Tom Barnes's Blog: Tom's 'RocktheTower' Blog, page 8

Gunsmoke Hangs Above the OK Corrral

Researching a Legend Part 12

I still needed the second half of the Tombstone Nugget's daily reports on the Spicer Hearing and fortunately the Arizona Historical Society came through again. They had provided me with microfiche copies of the newspaper's coverage for the first half of the hearing and when I asked for their assistance they pointed me to the Bancroft Library located on the Berkeley Campus of the University of California.
The Bancroft people were very helpful and with a couple of phone calls we struck a deal and they sent me the missing parts of the Spicer Hearings.
It took me months to piece the hearing together and also run down evidence to support my research.

At this point, to give you a better sense of place, we'll pick up the narrative of 'Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone' using a set of excerpts that begin moments after the shootout at the OK Corral.

'A chilly wind swirled, but the gun smoke hovered and clung head high above the place. In less than thirty seconds it was over. The only action left was a blood soaked Billy Clanton, sitting on the ground, glassy eyed, waving his forty-five and searching for a target.
Buck Fly came out of his boarding house and mercifully took the gun out of Billy's hands.
Frank and Tom McLowry appeared to be dead and Billy Clanton was bleeding to death from his several wounds.
Virgil and Morgan Earp, wounded, gritted their teeth and suffered the pain.
Doc determined his own hit was no hit at all, but a ricochet off his gun belt that had caused a painful bruise.
Numerous bullets pierced the skirt of Wyatt's coat, but he didn't have a scratch.
The acrid and pungent smell of gunpowder had not had time to dissipate when Johnny Behan came out of hiding, counted the dead and realized the street fight had been a disaster for the ring-cowboy faction.
Behan's alternative was to put the ring's backup plan on the table. Blame the Earps and Holliday. Show them to be the culpable party and the cowboy’s as innocent victims.
The sheriff got the attention of the lawmen with a sneering smile, and a tone designed to infect the gathering crowd, announced, "I'll have to arrest you."

"We won't be arrested today," was Wyatt’s terse reply. “We're right here and we're not going away. You have deceived us, Johnny. You lied to us, you son-of-a-bitch.”
Johnny Behan backed down and quickly made a hasty retreat.
Virgil limped over to the front doorstep of the boarding house, squeezed his right leg and grimaced with pain. Morgan stood nearby, bent over, breathing heavily and hurting.
Doc ignored his own pain as he observed the predicament of his friends. "Somebody grab a bandanna and tie a tourniquet around Virg's leg."
Mr. Comstock took a kerchief out of his pocket and tied it into place. "I don't understand the sheriff saying what he did. Couldn't he see you fellows were just doing your job?"
Morgan stood upright, put his arm around Doc and leaned on him for support.
Wyatt called out, "Somebody go for Dr. Goodfellow. Tell him to meet us at Keatney's Pharmacy.”

Dr. Goodfellow arrived at the pharmacy shortly after his patients. The doctor patched Virgil and Morgan up and sent them home to recover.
Doc and Wyatt walked the short distance to the New Orleans Restaurant, and Doc finally savored his first sip of that long overdue coffee. Millie hung around, inviting conversation, but neither Doc nor Wyatt said anything. She cleared her throat and talked below the din. "Would one of you gentlemen give me the actual version of what happened? I've already heard the cowboy's side."
Doc arched his eyebrows. "And what was that?"
"I'm sure it's straight from the ring," Millie frowned, "they say that you fellows gunned down three unarmed cowboys and it would have been four, but Ike Clanton was quick on his feet and he escaped."
Doc grinned. "Well, they got part of it right. Ike was quick on his feet."
"The rest was a flat out lie," Wyatt said. "They were armed to the teeth. Six-shooters and rifles."
Doc and Wyatt ordered their regular breakfast, the ones they had missed earlier.
The afternoon shoot-out had settled nothing and they both knew it. Millie brought their orders. Doc picked at his eggs and grits trying to sort things out. Johnny Behan’s attempt to arrest them. For what? And that unarmed cowboy's story. That was a lie, but it gives that crowd time to start a few rumors and place a story or two in the Nugget where the lie just might take legs.
(To be Continued)


Writers Notebook:

In my novel 'The Goring Collection' the Nazi's looting during World War II is laid bare.

Review by Lenora Smalley poet, writer.

Some readers may have forgotten or never knew that Hermann Goring, Hitler's ruthless second in command, was in charge of looting and hiding thousands of museum paintings created by some of Europe's most famous artists and some whose work would become more valuable during proceeding decades. They have become known as The Goring Collection. Hundreds of these paintings are still missing today.

Tom Barnes has written a well researched, exciting story initiated by a stolen painting. Jacob Meyers saw his father's Pissarro among the paintings at The Old World Auction House in Manhattan. When he starts asking questions, the painting disappears. Since Meyers owns an intelligence agency, he immediately alerts Interpol . Two paintings, a Manet and a Cezanne sold as copies by an international cartel in Berlin show up at the Berghoff Gallery in Chicago. Meyers's agency investigates this con game of the cartel from a mansion in the state of Georgia across the country to a notorious odds maker in Las Vegas. The action and excitement of the story are propelled by the characters in the agency who are tracking the stolen paintings. Their intriguing personalities and working relationships make you hope the author writes a sequel to allow them to solve more international mysteries.


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

Transcript of Spicer Hearing and a Tip from Hemingway

Researching a Legend.

During my stay in Georgia the romance questions about young John Henry Holliday and his cousin Mattie were constant. And I suppose what kept the story alive was the differing opinions – was there a romance or not? Both sides were passionate in their beliefs either pro or con. Even a Catholic nun or two go into argument.

I was on the pro side and I made my case through the relationship between Margaret Mitchell and Mattie, Sister Mary Melanie once she took the vows. There was a close relationship between the writer and her cousin. Margaret paid weekly visits to Sister Melanie where they sometimes talked for hours sharing family stories. Now this could be coincidence but the name of Scarlett's first husband was Charles Hamilton, a name that was prominent on John Henry's graduation program as receiving an honorary degree. That as I said could be coincidence but Margaret Mitchell's story line in 'Gone With the Wind' Ellen O'Hara's early romantic tie to he cousin Philippe Robillard was not. And the fact that Ellen died with the the name Philippe on her lips were not lost on Mammy or this writer.
After Doc went west there were numerous letters written between Mattie and Doc Holliday that could play a part in my story.
In my first draft none of those things were prominent, but they should be.
I suppose I could talk about the romance angle in a prologue, but for now my mind was too clouded with the new facts I'd uncovered back east to do more than let it settle in. Taking a leaf from Hemingway's 'A Memorable Feast' regarding the subconscious and giving it time to work on the problem I decided to go to work on my other large question regarding what really happened after the shootout at the OK Corral?
The fact is Cochise County political ring and the cowboy's swore out a Warrant, in Ike Clanton's name, accusing the Earp's and Holliday for murder and hauled them into court.
Judge Wells Spicer called the hearing and it lasted 28 days. Now you'd think a 28 day court hearing would raise some interest and in some quarters it did, but it some how got lost on the biographers, historians and movie makers. Dozens of books and movies were done about Tombstone and the gunfight at the OK Corral, but little about the hearing.

