Tuesday, October 31, 2017

The Unknown Warrior

The British tomb of The Unknown Warrior holds an unidentified British soldier killed on a European battlefield during the First World War. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, London on 11 November 1920, simultaneously with a similar interment of a French unknown soldier at the Arc de Triomphe in France, making both tombs the first to honour the unknown dead of the First World War. It is the first example of a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. History of the Unknown Warrior- Origins: The idea of a Tomb of the Unknown Warrior was first conceived in 1916 by the Reverend David Railton, who, while serving as an army chaplain on the Western Front, had seen a grave marked by a rough cross, which bore the pencil-written legend 'An Unknown British Soldier'. He wrote to the Dean of Westminster in 1920 proposing that an unidentified British soldier from the battlefields in France be buried with due ceremony in Westminster Abbey "amongst the kings" to represent the many hundreds of thousands of Empire dead. The idea was strongly supported by the Dean and the Prime Minister David Lloyd George. Selection, arrival and ceremony: Arrangements were placed in the hands of Lord Curzon of Kedleston who prepared in committee the service and location. Suitable remains were exhumed from various battlefields and brought to the chapel at Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise near Arras, France on the night of 7 November 1920. The bodies were received by the Reverend George Kendall OBE. Brigadier L.J. Wyatt and Lieutenant Colonel E.A.S. Gell of the Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries went into the chapel alone. The remains were then placed in six plain coffins each covered by Union Flags: the two officers did not know from which battlefield any individual soldier had come. Brigadier Wyatt with closed eyes rested his hand on one of the coffins. The other soldiers were then taken away for reburial by Kendall. The coffin of the unknown warrior then stayed at the chapel overnight and on the afternoon of 8 November, it was transferred under guard and escorted by Kendall, with troops lining the route, from Ste Pol to the medieval castle within the ancient citadel at Boulogne. For the occasion, the castle library was transformed into a chapelle ardente: a company from the French 8th Infantry Regiment, recently awarded the Légion d'Honneur en masse, stood vigil overnight. The following morning, two undertakers entered the castle library and placed the coffin into a casket of the oak timbers of trees from Hampton Court Palace. The casket was banded with iron, and a medieval crusader's sword chosen by The King personally from the Royal Collection was affixed to the top and surmounted by an iron shield bearing the inscription 'A British Warrior who fell in the Great War 1914–1918 for King and Country'. The casket was then placed onto a French military wagon, drawn by six black horses. At 10.30 am, all the church bells of Boulogne tolled; the massed trumpets of the French cavalry and the bugles of the French infantry played Aux Champs (the French "Last Post"). Then, the mile-long procession—led by one thousand local schoolchildren and escorted by a division of French troops—made its way down to the harbour. At the quayside, Marshal Foch saluted the casket before it was carried up the gangway of the destroyer, HMS Verdun, and piped aboard with an admiral's call. The Verdun slipped anchor just before noon and was joined by an escort of six battleships. As the flotilla carrying the casket closed on Dover Castle it received a 19-gun Field Marshal's salute. It was landed at Dover Marine Railway Station at the Western Docks on 10 November. The body of the Unknown Warrior was carried to London in South Eastern and Chatham Railway General Utility Van No.132, which had previously carried the bodies of Edith Cavell and Charles Fryatt. The van has been preserved by the Kent and East Sussex Railway. The train went to Victoria Station, where it arrived at platform 8 at 8.32 pm that evening and remained overnight. (A plaque at Victoria Station marks the site: every year on 10 November, a small Remembrance service, organised by The Western Front Association, takes place between platforms 8 and 9.) On the morning of 11 November 1920, the casket was placed onto a gun carriage of the Royal Horse Artillery and drawn by six horses through immense and silent crowds. As the cortege set off, a further Field Marshal's salute was fired in Hyde Park. The route followed was Hyde Park Corner, The Mall, and to Whitehall where the Cenotaph, a "symbolic empty tomb", was unveiled by King-Emperor George V. The cortège was then followed by The King, the Royal Family and ministers of state to Westminster Abbey, where the casket was borne into the West Nave of the Abbey flanked by a guard of honour of one hundred recipients of the Victoria Cross. The guests of honour were a group of about one hundred women. They had been chosen because they had each lost their husband and all their sons in the war. "Every woman so bereft who applied for a place got it". The coffin was then interred in the far western end of the Nave, only a few feet from the entrance, in soil brought from each of the main battlefields, and covered with a silk pall. Servicemen from the armed forces stood guard as tens of thousands of mourners filed silently past. The ceremony appears to have served as a form of catharsis for collective mourning on a scale not previously known. The grave was then capped with a black Belgian marble stone (the only tombstone in the Abbey on which it is forbidden to walk) featuring this inscription, composed by Herbert Edward Ryle, Dean of Westminster, engraved with brass from melted down wartime ammunition: Beneath this stone rests the body Of a British warrior Unknown by name or rank Brought from France to lie among The most illustrious of the land And buried here on Armistice Day 11 Nov: 1920, in the presence of His Majesty King George V His Ministers of State The Chiefs of his forces And a vast concourse of the nation Thus are commemorated the many Multitudes who during the Great War of 1914 – 1918 gave the most that Man can give life itself For God For King and country For loved ones home and empire For the sacred cause of justice and The freedom of the world They buried him among the kings because he Had done good toward God and toward His house Around the main inscription are four New Testament quotations: -The Lord knoweth them that are his (top; 2 Timothy 2:19) -Unknown and yet well known, dying and behold we live (side; 2 Corinthians 6:9) -Greater love hath no man than this (side; John 15:13) -In Christ shall all be made alive (base; 1 Corinthians 15:22) Later history: A year later, on 17 October 1921, the unknown warrior was given the United States' highest award for valour, the Medal of Honor, from the hand of General John Pershing; it hangs on a pillar close to the tomb. On 11 November 1921, the American Unknown Soldier was reciprocally awarded the Victoria Cross. When Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon married the future King George VI on 26 April 1923, she laid her bouquet at the Tomb on her way into the Abbey, as a tribute to her brother Fergus who had died at the Battle of Loos in 1915 (and whose name was then listed among those of the missing on the Loos Memorial, although in 2012 a new headstone was erected in the Quarry Cemetery, Vermelles).[ Royal brides married at the Abbey now have their bouquets laid on the tomb the day after the wedding and all of the official wedding photographs have been taken. It is also the only tomb not to have been covered by a special red carpet for the wedding of Prince Albert, Duke of York, and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. Before she died in 2002, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (the same Elizabeth who first laid her wedding bouquet at the tomb) expressed the wish for her wreath to be placed on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. Her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, laid the wreath the day after the funeral. The British Unknown Warrior came 76th in the 100 Great Britons poll. The LMS-Patriot Project a charitable organisation, is building a new steam locomotive that will carry the name The Unknown Warrior. The new loco has been endorsed by the Royal British Legion as the new National Memorial Engine. A public appeal to build the locomotive was launched in 2008. The Unknown Warrior is expected to be complete by 2018—the 100th Anniversary of the Armistice, if sufficient funds can be raised. The day after the wedding of William and Catherine Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on 29 April 2011, the Duchess' wedding bouquet was laid on the tomb. Heads of state from over 70 countries have lain wreaths in memoriam of the Unknown Warrior. Related memorials- There have been three related memorials erected since 1920 for the Unknown Warrior: -St. Pol where the Unknown Warrior was selected -Dover harbour at the cruise terminal where the Unknown Warrior was brought ashore -Victoria Station, London, where the Unknown Warrior rested before his burial on 11 November

Monday, October 30, 2017

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Japan

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) (Japanese: 末日聖徒イエス・キリスト教会) was established in Japan in 1901 when the first LDS Church missionaries arrived on August 12, 1901. Among them was Heber J. Grant, at the time a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, the 7th President of the Church. Accompanying Grant was Horace S. Ensign, Louis A. Kelsch and Alma O. Taylor. The first baptism was on March 8, 1902, when Grant baptized Hajime Nakazawa, a former Kannushi (Shinto priest). Membership: As of July 2016, the LDS Church reported 128,216 members. As of April 2013, there were 29 stakes, 13 districts, 164 wards, 117 branches, 7 missions, and 3 temples in Japan. History: In 1901, Heber J. Grant established the first LDS Church mission in Asia, headquartered in Tokyo. This was the first mission established in Asia. However, on August 7, 1924, Grant, then president of the church, closed the mission to await a more "favorable time". All missionaries then left for the United States. Fujiya Nara, a Japanese convert, was appointed presiding elder by the First Presidency over the small group of Japanese members that remained. Nara published a newsletter, "Shuro" (Palm) and held meetings with the remaining members. On February 24, 1937 the Japanese-Central Pacific Mission, a mission aimed at teaching primarily Japanese people in Hawaii, was opened, headquarters in Honolulu, Hawaii, with Hilton A. Robertson as president. However, it was not until March 6, 1948, that then mission president Edward L. Clissold was given permission to return to Japan to do missionary work. Clissold had been part of the United States military occupation forces in Japan after World War II. While there he ran an advertisement seeking out members of the LDS Church who had been baptized prior to the missionaries leaving in 1924. He was able to find some, including Fujiya Nara, and reestablish the Church there. Prior to this from 1943 to 1944 Clissold had been acting president of the Central Pacific Mission, a mission in Hawaii that was aimed at teaching primarily Japanese people. The first five missionaries arrived in Japan on June 26, 1948. On April 26, 1964, the first meetinghouse in Asia, the Tokyo North Branch, was dedicated by Gordon B. Hinckley, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The Tokyo Stake was the first stake of the church in Asia, organized on March 15, 1970. Within the same week the church opened a display at Expo '70 in Osaka, featuring a new version of Man's Search for Happiness, created specially for this event. BYU's Young Ambassadors, also performed at the expo. The first LDS temple in Asia was the Tokyo Temple, dedicated in 1980. In 1965 Adney Y. Komatsu was called as a mission president, the first of Japanese ancestry, and in 1975 he became the first general authority of Japanese (and Asian) ancestry. Yoshihiko Kikuchi was the first native Japanese general authority, called in 1977. Missions: As of March 15, 2011, there were over 630 missionaries serving in the church's six missions in Japan. -Japan Fukuoka Mission -Japan Kobe Mission -Japan Nagoya Mission -Japan Sapporo Mission -Japan Sendai Mission -Japan Tokyo Mission -Japan Tokyo South Mission (re-created July 2013). Slang: Missionaries in Japan often use a specific type of slang called senkyoshigo when communicating with each other. This "mission language" has been used nearly universally in the missions of Japan. It is distinct from but combines aspects of the English and Japanese languages. Some words and expressions are mission- or language-specific, while others are common with non-Japanese missions, such as calling the halfway point of a mission the "hump" or hump day, or describing a missionary who is excited about returning home as "trunky" as he has already packed his trunk. Temples: On October 27, 1980, the Tokyo Japan Temple (formerly the Tokyo Temple) (東京神殿 Tōkyō Shinden) was dedicated. This was the first temple in Asia and the first in a non-Christian country, for the LDS Church. President Spencer W. Kimball described it as "the most significant and important event in the history of Asia." The Tokyo Temple was followed by the Fukuoka Japan Temple (福岡神殿 Fukuoka Shinden), dedicated on June 11, 2000 and the Sapporo Japan Temple (札幌神殿 Sapporo Shinden), dedicated on August 21, 2016.

