Archive for the ‘Cops’ Category

Obit watch: May 1, 2023.

Monday, May 1st, 2023

Rabbi Harold S. Kushner, author. (When Bad Things Happen to Good People and other books).

Detective Troy Patterson of the NYPD.

One night in 1990, three punks tried to hold Officer Patterson up. The robbery went bad, and Officer Patterson was shot in the head. He’d been in a vegetative state for the past 33 years.

Patterson was promoted to detective in 2016.
The three suspects — Vincent Robbins, Tracey Clark and Darien Crawford — were later arrested in the unprovoked shooting.
Robbins, now 53, was convicted of assault and attempted-robbery charges and sentenced to a prison term of five to 15 years. He was released in 2000, state records show.
Clark, the alleged gunman in the shooting, also went to trial in the case. The outcome of the case is not immediately available, nor are any details of the charges against Crawford.

Tim Bachman, of Bachman-Turner Overdrive. You may recall that his brother, Robbie, passed in January.

Mike Shannon, former player and later broadcaster for the St. Louis Cardinals.

John Stobart, artist.

A product of Britain’s Royal Academy of Art, Mr. Stobart moved to the United States in 1970, when conceptual art, Op Art and minimalism were riding high in the wake of Abstract Expressionism.
Affable, unassuming and unfailingly candid, Mr. Stobart would have none of it. “I’ve never bought it, and the general public has never bought it either,” he said of abstract art in an interview with The Boston Globe in 1986. “That’s a lot of baloney, that stuff.”
Instead, he conjured the past as a master of richly detailed historical works brimming with schooners, brigs and sloops, their sails flapping under moody clouds, with shore lights twinkling in the distance.
Working out of studios in the Boston area, Martha’s Vineyard and several other locations, Mr. Stobart, who lived in Medfield, Mass., employed the same taste for exhaustive historical detail as Patrick O’Brian, the prolific Anglo-Irish author known for his bracing tales of naval heroics.
He left no detail to chance, traveling to the locations he painted, consulting old daguerreotypes of harbors and ships and going out to sea on various watercraft to learn the most arcane points about their engineering and behavior on the water.

By the mid-1980s, he had written the first of his three books, “The Rediscovery of America’s Maritime Heritage,” and thanks in part to a lucrative operation selling first-edition prints, was making up to $2.5 million a year. In recent years, his originals were selling for $15,000 to $400,000 through the Rehs Galleries in New York.

The obit reproduces some of Mr. Stobart’s paintings. I’m probably a sucker for representational art, but I like what I see there, and would be happy to have an original Stobart on my wall.

Obit watch: April 4, 2023.

Tuesday, April 4th, 2023

Sister Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou.

She was a world-class pianist:

…music that drew on her classical training but seemed to partake of rhythm and blues, jazz and other influences. The relatively few who discovered it knew they had found their way to something singular.
The musician Norah Jones was one who did, especially after hearing the album “Éthiopiques 21,” a collection of Sister Guèbrou’s piano solos that was part of a record series spotlighting folkloric and pop music from Ethiopia.
“This album is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard: part Duke Ellington, part modal scales, part the blues, part church music,” Ms. Jones told The New York Times in 2020. “It resonated in all those ways for me.”

As you may have guessed from the “Sister”, and the categories on this post, she went in a different direction:

She had a chance to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London and seemed on the way to a career as a concert pianist, the BBC documentary says, but that prospect fell through for reasons Sister Guèbrou would not detail. That led her to a spiritual reassessment of her life, and by her early 20s, she was a nun. She spent 10 years in a hilltop monastery in Ethiopia.
“I took off my shoes and went barefoot for 10 years,” she told Ms. Molleson. “No shoes, no music, just prayer.”
She returned to her family and by the 1960s was recording some of her music; her first album was released in Germany in 1967, according to the website of a foundation established in her name to promote music education.
She made several other records over the next 30 years, donating the proceeds to the poor. In the mid-1980s, she left Ethiopia and settled into an Ethiopian Orthodox monastery in Jerusalem, spending the rest of her life there. Information on her survivors was not available.

She was 99.