As a storyteller I figured that a good courtroom battle would tell a lot more about Tombstone and its citizens in 1881 than the wild tales that had hardened into myth about what happened on the streets of Tombstone or who shot Johnny Ringo? It had to be factual though and it had to involve the attorneys, witnesses, defendants and the judge.
I read a book 'The OK Corral Inquest' edited by Alford E. Turner that told the story in a kind of oblique way. Not what I had in mind. 'Inquest' was based on court transcripts. The witnesses and Judge Spicer were prominent, but not the names of prosecution or defense attorneys .
The Tombstone newspapers, Epitaph and Nugget must have covered the trial, so I had to look around for copies published during that period. I had some copies of the Epitaph in my possession and I quickly realized that they didn't do much with the story. But what about the Nugget?
I recalled seeing a few copies of the Nugget at the Arizona Historical Society and gave them a call. Fortunately they had microfiche copies of about half of the Spicer Hearing. We made a deal and they sent me what they had.
I scanned a number of issues and I could immediately see that the Nugget did a great job in reporting on the business of silver mining in and around Tombstone. From what I could tell their reports on the industry were straight forward and objective. On the other hand there was no covering up the fact that the Nugget was in opposition to the Tombstone Safety Committee and law and order. They were a tool for the Cochise County ring and backed the cowboys.
It only took me a couple of days to realize that the Nugget had reported the the Spicer Hearings gavel to gavel. But did they report like they did the mining news or with a bias as was their custom in their general opinion and commentary on Tombstone life and politics.
That question had to be answered before I would take their court reporting seriously.
I started out by comparing the Nugget with what the Epitaph had to say in their sparse reporting. I next went to the Turner Inquest and compared line by line witness testimony. That was quite a long process. Then I took every mention of the Spicer Hearings from other sources and tested them against the court reporting in Inquest as well as the newspaper reports.
I finally concluded that the Nugget was reporting courtroom dialogue just as straight as they did the mining news.
Why they didn't appear to use their normal bias in favor of the cowboys, I didn't know. In any event I decided to work through the Spicer Hearings using the Nugget as my base, but to challenge every line.
Next I had to assemble the cast of characters for the courtroom drama. Judge Spicer and all the witnesses were in the court record along with the District Attorney Lyttleton Price and his chief assistant Earl Smith. Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp were there, Morgan and Virgil Earp were excluded because they were in bed recovering from wounds they received during the shootout.
Doc and Wyatt were at the defense table with their attorneys Tom Fitch and Judge T.J. Drum.
District Attorney Price was in the first chair at the prosecution table and to his right was his chief assistant Earl Smith next was Ike Clanton and his attorney Ben Goodrich sat at the end.
E.J. Risley was the court reporter and an unnamed bailiff was present.

From the first day of Judge Spicer's hearing to the last the gallery was filled with Tombstone partisans. They were in two groups split along political lines, which were articulated by the Tombstone Epitaph and Tombstone Nugget newspapers. And that split has remained over the years.
As a historical researcher and writer I recognized the task of getting the truth was going to be difficult. But I felt that if I could get a true transcript of what was actually said in that courtroom the drama would be real and not manufactured.
It was plain common sense and why some of the historians and movie makers hadn't tapped this wealth of material I don't know.
I am sure of one thing though, to have living witnesses tell what they saw on that day was crucial in getting at the facts of how it all happened that afternoon.
The news story went out by telegraph and for some reason captured the imagination of the public and still does.
Western fans from all over the world still flock to Tombstone – so why not let them know the truth about what actually happened?
(To be continued)

Writers Notebook:

A.E. Hotchner wrote in his book 'Papa Hemingway' that, ' During their general conversations apparently very few subjects were off limits. Most of Papa’s personal problems were discussed; he even talked about some of his writing techniques. Papa once said I discovered in writing The Sun Also Rises that it was easier to write in first person because you could involve the reader immediately. So I took that advantage with Farewell, but later in To Have and Have Not and For Whom the Bell Tolls, I used the third person; it's harder to write in third person but the advantage is that you move around better.'

There were actually two tips in this one. I was searching around for today's tip and found it in the flap of my large Writers Notebook. It was a rewrite page of my Papa Hemingway review. I went to my reviews to copy and paste the tip from the review. Well, it wasn't there. The hard copy I held in my hand was an early draft and the only way the tip survived. The final version in my computer files didn't have that portion of the review.
So you might give it some thought. Those scraps of paper you keep could make a difference.

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

Doc Holliday and Ft. Griffin, Texas

Researching a Legend
Part 10

Atlanta West.
Research never ends, but for the most part the new material I had found in Georgia and Pennsylvania gave me a fresh approach to Holliday. There were still holes in the story, but at least I was beginning to see Doc Holliday as a real person, not the cardboard cutouts I had grown up with.

Now it was time to concentrate on the west, and following a short stay in Atlanta I got into my car and drove west on Interstate 20 to Dallas. I had no contacts in Dallas so I checked in at the central library. I explained my needs to a librarian and was dirrected to the rersearch department. To make a long story short I got very little information from the Dallas library.
Fortunately I already had material regarding Doc's dental work and his saloon and gambling life during his stay in Dallas.
The library people did show me a short newspaper article written on New Years day 1875 regarding shots being fired by a saloon owner named Austin and a man named Holliday. I had already heard the story but the newspaper did confirm the fact that there were no injuries during the incident.
From Dallas I drove west through Fort Worth and on to Albany, Texas, which is located in Shackelford County.
The towns of Ft. Griffin and Jacksboro where Doc Holliday had some of his gambling problems no longer exist. However, the Old Jail Art Center located in Albany had custody of the old county court records and Ms. Joan Farmer, Archivist gave me a hand with my research project.
From prior research I had a good idea about Doc's exploits in Shackelford County, but going over the court documents I corroborated and expanded my previous knowledge. Through various court documents and Warrents I found some of Doc's Ft. Griffin assosiates including the saloon owner and saloon girls.
One of the Warrents issued by the Shackelford County court is for Doc Holliday and Big Nose Kate, his accomplice in their escape from Ft. Griffin in which they were charged with arson. (Kate set fire to an out building as a distraction to facilitate their escape.)

Ms. Farmer also told me that many researchers that had gone through the files had stolen some of the old records. She said county clerks had been careless about people going through things without close supervision and that had resulted in the removable of many of the early records.
In my opinion that's the same as stealing art from a museum.

From Albany, Texas I drove west and made another stop at Tombstone. From talking to dozens of people in Tombstone I conclude that about half the town is holding onto the myth that the genuine heroes at the shootout at the OK Corral were the outlaws.
But for my part, I'm a writer and researcher still looking for the facts.

