A MOB HIT Chapter One

I am certain Robert Harte died knowing he had made a terrible mistake. But by then it was too late to fix.  He should have acted before the man came around the corner from Morelos Street, and approached the two Mexico Police officers guarding the single story hacienda at 19 Avenida Viena (below). It was just after four on Friday morning, 24 May, 1940, in the quiet farming suburb of Carranza, at the edge of the arroyo of the Churubusco River.  The man raised an arm in greeting. The officers were deceived for a moment by his large military looking overcoat.  And then, as he came closer, his huge, almost comical mustache.  But before they could say anything, the man suddenly shouted “Viva Almazan!”, and pulled his pistol.  The right wing revolutionary Juan Almazan was one of the richest and most famous men in Mexico, and currently an unpopular candidate for the Presidency.  The use of his name kept the two officers bewildered just long enough to be disarmed.

A half dozen men appeared out of the darkness and shoved the officers through the front door of the villa (above).  In the reception hall were three more police officers, sleeping.  At the same time the telephone lines into the villa were cut. All five prisoners were quickly gagged and tied up, and left on the floor, under guard, while another score of armed men filed silently into the dimly lit foray. The mustached man knocked heavily on the left hand inside door.  After a moment, a voice was heard from inside the villa, asking “Qué es ?” The mustached man demanded, “Abra la puerta! La policía de la ciudad de México.” There was a hesitation, and then the voice said, “Un momento”, followed by the sound of a bolt being lifted, and a lock being turned.

The second it began to move the door was violently shoved fully open, bowling over the young man with his hand on the inside door knob.  Instantly, eager hands lifted him up and spun him around. Without pause he was hustled across the Villa's 100 yard long garden (above) There was a seven foot wall to the left (above, left), topped by barbed wire, and a series of doors to the villa's separate rooms to the right (above, right).  At the end of the garden stood a small, two story red brick guest house, painted white (below). 

With military precision the men divided. Several spread out in front of the guest house (above), while others filtered to the gate beyond, which opened on Churubusco street. Still  more men ran to a Ford pickup and a Dodge passenger car, parked against the back gate.  At that moment, the electrical power to the villa was cut off.  At the same time  a new handful of armed men men raced through the front door, turned left in the hall and out into the garden, where they split up, one man stopping in front of each of the villa's doors.  Just as they did so, a voice called out from the guest house, “Es que usted , Roberto?. Lo que está mal?” A loud blasts of automatic gunfire ripped the suburban night apart.  Over the next two minutes, the only exit from the guest house was blocked by a continuous hail of lead.

As soon as they heard the gunfire, the figure outside the farthest door bent down and crashed through the five foot high door and into the study beyond (above). As he did so the man in front of the middle room, stood and pulled the bolt of his MP 35 German made machine gun, and the third man bent over and crashed through the remaining door into a bedroom. (below) 

 Immediately all three men opened fire, blasting the adobe and plaster walls separating them, filling the bedroom sandwiched between with 200 deadly 9mm lead missiles. The firing went on for less than fifteen seconds, while over 70 bullets thudding into the wall and the bed's headboard. Then the middle gunman dropped his weapon, pulled a pistol and burst through the french doors, emptying a clip directly into the lumps on the bed (below).

As he did so the men in the foray silently filtered toward the back gate, followed in their turn by the kill squad, who dropped incendiary grenades behind them, and then the squad assigned to suppress the guards in the guest house. The raiding party then piled into the two stolen vehicles and disappeared into the night. Within five minutes of the two police officers being surprised at the front door, the raid was over.  It would be some hours before the raiders realized they had failed.

The target had survived. His wife Natalia had been awakened by the crash of the inner door. She shook her husband and then pulled him onto the floor beside her. The hail of bullets, when it came, passed over their heads, and the pistol fire punctured the mattress they had been sleeping on, but the two elderly intended victims were safe, unseen, on the floor of their dark bedroom.

