NoirCon

Retreat To Goodisville 2011

2012-02-19T20:53:00.000-05:00

a la Cullen Gallagher

Make your plans to join us for Retreat to Goodisville 2013

Noir: A Modern Day Goodis Nightmare in France

2012-02-18T22:14:00.000-05:00

The Woman in the Fifth
Production year: 2011
Country: Rest of the world
Cert (UK): 15
Runtime: 85 mins
Directors: Pawel Pawlikowski
Cast: Delphine Chuillot, Ethan Hawke, Joanna Kulig, Kristin Scott Thomas, Samir Guesmi
More on this film

The Woman in the Fifth, Pawel Pawlikowski's first film since My Summer of Love seven years ago and his first thriller. Not exactly an amnesia film but pretty close, it's based on a novel by Douglas Kennedy, the American writer resident in London, whose novel The Big Picture was filmed in France two years ago as L'homme qui voulait vivre sa vie starring Romain Duris. Ethan Hawke plays Tom Ricks, an emotionally and sartorially frayed American university teacher and author of one novel, who goes to Paris in an attempt to patch up his failed marriage to a French woman and see his six-year-old daughter. He wakes up in the suburbs on a bus, his suitcase and wallet stolen, and finds a room at a seedy hotel. Thereafter nothing is as it seems. A sinister Arab confiscates his passport and gives him a curious night-time surveillance job. He gets involved with a menacing black neighbour, a young Polish waitress, a seductive Anglo-Romanian femme fatale (Kristin Scott Thomas) who works as a translator, and there's a peculiarly sordid murder. This is the nightmare territory of Cornell Woolrich, David Goodis and other American pulp authors much loved by Série noire readers, and Pawlikowski takes us on an edgy voyage au bout de la nuit.

Noir: Before I die, A Randy Reiger must be in every American Household!

2012-02-18T20:12:00.002-05:00

Let ADTI into your head and heart! Visit Randy Reiger's American Dream Technical Institute NOW!

Noir: Get Some MSC now!

2012-02-18T11:31:00.001-05:00

The songs:

The Passion Killer (4:01)

Whose Prison Romance (4:09)

Set Off A Scandal (2:58)

credits

Noir: Angels of Mercy or Denizens of Desire

2012-02-18T09:57:00.000-05:00

It was after ten when she and Clem left the party … He said, a trifle thickly, “Where to? I haven’t any idea where you live. ” Viola slid close to him and lifted her face until her lips were against his ear. She spoke straight from her wildly beating heart, “Take me home with you. Please–please take me home with you”. His arms encircled her … “Sure, why not? Why the devil not? ” He leaned forward, gave the taxi-driver his address and turned to pull Viola’s trembling body hard against him. He covered her lips with his … Viola Barton thought that she could throw away her heart, deny her son his true father, and make a life for herself without the ecstasy of a young man’s love. She married Eugene, old and dying and passionless … and then found that there are wellsprings in a woman’s soul which cannot be stifled or denied There was room in her thoughts only for Clem … here beside her …

Erolie Pearl Gaddis was born in Gaddistown, Georgia on March 5, 1895. She married John Sherman Dern in 1931. She wrote as both Peggy Gaddis and Peggy Dern indiscriminately, sometimes swapping the bylines on different editions of the same book. Peggy was probably a family nickname dating from her childhood; since it is not a recognized nickname for either of her given names. I consider it a pseudonym, even though it was probably the name she was known by in everyday life.
         According to Contemporary Authors her early career revolved around the entertainment business. She claimed to have appeared on stage and in movies as an actress but I have not found any details of such work. She edited trade journals and fan magazines, presumably in the 1920’s; at a later time she edited at least one romance pulp magazine. She is known to have written prolifically for the romance pulps but these magazines are poorly documented and the handful of stories currently known are a drop in the bucket.
         As a novelist her work was confined entirely to two closely related genres, virtually all of it written for lending library publishers. For thirty years she wrote traditional romances, almost entirely for one publisher, Arcadia House. For the last ten of those years she wrote principally nurse novels. She also wrote “love novels,” a somewhat sleazier form of romance that was invented by the lending library publishers. In the 1930’s she wrote them for William Godwin, Inc. and in the 1940’s for Phoenix Press. By 1951 this genre had been abandoned by the hardcover publishers and found a new home in the proliferating digest-size paperbacks. These publishers faded away by 1955, those that survived shifting to soft core porn. Most of the older authors, like Peggy Gaddis, chose not to follow this direction and fell back on writing traditional romances. In the early 1960’s Arcadia House found that there was a mass-market audience for their romances, especially the nurse novels. A flood of Gaddis’s novels were reprinted, some of them several times, under a bewildering array of titles and bylines.
         Peggy Gaddis passed away on June 14, 1966. For several years her novels continued to be reprinted, but by the mid-1970’s tastes in romances had changed and her work gradually faded into obscurity. A number of her works have been reprinted in Large Print editions in recent years but this has failed to produce a revival of interest in her work at large and she has never become a “cult” author. By the time the first edition of Twentieth Century Romance...Writers was published, in 1982, she was already passé.

