title: Don Heck

text: Heck also did freelance assignments for Quality Comics, Hillman Comics, and Toby Press. For publisher U.S. Pictorial in 1955, he drew the one-shot "Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion", a TV tie-in comic based on the 1955–57 syndicated, live-action kids' show of that name.


title: Don Heck

text: Through his old Harvey Comics colleague Pete Morisi, Heck in 1954 met Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee, then editor-in-chief and art director of Marvel's 1950 predecessor, Atlas Comics. As Heck recalled,


title: Don Heck

text: Heck became an Atlas staff artist on September 1, 1954; his first known work for the company was the five-page horror story "Werewolf Beware" in "Mystery Tales" #25 (Jan. 1955), though Heck in 1993 recalled, "The first job I did was about a whale breaking a ship apart. Then I did [the submarine-crew feature] 'Torpedo Taylor' for "Navy Combat"," drawing that five- or six-page feature in issues #1–14 and 16 (June 1955–Aug. 1957, Feb. 1958) and, oddly, doing one page of a five-page story finished by Joe Maneely in issue #19 (Aug. 1958). Until Atlas' 1957 business retrenchment — when it let go of most of its staff and freelancers and Heck spent a year drawing model airplane views for Berkeley Models — Heck contributed dozens of war comics stories and Westerns plus a smattering of jungle and science-fiction/fantasy tales.


title: Don Heck

text: Atlas began revamping in late 1958 with the arrival of artist Jack Kirby, a comics legend whose career was also in need of revamping, and who threw himself into the anthological science fiction, supernatural mystery, and giant-monster stories of what would become known as "pre-superhero Marvel." Heck returned alongside other soon-to-be-famous names of Marvel Comics' 1960s emergence as a pop culture phenomenon, making his first splash with the cover of "Tales of Suspense" #1 (Jan. 1959), one of the very few Atlas/Marvel covers of that time not drawn by Kirby. In the years immediately preceding the arrival of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and the other popular heroes of Marvel's ascendancy, Heck gave atmospheric rendering to numerous science fiction / fantasy stories in that comic as well as in sister publications "Strange Tales", "Tales to Astonish", "Strange Worlds", "World of Fantasy", and "Journey into Mystery". Heck also contributed to such Atlas/Marvel romance comics as "Love Romances" and "My Own Romance".


title: Don Heck

text: Comics artist Jerry Ordway, describing this era of Heck's work, called the artist "truly under-appreciated ... His Atlas work (pre-Marvel) was terrific, with a clean sharp style, and an ink line that wouldn't quit."


title: Don Heck

text: During the period fans and historians call the Silver Age of Comic Books, Iron Man premiered in "Tales of Suspense" #39 (March 1963) as a collaboration among editor and story-plotter Lee, scriptwriter Larry Lieber, story-artist Heck, and Kirby, who provided the cover pencils and designed the first Iron Man armor. Kirby "designed the costume," Heck recalled, "because he was doing the cover. The covers were always done first. But I created the look of the characters, like Tony Stark and his secretary Pepper Potts." Comics historian and former Kirby assistant Mark Evanier, investigating claims of Kirby's involvement in the creation of both Iron Man and Daredevil, interviewed Kirby and Heck on the subject, years before their deaths, and concluded that Kirby


title: Don Heck

text: Heck was the artist co-creator of several new characters in the "Iron Man" feature. The Mandarin debuted in "Tales of Suspense" #50 (Feb. 1964) and would become one of Iron Man's major enemies. Hawkeye, Marvel's archer supreme, first appeared in "Tales of Suspense" #57 (Sept. 1964), following the introduction of "femme fatale" Communist spy and future superheroine and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent the Black Widow in #52 (April 1964). He drew the feature "Iron Man" through issue #46 (Oct. 1963), after which Spider-Man artist Steve Ditko introduced the familiar red-and-gold Iron Man armor and drew three issues. Heck returned with #50 and continued through #72 (Dec. 1965).


title: Don Heck

text: Concurrent with drawing Iron Man, Heck succeeded Jack Kirby as penciler on the superhero team series "The Avengers" with issue #9 (Oct. 1964), the introduction of Wonder Man. The Count Nefaria character was introduced by Lee and Heck four issues later. Heck, who inked his own pencils for many years, transitioned to the "Marvel method" of doing comics — in which the penciler plotted and paced the details of a story based on a synopsis or plot outline from the writer, who would afterward add dialog — and was assigned the help of an inker for the first time. He successfully made this adjustment, and went on to make "The Avengers", which he drew through issue #40 (May 1967), plus the 1967 annual, one of his signature series. He inked his own pencil work in issues #32–37. Heck would return to "The Avengers" one final time to co-plot and pencil issue #45, with inks by Vince Colletta.


title: Don Heck

text: During this run, Heck co-created characters including the supervillain and eventual hero the Swordsman, in #19 (Aug. 1965); the supervillain Power Man, who years later became the hero Atlas, in #21 (Oct. 1965); the cosmic entity the Collector in #28 (May 1966); the supporting character Bill Foster, who much later became the superhero Black Goliath, in #32 (Sept. 1966); and the supervillain the Living Laser in #34 (Nov. 1966). During the next comics era, the Bronze Age, he co-created another cosmic entity, Mantis, in issue #112 (May 1973).


title: Don Heck

text: Elsewhere during the 1960s, Heck penciled "The X-Men" #38–42 (Nov. 1967–March 1968) and introduced the new X-Men Lorna Dane in issue #49 (Oct. 1968) and Havok in #54 (March 1969). Heck drew, over John Romita layouts, "The Amazing Spider-Man" #57–64 and 66 (Feb.–Sept and Nov. 1968). Heck would also draw issues of "Captain Marvel" and "Iron Man", the World War II war comic "Captain Savage and his Battlefield Raiders", horror stories in "Chamber of Darkness" and "Tower of Shadows", and, once more, love stories, in the romance comics "Our Love Story" and 'My Love".


title: Don Heck

text: From 1966 to 1971, Heck was an uncredited "ghost artist" on Lee Falk’s "The Phantom" daily newspaper comic strip, and later on the "Terry and the Pirates" daily strip.


title: Don Heck

text: By 1970, however, Marvel work became less frequent, and Heck obtained assignments from rival DC Comics, beginning with a short story in the supernatural anthology "House of Secrets" #85 (May 1970). He did his first DC superhero work with "The Flash" #198 (June 1970), illustrating a backup story of the super-speedster, and eventually garnered additional work including romance comics, and the backup features "Batgirl" and "Jason Bard" in "Detective Comics", and "Rose and the Thorn" in "Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane". He began a short run on "Wonder Woman" with issue #204 (Feb. 1973), in which the character's powers and traditional costume were restored after several years, and he also freelanced for the short-lived publisher Skywald Comics.


title: Don Heck

text: Heck still occasionally worked at Marvel, penciling the odd issue of "Daredevil", "Sub-Mariner", "Ghost Rider", "The Avengers" and others in the mid-1970s. He drew "Giant-Size Avengers" #4 which featured the wedding of the Vision and the Scarlet Witch. Writer Tony Isabella and Heck launched the new superhero team book "The Champions" in October 1975. But in 1977, he began working almost exclusively for DC. Heck explained in 1985, "I left Marvel for a change of pace. I kept getting all the new inkers. Everyone who walked in, I got them. A bad inker can kill artwork. I once got some pages back from inking and I just tore them up, that's how bad they were."


title: Don Heck

text: With writer Gerry Conway, Heck co-created the DC cyborg hero Steel, the Indestructible Man in the premiere issue (March 1978) of the titular comic. After that series' cancellation, Heck became regular artist on "The Flash", and in 1982 reunited with Conway to draw the "Justice League of America", including that year's crossover with the "All-Star Squadron". Heck then returned to "Wonder Woman" and drew the title until its cancellation in 1986. Later that same year, he was one of the contributors to the "DC Challenge" limited series.


title: Don Heck

text: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Heck returned to Marvel, where his work included features for the superhero anthologies "Marvel Comics Presents" and "Marvel Fanfare". The artist even returned to two signature characters: He inked Hawkeye stories in "Solo Avengers" #17-20 and the subsequent "Avengers Spotlight" #21–22 (April–Sept. 1989) — both penciling and inking a second Hawkeye story in that last issue — and he drew Iron Man, inking penciler Mark Bright's eight-page "The Other Way Our" in "Marvel Comics Presents" #51 (June 1990), and both penciling and inking the one-page featurette "Tony Stark, The Invincible Iron Man" in "Iron Man Annual" #12 (Sept. 1991) and a pinup in "Marvel Super-Heroes" vol. 2 #13 (April 1993).


title: Don Heck

text: Heck also did a smattering of work for such independent comics as Topps Comics' "NightGlider", Hero Comics' "Mr. Fixit", Vortex's "NASCAR Adventures", and Millennium Publications' "". His final DC work was penciling and inking over Joe Quesada's layouts for "Spelljammer" #11 (July 1991), and his last known comics work was the 10-page "The Theft of Thor's Hammer", by writer Bill Mantlo, in "Marvel Super-Heroes" vol. 2 #15 (Oct. 1993).


title: Don Heck

text: Heck died of lung cancer in 1995. He was living in Suffolk County, New York, on Long Island, at the time of his death.


title: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (video game)

text: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is a 2002 action hack and slash video game developed by Stormfront Studios for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. A 2D Game Boy Advance game of the same name was made by Griptonite Games, a port to the GameCube by Hypnos Entertainment, and to mobile by JAMDAT. A version for Microsoft Windows developed by Ritual Entertainment was cancelled during development. The game was published on all platforms by Electronic Arts. Originally released in North America for the PlayStation 2 in October 2002, it was released in November 2002 for the Game Boy Advance, in December 2002 for the Xbox and GameCube, and in May 2003 for mobile. In November 2003, EA released a sequel, "".


