The Peoples Almanac #2_nodrm

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THE PEOPLE'S

ALMANAC #2

THE PEOPLE'S

ALMANAC™ #2 by

David Wallechinsky and

Irving Wallace "The exact contrary of what

is

generally believed

is

often the truth."

—Jean De La Bruyere (1645-1696)

WILLIAM MORROW AND COMPANY, NEW YORK

INC.

"

m

"Amartca'i Biggvtl Feud." from "Th*y Wut Recklni MounUln Boyi" b v Y C Iohm It appeared in v^merican Hiitory /iiuitroled. lune Tlmae Inc By parmliilon oflhe publliher "The Lul Stone Age Men In Amence " from - 18M. lapynghl T; 19M by -Hlitoncal OrovlMe by C "The Wild Man of J(^ Campbell at It appeared in American Hiilory Illuilruled June 1977. copyright (g) 1977 by Hi*t'ifi. tfl Tiiiif* Ini M\ [>rrrTiit%iijn iif the publlther "Elena AmeriLa' Veapuccl" from "The I'nlted Statet UitLoven America and " :i Keale *> It appeared In Ameritun Hiilory Illuilruled June 1967. copyright 1967 by H' I' he publliher Vfaa Dllllnget Keally Shot tu death by the FBI'" from Bloodfellert and 147 J by lay Kobert Nath H> permlttiun uf M Kvant and (^> Im. Matucraa at Palltade. N' > by (>erald B Higg> By permiiiion of the author Carand Klfle Shrapnel." "Chateaubriaiid oiid S>Ke>tei Ciih^m lium Humun M'ordt by Robert Hendrlckaon. copyright iQ 1972 By permitilon of Chilton Book Company Kadnor Pa "One Landlord Hotted the Start and knd uf the Civil War from Our Incredible Civil War by Burke Davli. copvriRht r l"inO hv Rurkp Davn Hv p«Tinmir.n nf Holt Rirn-hart » Winston Publiiheri "Our Solar Sy»tem on an Earthly Scale. -, ' .. ,,,, nil Und Speech USilvi-i SilenirM^ild" "Concernirn(r b> K Hiiuwink (upynghi r 1 Publliher Quolaliontranilation in (^ee It by Rolx-rt A Utgan. Dululh. ' ^^ -i ik»i.F>rnlii.l,^.j V.jiyl.ir FvrrkiSynl.n ibyV I) Kolensnikova publuhedby I. Thel.lleraturr.ilFrlilanImmiKrant»in Amenia IVTtlernr Vol V 19S0 Poem Npeet h on li eUnders Day ihrtranklatlon by ffalllM-rg HallmundMin appears in An M ;»,. ',\ M.»i fill, ...11 Publishing (x» Ini and is reprinted by permission of the ' Ihr So Ihi of Soulh West China by Joseph F Rock Irge Siutrr< 'v 4-nt. ^>.r Aliie N Tollos CiHil Herald B. Higgs. Lost

Legends of the Silver

State. Salt

Lake

City:

.Sept. 30.

Western

Epics, inc.. 1976.

H.|H.

Heimlich. M.I) "Food-C'hoking and Drowning Deaths Prevented by External .Subdiaphragmatic C^ompression." In The Annuls of Thoracic Surger\'. August. 1975.

I.W.

Irving Wallace.

I

Her

Henry

|

The Fabulous Showman.

New

York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1959.

Jacques Bergier. Extraterrestrial /ntervention: The Evidence. Chicago: Contemporary Books. Inc.. 1974.

).Ka.

Jonathan Katz. Gay American ffisfory: Lesbians York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co.. 1976.

K.K.

Kenneth Katzner. Languages o/ (he World.

and Gay Men

in the U.S.

New

New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co.,

1975.

K.W.S.

Keith W. Sehnert. \LD. ffoiv to Be VourOivn Doctor (Sometimes). Grosset and Dunlap Publishers. Inc.. 1975.

M.Be.

Michael Bettsworth. Droivnproofing:

A Technique

for

New York:

Water Survival.

New

York: Schocken Books. 1977. N.C.S.

Nancy Caldwell

Sorel.

Word

People.

New

York: American Heritage Press.

1970.

—

P.J.R.

