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reasoningdaily · 1 year

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An Atlanta man was arrested for a crime in a city he never visited. Why?

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ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - “I swear to God I ain’t never been to Louisiana.”

On Nov. 25, 2022, Dekalb County police stopped Randal Reid, 29, along a stretch of I-20. Reid was wanted out of Louisiana, according to a background search officers ran on him during the traffic stop, after two Bayou State jurisdictions accused him of stealing purses.

“You got two theft warrants,” a DeKalb officer told Reid. “They’re both in Louisiana. Who would use your name? Who would get you involved?”

“I don’t even know nobody in Louisiana,” Reid responded.

At the time of Reid’s arrest, neither he nor DeKalb police knew Louisiana law enforcement used facial recognition technology (FRT) to ultimately issue the warrants. Reid’s attorneys now say Louisiana law enforcement used FRT to link him to crimes he did not commit. Reid was released from jail on Dec. 1, 2022.

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FRT is software that analyzes facial features and compares one image to another, to confirm a match or offer a limited set of results with similarities. But as more law enforcement agencies use the technology, the search for suspects is leaving behind a trail of new victims.

Several recent studies show using facial recognition technology may contribute to greater racial disparities in arrests.

‘They made a mistake, it’s OK’

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Using facial recognition, police in Detroit linked Robert Williams to security video. The video shows a Black male pocketing watches from a Michigan jewelry store.

Williams, his wife Melissa and attorneys have filed a lawsuit in which they accuse detectives of failing to thoroughly investigate beyond using FRT.

“There was no questioning, no asking for an alibi,” Melissa Williams said.

“Arresting me for absolutely no reason other than whatever you seen on a picture, that’s just not real,” said Robert Williams, who now wants the technology banned.

Atlanta News First Investigates obtained body camera footage which shows police arriving at Williams’ home in Farmington Hills, just outside of Detroit, waiting to arrest him. His wife and kids watched from the driveway as he was arrested.

Robert Williams can be heard, saying, “They made a mistake. It’s okay. I’ll be back in a minute.” He did not come back for at least two days.

‘Where did you get all this from?’

In February 2019, police in Woodbridge, New Jersey, questioned a man in a Dodge Charger parked outside a hotel. The suspect was accused of stealing from the hotel’s gift shop.

As officers are questioning the driver, he cranked up his engine. “Cut it off now, don’t move, we’ll shoot,” officers yelled. They repeatedly told the driver to stop and put his hands up. The driver eventually struck a car and came close to striking an officer.

Court documents revealed police later used FRT software to run the actual suspect’s fake driver’s license through its system. The results linked Parks, who still describes the charges in disbelief, to crimes he did not commit.

“Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, shoplifting, eluding... My jaw just dropped. I was like, where did you get all this from?”

In the cases of Reid, Williams and Parks, all three Black men were jailed and all were falsely matched.

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Studies show racial disparities

A national study found using facial recognition technology “contributes to greater racial disparities in arrests.” The author, Dr. Thaddeus Johnson, is a professor at Georgia State University and also a former police officer.

Had FRT been available to him during his time as a police officer, Johnson said he probably would have used it, but not to make a final determination in a case.

Johnson’s study examined FRT deployment in about 1,100 cities and subsequent arrests in 2016.

The results illustrate agencies that used FRT had a 55 percent higher arrest rate for Black people and a 22 percent lower arrest rate for White people, compared to agencies that did not use facial recognition.An Atlanta man was arrested for a crime in a city he never visited. Why?

“Bias can be embedded on the very front end,” Johnson said.

According to the report, the contributing factors in racial disparities included:

Black people are “overrepresented” in image databases, like mugshots, so they carry a “greater risk of being misidentified.”

A lack of racially diverse software programmers and photos used to train or build algorithms.

Absence of federal guidelines on interpreting results

The psychological effect of “workers relying more heavily on shortcuts for time-sensitive, high stakes decisions.”

Meanwhile, more recent data by the National Institute of Standards and Technology reveals FRT has a “wide range in accuracy across developers.” For example, systems created in China have more accuracy in identifying Asian faces, according to the study.

But among U.S. systems, the highest false positives were among people of color. “We can use this technology, but we can’t do it at the expense of inequity and discriminatory policing, whether we mean to or not,” Johnson said.

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Atlanta News First Investigates confirmed the facial recognition company in the arrest of Randal Reid. A spokesperson said their company encourages law enforcement to develop policies and treat results like a lead or tip, not as a deciding factor in a case.

But some agencies don’t have clearly defined policies, the subject of part two in this special investigation.

#Youtube #Does Facial Recognition Technology Promote Racial Bias?#bias #ai #racial bias in ai #FRT #Facial Recognition Tech #false arrests #incorrect faces #facial color bias #Black Lives Matter #Black Skin Bias in FRT #An Atlanta man was arrested for a crime in a city he never visited. Why #american racism #policing by camera

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sublimeobservationarcade · 1 year

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The Role Of Religion In Terrorism & Acts Of Violence

The recent police shootings in Queensland has turned the spotlight on the role of religion in terrorism and acts of violence. The Train brothers at the centre of this mass murder were brought up by an evangelical father. The Trains made a YouTube video around the time of the police shootings telling the world that they had killed the demons and devils who had invaded their property (this video has been taken down by the police). This was a reference to the 2 young police officers who were murdered by the trio of armed Queenslanders. Thankfully, 2 more young police officers were able to survive this act of domestic terrorism.

Photo by cottonbro studio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/police-officers-investigating-a-crime-scene-10464450/

Christian Indoctrination in The Murdering Trains

The Train’s neighbour was also murdered by the two brothers and their wife Stacy. There are early reports regarding the trio’s involvement in anti-vaccination and sovereign citizen groups and their online forums. Nathaniel Train and Stacy Train had both been school principals and teachers prior to leaving their jobs. Anti-Covid vaccine stances seem to be a tipping point in their lives and may have heralded a descent into conspiracy theory madness and their armed insurrection/killing spree. Regional Queensland is home to pockets of extreme views on issues like fluoride in the water, anti-unionism, and the overreach of the state. Gareth Train posted online: “ “If you are a conservative, anti-vaxx, freedom lover, protester, common law, conspiracy talker, alternative news, independent critical thinker, truther, Christian, patriot etc etc expect a visit from these hammers,” he said in one post, referring to the Queensland Special Emergency Response Team.” -(Matthew Knott, SMH, 15 Dec 2022) Old Testament Tales & Conspiracy Theories Parts of Queensland, like parts of America, are steeped in the Christian religion and the more virulent forms of this. I have always thought that there are parallels between the deep south of the USA and the far north of QLD in terms of conservativism and Old Testament values. If you are brought up with stories about God smiting enemies and devils and demons these things remain inside your head for better or worse. If you combine this with a belief in your God’s ultimate say in matters of the world, then, the rule of law is more easily undermined. This places the role of religion in terrorism and acts of violence, as an enabler. There are more than 100 million evangelical Christians in America - that is a big section of their society. Mass murders in the US are happening every week and almost every day. The prevalence of guns is, of course, the main cause, but the motivation to kill many in acts of extreme violence is, also a fact of American life. The global pandemic was deeply unsettling for many people around the country and the globe. It spurred a section of society to march in the city streets against government overreach in terms of vaccine mandates and lock downs. Libertarians here and in America were outraged by any curbing of their individual freedoms. A million people died from Covid related diseases in the USA but despite this right wing politicians led anti-vaccine and mask wearing campaigns. It was a crazy time and that craziness lingers in far reaches of our communities, as seen in Wieambilla this week.

Photo by Gabriel Hohol: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-police-car-roof-and-sign-10543088/ Christianity & Domestic Terrorism Domestic terrorism is a real danger and it is primarily coming from the extreme right. This is hard for police services to deal with because many of their members are on this side of the political divide. Many in the security forces share some of the conservative values and Christian views espoused by right wing groups. This terrible tragedy, which has taken the lives of three human beings in Queensland, may sharpen the focus for the police in tackling this very real danger on our doorstep.

The world is made up of stories. The Bible is full of stories. These stories underpin how we see things. Whoever or whatever controls the narrative points the way. When small children are indoctrinated by their parents and church they are groomed to see things in a certain light. This is why religious institutions are so heavily involved in education. Get em while they are young and you have a good chance of having them for life. Sometimes steeping children in particular values can have a positive result, as in the case of stories about loving one another and helping those less fortunate. However, many Christian groups are conditional about who you can love and help, which positions them as poor moral arbiters for humanity as a whole. Science has allowed many human beings and societies to free themselves from belief and stories about invisible supernatural entities. Science showed the many shortcomings of religion’s world view and understanding of how things actually work. It is interesting that the recent pandemic pitted science (the vaccine and public health) against sections of society who were unwilling to temporarily give up their personal freedoms to combat the virus. This stoush has, perhaps, driven some of these people back into the arms of religious belief. People like the former president Donald Trump cast aspersions on science and ran his ‘fake news’ campaign, which undermined the authority of the world media to communicate important things about the pandemic. These fissures remain in the minds of some, like the Trains, who began to see devils and demons in the guise of 4 young and inexperienced police officers. Is it, indeed, time to clearly see the role of religion in terrorism and acts of violence? ©WordsForWeb Read the full article

#American #Christianity #gundeaths #moralfailure #policeshootings #politics #rightwingconspiracy #storytelling #terrorism #Trump

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jeriafterdark · 2 years

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813 - The Reprise, Part 4/? - Dec 19, 2021

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Three.1

Masterpost for all parts

Hey everyone, it's been awhile since my last update. I've been following Uncle Li's struggles against CAPA and the Chinese entertainment industry as a whole since my last update on Dec 3, 2021. I'll only be covering things that I feel are distinct steps in ZZH's case, or that may be important for c-ent as a whole.

Let's get to it.

Thank you to all the referenced translators on Twitter, they’re the real heroes here ^^ Do check them out and give them a follow if you’d like a play-by-play on ZZH/CAPA/Uncle Li.

1. Wang LeeHom (a famous C singer) / WLH had a recent scandal where his wife revealed many facts about their relationship

WLH's wife came out and revealed that he's been an abusive husband / neglectful husband and such to her, with receipts. How does this relate to CAPA/ZZH/Uncle Li? Well, Uncle Li even predicted that CAPA will allow this scandal to make it to the Hot Search on weibo to take the heat off of themselves. Although, CAPA hasn't added his name to their supposed "immoral actors" list, I wonder why...? (We all know why, money probably paid them off).

2. Dec 16 - Uncle Li / LXZ - posted an article from China Youth Daily (that was published Aug, 25, 2021)

It detailed many different people from artists to politicians who had their pasts dug up by others with the intent of causing one’s “social death,” which we collectively call ‘cancel culture’ here in the West.

“In fact, people’s behavior online is only a very small aspect of life, looking at one’s online past is overemphasized.” Moreover, who can open up their QQ (C facebook) from 10 years ago and not feel embarrassed?

It’s interesting that this article was published after 813. Was it in consideration of ZZH’s case? Or were they tone-deaf? Who knows. Uncle Li certainly is suave at choosing what to post, to call the attention of the government and its people.

3. Dec 15 - Uncle Li invited a few Law professors to livestream on several platforms including Bilibili, Weibo, etc on CAPA and any legal implications of their goings-on.

This was notoriously watched by millions of people, but the platforms kept interrupting his stream on multiple outlets. Not only that, the law firm who was involved was muted on Weibo too? They were only trying to educate the public about current laws that govern this industry. But of course, those with power and in power generally do not want the public knowing about actual laws that would help common people. I can see why their effort was thwarted. Uncle Li emphasized later that it’s not the platform’s fault, that he and the professors should have run it by BiliBili/etc first to warn them. The platforms are also under careful scrutiny by the government, so any wrong moves would be hefty fines. (Does this imply that there are those in the government also involved? I would say yes. Of course. For where is the most power often concentrated? That doesn’t mean the official stance of the c-gov is against Uncle Li, no. There are probably players in the government who are double dipping, benefitting from CAPA, and who have been sending threats to Uncle Li (he’s noted these threats before, but is unconcerned)).

The Weibo CEO also thought he was being cheeky by saying

"If you're a man, you'd last at least 10minutes. I know stamina for 60min is an issue for a middle aged man but I have faith in you."

It’s kind of insane to me that his PR department lets him speak lol. Does he think he’s that powerful? He’s made digs at Uncle Li’s pursuit for justice before. This is just another in a long line of childish insults.

To get back at him, netizens created a tag #来总 3秒# "Weibo CEO, 3 seconds"

4. A supposed contract to silence ZZH for 6 months - 1 year + Antis have been mobilized

Uncle Li shared an anonymous story that talks about anti’s (anti-fans, basically trolls or paid trolls), who took on the job to ruin ZZH. The contract included a clause stating that they must ensure that he disappeared for more than 6 mo to a year before they receive the rest of their payment. (Long screen-capped image here)

OP’s note: To have such powerful players and money back a concerted effort to destroy one’s career for at least a year… What did ZZH do? Was he that powerful and popular? Sigh. More on my thoughts later.

5. Happy News: ZZH’s mother received over 20,000 story submissions for her tea shop’s story contest

For her contest, “my story, your tea,” she received over 20,000 submissions. So she’s expanding to 20 winners :) I’m sure many of those stories are well-wishes from ZZH’s fans. She estimates that all will be completed by Dec 25.

6. Uncle Li ensures that the relevant authorities already have the case in hand.

The relevant gov. Agencies are looking into CAPA and are gathering evidence. This process may take awhile as they are trying to be thorough. So there may not be many new updates, but we’ll see. He optimistically said maybe he could get it done by this year?? Or up to a year or two from now. We’ll just have to sit tight. I’m glad that he’s still standing up for ZZH, for c-ent, and he’s clever enough to avoid all the dirt and mud that people are slinging at him. These were my impressions from Dec 3 to now, I forgot which tweets it was from but there were many with the same idea.

Conclusion so far, my thoughts:

Soooo, Uncle Li is ensuring that he’s plugging away at ZZH’s case. The tag “justice for the people '' is now at BILLIONSSS of views btw. And still no hot search. Who knew that Chinese entertainment was so interconnected, so corrupt that all the platforms essentially operate with shadowy back alley transactions? I didn’t know it was this bad. But I’m no expert in entertainment behind-the-scenes.