Sharon Acker passed over the weekend.

The “Perry Mason” mentioned in the headline was actually “The New Perry Mason”, in which she played “Della Street” opposite Monte Markham’s Perry Mason. It lasted one season. Other credits include three “Quincy, M.E.” appearances, “The Rockford Files”, “Hec Ramsey”, “The Bold Ones: The Senator”, and a minor SF TV series from the 1960s.

Roy McGrath. Mr. McGrath was the former chief of staff for the governor of Maryland. Three weeks ago, he went on the run: the day his corruption trial was supposed to start. He was charged with “wire fraud, embezzlement, misconduct in office and improper use of state funds”.

Authorities tracked him down in Tennessee yesterday. There was a confrontation with FBI agents, and Mr. McGrath was shot. He died in a local hospital. At this point, it isn’t clear if his wound was self-inflicted or if he was shot by the FBI.

(Sort of an) obit watch: December 9, 2022.

Friday, December 9th, 2022

I wanted to break this out into a separate entry because it didn’t feel like it belonged with the previous one. Also, it’s another one of those “not quite an obit” things.

Philadelphia’s “Boy in the Box” has been identified.

The boy, then believed to be between 4 and 6 years old, had been beaten to death, an autopsy later revealed. But clues were scant, and copious efforts over decades to solve the crime proved futile. The unknown victim became known as “The Boy in the Box.” Others called him, more gently, “America’s Unknown Child.”
His name is now known: Joseph Augustus Zarelli. Born on Jan. 13, 1953, he was 4 when he died, Philadelphia police officials said Thursday, at a news conference where they described a breakthrough using DNA and genetic genealogy techniques that have revolutionized cold case work in recent years.

He was found in a cardboard box in February of 1957.

He was unclothed, and had been wrapped in a flannel blanket, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. His hair had recently been “cut in a way that suggested it was not the work of a skilled barber,” and his fingernails had been trimmed, according to the national system.

Capt. Jason Smith said officers did not yet know who killed the boy or the circumstances of how he had died, and that investigations would continue.
“We have our suspicions as to who may be responsible, but it would be irresponsible of me to share these suspicions as this remains an active and ongoing criminal investigation,” Captain Smith said.

I remember this case getting a lot of coverage from John Walsh on the old America’s Most Wanted. I’m glad they have a name for the child now.

Obit watch: September 23, 2022 (supplemental).

Friday, September 23rd, 2022

Senior Austin Police Department Officer Anthony “Tony” Martin passed away this morning.

According to news reports, he was returning home from work when he hit a car that turned left in front of him.

The Austin Police Honor Guard says Martin had been with APD since 2006, and during his career served in a variety of assignments including on patrol, Motors, and DWI units. He is survived by his wife Amberlee, a son, two daughters, and one granddaughter.

Obit watch: August 4, 2022.

Thursday, August 4th, 2022

Private First Class Robert E. Simanek (USMC – ret.). Alt link.

Private Simanek received the Medal of Honor for actions during the Korean War. From his Medal of Honor citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with Company F, in action against enemy aggressor forces. While accompanying a patrol en route to occupy a combat outpost forward of friendly lines, Private First Class Simanek exhibited a high degree of courage and a resolute spirit of self-sacrifice in protecting the lives of his fellow marines. With his unit ambushed by an intense concentration of enemy mortar and small-arms fire, and suffering heavy casualties, he was forced to seek cover with the remaining members of the patrol in a nearby trench line. Determined to save his comrades when a hostile grenade was hurled into their midst, he unhesitatingly threw himself on the deadly missile absorbing the shattering violence of the exploding charge in his body and shielding his fellow marines from serious injury or death. Gravely wounded as a result of his heroic action, Private First Class Simanek, by his daring initiative and great personal valor in the face of almost certain death, served to inspire all who observed him and upheld the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

I kind of liked this quote:

“I had been to the outpost before and thought of it as a somewhat vacation because no action had ever been there all the time I’d been on that particular part of the line,” Mr. Simanek recalled in an interview with the government website Department of Defense News in 2020. “So I took an old Reader’s Digest and a can of precious beer in my big back pocket and thought I was really going to have a relaxing situation. It didn’t turn out that way.”