As soon as he was certain the raiders had left, the intended target, the old man man (above, center), asked Natalia (above left) to check on their 14 year old grandson Seva (above, right) , who was sleeping in the bedroom next to theirs. Even after pushing aside a burning chest of drawers, Natalia could not find her grandson. Her first panic was that he had been kidnapped. But then she heard his voice from the library at the end of the house, beyond, calling out in Russian, “Ded?” - grandfather? She found Seva clutching his bleeding foot. He had been awakened when the gunfire at the guest house erupted, and had hidden under his bed.  A ricochet had clipped his toe. And that was the only blood spilled that night at 19 Avenida Viena.

Meanwhile, the bearded old man retrieved his wire rimmed glasses, and then ran into his study, next to the bedroom. Inside he found two small fires, which he quickly extinguished. That saved the secondary target of the would-be assassins – the biography he was writing of his old rival. Then he joined his wife and grandson in the library. He warmly hugged them both, and told his wife, “Natalia, they have given us one more day of life.” It was a phrase the old man, Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, more popularly known as Leon Trotsky, would repeat every morning for the rest of his life.

There was one resident of the villa missing after the raid,  25 year old New Yorker, Robert Harte (above).  But had he left with his fellow conspirators , or was he the victim of a kidnapping?   The day after the raid the Communist newspaper in Mexico City reported the shooting had been staged to garner public sympathy for Trotsky.  The next day the police brought in   “The Old Man's” bodyguards for two grueling days of questioning.  But at the same time they began taking a hard look at the communist members of the International Brigade,  veterans of the Spanish Civil War.  First step in this line was to interview the chauffeurs for the Mexican Communist Party. And the name that kept popping up here was the then famous Mexican painter, David Alfaro Siqueiros. 

Siqueiros had recently been paying visits to an isolated farm a few miles south of Carranza, rented by Siqueiros' sister. And the morning after the attack, not far from the farm, the stolen pickup truck had been found abandoned and burned. A week after the assault, the farm house and property were searched by the Mexican government. On the property, beside the road from Carranza, recently disturbed earth was spotted. A month after the attack, in a shallow grave, the police found the disfigured corpse of Robert Harte (above).  He had been shot twice, and then quick lime had been poured over the body.  It burned some his features, but it also preserved most of the flesh and bones.

A warrant for Siqueiros' arrest was issued. But rather than surrender, Siqueiros (above) began issuing written statements to the communist newspaper, at first protesting his innocence, and condemning police incompetence. But as member after communist member of the International Brigade was arrested, until the number reached 27, and their confessions and connections to Siqueiros appeared in the general press,  Siqueiros' statements to the Communist press began to shift to defiant and arrogant,  justifying the attempted murder of Leon Trotsky. And then, finally, when Sisqueiros turned himself in.  He was immediately released without bail. And then promptly disappeared.

Trotsky was not surprised by the ease with which his attempted assassin escaped justice. Nor was he in any doubt that Sisqueiros was the actor but not the author of the murderous attack on his home and family. As “Bugs” Moran had insisted after the Chicago St. Valentines Day Massacre that “Only Al Capone kills like that”,  four years before the May 1940 attack on his own life,  Leon Trotsky had prophetically written, "(Joseph) Stalin...seeks to strike not at the ideas of the opponent,  but at his skull.”

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VICKSBURG Chapter Forty

The 200 blue clad troopers from the 6^th Missouri Volunteer Cavalry reached the New Orleans and Jackson railroad line about a mile and a half north of Crystal Springs, Mississippi just after 9:00am on Monday, 11 May, 1863. They began their destructive work at once. 

Under orders from their commander, Colonel Thomas Clark Wright (above),  half stood guard while the other 100 stripped a mile and a half of telegraph wire from its poles and piled it atop bridges over Vaughn and Rhodes Creeks, which they then set ablaze. The Yankees also tore up 3 short sections of rails between the creeks. These were heated over their own burning cross ties and 125 bales of cotton, labeled “Property of the Confederate States of America”. The softened rails were warped enough to make them unusable.

