of Mt. Carmel. He began to attract largely vulnerable and insecure people to his "flock." Koresh got married to a 14 year old girl but decided that he could have a "harem of many wives." He set up a harem which he called his "house of David." Some of his concubines were as young as 10 years old. He created a goon squad he called "mighty men." Koresh then claimed he was the only one allowed to have as many "wives" as he wanted, and also the only one who could have a wife. He eventually "married" 19 female cult members and fathered at least 12 of their children. In 1990 he legally changed his name to David Koresh (a combination of "King David" and the Hebrew name for Cyrus the Great). Koresh had now become an absolute dictator. While his disciples worked on the farm in the sweltering heat he stayed inside with air-conditioning. He changed the name of the commune to Ranch Apocalypse. Koresh gradually began building an arsenal at the Ranch. They had a .50 caliber machine gun and over 300 firearms amounting to 11 tons of firepower in all. A bus was even buried to act as a bunker! The FBI became concerned about the developments at Koresh's ranch. On Sunday, February 28, 1993 they launched a command raid on the ranch. The siege lasted 51 days. Tired of waiting, the FBI fired tear gas canisters into the building and sent in tanks. A fire broke out in the building. By the time they entered the building and put out the fire they found David Koresh along with 75 followers dead that included 25 children, 12 his own.- Additional Crew
Ed Gein and his elder brother Henry lived on a rural farm near Plainfield, WI. George Gein, his father, was a tanner and carpenter and was drunk most of the time. Augusta, Ed's domineering mother, was the real power of the house. She was a religious fanatic who constantly warned her sons about the sins of premarital sex and railed against "evil" women. Ed's father died in 1940, and brother Henry died four years later fighting a marsh fire (although it was later suspected that Ed might have killed him). Ed stayed at the family farm with his mother and never strayed out of the surrounding few counties. When she died of a stroke in 1945, Ed was left all alone at the "tender" age of 39. He sealed her bedroom and the rest of his house off, living in just the kitchen and one other room. During the period of 1950-55, he visited three local cemeteries at night and dug up at least ten graves. He removed bits and pieces from each body, returning some to their graves. He used skullcaps for bowls, and stitched chair seats and lampshades out of human skin. On special occasions, he would dance outside in the moonlight wearing numerous stitched skin coverings, including the face masks of some of his victims. His first murder was committed on December 8, 1954, the other occurred on November 16, 1957. He attacked his last victim in her store and dragged her body to a truck parked out back. Later that evening the victim's son stopped in at the store to check on his mother and found the doors locked, the cash register missing and a trail of blood leading out to the back door. He recalled that he had seen Ed at the store the day before. When the police went to his farm, they found her headless body in his shed, hanging by it's heels from the rafters. Gein was arrested and eventually confessed to his crimes. On January 16, 1958, he was sent to Central State Hospital at Waupun, WI. In November 1968, he was judged competent to stand trial. He was now diagnosed to have chronic schizophrenia, found "not guilty by reason of insanity" and returned to Waupun. It has been theorized that Gein might have killed two men who hired him as their hunting guide in 1952 and were never seen again. There were also two other unidentified women's body parts were found at his farm. In that his murder & grave robbing victims were all of middle or elderly age, these two women's remains were decisively young, in their teenage years. This was never conclusively investigated. In 1978, he was moved to Mendota Mental Health Institute. Gein was a model prisoner and died quietly in his sleep in the geriatric psychiatric ward in 1984. He is buried next to his mother in the Plainfield Cemetery.- Eddie Carmel's abnormal growth started when he was a teenager. He suffered from acromegaly because of a pituitary gland tumor that was incurable at the time. As an adult, the only work he could find involved exploiting his freakishness. With his best friend, Irwin Sherman, they worked together as stand-up comedians in New York.
Carmel starred in a B-grade monster movie (The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)) and made two 45-rpm records ("The Happy Giant" and "The Good Monster"). He joined the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Baliey Circus from 1961 to 1968. They presented him as "The World's Greatest Giant" and "The Tallest Man on Earth." His height was billed at 8' 9" (a 14-inch exaggeration). He very much wanted to be respected for his talent and said, "I'd like someday to reach the point when I'm known as the reverse Mickey Rooney."
He developed severe kyphoscoliosis (abnormal curvature of the spine) at the time of his death that shortened his height to about 7 feet (213 cm). Eddie died at the age of 37 in Montefiore Hospital. - Actor
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Eric Charles Boardman grew up in Chicago, Illinois. He obtained a Psychology degree from Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois. He is mainly noted as a host to various 'Home and Garden TV' shows. He has been the host of various educational children's videos like: 'Prehistoric World', 'Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs' (1987), 'More Dinosaurs' (1991) and 'The Return of Dinosaurs' (1993). He was the host for 'Calling All Cooks'. His childhood heroes included Ernie Banks and Dick Van Dyke.- Writer
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Jewish notable and Greek historian. In Hebrew he was Yoseph ben Matatyahu, the son of Matthias, a well-known member of the priestly aristocracy of Jerusalem; and his mother was related to the former royal house of the Hasmonaeans (Maccabees). Josephus' native language was Aramaic, but he received an excellent Hebrew education. As a youth, he espoused in turn the three principal versions of Judaism, successively becoming an adherent of the Sadducees, the monastic Essenes, and the Pharisees, in whose ranks he then enrolled permanently, joining the priesthood at Jerusalem. In about A.D. 64 he went to Rome in order to intercede for a fellow priest who had been arrested, and through the help of Alityrus - a Jewish actor in the entourage of Nero (54-68) - and of the empress Poppaea, his mission was successful. Josephus returned home to find that the First Jewish Revolt against the Romans (to the Jews, the First Roman War) had become imminent. The Jewish leadership, however, was sharply divided, and Josephus was one of those who felt such an insurrection could not succeed. Nevertheless, when the rebellion began in 66, a moderate group of Jewish leaders who were temporarily in charge of Jerusalem sent him to take command of the troops in Galilee. But a number of local Jews opposed him and, as the Roman governor of Syria, Vespasian, who had been entrusted with the suppression of the rising, approached with an army, Josephus withdrew inside the fortified town of Jotapata. When, however, this fortress had been under siege for nearly seven weeks and the defenders, in desperation, pledged themselves to a suicide pact, Josephus evaded the pact and went over to the Romans. Kept prisoner at first, he was released because he seemed useful as a collaborator - and also because he prophesied that Vespasian would become emperor, a prediction that came true in 69 AD. During the siege of Jerusalem he earned additional hatred from his countrymen by acting as interpreter to the Roman commander, the new ruler's son Titus, whom subsequently, after the capture of the city, he accompanied to Alexandria and then to Rome. There he was awarded Roman citizenship and assumed the imperial family name of Flavius; and he received a residence and a pension as well. It was during his residence in Rome that he became a writer. His first work, the History of the Jewish War, completed in 77 or 78 AD. Josephus, whose Greek was shaky, employed helpers to assist him with the translation. His greatest work is known to us as the Jewish Antiquities, though he himself called it the Archaeologia.- English nurse and hospital reformer. Florence Nightingale was named after the place of her birth in Italy. Educated at home by their wealthy, well-bred father, Nightingale and her older sister Parthenope studied history, philosophy, mathematics, and classics; they also wrote weekly compositions. Nursing was considered a profession for the lower-classes and that time, however Florence decided that was what she wanded to do. She trained as a nurse at Kaiserswerth (1851) and Paris and in 1853 became superintendent of a hospital for invalid women in London. In the Crimean War she volunteered for duty and took 38 nurses to Scutari in 1854. She organized the barracks hospital after the Battle of Inkerman (5 November) and by imposing strict discipline and standards of sanitation reduced the hospital mortality rate drastically. She returned to England in 1856 and a fund of L 50,000 was subscribed to enable her to form an institution for the training of nurses at St Thomas's and at King's College Hospital. She devoted many years to the question of army sanitary reform, to the improvement of nursing and to public health in India. Her main work, Notes on Nursing (1859), went through many editions.
