That Jury Trial Still Lives On in My Mind

I didn't know this until last week, but I am still processing that trial that I served on.  I haven't had occasion to think about it and it hasn't come up in conversation very often.  Well, last week I woke Sheila up in the middle of the night, screaming out the name of the defendant and saying something else that in that dream that I felt needed to be done.  I had no recollection the next day that I even dreamed about it in the first place, and would never have known if I had not been told.

So yes, I guess it's still there.  It came up in conversation with another couple we met for dinner last Saturday night that we've become good friends with.  They know the details of the crime, they know what I know about it (which is a different story than what Organized Media told  their audience) and since it came up I made use of the opportunity to vent about it a little.

OK, I've let it be known that this had the attention of Organized Media.  Organized Media did NOT tell the same story that we in the jury box and those attending the trial heard.  Organized Media was there at the trial, they had people who knew more of the context than I originally did, but Organized Media could not resist the opportunity to paint those they didn't like in a bad light.  In some cases it was due to sloppy reporting and in other cases it was due to their agenda, which in this one, could not have possibly advanced a political cause of any kind imaginable, but it was an opportunity to make the right people look bad and there was no way they were going to let that go.

As tempting as it is to tell the story here, I'm not going to do it, and this time I'm going to tell you why.

One.  The conviction is being appealed.  That may take a year or two to run its course.  I say nothing here because I want no influence whatsoever on the appeal process and the eventual decision.  I will say that the prosecution did their homework, we took the instructions seriously, we gave the charges due deliberation, and my conscience is clear in how I voted and what I argued for when we finally got to discuss the case.

Two.  Even if this wasn't appealed, I still wouldn't talk.  I have reason to believe that Organized Media isn't done with this yet.  It's going to come up again in a couple of years.  The story will be told again in reenactment form on some channel somewhere, and those telling the story simply will not be able to resist the urge to embellish this.  Several of the details are bad enough as they are.  It's downright bizarre.  I simply will not help Organized Media in this in any way, shape or form.  They have the facts.  I can't make Organized Media tell the truth about this.

Three.  There are the innocent parties to be taken into consideration, some of whom had their turn on the stand.  Those involved have gone thru their own personal hell over this.  They are never going to get over it.  Time will not heal these wounds.  I know of other serious crimes that will leave scars, but folks, in this one, there are many more people who will never get over this.  Let them get on with their lives.

OK.  I realize I'm still processing what happened.  I may be doing this for some time to come.  A lot of tabloid type of stuff was involved, and like most true crime stories it's both fascinating and revolting at the same time.

As Birdman would say.......it's a lot like watching a squirrel short out a transformer.  As grotesque as it is, you can't help but stare at it.

Odds, Ends, and Random Thoughts.....8/12/18

I got a phone call from my employer a few days ago.  Some work is coming my way, starting in two weeks, give or take a few days.  I forgot to ask who the client was but it isn't the same one that I had before.  They were based in Oro Valley and although it was a longer commute than I would have liked, I really enjoyed working there.

As it is, I've been in touch with a friend of mine that I made while I was there.  We're heading out for lunch tomorrow.  His gut feeling is that they are going to be asking for my services again in a few weeks, which I'm good with.  They're just going to have to work it out with my boss.

The one thing I like about the new gig is that I can work out of our business office, which is on my side of town.  I won't have to leave the driveway at 6:15.  I can leave at 7:30, and be home in time to support the ham radio traffic net that I've gotten involved with somewhat recently.

There will be some travel associated with this.  I presume it will be to Phoenix metro which is where a lot of aerospace components are qualified using environmental chambers which subject the units under test to extreme conditions involving temperature and humidity.  My experience in qualification test procedures was for electromagnetic environments as well as mechanical shock and vibration, but I'm familiar with climatic testing.

I won't say that having all this time off has been easy.  I am simply not ready for retirement.  I might be ready in five years.  I might not be ready at all.  Solar conditions as of late have not been great for amateur radio activity, but when the sunspots come back in a few years then maybe that will be time.

- . . . -

I've been following the political scene from a comfortable distance.  That means listening to talk radio and online reading, but not letting that dominate my daily routine.  Organized Media and their sycophantic followers have three things on their mind these days.  Those three things are Russians, Russians, and Russians.

It's gotten so bad that incumbent Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, who is facing a tough re-election fight with challenger Rick Scott, claimed this week that he has evidence of Russian hacking in some of Florida's counties.  Governor Scott has already asked for proof of this statement, but no one should hold their breath waiting for it.  Senator Nelson knows his chances of losing are excellent, thus he needs to get his excuse ready.....knowing that Organized Media will harp on this for a while.

- . . . -

Here in Arizona, we have former Tucson City Councilman Rod Glassman running for the Arizona Corporation Commission......as a conservative Republican.  I had forgotten all about him.  He got on the City Council, to use as a stepping stone for the U.S. Senate, but lost to Senator Benedict McCain. (excuse me, that was a typo).  Back then Glassman seemed to think he was entitled to that job.  After his defeat, he disappeared as far as I was concerned.