Noir: R.I.P. Paul Seres

2012-02-18T09:31:00.001-05:00

Paul Seres, 86, a retired pharmacist who during World War II helped liberate a concentration camp, died Wednesday, Feb. 15, at Bryn Mawr Hospital.

Mr. Seres grew up in West Philadelphia and in Wynnefield, where his immigrant parents operated a delicatessen. In 1941, at age 16, he graduated from Central High School, and in 1944, he earned a bachelor's degree from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, now the University of the Sciences.

During World War II, Mr. Seres served in France and Germany with Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army. He spoke both German and Yiddish, and in May 1945, shortly after turning 20, he volunteered with a unit seeking out concentration camps in upper Austria. The plan was to free the inmates and set up medical facilities.

"The only camp we found was Ebensee concentration camp, a sub-camp of Mauthausen," Mr. Seres told Inquirer columnist Daniel Rubin last year. ". . .What we found goes beyond comprehension."

At Ebensee, inmates were worked to death digging enormous tunnels for armament works. "The one thing that was common in all of them was that wild stare," Mr. Seres said.

When they entered the camp, the GIs were told by the prisoners that the German guards had run away.

A bearded man rushed Mr. Seres with arms outstretched and said in Yiddish, "I am Jewish. I am a rabbi."

Mr. Seres replied that he was also Jewish, but, concerned about lingering Germans and disease, he avoided the man's embrace. "To this day," he told Rubin, "I regret that when he tried to hug me, I turned him away."

For years, Mr. Seres said, he didn't talk about what he encountered - but not a day passed that he didn't think about it.

"I was just a kid," he said, "a kid that grew up."

After his discharge, Mr. Seres earned a master's degree from Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1947.

Noir: R.I.P. David Kelly

2012-02-18T09:22:00.001-05:00

David Kelly, 82, an Irish character actor who played Grandpa Joe in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and motorcycled naked in Waking Ned Devine, died Sunday in Dublin.

Mr. Kelly often joked that his career took off when he was in his 70s once casting agents finally knew about his sexy body.

In 2005 he played Charlie Bucket’s grandfatherly escort in Tim Burton’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” That year he also received a lifetime achievement award from the Irish Film and Television Academy.

British and Irish television viewers also knew him from short, usually comedic turns on soaps and sitcoms, most memorably as a work-dodging Irish builder opposite John Cleese in a 1975 episode of “Fawlty Towers.”

He is survived by his wife, the actress Laurie Morton, and their two children.

Flashback: One of Kelly's first roles was a vicar on the The Italian Job in 1969, alongside Michael Caine and Noel Coward, with director Peter Collinson

Among his many talents: Kelly, pictured with Ian Bannen, joked that he had finally become a sex symbol in the 1998 English comedy Waking Ned, during a scene where he rode a motorcycle naked

Noir: The Patricia Highsmith Effect

2012-02-16T20:35:00.000-05:00

Noir: Before I die, I will read all of Jim Nisbet's writing!

2012-02-15T20:51:00.001-05:00

Never heard of Jim Nisbet? Never read one of the smartest, most articulate word-smiths alive today?

Do not deprive yourself of sheer brillance. See Jim's interview in Lost Voices #10 and then run to buy his books!

