Halloween: When the Doctor Needs A Spare Part

A Real Life Body Snatcher

If you haven't heard of this guy, you're probably better off not knowing. So read no further if you're a wee bit squeamish about the idea of a deviant dentist turned into a body parts harvester.
And  a bad body parts harvester at that.
However, this being Halloween, what better time to introduce you to a living monster, who....like Ted Bundy....happened to be quite good looking?
Who woulda' thunk?
Meet Michael Matromarino.
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/03/body_parts_scheme_mastermind_p.html
                                                       -0-
I came across another story while looking for a summary of Mastromarino's case for this blog.
There's a whole lot more about him on Wikipedia
Turns outs the demented dentist's story is featured on "Who The Bleep Did I Marry?" a new series on Discovery ID. I found the blog of the actor who is playing  the part of Michael Mastromarino and thought you might  find his point of view as  interesting as I do.
So here's a link to that too.
http://arthurkade.com/?p=8019

More On Faceboook Addiction

Gaming Addicts Guilty of Starving Baby to Death

 Yesterday on my Facebook Page, if you scroll down, you'll see an article I posted about a mother who is addicted to Farmville and shook her baby to death. I and many others found this outrageous, disturbing and inconceivable.
Welcome to my world and business.
So, after discussing this late last night,  I began to search out other deaths related to people who have been so addicted to Facebook and its games...  people who have been neglected or harmed others like  baby-shaking mother in Florida did.
That's when I stumbled upon the lovely couple I will lead you to in the link that follows this post.
Here's the headline:
" Korean couple Convicted of Abandoning Newborn Daughter While They Addictivelt Played Online.
This happened in May and it is true.
They got so busy raising their virtual baby online, they neglected to raise their human one in the land of the living.
Their fragile, alive, beautiful, breathing baby girl died.
Unbelieveable.
Yet believe we must.

Someone on my Facebook wall  yesterday said people who become parents should be licensed.
I wonder if it would have made a difference.
An addiction is an addiction -- be it chemical, bio-chemical,  psychological, it's all-consuming and all the same.
In the end game of addiction,  some one dies.
In my opinion, better the addicts die than their children.
Here's the link:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/28/world/main6527471.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody 

.

Armageddon Online?

I'm adding this link for two reasons.
First, because my brother sent it to me and he never sends me anything unless it's good.
Second, because I can't believe a site like this actually exists.
I'm not quite sure what to make of it though.
Initially, I thought, how depressing.
Now I am thinking, how intriguing.
Because none of us gets out of here alive. Not a one.
And I'm not sure yet how I want to go.
This link that follows offers other options.
Armageddon Online - Home

Link To Blink and Kyron Hormon Case Update

This is a link to Blink On Crime, and the Kyron Horman case update by Family Law Attorney Lea Conner.
I think this is an incredible article. It sheds light in a different direction...
and shows how the media can judge and convict even before a person or body is located, or an indictment is issued.
It also shows how the media can check itself when attorneys like Lea are given a forum to express another, credible point of view.
A child abduction case must not be a witch hunt. It has to be an investigation.
Otherwise all eyes focus on the witch, while the monsters in the closet get away.
There is so much infighting in Kyron's family... meantime, a little boy lost must be found.
Please... take a moment go to this link and really study Lea Conner's article.
Then explore Blink's blog further.
Blink is an amazing woman I am honored to consider a friend... and she's a true crime-fighting hero.
Please follow this link.
http://blinkoncrime.com/2010/10/29/kyron-horman-case-update-blinkoncrime-com-legal-analyst-lea-conner-weighs-in/

I'm also following this post  with  a video about the Mooors Murder. I'm guessing most people here are too young, too far away, or perhaps too disinterested to know about these cases. This is a good summary.

Suffer Little Children

Another Day, Another Shooting

Link To Seattle Shoooting

The video from You-Tube below,  appears in the text of this full story,
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/429093_shot26.html

Nicholas Hewes describes shooting in Seattle

Murder by Parachute

Love triangles never turn out well.
This one took the concept of eliminating the competition to new heights.
Lesson learned from the case that follows:
Falling for the wrong person can have disasterous consequences.

