Sinking of SS Princess Alice

SS "Princess Alice, formerly PS "Bute, was a passenger paddle steamer that sank on 3 September 1878 after a collision with the collier "Bywell Castle" on the River Thames. Between 600 and 700 people died, all from "Princess Alice", the greatest loss of life of any British inland waterway shipping accident. No passenger list or headcount was made, so the exact figure of those who died has never been known.
Built in Greenock, Scotland, in 1865, "Princess Alice" was employed for two years in Scotland before being purchased by the Waterman's Steam Packet Co to carry passengers on the Thames. By 1878 she was owned by the London Steamboat Co and was captained by William R. H. Grinstead; the ship carried passengers on a stopping service from Swan Pier, near London Bridge, downstream to Sheerness, Kent, and back. On her homeward journey, at an hour after sunset on 3 September 1878, she passed Tripcock Point and entered Gallions Reach. She took the wrong sailing line and was hit by "Bywell Castle"; the point of the collision was the area of the Thames where of London's raw sewage had just been released. "Princess Alice" broke into three parts and sank quickly; her passengers drowned in the heavily polluted waters.
Grinstead died in the incident, so the subsequent investigations never established which course he thought he was supposed to take. The jury in the coroner's inquest considered both vessels at fault, but more blame was put on the collier; the inquiry run by the Board of Trade found that the "Princess Alice" had not followed the correct path and her captain was culpable. In the aftermath of the sinking, changes were made to the release and treatment of sewage, and it was transported to, and released into, the sea. The Marine Police Force—the branch of the Metropolitan Police that had responsibility for policing the Thames—were provided with steam launches, after the rowing boats used up to that point had proved insufficient. Five years after the collision "Bywell Castle" sank in the Bay of Biscay with the loss of all 40 crew.
Background.
SS "Princess Alice".
Caird & Company of Greenock, Scotland, launched the passenger paddle steamer "Bute" on 29 March 1865. She entered service on 1 July 1865. The ship was long and at the beam, and measured 432 gross registered tons. "Bute" had been built for the Wemyss Bay Railway Company, for whom she carried passengers between Wemyss Bay and Rothesay. In 1867 she was sold to the Waterman's Steam Packet Co. to travel on the River Thames; the company renamed the vessel "Princess Alice", after Queen Victoria's third child. In 1870 she was sold to the Woolwich Steam Packet Company and was operated as an excursion steamer; the company later changed its name to the London Steamboat Company. In 1873 the ship carried Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, the Shah of Persia, up the Thames to Greenwich, and became known to many locals as "The Shah's boat".
When "Princess Alice" was acquired by the Woolwich Steam Packet Company, the company made several alterations to the ship, including the installation of new boilers and making the five bulkheads watertight. The vessel had been inspected and was passed as safe by the Board of Trade. In 1878 another survey by the Board of Trade allowed the ship to carry a maximum of 936 passengers between London and Gravesend in calm water.
SS "Bywell Castle".
The collier SS "Bywell Castle" was built in Newcastle in 1870 and was owned by Messrs Hall of Newcastle. Her gross registered tonnage was 1376, she was long and at the beam; her depth of hold was . The master was Captain Thomas Harrison.
3 September 1878.
On 3 September 1878 "Princess Alice" was making what was billed as a "Moonlight Trip" from Swan Pier, near London Bridge, downstream to Sheerness, Kent, and back. During the journey she called at Blackwall, North Woolwich and Rosherville Gardens; many of the Londoners on board were travelling to Rosherville to visit the pleasure gardens that had been built 40 years before. As the London Steamboat Co. owned several ships, passengers could use their tickets interchangeably on the day, stopping off to travel on or back on different vessels if they wanted; for tickets from Swan Pier to Rosherville, the cost was two shillings.
"Princess Alice" left Rosherville at about 6:30 pm on her return to Swan Pier; she was carrying close to her full capacity of passengers, although no lists were kept, and the exact number of people on board is unknown. The master of "Princess Alice", 47-year-old Captain William Grinstead, allowed his helmsman to stay at Gravesend, and replaced him with a passenger, a seaman named John Ayers. Ayers had little experience of the Thames, or of helming a craft such as "Princess Alice". Between 7:20 pm and 7:40 pm, "Princess Alice" had passed Tripcock Point, entered Gallions Reach and come within sight of the North Woolwich Pier—where many passengers were to disembark—when "Bywell Castle" was sighted. "Bywell Castle" usually carried coal to Africa, but had just been repainted at a dry dock. She was due to sail up to Newcastle to pick up coal bound for Alexandria, Egypt. Harrison was unfamiliar with the conditions, so employed Christopher Dix, an experienced Thames river pilot, though he was not obliged to do so. As "Bywell Castle" had a raised forecastle, Dix did not have a clear view in front of him, so a seaman was placed on lookout.
On leaving Millwall, "Bywell Castle" proceeded down river at five knots; she kept roughly to the middle of the river, except where other craft were in her way. Approaching Gallions Reach, Dix saw "Princess Alice"s red port light approaching on a course to pass starboard of them. Grinstead, travelling up the river against the tide, followed the normal watermen's practice of seeking the slack water on the south side of the river. He altered the ship's course, bringing her into the path of "Bywell Castle". Seeing the imminent collision, Grinstead shouted to the larger vessel "Where are you coming to! Good God! Where are you coming to!" Although Dix tried to manoeuvre his vessel out of a collision course, and ordered the engines to be put into "reverse full speed", it was too late. "Princess Alice" was struck on the starboard side just in front of the paddle box at an angle of 13 degrees; she split in two and sank within four minutes—her boilers separating from the structure as it sank.
The crew of "Bywell Castle" dropped ropes from their deck for the passengers of "Princess Alice" to climb; they also threw anything that would float into the water for people to hold. Other crew from "Bywell Castle" launched their lifeboat and rescued 14 people, and crews from boats moored nearby did the same. Residents from both banks of the Thames, particularly the boatmen of local factories, launched vessels to rescue who they could. Many of the passengers from "Princess Alice" were unable to swim; the long heavy dresses worn by women also hindered their efforts to stay afloat. "Princess Alice"s sister ship, "Duke of Teck", was steaming ten minutes behind her; she arrived too late to rescue anyone left in the water. Only two people who had been below decks or in the saloon survived the collision; a diver who later examined the saloon reported that the passengers were jammed together in the doorways, mostly still upright.
About 130 people were rescued from the collision, but several died later from ingesting the water. "Princess Alice" sank at the point where London's sewage pumping stations were sited. The twice-daily release of of raw sewage from the sewer outfalls Abbey Mills, at Barking, and the Crossness Pumping Station had occurred one hour before the collision. In a letter to "The Times" shortly after the collision, a chemist described the outflow as:
Two continuous columns of decomposed fermenting sewage, hissing like soda-water with baneful gases, so black that the water is stained for miles and discharging a corrupt charnel-house odour, that will be remembered by all ... as being particularly depressing and sickening.
The water was also polluted by the untreated output from Beckton Gas Works, and several local chemical factories. Adding to the foulness of the water, a fire in Thames Street earlier that day had resulted in oil and petroleum entering the river.
"Bywell Castle" moored at Deptford to await the action of the authorities and the inquest. That night Harrison and Belding, the first mate, wrote the ship's log to describe the event:
At 6:30 left the West Dock, Millwall, in charge of Mr Dicks, pilot; proceeding slowly, the master and pilot being on the upper bridge ... Light air and weather little hazy. At 7:45 pm proceeding at half speed down Gallions Reach. Being about centre of the Reach, observed an excursion steamer coming up Barking Reach, showing her red and masthead lights, when we ported our helm to keep over towards Tripcock Point. As the vessel neared, observed that the other steamer had ported, and immediately afterwards saw that she had starboarded and was trying to cross our bows, showing her green light close under the port bow. Seeing collision inevitable, stopped our engines and reversed full speed, when the two vessels collided, the bow of "Bywell Castle" cutting into the other steamer, which was crowded with passengers, with a dreadful crash. Took immediate means for saving life by hauling up over the bows several men of the passengers, throwing rope's-ends over all round the ship, throwing over four lifebuoys, a hold ladder and several planks, and getting out three boats, keeping the whistle blowing loudly all the time for assistance, which was rendered by several boats from shore and a boat from a passing steamer. The excursion steamer, which turned out to be "Princess Alice", turning over and sinking under the bows. Succeeded in rescuing a great many passengers and anchored for the night. About 8:30 pm the steamer "Duke of Teck" came alongside and took off such passengers as had not been taken on shore in the boats.
Aftermath.
Recovery of the dead.
News of the sinking was telegraphed back to the centre of London, and soon filtered through to those waiting at Swan Pier for the steamer's return. Relatives made their way to the London Steamboat offices near Blackfriars to wait for more news; many took the train from London Bridge to Woolwich. The crowds grew during the night and into the following day, as both relatives and sightseers travelled to Woolwich; additional police were drafted in to help control the crowds, and deal with the remains that were being landed. Reports came in of corpses being washed up as far upstream as Limehouse and down to Erith. When bodies were landed, they were stored locally for identification, rather than centrally, although most ended up at Woolwich Dockyard. Relatives had to travel between several locations on both sides of the Thames to search for missing family members. Local watermen were hired for £2 a day to search for bodies; they were paid a minimum of five shillings for each one they recovered, which sometimes led to fights over the corpses. One of those picked up was that of Grinstead, "Princess Alice"s captain.