Clark Wright's uncivil war – he preferred the name Clark - began just a week after Confederate guns fired on Fort Sumter. In a coup on 20 April, 1861, on the border with “Bleeding Kansas”, pro-slavery militia had captured the Federal arsenal in Liberty, Missouri – also Jesse James' hometown. A similar attempt at the St. Louis arsenal was foiled, and pro-Federal forces quickly took control the state government, and its bank accounts. 

On 1 August, on the Iowa border, 500 pro-union militiamen, lead by 44 year old Colonel David Moore, “put the bayonet” to 2,000 poorly equipped pro-slavery men in Athens, Missouri. Two of the rebels sent running were Colonel Moore's own sons. A week later, Colonel Thomas Clark Wright participated in the Battle of Wilson's Creek (above), which proved emblematic for Missouri's entire war.  It was a bloody tactical defeat for the Federals and a bloody strategic defeat for the Confederates - in short, everybody lost.

The war in Missouri saw more fighting than any other states except Virginia and Tennessee, and more division than most. A year later, after the Federal victory in the 3 hour battle in the town square of Kirksville, in northeastern Missouri, Colonel John McNeil (above) ordered 15 surrendered rebels executed, and Lieutenant Colonel Frisby McCullough shot as a “Bushwhacker”, even though he was wearing a Confederate uniform and had papers confirming his rank.

Peremptory violence such as this, and that of terrorists “Bloody Bill” Anderson and William Quantrill ate at discipline, until the war in Missouri descended into an endless series of raids, ambushes, torture, murders, kidnappings, lynchings, barn burnings, poisoned wells, rapes and robberies, more often criminal as militarily motivated. Often the perpetrators knew the victims. Often they were neighbors. Occasionally, they were even related.

Missouri's war would not end until 3 April, 1881, when Jesse James would be murdered in his St. Joseph parlor. Before then, perhaps 40,000 men, women and children would die – 27,000 from 1861 to 1865 alone. And Colonel Thomas Clark Wright rose from this moral swamp. As he finished his 11 May, 1863 raid on the New Orleans And Jackson railroad, Colonel Wright released 18 prisoners on parole. But 15 others were trussed up and and tied to mules, to suffer the bruising 25 mile ride back headquarters of the XVII Corps, north of Utica, Mississippi on the Old Port Gibson Road, at the Roach Plantation. Colonel Wright reported he believed it would take the rebels 5 or 6 days to repair all the damage his men had done to the railroad. But things in Mississippi were changing much faster than that.

Owner of the plantation he called Woodville was James P. Roach, banker and a partner in the firm of Wirt Adams and Company on Crawford Street in Vicksburg (above). James, his wife Loulie and their 6 children had lived on Depot street for a decade, 

To James his plantation and the human beings who toiled and suffered on it were an “investment property”, collateral for loans and a status symbol. But he did not live to see the war fought to defend his wealth. In 1860, after a long illness, James Roach had died at 50 years of age. He left behind an 18 year old son Tom, 15 year old Nora, 12 year old Mahala, 5 year old Sophy and John, and 4 year old Jim.

In 1860 Vicksburg had a population of 4,600 white souls. With the slowly closing Federal noose around the city, 3 years later it had swollen to perhaps 10,000. 

After Pemberton left for his first field command, the man in charge of Vicksburg was 42 year old Alabamian, Major General Martin Luther Smith (above). Besides commanding the division which had withstood Sherman's January Chickasaw Bayou assault, he was generally considered the best engineer in the Confederacy. But Smith was also responsible for the river batteries Joe Johnston had criticized the previous December. And in the event, that criticism had been proven prophetic.

Beneath Smith was the 42 year old New Yorker Colonel Edward Higgins. He had spent half his life at sea, which seemingly made him the perfect commander for the 3,600 gunners who had defended the Vicksburg river front up to this point. But Major Higgins had also commanded the guns of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, on the river below New Orleans. And those forts and guns had been “run”, and bypassed, much the same way the Vicksburg batteries had. The delta forts held out until late April, 1862 when they and Higgins surrendered. While on parole, Higgins had been promoted to Colonel, and when officially exchanged in September, he had been assigned to Vicksburg.