It turns out he moved north, and became acting Town Manager of Cave Creek.  I can find no evidence that Cave Creek was in any way dissatisfied with him.  He appears to have switched parties to Republican upon moving to Cave Creek.

His credentials and experience are impressive.  He may make a good commissioner.  My problem is, is that I'm not sure I want a career politician in that slot.  I have no beef with the Arizona Corporations Commission as I write this.  I'm just not sure I want a McCain Democrat to be elected to it, and I'm not sure if that's what he is.

- . . . -

Weatherwise, we're in the monsoon season.  Last weekend we had excessive heat warnings and I was outside last Saturday way too long.  I was useless the next day and for part of the day after that.  Yes, I should have known better, now having lived here for 19 years, but I was enjoying myself on the back patio with my ham radio setup and didn't want to quit.

Monsoon season doesn't really wind down until Labor Day.  Some years we're treated to a grand finale, with intense bullet rain and cars sliding off the freeway.  There's already been a fatality here in Tucson due to the weather.

- . . . -

Finally, I have received a jury summons, my third since moving to Tucson.  I doubt that I'll be selected.  I served once in San Jose, back in 1985,  for a DUI trial.  We returned a verdict of guilty.  California law at that time (and probably still does) states that refusal to take a blood alcohol content test is evidence of guilt, and that's what happened.

However, that wasn't why I voted guilty.  I initially joined one other person in voting not guilty so that a discussion was forced on the issue, which we had.  I ended up voting guilty mainly based on the testimony of a subject matter expert on alcohol and toxicology that the prosecution brought in, and I told the prosecutor that if it hadn't been for that expert I would have voted not guilty as that there still may have been reasonable doubt.

Anyway, because of that, there's no way a defense attorney will want me.  My NRA membership would also get me off, especially if a gun crime is involved. And if it's an armed robbery, there's no way I'm getting on since I've already survived one, even though it's now close to 40 years ago since that happened.

I would willingly serve if for some reason I got on.  It's an interesting experience.

Thing of it is, it's hard to want to do this since there's no way a defense attorney would let me on, and that it's a waste of my time to show up in the waiting room.

It's All Good?

Often in the face of adverse circumstances it is psychologically healthy to tell yourself "it's all good".  However, I am not under adverse circumstances as I write this, but I think society is and in that regard it's quite the stretch to say "it's all good".

I am referring to the parole of one Orenthal James Simpson, better known as O.J. Simpson, the Butcher of Brentwood who will soon be ending his stay at the Lovelock Correctional Facility in Nevada.  Now I can make an argument supporting the State of Nevada in this decision if I frame that argument in terms of they don't want him in their state any more.  I wouldn't in my right mind make this kind of argument as that he's been more of a liability to society than an asset.  What O.J. Simpson proved to the world is that you can get away with murder if you have the money for a legal dream team.  I honestly thought he was going to skate again when he burst into that hotel room in Las Vegas but I was proven wrong when I posted that in a predecessor blog (and I don't mind being wrong in that instance.)

But still, why turn him loose?  So what if he's been a model prisoner.  Is Charles Manson a model prisoner?  I don't hear very much about him but California at least keeps that guy away from the rest of us, because they feel he's a threat.  So the question really here is, is O.J. Simpson a threat to society?

There was some interesting speculation on Tucson talk radio last week, that from the morning hosts of KNST Garret Lewis and his team.  They feel he will be back in the custody of the Department of Corrections before too long, but there was disagreement on how he was going to get there.  One said it would be a DUI.  Another said it would be from some sort of physical altercation.  I can't remember what the third theory was.

Regardless of whether or not O.J. goes back to the slammer, to this day I still will not rent from Hertz due to their previous association with him.

Yes, I know he was running through airline terminals for Hertz long before he whacked his wife and Ron Goldman.  Yes, I know Hertz dropped him quickly after he was up on charges.  Yes, I know it's been almost a quarter of a century since he called Hertz the "Superstar of Rent a Car".  Even though I am not a full blood Kraut, I can be just as stubborn as a fullblood when I want to be, and on this one I want to be.

I will back off on this provided Hertz does one thing:

They advertise a rental called the "O.J. Special", where you can rent a white Ford Bronco for a weekend, and have a fake beard and hidden compartment for a passport and revolver.  If Hertz can own up to that mistake like that, then at that point I'll have respect for them and not rent from anyone else.

The Events in San Bernardino

News of the shootings in San Bernardino broke about noon yesterday.  As with all events of this nature, there weren't very many known details at first.  One report said one gunman and another said three.  One headline that briefly appeared on Drudge said the shooters were white while another one that briefly appeared said that they were of Middle Eastern origin, both of which conflicted with more reliable reports that the shooters were masked and were possibly wearing body armor.  About all that was known with certainty was that they were on a mission.  They went in, shot several people, and then left.