Because of the pollution from the sewage and local industrial output, the bodies from the Thames were covered with slime, which was found difficult to clean off; the corpses began to rot at a faster pace than normal, and many of the corpses were unusually bloated. Victims' clothing also began to rot quickly and was discoloured after immersion in the polluted water. Sixteen of those who survived died within two weeks, and several others were ill.
Inquest.
On 4 September Charles Carttar, the coroner for West Kent, opened the inquest for his region. That day he took the jury to view the corpses at Woolwich Town Hall and Woolwich Pier. There were more bodies on the northern bank, but this lay outside his jurisdiction. Charles Lewis, the coroner for South Essex, visited the Board of Trade and the Home Office to try to have the remains in his jurisdiction moved to Woolwich to allow one inquest that could cover all the victims and hear the evidence in only one location, but the law meant that the deceased could not be moved until the inquest had been opened and adjourned. Instead, he opened his inquest to formally identify the bodies under his authority, then adjourned proceedings until after Carttar's case had come to a conclusion. He issued burial orders, and the remains were then transferred to Woolwich.
During low tide, part of "Princess Alice"s rail could be seen above the waterline. Plans to raise the ship began on 5 September with a diver examining the wreckage. He found the vessel had broken into three sections—the fore, aft and boilers. He reported back that there were still several bodies on board. Work began the following day to raise the larger fore section, which was long. This was beached at low tide—2:00 am on 7 September—at Woolwich; while she was being pulled ashore, "Bywell Castle" steamed past, leaving London, but without her captain, who remained. The following day large crowds visited Woolwich again to view the raised section of "Princess Alice". Fights broke out in places for the best vantage point, and people rowed up to the wreck to break off souvenirs. An additional 250 policemen were drafted in to help control the crowds. That evening, after most of the crowd had gone home, the aft section of the ship was raised and beached next to the bow.
Because of the accelerated rate of decomposition of many of the corpses, the burials of many of those still unidentified took place on 9 September at Woolwich cemetery in a mass grave; several thousand people were in attendance. The coffins all carried a police identification number, which was also attached to the clothing and personal items which were retained to aid later identification. The same day over 150 private funerals of victims took place.
The first two weeks of Carttar's inquest were given over to the formal identification of the bodies, and visits to the wreck site to examine the remains of "Princess Alice". From 16 September the proceedings began to examine the causes of the collision. Carttar began by bemoaning the media coverage of the event, which suggested strongly that "Bywell Castle" had been in error and should take the blame. He focussed his proceedings on William Beechey, the first body to have been positively identified; Carttar explained to the jury that whatever verdict they reached on Beechey would apply to the other victims. Numerous Thames boatmen appeared as witnesses, all who had been active in the area at the time; their stories of the path taken by "Princess Alice" differed considerably. Most pleasure craft coming upriver on the Thames would round Tripcock Point and head for the northern bank to take advantage of more favourable currents. Had "Princess Alice" done that, "Bywell Castle" would have gone clearly astern of her. Several witnesses stated that once "Princess Alice" rounded Tripcock Point she had been pushed into the centre of the river by currents; the ship then attempted to turn to port, which would have kept her close to the river's southern bank, but in doing so cut across the bows of "Bywell Castle". Several masters of other ships moored nearby who witnessed the collision agreed with this series of events. "Princess Alice"s chief mate denied that his ship had changed direction.
During the inquest evidence was taken from George Purcell, the stoker on "Bywell Castle", who, on the night of the sinking, had told several people that the captain and crew of the ship were drunk. Under oath he changed his claims, and stated that they were sober, and that he had no recollection of claiming that anyone was drunk. Evidence given by other members of "Bywell Castle"s crew showed it had been Purcell who had been drunk; one crewman said that "Purcell was like the generality of firemen. He was rather the worse for drink, but not so bad that he could not take his watch". Evidence was also taken concerning the state of the Thames at the point the ship sank, and of the construction and stability of "Princess Alice". On 14 November, after twelve hours of discussion, the inquest released its verdict; four members of the nineteen-member jury refused to sign the statement. The verdict was:
That the death of the said William Beachey and others was occasioned by drowning in the waters of the River Thames from a collision that occurred after sunset between a steam vessel called the "Bywell Castle" and a steam vessel called the "Princess Alice" whereby the "Princess Alice" was cut in two and sunk, such collision not being wilful; that the "Bywell Castle" did not take the necessary precaution of easing, stopping and reversing her engines in time and that the "Princess Alice" contributed to the collision by not stopping and going astern; that all collisions in the opinion of the jury might in future be avoided if proper and stringent rules and regulations were laid down for all steam navigation on the River Thames.
Addenda:
Board of Trade inquiry.
Running at the same time as the coroner's inquest was a Board of Trade inquiry. Specific charges were laid against Captain Harrison, two of the crew members of "Bywell Castle", and against Long, the first mate of "Princess Alice"; all had their licences suspended at the start of the hearing. The Board of Trade proceedings began on 14 October 1878 and continued until 6 November. The board found that "Princess Alice" had breached Rule 29, Section (d) of the Board of Trade Regulations and the Regulations of the Thames Conservancy Board, 1872. This stated that if two ships are heading towards each other, they should pass on the port side of each other. As "Princess Alice" had not followed this procedure, the Board found "Princess Alice" to blame and that "Bywell Castle" could not avoid the collision.
The company that owned "Princess Alice" sued the owners of "Bywell Castle" for £20,000 compensation; the owners of "Bywell Castle" counter-sued for £2,000. The case was heard in the Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice in late 1878. After two weeks, the judgment was that both vessels were to blame for the collision.
As no passenger list was kept on "Princess Alice"—or a record of the number of people on board—it was not possible to calculate the number of people who died: figures vary from 600 to 700. "The Times" reported that "the coroner believes that there are from 60 to 80 bodies unrecovered from the river. The total number of lives lost must thus have been from 630 to 650". Michael Foley, in his examination of disasters on the Thames, observes that "there was no proof of the final death toll. However, around 640 bodies were eventually recovered". The sinking was the worst inland disaster on water in the UK.
The Mansion House fund for the victims had been opened by the Lord Mayor of London in the aftermath of the sinking; by the time it closed it had raised £35,000, which was distributed among the victims' families.
Consequences and later events.
During the 1880s London's Metropolitan Board of Works began to purify the sewage at Crossness and Beckton, rather than dumping the untreated waste into the river, and a series of six sludge boats were ordered to ship effluent into the North Sea for dumping. The first boat commissioned in June 1887 was named "Bazalgette"—after Joseph Bazalgette, who had rebuilt London's sewer system. The practice of dumping at sea continued until December 1998.
Until "Princess Alice" sank, the Marine Police Force—the branch of the Metropolitan Police that had responsibility for policing the Thames—relied on rowing boats for their work. The inquest into the sinking of "Princess Alice" found that these were insufficient for the requirements of the role, and that they should be replaced by steam launches. The first two launches entered service in the mid 1880s; eight were working by 1898. The Royal Albert Dock, which opened in 1880, helped to separate heavy goods traffic from smaller boats; this and global adoption of emergency signalling lights on boats both helped avoid future tragedies.
After 23,000 people donated to a sixpenny fund, a memorial Celtic cross was erected in Woolwich Cemetery in May 1880. St Mary Magdalene Woolwich, the local parish church, also later installed a stained glass memorial window. In 2008 a National Lottery grant funded the installation of a memorial plaque at Barking Creek to mark the 130th anniversary of the sinking.
"Princess Alice"s owners, the London Steamboat Co, purchased the wreck of the vessel from the Thames Conservancy for £350; the engines were salvaged and the remainder sent to a ship breaker. The London Steamboat Co were bankrupt within six years, and their successors went into financial difficulties three years after that. According to the historian Jerry White, along with competition from the railways and bus services, the sinking of "Princess Alice" "had some impact ... in blighting the tidal Thames as a pleasure-ground". "Bywell Castle" was reported missing on 29 January 1883 sailing between Alexandria and Hull; it carried a cargo of cottonseed and beans. In February 1883 newspapers carried a final report:
It is believed that the steamer "Bywell Castle", which ran down the saloon boat "Princess Alice", off Woolwich, some years ago, has been lost in the Bay of Biscay, in the gale which proved fatal to the "Kenmure Castle". The "Bywell Castle" carried a crew of 40 men and her cargo consisted of Egyptian produce.


