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adgres-blog · 6 years ago

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The shortened biography of Enzo Ferrari

For all the fascination about his name, Ferrari lived quite a normal life. He went into the same barber shop-the first one on the left-at 8:30 every morning for a shave. He ate lunch-Salsicce cotto or tortellini alla panna-with the same advisor at a private room at Il Cavallino, a restaurant he sat up in a farm building directly across from the factory gate in Maranello. He and his old friends talked about the things that are wrong with Il Canarini-the soccer team, had an evening card game, and the women who joined them for a drink but the life before this moment was a story worth to tell.

It was the turn of the 20th century and the invention of the automobile had inspired road racing fever all over Europe and America. Cars rushed along dirt and gravel roads covering as much as 145 miles sometimes at speeds as high as 50mph. It was this world into which Enzo Ferrari was born on February 18th 1898. His family home was on the Norther outskirts of Italy, a land crisscrossed by 100 years old family farms and graceful vineyards still famous for its Lambrusco wines and balsamic vinegars. Enzo´s father Alfredo was a structural metal contractor with his own business. His mother Adalgisa was a typical Italian homemaker who doted on both Enzo and his brother Dino who was 2 years older.

Family Background

His early family background was happy, very happy. He respected his father and adored and admired his older brother. The Ferrari home and business was on the outskirts of an ancient Roman city called Modena. The Ferraris lived upstairs in a small apartment and Alfredo´s workshop was downstairs where he sometimes employed as many as 20 workers. Alfredo intended for his sons to take over the family business one day but young Enzo wanted none of it. Instead he toyed around with the idea of being a journalist or even an opera singer. Then in 1908 when Enzo was 10 years old his father Alfredo took both his sons to their first automobile race. Enzo discovered the world of automobiles and speed. He saw Felice Nazzaro, the great 1907 Grand Prix winner for Fiat driving a Fiat at speed and he saw Vincenzo Lancia driving a Fiat at speed and he was absolutely entranced by it that to him was absolutely the epitome of bravura. In his eyes that was the life for a proper man. But Alfredo Ferrari had other plans for his boys. He sent them to a mechanical engineering trade school to prepare them to take over the family business. His brother Dino accepted his faith but Enzo perhaps something of a dreamer was utterly disinterested in schoolwork of any sort and flunked out. He had a lot of personality and was always dreaming about becoming a racing driver, he was just fascinated about risky jobs and risky sports. By the summer of 1914 when Enzo was 16 years old Italy was quickly being drawn into the 1st World War. The following year his brother Dino enlisted in the Italian army. He was sent to the front as an ambulance driver. Then in 1916 Enzo´s father died suddenly of pneumonia. Without Alfredo the once prosperous business soon collapsed. Then word came from the front that his brother Dino was dead of typhoid fever.

Beginnings

Within months Enzo Ferrari´s once predictable life seemed to be spinning out of control. He drifted from one menial job to another for more than a year. Finally in 1917 he was drafted into the army. When he appeared for duty he announced to his superiors that he was a skilled auto mechanic. Unimpressed, they assigned him to shoe the mules. Because he came from ordinary circumstances he was not taken seriously in the army, he had no privilege, he had no title and he had no family background that would permit him to be more than a simple soldier. Enzo soon contracted a pleurisy, a disease that was often fatal at the time. He eventually was transferred to a rundown hospice in Bologna where he was left to die with the other hopeless cases, waking up each morning to the hammering of coffin makers. Somehow by sheer grit or perhaps dumb luck he survived. Discharged from the army in 1918 at the age of 20 Ferrari was a broke young man, physically, mentally and emotionally. The following year a Great War came to an end, but Italy was in an economic freefall. In the chaos and disillusionment that followed Benito Mussolini and his black shirt fascists took over. Enzo Ferrari seemed disinterested in the politics of his country. His only concern was to regain the strength he lost during his illness and then somehow get on with his life. He soon managed to get a letter of recommendation from the colonel of his regiment. With that in hand he headed for Turin, the center of the Italian car industry. When Enzo arrived he immediately applied for work at one of Turin´s most prominent companies, Fiat. The automobile manufacturing giant owned by the wealthy Agnelli family. Ferrari proudly presented his letter but to the Fiat engineer who spoke with him the letter meant nothing. Ferrari was told that the city was awash in unemployed war veterans. There was no work. He wrote in his own autobiography how he sat on a park bench in Turin unemployed, lost, with his family gone, his father and older brother both dead, no job, no hope, absolutely in despair. That was a time when he just sat on a park bench and cried. Enzo Ferrari was not a man who suffered rejection easily. His grief and shame over Fiat´s refusal to hire him slowly turned to rage.

Racing Driver

Far-fetched as it seems, Ferrari swore a vendetta against Fiat and the Agnelli´s. Somehow he would find a way to make them pay. At the end of the Great War, Enzo Ferrari surfaced in Turin, Italy ready to transform himself from a simple country boy into a racecar driver and maybe even a star. He had survived a life-threatening illness and had suffered rejection from the leading car manufacturer in the region. He simply refused to give up. Ferrari was a war lover, he loved the competition, he loved to battle and he loved the day-to-day struggle. He always answered the bell, he always was ready for the fight. The battleground Ferrari had chosen was the world of fast cars. Up to now the automobiles used for racing were simply modified passenger cars. The new technology used to power tanks, airplanes and trucks during the war was being tested on specially engineered racecars and it was all happening in Turin, where was a well-known restaurant in the center that was frequented by the local motor-trade and motor-industry where he got to know more and more people and became very friendly indeed with a slightly older test-driver and engineer Ugo Sivocci. Sivocci managed to get Enzo a job at one of the small Italian automakers, CMN. It was located in Milan, some 100 miles east of Turin. It was here that Ferrari bought his first car, a used Alfa Romeo that could race. At that period it was a crazy decision but he was so in love with cars that it really became a starting point for him. After seeing both Sivocci and Ferrari drive in several local races. Alfa´s team manager gave them a chance to drive racecars for Alfa Romeo´s team. He did race fairly actively from 1920 to 1924, but they were mostly minor races in Italy. Hill climbs, rallies and some small events but he was never able to attain the kind of stature that he wanted and sure dreamed of except his first win in a 225-mile race trough pine forests fringing Ravenna. It was one of a few stirring performances of his middling career as a driver. The crowd carried him on their shoulders after he crossed the finish line. Before returning to Modena he was introduced to Count Enrico Baracca, father of Francesco Baracca, a World War 1 pilot who shot down 34 planes before crashing to his death at the front. His emblem was a prancing horse, a cavallino rampante, painted on the side of his biplane. At a later meeting with Count Baracca´s wife she urged him Ferrari to adopt the emblem for good luck. Ferrari needed to find other ways to increase his income and his prestige. He convinced Alfa Romeo to use him as a sales agent, trading and selling their cars to private customers and delivering them personally. It was during this time that he met Laura Dominica Garello, a mysterious 21 year old woman that haunted the cafe´s frequented by the Turin racing crowd. She became a kind of grey eminence within the Ferrari story. Some say that she was from a quite wealthy family from Turin and some say quite the opposite, that she was a professional lady working the streets in Turin. Laura´s life before Enzo Ferrari is a mystery, it is known that she and Ferrari traveled the racing circuit as a couple and may have even lived together for several years. In 1923 they married in a small Catholic ceremony. Within months of his marriage, Enzo returned to living the high-life. Running around with the racecar groupies of the day. According to his old friends Ferrari was an incorrigible ladies’ man. He liked women and the more beautiful they were, the more he liked them. Enzo and his wife Laura did fight from the start. Their lives were further complicated when Enzo´s mother Adalgisa came to live with them. Adalgisa and Laura despised each other, the 2 women fought openly with Enzo often in the middle playing the referee. His mother was a little lady, but when she shouted “Enzo”, she was the only woman he would get up and run for.

Scuderia Ferrari

Enzo escaped his troubled home life by throwing himself into work. Alfa Romeo planned to debut a racecar called the p1 at the European Grand Prix in Monza. Enzo managed to convince Luigi Bazzi, one of the best engine technician on the racing circuit, to leave Fiat and come to work with him on the car. Ferrari, Ugo Sivocci, Luigi Bazzi and the Alfa racing team arrived just one day early for the European Grand Prix at Monza. It was a fast practice run, Sivocci was behind the wheel, he maneuvered the p1 around a sharp curve and it spun out. Sivocci was killed. Ferrari was shaken by the death of his friend, the man who helped him to gain entrance into the world of Motorsports. He knew that the p1 had somehow failed and needed to be re-engineered. At Bazzi´s suggestion Ferrari recruited another Fiat worker to join him at Alfa Romeo. Vittorio Jano, an engineer reputed to be a mechanical genius. Together Jano, Bazzi and Ferrari went to work to redesign the p1. Ferrari was not an engineer, nor a car designer but within months under relentless pressure from him Jano and Bazzi re-engineered the Alfa Romeo p1 into what they called the p2. At a competition at Cremona with a star driver Antonio Ascari behind the wheel the p2 clocked 121 Mph, set a lap record and won the race. Ferrari´s victory was a start of a winning streak that pushed Fiat and the Agnelli out of auto-racing for good. Enzo Ferrari, a country boy from Po Valley had made good on his Vendetta against one of the most prosperous companies in Italy, at least for the time being. But winning was only the first step, now Ferrari had to find a way to finance it. With the help of some rich investors he offered to strike a deal with the Alfa Romeo to take over their car racing business. He provided the drivers and Alfa provided the cars with any background technical assistance that they could. So they continued racing and it was great. On December 1st 1929 he opened the doors on what he called the Scuderia Ferrari, in English the Ferrari stable. The best stable of racing drivers and Alfa Romeo cars that would be re-engineered to Enzo Ferrari´s specifications. But at home his family life continued to disintegrate. In 1932, 10 years into their marriage, Laura gave birth to a son, they named him Dino. According to Ferrari´s memoirs Dino was a tall, dark-haired boy whom Ferrari hoped would replace him as a head of the Ferrari brand one day. But it was an unrealistic ambition since he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, an illness that would slowly destroy his central nervous system. The fact that Dino was ill almost from childhood was difficult for Enzo Ferrari. Brock Yates suggested in his book that the illness may have been transmitted by syphilis from Laura potentially being a prostitute when she met Ferrari. By 1939 there was a world war in Europe, Mussolini had Italy in a stranglehold.