Sapporo Japan Temple

The Sapporo Japan Temple (札幌神殿 Sapporo Shinden) is a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Sapporo, Japan. The intent to construct the temple was announced by church president Thomas S. Monson on October 3, 2009, during the church's semi-annual general conference. Completed in 2016, the intention to building the temple was announced concurrently with the Brigham City Utah, Concepción Chile, Fort Lauderdale Florida and Fortaleza Brazil temples; together, at the time, they brought the total number of temples worldwide to 151. It is the third church temple in Japan. Open house and dedication: A public open house was held from July 8–23, 2016, excluding Sundays. The temple was formally dedicated by Russell M. Nelson on August 21, 2016.

Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple

The Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple is a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in the Logan Square neighborhood of Philadelphia. Completed in 2016, the intent to construct the temple was announced on October 4, 2008, during the church's 178th Semiannual General Conference by LDS Church president Thomas S. Monson. The temple is the church's first in the state of Pennsylvania, and the first temple between Washington, D.C. and New York City. History: On November 19, 2009, the church announced that the temple would be built on Vine Street in downtown Philadelphia, directly northeast of Logan Circle. This location places the temple in the immediate vicinity of several prominent Philadelphia landmarks, and immediately across the street from the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, head church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Ground was broken for the temple on September 17, 2011. Local community leaders were present for the ceremonies which were presided over by Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the church's First Presidency. By July 2012, no significant work had begun on the temple as a contractor had not been found to remove the existing parking lot and start the below ground excavation for the two-level parking garage. In November 2012, the Philadelphia Art Commission granted final approval for the temple design, despite some members feeling the building was too similar to other buildings in the vicinity in its appearance. Most of the parking lot on the temple site had been removed by February 2013, and by May 2 that year, the underground digging for the building of the temple had been completed. The building was framed to its full height by August 2014. Design and complex: The temple architect is B. Jeffrey Stebar of the Atlanta office of Perkins+Will, a Latter-day Saint who has served as a bishop and member of a stake presidency. City and church officials announced in February 2014 that a meetinghouse and a 32-story residential building will be built on a lot adjacent to the temple site, at 1601 Vine Street. The residential structure and meetinghouse were designed by Paul L. Whalen of RAMSA. The meetinghouse will serve approximately 1,000 of the 25,000 Latter-day Saints in the Philadelphia area and will include a family history center. The residential building is anticipated to include 258 apartments and 13 townhouses, along with retail space, and be subject to regular, applicable taxes. Open house and dedication: A public open house was held from August 10 through September 9, 2016, excluding Sundays. According to the church, approximately 140,000 visitors attended the open house. A youth cultural celebration, which recognized the heritage of the region through song, dance, and narration, was held on September 17. Like the groundbreaking in 2011, the cultural celebration occurred on the anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution. The temple was formally dedicated by Eyring on September 18, 2016. Reception: Inga Saffron, architecture critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer, called the temple "the most radical work of architecture built in Philadelphia in a half-century ... because it dares to be so out of step with today's design sensibilities and our bottom-line culture." Estimating its cost as more than $100 million, she wrote that "The Mormon Temple is the real classical deal" and "a bold incursion into the hierarchical fabric of Philadelphia". Saffron praised the interior woodwork as "exceptional" and approved of the exterior replicating the nearby Family Court building, "the last truly satisfying neoclassical design". She criticized the decision to put the front door on 17th Street, stating that the temple "turns its back on Logan Square. It occupies this important civic space without being a real participant". Saffron also disliked the design of the LDS chapel next door, describing the Robert A. M. Stern-designed building as "strange ... a squashed cupcake with a giant candle stuck on top", with a "baffling" drainage ditch on Vine Street.

Neal Falls

Neal Falls was an American suspected serial killer shot and killed by Heather Saul, an escort in West Virginia. Falls had been stopped by police in over 20 states during his life but did not incur any serious criminal charges. After entering Saul's residence, Falls held her at gunpoint. Saul describes the struggle that ensued as follows: "When he strangled me, I grabbed my rake, and when he laid the gun down to get the rake out of my hands, I shot him...I grabbed the gun and shot behind me." Falls died at the scene. Four sets of handcuffs were retrieved from his body. When police officers searched the inside of his car, they allegedly found a machete, axes, knives, a shovel, a sledgehammer, bleach, plastic trash bags, bulletproof vests, clean white socks and underwear. Police are now investigating whether Falls could possibly be connected to the murder or disappearance of ten women across eight states including Ohio, Illinois, and Nevada. All the alleged female victims were documented escorts, most of whom advertised online. Evidence linking Falls to multiple homicides includes an item found with dismembered bodies outside of Las Vegas, where Falls is rumoured to have resided while working on the Hoover Dam. This is similar to an item found in his car. A pair of legs were found in the woods near Divernon, IL by a young man that are believed to belong to one of Falls' victims. In a statement of speculative belief, "It's likely that Mr. Falls is a serial killer," said Steve Cooper, Chief Detective at Charleston Police Department. Police suspect a post-it found in Falls' pocket, detailing the names of six females along with ages and phone numbers, may have contained the names of potential or future victim. Possible victims- Possible victims of Neal Falls [yet to be supported by evidence] include: -Jodi Brewer -Lindsay Marie Harris -Misty Marie Saens -Tiffany Sayre -Shasta Himelrick -Charlotte Trego -Tameka Lynch -Wanda Lemons (missing) Previously speculated victims: -Timberly Claytor -Jessica Edith Foster (missing)

Anthony Allen Shore

Anthony Allen Shore is a convicted serial killer and child molester who is responsible for the slayings of one woman and three girls. He operated from 1986 to 2000, and was known as the "Tourniquet Killer" because of his use of a ligature with either a toothbrush or bamboo stick to tighten or loosen the ligature. The instrument was similar to a twitch, a tool used by farmers to control horses. Background: Shore's parents were both with the United States Air Force; he was born in South Dakota where his father was stationed. Because of his parents' enlistments in the military, Shore's family moved nine times before he entered high school. He has two sisters. Although he possessed much musical talent, he did not pursue a career in music, but instead became a telephone lineman. He married and had two daughters Tiffany and Amber, but later divorced and was given custody of his two young girls. He later married and again divorced. Murders and assaults- Laurie Lee Tremblay: Shore's first known victim was fourteen-year-old Laurie Tremblay, who was killed on September 26, 1986. Tremblay was walking to school when she was attacked. Shore had attempted to sexually assault her. She was strangled. Her body was dumped behind a Mexican restaurant. Maria del Carmen Estrada: Maria del Carmen Estrada, 21, was killed on April 16, 1992. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. She was a Mexican immigrant from the state of Guerrero. She was a small, petite woman, standing at a height of 5 feet 1 inch and weighing 104 pounds. She worked as a nanny with her best friend, Rosa. On April 16, 1992, Carmen's half-naked body was found in the back of a Dairy Queen. Selma Janske: On October 19, 1993, Shore entered the home of fourteen-year-old Selma Janske, then bound and sexually assaulted her; however, he did not kill her, and instead fled the scene on foot. Diana Rebollar: Diana Rebollar, 9, was killed on August 8, 1994. She had been beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled. She lived in the Heights area of Houston, at the front of a small duplex. One day, she went to the neighborhood store to buy a bag of sugar. Employees of the store saw her leave the store safely, but she never returned home. She was found the next day on a loading dock behind a building. One lead for police was given by a neighbor who described a van that frequented the area. She was connected to the Carmen Del Estrada case by the killer's MO: a rope with a bamboo stick attached was found around her neck. Dana Sanchez: Dana Sanchez, 16, was killed on July 6, 1995. Shore offered her a ride in his van. He made advances to her, which she resisted; she was then strangled. Seven days later, an anonymous telephone call to a local news station, actually made by Shore, directed police to her body. Investigation: Shore had been convicted of molesting his two daughters Tiffany and Amber, and as a result he was required to provide police with a DNA sample. This was done in 1998. In 2000, detectives pulled Carmen Del Estrada's case from the cold files, tested DNA evidence from underneath Carmen's fingernails, and received a full genetic profile. The results were not immediately matched to Shore because of problems at the lab. As a result of an audit, the lab was closed in 2002; certain samples, however, including those taken from Estrada's nails, were sent to another laboratory for retesting. The results were not matched until 2003. Shore was arrested for Estrada's murder. Eleven hours into his interrogation, Shore confessed to the murders of Carmen Del Estrada, Diana Rebollar, and Dana Sanchez. He also confessed to the 1987 murder of fourteen-year-old Laurie Tremblay and the 1994 rape of a fourteen-year-old girl. Detectives had no way of linking this killing to the other three murders because Tremblay was strangled with a ligature. When asked why he switched to a tourniquet, Shore replied, "because I hurt my finger while murdering Tremblay." Trial and conviction: Despite Shore's confession to the murders of four people and the rape of another, prosecutor Kelly Siegler decided to charge Shore for only Carmen Del Estrada's murder, because it contained the most forensic evidence. The jury found Shore guilty of capital murder, and, in the sentencing phase of the trial, learned that they had convicted a serial killer. During the sentencing phase, Shore's only surviving victim testified. Less than one hour later, the jury sentenced Shore to death, which Shore himself had asked for. Shore awaits an October 18, 2017 execution date on Texas's death row in Livingston, Texas. During his confession, Shore hinted that there were other murder victims, and he remains the prime suspect in the I-45 serial murders.

