title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: On the military side, there were 34 deaths: two army sergeants, three army corporals, four army privates, 2 navy lieutenants, 1 navy corporal, 4 naval cadets, 3 navy conscripts and 15 carabineros. In mid-September, the Chilean military junta claimed its troops suffered another 16 dead and 100 injured by gunfire in mopping-up operations against Allende supporters, and Pinochet said: ""sadly there are still some armed groups who insist on attacking, which means that the military rules of wartime apply to them."" A press photographer also died in the crossfire while attempting to cover the event. On 23 October 1973, 23-year-old army corporal Benjamín Alfredo Jaramillo Ruz, who was serving with the "Cazadores", became the first fatal casualty of the counterinsurgency operations in the mountainous area of Alquihue in Valdivia after being shot by a sniper. The Chilean Army suffered 12 killed in various clashes with MIR guerrillas and GAP fighters in October 1973.


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: While fatalities in the battle during the coup might have been relatively small, the Chilean security forces sustained 162 dead in the three following months as a result of continued resistance, and tens of thousands of people were arrested during the coup and held in the National Stadium. This was because the plans for the coup called for the arrest of every man, woman and child on the streets the morning of 11 September. Of these approximately 40,000 to 50,000 perfunctory arrests, several hundred individuals would later be detained, questioned, tortured, and in some cases murdered. While these deaths did not occur before the surrender of Allende's forces, they occurred as a direct result of arrests and round-ups during the coup's military action.


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: President Allende died in La Moneda during the coup. The junta officially declared that he committed suicide with a rifle given to him by Fidel Castro, two doctors from the infirmary of La Moneda stated that they witnessed the suicide, and an autopsy labelled Allende's death a suicide. Vice Admiral Patricio Carvajal, one of the primary instigators of the coup, claimed that "Allende committed suicide and is dead now." Patricio Guijon, one of the president's doctors, had testified to witnessing Allende shoot himself under the chin with the rifle while seated on a sofa.


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: At the time, few of Allende's supporters believed the explanation that Allende had killed himself. Allende's body was exhumed in May 2011. The exhumation was requested by members of the Allende family, including his daughter Isabel who viewed the question of her father's death as "an insult to scientific intelligence." A scientific autopsy was performed and the autopsy team delivered a unanimous finding on 19 July 2011 that Allende committed suicide using an AK-47 rifle. The team was composed of international forensic experts to assure an independent evaluation.


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: However, on 31 May 2011, Chile's state television station reported that a top-secret military account of Allende's death had been discovered in the home of a former military justice official. The 300-page document was found only when the house was destroyed in the 2010 Chilean earthquake. After reviewing the report, two forensic experts told Televisión Nacional de Chile "that they are inclined to conclude that Allende was assassinated." Two forensics experts said they believed he was shot with a small-calibre weapon prior to the AK-47. One expert, Luis Ravanal, noted the lack of blood on his collar, sweater and throat suggested someone else fired the AK-47 when he was already dead.


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: Allende's widow and family escaped the military government and were accepted for exile in Mexico, where they remained for 17 years.


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: On 13 September, the Junta dissolved Congress, outlawed the parties that had been part of the Popular Unity coalition, and all political activity was declared "in recess". The military government took control of all media, including the radio broadcasting that Allende attempted to use to give his final speech to the nation. It is not known how many Chileans actually heard the last words of Allende as he spoke them, but a transcript and audio of the speech survived the military government. Chilean scholar Lidia M. Baltra details how the military took control of the media platforms and turned them into their own "propaganda machine." The only two newspapers that were allowed to continue publishing after the military takeover were "El Mercurio" and "La Tercera de la Hora", both of which were anti-Allende under his leadership. The dictatorship's silencing of the leftist point of view extended past the media and into "every discourse that expressed any resistance to the regime." An example of this is the torturing and death of folk singer Victor Jara. The military government detained Jara in the days following the coup. He, along with many other leftists, was held in Estadio Nacional, or the National Stadium of Chile in the capital of Santiago. Initially, the Junta tried to


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: silence him by crushing his hands, but ultimately he was murdered. Immediately after the coup the military sought television host Don Francisco to have him report on the events. Don Francisco declined the offer, encouraging the captain that had approached him to take the role of reporter himself.


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: Initially, there were four leaders of the junta: In addition to General Augusto Pinochet, from the Army, there were General Gustavo Leigh Guzmán, of the Air Force; Admiral José Toribio Merino Castro, of the Navy (who replaced Constitutionalist Admiral Raúl Montero); and General Director César Mendoza Durán, of the National Police ("Carabineros de Chile") (who replaced Constitutionalist General Director José María Sepúlveda). Coup leaders soon decided against a rotating presidency and named General Pinochet permanent head of the junta.


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: In the months that followed the coup, the "junta", with authoring work by historian Gonzalo Vial and Admiral Patricio Carvajal, published a book titled "El Libro Blanco del cambio de gobierno en Chile" (commonly known as "El Libro Blanco", "The White Book of the Change of Government in Chile"), where they attempted to justify the coup by claiming that they were in fact anticipating a self-coup (the alleged "Plan Zeta", or Plan Z) that Allende's government or its associates were purportedly preparing. Historian Peter Winn states that the Central Intelligence Agency had an extensive part to play in fabricating the conspiracy and in selling it to the press, both in Chile and internationally. Although later discredited and officially recognized as the product of political propaganda, Gonzalo Vial has pointed to the similarities between the alleged Plan Z and other existing paramilitary plans of the Popular Unity parties in support of its legitimacy.


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: A document from September 13 shows that Jaime Guzmán was by then already tasked to study the creation of a new constitution. One of the first measures of the dictatorship was to set up a Secretaría Nacional de la Juventud (SNJ, National Youth Office). This was done on 28 October 1973, even before the Declaration of Principles of the junta made in March 1974. This was a way of mobilizing sympathetic elements of the civil society in support for the dictatorship.


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: The newspaper "La Tercera" published on its front page a photograph showing prisoners at the Quiriquina Island Camp who had been captured during the fighting in Concepción. The photograph's caption stated that some of the detained were local leaders of the "Unidad Popular" while others were "extremists who had attacked the armed forces with firearms". The photo is reproduced in Docuscanner. This is consistent with reports in newspapers and broadcasts in Concepción about the activities of the Armed Forces, which mentioned clashes with "extremists" on several occasions from 11 to 14 September. Nocturnal skirmishes took place around the Hotel Alonso de Ercilla in Colo Colo and San Martín Street, one block away from the Army and military police administrative headquarters. A recently published testimony about the clashes in Concepcion offers several plausible explanations for the reticence of witnesses to these actions.


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: Besides political leaders and participants, the coup also affected many everyday Chilean citizens. Thousands were killed, went missing, and were injured. Because of the political instability in their country, many relocated elsewhere. Canada, among other countries, became a main point of refuge for many Chilean citizens. Through an operation known as "Special Movement Chile", more than 7,000 Chileans were relocated to Canada in the months following 11 September 1973. These refugees are now known as Chilean Canadian people and have a population of over 38,000.


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: The U.S. view of the coup continues to spark controversy. Beginning in late 2014 in response to a request by then Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Carl Levin, United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies (CHDS), located at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., has been under investigation by the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General. Insider national security whistleblower complaints included that the Center knowingly protected a CHDS professor from Chile who was a former top advisor to Pinochet after belonging to the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional / DINA state terrorist organization (whose attack against a former Chilean foreign minister in 1976 in Washington, D.C. resulted in two deaths, including that of an American). "Reports that NDU hired foreign military officers with histories of involvement in human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial killings of civilians, are stunning, and they are repulsive", said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, the author of the "Leahy Law" prohibiting U.S. assistance to military units and members of foreign security forces that violate human rights.


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: Roberto Thieme, the military leader of Fatherland and Liberty, who was imprisoned on 11 September was shocked to hear about the degree of violence the coup was carried out with. Despite being an arduous opponent of Unidad Popular he had expected a cleaner coup.


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: President of Argentina Juan Domingo Perón condemned the coup calling it a "fatality for the continent". Before the coup Perón had warned the more radical of his followers to stay calm and "not do as Allende". Argentine students protested the coup at the Chilean embassy in Buenos Aires, where part of them chanted that they were "ready to cross the Andes" ("dispuestos a cruzar la cordillera").


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: A number of cargo shipments involving trade with Cuba were affected by government policy decisions, and subsequently performance of the trade contracts underlying the shipping deliveries was made illegal under Cuban law. The Chilean company Iansa had purchased sugar from the Cuban business entity, Cubazukar, and several shipments were at different stages of the shipping and delivery process. The ships involved included:


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: The shipping contracts used c.i.f. trade terms. Iansa sued Cubazukar for non-delivery. The High Court (in England) ruled that IANSA was entitled to damages in respect of the undelivered balance of the "Playa Larga" cargo and to restitution of the price paid for the "Marble Island" cargo. Subsequent appeals by both parties were dismissed. In regard to the "Aegis Farne" shipping, the contract was frustrated and therefore Cubazukar were not in breach.


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: The commemoration of the coup is associated to competing narratives on its cause and effects. The coup has been commemorated by detractors and supporters in various ways.


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: On 11 September 1975 Pinochet lit the Llama de la Libertad (lit. Flame of Liberty) to commemorate the coup. This flame was extinguished in 2004. Avenida Nueva Providencia in Providencia, Santiago, was renamed Avenida 11 de Septiembre in 1980. In the 30th anniversary of the coup President Ricardo Lagos inaugurated the Morandé 80 entrance to La Moneda. This entrance to the presidential palace had been erased during the repairs the dictatorship did to the building after the bombing.


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: The 40th anniversary of the coup in 2013 was particularly intense. That year the name of Avenida 11 de Septiembre was reversed to the original Avenida Nueva Providencia. The Association of Chilean Magistrates issued a public statement in early September 2013 recognizing the past unwillingness of judges to protect those persecuted by dictatorship. On 11 September 2013 hundreds of Chileans posed as dead in the streets of Santiago in remembrance of the ones "disappeared" by the dictatorship.