World War 2

A new Alfa Romeo executive severed the relationship with Enzo Ferrari´s Scuderia. In order to survive Ferrari would collaborate with the Italian fascist party. It was 1940 and World War 2 was spreading it´s destruction all over Europe. The Italian economy was floundering, auto racing was suspended indefinitely. The Scuderia Ferrari factory sat idle. To survive financially Enzo transformed the old Scuderia Ferrari into a factory that produced equipment for the fascist Italian´s government war efforts. There are conflicting stories about what he manufactured, some say it was power grinding machines for ball bearings that may have been used in the production of war material, and others insist he made components for the line of machine guns used by the Italian army. He went with the tide as many did but he wasn´t ever signed up for the party since he was only wed to one political cause and that was what was good for Ferrari. In order to protect his factory from allied bombers the government ordered him to move it from Modena to safer grounds, he chose Maranello, a town 10 miles away. On a return trip to Modena Enzo met Lina Lardi, a 10 years younger secretary. At first she didn´t like him since he was a man who liked to show off. This was a relationship that very much affected his life, she was a lovely lady, very serene that brought a lot of peace and solitude to his life away from a very contentious situation in his own household. At 46 Enzo fell in love with Lina Lardy. Early the next year Enzo received the news that Lina was pregnant, she delivered a healthy baby boy 9 months later and named him Piero. Mother and son were sequestered in Lina´s small hometown of Castelvetro near Ferrari´s Maranello factory. Meanwhile in Modena Laura and Enzo celebrated his son Dino´s 13th birthday. The boy’s health continued to deteriorate. Ferrari fought very hard in later stages of Dino´s illness. He kept changing his diet and brought other medical treatments. He even sent Sergio Scaglietti out of the country to buy medicine for Dino. He brought various medicines to Ferrari.

Tipo 125

After the war ended the martial plan began to infuse millions of Yankee dollars into the suffering Italian economy. The weary Italian public was ready for automobile racing to resume, so was Enzo Ferrari. He began developing new racecars and in 1947 Ferrari produced a V12 1.5 liter racer called the Tipo 125. By Italian standards the engine was enormous. Ferrari loved engines and as he was concerned the engine was the be-all and end-all racing car. The chassis was just the necessary bracket to hold the wheels on and to put a pole in where the man went. On May 11th 1947 the Tipo 125, the first automobile to carry the name Ferrari competed at Piacenza, a smaller, less important competition. Enzo chose this race because he wanted to see what his car could do. Spectators lined the streets to get a look at Ferrari´s new machine, the Italian sporting press was on hand, even a few curious members of the Alfa Romeo design staff were there. Incredibly Enzo Ferrari failed to appear, in fact from that day forward he would never attend an auto race in which a Ferrari competed. He disliked all the fuss from the journalists and liked to stay quiet. He said that he didn´t attend the events because he didn´t think his nerves would stand it. It was a remarkable move, because it effectively added to the public image. During the first race at Piacenza with only 3 laps to go and the Tipo 125 in the front, the fuel pump broke and the car coasted to a stop far short of the finish line. Enzo took the loss in stride, he called his car a promising failure. And although he didn´t know it then the Tipo 125 marked the birth of the mythic Ferari car culture and empire. Enzo began assembling some of Europe´s most brilliant technicians and most celebrated drivers. He would develop some of the fastest racing cars the world had ever seen. A stable of racecar drivers would drive these automobiles in competition after competition and win again and again. He won practically everything, the only thing he didn´t win was Le Mans in the 50s, rest out was just Ferrari. Competing on the international racing circuit cost as much as a million dollars a year. Ferrari had to find a way to increase his cash flow. In the late 1940s a former Ferrari race driver named Luigi Chinetti convinced Ferrari to give him the exclusive rights to sell a line of expensive Ferrari road cars in America. They would be equipped with engines and chassis adapted for public road use. Ironically Ferrari had no interest in the road cars at all. They were simply a means to finance his car racing business. Ferrari would have been perfectly satisfied to just build his Grand Prix cars and try to make a living doing that. Outside of the business Ferrari maintained 2 households around 20 miles apart. Some nights he had supper with Laura and Dino at the family home in Modena, other nights he spent with Lina and Piero in Castelvetro. He spent a great deal of time with Lina and apparently doted on Piero and the double life seemed to work for a long period of time. It didn´t seem to complicate his business life at all.

Dino´s death

10 years passed as Ferrari lived this double life when on June 30th 1956 Dino Ferrari was 24 years old, he died at home in Modena bedridden with kidney failure. Ferrari tried to control his emotions, but for the rest of his life he visited Dino´s grave every morning before work and spoke aloud about everything to him. Enzo honored the memory of his son with the Dino Ferrari, a car that Dino helped to design. From that day on all of the V6 and some of the 8 cylinder Ferrari´s would bear the name Dino. The Dino had so many tragic aspects to it that made it special, it represents the baby that never got a chance to grow up. It is also believed that it was during this time that Ferrari´s wife Laura, whose only child was now dead, discovered Enzo´s secret life with his mistress and their 11 year old son. It was fairly difficult for the Ferrari and awful for Laura because essentially she lost control. If Laura´s discovery had an impact on her husband Enzo, no one knew. Nothing about his behavior showed Ferrari´s true feelings. Within a year of Dino´s death the racing business that Ferrari loved so passionately would slowly begin to unravel. There would be deadly accidents on the track, he would be charged with manslaughter. Charges that threatened to bury a legend. The death of Enzo Ferrari´s son sent him into an emotional tailspin. He immersed himself in his work at his office and in his factory with 1 singular purpose, to build even faster cars. The year was 1957, the race was the Mille Miglia, a wildly popular and horribly dangerous 1000 mile open road event. 5 Ferrari automobiles were among the 293 entries. He pulled together a superstar team including de Portago who was called in as the last minute replacement. Alfonso de Portago was a passionate Spaniard nobleman, a classic Ferrari driver who drove for the pure love of the sport. 10 million spectators lined the route that went through hairpin turns and narrow village streets. 1000s of police and army regulars would not be enough to keep them out of harm´s way. The fevered environment for this event was completely insane and the Italians loved it. Portago told his friend he didn´t want to drive in the Mille Miglia, that he felt it was too dangerous, that no driver could hope to know every turn, every possible road condition. But at 5:31 in the morning, when it was his turn to take off, Portago joined the 1000 mile battle driving the most powerful car in Ferrari´s stable, the 4.1 liter Tipo 335. Observers report that Portago´s Ferrari was rocketing at full throttle when he suddenly lost control of the car. It spun end-over-end into a ditch, then over the 1st row of spectators and into a pole. The impact sent shreds of steel into bystanders. 5 children, Portago, his navigator and 10 other adults were dead, dozens were injured. The headlines shouted at the public from the front pages of the Italian press demanding an end to the Mille Miglia. Ferrari was charged with manslaughter for allegedly using tires that were not capable of sustaining those speeds. The other 4 Ferrari cars that were in the race had won on the same tires, but the manslaughter trial went on for a number of years and affected Ferrari financially and it also certainly affected his reputation. It took 4 years of court appearances for the manslaughter charge to be dropped only to be followed by another calamity on the track in 1961 during the Italian Grand Prix.

The death of Von Trips

They´ve had Phil Hill and von Trips head-to-head for the Formula 1 world championship in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza and at the end of the second lap von Trips, very popular, lovely German driver collided with another car and his car was thrown into the crowd and killed 14 spectators, flopped back onto the road. While von Trips was thrown out into the track his neck broke and he died as well. So there´s a driver dead, 14 spectators dead and immediately the press said it happened again, Ferrari’s are killing people. When Enzo Ferrari was 63 years old, there was a growing press court to contend with, there was the expense of defending himself in another drawn-out court case and there was the relentless spiraling cost of developing race cars. With all of this Ferrari´s were still winning on the track but even that was about to change.

Ford

It was the Ford motor company which after being turned down in a generous bit to buy Ferrari´s Company decided to beat him on the racetrack. By 1964 at European Grand Prix at Monza the Ford team was closing in. They had 6 Daytona coupes all lined up for Monza but the race got cancelled but it is 1965 when the Ford officially beat the Ferrari. At that point Ferraris began to lose races and it was costing well over a million a year to finance the racing business. And even though Luigi Chinetti made Ferrari passenger cars a legend in America and the cars were selling for as much as 15000$ a piece, by 1967 Ferrari’s company was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. He´d had to cut his beloved racing program, which was basically the reason he existed for.