- Gary Ridgway who would become infamous as the 'Green River Killer' was born in Utah. He then moved to Washington state where he worked as a truck painter in Renton Washonton for nearly 30 years. Ridgway also worked at a computer company. Ridgway claims to have killed a man as early as 1971 but it was only on July 15, 1982 that the first of the Green River Killings would be committed. This would go on to become one of the longest and most expensive serial murder cases in the US. The task force included Major Richard Kraske, Detective Dave Reichert, FBI profiler John Douglas and criminal investigator Bob Keppel. His victims ranged in age from 15 to 31 and one victim even had an unborn baby! They were all prostitutes who worked the main strip in Seattle, stretching from South 139th Street to South 272nd Street. The bodies were fished out of the Green River in King County and hence the nickname for the killings. His m.o. was to have sex and then strangle them. In April 1983 attention was drawn to Ridgway in the killings when his 1977 black Ford F-150 was spotted where a victim was last seen. He was released after questioning. During this period Keppel in collaboration with notorious serial killer Ted Bundy published a book called The Riverman (2004) which used Bundy's own insight into serial killer to try and profile the psyche of the Green River Killer. A psychic, Barbara Kubik-Pattern was also involved in the case. In May 1984 Ridgway was again a suspect and even passed a polygraph test. In April 1987 his house was examined and insufficient evidence was found. In September 2001, detective Reichert asked for samples from Ridgway to be examined with newer techniques. On September 10th he was told that there was a match between Ridgway's semen and those found on the victims. On November 30, 2001 Ridgway was arrested for murder. During pretrial on November 5, 2003, Gary Ridgway, avoided the death penalty in Washington state by confessing to the murders of 48 women. He was sentenced to 48 life sentences without the possibility of parole. Ridgway may have actually killed more than 48 but cannot remember the exact number. It is believed that he might have even killed as far north as British Columbia in Canada. He could however still face the death penalty for murders in Oregon and other areas outside King County jurisdiction.
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George Walton Lucas, Jr. was raised on a walnut ranch in Modesto, California. His father was a stationery store owner and he had three siblings. During his late teen years, he went to Thomas Downey High School and was very much interested in drag racing. He planned to become a professional racecar driver. However, a terrible car accident just after his high school graduation ended that dream permanently. The accident changed his views on life.
He decided to attend Modesto Junior College before enrolling in the University of Southern California film school. As a film student, he made several short films including Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB (1967) which won first prize at the 1967-68 National Student Film Festival. In 1967, he was awarded a scholarship by Warner Brothers to observe the making of Finian's Rainbow (1968) which was being directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Lucas and Coppola became good friends and formed American Zoetrope in 1969. The company's first project was Lucas' full-length version of THX 1138 (1971). In 1971, Coppola went into production for The Godfather (1972), and Lucas formed his own company, Lucasfilm Ltd.
In 1973, he wrote and directed the semiautobiographical American Graffiti (1973) which won the Golden Globe and garnered five Academy Award nominations. This gave him the clout he needed for his next daring venture. From 1973 to 1974, he began writing the screenplay which became Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). He was inspired to make this movie from Flash Gordon and the Planet of the Apes films. In 1975, he established ILM. (Industrial Light & Magic) to produce the visual effects needed for the movie. Another company called Sprocket Systems was established to edit and mix Star Wars and later becomes known as Skywalker Sound. His movie was turned down by several studios until 20th Century Fox gave him a chance. Lucas agreed to forego his directing salary in exchange for 40% of the film's box-office take and all merchandising rights. The movie went on to break all box office records and earned seven Academy Awards. It redefined the term "blockbuster" and the rest is history.
Lucas made the other Star Wars films and along with Steven Spielberg created the Indiana Jones series which made box office records of their own. From 1980 to 1985, Lucas was busy with the construction of Skywalker Ranch, built to accommodate the creative, technical, and administrative needs of Lucasfilm. Lucas also revolutionized movie theaters with the THX system which was created to maintain the highest quality standards in motion picture viewing.
He went on to produce several more movies that have introduced major innovations in filmmaking technology. He is chairman of the board of the George Lucas Educational Foundation. In 1992, George Lucas was honored with the Irving G. Thalberg Award by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his lifetime achievement.
He reentered the directing chair with the production of the highly-anticipated Star Wars prequel trilogy beginning with Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) . The films have been polarizing for fans and critics alike, but were commercially successful and have become a part of culture. The animated spin-off series Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) was supervised by Lucas. He sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012, making co-chair Kathleen Kennedy president. He has attended the premieres of new Star Wars films and been generally supportive of them.- A fearsome Apache Indian warrior and medicine man of mythic stature, Geronimo was born about 1829 on the upper reaches of the Gila River (near the present-day mining town of Clifton, AZ). He belonged to the Be-don-ko-he band of the southern Chiricahua Apaches. He was known as Goyathlay or Goyaklay, meaning "one who yawns." It's not clear how he came to be called Geronimo, but conventional wisdom is that it was bestowed upon him by Mexicans during his many raids into that country.
Few specifics are known of his early life, but he emerged as a leader of the Chiricahuas in 1858 in the wake of personal tragedy. According to Geronimo, he had gone in the company of other Apaches and their families to trade peacefully with settlers around the Mexican military post at Janos in northern Chihuahua. While he and other adult males were away, a troop of Mexican soldiers from the neighboring state of Sonora swooped down on the family encampment and slaughtered most of the Apaches there, including Geronimo's mother, wife and three children. As a result, Geronimo swore revenge on Mexicans. Soon after the massacre at Janos, Geronimo received a spirit's voice that told him to fight the Mexicans. In the ensuing forays Geronimo was wounded many times but always recovered, and as late as 1897 he was still boasting to those who would listen that no bullet could kill him. Indeed, foes and followers alike thought that Geronimo was endowed with supernatural powers. Eyewitnesses declared him clairvoyant; according to them, he could interpret signs, explain the unknowable and predict the future.