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: The centre-left opposition refused to attend the commemoration event organized by Sebastián Piñera's right-wing government organizing instead a separate event. Osvaldo Andrade of the Socialist Party explained that attendance was not viable as Piñera's government was "packed with passive accomplices" of the dictatorship. Some right-wing politicians also declined the invitation. Presidential candidate Michelle Bachelet planned to spend the day visiting Museum of Memory and Human Rights. President Piñera held an unusual speech in which he denounced "passive accomplices" like news reporters who deliberately changed or omitted the truth and judges who rejected recursos de amparos that could have saved lives. People who knew things or could have known things but decided to stay quiet were also criticized as passive accomplices in Piñera's speech.


title: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

text: A number of new films, theatre plays, and photography expositions were held to cast light on the abuses and censorship of the dictatorship. The number of new books published on the subject in 2013 was such that it constituted an editorial boom. The Museum of Memory and Human Rights also displayed a collection of declassified CIA, FBI, Defense Department, and White House records illustrating the U.S. role in the dictatorship and the coup. Conferences and seminaries on the subject of coup were also held. Various series and interviews with politicians on the subject of the coup and the dictatorship were aired on Chilean TV in 2013.


title: Alans

text: The Alans (Latin: "Alani") were an ancient and medieval Iranian nomadic pastoral people of the North Caucasus – generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the Alans with the Central Asian Yancai of Chinese sources and with the Aorsi of Roman sources. Having migrated westwards and becoming dominant among the Sarmatians on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, the Alans are mentioned by Roman sources in the . At that time they had settled the region north of the Black Sea and frequently raided the Parthian Empire and the Caucasian provinces of the Roman Empire. From the Goths broke their power on the Pontic Steppe.


title: Alans

text: Upon the Hunnic defeat of the Goths on the Pontic Steppe around , many of the Alans migrated westwards along with various Germanic tribes. They crossed the Rhine in 406CE along with the Vandals and Suebi, settling in Orléans and Valence. Around 409 CE they joined the Vandals and Suebi in crossing the Pyrenees into the Iberian Peninsula, settling in Lusitania and Hispania Carthaginensis. The Iberian Alans, soundly defeated by the Visigoths in 418 CE, subsequently surrendered their authority to the Hasdingi Vandals. In 428CE, the Vandals and Alans crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into North Africa, where they founded a kingdom which lasted until its conquest by forces of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in 534.


title: Alans

text: Those Alans who remained under Hunnic rule eventually founded the powerful kingdom of Alania in the North Caucasus in the 9th century; it survived until the Mongol invasions of the 13th century CE. Various Ossetian scholars regard these Alans as the ancestors of the modern Ossetians.


title: Alans

text: The Alans spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into the modern Ossetian language.


title: Alans

text: The Alans were documented by foreign observers from the 1st century CE onward under similar names: ; '; ' (Pinyin; "Alan" + "Liu") in the 2nd century, ' in the 3rd century, later "Alanguo" (); Parthian and Middle Persian "Alānān" (plural); Arabic "Alān" (singular); Syriac "Alānayē"; Classical Armenian "Alank; Georgian "Alaneti" ('country of the Alans'); Hebrew "Alan" (pl. "Alanim"). Rarer Latin spellings include "Alauni" or "Halani". The name was also preserved in the modern Ossetian language as "Allon".


title: Alans

text: The ethnonym "Alān" is a dialectal variant of the Old Iranian *"Aryāna", itself derived from the root "arya"-, meaning 'Aryan', the common self-designation of Indo-Iranian peoples. It probably came in use in the early history of the Alans for the purpose of uniting a heterogeneous group of tribes through the invocation of a common, ancestral 'Aryan' origin. Like the name of Iran (*"Aryānām"), the adjective *"aryāna" appears to be related to "Airyanəm Waēǰō" ('stretch of the Aryas'), the mythical homeland of the early Iranians mentioned in the "Avesta".


title: Alans

text: Some other ethnonyms also bear the name of the Alans: the "Rhoxolāni" ('Bright Alans'), an offshoot of the Alans whose name may be linked to religious practices, and the "Alanorsoi" ('White Alans'), perhaps a conglomerate of Alans and Aorsi. The personal names "Alan" and "Alain" (from Latin "Alanus") may have been introduced by Alan settlers to Western Europe during the first millennium CE.


title: Alans

text: The Alans were also known over the course of their history by another group of related names including the variations "Asi", "As", and "Os" (Romanian ', Bulgarian ', Hungarian ', Russian ', Georgian ""). It is this name at the root of the modern "Ossetian".


title: Alans

text: The Alans were formed out of the merger of the Massagetae, a Central Asian Iranian nomadic people, with some old tribal groups. Related to the Asii who had invaded Bactria in the 2nd century BCE, the Alans were pushed west by the Kang-chü people (known to Graeco-Roman authors as the in Greek, and the in Latin), the latter of whom were living in the Syr Darya basin, from where they expanded their rule from Fergana to the Aral Sea region.


title: Alans

text: The first mentions of names that historians link with the "Alani" appear at almost the same time in texts from the Mediterranean, Middle East and China.


title: Alans

text: In the 1st century CE, the Alans migrated westwards from Central Asia, achieving a dominant position among the Sarmatians living between the Don River and the Caspian Sea. The Alans are mentioned in the Vologases inscription which reads that Vologases I, the Parthian king between around 45 and 78 CE, in the 11th year of his reign (62 CE), battled Kuluk, king of the Alani. The 1st century CE Jewish historian Josephus supplements this inscription. Josephus reports in the "Jewish Wars" (book7, ch.7.4) how Alans (whom he calls a "Scythian" tribe) living near the Sea of Azov crossed the Iron Gates for plunder (72CE) and defeated the armies of Pacorus, king of Media, and Tiridates, King of Armenia, two brothers of Vologeses I (for whom the above-mentioned inscription was made):


title: Alans

text: The fact that the Alans invaded Parthia through Hyrcania shows that at the time many Alans were still based north-east of the Caspian Sea. By the early 2nd century CE the Alans were in firm control of the Lower Volga and Kuban. These lands had earlier been occupied by the Aorsi and the Siraces, whom the Alans apparently absorbed, dispersed and/or destroyed, since they were no longer mentioned in contemporaneous accounts. It is likely that the Alans' influence stretched further westwards, encompassing most of the Sarmatian world, which by then possessed a relatively homogenous culture.


title: Alans

text: In , the Alans made a huge raid into Asia Minor via the Caucasus, ravaging Media and Armenia. They were eventually driven back by Arrian, the governor of Cappadocia, who wrote a detailed report ("Ektaxis kata Alanoon" or 'War Against the Alans') that is a major source for studying Roman military tactics.


title: Alans

text: From 215 to 250, the Germanic Goths expanded south-eastwards and broke the Alan dominance on the Pontic Steppe. The Alans however seem to have had a significant influence on the culture of the Goths, who became excellent horsemen and adopted the Alanic animal style art. (The Roman Empire, during the chaos of the 3rd century civil wars, suffered damaging raids by the Gothic armies with their heavy cavalry before the Illyrian Emperors adapted to the Gothic tactics, reorganized and expanded the Roman heavy cavalry, and defeated the Goths under Gallienus, Claudius II and Aurelian.)


title: Alans

text: After the Gothic entry to the steppe, many of the Alans seem to have retreated eastwards towards the Don, where they seem to have established contacts with the Huns. Ammianus writes that the Alans were "somewhat like the Huns, but in their manner of life and their habits they are less savage." Jordanes contrasted them with the Huns, noting that the Alans "were their equals in battle, but unlike them in their civilisation, manners and appearance". In the late 4th century, Vegetius conflates Alans and Huns in his military treatise "Hunnorum Alannorumque natio", the "nation of Huns and Alans"and collocates Goths, Huns and Alans, "exemplo Gothorum et Alannorum Hunnorumque".


title: Alans

text: The 4th century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus noted that the Alans were "formerly called Massagetae," while Dio Cassius wrote that "they are Massagetae." It is likely that the Alans were an amalgamation of various Iranian peoples, including Sarmatians, Massagetae and Sakas. Scholars have connected the Alans to the nomadic state of Yancai mentioned in Chinese sources. The Yancai are first mentioned in connection with late 2nd century BCE diplomat Zhang Qian's travels in Chapter 123 of "Shiji" (whose author, Sima Qian, died c. 90 BCE). The Yancai of Chinese records has again been equated with the Aorsi, a powerful Sarmatian tribe living between the Don River and the Aral Sea, mentioned in Roman records, in particular Strabo.


title: Alans

text: The Later Han dynasty Chinese chronicle, the "Hou Hanshu", 88 (covering the period 25–220 and completed in the 5th century), mentioned a report that the "Yancai" nation (奄蔡 lit "Vast Steppes" or "Extensive Grasslands" < LHC *"ʔɨam"-"sɑ"; a.k.a. "Hesu" (闔蘇), compare Latin "Abzoae", identified with the Aorsi (Ancient Greek "Αορσιοι")) had become a vassal state of the Kangju and was now known as "Alan" (< LHC: *"ʔɑ-lɑn" 阿蘭)


title: Alans

text: Y. A. Zadneprovskiy suggests that the Kangju subjugation of Yancai occurred in the 1st century BCE, and that this subjugation caused various Sarmatian tribes, including the Aorsi, to migrate westwards, which played a major role in starting the Migration Period. The 3rd century Weilüe also notes that Yancai was then known to be Alans, although they were no longer vassals of the Kangju.


title: Alans

text: Around 370, according to Ammianus, the peaceful relations between the Alans and Huns were broken, after the Huns attacked the Don Alans, killing many of them and establishing an alliance with the survivors. These Alans successfully invaded the Goths in 375 together with the Huns. They subsequently accompanied the Huns in their westward expansion.


title: Alans

text: Following the Hunnic invasion in 370, other Alans, along with other Sarmatians, migrated westward. One of these Alan groups fought together with the Goths in the decisive Battle of Adrianople in 378CE, in which emperor Valens was killed. As the Roman Empire continued to decline, the Alans split into various groups; some fought for the Romans while others joined the Huns, Visigoths or Ostrogoths. A portion of the western Alans joined the Vandals and the Suebi in their invasion of Roman Gaul. Gregory of Tours mentions in his "Liber historiae Francorum" ("Book of Frankish History") that the Alan king Respendial saved the day for the Vandals in an armed encounter with the Franks at the crossing of the Rhine on December31, 406). According to Gregory, another group of Alans, led by Goar, crossed the Rhine at the same time, but immediately joined the Romans and settled in Gaul.


title: Alans

text: Under Beorgor (), they moved throughout Gaul, till the reign of Petronius Maximus, when they crossed the Alps in the winter of 464, into Liguria, but were there defeated, and Beorgor slain, by Ricimer, commander of the Emperor's forces.