Paul |. Reale. "The United States Discovers America and gets hoodwinked in the bargain." In American History Illustrated. lune, 1967.

P.P.

Peter Passell.

P.T.

Paul Tabori. The Art of Folly. Radnor. Pa.: Chilton Book Co.. 1961.

R.A.C.

How

To.

New

York: Farrar. Straus and Giroux, Inc.. 1976.

Robert A. Cutter. "The World's Toughest Baseball Quiz." In Saga Magazine. April. 1977.

New

R.C.

Robert Cantwell. In Yesterday in Sports, ed. lohn Durant. Barnes and Co.. 1966.

R.H.

Robert Hendrickson.

R.Hou.

R.

R.M.

Richard Martin. "Word Watchers." In The Best of the Wall Street Journal. Chicopee. Mass.: Dow |ones Books. 1974.

S.L.

Sam Love. "An Idea in Need of Rethinking: The Flush Toilet." In Smithsonian Magazine. May. 1975.

W.Ga.

Human

Words. Radnor.

Pa.:

Science and The York: Elsevier Publishing Co.. 1970 and 1965.

Houwink.

Webb

In Data: Mirrors of

York: A. S.

Chilton Book Co.. 1972.

Odd Book

of Data.

Garrison. Strange Facts about the Bible. Nashville. Tenn.:

Press. 1968.

New

Abingdon

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CONTENTS 1.

AROUND THE CORNER—PREDICTING THE FUTURE

1

Predictions by Present-Day Psychics Predictions by Modern ScienPredictions from Science Fiction The Delphic Oracle tists .

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Nostradamus 2.

THE SPOTLIGHT— SPECIAL ARTICLES

25

America's Biggest Feud by V. C. Famous Last Facts by Jeremy Beadle The The Last Stone Age Man in America by C. W. Campbell Jones Killing of Michael Malloy by Irving Wallace The Great Martian Invasion by Ann Elwood The Last Words of Lee Harvey Oswald by George Orwell's 1984 How Close Are We? by Robert Mae Brussell Reginald and James Natal The Best from Books .

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3.

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U.S.A.— RED, WHITE,

.

AND NEW

74

What Do You Know about the U.S.?.

Eyewitness Reports on Highlights of U.S. History: Declaration of Independence; Louisiana Purchase; Nat Turner's Rebellion; Remember the Alamo; Emancipation Proclamation; The 1863 Draft Riots; Custer's Last Stand; Edison and the Electric Light; The First Major Movie The Great Train Robbery; The Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk; Black Sox Scandal; The Scopes Trial; Pearl Harbor; Los The Peopling of the United Alamos and the Atomic Bomb; Watergate Time Footnote People in U.S. History States Ethnics in America Capsules in America .

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4.

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HAIL TO THE CHIEF—U.S. PRESIDENCY Profiles of the Presidents

Thomas

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164

Full Portraits of Selected Presidents

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Andrew Jackson; David Rice Atchison; Theodore Warren Gamaliel Harding; Dwight David Eisenhower; Lyn-

Jefferson;

Roosevelt;

don Baines Johnson; James Earl 5.

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.

Carter,

Jr.

MONEY—IT'S A

LIVING Behind the Teller's Window The Big Richest People of All Time Banks Dying for a Job You Bet! A Collection of Fabulous Wagers Attic and Junkyard How to Make Money Collecting Things ... 12 Missing Art Objects And Their Rewards Handy Guide to Buried .

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213

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Treasure in North America 6.

NATIONS AND THEIR RULERS From Afghanistan

to

Zimbabwe

.

245 .

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Most Likely

to

Secede

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Microna-

tions 7.

THE HISTORY BOOK

—Excavating

332

The High and the Mighty Famous and Infamous Rulers in History: Cleopatra; Henry VIII; Queen Christina of Sweden; Napoleon Bonaparte; The Empress Dowager of China; Nikolai Lenin; The Shah of Iran Footnote People in World History Strange Bedfellows It's the Unlikely People Who Meet Digging

It

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Archaeology

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Great Controversies: Who Really Discovered the North Pole?; Who Really Invented the Telephone?; Who Really Wrote Shakespeare's Plays? What If The British Had Won the Revolutionary War?; Napoleon Had Won at Waterloo?; The South Had Won the Civil War?; Booth's Bullet Had Missed Lincoln?; Hitler Had Won the Second World War? .