text: The game is an adaptation of Peter Jackson's 2001 film "" and his 2002 film "", which was released shortly after the game. As it is not an adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Two Towers", the second volume in his "Lord of the Rings" novel, anything from the novel not specifically mentioned or depicted in the films could not be represented in the game. This is because, at the time, Vivendi Universal Games, in partnership with Tolkien Enterprises, held the rights to the video game adaptations of Tolkien's literary works, whilst Electronic Arts held the rights to the video game adaptations of the New Line Cinema films. EA chose not to publish a game based on Jackson's "The Fellowship of the Ring" film, instead incorporating some of the plot and footage into their "The Two Towers" game, which was released a few weeks after Vivendi's "" game, a licensed adaptation of Tolkien's novel "The Fellowship of the Ring".


text: "The Two Towers" received a generally positive response, with critics praising the re-creation of sets and scenes from the films, and the epic scope of some of the battles. Some, however, criticized the game for being too short and the combat overly repetitive. The game was a financial success, selling almost four million units, and outselling Vivendi's "The Fellowship of the Ring" game, which sold just over one million.


text: "The Two Towers" is a hack and slash action game played from a third-person perspective. The game features levels taken either directly from scenes in "" and "" films, or based closely on elements from the films. For example, the levels during the defense of Helm's Deep are very similar to the corresponding scenes in the film, but a level in Fangorn Forest in which the player fights orcs, Uruk-hai and trolls is original to the game. For most of the game, the player is free to play as Aragorn, Gimli or Legolas. In the game's main opening level, however, set at Weathertop, only Aragorn is playable. Isildur is also a playable character in a tutorial level set during the Battle of the Last Alliance. All subsequent levels can be played with any of the three characters. Often, the two characters not chosen as the player character will appear as supporting NPCs. Upon completing the game with all three characters, the player can play through every level with Isildur. In the Game Boy Advance version, which is played from an isometric three-quarter top-down view, the playable characters are Aragorn, Legolas, Gandalf, Frodo and Éowyn, with Gimli available as an unlockable character once the player has completed the game with two other characters.


text: Although all three characters have different weapons and combos, their basic fighting style is the same. Each character has a quick attack which does minimal damage and can be easily blocked, and a fierce attack, which does more damage, but is slower and leaves the player vulnerable to attack. Only fierce attacks can break enemy shields. Each character also has a ranged attack, a "killing move" (which can be used to instantly kill downed enemies), a parry (which can deflect enemy attacks), a knock back (which pushes nearby enemies away), a jump back (in which the player character jumps back away from the enemy) and a devastating attack (a charged fierce attack). Combos are an important part of combat, with each character having access to a unique list of combos, which are achieved by stringing specific button presses together. Additionally, each character is more skilled at a particular type of combat; Aragorn is the best melee fighter, Legolas is better at ranged combat, and Gimli is a balanced character with nice melee and ranged attacks.


text: Combos, as well as health increases, and stronger ranged and devastating attacks must be purchased between levels in the skill upgrades screen. During each level, the player will be continually graded on the skill with which they dispatch enemies; "Fair", "Good", "Excellent" and "Perfect." The more skill with which the player kills, the more experience they acquire. The player's skill is measured by an on-screen meter which increases as the player dispatches enemies. To avoid the meter dropping back down, the player must avoid being hit, and must kill enemies using a variety of different methods. When a player reaches a Perfect level, all of their attacks increase in strength, and the experience from each kill is doubled. However, Perfect status only lasts for a brief period of time. At the end of each level, the player is then given an overall rating based on their performance, and awarded the corresponding number of upgrade points to spend on new combos and stronger attacks. The better the player has performed during the level, the more upgrade points that will be made available. Certain upgrades only become available for purchase once a player has reached a specific experience level.


text: In the GBA version, each character has fifteen active and passive skills that can be unlocked and upgraded as the player gains experience. One of the active skills, for example, is "Summon"; Gandalf summons a Great Eagle, Aragorn summons either Legolas or Gimli; Legolas summons Gimli; Frodo summons Sam, and Éowyn summons Éomer. Passive skills include the ability for Aragorn to wield two swords at once, to hit enemies with his shield, and to throw his sword at nearby foes. Legolas can gain a quickdraw skill, as well as the ability to shoot multiple arrows at once. Every time the player increases in level, they can attribute points to strength, accuracy, health, defense, and courage. Additionally, Frodo has the ability to use the One Ring to turn invisible, but he can only do so for a certain amount of time before attracting the attention of Sauron. The game also features co-op multiplayer through the Game Boy link function.


text: The game is presented against the background of the history of the One Ring. At the dawn of the Second Age, after the defeat of the Dark Lord, Morgoth, the elves of Eregion forged the nineteen Rings of Power to help themselves, the dwarves and men rule Middle-earth. However, the elves were unaware that Sauron, Morgoth's closest ally, had survived his master's defeat, and in the guise of Annatar had been the one who taught the Elven-smiths, led by Celebrimbor, how to forge the Rings, whilst, in secret, he forged his own One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom, a Ring far more powerful than any of the others. However, in order for the One Ring to be powerful enough to control the other Rings, Sauron had to transfer most of his power into it. As soon as he put it on, the elves became aware of his ruse, removing and hiding their Three Rings, which Celebrimbor had forged without Sauron's aid. Sauron waged war on the elves, conquering much of Middle-earth and killing Celebrimbor. Thus began the Dark Years, when Sauron took possession of the remaining sixteen Rings, giving seven to the dwarves and nine to men in an effort to corrupt them. The dwarves proved relatively immune to the powers of the Rings, acquiring only a greed for gold, and becoming unconcerned with events in the wider world. Men proved less resilient, and the nine kings given the Rings become the nine Ring-wraiths, or Nazgûl, led by the Witch-king of Angmar.


text: In his ongoing efforts to conquer Middle-earth, Sauron regained the allegiance of many of Morgoth's servants from the First Age, and successfully corrupted Númenor. However, in doing so, he expended a great deal of his power, and lost the ability to ever again assume a pleasing disguise. Returning to Mordor, he regained his strength, eventually capturing Minas Ithil. However, realizing that if they did not join together, Sauron would destroy both men and elves, Elendil, High-King of Arnor, and Gil-galad, High-King of Noldor, formed the Last Alliance of Men and Elves, and attacked Sauron in his fortress, Barad-dûr. The alliance was victorious, with Isildur cutting the One Ring from Sauron's hand. However, although presented with a chance to destroy the Ring forever, Isildur, already beginning to succumb to its corruption, chose not to do so. As such, although Sauron's physical form was vanquished, his spirit, bound to the Ring, survived. Some time later, Isildur was attacked and killed by a band of orcs, and the Ring was lost in the river Anduin for over two thousand years.


text: Meanwhile, during the Third Age, a still weakened Sauron covertly established a stronghold at Dol Guldur. In response to this undetermined evil, the Valar sent five Maiar to Middle-earth. Taking the form of wizards, they were led by Saruman. Unsure of the origin of the evil power in Dol Guldur, the wizard Gandalf was sent to investigate. However, Sauron hid from Gandalf, waiting for four hundred years before returning. Around the same time, the One Ring was found by a Hobbit named Sméagol, who became utterly corrupted by it, living in the caves of the Misty Mountains, and physically transforming into a creature known as Gollum. For five hundred years, Gollum was consumed and corrupted by the Ring. Eventually, Gandalf was able to determine the evil presence in Dol Guldur was indeed Sauron. Gandalf reported back to the White Council, but Saruman dissuaded them from moving against Sauron. Only when he learned the One Ring may be in the vicinity of the Gladden Fields did Saruman agree to attack Sauron, hoping to find the Ring himself. The Council drove Sauron from Dol Guldur, unaware that he knew the Ring had been found. Just prior to Sauron's departure, the Ring passed to another hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, who used it to assist in the victory of elves, men and dwarves at the Battle of the Five Armies. Sixty years later, Gollum was captured by orcs, and taken to Mordor, where he was tortured into revealing the owner and location of the Ring; Bilbo Baggins of the Shire. In the meantime, Bilbo had left the Shire to live in Rivendell, and upon the advice of Gandalf had (very reluctantly) given the Ring to his nephew, Frodo Baggins. With the information given him by Gollum, Sauron, still unable to take physical form, thus sent the Nazgûl to the Shire to retrieve the One Ring. Frodo, and his friends, Samwise Gamgee, Peregrin "Pippin" Took and Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck managed to escape the Shire and make it to Bree, where they encountered the ranger Aragorn, the last surviving descendant of Isildur, and rightful heir to the throne of Gondor. Aragorn vowed to protect the hobbits on their journey to Rivendell.


text: After a tutorial level in which the player controls Isildur during the Battle of the Last Alliance, the game begins with Aragorn, the protagonist of the game, (voiced by Viggo Mortensen) stating "I am Isildur's heir. Not Isildur himself. My fate is my own." He then rides to Helm's Deep where he awaits the attack of Saruman's army of orcs and Uruk-hai. Atop the battlements he tells Éowyn (Carole Ruggier) of his encounters with the enemy prior to his arrival. Shortly after he first met the hobbits, the group stay at Weathertop for the night, but are attacked by the Nazgûl. Aragorn successfully drives them off but not before Frodo (Elijah Wood) is stabbed by the Witch-king with a Morgul-blade. The party reach Rivendell, where Frodo is healed. The Council of Elrond then form a fellowship of nine to bring the Ring to Mordor to destroy it; Frodo (who will carry the Ring), Sam, Merry, Pippin, Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas and Gimli.


text: Attempting to cross the mountain Caradhras, a snowstorm causes an avalanche, closing the pass. The party reluctantly decide the only way past the Misty Mountains is to go under them, via the goblin mines of Moria. They arrive at the Doors of Durin, but are attacked by the Watcher. After slaying the creature, they continue into Moria. Inside, Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) is horrified to learn that his cousin Balin is dead. In the Chamber of Mazarbul, the Fellowship finds Balin's tomb and a record of how the dwarves lost the mine to the goblins. The fellowship is then attacked by a hoard of goblins and a cave troll. The party manage to fight off their attackers and get to the exit, but on their way across the Bridge of Khazad-dûm they are confronted by a Balrog, and Gandalf (Ian McKellen) sacrifices himself to allow the others to escape.