Joe Kenda

Joseph Patrick Kenda (born August 28, 1946) is a retired Colorado Springs Police Department detective lieutenant who was involved in 387 homicide cases over a 23-year career, solving 356, a closure rate of 92%. He is featured on the Investigation Discovery television show "Homicide Hunter", where he recounts stories of cases he has solved.
Early life.
Kenda was born and raised in Herminie, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Pittsburgh. His paternal grandparents immigrated in 1913 from Čezsoča in what is now Slovenia; his grandfather Josef, for whom he was named, was killed in a coal mining accident in 1933. His father, William, served as an intelligence officer in the United States Army during World War II, and later ran a trucking business. His mother, Virginia (née Morrissey), was originally from Colorado Springs. At a young age, Kenda was fascinated with crime, especially murder. He recalls a childhood trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo, where a sign near the primate house declared, "Around this corner is the most dangerous animal on Earth"; turning a corner Kenda found himself staring into a mirror.
He graduated from Greensburg Central Catholic High School in 1964. He attended the University of Pittsburgh, and he married his high school girlfriend Mary Kathleen "Kathy" Mohler in 1967. After graduating with a B.A. in political science, Kenda earned a master's degree in international relations from The Ohio State University in 1970. He abandoned plans for a career with the Foreign Service after a classified briefing with the Central Intelligence Agency left him unimpressed. He worked for a time at his father's trucking business. In 1973, Kenda, his wife and two children moved to Colorado Springs, where he joined the police department.
Law enforcement career.
With the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD), Kenda eventually became a homicide detective. He worked in the CSPD homicide unit for over 19 years and eventually led the homicide department. "I loved the work," he said. "My wife – not so much." He investigated 387 homicide cases, solving 356, a closure rate of 92%. He credited his ability to close cases to being a student of human nature, and being good at telling when people were lying. In 1990, he investigated the case of a woman named Dianne Hood who was murdered at a lupus support group meeting by an attacker who took her purse. According to Kenda, the case "met the standard for a Hollywood plot" and received a great deal of media attention, including a "People" magazine story and several books.
Near the end of his career, Kenda's wife became convinced that he would be murdered on the job. She confronted him about it one night after he came home late from work. His family moved to Falcon, Colorado, in 1993, and Kenda retired three years later. Kenda later explained in his book and in an interview in 2018 that his decision to retire was motivated by an incident in August 1996, involving a 74-year-old man who had sexually assaulted his five-year-old grandson; as there were no open interrogation rooms that day, Kenda had the man brought to his office. When the man justified his abuse by saying the boy "came onto him", Kenda recalled that he "wanted to just kill this guy", and put his hands on him before fellow officers intervened and Kenda ordered the man taken out of his office. He then sat down at his typewriter and typed out his letter of resignation, effective September 1, 1996.
For the next several years, Kenda was unhappy with retirement and went through a withdrawal stage. He then worked as a special needs school bus operator for a decade starting in 1998. Both his resignation from the CSPD and period as a bus driver are shown in The End, the final episode of "Homicide Hunter".
Television career.
By 2008, Denver television series editor Patrick Bryant had worked as a freelancer for several production companies for over ten years, having edited over two hundred episodes of various series on networks including Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, HGTV, Food Channel and TLC. He also edited sizzle reels for development departments of production companies, helping with their efforts to sell new series to TV networks. In 2009 Bryant decided to try his hand at independently creating his own series as a producer. Unscripted reenactment American crime series were extremely popular at the time, a logical choice for Bryant's first effort. Years prior Bryant had lived in Colorado Springs and worked at a local TV station when Kenda was in charge of the Major Crimes Unit. Bryant had interviewed Kenda as part of a TV special about the local drug trade tied to a rising homicide rate. Kenda left a lasting impression on Bryant as a great interview subject. In 2009 Bryant contacted Kenda to discuss the possibility of developing a TV series built around his career as a homicide detective. Kenda was slow to respond, but eventually struck an agreement to pursue the development of the series with Bryant. A 5-minute sizzle reel created by Bryant and Kenda was shown to FOX21 Studios in Los Angeles, who shopped the series to multiple TV networks. It was acquired by Investigation Discovery in 2010, and went into production in February 2011.
Kenda surprised television producers when they asked him to read a script. He refused, stating, "I'm not an actor. I'm a policeman. If you want me to tell you about this case, I will. If you want me to read that, get somebody else." He spoke off the cuff for 15 minutes without a script, and the producers were enthralled. He worked without a script for the rest of the series. The series was titled "Homicide Hunter: Lt Joe Kenda", first aired in September 2011 on the Investigation Discovery network, becoming a top viewer ratings performer. Kenda was noted for his unerringly smooth, matter-of-fact deadpan delivery of the often grisly details of the crimes he's investigated, and repeatedly stating "Well, my my my...", which quickly became his catchphrase.
Kenda gave producers 30 of his past cases to read, and they picked the ten they believed were most suited for television audiences. The first season was shot in Hollywood, but all re-enactments since were filmed in Knoxville, Tennessee and the surrounding area. Casting calls for actors were periodically held in the Knoxville area. The younger Kenda was portrayed by actor Carl Marino, a former deputy sheriff in Monroe County, New York. Kenda admitted he looked over the case files before shooting, but said his memory is "absolutely perfect". Each episode took four hours to shoot. He has been humbled by the success of the show, which ran for nine seasons and has aired throughout the world. Kenda announced in May 2019 that the ninth season of "Homicide Hunter" would be the last, believing that the number of cases remaining are insufficient to sustain another season, as they were either "too simple or simply too disgusting to be on television", and preferring to end the series "at the top of my game". The series finale, appropriately titled "The End", aired on January 29, 2020.
However, he would still appear in other Investigation Discovery programs. In early 2020, Kenda told an interviewer that he was filming a new series but was not ready to provide specifics. In December 2020, the new series was announced as "American Detective with Lt. Joe Kenda", with each episode featuring Kenda discussing the cases of different homicide detectives in the United States. It premiered on January 4, 2021, with the launch of the new Discovery+ streaming service.
Personal life.
Kenda married his high school girlfriend, Mary Kathleen "Kathy" Mohler, on December 26, 1967. They have two children - Dan, a retired United States Navy commander, and Kris, a retired United States Air Force major. They all appeared on the "Homicide Hunter" episode "Married to the Job", which aired on February 6, 2019, and in the series finale "The End" on January 29, 2020.
In 2017, he was residing in the Tidewater region of Virginia; his role in the series is filmed in Colorado Springs.


Amnesty International India

Amnesty International India was a country unit of the Amnesty International network, and was part of a global movement promoting and defending human rights and dignity. In September 2020, Amnesty halted its operations in the country after all bank accounts of the organization were frozen. The organization called this as 'witch hunting' while the government of India said the organisation's FCRA had been declined one after other for 20 years by different governments in power as per the law
History.
An Amnesty International office was first set up in India in Bihar in 1966. Since then, the organization has worked on cases related torture, prisoners of conscience, abusive laws, women's rights, corporate accountability and other human rights violations.
In 2020, Amnesty says it was forced to halt its Indian operations due to "reprisals" from the government. Amnesty claimed its bank accounts were frozen and it was forced to lay off staff, and suspend all its campaign and research work. The Ministry of Home Affairs claims that Amnesty violated the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) as "a significant amount of foreign money was also remitted to Amnesty (India) without MHA’s approval under FCRA" and "owing to these illegal practices of Amnesty, the previous government had also rejected the repeated applications of Amnesty to receive funds from overseas. This had led Amnesty to suspend its India operations once during that period as well."
Campaigns.
Amnesty International India collaborates with Railway Protection Force, Western Railways in Mumbai to ensure female passengers’ right to safety. It also ran a campaign to reduce the number of under-trials in jails in India. Some of Amnesty India's campaigns include seeking justice for the victims in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as well as opposing the use of the death penalty in India.
Controversies.
Following an event held in Bengaluru on 13 August 2016 on human rights violations, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad filed a first information report (FIR) against Amnesty India for being anti-national. Amnesty India denied that the organization or its staff had been involved in any anti-national activities.
On 15 November 2019 the Central Bureau of Investigation raided the offices of Amnesty International India in Bengaluru and New Delhi during an investigation into an alleged breach of foreign funding laws. In a statement issued by CBI, they said "It was alleged that the provision of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010 and Indian Penal Code were contravened"..
On 16th February 2021, the Enforcement Directorate attached properties worth ₹17.66 crore of the organisation in connection with an alleged violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).


Max Green (lawyer)

Max Green (1952 – 25 March 1998) was an Australian lawyer who embezzled millions of dollars and was later murdered in Cambodia.
Early life.
He was born in London, England and moved to Australia when he was 5 and grew up in Sydney. He graduated from law school, moved to Melbourne and married Louise Giselle Baron in 1976.
He joined the board of Emma Page, a fashion jewellery concern, in 1981. He spent the years from 1985 to 1989 in Austin, Texas, working full-time for Emma Page.
In 1991, Green became a partner of Gary Vernon Shugg, in a law firm in Melbourne. Green left this firm in late 1993. In 1995, a partner of the firm (Shugg) was suspended from practice for three years. It was alleged, but never proved, that the firm sold weapons to Cambodia. The firm was placed into receivership in June 1994 at the request of Shugg.
Green became a partner in Melbourne law firm Aroni Colman shortly after his departure from Shugg & Green.
Tax minimisation.
Australian tax law allows equipment purchases that are below a certain purchase price to be entirely depreciated in the first year. Green founded an investment scheme during the 1990s designed to help investors minimise tax legally. The scheme would buy equipment and lease it to CityLink for the construction of highways in Melbourne.
The scheme involved borrowing four times as much money as the initial capital from a Hong Kong bank. A$42 million was invested in the scheme, mainly by private individuals. Most of the investors were Jewish businessmen from Melbourne. Green promised a 15% per annum return on investment, as well as allowing investors to legally write off some of the investment as a tax deduction.
Green created fraudulent documents that appeared to show equipment purchases, but the fund never actually purchased any equipment and CityLink did not lease any equipment from it. A considerable quantity of money disappeared from the trust accounts used to hold the investors' capital. The movement of the money was subsequently traced through an elaborate network of bank accounts.
However, Green ultimately laundered all the money that he stole and police were never able to recover any of it. It is thought that he purchased some US $20 million of gems from various gem traders in Cambodia, and later sold the gems in Israel.
The Victorian Lawyers RPA Ltd, the regulatory arm of the Victorian Law Institute, began an investigation of "trust account irregularities" in accounts associated with Green and Aroni Colman.
Quotes.
His friend and associate Ted Doyle, a gem trader, said "A very fine piece of monofilament was attaching Max Green to the planet. You are talking about a very sick soul who played with the wrong people… In the course of trade, Max got killed before he could pay his last bill. It makes it rather difficult for people to pay their bills. Not breathing affects your ability to write checks."