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—

8.

TWO CENTURIES OK

9.

CRIMES AM) OTHER DISASIKRS and

(.riMt Detf'f lives

Thi'v Innorent?

.

.

WOKI.I) HISTORY: 1778-1978

Most S|H-ild(uldr Cases

I'hirir

Sentcne

.

Live

i-d tc»

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.

399

(iuilly

.

Assassinations

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.

.

— But Were Maybe

.

481

Yes.

\o: Was Jesse |ames Really Shot to Death in 1882?: Did liauplniann Really Kidnap and Kill the Lindbergh Haby?: Was Dillinger Really Killed by the FHI? (iunslinKers (iood (iuys and Had (iuys of the Wild West Massarres at Palisade. Nevada Natural and ManMade Disasters Human Disasters: l.ucusta; The |ukes; "Typhoid"

Maybe

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Mary Mallon 10.

.SOl'NDS OF WAR Choose ^ Our \\ i>apon

— Krom the l.onKbow to the Neutron Komh

Famous Hattles— On and and at Sea Mutiny! The I'eai.e Lovers I.

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543 .

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More

Roll Call: A Military Who's Who Military Srrapbook: One Landlord .

of the Civil War FOR HEAVENS SAKE— THE UNIVERSE

Hosted the Start and End 11

577

System Our Solar System on an Earthly Scale .The I'niverseon an Earthly Scale (Counting the Stars .The Sky watchers .-\nimalnauts It's a Kird. It's a Plane What Is It? Encounters with I'FOs The Martian Memo Fo( usioK In on the Solar .

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THE

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12.

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(.()()!)

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KARTH— AND MOTHER

N.XTI'RE

605

The Face of the Earth: Mountains: Rivers: Lakes: Deserts: Special F'eatures The Disappearing Land .\ Stroll through the (iarden The Open-.\ir Zoo Persons to Walk the Flarth .-XmonK the First Armageddon Outa Here The End of the U'orld .

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13.

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CEITINC AROl'ND— TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION In the Focjtsteps

Moses: I'lysses:

of:

640

Lewis and Clark

(iortes:

.

.

.

Tour

of

in the World Peter Jackson's 10 Favorite Little-Known Hints from Travel Experts Biographies of Wonderful and Terrible .Automobiles Into the Wild Blue I'ps and Downs of the Elevator Yonder Noted .Aviators

I'nique Sites and Sights

London

Curiosities

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14.

IN A

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WORD—een designed by a prankster playing a joke on naturalists." The short, fat bird with tiny, yellow legs and a small tail that stood up like a feather duster weighi-d about 50 lb. and had wings so small it could not fly. Its hooked bill was y in long, and it had a comical look on its face. Unfortunately for the dodos, they wore an excellent source of meat even though it was rather stringy. After spending centuries on an island free fn)m pn.-datory animals, the dodo was suddenly hunted down. One rather "ratty-looking"

Mauritius

was

in

oiif ol Ihtf

—

stuffed spet

imen ended up

in a

museum

in

Ox-

ford, but during a spring (leaning it was thrown out and burned. Today the only extant specimens are ones built up by taxidermists fn)m recovered bones. The disappearance of the dodo was so dramatic that it has become the epitome of extin( tion "as dead as a dodo." Perhaps its I^tin name gives a clue to its failure to adapt

—

Didus tneplus.

Tm: LAST WITCHCRAFT TRL\L IN

ENGLAND

This was the

trial

of )ane

Wenham

in 1712,

more than half a century after the notorious, self-styled "VVitchfinder (General," Matthew Hopkins, whipped up witch-hunting in England worst excesses. By 1712 the climate of opinion was calmer. Like many so-called "witches." lane Wenham

to its

was well known

as a local "character" before her

Uubbed "the wise of Walkern," she had had an argument a farmer who accused her of bewitching his farmhand Matthew Gilson. Earlier, )ane had asked Gilson for a pennyworth of straw. He refused her request and was later seen running arrest at the Hertford assizes.

woman

with

through the village asking passersby

and

stuffing

branches from a nearby tnn; and carry them home bundled up in her clothing. A halfnaked Anne Thorne arrived back at the minislo take

was probably

I(

manure down

for straw

his shirt. His

em-

ployer called lane "a witch and a bitch." She tried to sue Gilson's employer for defamation of character, but the local magistrate [>ersuaded both parties to settle their feud before the local rector.