In line with its uncertain and fluctuating policy, the US government tried to "civilize" the Apaches by shifting them from one reservation to another in Arizona and New Mexico. Although they would "settle down" for a spell on reservation land, sooner or later one or more bands would break out and go on the warpath, and the resulting plundering, burning and killing terrorized the civilian populace from Arizona down into Mexico. Geronimo himself often led these warring factions. Several times he was captured or forced to surrender and was returned to a reservation for a period of time (although other Apaches might be on the warpath), but he eventually would break out again. In May 1885 he fled the reservation with 35 men, 8 boys and 101 women. Ten months later he again surrendered to the American military in northern Sonora (a treaty between the US and Mexico allowed security forces from each nation to cross the border in pursuit of hostile Indians) only to bolt for freedom one more time. With 5,000 American soldiers and 500 Apache scouts and police in pursuit, Geronimo--with 16 warriors, 14 women and 6 children--surrendered to the US Army for the last time on September 3, 1886, at Skeleton Canyon in southern Arizona.
Thus ended an epoch called "The Apacheria", a period of almost constant warfare involving whites, Mexicans and Apaches that lasted for nearly two centuries. Geronimo was exiled to Florida but was promised that afterwards he and his followers would be allowed to return to Arizona--a promise that was not kept. They were placed under military confinement and later scattered among various reservations, with Geronimo and some of his people being sent to Oklahoma. He later became a farmer there and adopted Christianity. He dictated his autobiography, "Geronimo: His Own Story", published in 1906. In February 1909 the 85-year-old warrior fell off of his horse and remained in a ditch until the next day. He caught pneumonia and died a few days later. He was buried in the Indian cemetery at Fort Sill, OK. - Indian politician and social reformer. Born in Kotluk, Bombay, in 1866, he became Professor of History at Fergusson College, Poona, resigning in 1904, when he was selected representative of the Bombay legislative council at the supreme council. He founded the Servants of India Society in 1905 to work for the relief of the underprivileged, and in the same year was elected president of the Indian National Congress. He was a leading protagonist of Indian self-government and influenced Mahatma Gandhi, advocating moderate and constitutional methods of agitation and gradual reform.
- He was born in Reykjavik, Iceland and moved to the United States at the age of 5. Gunnar lived in Maine till he was 11, his family then moving to Texas, where he went to high school before attending the University of Texas. At the university, he did some theater work and majored in English and mathematics before going on to graduate in English and Scandinavian Studies. Despite graduating in the aforementioned fields, his first job out of high school was as a computer operator.
In the summer of 1973, he heard that Tobe Hooper and others were in town to work on a movie and decided to try out for a part. After interviewing with Tobe Hooper and the writer of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Kim Henkel, he was cast in the role of the disturbed, mentally handicapped killer, Leatherface.
After Chainsaw, Hansen went on to work as a freelance writer for magazines for several years before going on to write books, one later being set in Iceland about purported serial killer, Henry Lee Lucas. He has gone on to write multiple screenplays - one co-written with his partner Gary Jones, director of Mosquito (1994)).
Gunnar also directed a documentary on Greenland and had a stint designing web pages for GTE. - Considered to be the first American serial killer and possibly the most prolific, he was also a con-man and bigamist. He was a doctor who studied medicine at Ann Arbor, MI. He then moved to New York where he practiced briefly. His first brush with the law occurred there when some corpses were found in his possession. He fled to Chicago where he worked for a drug company. The owner mysteriously disappeared and he became the owner. Over the next few years several people who crossed his path also mysteriously disappeared. In 1891 he began construction of a hotel at the corner of 63rd St. in Chicago. It was constructed by several builders over time and had a labyrinthine network of passages that would become his "torture chambers". It was during the Chicago World Fair of 1893 that he did most of his killings when his victims checked into his hotel. They were mainly young attractive women. Holmes would drug them, have sex with their bodies and then drop them down a chute into a gas chamber. There he would watch through a glass panel as they slowly choked to death. Then he would dissect their bodies and dispose of them in acid baths, furnaces or by using quicklime. However, it was because of insurance fraud in Texas that he was brought to the attention of the authorities again. Detective Geyer followed his trail through Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. The bodies of the Pietzel family were found in an Indianapolis boarding house and Holmes was arrested. On 11/30/1895 he received the death sentence. Holmes wrote in his memoirs that he had killed 27 people; however, when he was taken to the gallows he retracted his confession saying that he had done it just for a publicity stunt. Over 200 bodies were found in his Chicago death house, known as "'Holmes' Torture Castle".
- Dr. Harold Shipman was born the son of Vera and Harold Shipman. He was the middle of 3 children. His father was a lorry driver and his mother a home maker. In 1957 he studied at High Pavement grammar school (6th form). He was an avid rugby player as a child. His mother's lingering death from lung cancer in June 1963 had a profound effect on the psyche of young Harold. In September 1965 he enrolled at Leeds University Medical School. He met his future wife on a double decker during his daily trips to Leeds. After medical school he got his first medical job at Pontefarct General Infirmary where he worked for 3.5 years. In March 1974 he joined a group practice in Todmorden. While there he was very involved in social functions like the Rochdale Canal Commission. It was during his time there that the first signs of his criminal behavior were noticed. He started having blackouts in public that were initially thought to be epilepsy. In July 1975 it was realized that he was prescribing a large amount of pethidine to his patients according to a pharmacy log. The patients were questioned but none of them admitted to ever having received the powerful narcotic. When Shipman was confronted by his colleagues he admitted to having acquired an opiate addiction from his days in medical school when he had accidentally tried it. That explained the 'blackouts'. He was advised to go to the Retreat in York (an institution that helped with drug addiction) if he wanted to keep his job. However in November 1975 he was charged with 'forgery of prescriptions'. The Shipman family disappeared from Todmorden. Dr. Shipman got a job at the National Coal Board in Doncaster where he did physicals on miners. In February of 1976 he had a job in County Durham for the SW Durham Health Authority. By 1977 he had secured a job with Donneybrook Medical Center in Hyde as part of a group practice. It is believed that some of his earliest victims may have been from his time here. In July 1992 Shipman left his practice to work at The Surgery. He would give his victims a lethal dose of morphine during a house visit and actually come by again when he believed them to be dead. At this time he would perform a cursory medical examination and pronounce his patient dead and no one would be the wiser. He generally preyed upon elderly women who lived alone as they made easy targets. However his youngest victim was 49 and he may have killed a few men as well. Even though his victims were middle aged or elderly they were not generally infirm at the time of death which made a lot of relatives suspicious about their premature deaths. His last victim died on 24 June, 1998. Shipman had apparently changed his patient's will which bequeathed her entire estate to him with nothing for her own daughter. The daughter obviously found this suspicious and alerted detectives. Her body was exhumed on August 1st and an autopsy was performed. Around this time a local taxi driver who did errands for most of his victims realized that they all had one thing in common - their doctor was Shipman. This further added suspicion to Shipman. The news of his crimes was released to the public only by 20 August, 1998. On September 2, 1998 the toxicology report proved that his victim had died from a fatal dose of morphine and not 'natural causes' as he had claimed in the death certificate. When he was initially confronted with the findings he claimed that his patient was a drug addict and he had covered up for her. He was formally arrested on September 7, 1998. In order to cover his tracks Dr. Shipman had made fake entrées in his patients files. Hoever a Visa card statement showed he was elsewhere at the time the extra entries had been made. The bodies of several of his patients were exhumed and examined for morphine. His computer at work was examined and its hard drive revealed when extra entries were made and dates changed on MedDoc. During his incarceration prior to trial he believed the police were conspiring to kill him, surprisingly the same way he killed his patients. He was initially in Strangeways jail in Manchester. Then he was moved to Preston prison later in 1998 and to Walton jail in Liverpool afterward. On 5 October, 1999 he was first arrragned in court and charged with 15 counts of murder an 1 count of forging a will. The trail began on Octber 11, 1999 and went on for a marathon 57 days. The jury retired on January 24 and deliberated until January 31, 2000. At 4:44 pm he was pronounced guilty and given 15 life sentences plus 4 years for forgery. It is officially believed he killed about 215 people making him one of the most prolific serial killers of all time. He killed 7 people in February 1998 alone! Harold Shipman was found dead in his prison cell on 13th January 2004, the day before what would have been his 58th birthday. Verdict: suicide by hanging.