text: Soon thereafter, they reach Amon Hen, and the fellowship fragments. Aragorn allows Frodo to leave with the Ring and make his own way to Mordor. As they are ambushed by a group of Uruk-hai, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas (Orlando Bloom) protect Frodo, giving him time to escape with Sam. Meanwhile, Boromir is left alone to protect Merry and Pippin. He is overwhelmed by the numbers, and is fatally wounded by the Uruk-hai leader, Lurtz. Merry and Pippin are then taken captive by the Uruk-hai. Before Boromir, dies, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli reach him and vow to avenge his death. They kill Lurtz and set out in pursuit of Merry and Pippin. This brings them to Fangorn Forest, where they encounter a wizard. Initially believing it to be Saruman, they soon realize it is Gandalf, who has been resurrected by the Valar. Merry and Pippin are also safe, having escaped their captors and come under the protection of the ent Treebeard.


text: Meanwhile, Gandalf explains there is now an alliance between the two towers of Barad-dûr in Mordor and Orthanc in Isengard, home of Saruman, who has sent out legions of Uruk-hai and orcs to ravage the countryside of Rohan, whose king, Théoden, has been rendered virtually comatose by Saruman's magic. Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli race to Edoras, where Gandalf frees Théoden from Saruman's spell, and it is decided that the inhabitants of Rohan shall make for Helm's Deep, a fortress which has never been breached. Gandalf leaves to get additional help, promising to return "at the turn of the tide." Meanwhile, on the path to Helm's Deep, the travelers are attacked by orcs riding Warg, but Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are able to fight them off.


text: The game then returns to the opening, with Aragorn and Éowyn on the battlements. The women and children are taken into the caves, as Saruman's army arrives, and the Battle of the Hornburg begins. Initially, the defenders are able to hold off the attackers, but the Uruk-hai blast a hole in the outer wall using explosives, through which hundreds of Uruk-hai and orcs flood. After the women and children retreat deeper inside, the defenders move to the courtyard to attempt to defend the door to the Great Hall. After a lengthy battle, the sheer numbers of attackers prove too much, and everyone retreats inside. Arargorn, Legolas, Gimli, Théoden and the remainder of the Rohan warriors prepare to make a suicide charge out of the Hall, but as they do, Gandalf arrives with a vast army of Rohirrim, attacking the Uruk-hai and orcs from behind whilst the others attack from the front. Saruman's army is decimated.


text: After the battle, Gandalf warns Aragorn that this is only the beginning of hostilities. However, he points out that Sauron fears Aragorn, as he knows of Aragorn's bloodline, and that he can inspire the men of Gondor. He also says the forces of good have one major advantage over Sauron; the Ring is hidden, and that they should attempt to destroy it has not entered Sauron's mind. He expects them to use it as a weapon, never imagining it is being brought closer to him every day.


text: Development of the game that ultimately became "The Two Towers" began in February 2000, at which time Electronic Arts were tentatively planning to publish a game based on, and coinciding with the release of the 2001 film "". New Line Cinema sent EA a copy of the script for "Fellowship", as well as storyboards, concept art, and some very early trailers. In June 2001, by which time it had become apparent that a game based on "The Fellowship" was not going to happen, members of Stormfront Studios and EA Redwood Shores traveled to New Zealand to spend a week on the set, concentrating on the work being done for the 2002 film "". Whilst in New Zealand, they also visited Weta Workshop, which were handling all of the special effects and props for the films. Several more visits to both the sets and Weta followed, and as late as July 2002, Stormfront remained in regular contact with the production team to ensure the game matched the finished film as closely as possible.


text: In an October 2002 interview with IGN, producer Scott Evans addressed why the development team had decided to make an action game, as opposed to a role-playing game, arguing,


text: Evans also explained that from the earliest stages of development, the team had access to rough cuts of the film, digital models and textures from the visual effects department, motion capture data, sound effects, soundtrack material, still photography from the set, Alan Lee and John Howe's pre-production concept art, and material from the props department. In the case of animating the character of Aragorn, the developers even had Viggo Mortensen and the swordmaster, Bob Anderson, came into the studio and perform some of the sword fighting techniques from the film, enabling the development team to recreate the physicality of the character exactly, frame by frame.


text: The game was officially announced on February 19, 2002, when EA revealed that although it would be multi-platform, it was initially being developed by Stormfront Studios for the PlayStation 2. They revealed that players would be able to control Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli in full 3D environments taken directly from the films. On May 16, EA announced a Game Boy Advance version, developed by Griptonite Games, in which players could control Frodo, Aragorn, Legolas, Gandalf and Éowyn. This version would also feature co-op multiplayer through the Game Link Cable. Also on May 16, Ritual Entertainment advertised for staff to work on an unspecified "Lord of the Rings" game for Windows, to be published by EA. This was presumed to be a port of the PlayStation 2 version. At the E3 event in May 2002, EA made available a brief playable demo of the PlayStation 2 version, featuring gameplay from the final Helm's Deep level, with Aragorn as the playable character. A non-playable demo of the Game Boy Advance version was also made available.


text: In June, EA revealed Stormfront had ninety people working on the game, and confirmed the game would feature levels from both "The Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Two Towers", as well as both the voice acting and physical likenesses of the actors from the films. Additionally, everything from entire sets and locations to individual weapons and props were being recreated in the game, which was running on a modified version of the "Legend of Alon D'ar" game engine, with additional technology provided by EA Redwood Shores. EA also explained they had full copyright clearance to use the films' score and sound effects.


text: On July 24, EA announced the game would also be released for GameCube. Although it was being developed by Hypnos Entertainment rather than Stormfront, it would be a direct port of the PlayStation 2 version. On August 5, EA cancelled the Windows version when it became apparent that Ritual Entertainment would not be able to have it ready on time.


text: In September, EA revealed more information about the PlayStation 2 version, including a full list of levels. They also explained the game would feature a series of unlockable "DVD style extras," including exclusive interviews with Peter Jackson, Barrie Osborne, Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom and John Rhys-Davies, which wouldn't be available anywhere else, and which would focus on the making of the game. In total, including footage from the film edited into the game, there would be about forty minutes of FMV content.


text: On October 4, shortly before the release of the PlayStation 2 version of the game, EA announced they would be making a sequel, to be released in roughly twelve months time, which would be closely based on Peter Jackson's as yet incomplete 2003 film "". They also stated they had begun preliminary work on an as yet untitled RPG game based on all three films, slated for release in 2004 (this game would ultimately become ""). On October 21, the same day the PlayStation 2 version was released in North America, EA announced the game would also be coming to Xbox, set for release around the same time as the GameCube port. As with the GameCube version, the Xbox version would be a direct port of the PlayStation 2 version.


text: "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" received "generally favorable reviews" across all systems; the Game Boy Advance version holds an aggregate score of 78 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on fifteen reviews; the GameCube version 82 out of 100, based on thirteen reviews; the PlayStation 2 version 82 out of 100, based on thirty-two reviews; and the Xbox version 79 out of 100, based on seventeen reviews.


text: "Game Informer"s Matthew Kato scored the PlayStation 2 version 9.25 out of 10, calling the gameplay "every bit as fast and furious as "Mark of Kri"s, without some of the thinking involved." IGN's Douglass C. Perry scored it 8.3 out of 10. Although he was critical of the game's length, he declared "as a game on its own merits, "The Two Towers" is a solid beat-em-up that's definitely worth owning." GameSpot's Ryan MacDonald scored it 8.1 out of 10. He too was critical of the length, but called the game "a traditional action game with a terrific gameplay system that encourages you to battle it out like there's no tomorrow." GameSpy's Benjamin Turner scored it 3.5 out of 5. He was critical of the FMV footage, and concluded ""The Two Towers" isn't the best action game you'll ever play, but it is the best action game based on "The Lord of the Rings". For fans looking for a way to play their favorite books or movies, this is the best bet at the moment." Eurogamer's Kristan Reed scored it 7 out of 10. He had mixed feelings about the integration of film footage; "the quality of these recreated scenes isn't always as good as it could be, thanks to some less than cutting edge rendering. That said, it's still a nice way of introducing a new scene." His biggest criticism was that the game was too short, although he praised the "DVD extras" being linked to level progression. He concluded "it's fun while it lasts, but requires relatively little skill."


text: The PlayStation 2 version also received some non-video game publication attention. For example, "The Cincinnati Enquirer"s Marc Saltzman scored it 4.5 out of 5, calling it "a solid pick - especially for players who enjoy nonstop action - that lives up to the expectations set by the movie." "Playboy" scored it 88%, saying it "should appeal to nerdy "D&D" chicks and foxy fantasy fans alike." "Entertainment Weekly"s Geoff Keighly scored it a B+, calling it "a gaming experience that works with - rather than exploits - the source material." "Maxim"s Alex Porter was less impressed, scoring it 6 out of 10, and arguing "the graphics and sound (enhanced by the actual voices of the movie's stars) [are] well-rendered and intricate [...] but players [will get] bored with repetitive thrusting and parrying."


text: GameSpy's William Cassidy scored the Game Boy Advance version 4.5 out of 5, praising the graphics, sound, combat system and the differentiation between the controllable characters. His only complaint was that "the amount of sometimes pointless wandering." He called the game "an engaging, action-packed adventure that admirably re-creates the captivating atmosphere of the films. The characters, the locales, and even the music draw you in and create an exciting experience that will have you playing through the entire quest several times." IGN's Craig Harris scored it 8 out of 10, comparing it to "Diablo" and "Gauntlet", and praising the co-op mode. He concluded "even though "The Two Towers" is far from "boring," it does get a little repetitive in its hack-and-slash design." GameSpot's Frank Provo scored it 7.5 out of 10, writing "it's mainly a "Diablo" or "Gauntlet" clone with story elements from the movie sprinkled throughout. With that in mind, it's surprisingly fun to roam throughout the lands of Middle-earth, slaying orcs and goblins."


