100 YEARS AGO: THE FOURTH OF JULY AX MURDER IN PENSACOLA

This was less than a decade after the notorious "Axman" murders in New Orleans during 1918 and 1919.  As with the New Orleans Axman, the Pensacola murderer remains unknown.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/a-century-later-pensacola-s-july-4-1926-ax-murder-still-unsolved/ar-AA27c5S4?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=464632e1990540b5e3865445fe448cbb&ei=86

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! SEEING WASHINGTON (1957)

I freely admit that I have a love affair with Washington, D.C.  There is a sense of grandeur that I got sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Monument overlooking the Reflecting Pool, a feeling of reverence as I viewed the Vietnam Wall, and a sense of being near greatness as I entered the Jefferson Memorial.  I've been on a special tour of the White House and drank cups of sickly sweet lemonade.  I walked the steps of the Capital Building during the Vietnam War and saw students there quietly protesting the war.  I stood in the Rotunda as people were singing Phil Ochs' "The Power and the Glory" to the tune of "Deep in the Heart of Texas" -- people who were supporting Nixon and had no idea what the song was really about, and though I did not agree with them I was glad they could voice their opinion.  I spent hours admiring the magnificence of the animals at the National Zoo, braving the yellow jackets that swarmed through its luncheon areas, especially admiring a newly-born baby hippo, and I stayed at a home that was once part of Washington's Mount Vernon estate.  I walked with awe through the sacred and hallow Arlington Cemetery.  I found myself weeping at the National Medical Museum in Silver Spring when I saw that they had a portion of Abraham Lincoln's shattered skull on display.  I have sailed the Potomac on Thanksgiving Day.  I have been to book signings where I met Dick Francis and Elizabeth Peters and many others.  I have picnicked along with many happy families.  My girls went to school in the area so I spent a lot of time at George Washington University and Marymount College.  My eldest grandchild was born at Georgetown University Hospital, but all remember nothing of that place, only the tightly swaddled, beautiful and calm infant that was placed in my arms that day.  The statues, the monuments, the National Cathedral, the parks, the museums, the historical sights, the many venues for culture and the arts, the restaurants, the theaters...all of them are etched in my memory.  I spent too many hours at the Washington Children's Hospital where so much was being done to help young people.  So, too, are the poorer sections of the city and the people of all stripes, colors, creeds, and ethnic origins, and the many rats that seemed to appear at night.  All of this -- the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the tacky -- combined to form a city that I love, a city that represents some of the best of America, and a city that has helped us move toward that more perfect nation we all strive for.

Things have changed now.  Efforts are being made to turn Washington, D.C., into another Trump Mar-a-Lago.  I compare the Hillwood Estate in Washington of Marjorie Merriweather Post to her other mansion, Mar-a-Lago in Peach Beach, which has been (in my considered opinion) demeaned and cheapened by its latest owner.  We once took a clipping of ivy from Hillwood that had originally been planted at Buckingham Palace and planted at our then house in Maryland; I fear that if we took anything from Mar-a-Lago today, it would rot and decay.

This promotional, educational comic book points out some of the magnificent and historic sights of Washington in the late 1950s, back when the White House had an East Wing that was not rubble and when tacky gold leaf was not the dominant aesthetic.

"Seeing Washington is designed to highlight but a few of the countless points of interest which annually attract millions of visitors to Our Nation's Capital.  The magazine is published by Commercial Comics, Inc., a firm specializing in the production of custom-made educational comic booklets for government, business and industry.

"It is our wish that this magazine will bring to everyone who reads it a better understanding of what Washington, D.C. means to our nation and to the world, and that it will arouse a greater appreciation for the privilege to say 'America, My Home.' "

The Washington, D.C. of my memory, the Washington, D.C. I knew, is part of my America.  With courage and determination, we can once again return this magnificent city to that shining beacon of freedom and liberty.

Enjoy this brief trip through my -- our -- city.  And Happy Fourth!

