Mata Hari was executed on October 15, 1917 more than a hundred years ago today.  I found an article on All That’s Interesting chronicling her life and death.

In 1917, Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari was executed by the French for working with the Germans. But her apparent role as a double agent remains unclear to this day.

Many have heard of Mata Hari, the famous exotic dancer who supposedly became a lethal wartime spy. But few know exactly which parts of her fascinating story are fact and which parts are fiction.

What we do know is that Hari was well-traveled and fluent in several different languages. And during World War I, her romantic exploits with soldiers landed her in a web of espionage so tangled that not even her fame could save her.

In 2017, the French government finally declassified the so-called “Mata Hari papers” — trial archives that were kept secret for an entire century. And around that same time, a cache of Hari’s personal letters was also released.

But in many ways, this has only deepened the mystery.

The Early Life of Mata Hari

The details of Mata Hari’s early life are sadder than they are glamorous.

Born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle on August 7, 1876, in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, Mata Hari was known for her dark hair and eyes — which were unusual among her Dutch peers. She was also known for being sociable and bright. Hari’s father, who owned a hat shop, was relatively wealthy and doted on his daughter.

However, Hari’s luck soon changed. Her father went bankrupt, her parents divorced, and her mother died all by the time she was in her early teens. Her father remarried and sent Hari and her siblings to live with other relatives.

After being expelled from school for having an “affair” with the headmaster, Hari ran away to live with her uncle in The Hague. (Hari was only 16 years old at the time of the alleged “affair,” so historians believe she may have been sexually abused.)

At age 18, she answered a lonely-hearts ad written by 39-year-old Dutch soldier Rudolf MacLeod. The two married in 1895, she became Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod, and the couple moved to the island of Java in Indonesia (formerly the Dutch East Indies). The union was not a happy one.

MacLeod drank frequently and kept a mistress — something that didn’t sit well with his new wife. But around this time, Hari also began immersing herself in Indonesian culture, which would prove useful later on.

The couple had two children, both of whom fell very ill in 1899. Their son died that year at the age of two, but their daughter survived.

The young boy’s cause of death is widely believed to have been congenital syphilis — contracted from his parents. However, other sources claim that he died after a disgruntled nanny poisoned both of the kids.

After the tragic death, MacLeod left the army, and the couple returned to the Netherlands, where they parted ways. They officially divorced in 1902.

At first, the couple’s daughter mostly stayed with her mother, but Hari had difficulty finding work as there were few jobs available for women.

Without the means to support her child, Hari made a difficult decision. She handed her daughter over to her ex-husband — and moved to Paris.

The Paris Years

Hari first arrived in Paris in 1903. While she was grateful to have a fresh start, she missed her daughter — and she still struggled to make money.

From giving piano lessons to teaching German, Hari tried to make ends meet however she could. By 1904, she confessed in a personal letter that she had turned to prostitution in order to support herself. She also worked as an artist’s model for painters.

But then, a friend suggested working as a dancer — a career that would change her life. By 1905, she was not only finding success in her new profession but also crafting a couple of new personas for herself.

Claiming variously to be a Hindu artist, the daughter of an Indian temple dancer, or a European who was born in Java, she took the stage name “Mata Hari,” which means “eye of the day” in Malay. She drew crowds for her provocative “sacred dance” — which was basically just a striptease.

After her debut at the Musée Guimet in Paris, the name Mata Hari would be known all over Europe. She was an undeniable sensation. On top of her seductive performance, she also had the rare advantage of “educating” her audience on a different culture and way of life. That way, both she and her audience had a respectable reason for being at the show.

Men around the world would covet her, but Mata Hari mostly had eyes for military officers — a preference that would later get her in serious trouble after Europe plunged into World War I.

Mata Hari’s Connection to World War I

Given the Netherlands’ neutral stance in World War I, Mata Hari had no trouble crossing national borders. So she did that often — which is why she appeared on a watch list for both French and British intelligence.

What happened next depends on who’s telling the story. It remains unclear whether Mata Hari was actually a lethal spy for the Germans or for the French, or which country she agreed to help first and for what reason.

One version of the story is that around 1914, Hari had personal property (including furs) confiscated in Germany. As the story goes, she went back to the Netherlands shortly thereafter. And in 1915 or 1916, the Germans approached her about going back to France to work as a spy — offering her 50,000 francs to do so. They apparently thought that she would be valuable to them due to her many romantic connections with soldiers.

While she allegedly accepted the money, she later claimed that she did so only to get back what the Germans had taken from her — and wasn’t seriously intending on spying. However, she did make two trips to France in 1915 and 1916 — during which she fell in love with a Russian officer.

And in 1916, she reportedly accepted an offer from the French counter-intelligence chief to spy for his country for a million francs. She would later claim that this was only so that she could retire from her former life and settle down with the man she truly loved. But this decision would ultimately spell her doom — as she was soon caught working as a double agent.

However, another version claims that she accepted a lucrative offer from the French to spy first (again, because of her romantic links to soldiers). In this story, she gets falsely labeled as a German spy — after an unsuccessful attempt to extract information from a German attaché.

That said, it is possible that she simply accepted money from either or both sides just for the sake of supporting herself and her lover. But even if she never took a single spying assignment, this suspicious connection with different intelligence programs would lead to her downfall.

The Arrest and Trial for Espionage

In 1916, when a ship Mata Hari was aboard entered the English port of Falmouth, police arrested her, believing she was a different spy. Though she was ultimately released, things quickly began to go downhill from there.