title: Alans

text: In 442, after it became clear to Aetius that he could no longer rely upon the Huns for support, he turned to Goar and persuaded him to move some of his people to settlements in the Orleanais in order to control the bacaudae of Armorica and to keep the Visigoths from expanding their territories northward across the Loire. Goar settled a substantial number of his followers in the Orleanais and the area to the north and personally moved his own capital to the city of Orleans.


title: Alans

text: Under Goar, they allied with the Burgundians led by Gundaharius, with whom they installed the Emperor Jovinus as usurper. Under Goar's successor Sangiban, the Alans of Orléans played a critical role in repelling the invasion of Attila the Hun at the Battle of Châlons. In 463 the Alans defeated the Goths at the battle of Orléans, and they later defeated the Franks led by Childeric in 466. Around 502–503 Clovis attacked Armorica but was defeated by the Alans. However, the Alans, who were Chalcedonian Christians like Clovis, desired cordial relations with him to counterbalance the hostile Arian Visigoths who coveted the land north of the Loire. Therefore, an accord was arranged by which Clovis came to rule the various peoples of Armorica and the military strength of the area was integrated into the Merovingian military.


title: Alans

text: Following the fortunes of the Vandals and Suebi into the Iberian peninsula (Hispania, comprising modern Portugal and Spain) in 409, the Alans led by Respendial settled in the provinces of Lusitania and Carthaginensis. The Kingdom of the Alans was among the first Barbarian kingdoms to be founded. The Siling Vandals settled in Baetica, the Suebi in coastal Gallaecia, and the Asding Vandals in the rest of Gallaecia. Although the newcomers controlled Hispania they were still a tiny minority among a larger Hispano-Roman population, approximately 200,000 out of 6,000,000.


title: Alans

text: In 418 (or 426 according to some authors), the Alan king, Attaces, was killed in battle against the Visigoths, and this branch of the Alans subsequently appealed to the Asding Vandal king Gunderic to accept the Alan crown. The separate ethnic identity of Respendial's Alans dissolved. Although some of these Alans are thought to have remained in Iberia, most went to North Africa with the Vandals in 429. Later the rulers of the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa styled themselves "Rex Wandalorum et Alanorum" ("King of the Vandals and Alans").


title: Alans

text: There are some vestiges of the Alans in Portugal, namely in Alenquer (whose name may be Germanic for the "Temple of the Alans", from "Alan Kerk", and whose castle may have been established by them; the Alaunt is still represented in that city's coat of arms), in the construction of the castles of Torres Vedras and Almourol, and in the city walls of Lisbon, where vestiges of their presence may be found under the foundations of the Church of "Santa Luzia".


title: Alans

text: In the Iberian peninsula the Alans settled in Lusitania (Alentejo) and the Cartaginense provinces. They became known in retrospect for their massive hunting and fighting running mastiff-type dogs, the Alaunt, which they apparently introduced to Europe. The breed is extinct, but its name is carried by a Spanish breed of dog still called "Alano", traditionally used in boar hunting and cattle herding. The Alano name, however, has historically been used for a number of dog breeds in a few European countries thought to descend from the original dog of the Alans, such as the German mastiff (Great Dane) and the French Dogue de Bordeaux, among others.


title: Alans

text: The Alans who remained in their original area of settlement north of the Caucasus (and for a time east of the Caspian Sea as well), came into contact and conflict with the Bulgars, the Gökturks, and the Khazars, who drove most of them from the plains and into the mountains.


title: Alans

text: The Alans converted to Byzantine Orthodoxy in the first quarter of the 10th century, during the patriarchate of Nicholas I Mystikos. Al-Mas‘udi reports that they apostasized in 932, but this seems to have been short-lived. The Alans are collectively mentioned as Byzantine-rite Christians in the 13th century. The Caucasian Alans were the ancestors of the modern Ossetians, whose ethnonym derives from the name "Ās" (very probably the ancient "Aorsi"; al-Ma'sudi mentions "al-Arsiyya" as guards among the Khazars, and the Rus' called the Alans "Yasi"), a sister tribe of the Alans. The "Armenian Geography" uses the name "Ashtigor" for the most westerly located Alans, a name which survives as "Digor" and still refers to the western division of the Ossetians. Furthermore, in Ossetian, "Asi" refers to the region around Mount Elbrus, where they probably formerly lived.


title: Alans

text: Some of the other Alans remained under the rule of the Huns. Those of the eastern division, though dispersed about the steppes until late medieval times, were forced by the Mongols into the Caucasus, where they remain as the Ossetians. Between the 9th and 12th centuries, they formed a network of tribal alliances that gradually evolved into the Christian kingdom of Alania. Most Alans submitted to the Mongol Empire in 1239–1277. They participated in Mongol invasions of Europe and the Song dynasty in Southern China, and the Battle of Kulikovo under Mamai of the Golden Horde.


title: Alans

text: In 1253, the Franciscan monk William of Rubruck reported numerous Europeans in Central Asia. It is also known that 30,000 Alans formed the royal guard (Asud) of the Yuan court in Dadu (Beijing). Marco Polo later reported their role in the Yuan dynasty in his book "Il Milione". It is said that those Alans contributed to a modern Mongol clan, Asud. John of Montecorvino, archbishop of Dadu (Khanbaliq), reportedly converted many Alans to Roman Catholic Christianity in addition to Armenians in China. In Poland and Lithuania, Alans were also part of the powerful Clan of Ostoja.


title: Alans

text: According to the missionary Pian de Carpine, a part of the Alans had successfully resisted a Mongol siege on a mountain for 12 years:


title: Alans

text: This twelve-year-old siege is not found in any other report, however the Russian historian A. I. Krasnov connected this battle with two Chechen folktales he recorded in 1967 that spoke of an old hunter named Idig who with his companions defended the Dakuoh mountain for 12 years against Tatar-Mongols. He also reported to have found several arrowheads and spears from the 13th century near the very mountain the battle took place at:


title: Alans

text: Against the Alans and the Cumans (Kipchaks), the Mongols used divide-and-conquer tactics by first telling the Cumans to stop allying with the Alans and, after the Cumans followed their suggestion, the Mongols then attacked the Cumans after defeating the Alans. Alans were recruited into the Mongol forces with one unit called "Right Alan Guard" which was combined with "recently surrendered" soldiers, Mongols, and Chinese soldiers stationed in the area of the former Kingdom of Qocho and in Besh Balikh the Mongols established a Chinese military colony led by Chinese general Qi Kongzhi (Ch'i Kung-chih). Alan and Kipchak guards were used by Kublai Khan. In 1368 at the end of the Yuan dynasty in China Toghan Temür was accompanied by his faithful Alan guards. Mangu enlisted in his bodyguard half the troops of the Alan prince, Arslan, whose younger son Nicholas took a part in the expedition of the Mongols against Karajang (Yunnan). This Alan imperial guard was still in existence in 1272, 1286 and 1309, and it was divided into two corps with headquarters in the Ling pei province (Karakorúm). The French-Flemish monk and traveler William of Rubruck mentions Alans numerous times in the account of his 1253–1255 journey through Eurasia to the Great Khan, e.g. Alans living as Mongol subjects in Crimea, Old Astrakhan, the Khan's capital Karakorum, and also still as freemen in their Caucasian homeland ("the Alans or Aas, who are Christians and still fight the Tartars"). The reason why the earlier Persian word tersa was gradually abandoned by the Mongols in favour of the Syro-Greek word arkon, when speaking of Christians, manifestly is that no specifically Greek Church was ever heard of in China until the Russians had been conquered; besides, there were large bodies of Russian and Alan guards at Peking throughout the last half of the thirteenth and first half of the fourteenth century, and the Catholics there would not be likely to encourage the use of a Persian word which was most probably applicable in the first instance to the Nestorians they found so degenerated. The Alan guards converted to Catholicism as reported by Odorico. They were a "Russian guard".


title: Alans

text: It is believed that some Alans resettled to the North (Barsils), merging with Volga Bulgars and Burtas, eventually transforming to Volga Tatars. It is supposed that the Iasi, a group of Alans founded a town in the northeast of Romania (about 1200–1300), near the Prut river, called Iași. The latter became the capital of Moldavia in the Middle Ages.


title: Alans

text: Descendants of the Alans who live in the autonomous republics of Russia and Georgia speak the Ossetian language which belongs to the Northeastern Iranian language group and is the only remnant of the Scytho-Sarmatian dialect continuum, which once stretched over much of the Pontic steppe and Central Asia. Modern Ossetian has two major dialects: "Digor", spoken in the western part of North Ossetia; and "Iron", spoken in the rest of Ossetia. A third branch of Ossetian, "Jassic" ("Jász"), was formerly spoken in Hungary. The literary language, based on the Iron dialect, was fixed by the national poet, Kosta Khetagurov (1859–1906).


title: Alans

text: In a study conducted in 2014 by V. V.Ilyinskyon on bone fragments from 10 Alanic burials on the Don River, DNA could be abstracted from a total of seven. Four of them turned out to belong to yDNA Haplogroup G2 and six of them had mtDNAI. The fact that many of the samples share the same y- and mtDNA raises the possibility that the tested individuals belonged to the same tribe or even were close relatives. Nevertheless, this is a strong argument for direct Alan ancestry of Ossetians, competing with the hypothesis that Ossetians are alanized Caucasic speakers, since the major Haplogroup among Ossetians is G2 also.


title: Alans

text: In 2015, the Institute of Archaeology in Moscow conducted research on various Sarmato-Alan and Saltovo-Mayaki culture Kurgan burials. In this analysis, the two Alan samples from the 4th to 6th century CE had yDNAs G2a-P15 and R1a-z94, while from the three Sarmatian samples from 2nd to 3rd century CE two had yDNA J1-M267 and one possessed R1a.


title: Alans

text: Also, the three Saltovo-Mayaki samples from 8th to 9th century CE turned out to have yDNAs G, J2a-M410 and R1a-z94 respectively.


title: Alans

text: A genetic study published in "Nature" in May 2018 examined the remains of six Alans buried in the Caucasus from ca. 100 CE to 1400 CE. The sample of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1 and haplogroup Q-M242. One of the Q-M242 samples found in Beslan, North Ossetia from 200 CE found 4 relatives among Chechens from the Shoanoy Teip. The samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to HV2a1, U4d3, X2f, H13a2c, H5, and W1.


