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Saturday, January 06, 2018

BELLE OF BEDLAM

I wonder what was going through the mind of lawyer M.E. Leliter, on the afternoon 27 April, 1908, when he was told Mrs. Belle Gunness was in the anteroom of his Main Street office. I doubt he was pleased to see her. But you never think the worse, do you?  Belle was a genial and pleasant, 48 year old church-going woman, but substantial. And at 6 feet, even taller than "M.E.".  Community gossips said that Belle had been seen carrying two 100 pound hogs, one under each arm.. Still, "M.E." thought he could detect the aura of hidden pain behind Belle's sharp blue Nordic eyes.
In Chicago, the stout young Belle (above) had buried two of her children -  not an unusual tragedy in the nineteenth century.  But then,  in 1900,  her husband Anton Sorenson, had died of heart disease. With the proceeds from Anton’s two life insurance policies,  Belle and her three daughters had purchesed a farm on the northeast outskirts of La Porte Indiana, out on McClung Road past Pine and Fish Trap lakes. 
It was there a year later she had married widower Peter Gunness.  on 1 April, 1902.  But tragedy seemed to have followed Belle.  That very summer, Peter’s young daughter had died after a short illness. And then in December, Peter himself had been struck on the head by a falling sausage grinder, and killed. Well, life on a farm was hard, and dangerous.  And "M.E". forced a smile as he stepped out to greet the lumbering,  280 pound now middle aged woman.  But this day Belle was not interested in pleasantries. Someone, Belle announced,  wanted to murder her.
Her tale had a tinge of unreality to "M.E,"'s ears.  He was one of the most prominent of the 14,000 citizens of La Porte,  Indiana. Fifteen passenger trains a day passed through on their way to Chicago, 60 miles to the northwest.  Perched atop the prairie, the town was surrounded by farms, including the one owned by "M.E.", and, of course,  Belle's. But it was also home to the Meinaid Rumely Factory, whose 2,000 employees assembled steam powered thrashers,  and were rushing to manufacture one of the world’s first internal combustion farm tractors, the “Kerosene Annie”.
As befitted a prosperous middle class community, just down the street from "M.E."’s office stood the new red sandstone Romanesque Court House (above), with oak paneled court rooms and stained glass windows. The disturbed Belle and her accusations seemed more fitting to the lurid crime ridden alleys of Chicago than the small, quiet, proper, Victorian, La Porte, Indiana.
The potential assassin was Ray Lamphere (above), who until recently had been Belle’s hired hand. Six weeks ago, Belle said,  she had fired Ray, and he had threatened her and her two youngest daughters. “I'm afraid he's going to kill me and burn the house,” Belle told "M.E." . Thank goodness Belle’s eldest daughter, Jennie, was safely away at a finishing school in Los Angeles.  Yes, Belle had spoken with the police. Twice she had charged Ray with trespassing. But, explained the angry Belle,  the police had refused to grant her a protection order, and had dismissed her allegation that Ray was insane. Now, out of an excess of caution, Belle wanted to amend her will.  She wanted to be certain that her estate would to go to her children. And, if for some reason, they were deceased,  then Belle wanted all her property to go to a Norwegian orphanage back in Chicago.  "M.E." took down the information, and made an appointment for Belle to return in a few days to sign the completed document.
Then shocking news came with the morning light. There had been a terrible fire at the Gunness farm in the early morning hours of 28 April, 1908.  Despite the noble efforts of Belle’s new hired hand, and two passing men, no one had made it out of the house alive.  Eventually the beams and the furniture had crashed into the basement.
By noon the heat had retreated enough for workers to shift the ashes. There they found the pitiful bodies of Belle’s three children, Myrtle and Lucy Sorensen, and Philip Gunness, aged 5,  as well as the blackened, headless corpse of a woman presumed to be Belle. And when the cops arrested Ray Lamphere, he blurted out, “Did widow Gunness and the kids get out all right?”  It seemed an open and shut case. Except... when told of the bodies, and of the charges Belle had made against him the day before,  Ray was heard to ruefully say, “After all,  she wanted me killed because I knew too much..”  Was this the foundation for an insanity plea, or even self defense - from a woman?  But it did cause the police to think.
And then there was the mystery of the woman’s body. When doctors examined the corpse they described it as belonging to a woman weighing no more than 150 pounds.  Neighbors who had sewn clothing for Belle were adamant that the corpse could not be Belle's   So back to the ashes went the searchers. And what they found raised even more questions; they found men’s pocket watches, rings and wallets. A lot of watches, rings and wallets.