In January 1917, an officer at the German Embassy in Madrid sent a coded message to Berlin outlining the activities of a German spy named H-21. The French intercepted this message and identified H-21 as Mata Hari.

However, many believe that German intelligence knew this code had already been cracked. In other words, they were setting Hari up for the fall. And at some point in February, she was arrested in a Paris hotel room and promptly thrown in a rat-infested jail cell.

Mata Hari’s trial, which would be held at a military tribunal, was set for July. The charges included spying for the Germans and thus causing the deaths of some 50,000 soldiers.

On the stand, Mata Hari admitted to accepting money from a German to spy on France — but claimed she didn’t do the deeds he asked of her. She said she only offered trivial, meaningless information to demonstrate her ultimate loyalty to her adopted country of France.

She added that she considered the money payment for her formerly confiscated property. But the French didn’t believe that she was innocent. The military tribunal deliberated for only 45 minutes before declaring her guilty — which led to her being sentenced to death.

Mata Hari could only plead her innocence to the Dutch Ambassador in Paris: “My international connections are due of my work as a dancer, nothing else. Because I really did not spy, it is terrible that I cannot defend myself.”

Mata Hari’s Execution and Legacy

A trailer for the 1931 film Mata Hari, starring Greta Garbo as the titular character.

Regardless of whether Mata Hari was guilty or innocent, her fate was sealed. She would be executed by a firing squad on October 15, 1917.

The details of her death, like her life, are mired in mystery and myth. Some say she blew a kiss to the firing squad before they began shooting. Others say she refused a blindfold and bravely looked her executioners in the eyes.

Perhaps the most believable is this eyewitness testimony: “She displayed unprecedented courage, with a small smile on her lips, just like in the days of her great triumphs on stage.” Nobody arrived to claim her body.

For nearly 100 years after her death, Mata Hari was portrayed as the ultimate “Femme Fatale” who preyed on unsuspecting soldiers. She also became a small fixture in pop culture — especially after she was portrayed by Greta Garbo in the 1931 film Mata Hari.

But outside of the notorious spy legend, the recently released documents on Hari attempt to paint a more complete picture of her life. And it’s a sad picture indeed. Not only was Hari abused and abandoned by many people, she very well may have been used as a scapegoat or pawn during her trial — perhaps because of her controversial profession and reputation.

On top of that, France or Germany (or both) may have also been angry at her for failing to produce useful information. In addition, it’s possible that France wanted someone to blame for issues they were facing during the war.

But unfortunately, the full truth behind the legend probably died with Hari.

To this day, historians still argue over whether Mata Hari was indeed a double agent or even a spy at all. With every recounting of her story more complicated than the last, it seems that she may have been — if anything — a victim of sexual politics. After all, she was not a chaste, self-sacrificing woman — so it’s little wonder why she wasn’t trusted.

SOURCE: all that’s interesting

From: The Intercept

An unredacted memo adds depth to our understanding of the CIA’s response to allegations that Oswald worked with the spy agency.

The Biden administration declassified a new clue last week to the relationship between Lee Harvey Oswald and the Central Intelligence Agency. Among the intersections between Oswald and the CIA, his time as a young Marine at the Atsugi naval air facility in Japan in 1957 is high among them.

Atsugi was a launching pad for U-2 spy flights over the Soviet Union and was also a hub of the CIA’s research into psychedelic drugs. “A CIA memo titled ‘Truth Drugs in Interrogation’ revealed the agency practice of dosing agents who were marked for dangerous overseas missions,” wrote author David Talbot in “The Devil’s Chessboard,” his 2015 biography of former CIA Director Allen Dulles.

Talbot’s exploration of the link ended there: “Some chroniclers of Oswald’s life have suggested that he was one of the young marines on whom the CIA performed its acid tests.”

A new document released in full last week relates directly to Oswald’s time at Atsugi, revealing details about the CIA’s response to testimony from a former agency accountant that the spy service had employed Oswald — who went on to be a gunman in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

The CIA’s role in Kennedy’s assassination remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of American history. A majority of Americans believe the president was killed as part of a conspiracy that went beyond Oswald, and roughly a third believe the CIA or elements within the CIA had a hand in it.

The CIA’s role in Kennedy’s assassination remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of American history.

The main theory posits the assassination as a response to Kennedy’s firing of Dulles, a cloak-and-dagger powerbroker, following the failed CIA Bay of Pigs operation to unseat Fidel Castro’s Communist government in Cuba. Some believers of the theory also point to evidence Kennedy was souring on the Vietnam War or militarism in general. If Dulles did orchestrate a coup against Kennedy, it would be far from his first.

A memorandum from 1978 reports that a finance clerk with the CIA, James Wilcott Jr., had informed a House panel exploring the assassination that “the CIA hired Lee Harvey Oswald when Oswald served in Atsugi.” The memo goes on to cast doubt on Wilcott’s claim, noting that he arrived in Tokyo in 1960, after Oswald had left the base, suggesting that Wilcott’s claim is based on “second hand” information.

A version of the document was declassified by the Trump administration in 2017, though it redacted a portion of a note that runs along the bottom of it. That redaction obscured the name of a CIA official, Dan Nieschur, who fielded requests from congressional investigators in the 1970s and searched Oswald’s files. Jefferson Morley, editor of the Substack newsletter JFK Facts, said that inconsequential lifting of such redactions seems to be common in this latest document release, allowing the government to claim it is releasing thousands of documents, while most had largely already been in the public domain.