I think this experience teaches us all, even those outside of China, an important idea. That no matter who you are, you’re always vulnerable to someone digging up your past and smearing you. As long as the money is paid, and as long as you angered the right/wrong people. Sometimes, there will be an Uncle Li to stand up and defend you. But most of the time, there won’t be. So as a member of the public, when you hear a new rumor, or you’re so far removed from some celebrity’s scandal, just remember to keep in mind that what you hear may not be true. Give the situation time for concrete evidence to show. Don’t be baited into participating against hating someone. (Not that ZZH did anything wrong, to be fair).

You can always change your mind. The victim may have done some shit in the past, but they can also always change their mind. Let’s judge people for who they choose to be, right now. Not who they once were. I think that’s the best way forward. It’s NOT to say that I’m not annoyed, or I don’t fall into the rumor pit-traps either. But it’s too easy to ruin someone’s life. I don’t want to do that, or have a hand in that. I’m a fan of restorative justice, healing justice. I don’t want to punish someone forever, their life is only theirs, I don’t have to live it. Life sucks enough, the world is already dying, why make it harder for ourselves?

You can always change your mind, and so can other people~ Thanks for reading!

#zzh #li xuezheng #uncle li #zhang zhehan #c-ent #junzhe #lld #langlangding #813 #813 the reprise #tales from the mountaintop #lxz #cdramas

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shijiujun · 4 years

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[END 2020] My Top 9 Danmei Novel Picks of the Year

As a part of my Round Up post for the year, here’s my pick of favourite danmei novels, that I’ve read! This is sort of an accompaniment to my previous danmei rec list over HERE, so there may be one or two overlaps, but I’ve read WAY MORE after that and am prepared to like give more options here

Note: There should be English translations for all via novel updates if you do a search of the English name, but I don’t think most of them are completed.

If you wanna see my full reading and queue list (it’s all in Chinese tho, for my own records), it’s here.

I’m leaving out the usual MXTX and Priest ones, because they’re already good and we all know that and there’re many carrds and posts dedicated to them.

I am also a sucker for fainting but smart men, and not too overly angsty/complicated storylines, just putting it out there first, which is why I haven’t read a lot of some of the ones on my queue list.

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1. 一剑霜寒 | A Sword of Frost by 语笑阑珊

Summary: Jing Yan Ran is the Emperor’s brother and wields military power in the novel, and it starts with an object being stolen from the palace. Jing Yan Ran has to retrieve the item secretly, and so enlists the help of Feng Yu Sect’s Sect Master, Yun Yi Feng, who heads the martial arts world’s one and only information trading post. Yun Yi Feng does not deal in business that involves any royalty, but Jing Yan Ran offers him something he cannot refuse - the Blood Red Lingzhi, a rare and mystical herb that is rumoured to be able to treat his life-threatening condition.

Yun Yi Feng was used by his shifu when he was younger to test out all kinds of poisons and cures, and since then, his body flushes dangerously hot and cold frequently, with bouts of severe coughing fits in between. Throughout the first mission where he spends time with Jing Yan Ran searching for the stolen object, he allows Jing Yan Ran to take care of him, and they fall in LURVE pretty much like 10 chapters in.

Of course, they have to uncover a plot and conspiracy against their enemies who are plotting to dethrone the Emperor, and also reveal the secrets of Yun Yi Feng’s birth.

My Thoughts: AN ABSOLUTE FAVE AND GEM, I’d say this is my favourite danmei novel ever. This is both hilarious and tears-inducing, to be honest, because for most of the novel YYF knows he doesn’t have long to live and so in the beginning he knows of his own feelings for JYR and JYR also shows him that he loves him, but he is unable to officially reciprocate because he knows his body is like weakening day by day. Halfway through the fear that he’s literally about to die as they are JUST about to find the cure is real, and damn I cried so much at that. Some highlights:

YYF falls asleep very easily in baths and everywhere actually, and pretty much within the first 10 chapters he gets used to JYR carrying him around (even naked from the bath, he’s like oh well, okay cool) and taking care of him, and JYR ALWAYS makes sure he is warm and toasty under his cape

YYF LOVESSSS RICHES, PLAYING THE ZITHER AND COOKING - He’s good at gathering the first one, but he FUCKING SUCKS AS THE LAST TWO - It’s so funny because he’s so beautiful and handsome right, and when he sits down at the zither everyone is like OH DAMN WHAT A DREAM- and then he plays, and everyone’s fantasies is shattered, he’s ABYSMAL at it, and the same goes for cooking

JYR doesn’t actually have the Blood Red Lingzhi, and throughout the first arc, he feels SO DAMN GUILTY because YYF even carved out a pendant that looks like what he thinks the herb looks like, and like carries it with him everywhere LMAO

Available: Novel Online and Manhua on Bilibili

2. 高能二维码 | High Energy QR Code by 青色羽翼

Summary: CEO Xing Ye’s brother Xing Shuo has just passed away at the age of 24, and nothing will make him believe that Xing Shuo died of natural causes despite autopsies and experts telling him that he really died simply of a heart failure. Xing Ye, who has impeccable memory, suddenly recalls the last time he saw Xing Shuo. His brother called out to him just before Xing Ye left for a business trip, and looked as if he had something to say, but ended up just wishing him a safe trip.

At that moment, there was a QR code on Xing Shuo’s phone, and the phone screen was strangely turned out towards Xing Ye, and Xing Ye, with his incredibly high IQ and memory, realizes that Xing Shuo wanted him to see the QR code. Quickly, he reproduces the QR code by pen and then scans it, and finds himself in a game world.

There he meets a narcissistic but also cute mirror which can speak, and finds out later that his name is Lu Ming Ze. Xing Ye’s mission is to clear the game missions in each round that is set by the black and white cubic game system, a system that continuously tempts its players into giving in to committing sins such as killing someone else, stealing and other things. He soon realizes that if he cannot stay on a path clear of these sins, he will never be able to triumph over the game system and return Lu Ming Ze back to his body in the real world.

At the same time, he gains new teammates and friends for life, and also finds out what role his brother played in this game.

My Thoughts: MY GOD I LOVE THIS. I LITERALLY JUST FINISHED READING THIS YESTERDAY, and honestly it’s one of my faves. I don’t like game systems very often (I’ve read three others so far, and this, and KOD are the only ones I’ve liked) but this one is *chef’s kiss*. So LMZ was born like with a really handsome face, like SUPER HANDSOME, and that’s why he’s like a harmless narcissist that cannot bear to look at ugly things LMAO, but he’s not spoilt, he makes sure that Xing Ye stays true to himself, and help him keep his head clear.

THE ONLY THING ABOUT THIS FRICKIN NOVEL IS THAT LU MING ZE STAYS A MIRROR, LIKE DIFFERENT KINDS OF MIRRORS, in the first TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY CHAPTERS. I KID YOU NOT. I FRICKIN KID YOU NOT. I swear I was sooo touched starved at the end of the novel, because they couldn’t even kiss?!! Like Xing Ye kisses the mirror, and then uses his thumbs to like hi-five mini LMZ in the mirror back, they can’t even hug. Do you know how empty my arms felt when I read this book?!! And my arms have never been filled!!!!!!

I really like this one because each game world is set up in such a brilliant way, but it’s not so unnecessarily complex that you literally don’t know what the fuck is going on. Xing Ye’s intelligence as he outmanoeuvres every single one of his enemies and convinces his would-be loyal teammates to trust him is so satisfying, world after world, victory after victory.

Humour is also absolutely ON POINT. A lot of it is centred on Xing Ye getting caught in the real world kissing his handheld mirror (LMZ) by LMZ’s parents (who cannot see him in the mirror) and LMZ’s parents going like ???!!!!!!!!

Available: Novel Online | Physical Novel is coming out on 10 Dec (freebies are, you guessed it, a mirror)

3. 妻为上 | The Wife is First by 绿野千鹤

Summary: This is set in a historical setting where men can marry other men, but it’s usually reserved for sons who were not borne by the official main first wife of the patriarch of the family, i.e. a son born by a concubine in a family may be forced to marry a man to keep him from being able to become the next family’s patriarch for example. This is because any family’s next leader needs to be able to have children with a wife who married in as a zheng shi (lawful wife), and not a ce shi (second wife) or any other concubines/mistresses etc. Most of these men who marry other men have to take them as their zheng shi and lawful spouse in a sense, and the same goes for the royal family.

The story starts with third prince Jing Shao, who was forced to marry Mu Han Zhang, a Marquis’ second son, by the Empress and Emperor, thereby officially and effectively cutting him out of the race for the throne. He’s mocked by the public as everyone knows what this means, and for the next 10 years, he neglects Mu Han Zhang, blaming him for his predicament, and deliberately showers his three other concubines with affection in front of him, but 10 years later, when Jing Shao is accused of treason, everyone leaves him except for Mu Han Zhang. They are chased to the edge of the cliff by soldiers, and Mu Han Zhang dies in his arms having taken an arrow meant for him earlier, and Jing Shao jumps off the cliff with his dead body, and promises that if there’s a next life, he will do everything Han Zhang says, and love him.

He wakes up immediately on the night of his marriage with Han Zhang, and realizes that he’s been given a second chance to make everything right. Han Zhang is definitely afraid of him, humiliated and angry when he first wakes up after how rough Jing Shao was with him earlier on their wedding night, and he has no memories of their past life. Jing Shao then sets to SHOWER HAN ZHANG with affection, love and basically everything, because he realized that this is the only person who stayed by his side until the end, and then he falls in love with Han Zhang properly this time, and also deals with every single person who maligned and schemed against him in his previous life, with Han Zhang by his side.

My Thoughts: OKAY BEFORE YALL GO INTO THE ‘WIFE’ terminology discourse and everything, in this case they do use the term ‘wife’ literally, and it’s a position, that while men frequently fall into (there are a lot of male ‘wives’ in this story), is also used to cut off like sons from inheriting the family and the fortune, and even titles. Male ‘wives’ aren’t looked down upon in this setting, in fact, Han Zhang gets a lot of leeway as one, and in his case he was also able to rise up the ranks to be an actual official later on, but the sad thing comes from sons who are most of the time forced to marry a male ‘wife’ for whatever reason, and then they are neglected as the son goes and find concubines, women he actually wants to sleep with - this is sad af yall. I don’t know, on one hand, yay for equality in marriage in this setting, but on the other hand like, damn, must you use same-sex marriage like that argh.

ANYWAY THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVES TOO?!!! I mean, especially when Jing Shao literally just goes into doting mode 200% and Han Zhang is totally like wtf why is he so nice to me is he scheming or something? And then he realizes that Jing Shao is really, really gentle towards him despite his reputation as a cruel, dark military commander, and Jing Shao always smiles at him. In any situation, especially in the beginning, when Han Zhang thought Jing Shao would not stand with him, Jing Shao literally just protects him no matter what, gives him everything, and cries, I love it.

Especially because Han Zhang is the son of a concubine and he was bullied a lot in the Mu family, and the official Lady Mu married him off to Jing Shao in hopes that he would be unhappy for the rest of his life, and I suppose that came true in the first life, but in the second, Han Zhang gets all the love, respect and support he never got before in this family with Jing Shao and that makes me WEEP.

Available: Novel Online and Manhua on Kuaikan

4. 死亡万花筒 Kaleidoscope of Death by 西子绪

OOOH I intro-ed KOD here in my previous rec list. Still one of my faves and all-time re-reads, especially under the covers in the dark hehehe.

5. 你的距离 | Your Distance by 公子优

Summary: Ting Shuang is a student at a German university, and has this handsome professor Bai Chang Yi who he swears kind of hates him. He’s just broken up with his longtime boyfriend, and then goes on this dating app that matches a profile with him based on distance. The app can also show the matched profile’s distance from him once they enter the same area, and Ting Shuang starts chatting with this Chinese guy on the app, who he finds out later, is 36 years old, 187cm in height and wears glasses.

The guy is a little aloof and cool, very mature in his replies on the app, and somehow Bai Chang Yi finds out who he is later, as Ting Shuang starts complaining to him about his professor to Bai Chang Yi. Instead of getting angry and offended, BCY is pretty much amused and finds Ting Shuang cute. A few days later Ting Shuang finally realizes who it is he’s been texting, and after getting past the initial embarrassment and fear, they start dating for real, and they really fall in love!!!!!

My Thoughts: This is sweet and also hilarious af, if you need to like satisfy your sweet tooth, this is definitely one for you. It’s really funny because Bai Chang Yi runs in the same circles as Ting Shuang’s dad, who he’s estranged from because the dad doesn’t want to recognize a son who is gay, and then BCY convinces him later in the funniest of ways, and there’s a small subplot at the end in which Ting Shuang is pretty cool, and yep, short and sweet! BCY in the manhua is handsome af too guys ;-;

Available: Novel Online, Audio Drama on Maoer FM and Manhua on Bilibili,

6. 神木挠不尽 The White Cat’s Divine Scratching Post by 绿野千鹤

Summary: Mo Tian Liao, a weapons forger and master who ruled the Demon Tribe, was hunted down and killed by other righteous sects in the region when he managed to forge an incredibly destructive weapon that could end the world. Before he died, he placed the only thing he loved, a white cat, into a hole in the tree behind him to protect it. The only thing he was grateful for was that he did not create a blood pact with the cat, Xiao Mao, because if he had done so, when he died, Xiao Mao would have died along with him as well.

Right before he dies, unbeknownst to him, Xiao Mao who is no simple demonic cat, wraps part of his consciousness around Mo Tian Liao, and MTL’s spirit ends up floating about for 300 years, until he finds a suitable time to return with a body made out of a special tree and its wood. The first thing he does, of course, is to find his white cat, but he’s poor, and the body he has isn’t powerful, so he joins Wo Yun Sect, the only sect that did not hunt him down that day hundreds of years ago.

There, he is chosen by Qing Tong shizun to be his direct disciple, much to the astonishment of other shizuns in the sect, and Qing Tong’s shixiongs. MTL has never seen a person as beautiful and gorgeous as his shizun, and if only he could find that cat (who’s actually his shizun, who recognizes him and protects him, even if MTL doesn’t actually need much protection).