Commanding a division beneath Major General Smith was 32 year old Major General Horace Forney (above).  An 1852 graduate of West Point, Forney had returned there in 1858 after the the Mormon Expectation, to teach tactics. He had resigned his commission when Alabama seceded. As the colonel of the 10^th Alabama regiment, he had been solely responsible for the defense of the Shenandoah Valley, while the rest of the Confederate army concentrated at Mananas Junction to defeat the first Yankee invasion of Virginia. Badly wounded in the arm at the skirmish at Dransville, he was promoted to first Brigadier General and then, in October 1862 to Major General, and given command of the District of the Gulf.

His rapid promotion was primarily politically and romantically inspired, since while recovering he had courted and married 22 year old Miss Septima Sexta Middleton Rutledge, great granddaughter of Edward Rutledge and Arthur Middleton – both signers of the Declaration of Independence. Her politically powerful Alabama family insisted her husband be a great soldier. Finally sent to Vicksburg, his duties were limited to the garrisoning of a prepared position.

Smith's own division occupied a mile of artillery redoubts with connecting trenches behind the Military Road running from Fort Hill (above)  at the far left of the line,  to its junction with Graveyard Road.  

From the Stockade Redoubt south to the Jackson Road was defended by Forney's division. From there the line bent inward to the Baldwin Ferry Road and the Southern Railroad line, to Hall's Ferry Road, and terminated at the South Fort, and the Mississippi River.

The troops intended to occupy the line south of the Jackson road to the River if need be, including the divisions of 45 year old Major General Carter Littlepage Stevenson, 32 year old Major General John Stevens Bowen, and 44 year old Major General William Wing Loring, were gathered 7miles to the east of Vicksburg, at the railroad stop of Bovina, under 49 year old Lieutenant General John Clifford Pemberton, as an offensive force.

General Smith acknowledged that the defense line he had constructed might have been stronger, if it had occupied an equally high ridge some 600 yards further east. But that idea, “increasing as it did the length of the entire line of defense, was abandoned for want of sufficient force to occupy it.” In other words, the Gibraltar of the Confederacy was not the strongest position on the Mississippi River. It was the strongest position possible.

That evening, when Colonel Thomas Clark Wright's exhausted troopers fell into their sleeping bags on the Roach Plantation, Wright's day was not yet done,  He had to write out his report to his superiors - , the damage to the rail line and the prisoners he had taken. And then he added that he had been told a brigade of Confederate infantry  had passed down the rail road to Jackson a few hours before his arrival. And, he added,  there were reports of a second brigade which was supposed to be passing on to Jackson in a few hours. 

The first Brigade had been Greeg's 4,600 men. The Yankees now knew they would be waiting for them in Jackson or Raymond.  But the following brigade , under 38 year old Brigadier General Samuel Bell Maxey (above), was south of the break Wright's men had made in the New Orleans and Jackson rail line.  Delayed because of the break, those 4,000 men were ordered to return to Port Hudson. Thus Wright's cavalry raid handed McPherson's Corps the victory at on 12 May, before a shot was even fired.

But there was also another effect of the raid. Later in the month, while acknowledging  that Colonel Wright had always been following his orders,  Lieutenant General Grant would suggest to subordinates, that the Missourian's actions with regard to taking and treating of prisoners was excessive.  And before the month of June was over, before Vicksburg had surrendered, Colonel Thomas Clark Wright would quietly resign his position in the Federal army.   This was a war for the future soul of the nation. And the leadership of the Federal Army agreed there must be limits to the actions of the winners, else what was won would prove not worth the price that was paid. 

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THE POLITICAL PIN

I can find no record of any politician every becoming a professional wrestler. But more than a few baby-kissers have followed the reverse story line. Perhaps the most insightful description of Abraham Lincoln was delivered by 19 year old William Green, who, in the fall of 1831, described his 6' 4”, 185 pound co-worker this way: “He can outrun, out lift, out wrestle and throw down any man in Sangamon County.” Green clearly saw Lincoln's need to win respect. Then in the summer of 1832, Lincoln took on Lorenzo Dow (Hank) Thompson, a fellow volunteer in the Black Hawk Indian uprising. In their match Thompson “threw down” Lincoln: twice. It was the rail splitter's only defeat in 12 years as an amateur wrestler. And it was after that drubbing that Lincoln switched to the law and politics.

