No mercy for Billy the Kid

In 2010, governor of New Mexico refused to give a posthumous pardon for Billy the Kid, the famous Old West outlaw. That decision heated up once again the legends of notorious robber.

The request for posthumous pardon of Old West legend, Billy the Kid, remained lying in the dust of New Mexico  administration, just like his body, in 1881, when  Sheriff Pat Garrett shot him. Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, decided not to pardon Billy the Kid for the murder of Sheriff William Brady, in 1878. 

Billy the Kid (born in New York as William Henry McCarty) gained a reputation as the most famous American robber, during his brief but turbulent life. Legends say that he killed 21 people – one victim for each year of his life. However, other sources say that he killed 27 people. Yet, historical facts are telling us a different story. According to them, Billy the Kid killed "only" nine people.

He was short, lithe, with blue eyes, a smooth complexion, and prominent front teeth. Behind his smile a fierce, wild and cunning nature was hidden, which, in combination with his excellent shooting abilities, made him the most dangerous outlaw. He wore a sombrero decorated with a green band.

The request for pardon was initiated by an attorney from Albuquerque, Randi McGinn, who argued that the former governor of New Mexico, Lew Wallace, promised to pardon the Kid in exchange for his testimony in a murder case. Richardson was asked to pardon this outlaw from 19th century, in order to fulfill that promise.

This request caused a sort of a “silent war” between Billy’s supporters and descendants of Sheriff Pat Garrett. Garrett’s three grandchildren sent a letter to Governor Richardson in which they asked of him not to pardon Billy the Kid because such act would place an unforgivable shame on Garrett.

"I don't believe a thief, a liar, a terroriser of the ordinary people and a multiple cop killer should ever be granted a pardon, period. The Kid was a notorious outlaw and murderer. He was on a rampage for a while. I believe Lew Wallace did what he planned all long, get Billy to testify and then hang him. By granting the Kid a pardon are you excusing the murders he committed?" – said Garrett's grandson J.P. Garrett.

It is interesting that Governor Richardson's mandate expired on 31 December 2010, and he made his decision not to pardon Billy one day before that. Richardson said that he decided against a pardon "because of a lack of conclusiveness and the historical ambiguity as to why Governor Wallace reneged on his promise."

Randi McGinn said that she was disappointed with that decision, but she also expressed her satisfaction to the fact that Billy the Kid still causes great interest. She invited people to come to New Mexico, take a look at the letter that Billy wrote to Governor Wallace and conclude on their own whether he was "Robin Hood of the Wild West or cold-blooded killer".

Sheriff Pat Garrett killed Billy after the famous shootout in which two sheriff deputies were killed during Billy’s escape from Lincoln County jail. A year after he killed Billy, Garrett published a sensational biography called “The Authentic Life of BILLY THE KID”. Although Garrett’s intention with this book was only to justify himself to the public for killing Billy, this book became very popular and made Billy the most famous figure of the Wild West. The mentioned biography became a source of many legends and doubt, which, even after 130 years since Billy died, continued to exist.

Billy the Kid lived long and happily in Texas

Billy the Kid found his place in many songs and films. That only contributed to creation of an image of him as Wild West hero. One of the most famous films about Garrett and the Kid is the one from 1973 (Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid), directed by Sam Peckinpah. Bob Dylan composed music for that particular film.

Anyway, some historians claim that Billy the Kid wasn’t killed in the shootout with Garrett. They say that he settled in Texas. He allegedly lived there under the name Brushy Bill Roberts, and he died in 1950 from a heart attack.

read more...

KKK – From murderers to folklore society

Racist movement that has done most terrible crimes in the United States, in the twenties and sixties of the 20th century, still exists. But Ku Klux Klan never recovered after a group of enthusiasts from the FBI broke their backbone in Mississippi.

Although Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1865 (in the defeated South after the Civil War, as a direct consequence of the abolition of slavery), this movement was relatively quiet until the turbulent twenties of the last century. Then, some of their worst crimes they committed in the sixties. In spite of having its supporters in all forms of government (even in the Oval Office), the backbone of the Klan was broken in the late sixties in Mississippi after which KKK never recovered, although they still exist today.