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=102130&comicpage=&b=i

FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE FURY AND THE TERROR

The Fury and the Terror  by John Farris, 2001

This is the first sequel to the author's bestselling horror novel The Fury, which was published twenty-five years earlier, sold more than a million copies, and was made into a major film starring Kirk Douglas and Amy Irving in 1978.  Farris has since published two further sequels:  The Fury and the Power (2003) and Avenging Fury (2008).  Knowledge of the first book is helpful, but not essential as the significant background details are revealed over the long course of The Fury and the Terror.

I mention the long course of the book because it is a sprawling work covering an array of themes.  Although set in contemporary times (with many cultural references to date it), it portrays an America just bursting with people with newly-found psychic powers who are hiding behind the scenes.  Two opposing political groups are vying for supremacy.

MORG is a secret paramilitary group with unlimited funds and power that is working to subvert the Constitution and brings about a Fascist rule; it is run by the unscrupulous Victor Wilding, the lover of First Lady Rona Harvester.  The two have managed to "brain block" Rona's husband, the President, who now sits in a vegetative state in a secret location, supposedly recover from a stroke.  Wilding is actually a psychic doppelganger of Robin Sandza, a powerful teenage psychic who was thrown from a roof to his supposed death by his father at the end of the first book.   Robin lives, however, also in a forced vegetative state; if Robin dies, then Victor, as his doppelganger, would also die.

The other political is organized by the Director of the FBI and opposes MORG.  Both groups are evil and often resort to violence and murder to achieve their ends.  The director's son, using the name Geoff McIntyre, has been tasked to seduce young Eden Waring, who, unknown to her, may become the next Avatar, the powerful leader of psychics of many stripes and powers around the country.

The current Avatar, Kelane Cheng, had been captured by MORG and was being taken to their secret base in Plenty Coups, Montana, when she managed to psychically take over the controls of the airplane and crash it into a college graduation ceremony in Northern California.  The Valedictorian at the ceremony happened to be Eden, who suddenly had a vision of the impending air crash, and managed to get most of those present to safety.  Eden now finds herself on the run from both covert groups, as well as from confused citizens demanding an explanation.

Tom Sherard is a former South African big game hunter who had been married to the Avatar before Kelane, Gillian Bellevar, the daughter of rich and influential parents.  Now, here's where it gets tricky.  Gillian was the "psychic twin" of Robin Sandza.  Robin's father, Pete, impregnated Gillian in Robin's stead and Gillian gave birth to a baby girl, who turned out to be Eden.  Gillian's memory of the whole thing was psychically blocked.  Gillian was assassinated in a hail of bullets in front of Tom, who also bore the scars of the assassination attempt.  Now that Eden nis on the run, her grandmother, Katherine Bellevar, has asked Tom to find Eden and bring her granddaughter to her for safety from MORG.  And, yes, there is a history between Katherine and Rona.

Just to make things interesting, the country is still reeling from a nuclear attack that wiped out Portland Maine, secretly orchestrated by MORG.  Rona and Victor plan to release another nuclear device over the next few days in Madison, Wisconsin.  A shift in prevailing winds have forced them to shift their target to Nashville, where Garth Brooks will be performing to a crowd of over 70,000.  Can Tom, Eden, and a kick-ass high-fashion Somali-Chinese supermodel stop the explosion in time?  And can Eden's reluctant doppelganger (yes, she has one) aid in the defeat of MORG?

There's psychics galore, shape changers, ghost and revenants, time travel, other dimensions, incest, prophecy, and the Good Lord knows what else.  It's a lot to pack into some 500 pages of small type.

Confused?  Join the club.  But somehow it all makes sense.  Sort of.

An exciting, wide-ranging extravaganza that is hard to put down, with just a few (very few) hints of snark in the writing. 