Next on my trip agenda was the public library in Tucson. Less than a hundred miles away from Tombstone I sensed a more open attitude and found them much more even handed when dealing with western history.

The Arizona Historical Society in Phoenix was very helpful and provided me with some good solid facts about the formation of Cochise County and Tombstone politics.
By the time I left Phoenix for Los Angeles I was ready for a good rest. Back in LA I planned to take a couple of weeks off and do nothing, but I didn't make it past the first week.
During the drive west my thoughts were always on my next objective, what I needed to accomplish at that particular place. However, once I got to Los Angeles and started to organize my research material the story line began to fall into place and it all started back east.
Three characters I found at the Griffin Court Annex popped into my conscious mind. Henry B. Holliday's purchase of those slaves back in 1857 came alive as Uncle Lew, Aunt Susie and her child H.C.
Those three characters alone changed my approach to the story from a nonfiction work to fiction. It would not be true fiction but it would be fact based fiction or as some call it creative nonfiction. As a storyteller I first wanted to tell a good story – as a historian I needed to stick to the facts. The trade off was simple, my characters, no matter what situation they find themselves in are always true to their own convictions honesty, loyalty and integrity. In other words all of their basic beliefs.
My story begins in 1864 when John Henry Holliday was 13 years old and at the time his family was moving from Griffin to South Georgia.
The first draft of my story went well and with every scene I wrote my characters became more real to me. The fact that I followed Doc Holliday from that early age I got to know him very well. The first draft was done and I had answered many of my original questions, howerver two very large ones remained unanswered. (To be continued)

Writers Notebook:

What I've said about character integrity is exactly what Sherwood Anderson said years ago about respecting the characters you write about.

'Consider for a moment the material of the prose writer, the teller of tales. His materials are human lives. To him these figures of his fancy, these people who live in his fancy should be as real as living people. He should be no more ready to sell them out than he would sell out his men friends or the woman he loves. To take the lives of these people and bend or twist them to suit the needs of some cleverly thought out plot to give your readers a false emotion is as mean and ignoble as it is to sell out living men or women. For the writer there is no escape, as there is no real escape for any craftsman. If you handle your material in a cheap way, you become cheap. The need of making a living may serve as an excuse but it will not save you as a craftsman. Nothing will save you if you go cheap with tools and materials. Do cheap work and you are yourself cheap. That is the truth.'
Sherwood Anderson

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

The Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery

The Life and Times of John Henry Holliday
‘Doc Holliday’s gambling skills, six-gun and caustic wit created a western legend. But Sister Mary Melanie, Margaret Mitchell and ‘Gone With the Wind’ tell the rest of the story and give us the real Doc Holliday.’
'Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone' goes behind the scenes, that western myth has established over the years, and tells the truth about Doc Holliday's life in the east and the west.
Researching a Legend Part 9
Class of 1872

Continuing: The next memo was dated February 26, 1872. The board of trustees of The Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery met and endorsed the faculty’s nominations for graduation. And accompanying that memo was a modified hand written list of potential graduates. John H. Holliday…Georgia replaced J.H. Holliday.
Next was a printed list of graduates plus other information used to make up the graduation program. The head of that page simply stated:
Philadelphia Dental College.
Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery.
The 16th Annual Commencement of The Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery will be held at the Musical Fund Hall, Philadelphia, Friday evening, March 1, 1872
The Valedictory Address to be delivered by Professor James Tyson, M.D
The Number of matriculates for the session was 63.
Degrees of DDS was conferred on the following members of the graduating class by
Dr. W.W. Fouche:
Following that was a full list of the graduates. The only change to Doc’s description line on the printed edition was John H. Holliday…Georgia … then the addition of a title for his thesis, ‘Disease of the Teeth.’
There was one other page in the file and that was a replica of the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery graduation certificate presented to the graduates.
To say I was excited might be an understatement; I was giddy with excitement thinking about the past month of research. I had uncovered facts about Doc Holliday that had never been in print before. But as I sat musing about my good fortune in research I spotted a large framed plaque on the wall dedicated to Zane Grey. Grey was one of our most famous western writers. Zane Grey graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery with the class of 1895.
I thanked Dr. Whittock for his help asked his direction to Bookbinders, one of the old Philadelphia restaurant’s that was open and serving food in the 1800’s. I had lunch there and enjoyed the food along with the ambiance.
I spent the afternoon at the Philadelphia Historical Society and early that evening took a cab to the airport and a Delta Airlines flight to Atlanta.
(To be continued)

Doc Holliday's Birthday August 14, 1851
The intrepid Bill Dunn has assembled his full collection of Doc Holliday's memorabilia in one place. A new museum will open in Griffin, GA on Doc's birthday:
209 N. 13th Street
Griffin, Georgia, 30223
Phone 770 229-2705
Bill Dunn a distant cousin of Doc Holliday, is the museum cureator and has a great passion for his work. Bill has assembled a wonderful collection of documents, artwork, books, photographs, which includes a photo of Doc's boyhood home. The collection includes a number of items of interest from the period.
IF you find yourself in Central Georgia stop by the museum, take a look at the past and have a chat with Bill Dunn about the legendary Doc Holliday. You'll be glad you did.
Writers Notebook:
How my Writers Notebook got started. For a number of years I saved file copies of famous writers interviews or writings regarding their approach to writing.
Eventually I put them all in a binder. I believe Gustave Flaubert of Madame Bovary fame was one of my first entries. I took it from an obscure book of letters he wrote to friends where he talks a lot about his writing and especially his approach to Bovary.
Hemingway’s ‘A Moveable Feast’ was another early entry. I made copies of pages 12 and 13 of that book. In those two pages Hemingway made several good points about his approach to writing.
To begin, he said, ‘Write the truest sentence you know and go from there.’ As to work in progress he said. ‘I always worked until I had something done and I stopped when I knew what would happen next. That way I could be sure of going on the next day.’ Then he said something that really got my attention. ‘I learned not to think about anything I was writing from the time I stopped writing until I started again the next day. That way my subconscious would be working on it while at the same time I’d be listening to other people and noticing everything.
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

Western Myth and a Tip From Max Perkins

Researching a Legend Part 8

The Atlanta Historical Society had provided another piece to the Holliday puzzle, an important piece and yet I sensed that there was much more that I didn’t know, that no one knew or at least no one had published.
Too many western historians and writers had relied on myth – not well enough sourced to be called fact. Too many footnotes, taken as fact, could not stand the critical test when it came to providing multiple sources. I believe that the true Holliday legend was hidden beneath a veneer that Dime Store novels had drawn and Hollywood perpetuated.
Wallace Clayton, Tombstone Epitaph Publisher and editor said, ‘MOST Western history isn’t about history. It’s about reinforcing the myth.’
With that slogan in mind my next two stops were New York and Philadelphia. The New York public library was just to take a look at their western section and see if they had material that I wasn’t acquainted with.
Philadelphia would be more focused.
Our ‘Georgia’s Heritage’ consultant for the Holliday segment, Susan McKey Thomas had located Doc’s dental college records. The Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery no longer existed, but the academic records had been preserved and housed at the main library of the University of Pennsylvania.