This of course, triggered all sorts of speculation, and yes, I was partaking in that as well.  At work I was suggesting that a fourth person was involved, and they could be heading right here to Vegas.  I figured that if three shooters could go in and get out quickly, that a fourth drove the getaway SUV that we were hearing about.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the Nevada Highway Patrol sent fifteen units between to set up at where I-15 crosses the state line, suggesting that they had either had intelligence that they were on their way over here, or were taking a precaution.  They were waiting at Primm just in case, and a few hours later it was breaking that the suspect SUV was located and gunfire was being exchanged. 

As can be expected, some politicians were quick to jump on the gun control bandwagon, before we even knew who was involved and where/how the weapons were obtained.  From what I've been able to determine, all guns were legally purchased, with two of them having been picked up in Corona.  At this point in time, the news reports I've read about this is suggesting that these were "straw" purchases, already illegal under federal law, and there likely is a California law against these types of purchases as well.  The gun control proposals being suggested would of course, never prevented this tragedy, and if straw purchases were indeed the case here then the appropriate thing to do is to make an example of those involved and send them off to Federal lockup until they are carried out in a body bag (though I'd be OK with them facing a firing squad for this).

One other reaction I'll note is the headline of the New York Daily News, suggesting that God isn't fixing this.  That's pretty rich, coming from people who don't want God involved in any way, shape or form in the first place.  Seems as if some in Organized Media have as much of a problem with the First Amendment as they do with the Second.  However, I think I'd like to see them beat this drum more loudly tomorrow, so that those who haven't made up their mind will take note of this foolish grandstanding and be alienated from the media.

As for "jihad" finally coming to our shores..........the junior varsity team, you know, the one that's been "contained", is celebrating this, but they're not taking responsibility.  But that doesn't mean that they won't try.  I'd bet money on them planning terrorist attacks as I write this.

Meanwhile, the left in this country is in hysterics.  There's no Confederate flag involved here, and the Tea Party isn't responsible either.  And although I have lost count of the number of online comments from them blaming the NRA, the reality is that California has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, all of which failed the victims yesterday. 

My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families this evening. 

The Man Who Counterfeited Nickels

Francis Leroy Henning is a name that is not found in history books.  His portrait will not be found in any art museum or on any postage stamp.  As far as I've been able to determine he has not walked the Earth's surface for the last several years, and yet in his own strange way, Francis Leroy Henning managed to do something that no one before him had ever done before and no one will ever do since.  Francis Leroy Henning is The Man Who Counterfeited Nickels.

He was not the only man who counterfeited coins, but he was the only man we are aware of who counterfeited your average run-of-the-mill five cent piece commonly found in circulation, who mass produced over 400,000 of them from the basement of his home in Erial N.J., near Philadelphia.  His nickels are still being found in circulation today, and are much sought after by coin collectors.

I first heard of The Man Who Counterfeited Nickels when I was twelve years of age, in a book about the U.S. Secret Service that I had checked out of the school library.  His criminal enterprise was one of the strangest stories of this type of criminal activity that I had ever heard of, and still ranks as such today.  Although a nickel had considerable more purchasing power in 1954 when he counterfeited as it does today, the Secret Service, per my recollection, was having trouble understanding why he was counterfeiting common coinage.

The story in that book has it that Mr. Henning had been mass producing these fake nickels out of an alloy that is similar as to what the real nickels use today.  He was somehow getting large numbers of these into circulation and that his efforts were undetected until a paperboy in Philadelphia got one of these in his change when he was collecting payment for the newspapers on his route.  He was jingling the coins in his pocket, and noticed that one of them wasn't sounding right.  He got his change out to look at it, and immediately spotted the fake nickel:  a nickel dated 1944, but missing the mintmark on the reverse.

I'll have to digress a little bit and explain about mintmarks.

In those days, coins minted in Philadelphia did not have mintmarks on them until 1942, and that was only on the nickel.  The alloy was switched to a wartime alloy and in order to distinguish these nickels from the regular copper/nickel alloy, the mintmarks on the reverse of nickels were enlarged and placed conspicuously above the Monticello.  The Philadelphia mint, for the first time, used the "P" mintmark.  This practice continued for all nickels dated 1943, 1944, and 1945.  In 1946 the regular alloy was resumed and the mintmarks went back to where they were for the pre-war years, and Philadelphia dropped the "P" entirely ("P" marked coins returned in 1979 for Susan B Anthony dollars, and have been used on all coins, save for cents, beginning in 1980). 

Anyway, to get back to the story, the paperboy knew that he had a fake nickel, not only by the way that it sounded, but also because it was missing a mintmark that should have appeared on any nickel dated 1944.  The paperboy showed the nickel to his father, who in turn contacted the Secret Service, and the Secret Service began investigating.  Significant quantities of fake nickels, some with dates other than 1944 were being reported, at which point newspaper reports of large quantities of fake nickels circulating in the Philadelphia area were appearing.  Francis Henning read about himself, realizing that he was attracting much more attention than he wanted, and he decided that it was time to get rid of the evidence.