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Henry Hite a.k.a. Henry Mullens was hired as an actor because of his height and apparent disregard for self-embarrassment. Henry, a real-life tall guy, portrayed a hitch-hiking space-alien in Bill Rebane's stupefying sci-fi failure 'Terror At Halfday' (1965) after which Herschell Gordon Lewis was brought in to "fix" the results, resulting in what is often considered Lewis' least watchable picture, _Monster a-Go Go_.- Welsh explorer and travel writer Henry Morton Stanley was born John Rowlands (he may have been illegitimate). His father died when he was 2; his mother, a butcher's daughter, went into service in London and then married, and did not want him. Stanley's paternal grandfather, a prosperous farmer, refused to care for him. For a while his mother's brothers boarded him out, then they stopped paying for him and he was taken, at 6, to the workhouse at St. Asaph, where he remained until 1856, when he was 15. The schoolmaster there was a savage brute, afterward adjudged insane, and the boy's life was one long series of torture, in the midst of which somehow he gained an elementary education. At last he beat his tormentor, and ran away.
For a while, a cousin at Brynford employed him as a pupil teacher in a National School, and after school he studied languages and mathematics. For several years, he went from one town and one poor and unwelcoming relative after another, working odd jobs. In 1859 he went to sea as a cabin boy, without pay, on a boat going to New Orleans. A kind-hearted cotton broker, Henry Stanley, picked him up, starving, on the street, cared for him and adopted him. The boy took his benefactor's name. The next year Stanley sent him to his farm in Arkansas, to take charge of the store there. Then he died suddenly, without having made any provision for his adopted son. Young Stanley found himself stranded, and the Civil War had begun. Though his sympathies were with the Union, he enlisted as a Confederate, was taken prisoner at Shiloh, and was released from Camp Douglas, Chicago, by re-enlisting on the other side (a very discreditable, though fairly common at the time, action, which he never entirely lived down). His turncoat tactics proved unnecessary; he contracted dysentery, was discharged from the army and, sick and penniless, worked his way from Harper's Ferry, Virginia, back to Wales. Once more his relatives threw him out, and he became a sailor.
In 1864 he enlisted in the United States Navy as a ship's writer. With this experience he became a wandering news correspondent in the western United States. He made and saved money, and in 1866 was able to travel to Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) with a friend. The next year a Missouri newspaper sent him to report on General Winfield Hancock's Indian expedition. In 1868 he joined the staff of the New York Herald, which sent him to Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia) to report on the war there. The rest of Stanley's life belongs to Africa, where he felt he had a "mission". In 1869 James Gordon Bennett Jr., the publisher of the New York Herald, decided to send a reporter to Africa in search for David Livingstone, who was last heard of six years previously. On November 24, 1871, Stanley reached Ujiji (on the shores of Lake Tanganyika) and found Livingstone, weak from illness and barely alive. Despite his condition, Livingstone refused to return to England with Stanley, and died 17 months later.
For the Herald he also covered the Ashanti War in 1873. He made three more African explorations, in Equatorial Africa from 1874 to 1877, in the Congo (for King Leopold II of Belgium) from 1878 to 1884 and in the Sudan from 1885 to 1888. In 15 years, without an army, as a private civilian, he added about 2,000,000 square miles for the British Empire, and he cannot be held responsible for the horrendous atrocities later committed by the Belgians during their ownership and exploitation of the Congo Free State. The controversies arising from the Livingstone expedition gradually died down, though they (and his quick and harsh temper) retarded any bestowal of honors on him. In the 1890s he made a lecture tour in the United States and Australasia. He abandoned his American citizenship, was re-naturalized in England and from 1895-1900 was a member of Parliament. In 1897 he made his last journey, to South Africa, just before the Boer War. He was finally knighted in 1899. He suffered a stroke four years later, and died the following spring. - Writer
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English writer, scholar and philologist, Tolkien's father was a bank manager in South Africa. Shortly before his father died (1896) his mother took him and his younger brother to his father's native village of Sarehole, near Birmingham, England. The landscapes and Nordic mythology of the Midlands may have been the source for Tolkien's fertile imagination to write about 'the Shire' and 'hobbits' in his later book the Hobbit (1937). After his mother's death in 1904 he was looked after by Father Francis Xavier Morgan a RC priest of the Congregation of the Oratory. Tolkien was educated at King Edward VI school in Birmingham. He studied linguistics at Exeter College, Oxford, and took his B.A. in 1915. In 1916 he fought in World War I with the Lancashire Fusiliers. It is believed that his experiences during the Battle of the Somne may have been fueled the darker side of his subsequent novels. Upon his return he worked as an assistant on the Oxford English Dictionary (1918-20) and took his M.A. in 1919. In 1920 he became a teacher in English at the University of Leeds. He then went on to Merton College in Oxford, where he became Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon (1925-45) and Merton professor of English Language and Literature (1945-59). His first scholarly publication was an edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1925). He also wrote books on Chaucer (1934) and Beowulf (1937). In 1939 Tolkien gave the Andrew Lang Lecture at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland titled: "On Fairy-Stories". Tolkien will however be remembered most for his books the Hobbit (1937) and the Lord of the Rings (1954-55). The Hobbit began as a bedtime story for his children". He wrote Lord of the Rings over a period of about 14 years.
Tolkien also discussed parts of his novels with fellow Oxfordian and fantasy writer CS Lewis during their 'meetings'. He was trying to create a fantasy world so that he could explain how he had invented certain languages, and in doing so created 'Middle-earth'. However among his peers at Oxford his works were not well received as they were not considered 'scholarly'. It was after LOTR was published in paperback in the United States in 1965 that he developed his legendary cult following and also imitators. Tolkien was W. P. Ker lecturer at Glasgow University in 1953. In 1954 both the University of Liege and University College, Dublin, awarded him honorary doctorates. He received the CBE in 1972. He served as vice-president of the Philological Society and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was made an honorary fellow of Exeter College. Despite the immense popularity of his books today Tolkien did not greatly benefit from their sales. His son Christopher Tolkien was able to publish some of his works posthumously after his manuscripts were found.- He weighed only four pounds at birth and was so tiny that doctors feared he wouldn't live. But immediately, he began to grow at an incredible rate and by age ten was over six feet tall. He was discovered by Hollywood as a teenager and offered a job acting in comedies. He made over fifty of them, until one day on the set when he fell from a scaffolding. When he woke up, he found he was losing his peripheral vision, due to a newly-discovered pituitary gland tumour. Doctors attempted to shrink the tumor with X-rays which miraculously both restored his sight and stopped his incredible growth. He enrolled in college, during which he went to see the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus where he saw Jack (Jim) Tarver, billed as 'the tallest man in the world'. He joined the circus and traveled with them for fourteen years. Upon retiring from the circus, Jack became a successful traveling salesman and was intensely creative. He painted, sculpted, was a prize-winning photographer.