Unfortunately for jane, the Reverend Gardiner believed in witches. He fined the farmer one shilling and lectured lane about getting along with her neighbors, but he didn't forget the incident. Later, he too had servant trouble. One of his domestic servants. Anne Thome, had seen "a little old woman muffled in a riding hood" and. like Gilson, Anne had started running. She ran until she found |ane Wenham. who asked her where she was going. "To Cromer for sticks to make a fire," Anne said. )ane allegedly told her

ter's hous(^ with a lot of (explaining to do. Her only comnumt; "I am ruined and undone." After this experience, she was also subject to fits.

lane Wenham was arrested and .searched for witches' marks (none wen? found). Her house was ransacked. Under her pillow the authorities ,

found

magic ointment made from the fat of melt(td orpses, as well as weird cakes made of a

(

feathers

—

or so they said lane offered lo submit to the water test to prove her innocence. This involved having her right thumb lied to her left big toe and thus "cross-

bound" being immersttd three times in water. If shir floated she was obviously a witch. If she sank, she was innocent but also dead from

—

drowning. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and she was given the U)rd's Prayer test instead. Being completely flustered, she failed to recite the prayer correctly and then confessed she was a wit(.h. She also implicated three other women, but these wert; quickly exonerated. Her trial, on Mar. 4. 1712. turned into a battle between the lawyers on one side and the clergy on the other. The lawyers refused to charge )ane with anything except "ctmversing familiarly with the devil in the form of a cat." The judge. Sir John Powell (whom )onalhan Swift described as "an old fellow with gray hairs, who was the merriest old gentleman I ever saw, spoke pleasing things, and chuckled till he cried again"), was openly sympathetic to )ane. When the prosecution claimed Jane could fly. he said that as far as

he knew, there was no law against

them clergymen, appeared against her. She was convicted and sentenced to death. The outraged Powell successfully obtained a reprieve for her. and a short time later |ane was pardoned. lane's trial became a cause celebre. and a war flying. Sixteen witnesses, three of

broke out among pamphleteers arguing the pros and cons of the case. Bishop Francis Hutchinson visited |ane after her release, believed in her piety, and in 1718 wrote his "Historical Essay Concerning Witchcraft." A devastating expose of witch-hunters and their methods, it is credited with suppressing the sup)erstition in

England. Jane

Wenham was supported by the charity of

local worthies

man who gave

and

that of

an unnamed gentle-

her a little cottage in which she lived quietly until her death of natural causes in 1730. The luckiest person of all was Anne Thome. She continued to suffer fits and have visions of the devil as a cat until a shrewd judge ordered her to wash her hands and face twice daily and be watched over by a "lusty young fellow" until she recovered. Recover she did, and she also married the "lusty young fellow."

—

—

a

FAMOUS LAST FACTS THE LAST PUBLIC PERFORMANCE BY BEETHOVEN

auks on earth. They found the creature asleep on a ledge of rock. Swiftly, they tied

This was an unexpected violin performance on Sept. 9, 1825. By the time he was 30, Beethoven's hearing problems had already affected his playing and conducting. In 1814 he held his last chamber music recital, and the following year, in front of the crowned heads of Europe assembled for the Congress of Vienna, he made his final public appearance at the piano. He became completely deaf in 1819. In November, 1822, he attempted to conduct a rehearsal of FideJio but got hopelessly out of step with the orchestra. According to one account of the incident, "he leaped from his place in the orchestra, hastened from the theater to his lodgings, threw himself on the sofa, covered his face with his hands." On May 7, 1824, at the first performance of his most recent and greatest work, the monumental Ninth Symphony from which he netted only $60 he sat in the orchestra following the score. At the end, he thought his work had failed to please the audience until the singer Karolina Unger turned him around so that he could see the tumultuous applause that he could not hear. Then, on Sept. 9, 1825, in the Hotel Wildemann at Vienna, he attended a performance of his String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Opus 130, which was given for 14 friends. Suddenly, he could "hear" that a passage was not being interpreted

—

—

properly. He jumped up, seized a violin, and played the passage himself a quarter of a tone

—

slow movement celebrated the recovery of ein invalid, and Beethoven was ill at the time. He wrote his last complete work in the autumn of 1826 Opus 135, a string quartet. He died during a thunderstorm on Mar. 26, 1827. He had already completed sketches for his 10th symphony, which he felt would be his masterflat.