Gimmick - The character portrayed by a wrestler.

The most successful wrestler turned politician was probably James George Janos, who was a U.S. Navy Seal, then a professional wrestler using the “gimmick” of Jesse "The Body" Ventura (above), who then used that moniker to become a film actor and then the Governor of Minnesota – putting a lie to F. Scott Fitzgerald's contention there are no second acts in American lives. Twice. His careers highlight the similarities between politicians and professional wrestlers. Both are roles in melodramatic morality plays, based on reality. Both require dedication and concentration from performer and audience alike. And both roles can leave the performer bruised and bloodied, or even paralyzed.

Angle - A fictional story line which usually begins when one wrestler attacks another, which results in revenge.

Consider Jerry O'Neil “The King” Lawler, who holds 168 professional wrestling “championships”, and was most famous for pile driving comedian Andy Kaufman head first during their 1982 match in Memphis, Tennessee. Twice. Kaufman went to the hospital, and Lawler went back to wrestling professionals. Now, Memphis had avoided political drama since New Years Day, 1940, when Mayor Watkins Overton was replaced by Ed “Boss” Crump, who was sworn in at the train station during a snow storm, and who immediately resigned in favor of Vice Mayor Joe Boyle, who the next morning was replaced by the City Commissioners with Walter Chandler. Thus Memphis had four mayors in under 24 hours – something of a melodramatic record. “The King” Lawler offered Memphis a return to that sort of drama, but the voters rejected the idea. Twice. In 1999 Jerry Lawler captured just 11% of the vote for Mayor, and a decade later he won only 4% . And that was the end of of his political career.

Burial – The “worked” (faked) lowering of a popular wrestler, forcing him to lose in “squash” (short, one sided) matches, as punishment..

World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Famer, Robert Lee “Bob” Backlund (above), had a 30 year career in wrestling, all of it playing a bow-tie wearing white-bread hero, telling his few fans he was “sick and tired of you plebeians throwing garbage out the windows of your car.” It was not exactly a blood curdling war cry. His “Cross-face Chicken Wing” move won him championships. Twice. But by the late 1990's his WWF boss was urging him to become a “heel”, (a villain). When he refused, “I was told I wasn't worth marketing," So Bob decided to make the cross over to Congress, running in 2000 for the seat from Connecticut's 1st district (below), against the incumbent Democrat, John Larsen.  Who had never been a wrestler.

Mark – From the carnival term: a person who enjoys professional wrestling as if it were un-staged.

Most grapplers, making the shift from wrestling theater to political theater, choose to run as Republicans, for some reason. And in recent history, they have all failed. Bucklund won only 28% of the 211,000 plus votes cast in the district, losing 59,331 to 151, 932 for Larsen. After his loss, Bob Bucklund became a bail bondsman, and then opened Buckland Energy (above), delivering fuel oil. He says he is thinking about running for Governor, which may be just about the last thing the Connecticut Republican Party needs after suffering Linda McMahon. Twice.

Shoot Screwjob - when the finish is changed without informing the losing wrestler.

Linda (above) was a North Carolina tom boy. Straight out of high school she married Vince Edwards, whose father was co-owner of Capital Wrestling Corporation. While Vince learned the business, Linda put her B.A. in French to use, translating intellectual property contracts into English for a Washington, D.C. law firm. By 1976 the couple had hit hard times and was reduced to food stamps, until Vince put together a deal to buy a sports arena in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts. He filled it by starting a sports management company. In 1982 Linda and Vince bought Capital Wrestling, and changed its name to the World Wide Wrestling Federation. Within a decade they guided the industry into its “Golden Era”, with nationwide pay-per-view events, and marketing contracts for action figures of their “faces” and “heels” . Then in the 1990's financial over extension, “gas” (steroid) scandals, a series of sexual harassment lawsuits, and the infamous Montreal Shoot Screw job brought the empire to near collapse. It was Linda's adroit ancillary contracts which helped save the WWWF.