Murder verdict for woman who disabled parachute

(AP) – 6 days ago

Els Clottemans wipes a tear as she is found guilty of murder at the courthouse in Tongeren, Belgium, on Wednesday. (Yves Logghe/Associated Press)

BRUSSELS (AP) — A jealous schoolteacher was found guilty of murder Wednesday for sabotaging the parachute of a rival in a love triangle, causing her to crash to her death.
The verdict against Els Clottemans, 26, ended a monthlong trial that revealed no hard proof that she had sabotaged Els Van Doren's parachute so that neither it nor a safety chute opened during a Nov. 18, 2006, jump over eastern Belgium.
Van Doren, then 38, jumped that day — with 11 other parachutists, including Clottemans — from a small plane flying at 4,500 meters (30,000 feet).
The 12 jurors agreed with the prosecution that the evidence was circumstantial, but overwhelming.
They agreed that jealousy was a motive: The killer and her victim were intimately involved with the same a man, a Dutch skydiver, whom Clottemans wanted for herself.
She and Van Doren were members of the same parachute club.
During the trial, the jury was told that Clottemans, an accomplished skydiver, knew very well how to disable a parachute.
Evidence showed she also sent anonymous letters about Van Doren's love life to mutual friends and is psychologically unstable, having attempted suicide in December, 2006.
Sentencing is set for Thursday. Clottemans faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Her trial opened Sept. 24 with the accused sitting nervously near the mud-caked parachute bag and helmet that Els Van Doren wore on the day she died.
The jury saw video footage Van Doren had shot during what would be her last jump.
She and Clottemans were among the last four jumpers to leave the Cessna plane.
The video, shot by Van Doren's helmet-mounted camera, showed how the victim looked up, yanking at her gear, hoping to see an open canopy above her.
It never happened.
She crashed into a garden in Opglabbeek, a small town in eastern Belgium and was killed instantly.
Neither her parachute, nor a smaller safety chute designed to open the main parachute in case of a malfunction, opened. Investigators testified the gear had been tampered with.
Throughout her trial, Clottemans maintained her innocence.
On the last day in court, she told the jury, "For four years now I have been accused of something I did not do. That does something to you. ... They questioned me (saying) 'It's you! 'It's you!' But it is not me!"
The victim's son and daughter, 17 and 19 respectively, left the courtroom in tears after Clottemans pleaded for clemency saying she had lost her father at a young age.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

From Hiccups to Handcuffs

You're probably sick of the story by now. Not me. I find this stuff fascinating.
One reason I'm a P.I. is because of a lifetime obsession with attempting to  understand what drives people to do horrible things... specifically murder.
I think my curiosity came from two places: a morbid curiosity.... and a desire to learn enough to keep myself, my family and friends, from being murdered.

I have always wondered about the individual components involved in the process of becoming a killer... or being involved with killing another.
I used to think murder was a combination of two key components: nature and nurture.
I  used to think someone could raise you to kill just by what was done to you as a kid.
I also used to embrace the natural born killer theory, the theory being something was not wired right from day one in the brain.
Now, over the years and with experience not only studying murderers, but interviewing them in the course of defending them in the past...
I know now the equation is not so simple as variations on the nature vs. nurture theme.

Sometimes, killing is a response to what someone perceives as an injustice.
Other times, it's an issue of "if I can't have you no one can".
Often a hair-trigger temper brings a finger to a trigger.
Some of my investigator friends are armed investigators who are hired to stand guard at companies where employees are laid off.
And there are those cases where someone's life turns on a dime... they get left or betrayed; they go broke; they get caught doing something bad.
Florida teen, Jennifer Mee....A.K.A. Hiccup girl.... while not the murderer, was a catalyst to it.
I was taken by surprise  by her involvement in this case.
She lured the victim to the spider's web.

What a complete and total waste of  so many lives.
First and foremost, the life of the man who was killed in the robbery gone bad.
His killing is like a pebble in the water.... its effects ripple to the  the victim's and the perp's family and friends and will resonate forever.
And then there's Hiccup Girl.
She's helped turn Shannon Griffin from a living human being to a memory, leaving a  shattered family in her destructive wake.
And she's ruined any chance she had of being a normal young girl who would grow into a woman one day.
All because of the choices she made and the people she chose to hang with.

It's all over for Hiccup Girl now.
the only future she has is her history.
She's gone from hiccups to handcuffs and lock-up.
Oddly I have not an ounce of sympathy or empathy for her.
I do understand though, how life can shift for some... and how we face decisions that are questionable when desperate.
Still, crossing the line... any line... is a choice.
Make good choices and good prevails.
Make bad choices, like Hiccup Girl did in the company she chose to keep and bad prevails.
The defense will say, robbery gone bad, she was influenced by bad guys, she was exposed to the media too young, whatever
.
For Hiccup Girl all that's left is damage control.
For the young man  Hiccup Girl and her boys killed.... Shannon Griffin...  my heart goes out to his family, his friends, his community. He was only 22. The well of emotions is unfathomable.
Unfortunately, when the media spotlight fades, Griffin will be just one more statistic on a list that keeps growing while we keep trying to understand it all.