The memo, written to a person identified only as “JHW,” explains that CIA official Russ Holmes “inherited the so-called Oswald files, but that he has assured me the Agency had no contact with Oswald.” The memo says that “contrary records” might be in “EA” — a likely reference to the CIA’s East Asia desk — and that they would be searched for and checked if found.” “He is after it,” the memo says of Holmes, who became legendary for his now-declassified CIA archive on the assassination.

The new JFK files include a number of personnel records connected to Wilcott, whose testimony before the House committee in the late 1970s made news at the time.

Oswald’s next few years make much more sense with a connection to the CIA than without them.

After studying Russian while in the military — perhaps trained at the Army Language School in Monterey, California, according to Talbot, sourcing the claim to the Warren Commission chief counsel J. Lee Rankin — Oswald was discharged with a false claim of his mother’s ill health.

Completely broke, with only $203 in his bank account, he took a boat to England nine days after his discharge. Then, according to his wife, Oswald took a military transport flight to Finland, staying at two of the nicest hotels in Helsinki.

Oswald then took an overnight train from Helsinki to Moscow. Once there, he presented himself at the U.S. Embassy to announce he’d become a defector. Embassy staff later recalled that his defection speech sounded odd and rehearsed. He spent two and a half years in the Soviet Union and then, just as curiously as he’d defected, returned home to the United States.

If the series of moves — from the discharge to the flight to the defection to the return — were made at the behest of the CIA, they make sense, with Oswald playing some type of role in the inscrutable world of spycraft. Absent an intelligence link, the tick-tock of Oswald’s post-military years would be situated somewhere between extraordinarily implausible to impossible to pull off.

The CIA is known to have explored creative uses of psychedelics — and Dulles was specifically aware of these activities, even proposing some of the uses. On March 2, 1960, according to a declassified CIA report included in last week’s document release, the CIA director briefed Richard Nixon, then the vice president, on a proposal to deal with Fidel Castro and Cuba. The report, which appears to be another version of a previously declassified document, included plans for economic sabotage of cane production and interference with oil deliveries.

A more innovative idea presented in the briefing, according to the CIA, appears to be a reference to dosing Castro with LSD, which the agency was at the time experimenting with. Nixon was told that the agency had “a drug, which if placed in Castro’s food, would make him behave in such an irrational manner that a public appearance could have very damaging results to him.”

The CIA’s claim to have had no contact with Oswald is undercut by the fact that George de Mohrenschildt, a CIA asset, became close friends with Oswald in the months before the assassination. That spring, de Mohrenschildt traveled to New York, Philadelphia, and Washington. According to documents found in the newly declassified files, at the same time as his trip, the CIA’s Domestic Operations Division ran a search on de Mohrenschildt, “exact reason unknown,” according to two documents created by a CIA analyst included in last week’s declassification.

The covert arm of the division was run at the time by E. Howard Hunt, a black ops specialist who confessed later in life to learning ahead of time of a conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy that involved high-level figures in the CIA.

“It is interesting that Allen’s interest in de Mohrenschildt coincided with the earlier portion of this trip,” the memo concludes, referring to Gale Allen, a case officer with the CIA’s Domestic Operations Division at the time, “and the information would suggest that possibly Allen and de Mohrenschildt were possibly in the same environment in Washington, D.C., circa 26 April 1963.”

In the wake of the latest document release, which also withheld countless additional documents, Fox News host Tucker Carlson reported that a source who reviewed the undisclosed records said they included evidence of CIA involvement in the assassination. Carlson said that he had invited his friend Mike Pompeo, the former CIA director who also withheld crucial documents, on to his show to respond. “Though he rarely turns down a televised interview, he refused to come,” Carlson said. “We hope he will reconsider.”

SOURCE: The Intercept

Ryan Grim

December 19 2022, 6:22 p.m.

I will never forget where I was when I heard about the Twin Towers. My mother and I were in the local bank.  They had just installed 2 large televisions for those people waiting in lines.  Normally the news played in the background as we stood waiting for the next teller.  But that morning, we all stood in disbelief watching the horror unfold—tellers and customers alike.  Mom and I had planned to go grocery shopping after the bank, but we decided to go home and watch the tv for more information. 

Where we you when you heard?  Do you remember? Will you ever forget?

(if I got the correct link, the second video is the updated version of the first one.)

Today is the anniversary of the death of Princess Diana.  I could relate the official tale of her tragic death, but that isn’t my style.  I searched for an article relating the strange, conspiracy types of “facts” that, of course, have been “explained away” in the official accounts.

6 Truly Strange Facts Surrounding Princess Diana’s Death

20 years later, these facts still can’t be dismissed.

By Lesli White

It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since the death of Diana, Princes of Wales. While much time has passed since Princess Diana’s death in 1997, the fascination with her life and tragic death have never waned. Over the years, there have been many conspiracy theories surrounding Princess Diana’s death, many of which have been quite intriguing. In addition, persistent plots and incessant rumors, books, tapes, letters, diaries, unpublished videos continue to pop up, particularly when another anniversary approaches. While it hasn’t been proven that her death was anything other than a tragic accident, there are certain aspects of the incident that can’t be ignored. Many of these aspects will leave you with more questions than answers. Here are six truly strange facts surrounding Princess Diana’s death.