Fiat´s wictory

It was at that point when he went to Fiat. With no other resources at his disposal Ferrari had only 1 choice, to approach his old rivals, the Agnelli family for a financial assistance. The Agnelli had reportedly paid 11 million dollars for Ferrari´s Company. They allowed Ferrari to stay in charge of the racing arm of the company while Fiat took over the manufacturer of road cars, they would be built on a production line. It marked the end of the custom Ferrari handmade road cars that have graced highways all over the world. The deal was officially announced to the Italian public on June 21st 1969, it was the end of an era for Enzo Ferrari. At long last he was free to focus his attention solely on winning races, but Enzo Ferrari had unfinished business with his mistress and her growing family. In 1969 Enzo Ferrari was 71 years old and still actively in charge of the Ferrari racing program. His mother Adalgisa had died, his only son Piero was now in his mid-20s and married. Piero came to work at the Scuderia Ferrari to learn his father´s business. But that was more than Ferrari´s aging wife could tolerate, she would arrive at the door bursting into the office saying "Where is the little bastard?" and Piero would have to go and hide or would have to beat a hasty retreat, which must have been dreadful for Piero. By then, Enzo Ferrari was beginning to enjoy his new young family. Piero and his wife Floriana had an infant daughter Antonella. Enzo Ferrari´s only grandchild. Ferrari became a doting grandfather. She later said he was a very tough and stong man with a great heart.

Laura´s Death

Then 9 years later in 1978 when Enzo was 80, Laura Ferrari died. They had been married for 55 years. Enzo soon brought his devoted mistress, Lina, to live with him in his house in Modena. Piero and his family followed. In his final years he became to really enjoy what most would consider a normal family life. Even at the age of 80 Enzo Ferrari refused to retire. His son Piero was made a general manager of the Ferrari racing team in the mid-80s. During losing streaks the 2 Ferrari´s often fought over new engineering strategies. Ferrari spent time recounting the glory days with his old cronies. Saturday launches with the boys became a ritual for 80 year old Enzo Ferrari, especially with Sergio Scaglietti, who was an old Ferrari coach maker in Modena. They talked about everything but never about work. They told jokes, discussed who did what and who said what. In the last years of his life Ferrari was plagued with painful kidney problems. When the pope made a trip to the Maranello to pay his respects which was an extraordinary event, Ferrari was too ill to meet him in person. By July of 1988 Enzo Ferrari was slowly slipping away, he remained bedridden in his home in Modena. Attended by Piero and Floriana.

Death of the legend

On August 14th 1988 Enzo Ferrari died quietly in his bed with his family surrounding him. He was 90 years old. A public statement regarding his death was issued at 1:00 in the afternoon, 7 hours after the funeral, as it was desired by Piero who was honoring his father´s wishes. At the funeral there were only 6 people in 2 cars and that´s it. Ferrari´s body was laid to rest in a crypt inside his family tomb next to his father Alfredo. Enzo Ferrari´s life story is the story of automobile racing, at least for the 20th century. From his humble beginnings in the Po Valley to the empire he built. Enzo Ferrari will be remembered as the last great titan of an industry he helped to create. Under his 40-year leadership from 1947 to 1988 Ferrari automobiles won more than 5000 races all over the world. Today, the passenger cars that Ferrari detained sell for as much as half a million dollars each. His influence on the whole motor industry may be the strongest of any individual. He was the dominant force in the Grand Prix racing and helped lay the ground-work for the multi-billion dollar situation that it is today.

#enzoferrari ferrari ferrarihistory historyofferrari ferraribiography ferrarishortenedbiography

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directionlessbuthappy · 7 years ago

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Dawn of the Draugr: p1

In a pre-apocalyptic world, there is Elyse, a 21 year old woman who was going to community college in her small town in Northern California, working on biology and medicine courses. Doing what young adults are expected to do at her age. But her future spirals into uncertainty with a pandemic spreading across humanity. An illness which infects and shuts down the body, reanimating the brain and turning the person into something only seen in repetitive shitty movies and your nightmares. Being on her own, Elyse would have to lose her morality or sanity to survive. Maybe both. However, she may be able to keep them now that she’s found Alex Lothbrok and his brothers. Or, she may lose it even faster…

Modern AU: Alex H. Anderson x Reader

Warnings: graphic violence, language, blood, death

Note: I kept the last name Lothbrok for the brothers to distinguish characters vs reality. I doubt they are anything like the characters (based on them for visual purposes) I’m writing, so I prefer to add an element of unrealism here to reiterate this as fiction. Cheers xo

Tagged: @missrobyn81

It wasn't a normal day.

Everyone likes to think when the world ends, it'll start out totally normal, and you'll have no idea what's happening or whats coming. You won't see it until its too late. People sell it that way for drama, for TV shows and the movies, but its not real. The truth is, you do see it. The warning signs are everywhere, but without someone telling you to run, you aren't sure if you should. People are like sheep; they don't know what to do without instruction. When the epidemic spread from South America and Asia, nobody here was worried. We had central America in our path, and a whole ocean separating us from Japan. It seemed like the black plague at first; killed massive amounts of people over the last two years. But since there were minimal cases of it here in the US, nobody was worried.

For a while.

My family was split; my mom and I were alone most of my life. She married a man who already had two kids. I was an adult at that point, indifferent to the pairing but still living at home. Going to community college. Everything seemed normal despite everything we were seeing on the internet and on TV. Coverage of the epidemic was getting less and less clear as more people were panicking and packing up their things. Our whole neighborhood moved out in a week. Northern California felt safe enough, we hadn't had any sightings/cases of epidemic here. There was some in Texas, and Arizona...

One day after a phone call, my mom told me she was going with her husband to go get his kids. It was their week to visit us, and their mom wasn't comfortable driving on the roads with how crazy it was getting out there in Washington state, so my mom and her husband planned to go get them. I was in denial, in a way...not really considering how bad it was yet. it felt eerie, being home alone after that. Our little three bedroom, one story house on Sweedland Way felt like a mansion while I waited for my mom to come home. I'd stopped going to school; we'd got an email that class was out due to teacher shortages. Out, indefinitely. I remember when I got my first taste that it was all real, not some widespread panic about the cold.

I was sitting in the living room, checking through a few websites that hadn't posted in over a week. I was studying animal medicine in college (when I was still going) so I understood a lot of technical jargon when reading on the epidemic. All the articles and different notes on the contagion were unfinished; even Wikipedia was useless in explaining what it was. Most researchers first found it in South America, comparing the disease to a virus hiding behind the symptoms of bacterial infection...making it less concerning in its early stages. Researchers didn't catch on until about 6 months in, when more hospital staff were infected verses healthy. Infection was mostly caused by saliva, whether its ingested, gets in your eyes, or most commonly seen in the reports I found...you get bit. Like a rabies virus on cocaine, the disease ravages your system and fries pretty much everything...except your spinal cord and your motor function. The nervous system was preserved by the disease and regenerated itself; the body would be able to function, move, and respond to things like noise. But otherwise...

I didn't like to entertain the idea the dead could come back to life. That wasn't true, it was science fiction bullshit. Granted, I loved cheesy movies where the dead would rise, but that was all they were. Movies. If anything, these sick people were just very sick...maybe it was a new type of cancer, that was why it scared people so much.

I was wrong.

...

"See the sight lined up to the chest?"

"Yeah..."

"Shoot it."

"But I need to hit the head."

"I know Elyse. Take the shot."

I swallowed and pulled the trigger. The gun popped against my chest like a light bump, and the bullet went straight through the target's "neck." I was surprised.

"It aims high!"

"Bingo," Alex replied. "Its the only red sight we have. Jordan can't get the tilt quite right but it still works eh? Now aim at the neck."

I do so, trusting his word now more than before. I squeezed and the gun pops; the bullet hole in my target's head was clear. With a giddy squeal, I aimed to take another shot, but missed. Alex grinned from behind me, I knew this because when I turned he was already doing it.

"Nice shot."

"Shut up," I replied, faintly hurt. He chuckled and outstretched his arm for the gun. I handed it over, safety on.

"Wanna try with the handguns?"

"Actually..." I whined. Holding my arm up to show off the bruise blooming on my tricep, Alex frowned slightly. "Can we take a break?"

"Sure punkin," he shrugged. I still took the time to roll my eyes at him before sitting down on a hay bail. Our little training field wasn't too far away from the house; Jordan and Marco could still see us from the second floor's porch. We were safe, mostly. The treeline that surrounded the house on the hill made me the most nervous, especially at night. Jordan called them "fight nights" for fun, but he was good at making others feel better. I could see right through it. Just like I could see them coming through the treeline every other night.

Sometimes it was just one, sometimes a pack of them. They traveled in groups pretty often. They're always so listless, walking like they were drunk and heavy and yet they weren't slow in their pace. They'd drag their feet, and although they were responsive to sound, it didn't seem like they understood anything. From the material I've read and studied in the last couple months the disease is as unpredictable as its victims. Sometimes you'd die in a week...sometimes it only took 24 hours. But if you got bit at all, you were fucked no matter how long it takes to die.

"Jordan's still not worried about the ammo?"

Alex shrugged, taking a mag and shoving it into the cartridge of his 47. "We have enough to get us through a month of assaults. You and Marco are the only ones worried."

"We have enough for a month of assaults with automatics, Alex. Our handguns are limited. They're attracted to noise, and we can't haul ass with ten pound metal death machines on our shoulders!"

"We'll be fine. If you're really that worried, go down the hunt shop on West 10th. They'll have something," he replied coily. I scowled at him.

"That's not funny."

"Was I laughing?"

"Alex!" I snarled. He had the sense to look a little upset, sighing once he realized he'd actually upset me.

"I'm kidding Lees," he muttered. "I'll go with you tomorrow. Would that make you happy?"

"Are you being sarcastic again?" I replied warily, buttoning my flannel up and down with the same button. Alex took a few shots, turning the head of one of our dummies into swiss cheese. He put so many holes in it the head actually fell off. It made us both chuckle.

"Do you want me to go on my own?"

"No!" I squeaked instantly. Alex grinned and turned his back to me, lining up the sight of his automatic again. The kid was growing on me...

#alex hogh andersen #alex hogh imagine #alex hogh x reader #zombie apocalypse #the lothbroks #post apocalyptic #writings #modern vikings au #dawnofthedraugr #modern au

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techcrunchappcom · 4 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/covid-19-live-updates-the-new-york-times-2/

Covid-19 Live Updates - The New York Times

In Germany, early results of school reopenings are hopeful, but it’s ‘messy and imperfect.’

