Brooklyn Thrill Killers

Jack Koslow, 18

Summer brings out the worst.

In the summer of 1954, four Brooklyn teenagers went on a senseless spree of violence and murder, terrorizing defenseless hobos. They beat one man to death, they beat Willard Menter, an African American, burned him with cigarettes and then dragged him for seven blocks before dumping him into the East River to drown. Several more were tortured. None were robbed. They did not know any of these people. They just fucked them up or left them to die.

These boys also admitted to horsewhipping girls in the park, and tying an old man's legs with gasoline-soaked cotton rags and setting him on fire.

None were gang members. Several were camp counsellors. They "liked athletics, played handball, swam at neighborhood pools, liked books and music." (Time, 7/30/1954)

When questioned about where they had arrived at such gruesome plots, they said they were inspired by comic books. This fact was mentioned at the Senate Subcommittee Hearings into Juvenile Delinquency.

One charge was dismissed, another boy turned state's evidence. Two of the youths - Jack Koslow (18) and Melvin Mittman (17) - were sentenced to life in prison for the death of Willard Menter. The others were Robert Trachtenberg (15) and Jerome Lieberman (17).

Bizarre photo of the boys identifying the body of Willard Menter.

Sources: Time Magazine
Various disreputable websites

Edward VIII & Mrs. Simpson

There was a time we may have had an American Queen of England. 

Okay, not really. But wouldn't it be nice to think so? 

Following the death of his father, King George V, Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David Windsor (though his friends all called him David) ascended the throne of England on January 20, 1936. 

He more famously abdicated on December 11. Though he was quite a popular man as Prince of Wales, beloved especially by the working classes, no one it seems could stand his lover, the twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson. This did not stop some unfortunate producers from creating the worst musical I have ever seen, based on this subject matter. 

Always debuted at the Victoria Palace Theatre in Spring, 1997 where my wife and I caught it during previews. The review in the Sunday Times included my favorite headline for the theater review ever; Wallis and Vomit. As suggested in on the musical-oriented website Record Cabinet:

By the time "Always" surfaced, attitudes to the royal family were drastically changing, and were indeed to be further affected by the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, later that year. And this perhaps is the show's mistake - its 'ultimate love story' is about two apparently selfish, uninspiring and uninteresting people for whom it is impossible to feel sympathy.

Though even during intermission I scoffed at the idea of buying on the CDs they were hawking, I soon regretted that decision as I had no proof to offer any one as to what I had experienced. In the past several years I began searching on eBay - but it was my brother in London who found it first on (duh) eBay.co.uk. 

And oy, it's all naff. 

This contemptuous attitude springs no doubt from the negative taint David left on the monarchy, though his grand-nephew Charles could show him a thing our two about rehabilitating one's reputation. 

However, if people think you are shallow enough to abandon monarchy for love - and spend the rest of your life living shallowly and, it must be mentioned, for example, being seen socially with Hitler ... well, maybe you were a dick in the first place. And not the proper subject for a romantic, entirely unironic musical.

For the first time ever, Time Magazine gave its Man of the Year award (1936) to a woman, Mrs. Wallis Simpson. This may have been because she had a penis.

UPDATE: More "Always" memories to be found here.

Mayor Burton

Harold Hitz Burton (June 22, 1888 – October 28, 1964) served as the 45th mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, a member of the United States Senate and later Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was known as a dispassionate jurist who prized equal justice under the law. - Wikipedia

Bipartisanship is a quaint ideal. Burton was an Ohio State Representative and then law director of Cleveland before being elected as Mayor in 1935, running as a Republican. He held that position until 1941 when he was elected to the U.S. Senate where he met and befriended Truman. Harry S. made him a Supreme Court Justice in 1945.

As the 45th mayor of the city, he has been credited with rooting out organized crime and his pious public demeanor gained him the nickname the "Boy Scout Mayor."

When Burton became mayor of Cleveland in 1935, the city was infested with underworld mobs, riddled with police graft. He appointed young Eliot Ness safety director, started a clean-up which had spectacular results. One racketeer it dredged up was Albert Ruddy, who this week was convicted of shaking down building contractors for thousands of dollars during his 20-year reign as a union tsar. Burton earned for Cleveland, once a city shamed by its record of traffic deaths, the National Safety Award in 1939 and 1940. He turned his attention to public health, and this year Cleveland won the National Health Award. He has fought for free speech and tolerance. To Cleveland this year went the National Civil Liberties Award. - Time Magazine, Oct. 1940

He secured over $40 million in federal funds towards relief assistance, and championed Cleveland as a convention center - the Great Lakes Exposition and the Republican National Convention occurred under his watch.

I find it difficult to imagine he initiated those events, as they occurred in the first full year of his term.

Additional Soucres:
Ohio History Central
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History