Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Lawyers...

The scan of this week's Alex Taylor column appears below standards for readability, so I've faithfully reproduced it below. Enjoy!

Those Fractious Lawyers

If you ever want to take in one of the best shows in town, stop by the local courthouse and watch closely the antics of your favorite attorney. Perhaps you will observe a troupe state troupe more colorful and entertaining that any Broadway play.
Told around law schools and police academies, the following two stories are examples of how theatrics play a major role in courtroom drama of life and death. Sometimes they work, and others… well, let’s go back a moment in history.

Reluctant Witness
Around 1859 in Southern Illinois, a man was on trial for murdering his wife. Although her body had never been found, the prosecutor had an abundance of circumstantial evidence that should have convicted the defendant.
In a courtroom packed with friends and relatives from both sides, the prosecutor expertly presented his case, then rested.
The defense lawyer began with a long speech on the theory of reasonable doubt. Looking each juror in the eye, the lawyer kept hammering home the possibility that the woman was still alive and had simply left the area. “You must believe that she could be alive, and that to convict this man and have him hanged would be a terrible tragedy,” the lawyer yelled. “Each of you surely must believe, if only for a moment that she could be here today.”
Turning suddenly and pointing to the door, he said, “In fact, there she is now!”
The courtroom erupted as everyone turned to look.
Smiling with satisfaction, the lawyer turned to the jurors and said, “You see, what more proof that that do you need to believe she could possibly be alive.”
The jury returned in less than 30 minutes with a verdict of guilty.
Stunned, the lawyer jumped to his feet and yelled, “But you all looked. Everyone in the courtroom looked!”
“Yes,” the jury foreman said. “Everyone looked except your client.”

The Lawyer and Colt 45s
Temple Houston, son of Texas patriot Sam Houston, was one of the West’s most colorful lawyers. Unusually tall, he paraded around the courtrooms with long hair, Prince Albert coats, white sombreros, and ties made from rattlesnake skins.
He once defended a prostitute named Millie Stacy by pleading with the all-male jury, “Where the star of purity once glittered on her girlish brow, burning shame has set its seal forever. Let Millie go in peace.” They did.
Perhaps his most famous antic occurred when defending a man who had shot and killed a skilled gunfighter. To show the speed of the victim, Houston whipped out a pair of Colt 45s and blazed away at the judge and jury.
When everyone returned to their seats, Houston then related that the guns were loaded with blanks.
Although his client was convicted, Houston argued for a new trial on the grounds that when the shooting started, the jurors mingled with the crowd and could no longer be considered sequestered as required by law. His client was released.
Born in 1860, Temple L. Houston died of a stroke in Woodward, Okla, 1905.

Alex Taylor’s column on history and criminology appears in The Times Tuesdays.


Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Rozzers and Rope


As a liner note, London's population around 1829 was approaching 2,000,000 residents, meaning one policeman for every 2,000 residents. If you consider visitors, work shifts, and various leaves of absence, that figure balloons to roughly one policeman for every 10,000. Today's population runs around 9.2M, and there are now over 31,000 police officers in London's Metropolitan Police Force, including about 5,500 detectives. That translates to about one bob for every 300 residents. Applying the same mathematical adjustment comes to about one on-duty roz for every 1,000 Londoners. Too many? New York has about 8.5M residents and employs about 36,000 officers. According to the math, that's one (1) for every 900 NYC residents.

Compare those figures with a smaller city. Gainesville, Georgia (yeah, I know!) has about 40K residents with a mere 119 police department employees (around 2/3 are cops.. so 80-ish).  That comes to about one (1) for every 500 residents. Math applied, about one on duty for every 1,500 Gainesvillians.
Some folks must need more policin' than others.

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Stray Prosecution


Rock n Roll HOF Update

Just keeping tabs since my 2011 complaint post.

Updating this every year.... If I can remember!

Some of these are seriously unforgivable.


A-ha
Alice in Chains
Bad Company
Barry White
Big Star
Björk
Black Flag
Blue Oyster Cult
Bryan Adams
Cher
Collective Soul
KC and the Sunshine Band
Dave Matthews Band
Depeche Mode
Devo
Diana Ross (solo)
Dick Dale
Duran Duran
ELP
Eurythmics
Foreigner
George Thorogood and the Destroyers
Gloria Estefan
Iron Butterfly
Iron Maiden
Jane's Addiction
Jethro Tull
Jimmy Buffett
Joe Cocker
Judas Priest
Kansas
Kate Bush
King Crimson
Kool and the Gang
Korn
Kraftwerk
Little Feat
Mariah Carey
Meatloaf
Megadeth
Motley Crue
Motorhead
Nine Inch Nails
Ozzy Osbourne (solo)
Pat Benetar
Pet Shop Boys
Peter Frampton
Peter Tosh
Phil Collins (solo)
Pixies
Procol Harum
Sammy Hagar (solo)
Slayer
Smashing Pumpkins
Steppenwolf
Steve Miller Band
Steve Winwood (solo)
Supertramp
Ted Nugent
Tina Turner (solo)
The B-52s
The Carpenters
The Doobie Brothers
The Go-Go's
The Guess Who
The Meters
The Scorpions
The Smiths
Thin Lizzy
Toots & The Maytals
Toto
T-REX
UB40
War
Warren Zevon
Weezer
Weird Al Yankovic
Whitney Houston

One of your favorites missing?  Let me know!
Check with rockhall.com


T. Nelson Taylor | Official Site | DusT | Bolita