My Thoughts: This was hilarious as well, and so romantic?!!! Qing Tong/Xiao Mao waited for MTL to come back, and the moment he came back, Qing Tong was there ready to grab him, and then before he went to sleep that night, Qing Tong thought to himself, “I’ve gotten my person back, I can sleep well now” and AHHHHH at this point they weren’t even like a couple yet? MTL ‘kidnapped’ Qing Tong when he was a young demon cat by accident because he likes pretty things (like his shizun lmao) and Qing Tong is attached to him because MTL never forced a blood pact on him, and gave him everything he wanted as a younger cat before MTL died. Gosh, a mirror in #2 and then a cat now with this one. XD

Available: Novel Online

7. 破云 | Breaking the Clouds by 淮上

Summary: Three years ago, Captain Jiang Ting and his team of the Narcotics division perished in an explosion due to a wrong call of his, and he returns three years later under a new identity ready to deal with the people who set him and his team up. He’s caught in what seems to be a simple murder case almost immediately and meets Yan Xie, who’s Vice Captain and in charge of this case. Yan Xie realizes who Jiang Ting is shortly after, and begins to unravel the huge mystery surrounding the events of three years ago, and falls in love with Jiang Ting along the way as well.

My Thoughts: Okay out of the FOUR crime/detective/thriller danmei novels I’ve read, the poyun and tunhai (below) series is the one that MIRRORS actual narcotics division and undercovers the best. It has the complexity and depth of the drugs/narcotics world, and both this one and its sequel focuses a lot on the position of an undercover and mole. I liked this one a lot because there are SOOOO many twists especially in the last arc, like you honestly won’t see any of them coming until it hits you? And Yan Xie is such a confident, rich-ass narcissist, and he keeps asking Jiang Ting if he can “just touch” him ONCE lmao, he’s thick-skinned af, but that’s why he and Jiang Ting are so compatible ;-;.

Available: Novel Online, Novel Print, Audio Drama and Manhua on Bilibili

8. 吞海 | Swallowing the Sea by 淮上

Summary: Sequel to Po Yun. Yu Wu is a young-looking new detective under Captain Bu Chong Hua’s narcotics team. Bu Chong Hua is Yan Xie’s cousin by actual relation, but brother in relationship because BCH’s parents died early and Yan Xie’s parents have been taking care of him mostly. He cannot stand Yu Wu, who seems to want to coast through at work and keep to a 9-5 work schedule.

It’s only after an altercation and Yu Wu dumping his nonchalant facade to snarl at BCH that he realizes that YW is actually more interesting and mysterious than he thought, and he begins to try to get close to him, understand him. It turns out that Yu Wu is a famous undercover who nearly died a year ago during an operation, and due to various reasons, he was assigned to BCH’s team by higher ups so he can peacefully live the rest of his life out there. However, his past catches up with him quickly, and his enemies turning up forces him to rely on BCH.

With BCH, Yu Wu’s resentment of having to be an undercover in the past and being so easily discarded by his team’s leaders, and of him being forced to be in the shadows while others can announce their achievements to the world, is slowly erased, because BCH sees him, knows him, and understands him more than anyone else.

My Thoughts: I actually liked this one better than the first one - Yu Wu is such a pouty, angry little thing?! And for good reason (there’s a bit of cannibalism in the book, not by choice when he was younger and in a poor village in Cambodia, where some militants forced survivors in the village to eat the meat of boiled corpses of other villagers, so YW is a vegetarian, like if he eats meat he gets really sick) and the twists here are even more amazing?! BCH really, really, devotes himself to YW the moment he realizes how much he likes him, doing a 180 degree turn. Instead of Yan Xie’s flamboyance, BCH is much steadier, grouchy, like an old uncle, but also looks at things even more clearly than Yan Xie does sometimes. Yu Wu is understandably bitter about what he had to go through, and BCH is the ONLY person who can calm him down, whom he listens to, which I LOVE. Some highlights:

Yu Wu grew up in a poor village and thus loves money, and he fights in underground betting rings to earn more money - The stash of hidden money he collects I think is half for his escape money, but if he happens to never need it, his dream is to donate the money to his village so they can open up a school there - ANYWAY because Yan Xie’s parents, and technically BCH’s ‘parents’ are soooooo rich right, Yan Xie’s mom shows her approval to her son-in-laws (Jiang Ting first, then Yu Wu), by giving them winter pants. It’s kind of like inside warmers, and usually meant for older ladies to wear LOLOL so Yu Wu was like staring at the pants when he finally got them and looked soooo reluctant until Jiang Ting told him it costs $6,000 AND HE WAS LIKE :333333 okie

He acts a lot like a kid?!! He likes eating like some snack but it’s really unhealthy for him, and BCH the mother hen keeps catching him in weird places like the toilet, where he’s hiding from BCH so he can eat his fave snack?! And the whole police station knows not to give YW what he wants in terms of snacks and smokes because once BCH finds out, he makes life very difficult for them HAHAHAHA

9. 穿成反派如何活命 | How to Survive as A Villain by 伊依以翼

Summary: Rich and handsome CEO Xiao Yu An finds out he has a terminal illness (cancer), and dies while he’s reading this online novel, where a king mistreats the crown prince from a neighbouring state which sent him over as hostage after losing a war, and ends up being killed by the crown prince years later (SVSSS much?!). He wakes up AS THE KING, and afraid of dying, he immediately goes about befriending the prince, Yan He Qing. Yan He Qing falls in love with Xiao Yu An while being his friend/hostage/bodyguard, and Xiao Yu An tries to avoid all the deaths he read in the book, while making sure Yan He Qing manages to find his three/four wives, including Xiao Yu An’s sister.

Of course, because Xiao Yu An showed him warmth and kindness, Yan He Qing ends up falling for him instead, and Xiao Yu An is an absolute oblivious idiot because he REALLY doesn’t realize until much later. Yan He Qing ends up declaring war on Xiao Yu An’s kingdom because he is duty bound to do so, but doesn’t hurt Xiao Yu An, wanting to keep him by his side, but YHQ’s scheming uncle drives a wedge between them, and XYA leaves, breaking YHQ’s heart.

They meet again a few years later, where XYA is training to be a physician in a small village and chances upon a severely injured YHQ. There, he realizes that it was all a misunderstanding, and that YHQ actually LIKES, LIKES him, but before they can enjoy this short period of happiness, disaster strikes again.

My Thoughts: THIS WAS really enjoyable, and with the manhua visuals, it is *chef’s kiss*. I think this transmigration version actually delved into the part where XYA is unable to change everything, and if he saves one person, someone else is destined to die, and that moral dilemma devastates him a lot. In this novel he actually transmigrates TWICE, once into the king’s body, and the second time into a neighbouring state’s prince/king’s body, who looks exactly like his modern self after. YHQ is real sweet to him istg, and I like that the epilogues are SUPER EXTENSIVE, including an arc where YHQ and XYA transmigrate back to the real world and everyone who died is alive and close to them, and gets their happy ending ;-;

Available: Novel Online and Manhua on Bilibili

#danmei rec list #stebeee recs #a sword of frost #your distance #swallowing the sea #breaking the clouds #kaleidoscope of death #High Energy QR Code #How to Survive as A Villain #The White Cat’s Divine Scratching Post

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bharat-sonawane · 3 years

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Princess Diana

(1961-1997)

UPDATED: JAN 28, 2021 | ORIGINAL: DEC 22, 2017

Princess Diana was Princess of Wales while married to Prince Charles. One of the most adored members of the British royal family, she died in a 1997 car crash.

Who Was Princess Diana?

Princess Diana became Lady Diana Spencer after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer in 1975. She married the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, on July 29, 1981. They had two sons and later divorced in 1996. Diana died on August 31, 1997, from injuries she sustained in a car crash in Paris. She is remembered as the "People's Princess" because of her widespread popularity and global humanitarian efforts.

Early Life and Family

Diana was born on July 1, 1961, near Sandringham, England. Diana was the daughter of Edward John Spencer, Viscount Althorp, and Frances Ruth Burke Roche, Viscountess Althorp (later known as the Honorable Frances Shand Kydd). Her parents divorced when Diana was young, and her father won custody of the children.

Diana had two older sisters, Lady Jane Fellowes and Lady Sarah McCorquodale, and a younger brother, Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer.

Following her initial education at home, Diana attended Riddlesworth Hall School and then West Heath School. Although she was known for her shyness while growing up, she showed an interest in music and dancing. She became Lady Diana Spencer after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer in 1975.

Diana had a great fondness for children. After attending finishing school at Institut Alpin Videmanette in Switzerland, she moved to London. She began working with children, eventually becoming an assistant at Young England Kindergarten.

Courtship With Prince Charles

Diana began dating Prince Charles, heir to the British throne who was 13 years her senior, in 1977. The couple first met when Diana was a child and reportedly played with Charles’s younger siblings, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, while her family rented Park House, an estate owned by Queen Elizabeth II.

Charles was usually the subject of media attention, and his courtship of Diana was no exception. The press and the public were fascinated by this seemingly odd couple — the reserved, garden-loving prince and the shy young woman with an interest in fashion and popular culture.

After Diana's death, her son Prince William proposed with the ring to Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge.

Wedding to Prince Charles

Diana Spencer became Diana, Princess of Wales, when she married Charles on July 29, 1981. Their wedding took place at St. Paul’s Cathedral in the presence of 2,650 guests. The couple arrived separately and departed together by a carriage ride through the streets of London.

Diana wore a taffeta wedding dress made with silk and antique lace and 10,000 pearls, created by husband-and-wife design team David and Elizabeth Emanuel. She donned an 18th-century Spencer family tiara with a 25-foot veil. Her ensemble barely fit in the carriage, and it took Diana 3 and a half minutes to walk down the aisle.

The royal wedding ceremony was broadcast on television around the world; nearly one billion people from 74 countries tuned in to see what many considered to be the wedding of the century

Princess Diana arriving at St Paul's Cathedral in London, England on her wedding day, July 29, 1981

Prince Charles and Princess Diana exiting their wedding ceremonye

Sons

Diana and Charles had two sons together: Prince William Arthur Philip Louis, born on June 21, 1982, and Prince Henry Charles Albert David — known widely as "Prince Harry" — born on September 15, 1984.

Divorce from Prince Charles

Diana’s separation from Charles was announced in December 1992 by British Prime Minister John Major, who read a statement from the royal family to the House of Commons. Their divorce was finalized in August 1996.

The couple became estranged over the years, and Diana struggled with depression and bulimia. During their union, there were reports of infidelities from both parties. According to The Diana Chronicles, a book by Tina Brown, Diana had fallen head over heels for Hasnat Khan, a Pakistani heart surgeon whom she met in 1995.

Queen Elizabeth II urged Diana and Charles to officially end their marriage. Diana retained her title of “Princess of Wales” and her apartments at Kensington Palace, but she agreed gave up the title “Her Royal Highness” and any claim to the British throne.

After the couple’s fairy tale wedding, Diana felt overwhelmed by her royal duties and the intense media coverage of nearly every aspect of her life. She began to develop and pursue her own interests. She served as a strong supporter of many charities and worked to help the homeless, people living with HIV and AIDS and children in need.

Following her divorce, Diana devoted herself to her sons and charitable efforts, including raising awareness about the dangers of leftover landmines in war-torn Angola. She maintained a high level of popularity with the public.

Relationship With Dodi Fayed

Diana whipped the British tabloids into a frenzy when she began dating Egyptian film producer and playboy Dodi Fayed in 1997. Fayed invited Diana and her family on his yacht in the south of France.

The couple reportedly met at a 1986 polo match when Fayed and Charles played on opposing teams. They reconnected and openly dated over the summer of 1997, spending time together in Sardinia, the south of France and Paris.

Their courtship was widely covered in the tabloids. It was reported that some members of the royal family and former Prime Minister Tony Blair did not approve of their relationship. Diana’s butler and confidant Paul Burrell told the BBC that Fayed was “a rebound” from her relationship with Hasnat Khan.

Death

While visiting Paris, Diana and Dodi Fayed were involved in a car crash after trying to escape from the paparazzi early in the morning of August 31, 1997. Fayed and the driver were pronounced dead at the scene. Diana initially survived the crash but succumbed to her injuries at a Paris hospital a few hours later. She was 36 years old.

News of her sudden, senseless death shocked the world. Queen Elizabeth II, who was criticized for not immediately responding publicly to Diana’s death, made a televised address from Buckingham Palace on September 5, in which she said: “No one who knew Diana will ever forget her. Millions of others who never met her, but felt they knew her, will remember her. I, for one, believe there are lessons to be drawn from her life and from the extraordinary and moving reaction to her death. I share in your determination to cherish her memory.”

Conspiracy Theories

Following an investigation into Diana’s fatal car accident, a report released in 1999 determined that the driver was at fault for driving at a high speed while under the influence of alcohol and antidepressant drugs. Charges were dropped against several photographers who were initially blamed for causing the crash.

Despite the report, rumors persisted for years about alternative reasons for the accident. One conspiracy theory held that it was part of an assassination arranged by the royal family, although no additional evidence emerged to support that theory.

Funeral and Gravesite

On the morning of September 6, Diana's funeral procession commenced from Kensington Palace, her coffin resting on a gun carriage drawn by six black horses. Thousands of mourners packed the street to watch, with 15-year-old William and 12-year-old Harry joining the final stretch of the four-mile procession for their mother.

An estimated 2.5 billion people tuned in on television to watch the ceremony at Westminster Abbey, which featured a powerful eulogy from Diana's brother, Earl Charles Spencer, and a performance from Elton John.

Diana’s body was laid to rest at a gravesite on a small island at her family's estate, Althorp.

Memorials and Charities

In 2007, just before the 10th anniversary of her death, William and Harry honored their beloved mother with a special concert that took place on what would have been her 46th birthday. The proceeds of the event went to charities supported by Diana and her sons.

William and his wife Kate Middleton also remembered Diana when naming their second child, Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, who was born on May 2, 2015.