He was 92. His death (according to the NYT) leaves two surviving MoH recipients from the Korean War: Hiroshi Miyamura, who is 96, and Ralph Puckett Jr., who is 95.

Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Indiana) was killed in a car accident yesterday. Two of her aides, district director Zachery Potts and communications director Emma Thomson, were also killed.

Lawrence sent over an obit for British actor John Steiner, who died in a car accident on Sunday. Credits include “Caligula”, “Deported Women of the SS Special Section”, and “The .44 Specialist”.

Richard Tait, co-inventor of “Cranium”. He was 58, and died of COVID complications.

Dallas Edeburn, deputy with the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office in Minnesota. He was found dead in his car after his shift. In March of 2021, he was in a serious accident when his patrol car was hit by a stolen car fleeing from the police. Other officers pulled him from his burning car, and he sustained pretty serious injuries. It isn’t clear if his death is related to the previous incident.

Johnny Famechon, former featherweight champion of the world.

The Australian boxer’s most memorable world title victory was his decision win against Cuban Jose Legra for the WBC title at London’s Albert Hall in 1969. Famechon boxed professionally for more than 20 years and had a record of 56 wins (20 by knockout), five losses and six draws.

A horse is a horse, of course, of course…

Tuesday, July 19th, 2022

…and no one should flee from a horse, of course,
Especially (of course) if the NYPD owns that horse.

Somebody in the thread responded with a still, but what the heck, let’s go to the ‘Tube:

(Jessica Walter! Damn!)

Obit watch supplemental.

Thursday, June 30th, 2022

I wanted to break this out from the others for reasons.

Jeffrey Richardson, an officer with the Poteet Police Department, was killed yesterday.

Poteet is a small city near San Antonio. According to reports, Officer Richardson was working an off-duty job in a construction zone near the Domain in Austin when he was struck and killed by a possibly impaired driver.

After action report: Concord, NC.

Thursday, June 23rd, 2022

Last week, I was in Concord, North Carolina (a little outside of Charlotte).

Why?

The Smith and Wesson Collectors Association symposium, of course.

Yes, I did have a great time, thank you very much. No, I can’t talk a lot about what went on at the Symposium, since it is a closed meeting. I don’t think I’m revealing too much by saying there was an interesting presentation on a very early production S&W (serial number five) and another presentation on tracking down old NYPD guns. Not just “was this a NYPD gun?” but who carried it, when they carried it, and even background about the person who carried it.

(Fun fact: at least for the period of time under discussion, there was no such thing as a NYPD “issue” gun. Police officers were responsible for purchasing and providing their own firearms, based on what the department approved. There are some very limited exceptions: the department did have some “loaner” guns for officers whose weapons were being repaired, and some “specialty” guns for certain situations. But generally, if you were a NYPD officer, you bought your gun, it had your shield number engraved on it, and the NYPD kept track of what type of gun and what serial number was used by the officer with that shield number.)

I picked up some paper (S&W instruction sheets and promotional items). I didn’t buy any guns (which legally would have to be shipped to my FFL anyway), though there were a couple that tempted me. Bones, one of my friends in the association had a 638 that he offered me at what I think is a fairly good price. If I hadn’t already bought that Model 38…also, there’s another gun that I have my eye on.

(I’ve been telling people “I have Smith and Wesson tastes, but a Jennings Firearms budget.” I used to say “…a Taurus budget”, but someone pointed out to me that Taurus firearms are getting expensive.)

There are always some folks selling books as well. Generally, it isn’t their main focus, but incidental to the guns/parts/accessories on their table. Another one of my good friends had two Julian Hatcher books on his table that I think were original Samworths. But when I went back, he’d sold both of them to someone else. We did end up having a nice conversation about the Samworths, though: both of us were happy to find another SATPCO fan. (And he’s offered to sell me some of his surplus Samworths.)

Someone else was selling a copy of Elmer Keith’s Safari. For $1,000. But: this copy wasn’t just signed by Elmer Keith, it was signed by Elmer Keith to Bill Jordan, and included letters between the two of them. I can see the associational value justifying the extra $600 or so, if you’re a serious gun book crank.