The Letters That Predicted Her Own Death

A few months prior to her death, Princess Diana sent out letters to two close friends, her butler Paul Burrell and her solicitor, Lord Mitchum. In them, she stated quite clearly that the royal family and her husband were “planning her death” and that it would be “a car accident.” Burrell went public with his letter, making it known to the press. Lord Mitchum on the other hand passed the letter over to the serving police chief at the time, Lord Condon. Condon withheld this letter from public knowledge as did his successor, Lord Stevens, for several years, even though it is illegal to withhold evidence in investigations. Despite this, no action was taken against either former police chief. Many people found this suspicious and for good reason.

Car Swap at the Last Moment

When Princess Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed left the Ritz Hotel shortly after midnight on the morning of August 31, 1997, a different Mercedes was sent to pick them up than the one they had used throughout the day. Not only was the car changed at the very last minute, there was also no backup car present as was customary.

In addition, there was much controversy regarding the seat belts and who was and wasn’t wearing them on that last journey. Princess Diana was always known to wear her seat belt so it’s hard for many to believe that she was found to have not been wearing one the day of the crash. During that time, the security officer in the vehicle, Trevor Rees-Jones was found with his seat belt on, which is unusual for a security officer on such a high profile job, given the standard practice was for them to not wear seat belts so their movements aren’t restricted.

No Footage Captured of Their Fateful Journey

Henri Paul opted to take a different route the day that the crash occurred. The longer route took them along the River Seine and through the Pont d’ Alma tunnel where the tragic crash occurred. The reason they were said to take this route as opposed to the quickest one was to avoid paparazzi, who had followed the pair all day long. While this might sound rational, given the route was selected on the spur of the moment, many people found it suspicious that all 17 CCTV cameras along the route were either turned off or not working at all. Consequently, no footage was captured of their fatal journey – footage that would have been invaluable in determining what happened that evening.

Henri Paul’s Alcohol Level

Henri Paul was said to have been drunk behind the wheel and lost control of the car the day of the crash. However, there are a number of interesting points about this account. While Paul probably did drink that night and was on antidepressents, he is on camera acting coherent and not visibly intoxicated shortly before the accident. There are some disagreements among experts over exactly how much he had to drink that night.

There are some theories about Paul being an employee of French and/or British security services, as he had over $1000 on him at the time of death, though as a high ranking employee at an upscale hotel in Paris who occasionally needed to buy things for wealthy clients, having over a grand in his pockets is not the oddest thing.

She Remained in the Tunnel for 81 Minutes

Princess Diana wasn’t removed from the crashed vehicle for almost 37 minutes – despite there being little to no damage to her side of the car. It was a total of 81 minutes before the ambulance she had been placed into made its way out of the tunnel and to the hospital. Medical experts who testified in court stated that had Princess Diana been removed from the scene quicker, she very well may have survived. While serious questions were made about his conduct at the accident scene, Dr. Jean-Marc Martino was not made to appear at the official inquiry into Princess Diana and Dodi’s death. Dr. Martino also didn’t address any of the accusations of gross negligence from those who felt his actions that night were far from adequate, which was met with much suspicion.

Speed of the Ambulance Questioned

When the ambulance finally arrived at the scene, it was traveling at a pedestrian pace of 19 kilometers per hour (12 mph). This was questioned by investigators, researchers, medical and emergency service experts alike. The excuse was made that they were traveling with high-tech medical equipment. Given it was essentially a mobile theater room, it allowed the emergency team to begin treatment as soon as a person is inside the ambulance. They said that traveling at that speed would have put their work in danger.

We can only speculate how different our world would be if Princess Diana had not died in a car accident that tragic day. She taught us that there is more out in the world besides ourselves. Princess Diana tried to help as many people as she could in the time she was with us and she will always be remembered as a beacon of light and hope. The late Princess of Wales will be forever missed.

SOURCE: Beliefnet

Today is the anniversary of the plane crash that killed John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife and sister-in-law. Like most tragedies involving celebrities, this incident has sparked controversies and conspiracy theories.  I am presenting 2 articles—one from History.com and one from Biography.com. detailing the “official” story. At the end of those pieces, I also provide a link to site disputing a lot of the “reported” facts.  The author reveals some very interesting details.

FROM: HISTORY.COM

On July 16, 1999, John F. Kennedy, Jr.; his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy; and her sister, Lauren Bessette, died when the single-engine plane that Kennedy was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr., was born on November 25, 1960, just a few weeks after his father and namesake was elected the 35th president of the United States. On his third birthday, “John-John” attended the funeral of his assassinated father and was photographed saluting his father’s coffin in a famous and searing image. Along with his sister, Caroline, he was raised in Manhattan by his mother, Jacqueline. After graduating from Brown University and a very brief acting stint, he attended New York University Law School. He passed the bar on his third try and worked in New York as an assistant district attorney, winning all six of his cases. In 1995, he founded the political magazine George, which grew to have a circulation of more than 400,000.

Always in the media spotlight, he was celebrated for the good looks that he inherited from his parents. In 1988, he was named the “Sexiest Man Alive” by People magazine. He was linked romantically with several celebrities, including the actress Daryl Hannah, whom he dated for five years. In September 1996, he married girlfriend Carolyn Bessette, a fashion publicist. The two shared an apartment in New York City, where Kennedy was often seen inline skating in public. Known for his adventurous nature, he nonetheless took pains to separate himself from the more self-destructive behavior of some of the other men in the Kennedy clan.

