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Important Elements To Look For In An MLB

noreply@blogger.com (ynototo) — Thu, 04 Aug 2016 17:13:00 +0000

Five Important Elements To Look For In An MLB Playoff Betting

As professional baseball team heads into the post season, coach, General Manager, players and owners all realize one thing Pitching experts will bring experts to hit every day. A few years ago, when the underrated Detroit Tigers beat the New York Yankees to take an ALDS and ALCS, finally it is the depth of the Detroit Pitching staff that beat the Yankee hitters. The fact is that although most handicappers and analysts chose the Yankees to easily win the series, some thought that Tiger is select the obvious choice based on, especially, their Pitching staff.

The depth and length of the Rotation Series

Another thing to consider is that clubs who do well during the regular season is very long may not have what it takes to win a five or seven-game series. A rotation with one top starter and a number of dense two and three could be the gold against the Club which has a rotation that has a lot of WINS notched starting but does not have the correct depth and enter the Hurler. Lights out people who can consistently deliver quality starts would dominate in the post season. became concentrated in containers is the Playoff where there is little room for error, inconsistency or question mark. Is there a stopper on the staff? If so-good!

Long, Middle Relief and Set Up

bullpen that offered a long and middle relief pitcher or two and at least one quality set of people. No matter how good Your starter, the reality is that the team will need to call these players at least once or twice during a playoff series, and they should be able to hold the Fort and keep the team in the game. How many innings have these players pitched in the regular season? Maybe they'll get tired? How have they performed in the last two weeks? A tired Pitching staff at the end of the season will usually bring it to the playoffs. Is there a gut-check the relief in place of the old, middle or set up?

Okay, here's the one name from 2008-Brad Lidge. Or should I just say, "Lights out?" The closer is the key. He can only make the game a one-run win with 12 pitches or less. A bold, ice-in-his-veins, take no prisoners, a fastballing, intimidating, cold-edged closer can guarantee that the position of the top Pitching staff got each win is worth. If the closer in place, forget about it. The game ends when the eighth done.

You don't want a Pitching staff is too old or too young or too anything. What you want is a club with the wrinkles of veteran starter or two, others that are in the midpoint of his career and a young Stud. Live arm, legs strong and durable back is important. If there are health problems that could be detrimental. Then again, if there are no healthy pitcher who is really focused and determined to win, as Schilling was for the Red Sox years ago, then the presence of the spirit could be the difference-maker in a series of post-war season. However, Schilling is surrounded by a very deep staff that included a remarkable versatile team player Tim Wakefield.

A Catcher who calls a great game can get starter shaking through tough inning or two. Besides, he knows how to work the same hitters, allowing each of his pitchers a chance to perform at the level of the premium. veteran catcher who is intelligent, tough leader able to anchor the Pitching staff in, talented, giving them the confidence they need to Excel.

Some say that pitching is 80 to 90% of the games but the baseball guru Bill James notes that if the offense is 50% of the game and the defense is 50% and the pitching is about 25% of the defence, then the throw is approximately 35% of all games. With that being said, it's been noted that pitchers have more weapons at the disposal of their allowances and how they get things from hitters. The margin of error for the hitters are very small compared to the pitcher. When it comes to betting on the post season MLB this make sure you analyze the Pitching staff for every team and every pitcher on that staff inside out and then make your bets accordingly.

Is this what you ask?

How many games are in a MLB season?
When is the MLB trade deadline?
How many baseballs are used in a MLB game?
How many MLB teams are there?
How much do MLB umpires make?

Zika Virus prevention and cure Virus Zika

noreply@blogger.com (ynototo) — Thu, 04 Aug 2016 16:58:00 +0000

Zika virus was first found in the monkey forest-resus Zika, Uganda, in 1947. Zika virus was later recovered on the mosquito species,Aedes Africanus in the same forest in 1948 and in humans in Nigeria in 1954.Zika virus became endemic and disease began to spread outside of Africa and Asia in 2007 in the region of the South Pacific. In may 2015, the virus breaks out again in Brazil.The spread of this virus continues to occur in January 2016 in North America, South America, Caribbean, Africa, and Samoa (Oceania).In Indonesia alone,Zika virus has been found in Jambi by 2015.

Zika virus infection occurs through intermediaries Aedes mosquito bites,especially species of Aedes aegypti. A disease that can make named Zika, Zika diseases (Zika disease) or Zika fever (Zika fever).

Zika virus that has infected humans can cause some symptoms, such as fever, joint pains, conjunctivitis (red eyes), and rash.Zika diseases symptoms can resemble symptoms of dengue and chikungunya disease, and can last a few days up to one week.

Zika Virus Causes

Zika diseases cause (Zika disease) or Zika fever (Zika fever) is a virus Zika.Zika virus included in the line of the flavivirus virus still comes from the same family with the disease-causing virus dengue/dengue fever.

Zika virus is spread to humans by infected Aedes mosquito. These mosquitoes become infected after biting sufferers who have had the virus. The mosquito is very active during the day and live and breed in indoor or outdoor close to humans, especially in areas that there is standing water.

Although rare,Zika virus can be transmitted from a mother to her baby. Zika virus might be transmitted from a pregnant women on fetus in her womb. The baby may also be contracted at the time of birth. Currently, the cases of Zika virus transmission through breast feeding has not been found so that medical experts still recommend that an infected mother to breastfeed her baby anyway.

In addition, there are some reports of virus Zika which transmission occurs through tranfusi blood and sexual intercourse.

Zika Virus Symptoms

In addition to the already mentioned common symptoms, other symptoms of virus Zika found are headache, pain behind the eyes, and tired.These symptoms are generally mild and lasts up to about one week.

Regarding the period of incubation of the virus Zika is still unknown, but the possibility of up to 2-7 days since the patient is exposed to this virus (exposed to mosquito bites penjangkit). Of the five people who are infected with a virus Zika, one person became ill due to this virus. Although rare, severe cases can occur that require further handling in hospitals, even death.

Zika virus transmission is going on inside the content associated with the occurrence of mikrosefali and brain damage in the fetus. Mikrosefali is a condition in which the circumference of the head is smaller than normal size.

Zika Virus Diagnosis

Viewed from the symptoms resemble many other illnesses, examination of travel route ever done by the patient, in particular to areas that have cases of Zika virus infection can help narrow the diagnosis. The doctor will probably ask you for area, timing, and activities while on a visit to the area.

Doctors can perform blood tests to detect viral nucleic acids, isolating the virus, or test serologis. In addition through the taking of the blood that is normally done in 1-3 days after symptoms appear, urine and saliva may also be a material test on the third day to the fifth day.
Zika Virus Treatment

Zika virus treatment focused efforts to reduce the symptoms felt by patients because of vaccines and medicine healers of this disease has not been found.Treatment against symptoms that may include the granting of fluids to prevent dehydration, pain-relief medicine to relieve fever and headache, as well as enough rest. The use of aspirin and other anti inflammatory nonsteroid drug not recommended before the possibility of dengue affected patients can be removed.

For patients who have been infected with a virus Zika is expected to avoid mosquito bites over the contracted the virus because the virus Zika which can last a long time in the blood of sufferers can spread to others through mosquito bites.

Zika Virus Prevention

Preventing mosquito bites is one of the earliest precautions can help you avoid the Zika virus infection. Some preventive measures that can be done while in the area contracted the virus Zika, among others:

Make sure your home has air conditioning or at least have curtain doors and Windows that can prevent mosquito entry into the room.

Use mosquito nets on the bed if the area you are visiting does not have the above.
Use the arm length of trouser and shirt
Use insect repellent ingredients listed on the environmental protection agency or the environmental protection agency (EPA), in accordance with the instructions printed on the packaging. The attached instruction will provide information regarding the deployment, the deployment area is possible, the time and duration of the deployment.

Infants aged under two months is not allowed to use insect repellent so you should ensure the baby clothes can protect them from mosquito bites.

Use also netting in the crib, stroller, and sling or baby carrier and other tools.

Note body area children who are more mature when applying insect repellent material. Avoid areas of the body that is hurt or are experiencing irritation, eye, mouth, and hands.
Select maintenance, washing, or wearing of clothing and equipment that use ingredients with permethrin. Learn product information and instructions regarding the use of the protection afforded. Avoid using this product on the skin.

Learn also the information about the areas you will visit, such as wellness facilities and outdoor areas open before departure time arrived, particularly the area contracted the virus Zika.
Zika virus tests upon his return to do You, particularly pregnant women, from the spread of Zika virus.

Barack HUSSEIN OBAMA IN THE FAMILY PHOTO

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:32:00 +0000

Grandmother, grandfather AND LARGE FAMILY Barack Obama

Barack Obama is running with her grandmother (Kenyan woman, the mother of Obama's father) called Sarah Hussein Onyango Obama in the house deceased father named Barack Hussein Obama in the village Nyongoma Kongelo, Kenya, during a visit there on 26 August 2006. Obama dielu welcome and treated as heroes during a meeting with relatives of his father. Until now the grandmother is still living in the age of 86 years and hope-hope that anxious grandchildren successfully win this election in the U.S. to become President, a U.S. president with black the first time in the history of United States if elected.

Obama posing with her grandmother, Sarah, when you first visit Afika 1987.

Obama family photo with his father. Bottom (from left to right): women's step-brother (Auma), stepmother (Kezia Obama), uterus grandmother (Sarah) and beside it is not known. Top (from left right): Not known, Barack Obama, stepbrother (Abongo Roy Obama) and a third brother on the right is not known. --

Barack Obama's father married 4. Wife to 1 is a woman named Africa Kezia Obama, wife to the mother's uterus 2 is Obama, the U.S. white woman named Ann Dunham, a wife to 3 is white woman named Ruth, and his wife to Africa, 4 are women who bear children 1 (child to 8 Obama's father). Obama's father has 8 children from 4 wives.

Family dwelling house deceased father in Obama Kongelo, Kenya.

Obama get a hug from kandungnya grandmother (the mother) named Madelyn Dunham (Madelyn Payne), who accompanied Her grandfather named Stanley Armor Dunhan (already deceased, 1818-1992, 74 years old), when high school graduation (High School) in Hawaii in 1979.

Grandfather and grandmother took this raise Obama in Hawaii, when his mother was in Jakarta with the Indonesian men's husband (Lolo Soetoro) with my father after the divorce Obama. Obama made that the grandmother, Madelyn, Searched died of cancer because the disease on 3 November 2008 in Hawaii at the age of 86 years (1922-2008).

Obama posing with her grandmother and grandfather, Stanley and Madelyn, at Columbia University, New York, when the grandfather and grandmother mengunjunginya there.

Obama on the beach playing with Her grandfather, Stanley Dunham Armor.

From left right: Obama grandfather (Stanley), Obama venter mother (Ann Dunham), younger brother stepdaughter Obama (Maya Soetoro) and Obama berfoto together in the early 1970's.

Venter Obama's father, Barack Hussein Obama (born in Kenya in 1936 years, died in Nairobi due to a car accident in 1982), posing at the airport (airport) Honolulu with Obama venter mother, Ann Dunham (born in Kansas in 1942 years, died in 1995 because of cancer pain ), when Obama visited his father and mother in Hawaii. At the same time, Obama was 5 years old.
Originally both parents living in Hawaii Obama Obama until age 2 years, but after that Obama and his mother left his father went to Harvard to study and then return to Kenya without his family. Obama's father and mother first met in 1959 at the University of Hawaii. Then they were married 1960. 1963 they divorced when Obama was 2 years old.

Barack Obama (when the age of 5 years) posing with his father in the Honolulu airport, when visiting his mother, father and Obama in Hawaii.

Obama's father, Barack Hussein Obama.

Obama photos with his mother, Ann Dunham, in Hawaii, not long after her mother divorced her father left for reasons to study at Harvard University.

Obama is still a child playing on the beach Waikiki before his mother married again with a second husband, the man of Indonesia. Behind the building appears pink color, the famous hotel in Waikiki, The Royal Hawaiian hotel.

Obama berfoto with his family at their residence in Jakarta. From left to right: step-father (Lolo Soetoro), his mother (An Dunhan), step-sister (Maya Soetoro) and Barack Obama. After Obama divorced mother with Obama's father, and his mother (Ann Dunham) married again with a manager of a state oil company named Lolo Soetoro Indonesia at the time the task is being studied at the University of Hawaii.
1967 Lolo Soetoro back to Indonesia with An Dunham and Obama, and living in Jakarta in which tirinya sister (Maya Soetoro) was born from the pair Lolo Soetoro and Ann Dunham. Four (4) years later, his mother to send Obama back to Hawaii (an 71 years old) grew by grandfather to her grandmother, parents Dunham. Now Lolo Soetoro and Ann Dunham (Obama mother) is not (the deceased).

Screen Actors Guild Awards, 2009 Best "Dress

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:03:00 +0000

Screen Actors Guild Awards, 2009 Best "Dress I dressed 2009 Actors Guild award for best film. The women will know, the red carpet, the Screen Actors Guild award for best season, is expected by 2009. I, please refer to the trend of the red carpet, a white dress, since the inaugural MICHELLE OBAMA much of last week's most popular ball gown pavement. V right amount of cutting-neck dress style, I like the Greek-style gown. Red carpet to see the best from here.

Palestinian Info

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:27:00 +0000

From: "pcrbs"
Reply-To: pcraddressbook-owner at yahoogroups.com
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 09:58:47 -0000
To: pcraddressbook at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [pcraddressbook] URGENT: Palestinian farmers protest Israeli confiscation of land and water
For Immediate Release:

What: Palestinian farmers and international supporters hold prayer service and march protesting confiscation of farmland and water sources by the Israeli military.