I flew to New York and spent less than half a day looking at the New York Public Library’s western collection and didn’t find anything new.
I spent the balance of that day visiting with pals I’d made acting rounds with when I lived in Manhattan from the mid 50’s to the early 70’s.
The next morning I took a bus from the Westside Terminal to the Rail Road Station in Newark, New Jersey and boarded a train to Philadelphia.
I got off the train at the North Philadelphia Station and was directed to the University of Pennsylvania Campus located nearby.
I needed to find Dr. John Whittock, the library curator. I located the library and entered the front door, and then I walked through a foyer and observed a spacious room, which reminded me of the largest study hall I’d ever seen. Straight ahead of me I saw a white haired gentleman standing behind a lectern.
I approached the man and said, ‘I’m looking for Dr. John Whittock?’
He smiled. ‘You’ve found him. How can I help you?’
I introduced myself and said, ‘I’m doing some research on Doc Holliday and I’m under the impression that his dental college records are here.’
‘We do have the records and if you’ll give me a moment I get them for you.’
‘Thank you, Dr. Whittock.’ I don’t believe it took more than two or three minutes for Dr. Whittock to return with a folder, which he handed to me. Then he pointed and said, ‘Why don’t you have a seat over there and go through the material. When you’re finished let me know and we’ll copy the pages you’re interested in.’
I thanked him and walked to the table. The first page that interested me was headed: ‘At a special meeting of the faculty held on February 25, 1872 – all members present…’
Candidates for graduation had been picked and nominated by the faculty for graduation. During that meeting they finalized a list, which contained 26 names that qualified through their work for graduation that year. I looked down the handwritten list, and when I got to number 10 there was the name J.H. Holliday.
(To be continued)

The Goring Collection
Prologue Final Part 7

During the long bus ride he was haunted by one decision that he made, that of leaving Luke, his CIA contact, out of the process. They had established a good working relationship over the years and Jacob was sure that Luke would have provided him with a safe house, but even with his best intentions the case would eventually be taken out of the agents hands and wind up on some bureaucrats’ desk at Langley. He did not trust bureaucrats or their decision-making process. So instead of taking that chance, Jacob decided to call Tom Brannan an ex CIA connection he had maintained for more than a decade. They first met when Tom Brannan picked him at the Reno, Nevada airport and flew him to a clandestine meeting in Northern Idaho, a hunting lodge, near the Canadian border. And from that first mission a cordial and trusting relationship had developed between the two men.
Jacob stepped off the bus in Oklahoma City, and immediately called the ex CIA man in Wichita and set up a meeting for the following day. Jacob got a warm and sympathetic reception from Tom Brannan. Their talks and planning sessions leading to Jacob’s new identity, which included a social security card reflecting his original name, lasted for more than two weeks.
It was August of 1974 and the weather was hot in Wichita, but not nearly so hot as it was in Washington, D.C. Richard M. Nixon had just resigned the presidency and the picture on Tom Brannan’s television was of the ex president waving to the press as he boarded a helicopter on the South Lawn of the White House. The picture of Nixon with his arms up in a V seemed to freeze in place as Tom hit the TV off button and turned to
Jacob. “Well, they finally got him, the lefties. Maybe he should have burned those damned tapes.”
“Maybe,” Jacob said, “but if you ask me, Nixon got too wrapped up in his own importance, got a bit too arrogant.”
“I won’t disagree with that,” Tom Brannan said. “Now, Jacob let’s get back to your problem. That resume we made up might get you a teaching job and possibly a place on the lecture circuit, however I suspect that much travel might give you a little too much exposure.”
Jacob grinned soberly. “That’s my thinking, Tom.”
Tom Brannan pursed his lips and said, “I have an idea. It just so happens that I know a group of patriotic activist in New York that is in the process of forming a political watchdog group. And I have a feeling, Jacob that you might fit very nicely into their program.”

Writers Notebook:
Maxwell Perkins was the best-known book editor of his time. Perkins worked for Scribner and some of his clients included Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolf. Perkins corresponded frequently with his writer clients and shared many of his thoughts about writing. I found this gem of a writing tip in one of those letters to a lesser know client. ‘What really makes writing is done in the head, where impressions are stored up, and it is done with the eye and the ear. The agony comes later, when it has to be done with the hand, and that part of it can gain greatly from seeing how others do it, by reading.’
Note: I suspect that if pinned down Max would have said …’from seeing how others (great writers) do it, by reading.’

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

Margaret Mitchell, Edna Ferber and The Goring Collection

Researching a Legend Part 7
‘Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone’
Once inside the Atlanta Historical Society building I approached the desk and asked a young lady about the Margaret Mitchell papers.
She thought for a moment and said, ‘We had a collection of her papers until two weeks ago when the Mitchell Estate had them transferred to the University of Georgia in Athens. And from what we’ve heard, for the time being they are sealed and can’t be viewed.’
I expect I showed my disappointment at the news and thought, another dead end. But I did follow up and asked, ‘Do you have any material relating to Margaret Mitchell biographical or otherwise.
The young lady smiled. ‘It’s not much, but we do have one small file folder. Would you like to see it?’
‘Yes I would.’
Moments later she came back with a small folder and said, ‘I’m sorry but that’s all we have.’ Then she pointed to a table with chairs and said, ‘You’re welcome to read the file.’
‘Thanks.’
I moved to the table, pulled a chair out and sat down. I opened the file and immediately saw why the young lady was reluctant to even bring it out. There were no more than half a dozen scraps of paper inside the folder.
I thumbed through the material and found an interesting letter sized hand written memo signed by Margaret Mitchell.
The heading read:
Miscellaneous details of interest.
Maternal great grandfather – Philip Fitzgerald born 1798 at Lagistown Parish of Nagraphin, Tipperary Co. Ireland.
Died 1880 Clayton Co. Georgia
Married near Columbus, Ga
Maternal great grandmother – Eleanor McGhan, born Locust Grove, Taliaferro Co.
Ga in 1818, died Clayton Co. Ga in 1893…

Signed and dated April 6, 1937
Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (Mrs. John R. Marsh)

I was dumbfounded at what I’d just seen. Was it fate that brought me to this place? How was that key piece of information left behind while they hauled away boxes of papers to the University of Georgia?
I’ll never know the answer, but there it was. Margaret Mitchell, author of ‘Gone With the Wind’ had sealed in her own hand the kinship connection to her cousin Sister Mary Melanie.
Through prior research I was aware that Philip Fitzgerald was Mattie Holliday’s great uncle. So the relationship was that they were third cousins and good friends.
(To be continued)