While the police were still mulling over this perplexing development, a man named Ray Helgelien arrived in town,  looking for his brother.  Andrew Helgelien (above) had responded to a notice in a South Dakota lonely hearts column. “Wanted — a woman who owns a beautifully located and valuable farm in first class condition, wants a good and reliable man as partner in the same”.  The lady needed help paying off the farm's mortgage, and offered matrimony and love in return. After exchanging several letters, Andrew had left home with $300 cash in his pocket.  Ray had not heard from his brother for several weeks, and finally opened the last last letter, post marked from La Porte. It read,  “My heart beats in wild rapture for you, My Andrew. I love you. Come prepared to stay forever.”  Having seen newspaper stories about the grisly finds in the La Porte burned out farm house, Ray suspected that Andrew may have done just  that.   Had Belle placed that notice?  The local post office confirmed that Belle had mailed and received 8 to 10 letters a day, for years. The searchers spread out across the farm and started digging.
First they found and disinterred the body of daughter Jennie,  who was supposed to have been away at school in Los Angeles.   Then, under the pig pen the searchers found the bodies of ten to fourteen men and women, many of whom had been last seen visiting Belle’s farm, or working  there as maids and cooks.
Included among these remains was a body identified as being that of Andrew (above). In his corpse, as is in many of the others, the medical examiner found cyanide. The police were now more than willing to think the worst. 
How many victims had been fed to Belle’s hogs, or buried in undiscovered graves elsewhere on the farm? When finally added up the list of known and suspected victims reached forty.  Belle Gunness could well have been the most prolific, and one of the most hard working serial murderess in American history.
The jury at Ray Lamphere’s trail found him not guilty of murder, but guilty of arson. The jury also issued a statement asserting that Belle’s body had been found in the ashes. That did not match what the medical examiner had to say about the body. And Ray insisted to the day he died that Belle had escaped.
For the next decade, sightings of Belle (above) were reported from all over America and Scandinavia. But the most intriguing story was that of Esther Carlson, who in 1931 was arrested in Los Angeles,  the location of Jennie's supposed finishing school.  Esther was charged with the murder of a Norwegian immigrant, which matched Belle's preferred victims.  Like Belle, Esther's motive was alleged to be theft of the victim's money.  Also like Belle, Esther's weapon of choice had been cyanide. But nothing was ever proved, and Esther died in jail  while awaiting trial.
But two expatriates from La Porte identified photos of Esther Carlson (above) as Belle Gunness. The ages were a close, Belle would have been 71 years old in 1931, and if Belle had lost weight,... Could they have been the same person?  Did Belle slaughter every human being close to her,  pin it on a simpleton fall guy, and escape to California, where she went on making a living by killing?   If that seems far fetched a tale, remember that it is the nature of most people, that when they hear of a tragedy,  their first thought is sympathy,  and almost never of evil - even though sometimes that is exactly what a tragedy is.
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Friday, January 05, 2018

THE MAN WHO BROKE THE BANK OF MONTE CARLO

As I walk along the Bois Boolong with an independant air
You can hear the girls declare, "He must be a Millionaire."
You can hear them sigh and wish to die, You can see them wink the other eye
At the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo.
I hasten to point out that nobody has ever actually broken the bank in Monte Carlo. Should you be lucky enough to clean out a croupier, his table is covered in mourning cloth until a new employee arrives with more chips. This is referred to as "Faire sauter le banque", or blowing up the bank. Listen, if any casino in Monte Carlo should actually go broke, the residents would have to start paying taxes again, which they haven't done since 1869. I point this out so you can put Charles Schwab's behavior in context.
Thomas Edison (above, left) called his friend Charlie M. Schwab (center) a "Master Hustler". One of Charlie's public school teachers in the working class town of Loretto, Pennsylvania described him as "...a boy who...went on the principle of pretend that you know and...find out mighty quick.” Later in his life Charlie attempted to explain himself this way; "Here I am, a not over-good businessman, a second rate engineer. I can make poor mechanical drawings. I can play the piano after a fashion. In fact I am one of those proverbial-jack-of-all-trades, who are usually failures. Why I am not, I can't tell you."