Continuing her charitable efforts, the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund was founded after her death to provide resources for palliative care, penal reform, asylum and other issues. In 2013, the fund was incorporated into The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry...

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latenightsleuth · 3 years

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West Mesa Murders: Theories differ on the identity of the West Mesa Bone Collector, or if he even exists

On Feb. 2, 2009, Christine Ross was walking her dog Ruca in a suburban housing development on Albuquerque’s West Mesa when they found a bone. Realizing it was a human femur, Ross contacted the police. As they investigated the area where the body was buried, authorities uncovered the remains of 11 women and one unborn child.

The women had gone missing between 2001 and 2005 and were similar — most of them were sex workers, most of them were Hispanic, and all of them were murdered. Authorities believe that a serial killer was responsible for the deaths, but in the almost 12 years since the crime became known, no suspects have ever been named.

The Albuquerque Police Department considers the West Mesa murders an active investigation, but as time goes on, it seems less and less likely that the city will ever learn who killed the women — or whether they are the only bodies buried on the mesa.

BONES ON THE MESA

In 2005, Albuquerque police detective Ida Lopez compiled a list of missing women after noticing that an inordinate number of women with ties to drugs and prostitution had vanished off of the city’s streets. Four years later, ten of them — Jamie Barela, 15; Monica Candelaria, 22; Victoria Chavez, 26; Virginia Cloven, 24; Cinnamon Elks, 32; Doreen Marquez, 24; Julie Nieto, 24; Veronica Romero, 28; Evelyn Salazar, 27; and Michelle Valdez, 22, who was four months pregnant when she was killed — were found buried on the mesa. The other one, Syllania Edwards, was 15 and had run away from her foster home in Lawton, Oklahoma.

The area where the bodies were found had been barren, empty land before housing developments began to encroach on it in 2006. The 2008 Housing Bubble collapse, however, halted that development before it reached the burial site. Before it ceased, the development had covered an existing arroyo, and complaints of flooding from nearby residents led the developer, KB Homes, to build a retaining wall to channel rainwater into a retention pond. This construction inadvertently uncovered the bone found on Feb 2.

The resulting criminal investigation, which uncovered the bodies of the 11 women over a two month period, was the largest in the history of New Mexico. It took almost a year to identify all of the victims, and the bones did not reveal how they were killed, though authorities have said they suspect strangulation. The fact that the bodies were found in a group led investigators to believe they were killed by one person — a serial killer who has come to be known as the West Mesa Bone Collector.

The investigation, at least publicly, was unable to establish any major connections between the women.

“We know that some of these women definitely would have known each other just by virtue of where they were,” said Tierna Unruh-Enos, an Albuquerque-based journalist who started “The Mesa,” a podcast delving into details of the murders, this year. “Albuquerque is not that big of a city. There have definitely been some more interesting connections that have come out in terms of like family members somehow knowing each other randomly, children of the women being in dance classes together, even though that wasn’t necessarily a factor either.”

Very little, if any, evidence was uncovered pointing toward the identity of the person who killed the women. As a result, the police have never named anyone as a suspect in the case, which remains active. They have, however, mentioned two individuals as persons of interest. (The distinction is important: A “suspect” is someone the police believe committed a crime; a “person of interest” may or may not be involved or have information about a crime.)

On Dec. 19, 2006, 19-year-old Shericka Hill met Lorenzo Montoya, 39, in a chat room and agreed to meet in person. During the meeting, police told the Albuquerque Journal, Hill and Montoya arranged for Hill to come to his mobile home — a few miles away from where the West Mesa victims would be found three years later — to perform a dance for him. Hill’s boyfriend, Frederick Williams, drove her to Montoya’s house and remained in the car while Hill went inside.

After waiting an hour, Williams grew concerned and went to check on Hill, bringing his gun with him. He encountered Montoya outside the home and Montoya brandished a gun. Feeling threatened, Williams shot him dead.

Williams found Hill dead inside the residence, bound with duct tape and strangled. It appeared that Montoya was transporting her body to his car.

“You don’t see this type of violent act committed the way it was,” Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz said at the time. “It seemed like he knew what he was doing. It was very well planned and orchestrated, and that is what is worrisome about this.”

According to court records, Montoya had previously been arrested in 1999 under suspicion of sexually assaulting a 23-year-old prostitute, who told police Montoya had put his hands around her throat and choked her before he was caught by detectives. The case was later dismissed in metropolitan Court and never refiled. Montoya had also been arrested on suspicion of patronizing prostitutes in 1998 and 2005.

As Unruh-Enos points out, the fact that he killed one sex worker and may have tried to strangle another does not necessarily mean he killed others. No evidence connects him to the West Mesa killings. But notably, all of the West Mesa victims were killed before Montoya’s death.

JOSEPH BLEA

Within a week of the discovery of the first bone on the West Mesa, April Gillen contacted the police and suggested that they look into her ex-husband Joseph Blea. The man already had a significant history with the APD.

According to a search warrant affidavit, between 1990 and 2009, police had run across him over 130 times, usually in the area the West Mesa victims were said to have frequented — the East Central corridor. He was charged with the rape of a 14-year-old he knew, but that case was dropped. And his DNA was found on a prostitute left dead on the side of a street in 1985, though he was never charged for that crime.

After the discovery of the West Mesa Murders, police tailed Blea’s car for four days as he drove back and forth along Central Avenue. Police wrote that he appeared to be stalking prostitutes but never approached them. When police searched his home in late 2009, they found women’s jewelry and underwear. His wife, Cheryl Blea, told police that she and her daughter had found articles of both that didn’t belong to them around their home.

Years later, Robert Cloven, the father of West Mesa victim Virginia Cloven, told the Journal that families of the victims had noticed that the women’s jewelry was missing.

The only piece of evidence that the APD says may connect to him the murders, however, is a plant tag for a Spearmint juniper that was found near Virginia Cloven’s buried remains. The tag was traced to a nursery in California that provided plants for others in Albuquerque. Blea’s business records as a landscaper showed that he bought plants from those nurseries.

The case for charging Blea as the West Mesa Bone Collector never materialized, but evidence of other crimes did.

A rape kit collected in 1988 after a 13-year-old eighth-grader was assaulted near McKinley Middle School was tested in 2010 and led investigators to Blea. He was convicted for the crime in 2015. He then pled no contest when charged with the rapes of two women and another child that occurred between 1990 and 1993.

Blea, who is now 63, is currently serving a 90-year prison sentence. He has repeatedly denied any involvement in the West Mesa Murders, and he has never been charged with killing anyone.

OTHER THEORIES

It’s far from the most popular theory, but some believe that there is no individual West Mesa Bone Collector.

Thomas Grover is currently a lawyer in Albuquerque, but from January 2004 through December 2011, he was an officer with the APD, with the rank of sergeant when he resigned. These days he spends a lot of time representing officers throughout New Mexico in administrative matters and bringing whistle-blower actions against law enforcement agencies.

To him, the inability of the Albuquerque Police Department to find a suspect in the killings is emblematic of the disorder within the department.

“The best way to describe it is like a giant family domestic relations dispute where you’ve got some alliances working together, you’ve got antagonisms between others,” he said. “Ranks within the department personnel, cliques within the department, even units or divisions, have this acrimony, and from that, you don’t get the best application to whatever issues are going on that the community needs addressed, whether it’s large scale crimes, criminal events, ongoing patterns of criminal activity — criminal rapes for instance.”

He describes a department in which many of the best officers have departed over recent years, and supervisors with little experience and a relatively weak knowledge base are running the show. As a result, the APD has gotten increasingly less efficient and effective. Grover said that when he left the department, he thought it was going off the rails by not recognizing the concerns of citizens about the use of force and the escalating number of officer-involved shootings. That trend eventually brought the Department of Justice in to investigate the APD, which he said further reduced the police department’s efficiency.

As for why he doubts a West Mesa serial killer exists, he points to the fact that there was not a search for one prior to when the victims were found. Though Grover was never involved in the investigations, he knew people who were and confirms that there was a perception that prostitutes were disappearing — something that officers like Ida Lopez were concerned about at the time. But patterns of behavior surrounding the disappearances never suggested that they were directly related or that one person was behind them.

Grover compares this to the efforts to capture a serial robber who stole from Albuquerque businesses in the early 2000s by disassembling safes after hours. He said that even beyond the burglary unit, there was a massive effort among street-level officers to know what to look for that might indicate a robbery was being committed by this individual rather than a common thief. The burglar was never caught, but the search nevertheless illustrates to Grover that even a department in chaos was able to devote resources to catching a serial offender when they thought one existed — something that was never done in relation to the vanishing sex workers.

“Whenever there was a notion that there was an adversarial type entity out there, whether it was the burglar, or some sort of gangs, or something that really attracted a lot of attention among folks in the department ... just sort of the notion that there was a true bad guy out there — this is why a lot of people become cops,” he said. “You don’t necessarily want to go after the guys that are just committing crimes to fund drug habits. I mean, we’re talking about someone who’s a true antisocial adversary. And when those types of investigations were going on, everyone would sort of hear about it. And even if — and I don’t think this would be the case — but even if you’re talking about someone who preyed on the most vulnerable ... spectrum of society, sex workers, I don’t think that would take away from anyone’s interest.”

Why were the West Mesa victims all found in the same general area? That’s just where bodies ended up in Albuquerque, regardless of the crime.

That’s sort of the history of the West Side and the unincorporated abandoned area,” Grover said. “Detritus would just get left out there.”

ONGOING INVESTIGATIONS

The West Mesa Murders have never been designated a cold case by the Albuquerque Police Department, allegedly because the team investigating them, the 118th Street Task Force, consistently gets new tips about the killings. This also has the obfuscating effect of the department sharing few details about the investigation with the media and public, citing that doing so would interfere with the case.

This is part of the reason Tierna Unruh-Enos started her podcast. Now the managing editor and associate publisher of The Paper, Albuquerque’s new alternative weekly news publication, she was a journalist at local ABC affiliate KOAT when the bodies were found. She said the media covered the investigation extensively for about a year as it got national and international attention. But then interest died off and now it only really gets dusted off about once a year for anniversary stories.

“Watching this whole thing for the past 11 years, I just thought, there is a different way to tell the story,” she said. “I don’t want to just keep rehashing the same details over and over and over again that just don’t really take anyone anywhere. I want to talk to the families — a lot of these women had children, and those children are now adults or teenagers. And, you know, let’s talk to them and further the story than what was really being done with it.”

She is also seeking to humanize the victims.

“They were not just women who were on the street. They were not just women who were possibly a victim of their lifestyle — although that still hasn’t been proven. They were mothers, they were daughters. And this is a legacy that their children now have to deal with. And I think there’s a lot of people out there who don’t really have a lot of sympathy and kind of just want to move on and put in the past,” she said.

The majority of the women on Ida Lopez’s list of missing sex workers were identified as victims in the West Mesa Murders. But six were not. Felipa Gonzales, Nina Herron, Leah Peebles, Darlene Trujillo, Anna Vigil, and Shawntell Waites were all in their 20s when they disappeared between 2001 and 2005. They would all now be in their 30s or early 40s.

Since 2009, the West Mesa, which was previously open space, has exploded in development. A memorial park was built over the acre where the bodies were found, but the other 95 acres of that lot have gone undeveloped. Unruh-Enos believes it’s only a matter of time, though, before KB Homes finally develops that area as well. Perhaps at that time, more bodies will be found — assuming they’re not already under existing houses.

According to the city of Albuquerque’s website, a reward of up to $100,000 is still being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murders. The 118th Street Task Force can be reached at 1 (877) 765-8273 or (505) 768-2450.

By: Nick Gonzales

DGO Staff Writer

Dec 2, 2020

Read full article at: https://www.dgomag.com/contents/west-mesa-murders-theories-differ-on-the-identity-of-the-west-mesa-bone-collector-or-if-he-even-exists-4474

#westmesamurders #westmesabonecollector #rememberthevictim #latenightsleuth #murder #unsolved #jamiebarela #monicacandelaria #victoriachavez #virginiacloven #syllanniaedwards #cinnamonelks #doreenmarquez #julienieto #veronicaromero #evelynsalazar #michellevaldez

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perfectirishgifts · 3 years

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The 13 Best Korean Dramas Of 2020

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/the-13-best-korean-dramas-of-2020/

The 13 Best Korean Dramas Of 2020

Bae Suzy and Nam Joo-hyuk partner up in ‘Start-Up.’

Although 2020 will make the history books for all the wrong reasons, it was a great year for Korean dramas. With a slew of big budget hits and small quirky stories, k-dramas offered plenty of innovative entertainment to help viewers happily pass pandemic time.

Every drama viewer may have a different list of favorites, but here are a few 2020 dramas that stood out in terms of originality, subject matter and execution.

Park Seo-joon created one of the year’s most memorable k-drama characters in ‘Itaewon Class.’

Itaewon Class

The year started off with the quirky hit Itaewon Class, in which Park Seo-joon’s character overcomes so many odds that he naturally sympathizes with those who society may shun. When opening a cafe he hires employees that others might not and those choices contribute to his success. Park’s generous character is one of the year’s most likable and the drama also features top-notch performances by Kim Da-mi, Kwon Nara, Yoo Jae-Myung and Ahn Bo-hyun.

Why see it? If you’ve never been to Seoul’s international neighborhood of Itaewon, this drama takes you there. The drama provides plenty of feel-good moments and a great soundtrack, including a contribution by BTS member V.

Kim Hee-ae and Park Hae-joon star in ‘The World of The Married.’

World of the Married

Although this drama has not yet made it to all international audiences, it was a huge hit in Korea, enjoying both critical success and nationwide ratings of 28.37%. World of the Married, an adaptation of the BBC series Dr. Foster, stars Kim Hae-ae. Kim plays a doctor who thinks her life is perfect until she learns that her husband, played by Park Hae-joon, has been cheating on her. Even worse, all their friends know.

Why see it? Kim won Best Actress at the Baeksang Awards for playing the drama’s protagonist Ji Sun-woo and the drama was a breakout hit for supporting actress Han Seo-hee. There’s also the guilty pleasure of watching a woman scorned exact revenge on those who betrayed her.