text: "Game Informer"s Justin Leeper scored the Xbox version 9.25 out of 10, calling it "a tremendous game [...] the graphics are outstanding, and the seamless integration between real-time and FMV cutscenes will take your breath away." GameSpot's Ryan MacDonald scored both the Xbox and the GameCube versions 8 out of 10, calling it "a traditional hack-and-slash action game that features great gameplay mechanics, stunning visuals, and lots of extras." IGN's Hilary Goldstein scored it 7.6 out of 10, writing "while "The Two Towers" is fun, it's not really one of the better action games around. It does nothing new and there are a lot of problems that detract from the experience." He was critical of the targeting system, the camera, the rigid linearity of each level and the inability to issue commands to AI controlled allies. He also wrote "the Xbox version is inferior to the sharp and stunning quality of what was found on PS2. There's a ton of texture problems, poor contrast, and less detail than what's found on the PS2. That's not acceptable for a game coming out two months later and on a system that is easier to program for and can churn out incredible graphics with little effort." GameSpy's David Hodgson scored it 3 out of 5, writing "with the PlayStation 2 being all "inferior" to the Xbox's presumed power, and the two months of extra development time, surely E.A. must have added an extra aiming reticule for the archery, increased the frame rate from 30, sculpted a few more polygons on the main heroes and adversaries, and added reflections to the underwater orcs and other badly realized reflections. Well, don't bet on it, Bilbo. There are absolutely no differences between this, the GameCube, and the PlayStation 2 versions."


text: "Game Informer"s Matthew Kato scored the GameCube version 9.25 out of 10, calling it "a blueprint on how to make a very good movie-based game." IGN's Douglass C. Perry scored it 8 out of 10. Comparing the game to the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions, he wrote "the textures are much more clean, the rough edges are all smoothed out, and the particle lighting effects are even slightly more radiant than before." GameSpy's David Hodgson scored it 3 out of 5. He was critical of the length, and that it did not improve on the PlayStation 2 version; "think that the extra two months you waited for the GameCube version of the game allowed E.A. to fix the sometimes-problematic archery aiming, increase the framerate from 30, add extra polygons to the characters and foes, and tweak the water reflections so they actually look realistic? Then you're smoking more pipe-weed than the whole of Hobbiton. There are literally no differences between this, the Xbox, and the PlayStation 2 offerings."


text: The game was a huge commercial success, selling almost four million units across all platforms, considerably more than Vivendi Universal Game's "", which sold just over one million units. "The Two Towers" also attracted considerably better reviews. By July 2006, the Xbox version of "The Two Towers" had sold 1.5 million copies and earned $65 million in the United States. In 2007, the game achieved Platinum Hits and Classic status on Xbox for selling more than 2 million copies worldwide on the platform. "Next Generation" ranked it as the 28th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. In the United States, it was the highest-selling "Lord of the Rings" game released in the 2000s for consoles by July 2006, and the highest-selling version of "The Two Towers". The PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions also received a "Double Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 600,000 copies in the United Kingdom. The game won "Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering" at the 2003 Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Interactive Achievement Awards.


text: "GameSpot" named "The Two Towers" the second-best Xbox game, and second-best GameCube game, of January 2003.


title: John Surratt

text: John Harrison Surratt Jr. (April 13, 1844 – April 21, 1916) was an American Confederate spy who was accused of plotting with John Wilkes Booth to kidnap U.S. President Abraham Lincoln; he was also suspected of involvement in the Abraham Lincoln assassination. His mother, Mary Surratt, was convicted of conspiracy by a military tribunal and hanged; she owned the boarding house that the conspirators used as a safe house and to plot the scheme.


title: John Surratt

text: He avoided arrest immediately after the assassination by fleeing to Canada and then to Europe. He thus avoided the fate of the other conspirators, who were hanged. He served briefly as a Pontifical Zouave but was recognized and arrested. He escaped to Egypt but was eventually arrested and extradited. By the time of his trial, the statute of limitations had expired on most of the potential charges which meant that he was never convicted of anything.


title: John Surratt

text: He was born in 1844, to John Harrison Surratt Sr. and Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt, in what is today Congress Heights. His baptism took place in 1844 at St. Peter's Church, Washington, D.C. In 1861, he was enrolled at St. Charles College, where he was studying for the priesthood and also met Louis Weichmann. When his father suddenly died in 1862, Surratt was appointed the postmaster for Surrattsville, Maryland.


title: John Surratt

text: Surratt served as a Confederate Secret Service courier and spy. After he had been carrying dispatches about Union troop movements across the Potomac River. Dr. Samuel Mudd introduced Surratt to Booth on December 23, 1864, and Surratt agreed to help Booth kidnap Lincoln. The meeting took place at the National Hotel, in Washington, D.C., where Booth lived.


title: John Surratt

text: Booth's plan was to seize Lincoln and take him to Richmond, Virginia, to exchange him for thousands of Confederate prisoners of war. On March 17, 1865, Surratt and Booth, along with their comrades, waited in ambush for Lincoln's carriage to leave the Campbell General Hospital to return to Washington. However, Lincoln had changed his mind and remained in Washington.


title: John Surratt

text: William H. Crook, one of Lincoln's bodyguards, claimed that Surratt had boarded the "River Queen" shortly before the Third Battle of Petersburg, using the name of Smith and demanding to see Lincoln (who was aboard at the time). Crook later stated his belief that Surratt "was seeking an opportunity to assassinate the President at this time".


title: John Surratt

text: After the assassination of Lincoln, on April 14, 1865, Surratt denied any involvement and said that he was then in Elmira, New York. He was one of the first people suspected of the attempt to assassinate Secretary of State William H. Seward, but the culprit was soon discovered to be Lewis Powell.


title: John Surratt

text: When he learned of the assassination, Surratt fled to Montreal, Canada East, arriving on April 17, 1865. He then went to St. Liboire, where a Catholic priest, Father Charles Boucher, gave him sanctuary. Surratt remained there while his mother was arrested, tried, and hanged in the United States for conspiracy.


title: John Surratt

text: Aided by ex-Confederate agents Beverly Tucker and Edwin Lee, Surratt, disguised, booked passage under a false name. He landed at Liverpool in September, where he lodged in the oratory at the Church of the Holy Cross.


title: John Surratt

text: Surratt would later serve for a time in the Ninth Company of the Pontifical Zouaves, in the Papal States, under the name John Watson.


title: John Surratt

text: An old friend, Henri Beaumont de Sainte-Marie, recognized Surratt and notified papal officials and the US minister in Rome, Rufus King. Henri was introduced to John Surratt and Louis Weichmann in April 1863 at St. Joseph's Catholic School in the town then known as Ellengowan or Little Texas (now a part of Cockeysville, Maryland) by Father Mahoney. Henri taught at the school for five months in 1863 having been hired by Fr. Mahoney at the request of Maria Padian. Although Canadian, Henri wanted to join the Confederate Army when the Civil War broke out. Henri traveled to New York and boarded a ship that was to run the blockade of the Southern States. “The ship, however, was captured by a United States war steamer and Sainte Marie with his fellow voyagers was thrown into Fort McHenry as a prisoner of war.” Henri was released through the intervention of the English Consul since he was a British subject. Henri was then stranded in Baltimore with little money and his plan was to move into a cheap boarding house and get a job to earn some money. Fate intervened and “one day an old farmer living in the country outside of Baltimore came to his place.” Henri related his misfortunes to the old farmer, who took mercy on him and gave him a job on his farm. Henri accepted the job offer. It was on this farm that Maria Padian “happened to pay a visit to Sainte Marie’s benefactor to collect money for the church at Little Texas.” Maria was a very active member of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, not only visiting to collect money for the church, but also a member of the ‘Texas Fancy Table’ at the 1895 Church Fair, and even donating a stained glass window. Maria was also the daughter of Richard Padian for whom Padonia Road, as well as the old North Central Railroad stop Padonia Station, was named. By all accounts, Maria, single and for whom most eligible men her age were off fighting in the Civil War, was bowled over by Henri and strongly “captivated with his polished manners, good looks, handsome brown eyes, refined conversation, and general education, and listened early to the recital of his adventures.” and made a plea to Fr. Mahoney to hire her new friend for the school.


title: John Surratt

text: On November 7, 1866, Surratt was arrested and sent to the Velletri prison. He escaped and lived with the supporters of Garibaldi, who gave him safe passage. Surratt traveled to the Kingdom of Italy and posed as a Canadian citizen named Walters. He booked passage to Alexandria, Egypt, but was arrested there by US officials on November 23, 1866, still in his Pontifical Zouaves uniform. He returned to the US on the USS "Swatara" to the Washington Navy Yard in early 1867.


title: John Surratt

text: Eighteen months after his mother was hanged, Surratt was tried in a Maryland civilian court. It was not before a military commission, unlike the trials of his mother and the others, as a US Supreme Court decision, "Ex parte Milligan", had declared the trial of civilians before military tribunals to be unconstitutional if civilian courts were still open.


title: John Surratt

text: Judge David Carter presided over Surratt's trial, and Edwards Pierrepont conducted the federal government's case against him. Surratt's lead attorney, Joseph Habersham Bradley, admitted Surratt's part in plotting to kidnap Lincoln but denied any involvement in the murder plot. After two months of testimony, Surratt was released after a mistrial; eight jurors had voted not guilty, four voted guilty.


title: John Surratt

text: The statute of limitations on charges other than murder had run out, and Surratt was released on bail.


title: John Surratt

text: Surratt tried to farm tobacco and then taught at the Rockville Female Academy. In 1870, as one of the last surviving members of the conspiracy, Surratt began a much-heralded public lecture tour. On December 6, at a small courthouse in Rockville, Maryland, in a 75-minute speech, Surratt admitted his involvement in the scheme to kidnap Lincoln. However, he maintained that he knew nothing of the assassination plot and reiterated that he was then in Elmira. He disavowed any participation by the Confederate government, reviled Weichmann as a "perjurer" who was responsible for his mother's death and said his friends had kept from him the seriousness of her plight in Washington. After that revelation, it was reported in Washington's "Evening Star" that the band played "Dixie" and a small concert was improvised, with Surratt the center of female attention.


title: John Surratt

text: Three weeks later, Surratt was to give a second lecture in Washington, but it was canceled because of public outrage.


title: John Surratt

text: Surratt later took a job as a teacher in St. Joseph Catholic School in Emmitsburg, Maryland. In 1872, Surratt married Mary Victorine Hunter, a second cousin of Francis Scott Key. The couple lived in Baltimore and had seven children.


title: John Surratt

text: Some time after 1872, he was hired by the Baltimore Steam Packet Company. He rose to freight auditor and, ultimately, treasurer of the company. Surratt retired from the steamship line in 1914 and died of pneumonia in 1916, at the age of 72.