I think Hiccup Girl's mom made an interesting comment  in an interview given to a radio station.
"I've said for a while now, her case of the hiccups wasn't a case of the hiccups, it was a curse of the hiccups," Mee's mother, Rachel Robidoux, told the 93.3 WFLZ "MJ Morning Show" in Tampa on Monday.  She said she didn't know what happened, said  the situation was a nightmare and said for a year, her daughter had not lived with her. 
While I don't buy into mom's "curse of the hiccups" defense theory, I can't help wondering how her life would have gone had she never been Hiccup Girl in the first place.

'Hiccup Girl' Charged with Murder

AP reports Hiccup Girl a transient prior to murder charge

Cops: 'Hiccup girl' was transient before slaying

– 1 hr 29 mins ago

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – A young Florida woman thrust into brief fame in 2007 for unstoppable hiccups was living a transient life before she was charged this week with murder, an investigator told morning news shows Tuesday.
Maj. Mike Kovacsev of the St. Petersburg police told NBC's "Today" show that police had records of about a dozen "contacts" with 19-year-old Jennifer Mee throughout the past year at a series of different addresses.
"She didn't actually live on the street, but was transient in nature because she tended to live in different motels or apartments and moved from one location to another," he said.
Mee and two men were charged Sunday with first-degree murder in the death of 22-year-old Shannon Griffin. Mee allegedly lured the man to a meeting Saturday, where he was robbed and shot. Kovacsev said police do not believe she fired the gun.
Kovacsev told ABC's "Good Morning America" that police had talked with Mee regarding several domestic-related incidents.
"She was never a suspect in any cases, she has no criminal record up to this point, but she was a victim and a subject and several times a witness to several crimes," he said.
Kovacsev told ABC that Mee accepted a friend request from Griffin on a social networking website five or six days before the robbery, but it was unclear if he had recognized her as the "hiccup girl."
Her mystery plight put her on the "Today" show as a teenager in 2007, where she was hugged by fellow guest and country music star Keith Urban.
Kovacsev told the "Today" show that he expects Mee's defense lawyers will argue that she was led astray by all the attention.
"Sometimes when you live a little bit of a transient lifestyle you tend to hang around some unsavory individuals," Kovacsev said. He said the two men charged with Mee had "minimal criminal records" but that her ex-boyfriend was in jail for robbery.
Mee's constant hiccups stopped on their own after five weeks. Her mother told Tampa radio station WFLZ on Monday that Mee had not lived with her in a year

Woman Stabbed in Anger Management Class

I believe there is a lesson in this story.
And.... in a sick, twisted way... a laugh.
If you are going to stab someone,
an anger management class is not the place.
Here's the link to the story:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013164351_stabbing15m.html

Two Of Too Many Missing Children

Please take a moment, if you will, to watch the video below. Lindsay and Kyron's families have Facebook pages. Join them, show your support, give them words or hope... or tell them you understand that you can never understand what they are going through. Study Lindsay and Kyron's faces.  Keep your eyes peeled, stay ever- vigilant... and pray Lindsay and Kyron find their way home.

Missing - Lindsey Baum and Kyron Horman

Missing

I've always worked, even when my kids were young.
I chose to work out of my home, so what I did was hire "nannies" -- a fancy word for babysitters.
When my children were babies, I hired elderly grandmother types who would tend to them while I worked in my home office.
When the kids got older, I moved to younger, bright, students with wheels and a great sense of responsibility.

So...once... in the baby phase... it came time to hire a nanny, I chose Mary (a pseudonym) who was 50. Now in hindsight... and with years of P.I. work under my belt.... the red flags were there. She was TOO perfect. But that was then. History.
I did the usual background check,  though I wasn't a P.I. then and didn't know what I was doing. I checked her resume, her references.
She seemed perfect.

It was only after I hired her she told me THE story:
When she was a young mother,  living in Florida, she would allow her 3 year old son to play in the front fenced yard while she did her housework.
One day, she said, while she was doing the dishes, her 3 year old son disappeared.
And was never found again.