- Controversial pathologist, writer and inventor, Jack Kevorkian was the only son of Levon Kevorkian a former auto-factory worker who owned an excavating company and his homemaker wife. He had 2 sisters. Kevorkian's parents were Armenian refugees, whose relatives were among the 1.5 millon victims of Turkish atrocities in World War I. As a young boy he quit Sunday school because he did not believe in Armenian Orthodox teachings. He taught himself German and Japanese in high school during World war II. Kevorkian graduated from Pontiac High School with honors in 1945 at 17. He then enrolled at the University of Michigan from where he graduated from Medical school in 1952. Kevorkian completed an internship in Pathology at Henry Ford hospital in Detroit, during which period he had an epiphany when he saw a woman who was dying of cancer. It was then that he began to think of ways to alleviate suffering in his patients. In 1953 he got his medical license for Michighan state. He then did a 15 month stint in Korea as an Army Medical Officer during the Korean War. He returned and completed his residency at Pontiac General Hospital, Michigan. He got his nickname 'Dr. Death' in 1956 when he started photographing the retinas of patients at the moment of death to differentiate between coma and death. From 1956-57 he did research in West Germany. In 1957 he obtained his California medical license. In 1958 he presented a paper on 'Capital Punishment or Capital Gain' at the American Association for the Advancement of Science' at Washington, DC. He suggested the harvesting of organs from death row prisoners. This was considered controversial because death row inmates don't necessarily have any rights. By 1960 he was licensed in Pathological Anatomy and in 1965 in Clinical Pathology. In April 1960 he testified before a Joint Judicial Committee in Columbus, Ohio to revise the death penalty and to legalize medical experimentation on condemned inmates. In 1976 he moved to Los Angeles, California. He changed jobs frequently. Between 1982 to 86 he mainly did his writing and research. In 1988, even the pro-suicide Hemlock Society founder, Derek humphry rebuffed his methods as "too perilous and risky". In 1989 after reading about a patient who had asked for euthanasia he began working on a lethal-injection machine that would be able to do the task at the 'flip of a switch'. It was called the Thanatron (and later Mercitron). He got a lot of publicity because of this. On June 4, 1990 he performed the first of his 'medicides' as he liked to call physician-assisted suicide. His 'client' was a 54 year old woman suffering from Alzheimer's. She had contacted him herself after reading his ads in the papers. It was performed in the back of his VW van. She received sodium pentothal (an anesthetic) and potassium chloride (to stop the heart). By the time of this 3rd medicide his medical licemse was revoked for violating Michigan state laws regarding euthanasia. One of his 'clients' was even found on autopsy not to have any major pathology. He continued to do his medicides by giving his clients carbon-monoxide. There were reports that one patient had asked her mask to be removed twice (maybe a change of mind) but Kevorkian had continued with his task. On August 17, 1993 he was formally charged with violating the law. By then he had already helped 20 clients to their peaceful deaths. He was jailed first in November 1993 and then again in December 1993. Kevorkian went on a liquid only fast for 18 days and was acquitted in May 1994. By now he had even gained several supporters in the general community. By 1998 he hed committed over 100 medicides. Relatives of some of his clients claimed that he had continued despite protests from his 'victims'. He was now charged with 2nd degree murder. During his trial he was defended by the flamboyant lawyer Geoffrey Fieger. In March 1999 Dr. Kevorkian was sentenced by a Michigan jury to 10-25 years for his crime.
- One of the USA's most notorious serial killers, Jeffrey Dahmer was born and raised in Bath Township, Ohio, a middle-class suburb of Akron. Much has been made of his childhood tendencies -including cases of cruelty to animals- but to outward appearances, at least, he seemed to be a normal child. As an adult he was always gainfully employed and was perceived as quiet and polite by co-workers. At the time of his arrest he had been working at a chocolate factory in Milwaukee and living alone in a small one-bedroom apartment. Dahmer's home was searched on July 22, 1991, after a young man fled his apartment and flagged down a police car. An investigation revealed that the apartment contained the remains of 11 young men, most of them black, Hispanic, or Asian. The bodies had been dismembered, and Dahmer confessed that he had cooked and eaten some of the remains. Asked why he committed such heinous acts, Dahmer told police that he killed because he was "lonely" and did not want his victims to leave him. He explained that he would meet potential victims in bars, shopping malls, or adult bookstores, and invite them back to his apartment where, in exchange for money or beer, he would photograph them naked. He would then drug the beer and, once the victim was unconscious, strangle and dismember the body. Dahmer's victims ranged in age from 14 to 33. On February 15, 1992, Dahmer was found guilty on 15 murder counts in Wisconsin. He was subsequently convicted of another killing in his Ohio hometown. Charges linking him to other murders were dropped for lack of evidence. He was sent to prison in Wisconsin with 15 mandatory life sentences to serve. The first year of his sentence, Dahmer was isolated from the general prison population for his own protection. In 1994 he was sent to a maximum security facility in Portage and was allowed some contact with the other inmates. He died after a brutal beating to death late night November 28, 1994, by Christopher Scarver, a fellow inmate who claimed God had instructed him to murder Jeffrey Dahmer. Even after Dahmer's death, legal battles continue over his estate. Several families of his victims sued him and were awarded millions of dollars in restitution. Those families have since been trying to gain control of the contents of Dahmer's apartment, including a 55-gallon vat he used to decompose bodies and the refrigerator where he stored his victims' hearts.
- British hunter who spent most of his adult life in India. He was born in a hill station in India, the second youngest of thirteen children. One of his older stepsisters had survived the siege of Agra during the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. His father died when he was 4, while serving at the 'volatile' Afghan border. He was brought up by his mother on their Naini Tal estate and their "Irish cottage" at Kaladhungi, fifteen miles away. He was fascinated with the jungles as a child and collected birds eggs, studied wildlife and learnt to hunt. From the age of 18 he worked for over twenty years for a railroad company in India. During World War I he was captain of the 500 man 70th Kumaon Labor Corps to France. After the war he was promoted to Major and sent to the North West Frontier as Commandant of the 114th Labor Battalion in the Third Afghan War. From 1920 to 1936 he spent half of each year in Tanganyika, Africa, where he hunted and tracked big game. He supervised growing of coffee and maize on his plantation on slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. In 1930 he gave up hunting big game when he discovered the wonders of a 16 mm movie camera. Instead he began to 'shoot' animals with his camera. He continued, however, to hunt man-eaters who were disrupting human communities. Corbett shot the "Bachelor of Powalgarh," the most prized big-game trophy of the decade. His other famous kills included the "Champawat man-eater" and the "Man-eaters of Kumaon", the latter whom he killed in 1907 after they had killed nearly 436 victims. His last man-eater hunt was the Thak man-eater in 1938. His most famous book about his exploits in tracking and killing man-eating tigers, lions and leopards in India - Man-Eaters of Kumaon was published in 1944.