On July 16, 1999, however, with about 300 hours of flying experience, Kennedy took off from Essex County airport in New Jersey and flew his single-engine plane into a hazy, moonless night. He had turned down an offer by one of his flight instructors to accompany him, saying he “wanted to do it alone.” To reach his destination of Martha’s Vineyard, he would have to fly 200 miles—the final phase over a dark, hazy ocean—and inexperienced pilots can lose sight of the horizon under such conditions. Unable to see shore lights or other landmarks, Kennedy would have to depend on his instruments, but he had not qualified for a license to fly with instruments only. In addition, he was recovering from a broken ankle, which might have affected his ability to pilot his plane.

At Martha’s Vineyard, Kennedy was to drop off his sister-in-law Lauren Bessette, one of his two passengers. From there, Kennedy and his wife, Carolyn, were to fly on to the Kennedy compound on Cape Cod’s Hyannis Port for the marriage of Rory Kennedy, the youngest child of the late Robert F. Kennedy. The Piper Saratoga aircraft never made it to Martha’s Vineyard. Radar data examined later showed the plane plummeting from 2,200 feet to 1,100 feet in a span of 14 seconds, a rate far beyond the aircraft’s safe maximum. It then disappeared from the radar screen.

Kennedy’s plane was reported missing by friends and family members, and an intensive rescue operation was launched by the Coast Guard, the navy, the air force, and civilians. After two days of searching, the thousands of people involved gave up hope of finding survivors and turned their efforts to recovering the wreckage of the aircraft and the bodies. Americans mourned the loss of the “crown prince” of one of the country’s most admired families, a sadness that was especially poignant given the relentless string of tragedies that have haunted the Kennedy family over the years.

On July 21, navy divers recovered the bodies of JFK Jr., his wife, and sister-in-law from the wreckage of the plane, which was lying under 116 feet of water about eight miles off the Vineyard’s shores. The next day, the cremated remains of the three were buried at sea during a ceremony on the USS Briscoe, a navy destroyer. A private mass for JFK Jr. and Carolyn was held on July 23 at the Church of St. Thomas More in Manhattan, where the late Jackie Kennedy Onassis worshipped. President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, were among the 300 invited guests. The Kennedy family’s surviving patriarch, Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, delivered a moving eulogy: “From the first day of his life, John seemed to belong not only to our family, but to the American family. He had a legacy, and he learned to treasure it. He was part of a legend, and he learned to live with it.”

Investigators studying the wreckage of the Piper Saratoga found no problems with its mechanical or navigational systems. In their final report released in 2000, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the crash was caused by an inexperienced pilot who became disoriented in the dark and lost control.

From: Biography.com

JFK Jr. got his pilot’s license only a year prior to the crash

On the morning of July 16, Kennedy reconciled with Bessette over the phone, writes C. David Heymann in American Legacy: The Story of John & Caroline Kennedy. The plan for the evening was to fly to Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, via a stop at Martha’s Vineyard to drop off Lauren. Kennedy and Bessette were scheduled to attend the wedding of Kennedy’s cousin, Rory Kennedy.

Kennedy and Lauren left Manhattan for the Essex County Airport in New Jersey – where Kennedy’s high-performance Piper Saratoga light plane was waiting – a little after 6:30 p.m. Carolyn arrived separately, sometime after 8 p.m. Coinciding with sunset, the Federal Aviation Administration cleared the plane for takeoff at 8:38 p.m.

Kennedy, who attained his pilot’s license a year previous, was in the pilot’s seat of the plane he purchased less than three months prior. The Bessette sisters sat side by side behind him. Following takeoff, Kennedy checked in with the control tower at Martha’s Vineyard, but the plane was reported missing after it failed to arrive on time.

The weather and Kennedy’s ‘failure to maintain control of the airplane’ were factors in the accident

Following an exhaustive search, fragments of the plane were discovered on July 19. A day later divers found the remains of the shattered plane strewn over a broad area of seabed. The search ended July 21, when the three bodies were recovered from the ocean floor.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined pilot’s error was the probable cause of the crash, due to Kennedy’s “failure to maintain control of the airplane during a descent over water at night, which was a result of spatial disorientation. Factors in the accident were haze and the dark night.” Autopsies conducted on the evening of July 21 revealed the victims had died upon impact.

And now for the alternate theory…

One of the interesting details that was reported early was a witness describing seeing a bright flash in the sky (a bomb perhaps?) and that of a beacon being spotted in a totally different location from where the plane was eventually found. (Perhaps to ensure that rescue would be too late?) Both accounts have “disappeared”.  There are additional questions and problems with the generally accepted “official” story detailed in this person’s article. He includes a conversation with the local (?) newspaper that carried the report of the bright flash of light in the sky–and his inability to obtain any information from the newspaper about the witness. This is a long article with a lot of contradicting details and explanations.

whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/CRASH/JFK_JR/jj.php

Today is the anniversary of a gruesome murder in a small town in Missouri.  “Despite there being dozens of witnesses, no one has ever been arrested or charged…”  This story was written in 2021 and I do not believe anything has or will change since.

True Crime

Bully’s murder remains a secret in Missouri town for 40 years

by: Kevin S. Held

Posted: Jul 13, 2021 / 12:35 PM CDT

Updated: Jul 13, 2021 / 01:31 PM CDT

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

SKIDMORE, Mo. – Tucked away in the northwest corner of Missouri is a small, dusty town 46 miles north of St. Joseph with a decades-old secret.

This past weekend marked the 40th anniversary of the killing of Ken Rex McElroy of Skidmore. And despite there being dozens of witnesses, no one has ever been arrested or charged in connection with McElroy’s murder.