"I don't give a shit about fame, and that is the truth, but what notoriety or reknown or respect or derison I do get comes directly from my books, and that is the best. It's honest and it's fair. The work speaks."

Noir: Alice in Blunderland (1952)

2012-02-15T19:02:00.000-05:00

ALICE IN BLUNDERLAND

Industrial Press, 1952 - Government waste giveaway targeting state employees, welfare, taxation, social programs.

PROBLEM(s) DEALT WITH:
Government $ and hallucinations

Noir: Señor Flatfoot

2012-02-14T19:36:00.000-05:00

N.Y.: Frank A Munsey Company / Argosy Weekly Pulp Magazine, Volume 296, # 5. February 3, 1940, 1st Edition, 1st Printing, 1940. Pulp. Book Condition: Good. Marshall Frantz Cover Art and Frontispiece (illustrator).

Noir: A Bunny Bashing?

2012-02-13T16:52:00.001-05:00

There’s Hef, ruining another perfectly good shot. (Photos by Erik Kabik | Retna)

Hugh Hefner's oldest son was arrested on Sunday night for allegedly attacking the 2011 Playmate of the Year and his girlfriend, Claire Sinclair.

Sources told the entertainment website that Marston Hefner punched and kicked Sinclair, leaving her with bruises and red marks. Cops showed up after Sinclair called family members, who called 911.

Hefner denies that he ever hit her. He was released on $20,000 bail a few hours after his arrest.

The 20-year-old Playmate has been dating Marston on and off since August 2010, TMZ reported.

Sinclair earned the legendary 52nd Playmate of the Year title at just 19. Hugh Hefner said that her style reminded him of Bettie Page, the famous 1950s pinup model, Fox News reported.

Noir: R.I.P. Philip Bruns

2012-02-13T10:34:00.000-05:00

Philip Bruns, 80, who played the father on the 1970s comedy series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, died Wednesday in Los Angeles of natural causes.

Mr. Bruns appeared on two seasons of the show, playing Mary's father on the soap-opera parody. He also spent three years with Jackie Gleason on his comedy-variety show in the mid-1960s.

Born in Pipestone, Minn., Mr. Bruns attended Yale University's drama school, then began his career in New York on the stage and as a prolific actor in TV commercials.

He later went to Los Angeles, appearing in more than 40 feature films, including Flashdance, The Stunt Man, and My Favorite Year.

Mr. Bruns is survived by his wife, actress Laurie Franks.

Noir: Nazi Invasion From Space!

2012-02-13T09:43:00.000-05:00

The Nazis Are Coming. April 4th!

"Iron Sky", a B-movie spoof drawing the crowds at the 11-day event in the German capital, imagines that Hitler's surviving henchmen set up a lunar colony after the fall of the regime in 1945, biding their time to strike back.

The opportunity comes in 2018 when a US astronaut exploring the dark side of the moon comes face to face with a Nazi soldier clad in a black uniform and a breathing mask. The intergalactic farce produced mainly in Finland pits the would-be Fourth Reich against an America led by a Sarah Palin double, who is seen incessantly jogging in the Oval Office. The space Nazis use airships shaped like Zeppelin dirigibles and a giant craft called "Twilight of the Gods" to launch a batty Blitzkrieg, while an Earth-based coalition of the willing deploys a navy cruiser called the USS George W. Bush.

Noir: Texas Chain Saw Rage - Endyke Style

2012-02-13T09:22:00.001-05:00

Surveillance footage has surfaced of a chainsaw-wielding thug attacking pub patrons at a UK bar last year -- all because he wasn't allowed to smoke inside.

Dean Dinnen, 24, was arrested in August after he entered The Endyke Pub in Hull with a chainsaw, threatening customers and obliterating every object in his path.

The video shows Dinnen -- who was boozed up and on drugs at the time -- waltz casually into the pub, flailing his weapon and holding it near patrons' faces. He was looking for a man who had thrown him out for lighting a cigarette inside the pub, despite a smoking ban in the area.