When: Friday, 13 September 2002, Prayer Service at 12:30pm, March at 1:30pm

Where: Prayer Service in Beit Amin and March to Izbet Salman, West Bank, Palestine

Contact Information: Omar Sabhar, General Director, Ministry of Local Government, Palestinian National Authority, 059/837-606 from Israel/Palestinian Territories, (972-59)837-606 international

Osama Qashoo (Qalqilya, ISM) 052/225-703 from Israel/Palestinian Territories, (972-52)225-703 international

Garrick Ruiz (Los Angeles, ISM) 067/371-507 from Israel/Palestinian Territories, (972-67)371-507 international

Lisa Nessan (San Francisco Bay Area, ISM) 052/272-524 from Israel/Palestinian Territories, (972-52) 272-524 international

Kristin Razowsky (Flo) (Minneapolis Midwest Region, ISM) 067/361-708 from Israel/Palestinian Territories, (972-67) 361-708 international

Palestinian farmers from villages in the Tulkarem and Qalqilya regions of the Israeli occupied West Bank will gather Friday between Beit Amin and Izbet Salman to pray on their land. The Israeli Military plans to seize over 80,000 dunams of fertile farmland (one dunam is approximately a quarter acre) and nearly all of the region's 37 water wells. After the prayer the farmers will march to the neighboring community of Izbet Salman. Volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian-led organization which supports Palestinian nonviolent resistance to Israeli Occupation, will participate in the march.

These seizures of Palestinian land will result in the redrawing of the border between Israel and 1967 Occupied Palestine. Areas affected extend along the Israeli-Palestinian border, from Jenin to Hebron. The Israeli military claims the confiscations are necessary due to nonspecific security concerns.

Last week, the Israeli military notified farmers of the immediate seizure of their lands when Israeli soldiers placed handwritten documents signed by General Keflinsky in Palestinian olive orchards and croplands. Within days, bulldozers accompanied by military personnel began the destruction of acres of cultivated farmland and the cutting down of ancient olive trees laden with fruit ready for harvest in the coming month of October. According to the handwritten notices, the farmers had one week to appeal the decision; however, they have been unable to make an appeal due to military travel restrictions and Isreali administrative office closures for the celebration of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.

Israeli seizure will turn the area's subsistence level farmers into refugees, robbed of ancestral land and economic means of supporting their families. The area around Tulkarem and Qalqilya is one of the most fertile agricultural area in the West Bank and includes the Western Aquifer Area which supplies the primary irrigation and drinking water for the surrounding population. The region's economy is dependent on these wells and family farms, which have been under cultivation for generations.

This week, Israeli surveyors with armed Israeli soldiers continue to mark the areas slated for seizure. Painted and red ribbon markers have been placed meters away from villagers' homes, on agricultural greenhouses and trunks of fruit trees. Palestinian farmers state their only hope for holding onto their land is through international condemnation of the Israeli seizures.

----
Redress Information & Analysis
http://www.redress.btinternet.co.uk

Bali bombers' execution

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:17:00 +0000

The three men convicted of orchestrating a pair of deadly bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali will be executed in November, an official says.

Indonesian Attorney General Hendraman Supandji said Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra will face firing squads in early November on the island of Nusakambangan for their involvement in the 2002 attack, The Age (Australia) said in its Saturday edition.

The October 2002 bombings in the Bali town of Kuta Beach left 202 people dead, including 88 Australian nationals.

Since being convicted of orchestrating the deadly attacks in a 2003 trial, the men have been attempting to appeal their resulting death sentences.
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The Age said the police officers that will be used in the firing squads have already been chosen for the November executions

Domenico Magnoli

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:59:00 +0000

Alleged gangster and fugitive Domenico Magnoli was arrested immediately after undergoing liposuction surgery on November 7, 2008. domenico magnoli awoke from anesthesia to find a room full of well-wishers bearing flowers and gifts, in actuality, the visitors were police without uniforms.1

Domenico Magnoli was arrested for his alleged involvement in drug trafficking. He is said to be linked to the Piromali crime family of the 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate. He was a fugitive for about a year before his arrest.1

Fast Facts
Age: 27 years old in 2008
Born in France2
Arrested on Friday, November 7, 2008
Arrested at a private clinic called "La Madonna" in Italy2
Police did not wear uniforms; posed as visitors bearing chocolates and flowers1
Magnoli had liposuction to remove fat from his thighs and stomach
Surgery was done on the evening of Thursday, November 6, 20081
Was still under the influence of anesthesia when he was arrested2
Arrested on a French warrant
Charged with drug trafficking1
Said to have ties to the 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate1
Was on the run for a year prior to his arrest
Magnoli had liposuction in the early summer of 2008, with the same doctor but at a different clinical.

Hank Baskett Pics

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:52:00 +0000

Hank Baskett & Kendra Wilkinson Pictures Engaged

Philadelphia wide receiver Hank Baskett is reportedly engaged to Playboy’s “Girl Next Door”, Kendra Wilkinson, who is one of three of Hugh Hefner’s girlfriends! Read more after the bump and see more photos of Kendra Wilkinson and Hank Baskett.

Recently, there have been rumors swirling about Hefner’s girlfriend, Holly Madison, sneaking around with illusionist, Criss Angel. Supposedly this is completely false, but another of Hugh Hefner’s girlfriend’s does have another boyfriend other than Hugh Hefner.

Kendra Wilkinson is said to be dating Hank Baskett, and some are reporting she is even engaged to Baskett?

In fact, WWTDD has reported that Kendra Wilkinson and Hank Baskett have been engaged for quite some time now.
Kendra Wilkinson is one of the three girlfriends to Hugh Hefner, that lives in the Playboy Mansion, along with Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt. The girls star on their show called “Girls Next Door”.

So do you think that Kendra Wilkinson is really engaged? Are they keeping it “hush hush” so it doesn’t interfere with the Girls Next Door show?

Obama's Press Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:43:00 +0000

Share This I must confess that I was only marginally awake when Sen. Barack Obama held his press conference Monday afternoon (EDT) to announce that he had finally seen the light and discovered that his pastor was kinda wacky.

Obama said he was “shocked” by [the Rev. Jeremiah] Wright’s statements during a speech at the National Press Club yesterday in Washington. “The person I saw yesterday was not the person I had come to know over 20 years,” said Obama, an Illinois senator.

I’m going to call bolshevik storytelling on this. The standard pundit line appears to be that they don’t believe that Obama shares his pastor’s outrageous views, but his toleration of them for more than two decades is equally inexplicable. That’s as may be, but what today’s press conference really told us is that while Obama may not hold those views, he doesn’t see them as beyond the bounds of reasonable political discourse. While the outrageous charge that the U.S. government created the AIDS virus to wipe out blacks wasn’t enough to move Obama to act, I get the feeling that he would’ve left Trinity United Church of Christ if Wright had questioned global warming.

Is Obama so out of touch with mainstream America that he doesn’t realize that Wright is on the furthest extremist fringe of American political thought? Frankly, all the right-wing nuts that are worried about the North American Union and the superhighway through Texas are more mainstream (and far less odious) than Wright.

Obama claims that the Wright on display Monday morning at the National Press Club was a stranger to him. Obama is not stupid. That leaves two options: Obama is lying or he is an incredible naif and fool. Neither explanation is a positive for someone who seeks to become president of the United States.

Obama Press Conference on Jeremiah Wright

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:40:00 +0000

OBAMA: I have spent my entire adult life trying to bridge the gap between different kinds of people. That's in my DNA. Trying to promote mutual understanding, to insist that we all share common hopes, and common dreams, as Americans and as human beings. That's who I am, that's what I believe, that's what this campaign has been about. Yesterday we saw a very different vision of America. I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday. I have been a member of Trinity United Church of Christ since 1992. I've known Reverend Wright for almost 20 years. The person that I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate, and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church. They certainly don't portray accurately my values and beliefs. And if Reverend Wright thinks that that's political posturing, as he put it, then he doesn't know me very well. And based on his remarks yesterday, well, I may not know him as well as I thought either. Now, I've already denounced the comments that had appeared in these previous sermons. As I said, I had not heard them before. And I gave him the benefit of the doubt in my speech in Philadelphia, explaining that he has done enormous good in the church. He has built a wonderful congregation. The people of Trinity are wonderful people, and what attracted me has always been their ministries reach beyond the church walls. But when he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS, when he suggests that Minister Farrakhan somehow represents one of the greatest voices of the 20th and 21st centuries, when he equates the United States wartime efforts with terrorism, then there are no excuses. They offend me. The rightly offend all Americans. And they should be denounced. And that's what I'm doing very clearly and unequivocally here today. Let me just close by saying this. We started this campaign with the idea that the problems that we face as a country are too great to continue to be divided, that in fact all across America people are hungry to get out of the old, divisive politics of the past. I have spoken and written about the need for us to all recognize each other as Americans, regardless of race or religion or region of the country, that the only way we can deal with critical issues like energy and health care and education and the war on terrorism is if we are joined together. And the reason our campaign has been so successful is because we have moved beyond these old arguments. What we saw yesterday out of Reverend Wright was a resurfacing and, I believe, an exploitation of those old divisions. Whatever his intentions, that was the result. It is antithetical to our campaign. It is antithetical to what I am about. It is not what I think America stands for. And I want to be very clear that, moving forward, Reverend Wright does not speak for me. He does not speak for our campaign. I cannot prevent him from continuing to make these outrageous remarks, but what I do want him to be very clear about, as well as all of you and the American people, is that when I say that I find these comments appalling, I mean it. It contradicts everything that I am about and who I am. And anybody who has worked with me, who knows my life, who has read my books, who has seen what this campaign is about, I think, will understand that it is completely opposed to what I stand for and where I want to take this country. Last point. I'm particularly distressed that this has caused such a distraction from what this campaign should be about, which is the American people. Their situation is getting worse. And this campaign has never been about me. It's never been about Senator Clinton or John McCain. It's not about Reverend Wright. People want some help in stabilizing their lives and securing a better future for themselves and their children. And that's what we should be talking about. And the fact that Reverend Wright would think that somehow it was appropriate to command the stage for three or four consecutive days in the midst of this major debate is something that not only makes me angry, but also saddens me. So with that, let me take some questions. QUESTION: Why the change of tone from yesterday? When you spoke to us on the tarmac yesterday, you didn't have this sense of anger and outrage. OBAMA: Yes, I'll be honest with you -- because I hadn't seen it yet. QUESTION: And that was the difference you... OBAMA: Yes. QUESTION: You heard the reports about the AIDS comments. OBAMA: I had not. I had not seen the transcript. What I had heard was he had given a performance, and I thought at the time that it would be sufficient simply to reiterate what I had said in Philadelphia. Upon watching it, what became clear to me was that it was more than just him defending himself. What became clear to me was that he was presenting a worldview that contradicts who I am and what I stand for. And what I think particularly angered me was his suggestion somehow that my previous denunciation of his remarks were somehow political posturing. Anybody who knows me and knows what I am about knows that I am about trying to bridge gaps and that I see the commonality in all people. And so when I start hearing comments about conspiracy theories and AIDS and suggestions that somehow Minister Farrakhan has been a great voice in the 20th century, then that goes directly at who I am and what I believe this country needs. QUESTION: Senator, what do you plan to do about this right now to further distance (inaudible) and the need to do that? And what does this say about your judgment of super delegates, who are right now trying to decide which Democratic nominee is better? Your candidacy has been based on judgment. What does this say about...? OBAMA: Well, as I said before, the person I saw yesterday was not the person that I have come to know over 20 years. I understand that I think he was pained and angered from what had happened previously during the first stage of this controversy. I think he felt vilified and attacked, and I understand that he wanted to defend himself. I understand that he's gone through difficult times of late and that he's leaving his ministry after many years. And so that may account for the change. But the insensitivity and the outrageousness of his statements and his performance in the question and answer period yesterday, I think, shocked me. It surprised me. As I said before, this is an individual who's built a very fine church, and a church that is well respected throughout Chicago. During the course of me attending that church, I had not heard those kinds of statements being made or those kinds of views being promoted. And I did not vet my pastor before I decided to run for the presidency. I was a member of the church. So what I think it says is that I did not run my pastor through the paces or review every one of the sermons that he had made over the last 30 years. But I don't think that anybody could attribute those ideas to me. QUESTION: What effect do you think this is going to have on your campaign? OBAMA: That's something that you guys will have to figure out. Obviously, we've got elections in four or five days, so we'll find out what effect it has. But ultimately, I think that the American people know that we have to do better than we're doing right now. I think that they believe in the ideas of this campaign. I think they are convinced that special interests have dominated Washington too long. I think they are convinced that we've got to get beyond some of the same political games that we've been playing. I think that they believe that we need to speak honestly and truthfully about how we're going to solve issues like energy or health care. And I believe that this campaign has inspired a lot of people. And that's part of what -- going back to what you asked, Mike, about why I feel so strongly about this today -- after seeing Reverend Wright's performance, I felt as if there was a complete disregard for what the American people are going through and the need for them to rally together to solve these problems. Now is the time for us not to get distracted. Now is the time for us to pull together. And that's what we've been doing in this came. And there was a sense that that did not matter to Reverend Wright. What mattered was him commanding center stage. QUESTION: Have you had a conversation with Reverend Wright lately? OBAMA: No. QUESTION: What's going to happen with these distractions that have taken you...? OBAMA: Well, I want to use this press conference to make people absolutely clear that, obviously, whatever relationship I had with Reverend Wright has changed, as a consequence of this. I don't think that he showed much concern for me. More importantly, I don't think he showed much concern for what we are trying to do in this campaign and what we're trying to do for the American people and with the American people. And, obviously, he's free to speak out on issues that are of concern to him, and he can do it in any ways that he wants. But I feel very strongly that I want to make absolutely clear that I do not subscribe to the views that he expressed. I believe they are wrong. I think they are destructive. And to the extent that he continues to speak out, I do not expect those views to be attributed to me. QUESTION: (Inaudible) OBAMA: Well, the new pastor, the young pastor, Reverend Otis Moss, is a wonderful young pastor. And as I've said, I still very much value the Trinity community. I'll be honest. This has obviously put strains on that relationship, not because of the members or because of Reverend Moss, but because this has become such a spectacle. And when I go to church, it's not for spectacle. It's to pray and to find a stronger sense of faith. It's not to posture politically. It's not to hear things that violate my core beliefs. And I certainly don't want to provide a distraction for those who are worshiping at Trinity. So as of this point, I am a member of Trinity. I haven't had a discussion with Reverend Moss about it, so I can't tell you how he's reacting and how he's responding. QUESTION: Senator, I'm wondering -- sort of following on Jeff's question about why it's so different now -- have you heard from some of your supporters. You have some, obviously, supporters who expressed any alarm about what this kind of thing is doing to the campaign? OBAMA: I don't think that it's that hard to figure out from if it was just a purely political perspective. My reaction has more to do with what I want this campaign to be about and who I am. And I want to make certain that people understand who I am. In some ways what Reverend Wright said yesterday directly contradicts everything that I've done during my life. It contradicts how I was raised and the setting in which I was raised. It contradicts my decisions to pursue a career of public service. It contradicts the issues that I've worked on politically. It contradicts what I've said in my books. It contradicts what I said in my convention speech in 2004. It contradicts my announcement. It contradicts everything that I've been saying on this campaign trail. And what I tried to do in Philadelphia was to provide a context and to lift up some of the contradictions and complexities of race in America, of which Reverend Wright is a part and we're all a part, and try to make something constructive out of it. But there wasn't anything constructive out of yesterday. All there was was a bunch of rants that aren't grounded in truth. And I can't construct something positive out of that. I can understand it. People do all sorts of things. And as I said before, I continue to believe that Reverend Wright has been a leader in the Southside. I think that the church he built is outstanding. I think that he has preached in the past some wonderful sermons. He provided valuable contributions to my family. But at a certain point, if what somebody says contradicts what you believe so fundamentally, and then he questions whether or not you believe it in front of the National Press Club, then that's enough. That's a show of disrespect to me. It is also, I think, an insult to what we've been trying to do in this campaign. QUESTION: Senator, did you discuss with your wife after having seen Reverend Wright's performance in what was...? OBAMA: Yes, she was similarly angered. QUESTION: Reverend Wright said it was not an attack on him, but an attack on the black church. First of all, do you agree with that? And second of all, the strain of theology that he preached -- black liberation theology -- explain something about the anger that seems to be some of the sentiments in the church in (inaudible). How important a strain, then, is liberation theology in the black church? And why did you choose to enter the church then? OBAMA: Well, first of all, in terms of liberation theology, I am not a theologian. So I think to some theologians there might be some well worked out theory of what constitutes liberation theology versus non-liberation theology. I went to church and listened to sermons. And in the sermons that I heard -- and this is true, I do think, across the board in many black churches -- there is an emphasis on the importance of social struggle, the importance of striving for equality and justice and fairness, a social gospel. So I think a lot of people, rather than using a fancy word like that, simply talk about preaching the social gospel. And there's nothing particularly odd about that. Dr. King, obviously, was the most prominent example of that kind of preaching. But what I do think can happen -- and I didn't see this as a member of the church, but I saw it yesterday -- is when you start focusing so much on the plight of the historically oppressed that you lose sight of what we have in common, that it overrides everything else, that we're not concerned about the struggles of others, because we're looking at things only through a particular lens, then it doesn't describe properly what I believe in the power of faith to overcome, but also to bring people together. Now, you had a first question, Joe, that I don't remember. I did not view the initial round of sound bytes that triggered this controversy as an attack on the black church. I viewed it as a simplification of who he was, a caricature of who he was, and more any thing, something that piqued a lot of political interest. I didn't see it as an attack on the black church. And probably the only aspect of it that probably had to do with specifically the black church is the fact that some people were surprised when he was shouting. That is just a black church tradition, and so I think some people interpreted that somehow as, wow, he's really hollering, and black preachers holler and whoop. And so that, I think, showed sort of a cultural gap in America. The sad thing is that although the sound bytes that, as I stated, created a caricature of him, and when he was in that Moyers interview, even though there were some things that continued to be offensive, at least there was some sense of rounding out the edges, yesterday I think he caricatured himself. And as I said, that made me angry, but also made me saddened. QUESTION: Previously, you talked about giving him the benefit of the doubt for -- especially, I guess, in the Philadelphia speech -- for trying to create something positive about that. Did you consult him before the speech or talk to him after the speech in Philadelphia to get his reaction or his input? OBAMA: I tried to talk to him before the speech in Philadelphia, wasn't able to reach him because he was on a cruise. He had just stepped down from the pulpit. When he got back, I did speak to him. I prefer not to share sort of private conversations between me and him. I will talk to him, perhaps, someday in the future. But what I can say is I was very clear that what he had said in those particular snippets I found objectionable and offensive and that the intention of the speech was to provide context for them, but not to excuse them, because I found them inexcusable. QUESTION: (Inaudible) on Sunday, you were asked whether to respond to (inaudible) saying that Bill Clinton had (inaudible). Is the decision (inaudible) irreparable damage? Is this relationship with Reverend Wright irreparable damage, do you think? OBAMA: There has been great damage. It may have been unintentional on his part, but I do not see that relationship being the same after this. Now, to some degree, I know that one thing that he said was true, that he was never my, quote/quote, "spiritual advisor." He was never my spiritual mentor. He was my pastor. And to some extent how the press characterized in the past that relationship, I think, was inaccurate. But he was somebody who was my pastor, and he married Michelle and I, and baptized my children, and prayed with us when we announced this race, and so I'm disappointed. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.