Gwynns Falls Leakin Park

The adjoining Gwynns Falls Park and Leakin Park, in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, generally referred to as "Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park," covers 1,216 acres (492 ha) of contiguous parkland, forming the most extensive park in the city. Gwynns Falls-Leakin Park situated along the Gwynns Falls stream, through the western side of Baltimore City and suburban Baltimore County, which eventually flows into the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River (Baltimore Harbor), The combined / joint parks are a protected wilderness area, heavily forested and largely left in its natural state, somewhat like Herring Run in the northeast section of the city, but unlike other large urban parks in Baltimore city such as Druid Hill or Patterson Parks, which have some tree cover, with open meadows and mowed lawns in between. Baltimore's City Department of Recreation and Parks operates Gwynns Falls and Leakin as a single park, beginning at the western edge of the city, following the Gwynns Falls stream from Windsor Mill Road (northwest) to Wilkens Avenue (southeast). Franklintown Road serves as the main vehicular route through the park, as a continuation of Dogwood Road from the Baltimore County suburb of Woodlawn. It exits the park near West Lafayette Avenue further into the city. Although surrounded by an urban environment, some areas of the park are so heavily wooded that they give the impression of wilderness. Portions of the 1999 horror film The Blair Witch Project were filmed here. The combination of its many secluded areas and easy vehicular access has in the past given it a reputation, in Baltimore and beyond, as a place where bodies of murder victims are frequently found. In the early 2010s the park began efforts to change that by barricading many dead-end access roads from high-crime neighborhoods adjacent to it. History- Gwynns Falls Park: The properties which eventually became Gwynns Falls Park started with a small parcel of land southwest of Edmondson Avenue, selected by the Baltimore City government in 1901 to serve as a park, anticipating the needs of a growing population. In their plan for the "Greater Baltimore Public Grounds," prepared for the Baltimore Municipal Arts Society in 1904, the Olmsted Brothers recommended acquiring land along the Gwynns Falls for a stream valley park. Gwynns Falls Park was established by the City of Baltimore in 1908 with the addition of other properties to the land purchased in 1901. In the 1960s, federal, state and city transportation planners proposed routing Interstate 70 through the Gwynns Falls Valley and the Park. The eastbound interstate was to continue from its current eastern terminus at the Security Boulevard/Cooks Lane interchange and run towards an intersection with Interstate 95, which runs from the northeast to southwest through the city; a spur route, Interstate 170, was to begin there, and serve downtown via the neighborhoods immediately west of it. This extension was canceled officially in the early 1980s due to heavy sustained local opposition, and the I-70 designation itself was truncated to the Baltimore Beltway in 2014. Leakin Park: A bequest from J. Wilson Leakin in 1922 provided funding for a 300-acre addition to the park, purchased as two parcels in 1941 and 1948 from the descendants of Thomas de Kay Winans (1820–1878). A stipulation of the bequest required the city to name this portion of the park for Leakin's grandfather, Shepard A. Leakin, a former mayor. The property purchased from the Winans family was previously known as the Crimea. Thomas Winans named his Baltimore property after the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine. In 1856, Winans built a villa on the property, which he called the Orianda House. His villa continues to stand in Leakin Park, at 1901 Eagle Drive. The parks are included in the Baltimore National Heritage Area. Pipeline plans: Plans to build a two-mile-long gas pipeline through a heavily wooded section of the park were questioned by the Friends of Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park organization in September 2013. The pipeline will replace an aging pipeline originally installed in 1949 along Dead Run, a tributary of Gwynns Falls. Initially, Baltimore Gas & Electric Company planned a replacement line running mostly along the park's southern border. An alternative suggestion would move more of the line to the southern border at the neighborhood of West Hills. Either route will require extensive clearing of trees that are more than 100 years old, because the new pipeline requires a 40-foot wide access corridor to be kept clear of trees. Running the pipeline along the existing route would involve a serious environmental impact, due to its proximity to Dead Run. This alternative also involves extensive clearing, because the new pipe must be located at least 75 feet from the old line to satisfy safety requirements. The access corridor along the old pipeline is only 26 feet wide. Notable features: -Carrie Murray Nature Center -Chesapeake & Allegheny Live Steamers, a miniature steam-powered railroad with 3,400 feet of track, provides free rides every second Sunday, April through November. -Gwynns Falls Trail, 14 miles of hiking and biking trails Orianda Mansion, former summer home of Thomas Winans -Crimea estate chapel and herb gardens -Ben Cardin Picnic Grove and Pavilion, named for Benjamin Cardin -Western Cemetery Activities and events: -Baltimore Herb Festival, held annually in May. -Carrie Murray Bug Fest, held annually in September at the Carrie Murray Nature Center. -Leakin Park parkrun, a free weekly 5k run/walk held Saturday mornings in the park Dumped bodies: Leakin Park has a reputation as a dumping ground for the city's murder victims. It has been described as "the city's largest unregistered graveyard." A webpage devoted to tracking the bodies found there counts 71 since the 1940s; its compiler says the actual number is probably higher due to incomplete archives of the Baltimore Sun. This aspect of the park has been referenced in works of popular culture set in Baltimore. In an episode of The Wire, a police detective recalls checking the park for a body earlier in his career and being told only to care about ones that fit the victim's description. "We're looking for one body in particular—if you go grabbing every one you see, we'll be here all day," he recounts being told. In its first season, the podcast Serial investigated the death of Hae Min Lee, found in the park in 1999. The best-known of the bodies to be found in the park is that of Eugene Leroy Anderson, a local 20-year-old whose skeletal remains were found off Stokes Drive in October 1969. It was believed that his fellow Black Panthers had tortured and killed him that spring after discovering he was an FBI informant. However, when four other Panthers were prosecuted for the crime in 1971, witnesses who had been informants themselves gave inconsistent accounts of how the crime took place. Only one defendant was convicted, later pardoned by Governor Marvin Mandel. The crime remains officially unsolved. Several factors made Leakin attractive to criminals disposing of bodies. It borders on Edmondson and Wallbrook, two high-crime neighborhoods of the city. Franklintown and Windsor Mills roads, which cross the park, are "easy thoroughfares to get in and out of a secluded area after illegal acts" in the words of Rona Kobell, a former Sun reporter writing in Slate. And many short dead-end roads entered the park from the surrounding neighborhoods. A park planner, Molly Gallant, led efforts to change the park's reputation after she led a 2011 campout in the park. She and volunteers began closing off the access roads that "were screaming, dump me here." A bike trail around the park's perimeter has made the park an even less attractive place for body disposal. "Leakin Park is about the bodies, yes," Kobell says,... but those bodies end up there because a city was and is willing to embrace a wild, wide space inside its boundaries. So Leakin Park is also about the elderly Koreans who gather chestnuts every fall, about the middle-aged black women who began playing tennis there after Arthur Ashe won the U.S. Open, about the truly outsider art gallery along some of the park’s trails. Leakin Park is about the grand Olmsted vision as well as the grimmer reality.

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Abduction of Kamiyah Mobley

Kamiyah Mobley was abducted from a Florida hospital on July 10, 1998 when she was only a few hours old. In January 2017 she was found alive in Walterboro, South Carolina. DNA testing proved that she was not the daughter of Gloria Williams, her abductor. She had been raised under the name Alexis Manigo. Her biological mother in Florida, Shanara Mobley, was awarded $1.5 million after settling a lawsuit against the former University Medical Center. She has since had three other children. Abduction: Mobley was born on July 10, 1998, to sixteen-year-old Shanara Mobley. She was abducted hours after birth by a woman impersonating a nurse, reportedly dressed in hospital attire, who entered the room assisted and conversed with the mother and later walked out of the room with Kamiyah in her arms. Employees initially believed that the woman who kidnapped Kamiyah was a member of the Mobley family. Shanara was interviewed later, pleading for the return of her daughter. The abductor was believed to be between 25 and 35 years old and possibly wore a pair of glasses and a wig. She was dressed in a floral blue smock and green scrub pants. It is known that Gloria Williams, about 33 at the time, later forged documents to create a new identity for Mobley. Williams had miscarried a child a week before, which is believed to be her motive for the abduction. Investigation and recovery: News of the kidnapping made national headlines. Because there were no photographs taken of Kamiyah before her abduction, a computer-generated composite of her was created to distribute to the media. Distinctive features, such as Mongolian spots and an umbilical hernia were included in reports. 2,500 leads were pursued in the case. Along with additional media appearances, Shanara Mobley was also interviewed on America's Most Wanted. A DNA sample taken from Mobley after she was born was matched to a swab taken from the potential match. After the match was confirmed, Mobley was described as "in good health but overwhelmed". She had been living in South Carolina under the name Alexis Manigo and had since graduated from high school and had a boyfriend. She had been raised alongside Gloria Williams' two other children. Mobley connected with her father and grandmother over FaceTime and planned to reunite with other biological family members in person. She had never met her biological father, as he was incarcerated at the time of her birth due to the age difference between himself and Shanara when Kamiyah was conceived. He was 19 at the time, while she was 15. Following her arrest, Williams was incarcerated at the Colleton County Detention Center in Walterboro, South Carolina, to await extradition to Florida. She had prior history with law enforcement, having previously been charged with check and welfare fraud. Mobley described Williams as "no felon" and insisted that Williams raised her with "everything she needed". Williams has since been charged with kidnapping and interfering with custody. She pleaded "not guilty" at an arraignment hearing attended by Mobley, and is due to appear again on May 30, 2017.