Bar patrons armed themselves with kegs, pool cues and barstools, flinging them at Dinnen from a distance. He ripped open the arm of Adrian Pryor, 32, with the chainsaw, but realized during the melee that the guy he was actually looking for had already left.

Noir: Merle Miller - A Legacy Of Literature

2012-02-12T14:50:00.000-05:00

Noir: Opus Dei strikes Philadelphia!

2012-02-11T07:14:00.000-05:00

Montgomery County District Attorney asked the county coroner to examine the body of Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua last week because the timing of the 88-year-old prelate's death struck her as "peculiar." Prosecutors had asked him to examine the body "to make sure there were no intervening events that could have speeded up" the cardinal's death.
The cardinal died one day after a Philadelphia judge said Bevilacqua could be called to testify at the child sex-abuse and endangerment trial of three current and former priests.

"It struck many of us as odd, as peculiar, that the cardinal passed away so suddenly after the court ruling. . . . I just thought that someone should make sure that nothing happened that was inappropriate."

Bevilacqua died shortly after 9 p.m. Jan. 31 at his residence at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, just outside the city limits. He had been in declining health since his 2003 retirement as the leader of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Lawyers and church officials said he suffered from cancer, dementia, and other ailments.

Hoffman has deferred declaring a cause of death. He said he did not conduct a full autopsy, but declined to elaborate.

One of Bevilacqua's top aides, Msgr. William J. Lynn, faces trial in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court next month on child-endangerment charges, having allegedly recommended sexually abusive priests for assignments that gave them access to minors. As secretary for clergy, Lynn was responsible for reviewing abuse allegations and recommending treatment or placements for accused priests.

Bevilacqua was not charged in the case, but had become a central witness.

In November, Judge M. Teresa Sarmina declared the cardinal competent and let prosecutors from the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office question him during a closed hearing at the seminary. The assistant district attorneys cited Bevilacqua's frail health as one reason they wanted to preserve his testimony on videotape before the trial.

After the cardinal died, his body was transferred to Donohue Funeral Home in Upper Darby.

The body was already embalmed, but Hofman said embalming would not interfere with his exam. The body was returned to the funeral home that day.

Bevilacqua was entombed Tuesday in a crypt at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul.

Noir: Lineal Consanguinity and $100 Million Dollars

2012-02-10T09:32:00.000-05:00

Oh my son's my son till he gets him a wife,

But my daughter's my daughter all her life.

Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, Young and Old

But my daughter can be my mistress as long as she has access to hundreds of millions of my dollars! John Goodman, JBG Children's Trust

Mr. Goodman is presently a defendant in a civil wrongful death lawsuit in Florida that arose out of a car wreck that occurred in 2010. In February 2011, Mr. Goodman allegedly ran a stop sign, struck another car and killed the driver, Scott Wilson. When arrested Mr. Goodman had a blood alcohol level more than twice as high as the legal limit for driving while intoxicated in Florida.

Mr. Goodman is a very wealthy man. In 1991 Mr. Goodman created the JBG Children's Trust and made a cash gift of just over $1.5 million to that trust. That trust is for the benefit of Mr. Goodman's descendants. Thanks to shrewd investments made by the trustee the trust grew in value to more than $100 million during its first 7 years and today is worth several hundred million. According to Mr. Bachi, none of the trust assets is available to the plaintiffs in the civil action since the trust was set up years before the drunk driving incident and Mr. Goodman is not a beneficiary of the trust.

In 2009 Mr. Goodman began a relationship with Heather Laruso Hutchins. That relationship gave Mr. Goodman so much pleasure that he wanted to strengthen it. One way he could have done that would have been to marry Ms. Hutchins, a step often taken by people who, during an affair, decide to make a more permanent commitment to each other. Mr. Goodman, however, had already been in a marriage that ended in divorce and did not want to risk that a second time. And this is where the clever estate planning technique comes in. He adopted Ms. Hutchins, who was then 42 years of age, as his daughter.

The JBG Trust is said to be for the benefit of Mr. Goodman's descendants. When it was created, he had two minor children and they were the only trust beneficiaries. By adopting his mistress, she became his child and is now entitled to distributions from the trust just as Mr. Goodman's other children are. Ms. Hutchins will presumably continue to live with Mr. Goodman, and he will now probably have the benefit of her share of any distributions made to beneficiaries of the trust since a dutiful daughter would certainly share with him if her father needed help.