The Goring Collection
Prologue Part 6
Following Alexei's departure Jacob meandered around the wharf for an hour filled with a mixture of anxiety and exhilaration. The shock of a possible recall to Moscow left him with a kind of nervous excitement. Jacob had never been prone to erratic behavior, but Alexei’s words had served as a wakeup call and jarred him out of his complacency. Lectures, parties and diplomatic functions had become a comfortable way of life filled with all style and no substance. Deep down Jacob knew he was in a rut and going nowhere. It had become obvious to him that that the Soviet Union and the great socialist experiment had failed. But what weighed heavily on Jacob's mind was the question of his own commitment to a new life. Had he truly renounced the communist system or was he simply jumping ship? Of course he had worked out a plan and everything was in place, with one exception, a timetable. Now, it appeared that Alexei had provided that last element and Jacob made the decision to take advantage of it.
He hurried toward his apartment but stopped on the way, stuffed some coins into a pay phone and dialed the Santa Barbara number. The phone rang and Natalie came on the line. Jacob talked in low tones. “You were right all along, Natalie. I was the stubborn fool.”
“What are you talking about, Jacob?”
“Communism! I’m finished with it.”
Natalie laughed and asked, “What have you been drinking, Jacob?”
“I’m serious, Natalie. I’ve decided to turn and become a bona fide American.”
Then after a quiet sob, and a deep breath, Natalie said with a smile in her voice. “It may not be proper over the phone, but I’d like to propose a toast. Here’s to my brother, the real Jacob Meyers that I always knew was there.” Then she stammered. “Wha…what are you going to do, Jacob?”
“I have a plan worked out and don’t worry about my personal safety. I’ll be all right, but for the time being I need to drop out of sight.”
"I've prayed for this day, Jacob, now please be careful," Natalie said tearfully.
"I'll do my best. Now I've got to run." As soon as he hung up the phone he raced back to the apartment and quickly packed up his papers and an overnight bag, turned out the lights, walked to the dock and took the ferry to Oakland. There he purchased a one-way bus ticket to Oklahoma City.
(To be continued)

Writers Notebook:
Edna Ferber, one of the Algonquin Round Table regulars was a talented and versatile writer. She teamed up with Round Table regular George S. Kaufman to write comedy and among Ferber’s many credits she wrote three major novels Giant, Cimarron and Show Boat, all of which became successful films.
Many Edna Ferber stories were based on her life experience. She related this one in one of her two autobiographies A Peculiar Treasure when she said, ‘In the beginning chapters of the novel Show Boat there is a description of the Mississippi at flood time. I found that I did not need to consult books or ask old timers to relate their river experiences. I just took my childhood memories of the Mississippi and the Des Moines at flood time out of the back of my head where they had been neatly stored for so many years and penned them down on paper.’
Hey writers, when stuck with that same kind of problem dig into the nooks and crannies of your personal library – you might be surprised what’s stored there.

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
www.thehurricanehunter.com



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The Battle of Manassas -- Heroes and Legends

First Manassas: July 21, 1861
For this historical event we are preempting and delaying Prologue Part 6 for one week.

Tuesday July 16, 1861
Courier delivers secret note from Washington to Confederate General Beauregard in Northern Virginia. ‘Order issued McDowell to march on Manassas tonight.’

Showdown: Beauregard immediately notifies Rebel commanders to send, without delay, divisions to be positioned along the Bull Run.

‘The Goring Collection’
Followed by FBI agents, Sam Brannan drives to Manassas Park to plant a misleading microfiche. And while in the park, the Civil War buff thinks back to the first major battle of that war, The Battle of Manassas.
Excerpt from ‘The Goring Collection.’

‘The men eased out of the car, crossed the road and crouched behind some shrubbery. Then, with the benefit of night vision binoculars, they watched the lawyer’s every move.
As Sam walked among the monuments he thought about that warm July morning back in 1861. Union and Confederate Armies had been moving into the area for days and when word reached the Capital that the first major battle of the war was imminent, the Washington gentry packed their picnic baskets, hitched their teams, and drove to a hill overlooking Bull Run. Then after finding a spot, well out of harms way, they spread their lunches and settled in to watch the Union and Confederate Armies begin the fight that could resolve the, long festering, differences between the North and South.
Sam was familiar with the top generals involved, their battle strategies, and how it played out. He visualized the early probing attacks by the Union Divisions of Heintzelman, Porter, Burnside and Sherman as they moved their blue forces into position to confront Confederates Bartow, Bee and Evans. The dawn brought on an eerie silence while the two armies trooped to colors and companies moved into battle formation. But at a precipitous moment an eight-pound Parrot shot ripped across the Stone Bridge shattering the morning silence. The pageantry was startling as the men slowly moved up to point blank range and orders are given to fire at will. The scathing rattle of muskets begins and soldiers aim, fire and reload in a desperate effort to – kill or be killed. But as the battle wore on skirmish lines began to move with the ebb and flow of a restless wind while bodies piled up like cordwood and the pungent odor of gunpowder hung just above the fray.
Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson shades his eyes from the blinding sun, and observes the gray lines outnumbered two to one begin to waver. The general thrust his arm into the air and points as he urged Little Sorrel forward, leading his brigade out of the tall pines, and down Henry Hill. When Jackson and his men arrive the Confederate lines stiffen, and halt the Union avalanche. Then with bayonet and bravado the gray men turn the tide and chase the Union forces from the field.
And by the time picnickers packed their baskets and returned to Washington, the Confederates had won the battle. Stonewall Jackson was proclaimed the hero of Manassas and a legend was born.
Sam Brannan stood silently beside fallen General Bee’s Memorial and after a long moment of reflection removed Jacob’s twig from his pocket, eased around the Monument and wedged the microfilm into a crevice. Then as he turned away, and strolled up the path he mused over the cat and mouse game he was playing with his shadows. Sam chuckled when he recalled a spy operation dubbed “The Pumpkin Papers.” It became a defining moment in the Whitaker Chambers and Alger Hiss spy scandal, a subject that still gets a rise out of the lefties when it comes up at Washington cocktail parties.
Sam continued up the path, casually walked out of the park, got into the Lexus, and drove back to Washington.’

‘Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone.’
Researching a legend. Part 6
Rumors and gossip are as alive and well in Griffin as they are in Tombstone. When Doc Holliday’s name comes up in Tombstone it’s all about the OK Corral, who were the heroes and who were the villains? In Griffin it would likely be about John Henry and his cousin Mattie – Doc and Sister Mary Melanie. Was there a romantic relationship or not?
In my research, the paper trail of documents was easy, the long stories and rumors that had filtered down through generations with perhaps a hint of bias was more difficult to sort out.
Then you throw in the iconic author of ‘Gone With the Wind,’ Margaret Mitchell and her relationship, working or kin, with Sister Mary Melanie and you’ve got your work cut out for you.
One of the more plausible rumors floating around Griffin was that Margaret Mitchell named one of her main characters Melanie in ‘Gone With the Wind,’ after her cousin Sister Mary Melanie.
My thought at the time was, if there is any solid proof of a relationship between the two it will likely be found in Atlanta.’