The legal drama ‘Hyena’ starred Kim Hye-soo and Ju Ji-hoon.

Hyena

The drama’s leading characters, played by Kim Hye-soo and Ju Ji-hoon, each have their own approach to practicing law. She’s a scrappy small-time lawyer with questionable ethics and he’s a self-satisfied high-profile lawyer at a top firm. Despite their differences—and getting off to a bad start when she scams him—they turn out to be good for each other.

Why see it? Ju delivers a pitch-perfect performance, with his every twitch and grimace creating an unforgettable character. Ju and Kim have undeniable chemistry that sizzles through episodes of fast-paced high-stakes legal entanglements.

Bae Doona played a zombie-fighting nurse in the second season of ‘Kingom.’

Kingdom 2

The second season of this historical zombie drama was even better than the first. Kingdom 2 also stars Ju Ji-hoon as the prince trying to save his country from a zombie invasion as well as inner court corruption. What makes the second season better than the first is a larger role for actress Bae Doona, whose character takes time out from nursing the sick to battle the undead.

Why see it: It’s a zombie story with a historical and moral twist.

Start Up

Nam Joo-Hyuk and Bae Suzy star in this story of a small tech start-up that gets a chance to compete on a bigger stage. When Bae’s character Seo Dal-mi was young she received encouraging letters from a man named Nam Do-san, but the letters were really written by Kim Seon-ho’s character Han Ji-pyeong. When a grown-up Dal-mi decides to find the real Do-san, played by Nam, Ji-pyeong asks Do-san to pretend he really wrote the letters. Do-san and Dal-mi are perfect for each other but their budding relationship is based on a lie.

Why see it? The story of how the start-up gets started is interesting. Each of the actors—from the leads to the supporting cast— is imperfectly endearing and Kim wins this year’s unofficial prize for being the most appealing second lead.

Lee jun-ki is a potential serial killer married to the detective played by Moon Chae-won in ‘Flower … [] of Evil.’

Flower of Evil

What would you do if you found out you were married to a serial killer? It might be happening to Moon Chae-won’s police detective character in Flower of Evil. Her devoted husband, played by Lee Jun-ki, has a mysterious past that ties him to a serial killer. Did he also commit murders? If he is a serial killer, does his wife love him enough to look past the incriminating clues?

Why see it? Although some of the drama’s plot occasionally veers into the illogical, the relationship between the leads is so charismatic that the drama acquired a loyal and enthusiastic following. The mystery is sufficiently complex and Lee’s tortured performance as the suspected serial killer is mesmerizing.

Park So-dam played Park Bo-gum’s makeup artist in ‘Record of Youth.’

Record of Youth

Record of Youth features ambitious likable protagonists trying to find their place in a highly competitive world. Park Bo-gum plays a model so charming it’s hard to imagine why he’s not already a success at the story’s start. Park So-dam plays a talented make-up artist with dreams. She’s also a devoted fan of his modeling career.

Why see it? Park Bo-gum’s character is as bright as a shiny penny, ever optimistic and upbeat, despite not having much support for his dreams. Watching Park So-dam act is always a pleasure and the real star of the drama might be Han Jin-hee, who plays Park Bo-gum’s supportive grandfather.

Seo Ye-ji aggressively pursues Kim Soo-hyun in ‘It’s Okay Not To Be Okay.’

It’s Okay Not To Be Okay

Easily the most visually appealing drama of 2020, It’s Okay Not To Be Okay stars two of k-drama’s most photogenic actors Seo Ye-ji and Kim Soo-hyun as a twisted children’s book author and the psychiatric nurse she needs to calm her nightmares. Not only are the actors beautiful, but the drama’s graphics, cinematography and costumes are also gorgeous.

Why see it? The drama explores the topics of autism and the mental scars created by early trauma. Oh Jung-se’s performance as Kim’s autistic brother was one of the best of the year.

‘The Good Detective’ is a fast-paced crime thriller starring Son Hyun-joo and Jang Seung-jo.

The Good Detective

The Good Detective delivers a Scandi-noir vibe with its insightful character development plus some over-the-top, superhero police action scenes. The drama stars Son Hyun-joo, who might have the most expressive face of any k-drama actor, and Jang Seung-jo as a detective whose super-power is having a fortune.

Why see it? The Good Detective is an involving police procedural with top-rate performances. Oh Jung-se plays a hard-hearted villain, a dramatically different role than his vulnerable character in It’s Okay Not To Be Okay.

Nana plays a woman who pursues politics for a paycheck despite Park Sung-hoon’s objections.

Into The Ring

The wry comedy stars Nana, formerly a member of k-pop group After School, and Park Sung-hoon, who recently played a convincing but comical killer in Psychopath Diary. Nana plays a plucky unemployed woman who runs for office, motivated largely by the paycheck, but also from a sense of justice. Although Park initially finds her irritating, he eventually helps her fight local corruption.

Why see it? Nana is so charismatic in this role, viewers may want to see everything she’s ever done. She and Park develop a low-key lovable comic rapport that keeps a story about local politics happily enjoyable.

‘My Dangerous Wife’ is a cat-and-mouse mystery within the story of a marriage.

My Dangerous Wife

In this dark comedy Choi Won-young plays a chef who plans to murder his wealthy wife, so he can inherit her money, but when he arrives home with a poisoned bottle of wine he finds she has been kidnapped. The note the kidnappers left behind warns him not to contact the police or they will kill his wife. Should he? It sounds like an opportunity.

Why see it: Interesting plot twists and turns make this drama fascinating to the very last episode. The complex storyline involves a mistress, a mysterious old friend, a detective with a suspicious wife, and a set of curious next door neighbors with secrets of their own.

Son Ye-jin and Hyun Bin experience an impossible love in ‘Crash Landing On You.’

Crash Landing On You

Crash Landing On You, which first aired in Dec. 2019, successfully introduced a wider international audience to the joys of k-drama viewing. The mega-hit, starring Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin, follows the story of a South Korean heiress who accidentally lands in North Korea and is helped by a North Korean officer at the risk of his own life.

Why see it? Everything about the drama is top-notch—the cinematography, the romantic storyline and the excellent performances from the lead and supporting actors. The drama also offers some interesting insight into North Korean daily life.

Shin Sung-rok stars in the paranormal thriller ‘Kairos.’

Kairos

Kairos is a tense paranormal thriller about karmic debt. In this drama two people who live in different times stumble on a supernatural way to talk and thus untangle their preventable personal tragedies. Shin Sung-rok plays a callous businessman whose daughter is kidnapped. Lee Se-young plays a woman whose mother disappears. Together they must change fate but they can’t connect in their own time. This plot device was used in the film The Call and the k-drama Signal, but it feels fresh in Kairos, given the carefully crafted moments of suspense and some intriguing performances.

Why see it? Both Shin and supporting actor Ahn Bo Hyun do an excellent job of portraying men who question what they once held sacred.

Which dramas made your list?

From Hollywood & Entertainment in Perfectirishgifts

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beardedmrbean · 2 years

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BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A 911 call that sent Vermont State Police troopers on a search for a nonexistent man claiming to have shot his wife was a big clue that helped detectives unravel an international murder-for-hire plot tied to a potentially lucrative — yet troubled — oil deal.

Within hours of Gregory Davis’ body being found by the side of a snowy Vermont back road in January 2018, investigators learned of the deal that had the New Jersey native threatening to tell the FBI about his experiences with two Turkish investors he felt weren’t living up to their financial obligations.

Four years later, charges have been filed.

Prosecutors link Los Angeles biotech investor Serhat Gumrukcu, 39, to two middlemen and then to Jerry Banks — the man who allegedly made the 911 call, kidnapped and killed Davis.

Gumrukcu was arrested in May in Los Angeles. He was returned to Vermont where he pleaded not guilty Tuesday to the charge of the use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.

Most of the details of the case are in the voluminous court documents that have been filed in federal courts in Vermont, Nevada and California.

Davis, who was born in Englewood, New Jersey, moved to Vermont about three years before his death at age 49. Davis, his wife, and their six children, were renting a house in Danville, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of the capital, Montpelier.

Davis’ LinkedIn page described him as the managing director of New Jersey-based Mode Commodities. It also said he had 20 years’ experience with foreign direct investment programs and that he’d advised governments across the world.

Sometime after arriving in Vermont, Davis took a job with an environmental waste cleanup company, but the court records and his work history indicate he was involved in a series of investment ventures. After Davis’ death, his wife, Melissa, told investigators they lived off money he received from the investments.

That all came to an end at about 9 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2018, when a masked man knocked on the door of Davis’ Danville home.

Melissa Davis described the man as having handcuffs, a rifle, and wearing a jacket that had a U.S. Marshals emblem. Their 12-year-old son told investigators the man drove a white, four-door car with red and blue emergency lights on the dash.

The man told Davis he had an arrest warrant for racketeering for him from Virginia. They went away together. Melissa Davis did not call police.

About 15 minutes before the kidnapping, someone called 911 from within a mile of Davis’ residence to report he had shot his wife and was going to kill himself. The caller did not provide the name of a town and police could not find a local road that matched the name given by the caller.

The next day, Davis’ handcuffed body was found at the base of a snowbank in the town of Barnet, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from his home. He had been shot multiple times in the head and torso. Investigators recovered .22 caliber cartridge casings.

Melissa Davis has filed a civil suit against Gumrukcu. In court Tuesday for Gumrukcu’s arraignment, she declined comment.

Within hours of the discovery of Davis’ body, investigators began to focus on the oil deal as a potential reason for his kidnapping and death.

On Dec. 29, 2017, Davis sent a text to a middleman in the oil deal for a settlement of $980,000 to exit the deal with Gumurkcu and his brother, Murat Gumrukcu.

“Therefore, as we’ve discussed it would be prudent to address the outstanding accounting. Have Murat and Serhat present something to speak to,” Davis texted the intermediary, who has not been charged, two days before his death. “Let’s hopefully close that matter and move forward. Without this our hands will be forced to turn this in to authorities which neither party wants.”

Not long after Davis’ death, the investigation entered what prosecutors described as a “long covert stage.”

Court documents detail how during that quiet period investigators were piece-by-piece assembling the puzzle that allegedly began with the 911 call made with a phone purchased by Banks at a Pennsylvania Walmart.

Over time, investigators discovered a chain connecting the four suspects: Banks was friends with Aron Lee Ethridge, who was friends with Berk Eratay, who worked for Gumrukcu.

Ethridge has already pleaded guilty and admitted to hiring Banks to kidnap and kill Davis. Eratay was arraigned in federal court in Vermont on July 29 where he pleaded not guilty. In a hearing last week, his attorney asked the court to release him pending trial, but the judge refused.

The charges against Gumrukcu, Eratay and Banks carry a potential death sentence or life in prison, but attorneys say the Justice Department will not seek the death penalty. As part of Ethridge’s plea deal with prosecutors, the attorneys are going to recommend he be sentenced to 27 years in prison.

The FBI refers questions about the case to the Vermont office of the United States Attorney, which as a matter of course, declines to comment on ongoing investigations. The Vermont State Police, which began the investigation into Davis’s death after his body was found, deferred questions to the U.S. Attorney.

Gumrukcu’s Vermont attorney David Kirby has declined comment.

In a response by prosecutors opposing his release, prosecutors said Eratay’s bank records reveal over $250,000 in wire transfers from a Turkish bank to two accounts he controlled between June and October of 2017. Eratay withdrew the money as cash in daily increments of $9,000, just below the $10,000 currency reporting requirement.

“Further, Eratay’s Google data (obtained by search warrant) shows that he documented personal information about Davis in July 2017, including his full name, date of birth, place of birth, and cell phone with a Vermont area code,” said a June filing by prosecutors.

Gumrukcu is a native of Turkey who immigrated to the United States in 2013 and became a permanent resident a year later.

In a request for bail filed in Los Angeles in June, Gumrukcu said he received medical training at Dokuz Eylul University in 2004 in Izmir, Turkey, and completed a residency in Russia.

The medical school did not respond to a request for comment on whether Gumrukcu finished his studies there. But the defense filing said he does not provide direct patient care and he has never claimed to be licensed as a physician in the United States.

In court Tuesday when asked about his education level, Gumrukcu replied, “university.”

“As a scientist, he is a true genius,” said a letter written as part of Gumrukcu’s request for citizenship that was included in the bail request by Enochian Biosciences CEO Dr. Mark Dybul. “He has the remarkable and rare ability to see across disciplines and to connect dots that others cannot see.”

In 2015 Gumrukcu began focusing on research, and one offshoot of which was the 2018 co-founding of Enochian Biosciences. The company describes itself as a pre-clinical biotechnology company committed to using “innovative gene and immune therapy interventions that provide hope for cures or life-long remissions for devastating diseases.”

But it was during 2017 that Davis was threatening the Gumrukcus with going to law enforcement with allegations they were defrauding him.

During that same period, Gumrukcu was facing felony fraud charges in California state court, involving housing investment fraud and bounced checks that had been provided to the man who worked to facilitate the oil deal with Davis. In January 2018, just after Davis’ murder, Gumrukcu pleaded guilty to one felony, but he later successfully modified the conviction into a misdemeanor.

Also during 2017, Gumrukcu was putting together a different deal through which he obtained a significant ownership stake in Enochian Biosciences.

“During 2017, fraud complaints by Davis would have at least complicated the Enochian transaction, and likely would have scuttled the Enochian deal altogether,” said the June filing by prosecutors.

Earlier this year after Gumrukcu’s arrest, the Enochian board of directors issued a statement that said there was no link between the crime Gumrukcu is charged with and the company.

The filing said that Gumrukcu owned about $100 million in Enochian stock. About a week before his arrest, Gumrukcu generated $2 million in cash from an Enochian stock sale.

Both Gumrukcus were interviewed in early 2018 about the murder of Davis, but both denied involvement. Murat Gumrukcu left the U.S. in March 2018 and has not returned. Efforts by The Associated Press to reach him in Turkey were unsuccessful.