Ms. Hitchens signed an agreement with Mr. Goodman that is not customary in an adoption. I

Mr. Goodman probably assumes that no one is going to invoke Florida Statute 826.04.

Whoever knowingly marries or has sexual intercourse with a person to whom he or she is related by lineal consanguinity, or a brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew, or niece, commits incest, which constitutes a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s.775.083, or s. 775.084. "Sexual intercourse" is the penetration of the female sex organ by the male sex organ, however slight; emission of semen is not required.

s. 47, ch. 74-383; s. 30, ch. 75-298; s. 1281, ch. 97-10

That statute says that anyone engaging in sexual intercourse with someone related by "lineal consanguinity" is guilty of a felony of the third degree. It is impossible to know whether Mr. Goodman and Ms. Huthins are now engaged in a meretricious relationship or whether they have assumed a more typical father-daughter relationship. If the former, Mr. Goodman may soon find a charge of incest added to the other criminal charges now facing him. That is probably the least of his worries.

(Hugh Hefner may wish that Mr. Bachi had been his lawyer. On June 16, 2011, his 25-year-old fiancée, Crystal Harris, called off their wedding 5 days before the eagerly awaited event. Had Mr. Bachi been his lawyer, he might have suggested that Hugh adopt Crystal. That would have enabled them to maintain the close relationship they had theretofore enjoyed without limiting her ability to enjoy other male companionship of the non-father daughter variety.)

Noir: Hanah Arendt's Banality Of Evil is alive and well in Missouri

2012-02-09T13:13:00.002-05:00

The teenage who killed her nine-year-old neighbor in October 2009 now knows her fate.

Judge Pat Joyce Wednesday morning sentenced Alyssa Bustamante to life in prison, plus 30 years for
armed criminal action, both have the possibility of parole.

Cole County Prosecuting Attorney, Mark Richardson said, “I believe that judge Joyce’s sentence was ajust sentence and in this case it serves the ends of justice." Alyssa's public defenders called her sentence "harsh", but are relieved there's a possibility of parole.

The defense argued Alyssa’s troubled childhood with parents who abused drugs and frequently left Alyssa alone caused an emotionally disturbed child. Don Catlett said, "A severely, mentally disturbed child who was facing a great deal of vulnerabilities and was struggling with depression."

The prosecution pointed out even with a mental illness; Alyssa, as a 15-year-old, knew right from wrong and knew what she was doing when she dug a grave days before the homicide and lured Elizabeth into the woods, by telling her she had a surprise.

Of the armed criminal action sentence, by law she's required to serve 33 percent before eligible for parole. That means the minimum Alyssa would serve is about 35 years, but if parole isn't granted could spend the rest of her life behind bars.

An Olten family spokesperson said this: "The sentencing process was extremely difficult for the family, as no sentence can adequately punish this heinous crime.

Noir: Strip Mining and Surface Mining Are Awesome For The Environment

2012-02-08T21:05:00.000-05:00

Gone baby Gone.

NEW USES FOR GOOD EARTH! (1960s)
Comic book for strip and surface mining. Published by the Mined-Land Conservation Conference.

Noir: R.I.P. Eugen Carl "Bo" Baynes and His Victims

2012-02-08T09:17:00.000-05:00

The Black Mafia is one of the bloodiest crime syndicates in modern US history. From its roots in Philadelphia’s ghettos in the 1960’s, it grew from a rabble of street toughs to a disciplined, ruthless organization based on fear and intimidation. Known in its “legitimate” guise as Black Brothers Inc, it held regular meetings, appointed investigators, treasurers and enforcers, and controlled drug dealing, loan-sharking, numbers rackets, armed robbery and extortion. Its ferocious crew of gunmen was led by Sam Christian, the most feared man on Philly’s streets. They developed close ties with the influential Nation of Islam and soon were executing rivals, extorting bookies connected to the city’s powerful Cosa Nostra crew, and cowing local gangs. Police say the Black Mafia was responsible for over forty killings, the most chilling being the massacre of two adults and five children in a feud between rival religious factions. Despite the arrests that followed, they continued their rampage, exploiting their ties to prominent lawyers and civil rights leaders. Convictions and sentences eventually shattered their strength—only for the crack-dealing Junior Black Mafia to emerge in their wake.