Attila

Attila (; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in March 453. He was also the leader of a tribal empire consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, Alans and Bulgars, among others, in Central and Eastern Europe.
During his reign, he was one of the most feared enemies of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. He crossed the Danube twice and plundered the Balkans, but was unable to take Constantinople. His unsuccessful campaign in Persia was followed in 441 by an invasion of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, the success of which emboldened Attila to invade the West. He also attempted to conquer Roman Gaul (modern France), crossing the Rhine in 451 and marching as far as Aurelianum (Orléans) before being stopped in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains.
He subsequently invaded Italy, devastating the northern provinces, but was unable to take Rome. He planned for further campaigns against the Romans, but died in 453. After Attila's death, his close adviser, Ardaric of the Gepids, led a Germanic revolt against Hunnic rule, after which the Hunnic Empire quickly collapsed. He would live on as a character in Germanic heroic legend.
Appearance and character.
There is no surviving first-hand account of Attila's appearance, but there is a possible second-hand source provided by Jordanes, who cites a description given by Priscus.
Some scholars have suggested that this description is typically East Asian, because it has all the combined features that fit the physical type of people from Eastern Asia, and Attila's ancestors may have come from there. Other historians also believed that the same descriptions were also evident on some Scythian people.
Etymology.
Many scholars have argued that the name Attila derives from East Germanic origin; "Attila" is formed from the Gothic or Gepidic noun "atta", "father", by means of the diminutive suffix "-ila", meaning "little father", compare Wulfila from "wulfs" "wolf" and "-ila", i.e. "little wolf". The Gothic etymology was first proposed by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the early 19th century. Maenchen-Helfen notes that this derivation of the name "offers neither phonetic nor semantic difficulties", and Gerhard Doerfer notes that the name is simply correct Gothic. Alexander Savelyev and Choongwon Jeong (2020) similarly state that Attila's name "must have been Gothic in origin." The name has sometimes been interpreted as a Germanization of a name of Hunnic origin.
Other scholars have argued for a Turkic origin of the name. Omeljan Pritsak considered "Ἀττίλα" (Attíla) a composite title-name which derived from Turkic *"es" (great, old), and *"til" (sea, ocean), and the suffix /a/. The stressed back syllabic "til" assimilated the front member "es", so it became *"as". It is a nominative, in form of "attíl-" (< *"etsíl" < *"es tíl") with the meaning "the oceanic, universal ruler". J. J. Mikkola connected it with Turkic "āt" (name, fame). As another Turkic possibility, H. Althof (1902) considered it was related to Turkish "atli" (horseman, cavalier), or Turkish "at" (horse) and "dil" (tongue). Maenchen-Helfen argues that Pritsak's derivation is "ingenious but for many reasons unacceptable", while dismissing Mikkola's as "too farfetched to be taken seriously". M. Snædal similarly notes that none of these proposals has achieved wide acceptance. Criticizing the proposals of finding Turkic or other etymologies for Attila, Doerfer notes that King George VI of the United Kingdom had a name of Greek origin, and Süleyman the Magnificent had a name of Arabic origin, yet that does not make them Greeks or Arabs: it is therefore plausible that Attila would have a name not of Hunnic origin. Historian Hyun Jin Kim, however, has argued that the Turkic etymology is "more probable".
M. Snædal, in a paper that rejects the Germanic derivation but notes the problems with the existing proposed Turkic etymologies, argues that Attila's name could have originated from Turkic-Mongolian "at, adyy/agta" (gelding, warhorse) and Turkish "atli" (horseman, cavalier), meaning "possessor of geldings, provider of warhorses".
Historiography and source.
The historiography of Attila is faced with a major challenge, in that the only complete sources are written in Greek and Latin by the enemies of the Huns. Attila's contemporaries left many testimonials of his life, but only fragments of these remain. Priscus was a Byzantine diplomat and historian who wrote in Greek, and he was both a witness to and an actor in the story of Attila, as a member of the embassy of Theodosius II at the Hunnic court in 449. He was obviously biased by his political position, but his writing is a major source for information on the life of Attila, and he is the only person known to have recorded a physical description of him. He wrote a history of the late Roman Empire in eight books covering the period from 430 to 476.
Only fragments of Priscus' work remain. It was cited extensively by 6th-century historians Procopius and Jordanes, especially in Jordanes' "The Origin and Deeds of the Goths", which contains numerous references to Priscus's history, and it is also an important source of information about the Hunnic empire and its neighbors. He describes the legacy of Attila and the Hunnic people for a century after Attila's death. Marcellinus Comes, a chancellor of Justinian during the same era, also describes the relations between the Huns and the Eastern Roman Empire.
Numerous ecclesiastical writings contain useful but scattered information, sometimes difficult to authenticate or distorted by years of hand-copying between the 6th and 17th centuries. The Hungarian writers of the 12th century wished to portray the Huns in a positive light as their glorious ancestors, and so repressed certain historical elements and added their own legends.
The literature and knowledge of the Huns themselves was transmitted orally, by means of epics and chanted poems that were handed down from generation to generation. Indirectly, fragments of this oral history have reached us via the literature of the Scandinavians and Germans, neighbors of the Huns who wrote between the 9th and 13th centuries. Attila is a major character in many Medieval epics, such as the Nibelungenlied, as well as various Eddas and sagas.
Archaeological investigation has uncovered some details about the lifestyle, art, and warfare of the Huns. There are a few traces of battles and sieges, but the tomb of Attila and the location of his capital have not yet been found.
Early life and background.
The Huns were a group of Eurasian nomads, appearing from east of the Volga, who migrated further into Western Europe c. 370 and built up an enormous empire there. Their main military techniques were mounted archery and javelin throwing. They were in the process of developing settlements before their arrival in Western Europe, yet the Huns were a society of pastoral warriors whose primary form of nourishment was meat and milk, products of their herds.
The origin and language of the Huns has been the subject of debate for centuries. According to some theories, their leaders at least may have spoken a Turkic language, perhaps closest to the modern Chuvash language. One scholar suggests a relationship to Yeniseian. According to the "Encyclopedia of European Peoples", "the Huns, especially those who migrated to the west, may have been a combination of central Asian Turkic, Mongolic, and Ugric stocks".
Attila's father Mundzuk was the brother of kings Octar and Ruga, who reigned jointly over the Hunnic empire in the early fifth century. This form of diarchy was recurrent with the Huns, but historians are unsure whether it was institutionalized, merely customary, or an occasional occurrence. His family was from a noble lineage, but it is uncertain whether they constituted a royal dynasty. Attila's birthdate is debated; journalist Éric Deschodt and writer Herman Schreiber have proposed a date of 395. However, historian Iaroslav Lebedynsky and archaeologist Katalin Escher prefer an estimate between the 390s and the first decade of the fifth century. Several historians have proposed 406 as the date.
Attila grew up in a rapidly changing world. His people were nomads who had only recently arrived in Europe. They crossed the Volga river during the 370s and annexed the territory of the Alans, then attacked the Gothic kingdom between the Carpathian mountains and the Danube. They were a very mobile people, whose mounted archers had acquired a reputation for invincibility, and the Germanic tribes seemed unable to withstand them. Vast populations fleeing the Huns moved from Germania into the Roman Empire in the west and south, and along the banks of the Rhine and Danube. In 376, the Goths crossed the Danube, initially submitting to the Romans but soon rebelling against Emperor Valens, whom they killed in the Battle of Adrianople in 378. Large numbers of Vandals, Alans, Suebi, and Burgundians crossed the Rhine and invaded Roman Gaul on December 31, 406 to escape the Huns. The Roman Empire had been split in half since 395 and was ruled by two distinct governments, one based in Ravenna in the West, and the other in Constantinople in the East. The Roman Emperors, both East and West, were generally from the Theodosian family in Attila's lifetime (despite several power struggles).
The Huns dominated a vast territory with nebulous borders determined by the will of a constellation of ethnically varied peoples. Some were assimilated to Hunnic nationality, whereas many retained their own identities and rulers but acknowledged the suzerainty of the king of the Huns. The Huns were also the indirect source of many of the Romans' problems, driving various Germanic tribes into Roman territory, yet relations between the two empires were cordial: the Romans used the Huns as mercenaries against the Germans and even in their civil wars. Thus, the usurper Joannes was able to recruit thousands of Huns for his army against Valentinian III in 424. It was Aëtius, later Patrician of the West, who managed this operation. They exchanged ambassadors and hostages, the alliance lasting from 401 to 450 and permitting the Romans numerous military victories. The Huns considered the Romans to be paying them tribute, whereas the Romans preferred to view this as payment for services rendered. The Huns had become a great power by the time that Attila came of age during the reign of his uncle Ruga, to the point that Nestorius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, deplored the situation with these words: "They have become both masters and slaves of the Romans".
Campaigns against the Eastern Roman Empire.
The death of Rugila (also known as Rua or Ruga) in 434 left the sons of his brother Mundzuk, Attila and Bleda, in control of the united Hun tribes. At the time of the two brothers' accession, the Hun tribes were bargaining with Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II's envoys for the return of several renegades who had taken refuge within the Eastern Roman Empire, possibly Hunnic nobles who disagreed with the brothers' assumption of leadership.
The following year, Attila and Bleda met with the imperial legation at Margus (Požarevac), all seated on horseback in the Hunnic manner, and negotiated an advantageous treaty. The Romans agreed to return the fugitives, to double their previous tribute of 350 Roman pounds (c. 115 kg) of gold, to open their markets to Hunnish traders, and to pay a ransom of eight "solidi" for each Roman taken prisoner by the Huns. The Huns, satisfied with the treaty, decamped from the Roman Empire and returned to their home in the Great Hungarian Plain, perhaps to consolidate and strengthen their empire. Theodosius used this opportunity to strengthen the walls of Constantinople, building the city's first sea wall, and to build up his border defenses along the Danube.
The Huns remained out of Roman sight for the next few years while they invaded the Sassanid Empire. They were defeated in Armenia by the Sassanids, abandoned their invasion, and turned their attentions back to Europe. In 440, they reappeared in force on the borders of the Roman Empire, attacking the merchants at the market on the north bank of the Danube that had been established by the treaty of 435.
Crossing the Danube, they laid waste to the cities of Illyricum and forts on the river, including (according to Priscus) Viminacium, a city of Moesia. Their advance began at Margus, where they demanded that the Romans turn over a bishop who had retained property that Attila regarded as his. While the Romans discussed the bishop's fate, he slipped away secretly to the Huns and betrayed the city to them.
While the Huns attacked city-states along the Danube, the Vandals (led by Geiseric) captured the Western Roman province of Africa and its capital of Carthage. Carthage was the richest province of the Western Empire and a main source of food for Rome. The Sassanid Shah Yazdegerd II invaded Armenia in 441.
The Romans stripped the Balkan area of forces, sending them to Sicily in order to mount an expedition against the Vandals in Africa. This left Attila and Bleda a clear path through Illyricum into the Balkans, which they invaded in 441. The Hunnish army sacked Margus and Viminacium, and then took Singidunum (Belgrade) and Sirmium. During 442, Theodosius recalled his troops from Sicily and ordered a large issue of new coins to finance operations against the Huns. He believed that he could defeat the Huns and refused the Hunnish kings' demands.
Attila responded with a campaign in 443. For the first time (as far as the Romans knew) his forces were equipped with battering rams and rolling siege towers, with which they successfully assaulted the military centers of Ratiara and Naissus (Niš) and massacred the inhabitants. Priscus said "When we arrived at Naissus we found the city deserted, as though it had been sacked; only a few sick persons lay in the churches. We halted at a short distance from the river, in an open space, for all the ground adjacent to the bank was full of the bones of men slain in war."