title: Alans

text: Archaeological finds support the written sources. P. D. Rau (1927) first identified late Sarmatian sites with the historical Alans. Based on the archaeological material, they were one of the Iranian-speaking nomadic tribes that began to enter the Sarmatian area between the middle of the 1st and the 2nd centuries.


title: Alans

text: The ancient language of the Alans was an Eastern Iranian dialect either identical, or at least closely related, to ancient Eastern Iranian languages. This is confirmed by comparison of the word for horse in various Indo-Iranian languages and the reconstructed Alanic word for horse:


title: Alans

text: Prior to their Christianisation, the Alans were Indo-Iranian polytheists, subscribing either to the poorly understood Scythian pantheon or to a polytheistic form of Zoroastrianism. Some traditions were directly inherited from the Scythians, like embodying their dominant god in elaborate rituals.


title: Alans

text: In the 4th5th centuries the Alans were at least partially Christianized by Byzantine missionaries of the Arian church. In the 13th century, invading Mongol hordes pushed the eastern Alans further south into the Caucasus, where they mixed with native Caucasian groups and successively formed three territorial entities each with different developments. Around 1395, Timur's army invaded the Northern Caucasus and massacred much of the Alanian population.


title: Alans

text: As time went by, Digor in the west came under Kabard and Islamic influence. It was through the Kabardians (an East Circassian tribe) that Islam was introduced into the region in the 17th century. After 1767, all of Alania came under Russian rule, which strengthened Orthodox Christianity in that region considerably. A substantial minority of today's Ossetians are followers of the traditional Ossetian religion, revived in the 1980s as Assianism (Ossetian: "Uatsdin" = 'true faith').


title: Politico

text: Politico (stylized in all caps), known originally as The Politico, is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and internationally. It primarily distributes content online but also with printed newspapers, radio, and podcasts. Its coverage in Washington, D.C., includes the U.S. Congress, lobbying, the media, and the presidency.


title: Politico

text: Axel Springer SE, a German publisher, announced in August 2021 that it had agreed to buy Politico from founder Robert Allbritton for over $1 billion. The closing took place in late October 2021. The new owners said they would add staff, and at some point, put the publication's news content behind a paywall. Axel Springer is Europe's largest newspaper publisher and had previously acquired "Insider".


title: Politico

text: "Politico" was founded in 2007 to focus on politics with fast-paced Internet reporting in granular detail, comparable to the sports analysis of SportsCenter or ESPN. John F. Harris and Jim VandeHei left "The Washington Post" to become "Politico"s editor-in-chief and executive editor, respectively. With the financial backing of Robert L. Allbritton, the pair launched the website on January 23, 2007. Their first hire was Mike Allen, a writer for "Time", and Frederick J. Ryan Jr. served as its first president and chief executive officer. Martin Tolchin was another member of the editorial founding team.


title: Politico

text: From the beginning, journalists covering political campaigns for "Politico" carried a video camera to each assignment, and they were encouraged to promote their work elsewhere. By 2008, "Politico" received more than three million unique visits per month.


title: Politico

text: In September 2008, "The New York Times" reported that "Politico" would expand its operations following the 2008 presidential election: "[A]fter Election Day, ["Politico"] will add reporters, editors, Web engineers and other employees; expand circulation of its newspaper edition in Washington; and print more often." Between the 2008 and 2012 elections, "Politico"s staff more than tripled in size. Notable additions included two political commentators, Michael Kinsley and Joe Scarborough, as opinion writers.


title: Politico

text: In 2011, "Politico" began to focus more on long-form journalism and news analysis. This shift in coverage received further support in June 2013 with the hiring of Susan Glasser to oversee "opinion from prominent outside voices" and "long-form storytelling". In September 2014, Glasser was tapped to serve as "Politico"s new editor, following the resignation of Richard Berke the previous month.


title: Politico

text: VandeHei was named "Politico"s new CEO in October 2013. Under his leadership, "Politico" continued to grow: in 2014 alone, it expanded revenues by 25%. By 2016, "Politico" had nearly 500 employees worldwide.


title: Politico

text: Amidst reports of tensions, VandeHei and Allen announced that they would leave "Politico" after the 2016 presidential election, but left far sooner. Allbritton, then Executive Chairman and owner, was named acting CEO in Vandehei's stead. Several months after their departure, Washingtonian Magazine reported that the relationship ultimately deteriorated during a series of events including VandeHei pushing Allbritton to sell the company, and Allbritton losing faith in VandeHei's abilities as a CEO.


title: Politico

text: Investment banker Patrick Steel served as CEO between 2017 and 2021. He departed the company in early 2021 after four years.


title: Politico

text: Goli Sheikholeslami, who had been the CEO of WNYC public radio, was announced as CEO by new owner Axel Springer in January 2022 and tasked with leading operations of both Politico and Politico Europe.


title: Politico

text: Dafna Linzer, who had been at MSNBC and NBC News, was named as the new executive editor in March 2022.


title: Politico

text: On June 25, 2007, Mike Allen launched Playbook, a daily early-morning email newsletter. Within a few years, the newsletter had attained a large readership amongst members of the D.C. community. By 2016, over 100,000 people—including "insiders, outsiders, lobbyists and journalists, governors, senators, presidents and would-be presidents"—read Playbook daily. Multiple commentators credit Allen and Playbook with strongly influencing the substance and tone of the rest of the national political news cycle.


title: Politico

text: Daniel Lippman joined "Politico" in June 2014, in large part to assist Allen with Playbook. Upon Allen's departure in July 2016 to start Axios, Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman joined Lippman to assume Playbook-writing duties. In March 2017, "Politico" announced the creation of a second, mid-day edition of Playbook—entitled "Playbook Power Briefing"—written by the same people who authored the morning edition.


title: Politico

text: In 2017, a weekly sponsorship of Playbook cost between $50,000 and $60,000. After Palmer and Sherman left to found Punchbowl News, "Politico" announced a new team of Playbook authors in 2021, including Rachael Bade, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri and Eugene Daniels. Mike Debonis, previously of the Washington Post, was hired as editor of Politico Playbook in 2022.


title: Politico

text: Politico Pro, a B2B subscription service, launched in 2010. With roughly 300 reporters at its disposal, Politico Pro provides in-depth coverage of over a dozen major topic areas. The service charges subscribing businesses by licenses and topic area (verticals), with the costs in the high four figures to high six figures depending on the scope of the subscription. Despite the paywall in place, Politico Pro has a 93% subscription renewal rate, and it provides nearly half of "Politico"s overall revenue. Access to the Politico.com, Politico Playbook, and its other newsletters remained free of charge.


title: Politico

text: In November 2013, "Politico" launched "Politico Magazine" (), which is published online and bimonthly in print. In contrast to "Politico"s focus on "politics and policy scoops" and breaking news, "Politico Magazine" focuses on "high-impact, magazine-style reporting", such as long-form journalism. The first editor of "Politico Magazine" was Susan Glasser, who came to the publication from "Foreign Policy" magazine.


title: Politico

text: After Glasser was promoted to become "Politico"s editor, Garrett Graff was named editor of the magazine. He was followed by Blake Hounshell (2016–18), and Stephen Heuser (2019-2022). In September, 2022, Elizabeth Ralph was named editor of POLITICO Magazine, now solely a digital publication.


title: Politico

text: In February 2020, Robert Allbritton, the then owner of "Politico," launched "Protocol", an online tech news site focused on the "people, power and politics of tech." The site's focuses on arm how to "arm decision-makers in tech, business and public policy" with important global technology news. It operates as a separate company and with separate business and editorial management than Politico.


title: Politico

text: In September 2013, "Politico" acquired the online news site "Capital New York", which also operated separate departments covering Florida and New Jersey. In April 2015, "Politico" announced its intention to rebrand the state feeds with the "Politico" name ("Politico Florida", "Politico New Jersey", and "Politico New York") to expand its coverage of state politics. In September 2018, "Politico" announced it would launch "Politico California Pro".


title: Politico

text: In September 2014, "Politico" formed a joint venture with German publisher Axel Springer SE to launch its European edition, based in Brussels. In December 2014, the joint venture announced its acquisition of Development Institute International, a leading French events content provider, and "European Voice", a European political newspaper, to be re-launched under the "Politico" brand. "Politico Europe" debuted in print on April 23, 2015.


title: Politico

text: Politico.eu, the publication's Brussels-based European operation, was formally launched in 2015. In early 2016, it had about 50 editorial employees and two dozen business employees. A third-party survey published at the time ranked Politico.eu as most widely read news organization among 249 Brussels "influencers" surveyed, although the same panel found it less influential than "The Financial Times", BBC, and "The Economist".


title: Politico

text: Stephen Brown, who was named editor-in-chief of "Politico Europe" in September 2019, died suddenly of a heart attack on March 18, 2021.


title: Politico

text: Jamil Anderlini, previously Asia Editor of the Financial Times, was named Editor-in-Chief of Politico Europe in July, 2021.


title: Politico

text: Under Glasser and successor Carrie Budoff Brown, "Politico" expanded its focus on investigating Washington policymakers, leading to multiple resignations"." A series of stories by Sherman and Palmer in 2015 "helped break open the scandal that forced the resignation of Representative Aaron Schock of Illinois in 2015," according to the "New York Times." Reporter Marianne Levine in 2017 "helped bring down Trump’s Labor Secretary pick," Andy Puzder, after breaking the story that Puzder's ex-wife had accused him of spousal abuse, according to Poynter. Puzder withdrew his nomination after the story.


title: Politico

text: In September 2017, reporters Rachana Pradhan and Dan Diamond authored a "bombshell" investigation of how President Donald Trump's health secretary, Tom Price, was flying on charter jets paid for by taxpayers, according to the "Washington Post". Price resigned after the stories.


title: Politico

text: The "indispensable" stories published by "Politico" under Budoff Brown in 2017 helped it "get its groove back," according to the "Washingtonian's" Andrew Beaujon.


title: Politico

text: "Politico" reporter Alex Thompson in February 2022 broke the "bombshell report" of how Eric Lander, President Joe Biden's science adviser, had been "demeaning" colleagues in the office, according to "Endpoints News". Lander resigned after the story.


title: Politico

text: Politico acquired E&E News in December 2020 to expand its coverage of the energy and environmental sectors. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.