JANAZAH prayers will be said at 1 p.m. today for Eugene Carl "Bo" Baynes, a founder of the Black Mafia who died Saturday at age 73.

The service will be held in the Philadelphia Masjid, at 47th Street and Wyalusing Avenue.

According to law-enforcement files, Baynes joined with Sam Christian, Ronald Harvey, Robert "Nudie" Mims, Roosevelt "Spooks" Fitzgerald and others in the early '70s to create a criminal enterprise called Black Incorporated, which became known as the Black Mafia.

Baynes and other members of the gang were tried in 1974 on federal charges of drug-dealing, gun-trafficking and murder. Baynes was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

Bo Baynes had a varied background. He appeared as himself in the TV series "American Gangster" in 2006, and he was ostensibly the road manager for the popular singing group the Delfonics.

Sean Patrick Griffin, author of Black Brothers Inc.: The Violent Rise and Fall of Philadelphia's Black Mafia, wrote that Baynes worked for Philly Groove Records, which recorded the Delfonics. A Philadelphia Police organized-crime unit memo stated that Baynes' real job with Philly Groove was as an enforcer, hired to intimidate disc jockeys into playing the group's records.

Eugene Carl Baynes was born in Philadelphia and worked for a time as a city street-sweeper, a bartender and bar manager. He and his wife, Jacqueline, purchased a food market on South 56th Street, and later a variety store.

In June 1973, the organized-crime unit received word that a group of men had formed an organized-crime syndicate called Black Incorporated and that Baynes was one of the leaders.

Although Baynes was a founder of the Black Mafia, "Bo was more than that to many. From a father figure to many, big homie, teacher, worked with the Delfonics," Richard "Philly" Smith, of Elite Society Models wrote on his website, "Sophisticated Ignorance. "The big homie will truly be missed."

Burial will be in Rolling Green Memorial Park, West Chester.

These are the names of the identified victims who were murdered by the Black Mafia. This list is in chronological order.

Name	Date	Known Circumstances
Nathaniel "Rock and Roll" Williams	1969	Murdered on the street after setting up a crap game for the Black Mafia and then robbing it.
Shane Albert	1971	Janitor shot during the Black Mafia's robbery of the Dubrow furniture store.
Wardell Green	1971	Shot by Black Mafia member, Russell Barnes, for unknown reasons.
Velma Green	1971	Shot to death answering her door a week before she was to testify against Russell Barnes in her brother Wardell's murder.
Richard "Red Paul" Harris	1972	Shot in a bar at 17th and Dauphin sts. in North Philadelphia for cheating James "P.I." Smith, on a narcotics deal.
James "P.I." Smith	1972	Shot in a parking lot at 3700 Brown St. in Philadelphia for cheating Tyrone "Fat Ty" Palmer on the Richard "Red Paul" Harris narcotics deal.
Tyrone "Fat Ty" Palmer, "Mr. Millionnare"	1972	Shot to death by Samuel Christian in Atlantic City's Club Harlem for drug related reasons involving both the Harris and Smith murders.
Gilbert Satterwhite	1972	Shot to death with Palmer while serving as his bodyguard.
James Boatright	1972	Shot to death in South Philadelphia for unknown reasons.
Seven Hanafi Muslims	1973	Shot or drowned in a bathtub by seven Black Mafia affiliates stemming from an ideological dispute with Black Muslims.
Major "The Maje" Coxson	1973	Shot in his home at Cherry Hill, New Jersey home by Ronald Harvey and other Black Mafia members for owing $200,000 from a botched heroin deal.
Charles Cooper	1973	Shot to death with two other women in a West Philadelphia apartment by Russell Barnes, through a contract by the Black Muslims and the Black Mafia.
Lita Luby	1973	Shot along with her common-law father, Major Coxson.
Hilton Stroud	1973	Shot in Camden, New Jersey, for intercepting a drug shipment originally destined for Bo Baynes.
Walter Tillman	1973	Shot in Camden, New Jersey, for intercepting a drug shipment originally destined for Bo Baynes.
Thomas "Cadillac Tommy" Farrington	1973	Shot to death by Charles Russell, under contract by George "Bo" Abney, over a drug territory dispute.
Robert James	1973	Shot near his home for an unknown reason.
Joseph Borisch	1973	Shot in his home at Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, for an unknown reason.
John Clark	1973	Shot in Camden, New Jersey, for his involvement in a community group which was actually a Black Mafia front.
George "Bo" Abney	1974	Decapitated after the Black Mafia put out a hit on him for skimming narcotics proceeds from Thomas "Cadillac Tommy" Farrington's former drug distribution network.
Jeremiah Middleton	1974	Shot at 19th & Carpenter Sts. by Clarence Starks.
James Henry "Bubbles" Price	1974	Tortured and hanged in prison for turning states evidence against the Black Mafia in the Hanafi murder case. The rumor that Price had turned states evidence was started by the authorities in an effort to force his cooperation.
Herschell "Jolly Green Giant" Williams	1975	Shot by Jo-Jo Rhone and Roy Hoskins in a drug related dispute.
James Hadley	1976	Shot at 20th & Pierce Sts. by Jo-Jo Rhone over a dispute.
Louis Gruby	1976	Executed in his home for testifying against the Black Mafia in the Dubrow furniture store robbery case.
Yetta Gruby	1976	Executed with Louis in their home.
Barry Kelly	1980	Killed in retaliation for his father's incriminating testimony in a robbery/kidnapping case.
Frederick Armour	1980	Shot by Larris "Tank" Frazier over a territorial dispute in the Richard Allen Projects.