Advancing along the Nišava River, the Huns next took Serdica (Sofia), Philippopolis (Plovdiv), and Arcadiopolis (Lüleburgaz). They encountered and destroyed a Roman army outside Constantinople but were stopped by the double walls of the Eastern capital. They defeated a second army near Callipolis (Gelibolu).
Theodosius, unable to make effective armed resistance, admitted defeat, sending the "Magister militum per Orientem" Anatolius to negotiate peace terms. The terms were harsher than the previous treaty: the Emperor agreed to hand over 6,000 Roman pounds (c. 2000 kg) of gold as punishment for having disobeyed the terms of the treaty during the invasion; the yearly tribute was tripled, rising to 2,100 Roman pounds (c. 700 kg) in gold; and the ransom for each Roman prisoner rose to 12 "solidi".
Their demands were met for a time, and the Hun kings withdrew into the interior of their empire. Bleda died following the Huns' withdrawal from Byzantium (probably around 445). Attila then took the throne for himself, becoming the sole ruler of the Huns.
Solitary kingship.
In 447, Attila again rode south into the Eastern Roman Empire through Moesia. The Roman army, under Gothic "magister militum" Arnegisclus, met him in the Battle of the Utus and was defeated, though not without inflicting heavy losses. The Huns were left unopposed and rampaged through the Balkans as far as Thermopylae.
Constantinople itself was saved by the Isaurian troops of "magister militum per Orientem" Zeno and protected by the intervention of prefect Constantinus, who organized the reconstruction of the walls that had been previously damaged by earthquakes and, in some places, to construct a new line of fortification in front of the old. Callinicus, in his "Life of Saint Hypatius", wrote:
In the west.
In 450, Attila proclaimed his intent to attack the Visigoth kingdom of Toulouse by making an alliance with Emperor Valentinian III. He had previously been on good terms with the Western Roman Empire and its influential general Flavius Aëtius. Aëtius had spent a brief exile among the Huns in 433, and the troops that Attila provided against the Goths and Bagaudae had helped earn him the largely honorary title of "magister militum" in the west. The gifts and diplomatic efforts of Geiseric, who opposed and feared the Visigoths, may also have influenced Attila's plans.
However, Valentinian's sister was Honoria, who had sent the Hunnish king a plea for help—and her engagement ring—in order to escape her forced betrothal to a Roman senator in the spring of 450. Honoria may not have intended a proposal of marriage, but Attila chose to interpret her message as such. He accepted, asking for half of the western Empire as dowry.
When Valentinian discovered the plan, only the influence of his mother Galla Placidia convinced him to exile Honoria, rather than killing her. He also wrote to Attila, strenuously denying the legitimacy of the supposed marriage proposal. Attila sent an emissary to Ravenna to proclaim that Honoria was innocent, that the proposal had been legitimate, and that he would come to claim what was rightfully his.
Attila interfered in a succession struggle after the death of a Frankish ruler. Attila supported the elder son, while Aëtius supported the younger. (The location and identity of these kings is not known and subject to conjecture.) Attila gathered his vassals—Gepids, Ostrogoths, Rugians, Scirians, Heruls, Thuringians, Alans, Burgundians, among others–and began his march west. In 451, he arrived in Belgica with an army exaggerated by Jordanes to half a million strong.
On April 7, he captured Metz. Other cities attacked can be determined by the hagiographic "vitae" written to commemorate their bishops: Nicasius was slaughtered before the altar of his church in Rheims; Servatus is alleged to have saved Tongeren with his prayers, as Saint Genevieve is said to have saved Paris. Lupus, bishop of Troyes, is also credited with saving his city by meeting Attila in person.
Aëtius moved to oppose Attila, gathering troops from among the Franks, the Burgundians, and the Celts. A mission by Avitus and Attila's continued westward advance convinced the Visigoth king Theodoric I (Theodorid) to ally with the Romans. The combined armies reached Orléans ahead of Attila, thus checking and turning back the Hunnish advance. Aëtius gave chase and caught the Huns at a place usually assumed to be near Catalaunum (modern Châlons-en-Champagne). Attila decided to fight the Romans on plains where he could use his cavalry.
The two armies clashed in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, the outcome of which is commonly considered to be a strategic victory for the Visigothic-Roman alliance. Theodoric was killed in the fighting, and Aëtius failed to press his advantage, according to Edward Gibbon and Edward Creasy, because he feared the consequences of an overwhelming Visigothic triumph as much as he did a defeat. From Aëtius' point of view, the best outcome was what occurred: Theodoric died, Attila was in retreat and disarray, and the Romans had the benefit of appearing victorious.
Invasion of Italy and death.
Attila returned in 452 to renew his marriage claim with Honoria, invading and ravaging Italy along the way. Communities became established in what would later become Venice as a result of these attacks when the residents fled to small islands in the Venetian Lagoon. His army sacked numerous cities and razed Aquileia so completely that it was afterwards hard to recognize its original site. Aëtius lacked the strength to offer battle, but managed to harass and slow Attila's advance with only a shadow force. Attila finally halted at the River Po. By this point, disease and starvation may have taken hold in Attila's camp, thus hindering his war efforts and potentially contributing to the cessation of invasion.
Emperor Valentinian III sent three envoys, the high civilian officers Gennadius Avienus and Trigetius, as well as the Bishop of Rome Leo I, who met Attila at Mincio in the vicinity of Mantua and obtained from him the promise that he would withdraw from Italy and negotiate peace with the Emperor. Prosper of Aquitaine gives a short description of the historic meeting, but gives all the credit to Leo for the successful negotiation. Priscus reports that superstitious fear of the fate of Alaric gave him pause—as Alaric died shortly after sacking Rome in 410.
Italy had suffered from a terrible famine in 451 and her crops were faring little better in 452. Attila's devastating invasion of the plains of northern Italy this year did not improve the harvest. To advance on Rome would have required supplies which were not available in Italy, and taking the city would not have improved Attila's supply situation. Therefore, it was more profitable for Attila to conclude peace and retreat to his homeland.
Furthermore, an East Roman force had crossed the Danube under the command of another officer also named Aetius—who had participated in the Council of Chalcedon the previous year—and proceeded to defeat the Huns who had been left behind by Attila to safeguard their home territories. Attila, hence, faced heavy human and natural pressures to retire "from Italy without ever setting foot south of the Po". As Hydatius writes in his "Chronica Minora":
Death.
Marcian was the successor of Theodosius, and he had ceased paying tribute to the Huns in late 450 while Attila was occupied in the west. Multiple invasions by the Huns and others had left the Balkans with little to plunder.
After Attila left Italy and returned to his palace across the Danube, he planned to strike at Constantinople again and reclaim the tribute which Marcian had stopped. However, he died in the early months of 453.
The conventional account from Priscus says that Attila was at a feast celebrating his latest marriage, this time to the beautiful young Ildico (the name suggests Gothic or Ostrogoth origins). In the midst of the revels, however, he suffered severe bleeding and died. He may have had a nosebleed and choked to death in a stupor. Or he may have succumbed to internal bleeding, possibly due to ruptured esophageal varices. Esophageal varices are dilated veins that form in the lower part of the esophagus, often caused by years of excessive alcohol consumption; they are fragile and can easily rupture, leading to death by hemorrhage.
Another account of his death was first recorded 80 years after the events by Roman chronicler Marcellinus Comes. It reports that "Attila, King of the Huns and ravager of the provinces of Europe, was pierced by the hand and blade of his wife". One modern analyst suggests that he was assassinated, but most reject these accounts as no more than hearsay, preferring instead the account given by Attila's contemporary Priscus, recounted in the 6th century by Jordanes:
Attila's sons Ellac, Dengizich and Ernak, "in their rash eagerness to rule they all alike destroyed his empire". They "were clamoring that the nations should be divided among them equally and that warlike kings with their peoples should be apportioned to them by lot like a family estate". Against the treatment as "slaves of the basest condition" a Germanic alliance led by the Gepid ruler Ardaric (who was noted for great loyalty to Attila) revolted and fought with the Huns in Pannonia in the Battle of Nedao 454 AD. Attila's eldest son Ellac was killed in that battle. Attila's sons "regarding the Goths as deserters from their rule, came against them as though they were seeking fugitive slaves", attacked Ostrogothic co-ruler Valamir (who also fought alongside Ardaric and Attila at the Catalaunian Plains), but were repelled, and some group of Huns moved to Scythia (probably those of Ernak). His brother Dengizich attempted a renewed invasion across the Danube in 468 AD, but was defeated at the Battle of Bassianae by the Ostrogoths. Dengizich was killed by Roman-Gothic general Anagast the following year, after which the Hunnic dominion ended.
Attila's many children and relatives are known by name and some even by deeds, but soon valid genealogical sources all but dried up, and there seems to be no verifiable way to trace Attila's descendants. This has not stopped many genealogists from attempting to reconstruct a valid line of descent for various medieval rulers. One of the most credible claims has been that of the "Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans" for mythological Avitohol and Irnik from the Dulo clan of the Bulgars.
Later folklore and iconography.
Jordanes embellished the report of Priscus, reporting that Attila had possessed the "Holy War Sword of the Scythians", which was given to him by Mars and made him a "prince of the entire world".
By the end of the 12th century the royal court of Hungary proclaimed their descent from Attila. Lampert of Hersfeld's contemporary chronicles report that shortly before the year 1071, the Sword of Attila had been presented to Otto of Nordheim by the exiled queen of Hungary, Anastasia of Kiev. This sword, a cavalry sabre now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, appears to be the work of Hungarian goldsmiths of the ninth or tenth century.
An anonymous chronicler of the medieval period represented the meeting of Pope Leo and Atilla as attended also by Saint Peter and Saint Paul, "a miraculous tale calculated to meet the taste of the time" This apotheosis was later portrayed artistically by the Renaissance artist Raphael and sculptor Algardi, whom eighteenth-century historian Edward Gibbon praised for establishing "one of the noblest legends of ecclesiastical tradition".
According to a version of this narrative related in the Chronicon Pictum, a mediaeval Hungarian chronicle, the Pope promised Attila that if he left Rome in peace, one of his successors would receive a holy crown (which has been understood as referring to the Holy Crown of Hungary).
Some histories and chronicles describe him as a great and noble king, and he plays major roles in three Norse sagas: "Atlakviða", "Volsunga saga", and "Atlamál". The "Polish Chronicle" represents Attila's name as "Aquila".
Frutolf of Michelsberg and Otto of Freising pointed out that some songs as "vulgar fables" made Theoderic the Great, Attila and Ermanaric contemporaries, when any reader of Jordanes knew that this was not the case. This refers to the so-called historical poems about Dietrich von Bern (Theoderic), in which Etzel (Attila) is Dietrich's refuge in exile from his wicked uncle Ermenrich (Ermanaric). Etzel is most prominent in the poems "Dietrichs Flucht" and the "Rabenschlacht". Etzel also appears as Kriemhild's second noble husband in the "Nibelungenlied", in which Kriemhild causes the destruction of both the Hunnish kingdom and that of her Burgundian relatives.
In 1812, Ludwig van Beethoven conceived the idea of writing an opera about Attila and approached August von Kotzebue to write the libretto. It was, however, never written. In 1846, Giuseppe Verdi wrote the opera, loosely based on episodes in Attila's invasion of Italy.
In World War I, Allied propaganda referred to Germans as the "Huns", based on a 1900 speech by Emperor Wilhelm II praising Attila the Hun's military prowess, according to Jawaharlal Nehru's "Glimpses of World History". "Der Spiegel" commented on November 6, 1948, that the Sword of Attila was hanging menacingly over Austria.
American writer Cecelia Holland wrote "The Death of Attila" (1973), a historical novel in which Attila appears as a powerful background figure whose life and death deeply impact the protagonists, a young Hunnic warrior and a Germanic one.
The name has many variants in several languages: Atli and Atle in Old Norse; Etzel in Middle High German (Nibelungenlied); Ætla in Old English; Attila, Atilla, and Etele in Hungarian (Attila is the most popular); Attila, Atilla, Atilay, or Atila in Turkish; and Adil and Edil in Kazakh or Adil ("same/similar") or Edil ("to use") in Mongolian.
In modern Hungary and in Turkey, "Attila" and its Turkish variation "Atilla" are commonly used as a male first name. In Hungary, several public places are named after Attila; for instance, in Budapest there are 10 Attila Streets, one of which is an important street behind the Buda Castle. When the Turkish Armed Forces invaded Cyprus in 1974, the operations were named after Attila ("The Attila Plan").
The 1954 Universal International film "Sign of the Pagan" starred Jack Palance as Attila.