Up until then, he had been depositing his nickels into banks, using the story that he owned a vending machine route.  His nickels were of decent enough quality to not draw attention, but weren't cost effective.  One story is that he figured out how much this was costing him, and that he learned that they were costing him six cents each to make.  Another story is that he abandoned counterfeiting nickels since he figured he would make five dollar bills instead, and yet another story is that he had been caught faking the fives, and switched to nickels when he got out of prison. 

The one story that is consistent here is that he dumped 200,000 of his nickels into the Schuylkill River, and another 200,000 in Copper Creek.  This suggests that he had to get rid of the evidence before fleeing the area.

Somehow, the Secret Service caught up to him, and when looking at various links this evening, one source said that he had fled to Cleveland before being arrested.  Arrested he was, and Francis Leroy Henning found himself in the slammer, in federal lockup for one of the more strangest counterfeiting schemes in human history.

As previously stated, Henning nickels are still found in circulation.  There were so many of them placed out there that some coin books, when you look up the value of the 1944 nickel, will have an asterisk next to that date, and the footnote will read that "1944 nickels without mintmarks are counterfeit".  Henning used other dates, such as 1939 and 1953, and authenticating fake nickels (as silly as that sounds) is a subject that frequently comes up on the coin collecting discussion boards.

It is a strange irony that these nickels, fake as they are, are still sought after to this day, and auction prices for these have been known to run as high as $80. 

I have to admit, that I wouldn't mind owning a few of these nickels myself.

Yes......a coin collector, wanting to own a few fake nickels. 

Go figure.

Miscellaneous Stuff, 1/17/12

 Do you remember that one entry that I made where there was a botched robbery?  The one where I happened to catch the scanner traffic in real time?

I had forgotten all about that until I read this.

The one issue I have with the sentencing is that the multiple sentences are being served concurrently rather than consecutively.

* * * * * * *

I left work early yesterday so that I could go to physical therapy for my hand.  The swelling has come down in my finger but it is still sore.  The good news is that my range of motion is coming back, although not 100% of what it used to be.  I return for more PT tomorrow and again on Friday.

In a twist of irony, the young lady (who is also my next door neighbor) who drove me to the hospital last night is one of the therapists!

* * * * * * *

On the way home from PT I decided to stop off at Second Amendment Sports in order to get some more ammo for my deer rifle.  I came out of there suffering from some sticker shock as to what ammo prices have done.  I hadn't bought any for quite some time and as I was looking at the sticker yesterday I decided it was time to get into re-loading my ammunition.

Re-loading is something that I've always wanted to do, but never took up since I don't target shoot at the rate that I used to.  I have kept all my brass (spent shell casings) in the event that I do take this up.

I have done some cursory research into this.  There are three well-known manufacturers of reloading equipment.  They are Dillon (based here in Arizona), RCBS, and Lee Precision.  I'm sure all three make quality equipment and I have personally seen a Dillon progressive reloader in action.

I don't think I need a progressive as that I am not planning to turn out lots of rounds.  I think a single stage press is what I need, with dies for my deer rifle and for my handguns.  I plan to start out loading rifle rounds so that I can save some good money on factory ammo.

The research has been interesting thus far, and I'm going to have to carefully select my press and dies.  Some dies, interestingly enough, are for where you are using one handgun (or rifle) exclusively for your reloads.  Others will accomodate different handguns that have the same caliber.  I own more than one .357 and more than one .38 special, so I need that kind of press/die setup.

I don't think I'll reload for my 9mm, as that the European guns are built with tighter tolerances and they don't do that well with reloads.  My Glock gives me excellent groupings when I shoot it anyway, and with my revolvers....well, I need more practice.

I have read where your really serious hunters prefer to make their own rounds.  These guys know their ballistics, and are of the opinion that the rounds they make are more accurate than factory ammo.

I have several rounds of factory ammo designed for hunting, and if I ever have occasion to use them then I might have to make my replacements.

Either way I slice it, I like being creative and building things.  I think I'll come to enjoy reloading.

* * * * * * *

I happened to catch part of the Republican debate last night.  I didn't watch all of it as that I had to take care of life.  The field has narrowed down since I last mentioned politics and I think it will narrow down some more.

I was impressed by the performance of Newt Gingrich and also of Mitt Romney.  No, I don't like Mitt Romney and I personally think that he is a conniving bastard who will say anything in order to get elected.

What I'm saying here is that Mitt Romney talked a good game.  He did stumble badly when Rick Perry challenged him on releasing his tax returns.

Newt made a classic remark invoking Andrew Jackson.   "Andrew Jackson had a pretty clear-cut idea about America's enemies:  Kill them."

I am at this point in time, still a registered independent, but I am considering re-registering as a Republican so that I can do my part in stopping Mitt Romney.  I don't like any of the candidates but only one is backed by the Republican Establishment and that's Mitt Romney.

