United States
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James Dean’s Little Bastard: Curse or Conspiracy?
There are opposing views on the Porsche 550 Spyder that James Dean was driving, and ultimately crashed, on September 30, 1955. His death was nearly instant but the rumors and conspiracies involving his cursed car have lasted for 56 years. We may never know what really happened but we can look at all the stories surrounding the Porsche dubbed “Little Bastard”. On a beautiful day in Cholame, California, Donald Turnupseed was driving a Ford coupe on U.S. Route 466. As Donald turned at an intersection, Dean’s car smashed almost in a head-on collision with the Ford at 5:45 PM. Donald walked away with only minor injuries, as did Dean’s passenger,…
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Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold was born on January 14, 1741 he was the second of six children to Benedict Arnold and Hannah Waterman King in Norwich, Connecticut. Like his father and grandfather, as well as an older brother who died in infancy, he was named after his great-grandfather Benedict Arnold, an early governor of the Colony of Rhode Island.Only Benedict and his sister Hannah survived to adulthood. Arnold’s father was a successful businessman, and the family moved in the upper levels of Norwich society. When he was ten, Arnold was enrolled in a private school in nearby Canterbury, with the expectation that he would eventually attend Yale. However, the deaths of his…
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Bugsy Siegel
Benjamin Hymen Siegelbaum was born February 28, 1906 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to Max and Jennie Siegelbaum in the Podolia Governorate of the Russian Empire, in modern Ukraine. They were a poor Jewish family. Siegel was known as one of the most “infamous and feared gangsters of his day”. He was also one of the driving forces behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip. He was not only influential within the Jewish mob, he also held significant influence within the Italian-American Mafia and the largely Italian-Jewish National Crime Syndicate. Siegel was one of the founders and leaders of Murder, Incorporated and became a bootlegger during Prohibition. After Prohibition was repealed…
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Hanging of Mary Dyer
Mary Barret was born around 1611 in England although where exactly isn’t known. A probate document remains from 1633/4 from the Prerogative Court of Canterbury concerning the estate of what appears to be the estate of her brother, William Barret, leaving his assets to Mary and her husband, which suggests that their parents were deceased and that William had no heirs. It could also highlight that Canterbury was close to the area in which Mary and her brother were born or lived. Mary married William Dyer, a milliner, in 1633, original from Lincolnshire, in St Martin in the Fields on 27th October 1633, and a child, William Jr was born…
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The General Slocum
On Wednesday, June 15, 1904 the ship was chartered for $350 by St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Little Germany district of Manhattan. Over 1,400 passengers, mostly women and children, boarded the Slocum, which was to sail up the East River and then eastward across the Long Island Sound to Locust Grove, a picnic site in Eatons Neck, Long Island. Around 9:30 a.m. the ship began its doomed trip. As it was passing East 90th Street, a fire started in the Lamp Room in the forward section, possibly caused by a discarded cigarette or match. It was fueled by the straw, oily rags, and lamp oil strewn around the…
