Tom Barnes's Blog: Tom's 'RocktheTower' Blog - Posts Tagged "michelangelo"
Doc Holliday, Jekyll Island, Ghosts and Legends
Continue Excerpts of the Spicer Hearing...
Wednesday, November 2, 1881
To open the afternoon session District Attorney Price summoned Sheriff Johnny Behan to the stand. Everyone in the courtroom knew where the sheriff stood. He was a politician and when it came to a court of law he could tap dance around an issue with the best of them.
Once the sheriff settled into the witness chair Price asked, "When were you first made aware of a possible difficulty on the afternoon of October 26th?”
“I was in the barbershop when I heard there might be trouble with armed cowboys,” Sheriff Behan said, “and I took it upon myself to disarm the men."
"How did you go about disarming the cowboys?"
"I first ran into Frank McLowry, and told him he had to disarm, there is likely to be trouble and I've proposed to disarm everyone in town that has arms. He said that he would not give up his arms, as he did not intend to have any trouble. About that time I saw Ike Clanton and Tom McLowry down the street. I said to Frank, come along with me. We went down to where Ike and Tom were standing. I said to the boys, you must give up your arms."
"How many men were in that group?" Price asked.
"I saw five standing there and asked them how many there were of them. They said four of us. The young man Claiborne said he was not one of the party. He wanted them to leave town. I saw the Earp's and Holliday coming down the sidewalk on the south side of Fremont Street. I said to the Clanton's. Wait here I see them coming and I'll go up and stop them."
“Then what did you do?”
"I went up the street and met them at Bauer’s butcher shop and told them not to go any further, that I was down there for the purpose of arresting and disarming the McLowry's and Clanton's. They did not heed me and I threw up my hands and said, "Go back. I'm Sheriff of this county and I'm not going to allow any trouble, if I can help it."
Then the witness shook his head and gave an embarrassed sigh. "They brushed past me. Then I turned and followed them by a couple of steps. When they got to within a few feet of the Clanton's and McLowry’s I heard one of them say, I think it was Wyatt Earp, ‘You sons-a-bitch’s you’ve been looking for a fight and now you can have it.’ About that time I heard a voice say throw up your hands. At that point I noticed a nickel plated pistol pointed at one of the Clanton party, I think Billy Clanton."
"Could you say with any certainty, who was holding the nickel plated pistol?"
"My impression, at that time, was that Holliday had the nickel plated pistol. I will not say for certain,” he added. “When the order was given, throw up your hands, I heard Billy Clanton say, ‘don’t shoot me, I don't want to fight.” Tom McLowry at the same time threw opened his coat and said, ‘I have nothing. Or I'm not armed.’"
"What was the position of Billy Clanton's hands, at that point?"
"I couldn't tell the position of Billy Clanton's hands at the time he said, ‘I don’t what a fight’, my attention was directed just at that moment to the nickel plated pistol."
"Who fired the first shot?"
"The nickel plated pistol was first to fire and another followed instantly."
"Both from the nickel plated pistol?"
"No. Those two shots were not from the same pistol, they were too nearly instantaneous to be fired from the same weapon."
"What happened after the second shot was fired?"
"All hell broke loose." The sheriff mopped his brow. "Two or three shots fired rapidly after that first shot."
"Who fired those shots?"
"By whom, I do not know." Behan cleared his throat. "The first two shots were fired by the Earp party."
“I have no further questions at this time, Your Honor."
When Judge Spicer adjourned court for the day the defense team stayed in their seats to discuss the day’s proceedings.
Doc picked up one of his notes. “Here’s something Behan said near Bauer’s Butcher Shop, which he conveniently left out of his testimony. I can recall him saying, ‘don’t go down there, they will murder you.’”
Wyatt perked up. “Damned if he didn’t say that, Doc. He sure as hell did.”
T.J. Drum said, “Good point but I doubt that we could prove it. Behan’s pretty slick with his answers. You might have noticed that he did not say that the cowboy’s hands were in any kind of position to surrender. He avoided that lie by simply saying that his attention was on the nickel-plated pistol.”