Ironically, the

—

piece.

THE LAST

BORN

IN

U.S. PRESmENT A LOG CABIN

He was James Abram 19, 1831. in

Garfield, born on Nov. Orange. Cuyahoga County, O. He

was the first

first left-handed president and also the president to use a telephone.

THE LAST GREAT AUK The

—

flightless North Atlantic seabird of the penguin family was clubbed to death, together with its mate, on Eldey Island, Iceland, on June 4, 1844. The harmless and practically defenseless pair was killed for food. Mystery surrounds the final days of the great 2-ft.,

member

—

auk (Pinguinus impennis). There was a sighting in Ireland in 1821, and another in July, 1840, on St. Kilda Island in the Hebrides, when five local fishermen caught and killed one of the last

and took

its feet

together

For three days it was kept alive, but a frightening storm alarmed it into making noises "like a gannet but much louder." The superstitious fishermen were convinced the poor bird was in fact a witch calling to the devil. One fisherman, Malcolm McDonald, held it by the neck with both hands while it

to their cottage.

As it struggled, its long, nearly cut the rope in two. They beat it with sticks and stones for over two hours before it finally died. The great auk has commanded the highest price ever paid for a stuffed bird. At Sotheby's the others tied sharp, hooked

its legs.

bill

Auction Rooms

in London, in 1971, the director of the Natural History Museum of Iceland (appropriately enough) paid £9,000 for a splendid

specimen in its full summer plumage. He later admitted he would have gone up to £23.000 for such a perfect example. It was originally collected by the naturalist Count F. C. Raben in Iceland around 1821. The great auk's egg has also set a record; a single specimen sold on Nov. 15, 1934, for slightly over £330. On Sept. 21, 1977, one of 80 extant stuffed great auks was sold by the University of Durham for £4,200. The specimen had been bought 140 years earlier for the princely

sum

of £5.

It

had

spent most of its time in the university's zoology department, where, despite its enormous rarity, most passersby ignored it. Sotheby's expert described the great auk as being "like a penguin but a bit more stupid."

THE LAST AMERICAN PIRATE TO BE HANGED He was Capt. Nathaniel Gordon and he met his "the Tombs" in New York City on Mar. 8, 1862. The chief trade for American pirates in the mid-19th century was the smuggling of slaves; fate in

in 1859 alone, at least 15,000 Africans were brought to the U.S. Ironically, most of the dealers were Northerners. The enormous profits involved attracted men who were prepared to take great risks. On Gordon's fourth voyage aboard the 500-ton Erie, he was captured by the American ship Mohican. A search revealed 967 blacks aboard. Conditions were so appalling that 300 had died on the journey from Africa. Charged with piracy, Gordon stood trial in New York; he was found guilty and sentenced to death. Protestors claimed that it was unjust to execute a man for a crime that had been virtually extinct for 40 years. A petition for pardon was submitted to President Lincoln, who, however, upheld the death sentence instead, Gordon was hanged. Authorities were so convinced that a

daring buccaneer-type rescue attempt would be made that they packed the jail with armed guards before the execution.

THK SPOTI.ICHT— SPKCIAL ARTICLES

28

THE LAST SOIDIKRS IN THE CIVIL WAR

KILIJ^D

They died on Miiy ^2. 1805 A VirRinian named Dordunix and two (xjnfj'dcralc comrades refustrd to accept I^-e's surrender and man:hcd out to attack 500 Federal troopers at the courthouse in Kloyd. Va. The dislxMieving Federals were taken completely by surprise when the three men started firing at tht^m Two Union

soldiers

fell

wounded A 6-mi (hase ended with

the Confederates making a stand in a graveyard. Although the Federals wanted to take the thn^e rebels alive, an angry volley told them it was a fight to the death. Patience completely exhausted, the Federal tniops fired one synchronized n)und of over :U)0 shots. The last Ihn'e Confederates to be killed were buried whenthey fell.