Hy Hazell

Hyacinth Hazel O'Higgins (4 October 1919 – 10 May 1970), stage name Hy Hazell, was a British actress of theatre, musicals and revue as well as a contralto singer and film actress. Allmusic described her as "an exuberant comic actor and lively singer and dancer". A pretty brunette, with long legs, she was billed as Britain's answer to Betty Grable.
Upon the abbreviation of her name, Getty Images quotes this:-
"The English Actress, Hy Hazell, who has come to Australia to star in "Lock Up Your Daughters", says her name was originally Hyacinth: "It was Nigel Patrick who abbreviated it," she explained. "It was when I was with him in Italy during the war-and the troops used to call" (out).
Early life and theatre career.
Born in Streatham in South London on 4 October 1919, although the British Film Institute cites 1920 and "The Oxford Reference" cites 1922). As a teenager, Hy Hazell started life as a performer in the chorus of the West End production of Rodgers and Hart's "On Your Toes" (1937). She later had a long and successful run of leading roles in musicals, including "Expresso Bongo" at the Saville Theatre in 1958, as heartless Dixie Collins; as Mrs Squeezum in the Mermaid Theatre's "Lock Up Your Daughters" in 1959 (playing for almost 2,000 performances); as ex-Cochran girl Kay Connor in "Charlie Girl" at the Adelphi Theatre from 1965 ; and as Mrs Peachum in a notable "Beggar's Opera" by the Prospect Theatre Company in 1968.
'Theatricalia.com' lists these appearances:-
Past productions
A Talent to Amuse
1969 – 1970, Phoenix Theatre, London.
Miss Miniver, Ann Veronica
17th April – May 1969, Cambridge Theatre, London.
The Beggar’s Opera
1968 – 1969, Apollo Theatre (Shaftesbury Avenue), London.
The Confederacy
19th – 24th October 1964, Cambridge Arts Theatre.
Mollie Plummer, No Strings
30th December 1963 – March 1964, Her / His Majesty’s Theatre, London.
Dixie Collins, Expresso Bongo
started 31st March 1958, Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham and Saville Theatre, London.
Esmeralda Leigh, Dead On Nine
started 24th August 1955, Westminster Theatre, London.
Anne Etherton, Ten Men And A Miss
18th June – 13th October 1951, Aldwych Theatre, London and Opera House, Manchester:(Also, Golders Green Hippodrome London).
Films.
She was in British films "Meet Me at Dawn" (1946), "The Yellow Balloon" (1953), and B-movies like "The Body Said No!" and "The Lady Craved Excitement" (both 1950), the latter part allowing her to sing. Within the British tradition of having glamorous young women play the principal boy in pantos, she became a favourite. She established a reputation as "English pantomime's most distinguished post war principal boy". For years she was extremely popular in this seasonal form of theatre.
Death.
Hazell was playing Golde in "Fiddler on the Roof" in London's West End. On Sunday, 10 May 1970, (when there was no performance), she died accidentally, by choking to death whilst eating a steak at a friend's house. An inquest found that her blood showed a very high alcohol level: "A high enough level to account for some carelessness about eating and possibly the swallowing of food and therefore to have been almost a certain reason for her choking."


Matthew v S

Matthew v S is a 2004 Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) case which upheld the law that sets out a mandatory sentence of death for murder in Trinidad and Tobago.
The JCPC held in some cases, the law that makes capital punishment mandatory for murder will violate the prohibition on "inhuman or degrading punishment" in the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago. (This principle is consistent with the 2002 JCPC cases of "Hughes", "Fox", and "Reyes".) However, because (1) the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago disallows itself to act to invalidate laws that existed prior to the enactment of the constitution, and (2) the law in question pre-dated the constitution, the mandatory death provisions of the law could not be invalidated and must be upheld.
In "Boyce v R", which was released on the same day, the JCPC applied the same principles to a similar law in Barbados. "Matthew" overruled and declared as wrongly decided the November 2003 JCPC decision of "Roodal v S", which interpreted the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago as invalidating the law on mandatory capital punishment for murder.


James J. Metcalfe

James J. Metcalfe (September 16, 1906 – March 1960) was an American poet whose "Daily Poem Portraits" were published in more than 100 United States newspapers during the 1940s and 1950s. Prior to his literary career, he served as a Special Agent for the FBI, where he aided in the ambush of gangster John Dillinger, and also as a reporter for the Chicago Sun Times newspaper.
Early life and FBI Career.
Metcalfe was born in Berlin, Germany and emigrated to the United States as a boy. His mother was a concert pianist, He was educated at Notre Dame, and obtained a law degree from Loyola University. Soon after completing law school, Metcalfe joined the FBI's Chicago Bureau, where he participated in operations against several Midwestern gangsters, including Ma Barker, Pretty Boy Floyd, and John Dillinger. Metcalfe was among the agents who ambushed Dillinger outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago, resulting in Dillinger's death.
In later years, after achieving fame as a nationally syndicated poet, Metcalfe wrote a poem in tribute to those who served with him during the FBI's early years, entitled "We Were the G-Men:
Newspaper reporter.
After leaving the FBI, Metcalfe joined the staff of the "Chicago Sun T"imes as a reporter. He was assigned to infiltrate the German American Bund, with a view to exposing its activities to the public. His stories on the Bund helped to lead to the formation of a Congressional committee to investigate Nazi activity in America, and later won him and two other reporters, one being his brother, John C. Metcalfe, and the other, William Mueller, the National Headliners Club's Medal of Honor for the Best Story of 1937.
Poet.
During the 1940s, Metcalfe returned to a favorite childhood pastime: writing poetry. Metcalfe wrote hundreds of short poems about the human condition that appealed to people across a vast spectrum of careers and backgrounds. His first book of poetry, entitled "Portraits", contained 750 poems; he later published at least sixteen other titles. Metcalfe mused about love, friendship, life, religion, time, old age, youth, candy, vacations, holidays, envy and numerous other subjects. His poetry also appeared in Hallmark greeting cards.
Metcalfe indicated that he started writing poetry as a teenager, when he "used to fall in love with all the girls and write poems to them to win them over. It didn't always work, but it was worth trying." In later years, in the dedication of one of his books of poetry, he promised his readers that he "will not touch my pen, except it be in prayer to God, or praise of my fellowmen."
Metcalfe wrote and published at least seventeen books of poetry:
A representative Metcalfe poem.
One of Metcalfe's poems is about "The Friends I Had":
Family and later life.
Metcalfe and his wife Lillian Hammer Metcalfe had 3 children: Donald, James, and Kristina Marie. The Metcalfe family lived in Chicago, Dallas, and California. In his later years, Metcalfe delighted in retelling, not merely the poems for which he had become famous, but also stories of his FBI and reporter days, including his experiences with several notorious American mobsters. The Metcalfe's lived for several years in a modest ranch house in Dallas, which Metcalfe referred to as "the house that poems built."
Metcalfe died in March 1960, at the age of 53.


Ernst Leopold Prinz von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha

Ernst Leopold Eduard Wilhelm Josias Prinz von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha (14 January 1935 – 27 June 1996) was the second child and eldest son of Johann Leopold, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Feodora Freiin von der Horst.
Early life.
Ernst Leopold was born at Hirschberg, Germany. His paternal grandparents were Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the only son of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany (youngest son of Queen Victoria), and his wife, Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.
Ernst Leopold had two siblings: Marianne and Peter.
His father was heir-apparent to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha until the forced abdication of his grandfather on 18 November 1918, to Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, result of the German Revolution. As the marriage of his parents was considered morganatic his father lost any rights to the succession of the ducal throne of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, but was not barred from petitioning the British Crown for the revival of the Dukedom of Albany. The children of their morganatic marriage are surnamed Prinz or Prinzessin von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha.
Marriage and family.
Ernst Leopold married Ingeborg Henig (b. 16 August 1937 in Nordhausen), daughter of Richard Henig and Luise Duckwitz, on 4 February 1961 in Herrenberg. They divorced on 26 March 1963. They had one child:
He married, secondly, Gertraude Monika Pfeiffer (b. 1 July 1938 in Cottbus), daughter of Hermann Horst Pfeiffer and Gertrud Marianne Jardin, on 29 May 1963, at Regensburg, Germany. They divorced on 20 September 1985. They had five children:
He married, thirdly, Sabine Margarete Biller (25 June 1941 – 27 June 1996 in Kreuth), daughter of Alfred Carl Biller, on 20 January 1986 in Grünwald. They had no children.
Death.
Ernst Leopold died on 27 June 1996 in Bad Wiessee, Germany, in his 61st year, by committing suicide along with his wife Sabine Biller.