Disappearance of Melissa Brannen

The disappearance of Melissa Brannen occurred on December 3, 1989 at the Woodside Apartments in Lorton, Virginia. She was the five-year-old daughter of Tammy Brannen, a single mother who lived in the complex. She disappeared while attending a party held at the complex for its residents. Caleb Daniel Hughes, a handyman for the complex, was convicted of abduction with the intent to defile and sentenced to 50 years in prison. Her body has never been found, she has never been proven to be dead, and murder charges have never been filed. The story of her disappearance was told on The FBI Files in the twentieth episode of the first season. It has also appeared on an episode of Forensic Files the fifth episode of the fourth season, entitled "Innocence Lost". Disappearance: On December 3, 1989, a Christmas party, with approximately 80 guests, was taking place at the apartment complex where Tammy Brannen lived with her daughter Melissa. As they were leaving the party, Melissa headed back in to get some potato chips, and never came back. When she was not found, foul play was suspected. A search began almost immediately, with over 300 volunteers participating. Investigation: Groundskeeper Caleb Hughes became the prime suspect that very evening through witness accounts. Multiple women reported that Hughes made crude sexual propositions to them during the party, and others reported that Hughes had given unusual levels of attention towards the children at the party including Melissa. Police visited his apartment during the night, where Hughes's wife cooperated with police. The entire outfit of clothes including the shoes Hughes was wearing at the time of the disappearance were found in the Hughes' washing machine, having immediately been put there for washing by Hughes himself when he arrived home. Police seized them as evidence. Police also took the vehicle Hughes had been driving and examined the passenger's seat for fiber evidence. A polygraph examiner concluded that Hughes showed evidence of deception when questioned about his role in Melissa's disappearance. Hughes' wife Carol was key in the investigation. She reported his arrival home from work several hours later than usual and also that extra mileage was on his car's odometer. Her husband explained the mileage as resulting from a side trip he took to purchase a 6-pack of beer and then taking a longer route home. Hughes never explained why he had driven out of his usual way to come home. Fibers were extracted from the front seat of the vehicle. The victim had been reported as wearing a Big Bird dress that had been purchased from J.C. Penney. Investigators obtained an identical dress, and its fibers were compared with those found on the seat of Hughes's car. A match was found between the dress and the fibers in the car. Also found were some hairs from a rare rabbit fur coat, worn by Tammy at the party. This evidence pointed towards the probability of the victim having been sitting in the passenger's seat at some point during the evening. Investigators were all but certain Hughes had killed Melissa. Though Virginia law did not require a body of the victim to file murder charges, the law does require prosecutors to identify the location of the murder. Lacking this evidence, Hughes was charged with kidnapping with intent to defile (i.e., kidnapping as a prelude to sexual assault). The fiber evidence was pivotal in establishing this charge, as prosecutors argued that there was no innocent reason to remove the girl's coat in the car and thus leave the dress fibers. Hughes was convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison. Two men with no connection to the Brannen cases attempted extortion via a $75,000 ransom demand. The men were arrested collecting the ransom. Aftermath: In 1995, a search of a lake was made after a power company worker found some red cloth in the lake. No evidence of a body was found. About eight years after Brannen's disappearance, her mother remarried. Though she took on the surname of her new husband, Graybill, as her own, she retained the name Brannen in listings so that her daughter, if still alive, would be able to contact her. Graybill has raised four stepchildren with her new husband.

Saturday, October 28, 2017

Terrell Peterson

Terrell Peterson was a five-year-old boy from Atlanta, Georgia who was tortured and beaten to death while his case was under active state supervision. He was one of more than 800 children who died between 1995 and 1998 after their cases were brought to the attention of the Georgia Department of Human Services' (DHS) Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS). Some of the deaths were due to accident and illness, while others, like Terrell's, were due to murder. When Terrell died he weighed only 29 pounds and was covered with cuts, bruises and cigarette burns. Various individuals within the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services engaged in gross misconduct and violation of state-mandated protocols for handling child abuse cases. After the murder, officials within the department engaged in a willful cover-up of the facts in the case. Terrell's case was considered to have been one of the worst cases of child abuse in Fulton County. According to lawyer Don Keenan, who sued the state of Georgia on Terrell's behalf: Thank God he was dead, I think anybody (who) would have known or understood what this little guy was going through, would rejoice in his death. The victim's Grandmother, Pharina Peterson and Terri Lynn Peterson (his aunt) were both convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Abuse: The Fulton County Department of Family and Children Services received seven calls between 1992 and 1995 in reference to neglect of Terrell or his siblings: -The mother is taking drugs while pregnant, using food stamps and welfare checks to buy crack cocaine (May 1992). -The parents are locking the children in the bedroom on weekends, denying them food and water (August 1993). -Mother is on drugs, children are unsupervised (February 1994). -Children are begging neighbors for food, mother is using cocaine daily (January 1995). -Mother is addicted to crack, leaves children with their sickly maternal grandmother (November 1995). The complaints were handled by 11 different caseworkers, overseen by 10 supervisors at The Georgia Department of Family and Children Services, yet nothing was done until June 1996 when the department took custody of Terrell from his mother. According to protocol children taken into custody by child services should ideally be placed with blood relatives, receive at least one in-person visit with an agency caseworker per month and under no circumstances is corporal punishment to be administered by foster parents. Terrell was placed in the care of Pharina Peterson, the grandmother of Terrell's half brother and half sister who was not directly related to him. While in her custody agency caseworkers had little to no contact with Terrell and there were no monthly visits. The case came to light when Terrell was brought to the emergency room of Hughes Spalding Children's Hospital in Atlanta in cardiac arrest, where he subsequently died. During the course of the homicide investigation police discovered that Terrell had been physically restrained with pantyhose tied to a banister in the apartment. According to another child living in the home, Tasha, Peterson tied Terrell up "a lot." The police also found a set of written instructions for Terrell's care, allegedly authored by Peterson: "He gets a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, lunch he gets grits, and dinner he gets grits. His hands are always tied." Terrell's Head Start teacher, Joanne Bryant, found him rummaging in a trash can at school looking for food. This occurred prior to a Thanksgiving Day beating in 1996, which necessitated a trip to the emergency room where he was diagnosed with Battered child syndrome. Pharina Peterson was arrested and indicted on misdemeanor charges. Terrell, who had previously implicated Peterson on record as the one who assaulted him, was scheduled to testify in person at the trial. However, his caseworker, Cheryl Elmore, who was responsible for bringing Terrell to court, never showed up. Terrell's and her absence were never questioned and the charges were dismissed by municipal court judge Catherine E. Malicki because "the victim was not in court". To cover her already egregious transgression, Elmore concocted a fraudulent backdated internal memo which was placed in Terrell's file; that the trial did indeed occur, no evidence of child abuse was found and the charges were dismissed as a result. According to Elmore, "The judge believed Ms. Peterson (and) did not feel she was guilty of child abuse." This alleged finding despite the medical evidence and the results of the police investigation, along with the lack of substantiating court documents, was never questioned by her supervisors. As a result, Terrell was deemed to be "safe," his file was closed and he was returned to the custody of Peterson. According to Peggy Peters, director of the department, "Again, I can't speak for Miss Elmore" and "I certainly would not have made that decision." When Terrell went back to the same Head Start class he was in prior to the assault, Bryant, his teacher, noticed he was not walking normally. When she took off his sneakers she noticed that the flesh on the soles of both his feet had been burned off. This was again alleged, posthumously, to have been inflicted by Peterson as retribution for telling authorities about her previous assaults. The burns were severe enough to necessitate skin grafts, skin was taken from his hips and transplanted onto the soles of his feet. Despite the severity of these injuries no investigation was done, no charges were brought and Terrell was never visited by anyone from child services from the time of these injuries until his murder a year later. The coroner listed Terrell's cause of death as; "blunt impact injuries to the head, trunk and extremities." This resulted in Fran Peterson being charged with capital murder. Cover up: According to two internal investigations conducted into the case in the wake of the murder by Georgia children's services the egregious behavior of department was noted; "failure to make contacts," "failure to conduct mandatory monthly meetings," "a serious lack of judgment," and "numerous violations throughout the history of the case." Despite the findings department officials engaged in a cover-up and issued one public statement by Ralph Mitchell, administrator of the Atlanta area office But these were internal investigations, and the public was not told about them. After the investigations, department officials decided to cover up what they had done. The department made only one public statement, which was written by Raph Mitchell, the administrator of the Atlanta area office. He claimed members of the agency expressed "outrage at the loss of precious life" but that they had responded "immediately and comprehensively" to allegations of Terrell's abuse and had followed protocol; "all of its steps were followed in the case of Terrell." Mitchell then wrote a private memo to the department head at state headquarters stating the press release was "untrue." But that fortunately no one in the media had called to follow up. Due to state privacy laws Terrell's records were sealed and inaccessible to the media, thus the cover-up was assured until after a year when Don Keenan received Terrell's case file by an anonymous individual within the department. Despite the murder of Terrell, the complicity in his murder through willful neglect of workers at the Georgia Department of Family and Children's Services, and the exposed cover-up by high department officials, another caseworker decided that Terrell's half sister and half brother who were present at his murder would be safe with Fran Peterson. According to this caseworker; "Ms. Peterson will cooperate with the agency and continue to show interest in the support of the child while they are at home." "I think, again you'd have to look at the individual situation," "And if she had not harmed those other children, then it might be acceptable." Neither Elsmore nor Mitchell were fired for their behavior. 60 Minutes II: The CBS news program 60 Minutes II, noted for investigative journalism, conducted an in-depth investigation into all aspects of the case and aired the results in January 1999. In the wake of this program, then-Georgia governor Roy Barnes decided to set up a Child Advocate Office with the authority to bypass the state's confidentiality laws and independently investigate and review child abuse cases handled by the Department of Family and Children's Services. Terrell's half brother and sister were placed with another foster family and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation conducted raids on several offices of the Department of Family and Children Services. The Georgia legislature passed the Terrell Peterson Act, which gives doctors the authority to take temporary custody of battered children at the hospital without department approval. Aftermath: -Pharina Peterson received a life sentence for Terrell's murder. -In December 2002 Terri Lynn Peterson, the victims' aunt, was found guilty of his murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. -Ralph Mitchell, the official who engaged in a cover-up of the case and wrote the phony press release, retired with a state pension. -Catherine E. Malicki, who dismissed charges against Pharina Peterson because Terrell was not brought to court, is still a municipal court judge in Atlanta. -Roy Barnes, governor at the time who signed the Terrell Peterson Act, ran for Georgia governor again in 2010 but lost.

Trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

The trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013, began on March 4, 2015, in front of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, nearly two years after the pre-trial hearings. Tsarnaev's attorney, Judy Clarke, opened by telling the jurors that her client and his older brother, Tamerlan, planted a bomb killing three and injuring hundreds, as well as murdering a MIT police officer days later. "There's little that occurred the week of April the 15th ... that we dispute," Clarke said in her 20-minute opening statement. Tsarnaev was found guilty on all 30 counts and has been sentenced to death by lethal injection for his crimes. Pre-trial events: Tsarnaev's arraignment for 30 charges, including four for murder, occurred on July 10, 2013, in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Boston before U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler. It was his first public court appearance. He pleaded not guilty to all 30 counts against him, which included using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death. Tsarnaev is represented by Miriam Conrad, David Bruck, William Fick, Timothy G. Watkins, and Judy Clarke. On January 30, 2014, United States Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the federal government would seek the death penalty against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. A plea deal failed when the government refused to rule out the possibility of the death penalty. The proceedings are led by Judge George O'Toole. Jury selection lasted two months. Opening statements: Opening statements took place on March 4, 2015. Assistant US Attorney William Weinreb opened for the prosecution. "He pretended to be a spectator, but he had murder in his heart," Weinreb said. Weinreb gave graphic details of the aftermath, while some of the victims' family members were in the courtroom listening. Weinreb said eight-year-old Martin Richard "bled to death on the sidewalk", Lu Lingzi (Chinese: 吕令子) had the "inside of her stomach pouring out", and Krystle Campbell was left with "gaping holes" in her body. It was revealed on the first day that Tsarnaev stood on Boylston Street for four minutes before placing a backpack with a bomb in it on the ground. After planting the bombs, Tsarnaev went shopping for milk at a Whole Foods Market after the bombings as if "nothing had happened". Jurors also learned that Stephen Silva, a friend of Tsarnaev's, gave the 9mm Ruger pistol that killed MIT police officer Sean Collier while the Tsarnaevs attempted to escape. Collier was shot twice in the side of the head, once between the eyes, and three times in the right hand. A graduate student saw the Tsarnaevs standing by the police cruiser Collier was sitting in, and another person heard the gunshots. Prosecutors contended that the Tsarnaev brothers were inspired by Al-Qaeda, and it was by reading Inspire, an Al-Qaeda-sponsored online publication, that they learned to construct the pressure cooker bombs used. It was also learned that Tamerlan died when Dzhokhar ran over him while attempting to escape from a shootout with police in Watertown. In admitting to the crimes, Clarke said that "the circumstances that bring us here today still are difficult to grasp, they are incomprehensible, they are inexcusable", but tried to say that Dzhokhar acted under the influence of Tamerlan. Marathon victims and witnesses: On the second day of the trial, March 5, seven witnesses testified about what they saw before, during, and after the blasts. The testimony of Bill Richard, Martin's father, caused several in the courtroom to cry, including at least one juror. Iraq war veteran and Boston police officer Frank Chioloa, testified about the last moments of Krystle Marie Campbell, and fellow officer Lauren Woods did the same about Lu Lingzi. Woods refused an order to leave Lu's side after she died. Jeff Bauman, a victim who lost both legs, appeared in court wearing shorts. A photo of him being pushed in a wheelchair by "the man in the Cowboy hat," Carlos Arredondo, was widely circulated after the blasts. He testified that he noticed an uncomfortable Tamerlan leaving a backpack on the ground moments before it exploded. By the third day of testimony, March 9, jurors had heard from 27 witnesses who were either injured in the explosions, or who attempted to help those who were. Jurors also saw a compilation of security camera videos that show the Tsarnaev brothers approach the finish line, place the bombs on the ground, and then walk away. It was also revealed that Tsarnaev had a secret Twitter account with which he posted extremist Islamic material. James Hooley, head of Boston Emergency Medical Services, testified ambulances brought 118 victims to hospitals. Police vehicles were also used to transport victims, and every available Boston Police resource was brought to the scene, according to Boston police Superintendent-in-Chief William Gross. Gross told the jurors that public transportation to the area was suspended and the police swept for other explosives. A police commander screamed into the radio to "Stop the race; give me everything you have to Boylston Street!" The area was cleared of spectators, runners, and other victims within 22 minutes. Jurors also saw video of Tsarnaev 20 minutes after the explosions, pondering which type of milk to buy, and another of him in the UMass gym later that evening. Collier murder and carjacking: On the fourth day of the trial, a note scrawled by Tsarnaev in the boat where he was hiding out was shown to jurors. Tsarnaev was found hiding in a fetal position by the boat's owner, David Henneberry. He said he was jealous of his brother who had received Jannutul Firdaus, or the highest paradise, and asked God to make him a shaheed. Jurors saw the boat in person on the seventh day of the trial. The murder of Sean Collier was the primary focus of the fifth day of the trial. Collier was found alive but possibly unconscious, and making a gurgling noise. He was shot three times in the head, including once between the eyes, and three times in the hand. At least one bullet was fired with the muzzle pressed against his skin. Both he and his car were covered in blood after he was shot when the Tsarnaev brothers tried to steal his gun. On the trial's sixth day, Dun Meng described being carjacked by the Tsarnaev brothers and being forced to drive for 90 minutes before escaping. Gun battle in Watertown: The seventh day of the trial brought discussion of the gun battle between police and the Tsarnaev brothers in Watertown, Massachusetts. Tamerlan was trading shots with Watertown Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese when the officer's gun ran out of ammunition and Tamerlan's jammed. They then wrestled on the ground, when Dzhokhar sped past them in a stolen SUV close enough that Pugliese could feel the wind on his face. Tamerlan was hit by the car, and dragged for 30 feet, killing him. Police from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police also took part in the battle. Richard Donohue, an MBTA officer, was shot during the firefight and nearly died. The brothers also threw bombs at the officers. Jurors learned that the Tsarnaev brothers received the gun they used in their escape attempt from Stephen Silva, a childhood friend of Dzhokhar. While he was on the stand prosecutors attempted to "portray Tsarnaev as a secret jihadist with murderous plans, a depraved criminal worthy of the death penalty" while the defense team tried to portray Tamerlan as the dominant figure and Dzhokhar as subservient to him. The two friends were both drug dealers, according to Silva, who was facing drug and gun charges of his own. Sentencing- By the jury: On April 8, 2015, Tsarnaev was found guilty on all thirty counts of the indictment. The charges of usage of a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death, in addition to aiding and abetting, made Tsarnaev eligible for the death penalty. Bill and Denise Richard, parents of the youngest of the three killed in the bombings, urged against a death sentence for Tsarnaev. They stated that the lengthy appeals period would force them to relive that day continually, and would rather see him spend life in prison without possibility of release or parole. Tsarnaev, who had been largely emotionless throughout his trial, appeared to weep when his relatives testified on May 4, 2015, during the sentencing phase of the trial. The defense characterized life in prison as a harsh punishment, and did not try to convince the jury that Dzohkhar's actions deserved anything less. The prosecution argued that death by lethal injection was a more appropriate punishment. On May 15, 2015, the jury recommended that Tsarnaev be sentenced to death by lethal injection on six counts of the indictment. Federal death sentences have been carried out at the USP Terre Haute in Indiana. By the judge: O'Toole formally handed down the death sentence on June 24, 2015. Victims and families members had the opportunity to make statements beforehand, although the judge was required to deliver the jury's death verdict. "He chose to do nothing to prevent all of this from happening. He chose hate. He chose destruction. He chose death," Bill Richard said. "We choose love. We choose kindness. We choose peace. This is our response to hate. That's what makes us different from him." Speaking for the first time, Tsarnaev apologized to the victims and the survivors. "I am Muslim. My religion is Islam. I pray to Allah to bestow his mercy on those affected in the bombing and their families," he said. "I pray for your healing ... I ask Allah to have mercy on me, my brother and my family." After officially ordering that Tsarnaev be executed, O'Toole told him, "No one will remember that your teachers were fond of you, that you were funny, a good athlete ... Whenever your name is mentioned, what will be remembered is the evil you have done .... What will be remembered is that you murdered and maimed ... It was a monstrous self-deception. You had to forget your own humanity. The common humanity you shared with your brother Tamerlan." Appeals: Tsarnaev submitted a placeholder appeal with an actual appeal coming sometime before the deadline of August 17, 2016. On January 15, 2016, Judge George O' Toole denied Tsarnaev's appeal and ordered him to pay $101,125,027 to the victims and the Massachusetts Victim Compensation Fund.

incredible

this is incredible: my family asks of i'm going on a mission. wow. that's awesome. i don't know if i can afford to go.

cheerleader

once i was mistaken as a cheerleader. i don't mind. i was never a cheerleader but that was nice. it was a compliment since i was a young girl in fashionable clothes.

day off

a few times i got "days off" from volunteering. once was because i was going on vacation.