As Americans anxiously debate how to reopen schools, and more campuses cancel in-person lessons, Europe is a living laboratory. Despite a sharp increase in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, even countries that were badly hit last spring, like Italy, Spain, Britain and France, are determined to return to regular classes this fall.

Germany, which was far less affected at the peak of the pandemic, shuttered schools early on, then moved to a hybrid model of remote and in-classroom learning. Class sizes were smaller, and strict social-distancing rules helped keep infection numbers in check.

But now a new experiment is underway: Teachers and students have been summoned back to classes, testing whether the new vigilance is enough.

Social distancing and face masks are mandatory on most school grounds, but rarely inside classrooms, despite recent advice from the World Health Organization that children 12 and over wear masks when distancing is impossible. If students had to wear masks for several hours a day, the argument in Germany goes, their ability to learn would suffer.

Instead, schools aim to better ventilate classrooms and keep classes separate so that each student has contact with only a few dozen others, and outbreaks can be contained.

Germany’s departure from the more cautious, part-time reopening strategy is rooted partly in resource constraints: Like most countries, it has too few teachers to split students into smaller classes and allow for social distancing.

But several weeks into returning to school, educators and even virologists who were skeptical about reopening say that early results look hopeful. Despite individual infections popping up in dozens of schools, there have been no serious outbreaks — and no lasting closures.

Berlin is a case in point: By the end of last week, 49 infections had been recorded among teachers and students across the city. But thanks to fast testing and targeted quarantines, no more than 600 students out of some 366,000 have had to stay home on any given day. Of 803 schools, only 39 have been affected.

“It’s messy and imperfect and I would have liked to see more precautions, but the main takeaway so far is: It’s working,” said Sandra Ciesek, a virologist at the University Hospital of Frankfurt who signed a statement by leading German virologists supporting the reopenings.

A New York Times survey found more than 26,000 cases of the coronavirus at more than 750 American colleges and universities over the course of the pandemic. Clusters of cases have emerged in recent weeks in dorms, on Greek rows and at college bars, in some cases upending plans for the fall semester.

Seven universities, all of them large public schools in the South, have announced more than 500 cases each; more than 30 institutions nationwide have had at least 200 known cases. Already, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which reported more than 800 cases, has sent most undergraduates home. And Notre Dame, where more than 470 people have had the virus, has paused in-person classes and has restricted access to campus.

Many colleges have released extensive guidelines for social distancing, mask usage and testing in the hope of curbing outbreaks. But reports of large parties and discouraging test results have prompted rebukes from some administrators.

Stuart Bell, the University of Alabama president, warned in a note to students and employees this week that those who violated health restrictions were “subject to harsh disciplinary action, up to and including suspension.” More than 500 cases have already been identified on Alabama’s flagship campus in Tuscaloosa.

“Completing the fall semester together is our goal,” Mr. Bell said. “The margin for error is shrinking.”

The World Economic Forum is pushing back its annual summit in Davos, Switzerland, from January to early next summer, it announced on Wednesday.

The annual gathering of the global elite in the Alps brings together about 3,000 of the world’s most prominent executives and political leaders to discuss the pressing issues facing the world economy — and to do deals on the sidelines (and the ski slopes).

In a statement to the media, Adrian Monck, a managing director of the forum, said the decision “was not taken easily, since the need for global leaders to come together to design a common recovery path and shape the ‘Great Reset’ in the post-COVID-19 era is so urgent.”

Organizers made the decision to postpone on the advice of experts, who said the gathering could not convene safely in January. Instead, a virtual event dubbed “Davos Dialogues” will run during the week of Jan. 25, 2021, the forum’s originally scheduled time.

The event’s organizers previously said they would hold a “twin summit” for the 2021 edition, with about half the number of official delegates that attended in person last year and a simultaneous online event.

At the Republican convention, Melania Trump acknowledges the pandemic’s human toll.

In a speech that struck a markedly different tone from others at the Republican National Convention, the first lady, Melania Trump, on Tuesday acknowledged the pandemic’s human toll and praised the efforts of frontline medical personnel and other essential workers.

In her speech from the Rose Garden at the White House, Mrs. Trump called Covid-19 an “invisible enemy” that had swept across the nation. She also extended her sympathies to those who were ill or who had lost loved ones.

“I know many people are anxious and some feel helpless,” she said. “I want you to know you’re not alone. My husband’s administration will not stop fighting until there is an effective treatment or vaccine available to everyone.”

“Donald will not rest until he has done all he can to take care of everyone impacted by this terrible pandemic,” she added.

So far, most of the convention speakers who mentioned the pandemic have referred to it in the past tense and rarely mentioned its national toll. As of Wednesday morning, at least 5.7 million people in the United States have been infected with the virus and at least 178,000 have died, according to a New York Times database.

The tone of Mrs. Trump’s remarks also stood in contrast to her husband’s focus on defending his response to the virus and pinning the blame for it on China, while tending to mention the lives lost as an afterthought.

Mrs. Trump spoke moments after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a shorter and harsher speech, from a rooftop in Jerusalem, that was more in line with the president’s rhetoric on the pandemic. Mr. Pompeo, who is among the administration’s leading China hawks, argued that Mr. Trump had “pulled back the curtain on the predatory aggression of the Chinese Communist Party,” including its handling of the coronavirus.

“The president has held China accountable for covering up the China virus, and allowing it to spread death and destruction in America and around the world,” Mr. Pompeo said. “And he will not rest until justice is done.”

Older men are up to twice as likely to become severely sick and to die from the coronavirus as women of the same age.

Why? The first study to look at immune response by sex has turned up a clue: Men produce a weaker immune response to the virus than women, the researchers concluded.

The findings, published on Wednesday in Nature, suggest that men, particularly those over 60, may need to depend more on vaccines to protect against the infection.

“Natural infection is clearly failing” to spark adequate immune responses in men, said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale who led the work.

The results are consistent with what’s known about sex differences following various challenges to the immune system. Women mount faster and stronger immune responses, perhaps because their bodies are rigged to fight pathogens that threaten unborn or newborn children.

The findings underscore the need for companies pursing vaccines to parse their data by sex and may influence decisions about dosing, said Dr. Marcus Altfeld, an immunologist at the Heinrich Pette Institute and at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany, and other experts.

“You could imagine scenarios where a single shot of a vaccine might be sufficient in young individuals or maybe young women, while older men might need to have three shots of vaccine,” Dr. Altfeld said.

Dr. Iwasaki’s team analyzed immune responses in 17 men and 22 women who were admitted to the hospital soon after they were infected. The researchers collected blood, nasopharyngeal swabs, saliva, urine and stool from the patients every three to seven days. The analysis excluded patients on ventilators and those taking drugs that affect the immune system.

American islands in the Caribbean and Pacific, including the state of Hawaii, are emerging as some of the nation’s most alarming virus hot spots.

For months, geographic isolation helped spare Hawaii, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands from much of the agony unleashed by the pandemic. All adopted early mitigation efforts, and were able to restrict travelers more readily than mainland states could.

But their case counts are surging now, revealing how the virus can spread rapidly in places with relaxed restrictions, sluggish contact tracing and widespread pressure to end the economic pain that comes with lockdowns.

Inconsistent reopenings have sown confusion in Hawaii, especially in Honolulu, where gyms remain open but hiking trails and parks are closed. Restaurants in the city are open, but residents are not supposed to entertain visitors at home. Hawaii now ranks among the states where new cases have grown fastest over the past 14 days.

The situation on Guam, an American territory in the western Pacific, seems especially problematic. Cases are emerging in several schools, at the territorial port authority and in an emergency dispatch center.

The U.S. military has a major presence on Guam, with large naval and air bases. When the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt was stricken with a virus outbreak in the spring, the ship put in to Guam, and hundreds of sailors were quarantined on shore.

The U.S. Virgin Islands, which registered almost no cases in the early days of the pandemic, is now dealing with nearly 1,000 new cases a day, pushing its per capita infection numbers higher than those of several states. The authorities are shutting nonessential businesses and imposing stay-at-home orders, checking all visitors’ temperatures and conducting aggressive testing of residents.

One exception to the crisis unfolding on U.S. islands: American Samoa, an archipelago in the Pacific, remains the only territory or state in the country without a single confirmed case.

In other news from around the United States:

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is scheduled to testify next week before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis in what the committee described as a “hybrid in-person/remote hearing.” The hearing will address the urgent need for more economic relief for Americans, including children, workers and families. Mr. Mnuchin has been one of the lead negotiators for the Trump administration to reach an agreement with Democrats over the next round of economic stimulus funds. Next week’s hearing will be the first time Mr. Mnuchin will testify before Congress since negotiations on more stimulus were halted this month.

Gyms in New Jersey can reopen on Tuesday with 25 percent capacity and rules requiring masks, Gov. Philip D. Murphy said on Twitter on Wednesday. Health clubs in the state have been closed since March for everything other than personal training sessions. But martial arts, dance and gymnastics classes have been permitted indoors, and pressure mounted as gyms in New York could start reopening this past Monday. Mr. Murphy’s announcement is certain to increase the clamor from owners of restaurants, which remain closed for indoor dining in New Jersey.

The Trump administration on Tuesday threatened hospitals with revoking their Medicare and Medicaid funding if they do not report coronavirus patient data and test results to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Protesters flooded the Idaho State Capitol in Boise this week, many of them without wearing masks, to express frustration during a special legislative session called to address voting and liability laws amid the pandemic. Among the demonstrators was Ammon Bundy, once the leader of an armed takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge, who was arrested on Tuesday by Idaho State Police after refusing to leave the space.