William King Harvey

William King Harvey (September 13, 1915 – June 9, 1976) was a Central Intelligence Agency officer, best known for his role in Operation Mongoose. He was known as "America's James Bond", a tag given to him by Edward Lansdale.
Background.
Harvey was born on September 13, 1915 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was the son of Sara King Harvey, an English professor at Indiana State Teachers College in Terre Haute. An Eagle Scout, he skipped several grades and graduated from Terre Haute's Wiley High School in 1931.
After working as a printer and reporter at the "Danville Gazette" (a newspaper owned by his grandfather) from 1931 to 1933, he enrolled in an accelerated program at Indiana University that encompassed two years of undergraduate studies and enabled him to complete an honors LL.B. from the University's School of Law in 1937.
He married Libby McIntire, the daughter of a lawyer from Maysville, Kentucky, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1954. Immediately thereafter, he married Clara Grace "CG" Follock, a former CIA personnel officer who was the first woman to attain the rank of major in the United States Army. From 1960 to 1969, Harvey and his family (including a son from his first marriage and a daughter adopted by Harvey and Follock during his German assignment) were domiciled in Chevy Chase Village, Maryland.
Career.
Harvey joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation in December 1940 and enjoyed a distinguished career (specializing in German and Soviet counterintelligence) throughout World War II and its immediate aftermath. In July 1947, he broke a regulation on being available on two-hour call due to sleeping off heavy drinking at a party the night before. He refused the resulting demotion and reassignment to Indianapolis, Indiana, preferring to resign. He joined the CIA shortly thereafter.
As he plotted to reduce the FBI's overseas powers, his knowledge of the Bureau proved to be invaluable. Along with James Angleton, he became one of the foremost operatives in the secret war against the KGB during the Cold War. According to journalist David Martin, Harvey swiftly gained a reputation for consuming more alcohol than any other person in the United States government; however, no one ever saw him drunk during this period.
Harvey's CIA career began with his founding of Staff D, the electronic surveillance branch of the Clandestine Service Division. In 1951 Harvey's investigation of the career history of Kim Philby, noting suspicious coincidences that suggested he had long been a Soviet agent, saw the CIA demand that Philby be kept out of his position as MI6 liaison; Philby was fired. Six months earlier, Harvey had got into a fight with Guy Burgess at a party after Burgess had drunkenly drawn a lewd cartoon of Harvey's wife.
From 1952 to 1960, Harvey was posted to West Berlin as chief of base, where he led the operation that built a tunnel to the Soviet sector to spy on their communication channels. This operation was called PBJOINTLY. On his return to CIA headquarters, Harvey was tasked with a project to organize "executive actions" (a euphemism for the assassination of foreign political leaders) under the codename ZR/RIFLE. To vanquish Fidel Castro, Harvey decided he needed to employ the resources of the American Mafia. He drew on the connections of businessman and CIA asset Robert Maheu, who had cultivated relationships with Sam Giancana, Santo Trafficante Jr., Johnny Roselli and other figures. Finding Maheu's operation chaotic, Harvey cut everyone but Roselli out, and ran the operations against Castro himself.
Harvey was also involved in Operation Mongoose, a CIA operation run from Miami, Florida that ran various attempts to undermine or overthrow the Cuban Revolution. At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, Harvey sent ten intelligence operatives into Cuba to gather intelligence and prepare for an invasion Harvey thought inevitable.
The unauthorized operation tarnished Harvey's reputation. Although he was eventually assigned to Rome as station chief in 1963 following a punitive administrative post at CIA headquarters, he failed to acclimate to the milieu and was denied a high-profile assignment in the Laotian Civil War by Richard Helms. Notably, Harvey recommended Colonel Renzo Rocca, chief of the Italian military intelligence Division R, as liaison for building up the Italian component of Operation Gladio in 1964. However, his drinking and health deteriorated, and he was ultimately relieved.
Although Harvey briefly headed a CIA headquarters unit on possible countermeasures to electronic surveillance, he took an extended leave of absence (largely precipitated by his alcohol use disorder and the concurrent fallout from his relationship with Roselli, who had been convicted in an elaborate card-cheating case) throughout much of 1967. He formally retired from the CIA in January 1968. Following a brief law practice in Washington, D.C., Harvey and his family relocated to Indianapolis amid fears of ongoing surveillance in 1969. During this period, he curtailed his alcohol use and edited legal decisions for the Bobbs-Merrill Company.
In 1975, he testified before the Church Committee on some of the CIA's past operations.
Harvey died in Indianapolis on June 9, 1976 from a heart attack, at 60 years of age.
Assassination of John F. Kennedy.
After the death of former CIA officer and Watergate figure E. Howard Hunt in 2007, Saint John Hunt and David Hunt revealed that their father had recorded several claims about himself and others being involved in a conspiracy to assassinate John F. Kennedy. In the April 5, 2007 issue of "Rolling Stone", Saint John Hunt detailed a number of individuals implicated by his father, including Harvey, Lyndon B. Johnson, Cord Meyer, David Sánchez Morales, David Atlee Phillips, Frank Sturgis, and an assassin he termed "French gunman grassy knoll", who many presume was Lucien Sarti. The two sons alleged that their father excised the information from his memoirs, "American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate and Beyond", to avoid possible perjury charges. Hunt's widow and other children told the "Los Angeles Times" that the two sons took advantage of Hunt's loss of lucidity by coaching and exploiting him for financial gain. The newspaper said it examined the materials offered by the sons to support the story and found them to be "inconclusive."


M. Watt Espy

Major Watt Espy, Jr. (March 2, 1933 – August 13, 2009) was a researcher and expert on capital punishment in the United States.
Espy, a resident of Headland, Alabama, attended the University of Alabama where he was a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. Even in college he had garnered a reputation as an engaging speaker, serving as toastmaster for the 30th anniversary banquet of the chapter, held in 1955. He graduated in 1957.
Espy was an author, with John Ortiz Smykla, of "The Espy Files", a database of executions carried out in the United States and preceding territories from 1608, which is the most complete source of data on the issue, identifying 15,487 people put to death.
He began his research in the 1970s when he was a salesman, working with everything from cemetery plots to security systems. While making calls he would stop at a prison or courthouse for information. He became a full-time researcher in 1977.
Espy became a death penalty opponent due to his concerns about racial bias, innocence and lack of deterrence. Espy served as a citizen witness to exactly one execution - that of John Louis Evans in the Alabama electric chair on April 22, 1983.
Espy died aged 76 on August 13, 2009.


Hanging in the United States

Hanging has been practiced legally in the United States of America from before the nation's birth, up to 1972 when the United States Supreme Court found capital punishment to be in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Four years later, the Supreme Court overturned its previous ruling, and in 1976, capital punishment was again legalized in the United States. , three states have laws that specify hanging as an available secondary method of execution.
Colonial America.
Hanging was one method of execution in Colonial America. According to the Espy file, Daniel Frank was hanged in 1623 for cattle theft in the Jamestown colony. John Billington is thought to be one of the first men to be hanged in New England; Billington was convicted of murder in September 1630 after he shot and killed John Newcomen.
During the Salem witch trials of the early 1690s, most of the men and women convicted of witchcraft were sentenced to public hanging. It is estimated that seventeen women and two men were hanged as a result of the trials. However, modern scholars maintain that thousands of individuals were hanged for witchcraft throughout the American colonies.
Hangings during the colonial era of America were mostly performed publicly in order to deter the behavior for which the criminals were hanged. Thousands of townspeople would gather around the gallows to hear a sermon and observe the hangings of convicted criminals. Such experiences were deemed to be good lessons on morality for the children and townspeople.
1776 – 1830.
Following the American Revolution led by the Continental Congress and the subsequent ratification of the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights was signed into law and became the first ten amendments to that constitution. The eighth amendment of the Bill of rights states that cruel and unusual punishment shall not be inflicted. During this time period, hanging was not considered to be cruel and unusual, yet almost two hundred years later, this amendment was key to the temporary suspension of capital punishment by the Supreme Court. Today, the eighth amendment is still an essential argument employed by those in favor of abolishing capital punishment.
During this time of political unrest, some prominent members of society believed that capital punishment such as hanging ought to be abolished. One such man, Benjamin Rush, published a pamphlet in 1797 speaking out against the death penalty. In the pamphlet Rush often raises religious arguments such as, "The punishment of murder by death is contrary to reason, and to the order and happiness of society, and contrary to divine revelation." Individuals like Benjamin Rush laid the foundation for death penalty abolition movements that are still carried on today.
Hangings were common during the early part of the nineteenth century. Just as in Colonial America, hangings were still conducted in public for all to witness. However, unlike the colonial era, men and women were no longer hanged for offenses like adultery. In fact, by 1794 Pennsylvania only hanged criminals convicted of murder in the first degree. In New York, the number of capital crimes were brought down from nineteen to just two. By 1815, other states like Vermont, Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Hampshire, and Ohio (with the slaves)also drastically decreased their number of capital offenses, usually lowering the number down to just two or three. Because of these changes in law, hangings began to decrease in some regions of the country. However, some states went in the opposite direction. Most of the southern states in addition to Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island actually raised their number of capital offenses.
1830 – 1920.
Starting in the early 1830s, public hangings were considered by many to be cruel. Many others considered them a major community event and still others took to them as an opportunity to become unruly as with modern sporting events: "Sometimes tens of thousands of eager viewers would show up to view hangings; local merchants would sell souvenirs and alcohol. Fighting and pushing would often break out as people jockeyed for the best view of the hanging or the corpse! Onlookers often cursed the widow or the victim and would try to tear down the scaffold or the rope for keepsakes. Violence and drunkenness often ruled towns far into the night after 'justice had been served." By 1835, five states – Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts – had enacted laws providing for private hangings. Fourteen years later in 1849, fifteen more states also enacted such laws. However, most opponents of hanging opposed these laws. These abolitionists believed that public execution would eventually lead the general population to cry out against the capital punishment, eventually putting an end to hanging in the United States.
In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln sanctioned the hanging of 39 Sioux Indians convicted of murdering white settlers in Mankato, Minnesota. This mass execution remains the largest of its kind in United States history.
Four people were hanged for their participation in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Mary Surratt, one of the four, was the first woman to receive capital punishment by the United States federal government.
The Wild West.
As the United States began to expand west, most new states favored the death penalty, and hanging continued to be the most popular means of execution. In addition, disregarding the trend set by many northern states, these states would hang criminals for offenses like robbery and rape. Because of the abundant lawlessness and crime in the Wild West, judges were strict, and hangings were commonplace. If a judge was particularly ruthless, he became known as a hanging judge. Isaac Parker, perhaps the best-known hanging judge, sentenced 160 men to death by hanging. However, of those 160, only 79 were actually executed; the remaining 81 either appealed, died in jail, or were pardoned. Though at the time, these judges were criticized for issuing so many death sentences, a few modern scholars maintain that most of the judges were honorable men trying to establish law and order in the wild American frontier.
Lynching.
After the American Civil War, the frontier opened up, and law lagged behind, with an undetermined number of local criminals suffering Lynching, or extrajudicial hanging. In the South, tensions arising from Reconstruction led to several lynchings. Scholars estimate that 4,742 total people, mostly male, were lynched from 1882 to 1968. About 3,445 of those individuals were African American and 1,297 were white.
The Electric Chair.
In 1890, New York became the first state to use the electric chair as a means of execution. Though it took two surges of electricity lasting nearly two minutes to kill William Kemmler, the electric chair replaced hanging as the most efficient and preferred method of execution in the United States. This was the first time in United States history that a method other than hanging was the leading means of execution.
1921 – Present.
Since the introduction of the electric chair in 1890, the number of hangings have steadily decreased. In 1936 Rainey Bethea was hanged after he was convicted of rape. Over 20,000 people came to Owensboro, Kentucky, to witness Bethea's execution. Many scholars maintain that the unprecedented nationwide attention and coverage the execution received caused the United States to outlaw public executions. Therefore, Bethea was the last individual to be hanged publicly in the United States. Since Bethea's execution, states had been eliminating hanging as means of execution altogether, until the death penalty was "de facto" suspended in the late 1960s.
When the death penalty was restored in 1976, most states implemented lethal injection instead of hanging. Delaware's Billy Bailey was the last criminal to be hanged in the United States, in 1996. Bailey was just the third criminal to be hanged since 1965, the other two being Charles Rodman Campbell in 1994 and Westley Allan Dodd in 1993. , hanging is an available secondary method of execution in the state of New Hampshire for people sentenced to death before 2019.