Excerpts from Judge Spicer's hearing. (To be continued)
The Jekyll Island Club Part 3
A central bank system, later called the Federal Reserve, didn't crop up over night. Bank failures and panics in 1873, 1893 and again in 1907 brought the problen to a head. In the fall of 1907 the United States was in a rescession and there were runs on several banks across the country with depositors demanding their money. A run on the Knickerbocker Trust Company in New York got everyones attention and forced the banking industry to look at the problem. After anslyzing the situation, industry leaders realized that there was no lender of last resort. When an individual bank got in trouble there was no one to turn to.
Once the problem was identified several banking leaders including Jekyll Island Club members George F. Barker, President of the First National Bank, and James Stillman, President of National City Bank met with fellow member J. Pierpont Morgan and began examining the assets of the troubled institutions. In short order a decision was made to offer loans to any of the banks that could show that they were solvent. And with a little help from the Treasury Department the banking community skated through the 1907 panic without a disaster.
However in 1908 Congress established a National Monetary Commission to oversee the banking community. That was only a temporary measure and another group was formed consisting of the chiefs of major corporations and banks that began to formulate a new policy that would be similar to a central bank. The group worked in secrete but eventually they needed a large, out of the way, facility that would make it less likely for anyone to leak the group plans before they had a chance to work out the details and have a working model that could stand up to scrutiny.
The Jekyll Island Club was chosen because it was isolated enough, and had meeting rooms and sufficient office space for small groups to do their work.
The main group, ostensibly heading off on a hunting trip, boarded a train at Hoboken, New Jersey and traveled south to Brunswick, Georgia. They were then taken by boat to the island.
The National Monetary Commission had laid the ground work for the banking and currency legislation, which the Jekyll Island group would use as the foundation on which to write the new banking law.
It took the men only ten days to work out the details.
The plan would then be presented to the congress as the completed work of the National Monetary Commission.
The reason for all the secrecy was that it was imperative that the true authors of the bill remain anonymous because of the overpowering resentment of the public toward bankers, and at that point no congressman would dare vote for a bill bearing a banking industry or Wall Street label, no matter how much they might have contributed to his campaign.
In truth the Jekyll Island plan was a Central Bank plan and in America there was a long tradition of struggle against any Central Bank. That thinking goes back to Thomas Jefferson's thoughts on the matter and his arguments against Alexander Hamilton's scheme for the First Bank of the United States.
In any event, no matter which side of the Federal Reserve argument you take, it is still very much a part of the Jekyll Island Club's legacy.
The millionaires would hardly recognize their island today, there is a large retirement community on the island and summer homes occupy the land where sand dunes use to be. Streets had been laid out before ecologist realized that the dunes kept the beaches in place. Acres of dunes were scraped off to provide land for motels with views of the ocean. Steps are now being taken to prevent any further man made erosion and newer property owners are required to protect native vegetation and the gnarled trees, which are rooted in the sand and help to stabilize the barrier against sea and storm.
New state laws also protect the delicate salt marshes where so much of the fish life in Georgia's off shore waters spawn. Those laws also protect the alligator as well as wild turkeys that meander through the deep wood and the deer that feed at night on the grass of the island's golf courses.
The Jekyll Island Club was the most exclusive club ever known, one hundred of the worlds wealthiest men quartered on an island nine miles long and one mile wide.
The club lasted for about sixty years and that was quite a long time in a society where fade and whim were common place.
The Jekyll Island club as an organization colsed its operation in the early days of World War II and the island was purchased by the state of Georgia in 1947. The clubhouse still remains as well as some thirty cottages.
You can visit the island today and enjoy it's natural beauty and while you're there you might also hear a few ghost stories. The Georgia coast is peppered with islands and they all have their favorite ghost stories and legends. Among them are Cumberland, Sapelo, Saint Simons and Jekyll. The iron kettle off the deck of the Wanderer, a few haunted millionaires cottages and just across the sound on the southwest side of Saint Simons Island is the place where the famous ' Legend of Ebo Landing,' got it's name.
Writers Notebook:
The word has the strength of a bulldog, genius is guided by it, no difficult task was ever accomplished without a touch of tenacity. None of the following slogans mention the word but in each case tenacity was a silent partner.
'It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.' Albert Einstein
'Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to always try one more time.' Thomas Edison
'If people knew how hard I have had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem wonderful at all.' Michelangelo
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
http://TheHurricaneHunter.blogspot.com
.