I felt a huge wash of sympathy overcome me... then confusion.... because when she told me of this loss it was without emotion.
She didn't show the pain I have seen in faces of the missing.... a pain that doesn't EVER go away.
She was always happy, upbeat, almost too perfect.
She had a daughter later and now had grandchildren, though I knew they were all in a financial struggle.
From the point of her sharing the abduction story on, I felt a visceral uneasiness replace my sympathy and stayed very close to home.
Within days of that announcement she asked me this question.
"If you were hungry and out of money and you knew someone who had an abundance of food, would you steal some of that food to feed your children?"
I told her I would ask the person for the food first.
She looked at me oddly, and said,
"What if you didn't want to ask? Or they didn't want to give it to you?"
I told her I would try to find any other another way than stealing. Though, I confessed, if my kids WERE starving and there WAS a whole lot of food around me no one would miss, I would take the food and feed my kids.
 
And what happened next, is so minor... compared to what families of the missing go through...
I  feel flippant, almost irreverent, posting it here.
However, this story must end so here's what happened.
I'd been collecting these "My Little Ponies" and other cool toys for the kids.
I figured one day, as adults, their kids would like them. So I had this cherished box of  the most special toys we pulled out and played with. It was an impressive collection.
One afternoon, just after I arrived home, Mary hurried out the door as soon as I arrived.
It was the first day of the work week, a new paid period.
When I went to the kitchen table, there was a resignation note.
It said something about due to the health of her daughter, she must quit.
The note had a p.s., "Keep today's pay."
And that was it. 
I called her back, her phone was disconnected.
She was gone.
And so was the box of sacred toys.
No jewelry missing...no stolen checks... nothing else... just the toys I'd been collecting for years.
I knew in my gut, she stole them for her grandchildren.
I felt the loss and betrayal deeply for a while.
They were JUST toys, yes... however... they were symbols to me.
Of faith, then betrayal.
Symbols of how little I knew about people.
And how close I came to having something real terrible happen to my kids because I hired a thief who could have done far worse.
The internet didn't exist then...  in the times I have looked since, I found no records of Mary or her child abduction.
And it's been only in recent years, my kids now adults, that I wonder if Mary's daughter was really HER birth daughter.
Maybe....she asked me the question NOT because she was about to steal my kids' toys, but because she stole her daughter from someone else.
Maybe she felt justified since someone stole her son from her.
Or maybe the whole abduction story was fabricated. Though if so, why?
I have been running in circles with this question ever since.
Every missing children leaves an inextricably altered family... and community in their wake.
What's hard for me in such cases, is imagining what the parents imagine first.
What's hardest is imagining what it must be like to be the child who is taken.
That must be one of the darkest places in the whole world.
Without the media and videos like the one above, we wouldn't know those worlds exist.
                                                                  

Mountain Goat Kills Man

I don't know about this case. Clearly, the mountain goat stabbed the human and the human died.
The goat was then hunted down and killed.
I have mixed feelings about this...
the killing of the goat without a fair trial.
Perhaps the goat was acting in self defense.
Or maybe it was a mother goat protecting a nearby baby goat.
Perhaps the human did something to unknowingly or knowingly provoke the goat.
For whatever reason the goat did what it did... killed the the human.... and the goat was executed.
And eye for an eye.
A goat for a human.
I'm just know if I would call that justice.
Would you?
Here's the link to the story.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013189753_olympicpark18m.html