title: Emanationism

text: Emanationism is an idea in the cosmology or cosmogony of certain religious or philosophical systems. Emanation, from the Latin "emanare" meaning "to flow from" or "to pour forth or out of", is the mode by which all things are derived from the first reality, or principle. All things are derived from the first reality or perfect God by steps of degradation to lesser degrees of the first reality or God, and at every step the emanating beings are less pure, less perfect, less divine. Emanationism is a transcendent principle from which everything is derived, and is opposed to both creationism (wherein the universe is created by a sentient God who is separate from creation) and materialism (which posits no underlying subjective and/or ontological nature behind phenomena being immanent).


title: Emanationism

text: Emanationism is a cosmological theory which asserts that all things "flow" from an underlying principle or reality, usually called the Absolute or Godhead. Any teachings which involve emanation are usually in opposition to creation ex nihilo as emanation advocates that everything has always existed and has not been "created" from nothing.


title: Emanationism

text: Underlying the worldview of traditional cosmology is the idea that the universe is an emanation of a unitary divine principle. Although this idea has been blended with the revealed creationist doctrines of the major monotheistic religions, orthodox theologians have generally regarded it with suspicion. They have relegated it to the shadowy spheres of mysticism, pantheism, and the occult, which have always been at odds with orthodoxy. The traditional view is summed in the doctrine of emanation formulated by Plotinus.


title: Emanationism

text: The primary classical exponent of emanationism was the neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus, who in his "Enneads" described all things phenomenal and otherwise as an emanation ( "aporrhoe" (Ennead ΙΙ.3.2) or ἀπόρροια "aporrhoia" (II.3.11)) from the One (ἕν, "hen"). In 5.1.6, emanationism is compared to a diffusion from the One, of which there are three primary hypostases, the One, the Intellect (νοῦς, "nous"), and the Soul (ψυχή, "psyche").


title: Emanationism

text: Another advocate of emanationism was Michael Servetus, who was burned at the stake for his nontrinitarian cosmology.


title: Emanationism

text: Theosophy draws on Neoplatonic emanationism, in particular the concept of separation from and return to the Absolute, and reworks the Eastern concepts of karma and reincarnation to provide an evolutionary theory of both humankind and the universe.


title: Emanationism

text: Theosophy contends that all organisms—including animals and human beings—and all matter "flow" from a pure spiritual formation in the Absolute to a material one over time to become materialised and that they will later return to the Absolute after the cosmic cycle of life.


title: Emanationism

text: As Morgan summarises: ""The Secret Doctrine" laid out an emanationist view of the development of the physical universe, a process of ebb and flow in which spirit gradually unfolded itself in matter, attaining consciousness, and returning to spirit in a higher and more realised form." According to the emanationist cosmology of Madame Blavatsky all monads emerge from divine unity at the beginning of a cosmic cycle and return to this source at its close.


title: Emanationism

text: Blavatsky in her book "The Key to Theosophy" (1889) wrote that: "We believe in a universal divine principle, the root of all, from which all proceeds, and within which all shall be at the end of the great cycle of being."


title: Emanationism

text: Occultist Samael Aun Weor taught emanationism from his studies with the Kabbalah and Gnosticism. He mapped out a complex esoteric cosmology with matter flowing from different planes of existence all existing in the absolute. As Dawson (2007) comments:


title: Emanationism

text: As with esoteric thought in general, Weor holds that the universe originated in the ordering activity of the absolute upon chaotic primordial matter, giving rise to (emanating) the subsequent planes of the created order (Pleroma).


title: Tim Canterbury

text: Timothy Canterbury is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom "The Office", portrayed by Martin Freeman. He is a sales representative at the Slough branch of Wernham Hogg Paper Merchants. He has a self-deprecating and ironic sense of humour.


title: Tim Canterbury

text: Tim flirts with, and feels great attraction to, the receptionist Dawn Tinsley. His office nemesis is Gareth Keenan, with whom he regularly exchanges insults and on whom he frequently plays practical jokes. His relationship with his boss David Brent is mixed; at times Tim seems to get along well with David, and often patiently humours Brent's attempts at comedy and social interaction. However, like the other employees, he is often exasperated by Brent's more extreme personality flaws.


title: Tim Canterbury

text: In many ways, he is Brent's complete opposite. While Brent tends to alienate people with his constant displays of arrogance and insecurities, Tim is liked by almost everyone due largely to his kindness, his cheeky-chappy sense of humour and his overall laid-back attitude. However, he lives an unsatisfying life – at thirty, he still lives with his parents and works in a job for which he has no passion or interest. Having dropped out of university after a year, he hopes to return and earn a Psychology degree, but his hidden insecurity prevents him from doing so. His regular pranks on Gareth are one of his ways of maintaining his sanity.


title: Tim Canterbury

text: At the end of the first series, Tim abandons his plan to quit his office job and return to university to earn a degree in Psychology. He reveals to Dawn that David Brent has "promoted" him to Senior Sales Clerk, which includes a raise of £500. As Tim relays this information, he begins speaking in a distinctly Brent-esque style, using vague syllogisms and empty phrases with no clear meaning behind them. He also backpedals on a lot of the career advice he previously gave to Dawn and suggests that his new title has set him upon a more desirable path.


title: Tim Canterbury

text: In the second series, although Tim retains much of his former ironic humour, much of his self-deprecation is absent. Despite his promotion being little more than tokenistic, he takes his job much more seriously, and insists that others do the same. This suggests a potential parallel between Tim and David Brent in terms of their career trajectory: the casual and flippant attitude being discarded upon receiving a taste of authority, however insignificant, and buying into the corporate, pencil-pushing mentality.


title: Tim Canterbury

text: Tim's equivalent in the American version of "The Office" is Jim Halpert. His French equivalents are Paul Delorme (played by Jeremie Elkaim) and Louis Tremblay.


title: Tim Canterbury

text: Apart from being her colleague and close friend, Tim harbours strong feelings for Dawn. Their relationship is very flirtatious at times. However, Dawn's engagement to Lee prevents them from becoming more than friends for quite some time. Their friendship seems to suffer after the episode "Training Day", in which Dawn and Lee are having problems. Tim consoles her throughout the episode, but mistakenly comes to the conclusion that Lee and Dawn have split. He then asks Dawn out on a date in front of everyone, where she tells him that she and Lee are still together. Embarrassed, Tim insists he was just asking her out as a friend.


title: Tim Canterbury

text: During the second series, Dawn and Tim remain friends, but do not seem to be as close anymore. Tim starts to take his job more seriously after being promoted and becomes somewhat distant toward Dawn at first. Tim also begins to date Rachel, one of the former Swindon employees, and Dawn grows jealous (along with Gareth, who claims he had feelings for Rachel before Tim and doesn't understand why she wants to go out with someone who looks like a Fisher Price Man). In the fifth episode of the second series, Dawn is selling kisses for Red Nose Day. After Tim makes a contribution, they share a kiss. Tim is then driven to choose between Rachel and Dawn, unaware of Dawn and Lee's plans to move to the United States. In the next episode he makes his decision, breaking up with Rachel. Tim soon discovers that Dawn is leaving for Florida with Lee. Initially Tim seems reluctant to say anything, but changes his mind during an interview with the camera crew and runs to tell Dawn how he feels. Their conversation is kept private as Tim takes off his mic, but he emerges unsuccessful and admits Dawn said no. The second series ends with both Dawn and Tim depressed.


title: Tim Canterbury

text: Three years pass, with Tim remaining complacent in his job at Wernham Hogg and Dawn living unhappily with Lee in Florida. Dawn and Lee are flown back for the reunion, and she resumes her friendship with Tim briefly. When Dawn receives a Christmas present from Tim encouraging her to hold on to her dream of becoming an illustrator, she returns to the Christmas party without Lee, where she and Tim kiss and finally become a couple.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: Abortion in Russia is legal as an elective procedure up to the 12th week of pregnancy, and in special circumstances at later stages.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: Following the takeover of Russia by the Bolsheviks, in 1920 the Russian Soviet Republic under Lenin became the first country in the world in the modern era to allow abortion in all circumstances, but over the course of the 20th century, the legality of abortion changed more than once, with a ban on unconditional abortions being enacted again from 1936 to 1955, which from then on it was legalised again. Due to this, the country gained a termed "abortion culture". Russian abortions peaked in the middle of the 1960s, with a total of 5,463,300 abortions being performed in 1965. In the entire Soviet Union, from its legalisation, until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990, over 260,000,000 abortions took place (mostly in Russia).


title: Abortion in Russia

text: In 2009, Russia reported 1.2 million abortions, out of a population of 143 million people. In 2020, Russia had decreased its number of abortions to 450 thousand.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: Abortion was illegal in the Russian Empire. The practice is not directly referenced in the Domostroi, though child rearing is a common topic. During Tsar Alexis Romanov's reign the punishment for abortion was death, only later removed by Peter the Great. Abortion continued to be a serious crime until 1917. Through articles 1462 and 1463 of the Russian Penal Code individuals "guilty of the crime could be deprived of civil rights and exiled or sentenced to hard labor." Despite its illegality, "black market" abortions existed. Underground obstetric personnel known as "povival'nye babki" and "sel'skie povival'nye babki", usually translated as midwives and rural midwives, respectively and commonly referred to as simply "babki", literally "old women" and "povitukhi" (midwives) performed abortions. Not merely abortion providers, "babki", were trained health care professionals—they served as nurses and midwives in especially rural areas where proper medical service was unavailable. The number of abortions increased in Moscow two-and-a-half times between 1909 and 1914; the increased frequency of abortions in St. Petersburg was many times higher over the turn of the century, 1897–1912. Statistical data from the beginning of the 20th century suggest that the strict laws were rarely enforced. For instance, figures for sentences pronounced during the years before the First World War include: 20 (1910), 28 (1911), 31 (1912), and 60 (1914).


