2 August 2022 - THE FINAL HOURS OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY

 

THE FINAL HOURS OF

 ERNEST HEMINGWAY

G'day folks,

Ernest Hemingway, the Nobel Prize-winning author, adventurer, war correspondent, bullfighter, drinker and all-round macho man, blew his own brains out in 1961. His fourth wife, Mary, said that he killed himself accidentally while cleaning his double-barrelled 12-gauge shotgun. 

But did he? Controversy has surrounded the death of the 61-year-old celebrity since the fatal shooting at his home in Idaho and over the years writers, researchers – and psychiatrists – have delved into the mystery.

In 2006, American psychiatrist Christopher D. Martin said: “The accumulating factors contributing to Hemingway’s burden of illness at the end of his life are staggering.” He listed bipolar mood disorder, depression, chronic alcoholism, repetitive traumatic brain injuries and the onset of psychosis.

Some commentators have suggested that Hemingway’s problems – and depression – began in 1928 when his father, Clarence, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. But his grandfather, brother, sister, and granddaughter all killed themselves. And besides suicide, the Hemingway family history is also laced with the inherited condition of hemochromatosis, it has emerged.

Swiss scientist Sebastian Dieguez wrote in 2010 that Hemingway's recorded behaviour and symptoms were misdiagnosed, and his death was not an accident, but a suicide driven by the pain of this untreated disease.

Hemochromatosis is a rare iron-overloading disorder that causes internal damage of joints and organs, diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver, heart disease, and depression. It is also known as the Celtic Curse, and when it goes untreated can cause severe pain, suffering, and death. It is worse when mixed with the kind of excessive drinking in which Hemingway frequently indulged.

In physical decline, then, Hemingway found around 1960 that he faced another devastating and cruel blow – he could no longer write. The words wouldn't come. Deepening depression came instead, according to English writer and researcher John Walsh.

In the spring of 1961, Hemingway was asked to contribute a single sentence to a presentation volume marking John F. Kennedy's inauguration. He could not oblige. He told his lifelong friend and biographer, A.E. Hotchner: "It just won't come any more," and wept.

Walsh concludes: “Building and sustaining the image of ‘Hemingway the Man's Man’ took courage and determination, but it was something he needed to do – and when it dwindled, along with the all-important capacity to write, he had no answer except to go the same way as his father.”

 

19 July 2020 - LONDON'S FOGGIEST ERA

LONDON'S FOGGIEST ERA 

G'day folks,

In the first half of the 20th century, London was covered in almost constant “fog” until 1956, when the Clean Air Act was implemented, but the fatalities from the Great Smog in 1952, when the smog was at its highest, are said to have reached 12,000.

Take a glimpse into life in the foggiest of cities - old London.

Clancy's comment: Mm ... not only then. Venice and London were the same in the early 70's. It was spooky and mysterious, but not good for tourists.

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12 November 2019 - MORE THAN 1,000 BODIES BURIED IN ANCIENT CATACOMBS IN MALTA

MORE THAN 1,000 BODIES BURIED 

IN ANCIENT CATACOMBS IN MALTA 

G'day folks,

Welcome to some facts about burial grounds for more than 1,000 bodies deep under the modern town of Rabat in Malta. 

From the 3rd to the 6th centuries CE, the Roman city of Melite developed a complex system of burial grounds on its outskirts under the modern town of Rabat, a village outside of Mdina, the medieval capital of Malta. Roman law prohibited burials within the city, which derives its name from the Arabic word for suburb.

Known today as the St. Paul and St. Agata catacombs, the burial grounds form an important part of Malta’s early Christian history. The catacombs include tombs for more than 1,000 bodies in 2,200 square meters.

The organizational and architectural complexity of the catacombs points to the ritual importance of burial grounds in early Christianity. The catacombs were planned in a centralized manner, providing private space for numerous family units, while leaving a lot of communal space for festivals and rituals. The entrance to the main complex of St. 

Paul’s leads to two large halls, adorned with pillars made to resemble Doric columns and painted plasters. The main hall is equipped with large circular tables and couches, carved out of rock. They were probably used during burial rituals and festivals of the dead. In some places the burial corridors were cut in three subterranean stories.

The catacombs were abandoned sometime in the 7th century during the later stages of the Byzantine Empire. They were reopened during the re-Christianization of the Island after 220 years of Fatimid rule. The catacombs became a popular site for religious pilgrimages in the 12th century and a Christian shrine was recut in the 13th century.

There are a number of smaller catacombs dating back to antiquity in Malta. One was rediscovered within a traffic roundabout close to the Malta International Airport in 2006. The Hal Resqun tomb was originally excavated in 1912. Soon after its discovery, the catacomb was covered up by a road surface, following the development of the Luqa Airfield.

Clancy's comment: Wow, that's a lot of bodies. Fancy covering it up for an airfield!

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7 January 2016 - DEATHS AT THE HANDS OF LOVED ONES

DEATHS AT THE

 HANDS OF LOVED ONES

G'day folks,

You might find this interesting. Thirty-one years ago today, Marvin Gaye was shot to death by his father. Gaye is one of many tragic stories in Hollywood, in which the perpetrator was someone close to the victim.

The saying goes, 'There's no greater loss for a parent than the death of a child,' but can you imagine when that death ends up being at the hands of the actual parent? It's a hard pill to swallow. This, however, is what happened to Motown superstar Marvin Gaye, Jr. when he stared down the barrel of a gun held by his own father on April 1, 1984.

As today marks the 31st anniversary of Gaye's tragic death, we take a look at some famous murders that occurred at the hands of a loved one.