Noir: R.I.P. Florence Green

2012-02-08T08:53:00.002-05:00

A woman thought to be the world's last known surviving service member of World War I has died aged 110.

Florence Green, from King's Lynn, Norfolk, served as a mess steward at RAF bases in Marham and Narborough.

She died in her sleep on Saturday night at Briar House care home, King's Lynn. Mrs Green had been due to celebrate her 111th birthday on 19 February.

The 110-year-old had been at the care home since the end of November. She previously lived in King's Lynn with her daughter May, aged 90.

Born in London before moving to Norfolk, Mrs Green was 17 years old when she joined the Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) on 13 September 1918 - two months before the armistice.

“During the First World War she worked at Narborough Airfield and RAF Marham, Norfolk, as an Officer’s Mess steward,” they write. “Mrs. Green spent her war days working ‘all hours’ serving officers breakfast, lunch and dinner and would often spend time wandering the base simply ‘admiring the pilots.’”

According to The National Archives, the WRAF was created to free up men for active service.

It said women had to undertake a variety of jobs and were used as drivers, mechanics, cooks and office clerks.

The WRAF was disbanded on 1 April 1920.

Mrs Green's funeral will be held at Mintlyn Crematorium, Bawsey, in Norfolk, on 16 February, her funeral directors confirmed.

Noir: R.I.P. George Esper

2012-02-06T20:45:00.001-05:00

George Esper, the tenacious Associated Press correspondent who refused to leave his post in the last days of the Vietnam War, remaining behind to cover the fall of Saigon, has died. He was 79.

Esper died in his sleep on Thursday night.

"George was most famous for his journalistic chops, his courage and tenacity, particularly in Vietnam. But those lucky enough to know him will celebrate his enormous generosity and boundless good cheer," said Kathleen Carroll, AP's executive editor and senior vice president.

Besides covering stories, Esper mentored young reporters in the AP and aspiring journalists he taught as a college professor.

"Hundreds of journalists learned from him in the field or in the classroom at West Virginia University and his words and his spirit inspire them every day," Carroll said. "He was a gentleman journalist and we will miss him sorely."

"He loved traveling the world and getting the story for The Associated Press," Thomas Esper said. "He was a selfless person who made friends wherever he went."

Esper was legendary for his dogged persistence in covering news in war and in peace.

"You don't want to be obnoxious and you don't want to stalk people, but I think persistence pays off," Esper said in an interview in 2000.