 
It was Charlie's (above) boundless self-confidence which quickly brought him to the attention of his prudish boss, Andrew Carnegie (below). Carnegie became so fond of Charlie that when he sold out his steel  mills to J.P. Morgan for $480 million in cash and stock, Carnegie made sure that Charlie got $25 million.
In February of 1901, Morgan combined Carnegie's steel mills with those of nine other companies and formed U.S. Steel. This gave him a near complete monopoly - 231 steel mills, 78 blast furnaces, some 60 iron and coal mines, a fleet of ore barges, 1,000 miles of railroad track and 79% of all American steel sales. There was only one problem. Carnegie had agreed to the sale only if the 39 year old Charlie Schwab was made President of U.S. Steel. And even if Charlie was well qualified for the job, (and he was) Morgan did not like hiring anyone whose first loyalty was not to him. But Morgan was not worried.
An intuitive judge of men, Morgan (above) knew who Charlie Schwab really was; a gambler. Charlie was happily married to his home town sweetheart, Eurania Dinkey. But in all other regards Charlies' life had been built on calculated risks. He enjoyed fast cars, fast women and roulette. While J.P.Morgan knew that Charlie had never lied to Carnegie, he also knew that Carnegie assumed that every person he liked was a Puritan, just like himself. And just a year after Charlie had overseen the formation of U.S. Steel, Morgan used Carnegie's myopia to get rid of Charlie.
I, to Monte Carlo went, just to raise my winter's rent.
Dame Fortune smiled upon me as she'd never done before,
And I've now such lots of money, I'm a gent. Yes, I've now such lots of money, I'm a gent.
I'm the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo
Charlie arrived in France in January of 1902, for a "working vacation".  He was accompanied by Eurania, his doctor, and a fellow steel magnet. Stopping in Paris, he bought a roadster, and then drove the 430 miles south to Nice (in just 18 hours), where he met up with (among others) Henri Rothschild.  According to Charlie, they "made a jolly party … racing all over the Riviera”. Their diversions included, said Charlie, four visits to the casino 10 miles up the coast Azure at Monte Carlo.  In fact Charlie was having such a good time that he failed to notice the presence in the Hôtel de Paris of several American newspaper reporters.
The story of his visits to the casino appeared in half a dozen newspapers on Monday, 13 January, 1902.   The New York Sun trumpeted from Monte Carlo, "Charles M. Schwab is here and the lion of the day.  (He) has been playing roulette...broke the bank this afternoon.  He has had an extraordinary luck and repeatedly staked the maximum. ...the coupler pushed over to him $200,000, his winnings for the day....Mr. Schwab sauntered from table to table playing the maximums...." The New York Times editorialized, "A man who is at the head of a corporation with more than a billion dollars of capital stock...is under obligation to take some thought of his responsibilities...(and yet Charlie had joined) the intellectual and social dregs of Europe around the gaming tables of Monte Carlo, and there (made)..a prolonged effort to ‘beat’ a game which to a mathematical certainty cannot be beaten”  But he did!
Reading all of this in his West Fifty-first Street mansion, Andrew Carnegie immediately cabled Charlie in Nice, "Public sentiment shocked...Probably have to resign. Serves you right." Then he sent a letter to JP Morgan, " I feel...as if a son had disgraced the family...He is unfit to be the head of the United States Steel Company—brilliant as his talents are...Never did he show any tendency to gambling when under me, or I should not have recommended him...He shows a sad lack of...good sense...I have had nothing wound me so deeply for many a long day, if ever. Sincerely Yours, Andrew Carnegie."
I patronised the tables at the Monte Carlo, Till they hadn't got a sou for a Christian or a Jew;
So I quickly went to Paris for the charms of mad'moiselle,
Who's the loadstone of my heart - what can I do, When with twenty tongues that she swears that she'll be true.
I'm the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo"
Charlie issued the obligatory press statement. “I have been on an automobile trip through the south of France with a party of friends. ..I did visit the Casino at Monte Carlo, but the statements of sensational gambling are false.”   He insisted he had won no more than $36 on any occasion.  But it did not matter whether he had won at the tables or not. Charlie returned home on 16 February, 1902 (that's him, smiling), and now refused to even comment on the affair.  That did not matter, either. Carnegie would never support him again.  Morgan never said a word in public about the affair. He did not have to.  Now that Charlie was isolated from his mentor, he was easy prey for Morgan.