Anne's Mother Speaks Out

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:50:00 +0000

When the scandal described below hit, Judge Braslow responded by HIRING A PUBLIC RELATIONS FIRM!. Michael Moss, the author of the Newsday article no longer works there.

As seen in Newsday

Heiress' Mom: Judge Let Abusive Hubby Stay

The mother of murdered newspaper heiress Anne Scripps Douglas
yesterday blasted the judge who allowed her daughter's husband - now
suspected in her beating death - to stay in the couple's home after
she sought court protection.
"This could have been prevented," said Anne S. Scripps, 72, of
upstate Loudonville. "My daughter would be alive today if that judge
hadn't let him stay there. I think it's criminal."
Charges against Douglas' second husband, Scott, were upgraded to
murder yesterday, a day after the 47-year-old mother of three died of
head injuries.
Scott Douglas, 38, who allegedly bludgeoned his wife New Year's Eve
at the posh Bronxville house she owned, has been missing since early
Jan. 1. His gray 1982 BMW was found idling in the center of the Tappan
Zee Bridge.
Scripps family lawyer, John Kelly, refused to detail what he said
was "reason to believe" Douglas is alive. But a source familiar with the
investigation told New York Newsday that Douglas had boasted of being
able to disappear at will and made several "suspicious" purchases in the
weeks before the murder.
Last month, Anne Douglas hired a divorce lawyer and sought an order
of protection against her husband. On Dec. 6, Family Court Judge Ingrid
Braslow barred him from harassing his wife or taking the couple's
3-year-old daughter, Victoria, outside without permission. But she
allowed him to remain in his wife's home. Yesterday, Braslow said she
could not comment because the court record remained confidential.
A few days later, Anne Douglas called the Westchester Coalition for
Family Justice and told executive vice president Deirdre Akerson she was
terrified of her husband of four years.
"She was afraid of being beaten.," said Akerson. "She felt she was
definitely in danger. She was concerned about finding a way to get him
out of the house."
Relatives said Anne Douglas had lived in fear of her housepainter
husband for years and had left him in 1991, but returned because he
threatened Victoria. Police say the toddler may have witnessed her
mother's brutal beating.
The family has posted a $25,000 reward for information leading to
Douglas' capture. Anne Douglas is a descendent of James Scripps, founder
of the Detroit News. Neighbors said she stuck close to home, caring for
her garden and lavishing attention on her daughters.
"She's in heaven. We don't have to worry about that," said her
mother, as Monday's funeral was being discussed.

Copyright 1994, Newsday Inc.
Michael Moss, Heiress' Mom: Judge Let Abusive Hubby Stay., 01-08-1994, pp 02.

The Movie is Out

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:48:00 +0000

Copyright 1997 Boston Herald Inc.
The Boston Herald

Television; Inside the abuse cycle; Story of 'Mother's Murder' drawn from true '94 case
BYLINE: By BART MILLS

Just a few months before Nicole Brown Simpson was found stabbed to death in Los Angeles, New York newspaper heiress Anne Scripps Douglas was found bludgeoned with a hammer in 1994. She lingered in a coma for a week before dying.

The presumed murderer of Mrs. Douglas, her estranged husband, a man with a record of beating her, fled in his BMW. The car was later found idling and abandoned on a bridge. Three months later, his body washed up downriver. "Battered wives often follow a pattern," said Roxanne Hart, the ex-"Chicago Hope" actress who plays Anne Scripps Douglas in "Our Mother's Murder," a USA movie airing tonight at 9. "If the husband or boyfriend is nice 25 percent of the time, the women think the nice moments are the reality and the terrible 75 percent is the aberration. They're unable to extricate themselves from the relationship because they deny, deny, deny.

"The first time this man (Scott Douglas, played by James Wilder) hit Anne Scripps, he begged for her forgiveness," she continued. "She believed his promise that he'd never do it again and she took him back. Of course, he beat her again. He beat her for a long, long time. When she finally made a move to divorce him, her lawyers told her she had to try to reconcile with him if she wanted to get custody of their child. That's when he killed her."

Before she took the part, Hart sought assurances from the producers that the film would explore how Scripps became ensnared in a cycle of domestic violence. "I think we get the sense of a journey because the story is seen through the eyes of the woman's teenage daughters from her previous marriage. Despite the violence that's shown, the result is not just a slasher film," she said.

Hart is resigned to the showbiz necessity of playing women who have trouble with men. On "Chicago Hope," she and her TV husband (Adam Arkin) split, leaving her character so little to do the producers finally wrote her out a year ago. In "When Secrets Kill," an ABC film last May, she suffered from a cheating husband and was falsely accused of murder.

"It's a fact that a lot of times you have to play victims. It isn't often you get to play powerful, uncompromised women," she said.

Hart gets to show more of an edge in her next role, as the overbearing daughter of Hume Cronyn in Showtime's "Alone," scheduled in December.

The aqua-eyed, strawberry-blonde Hart, 44, is happily married to actor Philip Casnoff, and they have two children, Alexander, 9, and Macklin, 3.

Hart is teaching her own kids not to settle disputes with their fists. "We've told Alexander he's not allowed to hit," she said. "He's become a great arguer. He's a little lawyer. He's very volatile verbally. Now Macklin, he likes to run into Alexander like a little battering ram. I guess he needs some work."

"My Mother's Murder" airs tonight at 9 on USA.

HEIRESS KIN SUE COURTS, COPS

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:48:00 +0000

Copyright 1995 Daily News, L.P.
Daily News (New York)
By JOE NICHOLSON

The family of slain heiress Anne Scripps Douglas who begged police and Family Court judges to protect her from a battering husband yesterday sued the courts and police for $ 22 million.

The family accused the Westchester Family Court and police in Bronxville, where Douglas was beaten to death by her husband, of failing to do their jobs.

Douglas was killed Dec. 31, 1993, by her husband, Scott, a house painter who then killed himself. The suit said Judge Ingrid Braslow of Westchester Family Court "refused to order Scott Douglas removed from the home" on Dec. 6, 1993 weeks before the killing.

It said Anne Douglas first asked for an order of protection from the court in May 1991. That request "indicated that Scott Douglas had continually harassed" his wife, the suit charges.

Douglas had threatened to strangle his wife, assaulted her, threatened to push her from a moving vehicle and caused her multiple injuries, the suit charged.

Braslow was not available for comment, her husband, Dean, told the Daily News.

But Dean Braslow said that when his wife rejected the request to have Scott Douglas turned out of the house, she did did not have all the information available on the case including Scott Douglas' history of violence.

He said his wife handled the case properly based on what she knew.

"She did what she is supposed to do," said Dean Braslow, who added that the court record was "all that she could go by, the testimony before her."

Anne Scripps Douglas' brother James Scripps and her three daughters Alexandra, Anne and Victoria filed suit in the state Court of Claims against the Family Court of the State of New York.

They filed a similar suit, alleging negligence and wrongful death, against the Bronxville police in state Supreme Court. Each suit is for $ 11 million; neither named any individual judges or police officers.

David Cherubin, the family's lawyer, said the family was considering setting up a foundation to help battered spouses and might use any money it obtains from the suits to support the foundation.

Sgt. Robert Thorn of the Bronxville police declined to comment, as did Chief Judge Adrienne Scancarelli of Westchester Family Court.

Body of Man Suspected of Killing His Heiress Wife Is Discovered

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:47:00 +0000

Copyright 1994 The New York Times Company
The New York Times

Body of Man Suspected of Killing His Heiress Wife Is Discovered
By JOSEPH BERGER, Special to The New York Times

Three months after Anne Scripps Douglas, an heiress to a newspaper fortune, was bludgeoned to death, a decomposed body found on the Bronx bank of the Hudson River was identified as that of her husband and accused murderer, Scott S. Douglas.

The discovery closed a case that had surprised Bronxville, where the Douglases lived, and also brought relief to Mrs. Douglas's relatives. They had said at several news conferences and in interviews that they believed Mr. Douglas was still alive and might reappear to hurt them or kidnap the Douglases' 3-year-old daughter, Victoria. "It was a surprise, but the nightmare is over," said Anne Devoy Morell, Mrs. Douglas's 22-year-old daughter by a previous marriage, at a Manhattan news conference.