You've Been Served

I serve hard-to-find people subpoenas every now and then. I've written about it here before. Two nights ago, however, I think I made history.
I became the first P.I. ever to have the person who was served, ask the server for a hug.
The attorney laughed when I told him the story and added at the end, "I think he'll be a friendly witness."
My job was to find him, find out what he knows. And if what he knows is important, then serve him a trial subpoena.
So I called him talked to him. Told the attorney what I found out. Attorney agreed he could be the pivotal witness in the case. He said "serve him."
I'd talked to this guy earlier on the phone. He was very nice. Incredibly helpful.
I felt bad just showing up at his house and saying you've been served.
Plus I thought maybe he had more info I could gather.
So I asked him to meet me at Starbucks after his work.
Long story short, I bought the coffee and served the subpoena.
His feathers were ruffled at first.
We talked about what a subpoena for trial meant. He became more comfortable.
Then he began talking about his divorce... his drug addicted soon-to-be ex... the poor little five year old son who screams every  he sees mommy, who the court and father believes abuses him.
And every time he sees mommy, a court-appointed guardian is there for their two-hour requisite mommy visits.
Mommy does sound like a nut case.
Truly insane behavior which would be why the guy I was serving was awarded full custody.
His soon-to-be-ex was committed to a mental institution twice,  takes major pills all the time,  smokes a variety of things, crack, coke, meth... has had a couple DWI's. She hangs out with very bad people, forges legals documents, I could go on and on.
Bottom line... the guy, my subpoena subject... told me he has become his own P.I. in his divorce/custody case and now he wants to become a P.I. for real.
He asked about the avenues to get there.
He also wanted some advice, which I gave him.... quid pro quo and pro bono for the subpoena.
I liked him. He was a good guy and great dad. About 15 years younger than me.
I told him I was impressed with how he handles life.
When it came time to go, he said, "Can I give you a hug?"
I said, "Sure. I've never hugged anyone I served a subpoena to."
He told me it as his first subpoena  ever and it was a pleasure.
We both laughed and parted ways.
What an unexpected ray of light in what is usually such a dark side of our business.

The Classic Crime - "Seattle"

You can't run away.

People, who were once lovers, partners, friends, do not like being left.
Having been there, done that and now.... being paid to investigate it, I thought it appropriate I post this video for a few of my clients and friends going through some rough domestic situations at the moment.
Every day, someone leaves someone in their dust.
Friendships get derailed.
Lovers split due to incompatibility.... or interlopers.
Employers fire life-time employees.
Love affairs, engagements, marriages end....leaving grief, anger and one or two words in their wake.
"Why?"
or "Who?"
I think the following song does a great job getting you inside the head of a  someone who is grieving.... who feels discarded, betrayed.  I hear Paramore's words time and again from clients who expected to be married forever.

Paramore: "For a Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic" lyrics

Word of Wisdom

I have early cases today. All southbound, still debating ferry or bridge to cross the water  to my first location. Meantime, I want to to leave some wisdom in my wake. Though these words are not my own...  they've become a part of my life. And the way I want live it. To those who've never heard them, consider embracing them. They soften life's rough edges.

"Before you speak, listen.
Before you write, think
Before you spend, earn.
Before you invest, investigate.
Before you criticize, wait.
Before you pray, forgive.
Before you quit, try.
Before you retire, save.
Before you die, give."

William Arthur Ward

A New Addiction.

Meth, sex, porn, pills, nicotine, booze, food, facebook, etc. And now, auto tune.
Only 40,000 people will have seen this video when I post it here. Hopefully we can take awareness of this new addiction viral... in a healthy kind of way.

AutoTune Addict Rap

This is my first day with some time at home base in a long time.
I am between wrapping up two cases, starting a few others and figuring out how to have a life in-between.
All my mailboxes... on laptop, desktop, mobile phone are full.
So is the sink. Full.
The laundry basket. Full.
There are little hairballs I like to pretend are tumble weeds in the far corners of our domestic wasteland, abandoned when work/duty calls.

Our remote beach house is almost all cleaned up after a catalytic converter exploded in our fireplace while we slept. A similar fate befell a local family, three unfortunate people died from the same thing.
It was the smoke detectors that woke and saved us.
The entire place was covered with fine film of black brown slimy ash.
Meantime, the show had to go on.
The bills had to be paid.
Work had to be done.

I could write epics about every day I spend working outside this beach sanctuary as an investigator. And I am working on that.
For now, this brief moment.... a window opened.
And there is this one space, this one little blog, someone might read. Or not.
It's the diary of just one P.I.,  written by one more ant in the colony.

Today's assignment, I must head out to serve some subpoenas this evening.
It's a two part challenge.
First, the finding of the subject.
Then the passing the papers from my hands to the subject's without any kind of altercation.
So far, I have yet to encounter an episode of violence, before or after serving a supbeona.
That could be largely due to my approach.
When I knock on a door or walk up to someone, they never see a P.I. coming.
Just smiling, friendly, harmless-looking, me.
Sometimes I even have flowers in hand.
By the time the subpoena is in their hands and I say "you've been served," the adrenalin rush is quite similar to roller coaster status.
Only it's all internal and about escape.
You know you've got to fly...
and fast....
and hopefully avoid anyone getting between you and your car.
Or anyone getting your license plate numbers.