The first reports of BOI (Bureau of Investigation) agents, a small unit whose work depended mostly on the enthusiasm and good will of several dozen young men who wore hats and were clumsy on the trigger, said that radical members of KKK were organizing and meeting secretly. They also noticed that KKK members were following a series of hidden symbols and protocols, and that they are prone to violence and lynching. Their goal was clear: racism, segregation and destruction of the black race. Ties with the police, judiciary, and rich industrialists from the South were confirmed, but not proven.

Crimes committed during the twenties were horrible: hanging of innocent people, stamping, cutting of limbs and the expulsion of all those who oppose KKK. All of this was enhanced with intimidation tactic, which became a symbol of the Klan - burning of crosses and white hoods.

- A journalist from New Orleans brought me a letter from the Governor of Louisiana, John. M. Parker. The Governor has been unable to use either the mails, telegraph, or telephone because of interference by the Klan. The governor is seeking assistance because local authorities are absolutely inactive. He fears that judges, prosecutors and police officers, all of them, are corrupted - J. Edgar Hoover informed the Bureau and initiated the first federal investigation of the Klan. In the letter Hoover received it was stated that the Klan has completely taken over the entire northern half of the country and are killing all those who oppose them.

In the sixties, KKK was responsible for the death of many people. Their motive was the so-called Freedom Summer, a movement that aimed to register all dark-skinned citizens of Southern states in the electoral roll, and to give them a right to vote.  With that, a campaign of terror began. One of the persons that were thorn in the eye of KKK was New Yorker Michael Schwerner (1939-1964). Schwerner organized boycotts of all shops that did not allow African-Americans to enter. Three months later his body was found buried behind a local farm. 21 suspects were arrested, including Sheriff Cecil Price, his deputy and Baptist minister Edgar Ray Killen. After three years of trials, seven of those suspects were convicted, but none of them for the murder of Schwerner.

The anger of the nation resulted in Civil Rights Act of 1964, which abolished segregation.

The hunt for the white hoods started in 1966, after an attack on Vernon Dahmer, famous human rights activist. He died of severe burns a day after his house was firebombed by the supporters of KKK. More than 120 witnesses, informers and moles assisted the FBI investigation. Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi, Samuel Bowers, who ordered the attack on Dahmer, surrendered himself. He was soon sentenced to seven years in prison and the Klan began to lose its breath.

Bowers and Killen, leaders and one of the main ideologists of KKK movement, were persecuted and often ended up in detention. The Klan never again resurrected, at least not in the form he had in the twenties and sixties.

The FBI estimates that there are currently several hundred small and uninteresting branches of KKK in the U.S.. It is estimated that they have about 8,000 members in 179 communities. They are mostly posing for tabloids and organizing marches with skinheads.

FBI agents were constantly in fear of revenge

James Ingram (1932-2009), former FBI agent, who, in the period of 1975-1983, worked on the most serious cases of racial murders in Mississippi during sixties, said that agents were constantly in fear of revenge of the Klan. 

“Agents would always watch. They’d look underneath their cars to make sure we did not have any dynamite strapped underneath … Then you’d open your hood and make sure that everything was clear there. We had snakes placed in mailboxes. We had threats. We infiltrated the Klan in many ways. We had female informants. … And we had police officers that were informants for us.”

read more...

Arnold Schwarzenegger - Conan the Destroyer of California

After two terms as the Governor of California, Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger probably finished his political career. While he will be remembered in California for the debts that he left, the rest of the world will probably link Schwarzenegger’s political career with his proposal to ban the use of words "Mom", "Daddy", "husband" and "wife" in California public schools, because these words "offend feelings of children from gay marriages".

He became the Governor of California in 2003, and thus, he became the second actor, after Ronald Reagan, who got hold of high political positions. That he will run for Governor, on the Republican side, he revealed in a Comedy show. To be even able to participate in general elections he first needed to obtain permission from his wife, because his wife, Maria Shriver, is niece of Edward Kennedy, one of the members of the Kennedy clan, who belong to the Democrats.