title: Politico

text: In October 2021, the large German publishing and media firm Axel Springer SE announced that it had completed the acquisition of "Politico" for over $1 billion. Axel Springer's Chief Executive Mathias Döpfner said that Politico staff would need to adhere to Axel Springer's principles, including support for a united Europe, Israel's right to exist and a free-market economy, and that staff who disagree with the principles "should not work for Axel Springer, very clearly". Axel Springer said that they would not require "Politico" employees to sign documents in support of a transatlantic alliance or Israel, though this policy is enforced at German newspaper "Bild", another Axel Springer subsidiary.


title: Politico

text: On May 2, 2022, "Politico" obtained and released a 98-page draft document indicating that the Supreme Court was poised to strike down the landmark "Roe v. Wade" decision that legalized abortion nationwide, as well as "Planned Parenthood v. Casey", in its ruling on "Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization". Chief Justice John Roberts directed the Marshal of the Court to conduct an investigation into the source of the leak. The story became the most-trafficked in the publisher's history, with 11 million views by May 6. "Politico"'s first tweet on the report gained more than triple the impressions it normally saw an entire month on Twitter.


title: Politico

text: In September 2022 "Politico" published an expose' critical of NGO leadership at the helm of the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic response, written in cooperation with the German newspaper "Welt." Criticisms included the interconnectivity of the non-profits with Bill Gates, as well as his personal lack of formal credentials in medicine. Additionally, the article noted the lack of public accountability of the NGO's, their haste to put forward their selected vaccine candidates while public debate was yet unfinished, possible conflicts of interest due to employment of non-profit staff in influential health regulatory bodies, and the massively funded lobbying arm of the consortium. Further censure was given due to lack of consultation with other well-credentialed international not-for-profit groups, and to governments for allowing themselves to be lobbied and yield leadership.


title: Politico

text: "Politico" editor Michael Hirsh resigned in November 2016 after publishing the home address of white supremacist Richard B. Spencer on Facebook.


title: Politico

text: "Politico Playbook", in January 2022, incorrectly reported that United States Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor had been seen having dinner with leading Democrats, after Sotomayor earlier having claimed that she could not appear in person for oral arguments at the court. It later turned out that "Politico" had mistaken Chuck Schumer's wife Iris Weinshall for Sotomayor, who had never been at the dinner, and "Politico" did not verify the report.


title: Politico

text: "Politico Magazine" published an article in April 2017 purporting to show long-term links among U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty Chabad-Lubavitch. The article was widely condemned, with the head of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, saying that it "evokes age-old myths about Jews".


title: Politico

text: In March 2019, "Politico" was again accused of antisemitism when it published an article depicting imagery of presidential candidate U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders next to money trees. Sanders, one of two Jewish candidates for the 2020 U.S. presidential election, was targeted for the amount of wealth he accumulated over his lifetime. "Politico" staff writer Michael Kruse wrote the article detailing the senator's wealth, writing that Sanders "might still be cheap", according to one of the senator's friends, "but he's sure not poor", which was criticized as combining two antisemitic tropes (Jews are cheap; Jews are rich). "Politico" s official Twitter account used the quote to share the story; the tweet was later deleted.


title: Politico

text: On January 14, 2021, conservative commentator Ben Shapiro was featured as a guest writer for "Politico"'s Playbook newsletter, where he defended Republicans in the US House of Representatives who opposed the second impeachment of Donald Trump. The newsletter drew backlash from "Politico" staffers. Matthew Kaminski, editor in chief of "Politico", declined to apologize and defended the decision to publish the article, stating that, "We're not going to back away from having published something because some people think it was a mistake to do so", and that the newspaper "stands by every word" in the article. According to "The Daily Beast", more than 100 "Politico" staffers signed onto a letter to publisher Robert Allbritton criticizing "Politico's" decision to feature Shapiro's article and the response from Kaminski.


title: Politico

text: Cambridge Analytica microtargeted pro-Trump voters and anti-Hillary Clinton voters with native advertising and sponsored or branded content on "Politico".


title: Politico

text: As of 2017, "Politico" claimed to average 26 million unique visitors a month to its American website, and more than 1.5 million unique visitors to its European site. According to a 2020 Knight Foundation study, "Politico" is generally read by a moderate to left-leaning audience. Following the acquisition of the company by Axel Springer SE, "Haaretz" and Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting reported that "Politico" would enforce a policy on employees requiring them to acknowledge Israel's right to exist.


title: Politico

text: The print newspaper had a circulation of approximately 32,000 in 2009, distributed free in Washington, D.C. and Manhattan. The newspaper prints up to five issues a week while Congress is in session and sometimes publishes one issue a week when Congress is in recess. It carries advertising, including full-page ads from trade associations and a large help-wanted section listing Washington political jobs.


title: Politico

text: Multiple commentators have credited "Politico"s original organizational philosophy—namely, prioritizing scoops and publishing large numbers of stories—with forcing other, more-established publications to make a number of changes, such as increasing their pace of production and changing their tone. Other outlets, including "Axios" and "Punchbowl News", were started by "Politico" employees.


title: Politico

text: "Politico" won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012, for Matt Wuerker's editorial cartoons. "Politico" also has won three George Polk Awards, the first in 2014 for Rania Abouzeid's investigation of the rise of the Islamic State, the second in 2019 for Helena Bottemiller Evich's investigation of the Trump administration's efforts to bury its climate change plans, and the third in 2020 for Diamond's investigation of political interference in the U.S. federal government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic.


title: Frances Farmer

text: Frances Elena Farmer (September 19, 1913August 1, 1970) was an American actress and television hostess. She appeared in over a dozen feature films over the course of her career, though she garnered notoriety for sensationalized accounts of her life, especially her involuntary commitment to psychiatric hospitals and subsequent mental health struggles.


title: Frances Farmer

text: A native of Seattle, Washington, Farmer began acting in stage productions while a student at the University of Washington. After graduating, she began performing in stock theater before signing a film contract with Paramount Pictures on her 22nd birthday in September 1935. She made her film debut in the B film "Too Many Parents" (1936), followed by another B picture, "Border Flight", before being given the lead role opposite Bing Crosby in the musical Western "Rhythm on the Range" (1936). Unhappy with the opportunities the studio gave her, Farmer returned to stock theater in 1937 before being cast in the original Broadway production of Clifford Odets's "Golden Boy", staged by New York City's Group Theatre. She followed this with two Broadway productions directed by Elia Kazan in 1939, but a battle with depression and binge drinking caused her to drop out of a subsequent Ernest Hemingway stage adaptation.


title: Frances Farmer

text: Farmer returned to Los Angeles, earning supporting roles in the comedy "World Premiere" (1941) and the film noir "Among the Living" (1941). In 1942, publicity of her reportedly erratic behavior began to surface and, after several arrests and committals to psychiatric institutions, Farmer was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. At the request of her family, particularly her mother, she was committed to an institution in her home state of Washington, where she remained a patient until 1950. Farmer attempted an acting comeback, mainly appearing as a television host in Indianapolis on her own series, "Frances Farmer Presents". Her final film role was in the 1958 drama "The Party Crashers", after which she spent the majority of the 1960s occasionally performing in local theater productions staged by Purdue University. In the spring of 1970, she was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, from which she died on August 1, 1970, aged 56.


title: Frances Farmer

text: Farmer has been the subject of two feature films and several books focusing on her time spent institutionalized, during which she claimed to have been subjected to systemic abuse. Her posthumously released, ghostwritten, and widely discredited autobiography, "Will There Really Be a Morning?" (1972), details these claims, but has been exposed as a largely fictional work by a friend of Farmer's to clear debts. Another discredited 1978 biography of her life, "Shadowland", alleged that Farmer underwent a transorbital lobotomy during her institutionalization, but the author has since stated in court that he fabricated this incident and several other aspects of the book. A 1982 biographical film based on this book depicted these events as true, resulting in renewed interest in her life and career.


title: Frances Farmer

text: Frances Elena Farmer was born on September 19, 1913, in Seattle, Washington, the daughter of Lillian (née Van Ornum; 18731955), a boardinghouse operator and dietician and Ernest Melvin Farmer (18741956), a lawyer. Her father was originally from Spring Valley, Minnesota, while her mother was from Oregon and a descendant of pioneers. Lillian's maternal grandparents were John and Jemima (Skews) Rowe, who came to Waldwick, Wisconsin, from Truro, England, in 1849. Farmer had an older sister, Edith; an older brother, Wesley; and an older half-sister, Rita, conceived during her mother's first marriage. Before the birth of Wesley and Edith, Lillian had given birth to a daughter who died of pneumonia in infancy. When she was four years old, Farmer's parents separated, and her mother moved with the children to Los Angeles, where her sister Zella lived. In early 1925, the family moved north to Chico, California, where Lillian pursued a career in nutrition research. Shortly after arriving in Chico, Lillian concluded that caring for the children was interfering with her ability to work. The children's Aunt Zella then drove them to Albany, Oregon, where they boarded a train back to Seattle to live with their father.


title: Frances Farmer

text: Farmer's inconsistent home life had a notable effect on her and, upon returning to Seattle, she recalled: "In certain ways, that train trip represented the end of my dependent childhood. I began to understand that there were certain things one could expect from adults, and others that one could not expect...being shunted from one household to another was a new adjustment, a fresh confusion, and I groped for ways to compensate for the disorder." The next year, her mother returned to Seattle after her home in Chico burned down. In Seattle, the family shared a household, but Lillian and Ernest remained separated despite his attempts to repair their marriage. In the fall of 1929, when Farmer was 16, Lillian and Ernest divorced, and Lillian moved to a cottage in Bremerton, Washington, while the children remained with their father.


title: Frances Farmer

text: In 1931, while a senior at West Seattle High School, Farmer entered and won $100 from The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, a writing contest sponsored by "Scholastic Magazine", with her controversial essay "God Dies". It was a precocious attempt to reconcile her wish for, in her words, a "superfather" God, with her observations of a chaotic and godless world. In her autobiography, she wrote that the essay was influenced by her reading of Friedrich Nietzsche: "He expressed the same doubts, only he said it in German: "Gott ist tot". God is dead. This I could understand. I was not to assume that there was no God, but I could find no evidence in my life that He existed or that He had ever shown any particular interest in me. I was not an atheist, but I was surely an agnostic, and by the time I was 16, I was well indoctrinated into this theory."