"We don't have to worry about him coming after us or Tori," said Alexandra Scripps Morell, 24, Mrs. Douglas's other daughter by that marriage.

But lawyers involved in the case said there was still a strong possibility of a court battle if the Scripps and Douglas families choose to fight over custody of the orphaned child.

The corpse, in jeans with $507 in a pocket, was found Wednesday by a Metro-North Railroad mechanic on a tide-washed bank of the Hudson near the tracks that run along the shore in Riverdale. A positive identification by the New York City Medical Examiner's Office based on dental records was announced here by Jeanine Pirro, the Westchester County District Attorney, who headed an investigation that involved at least five police departments.

Mrs. Pirro said that Mr. Douglas, a 38-year-old house painter whose working-class world clashed with that of his patrician wife's, had jumped off the Tappan Zee Bridge less than two hours after hitting his wife four or five times in the face with a claw hammer on New Year's Eve. The time of his death was confirmed today by one grisly detail: a gold watch on his body was stopped at precisely 12 o'clock. The 47-year-old Mrs. Douglas died six days after the beating.

Law-enforcement authorities had always been open to the possibility that Mr. Douglas might have jumped to his death because his 1982 BMW, its engine still running, was found abandoned on the bridge at 12:02 A.M. New Year's Day. A blood-stained hammer was on the passenger seat.

But the authorities issued a warrant for his arrest on murder charges and pursued an intensive hunt because no one had seen Mr. Douglas leave the car or leap and because the Scripps family argued vehemently that he was capable of staging a suicide to throw investigators off his track. Mrs. Douglas's grown daughters had told authorities of his threats to kidnap Victoria and "disappear off the face of the earth."

Today, with the possibility of a murder trial eliminated, Mrs. Pirro provided one of the fullest accounts of the Douglases last hours together and the murder itself.

The Douglases, who married in October 1988 but experienced only a short period of happiness, had been feuding for weeks over Mrs. Douglas's plan to seek a divorce. Mrs. Douglas, an heiress to the Scripps-Howard newspaper and communications empire fortune and nine years older than her husband, had obtained an order of protection forbidding Mr. Douglas to take Victoria out of the house.

A New Argument

On the afternoon of New Year's Eve, Mrs. Pirro said, Mr. Douglas became freshly enraged because Mrs. Douglas had received a call from her former husband, Anthony X. Morell.

"The defendant was very threatened by the phone call," Mrs. Pirro said. "He started yelling that it was his house. Scott Douglas even got on the phone and told Tony Morell not to call anymore."

Mr. Douglas spent much of the rest of the day drinking vodka and threatening Mrs. Douglas. The argument was so fierce that her daughter, Anne, offered to stay home for the evening. But Mrs. Douglas, who was packing clothes for the needy, insisted that she go out for New Year's Eve, which she did about 10 P.M.

Mrs. Douglas, Mrs. Pirro said, changed into nightclothes and went into their upstairs bedroom. The Bronxville Police Chief, Anthony Divernieri, said that between 10:30 and 11 P.M. Mr. Douglas entered the bedroom and struck his wife, mostly in the right side of her face. Victoria witnessed the beating, Mrs. Pirro said.

Mr. Douglas then drove off toward the Tappan Zee Bridge, but he stopped at a gas station on the Gov. Thomas E. Dewey Thruway to make two apparently agonized phone calls to his brother, Todd, and his sister, Pyr. It was Todd, an investment banker in Manhattan, who called the Bronxville police, though not until 3:50 A.M., to tell them to check the Douglases' home. Todd Douglas also told the police that Scott had said, "I've done something really bad this time."

Search Started

After finding Mrs. Douglas clinging to life and learning of the abandoned car, authorities searched the Hudson River. But they gave up after several days, deciding that if Mr. Douglas had drowned, his body would have sunk to the river bottom and would not reappear until spring. The icebound water would retard the formation of decomposition gases that might bring the body to the surface.

The 6-foot, 165-pound body was found Wednesday at 12:20 P.M. by Al Thomas, a 40-year-old mechanic from Yonkers who had been following the case in the newspapers and was walking along the track to service a crane. The body, which he said he immediately realized might be Mr. Douglas, was six feet from the water's edge and a quarter mile south of Riverdale's Metro-North station, near a building at 4675 Palisades Avenue.

The body was clothed in jeans, green plaid shirt and sneakers and there was an old scar on the back of the head, details that authorities had known would confirm the body as Mr. Douglas's.

Mrs. Pirro also cleared up other aspects of the case. Although family members had said that Mr. Douglas had purchased expensive camping equipment for a getaway, Mrs. Pirro said the cost was greatly exaggerated and the equipment has never been found. Authorities have also not located a diamond necklace that belonged to Mrs. Douglas and that the daughters suspected a fleeing Mr. Douglas of taking.

Mrs. Douglas's great-great-grandfather, James Edmund Scripps, founded The Detroit News in 1873. He built the Evening News Association, which was sold to Gannett Company Inc. for $717 million in 1985.

In a telephone interview, James E. Scripps 4th, Mrs. Douglas's brother, said: "I'm just glad it's over. I expected to feel jubilation, but it's just relief."

He said the family was prepared to deal with the possibility of a custody fight. In her will, Mrs. Douglas, who left an estate of $1.3 million but only $10,000 and a small annual payment to Mr. Douglas, had appointed Mr. Scripps the guardian of Victoria, but a petition about to be filed by the Scripps family will seek to have that role assigned to Mr. Scripps's sister, Mary Scripps Carmody. However, Todd Douglas and his wife, Diane, are reported to be considering a bid for custody.

Luis Andrew Penichet, who represents the family of Scott Douglas, said today that the discovery of Mr. Douglas's body "only proves what we said all along.

"It was our contention that it was a tragic loss of two lives," he said.

GRAPHIC: Photos: Police officers on Wednesday investigated the site on the Bronx side of the Hudson River where the body of Mr. Douglas was found. The body was discovered in the area at right. (Chris Maynard for The New York Times); Scott S. Douglas, who was suspected of killing his wife, Anne. (pg. B1); Anne Scripps Douglas in a photograph from last December. (pg. B4)

HEIRESS MISSING HUSBAND FOUND

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:47:00 +0000

Copyright 1994 Plain Dealer Publishing Co.
The Plain Dealer
FROM WIRE REPORTS; WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.

For three months, authorities hunted for a man accused of bludgeoning his newspaper heiress wife and leaving her to die in bed. Yesterday, they found him - when they identified a decomposed body fished from the Hudson River.

A railroad employee found Scott Douglas' body Wednesday, downstream from where his car was spotted soon after his wife was beaten with a hammer on New Year's Eve. The family of Anne Scripps Douglas believed her estranged husband faked his suicide and fled after the beating. They posted a $25,000 reward for information on Douglas' whereabouts and police issued a warrant for his arrest.

Now, investigators believe Douglas, 38, parked his car on the Tappan Zee Bridge and dived to his death. The city medical examiner's office issued an autopsy report that lists the death as a suicide.

Authorities are convinced Douglas killed his wife. She died five days after she was beaten following a day of escalating arguments.

Mrs. Douglas' great-great grandfather, James Edmund Scripps, founded the Detroit News in 1873.

THE HEIRESS & THE HOUSE PAINTER

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:46:00 +0000

Copyright 1994 Newsday, Inc.
Newsday

He had every reason in the world to make this marriage work. But no one who knew her well understood why she kept him around. When she finally came to her senses, it was too late.
BY CAROLE AGUS. STAFF WRITER

POLICE ARE STILL searching for Scott Douglas, who disappeared on New Year's Eve. He is wanted in the murder of his wife, Anne Scripps Douglas, who was found beaten in their Westchester home the next morning. The Scripps family has posted a $ 100,000 reward for his capture.

Through extensive interviews with people close to the couple and the case, the following portrait emerged, tracing the roots of their doomed relationship and why it reached its tragic conclusion.
NEW YEAR'S EVE

While revelers celebrated throughout the land, Anne Scripps Douglas was beaten to death. Inside her stately, pillared Colonial on Avon Road in Bronxville, on a block like a scene on a Christmas card, hammer blows rained on her head, smashing her cheek, crushing her skull, beyond the skill of doctors to repair.

Said a law enforcement source: "There was a witness."

Scott Douglas, the husband, disappeared that night, as he had threatened so many times to do. His car was found idling on the Tappan Zee Bridge, said law enforcement sources, with a bloody hammer inside it.

Left behind was the daughter they were fighting over, 3-year-old Victoria, called "Tori," the child Douglas said he would take with him, the child he'd always wanted, the child even those who hated him believed he loved.

"She is definitely an eyewitness," said a law enforcement source. Do authorities credit her statements? "Absolutely." They will not, however, be relying on the uncorroborated testimony of a three-year-old child, they said. "There is a strong circumstantial case already. We do not need an eyewitness." Does it help? "Absolutely."

While Anne Douglas lay dying in a hospital, this is what Tori told the family: "Daddy was giving Mommy so many bad boo-boos. Daddy gave Mommy many boo-boos. Why is Mommy wearing warpaint?" Later she said, "Is Mommy an angel in heaven? Does Mommy still have boo-boos on her face?"

That's what the family told police. The child, said family sources, has since seen a therapist. Her statements have been repeated and evaluated. She is now under tight security.

She couldn't sleep after what she saw, said a source close to the family. "You have to lie down and go to sleep with her. She can't sleep by herself any more."

CHRISTMAS EVE

There was an open house in Bronxville on Christmas Eve, but Anne Scripps Douglas wasn't going. She had just returned from the hospital with a patch over her eye.

That's what she told Gretchen Devlin - one of her best friends for 25 years and the woman who would write her eulogy - when Devlin called that night.

They talked in code, as they always did. Anne had confided to friends and family what they later would tell police: She couldn't talk on the phone because she thought the phone was bugged by her husband. That she'd found strange wires in the basement.

The friends had secret signals whenever they called. "Do you want to have lunch?" meant she needed to talk to them outside the house.

"Okey-dokey" meant Scott was around and she couldn't talk, other than to say that everything was fine.

On Christmas Eve, Anne told Devlin she had a scratched cornea and would be staying home. They talked in code. Anne said she was sending a Christmas card. That meant it held a message. Handwritten on it were the words: "Wouldn't you know instead of decking the halls, I would get decked myself?"

Devlin feared the worst after the lunch they'd had the day before, one where Anne gave her what would be a parting gift, a pewter wine cork decorated with grapes.

"She said he pushed her down the stairs, had thrown her on the floor and kicked her. She said she put up her hands. She said, 'Take anything you want, but don't hurt me anymore. I can't take it anymore.' She said he had pulled her hair so hard she thought he was going to pull it right out of her head," said Devlin.

Devlin wasn't surprised by what she heard at lunch. She had personally witnessed Scott's treatment of Anne at a wedding in October, a wedding he wasn't originally invited to, because, said a member of the wedding, "There were enough people there who wanted to punch him out."

The story that finished Scott with most of Anne's friends was the one about the present he gave her in 1991, for their second anniversary: "He bought her a bathroom scale. She weighed 105 pounds. He said 'you better use this every day. I don't want to see an inch of fat on you.' "

Scott refused to dance at the wedding, Devlin recalled. Anne got up to dance with a woman and did a split on the dance floor. "He grabbed her off the dance floor by the arm," said Devlin. "He yelled, 'You're acting like a slut! Everyone is laughing at you!' Anne ran to hide in a utility closet and I went with her. He threw open the door. He grabbed her wrist. He said, 'You're getting out of here right now.' Anne was crying. 'Why is he doing this to me? Why does he continually hurt me? Why is he trying to destroy my life?' "

He wanted $ 200,000-$ 250,000 to get out of the marriage, Devlin said, and Anne had agreed to pay it, but only under court auspices. "She was afraid he was going to blackmail her . . . that he would kidnap their daughter."

Anne described over lunch what her life had become: They had separate bedrooms when Scott came home at all. He would often leave the house in the middle of the night without explanation. He would return home from work at 11:30 p.m. When Anne asked where he was, he replied: "Pergament." The store closes at 9:30.

It was the day before Christmas Eve when Anne told Devlin about the nights. "She said he would wake her at two, three, four o'clock in the morning. Every time he woke her, he accused her of something else. He called her stupid, he called her a slut.

"He'd wake her up and say, 'You're having an affair. You have a disease, you're disgusting.' " She would rush to the gynecologist to prove it wasn't true. He'd accuse her of renting dirty movies, when she'd rented cartoons. She'd hurry to the rental store to make sure nothing X-rated was rented in her name.

She told Devlin of nights, nights like horror movies, where she'd wake to find herself gripped by him, unable to move as he accused her, paralyzed by his threat: to cut her into little pieces, scatter her all over New York and kidnap Tori. She'd placed a hammer under the bed for safety, said law enforcement sources. It was the instrument that would kill her.

THE WEDDING DAY, 1989

Twenty friends gathered before the fireplace of Anne's living room, on a bright October day, for the wedding of the house painter and the heiress.

When Scott looked at his bride, in her ivory lace, tea-length wedding dress, with three tiers of pleated organza, he saw a delicate beauty of such graceful sensibility that people likened her to the little swans she collected. She had a social position so secure that Town and Country devoted three full pages to her first marriage. He saw an heiress to a famous fortune, the one amassed by James E. Scripps, founder of the Detroit News. He had looked with outsider eyes at the lives inside these grand homes while he painted their walls. He'd had affairs, said police, with wealthy women in Greenwich and Rye.