THE LAST HOLDUP BY JESSE JAMES lesse lames's last

1881. thrive

holdup look

plai e

on Sept.

7.

when |esse. Charlie and Hob Ford, and other men nibbed the westlxiund Chi(.agu

and Alton train at Blue (iut. Mo. Ea auition of five watc hes and some jewelry in the woods after the attack. At the time this robbery was committed, lames's career was already on the wane. During his 15-year rampage, he staged at least 24 holdups and was credited with killing 10 men (although it probably was more). The holdups netted him an estimated S250.00O. lesse

Woodson lames was born on

Sept. 5.

1847, in Clay County, Mo. He was deceptively gentle in behavior. 5 ft. 11 in. tall, compactly built, with a dark beard and eyes that constantly blinked because he suffered from granulated eyelids, lames and his hard-riding gang had terrorized Missouri since the end of the Civil War.

Known as "Dingus" to his friends, lames liked to outlawry by pretending he was keeping alive the (Confederate cause. (|esse. his brother Frank, and their sidekicks, the dreaded Younger Brothers, had all ridden with Quantrill's Raiders during the war. This bloodthirsty band of thinly disguised profiteers, which was nicknamed the Black Flag Brigade, massacred about 150 residents of Lawrence, Kans., because it was a Union supply center. Yet William Quantrill had once been a schoolteacher.) Certainly it was political tensions in the border states, the distrust of outsiders, and the power of kinship which enabled lames and the others to survive for such a long time. They were his "invisible armor" against the forces of law and order. He was without that armor on Sept. 7, 1876 (by coincidence, the exact month and day of his final holdup), in Northfield, Minn., when his gang raided the First National Bank. Virtually the w'hole town rode against the gang and cut off justify his

its escape. )esse and Frank made it through th«! cordon but the Youngers. all badly wounded, were captured. WhenOile Younger was brought back to town on a hay wagon with 1 1 bullets in his body, he struggled to his feet, swept off his hat. and bowed to the ladii's in the street. The disaster had liegun when the bank c:ashier was shot for refusing to open the safe. The gunshots had alerted the whole town. Not one of the robbeber de76 if the insured should die by acci-

Murphy's brother. One

dent.

The designated beneficiary of the policies was Anthony Marino. His four colleagues were to receive their portion of the take later. The first day that the insurance p>olicies were safely in poc ket. the killing of Mic hael Mailoy got under way The only minor problem was the possibility that Mailoy might become suspicious. Until now. at least in recent weeks. Mailoy had been treated as a leper in Marino's.

Suddenly, he must be made welcome and plied with free drinks. Fortunately, then* was a price war among the speakeasies in the Bronx, and

Marino

quic kly

made

use of the

fact.

When

Michael Mailoy weaved into Marino's, the proprietor gn?eted him warmly, announcing that due to competition he was relaxing his credit rt>stric tions and that Mailoy. like all regulars, could take advantage of this. Malloy's watery eyes shone. Unbelievable good news. He clung to the bar like adhesive. He began to down shots of whiskey nonstop. Initially Marino and company had theorized that Mailoy was so weakened and debilitated by years of drinking, was in such bad shape, that an excessive amount of whiskey consumed in a short time would swiftly destroy him. Everyday, for a week. Mailoy drank like a fish from noon to night, then staggered out into the dark, while the Trust waited for news of his death. Instead, each new day. Mailoy appeared in Marino's refreshed and ready for more. As Marino's stock of alcohol neared depletion, without achieving the desired result, a sense of urgency infected the Trust. They muttered, and they met to conspire on some new course of action. The bartender Murphy, still filled with chemistry lore, was asked for his advice. He suggested that they cease giving Mailoy whiskey and start giving him automobile-radiator anti-

which was wood alcohol and poisonous. vote was unanimous in favor of using antifreeze to guarantee the quick demise of the insured. freeze,

The

Thus began what Bronx District Attorney Samuel ). Foley would call "the most grotesque chain of events in New York criminal history." The next day. Mailoy appeared on schedule for his whiskey. Murphy passed him a fewstraight shots to soften

for the lethal

Then came the antifreeze. Mailoy gulp>ed down without blinking, smacked his lips, and

potion. it

him up

asked for a refill. A half-dozen shots of antifreeze were downed by Mailoy before he passed out, collapsing to the barniom floor at three in the morning. The undertaker Pasqua examined him and iiniiounc ed that his heartlM-at could hardly \m; heard and that he should be dead inside an hour. In an hour, he was still alive, sound asleep on the floor. In three hours, he sat up, got to his feet, apologized for his poor posture, and said he

was thirsty. The Murder Trust was astounded.