Friday, October 27, 2017

George Hill Hodel

George Hill Hodel, Jr. was an American physician. After the 1947 murder of American woman Elizabeth Short, a.k.a. the Black Dahlia, police came to consider Hodel a suspect. He was never formally charged with the crime, and came to wider attention as a suspect after his death when his son Steve Hodel, a Los Angeles homicide detective, accused George Hodel of killing Short and committing several additional murders. Biography: George Hill Hodel, Jr. was born on October 10, 1907, and raised in Pasadena, California. His parents, George Hodel, Sr. and Esther Hodel, were of Russian Jewish ancestry. Their only son, he was well educated and bright (scoring 186 on an early IQ test). He was also a musical prodigy, playing solo piano concerts at Los Angeles's Shrine Auditorium. Composer Sergei Rachmaninoff traveled to his grandparents' house to hear the boy play. Hodel moved in affluent Los Angeles society, and was friends of people such as photographer Man Ray and film director John Huston. In late 1949, Hodel's teenaged daughter Tamar accused him of sexual abuse. He was acquitted after a widely publicized trial. Hodel moved from America in 1950. In 1990, Hodel, Jr. and his fourth wife, June, returned to the U.S. from Manila. He died at the age of ninety-one of heart failure. Black Dahlia suspect: Hodel first came under suspicion for murder in 1945, following the death of his secretary Ruth Spaulding by a drug overdose. He was suspected of having murdered her in order to cover up his financial fraud, such as billing patients for tests that were never performed. At about this time, Hodel moved to China where he had earlier worked with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. These events first came to public attention in 2004. In January 1947, the body of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short was discovered in an empty lot in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Short had suffered gruesome mutilation, notably her body being cut in half at the waist. The case earned major publicity and prompted one of the largest investigations in the history of the Los Angeles Police Department. The case was never solved. However, authorities at the time interviewed hundreds and focused on about 25 suspects, one of whom was George Hill Hodel, Jr. Hodel came to police attention as a suspect for the Elizabeth Short murder in 1949 after the sexual abuse allegations and trial, when known or suspected sex criminals were investigated. Hodel's medical degree also aroused suspicion, given the hypothesis that whomever bisected Short's body had some degree of surgical skill. The full details of the investigation came to light only in 2004, when a "George Hodel- Black Dahlia File" was discovered in the vault at the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office. The file revealed that in 1950, Hodel was the prime suspect of the Dahlia murder. His private Hollywood residence was electronically bugged by an 18-man DA/LAPD Task Force during the period 18 February to 27 March 1950. The transcripts of conversations revealed Hodel's references to performing illegal abortions, giving payoffs to law enforcement officials, and to his possible involvement in the deaths of his secretary and Elizabeth Short. The DA tapes recorded him saying: "Supposin' I did kill the Black Dahlia. They can't prove it now. They can't talk to my secretary anymore because she's dead. They thought there was something fishy. Anyway, now they may have figured it out. Killed her. Maybe I did kill my secretary" In October 1949, George Hodel's name was mentioned in a formal written report to the GJ as one of five prime suspects but none of the named suspects were submitted to the 1949 Grand Jury for consideration for indictment as the investigation was "ongoing." By April of 1950, Lt. Jemison had gathered enough evidence to charge Dr. Hodel and was about to arrest him for the Short murder, when Hodel again, fled the United States. He lived in Asia until 1990. After Hodel died in 1999, his son Steve, a former LAPD homicide detective, wanted to learn more about his father. In the process he uncovered information that led him to believe his father was Elizabeth Short's killer. This investigation began with the discovery of a photo album owned by George Hodel, which contained a portrait of a dark-haired young woman who Steve Hodel believed was Elizabeth Short. During Steve Hodel's investigation, he learned that his father may have killed more than once. Steve Hodel also suspected his father of being the Lipstick killer of the 1940s and the Zodiac Killer of the 1960s, and may have been responsible for other murders. Hodel had purchased the famous Sowden House in Hollywood, living there from 1945 to 1950. The structure, built in 1926 by Lloyd Wright (son of the noted American architect Frank Lloyd Wright), is now a registered Los Angeles Historic Landmark. Based on information developed in 2010-2014 (physical evidence, cement sacks) used to transport the body from the residence to the vacant lot where Elizabeth Short's body was found, some researchers[who?] argue that Sowden House is where the victim was tortured, slain and her body surgically bisected. A police cadaver dog and subsequent soil analysis tests conducted in 2014 by forensic anthropologist, Dr. Arpad Vass, confirmed that soil samples from the rear of the residence were "specific for human remains." The segment was filmed for the television program "Ghost Hunters" but did not air. It was made available via the show's website. Reactions: A September 2006 episode of Cold Case Files, hosted by Bill Kurtis, illustrates the mixed reaction to Steve Hodel's theory as outlined in the book Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder (2003). Head Deputy D.A. Stephen Kay described himself as highly impressed by Steve Hodel's research and conclusions, and further stated the case had been solved. Others have noted that Kay, who has since retired, formed this conclusion by treating Steve Hodel's many disputed assertions as established fact. Less impressed was active Detective Brian Carr, the LAPD officer then in charge of the Black Dahlia case which was still officially open. Carr's opinion was that Hodel's theory was based on a few intriguing facts linked together by unsubstantiated supposition. Short's relatives also disagreed that the photos in Hodel's album were of Short. Carr adding that if he ever took a case as weak as Steve Hodel's to a prosecutor he would be "laughed out of the office." Carr added, "I don't have the time to either prove or disprove Hodel's investigation. I am too busy working on active cases." In the years following Hodel's leaving the country, investigators from both the LAPD and the District Attorney office privately stated that they believed Black Dahlia case was "solved" and that Hodel was the killer, though they didn't have enough evidence to go to trial. Specific quotes from the top brass include the following: Chief of Detectives Thad Brown, "The Black Dahlia Case was solved. He was a doctor who lived on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood." LAPD Chief of Police William H. Parker, "We identified the Black Dahlia suspect. He was a doctor." LASD undersheriff James Downey, "The Black Dahlia Case was solved, but it will never come out. It was a doctor they all knew in Hollywood involved in abortions." DA Lt. Frank Jemison, "We know who the Black Dahlia killer was. He was a doctor but we didn't have enough to put him away." The DA Files confirmed that the doctor referred to was George Hill Hodel. Head Deputy DA Steve Kay reviewed the case and provided a legal opinion that "the case was solved," then presented it to then active LAPD Chief of Detectives James McMurray in 2004. McMurray, after reviewing the investigation, gave the following order to the Robbery/Homicide detectives under his command: "Unless you can find some major holes in [Steve] Hodel's investigation, go ahead and clear the Black Dahlia Murder." In 2014, Detective II Mitzi Roberts, the currently assigned LAPD Black Dahlia Case detective, stated in an interview with KMEX Univision television newsman Leon Krauze, "I actually agree with you. I think he (Steve Hodel) has made a very compelling theory. I think there is a lot of things that look like it, and his dad could actually be responsible for the murder of the Black Dahlia." Hodel as Zodiac killer suspect: In 2009, Steve Hodel's book Most Evil: Avenger, Zodiac and the Further Serial Murders of Dr. George Hill Hodel (Dutton 2009) was published. The follow-up investigation examined the possibility that Hodel had also committed crimes outside of Los Angeles in: Chicago (Lipstick Murders), Manila, Philippines (The Jigsaw Murder) and in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1968-69, possibly reinventing and calling himself "Zodiac." Thirty-one MO and Crime Signatures were presented, along with a Questioned Document Expert's (QDE) testimony that "the George Hodel and Zodiac handwriting samples were written by one and the same person." California Department of Justice (DOJ) conducted their own independent handwriting examination and while the results were not 100% positive, their QDE expert stated, "I am unable to eliminate George Hodel as Zodiac. I would request additional samples of his lowercase handwriting." (Currently lowercase handwriting samples are non-existent.) Note that while police often use document examiners during investigations, court rulings on the scientific validity of handwriting analysis have been mixed to negative. The investigative sequel while not claiming "case solved" did request that law enforcement obtain and compare DNA samples. As of 2015, no confirmed Zodiac DNA exists that can be compared with Hodel's known DNA. In September 2015, a six-year follow-up, MOST EVIL II: Presenting the Follow-up Investigation and Decryption of the 1970 Zodiac Cipher in Which the San Francisco Serial Killer Reveals His True Identity (Rare Bird Books 2015) was published. The new investigation offered additional allegations that link George Hodel to the San Francisco Bay Area "Zodiac" murders, and presented evidence that Hodel was in fact, the writer of the legitimate 1970 Zodiac coded cipher mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle and turned over to SFPD. The solution and "cracking of the cipher" was performed by M. Yves Person, a high-school teacher in Paris. George Hodel, using Ogham, an ancient Celtic "tree alphabet" signed his real name, H O D E L, placing it both as the return address on the envelope and as a signatory inside the card which read, "You Ache to Know My Name...I'll Clue you in..." The code had remained undeciphered for 45 years.