Now, on his wedding day, he was about to join the privileged life that Anne was living with her teenaged daughters, Alexandra and Anne Morell. It was everything he wanted, he confided to Phyllis Creighton, his former live-in girlfriend and confidante of many years: "He thought it would be like the Brady Bunch."

When Anne looked at Scott, she saw what other women had seen before: "He was a good-looking guy," said Eleanore Hannon, his downstairs neighbor at the Greenwich apartment building he used as an office, who used to date his roommate. She describes herself as "the one woman in Greenwich who didn't sleep with Scott." She could see why others did. "He had a great body, was very good looking, charming, affable, a Boy Scout of a guy. With a light and dark side."

Anne was 42 and Scott was 33 when they met on Super Bowl Sunday, 1989, at a homey pub called Kelly's Sea Level, locally famous for its atmosphere and food. They chatted. Within days, he tracked down her phone number and asked her out. Anne was recently divorced. "Her biological clock was running out," said a close friend. "She wanted another baby."

She told friends he seemed a hardworking man who prized family above all else, as she did. She'd been divorced the previous year. "It was hard for her to be single," said Devlin. "Anne was more afraid of being alone than anything else. She had believed in Tony [Morell, her first husband], believed in marriage . . . She was afraid to be alone raising her kids."

So when, in October, 1989, he said they must marry "now," recalled Devlin, Anne was swept away. He would be only the second lover in her life; the first was her first husband. Against the advice of her friends, she scheduled the ceremony for five days later, refusing to demand a prenuptial agreement.

The wedding guests saw a gigolo conning an heiress. Who was this upstart house painter, they said among themselves, crashing his way into Catholic aristocracy? Here he was in the rarefied world where Bronxville speaks to Rye and Greenwich and none of them speaks to Port Chester. Here was a high school dropout presuming on a world where teenagers go to prep schools and boarding schools like Kent, Westminster, St. Paul's or Rye Country Day.

Here was a world where parents just naturally belong to the Westchester Country Club or Apawamus and / or the American Yacht Club and have second homes in the Hamptons or Palm Beach and play tennis in Bermuda, where daughters are debutantes and sons are escorts at the St. Vincent Cotillion, a ball so elite that young women are introduced to society in the presence of the Cardinal himself.

And then there was Scott.

"He was classless," said one of the 20 wedding guests. "A name dropper. You could see that immediately. He was shifty, he had a slimy, weak handshake, didn't look you straight in the eye, had no conversation, had nothing to say. What could he talk about, house painting? He didn't speak our language."

His mother did not attend the wedding. He said that his mother was dead. He told Anne he was Jewish. Later on, Anne found out that he was Episcopalian, that he had two sisters he'd never mentioned and that his mother was alive and living in Rye. He said he'd been christened in Larchmont, but Anne called every church and there wasn't any record. He lied about so many things that Anne hired a private detective, a close friend told police, at least to find out this much: "Is Scott Douglas his real name?"

Later on, after her death, neighbors like Sue Boles and Dorothy Brennan would say that Anne was innocent and all too trusting. Clearly, she knew this much: marrying Scott would not go over with her family. Her mother, brother and sister didn't attend the wedding.

"We didn't even know about it," said her mother, Anne Scripps, 72. "She knew I wouldn't approve. I'm a Catholic. She knew I was sick. She didn't want to upset me too much."

On that bright October day when Anne was completely swept away, a joke made the rounds in the Wall Street circles of Rye: "Did you hear about that big bonfire in town? They're burning Scott Douglas' paintbrushes."

THE NEWLYWEDS

In marrying Anne, Scott suffered from the common delusion the non-monied have about old-money people: that marrying them makes them rich themselves. That marrying an heiress makes the husband an heir. It doesn't.

In virtually all old-money families like the Scrippses, fortunes are locked into trusts specifically to prevent money from passing out of the family. The trust is generally not even mentioned in the will, as was the case in Anne Douglas'. The fortune is automatically passed down to the generations of children, who live on the interest, while the principle remains intact or keeps growing. Wills can be drawn limiting a spouse's inheritance. That's what Anne did in 1991, according to documents filed in Westchester. With the marriage already on the rocks, she drew up a will leaving Scott enough money to keep him on his knees. State law entitled him to a third of her $ 1 million estate. But the will was structured so that his third would be placed in trust, yielding him about $ 6,500 a year that was taxable.

Scott didn't have a clue about any of this, said Anne's brother, James E. Scripps IV, who said Scott was kept financially in the dark as much as possible. Anne would not make her bank accounts joint. "She filed her tax return separately," said Scripps.

Neither did Scott have a glimmer of understanding of his own proper role: Husbands are expected at least to give the appearance of being self-supporting, regardless of what the reality is. The husband is expected always to pay in public, always to play the gentleman. These are the unwritten rules.

"She paid for everything," said Scripps. "He would charge my sister for any kind of job he did in the house. If he was painting houses, what did he do with his money?" She paid all the bills, the gas, the electric, the children, everything, said sources close to the case, and gave him money besides. Neither did he support his illegitimate daughter, now 7, said law enforcement sources.

"If they went to dinner and a movie," Devlin said, "She paid. She thought he would share in the cost of the house, but he acted like a gigolo. She was used to being treated like a lady."

Once, said a friend of Anne's, he exploded: "I've gotten more from women I've dated for two weeks than I got from you in two years."

They fought about her refusal to keep a joint bank account and buy him a new BMW. She kept her finances private. So did he. He never told her he had two bank accounts in two different names and Social Security numbers, said police. These bank accounts were found intact when Scott disappeared.

"Anne was taught to be protective about her wealth," said a close friend. She was taught, "You inherit money, you keep that money in your name. Your money is your money. She was taught early on about the value of money."

They had no sooner settled down to married life than the fighting began between Scott and Alexandra, Anne's daughter. They despised each other. Scott forced Anne to get Alexandra to move out, said a close friend of Anne's. "Scott would say she called him a dirtbag . . . and uneducated," said Creighton.

The fights intensified after Tori was born. Scott found he would have neither money nor "the Brady Bunch" lifestyle he'd pictured. He found himself even more an outsider, as he told his friend Creighton. "Especially the friends, if they were that type like she was, no matter what he did it was wrong."

GROWING PAINS: HERS

Anne and Scott were not the first to seek in marriage what had been so profoundly missing from their childhoods.

For Anne, what was missing was an average, American family. Born in Grosse Point, Mich., one of the nation's wealthiest suburbs, she had debuted in Vienna at the Schwarzenburg Palace and at the Debutante Cotillion and Christmas Ball in New York. Her bridal attendants included Princess Immaculata Hapsburg of Vienna and the ushers included Victor Emmanuel Jr. of the House of Savoy, direct descendant of the king of Italy. She'd had expensive schooling at the best Catholic girls' schools, expensive clothes and premier vacations, and wanted nothing more than a '50-style, close, suburban family.

"I didn't have much parents in my childhood," she would tell her closest friends. For the first 12 years of her life, while she attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart, her mother suffered from what would later be diagnosed as manic depression. "I just used to be depressed," said Anne Scripps, 72. Her father, James E. Scripps III, who would later devote his life to helping alcoholics, was an alcoholic, absent figure in her early years.

Much of the parenting fell to her grandmother, Ruth Ruwe, whom she always called "Nonna," although Anne continued to live at home. Mrs. Lester Ruwe, of Grosse Pointe Farms, remarried after her husband, James E. Scripps Jr., died in his 20s. She was a socialite and friend of the Ford family, also of Grosse Pointe, who introduced Anne to society and royalty, here and in Europe.

When she was 12, her family moved to Loudonville, N.Y., outside Albany. She attended the Kenwood School there, then moved to New York to graduate from the Duchesne Residence School and the New York School of Interior Design, according to her wedding announcement. For a short time, she worked as a secretary at International Textile Distributors. Then, in 1969, she married the man she would always call her "prince in shining armor," Anthony X. Morell, a stockbroker from Rye.

She raised her daughters with such diligence and care, it was as though she were making up for her own childhood. Where her mother had been absent, Anne was there, telling her children each day that she loved them, walking them to and from school each day, so determinedly housebound that she didn't even try to get a driver's license until she was 41.

GROWING PAINS: HIS

From his Port Chester apartment, Scott Douglas, who, too, felt he'd been deprived of a stable childhood, looked northward toward Greenwich and southward toward Rye and lusted for the good life. He grew up in Larchmont, then moved to Rye after his father died and his mother, Yolanda Acowitz, remarried. "His father dying did a real number on him," said Creighton. He didn't get along with his stepfather, she said he told her. He dropped out of Rye High School, then audited some college classes in Boston, becoming friendly with some dormitory students there while living in Port Chester.

He commuted between Boston and Port Chester, until he moved in with Creighton, who was 12 years his senior, divorced and had two children. She had been a go-go dancer, then was severely burned in a fire, turned waitress and now is a saleswoman. Her children adored him and so did she. They lived together for three years, until 1977, but in all that time, he didn't introduce her to his mother. He painted his first apartment while with her. "No one taught him painting. I said, gee, you're an expert painter."

Scott, she said, "was so much a person for life. Even ants. He wouldn't let me kill them, he said everything should be entitled to live. And the flies, he said, throw them out. He didn't want to see anything killed."

Still, said Hannon, his Greenwich neighbor, "There was a dead raccoon in his freezer." Taxidermy was his hobby. He seemed to surround himself with death, she said. "He left his pet cockatiel out in the sun. It died of sunstroke."

Creighton and Scott stayed friendly. Her husband got him a job as the caretaker of a Port Chester property owned by Wallace Rouse, on Quintard Drive; he lived in a cottage on the property from 1980 until 1986.

"There were a lot of girls and I heard a lot of fights," said Rouse. "He was a woman chaser. Anne Scripps was small potatoes compared to some of the gals. There were Mercedes, Cadillacs . . . all pulling up to see him. The gals he went around with were very substantial, very beautiful. He was an earthshaker, had a personality to make movie stars look like a bunch of bums. Only close friend he had was his brother.

"He'd never marry a poor woman, told me I was a sucker. He used to tell the gals this was his place, he'd entertain them at my pool. He had no respect for women, said women are nothing but a bunch of whores. He'd be fighting with one of them inside with another waiting for him outside.

"I'll tell you this, he never jumped off that bridge. He hated cold water. He never went in the pool one time in all the years. Said the water was too cold. No way he jumped into that freezing cold January water."

SUNDAY, THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS

Scott and Anne went to church in Eastchester to avoid seeing any of Anne's friends.

Then Scott took off for his Greenwich apartment at 174 Davis Ave., where Hannon lives. He knocked on her door and hastened in, tense and agitated.

"He said he had a holiday depression, that he was having trouble with his mother. I think now he was talking about his wife." He'd denied to Hannon and to the other building residents that he'd ever been married.

"He said she gives him a hard time, nothing makes her happy. He was gripping onto things. His eyes were bugging out, like he was having a mini-breakdown. He told me about his dad, said he was a professor at Columbia, a bad alcoholic who died in his forties." He was feeling guilty about letting a medical school have his body and leaving him to be buried in Potter's Field.

"He said, 'Man, I am so stressed out.' He cursed every other word out of his mouth." He complained about not being able to see his illegitimate seven-year-old daughter." He told Hannon that he also had an illegitimate five-year-old daughter, that he couldn't see her, either, Hannon said.

"If things get really bad for me, I'll jump off the bridge the way my friend did," he told her.

"Your friend really did that?"

"No," he said.

Hannon recalled that the mother of another tenant had recently died. Flowers were sent to the son. "Scott said, 'He's lucky. I know someone I wish was dead. He kept saying it over and over. I know someone that I wish was dead.' "

SUNDAY, THE DAY AFTER NEW YEAR'S

At 5 a.m., police pounded on the door of the Greenwich apartment house where Scott lived. They asked for his whereabouts. Hannon didn't know. The next day, she heard footsteps in the apartment above her and she thought Scott had returned.

She called the police.

They arrived and spoke to her but did not enter Scott's apartment. After awhile, they left. "Whoever that person was," said Hannon, "he got away."

MONDAY, JAN. 3

This was the crime that greeted Jeanine Pirro on her first day in office as the Westchester County district attorney. A former County Court judge, she brought to the job a background of devotion to domestic violence issues: As an assistant district attorney, she had created the office's first domestic violence bureau, one of the first in the country.

"I had not even gotten my coat off," she said, "And I find a domestic violence situation that has reached the highest level. It was a wake-up call for all of us in law enforcement to recognize the seriousness of domestic disputes. They do lead to domestic homicides."

Scripps family members would charge - and some newspapers would report - that on Dec. 6 New Rochelle Family Court Judge Ingrid Braslow refused to grant an order barring Scott from the house - in spite of assertions that he beat her and tried to shove her from a car. Court documents show that these allegations relate to a 1991 case that was not before Braslow. The transcript of the Dec. 6 hearing shows Braslow was not asked to remove Scott.

Next she turned for help to the Coalition for Family Justice in Westchester, where she described Scott's violence in detail. Its chairwoman, Monica Getz, advised her to move into one of their shelters. But her own attorney advised her to remain at home or it would be "abandonment," said Scripps, her brother. Then she went back to Family Court the week she was killed to beg the court for protection, said Scripps. "She was told the judge was on vacation."

"She was trapped," said her brother. "She was absolutely trapped." Said Getz: "It was a textbook case of system failure."

Against this background, Pirro decided to handle the case herself.

The family has offered a $ 100,000 reward for anyone with information leading to "the arrest and prosecution" of Scott Douglas. It is unlikely, law enforcement sources say, for the body to have surfaced if he did jump off that bridge. "The temperature of the water precludes the gases from expanding. He would not drift to the surface until spring." However, there are few people close to this case who believe Scott ever hit that water.

So, while the investigation proceeds in earnest, there are those who just wait for the spring and hope.