Wednesday, November 2, 1881
To open the afternoon session District Attorney Price summoned Sheriff Johnny Behan to the stand. Everyone in the courtroom knew where the sheriff stood. He was a politician and when it came to a court of law he could tap dance around an issue with the best of them.
Once the sheriff settled into the witness chair Price asked, "When were you first made aware of a possible difficulty on the afternoon of October 26th?”
“I was in the barbershop when I heard there might be trouble with armed cowboys,” Sheriff Behan said, “and I took it upon myself to disarm the men."
"How did you go about disarming the cowboys?"
"I first ran into Frank McLowry, and told him he had to disarm, there is likely to be trouble and I've proposed to disarm everyone in town that has arms. He said that he would not give up his arms, as he did not intend to have any trouble. About that time I saw Ike Clanton and Tom McLowry down the street. I said to Frank, come along with me. We went down to where Ike and Tom were standing. I said to the boys, you must give up your arms."
"How many men were in that group?" Price asked.
"I saw five standing there and asked them how many there were of them. They said four of us. The young man Claiborne said he was not one of the party. He wanted them to leave town. I saw the Earp's and Holliday coming down the sidewalk on the south side of Fremont Street. I said to the Clanton's. Wait here I see them coming and I'll go up and stop them."
“Then what did you do?”
"I went up the street and met them at Bauer’s butcher shop and told them not to go any further, that I was down there for the purpose of arresting and disarming the McLowry's and Clanton's. They did not heed me and I threw up my hands and said, "Go back. I'm Sheriff of this county and I'm not going to allow any trouble, if I can help it."
Then the witness shook his head and gave an embarrassed sigh. "They brushed past me. Then I turned and followed them by a couple of steps. When they got to within a few feet of the Clanton's and McLowry’s I heard one of them say, I think it was Wyatt Earp, ‘You sons-a-bitch’s you’ve been looking for a fight and now you can have it.’ About that time I heard a voice say throw up your hands. At that point I noticed a nickel plated pistol pointed at one of the Clanton party, I think Billy Clanton."
"Could you say with any certainty, who was holding the nickel plated pistol?"
"My impression, at that time, was that Holliday had the nickel plated pistol. I will not say for certain,” he added. “When the order was given, throw up your hands, I heard Billy Clanton say, ‘don’t shoot me, I don't want to fight.” Tom McLowry at the same time threw opened his coat and said, ‘I have nothing. Or I'm not armed.’"
"What was the position of Billy Clanton's hands, at that point?"
"I couldn't tell the position of Billy Clanton's hands at the time he said, ‘I don’t what a fight’, my attention was directed just at that moment to the nickel plated pistol."
"Who fired the first shot?"
"The nickel plated pistol was first to fire and another followed instantly."
"Both from the nickel plated pistol?"
"No. Those two shots were not from the same pistol, they were too nearly instantaneous to be fired from the same weapon."
"What happened after the second shot was fired?"
"All hell broke loose." The sheriff mopped his brow. "Two or three shots fired rapidly after that first shot."
"Who fired those shots?"
"By whom, I do not know." Behan cleared his throat. "The first two shots were fired by the Earp party."
“I have no further questions at this time, Your Honor."
When Judge Spicer adjourned court for the day the defense team stayed in their seats to discuss the day’s proceedings.
Doc picked up one of his notes. “Here’s something Behan said near Bauer’s Butcher Shop, which he conveniently left out of his testimony. I can recall him saying, ‘don’t go down there, they will murder you.’”
Wyatt perked up. “Damned if he didn’t say that, Doc. He sure as hell did.”
T.J. Drum said, “Good point but I doubt that we could prove it. Behan’s pretty slick with his answers. You might have noticed that he did not say that the cowboy’s hands were in any kind of position to surrender. He avoided that lie by simply saying that his attention was on the nickel-plated pistol.”
Excerpts from Judge Spicer's hearing. (To be continued)
The Jekyll Island Club Part 3
A central bank system, later called the Federal Reserve, didn't crop up over night. Bank failures and panics in 1873, 1893 and again in 1907 brought the problen to a head. In the fall of 1907 the United States was in a rescession and there were runs on several banks across the country with depositors demanding their money. A run on the Knickerbocker Trust Company in New York got everyones attention and forced the banking industry to look at the problem. After anslyzing the situation, industry leaders realized that there was no lender of last resort. When an individual bank got in trouble there was no one to turn to.