Sandbag - To make a throw much harder by letting your body go limp, which makes the attacker appear weak or unskilled.

In 2010 Linda McMahon announced her intention to spend $50 million of her own money on a run for a U.S. Senate seat. She beat out two Republican rivals in the primary, but lost the November election by 11%. The winning Democratic incumbent, Richard Blumenthal, spent less than $9 million. In 2012 Linda spent another $50 million trying to capture Connecticut’s other Senate seat. Her opponent this time, Democratic Representative Chris Murphy, spent just about $5.5 million. This time Linda lost by 12%. It is unclear if the underlying problem was being associated with professional wrestling, or being associated with the Republican Party. But afterward, Linda assured the Huffington Post that even after spending $100 million for no pin, she was satisfied. "I thoroughly enjoyed campaigning,” she said. And even a political fib can be charming when delivered in a sweet North Carolina drawl.

Blade - (N) The object used by wrestlers to cut themselves. (V) Cutting to get blood in their matches.

But maybe the most interesting transition from wrestling to politics has been made by the Japanese wrestler Skull Reaper A-ji, who practiced the Mexican lucha libre (free fighting) style. Luchadores (fighters) wear masks whose designs recall ancient Aztec animal-god traditions, and can become more than a costume element for the wearer. They appeal not just to furry fandom types, or anthropomorphic animal lovers.  According to psychiatrists and social psychologists, the mask produces “deindividuation”, which involves desensitization to pain, anger and fear, increased awareness of your surroundings, and an accompanying boost in self confidence.

Dusty Finish - In which the “face” (hero) appears to win a big match, but the decision is reversed by the ref. Refers to wrestler Dusty Rhodes, who booked many such finishes

Until 2004 Skull Reaper worked in the clothing industry – at what, I have no idea. That was the year he joined All Japan Pro Wrestling. He had his first match in September of 2005, at the Oita Event Hall, in front of 1,200 of his home town fans. But there does not seem to have been a follow up match, which may explain why on 24 February, 2013,  Skull Reaper stood for election to the Oita municipal council. Oita (above) is a fishing and manufacturing port of a half a million citizens, on the north coast of Japan's most southern main island, Kyushu. It is famous for its factories and its epicurean favorite, de fugu chiri – poisonous puffer fish liver.

Cheap Heat - The incitement of a negative crowd reaction

There were 55 candidates for the 43 available spots on the Oita counsel, so name recognition was important. And a name like “Skull Reaper” must have of stood out on that list, even in Japanese characters. The 44 year old blond headed masked “face” collected 2,828 votes, making him 40^th, out of 43 new councilmen. But, on 6 March, 2013 a plenary meeting of the Oita council was held, and they overwhelmingly voted that Skull Reaper's mask violated the rule “A person entering the floor shall not wear articles such as a hat or cane.” He would not be the masked avenger of Oita

False finish - A pin fall attempt which is kicked out just before the referee counts to three, which builds crowd anticipation.

Refused entry in the council's first general meeting on 11 March, Skull Reaper told the press he was frustrated. “If I take my mask off, I’m an entirely different person. I will not take it off.” But time, and perhaps negative press coverage, changed his mind. And on 19 March, Skull Reaper was admitted into the Council Chambers, sans mask His name plate (below) still reads “Skull Reaper A-ji” because that was the identity the citizens voted for.

Highspot - A top-rope move, or a series of maneuvers perceived as dangerous.

And perhaps this sacrifice helped his wrestling career, because on 18 May, 2013, Skull Reaper finally got a second match, pinning Hideyoshi Kamitani, at the Asaukura Amagi Sport Center, in just 11:46. It almost makes me wonder if all politicians should be not required to wear masks to match their theatrical persona. 

Gold – A championship belt.

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