A cluster of cases in rural Maine that has been linked to a wedding reception held in early August in the town of Millinocket has spread to a county jail elsewhere in the state, infecting 18 inmates and employees, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Vatican announced on Wednesday that, starting next month, Pope Francis would resume his weekly Wednesday audience in public, six months after the coronavirus put a halt to the pontiff’s participatory events with the faithful.

Since March, Francis has been broadcasting the weekly Wednesday morning audience from the library of the Apostolic Palace, in the presence of a few clerics. Normally, the audience is held in St. Peter’s Square, or in the adjacent Paul VI Hall during the colder winter months.

Starting Sept. 2, and for the entire month, the audience will be held in the San Damaso courtyard of the Apostolic Palace, an area normally off-limits to the public.

The audience will be “open to anyone who wishes” to participate, the Vatican said in a statement. A Vatican spokesman said the number would be capped at 500 people “in keeping with health regulations.”

As he has in the past, on Wednesday, Francis spoke about the toll that the pandemic was taking, especially on the most vulnerable, as a result of the prevailing global economic model that concentrates wealth in the hands of a few, “an injustice that cries out to heaven,” he said. “The pandemic has exposed and aggravated social problems, above all that of inequality,” he said.

A ban on dancing, aimed at the young, has swept up older Italians.

In an attempt to limit a resurgence of the coronavirus, Italy has banned dancing in nightclubs and outdoor dance halls.

As in other countries, new cases in Italy are being driven by young people, with several clusters traced to nightclubs crowded with maskless patrons. Yet the new rules aimed at stopping young people from gathering en masse have also swept up older Italians for whom an evening at the dance hall is a cherished part of life.

The Italian government’s decree on dancing, issued on Aug. 16, made no distinction between packed, sweaty clubs blaring reggaeton and sedate community centers where people swirl in pairs to accordion-driven waltzes.

Many regulars at Caribe, an outdoor dance hall in Legnago that caters to an older clientele, said they understood that the government was trying to protect the country — and people their age in particular. But they didn’t understand why they could no longer hold their partners on the dance floor while bars, beaches, amateur soccer courts and gyms stayed open.

“It was good to close down nightclubs — teenagers just don’t get it,” said Raffaele Leardini, 72, who was so happy when the club reopened in July that he cried. “But here you have people with a brain and a mask.”

For the first time in three months, virus infections in South Africa have fallen below 2,000 per day. The country saw a peak of 13,944 daily cases in July, but recorded 1,677 on Monday and 1,567 on Tuesday.

But as confirmed cases are decreasing, fewer tests are being carried out, the minister of health said this week.

“The people who are presenting for tests have declined,” the minister, Zweli Mkhize, said in a webinar on Monday.

Despite this, South Africa’s health regulatory body this week approved a rapid antibody test to help track virus outbreak patterns and hot spots. The test, which gives results in a matter of minutes, can now be administered by health care professionals across the country.

Andrea Julsing-Keyter, a senior manager at the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority, had a warning for people seeking the test.

“It can only tell you, at that point of time, do you have antibodies, yes or no,” she said. “That’s all it can tell you — it is not to be used as an immunity passport.”

The downward trend in new cases comes as almost all grades returned to school this week, most for the first time since March.

And while things are looking up for the country, Salim Abdool Karim, an epidemiologist and widely respected government adviser, warned that a second surge was still possible.

“If we let our guard down or for a short while, get complacent about our prevention strategies, our social distancing, mask-wearing and hand washing, the second surge is waiting to pounce,” said Mr. Karim, who heads the Covid-19 ministerial advisory committee. “It is possible to overcome — these predictions do not have to be true,” he added.

In other news from around the world:

Madrid’s mayor asked residents of the city’s southern neighborhoods to stay at home in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. Spain, which has had more than 400,000 cases and nearly 30,000 deaths from the virus, is facing one of the most severe surges in coronavirus infections in Europe in recent days. The directive is not legally binding, but, the mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, said the authorities would ramp up police presence in the southern neighborhoods to ensure that people wear masks and that they don’t drink outdoors.

Days before schools are set to open in Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday that it would be “clearly nonsensical” for students to wear face masks in class. “You can’t teach with face coverings, you can’t expect people to learn with face coverings. The most important thing is just to wash your hands,” Mr. Johnson said. In areas where local lockdowns are in place, students and staff members will be required to wear masks in communal areas with the exception of classrooms, where the government said “protective measures already mean the risks are lower.”

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has urged his government to eliminate “shortcomings” and “defects” in its battle against Covid-19, state media reported. The country has reported no coronavirus infections, but outside experts are skeptical, citing its decrepit public health system and its proximity to China, where the virus was first detected.

Local authorities have tightened restrictions in Marseille, the second-largest city in France, where the per-capita rate of cases is more than four times the national rate. Under the new rules, which begin on Wednesday night and will remain in effect until at least Sept. 30, wearing a mask will be mandatory throughout the city. Bars and restaurants in the Bouches-du-Rhône region, which includes Marseille, will have to close overnight.

The 15th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina will be understated because of the virus.

New Orleans has been slammed by the virus, which has killed nearly 600 New Orleans residents so far, and sickened thousands more. Mardi Gras, the city’s signature event, fell in the early days of the pandemic and has been blamed for an eruption of cases in Louisiana.

The mayor, LaToya Cantrell, is planning to attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the site of one of the places where the city’s levees were breached by Katrina, swamping much of New Orleans, but there is nothing else formally planned by the city.

An annual ceremonial march that usually ends in a large rally is going forward, but will be livestreamed so “if you’re sick or have Covid you can stay home and just watch it online,” said Sess 4-5, a hip-hop artist who organized the march.

Robert Green Sr., who lives in the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood and lost his mother and a granddaughter in the floods from Katrina, planned processions in past years and initially had ambitious ideas for this year’s edition. He invited people from across the country who had come to New Orleans over the past decade and a half to help rebuild homes.

The procession is still happening, but without the out-of-own guests.

“Weather’s not going to be an issue,” Mr. Green said. “Covid is going to change the way that we do it.” Still, he added, “every family that lost something is going to remember that day. It’s not going go by the wayside.”

As countries work to contain fresh coronavirus outbreaks, some are making good on threats of heavy fines and even jail time for those who breach quarantine rules or border restrictions.

In the latest example, a Kentucky man accused of breaking Canadian quarantine rules faces six months in prison, a $569,000 fine or perhaps both.

The man, John Pennington, was fined about $900 by the police in late June, after staff members at an Alberta hotel grew suspicious that he was breaking the province’s quarantine rules. The police later charged him with doing just that, after finding him at Sulphur Mountain, a tourist attraction.

Though the Canadian border is closed to the United States, a loophole allows Americans to travel to and from Alaska, providing they use a direct route, quarantine at hotels and refrain from visiting national parks, leisure sites or tourist attractions.

Separately, a 28-year-old woman in Australia was sentenced to six months in jail on Tuesday after she hid in the back of a truck on a cross-country journey of more than 1,800 miles from the state of Victoria, a coronavirus hot spot, to Western Australia. The police said that she was picked up by her partner at a gas station.

The woman had traveled to Victoria to care for her sister and had received an exemption to fly back to Western Australia, which has closed its borders to travelers, her lawyer told a court. But the exemption did not apply to travel by road, and she pleaded guilty to breaking the order.

Western Australia’s pandemic rules include a 14-day mandatory quarantine for most travelers in a hotel, and the penalties for breaking them range from prison terms as long as 12 months to as much as $35,000 in fines.

Australia has had 549 deaths and more than 25,000 confirmed cases as of Wednesday, according to a Times database. Many of its state borders are closed because of the recent outbreak in Victoria, where the state capital, Melbourne, remains under lockdown.

Victoria’s latest outbreak has been linked to breaches in a quarantine hotel, but people around the country have been trying to circumvent virus-related restrictions anyway.

Last month, four men in their 20s were found hiding on an interstate freight train heading from Melbourne to Perth, on the country’s west coast. The police have also issued citations to travelers from hot spots like Sydney for lying on border declaration forms.

Reporting was contributed by Katrin Bennhold, Aurelien Breeden, Alexander Burns, Lauren Hirsch, Choe Sang-Hun, Mike Ives, Andrew Jacobs, Isabella Kwai, Alex Lemonides, Apoorva Mandavilli, Jonathan Martin, Patricia Mazzei, Heather Murphy, Elian Peltier, Elisabetta Povoledo, Campbell Robertson, Simon Romero, Anna Schaverien, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Eileen Sullivan, Tracey Tully and Katherine J. Wu.