The Younger Lady

The Younger Lady is the informal name given to a mummy discovered in the Egyptian Valley of the Kings, in tomb KV35 by archeologist Victor Loret in 1898. Through recent DNA tests this mummy has been identified as the mother of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun, and a daughter of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye. The mummy also has been given the designation KV35YL ("YL" for "Younger Lady") and 61072, and currently resides in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Early speculation was that this mummy was the remains of Queen Nefertiti, which remains plausible, but DNA testing has not confirmed this and questions about that possibility remain. Discovery and identification: The mummy was found adjacent to two other mummies in KV35: a young boy who died at around the age of 10, thought to be Webensenu, and another, older woman, identified as Queen Tiye by the recent DNA studies on Tutankhamun's lineage. All were found together, lying naked side-by-side and unidentified in a small antechamber of the tomb. All three mummies had been extensively damaged by ancient tomb robbers. There has been much speculation as to the identity of the Younger Lady mummy. Upon finding the mummy, Victor Loret initially had believed it be that of a young man as the mummy's head had been shaved. A closer inspection later made by Dr. Grafton Elliot Smith confirmed that the mummy was that of a female, although Loret's original interpretation persisted for many years. Recently, autosomal and mitochondrial DNA testing have shown conclusively that the mummy is that of a female and, that she was the mother of Tutankhamun. The results also show that she was a full-sister to her husband, the mummy from KV55, and that they were both the children of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye. There is speculation over the identity of the mummy from KV55 (sister marriage existed), with some Egyptologists, including Zahi Hawass, claiming the mummy is Akhenaten, and others, including anthropologist Joyce Filer, claiming the mummy as Smenkhare. This family relationship would lessen the possibility that the Younger Lady (and, by extension, Tutankhamun's mother) was either Nefertiti, or Akhenaten's secondary wife Kiya, because no known artifact accords either wife titles such as "King's sister" or "King's Daughter". The possibility of the younger lady being Sitamun, Isis, or Henuttaneb is considered unlikely, as they were Great Royal Wives of their father Amenhotep III, and had Akhenaten married any of them, they would have taken the place of Nefertiti as the principal queen of Egypt. The report concludes that the mummy is likely to be Nebetah or Beketaten, daughters of Amenhotep III not known to have married their father, although he is known to have had eight daughters with Queen Tiye.[4](Comment: Figure 2 eAppendix) There is also a theory that the younger lady is Meritaten, daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, and wife of Smenkhare, based on a study of the alleles inherited by Tutankhamun. The theory goes that Meritaten married Smenkhare, believed to be her uncle. Thereby making Tutankhamun a maternal grandson of Akhenaten. The theory holds weight as inbreeding makes it harder to distinguish the generations, but there is one problem with this theory. Meritaten must be a mitochondrial descendant of Queen Tiye, or her mother Thuya, as the younger lady's mitochondrial DNA fits with her being Tiye's daughter. Nefertiti's lineage is nowhere specified, and if Meritaten is the younger lady, Nefertiti must be a mitochondrial relation of Thuya. It has been suggested that, indeed, the Younger Lady is Nefertiti, as incest was not uncommon. This would mean that Akhenaten did marry his own sister and that he and Nefertiti are the parents of Tutankhamun. Furthermore, Nefertiti, who may have survived her husband, may be identical with Smenkhare and may have adopted this name if she took over the reign after Akhenaten's death (and having her daughter move into her official roles of chief priestess and 'wife'). All this is not proven, but should be mentioned as a further plausible scenario. One difficulty posed by this identification is the mummy's age at death, because Nefertiti gave birth to Meritaten no later than year 1 of Akhenaten's reign and there is evidence that she was still alive during year 16. Description of the mummy: Grafton Elliot Smith provided an extensive description of the mummy in his survey of the ancient royal mummies at the beginning of the twentieth century. He found the mummy to be 1.58 m (5 ft 2 in) in height, and judged her to have been no older than 25 years old at the time of death. He also noted the major damage done by ancient tomb robbers, who smashed the anterior wall of the mummy's chest, and had torn the right arm off just below the shoulder. Smith presumed that she was a member of the royal family. It had been thought that the large wound in the left side of the mummy's mouth and cheek, which also destroyed part of the jaw, had been the result of actions of the tomb robbers, but a more recent re-examination of the mummy while it was undergoing genetic tests and CT scans determined that the wound had happened prior to death and that the injury had been lethal. The Younger Lady has a gaping wound in the left side of her face. Julian Heath suggests that the wound was likely the result of an axe blow. Below her left breast there is another gaping wound, likely to be the result of a stab wound. In 2003, a scientific team from York University, working under Joann Fletcher, examined the mummy. A member of the team realized that the face wound could have been a premortem wound, and not a a postmortem wound as previously assumed. Instead of the Younger Lady's remains simply being mutilated after her death by tomb robbers motivated by malice, it seemed likely the Lady had been injured while still alive. The conclusion was considered uncertain. At a later point, Ashraf Selim lend support to this theory. He noted that if the Younger Lady's had been damaged following the embalming process, then bits of dried bone and flesh could be located in the mummy's wounds. Since no such findings occurred, he was certain that this was a premortem wound. Further, Selim viewed the wound as too violent to be the result of an accident. The Lady had been injured in an act of deliberate violence. The Egyptian Mummy Project which used a CT scan to examine the mummy, located "very few pieces of the relevant broken bones" in the sinus cavity. They concluded that the Young Lady's face had been damaged before the embalming process, and likely prior to her death. Indeed the face wound was determined to be a probable cause of death for the Lady. The missing right arm of the mummy was the cause of a minor controversy between researchers. Two severed arms had been located within KV35, and either one was thought likely to belong to the Younger Lady. One was a bent arm with a clenched fist, while the other was a straight arm. It was typical for female Egyptian mummies to be positioned with one of their arms bent and the other one in a straight position. The hand more likely to be positioned as bent was the left hand. The Egyptian Mummy Project of Ashraf Selim examined both arms to resolve the controversy. The bent arm was compared to the Younger Lady's attached left hand, and was found to be too long to belong to the same woman. The bones of the two compared arms were also found "different in consistency". The straight arm was then compared to the Young Lady's left arm. It was found to be of similar length and similar bone density, so the Project concluded that the straight arm most likely did belong to the Younger Lady. The identified right arm of the Younger Lady has two breaks, "one in the upper arm and one at the wrist". The hand has been severed from the rest of the limb. A finding of lesser importance is that the Younger Lady has a double-pierced ear. Pierced ears were rather common for women of the New Kingdom of Egypt, including royals and nonroyal women. The Lady's pierced ear can not help researchers determine her identity or social position. Similarly inconclusive for identification purposes was the discovery of a wig in KV35, which could have belonged to the Younger Lady. Supporters of the theory identifying the Lady with Nefertiti, pointed to the wig's perceived similarities with the type of wigs used by Nefertiti. They are fashion items used by Egyptian women of the same era, they can help us identify the wig's user with the Queen. CT scan findings: Following the CT scan of the Younger Lady, more detailed descriptions of the mummy have been published. A large defect in the anterior wall of the Lady's chest, and the disarticulation of the right upper limb (arm) are the main indications that the body suffered mutilation by ancient tomb robbers. Otherwise the mummy has been fairly preserved. Despite previous disputes about the Lady's gender, the morphology of the skull and pelvis confirms that she was a human female (woman). The condition of the epiphyseal union and the closure of the cranial sutures suggest that the Lady was between 25 and 35-years-old at the time of her death. The Lady's height was 1,58 meters from the vertex to the heel. Her left humerus was 29.3 centimeters in length. Her left femur was 40.5 centimeters in length. Her left tibia was 35.2 centimeters in length. The base of skull was found intact. The back of the skull cavity contains the shrunken and desiccated brain and dura mater of the Lady. There is no evidence of embalming material within the cranial cavity. Researchers located an oval defect in the skull. It is located in the central part of the frontal bone, in front of the coronal suture. The defect has sharp, beveled, and festooned edges. The lack of evidence for attempted healing or sclerosis indicate that the defect was caused by a postmortem alteration of the body, probably during the embalming process. The embalmers likely used a sharp instrument on the skull. The left side of the lower face includes a large defect. The defect involves the Lady's left cheek, her left maxillary sinus, her alveolar process, and part of her left mandible. There are sharp edges in this bony defect, with no evidence of attempted healing or sclerosis. Fragments of the broken lateral wall of the left maxillary sinus were located within the antral cavity. Fragments for most of the Lady's fractured bones are missing, and were apparently not placed in her tomb. The soft tissues located next to the facial defect were relatively thicker than the corresponding tissues on the intact and uninjured right side of her face. On top of the facial gap and partly beneath the remaining skin, there was located a rolled embalming pack. The composition of the pack is undetermined, though researchers consider it probable that is composed of linen which has been impregnated with resin. A similar substance was located on the right side of the face, particularly the cheek and the mid-face. More clearly identified packs of linen were located in the periphery of the Lady's orbits, placed in front of the globes of the eyes. Resin was also located in the Lady's right nasal cavity.[10]The Lady's mouth is filled with linen. No embalming materials were placed within the Lady's throat. The auricles of her ears were found in much different condition. Part of the right auricle is missing, and can not be used to determine her appearance in life. Her left auricle is in a better condition, and two piercings were located in its earlobe. The Lady had a double-pierced ear. The Lady has several missing teeth due to her facial injury. Her left alveolar plate and part of her left jaw were fractured, explaining what happened to her teeth. One tooth is visible within her mouth. The fracture involved most of her left alveolar plate distal to the left first incisor. This incisor is among the missing teeth. The right alveolar plate is in a better condition, though the sockets of the first incisor and the right canine tooth are empty, with these teeth missing. The rest of the teeth are still present, including an nonerupted third molar (wisdom tooth). The fracture of mandible involved the midline and the adjacent part of the left mandible. Her right and left first incisors and the left canine tooth were affected by this fracture. The sockets of the right second incisor, the left first molar, and the left second molar are empty, with these teeth missing. The first and second left upper molars are partially fractured. Both the right and the left upper third molars are nonerupted. Conversely, the Lady's upper right canine, premolars, first molar, and second molar are still present. This group of teeth has no visible attrition, and no occlusal irregularity of their surface. Research on the Lady's spine located a smooth lateral curve on the lumbar region (lower spine), with a convexity towards the left. This is an indication of lumbar scoliosis. The limits of the curve have been determined. The upper limit is between the twelfth thoracic vertebra and the first lumbar vertebra. The lower limit is between the fourth and fifth lumbar vertebrae. The center of the curve is between the second and third lumbar vertebrae. The scoliosis of the Lady is mild, with a Cobb angle of less than 20°. Researchers found no evidence of structural abnormalities in the vertebrae, no fractures, and no congenital anomalies (birth defects). The researchers suspect that the Lady may not have actually suffered from scoliosis while still alive. The curved spine of the mummy may be a postmortem condition, resulting from the position of the body during the mummification process. There is a large defect in the anterior wall of the Lady's torso. The viscera (internal organs) were removed from the mummy's embalmers, with the exception of the Lady's heart which is still visible within the body. The heart was apparently never moved. The embalming incision has been located in the left inguinal region. This tissue gap is 56 millimetres in length and 135 millimetres in depth. The torso contains both linen fibers which were mildly smeared with resin, and with linen packs treated with resin. One of the resin-treated linen packs was placed within the pelvis. The pelvic floor has a large defect, possibly used during the mummification process to remove the viscera. This would be an example of perineal evisceration. The left upper limb (arm) of the Lady extends beside her body, with the hand placed over the left hip. There is a complete transverse fracture of the proximal portion of the shaft, in the right humerus. The fracture has gaping ends. There is no evidence of attempted healing or for the formation of a callus in this area. The disarticulated right upper limb (arm) has been placed beside the body. The right hand has been broken and completely separated from the wrist. This hand has been placed at the feet of the mummy. The lower limbs (human legs) have also been damaged. The left iliac crest contains small fractures. The inferior pubic ramus also contains similar fractures. Due to the lack of evidence of healing, it is likely that all these fractures were part of the postmortem damage to the Lady's body. The right tibia has a defective area at the front of the distal shaft. The defective area extends 33.5 millimetres above the ankle joint. The metatarsal bones of both feet are broken, and missing from the body. The phalanx bones of both feet are also missing. There is a subcutaneous (hypodermic) filling at the back of the Lady's right hip region, where her buttock is located. Researchers have noted some peculiarities in the mummification process used on the Lady. The evisceration of the body and the stuffing of the torso with embalming materials were standard parts of the mummification process used during the entire reign of the 18th dynasty. This was not the case with the intact skull base and lack of effort to remove the brain, seen in the case of the Lady. This process had been used on early rulers of the 18th dynasty, as seen in the mummies currently identified with Thutmose I, Thutmose II, and Thutmose III. By the time of the later rulers of the 18th dynasty, when the Lady lived and died, the process had changed. All mummies from this later era contain some treatment of the brain, in attempts to remove it from the body. The mummification process used on the Lady seems like a throwback to an earlier era. Another peculiarity is the evidence that the people behind the mummification process were trying to repair and cover injured areas of the body. They used subcutaneous fillings and packs to remodel the injured left side of the face, the contralateral side of the face, and the right hip region. This was not part of the regular efforts of an embalmer. The results of the CT scan support the idea that the Lady's facial injury took place prior to her mummification. The researchers consider this to have been a perimortem injury, happening either shortly before the Lady's death or following her death; in the short period between the death and the mummification. Either way the embalmers would have started work on an already damaged body. The lack of signs of healing would support the idea that the Lady received a mortal wound, and her body had no time to attempt recovery. The nature of the injury, however, could not be fully determined. The small fragments of bone found within the maxillary antral sinus, at least indicate the direction of the trauma. Something was "pushing" the bones within, rather than "pulling" them out. A heavy object hitting the Lady's face would have such an effect. If not an intentional act, an accident involving the Lady receiving a strong kick from animal would have the same result. A horse would have sufficient strength to kill with its kicks. In any case, an acute facial trauma to a living woman would cause severe shock and bleeding. Then this shock and the With the bleeding would likely cause her death. While the CT scan researchers thought the Lady's death likely to be violent or accidental, they were less certain of what caused the skull defect and the defect in the anterior wall of the body. Whether they were perimortem or postmortem injuries to the body could not be determined. They could be the result of the same mysterious lethal incident as the facial injury, or caused long after the Lady's death by the ancient tomb robbers. Hermann Schögl, a Swiss Egyptologist, agrees with the medical and DNA findings of the teams working under Zahi Hawass, but disputes several of the identifications of the royal and noble mummies. Schögl agrees that the head injuries which the Lady received were lethal, and has suggested that she was killed in a chariot accident. Schögl believes that the Younger Lady is Nefertiti, and that she was killed in a chariot accident during regnal year 14 of Akhenaten's reign. However, the archaeological findings from Akhenaten's reign seem to indicate that Nefertiti was still alive during regnal year 16, two years following the date Schögl has chosen for her death. Marianne Eaton-Krauss, another Egyptologist, finds Schögl's alternative royal genealogy for the 18th dynasty and his attempted reconstruction of the final years of Akhenaten's reign to be rather unconvincing. Natalia Klimczack, a historian and journalist, reports that several Egyptologists consider it likely that the Younger Lady may be Kiya. Kiya was one of Akhenaten's queens, but disappears from the historical record by regnal year 12 or 13 of Akhenaten's reign. Her time of death is not indicated in the primary sources. As Aidan Dodson, an Egyptologist, has pointed out, several of the monuments and objects originally dedicated to Kiya were later usurped by other royals. A Pharaoh whose identity is unclear was buried in Kiya's coffin instead of her. Relief representations of Kiya were altered to instead depict Meritaten and/or Ankhesenamun. To Aiden this suggests that Kiya had fallen from grace, and that there was an effort to erase her from the historical record. The premortem facial injury of the Younger Lady would fit this theory. The Lady did not die of natural causes, the facial injury indicates that she was murdered. If she was Kiya, this would explain her sudden disappearance from the historical record and efforts to remove her depictions in it. Silence of the historical record: Marianne Eaton-Krauss has called attention to the apparent absence of the Younger Lady, as Tutankhamun/Tutankhaten's mother, from the available historical record of Ancient Egypt. As of the 2010s, nobody has been able to find an inscription, a relief, or a statue dedicated to this young Pharaoh's mother. KV62, the tomb of Tutankhamun, contains memorabilia from his life and reign. None of these items ever mentions his mother. There is a contrast between the Younger Lady and a number of influential queen mothers from the later reigns of the 18th dynasty, who had a large presence in the reigns of their sons. Tiaa served as queen mother to Thutmose IV, Mutemwiya as queen mother to Amenhotep III, and Tiye as queen mother to Akhenaten. It seems likely that Tutankhamun/Tutankhaten never had a queen mother, indicating that the Younger Lady (or any other mother) had died before his rise to the throne. Despite the Younger Lady being daughter to a Pharaoh (Amenhotep III), full sister and probable wife to a second Pharaoh (Akhenaten), and mother to a third Pharaoh (Tutankhamun/Tutankhaten), she herself does not appear to have been a prominent figure in her lifetime. Willeke Wendrich, an Egyptologist, considers it likely that the Lady was a minor wife or a concubine to Akhenaten, rather than his Queen. Wendrich notes that the Pharaohs of Egypt typically had multiple wives. This often resulted in multiple sons serving as viable heirs to the throne, and potential competition between the sons to gain the right to succeed their father.

