In Arizona, The Gringos Get You

 

(Is there a Mexican Yakov Smirnoff?)

A fragment of the old, Wild West, when justice often came self-served or not at all. As the years march, it fades further from memory, outside of its most famous occurrences, O.K. Corral, et al. So many other stories, particularly those with inconvenient, contentious, or even revisionist outcomes, fade even faster, or are almost entirely erased. Such is the kidnapping, rape and murder case of Mary Cunningham. I cannot provide a link to further reading here because, well of course I couldn't locate one. As far as the internet is concerned, this story doesn't exist. More on that after the column.

Published Tuesday, October 11, 1988 in the Gainesville Georgia Times, Crime Prof. Alex Taylor details the harrowing account of righteous Wild West vengeance.

Non-existent story? Almost. There are just a handful of books mentioning the crime and its aftermath. Try Googling it for yourself. Famous? Not sure that's an accurate label any longer. Nonetheless, here's some additional trivia:

According to author Robert (Bob) Turpin's book, Famous Old West Murder Mysteries, Adrian Cunningham, with a cork leg, became a scout for the U.S. Army during the Apache war. He was killed in 1961 near Tubac, Arizona, some 30 miles south of Tuscon, not far from the Mexican border. John became a captain for the Union army during the Civil War. He later settled in Tuscon Arizona as a land surveyor and died in 1912 at the age of 82.

The Burt Lancaster movie Prof. Taylor references is likely The Professionals (1966). Although the plot loosely resembles the Cunningham-Navarro story, the movie was actually based on the 1964 novel, A Mule for the Marquesa by Frank O'Rourke.

And yes, gringos is not spelled with an e. 

Shroud the Noun, Shroud the Verb

 

They want to believe.
Of course they do! Thing is, how far are they willing to go to verify facts? Oh, facts... Their facts, his facts, her facts, your facts. Facts from experts, Facts on experts...

One of my favorite quotes from Raiders of the Lost Ark is "Fact, not Truth. If it's truth you're interested in, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall." (from Lawrence Kasdan's screenplay)

Appearing in the Gainesville Times. October 4, 1988, Prof. Taylor throws light and shade on the Shroud of Turin, the noun, and its forensic facts.

 

Might try "Henri" as an alternative spelling if you're interested in further research.
Means, Motive, Opportunity... was it a crime?

Crowley and his Tweets

Originally published in the Gainesville Georgia's The Times on September 27, 1988, Prof. Taylor examines the case of a young, sinister criminal called Francis "Two Gun" Crowley. You may glean a few takeaways from this story, but if there's any one in particular above the rest, it's that a little love often goes a long way in preventing one's descent into an evil tragedy.

 

Compulsory Vaccinations Alert!

 Such language! Okay, here's one that will likely offend the millennials for dated verbiage in reprint. George Carlin famously derided the use of today's soft language. The subjective term being "learning disabled" as one of several replacements for retarded or imbecile, which have become highly-offensive slurs. Yet, the softening of a severe mental condition is nothing new. The eugenics clip to the left is from the late 1920s.

Published in the Gainesville Times, September 20, 1988, Prof. Taylor enters the unceasing debate over some tough cases that plague society, and the logical fallacies that surround them.