#covid #World

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tabloidtoc · 5 years ago

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National Enquirer, July 27

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Prince Harry trapped in marriage from hell to Meghan Markle

Page 2: Mariah Carey has slimmed down again and the formerly plump pop star’s recent pics have stunned doctors who believe she’s lost at least 60 pounds in the last year and experts believe the recent weight drop may have come with some medical assistance plus experts warn the star’s constant weight swings have placed her health at risk

Page 3: Paris Jackson bravely reveals suicide ordeal -- admits many attempts after losing dad Michael Jackson

Page 4: Shia LaBeouf got his whole chest permanently inked to get into character as a vicious gangster for his new movie The Tax Collector

Page 5: Head-over-heels Ben Affleck is raring to have a baby with girlfriend Ana de Armas, Ashton Kutcher has rushed to the rescue of Hollywood pariah Lea Michele and now he’s on the outs with wife Mila Kunis -- Lea has been blasted as a despicable and cruel and entitled bully by former castmates on Glee and Broadway but Ashton who was paired with Lea in the 2011 rom-com New Year’s Day thinks she’s gotten a raw deal while Mila thinks Ashton is crazy for sticking his neck out for someone he hasn’t seen that much over the last decade

Page 6: The bizarre marriage of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith has hit a crisis point over another man and the blowback may push them toward a $270 million divorce -- both Will and Jada have denied humiliating reports that she was involved in a torrid two-year affair with their son Jaden Smith’s pal singer August Alsina with Will’s blessing

Page 7: Christina Ricci’s domestic battery call was just round one in what promises to be a bitter divorce brawl with husband James Heerdegen -- Christina secured an emergency protective order against James after cops were called to the couple’s Woodland Hills home after he allegedly spit at her and now Christina has filed for divorce and sole custody of their five-year-old son Freddie, Sarah Palin and husband Todd Palin quietly finalized their split

Page 8: Lonely Caitlyn Jenner has lost hope of making a love connection with 24-year-old live-in Sophia Hutchins and she’s on the hunt for romance and the 70-year-old longs for a partner to give her the affection she craves

Page 9: Tubby Adam Sandler and dumpy Denzel Washington have packed on the pounds during lockdown and now docs fear the Hollywood heavyweights may be digging their graves with a fork and spoon -- Denzel weighs close to 250 pounds and Adam is five-foot-ten and weighs 230 pounds

Page 10: Hot Shots -- Brooke Shields in the Hamptons wearing a patriotic bikini, Brooke Burke on a swing in her backyard, pregnant Sophie Turner out for a walk in Encino

Page 11: Lara Flynn Boyle stepped out in L.A. during quarantine to stock up on essentials including a bottle of vodka but with sagging jowls and a puffy trout pout the actress was nearly unrecognizable, Tom Cruise is a dominant individual who left costar Thandie Newton terrified and insecure while filming Mission: Impossible 2 and Tom has since sent her Christmas gifts linked to his controversial religion of Scientology

Page 12: Straight Shuter -- Millie Bobby Brown with alien balloons (picture), Alicia Keys and Beyonce have both struck a sour note with their Black Lives Matter music tanking -- Alicia’s Perfect Way to Die is nowhere on the charts and few are lining the streets to cheer Beyonce’s Black Parade, Chris Pratt needs to finish filming Jurassic World: Dominion in London in the next few months just when he and wife Katherine Schwarzenegger are expecting their first child so Chris will have to make a choice between work or his wife and new baby -- Chris is contractually obligated to be on set when they start although every effort will be made so he can take the 11-hour flight home on weekends, producers of RHOBH have discouraged the housewives from being political on the show because the audience is far more interested in personal drama and fights between the ladies but Lisa Rinna intends to change all that when the show starts filming again and she plans to use her platform to push her views on climate change and other issues, despite the raging pandemic The Bachelorette Clare Crawley won’t be wearing a mask and neither will any of her suitors because the show is about escape and people watch it to forget their troubles

Page 13: Kanye West’s bizarre pronouncement that he’s running for U.S. president has the entire Kardashian family quaking in fear about the can of worms his candidacy could open -- Kardashian momager Kris Jenner is furious because it’s likely to trigger media scrutiny and probes by political opponents into the family’s private lives and business deals

Page 14: True Crime

Page 15: Cradle-robbing Mary Kay Letourneau’s scandal-scarred life came to a tragic and lonely end at 58 as she died of cancer after being dumped by her husband and reduced to living in squalor

Page 16: Jeffrey Epstein’s galpal Ghislaine Maxwell’s arrest has big shots shaking -- with Ghislaine behind bars there is growing concern their high-powered pals will try to quash evidence in the explosive sex scandal

Page 18: Real Life

Page 19: Jim Carrey has written a fictionalized autobiography but he was too scared to confront his biggest demons -- Jim was not eager to tackle sensitive subjects like his bitter divorce from first wife Melissa Womer and the 2015 suicide of his ex-girlfriend Cathriona White, activists have demanded the removal of the Confederate flag across America but that’s not stopping an Illinois museum from proudly displaying a piece of television history emblazoned with it -- the last surviving 1969 Dodge Charger known as the General Lee used in the comedy classic Dukes of Hazzard

Page 20: In a plot twist fit for one of his mystery thrillers novelist Dan Brown’s ex-wife Blythe claimed he lived a life of lies and charged he financed numerous secret affairs with their joint $178 million fortune, Julian Lennon is determined to get what he’s been denied by his stepmother Yoko Ono before she kicks the bucket -- Yoko is 87 year old and in a wheelchair and very ill plus she’s set to leave her son Sean Lennon who’s Julian’s half brother all of their father’s massive fortune -- Julian only wants what he thinks a son deserves and he pleading with Yoko to do the decent thing and give him a reasonable share

Page 22: Health Watch

Page 25: Denise Richards is so spooked by the coronavirus she refuses to do love scenes on The Bold and the Beautiful unless it’s with her husband -- she’s had her holistic healer husband Aaron Phypers added to the cast of the soap as a stand-in during intimate scenes, the Duke of Edinburgh has a shocking secret he’s hidden from the royal family for decades: he’s related to a busty pair of twin Playboy models -- Queen Elizabeth’s elderly husband Prince Philip was born into the Greek and Danish royal families but his wider familial ties extend to the U.S. which is home to Carla and Carmen Morrell

Page 26: Cover Story -- Heartsick Prince Harry trapped in living hell -- Meghan Markle’s demands leave him alone and miserable -- Harry feels lonely and directionless living in Meghan’s shadow as he struggles to find meaning in his life with a series of charity appearances designed to bolster the royal renegades’ image

Page 28: Assistants Air Stars’ Dirty Laundry -- Britney Spears, Ariana Grande, Frank Sinatra

Page 29: Ryan Gosling, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Aniston, Christian Bale

Page 31: Miley Cyrus has donated over $1.6 million to help homeless teens and vulnerable families though her Happy Hippie Foundation

Page 32: Dying Ethel Kennedy has secretly ponied up a $1 million bounty to find the killer of Connecticut teen Martha Moxley in a bid to prove the innocence of her troubled nephew Michael Skakel

Page 34: Lizzo’s secret half-brother Brandon Johnson desperately wants to end a family feud with the singer

Page 36: Scandal-scarred Johnny Depp was forced to walk the plank and exit the blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise and Guardians of the Galaxy bombshell Karen Gillan has been asked to helm the next Pirates voyage and is set to snag a massive amount of money for the starring role

Page 38: Gavin Rossdale seems to be pining over ex-wife Gwen Stefani five years after their split admitting he still thinks she’s incredible, Hollywood Hookups -- Jennifer Grey and Clark Gregg split, Lily James and Chris Evans are on, Josh Brolin and third wife Kathryn Boyd are getting ready to welcome baby No. 2

Page 42: Red Carpet Stars -- Margot Robbie

Page 45: Spot the Differences -- Jay Leno with his vintage Lincoln Continental

Page 47: Odd List

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moosterrecords · 5 years ago

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New from Arrow Video US and Arrow Academy US

THE HILLS HAVE EYES 2 [Blu-ray] (9/17)

WHO SAW HER DIE? [Blu-ray] (9/17)

IN THE AFTERMATH [Blu-ray] (9/24)

HELLRAISER [Blu-ray] (9/24)

HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II [Blu-ray] (9/24)

THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR [Blu-ray] (9/24)

via MVD Entertainment Group

In September, Arrow Celebrates Mutants, Cenobites and the Apocalypse

With September fast approaching it means Spooky Season is right around the corner, and Spooky Season always calls for an all-out horror celebration. Arrow has you covered with a fun selection of new horror tiles hitting Blu-ray shelves in September that should help get those horror marathons all planned out. And to make sure all the bases are covered, a non-horror release has been added to the mix as well.

The frighteningly fun fall begins on September 17th with two releases. First up is Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes Part II. While not quite the success of the groundbreaking first film, this early '80s sequel is a down-and-dirty B-grade flick that genre fans have grown to appreciate more of the years. As far as films with dog flashbacks go, The Hills Have Eyes Part II may very well be the best. The second release hitting stands on September 17th is Alan Lado's classic giallo, Who Saw Her Die? George Lazenby and Anita Strindberg star as parents that search the streets of Venice hoping to find the black-veiled killer that murder their daughter. The film has received much praise for its style, which author Danny Shipka compared favorably to Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now. Who Saw Her Die? features a new 2K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative.

September 24th is a busy day as Arrow releases four new titles, beginning with a pair of Clive Barker classics. Roger Ebert famously declared 1987's Hellraiser to have a "bankruptcy of imagination," but that didn't stop horror hounds everywhere from cherishing this undisputed masterpiece. Doug Bradley dons the needles for the first time as Pinhead in this mad tale about puzzles, cenobites, and a sadomasochistic underworld. In the film's sequel, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, we are taken deep into the depths of hell as Barker's universe of depravity is further explored. Both films hit Blu-ray shelves with brand new 2K restorations approved by director of photography Robin Vidgeon.

Also coming on the 24th of September is In the Aftermath, a film unlike anything else you've ever seen. In looking to make his debut feature, director Carl Colpaert re-purposed footage from an older anime, shot some live-action footage and created a haunting post-apocalyptic look at Earth. This stunning film is now presented with the 2K restoration it deserves.

The month's final release, also hitting shelves on the 24th, is Billy Wilder's The Major and the Minor. Ginger Rogers disguises herself as a child to save money on a train ticket, a decidedly genius move that nearly comes crashing down when she decides to smoke. She hides out in the compartment of Ray Milland and hijinks ensue. The film is noticeable for being Wilder's first as a director in America and it essentially kick started his illustrious career.

COMPLETE DETAILS, SPECIAL FEATURES, and HI-RES ART BELOW

The Hills Have Eyes 2 [Limited Edition]

The hills are once again alive with the sound of screaming in Wes Craven's hugely entertaining follow-up to his own groundbreaking 1977 The Hills Have Eyes.