title: Abortion in Russia

text: In the late Russian Empire, doctors and jurists began to advocate for relaxed abortion laws and increased contraception. The motivation was to make abortions less dangerous. According to historians, the movement to legalize abortion and encourage contraception arose differently than it did in Western Europe. Rather than among the political scene (as in France, for example), proponents came from medical fields. In 1889 the Third Congress of the Pirogov Society, a medical scientific society whose works had a resounding influence in Russia, started the discussion on decriminalization of abortion. Others followed: in 1911 the Fourth Congress of the Society of Russian Midwives, in 1913 the Pirogov Society's Twelfth Congress, and in 1914 the Russian group of the International Society of Criminologists came forward supporting decriminalization.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: The Soviet government was the first government in Europe to legalize abortion. In October 1920 the Bolsheviks made abortion legal within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic with their "Decree on Women's Healthcare". After the RSFSR the law was introduced in Ukraine (5 July 1921) and then the remainder of the Soviet Union. The government saw legalization as a temporary necessity, as after the economic crisis and nearly a decade of unrest, war, revolution, and civil war, many women would be seeking abortions due to not being able to take care of their child. Restrictions were placed on the criteria for abortions and by 1924 it was only permitted where pregnancy risked the life of the woman or the unborn child. The Soviet Union encouraged pronatal policies; however, Soviet officials argued that women would be getting abortions regardless of legality, and the state would be able to regulate and control abortion only if it was legalized. In particular, the Soviet government hoped to provide access to abortion in a safe environment performed by a trained doctor instead of "babki". While this campaign was extremely effective in the urban areas (as much as 75% of abortions in Moscow were performed in hospitals by 1925), it had much less on rural regions where there was neither access to doctors, transportation, or both and where women relied on traditional medicine. In the countryside in particular, women continued to see "babki", midwives, hairdressers, nurses, and others for the procedure after abortion was legalized in the Soviet Union.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: The Soviet Union, under Lenin, became the first country to have abortion available, on request, often for no cost. There was intense debate among government and medical officials surrounding its legalization. The main arguments used in opposition to legalizing abortion were that it would have a harmful effect on population growth or on the grounds that it was too medically harmful to the woman. By the mid-1920s, hospitals were so severely congested by abortion procedures that special clinics had to be opened to free up beds. The enormous rate of abortions being performed also caused many doctors to become concerned and restrictions started being passed to limit abortion after the third month of pregnancy and to ensure that priority was given only to women deemed too poor, single, or who already had several children. Only six months between a first abortion and a second abortion was permitted. In addition, renewed efforts were made to prosecute "babki". This had first started with the legalization of abortion in 1920 and a fair number of "babki" were caught and punished as legal abortion gave them no excuse to continue operating. During the collectivization drives in the early 1930s, this was temporarily put on the back burner, but in 1934 new, stricter laws were passed on performing illegal abortions, and there was a circular of the RSFSR Procuracy and extensive stories on them in the major newspapers. The circular requested that regional prosecutors step up efforts to combat unsanctioned abortion, citing a letter submitted to the Procuracy by an anonymous private citizen decrying the harm done to women by "babki" in one rural district. A month later, "Izvestiia" ran a piece condemning "the plight of young women who ended up at the abortionist's doorstep after being unable to find employment."


title: Abortion in Russia

text: On 27 June 1936, the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union made abortion illegal again, stemming largely from concerns about population growth as well as concerns for the medical dangers of abortion. The law that outlawed abortion did not only do just that, but rather contained several different decrees. The official title of the law was, "Decree on the Prohibition of Abortions, the Improvement of Material Aid to Women in Childbirth, the Establishment of State Assistance to Parents of Large Families, and the Extension of the Network of Lying-in Homes, Nursery schools and Kindergartens, the Tightening-up of Criminal Punishment for the Non-payment of Alimony, and on Certain Modifications in Divorce Legislation". This law allowed abortion only in the case of a threat to a woman's health. All of this was part of the Soviet initiative to encourage population growth, as well as place a stronger emphasis on the importance of the family unit to communism.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: The law coincided with a state-sponsored promotion of "Circus" (premiered on 25 May 1936, was postponed) depicting an American Catholic protagonist giving birth to a child she conceived with her African American lover, which was forbidden due to American anti-Black sentiments. At his meeting with the workers from the Stakhanovite movement, Stalin, who was closely following film as a strong source of propaganda, said: "We must finally understand that, of all the valuable capitals available in the world, the most valuable and decisive capital is the people". Just after that, America and Americans disappeared from Soviet cinema.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: This decree provoked resentment and opposition among urban women arguing that it was often impossible to have a child when they were trying to further their careers (as the Soviet state actively promoted female education and work placement) and because of inadequate housing and supplies needed to care for children. The anti-abortion laws in practice were only marginally more enforceable than in tsarist times and "babki" continued to ply their trade, knowing that there was little risk of being caught. Although there were numerous cases of women checking into hospitals after undergoing botched abortions, it was usually impossible to tell if they had had a miscarriage, a self-performed one, or one performed by a "babka". The unwritten code of female solidarity also held strong and women seldom ratted out "babki" to the authorities.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: In practice, the abortion rate was affected little by the 1936 decrees, although it was observed that the rate of infant mortality rose between 1935 and 1940 due to women apparently injuring themselves in illegal abortions that then prevented them from producing healthy children. "Babki" abortion services remained as they had always been: unsafe, expensive, and forcing women to lie to authorities.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: The law provided allowances to women for their seventh and subsequent children up until their third birthday. In 1944 the benefits were expanded to offer allowances for the third children until their fourth birthday and for fourth and subsequent children until their seventh birthday. However, all of this aid was cut in 1948, after the largest source of population depletions, World War II, was over. Despite abortion being outlawed and these fertility policies, abortion rates remained high during this time. Illegal abortions caused an estimated 4,000 deaths per year due to complications in underground abortions. Women continued to get illegal abortions during this time due to policies encouraging married women to be employed and economic policies favoring heavy industry and national defense over housing and consumer goods.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: During the postwar era, millions of men were dead and the government was forced to legitimize single-mother families. The New Family Law of 1944 sanctioned single motherhood as a site of reproduction by providing financial support for single mothers. The prevalence of single mothers in this time was a reality; by 1957, 3.2 million women were claiming government aid as single mothers.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: The relaxation of government policy on women's reproductive rights began in the 1950s, which began with the expansion of the list of medical indications for termination of pregnancy in 1951, and in 1954 criminal liability for illegal abortion was canceled.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: After Stalin's death in 1953, the Soviet government revoked the 1936 laws and issued a new law on abortion. The decree, issued in 1955, stated that "measures carried out by the Soviet state to encourage motherhood and protect infancy, as well as the uninterrupted growth of the consciousness and culturedness of women," allowed for the change in policy. The language of the decree implied that most women would choose motherhood over abortion and that preventing abortion remained a goal of the government, as it was still encouraging population growth.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: During the late 1950s and 1960s, it is estimated that the Soviet Union had some of the highest abortion rates in the world. The abortion rate during this period is not known for sure, because the Soviet Union did not start releasing abortion statistics until perestroika. The best estimates, which are based on surveys of medical professionals during this time, say that about 6 to 7 million abortions were performed per year.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: One of the few insights we have regarding abortion during the late 1950s is a survey, conducted between 1958 and 1959, of 26,000 women seeking abortions, 20,000 from urban areas and 6,000 from rural areas. Several facts can be gathered from this survey regarding what kind of women sought abortions and their reasons for doing so. First of all, an "overwhelming majority" of the women were married, though the survey results do not give an exact percentage. Second, we can learn how many children the women had. Of the urban women, 10.2% were childless, 41.2% had one child, 32.1% had two children, and 16.5% had three or more children, making the median number of children 1.47. Of the rural women, 6.2% were childless, 26.9% had one child, 30% had two children, and 36.9% had three or more children, the median number of children being 2.06. Of women seeking abortions, urban women were more likely to have fewer or no children. This may have been an effect of the lack of space faced by urban women.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: The survey also examined women's reasons for seeking abortions. It divided the reasons into four categories. The first was "unconditionally removable", things that could be remedied by government action, such as material need, lack of space, no one at home, or no institution to put the child in. The second category was "conditionally removable", things that might possibly be remedied by government action, such as the absence of a husband, family troubles, or illness of one or both parents. The third category was "unremovable", things that were not caused by social conditions, such as a baby in the family or many children already. The fourth category was "unclear causes", such as one or both parents’ unwillingness to have a child and multiple other reasons.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: The results for this question were: of the reasons given by urban women, 35% were unconditionally removable, 16.5% were conditionally removable, 10% were unremovable, and 37.9% were unclear. Of the reasons given by rural women, 26.3% were unconditionally removable, 18% were conditionally removable, 10% were unremovable, and 45.2% were unclear. The most marked different was that more urban women cited lack of space as a reason. The survey results found that abortion rates were much higher among women who work, with a rate of 105.5 abortions per thousand pregnancies, as against 41.5 per thousand among women who did not work.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: If the abortion rates of this survey are taken to be representative, then during this period the number of annual abortions was higher than the number of live births. This would also mean that the abortion rates in the Soviet Union were the highest of any in the world at that time. By the end of the Brezhnev era in 1982, Soviet birthrates hovered just at or below replacement level except in the Muslim-majority Central Asian republics.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: The early years of the Russian Federation were marked by declining rates of fertility and abortion and increased access to and use of preventative birth control. The official policy of the Soviet Union at the time of its collapse was pro-family planning, although contraceptives were generally unavailable to the public, leaving most women with abortion as the only way to regulate family size. The declining rate of abortion indicates that fewer and fewer Russian pregnancies were intended.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: Most common in the 1990s were 'miniabortions', abortions by vacuum aspiration performed during the first seven weeks of pregnancy. The legalization of miniabortions in 1988 made the previously required three-day hospital stay unnecessary.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: Unreliable quality and availability of contraceptive options may have partially slowed the decline in abortion rates in Russia in the 1990s. In Russia at the beginning of the 1990s, less than 75% of sexually active women used preventative birth control of any kind. While such resources became more available with the fall of the Soviet Union, by 1993 still less than half of Russian women felt they had adequate access to them. In the first decade of the Russian Federation alone, both of Russia's condom factories and the only Russian IUD factory shut down for periods of time because of concerns about latex prices and quality control. At the beginning of the Russian Federation, 41% of sexually active women in Russia relied on unreliable 'traditional methods' of birth control. Many women who used those methods cited the availability of abortions as a factor in their reasoning. Many women who used no method of birth control at all also cited the option of abortion as a reason that they did not concern themselves with modern or even traditional family planning strategies.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: Between 1990 and 2000 the number of annual abortions in Russia declined by half, but the ratio of abortions to live births (2.04 in 1990 to 1.92 in 1996) hardly declined. This means not only that fewer abortions were performed, but that fewer women became pregnant overall. This overall declining rate of fertility was one of the two main structural factors in Russia that promoted abortion over preventative birth control. Other factors lowering the rate of abortion include measures taken by President Vladimir Putin to increase family size in Russia. In the early 2000s he called for federal financial support for children in the first 18 months of life as a way to encourage women to have a second or third child. When he first proposed this, the Russian population was declining by 700,000 people every year. In the first ten years of the Russian Federation, the population of Russia declined by 3 million. Concerns about population decline in Russia are widespread. Attempts to mitigate population decline started with increased financial support for young children in Russia and eventually led to restricted access to abortion.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: Other factors in the decline of abortion in Russia include the legalization of sterilization. Regulations of contraceptive sterilization had been in place since the 1930s but were lifted in 1993. In the first seven years that the practice was legal, almost 100,000 women sought and obtained sterilizations. This is a factor in the declining rates of unintended pregnancy in Russia. 2003 was the first time in fifty years that laws regarding access to abortion were made stricter; every other piece of legislation on the topic in both the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation was to grant women easier access.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: In 1991, the year of the fall of the Soviet Union, a record number of about 3,608,000 abortions were performed in Russia. This number declined steadily over the years and by 2002 Russian doctors were performing 1,802,000 abortions annually. This is a significant decline, but left Russia with still the second-highest rate of abortions per capita.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: While abortions in Russia overall were declining, in the Asian part of the country the rate was actually increasing. While abortion rates in these Asian republics were not as high as those in Western Russia at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and are still not the highest in the country, they did rise. The decrease in overall rates of abortion is mostly due to the very steep drop in abortions per year in the two biggest cities in Russia, Moscow and St. Petersburg.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: National concern about declining population was a continuing trend since the 1980s, and caused the new regime to adopt anti-family planning policies. The use of contraceptives slowly rose over the 1990s but still in 1997 one in ten Russian pregnancies ended in abortion, and so it could be assumed that at least one in ten Russian pregnancies was unintended. Legally in Russia, the abortion procedure must take place in a hospital and as a result abortions provide an important source of income for healthcare providers.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: As abortions became slightly less common they hardly got safer. By 1998 two in three abortions still had some kind of health complication. Among the most common of these complications is unintentional secondary sterilization, which happens to one in ten Russian women who seeks an abortion in her lifetime.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: During the 2000s, Russia's steadily falling population (due to both negative birthrates and low life expectancy) became a major source of concern, even forcing the military to curtail conscription due to shortages of young males. On 21 October 2011, the Russian Parliament passed a law restricting abortion to the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, with an exception up to 22 weeks if the pregnancy was the result of rape, and for medical necessity it can be performed at any point during pregnancy. The new law also made mandatory a waiting period of two to seven days before an abortion can be performed, to allow the woman to "reconsider her decision". Abortion can only be performed in licensed institutions (typically hospitals or women's clinics) and by physicians who have specialized training. The physician can refuse to perform the abortion, except the abortions for medical necessity. The new law is stricter than the previous one, in that under the former law abortions after 12 weeks were allowed on broader socioeconomic grounds, whereas under the current law such abortions are only allowed if there are serious medical problems with the mother or fetus, or in case of rape.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: According to the Criminal Code of Russia (article 123), the performance of an abortion by a person who does not have a medical degree and specialized training is punishable by fine of up to 800,000 RUB; by a fine worth up to 8 months of the convicted's income; by community service from 100 to 240 hours; or by a jail term of 1 to 2 years. In cases when the illegal abortion resulted in the death of the pregnant woman, or caused significant harm to her health, the convicted faces a jail term of up to 5 years.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: The abortion issue gained renewed attention in 2011 in a debate that "The New York Times" says "has begun to sound like the debate in the United States". Parliament passed and in 2011 President Dmitri Medvedev signed several restrictions on abortion into law to combat "a falling birthrate" and "plunging population". The restrictions require abortion providers to devote 10% of advertising costs to describing the dangers of abortion to a woman's health and make it illegal to describe abortion as a safe medical procedure. Medvedev's wife Svetlana Medvedeva had taken up the anti-abortion cause in Russia in a weeklong national campaign against abortion called "Give Me Life!" and a "Day of Family, Love and Faithfulness" by her Foundation for Social and Cultural Initiatives in conjunction with the Russian Orthodox Church.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: In 2006, the amount of Russians viewing abortion as unacceptable under any circumstance was only 6%, by 2022, this had risen to 13%.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: Despite a significant reduction in the abortion to birth ratio since the mid-1990s, the countries of the former Soviet Union maintain the highest rate of abortions in the world. In 2001, 1.31 million children were born in Russia, while 2.11 million abortions were performed. In 2005, 1.6 million abortions were registered in Russia; 20% of these involved girls under the age of 18. Official statistics put the number of abortions at 450,000 in 2020.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: Abortion statistics were considered state secrets in the Soviet Union until the end of the 1980s. During this period, the USSR had one of the highest abortion rates in the world. The abortion rate in the USSR peaked in 1965, when 5.5 million abortions were performed, the highest number in Russia's history. Nevertheless, the legalization of abortion did not eliminate criminal abortions.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: Since the 1990s, abortion in Russia has been in steep decline. Abortion halved in the period between 1990 and 2000, going from 4 to 2 million abortions approximately. Abortions per 1000 women aged 15–49 went from 114 to 55 between 1990 and 2000. In 2010, this was reinforced when total live births surpassed the total number of abortions in Russia for the first time in the 21st century. In 2013 1 million abortions were performed, 28 abortions per 1000 women aged 15–49. In 2021 the number had reached approx. 400k, decreasing by a factor of 10 since 1990, with the rate per 1000 women aged 15–49 dropping to 12.