- Jim Jones was born during the Great Depression. He was the only son of James Thurman Warren Jones Sr. (1887-1951) and Lynetta Putnam (1902-1977). His father was an alcoholic Klansman and he claimed his mother was part Cherokee Indian. He spent most of his formative years in conservative rural Indiana. His father struggled to earn a living as a mystic fortune teller. His parents separated in 1948 and he went to live with his mother in Richmond, Indiana. Jones also worked as an orderly at a local hospital. He got married young, to a nurse 4 years his senior, and adopted 3 children of diverse ethnic backgrounds.
Jones began working as a Methodist minister in Indianapolis in the early 1950 decade. In 1954, when he claimed he had met God on a train ride near Philadelphia, he was defrocked. The charismatic leader then founded his own gathering - the Community National Unity Church. By 1955 he had renamed it the People's Temple Full Gospel Church. He set up a soup kitchen, gave away groceries and clothes to the poor, and established two nursing homes, while preaching messages of apostolic socialism and racial equality. Secretly, he also joined the Communist party on the side. He was appointed director of the Indianapolis Human Rights Commission in 1961. Jones began a dubious path as a "spiritual healer" by planting actors among his believers and miraculously 'healing' them. Jones was getting richer and more popular.
In the early 1960s, during the height of the Cold War, Jones had a vision of apocalyptic destruction. Jones took the vision seriously and decided to move his congregation to Ukiah, California, in the Redwood Valley region north of San Francisco. This area was believed to be one of 9 places on earth that would be safe during a global nuclear war. He then moved to San Francisco's Fillmore district in 1965. Over the next 10 years, his 'flock' of believers reached a peak of 3,000. Jones could be heard on regular radio broadcasts over KFAX radio in California. However, there were occasional bizarre behaviors as well: in April of 1968, when Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, Jones staged a fake attempt on his own life.
Jones received several humanitarian awards in Northern California for his work with the poor. In 1976, he was appointed to the San Francisco Housing Authority by the Mayor George Moscone for his commitment to social activism. However Jones was becoming more and more of a dictator. He demanded sexual favors from some young women, was the only person who could decide if a couple in his congregation could get married, and often separated children from their parents. In 1973, eight close aides defected from his camp and revealed these details to the press, including allegations of misuse of church money. Very soon after, Jones had begun making plans to move his congregation to the socialist nation of Guyana in South America. By 1974, fifteen of Jones' followers had negotiated a lease for 27,000 acres on Guyana's western border with Venezuela, and began clearing the jungle for what would become the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, or "Jonestown." Jones eventually relocated to Guyana in July 1977. In December 1977, his mother Lynetta Jones died at Jonestown.
In 1978, a group of ex-members calling themselves the Committee of Concerned Relatives published literature that likened Jonestown to a concentration camp, complete with torture. Jones began teaching his followers about mass suicide and held practice drills to test his members' loyalty for the "White Night". In November 1978, U.S. House Representative Leo J. Ryan visited the compound and sought to bring back several defectors, including an ex-member's child. Leo's entourage, along with fifteen defectors, were ambushed and killed by Jones' people on the airstrip as they attempted to leave. The next day, the entire community of 914 'followers' (including 276 children) drank a deadly potion of Fla-Vor Aid laced with cyanide poison. Jones' wife was among them. After the mass suicide of his followers, Jones and a close aide shot themselves. - Director
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Malayalam director who studied economics at a college near Kottayam. His grandfather educated him and gave him his first camera. He worked as an insurance salesman in Bellary. Then he went to FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) and studied under Bengali director Ritwik Kumar Ghatak. He started with a student film. His first film was Vidyarthikale Ithile Ithile (1971) made in Tamil. He also wrote his own films. He later lived a nomadic lifestyle in the 70s and depended on support from his friends and colleagues. He suffered from alcoholism and died an accidental death.- John Wayne Gacy was born in 1942 and grew up in a working-class neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. His father, John Stanley Gacy (1900-1969), was an alcoholic and beat him frequently during his violent rages. As Gacy grew up, he began to develop a identity crisis - doubting his own masculinity. At the age of 11, he suffered a blow to the head from a swing. Over the next five years, he had frequent blackouts until doctors found a clot in his brain that was removed with medications. Following that, he would feign 'heart problems' for attention.
He graduated from business college and started to work as a shoe salesman. Gacy married a co-worker worker, whose family owned a KFC in Waterloo, Iowa and began to work there as Manager. He gradually earned the respect of the local Jaycees. In May 1968 he was arrested for sexual misconduct with a young male employee. Gacy actually hired a thug to beat up the witness, which failed, and only increased the charges against him. He plead guilty to sodomy and was sentenced to 10 years. Gacy was a model prisoner and was paroled in 1970 after serving only 18 months.
He then moved to Chicago where he began his life anew as a building constructor. Gacy became popular with his new neighbors and colleagues. He would throw theme parties and often dress up as 'Pogo the Clown' for children's parties and charity shows. Gacy was also involved with the Democratic party and even had his picture taken with then First Lady Rosalynn Carter (wife of former President Jimmy Carter).
On February 12, 1971 he was once again charged with sexual misconduct towards a young man. The witness did not show up in court and the charges were dropped. He finished his parole on October 18, 1971. Gacy committed his first murder on January 3, 1972. His modus operandi would be to drive around town looking for young male runaways, ex-jailbirds or even male prostitutes. Gacy's victims ranged in age from 9 to 20 years. He would flash them a 'badge' or a 'gun' pretending to be an officer of the law and 'arrest' them. Gacy would then befriend them and take take them home where he showed them tricks with 'magic handcuffs'. Once he had subdued his victim he would torture, sodomize and garrote them. Then he would bury them in a crawl space beneath his house. When he ran out of space he began to dump bodies in neighboring rivers. After he divorced his second wife in 1976 the killings escalated as he had the house to himself. On October 25, 1976 he committed a double homicide! In December 1977 he actually let one of his victims leave after he had 'done' with him.
On December 12, 1978 he killed his 33rd and last victim; a 15-year-old boy, named Robert Piest, who lived in his neighborhood. This was Gacy's one big mistake. The victim had told someone he was going to see his "contractor" about a job and was never seen again. The "contractor" turned out to be Gacy. When the police dropped by his house they noticed the smell from the decomposing corpses underneath. When they saw his police record, it wasn't hard for them to get a search warrant of his house. A total of 29 bodies were extracted from the crawlspace and five more from the nearby river, of which 9 remain unidentified. Gacy was judged sane by the court psychiatrists and in 1980 was charged with 21 counts of life for murders committed before June 21, 1977 when Illinois reinstated the death sentence. For the 12 committed since then he got the death sentence. - Latin satirical poet, was born some time between A.D. 50 and 70 and died after 127. He may have come from Aquinum (Aquino) in central Italy. He was the son or ward of a rich freedman (a class he attacks in his writings) and practiced declamation until middle age - which seems likely enough in view of the characteristics of his literary style. Like his friend Martial, who praised his eloquence, Juvenal was for some time extremely poor and lived at Rome as a dependent of wealthy men; but in due course he acquired a small property at Tibur (Tivoli). Several ancient sources state that he was banished for a time for causing offense to the actor Paris, a favorite of the emperor Domitian (81-96). The banishment was said to have taken the form of a military appointment to Egypt, where he died. None of these details, however, are certain, although the knowledge of Egyptian customs he displays in his writings makes it probable that he had a personal knowledge of the country. Juvenal left 5 books of hexameter satires, comprising 16 poems.