title: Frances Farmer

text: After graduating from high school, Farmer enrolled at the University of Washington, initially majoring in journalism. She worked various jobs to pay her tuition, including as an usherette in a cinema, a waitress, a tutor, a laborer in a soap factory, and a singing waitress at Mount Rainier National Park. During her sophomore year, Farmer became involved with the university's drama department productions, which were considered citywide cultural events. She starred in numerous UW plays, including "Helen of Troy", "Everyman", and "Uncle Vanya". In late 1934, she starred in UW's production of "Alien Corn", which earned her favorable reviews in local press.


title: Frances Farmer

text: During her final year of college in 1935, Farmer won a subscription contest for the leftist newspaper "The Voice of Action". The first prize was a trip to the Soviet Union. Farmer accepted the prize, despite her mother's strong objections, so that she could see the pioneering Moscow Art Theatre. Her interest in such topics fostered speculations that she was not only an atheist, but also a Communist. The same year, she graduated from the university with a Bachelor of Arts degree in drama.


title: Frances Farmer

text: Returning from the Soviet Union in the summer of 1935, Farmer stopped in New York City, hoping to launch a theater career. There, she met talent agent Shepard Traube, who referred her to Paramount Pictures talent scout Oscar Serlin, who arranged for a screen test. Paramount offered her a seven-year contract, which Farmer signed in New York City on her 22nd birthday. After completing screen tests on Long Island, Farmer moved to Los Angeles to begin working for Paramount. Upon arrival, she underwent dental surgery to fix a gap in her front teeth, and she spent long hours screen-testing and training on the Paramount studio lot. In November 1935, she was cast in the B-movie "Too Many Parents" (1936), a comedy about young men in military school. The film was a box-office success. After completing it in February 1936, Farmer wed fellow Paramount contract player Leif Erickson, whom she met on the studio lot. She was then cast in a lead role in the drama "Border Flight".


title: Frances Farmer

text: Later that year, Farmer was cast in her first "A" feature, "Rhythm on the Range", a Western starring Bing Crosby. She recalled of the film: "I had had a crush on him [Crosby] since my high school days, and stood in awe of the fact that in my first important film I was actually working as his leading lady." "Rhythm on the Range" earned favorable reviews and brought Farmer an enhanced public reputation. After its release, Paramount studio head Adolph Zukor phoned her and told her, "now that she was a rising star she'd have to start acting like one." Farmer was resistant, however, and spent most of her time at her home in Laurel Canyon with Erickson, forgoing invitations to Hollywood parties and events. In an attempt to make her marketable, Paramount chose to brand her in press releases as "the star who would not go Hollywood," focusing on her "eccentric" fashion tastes.


title: Frances Farmer

text: During the summer of 1936, she was lent to Samuel Goldwyn to appear in "Come and Get It", based on the novel by Edna Ferber, in which she portrayed a young woman pursued by her mother's former lover. Howard Hawks was originally signed to direct, but was replaced by William Wyler midway through production; Farmer was indignant and clashed with Wyler during filming. He later said, "The nicest thing I can say about Frances Farmer is that she is unbearable." Though her working relationship with Wyler was tumultuous, Hawks remembered Farmer with admiration, saying that she "had more talent than anyone I ever worked with." Producers chose to premiere the film in Seattle, Farmer's hometown. At the premiere, Farmer was notably quiet and spoke little to reporters, which resulted in news reports that she was cold and aloof. Nevertheless, "Come and Get It" earned praise from the public and critics, with several reviews greeting Farmer as a newfound star, some likening her to Greta Garbo.


title: Frances Farmer

text: In 1937, she was lent to RKO to star opposite Cary Grant in "The Toast of New York", the story of a Wall Street tycoon. The film's production was turbulent as Farmer was unhappy with the rebranding of her character from a hard-edged vixen to "an ingénue fresh from Sunnybrook." On set, she argued with director Rowland V. Lee and gave belittling interviews to the press. Unsatisfied with her career direction after "The Toast of New York", Farmer resisted the studio's control and every attempt it made to glamorize her private life. A 1937 "Collier's" article, though, sympathetically described her as indifferent to the clothing she wore and said she drove an older-model "green roadster". Also in 1937, she appeared in the crime drama "Exclusive" opposite Fred MacMurray and the Technicolor adventure film "Ebb Tide" opposite Ray Milland.


title: Frances Farmer

text: Unsatisfied with the expectations of the studio system and wanting to enhance her reputation as a serious actress, Farmer left Hollywood in mid-1937 to do summer stock on the East Coast, performing in Westchester, New York, and Westport, Connecticut. There, she attracted the attention of director Harold Clurman and playwright Clifford Odets, who invited her to appear in a three-month production of Odets' play "Golden Boy", produced by the Group Theatre. The play opened in November 1937 and ran for a total of 248 performances. Her performance at first received mixed reviews, with "Time" commenting that she had been miscast. Due to Farmer's box-office appeal, however, the play became the biggest hit in the group's history. By 1938, when the production had embarked on a national tour, regional critics from Washington, DC, to Chicago gave her rave reviews.


title: Frances Farmer

text: During the run of "Golden Boy", Farmer began a romantic affair with Odets, but he was married to actress Luise Rainer and did not offer Farmer a commitment. Farmer felt betrayed when Odets suddenly ended the relationship, and when the group chose another actress for its London runan actress whose family helped secure funds for the playshe came to believe that the group had used her drawing power selfishly to further the success of the play. Disheartened, Farmer returned to Los Angeles to star opposite husband Erickson in "Ride a Crooked Mile" (1938). In April 1939, she performed in a short-run Broadway production of "Quiet City", an experimental play directed by Elia Kazan. In November that year, she returned to Broadway, portraying Melanie in "Thunder Rock", also directed by Kazan, and produced by the Group Theater. The play was not well received, and Farmer was profoundly unhappy after its closing in December 1939. She subsequently accepted a role in a Broadway adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's "The Fifth Column", for which she was scheduled to begin rehearsing in early 1940. During rehearsals, Farmer began binge drinking in an effort to alleviate her depression. She ultimately chose to withdraw from the production, resulting in a $1,500 fine from the Theater Guild, for "unprofessionalism".


title: Frances Farmer

text: She returned to Paramount, which assigned her a role in "South of Pago Pago" (1940), in which she portrayed Ruby, a woman traveling with a group of adventurers searching for pearls on an island. She was then lent to Warner Bros. to star in "Flowing Gold", an adventure drama set against the oil industry, opposite John Garfield. After completing the film, Farmer returned to the East Coast to appear in summer-stock theater. Following a "lonely winter" spent living in New York City, Farmer drove back to Los Angeles in the spring of 1941, and rented a lavish mansion in Santa Monica. Her next film was "World Premiere" (1941), a comedy starring John Barrymore. She followed this with a supporting part in the film noir "Among the Living" (1941), co-starring with Susan Hayward and Albert Dekker.


title: Frances Farmer

text: During this time, Farmer was "seeking in work a respite from her personal struggles." Clurman temporarily moved into her Santa Monica home to keep her company while she completed filming of "Badlands of Dakota", a Western in which she starred as Calamity Jane opposite Robert Stack. Farmer again fought with the studio over the role, which she felt was over-glamorized, further damaging her reputation with studio executives. She next appeared opposite Tyrone Power and Roddy McDowall in the film "Son of Fury" (1942) (on loan to 20th Century Fox), portraying the scheming daughter of a British aristocrat. Later that year, Paramount suspended her after she refused to accept a part in the film "Take a Letter, Darling" and voided her contract. Meanwhile, her marriage to Erickson had disintegrated, and he began dating actress Margaret Hayes. Their divorce was finalized on June 12, 1942, and Erickson married Hayes the same day.


title: Frances Farmer

text: On October 19, 1942, Farmer was stopped by Santa Monica police for driving with her headlights on high beam in the wartime blackout zone that affected most of the West Coast. Some reports stated she was unable to produce a driver's license, and was verbally abusive to the officers. The police suspected her of being drunk and she was jailed overnight. Farmer was fined $500 and given a 180-day suspended sentence. She immediately paid $250 and was put on probation. With her vehicle impounded and her driver's license suspended, Farmer holed up in her Santa Monica home and denied the press interviews.


title: Frances Farmer

text: In November 1942, her agent secured her a role in an independent film adaptation of John Steinbeck's "Murder at Laudice", which was set to film in Mexico City. Upon arriving in Mexico, she discovered that the shooting script was unfinished, and the production never reached fruition. While in Mexico City, Farmer was allegedly charged with drunk and disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace, and was forced by authorities to return to the United States. Upon returning to California, she found her Santa Monica home had been cleared of her possessions and inhabited by a strange family. Farmer later contended that her mother and sister-in-law had stripped the house and stored her belongings while she was gone. Her mother rented her a room at the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood, where she temporarily took residence.


title: Frances Farmer

text: By January 1943, Farmer had failed to pay the remainder of her fine, and a bench warrant was issued for her arrest. At almost the same time, a studio hairdresser filed an assault charge alleging that Farmer had hit her in the face and dislocated her jaw on set. Shortly after, Farmer was allegedly seen running down Sunset Boulevard topless after getting into a brawl at a bar. On January 14, 1943, police traced Farmer to the Knickerbocker and arrived at her room to arrest her. Getting no answer, they entered her room with a pass key. Farmer did not surrender peacefully, and was dragged out of the hotel nude to police headquarters.


title: Frances Farmer

text: At her hearing the following morning, Farmer behaved erratically. She claimed the police had violated her civil rights, demanded an attorney, and threw an inkwell at the judge, resulting in her being restrained by bailiffs. When asked about her drinking habits, Farmer told the judge: "I put liquor in my milk...  in my coffee and in my orange juice." She also admitted to regularly drinking benzedrine. The judge ultimately sentenced her to 180 days in jail. While being escorted from the courtroom, Farmer lashed out, knocking down a policeman and bruising another, along with a matron; she ran to a phone booth where she tried to call her attorney, but was subdued by the police. When they physically carried her away, she shouted: "Have you ever had a broken heart?"