walk

i walked to get coffee and it's awesome. i get excorsize and get coffee

procrastinate

i'm wondering if i should procrastinate on my talk for a church thing and go to game night or stay in and work on my talk.

Thursday, October 26, 2017

ratting me out

once when i was at the ward i was supposed to be at the bishop there ratted me out the minute i introduced myself. i tried keeping up with him but running in an ankle length skirt is hard. i was breathing hard and only half listening.

tired

i'm so tired. i've been up since 6:45 this morning and have had a couple cups of coffee to try and wake myself up. i'm also drinking soda to help along with chocolate chip cookies.

Lil' Miss murder

The Lil' Miss murder is the name given to the murder case of Lisa Marie Kimmell, who disappeared while on a trip home from Colorado to Billings, Montana. Her murder would remain a cold case, until DNA profiling eventually linked a prison inmate to her kidnapping, rape and murder some 14 years later, which led investigators to the most vital piece of evidence in the case: Kimmell's missing car, which bore the distinctive personalized license plate that gave the case its name, "LIL MISS". Case history: Kimmell was working in Denver, Colorado at an Arby's, and left on March 25, 1988, for her parents' home in Billings, Montana. She planned to stop in Cody, Wyoming, along the way to pick up her boyfriend. Wyoming Highway Patrol records showed that she was stopped for speeding in Douglas, Wyoming, just before she disappeared. Though unverified, some witnesses reported seeing her later that evening near Casper. Eight days later her body was found floating in the North Platte River near Casper, Wyoming, by a local fisherman. An autopsy determined that she had been bound, beaten and raped, for at least six days. Evidence showed that she was then taken to the Old Government Bridge (42°38′18″N 106°37′03″WCoordinates: 42°38′18″N 106°37′03″W), where she was hit on the head with a blunt object, stabbed six times in the chest and abdomen, before being thrown into the river. The autopsy showed that the head wound would have killed her in a matter of minutes even if she had not been stabbed. Lisa's case was profiled on the television program Unsolved Mysteries within weeks, and A&E's Cold Case Files in the years since, with each case concentrating on locating witnesses who might have seen her black 1988 Honda CR-X automobile with a Montana plate bearing the unforgettable "LIL MISS". Investigators knew recovering the car was extremely important as it would be a direct link to the killer. Breakthrough: In the summer of 2002, investigators researching cold cases came across Kimmell's rape kit, and a DNA profile was developed from the seminal evidence. The CODIS database matched the DNA to Dale Wayne Eaton, 57, of Moneta, Wyoming, who was then serving time in Englewood federal prison at Littleton, Colorado on an unrelated weapons charge. (Eaton's DNA profile was placed in the CODIS database in 1997 after he was arrested on a separate charge: He had stopped to offer assistance to the Breeden family, whose car had broken down, but then he kidnapped the family at gunpoint. After his arrest for this kidnapping, Eaton escaped, but was later recaptured in Shoshone National Forest. At that time he possessed a weapon, elevating his crime to the federal level. He was then incarcerated in federal prison, where he was obliged to submit a DNA sample.) Eaton's next door neighbors reported to investigators that they had seen him digging a large hole on his property, which was located about an hour's drive from where Kimmell was last seen alive. The site was excavated and Kimmell's Honda CRX was unearthed, still bearing her distinctive "LIL MISS" license plate. Eaton was subsequently charged with eight crimes connected to the Kimmell case, including first-degree premeditated murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery, first-degree sexual assault, and second-degree sexual assault. A fellow inmate, Joseph Francis Dax, testified Eaton confessed to him as follows: Kimmell offered to give Eaton a ride, and Eaton accepted. He made sexual advances during the ride which Kimmel did not appreciate, so she pulled over to let him out of the car. The situation then escalated to kidnapping, rape, and murder. Eaton was found guilty of all charges and sentenced to death on March 20, 2004. He appealed this conviction and lost. Scheduled to be put to death in February 2010, he sought and received a stay of execution in December 2009. It was overturned in 2014. The State is again seeking the death penalty. He is currently awaiting a new sentencing hearing on death row. Eaton is currently the only inmate on Wyoming's death row. Civil lawsuit: Eaton's property was awarded to the Kimmell family after a wrongful death lawsuit, and the buildings were burned to the ground on July 18, 2005, on what would have been Lisa Kimmell's 36th birthday. Related murders: Lisa's murder may have been part of a pattern of serial murders, known as the Great Basin Murders, which took place between 1983 and 1996. Most of the victims were young women who initially disappeared, only to be later found murdered. Because her body was located in a popular fishing spot (creating a public spectacle) and that her car was buried on his property (kept as a trophy) it is believed that Eaton exhibited some of the tell-tale signs of being a serial killer. Amy Wroe Bechtel is among the Great Basin killer's potential victims. On the morning of July 24, 1997, the 24-year-old left her Lander, Wyoming apartment to run errands. At 2:30 that afternoon, Amy was seen at a photo shop. This was the last confirmed sighting of Amy. It's believed she left the photo shop and drove into the Shoshone National Forest to check the course of a 10K race her gym was planning. When her husband returned home at 4:30 p.m., she was not home. By nightfall he alerted neighbors and the sheriff's department. Amy's white Toyota station wagon was found parked off a dirt road in the Shoshone Forest. No trace of Amy has been found but subsequent investigation placed Eaton on business in the area around the time of the disappearance. Media: Both Lisa and Amy's cases were profiled on Unsolved Mysteries, Nightmare Next Door, and Disappeared. To this day, Eaton remains silent about these or any other crimes he may be responsible for. True crime author Robert Scott wrote a book called Rivers of Blood that detail Eaton's life and crimes, including the disappearance and murder of Lisa Kimmell. The case was also profiled in an episode of On The Case with Paula Zahn.