The next year, 1903, Charlie was forced to resign from U.S. Steel.  And without his dynamic leadership, Morgan's monopoly lost half of its market share by 1911. So much for J.P. Morgan's financial genius. Charlie went on to buy Bethlehem Steel (above), which he ran until shortly before his death, in 1939.  But like all gamblers, he died broke.  As Charlie himself said, "I have probably purchased fifty 'hot tips' in my career, maybe even more. When I put them all together, I know I am a net loser."
But what Charlie never did, as least publicly,  was to  ask what all those New York reporters were doing at the Casino in Monte Carlo, on that particular winter weekend in 1902.   If he had asked the answer might have been that the man who actually broke the bank in Monte Carlo, and his own US Steel company,  had been John Pierppoint Morgan (above and below),  And he wasn't even there.
I stay indoors till after lunch, and then my daily walk
To the great Triumphal Arch is one grand triumphal march,
Observed by each observer with the keenness of a hawk,
I'm a mass of money, linen, silk and starch - I'm a mass of money, linen, silk and starch.
I'm the man who broke the bank of Monte Carlo
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Wednesday, January 03, 2018

VICKSBURG Chapter Forty-Nine

Beginning bright and early on the morning of Friday, 15 May, 1863, the 16, 000 men of William Tecumseh Sherman's XVth Corp began destroying everything which contributed to the military power of the Confederacy in the state capital of Jackson, Mississippi. This included, Sherman explained , burning “ the arsenal buildings, the Government foundry, the gun carriage establishment, including the carriages for two complete six-gun batteries”. Also a horse stable was burned down – not the horses, they were too valuable - dozens of captured wagons, with saddles, bridles and traces were also destroyed, as were the carpenter and paint shops. Four cannon had been captured on Thursday, and thirteen more on Friday. All were spiked and once packed with powder, set off, blowing out their breeches.
But the Yankees spent most of their energy, and seemed to most enjoy, dismantling the railroads. This meant tearing the iron rails from their cross ties.
Piling the ties four or five feet high , the soldiers then set  them on fire - which they usually did easily because they were soaked in lubricating oil constantly dripping from locomotives. 
Once the ties were burning fiercely, the rails were piled on top until they softened. These were then bent around an unlucky tree or post and twisted into what would later be nicknamed “Sherman's Neckties”.  If done right., such neckties  would have be returned to a foundry, to be recast.
According to Sherman this treatment was applied to the rail lines crossing in the city for a distance of “4 miles east of Jackson, 3 south, 3 north, and 10 west.” 
In addition the Yankees burned the bridge over the Pearl River along with 3,000 feet of high trestle work connecting it to level ground. They also burned every other bridge they could reach. Sherman estimated the cost of rebuilding the rail lines alone would be $204,000.00 – over $4 million today.
The rail yards machine shops were dismantled and burned, all the machines for making machinery were pounded with sledge hammers until it was useless. Five locomotives were blown apart, and 22 freight cars were burned. Sherman estimated it would take six months to repair and replace all that was destroyed. But he was being conservative. Jackson was finished as railroad transfer center.
The Yankees also destroyed the state prison, known as “The Walls” (above). Since it's opening in 1840, Mississippi had used the labor of the 200 inmates to defray costs for their incarceration, even adding a 40 acre farm. But during the war most of the prisoners had either been shipped to adjoining states, or inducted into the Confederate Army. After the 1862 arsenal explosion, the prison factories had been used for making ammunition, as well continuing the manufacture of bale rope and hemp, and bags for cotton harvesting. But Sherman's men now cleared the building and blew its walls down.
Not far from the capital building, atop 'asylum heights', was the 7 year old state mental hospital (above). It had once sheltered 150 white patients, but war and 'natural' mortality had reduced that number by half. However, the Yankees under Brigadier General Joseph (Fighting Joe) Anthony Mower – in charge of the center of Jackson - went on a shopping spree of the hospital's storehouse and garden, driving away many of the animals intended to feed the patients. Even worse, according to the Jackson Daily News, “seven of institution’s ten employees left their jobs and joined the Union Army.” The remaining 50 or so patients survived as best they could, if they could, until after the war.
Since 1841 the Federal Government had been sitting on a fund to pay for the establishment of a state school for the blind. But the state of Mississippi refused to recognize the Federal right to those lands, and for 13 years had refused to avail themselves of the money. Finally, in 1857, sanity demanded that the children came first and and in 1858 a dormitory and rude campus was constructed (above) a mile and a half west on the Clinton Road. Federal troops investigated the property, but did little damage. However, the mostly young, indigent patients were now among the most vulnerable in a state devastated by war. They too were the cost of defending human slavery at all costs.