title: Frances Farmer

text: Through the efforts of her sister-in-law, a deputy sheriff in Los Angeles County, Farmer avoided jail time and was instead transferred to the psychiatric ward of Los Angeles General Hospital on January 20. There, she was diagnosed with "manic depressive psychosis, probably the forerunner of a definite dementia praecox." Days later, with assistance from the Screen Actors Guild, she was transferred to the Kimball Sanitarium, a minimum-security psychiatric institute in the San Fernando Valley. Resident psychiatrists Donald A. Nicholson and George Price both examined Farmer and diagnosed her with paranoid schizophrenia. She was administered insulin shock therapy, then a standard psychiatric procedure, whose side effects included intense nausea. Her family later claimed they did not consent to the treatment, as documented in her sister's self-published book, "Look Back in Love", and in court records; Farmer herself later alleged that she was given insulin treatments for 90 consecutive days. After nine months at the Kimball Sanitarium, Farmer walked out of the institute one afternoon and traveled to her half-sister Rita's house, over away. The pair then called their mother, Lillian, in Seattle to complain about the insulin treatments.


title: Frances Farmer

text: Lillian traveled to California and began a lengthy legal battle to take formal guardianship of Frances from the state of California. Although several psychiatrists testified that Farmer needed further treatment, her mother prevailed. The two of them left Los Angeles by train on September 13, 1943. Farmer moved in with her parents in West Seattle, but her mother and she fought bitterly. Farmer wrote in her autobiography: "Mamma and I had fought, argued, threatened, and screamed until it had finally come down to a climax of two exhausted women sitting across from each other in a small, cluttered kitchen. We were enemies who had grown tired of pretending." After one violent physical attack, Lillian had Farmer committed to Western State Hospital at Steilacoom, Washington. In a 1958 television interview by Ralph Edwards on his "This is Your Life" program, Frances recalled her experience:


title: Frances Farmer

text: Three months later, in early July 1944, she was pronounced "completely cured" and released. Shortly after her release, on July 15, Farmer was arrested for vagrancy in Antioch, California.


title: Frances Farmer

text: In January 1945, Farmer's father brought her to stay at her aunt's ranch in Yerington, Nevada. During her stay, Farmer ran away from the residence. She was discovered several days later at a movie theater in Reno, and returned by police to her aunt's home. Several months later, on May 18, 1945, Lillian filed for a sanity hearing for Farmer after she ran away from their home in Seattle. The hearing was held on May 21, during which the court ruled that Farmer was to be recommitted to Western State Hospital. She remained an inmate of the hospital for the next five years, with the exception of a brief parole in 1946. Throughout her internment, Farmer remained in the high-security ward for the hospital's "violent" patients. Her treatment at Western State was subject to significant public and critical discussion in the years after her death.


title: Frances Farmer

text: On March 23, 1950, at her parents' request, Farmer was paroled back into her mother's care. A year later, on March 25, 1951, Farmer was formally discharged from the jurisdiction of Western State, but was not made aware of it for two years; in the interim, she believed her recommitment to the hospital an imminent threat. In June 1953, upon discovering her discharge, Farmer requested that her mother's conservatorship be lifted, which the Superior Court did. With her freedom restored, Farmer took a job sorting laundry at the Olympic Hotel in Seattle, the same hotel where she had been fêted in 1936 at "Come and Get It"'s premiere. While working at the Olympic Hotel, a co-worker set Farmer up on a blind date with Alfred H. Lobley, a 45-year-old city utility worker. The two married in April 1954, and moved in with Lillian, who was growing senile and needed assistance at home. Within the year, Lillian was sent to a nursing home, after which Farmer's marriage to Lobley began to disintegrate.


title: Frances Farmer

text: Farmer remained estranged from her sister until Lillian's death of a stroke in March 1955. After their mother's death, Farmer's sister Edith moved to Portland, Oregon, to be nearer to their father, who died there on July 15, 1956, also of a stroke. During this time, Farmer and Edith occasionally corresponded. Edith claimed that on one occasion, Farmer visited her in Portland, where the two spent an afternoon at The Grotto, a Catholic sanctuary they had once visited with their father.


title: Frances Farmer

text: In late 1957, Farmer separated from Lobley and relocated to Eureka, California, where she found work as a bookkeeper and secretary at a commercial photo studio. In Eureka, she met Leland C. Mikesell, an independent broadcast promoter from Indianapolis, who recognized her at a local bar. The two soon became romantically involved, and Mikesell envisioned a career comeback for her. They moved to San Francisco, where Farmer temporarily worked as a clerk at the Park Sheraton Hotel. In 1958, Mikesell and she married.


title: Frances Farmer

text: In a December 1957 interview with "Modern Screen", Farmer said: "I blame nobody for my fall. I had to face agonizing decisions when I was younger. The decisions broke me. But, too, there was a lack of philosophy in my life. With faith in myself and in God I think I have won the fight to control myself." She subsequently made two appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show", during one of which she played guitar and sang "Aura Lee", a folk song she had performed in "Come and Get It" (1936). She also appeared on "This Is Your Life" in an attempt to clarify the veracity of the publicity she had received throughout her career. Farmer explained to "This is Your Life"'s host, Ralph Edwards:


title: Frances Farmer

text: Edwards later asked Farmer about her supposed alcoholism: "Other stories accuse you of being an alcoholic. Were you, Frances?" Farmer's reply was, "No, I was never an alcoholic", an adamant denial that also applied to Edwards's subsequent question about "dope".


title: Frances Farmer

text: In August 1957, Farmer returned to the stage in New Hope, Pennsylvania, for a summer-stock production of Enid Bagnold's "The Chalk Garden". Through the spring of 1958, Farmer appeared in several live television dramas, some of which are preserved on kinescope; the same year, she made her last film, "The Party Crashers", a potboiler drama produced by Paramount and described by one writer as "a crappy B-movie about wild teenagers and stupid adults." Then, in July 1958, Farmer accepted the lead role in a production of "Yes, My Darling Daughter", due to the reciprocal arrangements that existed between one of the summer-stock East Coast theaters in which she performed and venues in the Midwest; this particular role was based at a theater in Indianapolis.


title: Frances Farmer

text: Farmer's stage work proved beneficial, as she received the opportunity to host her own daytime movie program, "Frances Farmer Presents." The show was created after a television executive from the local National Broadcasting Company (NBC) affiliate, WFBM-TV (now known as WRTV), saw her performance in "The Chalk Garden" in August 1958. The program made her popular as an amiable host, and she subsequently received an award as a local businesswoman of the year. By March 1959, though, national wire service reports indicated that she had separated from Mikesell and that he was suing her for breach of contract. In 1959, Farmer moved in with Jeanira "Jean" Ratcliffe, a widow with whom she became good friends in Indianapolis.


title: Frances Farmer

text: In 1962, Farmer appeared in a Purdue University production of Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull". The following year, her divorce from Mikesell was finalized in Indianapolis. "Frances Farmer Presents" ended in the summer of 1964; the station's general manager had fired her in April, hired her back two months later, but then dismissed Farmer permanently in late August/early September, aggravated by her alleged drinking binges. Farmer continued her stage work and accepted a role in a Purdue Summer Theatre production of Ketti Frings's "Look Homeward, Angel". In 1965, she played Claire Zachanassian in Purdue's production of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's "The Visit", which ran at the Loeb Playhouse on campus from October 22 to 30, 1965. The production has been described as follows:


title: Frances Farmer

text: During the production of "The Visit", Farmer was involved in a drunk-driving accident. When confronted by police, she recalled: "Rather than answering as Frances Farmer, I reverted to my role in the play and [suddenly became] the richest woman in the world, shouting to high heaven that I would buy his goddamned town. I got out stiff-legged and ivory-handed, quoting all the imperious lines I could remember. Unfortunately, this did not [sit] well with the [cop], and a patrol car took me to jail." Ironically, following reports of the incident in the media, the next night's performance of "The Visit" completely sold out. Farmer was very reluctant to return to the stage, but was encouraged by Ratcliffe; Farmer recounted the experience of the performance in her autobiography: "[T]here was a long silent pause as I stood there, followed by the most thunderous applause of my career. [The audience] swept the scandal under the rug with their ovation." It was "my finest and final performance. I knew I would never need to act onstage again. I felt satisfied and rewarded."


title: Frances Farmer

text: During the early and mid-1960s, Farmer was actress-in-residence at Purdue University, and spent the majority of her free time painting and writing poetry. Ratcliffe and she attempted to start a small cosmetics company, but although their products were successfully field-tested, the project failed after the man who handled their investment portfolio embezzled their funds. In 1968, she formally converted to Roman Catholicism, as she claimed to have felt God in her life and sensed that she "would have to find a disciplined avenue of faith and worship." She recounted her experience: Farmer had a great affection for the Saint Joan of Arc church and attended services there regularly in her last years. During this period, she also gave up drinking, and began considering writing an autobiography. She negotiated a collaboration with Lois Kibbee, who encouraged her to tape-record her life story. The experience was emotionally jarring for Farmer, specifically the revisiting of medical records from her institutionalization. The book went unfinished, but Ratcliffe used its manuscript in compiling Farmer's posthumously released autobiography, "Will There Really Be a Morning?".


title: Frances Farmer

text: In the spring of 1970, Farmer was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, which was attributed to a life of heavy smoking. She was hospitalized for three weeks before being sent home for a brief period. She died of the cancer at Indianapolis Community Hospital on August 1, 1970. She is interred at Oaklawn Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Fishers, Indiana.


title: Frances Farmer

text: In the years after Farmer's death, her treatment at Western State was the subject of serious discussion and wild speculation. Kenneth Anger included a chapter relating her breakdown in his 1965 work "Hollywood Babylon". Farmer's posthumously published autobiography "Will There Really Be a Morning?" described a brutal incarceration. In the book, Farmer claimed she had been brutalized and mistreated in numerous ways. Some of the claims included being forced to eat her own feces and act as a sex slave for male doctors and orderlies. Farmer recounted her stay in the state asylum as "unbearable terror": "I was raped by orderlies, gnawed on by rats, and poisoned by tainted food. I was chained in padded cells, strapped into strait-jackets and half-drowned in ice baths."


title: Frances Farmer

text: Jean Ratcliffe, a close friend and companion of Farmer, arranged the publication of "Will There Really Be a Morning?". Controversy exists over what portions of the book she edited or ghostwrote. Ratcliffe claimed she wrote only the final chapter about Farmer's death.


title: Frances Farmer

text: In 1978, Seattle film reviewer William Arnold published "Shadowland", which for the first time alleged that Farmer had been the subject of a transorbital lobotomy. Scenes of Farmer being subjected to this lobotomy procedure were featured in the 1982 film "Frances", which had initially been planned as an adaptation of "Shadowland", though its producers ultimately reneged on their agreement with Arnold. During a court case against the film's producers, Brooksfilms, Arnold revealed that the lobotomy episode and much of his biography was "fictionalized". Years later, on a DVD commentary track of the movie, director Graeme Clifford said, "We didn't want to nickel-and-dime people to death with facts."