First, You Cry

First, You Cry is a 1978 American made-for-television biographical drama film starring Mary Tyler Moore, Anthony Perkins, Jennifer Warren, Richard Dysart and Don Johnson, directed by George Schaefer. It is based on the 1976 autobiography "First, You Cry" written by NBC News correspondent Betty Rollin in which she recalls her battle with breast cancer. The film was broadcast on CBS on November 8, 1978.
Synopsis.
TV news correspondent Betty Rollin (Moore) is giving a television report on the dangers of breast cancer, hoping that it will make women more aware of preventative measures. At home, Betty's husband Arthur Heroz (Perkins), a successful author, comments on how a lump in Betty's left breast has grown appreciably harder since she had it examined some time ago. Betty promises to make a follow-up exam. The subsequent checkup, however, leads to a diagnosis of cancer. Following a period of fear and denial, Betty agrees to a biopsy, which, due to the cancer's spread, leads to an immediate mastectomy. Upon leaving the hospital, Betty tries to deal with her varied emotions, along with those of her self-involved spouse, former lover, mother and friends. When she can't perform simple tasks like putting on a robe, Betty falls into depression. She sees herself as "damaged goods", leading to dramatic intimacy issues with Arthur.
Betty returns to work, but feels only awkwardness with colleagues. Things worsen when Betty finally looks at her scar, and assumes that all men will now be repulsed by her body. When husband Arthur becomes increasingly distant, she reunites with former beau David (Crenna). She goes to live with him in Philadelphia, quitting her job and leaving her friends behind. After a period of bliss, however, Betty still finds herself unhappy. She the decides to write a book about her travails, leading to an overhaul of her life, both professionally and personally.
Production.
"First, You Cry" was shot from February 14 to March 1978: exterior scenes were filmed on location in New York City and interior scenes were filmed at CBS Studio Center in Studio City, California.
In popular culture.
The film was parodied on the November 17, 1979 episode of "Saturday Night Live" hosted by Bea Arthur, in a sketch titled "First He Cries". In the sketch, a husband (played by Bill Murray) is distraught over his wife's (played by Gilda Radner) mastectomy. The sketch was controversial and received over 200 calls and 300 letters of complaint. Betty Rollin herself wrote a letter in support of the sketch.
Home Media.
MTM Home Video released the film First You Cry in 1993.


Rush Hour (2006 film)

Rush Hour () is a 2006 Russian drama film directed by Oleg Fesenko based on the novel of the same name by Jerzy Stawiński.
Plot.
Every morning successful advertising specialist Konstantin Arkhipov hurries to yet another meeting with the unknown — a project that promises career growth, voices of women calling and beckoning on the phone, a new secretary chosen up to high standards. However, during the mad run, Kostya Arkhipov has lost control of his own life. At work, constant squabbles and intrigues, the relationship with his wife - at a dead end, his beloved daughter has become self-absorbed, his mother has not spoken to him for a long time. In an effort to push back all the difficulties, he constantly flies somewhere and is terribly tired of such a rush. He even suffers from insomnia.
The crisis caused by the middle age coincides for the hero with an unpleasant discovery: after seeing the doctor's card in the course of a scheduled examination, the hero reads there that he has cancer and only a few months left to live. The prosperous life of an influential person comes to an end. Not because he made any decisions, but for the reason that his illness contributed to the fact that others have imposed these decisions on him. And when it turns out that the diagnosis was false - it becomes clear that the old life will not return.
Konstantin decides to do what he has not done, express everything he could not say, and, finally, live as the heart and conscience dictate.


Horia Stamatu

Horia Stamatu (September 9, 1912–July 7/8, 1989) was a Romanian poet and essayist.
Born in Vălenii de Munte, where he attended primary school, Stamatu went on to military high school and then the literature and philosophy faculty of Bucharest University. From 1936 to 1937, he was a substitute teacher at Bucharest's Cantemir Vodă High School. He was an editor at "Enciclopedia României" from 1938 to 1940. A member of the Iron Guard, he took part in the Legionnaires' rebellion. In 1941, in the aftermath of the rebellion, he left for Germany through Bulgaria, and was interned at Buchenwald concentration camp from 1942 to 1944. He was sentenced to death "in absentia" by a Romanian military tribunal. From 1945, he lived in Freiburg im Breisgau, where he studied philosophy with Max Müller at the University of Freiburg. Within that institution, he lectured on the Romanian language from 1946 to 1948 in Hugo Friedrich's department.
From 1948 to 1950, he lived in Paris. There, he was among the founders of the Sorbonne-affiliated Romanian research institute; other initiators included Eugène Ionesco, Emil Cioran, Mircea Eliade, Edmond Jaloux and Marcel Brion. Stamatu became head of the literary section. From 1951 to 1961, he lived in Spain, where he was an editor at "Oriente Europeo" magazine and co-founded "Libertatea românească" and "Fapta" magazines. He returned to Freiburg in 1961, living there until his death. From 1962 to 1966, he edited "Forschungstelle für Weltzivilisation". While in exile, he contributed to "Revista scriitorilor români", "Limite" and "Ethos".
Stamatu's first published work appeared in 1932 in Sandu Tudor's "Floarea de foc" magazine, and subsequently wrote for "Ideea europeană" magazine. His first book, the 1934 "Memnon", appeared just as Ionesco, Cioran and Ștefan Baciu were launching their careers. He won the Fundația Regală pentru Literatură și Artă prize. Until going into exile, Stamatu published several lengthy poems, such as "Moartea lui 1940", in magazines, but no other books. While in Europe, he published "Recitativ" (1963), "Kairos" (1974) and "Imperiul" (1981). He won the American-Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences prize for 1988.


SS Harriet B.

The Harriet B. was a wooden-hulled barge that served on the Great Lakes of North America, originally as the railroad ferry "Shenango No.2", then a bulk carrier and finally as an unpowered barge. She sank four miles off Two Harbors, Minnesota on May 3, 1922 after being rammed by the steel freighter "Quincy A. Shaw". Her wreck was accidentally located upright and intact in 2005 in of water. On August 9, 2018 the wreck of the "Harriet B." was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
History.
The "Shenango No.2" (Official number 116695) was built in 1895 in Toledo, Ohio by Craig Shipbuilding. She was built for the United States & Ontario Steam Navigation Company of Conneaut, Ohio, a subsidiary Pittsburgh, Shenango & Lake Erie Railroad Company. At an overall length of , and a between perpendiculars length of the "Shenango No.2" was one of the largest wooden ships ever built. She had a beam of , and her hull was deep. She had a gross register tonnage of 1938.12 and a net register tonnage of 1317.92. She was powered by two 1250-horsepower fore and aft compound engines. She was launched on October 25, 1895 as hull number #69.
In 1898 the "Shenango No.2" was sold to the Detroit, Grand Rapids & Western Railroad Company of Muskegon, Michigan, and was renamed "Muskegon". On October 20, 1898 the "Muskegon" collided with the dock & elevator of American Malting Company at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Sometime in 1900 the "Muskegon" ran into ice and broke her rudder in a gale in an unknown location. In 1901 she was sold to the Pere Marquette Rail Road Company and was renamed "Pere Marquette 16". On December 21, 1901 she sank at Ludington, Michigan, and was raised. In 1918 the "Pere Marquette 16" was sold to the Hammermill Paper Company of Erie, Pennsylvania where she was cut down to a bulk freighter for use in the pulpwood trade, and was renamed "Harriet B." In 1921 the "Harriet B." was reduced to a barge.
Final voyage and sinking.
On May 3, 1922 the freighter "C.W. Jacob" was towing the "Harriet B.", and another barge "Crete"; all three vessels were loaded with pulpwood. The vessels arrived near Two Harbors, Minnesota at around 1:00 a.m.; but because of heavy fog, the "Jacob" captain decided to wait for the fog to clear before proceeding into the harbour. The three vessels anchored about a mile off shore, and three miles southwest of the breakwater light. Meanwhile, the steel-hulled freighter "Quincy A. Shaw" was moving quickly up the lake. At 4:50 a.m., the "Shaw"s bow appeared out of the fog and crashed into the port side of the "Harriet B.", almost cutting her in two. After the collision, the crew of the "Harriet B." boarded the "Shaw". The "Harriet B." sank twenty minutes later. After she sank, her wheelhouse washed ashore nearby.
Discovery.
The remains of the "Harriet B." were accidentally discovered in 2005 by the University of Minnesota Duluth research boat "Blue Heron" while they were conducting a geological survey of the lake bottom. The crew of the "Blue Heron" contacted Jerry Eliason and Randy Bebe, who used drop cameras and side-scan sonar to confirm the identity of the wreck.
The "Harriet B." today.
The "Harriet B." rests upright, and almost totally intact in of water approximately four miles off Two Harbors, Minnesota. Because of the extreme depth of the wreck, diving is not advised. Jerry Eliason said that "even a brief visit to the wreck would require at least eight hours of decompression stops on the way back to the surface to complete the dive safely". The wreck is believed to be the most intact shipwreck in Minnesota waters.