"We'd all like to have a swing with the claw hammer," said Sue Boles, one of Anne's neighbors. "This man has got to pay for what he did."

EPILOGUE

Anne Scripps' dream of a simple, happy household eluded her. She divorced her first husband, Anthony X. Morell in 1988, believing that he drank too much and was seeing other women. On New Year's Eve, as Anne lay dying, Morell was jobless, nearly penniless and terminally ill in an intensive-care ward in a Veterans Administration hospital in Pittsburgh, said sources close to the family. He had cirrhosis of the liver, had been given "from six weeks to six months to live" and then got his life back when the children directed that their mother's liver be donated to him.

"'He's alive today because Anne died," said Brennan. "Truth is stranger than fiction."

Husband of Slain Heiress Is Seen as Uneasy Traveler in the Land of Wealth

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:45:00 +0000

Copyright 1994 Newsday, Inc.
Newsday
He had every reason in the world to make this marriage work. But no one who knew her well understood why she kept him around. When she finally came to her senses, it was too late.
BY CAROLE AGUS. STAFF WRITER

POLICE ARE STILL searching for Scott Douglas, who disappeared on New Year's Eve. He is wanted in the murder of his wife, Anne Scripps Douglas, who was found beaten in their Westchester home the next morning. The Scripps family has posted a $ 100,000 reward for his capture.

Through extensive interviews with people close to the couple and the case, the following portrait emerged, tracing the roots of their doomed relationship and why it reached its tragic conclusion.
NEW YEAR'S EVE

While revelers celebrated throughout the land, Anne Scripps Douglas was beaten to death. Inside her stately, pillared Colonial on Avon Road in Bronxville, on a block like a scene on a Christmas card, hammer blows rained on her head, smashing her cheek, crushing her skull, beyond the skill of doctors to repair.

Said a law enforcement source: "There was a witness."

Scott Douglas, the husband, disappeared that night, as he had threatened so many times to do. His car was found idling on the Tappan Zee Bridge, said law enforcement sources, with a bloody hammer inside it.

Left behind was the daughter they were fighting over, 3-year-old Victoria, called "Tori," the child Douglas said he would take with him, the child he'd always wanted, the child even those who hated him believed he loved.

"She is definitely an eyewitness," said a law enforcement source. Do authorities credit her statements? "Absolutely." They will not, however, be relying on the uncorroborated testimony of a three-year-old child, they said. "There is a strong circumstantial case already. We do not need an eyewitness." Does it help? "Absolutely."

While Anne Douglas lay dying in a hospital, this is what Tori told the family: "Daddy was giving Mommy so many bad boo-boos. Daddy gave Mommy many boo-boos. Why is Mommy wearing warpaint?" Later she said, "Is Mommy an angel in heaven? Does Mommy still have boo-boos on her face?"

That's what the family told police. The child, said family sources, has since seen a therapist. Her statements have been repeated and evaluated. She is now under tight security.

She couldn't sleep after what she saw, said a source close to the family. "You have to lie down and go to sleep with her. She can't sleep by herself any more."

CHRISTMAS EVE

There was an open house in Bronxville on Christmas Eve, but Anne Scripps Douglas wasn't going. She had just returned from the hospital with a patch over her eye.

That's what she told Gretchen Devlin - one of her best friends for 25 years and the woman who would write her eulogy - when Devlin called that night.

They talked in code, as they always did. Anne had confided to friends and family what they later would tell police: She couldn't talk on the phone because she thought the phone was bugged by her husband. That she'd found strange wires in the basement.

The friends had secret signals whenever they called. "Do you want to have lunch?" meant she needed to talk to them outside the house.

"Okey-dokey" meant Scott was around and she couldn't talk, other than to say that everything was fine.

On Christmas Eve, Anne told Devlin she had a scratched cornea and would be staying home. They talked in code. Anne said she was sending a Christmas card. That meant it held a message. Handwritten on it were the words: "Wouldn't you know instead of decking the halls, I would get decked myself?"

Devlin feared the worst after the lunch they'd had the day before, one where Anne gave her what would be a parting gift, a pewter wine cork decorated with grapes.

"She said he pushed her down the stairs, had thrown her on the floor and kicked her. She said she put up her hands. She said, 'Take anything you want, but don't hurt me anymore. I can't take it anymore.' She said he had pulled her hair so hard she thought he was going to pull it right out of her head," said Devlin.

Devlin wasn't surprised by what she heard at lunch. She had personally witnessed Scott's treatment of Anne at a wedding in October, a wedding he wasn't originally invited to, because, said a member of the wedding, "There were enough people there who wanted to punch him out."

The story that finished Scott with most of Anne's friends was the one about the present he gave her in 1991, for their second anniversary: "He bought her a bathroom scale. She weighed 105 pounds. He said 'you better use this every day. I don't want to see an inch of fat on you.' "

Scott refused to dance at the wedding, Devlin recalled. Anne got up to dance with a woman and did a split on the dance floor. "He grabbed her off the dance floor by the arm," said Devlin. "He yelled, 'You're acting like a slut! Everyone is laughing at you!' Anne ran to hide in a utility closet and I went with her. He threw open the door. He grabbed her wrist. He said, 'You're getting out of here right now.' Anne was crying. 'Why is he doing this to me? Why does he continually hurt me? Why is he trying to destroy my life?' "

He wanted $ 200,000-$ 250,000 to get out of the marriage, Devlin said, and Anne had agreed to pay it, but only under court auspices. "She was afraid he was going to blackmail her . . . that he would kidnap their daughter."

Anne described over lunch what her life had become: They had separate bedrooms when Scott came home at all. He would often leave the house in the middle of the night without explanation. He would return home from work at 11:30 p.m. When Anne asked where he was, he replied: "Pergament." The store closes at 9:30.

It was the day before Christmas Eve when Anne told Devlin about the nights. "She said he would wake her at two, three, four o'clock in the morning. Every time he woke her, he accused her of something else. He called her stupid, he called her a slut.

"He'd wake her up and say, 'You're having an affair. You have a disease, you're disgusting.' " She would rush to the gynecologist to prove it wasn't true. He'd accuse her of renting dirty movies, when she'd rented cartoons. She'd hurry to the rental store to make sure nothing X-rated was rented in her name.

She told Devlin of nights, nights like horror movies, where she'd wake to find herself gripped by him, unable to move as he accused her, paralyzed by his threat: to cut her into little pieces, scatter her all over New York and kidnap Tori. She'd placed a hammer under the bed for safety, said law enforcement sources. It was the instrument that would kill her.

THE WEDDING DAY, 1989

Twenty friends gathered before the fireplace of Anne's living room, on a bright October day, for the wedding of the house painter and the heiress.

When Scott looked at his bride, in her ivory lace, tea-length wedding dress, with three tiers of pleated organza, he saw a delicate beauty of such graceful sensibility that people likened her to the little swans she collected. She had a social position so secure that Town and Country devoted three full pages to her first marriage. He saw an heiress to a famous fortune, the one amassed by James E. Scripps, founder of the Detroit News. He had looked with outsider eyes at the lives inside these grand homes while he painted their walls. He'd had affairs, said police, with wealthy women in Greenwich and Rye.

Now, on his wedding day, he was about to join the privileged life that Anne was living with her teenaged daughters, Alexandra and Anne Morell. It was everything he wanted, he confided to Phyllis Creighton, his former live-in girlfriend and confidante of many years: "He thought it would be like the Brady Bunch."

When Anne looked at Scott, she saw what other women had seen before: "He was a good-looking guy," said Eleanore Hannon, his downstairs neighbor at the Greenwich apartment building he used as an office, who used to date his roommate. She describes herself as "the one woman in Greenwich who didn't sleep with Scott." She could see why others did. "He had a great body, was very good looking, charming, affable, a Boy Scout of a guy. With a light and dark side."

Anne was 42 and Scott was 33 when they met on Super Bowl Sunday, 1989, at a homey pub called Kelly's Sea Level, locally famous for its atmosphere and food. They chatted. Within days, he tracked down her phone number and asked her out. Anne was recently divorced. "Her biological clock was running out," said a close friend. "She wanted another baby."

She told friends he seemed a hardworking man who prized family above all else, as she did. She'd been divorced the previous year. "It was hard for her to be single," said Devlin. "Anne was more afraid of being alone than anything else. She had believed in Tony [Morell, her first husband], believed in marriage . . . She was afraid to be alone raising her kids."

So when, in October, 1989, he said they must marry "now," recalled Devlin, Anne was swept away. He would be only the second lover in her life; the first was her first husband. Against the advice of her friends, she scheduled the ceremony for five days later, refusing to demand a prenuptial agreement.

The wedding guests saw a gigolo conning an heiress. Who was this upstart house painter, they said among themselves, crashing his way into Catholic aristocracy? Here he was in the rarefied world where Bronxville speaks to Rye and Greenwich and none of them speaks to Port Chester. Here was a high school dropout presuming on a world where teenagers go to prep schools and boarding schools like Kent, Westminster, St. Paul's or Rye Country Day.

Here was a world where parents just naturally belong to the Westchester Country Club or Apawamus and / or the American Yacht Club and have second homes in the Hamptons or Palm Beach and play tennis in Bermuda, where daughters are debutantes and sons are escorts at the St. Vincent Cotillion, a ball so elite that young women are introduced to society in the presence of the Cardinal himself.

And then there was Scott.

"He was classless," said one of the 20 wedding guests. "A name dropper. You could see that immediately. He was shifty, he had a slimy, weak handshake, didn't look you straight in the eye, had no conversation, had nothing to say. What could he talk about, house painting? He didn't speak our language."

His mother did not attend the wedding. He said that his mother was dead. He told Anne he was Jewish. Later on, Anne found out that he was Episcopalian, that he had two sisters he'd never mentioned and that his mother was alive and living in Rye. He said he'd been christened in Larchmont, but Anne called every church and there wasn't any record. He lied about so many things that Anne hired a private detective, a close friend told police, at least to find out this much: "Is Scott Douglas his real name?"

Later on, after her death, neighbors like Sue Boles and Dorothy Brennan would say that Anne was innocent and all too trusting. Clearly, she knew this much: marrying Scott would not go over with her family. Her mother, brother and sister didn't attend the wedding.

"We didn't even know about it," said her mother, Anne Scripps, 72. "She knew I wouldn't approve. I'm a Catholic. She knew I was sick. She didn't want to upset me too much."

On that bright October day when Anne was completely swept away, a joke made the rounds in the Wall Street circles of Rye: "Did you hear about that big bonfire in town? They're burning Scott Douglas' paintbrushes."

THE NEWLYWEDS

In marrying Anne, Scott suffered from the common delusion the non-monied have about old-money people: that marrying them makes them rich themselves. That marrying an heiress makes the husband an heir. It doesn't.

In virtually all old-money families like the Scrippses, fortunes are locked into trusts specifically to prevent money from passing out of the family. The trust is generally not even mentioned in the will, as was the case in Anne Douglas'. The fortune is automatically passed down to the generations of children, who live on the interest, while the principle remains intact or keeps growing. Wills can be drawn limiting a spouse's inheritance. That's what Anne did in 1991, according to documents filed in Westchester. With the marriage already on the rocks, she drew up a will leaving Scott enough money to keep him on his knees. State law entitled him to a third of her $ 1 million estate. But the will was structured so that his third would be placed in trust, yielding him about $ 6,500 a year that was taxable.

Scott didn't have a clue about any of this, said Anne's brother, James E. Scripps IV, who said Scott was kept financially in the dark as much as possible. Anne would not make her bank accounts joint. "She filed her tax return separately," said Scripps.

Neither did Scott have a glimmer of understanding of his own proper role: Husbands are expected at least to give the appearance of being self-supporting, regardless of what the reality is. The husband is expected always to pay in public, always to play the gentleman. These are the unwritten rules.

"She paid for everything," said Scripps. "He would charge my sister for any kind of job he did in the house. If he was painting houses, what did he do with his money?" She paid all the bills, the gas, the electric, the children, everything, said sources close to the case, and gave him money besides. Neither did he support his illegitimate daughter, now 7, said law enforcement sources.

"If they went to dinner and a movie," Devlin said, "She paid. She thought he would share in the cost of the house, but he acted like a gigolo. She was used to being treated like a lady."

Once, said a friend of Anne's, he exploded: "I've gotten more from women I've dated for two weeks than I got from you in two years."

They fought about her refusal to keep a joint bank account and buy him a new BMW. She kept her finances private. So did he. He never told her he had two bank accounts in two different names and Social Security numbers, said police. These bank accounts were found intact when Scott disappeared.

"Anne was taught to be protective about her wealth," said a close friend. She was taught, "You inherit money, you keep that money in your name. Your money is your money. She was taught early on about the value of money."

They had no sooner settled down to married life than the fighting began between Scott and Alexandra, Anne's daughter. They despised each other. Scott forced Anne to get Alexandra to move out, said a close friend of Anne's. "Scott would say she called him a dirtbag . . . and uneducated," said Creighton.

The fights intensified after Tori was born. Scott found he would have neither money nor "the Brady Bunch" lifestyle he'd pictured. He found himself even more an outsider, as he told his friend Creighton. "Especially the friends, if they were that type like she was, no matter what he did it was wrong."

GROWING PAINS: HERS

Anne and Scott were not the first to seek in marriage what had been so profoundly missing from their childhoods.

For Anne, what was missing was an average, American family. Born in Grosse Point, Mich., one of the nation's wealthiest suburbs, she had debuted in Vienna at the Schwarzenburg Palace and at the Debutante Cotillion and Christmas Ball in New York. Her bridal attendants included Princess Immaculata Hapsburg of Vienna and the ushers included Victor Emmanuel Jr. of the House of Savoy, direct descendant of the king of Italy. She'd had expensive schooling at the best Catholic girls' schools, expensive clothes and premier vacations, and wanted nothing more than a '50-style, close, suburban family.