R&B/Soul Singer Marvin Gaye: April 1, 1984

 The fatal shooting of Motown's "Prince of Soul," Marvin Gaye, Jr., goes down in the record books as one of the most famous and tragic deaths in music history.

Born Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. (he later added the "e" in his surname) in 1939 in Washington, D.C., the R&B/soul singer had 18 Top 10 hit singles and is best known for such classics as "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," "What's Going On," "Let's Get It On," and his 1982 comeback song, the chart-topping "Sexual Healing," which earned him two Grammy Awards.

Plagued by drug abuse, the artist moved in with his parents, preacher Marvin Gay, Sr., and Alberta Gay in the West Adams area of Los Angeles. A day before his 45th birthday on April 1, 1984 at approximately 11:38 a.m. PST, a fight broke out between father and son over the senior Marvin's treatment of his mother during an argument over insurance papers. The fight allegedly turned physical when, as Alberta said in a 1985 Ebony article, that her son pushed and kicked his father. As the story goes, Gay Sr. allegedly retaliated with a gunshot from a .38 pistol to his son's chest followed by a second gunshot reportedly fired at point-blank range.

 Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten: August 14, 1980

 

 At the height of her short-lived career, Playboy model/actress Dorothy Stratten suffered a tragic ending at the hands of her estranged husband, Paul Snider, founder of male stripping act, The Chippendales.

Born Dorothy Ruth Hoogstraten on February 28, 1960 in Vancouver, the blonde beauty came to fame after being named Playmate in the 1979 issue of Playboy, and appearing in such movies as Skatetown, USA and Americathon the same year. She was named Playmate of the Year in 1980. The rising star married Snider in 1979, but the pair was estranged at the time of her murder. On August 14, 1980, the two met on at the couple's former home to discuss a divorce. Instead of splitting amicably, Snider shot her to death with a shotgun and then committed suicide with the same gun. 

Reportedly, police believe that Snider raped and abused her corpse before pulling the trigger on himself. Both bodies were naked when police arrived.

 Since her death, Stratten became the subject of two movies, a song, and several books, including Jamie Lee Curtis's portrayal of her in Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story, and singer Bryan Adams's song "The Best Was Yet to Come." She was only 20 years old when she was killed.

Actress Dominique Dunne: November 4, 1982

Just four months after appearing in the 1982 blockbuster supernatural thriller, Poltergeist, 22-year-old actress Dominique Dunne was strangled by her ex-boyfriend, sous-chef John Thomas Sweeney, at her West Hollywood home. The attack put her in a coma for five days until she was declared brain dead and taken off life support.

Dunne was the daughter of heiress Ellen Griffin and Dominick Dunne, a film producer, writer, investigative journalist, and television host, and the niece of novelists Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne. Her first break as an actress came when she was cast in the 1979 movie, Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker. She soon appeared in the hit '80s television shows, Lou Grant, Hart to Hart, and Fame, before landing her first feature film role in the Steven Spielberg-produced supernatural thriller Poltergeist.

The trouble with her boyfriend Sweeney began shortly after the two moved in together, just weeks after meeting. A few months prior to her murder, two altercations occurred, one being his first attempt on her life by strangling. In 1983, Sweeney was acquitted of the second-degree murder charge, but was still found guilty of the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter and also convicted of a misdemeanor assault for a previous attack. He was sentenced to 6 ½ years in prison, but only served three years and seven months.

 Actor Phil Hartman: May 28, 1998 

 

 Cocaine use and alcohol reportedly contributed to Brynn Hartman's decision to shoot her husband, actor Phil Hartman, at point-blank range with his own Smith & Wesson .38 as he slept in the bed they shared in their Encino, Calif. home. She shot him twice in the head and once on his side.

Hartman, best known for his work on Saturday Night Live, NewsRadio, and for voicing several characters on The Simpsons, had reportedly threatened to divorce his wife of 11 years, during an argument over her drug use. Along with her drug problems, which resulted in two stints in rehab, Brynn also suffered from depression. She was taking the antidepressant drug, Zoloft, at the time of the shooting.

Shortly after admitting to a friend that she killed her husband in the early morning hours of May 28, 1998, Brynn climbed into the couple's bed where Phil's dead body still lay and sitting up against the headboard she put the gun in her mouth and fired her own fatal shot. When police arrived, they found Brynn's dead body slumped over that of her husband, orphaning the couple's two children. In 1999, Hartman's estate filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Pfizer, the manufacturer of the antidepressant drug that Brynn was taking, as well as her psychiatrist. Pfizer settled.

Bonnie Lee Bakley: May 4, 2001

 Though out of the public eye for some time, Robert Blake — star of Truman Capote's 1967 film In Cold Blood, and the 1970's show Baretta — became a household name again after he was charged with murdering his wife of one year, Bonnie Lee Bakley. 

The high profile trial intrigue centered on Bakley's background and the couple's strange history. She was widely known as a con artist and for allegedly swindling men for money and had been arrested for writing $200,000 in bad checks, along with having more than 30 fake identifications. She served jail time before meeting Blake in 1999 and becoming his wife after a paternity test proved he was the father of her daughter, Rose, which she initially named Christian Shannon Brando after claiming Marlon Brando's son, Christian, was the father.

On May 4, 2001, the couple had dinner at a restaurant, and upon leaving the restaurant, Blake claimed to have realized that he left his revolver in the restaurant and returned to retrieve it. When he came back to the car, he found his wife dead with a gunshot wound to her head. Blake was charged with one count of murder with special circumstances, two counts of solicitation of murder, and one count of murder conspiracy. He was acquitted in 2005, but found liable for the wrongful death of his wife in the civil case filed by Bakley's children and ordered to pay $30 million in restitution.

   

Clancy's comment: Mm ... Hollywood.

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