In short: no one saw anything.

Ken McElroy died in a hail of gunfire on the morning of July 10, 1981, while sitting in his truck outside a local tavern. He was known as the town bully, but they may be putting it mildly.

In the decades preceding his murder, McElroy terrorized the denizens of Skidmore. He was accused or suspected of dozens of crimes, including theft, livestock rustling, burglary, arson, assault, rape, and child molestation. He was charged 21 times in theft cases but was said to have avoided conviction through witness intimidation, either by direct confrontation or by parking his truck outside their home.

McElroy raped a 12-year-old girl and, to avoid statutory rape charges, he divorced his wife at the time and married the child when she was 14 – and pregnant with their baby. McElroy burned down the girl’s home and shot her family’s dog to force her parents to agree to the marriage. He torched the home and shot the dog—again—after the girl went into hiding with her and McElroy’s baby.

In July 1976, McElroy pulled a shotgun on farmer Romaine Henry and shot the man in the stomach. Henry survived and McElroy was charged with assault with intent to kill. However, when the matter came to trial, McElroy’s attorney produced a pair of witnesses who testified they were hunting with McElroy that day and he was nowhere near the scene of the shooting. McElroy was found not guilty.

In 1980, McElroy shot the 70-year-old town grocer in the neck following a months-old dispute over an accusation about a piece of stolen candy. The grocer lived and McElroy was again arrested and charged with attempted murder. McElroy was convicted of assault but let out of jail awaiting appeal. He went about making public threats against the grocer while armed with a rifle.

On the morning of July 10, 1981, several townspeople met with the Nodaway County sheriff at a local hall to discuss what could be done about McElroy. The sheriff suggested they form a neighborhood watch and advised the group not to confront the man. Meanwhile, McElroy and his wife arrived at the D&G Tavern for a morning drink.

After the sheriff left town, the group walked from the hall and went down the street to the tavern. McElroy eventually left the tavern and got into his pickup truck with his wife, but the mob of people followed the pair outside. According to reports, some 50 people were outside the tavern when the shooting started.

McElory was struck by two different firearms and died behind the wheel of his truck. McElroy’s wife was not injured and escaped the vehicle. According to a report, no one called an ambulance.

Local authorities, including a coroner’s jury and a local grand jury, and even the FBI, investigated the killing but to no avail. McElroy’s wife named one person as a possible gunman, but no one could—or would—identify who fired the shots. She eventually filed a wrongful death against the town, the county, and some citizens but the matter was settled out of court.

McElroy’s wife—whom he victimized as a child—remarried and moved to Lebanon, Missouri. She died of cancer on Jan. 24, 2012; it was her 55th birthday.

The case inspired a book, In Broad Daylight by Harry McLean, and a 1991 TV movie of the same name starring Brian Dennehy. A&E, Rolling Stone, Playboy, 60 Minutes, and other media outlets covered the story in print or television. In 2019, the McElroy killing was the subject of a docuseries on SundanceTV. Buzzfeed’s Unsolved Network produced a 24-minute true crime documentary on the shooting.

Today is President Donald Trump’s birthday.  I decided not to do a piece on his life, or accomplishments.  Instead, I want to focus on a different aspect of his personality–his generosity! These are articles, letters to the editor, and the like, detailing the many acts of generosity of Donald Trump. I cobbled them together, so pardon the format.

Express-Times Letters to the Editor (a newspaper in the Lehigh Valley, PA)

In this Jan. 30, 2016 file photo, Donald Trump holds a check presentation with a $100,000 contribution from the Donald J. Trump Foundation to Puppy Jake, a veteran’s charity, at a campaign event in Davenport, Iowa. AP

A lot of people may be turned off by his tweets, his mannerisms, or even the way he talks, but the way President Trump treats politicians (whom most Americans hate) is much different than how he treats the American people.

Here are a few examples of his kindness and charitable moments: Stopping the presidential motorcade promptly to thank firefighters. Helping a Harlem hospital repair its elevator systems. Loaning his private airline to the family of a three-year-old boy suffering from a life-threatening medical condition so he could get treatment in New York.

Another story is that of Annabel Hill, whose husband killed himself for insurance money to save his family farm, but the insurance wouldn’t pay for a suicide. Trump stepped in and helped save the farm.

Trump also let Jennifer Hudson and some of her family members stay in Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago for free after her relatives were killed.

Trump sent a bus driver a $10,000 check for stopping a woman from jumping off a bridge.

These are just a few of the many acts of kindness that have gone unnoticed by the media and most Americans. I hope after reading this you have a different opinion of the president. He may be quick with a tweet and fast with the lip, but the man also has a big heart and the character to lead this nation. Please join me in voting for Trump on Tuesday.

Luke Sterner

Upper Nazareth Township

I know men like Trump. Givers. They are universally conservative. They give with no expectation of people knowing the depth and breadth of their philanthropy. Such is Trump’s generosity.

I admire these men, and so want to be one of them. I pray for the day when I can give some single mother working as a waitress (or whatever) enough money to ease her mind for a month or two. I want to be the man who sees that street person who just needs a ray of hope, and provides that ray of hope.

I think about how the media has mischaracterized Trump, intentionally. All because the media has been told, “It’s her time.”

Media and other Leftists don’t care how crooked Hillary Clinton is. They don’t care how many people she has killed or had their lives ruined by Hillary Clinton. Because Leftists have their marching orders.