Its

leader.

Marino. d(H:ided that Murphy had not given their victim enough antifreeze. For another week, day and night. Mailoy was poured double

and

triple shots of antifreeze,

enough

to kill a

end of each daily session he passed out. slept, woke up. and asked for more. Bewildered. Marino c;hanged the formula. No more antifreeze. From now on Mailoy must be

battalion. At the

given turpentine. The Irishman accepted the turpentine, swallowc^d glass after glass of it. stumbled out into the night, and the following day bounced back for more of the same. Soon turpentine was replaced by shots of undiluted horse liniment, sometimes lightened by rat poison. Mailoy downed the fluid and

—

flourished.

Pasqua confided to his c:olleagues that he had once buried a man who had succumbed after combining raw oysters with whiskey. Marino ordered that the concoction be tried, except with one modification. It was to be tainted raw oysters and wood alcohol. Mailoy steeped himself in the raw oysters and wood alcohol and wobbled out of Marino's toward his bed. Pasqua guaranteed it would be his deathbed. The next afternoon Mailoy was back, beaming and ready for

that

seconds.

The mood

Murder Trust was dark. Frusmore creative thinking. Finally

of the

tration led to

Murphy came up with a positive sure thing. If Mailoy could be fed some pMDisoned food from the free lunch tray, that

would be

certain to

do

The suggestion was met with enthusiasm. The bartender was told to proceed. Immediately. Murphy opened an old can of sarhim

in.

dines and put it outside to spoil. When it smelled foul and contamination was certain. Murphy spread the sardines on a slice of bread, mixed in some carpet tacks, worked in shavings of the sardine can a machine shop had obligingly prepared, laid on another piece of bread, and presented Mailoy the sandwich. Delighted with the bartender's generosity. Mailoy accepted the sandwich, chomped on it. chewing, swallowing, and finished it all. licking his fingers. Washing it down with a few more drinks of wood alcohol, he felt his way out of the bar and started for

home.

Murder Trust were word of Malloy's death, either from ptomaine poisoning or

The

five

members

of the

gleeful as they waited for

THE KILLING OF MICHAEL MALLOY of Marino's, Anthony a professional killer. After explaining their caper, and what had been happening to date, they asked their consultant to advise them. He advised them to stop the fancy

They called in a friend "Tough Tony" Bastone,

and just murder Malloy outright. Marino want anything obvious that would alert the police. Bastone said it need not be obvious. It could be an accident. The next night, at three in the morning, once more using Green's taxi, Marino and Bastone drove out to the deserted intersection of Baychester Avenue and Gun Hill Road. Malloy, who had passed out from drink hours before, sat slumped between them. They dragged him out into the intersection and held him up while Green backed up his taxi. Then Green catapulted his cab toward them at 45 mph. Marino and Bastone released Malloy and jumped aside as the speeding auto smashed full into Malloy, throwing him into the air, knocking him down, running him over. Leaving his corpse in the middle of the street, the victorious trio fled. The next day Malloy did not appear in Marino's. Nor did he appear the next nor the next. Two weeks passed and no Malloy. The Murder Trust felt sure that he was dead, at last, but they had to prove it to the insurance companies. They read the obituaries. No mention of Malloy. They visited the morgue. No Malloy. They phoned hospitals. No Malloy. He had vanished from the earth. Bastone suggested they waste no more time, find another bum, run him over, identify him as Malloy, and collect the insurance money. They tried it. The new victim clung to life in Fordham Hospital. The gang still did not have their dead man. Then, in the third week of Malloy's disappearance, the habitues of Marino's were thrown into a turmoil. Michael Malloy himself walked in and settled at the bar. He apologized for his absence. He'd been in the hospital, which had stuff

didn't

Tony Marino, who headed the New York gang that tried to murder Michael MaJJoy.