"I didn't have much parents in my childhood," she would tell her closest friends. For the first 12 years of her life, while she attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart, her mother suffered from what would later be diagnosed as manic depression. "I just used to be depressed," said Anne Scripps, 72. Her father, James E. Scripps III, who would later devote his life to helping alcoholics, was an alcoholic, absent figure in her early years.

Much of the parenting fell to her grandmother, Ruth Ruwe, whom she always called "Nonna," although Anne continued to live at home. Mrs. Lester Ruwe, of Grosse Pointe Farms, remarried after her husband, James E. Scripps Jr., died in his 20s. She was a socialite and friend of the Ford family, also of Grosse Pointe, who introduced Anne to society and royalty, here and in Europe.

When she was 12, her family moved to Loudonville, N.Y., outside Albany. She attended the Kenwood School there, then moved to New York to graduate from the Duchesne Residence School and the New York School of Interior Design, according to her wedding announcement. For a short time, she worked as a secretary at International Textile Distributors. Then, in 1969, she married the man she would always call her "prince in shining armor," Anthony X. Morell, a stockbroker from Rye.

She raised her daughters with such diligence and care, it was as though she were making up for her own childhood. Where her mother had been absent, Anne was there, telling her children each day that she loved them, walking them to and from school each day, so determinedly housebound that she didn't even try to get a driver's license until she was 41.

GROWING PAINS: HIS

From his Port Chester apartment, Scott Douglas, who, too, felt he'd been deprived of a stable childhood, looked northward toward Greenwich and southward toward Rye and lusted for the good life. He grew up in Larchmont, then moved to Rye after his father died and his mother, Yolanda Acowitz, remarried. "His father dying did a real number on him," said Creighton. He didn't get along with his stepfather, she said he told her. He dropped out of Rye High School, then audited some college classes in Boston, becoming friendly with some dormitory students there while living in Port Chester.

He commuted between Boston and Port Chester, until he moved in with Creighton, who was 12 years his senior, divorced and had two children. She had been a go-go dancer, then was severely burned in a fire, turned waitress and now is a saleswoman. Her children adored him and so did she. They lived together for three years, until 1977, but in all that time, he didn't introduce her to his mother. He painted his first apartment while with her. "No one taught him painting. I said, gee, you're an expert painter."

Scott, she said, "was so much a person for life. Even ants. He wouldn't let me kill them, he said everything should be entitled to live. And the flies, he said, throw them out. He didn't want to see anything killed."

Still, said Hannon, his Greenwich neighbor, "There was a dead raccoon in his freezer." Taxidermy was his hobby. He seemed to surround himself with death, she said. "He left his pet cockatiel out in the sun. It died of sunstroke."

Creighton and Scott stayed friendly. Her husband got him a job as the caretaker of a Port Chester property owned by Wallace Rouse, on Quintard Drive; he lived in a cottage on the property from 1980 until 1986.

"There were a lot of girls and I heard a lot of fights," said Rouse. "He was a woman chaser. Anne Scripps was small potatoes compared to some of the gals. There were Mercedes, Cadillacs . . . all pulling up to see him. The gals he went around with were very substantial, very beautiful. He was an earthshaker, had a personality to make movie stars look like a bunch of bums. Only close friend he had was his brother.

"He'd never marry a poor woman, told me I was a sucker. He used to tell the gals this was his place, he'd entertain them at my pool. He had no respect for women, said women are nothing but a bunch of whores. He'd be fighting with one of them inside with another waiting for him outside.

"I'll tell you this, he never jumped off that bridge. He hated cold water. He never went in the pool one time in all the years. Said the water was too cold. No way he jumped into that freezing cold January water."

SUNDAY, THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS

Scott and Anne went to church in Eastchester to avoid seeing any of Anne's friends.

Then Scott took off for his Greenwich apartment at 174 Davis Ave., where Hannon lives. He knocked on her door and hastened in, tense and agitated.

"He said he had a holiday depression, that he was having trouble with his mother. I think now he was talking about his wife." He'd denied to Hannon and to the other building residents that he'd ever been married.

"He said she gives him a hard time, nothing makes her happy. He was gripping onto things. His eyes were bugging out, like he was having a mini-breakdown. He told me about his dad, said he was a professor at Columbia, a bad alcoholic who died in his forties." He was feeling guilty about letting a medical school have his body and leaving him to be buried in Potter's Field.

"He said, 'Man, I am so stressed out.' He cursed every other word out of his mouth." He complained about not being able to see his illegitimate seven-year-old daughter." He told Hannon that he also had an illegitimate five-year-old daughter, that he couldn't see her, either, Hannon said.

"If things get really bad for me, I'll jump off the bridge the way my friend did," he told her.

"Your friend really did that?"

"No," he said.

Hannon recalled that the mother of another tenant had recently died. Flowers were sent to the son. "Scott said, 'He's lucky. I know someone I wish was dead. He kept saying it over and over. I know someone that I wish was dead.' "

SUNDAY, THE DAY AFTER NEW YEAR'S

At 5 a.m., police pounded on the door of the Greenwich apartment house where Scott lived. They asked for his whereabouts. Hannon didn't know. The next day, she heard footsteps in the apartment above her and she thought Scott had returned.

She called the police.

They arrived and spoke to her but did not enter Scott's apartment. After awhile, they left. "Whoever that person was," said Hannon, "he got away."

MONDAY, JAN. 3

This was the crime that greeted Jeanine Pirro on her first day in office as the Westchester County district attorney. A former County Court judge, she brought to the job a background of devotion to domestic violence issues: As an assistant district attorney, she had created the office's first domestic violence bureau, one of the first in the country.

"I had not even gotten my coat off," she said, "And I find a domestic violence situation that has reached the highest level. It was a wake-up call for all of us in law enforcement to recognize the seriousness of domestic disputes. They do lead to domestic homicides."

Scripps family members would charge - and some newspapers would report - that on Dec. 6 New Rochelle Family Court Judge Ingrid Braslow refused to grant an order barring Scott from the house - in spite of assertions that he beat her and tried to shove her from a car. Court documents show that these allegations relate to a 1991 case that was not before Braslow. The transcript of the Dec. 6 hearing shows Braslow was not asked to remove Scott.

Next she turned for help to the Coalition for Family Justice in Westchester, where she described Scott's violence in detail. Its chairwoman, Monica Getz, advised her to move into one of their shelters. But her own attorney advised her to remain at home or it would be "abandonment," said Scripps, her brother. Then she went back to Family Court the week she was killed to beg the court for protection, said Scripps. "She was told the judge was on vacation."

"She was trapped," said her brother. "She was absolutely trapped." Said Getz: "It was a textbook case of system failure."

Against this background, Pirro decided to handle the case herself.

The family has offered a $ 100,000 reward for anyone with information leading to "the arrest and prosecution" of Scott Douglas. It is unlikely, law enforcement sources say, for the body to have surfaced if he did jump off that bridge. "The temperature of the water precludes the gases from expanding. He would not drift to the surface until spring." However, there are few people close to this case who believe Scott ever hit that water.

So, while the investigation proceeds in earnest, there are those who just wait for the spring and hope.

"We'd all like to have a swing with the claw hammer," said Sue Boles, one of Anne's neighbors. "This man has got to pay for what he did."

EPILOGUE

Anne Scripps' dream of a simple, happy household eluded her. She divorced her first husband, Anthony X. Morell in 1988, believing that he drank too much and was seeing other women. On New Year's Eve, as Anne lay dying, Morell was jobless, nearly penniless and terminally ill in an intensive-care ward in a Veterans Administration hospital in Pittsburgh, said sources close to the family. He had cirrhosis of the liver, had been given "from six weeks to six months to live" and then got his life back when the children directed that their mother's liver be donated to him.

"'He's alive today because Anne died," said Brennan. "Truth is stranger than fiction."

Murdered heiress saves life of ex-husband

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:45:00 +0000

Copyright 1994 Caledonian Newspapers Ltd.
The Herald (Glasgow)

New York, Tuesday,
DOCTORS have transplanted the liver from newspaper heiress Anne Scripps Douglas, who died last week after a New Year's Eve beating, to her dying first husband.

Family lawyer John Kelly told a news conference the transplant was performed on Douglas's first husband, Wall Street broker Anthony Morell, on the day of her death. Early signs suggested it had been successful, Kelly added.

Police and FBI agents were continuing their search for Douglas's second husband, Scott Douglas, 38, who they believe beat her and faked his own suicide before fleeing.

Mrs Douglas was found bludgeoned in her suburban New York mansion and died a week later without regaining consciousness. Scott Douglas's idling BMW was found on a nearby bridge over the Hudson River hours after the attack.

Kelly said the decision to do the transplant was made by the couple's two adult daughters, Alexandra and Anne.

"The daughters acted on what they knew would be their mother's wishes," said Kelly.

"Anne Douglas left this world the way she lived in it -- loving, giving."

He said Morell, 49, had been given "six weeks to six months" to live but now appeared to be recovering.

Kelly said the family expected Scott Douglas to be found alive.

Mrs Douglas, 47, was one of 200 heirs to the Scripps newspaper fortune, estimated at $ 900m.

She married house painter Scott Douglas five years ago. Their three-year-old daughter was asleep nearby when her mother was attacked.

Kelly said Mrs Douglas had failed to win a court order barring her husband from her home days before she was attacked.--Reuter.

Slain Heiress Buried as Some New Details Surface

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:44:00 +0000

Copyright 1994 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
By JOSEPH BERGER, Special to The New York Times

As new details emerged about her mounting fears that her husband might attack her, Anne Scripps Douglas was remembered today as a dedicated mother at a funeral Mass here.

Four hundred mourners filled the nave of St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, where Mrs. Douglas's body lay in a cherrywood coffin draped with a pall embroidered with gold. The mourners saw one of her two daughters from a previous marriage, Anne Morell, step up to the pulpit while a cousin, Brooke Morell, read a brief letter the daughter had written but did not want to read herself. "You were the best mom. We will never forget you," Anne Morell wrote. "We know you are at peace now and out of pain."

Mrs. Douglas, a 47-year-old heiress to the Scripps newspaper fortune, was found severely beaten at her home here early on New Year's Day, a few hours after her husband's 1982 BMW was found abandoned, its engine still running, on the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Husband Is Charged

After searching the Hudson River and finding no trace of him, authorities have charged the husband, Scott Douglas, a 38-year-old contractor, with her murder and have issued a warrant for his arrest, though they say they are not certain he is alive. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has joined the search, charging Mr. Douglas with unlawful flight.

Today, members of a group that helps victims of domestic violence, the National Coalition for Family Justice, said Mrs. Douglas had sought their help twice last month, complaining that her husband would lose control when he was drunk and turn violent and that a Family Court protection order she had obtained was not stopping him from being abusive.

"She was frightened," said Monica Getz, the group's chairman. "She said he had a history of violence. She said she was concerned for her daughter."

Ms. Getz said that another member of the group, Deidre Akerson, urged Mrs. Douglas to go to a shelter for battered women but Mrs. Douglas seemed more inclined to attend the group's next meeting, which will be on Saturday.

New details also emerged today about what happened after Mrs. Douglas was beaten. A relative of Mrs. Douglas's children, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that shortly after the attack, Scott Douglas called his brother and told him something was wrong at the house.

The brother, whose name the relative did not know, called the police and they discovered Mrs. Douglas's body in an upstairs bedroom. The relative said he did not know if the phone call indicated Mr. Douglas's remorse or simply a decision to get his wife medical help.

As he left the church today, G. Michael O'Neil 3d, a cousin of Mrs. Douglas's first husband, Anthony X. Morell, said that on New Year's Eve, Mrs. Douglas's daughter Anne had been concerned about Mr. Douglas's threats against her mother, but that Mrs. Douglas dismissed them as "one of his moods." The daughter then went out for the evening, and when she returned the police were at her home and her mother was unconscious.

At the Mass, Msgr. James Connolly delivered the homily and described Mrs. Douglas as a "dedicated mother" and a "person of a trusting nature, a good, decent person."

Among those at the funeral were Mrs. Douglas's oldest daughter, Alexandra; Mrs. Douglas's mother, Anne Gibbs Scripps; her brother, James E. Scripps 4th, and her sister, Mary G. Scripps. The family decided that Mrs. Douglas's daughter with Mr. Douglas, Victoria, 3 years old, would not attend.

Mrs. Douglas, the great-great-granddaughter of James E. Scripps, the founder of The Detroit News, was buried later in the day at St. Agnes Cemetery in Menands, N.Y., near her childhood home outside Albany.

GRAPHIC: Photo: A bagpiper playing yesterday outside St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Bronxville, N.Y., as the coffin of Anne Scripps Douglas left the church. Four hundred mourners attended the funeral Mass for Mrs. Douglas, an heiress to the Scripps newspaper fortune, who was found beaten on New Year's Day. (Alan Zale for The New York Times)

Slain Heiress Is Remembered as Trusting

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:44:00 +0000

Copyright 1994 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
BYLINE: By JOSEPH BERGER

Anne Scripps Douglas was an heiress with the cushion of the Scripps newspaper fortune, but she struck her friends as someone who needed their protection.

"I always wanted to fold her in my arms and pat her," said Dorothy Brennan, a friend and neighbor in Bronxville. "She was a beautiful person with an air of innocence. She was not of this world."

Indeed, her life, beginning with her schooling in an upstate convent school and almost until she was bludgeoned to death in the village of Bronxville in Westchester County, had an aura of having been a sheltered one. Well into her 40's as a suburbanite, she never even learned to drive, escorting her children to and from school and doing her errands on foot. And she was so private, a friend said, that it seemed to take all of this newspaper heiress's courage just to write a letter to a local newspaper protesting the renovation of her neighborhood park.