title: Abortion in Russia

text: In 2006 to 2011, the proportion of women were split about why they were getting an abortion; 11% were getting because of health related reasons, 10% wanted to post-pone having another child and increase the interval between births, 24% did not wanted another child, 33% did not have the money or another socio-economic issue to be able to have another child, 17% did not want another child because of their partners objection to it.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: The Dillinger Gang was a group of American Depression-era bank robbers led by John Dillinger. The gang gained notoriety for a successful string of bank robberies, using modern tools and tactics, in the Midwestern United States from September 1933 to July 1934. During this crime spree, the gang killed 10 and wounded 7. They managed to pull off three jail breaks which wounded two guards and killed a sheriff.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: The increased use of new law enforcement techniques by the newly strengthened Bureau of Investigation (FBI predecessor) led to the dismantling of the gang. Many of its members were killed or imprisoned. Most notably, the BOI killed Dillinger in 1934 when he exited a movie theater.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: The gang employed military-inspired tactics taught to them in prison by men such as Herman Lamm. Tactics included the use of roles during the robbery: Lookout, getaway driver, lobby man, and vault man. Gang members had modern weapons like the Thompson submachine gun and also had bulletproof vests.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: Lamm is credited with creating the first detailed getaway maps, known as "gits", to improve the chances for escape after the robbery. Powerful vehicles, like Ford coupes with a V8 engine, at the scene of the crime were known as "work cars" but were discarded after the crime to foil eye-witness reports given to police. Gangsters made use of caches of gasoline for their getaway cars as well as medical kits to treat injuries.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: To obtain more supplies, the gang attacked the state police arsenals in Auburn, Indiana and Peru, Indiana, stealing machine guns, rifles, revolvers, ammunition, and bulletproof vests. On October 23, 1933, the gang robbed the Central National Bank & Trust Company in Greencastle, Indiana, making off with $74,802. They then headed to Chicago to hide out.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: The gang traveled to Racine, Wisconsin and robbed the American Bank and Trust Company, making off with $28,000. On December 14, 1933, CPD Detective William Shanley was killed. The police had been put on high alert and suspected the Dillinger gang of involvement in the robbery of the Unity Trust And Savings Bank of $8,700 the day before. The robbery was eventually determined to have been the work of another outfit. Shanley was following up on a tip that one of the gang's cars was being serviced at a local garage. John "Red" Hamilton showed up at the garage that afternoon. When Shanley approached him, Hamilton pulled a pistol and shot him twice, killing Shanley, then escaped. Shanley's murder led to the Chicago Police Department's establishment of a forty-man "Dillinger Squad."


title: Dillinger Gang

text: Dillinger and Evelyn Frechette were at a house on Daytona Beach, Florida on December 19. A day or two later they were joined by members of his gang; these were Pierpont, Makley, Russell Clark and Opal Long. Edwin Utter was the caretaker who occupied the garage apartment at the same address, and he told how the couples didn't bother anyone (they "kept to themselves") and had no outside contacts, as far as he knew, and he didn't see anyone visit them. To Utter the group had the appearance of gangsters. Someone in the group at some time mentioned to him they were coming from Chicago. Utter said the group received a considerable amount of mail. After the gang had gone, several letters came addressed to Frank Kirtley (an alias of Dillinger), J.C. Davies (alias of Makley), and J.C. Evans (an alias of Pierpont), but as the gang had not left a forwarding addresses, they were returned to the postman.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: Utter stated there was considerable drinking going on, especially at night. He said the gang stayed at the cottage until about January 12, leaving at night. This January date would have posed yet another problem for Dillinger's defense team had he gone to trial for Officer O'Malley's killing.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: While Makley, Clark, and Pierpont extended their vacation by driving west to Tucson, Arizona, Dillinger left Florida on January 12 and met up with Hamilton in Chicago at noon on January 15, a meeting that had been arranged between the two men while Dillinger was in Daytona Beach. Later that afternoon they robbed the First National Bank in East Chicago. East Chicago marked the first time serious violence occurred at a Dillinger robbery, a trend that would continue through South Bend, the last job. Killed by Dillinger was East Chicago patrolman William Patrick O'Malley, the outlaw's first and only murder victim. At approximately 2:50 p.m., 10 minutes before closing time, Dillinger, Hamilton, and an unidentified driver pulled up in front of the bank on Chicago Avenue on the wrong side of the street, facing east in the westbound lane, double parked, and exited the vehicle, leaving the driver to wait in the idling car.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: Hamilton waited in the bank's vestibule while Dillinger entered the main room of the bank. Once inside, Dillinger leisurely opened up a leather case containing a Thompson, pulled it out, and yelled to the 20 to 30 people in the bank, "This is a stickup. Put up your hands and get back against the wall." The bank's vice president, Walter Spencer, while hiding, kicked a button which touched off the burglar alarm. Dillinger then went to the door of the vestibule and told Hamilton to come in. Hamilton produced a small leather bag and began scooping up the cash cage by cage. Dillinger told him, "Take your time. We're in no hurry."