stomach hemorrhage. The following morning brought no word. The following afternoon brought Malloy in person, ready for a drink and another one of those appetizing sandwiches. For the gang, this was too much. A small fortune was within their grasp, yet they could not claim it without a victim, and their victim defied them. They began to regard Michael Malloy as a phenomenon of nature. His stomach obviously was cast iron. Nothing taken into his digestive tract or bloodstream would harm him. If he were to be successfully obliterated, another and different means must be found. The Trust members considered a variety of possibilities and settled on a surefire one they had employed before. They acted on the coldest night of the winter. Outside there was a snowstorm and icy wind, and the temperature was 14° below zero. In Marino's, Malloy was encouraged to drink him-

Marino and Pasqua carried the unconscious Malloy to Harry Green's taxi, waiting outside the door. After lifting Malloy into the backseat, the two men got in beside him. They drove to Claremont Park, where the coatless Malloy was carried from the road into the park and laid out on the wet snow behind some bushes. Opening his shirt, they poured a fivegallon tin of water over him and then left. The next day the gang eagerly searched the afternoon papers for news of Malloy's death from exposure. The papers offered nothing. Perhaps it was too early. That evening Pasqua showed up with a bad head cold from the outing the night before. Then the speakeasy door opened, and there stood Michael Malloy, lookself into a stupor,

ing invigorated. He marched to the bar, calling out for his first drink. That night the gang was frantic. They huddled and decided to call in an expert in mayhem.

neglected to list him as a patient. A car accident, Malloy explained. He'd suffered a concussion of the brain and a fractured shoulder. But now he was fine. "I'm sure ready for a drink," he said. The Murder Trust was in despair and utterly routed. They had placed their chips on a human who was apparently indestructible. Once more, Bastone suggested they stop using finesse, stop being clever, just get rid of Malloy the quickest way possible and cash in their insurance policies. All hands agreed. Murphy, the bartender, offered his room on Fulton Avenue. On Washington's Birthday, the gang treated Malloy to his quota of drinks. He got drunk as usual and passed out. Kreisberg and Murphy took him to Murphy's room and dropped him down on the bed. One end of a rubber hose was attached to the gas jet, the other end was stuffed into Malloy's mouth. They let the gas fill him. "His face is all purple," Kreisberg reassured his collaborator.

THE SPOTLIGHT— SPEt;iAL ARTICLES

44 In (he

dead

Ur.

morning. Michael Malloy was found Frank Man/^lla. an ex-aidorman. was

called in to write the death certificate. He certified that Mi(.hael Malloy had expired from lobar pneumonia, noting alcoholism as a contributing factor.

For a promise of a $400 share of the insurance payoff, undertaker Pasqua placed Malloy in a

$10 pine coffin and buried him in gmund in the Femcliffe Cemetery

u in

$12 plot of Westches-

ter.

The durable Michael Malloy had lost in the end. Yet. though he would never know it. he would ultimately win. The .Murder Trust members were suspicious of one another and they talked too much When Bastone tried to impn)ve on his shan' of thiinsurance take, he wa.s promptly liquidatifd. Hut the basic five continued to l)e indist.reet. The Bronx police began to hear rumors. When they

checked and learned an actual Michael Malloy had died on Washington's Birthday, and there were policies on his life, they went to Femcliffe Cemetery and exhumed Malloy's body. The coroner found Malloy had not died of pneumonia but had been eliminated by use of illuminating gas. Members of the Trust were charged with murder. The trial was held in the Bronx County (Courthouse. The jury deliberated seven hours. Harry Green went to prison. Dr. Frank Manzella went

On |une 7. 1934. Anthony Marino, Frank Pasqua, and IJaniel Kreisberg went to the electric chair in Sing Sing. On |uly 5. 1934, Joseph Murphy also died in the chair. Because of his indestructibility. Michael Malloy had forced his killers to resort to obvious murder, and, as a result, four of them died. They died, yet somehow Malloy lives. to prison.

THE GREAT MARTIAN INVASION by Ann Elwood "Everybody was

terribly frightened.

.Some of the

women almost went crazy. The men were a little Some of the women tried to call their

calmer.

Some got down on their knees and prayed. Others were actually trembling. My daughter was terribly frightened and really suffered from shock. A 10-year-