#nunyas news

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legendaryorangeloot · 4 years

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This is "The Union Screaming House", a short story I wrote as an alternate-universe American M.R. James story (which is why it's not got fully modern language when describing people's race and ethnicity, and the language/spelling in general is idiosyncratic in the way that letters from the <1900s tend to be.) I wrote it in one huge burst on a road trip with my partner from Milwaukee to St. Louis, and never really edited it, but I think it's true to the style and form of the author I'm trying to pay homage to, so all the weaknesses I can see are present in the source works and serve to make it more accurate (sorry, Monty James. you know I love you.)

Dec 22, 18--

My dearest Daniel - I write to you about events which recently occurred in the small town of Union, Mo., feeling certain that they will prove of interest to you, for your personal collections of curious supernatural tales and revolutionary literature. I suppose, as I shall leave no descendants, you may publish my full confession after all parties involved are deceased - such is the advantage of having much-younger friends, I suppose!

We were traveling across the midwestern states at a leisurely pace, hoping to recuperate my equilibrium after the trial in which I had recently defended Mr. W-- S-- against numerous charges of murder, about which: the less said, the better. It had become our custom over a period of weeks to seek out remote roads and tracks and follow them to their sources, which almost invariably were villages and towns with unusual “claims to fame”, such as one that boasted an underground lake, another with what they claimed as the oldest living tree in the state. This proved a diverting experience, and I greatly enjoyed conversing with many of the “oldsters” I met outside general stores and hearing tales of the War, and of their luck or lack there-of in the agriculture business. The endeavor was beginning to allow me to leave behind the feeling of grave wrong-doing that had dogged me since the verdict of the S-- trial, but what replaced it in Union may yet prove to be worse.

It was on one of these rather aimless treks that we found ourselves in Union, home of some 700 people. It was a chill autumn night, and darkness fell early, no later than 5 o. clock. Bryan, who was acting as driver, refused to travel in such a rural area after dark (wise, owing to his appearance - as you may recall from our last visit, Bryan is light enough to pass for “black Irish” stock, and usually does so successfully, but in the more… concerned areas of the country, he has been sometimes “found out”, with all the concurrent discriminatory rigmarole… sneaking “my servant” into my lodging-house rooms has been quite the risky undertaking in some of these towns.) At any rate, we obtained the name of a local widower who would be willing to rent a room to me for the night, and allow Bryan and our four-horse team to stay in his guest house and lavish stables, respectively.

Mr. R--, a sprightly gentleman of maybe 55 years, proved a quite gracious host, and commenced to give me a tour of the property, which was called Blackwater Woods. We walked around the barn, various outbuildings, and past many pastures and livestock holding-pens, before approaching the enormous main house. It was built in a style quite unlike the modest but modern homes of Union proper, and appeared to be designed in the manner of a frontier cabin, but on a scale so large that it made it seem slightly ridiculous, as though perhaps it had been constructed to display at a Worlds Fair and not for humans to inhabit at all. Mr. R-- was oddly reluctant to show me around much of the house in detail, as he had the farm-buildings, but he invited me to dinner and after-dinner drinks and cigars politely enough after escorting me to my second-floor room, which had clearly been a woman’s “boudoir” prior to being pressed into service as a guest room. I changed clothes and washed up with alacrity, eager to get the dust and grime of the road off my person, and still had ample time left to explore my surroundings. The room was large, and sparsely-furnished, but feminine touches from the prior inhabitant (Mrs. R--, I assumed at the time) still remained in the form of a silver-backed hairbrush near the vanity mirror, a jewelry box which played a tune when opened (I shut it quickly, as the mechanism appeared to be functioning not very well, and the too-slow tune rendered me oddly soporific), and a gauzy canopy hanging from the four posts of the bed, which I imagined was intended to be exotic in the manner of a harem, but was instead exotic in the manner of tropical anti-mosquito netting. I was oddly moved by this nod to concepts of Romance and Beauty in such a rural locale, and smiled to myself in the mirror, only to quickly blanch and whip my head round to look when I saw the form of a woman - a dusky-skinned woman, with high cheekbones and full lips - materialize behind me, visible in the mirror! In retrospect, I believe it was not just my terror at being accompanied at a time I believed myself alone that caused me to react so immediately and physically, but that the woman so obviously required help. She could hardly have communicated it more clearly than her facial expression did, even if she had plainly said “Help me!”. When I turned to look where I had seen her standing, near the enormous limestone fireplace, there was no-one there, and looking back in the mirror, she also did not re-appear. But there lingered in the air a smell - you are the only one I could tell this to - a womanly smell, but one that was attractive to me, in a way, which, I know you know, I have not experienced before (or since).

For all those reasons, I was deeply shaken as I went down to the dining-room to eat with Mr. R--. I thought that perhaps I could ask questions about the room’s former inhabitant, but each time I tried to broach the topic, Mr. R-- cut me off with florid tales of inconsequential things, which would have been greatly entertaining, had they not distracted me from my goal. I learned many interesting tid-bits of the area’s history, but was unable to discern a reason for the visage of the woman to appear, or what help she might require. I did learn that the “guest house” where my beloved Bryan now stayed was, in fact, former slave quarters, and this did not sit well with me. I was also able, by making some off-hand comments about the food, to learn that indeed we were alone in the house entirely, the woman who had cooked the meal being employed only at the dinner-hour and returning to her home in Union after serving. I do not remember what we ate.

After the meal, we retired to Mr. R--’s study, and he poured us generous doses of a bourbon of exceptional quality. The study, unlike the rest of the house, was furnished in an extravagant style that would not have seemed much out of place in the wealthiest salons of London or Vienna. Presumably for this reason, it was kept locked at all times with a latch and bolt-lock on the door, and keyed locks on the single window, to which, Mr. R-- explained, he held the only keys. I sipped at my bourbon as he spoke at length about various topics, and realized soon that he was drinking his as though it were water. I saw my opportunity to perhaps gain more information about the mirror woman, so I surreptitiously poured out the rest of my liquor onto the Turkish carpet, and proposed a refill, then another, then another, which I disposed of in the same way. As Mr. R-- became first tipsy, then outright intoxicated, I steered the conversation to the topic of the room I now stayed in. “Was it your wife’s chambers?” He appeared startled by this question and was quick to say, in a brusque manner, “No. It was used for brief, er, overnight stays only, for no-one in particular.” He attempted to change the subject after this answer, but I could see him beetling his brows at me from time to time as we spoke on less consequential matters. The evening wound down soon after this, and I excused myself to my room.

Upon reaching my room, it was no more than ten minutes before I heard the tip-tap of tiny pebbles being flung at my window, the typical sign from Bryan that he was waiting unseen below and wished entry. Never had I more needed his strong and steady presence, his welcome simple physicality, the comfort of his arms - I hope that you do not mind, and rather believe that you will enjoy this part, as unsatisfying as it ended up in reality - and I began to ready myself even as I quietly opened the window, using the heel of my hand to press against my rapidly-stiffening member in preparation for our reunion. But it was not to be, for the Bryan that hoisted himself through my window after climbing up the ivy and planks on the side of the house was not amorous, but terrified. I immediately asked what the trouble was, and he said that we must go, and that he needed to show me something in the “guest house” - which I shall refer to as the slave quarters from now on, as this is more relevant to its position in the story - after which we must flee this house. He used this exact word, “flee”, and it was one of the ways I knew just how serious this revelation he had for me must be.

We both climbed down the side of the huge house as quickly as we could, and dashed across the moonless dark of the lawn, past the garden and woodpile, to the former slave quarters, a squat building greatly resembling Indian long-houses I have seen, but made of sturdy split logs and patched with something between mud and cement. A fire burned inside and smoke spiraled up from the small chimney, and when we reached it and went indoors, shutting the pine-plank door fast behind us, Bryan first kissed me fiercely and quickly, then went on to say “I found this account written on bark, stripped from the walls of this house, hidden in one of the straw mattresses. But it is more than half in slave pidgin and picto-grams, and what English is used is not very grammatical. Do you trust me to tell you the contents truly?” and by way of reply I kissed him tenderly, pressing my forehead to his, and squeezed his hand, saying “With my very life.” He replied that it hopefully would not come to that. He showed me a long strip of bark with writing on it, and what I could read conformed to his translation, which I will put here in more colloquial ways of speaking, for clarity: “Last winter Margaret was called to visit Mr. R-- after sunset and never did return, and he said that she ran away, but never bothered to tell the lawman, or offer a reward for the return of a servant, and I think sometimes that I see her in the upper window, but never except at night when fires are burning in all the rooms of the house. Now he has arranged for me to come to the big house secretly after dark and I fear that I, too, will never return. If you find this, look for me. Meliora.”

We stared at each other wide-eyed as I put together the pieces in my mind and I said to Bryan “I know what we must do, but if you do not like it - I also do not like it - I understand if you must simply go and ready the horses for our escape.” He said that he would accompany me even to the gates of Hell, and I said that it hopefully would not come to that. We went to the great woodpile beside the house and found an axe and hatchet, and used the latter to break the lock of the front door, and went directly to my room. As quietly as one can accomplish such a thing, we began dismantling the room - we moved the furniture to the center, and started using the tools as pry-bars to remove boards from the wall. It was not long before I heard a stifled cry behind me and saw Bryan kneeling near one wall, pulling forth what was unmistakably a winding-shroud, stained with old blood, containing naught but dark skin, bones, and black hair. As I came over to assist him, I stumbled and fell against the limestone mantel, and broke it away, and the falling rock opened the boards of the floor, where more gauzy shrouds were hidden beneath, and my heavy axe smashed the fire-warmed stone at the back of the fireplace, where a recent, beautiful corpse, matching my mirror apparition exactly, lay in surprisingly dignified repose. This kind of noise would wake anyone, even the bourbon-soaked Mr. R--, who entered the room just at that second, and it is hard to say now which sight shocked him the most greatly. But he had no opportunity to say anything about it, as Bryan fairly flew at him from across the room, holding his hand over Mr. R--’s mouth, and the hatchet’s handle across his throat in preparation to strangle the life from him. “No!” I hissed quickly. And Bryan’s expression in that moment caused me to die inside, seeing how fast he thought I would side with the despicable murderer Mr. R-- over the love of my life, due only to our shared skin color, but I put this aside to say my actual piece, which was “We have to make it look like an accident.”

We frog-marched Mr. R-- downstairs, and forced him to unlock the study, confiscating the keys afterwards. We tied him to the heaviest chair using his own silk smoking-jacket, and I touched a brand from the fire to the Turkish carpet I’d soaked with bourbon earlier in the evening, and we did not spare the struggling, squealing Mr. R-- another look as we walked from the room, hands clasped, to return the axes to the woodpile before driving away.

I trust that, after your actions in Lawrence, this story will please you, rather than shock you. I hope that I have done your revolutionary spirit proud in administering fair and equitable justice. After long discussion, I have decided to prove to Bryan that his assumption in the moment Mr. R-- entered the room was entirely wrong, and we depart for France, together, next week. The keys from Mr. R--’s house, we will throw into the Atlantic Ocean, and never mention the sorry incident again.

With love,

Your friend,

J. Schiffmann

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f4liveblogarchives · 3 years

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Fantastic Four Vol 1 #239

Thur Dec 17 2020 [10:52 PM] Umbramatic: :O [10:52 PM] Wack'd: I'm gonna guess Batman. You'd never expect that

[10:53 PM] Umbramatic: its the spanish inquisition [10:54 PM] Wack'd: So this mystery guest is a woman with short black hair, having come to see the Four all the way from Arizona on a matter of life or death. She also mentions in thought balloons that

"It's been so long--so many years since we last saw each other. I wonder if he ever thinks of me--of us."

[10:55 PM] Bocaj: I don't think I know of anyone with black hair [10:55 PM] Wack'd: Lucky for her, especially given it's the dead of night, the Four's little corner of the Baxter now has a receptionist. Uh. Kinda.

[10:57 PM] Wack'd: Reed meanwhile has been up for three days straight trying to fix the current Ben related-fuckup. He blamed himself, of course. Sue tries to reassure him that Ben probably doesn't hold him accountable [10:58 PM] Wack'd: Huh!

[10:58 PM] Wack'd: You know what? Fair dues. I did not see this coming. [10:59 PM] maxwellelvis: Doctors Hate Her! [10:59 PM] Bocaj: I always thought of Aunt Petunia not appearing until later [10:59 PM] Bocaj: In my mind she was sort of a the ghost for a while in the sense of sir not appearing [10:59 PM] Wack'd: I mean hey, twenty years is a hell of a while. [10:59 PM] maxwellelvis: As an aside, from what I remember of Ben's wedding, it looks like Aunt Petunia started aging in real time as if the Four had gotten their powers NOW as in 1982 [11:00 PM] Wack'd: "Doctors Hate Her!" Funny you say that max because Ben describes Petunia as a "genuine country doctor." [11:00 PM] maxwellelvis: Ha! [11:01 PM] Wack'd: So Petunia meets the gang. Sue mentions she was expecting someone older, which Petunia takes in stride [11:02 PM] Wack'd: It turns out Petunia married into the family. She, uh. Well. [11:02 PM] Wack'd: Ben's Uncle Jake got into an auto accident, which killed his wife. Petunia, then a student nurse, became his medical student, and then his wife. [11:02 PM] Wack'd: That...sure is a course of events! [11:03 PM] Bocaj: 😬 [11:03 PM] Bocaj: That feels like it fits into a trend with Byrne [11:03 PM] Wack'd: Doesn't it just. (Though I will again point out he is not responsible for Sue having been creepily young when she and Reed hooked up. That's Lee.) [11:04 PM] maxwellelvis: I can see why Slott decided to retcon Aunt Petunia into the grandmotherly type for the wedding. [11:04 PM] Bocaj: Oh now I know where MCU Aunt May has absorbed life force from [11:04 PM] Wack'd: So the "life or death" matter involves her home out in Arizona with Jake. The whole town is in danger of being "frightened to death." [11:05 PM] maxwellelvis: So call Mystery Incoporated [11:05 PM] maxwellelvis: Oh wait, this is 1982, Mystery Inc.'s broken up. [11:06 PM] Wack'd: So. Uh. This is Uncle Jake.

[11:06 PM] Wack'd: And this is Aunt Petunia.