John Farris (b. 1936, and still alive; he'll be 90 this month) is a best -selling author of horror, suspense, and /southern Gothic novels.  His first novels, beginning when he was 19, were crime and hardboiled mysteries.  His first bestselling novel, written when the author was twenty and published two years later, Harrison High (think Peyton Place set in a high school), was filmed as the Dick Clark vehicle Because They're Young in 1960; any problems with the film can be forgiven because it also starred Tuesday Weld.  From 1968 to 1974, Farris published five other Harrison High novels as paperback originals.  When Michael Calls, published in 1967, gave Farris a solid foothold into the horror/thriller genre.  It was filmed as ABC Movie of the Week starring Ben Gazarra, Elizabeth Ashley, and Michael Douglas in 1972.  The Fury, with its plethora of psychic intrigue, made the bestseller lists in 1976 and was the basis of the noted 1978 Brian DePalma film.  Among Farris's other bestselling books are All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By, Shatter, The Catacombs, The Uninvited, and Son of the Endless Night.  Despite some of his work being flamboyant, it is uniquely effective.  In 2001, Farris was presented with the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.  Although he has not published a novel since 2009, he did script a 2019 film, No Sin Unpunished.

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: DR. WATSON MEETS SHERLOCK HOLMES (1954)

 Come back to the beginning.  The game is afoot!

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was a 1954-54 joint British and American venture starring Sir John Gielgud as Sherlock Holmes and Ralph Richardson as Dr. John Watson.  This episode was the first of sixteen produced, although only twelve were aired in England; the show was aired in the UK on the BBC Light Programme, and in the United States on the ABC network.

The series was produced by Harry Alan Towers and was directed by Val Gielgud, Sir John's brother; Val Gielgud would occasionally be featured on the series as Sherlock's brother, Mycroft.  The series was scripted by John Keir Cross.

This first episode, depicting the meeting between Holmes and Watson, was based on the first Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, and on the first Holmes short story, "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" (also known as "Charles Augustus Milverton," "The Blackmailer," and "The First Case").  It first aired in the UK on October 5, 1954, and in the United States on January 2, 1955.  (Sir Arthir Conan Doyle based the short story on the real-life villain Charles Augustus Howell, an art dealer who preyed on many, including famous artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti; Howell died in 1880, his throat slit posthumously and a coin inserted in his mouth -- he may or may not have been still alive when his body was found, accounts differ.  Officially, the police concluded that he died of "pneumonic phthisis," which determination avoided a public inquiry; the circumstances of his death have never been satisfactorily explained.  According to scholar Richard Lancelyn Green, Doyl's short story was also inspired by the A. J. Raffles short story "Willful Murder" by Doyle's brother-in-law, E. J. Hornung.)

Also featured in the cast were Philip Leaver as Middleton, John Cazabon as Inspector Lestrade, Norman Claridge as Stamford, and Monica Gray as "the woman" -- not, mind you, The Woman, whom as we all know was Irene Adler; her appearance was to wait until the next episode of the series, "A Scandal in Bohemia," in which she was played by Margaret Ward; I'll try to bring you that episode shortly.

In the meantime, enjoy this bit of Holmesian history, mystery, and deduction:

(2739) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Dr. Watson meets Sherlock Holmes - John Gielgud - 1954 - YouTube

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE LADY FROM YESTERDAY

"The Lady from Yesterday" by Jeremiah Healy  (published in the MWA anthology Blood on their Hands, edited by Lawrence Block, 2003)

Jeremiah Healy (1948-2014) was a lawyer, academic, and crime novelist best known for his character John Francis Cuddy, a Boston private investigator.  As "Terry Devane," he also penned three legal thrillers and one short story featuring defense attorney Mairead O'Clair.  "The Lady from Yesterday" is one of at least three short stories to feature Lauderdale "tennis bum" and private eye Rory Calhoun, (whose mother had a thing for the mid-20th century actor).

Calhoun is approached at the Lauderdale Tennis Club by Monica Lewis, an veteran exotic dancer whose career is on the downswing due to age and gravity.  Monica is the primary suspect in the murder of Tara "T.N.T." Tate, an up-and-coming dancer at the Cottontails, the "gentleman's club" where both worked.  The night before Tara was killed, she and Monica had gotten into an argument, during which Tara had scratched Monica on the arm, leaving Monica's DNA under her fingernails.  That, plus the fact that Tara was bucking for the top spot at the club, replacing Monica, provided enough  motive to convince the incompetent detective in charge of the case that Monica was guilty.  Monica wanted Rory to investigate and prove that she did not murder Tara.  Rory felt uneasy because it was still an open case with the police and turned Monica down.