BLU-RAY SKU: AV223 UPC: 760137280682 SRP: 49.95 (NEW PRICE) Street Date: 09/17/19 PreBook Date: 08/13/19 Label: Arrow Video Genre: Horror Language: English Run Time: 86 mins

High-res Cover Art (JPG)

Who Saw Her Die?

Former Bond star George Lazenby (On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Man from Hong Kong) headlines this classic giallo directed by Aldo Lado (Short Night of Glass Dolls, Night Train Murders) ¬-as compelling for its haunting atmosphere, twists and turns as for its parallels with another great Venetian horror/thriller - Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now.

BLU-RAY SKU: AV214 UPC: 760137279983 SRP: 39.95 Street Date: 09/17/19 PreBook Date: 08/13/19 Label: Arrow Video Genre: Horror Language: Italian Run Time: 90 mins

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In The Aftermath

In a radiation-soaked wasteland, two surviving soldiers, Frank and Goose, search for essential supplies amid the rubble. After a violent confrontation, Frank is haunted by visions of an angelic young girl holding a giant egg, herself a refugee from another world altogether. Could the egg be the key to saving both their worlds'

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Hellraiser

Based on his own novella The Hellbound Heart, Clive Barker's Hellraiser sees Larry (Andrew Robinson) and his wife Julia (Clare Higgins) move into their new home, unaware that something evil lurks beneath the floorboards of the dilapidated house - something that wants human blood...

BLU-RAY SKU: AV236 UPC: 760137291183 SRP: 39.95 Street Date: 09/24/19 PreBook Date: 08/20/19 Label: Arrow Video Genre: Horror Language: English Run Time: 93 mins

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Hellbound: Hellraiser II

Having escaped the clutches of Pinhead and the demonic Cenobites, Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Laurence) awakens to finds herself detained at the Channard Institute, a hospital for the mentally ill. But her torments are far from over - the chief doctor at the institute is determined to unleash the powers of Hell to achieve his own twisted ends.

BLU-RAY SKU: AV237 UPC: 760137291084 SRP: 39.95 Street Date: 09/24/19 PreBook Date: 08/20/19 Label: Arrow Video Genre: Horror Language: English Run Time: 99 mins

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The Major And The Minor

Legendary actress and dancer Ginger Rogers stars as Susan Applegate, a struggling young woman who pretends to be an 11-year old girl in order to buy a half-price train ticket. Fleeing the conductors, she hides in the compartment of Major Philip Kirby. When they arrive at the military academy where Kirby teaches, his fiancée grows suspicious of Susan's ruse...

BLU-RAY SKU: AA051 UPC: 760137280187 SRP: 39.95 Street Date: 09/24/19 PreBook Date: 08/20/19 Label: Arrow Academy Genre: Comedy Language: English Run Time: 100 mins

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theculturalattachegent · 6 years ago

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Call Me Kerosene

Issue 5, “The Romantics” The Tenth Magazine, January 2018

A Romantic Voyage

My dear friend An tells me that I feel life more deeply and violently than others. Inherently, I suppose we both do.

One evening, I was hesitantly on way to romance a loveless romance. I sat in the yellow cab gazing through the window pane. I wasn’t looking at anything in particular. I was in a trance. As the African driver approached a turn at the corner of Manhattan’s Avenue of the Americas, I noticed his eyes deliberately peering at me in his rearview mirror. Once my eyes met his, he took that as his cue to break our silence, “I can see the sadness in your eyes,” he said.

He got me together.

Yet, not right away. It took months upon months for that level of recognition of my spirit to impress itself unto me.

After that moment, symbols became even more significant to me. The act of burning sage, having a born day, purchasing calla lilies from the florist for my environs, or keeping my favorite authors at my bedside table became intentional. At this juncture in my life, it is likely more important for my subconscious mind to know the symbols are there, just there, almost as a form of osmosis edifying my soul. When I first began to buy calla lilies to place in my home, I was moved by the representation and the simplicity. Its use in our events is symbolic of both endings and beginnings and the juxtaposition of masculine and feminine, a binary that constantly ruptures. Initially, I would only buy a single stem because a single stem was as far as I could stretch my coin. My choice in showcasing had nothing to do with irony or what would later become a trending hipster idyllic. For me, there was power in the single stem. Over the years, I kept the single stem in a tall, cylindrical glass vase alongside a large monstera leaf. On one occasion, a friend and mentor walked through my entryway and thought the display on my table was minimalist and beautiful. But, what she did not know was that necessity beget my creativity. In my mind, I could not digest life at the time. So, survival was my mode of transportation and modus operandi. How can I survive in the world with the least, but still look as though I’m doing the most—to the naked eye? It was less about abundance and more about the act of conveying a glory I could see, but could not yet touch.

My Laurel, Mississippi-born Bigmomma once told me, “There should be something living in your home.” I have always taken that to signify that there should be something living around you, even when you are not. Toni Morrison interrupts the sentiment that we did not ask to be here. “I think we did,” she says. Over time, I have agreed more and more with that sentiment. My notion is likely a bit more macabre than my grandmother or Morrison, but perhaps Bigmomma implored me to read between the lines and my interpretation is actually right on point. When I think back on that redefining evening with the cab driver, his words and the cadence in which he spoke to me are as vivid as the darkness when I close my eyes. I did not know this man. He did not know me. But something emanated so powerfully from my stature that he was compelled to address me, a stranger. He was firmly holding my black mirror. I was firmly turning it away. Did my lack of confidence compel him? Was it the underlying, visceral pain that seeped from my pores? No. I don’t think I conveyed any of that, in that moment. He spoke of the emptiness in my eyes. He spoke of my vision. He spoke of the one place I could not hide when I thought I was alone.

He got me together.

For me, the acting of giving or temporarily holding a flower is not an isolated occurrence. It is a ritual occasion that signifies birth and rebirth, hope, breath, and futurity. I must cherish visions of myself, myself. I must hold myself closely, otherwise, I’m too fragile if I begin to loosen the grip. When you begin to work at the age of thirteen, you learn earnest and how to labor. But, when you begin working at the age of thirteen because somewhere along the way in thirteen years, you’ve acquired the sense that you feel you need to take care of yourself—well, that’s a far different cry. It’s the kind of cry you spend the rest of your years trying to peel away, even when love does surround you, such as my mother who was in my childhood home. Today, I feel the antagonistic nature of that relationship and a similar sadness my mother felt when she was trying to raise an outspoken, gay, black young man, who was ready to be in the world. I was tasting the flames and she was already in them. Now, I understand. There is royalty, but there is also trauma inside [our] DNA.

“Fuck Your Breath!”

It was Thanksgiving Day when I first stepped foot into the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History of Art & Culture in Washington, DC. Even with the ticketed passes, we all shuffled through the museum like cattle. It was an eerie symbolism for me as I remembered how slaves were jammed onto ships such as the Brooks or the São José. You enter through the bowel of the museum. It’s quite dark. But when I think of that very first visit, my mind always returns to the plaques on the wall that read the number of Africans taken and the number of Africans who survived and arrived at a port, only to then die a different death. In between those two numbers, I only thought of the storytellers, thinkers, artists, scientists, and healers we lost along the way.

Just a month ago, Erica Garner died at the age of 27 years-old old from a heart attack. At this point, an autopsy is circumstantial evidence to me when you consider the trauma she endured by losing her father, Eric Garner, in such a vile way. We are not the wretched, but visual culture, media, and the populace would have us believe so. It is imperative to continue to push through black death as spectacle when we have so much life left within us yet. I don’t romanticize our past, but I must return to it every so often so that I am reminded of how we are not a pathology to be studied, but visions to be celebrated. Nostalgia, stemming from Latin, is not only remembering, but its literal meaning is a return to pain. Every black art movement is responding to the futurity of our race and of our breath—it is responding to nostalgia. You can call it Black is Beautiful. You can call it Négritude. You can call it 40 Acres and a Mule. You can call it magic. You can call it Black Lives Matter. You can call it Afrofuturism. But, what is consistent is that we have to keep giving a name to the preservation of blackness and black art. In order for me to pump through it, I need a sentimentality that is rooted in self-preservation, forming itself like Kevlar around my soul.

There was and has been so much life lost in voyage. We’ve been romantics, because how else could you explain the fury, vision, and sentimentality of our steadfast survival? We flicker. The light dims. And yet, it burns still. A bit brighter with each generation. A bit righter with each passing year. A bit tighter with each verse and each song.

During the summer of 2014, I spent a week in Grasse, France. While there, I looked out over the mountains in Chateaneuf one afternoon and grew nostalgic over Michael Brown. After Mario Woods was shot in Oakland, California, my heart was quite heavy for some time. The number of shots that poured into his black body was grotesque as he stood there, mentally ill, holding a kitchen butter knife. But that day, it was Michael Brown, and my heart seized as I looked over those winding, beautiful hills. The dichotomy of it all was grotesque. I felt guilty that I could sit atop this hill in a fit of escapism, while my kinsmen and kinswomen lay slain with no redemption.

During that trip in Grasse and through the winding hills of Saint-Paul de Vence, I began to fill with ire and love, simultaneously. After traversing the mountains during the day, I lay awake in bed that evening, alone, trying to string my feelings together. I was agitated that the deep thoughts I could not shake were my own and not necessarily those of the white companions I traveled alongside. The pain is what’s left for us to deal with. It’s left for us to pick. It’s left for us to sort. It’s left for us to leave behind. Trauma, and glory, is riddled in our bones from every stress fracture that black men and women endured through every reification of slavery, that exists even still. Freedom still hasn’t cut us loose yet, so I began to write:

“Dearest Mike Brown: Now that you’re a shining star, as a brown boy, I know what could have been. And, what should have been. But, may your star illuminate the world, as the sun illuminates the Alps, as a catalyst not for what might have been, but what will be. I’ll look for you, tonight.