title: Frances Farmer

text: Farmer's family, former lovers, and three ex-husbands all denied, or did not confirm, that the procedure took place. Farmer's sister, Edith, said the hospital asked her parents' permission to perform the lobotomy, but her father was "horrified" by the notion and threatened legal action "if they tried any of their guinea-pig operations on her." Western State recorded all the lobotomies performed during Farmer's time there. Since a lobotomy was considered a ground-breaking medical procedure, the hospital did not attempt to conceal its work. Although nearly 300 patients received the procedure, no evidence has been found that Farmer was among them. In 1983, Seattle newspapers interviewed former hospital staff members, including all the lobotomy ward nurses who were on duty during Farmer's years at Western State, and they all said she was never a patient on that ward. Dr. Walter Freeman's private records contained no mention of Farmer. Charles Jones, a psychiatric resident at Western State during Farmer's stays, also said that Farmer never had a lobotomy.


title: Frances Farmer

text: Writer Jeffrey Kauffmann published an extensive online essay, "Shedding Light on "Shadowland"", that debunks much of Arnold's book, including the account of the lobotomy.


title: Frances Farmer

text: In 1982, Jessica Lange portrayed Farmer in the feature film "Frances"; the film depicts Farmer undergoing a lobotomy, the veracity of which has been disputed. The next year, a television adaptation of "Will There Really Be a Morning?" was released with Susan Blakely as Farmer. Another feature film based on her life, "Committed", was produced in 1984.


title: Frances Farmer

text: French singer-songwriter Mylène Farmer chose her stage name in homage to the actress. She is mentioned in "Lobotomy Gets Them Home" (1989) on The Men They Couldn't Hang's album "Silvertown". She was the subject of a stage play by Sally Clark, "Saint Frances of Hollywood" (1996).


title: Frances Farmer

text: In the 2017 Netflix original series "Mindhunter", the character version of Edmund Kemper erroneously says Farmer was lobotomized.


title: Frances Farmer

text: Farmer was referenced in the 2022 "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" episode "Billy Jones and the Orgy Lamps" with a character's mental breakdown being described as "full-on Frances Farmer."


title: Uranium-235

text: Uranium-235 (U or U-235) is an isotope of uranium making up about 0.72% of natural uranium. Unlike the predominant isotope uranium-238, it is fissile, i.e., it can sustain a nuclear chain reaction. It is the only fissile isotope that exists in nature as a primordial nuclide.


title: Uranium-235

text: Uranium-235 has a half-life of 703.8 million years. It was discovered in 1935 by Arthur Jeffrey Dempster. Its fission cross section for slow thermal neutrons is about 584.3±1 barns. For fast neutrons it is on the order of 1 barn.


title: Uranium-235

text: Most but not all neutron absorptions result in fission; a minority result in neutron capture forming uranium-236.


title: Uranium-235

text: The fission of one atom of uranium-235 releases () inside the reactor. That corresponds to 19.54 TJ/mol, or 83.14 TJ/kg. Another 8.8 MeV escapes the reactor as anti-neutrinos. When nuclides are bombarded with neutrons, one of the many fission reactions that it can undergo is the following (shown in the adjacent image):


title: Uranium-235

text: Heavy water reactors and some graphite moderated reactors can use natural uranium, but light water reactors must use low enriched uranium because of the higher neutron absorption of light water. Uranium enrichment removes some of the uranium-238 and increases the proportion of uranium-235. Highly enriched uranium (HEU), which contains an even greater proportion of uranium-235, is sometimes used in the reactors of nuclear submarines, research reactors and nuclear weapons.


title: Uranium-235

text: If at least one neutron from uranium-235 fission strikes another nucleus and causes it to fission, then the chain reaction will continue. If the reaction continues to sustain itself, it is said to be critical, and the mass of U required to produce the critical condition is said to be a critical mass. A critical chain reaction can be achieved at low concentrations of U if the neutrons from fission are moderated to lower their speed, since the probability for fission with slow neutrons is greater. A fission chain reaction produces intermediate mass fragments which are highly radioactive and produce further energy by their radioactive decay. Some of them produce neutrons, called delayed neutrons, which contribute to the fission chain reaction. The power output of nuclear reactors is adjusted by the location of control rods containing elements that strongly absorb neutrons, e.g., boron, cadmium, or hafnium, in the reactor core. In nuclear bombs, the reaction is uncontrolled and the large amount of energy released creates a nuclear explosion.


title: Uranium-235

text: The Little Boy gun-type atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 was made of highly enriched uranium with a large tamper. The nominal spherical critical mass for an untampered U nuclear weapon is , which would form a sphere in diameter. The material must be 85% or more of U and is known as weapons grade uranium, though for a crude and inefficient weapon 20% enrichment is sufficient (called "weapon(s)-usable"). Even lower enrichment can be used, but this results in the required critical mass rapidly increasing. Use of a large tamper, implosion geometries, trigger tubes, polonium triggers, tritium enhancement, and neutron reflectors can enable a more compact, economical weapon using one-fourth or less of the nominal critical mass, though this would likely only be possible in a country that already had extensive experience in engineering nuclear weapons. Most modern nuclear weapon designs use plutonium-239 as the fissile component of the primary stage; however, HEU (highly enriched uranium, in this case uranium that is 20% or more U) is frequently used in the secondary stage as an ignitor for the fusion fuel.


title: Uranium-235

text: Uranium-235 has many uses such as fuel for nuclear power plants and in nuclear weapons such as nuclear bombs. Some artificial satellites, such as the SNAP-10A and the RORSATs were powered by nuclear reactors fueled with uranium-235.


title: Billionaire Boys Club (2018 film)

text: Billionaire Boys Club is a 2018 American biographical crime drama film directed by James Cox and co-written by Cox and Captain Mauzner. The film is about the social club and Ponzi scheme of the same name. The film stars Ansel Elgort, Taron Egerton, Emma Roberts, Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irvine, Thomas Cocquerel, Rosanna Arquette, Cary Elwes, and Judd Nelson. The film is based on the real life Billionaire Boys Club from Southern California during the 1980s, a group of rich teenagers who get involved in a Ponzi scheme and eventual murder. The story was previously made into a television film in 1987, which starred Judd Nelson as Joe Hunt, while he plays that character's father in the 2018 version.


title: Billionaire Boys Club (2018 film)

text: Originally announced in 2010 and filmed in 2015, "Billionaire Boys Club" is one of the final works that Spacey filmed prior to numerous sexual misconduct allegations made against him in 2017, and the accusations directly affected the film's release schedule and marketing. The film was released in the United States through video on demand on July 17, 2018, prior to a limited release on August 17, 2018, by Vertical Entertainment, and was a commercial failure. The domestic opening weekend box office take of just $618 was the lowest of Spacey's career. The film was panned by critics, although Spacey's performance was praised.


title: Billionaire Boys Club (2018 film)

text: Led by their fellow preppie friend Joe Hunt, a group of wealthy young men in 1980s Los Angeles come up with a plan to get rich quick with a Ponzi scheme. The plan ends badly for all involved when Hunt and friend Tim Pittman end up murdering investor and con man Ron Levin.


title: Billionaire Boys Club (2018 film)

text: In May 2010, "The Hollywood Reporter" confirmed that James Cox would direct the crime thriller film "Billionaire Boys Club", the true story of a group of rich young boys in Los Angeles during the early 1980s who started the Billionaire Boys Club to run a Ponzi scheme. Cox wrote the script in four months after an exclusive research of the events with his brother Stephen, who spent another four months on it. Cox gathered the material for the screenplay from court documents, oral transcripts, and published articles. He said, "as we were writing this, I thought, 'What if 'Wall Street' became 'Alpha Dog' halfway through?" Holly Wiersma would produce the film.


title: Billionaire Boys Club (2018 film)

text: On October 29, 2015, Ansel Elgort and Taron Egerton joined the cast, with Elgort playing Joe Hunt, the group leader and financial expert, and Egerton playing Dean Karny, a pro tennis player. Captain Mauzner also co-wrote the script along with Cox, while producers on the film would be Wiersma and Cassian Elwes. The film would be financed by Armory Films, and Good Universe would handle the international sales. In November 2015, Kevin Spacey signed on to play Ron Levin, a Beverly Hills high roller, Emma Roberts was added to the cast to portray Sydney, Hunt's love interest and Suki Waterhouse was cast to play Quintana, Karny's love interest.


title: Billionaire Boys Club (2018 film)

text: In December 2015, "Variety" reported that Judd Nelson, who originally played Joe Hunt in the 1987 miniseries "Billionaire Boys Club", would play the role of Ryan Hunt, Joe's father. That same month, Ryan Rottman signed on to portray Scott Biltmore, one of the two handsome twins adopted by the owner of Maybelline, who first invested in the Club and Thomas Cocquerel joined the film. Bokeem Woodbine, Billie Lourd and Jeremy Irvine also joined the cast of the film, with Irvine playing Kyle Biltmore, one of the members of the Billionaire Boys Club, Lourd as Rosanna, his love interest, and Woodbine as a club bouncer who becomes involved in the club's doings.


title: Billionaire Boys Club (2018 film)

text: Principal photography began in New Orleans on December 7, 2015. The film wrapped on January 25, 2016, with re-shoots set for November of the same year.


title: Billionaire Boys Club (2018 film)

text: The film was initially released through video on demand on July 17, 2018, prior to a limited release in theaters on August 17, 2018, by Vertical Entertainment.


title: Billionaire Boys Club (2018 film)

text: Despite allegations of sexual misconduct being made against Kevin Spacey in October 2017, Vertical Entertainment stated that they would be going forward with the release of the film:


title: Billionaire Boys Club (2018 film)

text: "Billionaire Boys Club" grossed a total worldwide of $2.7 million and $1,349 in North America, against a production budget of $15 million. On its opening day in the United States, the film earned $126 from ten theaters, the worst opening for a film starring Kevin Spacey. "TheWrap" noted that the ten theaters where the film was shown were mostly located in areas which were not considered to be major markets, and that some of the theaters showing the film scheduled their screenings for off-peak times, such as early in the morning or late at night. The weekend total gross ended up at $618, with a final theater count of eleven.


title: Billionaire Boys Club (2018 film)

text: On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 30 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".