No Government buildings were purposely damaged – the state capital building (above) still stands a century later. The City Hall, the Masonic Hall, the concert Hall and The Lyceum were all guarded to ensure their survival, Even the Governor's mansion remained untouched. However a few Yankees had discovered a cache of rum and some pillaging of private property resulted. A minister admitted that while his church was undamaged, his home had suffered, “... wanton destruction...May God forgive them for all the evil they did...” But the war was still young, and compared to what Sherman would unleash upon Jackson just 5 months later, this was a benign occupation. 
In truth, Sherman had very little time to do much more. Before nightfall, “Cump” (above) had received orders that the last of his men were to be on the road to Clinton, by 10:00am, Saturday, 16 May, 1863. The Vicksburg campaign was rushing toward it's climax.
And Grant was ready. As the tail end of Sherman's Corps under General Blair reached Raymond on 14 May, they passed on the 200 wagon supply train to the protection of McClernand's Corps.  Most of what the army needed to survive and march with had been taken from the Mississippi farmers and plantations. But shot and shell, sugar and coffee were all in short supply in the Confederacy. Those, the Army of the Tennessee,  had brought with them from Grand Gulf, not in a continuous train of wagons, but in concentrated bundles, each protected by a full division advancing into the interior of the state. But this was to be the final bundle for Grant's army. He could support no more men in Mississippi, and thus would not be receiving any more supply trains from Grand Gulf.
The vulnerable rear of the Federal army, which General Loring had convinced Pemberton to strike for, no longer existed. Had Pemberton struck on 12 May, or even 13 May, he might have hit Grant a serious blow. But by 15 May, it was too late. And had Pemberton followed Johnston's original order, he might have been striking toward Clinton on 15 May with 35,000 men, and the story of the end of the Vicksburg might have been very different.
The story that was told later is that a year and a half earlier an unnamed rebel civilian was suspected of union sympathies by authorities in the still Confederate city of Nashville, Tennessee (above). This rebel was then publicly accused and escorted out of the town, before it became the first rebel state capital to fall to Federals in February of 1862. 
The individual, now in Jackson, Mississippi, harbored their resentment until 13 May, 1863, when Captain James Yeager went looking for two volunteers to carry copies of General Joseph Johnston's orders through the Yankee armies to General Pemberton, in Bovina. Knowing the vital nature of the message, the insulted rebel, volunteered. And at the first Yankee picket outside of Clinton,  he – or she – repaid the insult by handing over their copy of Johnston's message to Pemberton. Or so the story goes.
We know as fact the captured message went directly to the headquarters of Major General James Birdseye McPherson (above), who passed the message on to General Grant's headquarters in the evening hours of 14 May. 
Even with parts of the order written in an as yet unbroken code, the essence was clear. Pemberton (above) was ordered to abandon Vicksburg, and march on Clinton, where he would be met by Johnston's gathering host. Johnston may have been pushed out of the game, but Grant could not afford to assume a rebel army was not bearing down on his guard rear.
This explained Grant's orders to General McPherson on the evening of Thursday, 14 May. His XVII Corps wheeled about on their heels and during 15 May marched back through Clinton,  to Bolton - 20 miles west of Jackson.  Also on that Friday, the 3 divisions of Major General John Alexander McClernand's was ordered to "Turn all your forces toward Bolton Station, and make all dispatch in getting there. Move troops by the most direct road from wherever they may be on the receipt of this order." Grant was determined to block all of the roads Pemberton might use to combine with Johnston's growing force -  the Bridgeport to Clinton Road, the Edward's Depot to Clinton Road which ran through Bolton, and the Bolton to Raymond road.   Sherman's 2 available divisions were  ordered to finish their work in Jackson and be on the Clinton road by 10:00am on Saturday, 16 May.
Grant's staff had just shifted the Army of The Tennessee 180 degrees. McClernand's and McPherson's Corps were now in the lead.  Sherman's Corps was now the reserve.  It was a classic Napoleonic use of independent Corps to quickly concentrate their power in whatever direction their general chose.  Grant could not know that Pemberton's decision to strike toward Raymond was, in effect, moving toward Grant's left flank, while uncovering Grant's most direct route to Vicksburg and the Federal supply line.   And neither side could know the outcome of the entire campaign would now be determined not by human egos or minds, but by the rains of 14 May.
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