Je t’embrasse, Marcus”

Shipwrecked

That day atop those hills. I needed to speak to Michael Brown. Or, perhaps he was speaking to me. Maybe, my great-grandmother or enslaved ancestors were calling me by a name I don’t even know, but I answered. When I close my eyes, I think of the voyage responsible for my existence. When Africans were transported in squalor across the Atlantic they recovered their namesake by listening to one another in song. They were captured, with each other’s heat to warm, and stripped of dignity and namesake. But, they sang. Singing was how common knowledge and collective identity was formed. The bone-deep artisanship in our bodies allowed us to find kin in each other. We passed along the work in this art form and continue to do so. With that understanding, I’ll use any art in my own capability to continue the tradition of contacting my ancestors, predecessors, and descendants.

As I lay awake in bed on that August night in Grasse, only miles away from James Baldwin’s old home in Saint-Paul de Vence I thought of him. I thought of how he passed away there in 1987 in his bed surrounded by close friends after fighting the world with his art. Then, I thought of his clarion call to us: “I pray that somewhere in that wreckage they’ll find me. And if I’ve done that, then I would have accomplished something in my life.”

We found you Jimmy, we found you.

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cornishbirdblog · 5 years ago

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“A man will go to the devil pretty fast in Tombstone . . . Faro, whiskey, and bad women will beat anyone.” George Parsons diary, September 1880

Tombstone is known as ‘the town too tough to die’. This is the town of Wyatt Earp and the gunfight at the OK Corral. A town of saloons and gambling dens, cowboys and wild women. A boomtown where the mines produced millions of dollars of silver in just a few short years. It is a true legend of the wild west of America.

Allen Street, in old Tombstone

And it was in Tombstone on 23rd February 1883 that May Woodman shot and killed William Kinsman. Even in a town used to gun fights and violent deaths the murder of Kinsman was shocking to say the least. And the story of his death and the trial that followed continues to intrigue.

A Cornish Childhood

William ‘Billy’ Kinsman was born in Gwennap in 1854. The eldest son of John Kinsman and Catherine Bray, who had married around 1850. John was a miner, a trade his son followed him in to as soon as he was able.

William ‘Billy’ Kinsman

In 1879, or thereabouts, Billy emigrated to the USA. At some point his parents took the huge step of joining him. The other children, Billy’s three sisters – Catherine, Mary Ann and Elizabeth – came too.

Initially Billy found work in a mine in Virginia City, Nevada. Then in 1880 he moved south to Tombstone, Arizona with John and Catherine. The family moved to a house on the corner of Toughnut Street and Seventh Street.

Tombstone from the air in 2019, showing Allen Street and Toughnut Street below

Presumably Billy and his father began work at one of the Tombstone mines in the hills surrounding the town. All appears to have been quiet with the family until 1883. It ws then that Billy was shot dead in the street outside the Oriental Saloon.

A Sporting Man

Billy Kinsman is described by one newspaper as ‘a sporting man’ and he was reportedly a frequenter of saloons and gambling dens. And in Tombstone there were plenty of such establishments to choose from.

A local favourite was the Oriental Saloon, built by the Earp brothers in 1880 on the corner of Allen and Fifth Streets. It was said to be the most elegant place ‘between Chicago and San Francisco’ and it offered the punter a lavishly decorated interior as well as the usual stage entertainment and gaming tables.

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Virgil Earp was shot leaving the Oriental a short time after the gunfight at the OK Corral. And it was near this spot that Billy too met his end.

May Woodman

Born Mary McIntyre to Henry and Ellen McIntyre in 1855, May Woodman was already estranged from her husband Lewis (or Louis) by the time of the 1880 census. In 1881 Lewis placed an advertisement in the Tombstone Epitaph, the town’s aptly named newspaper.

��To whom it may concern. I hereby warn all persons against giving my wife Mary Woodman any credit on my account as I will not be responsible for any debts contracted by her. She having left my bed and board without just cause or provocation, signed Louis C Woodman.”

It seems clear that Lewis suspected his wife (who seems to alternate between calling herself Mary or May) of some impropriety. Some reports published after the shooting suggest that Billy and May already knew each other well at this time and were perhaps even living together. But the real catalyst for the disaster that followed came later that same year in December 1881.

An Unmitigated Falsehood

A notice was placed in the Tombstone Epitaph on 22nd December. It announced the engagement of May and Billy Kinsman. The story however was a practical joke, a prank executed by friends of Kinsman. They changed May’s name but the joke was probably very obvious to everyone in such a small town.

To make matters worse three days later the Epitaph printed the following at Billy’s request:

“Some unprincipled person came into this office a few days ago and requested us to publish the announcement of a marriage between William Kinsman and May Holzerman, which we did. It has since been discovered that no such occurrence ever took place, the alleged bridegroom denounces the statement as an unmitigated falsehood.”

Billy’s very public rejection of May must have been hurtful and not a little embarrassing. He and his friends had made a fool of her. How long she had been planning what happened a few weeks later isn’t clear, but there is no doubt this cruel prank is what set all in motion.

Murder in Tombstone

Allen Street was the main thoroughfare through Tombstone then as it is today. Lined with shady wooden boardwalks and bustling with shops, saloons and stagecoaches.

At about 10 o’clock on 23rd February 1883 a labourer, Alphanzo Ayala was standing on the street opposite the Oriental Saloon. He told the coroner he saw Mrs. Woodman and Billy Kinsman talking, though he couldn’t hear what about. May, he said, had one hand beneath her cloak while she spoke. Then, according to Ayala, quite suddenly she pulled out a pistol and shot Kinsman in his chest.

The Oriental Saloon on the corner of Allen & Fifth street where Billy was shot.

Thomas Keefe, a carpenter and another witness standing close by, gave testimony that he heard the shot and then saw Kinsman fold his arms across his body. As Keefe got nearer he saw that Mrs. Woodman was holding a nickel-plated ‘Bulldog’ pistol in her right hand. Keefe grabbed hold of May and asked her what she was doing.

She replied: “None of your damned business.”

May again pointed the gun at Kinsman, who was backing away from her. This time Keefe knocked her arm down and the second shot went into the wooden sidewalk. At this point the police officer James Coyle arrived and also took hold of May. Both men reported that she was calm and quiet.

H. M. Matthews, the local doctor, told the court that he heard two shots and he went towards the noise. He said he found Kinsman lying on the ground. The shot had entered the left side of his chest below the nipple and exited below his right shoulder blade. Kinsman dies of his injuries about two hours later. According to the doctor the cause of death was most likely an internal haemorrhage.

The Trial

The jury consisted of nine men. They, along with the coroner Pat Holland, and then later Judge Pinney, heard all the evidence from the various witnesses.

Besides what actually happened that day, more details, details that paint Billy in a rather unkind light were revealed during the course of the trial.

Dr. George Goodfellow, who spoke for the defence, claimed that May was pregnant at the time of her arrest. Goodfellow also claimed that she had attempted suicide while in jail and had apparently had a miscarriage because of ill treatment.

Another doctor, Daniel McSwegan testified that before the tragic events he had been summoned to the Woodman house by May and Billy. The couple questioned him as to the probable paternity of May’s unborn child. Apparently May was unsure that Billy was the father, he only had one testicle and she thought him infertile. Of course the inference there is that there were also other candidates for father of the baby.

And May was described by one newspaper as a ‘friend of the cowboys’, whatever we are to take that to mean. McSwegan also told the court that the couple had asked for a potion for May to take to end the pregnancy. He claims he refused to provide it.

Tombstone Courthouse

The Verdict

All the evidence was heard by the beginning of May, 1883. During his summing up for the jury the judge Daniel Pinney added:

“Although the jury may believe from the evidence that the deceased and the defendant lived together in open adultery and although the jury may further believe from the evidence that the deceased got the defendant in the family way and that deceased tried to have the defendant take medicine for the purpose of procuring an abortion still all this would not justify the defendant in taking the life of the deceased.”

The jury returned their verdict in just half an hour. Although May had been charged with murder the jury found her guilty of the lesser crime of manslaughter and sentenced her to five years in Yuma Prison. After her sentence was read out May yelled, “May God curse you forever.”

There are a number of questions left unanswered by the newspaper reports and the transcripts of the trial. Was May indeed pregnant and was the child Billy’s? Did Billy feel he was being trapped into marriage? Did he ask her to get rid of the baby or was that her idea? How could May have expected to marry Billy when she was still married to Louis? And we must remember that Billy wasn’t able to tell his side of the story.

Boothill Graveyard

Billy Kinsman was buried in the infamous Boothill graveyard on the edge of Tombstone.

Opened in 1878 the burial plot became the resting place of the growing town’s more unfortunate pioneers. Buried there are Tombstone’s outlaws and their victims, the town’s hangings, linchings and suicides. Two hundred and fifty souls.

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Billy Kinsman was one of the last to be buried there. The cemetery closed in 1884.

The End?

May was only the second woman to be imprisoned in Yuma and there is some indication that she may have been sexually abused by the staff.

Her mother swiftly began a campaign to have her pardoned which gathered around 200 signatures from the residents of Tombstone, including most of the jurors. In August 1883, barely 3 months into her sentence, H. M. Van Arman, acting governor of Arizona, granted May a conditional pardon.

May had testified during the trial that she suffered from insanity. She had suggested the judge “contact San Francisco for proof”, whatever that means . . . and so Van Arman decided he must protect his citizens. He decided that May could go free as long as she never returned to Arizona.

May Woodman only served a few months of her sentence for shooting Billy Kinsman. She was finally released on 15th May 1884 and was never seen again. Reports say she was heading for California.