The inevitability of a Romney nomination is indeed a frightening prospect.  I think it would be most interesting to see what would happen if the rank and file voter would somehow rebel against the Establishment and veto Mitt Romney in favor of someone else.  We would, in that instance, see one of two things.

One:  the Republican Establishment actively campaigning for President Obama.

Two:  the Republican National Committee engineering a "brokered" convention, where the will of the Republican voters is overturned by a fiat declaration that Mitt Romney is indeed the nominee since they know what's best for us and those who disagree are too stupid to know when something is for their own good.

Either way, I am currently suffering from the belief that the Republican National Committee really doesn't want to win the White House this year.

I think they would much rather see bad things happen during Obama's second term (even if it's the Iranians detonating a nuke here on our soil).  It's much easier to be a minority party in that kind of situation and snipe about things and to not offer an alternative solution.

They have to know that Romney can't win this year, yet they are blindly marching off the same cliff that they did four years ago.

Surviving An Armed Robbery

One of my readers in Ill Annoy, excuse me, Illinois, saw my posting from last June where I mentioned having once been in an armed robbery.  She asked me about that, and at that time I wasn't sure that I had the time to tell her that story in sufficient detail as to pass along what it was really like.  She may have put the bug in my ear to devote a blog posting to that event, or I might have thought it up to post here about it......I can't remember.

I do remember the robbery very well.  It was over thirty years ago.  I also don't think about it very much.  It may come up in a conversation once every five years or so.  My mother mentioned it to me during a Christmas visit a few years back when she remarked that I have had an interesting life, and aside from mentioning twice here in passing, maybe three times, it isn't something I think about on a regular basis.  I did write down on a sheet of paper what happened when I got home because I was anticipating testifying in court against the robber, but it never got to that.  I also committed to memory the details about this and the face of the robber.  Even though it's been over thirty years since I have seen him I would have no trouble recognizing him today.

This robbery took place shortly after midnight on or about the 22nd of December, 1978.  I may be off by a day here; it may have been the early morning hours of the 23rd.  I know I can search thru my papers here and determine the exact date but that's of little significance.  The point I'm trying to make here is that this is something that happened shortly before Christmas.

At that time, I was working at a Jack-in-the-Box in San Jose, California.  This was the one at Blossom Hill and Snell if you happen to be in San Jose and want to drive by it sometime, but it doesn't look the same now as it did then as that it was remodeled a long time ago.  In those days, Jack was open 24 hours a day, only closing on Christmas Day.  I had been there for a year, save for a two month hiatus, and needing some money I had gone back to work for them.

During the time that I worked there, I had a feeling all along that the place would be robbed one night and I would be there.  The manager, Clayton, stressed that in the event of the robbery, give the robber the money.  Don't try to be a hero.  He also stressed that no more than $60 was to be kept in the till, with the rest being dropped in the safe.  The store had robbery insurance, but would only cover a loss of $60.  Anything after that came out of Jack's profits.  While on a trip to Nebraska that summer, the place was robbed, but I still had this feeling that it would happen again, and that I would be there.

About two or three days after I resumed working there, it happened.

Here's how it went down.

Jack was open 24/7 in those days, but the dining room would be closed at 11:00 PMish.  The drive-thru was open.  That night I had the 8:00 PM to 4:00 AM shift, and was working "backup", meaning that I was bagging the orders and handing them over to the cashier who would then hand them out to the car.  It was fast paced, not the best of work, but when you're a college kid you like having whatever money you can get your hands on.

Shortly after midnight, a black man showed up at the front door.  He was wearing a well-used denim jacket and denim jeans.  Underneath the denim jacket was a white T-shirt.  He was about my height, and 30ish.  Milton, the first assistant manager, was on duty that night, and he went to greet this guy at the door.  We thought he was a friend of Milton's as that Milton is black, and Milton had opened the door to talk to him.  They were chatting for about five minutes or so and the rest of us weren't paying very much notice.  I was bagging orders, Elizabeth was handing them out, and we had others who were making the hamburgers, tacos and french fries.

After about five minutes, Milton and his "friend" slowly walked up to the counter, still in conversation.  OK, Milton is letting his friend in as a special favor, and the two of them are going to have a nice visit in the now-closed dining room over a late supper.  You get to do things like that if you have a manager friend at Jack-in-the-Box; it wasn't unprecedented.  A few times Hal would come visit me, sometimes still in his McDonald's uniform, where he worked.

It was when Milton and his "friend" were at the counter where things changed.  Milton said to the cashier, "Elizabeth, can you reach down and hand a 'six' bag over to us?"  I thought "what the, oh crap, the place is being robbed!"  Elizabeth didn't either hear or get what was about to go down, so I reached down, got the six bag, and handed it over to Milton.