Once the problem was identified several banking leaders including Jekyll Island Club members George F. Barker, President of the First National Bank, and James Stillman, President of National City Bank met with fellow member J. Pierpont Morgan and began examining the assets of the troubled institutions. In short order a decision was made to offer loans to any of the banks that could show that they were solvent. And with a little help from the Treasury Department the banking community skated through the 1907 panic without a disaster.
However in 1908 Congress established a National Monetary Commission to oversee the banking community. That was only a temporary measure and another group was formed consisting of the chiefs of major corporations and banks that began to formulate a new policy that would be similar to a central bank. The group worked in secrete but eventually they needed a large, out of the way, facility that would make it less likely for anyone to leak the group plans before they had a chance to work out the details and have a working model that could stand up to scrutiny.
The Jekyll Island Club was chosen because it was isolated enough, and had meeting rooms and sufficient office space for small groups to do their work.
The main group, ostensibly heading off on a hunting trip, boarded a train at Hoboken, New Jersey and traveled south to Brunswick, Georgia. They were then taken by boat to the island.
The National Monetary Commission had laid the ground work for the banking and currency legislation, which the Jekyll Island group would use as the foundation on which to write the new banking law.
It took the men only ten days to work out the details.
The plan would then be presented to the congress as the completed work of the National Monetary Commission.
The reason for all the secrecy was that it was imperative that the true authors of the bill remain anonymous because of the overpowering resentment of the public toward bankers, and at that point no congressman would dare vote for a bill bearing a banking industry or Wall Street label, no matter how much they might have contributed to his campaign.
In truth the Jekyll Island plan was a Central Bank plan and in America there was a long tradition of struggle against any Central Bank. That thinking goes back to Thomas Jefferson's thoughts on the matter and his arguments against Alexander Hamilton's scheme for the First Bank of the United States.
In any event, no matter which side of the Federal Reserve argument you take, it is still very much a part of the Jekyll Island Club's legacy.
The millionaires would hardly recognize their island today, there is a large retirement community on the island and summer homes occupy the land where sand dunes use to be. Streets had been laid out before ecologist realized that the dunes kept the beaches in place. Acres of dunes were scraped off to provide land for motels with views of the ocean. Steps are now being taken to prevent any further man made erosion and newer property owners are required to protect native vegetation and the gnarled trees, which are rooted in the sand and help to stabilize the barrier against sea and storm.
New state laws also protect the delicate salt marshes where so much of the fish life in Georgia's off shore waters spawn. Those laws also protect the alligator as well as wild turkeys that meander through the deep wood and the deer that feed at night on the grass of the island's golf courses.
The Jekyll Island Club was the most exclusive club ever known, one hundred of the worlds wealthiest men quartered on an island nine miles long and one mile wide.
The club lasted for about sixty years and that was quite a long time in a society where fade and whim were common place.
The Jekyll Island club as an organization colsed its operation in the early days of World War II and the island was purchased by the state of Georgia in 1947. The clubhouse still remains as well as some thirty cottages.
You can visit the island today and enjoy it's natural beauty and while you're there you might also hear a few ghost stories. The Georgia coast is peppered with islands and they all have their favorite ghost stories and legends. Among them are Cumberland, Sapelo, Saint Simons and Jekyll. The iron kettle off the deck of the Wanderer, a few haunted millionaires cottages and just across the sound on the southwest side of Saint Simons Island is the place where the famous ' Legend of Ebo Landing,' got it's name.
Writers Notebook:
The word has the strength of a bulldog, genius is guided by it, no difficult task was ever accomplished without a touch of tenacity. None of the following slogans mention the word but in each case tenacity was a silent partner.
'It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.' Albert Einstein
'Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to always try one more time.' Thomas Edison
'If people knew how hard I have had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem wonderful at all.' Michelangelo
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
http://TheHurricaneHunter.blogspot.com
.
Tom's 'RocktheTower' Blog
I do a variety blog and post every Wednesday. I am an actor, writer and hurricane hunter and my subjects are generally written about those fields. During Hurricane Season I do at least one story every
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