The following day, the newspaper headline read SECOND DANCER'S DEATH SOLVES FIRST.  Monica was presumed to have hung herself either out of guilt, or because the police were closing in.  Rory went to see the cop in charge, who was all too willing to have everything tied up in a nice, neat package.  Because of his own feeling of guilt, Rory decides to investigate.

After talking with Rocky, the hard-shelled female owner/manager of Cottontails, Rory up with three people he wanted to talk to:  "The Professor," a steady customer who would come not just to ogle, but to stare at Tara; Lacey Peevers, another dancer at the club, who would most likely taken over Monica's spot if Tara had not arrived on the scene; and Tara's husband, Barry Cardiff, who did not want Tara dancing at all, resented when she went on tour throughout the South, and had to stay at home taking care of his invalid mother while Tara was off shaking her booty.  Rocky also told Rory that Tara was saving every bit of money she could to build a nest egg and retire from the business and that Tare had told she had almost accrued enough money for that purpose.

The Professor turned out to be Jason Nolan, an English teacher at the local college, and who claimed to appreciate exotic dance as an art form and quoted various works of literature to prove his point.  He told Rory that he suspected Tara's murderer was actually Lacey Peevers.

Lacy Peevers turned out to be a young mother devoted more to her infant son than to her dance career.  She suspected the Professor.

Barry Cardiff was a man who, despite everything, still loved his wife.  He suspected that Tara was having affairs while she was on the road -- sometimes for a month or more -- and that he had recently learned that Tara was turning tricks and filming herself with unsuspecting men for blackmail; he gave Rory a recording marked TARA DOES FRANK that he had found hidden in her bureau after she had been killed.  Cardiff also resented that Tara refused to help him care for his mother, who was basically a vegetable for the past two and a half years but showed no sign of dying.  But Cardiff had loved Tara deeply.  He thought Monica was the person who had killed her.

The case seemed to be leading nowhere, and Rory's obsession with it was affecting his concentration on his tennis game.  While Rory was trying to limber up, Don Floyd, an eighty-year-old tennis pro, noted that Rory was concentrating too hard on his first serve.  He said, "Rory, when I can't ever get the first one in, I generally try to focus on the second service."

Bingo!  The second service!  Rory suddenly knew which of his three suspects was guilty...

An interesting story, but very flawed.  First, we have to accept that the murderer was one of the three suspects, leaving out anyone else Tara might have met or blackmailed while building up her cash reserve, and that includes the anonymous "Frank" from the porno tape.  Also, Monica was a heavy drug user, with track marks on her arms.  She had worn a long-sleeved blouse when Rory had met her, so he didn't notice, but I find it hard to picture a stripper being able hide such track marks while performing.  And, Rory's solution to the puzzle was just a guess, nothing more.  He had to set a trap to be sure.  And the denouement to the story was very unsatisfying, leaving Monica as the murderer in the eyes of the public, and not clearing her name -- which is what she had wanted Rory to do.

Basically, a by-the-numbers story that clearly shows that Healy expended his energy and talent far more his stories about John Francis Cuddy that Rory Calhoun.  Is it still worth reading?  Yeah, I think so, but just don't expect a Cuddy-like plot or experience.

Jeremiah Healey was an interesting character.  He approached his writing career much like the lawyer he was, examining pros and cons and building a case from the ground up.  He had researched the novel market and learned that some 70% of novels at the tine were bought by women so he deliberately shaped the Cuddy character to appeal to that market, while retaining many of the private eye tropes that have made the genre so popular.  He attacked issues of the day,  but not in a hardboiled manner -- more like soft-boiled with a hard edge.  During interviews, he laid his many books in front of him, using them as props and evidence, picking each on up as he pointed out plots and themes in each; the attorney in him was selling his entire career and not just his latest release.  As a law professor at the New England School of Law, he prided himself on being a hard-ass, wanting to push his students to be the very best they could be.  Healy was personable, generous, and had a great sense of humor.  I remember him taking newly published, first-time author Brendan DuBois aside and giving him useful career tips (DuBois, who was a talented writer from the start, went on to have a long career, publishing 29 novels, until his own personal demons derailed it in 2024); Healy also gave his time, support, and knowing advice to many other writers.  He served as president of the Private Eye Writers of America  (travelling the roads in his Volkswagon, dubbed "PWI-One") and the International Association of Crime Writers.  I did not know him very well, but I liked him a lot.  He survived a bout of prostate cancer in 2003 (about the time of the writing of "The Lady from Yesterday," which may have affected the quality of the story -- my speculation only).  I was surprised and saddened when I learned that he had committed suicide at age 66 in 2014.  He had evidently been suffering from depression, a disease that can destroy the best of us.