Born in Pennsylvania in 1932, the second youngest of eight children, Esper came from a family of Christian immigrants from Lebanon. The family operated a tavern by railroad tracks and, as a boy, George helped out by tending bar.

He was the first in his family to go to college – West Virginia University in Morgantown.

He tried to become a sports announcer but was fired after two weeks for what his boss called "butchering the English language." After writing sports for the Uniontown Morning Herald and the Pittsburgh Press, AP hired him in 1958, first in Philadelphia and then in New York.

In 1965, as the U.S. military in Vietnam shifted from an advisory role to deploying full combat divisions, Esper joined AP's growing Saigon staff. Other than a return to New York for several months in 1966, he stayed to the end.

Once, hearing that a U.S. jungle firebase was under attack, he managed to punch through by military phone to an officer in the middle of combat. "I can't talk now. We're under attack," the officer yelled into the phone.

The U.S. Military Assistance Command regarded Esper with wariness, respect and even affection. He was relentless. He recalled "pounding them with questions: `Why don't you know? You should know this. I know you know it.'" After the war, one retired public affairs chief included Esper's photo in a wall montage of "all the commanders I served under."

When President Lyndon B. Johnson made a hastily planned trip to Australia in 1967, it was widely assumed he would stop in Vietnam to visit U.S. troops.

Guessing that the coastal base at Cam Ranh Bay was the likely venue, Esper managed to phone the airport control tower, where an officer not only confirmed Johnson's visit but had tape-recorded his speech. Hours later, the secrecy-bound White House press corps arrived in Bangkok to find the story – their story – already on the AP wire.

Esper found his best stories through perseverance and guile. In December 1972, he landed an exclusive interview with a U.S. Air Force B-52 pilot facing court-martial for refusing to fly missions over North Vietnam. Tracked down in Thailand, the pilot gave Esper the full story. When he later told Esper he had been officially "muzzled" from further comment, Esper reported that, too.

Esper wrote his most memorable story on April 30, 1975, the day the war ended with the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese. He and two other AP reporters declined to join the frantic evacuation of foreigners from Saigon as the North Vietnamese army drove toward the city.

Two North Vietnamese soldiers entered the bureau, accompanied by a longtime freelance photographer for the AP who on that day revealed that he had been a communist spy. He assured the reporters they were safe. Esper offered them Coca Cola and stale cake – the only food on hand – then interviewed the soldiers. Hours later, AP's communications were abruptly cut, but not before the story got out. The New York Times ran it on its front page.

Esper said afterward he was struck by how similar the young Hanoi soldiers were to the American GIs he had covered.

On his return to the United States, Esper became an AP special correspondent – the news service's highest writing title – based in Columbus, Ohio, and later in Boston. He covered major stories such as the Jonestown massacre in Guyana in 1978 and the 1991 Gulf War.

In 1993, two years after the United States restored diplomatic ties in Indochina, he was chosen to open AP's first postwar Vietnam bureau in Hanoi and was bureau chief for more than a year

Noir: Dangerous Playgrounds of the 50's

2012-02-05T17:38:00.000-05:00

1950s safety comic on railroad yards, railroad tracks, and railroad crossings.

PROBLEM(s) DEALT WITH:
Loss of limbs, trapping legs on bridges, and other personal injury related to railroad yards, railroad tracks, and railroad crossings. Also addresses safety to other individuals, i.e. throwing rocks at the windows of passing passenger cars.

Noir: R.I.P. Zalman King Lefkovitz

2012-02-05T08:41:00.000-05:00

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Actor and filmmaker Zalman King, who became known for his erotic work after writing and producing his breakthrough film 9 ½ Weeks, has died. He was 70.

King's son-in-law Allison Burnett says the filmmaker died Friday morning at his home in Santa Monica, Calif., after a six-year battle with cancer.

Born Zalman King Lefkovitz in 1941, King began his career as an actor in the 1960s. He and wife, Patricia Louisianna Knop, collaborated on the screenplay for 9 ½ Weeks, which became a cult hit starring Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke.

King's other credits include Wild Orchid and Two Moon Junction, which he wrote and directed.