That said, I just looked at the clock and it just gave me a dirty look back.
I'm running late.
So I posted on Facebook, added a blog here and now, I can happily set off to places and people unknown.
Be safe out there today.
Meanwhile, today's survival tip:
Don't drive in the left lane and never drive in front of a Semi.

murder on the dance floor

Disclaimer - Don't be afraid to take a stand.

I don't think anyone who reads my blog hasn't heard a four letter word or seen a middle finger before. However, this video is filled with them... and all kinds of adult concepts.... so don't play in front of minors, if you are deeply religious or offended by this kind of music.

Eminem - Not Afraid

"I'm Not Afraid"

When I tell people what I do for a living, I get asked a lot of questions.
Like "do you hide in bushes and spy on people?"
Or "do you carry a gun?"
Or "Is it dangerous"
And ocassionally, "Are you afraid?"
Admittedly, in the very beginning, many moons again,  I did have a measure of fear to deal with every day.
Now the fear, when it comes, which is seldom, is really more of an alarm clock, adrenalin rush, wakeup call in my head. It just says "pay attention". Beyond that it rallies me to rally others out of their fear.
And when I heard Eminem's song, expletives and all... it spoke to me.
Whether it speaks to you, or offends you, welcome to my blog.
And hip hip hooray for freedom of speech. 
However, if there are kids or people offended by four letter words around, please don't play this in front of them.

Eureka! Video of Today's Blog Poem.

Drive By Wisdom

I am a busy P.I. lately. Not that I'm complaining because when you love your work....and you have work... life is good. The only challenge is getting it all done. Most full time P.I.'s like me work 14 hour days. (I pulled two all-nighters in the past nine days.)
It's almost like fishing. Investigation has its seasons and this would be one of them. Many of my client's are seriously or catastrophically  injured. Some aren't lucky enough to survive the various accidents that befall them and I meet their grieving families.
After a life-altering injuring which the attorney's client isn't responsible or liable for....
when some other party is clearly at fault....
attorneys are willing to send me to their clients, to check out the case, the facts, investigate it....
the scene, the damage, the works. That keeps me on the road a whole lot.
When I get back home at night, the cases I worked that day must be written up.
There are photos to be processed and put together. Invoices. Then delivery to the attorney.
Some days are slow, some are moving at warp speed.

This one of those warp speed days for me and I didn't want to leave the blog unattended... especially since we started teaching a new year's P.I. class at the university last night. I know many of our new students will be stopping by this blog for the first time today. I want to say hello to all of them, invite whoever is game to stop by my FB wall and say hey. That's how we'll get to know each other better until my semester comes.

I told our students last night I use this blog and my FB wall as a business tool. My FB friend count reflects blog readership vs. real life friends. I want my students to see that P.I.'s are evolving in their cyber marketing tools and techniques.
And I want regular people, civilians, to know what P.I.'s really do. How ethical we are... how the good among us live, breathe, eat, sleep... justice.
Justice, being truth.
I have many detectives, police officers, media people, authors, soldiers, bounty hunter friends on Facebook.  To our students -- feel free to friend my friends and you will learn from them as well.

So I must work now.
I am closing today's post with a favorite quote.
I have "author unknown" though I suspect someone reading it will know who wrote it and let us know. Either way, I have always found this message inspiring. If you haven't heard it before, it's a keeper:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"When things go wrong as they sometimes will, When the road you're trudging seems all up hill, When the funds are low and the debts are high, And you want to smile, but you have to sigh, When care is pressing you down a bit, Rest if you must, but don't you quit. Life is queer with its twists and turns, As every one of us sometimes learns, And many a failure turns about, When he might have won had he stuck it out. Don't give up though the pace seems slow--You may succeed with another blow, Success is failure turned inside out--The silver tint of the clouds of doubt, And you never can tell how close you are, It may be near when it seems so far; So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--It's when things seem worst that you must not quit."
Unknown

The Fort Ludlow Massacre

One of my family friends, who is serving in Iraq, brought this story to my attention recently. I never heard about it and didn't pay much attention until I started digging around. Beyond the most horrendous crime... massacre, the killing, the brutality... there is also the role the Private Detectives back then played in the killing. I had no clue that many moons ago....  many started out, professionally, as thugs and killers,
I'm leaving a link to the story in my wake today.
I had no clue this ever happened.
http://www.umwa.org/?q=content/ludlow-massacre

An Old Favorite

Al Pavino's pre-game pep talk has always held a special place in my heart. It speaks more to me about life than football. He says what I feel.

Al Pacino's Inspirational Speech