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Indian mystic and poet. He tried to unite Hindu and Muslim thought and preached the essential unity of all religions. His disciple Guru Nanak was the founder of Sikhism. Kabir was brought up by a Muslim weaver and later influenced by a Hindu ascetic, Ramananda. He took the best tenets of both Hinduism and Islam and preached his own religion called sahaja-yoga ('simple union'). From Hinduism, he took the ideas of transmigration and the law of karma and from Islam, he accepted the idea of one God and the equality of all men before God.- Possibly the most influential Sanskrit dramatist who lived between 425 and 500 AD in India. He is best known through his drama Sakuntala (translated into English by Sir William Jones in 1789), titled after the name of its heroine which recounts a story contained in the Indian Sanskrit epic the Mahabharata. His other famous dramas include Malavikagnimitra (Malavi and Agnimitra) and Vikramorvasi (Urvasi Won by Valor). He also penned the epic poems Raghuvansa (Dynasty of Raghu) and Kumarasambhava (Birth of the War God) and the short lyrical poem Meghaduta (The Cloud Messenger). Much of his life is quite an enigma.
- American gangster, bank robber and kidnapper, Kate Barker (aka Ma Barker) was the leader of a notorious gang known as the Bloody Barkers. She and her husband George Barker and their four sons Herman (b. 1894), Lloyd (b. 1896), Arthur (b. 1899, known as 'Doc') and Fred (b. 1902) roamed through the American Midwest, robbing, killing and kidnapping. The gang accumulated $3 million from their raids, and large rewards were offered for their bodies. In 1927 Herman committed suicide to avoid capture. Doc and Ma were killed at Lake Weir, Florida, in a 45-minute shootout with the FBI in 1935. George Barker buried them in Welch, Oklahoma. In 1939 Fred was killed trying to escape from Alcatraz Prison. Lloyd was killed by his wife in 1949.
- Along with his adopted cousin Angelo Buono Jr. he was part of "the Hillside Stranglers" pair. Bianchi's mother was a prostitute who gave him up for adoption as an infant. By the age of 11 he was having problems at school with his conduct and frequent tantrums. He tried for the police force but was rejected by the Glendale and Los Angeles Police Departments. In 1971 he wrote to a girl-friend claiming he had killed a man, but she did not take it seriously. From 1971 to 1973, 3 girls were killed in Rochester that became known as the 'Alphabet Murders' because the first and last initials of the their names were the same! Bianchi was later suspected of being responsible. In 1976 he moved down to Los Angeles where he lived with his adopted cousin (Angelo Buono). Ten women were killed between Oct 17 and December 9, 1977. The Hillside Stranglers displayed the bodies on hillsides near freeways to taunt the authorities. They impersonated policemen and preyed on prostitutes and female motorists. Their victims were tortured, raped and finally garroted. One of their prospective victims was Catharine Lorre (daughter of actor Peter Lorre) who testified that she had been approached by 2 policemen. The authorities now knew they were dealing with a pair of killers. In 1978 Bianchi went to Bellingham, Washington where he worked as a security guard. On January 11, 1979 2 women who had gone to meet him for a house-sitting job were found dead. Bianchi had been their last contact. His house was searched by the police and they found items stolen from his security guard posts. He was finally tied to the Hillside slayings in June 1979. In jail Bianchi feigned multiple personality. He agreed to testify against his cousin Buono and was facing 10 counts of murder. His cousin was arrested in Oct 1979. In June 1980 he received a letter from Veronica Lynn Compton (23) a poet, playwright and aspiring actress who wanted his opinion on new play regarding a female serial-killer. Compton it seems was fascinated with necrophilia. She agreed to go to Bellingham, strangle a woman there and deposit Bianchi's semen at the scene to confuse the police into thinking that the real killer was still on the loose. On September 16, 1980 she got a book from Bianchi, in prison, within which was concealed a glove containing his semen. On October 3, 1980 she was arrested for attempted murder. Bianchi's trial went on from November 1981 to November 1983. He was finally found guilty of 9 counts of murder and sentenced to 9 life terms without parole.
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This African American actor attended Penn Hills High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He started his junior year at 6' 5" and finished it at 6' 9"! He played basketball throughout his high-school years and won a scholarship. He averaged 18 points a game and 10 rebounds! He played basketball during college, but not when it would interfere with his major at George Washington University in Washington, DC, which was Theatrical Arts. During his college years, he met Jay Fenichel with whom he would later make musical productions. Upon graduation, Fenichel moved to Los Angeles and Hall moved to Venezuela to play basketball.
After a year, Hall lost interest and relocated to Los Angeles, California. Along with Fenichel, the duo put together two night-club acts/musicals. One was a semi-autobiographical two-man musical, "In Five," and the other was a two-man show called "The Worst of Friends," both of which played in night clubs throughout the LA area. They also had a promotional business where they did promotional acts in department stores for new products.
While working on the set of the series 227 (1985), he met his co-star, Alaina Reed-Hall, who played Rose Lee Holloway. They married--both on the set, and in real life. Predator 2 (1990) was released December 1990, and in April 1991, he died of AIDS, which he contracted through a blood transfusion a few months before.- Chinese philosopher and founder of Taoism. Lao-Tzu, whose name means "old boy" or "old master," was the chief archivist for the imperial court of the Chou dynasty. Many Sinologists believe that he is the historian whom Confucius consulted about ceremonies. According to legend, as an old man, Lao-Tzu left Chou for the seclusion of the mythical K'un-lun mountains, never to be seen again. Before leaving, however, he allegedly communicated his ideas to a border guard, who subsequently compiled the 'Tao-te Ching' (the Classic of the Way and Its Virtue). The 'Tao-te Ching' is by far the most-translated Chinese literary work. The Tao-te Ching outlines all the basic philosophical and mystical beliefs of Taoism, which, for several brief periods throughout history, was the official religion of China. Central to these beliefs is the understanding of the Tao, the universe's underlying pattern, which can neither be described in words nor properly fathomed in thought. "Tao is nonbeing, which is the mother of being, which in turn produces all things". In the Tao te Ching Lao-Tzu wrote of the importance of seeking to comply with the "Tao." "The virtue of the Tao governs its natural way," Lao-Tzu wrote. "Thus, he who is at one with it, is one with everything which lives, having freedom from the fear of death".
- Alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy, son of Marguerite Frances Claverie Oswald. He never knew his father, Robert Edward Lee Oswald, who had died 2 months before his birth of a heart attack. Oswald had 1 older full brother and another half-brother (from his mother's first marriage). Young Oswald was placed in a Lutheran orphanage at the age of 3, but he was removed when his mother left for Dallas in January 1944 and married her 3rd husband Edwin A. Ekdahl. Oswald left school in 1954. He was in the US Marines until 1959 when he was discharged due to hardship as his mother was suffering from physical problems. Oswald was interested in Marxist ideologies and lived for some time in the USSR (1959-62). He unsuccessfully tried to get Soviet citizenship. When he was initially denied and as his visa was about to expire he even attempted suicide. In 1961 he married a Russian woman, Marina Nikolaevna Prusakova, (Marina Oswald) and was allowed to stay indefinitely. However by October 1963 Oswald moved along with his wife and daughter back to the States, and settled in Dallas. Oswald began to publicly express his opinions about Communist regimes like Cuba and China by distributing pamphlets. He was working for the Texas School Depository, a 6 story building located in the now 'infamous' Dealey Plaza area of Dallas, Texas. On November 22, 1963 when President Kennedy's motorcade passed by the building it is believed that Oswald was in the building. He may shot the president from the 6th floor and then concealed the rifle behind some crates. Whether he acted alone or not is still an ongoing debate. Oswald apparently left the depository when pandemonium broke out after the incident. He then headed home where he picked up a pistol. Oswald returned to the Depository where he is believed to have fired 4 bullets into police officer J.D. Tippit who approached him to ask him a question. Oswald then ran into the Texas Theatre where the double bill: War Is Hell (1961) and Cry of Battle (1963) was playing. He had not bought a ticket and the authorities cornered him in the theatre and quickly took him into custody. On 23 November 1963 he was charged with the murder of President Kennedy, whom he was alleged to have shot from the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository, as the President passed by in a motor cavalcade. Oswald however vehemently denied his involvement in both the Kennedy assassination and the shooting of officer Tippit. On November 24, 1963 just 2 days later, while authorities were transferring Oswald to the county jail, he was shot dead by night club owner Jack Ruby (1911-67), live before the cameras. Ruby claimed he was avenging Jacqueline Kennedy (Jackie Kennedy Onassis). Claims were made that Oswald had links with the US secret service and with the Mafia. But it seems that there are more conspiracy theories than facts.
- One of the tallest actors ever, he held various odd jobs before his debut on the silver screen. He worked for Spike Jones and his City Slickers, Ardens Dairy (in California,) as a Cowboy for Public Relations and at Knotts Berry Farm, (in California) also as a Cowboy. It was while he was working as a doorman at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood that his height was noticed and because of it he was chosen for the role of Gort. He also hosted a children's TV show in the Los Angeles area in the 50s called 'The Gentle Giant'. He was not a very strong man for his size. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California.
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Le Prince was a French artist and the inventor of an early motion picture camera born in Metz, France. His father was a major of artillery in the French Army and an officer of the Légion d'honneur. When growing up, he reportedly spent time in the studio of his father's friend, the pioneer of photography Louis Daguerre, from whom he may have received some lessons on photography and chemistry before he was 10 years old. His education went on to include the study of painting in Paris and post-graduate chemistry at Leipzig University. He then moved to Leeds, England in 1866, after being invited to join John Whitley, a friend from college, in Whitley Partners of Hunslet, a firm of brass founders making valves and components. In 1869, he married Elizabeth Whitley, John's sister and a talented artist, and the two of them started a school of applied art, the Leeds Technical School of Art, and became well renowned for their work in fixing coloured photographs on to metal and pottery. In 1881, Le Prince went to the United States with his family where he began experiments relating to the production of 'moving' photographs, designing a camera that utilised sixteen lenses, which was the first invention he patented. After his return to Leeds in May 1887, he built a single-lens camera in mid-late 1888 used to shoot his motion-picture films. It was first used on 14 October 1888 to shoot what would become known as Roundhay Garden Scene (1888) and Accordion Player (1888). He later used it to film Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge (1888). In September 1890, he was preparing for a trip to the United States, supposedly to publicly premiere his work and join his wife and children. Before this journey, he decided to return to France to visit his brother in Dijon. Then, on 16 September, he took a train to Paris but, having taken a later train than planned, his friends missed him in Paris. He was never seen again by his family or friends. The last person to see Le Prince at the Dijon station was his brother. The French police, Scotland Yard and the family undertook exhaustive searches, but never found him. Le Prince was officially declared dead on 16 September 1897.- US gangster and racketeer. Born Charles Salvadore Lucania in Sicily, he emigrated with his family to the US in 1906. In 1907 he started shoplifting. He was given his nickname by childhood friend and fellow gangster Meyer Lansky for his luck with betting on racehorses, but it also could have applied to the many times he avoided imprisonment and prosecution as a Mafia "godfather" who operated successfully and profitably in the 1920s and 1930s. Between 1928 and 1930 the Castellammarese War broke out between the gangs of Giuseppe Masseria (aka Joe the Boss) and Salvatore Maranzano. Maranzano sent some men to "rough up" Luciano, and when they caught him they not only beat and stabbed him, but addition severed the muscles of his right cheek, leaving him with a droop in his right eye. He was left for dead under the Brooklyn Bridge. However, he lived up to his nickname and survived. Recovering, he sided with Maranzano in the conflict. By 1931 Masseria had been assassinated and Maranzano had won. He named himself "boss of bosses" (capo di tuti capo), but that title proved to be short-lived. Luciano and Lansky's had their men visit Maranzano in his office, disguised as government agents, and assassinated him. Luciano followed that with anywhere from 40 to 90 additional murders during the series of killings that came to be called the "Night of the Sicilian Vespers". Luciano was now the undisputed boss of a "new" Mafia. His business included narcotics-peddling, extortion and, especially, prostitution, including everything from low-rent streetwalkers to high-priced call girls. Luciano, one of the most powerful figures in organized crime, was arrested 25 times between 1919 and 1936 but convicted only once. When three prostitutes finally agreed to give evidence against him, he was arrested (1936) and found guilty of compelling women to become prostitutes. Even from prison, he retained control of his Family, setting up the Crime Syndicate of Mafia Families. During World War II he helped U.S. military intelligence through his Mafia connections in Italy and was given a suspended sentence on condition that he leave the US. In 1946 he was released from prison and deported to Italy as an undesirable alien. He returned to Naples, Italy, where he lived out his life in luxury. Luciano died of a heart attack at Naples Airport. He was only posthumously allowed to return to the USA, where he was buried at St John's Cemetery in New York.
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Major Malayalam actor and director of the 60s and 70s. Graduated from Benares Hindu University and later took a diploma in acting from the National School of Drama. He often played the sad and suffering lover. He gained major acclaim after Chemmeen (1965) which established him as a character actor. After that he acted regularly in independent productions. His fist directorial venture was 'Priya' (1970) which received major critical acclaim. Founded the Uma Studio in Trivandrum (Kerala, India).- Indian founder transcendental meditation, born in Allahabad, UP, India in 1917. He abandoned his scientific studies to become a follower of Guru Dev. He founded the science of creative intelligence and, as an exponent of the relaxation technique called transcendental meditation, he became one of the first Eastern gurus to attract a Western following. He first introduced his meditation technique, based on a literal interpretation of yoga concepts and the use of mantras, to the West in 1958, and went on to found the Spiritual Regeneration movement, aimed at saving the world through meditation. He taught that 'life is bliss'. This concept has developed into a worldwide network of meditation centers with an estimated four million practitioners. The Beatles were among his 'celebrity' disciples.