[11:07 PM] maxwellelvis: Yeah, she'd have to have a few more gray hairs than that if she's known Ben since he was a boy, I think. [11:07 PM] Wack'd: She does not seem to have. [11:08 PM] Wack'd: So the Four arrive in Benson, Arizona, and the narration informs us that Ben had been the only one who approved of Jake marrying Petunia, and. [11:09 PM] maxwellelvis: That's what all the instances of Ben invoking her name had led me to believe. [11:09 PM] Wack'd: Look I want to take for granted this is messed up and move on but the damn book seems dead set against me doing this. [11:10 PM] maxwellelvis: Well, anyways, I guess that means we've hit the OTHER side of John Byrne's run. [11:10 PM] maxwellelvis: Aspect, perhaps [11:10 PM] Wack'd: Sue mentions we don't know much about Ben's past. Ben says his mom and died died when he was a teen and Jake raised him. [11:10 PM] Wack'd: (We don't really know much of Reed's past at this point, though I am given to understand this will also change in the near future.) [11:11 PM] maxwellelvis: This part is just Byrne telling Steve Gerber he can fuck off. [11:11 PM] Wack'd: Gerber, I assume, would instruct Bryne to get in line. [11:12 PM] Wack'd: Racism? Anyone want some racism? Anyone think what this story could really use, right about now, is some racism?

[11:13 PM] Bocaj: Eesh [11:13 PM] maxwellelvis: (Gerber I think was one of the first writers to use the "Ben grew up on Yancy St." backstory) [11:14 PM] maxwellelvis: (Unless he didn't write that issue of Marvel Two-In-One, in which case it would probably be Roy Thomas that Byrne was dismissing here) [11:16 PM] maxwellelvis: (I would look this up, but I physically cannot get to my Essential 2-in-1 collection atm) [11:16 PM] Wack'd: So Ruth's child assistant(?) Wendy is upset that Ruth, rather than just appreciating the arrowhead, started a whole excavation. She has fond memories of this place because when her mom was sick they'd come to the site and collect rocks and whatnot. [11:16 PM] Wack'd: So that's not ominous.

[11:17 PM] Wack'd: We skip forward to that night, where two of Ruth's more non-child students are doing some late-night archeology. A mist comes at them and then BAM! Scared to death! [11:18 PM] Wack'd: MEANWHILE IN THE HIMALAYAS [11:19 PM] maxwellelvis: I was putting something in the oven, thinking "Oh man, it better not be the Miracle Man again" and then we cut to the Himalayas [11:19 PM] Wack'd: Quicksilver has been fighting some kind of war, apparently, while Crystal--suffering complications from a half-mutant half-Inhuman pregnancy--is being treated by whoever this guy is.

[11:20 PM] Wack'd: Pietro here is apparently the only guy in all of Attilan who's not come down with some sort of mysterious disease. [11:20 PM] maxwellelvis: He looks like the Leader, if the Leader was slowly turning into a raisin. [11:20 PM] Wack'd: And Attilan is being destroyed, leaving Pietro as their only hope. [11:21 PM] maxwellelvis: Oh yeah, he just looks like the PICTURE of health here, don't he [11:21 PM] Umbramatic: gfrtvtigyhhuihjio;opkp [11:21 PM] Bocaj: The funny thing is that mutant and inhuman genes apparently cancel out [11:22 PM] Bocaj: Or Crystal and Pietro won the silliest genetic lottery [11:22 PM] Wack'd: Back in Arizona, Reed is having no luck cracking the case, while Frankie and Wendy get some bonding time in

[11:23 PM] Wack'd: So, uh. Because this story just did not have enough going on, it turns out Wendy's dad is beating her. [11:23 PM] Umbramatic: oh [11:24 PM] Wack'd: Frankie tries to intervene but Wendy begs her to back off, so she figures there's nothing to be done and leaves. [11:24 PM] Bocaj: Comic are you sure you're up to this content [11:25 PM] Wack'd: I feel like Reed should be caught a bit more flatfooted by someone he looks up to intellectually telling him he can't fix things with guesswork.

[11:26 PM] Wack'd: Sue and Ben want to take action of some kind but Reed points out that, uh, they can't really punch their way out of this one. [11:27 PM] maxwellelvis: I'd make more scooby-doo jokes, but John Byrne deciding to put a Very Special Episode in here has kind of made that feel... not so fun anymore. [11:28 PM] Wack'd: That night, Wendy sneaks out of her house to go talk to the mists. Turns out that’s who her wonderful friends are. [11:30 PM] Wack'd: I think she wants to beg them for mercy? The narration boxes get kinda cryptic. Anyway if that's what she's done, it reeeaaally doesn't work.

[11:30 PM] Wack'd: "What was that about not being able to fight our way out?" [11:32 PM] Bocaj: I think Slott revisited some of this [11:32 PM] Bocaj: I vaguely remember mists and gremlins when Franklin and Valeria were staying with aunt petunia post wedding [11:33 PM] Bocaj: But as it was the same story where Sue made Doom naked on a live broadcast the details escape me [11:33 PM] Wack'd: So on top of these weird things the entire town is now also set on fire and also in a giant windstorm. The Four put out the fires but the damage is done and most of the town decides to evacuate. [11:33 PM] Umbramatic: oh yes that one [11:35 PM] Wack'd: what the fuck what the fuck what the FUCK

[11:36 PM] maxwellelvis: Oh of COURSE Byrne has Reed sympathize with an abusive parent. [11:37 PM] Wack'd: Okay so for starters, because this is the thing I'm the least mad about, everything about this resolution is fucking nonsense. We know basically nothing about any of the other people who got "frightened to death" and so as the readers had no ability to draw upon our own knowledge of their morality or why they might not be able to handle seeing visions of their worst selves. [11:37 PM] Wack'd: From there we get to the fact that, for all the ways Ruth and Reed protested earlier, this is a massive pile of assumptions with absolutely no backing in fact or evidence. [11:37 PM] Umbramatic: geez [11:38 PM] Wack'd: Speaking of Ruth, she said that the arrowhead was crucial, and Ben speculated that may be the excavation released the spirits and they needed to be re-buried. They don't out right say it, but this may as well be a "ancient Indian burial ground" plot. [11:39 PM] Umbramatic: yeesh [11:39 PM] Wack'd: And from there we get, yes, Reed saying that their job is not to judge people, therefore they can't do anything about an abusive parent. Which is frankly just moral cowardice and also really gross. [11:40 PM] maxwellelvis: And also a grim portent of things to come in this era. [11:41 PM] Wack'd: And so the story ends, with. I think the implication is that Wendy asked her "friends" to take care of her dad for her? Which is okay, I guess, but doesn't really fix the way everybody else reacts to this.

[11:42 PM] Wack'd: The story is also just plain all over the place. There's absolutely no reason for the characters who get the Four involved in the plot to be Ben's Aunt Petunia--except-- [11:42 PM] Wack'd: Oh. The whole town got judged. [11:43 PM] Wack'd: Did John Bryne really just write a plot where a bunch of cosmic arbiters of justice basically give the okay to marrying your student [11:43 PM] maxwellelvis: RED FLAG [11:44 PM] Wack'd: This a lot, huh. [11:45 PM] Wack'd: Well, maybe whatever Inhumans nonsense is going on will help clear my head.

#1982 #John Bryne #The Main Book

3 notes · View notes

46ten · 4 years

Note

Hello! I love your blog and find it very informative! Could you write something about AH relationship with James Monroe?

A lovely early friendship torn apart by political rivalry and misunderstandings that descended into harsh accusations, duel invitations, and never-ending Hamilton family hatred for the man? You can read the letters between them that Founders has here. I am unaware of AH ever discussing his opinion on Monroe in greater depth than what I’ve quoted below, and I’m completely unaware if Monroe ever offered a lengthy opinion on AH personally. There’s a new Monroe biography out (James Monroe: A Life by Tim McGrath) that may be more interesting than anything I write about.

But I’ll try. Things must have started out okay between them. They were both at the Battle of Trenton (Monroe was wounded). Monroe then served as aide-de-camp to William Alexander, Lord Stirling, whose brother-in-law was AH supporter William Livingston and daughter was Catherine Alexander, who would marry AH Treasury right-hand-man William Duer. They spent time at Valley Forge together, they both became good friends with Lafayette, etc. AH wrote positively of Monroe in 1779 to John Laurens:

Monroe is just setting out from Head Quarters and proposes to go in quest of adventures to the Southward. He seems to be as much of a night errant as your worship; but as he is an honest fellow, I shall be glad he may find some employment, that will enable him to get knocked in the head in an honorable way. He will relish your black scheme if any thing handsome can be done for him in that line. You know him to be a man of honor a sensible man and a soldier. This makes it unnecessary to me to say any thing to interest your friendship for him. You love your country too and he has zeal and capacity to serve it. 22May1779

With notes of recommendation from Hamilton, Lord Stirling, and Washington, Monroe became a lt. col, but with no field command available (AH certainly sympathized), he decided to resume his studies instead of continuing with the Army. He went on to become a member of the Continental Congress, etc.

In Feb 1786, Monroe (age 27) married Elizabeth Kortright at Trinity Church NY, with Rev. Benjamin Moore presiding (see here for my notes about the Hamiltons’ church affiliation). The Hamiltons may have attended; EH gave birth to Alex Jr. three months later. Elizabeth was the niece of Cornelius Kortright, who was a frequent business partner of Nicolas Cruger, AH’s old boss on St. Croix (AH worked for Kortright & Cruger 1769-1771). So Monroe - as did many others - likely had knowledge of AH’s personal background (and despite the current narrative surrounding AH, at the time almost no one seemed to care or consider AH’s background especially noteworthy; AH also freely introduced his cousins to friends, so it’s not at all clear that he ever thought he had something to hide and offered up the “blemish” of his parents’ relationship/his illegitimacy to several people).

But Monroe was a friend of Jefferson and Madison and ended up on their side politically (Monroe preceded Madison as an anti-federalist). His position in the Senate, and his authorship of articles in response to AH’s articles (written under several pseudonyms) all certainly aggravated AH.

And then there was the matter of Gouverneur Morris. In 1792, Monroe was one of the people trying to block the appointment of G. Morris as U.S. Minister Plenipotentiary to France. (Read an account of Morris’ actions in France/England here and enjoy the pettiness of his leaving Thomas Paine in jail.) In 1794, Monroe replaced Morris as Minister to France (1794 to 1796). He opposed AH as Minister to Great Britain (x) and his reasons are pretty sound and fair-minded (John Jay famously got the position and a treaty named after himself). Monroe was replaced in June 1796, both for anonymously publishing letters criticizing Washington and just not doing as the Federalists wanted, and replaced by Pinckney. Of course, AH played a part behind the scenes in encouraging his replacement and choosing Pinckney.

So by the 1790s they are political rivals, with Monroe writing in defense of Jefferson and Monroe blocking the appointment of AH’s friends/allies and AH interfering with Monroe’s business and encouraging his removal.

But in 1797, things got really personal. Rewinding to Dec 1792, Monroe was contacted by a jailed James Reynolds, who offered information about acting as AH’s agent/partner for speculation on gov’t securities. (Why Reynolds was in jail is a great deal more complicated than this, but I’m skipping all that.) Monroe investigated, got others involved, got the disclosure from AH himself that the money was actually because of blackmail over an affair with Maria Reynolds and produced letters showing this and gave letters and asked for copies of theirs, etc. (I think this part has been written about a lot, so I’m not going to go into further details). Five years later, the following was AH’s recollection of the matter (written to Muhlenberg and Monroe, 17July1797):

It is very true, that after the full and unqualified expressions which came from you together with Mr Venable, differing in terms but agreeing in substance, of your entire satisfaction with the explanation I had given, and that there was nothing in the affair of the nature suggested; accompanied with expressions of regret at the trouble and anxiety occasioned to me—and when (as I recollect it) some one of the Gentlemen expressed a hope that the manner of conducting the enquiry had appeared to me fair & liberal—I replied in substance, that though I had been displeased wtih the mode of introducing the subject to me (which you will remember I manifested at the time in very lively terms) yet that in other respects I was satisfied with and sensible to the candour with which I had been treated. And this was the sincere impression of my mind.

But actually, Monroe didn’t entirely believe AH’s account (”I hate you” point number 1) and conducted his own further interviews with Clingman and Maria Reynolds, which AH would only learn about in 1797 with the publication of pamphlet V of the History, but then Monroe pretty much left it alone, by his own account. He stated he sent all papers about this to a friend in Va (more on this below), and this is where the matter rested publicly for nearly five years.

But it’s not a real secret. By spring 1793, everyone in major political circles knows about it (and EH knew about it, it’s impossible for me to believe she didn’t). In under a week back in Dec 1792, Monroe, Wadsworth, Wolcott, Venable, Muhlenberg, Randolph, Webb, Beckley, and Jefferson all know, and Clingman talks freely. AH had permitted copies of letters to be made (and according to Monroe’s account, knew Beckley’s clerk had copied them), and on and on. BUT, no one is going to publish stuff about it - the confession of an extramarital affair would have been seen as a private family matter that would only serve to disturb “the peace of the family” - indeed, for AH naysayers then and historians since, claiming adultery was a convenient excuse if there was financial impropriety, because the matter wouldn’t be vigorously pursued further. (Philadelphia was a huge city for prostitution, and no one wanted the private sexual escapades of famous men broadcast to the world.) AH, I’m sure, knew everyone knew too, but worked from an understanding that no one was going to try to score political points on something that would expose his wife to public ridicule. But even though it was private, it was still Great Gossip! If AH was willing to taunt TJ publicly about Sally Hemings and, according to TJ, privately about his sexual pursuit/harassment 30 years ago of Elizabeth Moore Walker (wife of one of TJ’s best friend), and J. Adams is still repeating crazy gossip about AH 30 years later, you better believe there were references made to this affair at parties, gatherings, etc. EH dealt with it however she dealt with it, and I hope that AH’s “I have paid pretty severely for the folly” confession refers to some harsh treatment by EH.