(The same guy has another book I want, but the price is giving me the leaping fantods. And they weren’t on sale, but there was a guy there who had a couple of books on H.M. Pope to accompany his display: S&W target pistols that had been re-barrelled by Pope. Since I’m already interested in barrel making, that’s another rabbit hole to go down. Fortunately, those prices are more reasonable. Relatively speaking.)

I did get some good barbecue at Jim ‘N Nick’s in Concord. Thing is, it seems like it was more Alabama ‘que instead of Carolina ‘que. But it was still good. As was the chocolate cream pie. And the cheese biscuits were excellent: I’d buy a package of the mix, except shipping costs more than the mix itself. (I didn’t bring any back with me because I wasn’t sure I could fit it in my bags.)

Other than that, food was iffy. The hotel had an excellent free breakfast. Not a “continental breakfast”, but a real hot breakfast with an omelet and waffle station, eggs, biscuits and gravy, and etcetera. The hotel restaurant, on the other hand, didn’t have any wait staff: you had to order at the bar and a runner would bring the food out to you. And it honestly was not very good food.

Traditionally, there’s a “cocktail party” (which is really more like a full-blown dinner buffet, complete with prime rib carving station) and a sit-down banquet two nights during the symposium, so I didn’t go out those nights. My other meal out was at a Jason’s Deli with a bunch of my friends from the S&WCA so we could talk shop about some projects we’re working on.

I really didn’t do any touristy stuff. The convention runs Thursday through Saturday, and I spent all of that time gawking at guns and catching up with my friends. Sometimes there’s an excursion arranged as part of the Symposium, if there’s a point of interest nearby, but not in this case. Sunday was the only day I had free to explore. And I didn’t have a car. I looked into renting one just for Sunday, but that was so difficult I gave up the idea.

As it turns out, the hotel in Concord was almost right on top of Charlotte Motor Speedway. Apple Maps has it as two minutes (.5 miles) by car, and I could see the lights of the speedway from my (second floor) room. There is a tour offered, but it wasn’t available on that Sunday. Hendrick Motorsports is big in the area (the hotel is almost literally surrounded by various Hendrik auto dealerships). Their facility was also close to the hotel, and apparently used to offer tours: “Campus remains temporarily closed to the public.

(It isn’t that I’m a huge NASCAR fan: I try to keep up with the sport as a background process, but not seeing the speedway or the Hendrik campus didn’t break my heart. On the other hand, I really enjoy going to obscure places even if they may not line up with my current interests: you never know when you’ll come out of a new place with another rabbit hole to go down.)

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a long Smith and Wesson related to-do list to work on. Only 363 days until the next Symposium.

Obit watch: June 9, 2022.

Thursday, June 9th, 2022

Two interesting obits from the NYT for somewhat obscure people:

Jim Murphy. He specialized in history books for kids.

“I really love doing research,” he said. “I look at it as a kind of detective work. I would prefer to research forever and ever. The hard part is doing the writing.”

I’m a little old to be his target audience, but the books on yellow fever and the “blue baby” operation sound right up my alley.

Oris Buckner. He was a homicide detective with the New Orleans Police Department in the 1980s – the only black homicide detective at the time.

Then things went to hell. Briefly (the obit goes into more details) other homicide detectives beat witnesses to the killing of a police officer until they implicated two men, then killed both men, along with the girlfriend of one.

Mr. Buckner testified against the other officers. The local grand jury refused to indict them, but seven officers were eventually charged with federal civil rights violations. Three were convicted and sentenced to five years.

Mr. Buckner suffered for his decision to come forward. He was ostracized by his colleagues. He received death threats. He was demoted from homicide detective to traffic cop. Though he was finally promoted to sergeant in 1995, his career was effectively over.

Obit watch: May 13, 2022.

Friday, May 13th, 2022

Fred Ward. Damn.

Credits include the titular character in “Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins”, “Sgt. Hoke Moseley” in “Miami Blues”, “Quincy M.E.”, “Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann”, “Tremors”, “The Right Stuff”, and “Det. Harry Philip Lovecraft” in “Cast A Deadly Spell”.