Then Milton said "now everybody, be cool.  Be real cool.  Elizabeth, reach into the till, and hand over the money".  The robber at that point was displaying his gun to let us know that we were being knocked over, and he stated that he also wanted the rolled coin.  Milton also asked him if he wanted the loose coins, and the robber said, "no, I don't want no change!".  The robber then noticed that there was another register there for dining room service, and upon demanding that we open it for his inspection he was frustrated that there wasn't so much as a cash drawer.  It had long been taken upstairs where another assistant manager was there, taking care of some paperwork.

At that point, the crew in the back noticed that we were all standing still at the front.  One of them went upstairs to notify Mike T, the swing manager, that a robbery was taking place.  Mike got on the phone to summon help.  A couple of others snuck out the back door.  The robber saw that, didn't like it, and wanted them back.  Milton yelled for them to come back, but they didn't.....and for good reason I might add.   It was at that point that the longest minutes of my life started.

What had then developed was a hostage situation.  The robber had the gun out.  It was a small .25 caliber semiauto; I'd guess a Jennings/Bryco.  He had a bag with $92 of currency and several rolls of coin.  He had five or six of us there, and he was not happy.  What he was lacking was a getaway car.  He wanted someone to hand over the keys so that he could drive away.

At that point the thought of handing him the car keys very quickly crossed my mind but as instantly as that thought arrived I dismissed it.  What was to stop him from killing me once he got the keys?  What was to stop him from taking me along for the ride?  At this point he's committing a felony.  What was to stop him from committing another?

He repeated his demand that someone turn a car over to him.  No one budged.  He became more frustrated. And me, I'm praying fervently.  I wasn't ready to meet my Maker that night.  I was begging God to get me out of this somehow.  The minutes seemed to drag on.  How long was this going to go on?  Why won't he leave? Where are the cops?  And while this was going on, I was studying the robber's face in minute detail.  I was memorizing that scar on his nose.  I was getting as good of a look as I could at him.  It was occurring to me that I might be having the opportunity to identify this guy in a courtroom, and I was going to make sure that I was making sure.  I was engraving his image into my mind, for storage and later retrieval.

The next few minutes seemed to really take a long time to pass.  The robber stated that if someone didn't give him a car, that he would shoot the manager.  Then he would shoot the men, and then shoot the ladies.  He said "Usually it's the ladies first.  This time it's going to be the men first!"  He then interrogated us, one by one.

Everyone in there got the gun pointed at them.  The robber went from his left to his right, asking us each time, how we got to work.  I was the third person asked.  I said that I walked to work.  I had that gun pointed at me, and I'm lying about how I got to work that night.  I did have some incriminating evidence in my pocket, which were the keys to the family station wagon, on its own Chevrolet key fob.....though that wouldn't have done the robber any good as that I drove the Volkswagen into work that night instead.

The interrogation continued.  I heard a variety of excuses.  "My mom drove me in".  "I rode my bicycle".  "My friend dropped me off".  And I'm thinking, how much longer is this going to go on?  Where are the cops?  Lord God, will you please get me out of this mess?  I'll repent!  Please get me out of this!.

Still without a car, the robber got frustrated.  He said "now I happen to know that not everyone of you here got here by using the bus!"  He was going to continue the interrogation.  

It was at that moment that I saw a motion outside, from the drive-thru, to my right.  I turned my head to look at whatever it was that was going on there.  I saw a San Jose police officer with his .357 magnum service revolver out.  He was pointing it at the robber's head from outside, and I'd say he had about four feet to his target.

My looking over there caused the others to look.  All of a sudden, everyone wanted to know what I had seen.  At this moment, the robber was distracted.  Milton grabbed his gun arm and brought it forward.  The rest of ran.  I ran towards the back, halfway expecting the gun to fire and the bullet landing in to my back.  Mike C and I ran upstairs, to the roof....yeah, that was a dumb thing to do, but that was where we went.  I mentioned to Mike that I had turned twenty years old not even a week earlier, and that I was too young to die.  He said he was 18 I think, and was in agreement.  We then looked over the roof edge.

Down in the parking lot, there were at least four, maybe six, cruisers belonging to the San Jose Police Department.  They had silently approached, but the lights were turned on.  We saw several officers down there.  We shouted down, wanting to know if it was safe to come down.  It was, so we came down.

I ended up giving one of the officers a statement about what happened.  I got a chance to talk to the cop who had his revolver out.  He told me he was going to kill the robber.....it was a life threatening situation and the policy was to take the bad guy out.  He held fire when he observed the motion that I had kicked off by simply turning my head.  I didn't know it at the time, but I had unwittingly saved the robber's life by doing that.

After talking to the police, one of them remarked that "you've now got an interesting story to tell your friends!"  I was all smiles.  The officer also told me that these kinds of crimes tend to spike during the holidays.  I didn't see the robber or anything; I presumed that he was handcuffed and going on a ride downtown to be in the company of other felons.

I had quite the story for my parents and my friends the next day.  Three weeks later, I found another job.  I had had enough of Jack-in-the-Box and fast food.  I was hired by Pay Less Super Drug Stores, down the road at Almaden and Blossom Hill.  I didn't think much about the robbery after that, except to ask my former co-workers at Jack-in-the-Box what had happened.