And then in June 1797 Callendar began publishing pamphlets (lost to history except where AH quotes them in the Reynolds Pamphlet), some of which were gathered in some unknown order in his The History of the United States for 1796. Remember that Monroe was recalled from France in July 1796. It seemed to be a persistent belief of the Hamilton family that Monroe authorized and perhaps himself gave copies of the letters to Callendar for publication (”I hate you” point number 2).

And to be clear, because this gets muddled in some historian’s accounts - Callendar publishes AH’s account of his “particular connection” to Maria Reynolds and continues to goad him about it in published pamphlets and letters throughout June and July 1797 (the “harassment” of AH on this point in vague terms in pamphlets and newspaper letters actually started at least as early as 1795). AH’s confession in his own pamphlet was not an out-of-the-blue revelation of an affair that hadn’t already been publicly revealed.

Why would Monroe do this, in the Hamilton mind? Because he was pissed about no longer being French minister and blamed AH - he took a political dispute and decided to drag the Hamilton family into it. His delay in responding to AH, however, was likely seen as some kind of admission of guilt. On 5July1797, AH wrote to Monroe:

[Quoting from pamphlet V of the History] “When some of the Papers which are now to be laid before the world were submitted to the Secretary; when he was informed that they were to be communicated to President Washington, he entreated in the most anxious tone of deprecation, that the measure might be suspended. Mr Monroe was one of the three Gentlemen who agreed to this delay. They gave their consent to it on his express promise of a guarded behaviour in future, and because he attached to the suppression of these papers a mysterious degree of solicitude which they feeling no personal resentment against the Individual, were unwilling to augment” (Page 204 & 205). It is also suggested (Page 206) that I made “a volunteer acknowledgement of Seduction” and it must be understood from the context that this acknowlegement was made to the same three Gentlemen.

The peculiar nature of this transaction renders it impossible that you should not recollect it in all its parts and that your own declarations to me at the time contradicts absolutely the construction which the Editor of the Pamphlet puts upon the affair.

I think myself entitled to ask from your candour and justice a declaration equivalent to that which was made me at the time in the presence of Mr Wolcott by yourself and the two other Gentlemen, accompanied by a contradiction of the Representations in the comments cited above. And I shall rely upon your delicacy that the manner of doing it will be such as one Gentleman has a right to expect from another—especially as you must be sensible that the present appearance of the Papers is contrary to the course which was understood between us to be proper and includes a dishonourable infidelity somewhere.

And AH went ahead and wrote the following to editor John Fenno defending himself (6July1797):

For this purpose recourse was had to Messrs James Monroe, Senator, Frederick A. Muhlenbergh, Speaker, and Abraham Venable, a Member of the House of Representatives, two of these gentlemen my known political opponents. A full explanation took place between them and myself in the presence of Oliver Wolcott, jun. Esq. the present Secretary of the Treasury, in which by written documents I convinced them of the falshood of the accusation. They declared themselves perfectly satisfied with the explanation, and expressed their regret at the necessity which had been occasioned to me of making it.

But Monroe had just returned from France in June 1797, and he denied any prior knowledge of Callendar’s publication, and in general seemed to have had a “WTF!” reaction to AH’s sudden accusations. According to David Gelston’s account of the meeting between AH and Monroe on 11July1797:

Colo. M then began with declaring it was merely accidental his knowing any thing about the business at first he had been informed that one Reynolds from Virginia was in Gaol, he called merely to aid a man that might be in distress, but found it was a Reynolds from NYork and observed that after the meeting alluded to at Philada he sealed up his copy of the papers mentioned and sent or delivered them to his Friend in Virginia—he had no intention of publishing them & declared upon his honor that he knew nothing of their publication until he arrived in Philada from Europe and was sorry to find they were published. (my emphasis)

AH was so agitated that this conversation went downhill from there, seeing that “[AH] expected an immediate answer to so important a subject in which his character the peace & reputation of his Family were so deeply interested.” And then (”I hate you” point number 3):

Colo. M then proceeded upon a history of the business printed in the pamphlets and said that the packet of papers before alluded to he yet believed remained sealed with his friend in Virginia and after getting through Colo. H. said this as your representation is totally false (as nearly as I recollect the expression) upon which the Gentlemen both instantly rose Colo. M. rising first and saying do you say I represented falsely, you are a Scoundrel. Colo. H. said I will meet you like a Gentleman Colo. M Said I am ready get your pistols, both said we shall not or it will not be settled any other way. Mr C [John Church] & my self rising at the same moment put our selves between them Mr. C. repeating Gentlemen Gentlemen be moderate or some such word to appease them, we all sat down & the two Gentn, Colo. M. & Colo. H. soon got moderate, I observed however very clearly to my mind that Colo. H. appeared extremely agitated & Colo. M. appeared soon to get quite cool and repeated his intire ignorance of the publication & his surprize to find it published, observing to Colo. H. if he would not be so warm & intemperate he would explain everything he Knew of the business & how it appeared to him.

Monroe called him a scoundrel to his face! (After having been called a liar.)

And THEN, Monroe refused to sign a document absolving AH of any accusations of financial speculation with Reynolds (”I hate you” point number 4).

If I cod. give a stronger certificate I wod. (tho’ indeed it seems unnecessary for this with that given jointly by Muhg. & myself seems sufficient) but in truth I have doubts upon the main point & wh. he rather increased than diminishd by his conversation when here & therefore can give no other.

The above was sent to Burr on 16Aug 1797. AH had already pled his case to Monroe:

“...there appears a design at all events to drive me to the necessity of a formal defence—while you know that the extreme delicacy of its nature might be very disagreeable to me. It is my opinion that as you have been the cause, no matter how, of the business appearing in a shape which gives it an adventitious importance, and this against the intent of a confidence reposed in you by me, as contrary to what was delicate and proper, you recorded Clingman’s testimony without my privity and thereby gave it countenance, as I had given you an explanation with which you was satisfied and which could leave no doubt upon a candid mind—it was incumbent upon you as a man of honor and sensibility to have come forward in a manner that would have shielded me completely from the unpleasant effects brought upon me by your agency. This you have not done.

On the contrary by the affected reference of the matter to a defence which I am to make, and by which you profess your opinion is to be decided—you imply that your suspicions are still alive. And as nothing appears to have shaken your original conviction but the wretched tale of Clingman, which you have thought fit to record, it follows that you are pleased to attach a degree of weight to that communication which cannot be accounted for on any fair principle. The result in my mind is that you have been and are actuated by motives towards me malignant and dishonorable; nor can I doubt that this will be the universal opinion when the publication of the whole affair which I am about to make shall be seen.” 22July1797

In his mind, AH then believed he had to make a full accounting of the whole Reynolds debacle, since this jackass Monroe wasn’t going to sign-off on a denial of the whole matter of financial speculation on government securities. And back to the Hamilton family ire - it seemed that Monroe was not going to stop them from being slandered and dragged by doing what they felt he had already done - agreed that AH did not engage in financial speculation with Reynolds. Because Monroe would not acquiesce on that one matter, the Reynolds Pamphlet with all its detailed glory/humiliation where AH had to lay out his whole case was published, at least in the spin that occurred in the Hamilton family mind. (I’ve already written about the Reynolds Pamphlet here and here and briefly here and addressed a question about AH and infidelity here.)

Who was this “friend in Va?” Some historians have written this was TJ, but there are letters from decades later that Madison was the person who received the original letters and copies that Monroe had re Reynolds investigation, and they remained unopened until Monroe returned to the U.S. in 1797:

I have always understood from Mr. Monroe, that when he left this country he deposited with you, his packet of papers, relating to the investigation into the conduct &c of Genl. Hamilton—which was never opened, until it was returned by you to him, after his mission had terminated, and after the developement of its contents had been made from an other quarter. It would be very gratifying to me, if you have any facts, within your immediate reach, respecting the matter,if you would cause them at a leisure moment, to be communicated to me—The subject to which I refer, was, as you no doubt know, one of great feeling & excitement subsequently between Genl. H. & Mr. M., arising from causes of which I am aware, & particularly from the impression made on Genl. H. or the declaration by him of the belief, that the contents of the papers referred to, were made public by Mr. M—The children of Genl. H. have always indulged a feeling on this subject towards Mr. M. which renders it desirable that all the evidence in the case should be procured by his family. It has occasionally been hinted to me, that in a proposed publication of the Life of Genl. H., the subject might be touched, and it is equally my duty, as it would be my inclination, under such circumstances to have it in my power to do full justice to the character & memory of Mr. M. on this, as on all other occasions, where either might even by implication be assailed—I feel great reluctance in troubling you on the subject, but a conviction that you will appreciate my motives, impels me to do so. Samuel L. Gouverneur to James Madison, 1Feb1833

S.L. Gouverneur was the son-in-law of James Monroe (married their daughter) and nephew of Elizabeth Kortright Monroe. (Yes, he married his first cousin.) From the draft of Madison’s response (Feb 1833, Founders does not have a copy of the letter sent, if it’s still in existence):

I can only therefore express my entire confidence that the part Mr. Monroe had in the investigation alluded to, was dictated by what he deemed a public duty; and that after the investigation he was incapable of any thing that wd. justify resentful feelings on the part of the family of General Hamilton.

Of the public disclosure of the matter of the investigation, other than that from the avowed source, I know nothing; except that it could not proceed from the packet of papers deposited with me by Mr. M., which was never opened until it was returned to him, after his Mission had terminated.

Back to the main topic: the Hamiltons clearly saw Monroe playing a decisive role in the whole thing. But who was actually responsible for passing copies of letters to Callendar? Monroe was sure it was Beckley, former House clerk:

You know I presume that Beckley published the papers in question. By his clerk they were copied for us. It was his clerk who carried a copy to H. who asked (as B. says) whether others were privy to the affr. The clerk replied that B. was, upon wh. H. desired him to tell B. he considered him bound not to disclose it. B. replied by the same clerk that he considered himself under no injunction whatever—that if H. had any thing to say to him it must be in writing. This from B.—most certain however it is that after our interviews with H. I requested B. to say nothing abt. it & keep it secret—& most certain it is that I never heard of it afterwards till my arrival when it was published. Monroe to A.Burr, 2Dec 1797, in a letter that may have never gotten to him (entrusted to TJ)

Others at the time also believed it to be Beckley, though one historian suspected Tench Coxe too. Why was this ever published? Well, Callendar wrote in the History that it was because of the treatment of Monroe:

Attacks on Mr. Monroe have been frequently repeated from the stock-holding presses. They are cowardly, because he is absent. They are unjust, because his conduct will bear the strictest enquiry. They are ungrateful, because he displayed, on an occasion that will be mentioned immediately, the greatest lenity to Mr. Alexander Hamilton, the prime mover of the federal party.

Theodore Sedgewick told Rufus King it was Beckley, too and provides another motivation:

The House of Representatives did not re-elect Mr. Beckley as their Clerk. This was resented not only by himself but the whole party, and they were rendered furious by it. To revenge, Beckley has been writing a pamphlet mentioned in the enclosed advertisement. The ‘authentic papers’ there mentioned are those of which you perfectly know the history [46ten interjects: haha, some secret. So if Sedgewick and King know, Troup knows, Ames knows, G. Morris knows, etc. AH’s affair with Reynolds and the investigation was never a secret with this crowd], formerly in the possession of Messrs. Monroe, Muhlenberg & Venable. The conduct is mean, base and infamous. It may destroy the peace of a respectable family, and so gratify the diabolical malice of a detestable faction, but I trust it cannot produce the intended effect of injuring the cause of government.

So William Jackson is the second for AH, Aaron Burr the second for Monroe, and this Monroe-AH duel possibility stretched into the Winter of 1798 (x, x), having picked up again in December 1797 (Monroe replaces Burr with Dawson). TJ was still writing to Monroe about it in February 1798.

What had Monroe been doing that late summer/fall instead or figuring out how to conduct his affair of honor with AH? After an illness in August, oh, writing his own book (or having TJ ghostwrite it, depending on your views of Monroe’s intelligence) entitled A View of the Conduct of the Executive, in the Foreign Affairs of the United States, Connected with the Mission to the French Republic, During the Years 1794, 5, & 6, criticizing G. Washington and the administration every which way (published in Phila. 21Dec1797). GW, as he liked to do, made responses in the margins of Monroe’s little book; this editorial comment is hilarious: “GW’s remarks on Monroe and his book, taken together, comprise the most extended, unremitting, and pointed use of taunts and jibes, sarcasm, and scathing criticism in all of his writings.” Read that here.

So in the Hamilton mind, not only was Monroe trying to score points against Hamilton (and dragging private family matters into it), but he was criticizing GW too (and thereby AH, since even in retirement he continued to run the GW and Adams administrations, practically)! (”I hate you” point number 5.) In the first half of 1798, Monroe’s work got a lot of attention, earning the ire (and vocal and written condemnations) of Pres. Adams, of Timothy Pickering, and of many other Federalists. Monroe went back to Va. and appeared to lick his wounds and feel sorry for himself, based on his letters to TJ. I think it’s reasonable to speculate that Monroe is the “dirty fellow” alluded to in Angelica S. Church’s June 1798 letter to EH when the latter traveled to Albany - it was most likely seen that Monroe was the cause, or at least could have stopped, all the pain/attention of the public disclosure of the Reynolds affair. I don’t know if AH and Monroe ever really interacted after this. Monroe became Gov of Va, and then replaced Rufus King in 1803 as Minister to G.B.

EH and the Hamilton kids never forgot, see recollection here re. EH. Or watch a dramatization here. That Monroe remained a political rival of the Federalists and AH’s friends/allies also certainly didn’t help (Monroe & Madison and G. Morris continue at each other for many years.) On basic facts, it doesn’t quite make sense to me - I don’t think Monroe was culpable in the sharing of information, and I think he was being as fair-minded as he felt he could be - but there may have been additional encounters/statements/whatevers known to these parties that are now lost to history. There may also be fun details in JCH’s volumes on his father.

(For giggles, see this attached clipping: "the passage [in the Reynolds Pamphlet] in which Hamilton owns and laments his fault is admirably written.”

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/imgsrv/image?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t90864f94;seq=231;size=125;rotation=0

#Alexander Hamilton #James Monroe #Reynolds Affair #Reynolds Pamphlet #Gouverneur Morris #Icarus letter

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