It was that vulnerability, her friends speculated, that led her to be overly trusting of her second husband, Scott Douglas, a 38-year-old home-remodeling contractor who has been charged with her murder. The 47-year-old Mrs. Douglas was discovered New Year's Day lying unconscious in her home on Avon Road. She died Thursday without regaining consciousness.

Car Found on Bridge

Her husband's 1982 BMW was found abandoned on the Tappan Zee Bridge with the engine running and the keys in the ignition. Police have not located his body, and they have issued a warrant for his arrest.

"We are proceeding as though he is alive," said Jeanine Pirro, the Westchester County District Attorney, but she acknowledged that she had no proof that he was alive.

The Douglases had separated more than a year ago, but reconciled. Then in the last month, neighbors say, they noticed police cars in the driveway of the Douglas house on a half-dozen occasions after she accused her husband of threatening or harassing her. The neighbors also learned that Mrs. Douglas had gone to Family Court Dec. 6 to obtain an order of protection for herself and her 3-year-old daughter, Victoria, but they are mystified now as to why she agreed to permit Mr. Douglas to remain at the house.

"She was very trusting and maybe a little naive," said Sharon Boles, a friend for 20 years. "I think she thought he wouldn't do anything to her."

Friends say the two met five years ago when Mrs. Douglas, then a divorced mother with two teen-age daughters, hired the 6-foot Mr. Douglas to paint her house. Although they were struck that she married a man on such a different social level, they said, they were not entirely surprised.

"I think she didn't have a great deal of confidence after her first marriage, and he was very charming, very charming," Mrs. Boles recalled. "And he presented himself as being very concerned about her. He was very handsome and when we met him he seemed very solicitous of her. When I first heard that it was not an ideal situation, I was very surprised."

Few Details About Husband

Both Mrs. Brennan and Mrs. Boles described Mr. Douglas as "preppy" in appearance, though Mrs. Brennan added, "You couldn't engage him in conversation of any kind." But few said that they knew much more about him. For a time early in the marriage, said Mrs. Brennan, the Douglases "seemed quite happy, like a couple of kids in love."

Mrs. Douglas might have been in emotional turmoil during the last few weeks of her life, but, Mrs. Boles and Mrs. Brennan said, she always presented herself as cheerful, and both were struck by her sense of humor.

Mrs. Douglas, her friends say, did not reveal herself as rich and many knew nothing about her roots in the family that founded the Scripps Howard communications company. A small woman with dark hair that was often swept back in a bun or ponytail, she wore modest clothes and only hinted at the elegance within her reach by dressing stylishly for a rare party.

"She was very unostentatious," said a neighbor who spoke on condition of anonymity. "She didn't get involved in the social whirligig."

During snowstorms, she shoveled the sidewalk in front of her house and she did much of her own gardening. For a time after the end of her first marriage, she even worked as a salesclerk at a village shop.

"She was very quiet, very self-effacing," said Larry Boles, Mrs. Boles' husband. "She didn't talk much about herself. When you talked to Annie you felt she didn't have a bad bone in her body. She never said anything bad about anyone, never gossiped."

If she used her home as "a retreat," Mrs. Brennan said, it was because she didn't have a "coterie of girlfriends."

Father Was Ship Captain

Mrs. Douglas, who was born Nov. 18, 1946, was the great-great-granddaughter of James E. Scripps, the founder of The Detroit News. Her father, Capt. James E. Scripps 3d, was a former merchant marine skipper who directed the Tracy Foundation's alcoholic rehabilitation center in Ravena, N.Y., south of Albany.

The family lived in the Albany suburb of Loudonville -- Mrs. Douglas's brother, James, and sister, Mary, still live in the area -- and Anne attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart school in Albany, a school known for its academic demands and rigorous discipline.

After graduation from the high school, she came to Manhattan to study at the Duchesne Residence School, a two-year college largely for well-off Catholic women, an educator said. It was run by the Religious of the Sacred Heart until it closed in 1967, the year after Anne graduated. She majored in interior design. A comment on her record by Mother Clare Krim, the director, described Anne as "very attractive, pleasant, very active on the social service committee and always willing to help others."

She was a society debutante, coming out at parties at the Schwarzenburg Palace in Vienna and at a Manhattan cotillion.

In 1969, when she was 23, she married Anthony X. Morell, a Rye stockbroker, in a wedding held in the St. Regis Hotel. The couple settled in Bronxville in the early 1970's and had two children, Alexandra and Ann.

The marriage fell apart, but she derived her happiness, her neighbors said, from her children. Rain or shine, she would walk them to school in the morning, walk back to pick them up for lunch, and walk back to school to pick them up at dismissal. An ardent Roman Catholic, she made sure her children attended religious school, and she escorted them there as well.

"She spent so much time with the kids," said Mrs. Boles. "I'd say to her, 'You're doing the kind of thing I wish we had done. You stop and smell the roses.'

"She truly loved those kids. She couldn't love them enough."

New Year's beating kills heiress to paper fortune

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:43:00 +0000

Woman attacked as daughter slept, husband sought
BRONXVILLE, N.Y. (Reuter) - An heiress to the Scripps newspaper fortune has died a week after being bludgeoned in her home while her daughter slept a few rooms away, police said yesterday.

Anne Scripps Douglas, 47, died in hospital Thursday afternoon. She never regained consciousness after the New Year's Eve beating in her posh home some 25 kilometres (15 miles) north of New York city, a hospital spokesperson said.

Her lawyer John Kelly told reporters late Thursday she "passed away as a result of a vicious, senseless beating" with a blunt object.

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of her husband, Scott Douglas, Bronxville police said.

His idling BMW was found on the nearby Tappan Zee bridge over the Hudson River early New Year's Day, hours after the beating.

Police searched the river for any sign of Douglas but found nothing and called off the search after five days.

They have since asked anyone who saw someone walking, hitchhiking or being picked up on the bridge to contact police.

The couple's 3-year-old daughter Victoria was asleep in another room when police, alerted by relatives who were concerned when Scripps Douglas did not answer phone calls, entered their home.

Neighbors were quoted in local news reports as saying Scripps Douglas was seeking a divorce from her husband, a former house painter whom she met when she hired him to paint the house, the reports said.

She was the great-great-grandaughter of newspaper publisher James Scripps, half-brother and business associate of Edward Wyllis Scripps, who was the founder of the U.S. media group today known as Scripps Howard.

Anne Scripps Douglas

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:22:00 +0000

Anne Scripps Douglas, heiress to the Scripps Publishing Company, was beaten to death by her husband Scott Douglas. Anne's strory inspired the made for tv movie "Our Mother's Murder."

Murder hits the Paper for the first time Anne Scripps Douglas, 47, was found unconscious in her bedroom after relatives called police.

Police said her missing husband, Scott Stuart Douglas, is the main suspect. He drove off after allegedly assaulting his wife as their 3-year-old daughter lay sleeping in the next room. His car was found early Saturday on the Tappan Zee Bridge with the motor running.

A search of the Hudson River by boat and helicopter turned up nothing. Police Chief Alexander DiVernieri said investigators were pursuing all possibilities.

Mrs. Douglas was an heiress to the newspaper fortune begun by her great-great-grandfather, James Scripps, founder of the Detroit News. She married Douglas about four years ago. Kelly said he was a self-employed house painter.

Brandon Roy

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:48:00 +0000

Brandon Roy - Rockets-Trail Blazers Preview (AP) -- Playing once again without the franchise's top prospect hasn't made things easy for the Portland Trail Blazers so far this season.

Consistently facing the Western Conference's best hasn't exactly helped, either.

Set to meet a 2007-08 playoff team for the fifth straight game, Portland will try to avoid its fourth loss in five games on Thursday night when it hosts the Houston Rockets, who open a five-game road trip looking to rebound from their first loss of the season.

The Blazers (1-3) were bubbling with optimism entering this season, with 2007 top overall draft pick Greg Oden finally set to take the court after missing all of last season following microfracture knee surgery.

But Oden went down with a foot injury during the Blazers' 96-76 season-opening loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, and with their 7-footer out, Portland's early path hasn't gotten any easier. The Blazers' lone victory was a 100-99 win in their home opener against San Antonio on Friday, and they've dropped their last two on the road at Phoenix and Utah.

They led the Jazz entering the fourth quarter on Wednesday, but were outscored 29-18 en route to a 103-96 defeat. Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge each had 18 points and Portland shot 10-of-19 from 3-point range, but offense hasn't been the Blazers' problem during their tough start.

They were hoping Oden would help bolster their defense. Instead, the Blazers have allowed an average of 101.3 points through their first four games, with opponents shooting better than 52.6 percent in each of the last three.

"It was a winnable game and we let it slip,"Brandon Roy said on Wednesday. "Tonight was another case where we panicked and they made a run."

The Blazers are used to strong performances by opponents. Thursday's game will be their fifth straight against a team that finished among the West's top six last season, with those teams jumping out to a combined 16-5 record to start 2008-09.

After going 55-27 last season before losing in the first round of the playoffs to the Jazz, the Rockets (3-1) won their first three games with the newly united trio of Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming and Ron Artest.

But they couldn't get past the defending NBA champions on Tuesday, losing 103-99 at home to Boston. Artest was just 3-of-16 from the floor while Yao went 4-of-14 in what he called one of his "worst games of all time" as Houston shot 39.1 percent from the field.

"We did not play well at all," Artest said. "Usually you can say you've got to give them credit. But there were things that we could've done better to pull out the victory."

After playing three of its first four at home, Houston embarks on a difficult trip that also includes games against the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix and San Antonio.

The Rockets won their first road game 112-102 at Dallas last Thursday, as Yao had 30 points and Artest added 29. Their 24-17 road record last season included a pair of wins at the Rose Garden, as the Blazers averaged 82.5 points in those games.

That was impressive considering Portland went 28-13 at home last season. Houston was the only team to beat the Blazers four times last season, and Portland has lost five straight and 15 of 18 overall against the Rockets.
By MIKE LIPKA, STATS Writer

Tradition in this Buddhist Himalayan kingdom

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:09:00 +0000

Bhutan celebrates coronation of young new king THIMPHU, Bhutan – Tradition in this Buddhist Himalayan kingdom says that the people pay homage to a new king by lining up with the gift of a white scarf. Their new monarch, however, was having none of it.

Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck, a Western-educated bachelor with the good looks of a young Elvis and an easy charm, came down from his throne to his people after a ceremony Thursday that saw him become Bhutan's first king since its transformation to democracy.

Moving through some 20,000 Bhutanese near the Tashichho Dzong, a 17th-century white-walled fortress where the coronation was held, the king bent low to take the scarves and in return handed out coronation coins.

Most accepted the gift in silence with heads bowed, even as the king stroked some on the face. One girl gave him a note which he read and then tucked into his red and gold robes before giving her a kiss.

"I feel happy, so excited," said Karma Tsubu, 15, who wept when the king gave her the coin. "I can't believe I have had this opportunity."

The public greeting followed the coronation, an elaborate display of pageantry, mingled with ancient Buddhist rites that saw King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, 52, the much-loved monarch, formalize his abdication and place the Raven Crown on the head of his 28-year-old son.

The ceremony, which took place at the precise hour — 8:31 a.m. — appointed by astrologers, was the last step in a process that saw the elder Wangchuck reform the isolated Himalayan nation from a closed-off absolute monarchy to a democracy with his heir at the helm.

The new king will serve as head of state, but one that can be impeached by a Parliament chosen in the country's first democratic elections in March.

However, with the monarchy idolized by much of the population, his influence will be paramount.

"If we have democracy, it is because the kings gave it to us," said Jigme Thinely, the first democratically elected prime minister.

Musicians standing on the roof of the fortress heralded the arrival of the new king, banging drums to drive away any evil spirits.

In the throne room, the new king received his crown topped with a blue embroidered raven's head from his father before taking his seat on the intricately carved golden throne.

Led by the Je Khenbo, the head of the Bhutanese Buddhists, dignitaries placed offerings before the king and eight objects — including the umbrella of supremacy and the fish of wisdom — symbolizing the virtues a good king should have.

The new monarch is already popular with the people, effectively serving as acting king since December 2006 when his father announced his retirement. The coronation was delayed as court astrologers waited for an auspicious date.

The king, who studied in the United States before earning his degree from Oxford University in England, achieved heartthrob status in Thailand when he attended their king's 60th anniversary on the throne in 2006.

Pictures of him with his slicked back hair and long sideburns gazing intently toward the future circulated widely on the Internet and Thai newspapers dubbed him "Prince Charming."

The coronation was attended by only one other head of state, Indian President Pratibha Patil.

"We are a small country and it would have been our joy to welcome many heads of government and state. But the king felt it would not be a wise use of our limited resources," Thinely said.

Bhutan is sandwiched between 1.1 billion Indians to the south and 1.3 billion Chinese to the north. These Asian giants have swallowed the other Buddhist kingdoms, like Sikkim or Tibet, that once thrived across the Himalayan range.

The king inherits a country much changed since it began opening up to the world in the 1960's. Foreigners and the international media were admitted in 1974, while the Internet and television came in 1999.

Bhutanese say the reforms have allowed the nation of 700,000 people to survive with their culture and sovereignty intact and pursue Gross National Happiness, an overarching political philosophy which seeks to balance material progress with spiritual well-being.

Nevertheless, Bhutan remains a tightly controlled society where the wearing of traditional robes is mandatory and colored sashes indicate rank in society. It lets in only 20,000 foreigners a year on supervised trips
By GAVIN RABINOWITZ
Associated Press Writer Gavin Rabinowitz, Associated Press Writer – Thu Nov 6.

Privacy Policy

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Privacy Policy for http://usa-hot.blogspot.com

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