With a little help of media and 25 million dollars that he invested in his two election campaigns, but mostly thanks to his acting career, Schwarzenegger won a landslide victory in both elections, in 2003 and 2006. His victories were not endangered even with charges that he used drugs, speculation that his father Gustav committed war crimes in World War II, or insinuation that he had sexually harassed 13 women.

Back in the early nineties, George H.W. Bush cast an eye on him and appointed him as the president of a smaller committee, calling him "Conan the Republican". 

Because of the skepticism about the strength of the U.S. economy, he called the Democrats "economic girlie men”. During Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, he said that he will make him "do squats" to "do something about those skinny legs”, and later that he will make him "do some biceps curls to beef up those scrawny little arms ".

“If he could only do something about putting some meat on his ideas”, Schwarzenegger said.

None of that what he said didn’t bothered him to recently publicly recommend himself to Obama - Schwarz said that he would like to get a job in the Obama administration, something regarding ecology. True, Americans admit that he achieved maximum on that field during the seven years he served as the Governor of California. Everything else was a complete fiasco.

During his term, the budget deficit has tripled, reaching 28 billion dollars. Unemployment rate is 13%. This is followed with speculations about a possible economic fiasco of California. At one point, California had no money for payment of regular monthly infrastructural obligations.

Schwarzenegger explained that the state wouldn’t have borrowed that much money if he knew that the global economic crisis will occur. He also said that his political opponents sabotaged his efforts to bring the house in order and improve the state of California's economy. It remains unknown what happened to his ambitious pre-election plan to make each of 36 and a half million residents of California eligible for health insurance, rather than one in five as it was.

“Arnold Schwarzenegger had no idea what it was like to govern. Sacramento isn't Hollywood. I also believe that he gave too big promises because probably he did not realize that he will not be able to fulfill them, which somewhat resembles Obama’s failure in fulfilling great promises. Residents of California expected too much. We did not giggle the way the rest of the world did at the Governator assuming office”, said Dr Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a senior fellow at the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California.

It turned out that Schwarzenegger was far from behaving as a terminator when it comes to economic problems, which is why California citizens completely lost confidence in him.

Schwarzenegger’s new political engagement doesn’t seem too likely: he often worked and operated in contrary to California's Congress, and Republicans went against him when he invited them to cooperate with Obama in order to jointly find a solution for economic recovery and deficit control. The Republicans were not happy and with his proposition of budget deficit of California which he agreed with Washington's administration. The support of his family is also unlikely: although she never prevented her husband to be involved in politics, Maria Shriver was never thrilled with his new job.

But, Schwarzenegger doesn’t have to worry about his future, even if he gives up from the announced intention to write biographical books. In his 30’s he was already a millionaire, and that was before he achieved great success with his movies. He earned his first millions with postal sale of bodybuilding equipment and real estate investments. With Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone and Demi Moore he invested money in the restaurant chain Planet Hollywood. And despite all costs that he had as a politician, Schwarzenegger’s wealth is now estimated at 800 to 900 million dollars. This amount includes income from bodybuilding, real estate, earnings in the financial market and, of course, earnings from his films.

Nevertheless, the films were the ones that had influence on the magazine TIME and their decision to place him among the 100 people who shaped the world in 2004 and 2007.

The crucial year in Schwarzenegger’s Hollywood career was 1982, when he appeared in "Conan the Barbarian". Until the appearance of "Conan", Schwarzenegger made eight films. He won his first role (lead role) in 1970, in the comedy "Hercules in New York". He even today speaks English with a strong German accent, but at a time of making “Hercules”, he was saying it so badly that the producers were worried about whether the public will understand him at all. The fear was unjustified - the movie itself was terrible, but because of the accent, Arnold is even today called Ahnold.

"Conan the Barbarian", and two years later "Conan the Destroyer", were his first major commercial successes, in which his physical appearance was fully exploited. Neither before nor after these films, no one was counting on a some great acting performance from him. He became mega-star with action movies "Terminator" (1984, 1991, 2003), "Predator" (1987), "Red Sonja", "Commando", "Red Heat", "Total Recall", "Eraser ", "Collateral Damage" and many others.

Besides action movies, among total of 38 movies that he made, he made and a few comedies, like, for example, “Kindergarten Cop".

read more...