OVERLOOKED FILM: KING OF THE ZOMBIES (1941)

Let's close out the month with a zombie spy comedy flick.

A transport lane has engine trouble and is forced to land on a mysterious Caribbean island.  the passengers take refuge in a mansion run by the evil Dr. Mikos Sangre (Henry Victor, Freaks, To Be or Not To Be, Tiger Bay; the role was originally designed  for Bela Lugosi, then Peter Lorre, Victor was the third choice), who controls a host of zombies through voodoo.  Sangre is a German spy who had previously captured a US Admiral (Guy Usher, The Penguin Pool Murder, Charlie Chan at the Opera, Bells of Capistrano) and was trying to pry military secrets out of him.  The pilot of the downed plane was James "Mac" McCarthy (Dick Purcell, Captain America, The Bank Dick, The Case of the Velvet Claws; he died of a heart attack at age 39, and at least one film historian has suggested that the strain of filming Captain America was too much for his heart).  Also on the plane were passenger Bill Summers (John Archer, Guadalcanal Diary, White Heat, Destination Moon), and his valet, Jefferson Jackson (Mantan Moreland, perhaps best recognized as Birmingham  Brown in the Charlie Chan films, also a veteran of vaudeville and "race" movies, Moreland appeared in Spider Baby, Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery, and Mr. Washington Goes to Town, among many others).  Moreland deservedly got third billing in King of the Zombies, right behind Dick Purcell and eye candy Joan Woodbury (Charlie Chan on Broadway, Brenda Starr, Reporter, The Ten Commandments);  Moreland's third billing was a testament to his popularity during the often close-minded 1940s.  Also in the cast were cute as a button Marguerite Whitten (the movie's Afrro-American eye candy, if you will), Leigh Whipper, Madame Sul-te-Wan*, Laurence Criner, Patricia Stacey, and James Davis.

SPOILER ALERT:  The villainous Dr. Sangre gets his comeuppance at the end of the film...but you have probably figured that out already,

Directed by Jean Yarbrough, who helmed five Abbott and Costello films and the Abbott and Costello television show, five Bowery Boys films, and a number of classic B-horror films, including The Devil Bat, She-Wolf of London, and House of Horror.  The film was scripted by Edmond Kelso (Tex Rides with the Boy Scouts, The Mystery of the Hooded Horseman, Revenge of the Zombies).

A fun flick for its time, but not suited for one with high PC standards.  Watch it for Mantan Moreland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXvtb_JNH5U

* the "T" is capitalized on her IMDb listing, but is lower case on the film credits

TODAY'S UNFINISHED POEM

a Choose Your Adventure poem...sort of 

STRAIT TALK

Pass me the booze,

Please pass me that booze;

I'm having a hard time with the Strait of Warm Ooze.

Have you heard the news?

It's not 'Merican Flag Blues;

It's green and it's slimy, that Strait of Warm Ooze

The choice he did choose

Allowed kismet to come throughs;

An ill-gotten plan was the strait of Warm Ooze.

Narcissus had an ego as big as his shoes.

A look in the pool paid the poor guy his dues.

It suspiciously sounds like...the Strait of Warm Ooze.

His cankle do swell and his hands they do bruise

With discoloration and unnatural hues,

But they can't hold a candle to Donny's Strait of Warm Ooze.

[You can complete the final verse yourself using any three of the following words:

Fool, Ghoul, Pool, Stool, Tool, Uncool.

Have fun!]