Most Recent Articles
More on the kidnapping of Gil Jamieson by Myles Fukunaga
The kidnapping of Gill Jamieson by Myles Fukunaga is the subject of Chapter V in Edward Dean Sullivan’s The Snatch Racket (Vanguard Press, 1932). Fukunaga’s first ransom note looked like the work of what Sullivan called “a half-mad and flighty individual” [page 75]. He was certainly educated, given to pompous language, a touch of cruel humor, and the melodramatic flourish. The note began, “The fates have decided so we have been given this privilege in writing you on this...
Read MoreChild Kidnapping in the Twenties
Racketeers may have been responsible for turning kidnapping into a “snatch racket,” but they were not alone in profiting in the advantages enjoyed by kidnappers. Some revenge-seekers, thrill junkies, and psychopathic killers may have asked for a ransom, but their base motives could put the kidnap victim at greater risk than the prisoners of cautious criminal “businessmen.” In these cases, it seemed, children were especially vulnerable. The infant Blakely Coughlin (abducted in 1920), 5-year-old Giuseppi Verotta (1921), 14-year-old Robert...
Read MoreBefore the “Snatch Racket”
Kidnapping is an ancient crime, mentioned in the Bible, but for millennia largely associated with war, piracy, and slavery. False imprisonment was recognized as a felony under English common law in the early 13th century but soon fell into the class of “minor felony.” While the United States “without doubt” experienced hundreds of cases before the 1920s, the instances were isolated and ransom was rarely the motive. With rare exception, little attention was paid beyond the place the crime...
Read More19th Bombardment Group
This page includes photos taken by or given to Captain Paul E. Cool, 19th BG, in 1942, in Java and Australia. There are no captions, so most other persons in the photos are unidentified. Contact Paul Cool if you have any knowledge of photograph subjects. paul@paulcoolbooks.com Contact Paul Cool, member of the 19th Bombardment Association, at paul@paulcoolbooks.com Major Paul E. Cool, USAAF Pilot in the 28th Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bombardment Group during 1942, and CO of 30th Bombardment...
Read MoreCurly Bill
I thank Chris Penn of England for providing me with the Graphic Illustrated article . The best published sources for information on Curly Bill Brocius are: Steve Gatto, Curly Bill (2003) and Casey Tefertiller, Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend (1997) I welcome comments. Contact me at paul@paulcoolbooks.com “It’s Just a Flesh Wound”: The Gunfights of Tombstone’s Black Knight Tombstone diarist George Parsons once described him as “our most famous outlaw at present,” and with good reason. Curly (or Curley)...
Read More