When it comes to census and military records, the Atlanta Archives not only houses the records, but the staff doing the day-to-day work are both capable and cheerfully willing to assist researchers with their projects.
After I was shown how to access data I spent days going through census records of the Holliday family during the 1840’s, 50’s 60’s and 70’s. From those records I got a good idea about where the family members were located, their business activities and quite a lot about their daily lives.
On the military side I looked up the war records of Henry B. Holliday along with his brothers. I also looked up Mother Alice’s brothers, the McKey’s, and the Holliday’s adopted son Francisco E’Dalgo.
While I was there I took time to look up records of my great grandfather, Absolom Farrar and was surprised to learn that the war stories I’d heard when I was growing up were just about what the Archives had in their files.
I guess I could have spent months, not weeks digging into those files, but I had to maintain some kind of schedule. So I thanked the Archives staff for their help and moved on to the Atlanta Historical Society where I intended to look at Margaret Mitchell’s papers.
I was hoping to put some of the Griffin rumors to rest by finding a relationship between Ms. Mitchell and Sister Mary Melanie.
(To be continued)

Writers Notebook:
Writing about and describing a love scene and the possible aftermath -- a sex scene.
I got the idea for this writers tip from Tom Sawyer, head writer for ‘Murder She Wrote’ last Saturday afternoon when he spoke to a writers group meeting.
Tom’s general theme was how to keep a story alive, and in a word it’s conflict. But when it comes to the aforementioned love scene and possible aftermath that kind of scene becomes quite the opposite to conflict.
Tom Sawyer’s comment was well taken, but the actual tip came from Elizabeth Benedict in ‘Ten Tips for better Sex Scenes,’ where she says. ‘Writing about sex in fiction is different from writing about harpooning a whale; it’s safe to assume that your readers have had a good bit of experience with the former and almost none with the latter. We don’t need a thorough report on the hydraulics unless they’re relevant to your character’s state of mind and your stories larger concerns…’

However, if you want to do a little research into the hydraulics, to use Elizabeth Benedict’s term, of the act itself you might want to read a couple of Harold Robbins novels.

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
www.TomsHurricanes.com

We Hold These Truths to be Self Evident

‘The Goring Collection’
Prologue Part 5
On his return trip to San Francisco Jacob had time to think and reflect on his experiences of the past three days. What was truly amazing to him was how he had fit right in with the Bromfield family and their friends. Then as he looked out at the California countryside he was reminded of Tony Rockwell’s remark about his political leanings. ‘…Are you truly as far left as you profess to be?’ Jacob was aware that his zest for the Communist Party was not as strong as it once was. But he hadn’t really thought it was that obvious to others.
When Jacob got back to San Francisco, he taught his classes, attended cell meetings, and kept his lecture schedule, but nothing was the same. His feelings about democracy were growing while his passion for the Marxists ideology seemed to be slowly ebbing away. He considered his new attitude toward American Democracy and tried to put a timeline on just how and when he had started to change. As near as he could judge it followed his prescribed course for citizenship, which seemed to be only an appetizer. For when he finished those studies, he began reading biographies on the Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Federalist papers. Jacob believed that the most profound difference in his thinking was provided by a short phrase written by Thomas Jefferson into the Declaration of Independence. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’
And while those words from the Declaration of Independence rang loud and clear, the words of Karl Marx were now sounding hollow and thin. However, the question Jacob needed to answer was not so simple -- what did he intend to do regarding his new feelings about democracy? It was a slow and agonizing process, and while he had not completely renounced communism, he decided that it was time to formulate a plan in the event that he ever made the decision to turn. Then over the next few months Jacob explored a half dozen different scenarios including possible talks with his KGB and CIA contacts. In the end though, he took one central idea and worked a plan out in meticulous detail, which included a checklist of what he needed to take along and what could be left behind.
The irony of it all was that during that period, of evaluation and soul searching, the KGB assigned him a new contact code-name Isaac. Their first meeting was set for Fisherman’s Wharf. When Jacob got there, he broke into a wide smile as he hurried across the room. Then he stood for a moment before grabbing Alexei's hand and pulling him into a bear hug. "How did you arrange this?" Jacob asked. But even before Alexei spoke, he felt a chill in the air. Something was wrong.
"I had nothing to do with the arrangement." Then the heavyset Alexei said bluntly. "Someone higher up suggested that I have a talk with you, Jacob."
"About what?" Jacob asked incredulously.
Alexei sat for a long moment chewing on the stub of an unlit cigar. "Your dedication to the cause, Jacob."
"What? How can you say a thing like that?" Jacob said as his stomach churned and he thought they must have been reading my mind.
"Jacob, I'm only telling you what has been reported to the top. None of us live in a vacuum. We are always watched and monitored. And you, Jacob get extra scrutiny. You are supposed to be the leader in the distribution of socialist ideas."
"You are telling me something I don't already know," Jacob, said irately, "that is my mission."
“Yes, well there are reports that your lectures both in the classroom and on the circuit are becoming something less than effective.” Alexei chuckled, “Some believe that the ideology has become contaminated by your Western experience."
"That's an outrageous lie, Alexei," Jacob said without conviction.
"It's not for me to say, Jacob." Then Alexei moved closer. "Now this is not official, but I believe Moscow is very close to a decision."
"A decision? About what?" Jacob demanded.
"To have you recalled to Moscow, for reevaluation, and your pallid lectures are only one part of your problem."
"What do you mean?"
With riveting eyes and a harsh whisper Alexei explained. "There is a rumor floating about that suggests that you may have turned.”
"My God!"
"Well, I wouldn't know any thing about that," Alexei said with mock humor.
(To be continued)

‘Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone’
Researching a Legend Part 5
Following the trove of information I got from the Court Annex, my search for young Holliday began to take on a life of its own. I talked to and listened to interested people in Griffin about the Holliday’s and a number of people told me stories, handed down by family members, about life in the South during and after the Civil War.
I visited the county clerk’s office, dug into newspaper archives, made notes from special material at the library, looked at and got some historical perspective on old buildings and graveyards.
The county clerk’s office gave me another side of Henry B. Holliday – land speculator. The elder Holliday bought, sold and traded city lots, farms and buildings. In the clerk’s office I found deeds, notes, and various sales instruments involving the Holliday family. One sales transaction dated January 17, 1873 was of particular interest to me, and that was the sale of Doc’s property on Solomon Street, the building his mother had willed to him back in 1866. The date of the sale was of particular importance because it was just prior to the time Doc left for the west.
The newspaper archives and library gave me further insight into the Holliday family life during the years they lived in Griffin, including the war years, and the families move to South Georgia.
I was directed to two cemeteries, the main Griffin cemetery and a second one, about 20 miles southeast of Griffin. The second cemetery is next to the County Line Baptist Church, which is located near the small community of Jenkinsburg.
Doc’s sister, Martha Eleanora, died as an infant and is buried in the Griffin Cemetery.
Francisco E’Dalgo, Doc’s adopted brother, is buried at the cemetery near Jenkinsburg.
A visit to the latter cemetery and a talk with some of my relatives that live in the area gave me information that gave me an added interest in the Holliday story.
I grew up in Jenkinsburg, but knew no more about Doc Holliday than most people did at that time. However, the things I learned that day gave me pause to believe fate had drawn me to PBS and the Doc Holliday story.
1- My mother, Mary Lou Farrar’s infant sister Lilie Farrar is buried near Francisco’s grave.
2- Mom’s birthplace was about a quarter of a mile from The County Line Baptist Church.
3- My grandfather Farrar was in the cotton warehouse business with one of Francisco’s sons.
I suppose all that information could have become a distraction; instead it gave the resolve to be diligent in my research and find all the facts I could about ‘The Life and Times of John Henry Holliday’.
(To be continued)