What you won’t learn about Hillary Clinton is anything about her charity. The Clinton Family concerns themselves with themselves. They pretend to care, while blatantly robbing the public who genuinely cares.

Apparently, this is an article that appeared in Townhall. It documents some of Trump’s generosity. This needs to get out. Trump won’t brag about these things, because he’s grateful to have been able to showcase his heart.

Per Townhall:

Donald Trump is a racist, bigot, sexist, xenophobe, anti-Semitic and Islamophobe — did I miss anything? The left and the media launch these hideous kinds of attacks at Trump every day; yet, nothing could be further from the truth about the real estate mogul.

As an entertainment journalist, I’ve had the opportunity to cover Trump for over a decade, and in all my years covering him I’ve never heard anything negative about the man until he announced he was running for president.

Keep in mind, I got paid a lot of money to dig up dirt on celebrities like Trump for a living so a scandalous story on the famous billionaire could’ve potentially sold a lot of magazines and would’ve been a “yuge” feather in my cap. Instead, I found that he doesn’t drink alcohol or do drugs, he’s a hardworking businessman and totally devoted to his beloved wife and children. On top of that, he’s one of the most generous celebrities in the world with a heart filled with more gold than his $100 million New York penthouse.

In 2004, the first season of “The Apprentice” aired and at that time I worked as an entertainment columnist for the “RedEye Edition of the Chicago Tribune” and as a freelancer for “Us Weekly”. I had a gut feeling that Chicago contestant, Bill Rancic, was going to win the reality show.  So I contacted him and covered the hit show the entire season. I managed to score an invite to New York for the show’s grand finale and after-party. This is where I first met Trump and got to ask him a few questions. That year, Rancic did win “The Apprentice”. I attended “The Apprentice” finale the next two years in a row. Between that and the frequent visits Trump and his family made to Chicago during the construction of their Trump International Hotel & Tower, I got a chance to meet most of his family too and I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with them. Since the media has failed so miserably at reporting the truth about Trump, I decided to put together some of the acts of kindness he’s committed over three decades which has gone virtually unnoticed or fallen on deaf ears.

In 1986, Trump prevented the foreclosure of Annabell Hill’s family farm after her husband committed suicide. Trump personally phoned down to the auction to stop the sale of her home and offered the widow money. Trump decided to take action after he saw Hill’s pleas for help in news reports.

In 1988, a commercial airline refused to fly Andrew Ten, a sick Orthodox Jewish child with a rare illness, across the country to get medical care because he had to travel with an elaborate life-support system. His grief stricken parents contacted Trump for help and he didn’t hesitate to send his own plane to take the child from Los Angeles to New York so he could get his treatment.

In 1991, 200 Marines who served in Operation Desert Storm spent time at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina before they were scheduled to return home to their families. However, the Marines were told that a mistake had been made and an aircraft would not be able to take them home on their scheduled departure date. When Trump got wind of this, he sent his plane to make two trips from North Carolina to Miami to safely return the Gulf War Marines to their loved ones.

In 1995, a motorist stopped to help Trump after the limo he was traveling in got a flat tire. Trump asked the Good Samaritan how he could repay him for his help. All the man asked for was a bouquet of flowers for his wife. A few weeks later Trump sent the flowers with a note that read: “We’ve paid off your mortgage.”

In 1996, Trump filed a lawsuit against the city of Palm Beach, Florida accusing the town of discriminating against his Mar-a-Lago resort club because it allowed Jews and blacks. Abraham Foxman, who was the Anti-Defamation League Director at the time, said Trump “put the light on Palm Beach – not on the beauty and the glitter, but on its seamier side of discrimination.” Foxman also noted that Trump’s charge had a trickle-down effect because other clubs followed his lead and began admitting Jews and blacks.

In 2000, Maury Povich featured a little girl named Megan who struggled with Brittle Bone Disease on his show and Trump happened to be watching. Trump said the little girl’s story and positive attitude touched his heart. So he contacted Maury and gifted the little girl and her family with a very generous check.

In 2008, after Jennifer Hudson’s family members were tragically murdered in Chicago, Trump put the Oscar-winning actress and her family up at his Windy City hotel for free. In addition to that, Trump’s security took extra measures to ensure Hudson and her family members were safe during such a difficult time.

In 2013, New York bus driver Darnell Barton spotted a woman close to the edge of a bridge staring at traffic below as he drove by. He stopped the bus, got out and put his arm around the woman and saved her life by convincing her to not jump. When Trump heard about this story, he sent the hero bus driver a check simply because he believed his good deed deserved to be rewarded.

In 2014, Trump gave $25,000 to Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi after he spent seven months in a Mexican jail for accidentally crossing the US-Mexico border. President Barack Obama couldn’t even be bothered to make one phone call to assist with the United States Marine’s release; however, Trump opened his pocketbook to help this serviceman get back on his feet.

In 2016, Melissa Consin Young attended a Trump rally and tearfully thanked Trump for changing her life. She said she proudly stood on stage with Trump as Miss Wisconsin USA in 2005. However, years later she found herself struggling with an incurable illness and during her darkest days she explained that she received a handwritten letter from Trump telling her she’s the “bravest woman, I know.” She said the opportunities that she got from Trump and his organizations ultimately provided her Mexican-American son with a full-ride to college.