The case was plea-bargained down to attempted armed robbery.  There were no action on other charges that could have been filed, such as carrying a concealed weapon without a permit or possessing a loaded firearm within the limits of an incorporated city, which California outlawed in 1923.  In the years I lived in that state, I never heard of a criminal being charged with carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, but the authorities did diligently prosecute a nurse for that offense since some of her co-workers were being raped in the parking lot of the hospital in San Francisco where she worked at, and the serial rapist was still at large.

I have no idea what happened to the robber.  I have once in a great while thought about contacting the San Jose Police to see if I can still get a copy of their report after all these years, but I've never followed up on that.  If I were to get that report, I might google the robber to see if he ever made it to San Quentin.

One of the girls there, Patricia, did have nightmares about the robbery for six months afterward.  She was an emotional person but yet remained calm during the duration.  Me, I was also focused on being calm in the midst of all my thoughts and prayers.  I knew that I wasn't going to do anything stupid, but I also remember being very concerned about one of my co-workers doing something stupid and that I had no control over that.

After the cops had left, Mike, the shift manager, remarked that what had happened to us should happen to everybody, just to give them a lesson about how fragile life is.

My thoughts at that time were mixed.  It had been a harrowing experience, and here's this guy flippantly remarking about how this ought to happen to everybody just to teach them a lesson.

I didn't know whether to shake his hand or to punch him the mouth.

The Untimely End of Henry T. Dennison

Yesterday morning we had an unusual end to a usual crime here in Tucson. Sometime around 7:30 AM, a pickup truck pulled into the Circle K at 22nd & Prudence, and one man and two women got out. The driver remained behind, presumably to keep the motor running while the three went in.

Those three quickly emerged with four cases of Bud Light. It was a beer theft. My cousin Todd and I witnessed one once at a convenience store.....the driver parks where the clerk can't see the car (and license plate) and the next thing you know someone is wildly running out with a 12 pack. We saw some young punk make off with a 12 pack, whereupon the car quickly sped away once the goods (and thief) were in the car.

Anyway, yesterday morning's was a little more brazen. Three thieves walked in, and between the three of them there were four cases of Bud Light. Why they went for Bud Light instead of Moosehead is one of the several parameters of this incident that doesn't make sense, but that's of little consequence to the big picture. A brazen act of petty theft was committed, and these three quickly deposited their stolen goods into the bed of the pickup, after which they joined the driver. The driver then took off heading west on 22nd Street.

At that point, it is believed that a witness gave chase to this truck. We do know that the truck with its payload of both booty and thieves were in flight, and heading for the intersection of 22nd & Kolb, which is an intersection that's among the top ten when it comes to accidents.

The truck turned north on Kolb. Shortly after this turn, the driver hit another vehicle, and continued northbound. I am going to presume that this truck was traveling at a high rate of speed, as it approached the turnoff to Langley, which would have been in the left lane. The truck made the turn at Langley, and it can only be presumed that the driver of the truck was suffering from some sort of adrenaline rush, like the kind I got as a teenager when I was running from a car that my friends and I had pelted with snowballs, where I vaulted a fence to evade capture (this was back in 1975, when we were living in Manassas, Virginia). I'm sure though that the driver was having a bigger one than I had had. He was a major participant in a beer theft, and it was time to get the royal hell out of there so that they could then go off somewhere and laugh about what they pulled off while getting drunk in the process.

After the truck entered Langley, the driver lost control. What happened then, in a quick succession of milliseconds, was that the truck overturned, ejecting the contents of the truck bed and the driver. The cargo itself separated into several dozen individual bottles of Bud Light which ended up being strewn over a good section of Kolb Road. The truck came to rest in a ditch, pinning the driver. His three passengers quickly got out and fled on foot. The rollover was reported at 7:37 AM, and in short order the Tucson Police Department secured the scene. The Pima County Sheriff's Posse came out to assist in the search of the suspects, bringing bloodhounds. At least one of the passengers was injured as that blood belonging to one of them was observed.

The driver ended up dying at the scene. The passengers ended up at large. Kolb Road was closed to traffic for several hours between 22nd and Broadway. In the afternoon, the passengers were still at large, and the Tucson Police identified the fatality as 37 year old Henry T. Dennison.

Being the somewhat curious person that I am, I found myself doing some research on this Henry T. Dennison. Online court records showed that he had several traffic offenses, including running a red light and a DUI. He also was criminally charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. Last month, on the 9th of May to be exact, a criminal complaint of shoplifting was filed against him, with a pending court action on this. For reasons known only to Henry T. Dennison and his "friends" who quickly abandoned him, he wasn't ready to quit shoplifting, only this time he wasn't going to do the actual dirty work of it himself.