title: Dillinger Gang

text: Meanwhile, the first police contingent arrived on the scene after receiving the alarm at police headquarters. Four officers arrived: Patrick O'Malley, Hobart Wilgus, Pete Whalen, and Julius Schrenko. After a quick look through the windows of the bank, the officers could see a holdup was in progress and that one of the men was carrying a submachine gun. Shrenko ran to a nearby drugstore and called for more backup. While Schrenko was calling headquarters, Wilgus entered the bank by himself, but was soon covered by Dillinger. The outlaw "relieved" him of his pistol, emptied the cartridges, then tossed it back to the officer. Referring to his Thompson, Dillinger told Wilgus, "You oughtn't be afraid of this thing. I ain't even sure it'll shoot."


title: Dillinger Gang

text: Turning his attention to Hamilton, Dillinger said, "Don't let those coppers outside worry you. Take your time and be sure to get all the dough. We'll take care of them birds on the outside when we get there." Dillinger then discovered the hiding VP, Spencer, and ordered him up against the wall with everyone else.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: Schrenko's call for backup emptied the station of all but its phone operator. Four more officers arrived: Captains Tim O'Neil and Ed Knight, and Officers Nick Ranich and Lloyd Mulvihill (Mulvihill would be murdered by Van Meter on May 24). These four officers joined the other three in positions on either side of the Chicago Avenue entrance to the bank. Apparently, not one of them noticed the getaway car double parked on the wrong side of the street right outside the bank door, with its driver sitting unconcerned in the seat with the motor running.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: Dillinger then ordered Spencer and Wilgus to lead the way out of the bank, acting as shields. The four walked down the sidewalk toward the car. O'Malley, standing about 20 feet from the front door, saw an opening and fired four times at Dillinger, the bullets bouncing off the outlaw's bullet-proof vest. Dillinger pushed Spencer away with the barrel of his Thompson and yelled, "Get over. I'll get that son of a bitch." O'Malley fell dead, with eight holes in a line across his chest. As Hamilton made his way into the street, he took a bullet to the right hand, causing him to drop an emptied pistol. Dillinger kept firing until he climbed into the rear seat of the car. Two game wardens who had driven up to the scene emptied their guns into the car as it started to pull away. The car actually started to pull away before Hamilton had closed the left rear door, and the door was partly torn off as it caught on the rear of another vehicle. The Ohio plates used at the gang's earlier robbery of a Greencastle bank in October were used on the East Chicago getaway car. Police believed the car "may have been a Plymouth," but was actually a 1934 Ford Two-door Sedan. The abandoned car was found the following day at Byron Street and California Avenue, Chicago.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: Every officer, as well as numerous witnesses inside the bank, identified Dillinger as being one of the robbers – and the gang member who shot Officer O'Malley. Prints were taken of the piece Hamilton left behind, which identified him. Dillinger was officially charged with Officer O'Malley's murder, although the identity of the actual killer is debatable, and it is still questioned by some whether Dillinger participated in the robbery at all.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: As police began closing in again, the men left Chicago to hide out first in Florida; later at the Gardner Hotel in El Paso, Texas, where a highly visible police presence dissuaded Dillinger from trying to cross the border at the Santa Fe Bridge in downtown El Paso to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. They instead crossed the border further South in Texas, eventually making their way to Tucson, Arizona.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: On January 21, 1934, a fire broke out at the Hotel Congress in Tucson where members of the Dillinger gang were staying. Forced to leave their luggage behind, they were rescued through a window and down a fire truck ladder. Makley and Clark tipped several firemen $12 (each, according to a bureau report) to climb back up and retrieve the luggage, affording the firefighters a good look at several members of Dillinger's gang. One of them, William Benedict, later recognized Makley, Pierpont, and Ed Shouse while thumbing through a copy of "True Detective" and informed the police, who traced Makley's luggage to 927 North Second Avenue. Officers from the Tucson Police Department went to the address on the afternoon of January 25, and there arrested Clark after a struggle. They found him in possession of $1,264.70 in cash.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: Makley was then followed to the Grabbe Electric & Radio Store on Congress Street, where he was looking at a radio capable of picking up police calls, and was apprehended there. He had $794.09 of cash in his possession.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: To capture Pierpont, the police staged a routine traffic stop and lured him to the police station, where they took him by surprise and arrested him. There was $99.81 recovered in Pierpont's personal effects and $3,116.20 on Mary Kinder.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: Dillinger was the last one taken, caught when he returned to the bungalow where Clark was captured. He had $7,175.44 in his possession, including notes from his robbery of the First National Bank in East Chicago, A000919 through A001107. These amounts, along with a leather money bag found, totaled over $25,000 in cash, as well as a cache of machine guns and several automatic weapons. The men were extradited to the Midwest after a debate between prosecutors as to where the gang would be prosecuted first. The governor compromised, and ordered that Dillinger would be extradited to the Lake County Jail in Crown Point for Officer O'Malley's murder in the East Chicago bank robbery, while Pierpont, Makley and Clark were sent to Ohio to stand trial for Sheriff Sarber's murder. Shouse's testimony at the March 1934 trials of Pierpont, Makley and Clark led to all three men being convicted. Pierpont and Makley received the death penalty, while Clark received a life sentence. On September 22, Makley would be shot dead by guards when he and Pierpont attempted to escape with fake pistols that were carved from bars of soap and painted black with shoe polish. Pierpont was wounded, and executed on October 17. Clark would ultimately be released in 1968, dying of cancer a few months later.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: Dillinger was flown back from Douglas Airport, Tucson, to Midway Airport, Chicago over the course of two days. With Lake County Chief Deputy Carroll Holley (Sheriff Lillian Holley's nephew), and East Chicago Chief of Police Nick Makar escorting the outlaw, the plane departed Tucson at 11:14 p.m. on Monday, January 29. After stops in Douglas, AZ (plane change), El Paso, Abilene, Dallas (another plane change), Fort Worth, Little Rock and Memphis (another plane change, a Ford Tri-Motor), there was yet another stop in St. Louis, where Chicago Times reporter/photographer Sol Davis boarded the aircraft and was obliged by Dillinger to take a few photos and ask some questions. After a while, growing weary of the questions and being photographed, the outlaw told Davis, "Go away and let me sleep." Dillinger's brutal flight schedule ended at about six p.m. January 30 when the plane finally touched down at Midway. Waiting for him on the ground were 32 heavily armed Chicago policemen. A 13-car caravan consisting of 29 troopers from Indiana was ready to escort Dillinger to Crown Point, 30 miles away, to be tried for the O'Malley killing.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: Dillinger was for a time imprisoned at Crown Point jail, although he later escaped. Three days after Dillinger's escape, at about 9:45 a.m. on March 6, a vehicle (green 1934 Packard Super 8, 1934 Kansas license 13-786) filled with six members of the gang parked near the curb at the Security National Bank and Trust Company in Sioux Falls. One of the bank's bookkeepers, Mary Lucas, looked out the window and saw the Packard roll up the street. "If I ever saw a holdup car, that's one," she said to a bank stenographer next to her. The stenographer laughed, saying that she'd been hearing too much lately about bank robberies. Before they could return to their desks, Dillinger, Nelson, Green, and Van Meter had entered the bank and subdued both tellers and customers. Hamilton, the driver, stayed with the car, while Tommy Carroll patrolled outside the bank with a Thompson. Inside, Nelson spotted motorcycle patrolman Hale Keith who was approaching the bank on foot. He fired his Thompson at Keith through a plate glass window while standing on an assistant cashier's counter. Multiple bullets hit Keith in the abdomen, in the right leg, about six inches below the hip, the right wrist, and the right arm, just below the elbow, but he would survive. Nelson was reported to have laughed when Keith fell, then saying, "I got one! I got one!"


title: Dillinger Gang

text: H.M. Shoebotham, a reporter for the Daily Argus-Leader, was in the office of Sheriff Mel Sells at the time of the Sheriff receiving a call informing him of the robbery. Mel grabbed a machine gun and a riot gun, and gave the riot gun to Shoebotham. They both got into a car and drove to the robbery scene, three blocks away.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: On the way to the bank, Sells figured his strategy. Across from the bank stood the Lincoln Hotel. He planned to reach a second floor window and fire at the robbers. When he reached the bank, scores of spectators were watching the activities. In the center of the street in front of the bank Carroll was standing with a machine gun. Occasionally, he would fire a few volleys, supposedly to keep the assembled people impressed. There exists a photograph taken of Tommy Carroll from across the street during the robbery, an "action" photo that is most likely unique to prewar bank robberies. Sheriff Sells backed his coupe into the alley behind the Lincoln Hotel and took his weapon to the second floor, leaving the Thompson with Shoebotham.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: Surrounding themselves with bystanders, the gang backed out of the bank to the Packard. No officers dared to shoot. The outlaws picked out five people to go with as hostages and commanded them to stand on the running boards. The hostages were Leo Olson, a bank teller; Mildred Bostwick, Alice Biegen, and Emma Knabach, stenographers; and Mary Lucas.


title: Dillinger Gang

text: As the Packard sped away from the bank, Patrolman Harley Chrisman managed to shoot out the radiator. Shortly after they left town, they swerved to avoid collisions with two horse-drawn milk wagons. Moments later, Dillinger released Olson, then made the women get into the car, which was already packed with the rest of the gang, their guns, extra gasoline cans, and the robbery loot.