Writers Notebook:
Excerpt, from ‘The Years with Ross’ by James Thurber.
The New Yorker, and a president setting case in copy-right law.
‘When Pearl White, the illustrious heroine, of the silent movie serial, ‘The Perils of Pauline,’ died in Paris in 1938, Wolcott Gibbs wrote a nostalgic comment about her and quoted the chorus of a song, ‘Poor Pauline,’ which came out about 1912. The New Yorker was promptly sued for having reprinted copy-righted material without permission. The case was decided in favor of the New Yorker, and it established the rule that copy-righted song lyrics could be lawfully used without permission in fiction and nonfiction for the purpose of establishing mood and background, provided the use was reasonable and not excessive.’
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
www.TomsHurricanes.com

Old South, Champagne for Jacob and Flaubert

Bp 7-8-09

Old South, Champagne for Jacob and Flaubert

Researching a legend Part 4

Griffin Slave Sale and Magnolias.

Griffin, Georgia Doc Holliday’s birthplace is right smack in the middle of the Old South. And while the city has grown and taken on a more modern look, some of the buildings from the 1800’s are still standing beside the modern, and from time to time you might get a touch of nostalgia when you smell the magnolias.
Among the buildings built in the 1800’s is the Byington Hotel, located at Broadway and Hill; another is a two-story brick building willed to Doc Holliday by his mother and located on the south side of Solomon Street.
When talking to Griffin residents I found that not everyone gave Doc Holliday favorite son status. One of my early encounters came at the Griffin Historical Society when I was asked, ‘Why write a book about a common gunslinger?’
I said, ‘I think there’s more to Doc than the cardboard cutouts most of us are familiar with.’ I didn’t change the local historian’s mind, but neither did his comment deter me from my fact-finding mission.
Of course there are many on the other side of the argument that believe Doc got a bad wrap by historians regarding his life in the east and in the west.
But I wasn’t there to argue the point one way or the other; I was simply there to look at life in Griffin during the 1800’s and the Holliday family heritage.
Doc Holliday’s father Henry B. Holliday was the first clerk of the court when Spalding County was formed so I figured that was a good place to start my research. Old court records are always a good source of information. But that idea was immediately shot down when I heard that the original courthouse had burned. Fortune was with me though as I later learned that not all the records had been lost. In fact quite a few had survived the blaze and were currently stored at the court annex.
I went to the annex and asked about the old courthouse records that were saved from the fire.
A middle aged gray-headed gentleman wearing spectacles gestured and said, “Down the hall, first door on the left.”
‘May I take a look at them?’
‘Sure, but they’re in a mess and piled up in the middle of the room.’
‘Have any other researchers gone through the stack?’
‘No, you’re the first.’
I walked to the door, looked inside and agreed that the place was a mess. There was a large stack of oversized, official looking, record books piled in the middle of the room. From the top of the stack I picked up a large book marked A, sat down on a chair and began to thumb through the pages. There was a bold notice at the top of page 3, announcing the Estate sale of William L. McKey and dated the 6th day of January 1857. I knew from earlier reading that was the father of Doc’s mother, Alice Holliday.
The fifth transaction down on page 3 was the purchase of a slave man named Leuis by Henry B. Holliday for the price of $110.00. And two lines farther down Henry B. Holliday bought another slave indicated as Susan and child for the price of $460.00
An isolated notice farther down the page states: Late on Tuesday January 6, 1857 one house and lot in Griffin sold to H.B. Holliday for $800.00.
In another book marked Voucher Book A on page 265 it stated that the William McKey Estate Executor was Aaron Woodward.
The voucher book contained many pages indicating payments made by the estate executor for a variety of items from a pair of shoes to school tuition along with a set of violin strings for daughter Margaret McKey.
(To be continued)

‘The Goring Collection’
Prologue Part 4

Jacob took the train down the day before the wedding and arrived in time to attend the rehearsal and have dinner with the Bromfield family. At the end of the evening he escorted his sister to her bedroom, kissed her goodnight and just before he turned to leave said, “Is the family aware of my political persuasion?”
“Only that you are a professor and speaker and that your politics tilt to the left.” Then Natalie laughed. “And I suppose they will stay that way until I can talk some sense into you.”
Jacob grinned. “You never give up, do you, Sis.” Then he walked outside and down the path toward the guesthouse. The smell of night blooming jasmine mixed with thoughts about the day’s activity and Natalie’s joyous laughter somehow gave him a sense of freedom and a feeling of exuberance that he had never experienced before.

The formal ceremony went off without a hitch and Natalie looked beautiful in her white silk and lace-wedding outfit. Jacob found time at the reception to congratulate the bride and groom. Then he meandered around and studied the guests that had gathered for the occasion. The diversity of the group was puzzling to him. A wide spectrum of politics was represented, extending from the radical left to the extreme right. He spotted one of the Hollywood ten, across the room, talking to a conservative congressman that had voted that group in contempt of congress and sent them off to jail. Jacob shook his head and mused, “Only in America.”
Someone gripped his arm and guided him toward the terrace. "Jacob, dear boy. I need a word with you."
"Tony Rockwell! What a pleasant surprise." Then Jacob stood back and said, "You're looking good."
"Looks can be deceiving, dear boy, but I had to get you alone and thank you --"
"Don't even say it. There's no need," Jacob said ruefully. "I know how you feel and extolling the subject won't change the matter one whit. It was all a bad scene. The Congressional Hearings, the Black List and all the rancor that went with it."
"I suppose you're right, Jacob. But please allow me at least one observation. Of the people I've associated with on the Hollywood left, you Jacob are the only one I know that has character and integrity. Which leads me to wonder if you are truly as far left politically as you profess to be."
"I suppose I should accept that as a compliment, although I'm not sure it's deserved," Jacob said as he put his hand on Tony's shoulder and smiled. "Now, we can continue this conversation some other time, my friend, but today is a celebration, so lets go inside and have some champagne."
(To be continued)

Writers Notebook:

Think the pace of your writing is going too slow?
Read a few lines from the letter Gustave Flaubert wrote to Louise Colet during the time he was working on Madame Bovary.
Saturday night, February 1, 1852.
‘Bad week. Work didn’t go; I had reached a point where I didn’t know what to say. It was all shadings and refinements; I was completely in the dark: It is very difficult to clarify by means of words what is still obscure in your thoughts. I made outlines, spoiled a lot of paper, floundered and fumbled. Now I shall perhaps find my way again. Oh what a rascally thing style is. … In my other books I was slovenly; in this one I am trying to be impeccable, and to follow a geometrically straight line. No lyricism, no comments, the authors personality absent. It will make sad reading; there will be atrociously wretched and sordid things. … I am doing no more than five or six pages a week.’
I suspect that as a group we turn out a lot more copy today than Flaubert did in 1852.
But is it better?