Lynne Patton, a black female executive for the Trump Organization, released a statement in 2016 defending her boss against accusations that he’s a racist and a bigot. She tearfully revealed how she’s struggled with substance abuse and addiction for years. Instead of kicking her to the curb, she said the Trump Organization and his entire family loyally stood by her through “immensely difficult times.”

Trump’s kindness knows no bounds and his generosity has and continues to touch the lives of people from every sex, race and religion. When Trump sees someone in need, he wants to help. Two decades ago, Oprah asked Trump in a TV interview if he’d run for president. He said: “If it got so bad, I would never want to rule it out totally, because I really am tired of seeing what’s happening with this country.” That day has come. Trump sees that America is in need and he wants to help – how unthinkable!

And then there’s two tweets:

May 25, 2023 2:50 am

In Jan. 2023, Silk revealed at the funeral of Diamond that when she revealed Diamond’s passing to Trump,

he not only insisted on paying for everything, but insisted on being there in person, too.

“I want you to do whatever you want, and whatever you want, Diamond will have.”❤️ pic.twitter.com/gss5HnzjDm

— Reed Cooper (@ReedMCooper) May 7, 2023

On Sept. 11, 2021, President Trump made a surprise visit to New York Police & firefighters.

They lined up outside the station house to greet the rightful President.

Trump was handed a heart-touching card from the son, James, of one of the heroes thanking him for his support. pic.twitter.com/BQk8iwFhsr

— Reed Cooper (@ReedMCooper) May 23, 2023

Enjoy your day and hurry back, Sir!

I found an interesting post on the History website about Alcatraz.

Was the Escape from Alcatraz Successful?

It was one of the most ingenious prison breaks of all time—if it worked. In 1962, inmates and bank robbers Frank Morris and John and Clarence Anglin vanished from Alcatraz, the federal island penitentiary off the coast of San Francisco. They had used sharpened spoons to bore through the prison walls, left papier-maché dummies in their beds and floated away on a raft made from 50 raincoats.

But what happened next has stumped historians for decades. Their bodies were never recovered, leaving many wondering whether they perished in the choppy San Francisco Bay or made it to shore—and freedom.

In the years since nearly six decades of silence from the men led many to conclude that the escape had met a watery end. The FBI closed its case in 1979, concluding that the escapees were unlikely to have survived a treacherous swim of more than a mile of frigid waters to the mainland. But in January of 2018, CBS San Francisco published an extract of a letter addressed to the FBI that told an altogether different story—and claimed that the criminals had been at large since the 1960s. “My name is John Anglin,” it read. “I escape[d] from Alcatraz in June 1962 with my brother Clarence and Frank Morris. I’m 83 years old and in bad shape. I have cancer. Yes, we all made it that night but barely!”

The letter was sent to the San Francisco Police Department’s Richmond station in 2013, the broadcaster reported but had been kept under wraps during a long investigation. An FBI laboratory examined the letter for fingerprints and DNA and analyzed the handwriting within, but the results were inconclusive. “So that means yes, and it means no, so this leaves everything in limbo,” security analyst Jeff Harp told CBS.

In the letter, the writer explained that he was the last living member of the trio, with his co-conspirators dying in 2005 and 2008. He offered a deal: If authorities announced on television that he would receive a single one-year jail sentence, in which he could have the medical treatment he needed, “I will write back to let you know exactly where I am. This is no joke…” The FBI did no such thing and instead repressed the letter.

A photograph showing the cell where one of the three prisoners escaped from Alcatraz on June 12, 1962. A dummy head was used to throw off guards, and sheets were used to conceal his exit below the sink.

Though this is the first time anyone purporting to be one of the men has contacted authorities, it isn’t the first piece of evidence that suggests they might have made it out in one piece. Robert Checchi, an officer with the San Francisco police, reported seeing what he described as a “pristine white boat” out in the Bay on the night of the men’s disappearance. It had no lights on, but appeared to have someone on board shining a flashlight into the water. Police followed up on the sighting, but couldn’t find the owner of this strange boat—or where it went next.

More recently, a 2015 HISTORY special showed an alleged photograph of the brothers, taken in Brazil some 13 years after their disappearance. Family members of the men have also reported strange experiences that suggest there may be more to the story than many believe. “It’s always been talked about through the family,” David Widner, a nephew of John and Clarence Anglin, told CBS. “My grandmother received roses for several years after the escape.” If Anglin is still alive today, he would be nearly 90. He has not been heard from since.

Widner expressed dismay that authorities had not contacted the family about his relative’s alleged illness. “For him to say he had cancer and was dying, I feel like they should have at least reached out to the family and let them know [the letter] existed,” he said. But federal authorities have been quick to quash any rumors of a successful great escape. In an interview with CBS San Francisco, the U.S. Marshals investigating the case told the broadcaster they considered the lead closed with no merit and a simple hoax from someone hoping to scam and embarrass federal and local authorities. “The Federal Bureau of Prisons say that they drowned once they got off of Alcatraz and their bodies were swept out to the Pacific Ocean—end of story,” National Park Service Ranger John Cantwell said. The prison was closed permanently in 1963, a year after the men vanished. Today, it plays host to more than a million tourists each year, often drawn to the site by the story of the Anglin brothers, which was adapted for the screen in the 1979 film Escape From Alcatraz. John Anglin’s cell, where the men made their exit, is a popular attraction. It’s preserved almost perfectly, with the same gaping hole in its teal-painted wall—but even the scene of the crime offers few answers as to where these great escapees wound up.By: Natasha FrostUpdated: September 1, 2018 | Original: July 16, 2018