“Suck my fat one, you cheap dime store hood.”
-Gordie Lachance (Wil Wheaton), Stand by Me (1986)
this day in crime history: september 22, 1975
On this date in 1975, 45 year old Sara Jane Moore attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford in San Francisco, CA. The attempt–which came seventeen days after Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme tried to kill the President–was foiled by a bystander named Oliver Sipple. Sipple, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran, grabbed the gun as Moore pointed it at President Ford. The gun discharged, but the bullet missed the President.
Moore had previously been investigated by the Secret Service, but they concluded she was not a threat. Well, nobody’s perfect, not even the feds. She was arrested on an illegal weapons charge the day before the assassination attempt, but was released by the police. I guess the local cops aren’t perfect either.
Sara Jane Moore was convicted of attempted assassination and sentenced to life in prison. She was paroled on December 31, 2007 at the age of 77.
Further reading:
Time – “The Assailant: The Making of a Misfit”
Wikipedia – Sara Jane Moore
lethal weapon – the series
Tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern, Lethal Weapon premieres on FOX. I loved the film series – especially the first two movies – but I’m skeptical about this show. Especially after the debacle that was CBS’s small-screen reboot of Rush Hour. But I’ll give LW a try and watch with an open mind. It airs opposite NBC’s Blindspot, so it probably won’t be on the air long. Here’s the trailer.
this day in crime history: september 16, 1920
On this date in 1920, an unidentified man stopped his horse-drawn cart in front of the J. P. Morgan building on Wall Street. He got down from the cart and disappeared into the noontime crowd. A short while later, a bomb consisting of dynamite and cast iron slugs detonated on the busy street. Thirty-eight people were killed and over four hundred were injured. Police conducted an exhaustive investigation that lasted over three years, but the case was never solved.
Further reading:
The Street.com: “Previous Terror on Wall Street — A Look at a 1920 Bombing”
Wikipedia: “Wall Street bombing”
quarry
Hey, this is just what I needed, yet another TV show in my already over-crowded viewing schedule. Cinemax’s Quarry tells the story of a Vietnam War vet who gets recruited by a shadowy criminal organization to become a hitman. Quarry is based on a series of novels by Max Allan Collins. I watched episode 1 last week and was duly impressed. It airs on Cinemax at 10 p.m. on Fridays. Here’s the season 1 trailer.
this day in crime history: september 10, 1931
On this date in 1931, mafia “Boss of Bosses” Salvatore Maranzano was shot and stabbed to death in his office in Manhattan. Maranzano, whose reign as top man of the American Mafia lasted only a few months, became just a little too power hungry to suit his fellow mafiosi. Maranzano became aware of this resentment and began making arrangements to eliminate those who would oppose him. But one ambitious young gangster – Charles “Lucky” Luciano – beat Maranzano to the punch and had him rubbed out first, thereby living up to one of the golden rules of organized crime: Do unto others before they do unto you.
Further reading:
National Crime Syndicate – How Did Salvatore Maranzano Get Killed?
Encyclopedia Britannica – Salvatore Maranzano
Find a Grave – Salvatore Maranzano
Wikipedia – Salvatore Maranzano