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
www.TomsHurricanes.com

Turn Left at Fremont and Walk to the OK Corral

Researching a Legend Part 3

North on Fourth and left on Fremont
I paused at the corner of Fourth and Allen and took out my 1881 street map to refresh my memory just to get a better idea of how it looked then. Some of the prominent landmarks I’d read about were still there some were not.
Walking north toward Fremont Street Hafford’s Corner Saloon was first on my right with the Brown Hotel, Gun Shop and News Stand farther along.
On the left was an Assayer’s office, Zeckendorf Building, a vacant lot, the New Orleans Restaurant and Saloon with Keatney’s Drug Store near the end of the block.
As you approach Fremont the US Post Office is the last building on the right then as you turn left into Fremont the first building on your right is the Courthouse. Some of the other buildings along that side of Fremont Street are the Exchange Building, Law Offices and Addie Bourland’s Dress Shop. On the left was the Papago Cash Store, which was under construction at the time of the shootout. Bauer’s Butcher Shop, Buck Fly’s Boarding House and Photographic Studio and then the infamous vacant lot where the shootout took place.
Once I got to the location I stepped off the yardage space that the gunfight was confined to. My immediate thoughts then turned to -- who had the best view of the fight? Of course it would be the combatants, but three of them were dead and the others you’d expect to give an account favoring their side.
Onlooker witnesses were of course possible. There was a vacant house on one side of the combat area; Buck Fly’s buildings were on the other. As I surveyed the area where the fight took place, I thought about the people that might have been looking out the windows of either of those buildings and chuckled. I bet they would have moved like a jackrabbit taking cover when the first shot rang out. And nobody in his right mind would have stayed by the window to watch the fight.
Then I looked at my map again and turned toward the other side of the street. According to the map Addie Bourland’s Dress Shop was adjacent to Buck Fly’s Boarding House and possibly far enough away from the action that a potential witness would not have been too frightened to watch the gunfight.
But today nothing remained of the dress shop, only a vacant lot. I walked across the street and took a position where the front window was probably located. And when I looked toward the vacant lot I was amazed at the view an observer would have had, a front row seat at the gunfight of the century. Was Addie Bourland at her shop window when all hell broke loose?

That was a question I didn’t need to answer right away although I’d heard a local historian talk about Addie Bourland’s testimony during the Spicer hearing. For me though, I would put a memo in my briefcase with all my other Tombstone notes that would be sorted out and corroborated later.
I had several more questions to ask about Tombstone but I was getting restless and decided to put them off until another visit.
Next stop Griffin, Georgia.
(To be continued)

‘The Goring Collection’
‘Could I please have my painting back?’ A personal note from Miriam.
Click here
http://tinyurl.com/nlm5of


Prologue Part 3

Nothing was spelled out about Jacob’s transfer until a meeting with his regular KGB contact; a heavyset man named Alexei. They always met in a park at the end of a promontory overlooking the Baltic Sea. It was there during one a routine meeting when Alexei explained, in great detail, the KGB's plan for Jacob’s defection to the West. The escape would be timed to coincide with the 1960 Rome Olympics. Jacob was given a job as an assistant gymnastics instructor, and following a formal request Natalie was allowed to accompany her brother to the West.
The defection was set to take place during an Aeroflot charter flight in route from Potsdam to Rome. They faked a hijacking, and the charter flight made an emergency landing at London’s Heathrow Airport. The plane had no sooner parked on the tarmac when Jacob and Natalie made their exit and asked for political asylum in the United States. Then following extensive questioning by British authorities they were granted their wish and turned over to the American CIA.
Jacob and Natalie Heimann were granted political asylum, taken to the United States, and spent the next two months answering questions at the CIA facility located in Langley, Virginia. The agency looked into Jacob's background and determined that he was a possible KGB plant. However, the timing was right, they needed someone from the Eastern bloc to penetrate the inner circle of the Communist Party on the West Coast. And in spite of some reservations about his possible double agent status, Jacob was hired as a West Coast operative.
The CIA offered Natalie a job with the outfit, but she let them know that she was not interested. Following their stay at Langley, Jacob and Natalie traveled to San Francisco by train and rented an apartment on Clay Street.
Jacob’s KGB contact, code-name David, setup a series of meetings to introduce him to members of the West Coast Communist establishment. The CIA assigned him an agent, code name Luke, and while walking his double agent tight rope Jacob judiciously passed along a stream of dubious information to Luke regarding the communist underground in America.
Jacob spoke perfect English, but with a European accent. And with his German and Russian language skills he quickly became a popular guest at liberal functions. Jacob accepted all the invitations he could work into his schedule and in the early days listened to a diatribe of complaints from the hate America crowd. However, he listened patiently, taking his time, and then with the help of his KGB handlers drew on his credits from Rostock University, Jacob applied for and was offered a professor's seat at the College of California at Oakland.
During the early years in America Jacob’s work with the CIA and KGB, lectures and diplomatic functions took him all over the west with Hollywood recurring most frequently on his schedule. Those Hollywood meetings were the most contentious, and oftentimes he found himself in the middle of black list controversies. Although the House Un-American Activities Committee meetings had taken place in the late forties and early fifties the fall out from those hearings was still evident in Hollywood into the late sixties.
Over time Natalie accepted the American lifestyle and even decided to become a citizen. She begged her brother to join her in the Citizenship Program. Jacob argued, but Natalie was persuasive, and eventually talked her brother into going along.
It was during that period when Natalie met and fell in love with Morton Bromfield, a young intern working at San Francisco General Hospital. When their romance progressed toward a wedding, it was decided that the ceremony would be held at Santa Barbara, the groom's hometown
(To be continued)


Writers Notebook
Did you ever sit at the keyboard with a complete feeling of inadequacy? Maybe it’s borderline writers block and we all catch that bug every now and then.
So for all of you that suffer that affliction, from time to time, I thought I’d repeat of an earlier Writers Notebook post
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You have committed to a project, finished the basic research and character prep work and you’re all set to begin writing. Suddenly you’re overcome with anxiety – you’ve got a knot the size of a baseball in your stomach. Stop!
You are not alone. It might give you some comfort to know that John Steinbeck experienced some of those same anxious moments. In one of his letters written in February 1936, which was included in his ‘A Life in Letters’ Steinbeck said, ‘I have to start [writing:] and am scared to death as usual – miserable sick feeling of inadequacy.’ Then in the very next sentence he said, ‘I’ll love it once I get down to work.’

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
www.TomsHurricanes.com
Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone The Life and Times of John Henry Holliday