Bruce MacVittie. Other credits include “Waterfront”, “Homicide: Life on the Street”, “Spenser: For Hire” and “The Equalizer”.

Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, head of state of the U.A.E. As always, don’t look to me for geo-political takes, as I know nothing.

I have not found a good obit yet, but Randy Weaver apparently passed away. Here’s Reason‘s take.

…an FBI sniper opened fire as Randy was entering the cabin. The shot missed Randy and struck Vicki as she was holding their newest daughter, 10-month-old Elisheba. Vicki was killed instantly.

That sniper was Lon Horiuchi. Lon Horiuchi murdered Vicki Weaver.

The RRTF report to the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) of June 1994 stated unequivocally in conclusion (in its executive summary) that the rules that allowed the second shot to have been made did not satisfy constitutional standards for legal use of deadly force. The 1996 report of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Government Information, Arlen Specter [R-PA], chair, concurred, with Senator Dianne Feinstein [D-CA] dissenting. The RRTF report said that the lack of a request by the marshals to the Weavers to surrender was “inexcusable.” Harris and the two Weavers were not believed to be an imminent threat (since they were reported as running for cover without returning fire).
The later Justice task force criticized Horiuchi for firing through the door, when he did not know if anyone was on the other side of it. While there is a dispute as to who approved the rules of engagement which Horiuchi followed, the task force condemned the rules of engagement that allowed shots to be fired without a request for surrender.

Department of Dumber Than a Bag of Hair.

Wednesday, April 27th, 2022

Oh, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Don’t ever change.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Tuesday that his department was targeting a Times journalist in a criminal leak investigation for her reporting on a departmental cover-up, but after a barrage of criticism from politicians, the newspaper and press freedom groups, he backed off his announcement and denied that he considered the reporter a suspect.

Detailing an ongoing criminal probe of the leak, Villanueva displayed a poster with large photographs of Tchekmedyian, his political rival Eli Vera and sheriff’s Inspector General Max Huntsman with arrows pointing from the two men to the reporter.
“The three individuals that we want to know a lot about,” Villanueva said. “These three people have some important questions to answer.”
Villanueva exhibited a list of possible felonies under investigation, including conspiracy, burglary and unauthorized use of a database. When pressed by reporters on whether he was investigating Tchekmedyian specifically, the sheriff replied, “All parties to the act are subjects of the investigation.”

At 6:46 p.m., Villanueva issued a statement reacting to what he called an “incredible frenzy of misinformation being circulated.”
“I must clarify at no time today did I state an L.A. Times reporter was a suspect in a criminal investigation,” he said. “We have no interest in pursuing, nor are we pursuing, criminal charges against any reporters.”

All of this is over a video that got leaked, showing a deputy kneeling on an inmate’s head for three minutes.

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#85 in a series)

Friday, April 8th, 2022

I missed this story until Reason covered it.

The ex-police chief of San Angelo, Texas, was convicted of “receipt of a bribe by an agent of an organization receiving federal funds” and three counts of “honest services mail fraud”.

A police chief – even an ex-chief – being convicted of bribery and “honest services” fraud is noteworthy enough. But this crosses over into a whole new level of weird.

A federal prosecutor had told jurors the evidence they have will show Vasquez used his position as police chief in 2015 to circumvent the bidding process by which city contracts are awarded and convince city officials to stick with its current provider of radio communication systems, San Antonio based Dailey-Wells Communications, the licensed seller of L3Harris radios.

That’s not the weird part. The weird part: Dailey-Wells Communications had contracted with the former chief’s Earth, Wind, and Fire cover band to play at their corporate events.

No, you are not having a stroke. Yes, you read that right: the police chief’s Earth, Wind, and Fire cover band.

Once the new contract was awarded in 2015, Dailey-Wells hired Funky Munky to play 10 shows for about $84,000. The band’s other performances in that era earned them some $2,100 a show.

This appears to be the band’s Facebook page, but it hasn’t been updated since August of 2020. The website seems to be defunct.