What I read in the court records didn't surprise me, but it still made little sense. Like those gangbangers in last month's robbery of the auto stereo installer, he had a criminal record, and like that 18 year old gangbanger who was killed in the course of the robbery, Henry T. Dennison met his end in the commission of crime. Even though I found myself wondering why he didn't learn from last month's shoplifting bust, I decided to do a little more research on Henry T. Dennison.

Henry T. Dennison showed up in the records of the Arizona Corporation Commission. He was listed as a Director of Henden Corporation, a firm here in Tucson that excavates sites for construction purposes. He lived in an upscale neighborhood, and although he wasn't listed as the President of Henden (someone else has that title) I think it's possible that he was a principal owner. The latest filing with the Commission showed that this corporation employed fewer than 25, and that annual sales were between $750,000 and $1.2 million.

After collecting all of this and digesting this, I'm left with the following questions.

Why did he feel the need to steal four cases of Bud Light? Surely as a major player in a local business he could have well afforded to pay for this, but he must have figured that he could get it out of that Circle K without having to pay for it. And he was right. He got out of there and had the same amount of money on him (and in his checking account, if he would have used debit otherwise) that he did when he pulled into the parking lot. He knew that he was going to have to make a quick getaway. For all we know, he may have engineered beer thefts before.

The next question is, what of his three fair weather friends? At least one of them was injured to the point of bleeding. They may have suffered broken bones. Whatever their condition, they were all well enough to flee on foot. They have undoubtedly read about themselves in the local paper and/or seen the reports about what they did on the news. Are these three hiding out together, or separately? Did they feel the need for some more beer now that their stash was destroyed? Did they actually pay for some beer later on that afternoon? Do they plan on attending the funeral of Henry T. Dennison?

Either way you slice this, this is a strange story. The more research I did into this, the more bizarre it became.

One criminal career came to an abrubt end yesterday morning.

What remains to be seen is if three other criminal careers will continue.

LINK

VIDEO REPORT

AND ONE MORE LINK

A Robbery Gone Wrong....or....Another Unforgettable Scanner Story

Yesterday evening it was necessary to run some errands. I don't really like running them, but it seems as if every day one is confronted with the need to do "maintenance" in one own's life, and in my case that meant running to the supermarket to stock up on provisions that meet an anticipated need for the coming weekend.

When I got home, I went upstairs to my computer office, turned on the computer, and then my scanner. Yep, that's the "police" scanner that I've mentioned before......it can get me radio traffic originating from police, fire, paramedics, airports, aircraft, railroads, businesses, and even satellites if I can know when one is passing over and which frequency it's beeping on.

When I turned it on, I was hearing radio traffic direct some paramedic units to take care of some shooting victims. One of the police frequencies was also active, as that there had just been a multiple shooting near the intersection of Stone and Fort Lowell, and they needed some units to close off the area until the bad guys were caught. They were looking for two of them, and for the next thirty minutes or so there was plenty of radio traffic as they were securing the scene and the paramedics were administering emergency medical aid.

It is here where I'm going to digress and tell you what a scanner can tell you and what it can't tell you.

One, you have a front row seat, so to speak, as you're listening to radio traffic in realtime. If you understand the police codes, you can instantly know what kind of criminal activity is happening.

Two, what you're hearing is not Adam 12, Dragnet, or Hawaii Five-O. It is not fiction. It is "fact", inasmuch as what is being reported on the radio is only the best information available at the time, and may or may not be entirely accurate (most of the time it is, but suspect information is only as reliable as the witness who gave it).

Three, the scanner does *not* tell you some certain things. I knew that there were shooting "victims". The paramedics call them "victims" as that they are people in immediate need of medical treatment, and in that sense the term "victim" does not describe the recipient of criminal activity. The radio traffic, the raw data that is, told a story that kept me in my chair for a good hour or so, but sometimes when the data is re-examined a better understanding of the facts can emerge.

So what really happened?

Four gang members took it upon themselves to rob a business that specializes in stereo installation for automobiles. I don't know why this particular business was targeted, but it was. Four young hoodlums for some reason were suffering from some sort of profit motive. Maybe they had intelligence that there was cash on the premises. In a strictly general sense, and I'm not trying to be racist here, some ethnic groups prefer the use of cash as opposed to credit cards or checks. Given the location of the business, it's not out of the question that there may have been cash on the premises if their clientele in a strictly general sense, uses cash. There may, or may not have been, a few thousand dollars in hundred dollar bills that the criminals were after. And, the criminals may also have been after some merchandise. We don't know.

Anyway, in the course of the robbery, the business owner was shot. The robbers then confronted an employee who was there, and the business owner then picked up a shotgun and shot one of the robbers. The employee then took advantage of that distraction to get a handgun, whereupon a shootout ensued. When it was over, one robber was dead, another was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, another was taken to the hospital for non life-threatening injuries, and the fourth robber was taken to jail. The business owner appears to have only suffered a flesh wound and is alive and well.

I have since checked online court records for further information.

All four of the robbers had criminal records. The one who was killed was 18 years old. Two of the surviving robbers are brothers, and one has already been charged with first degree murder, and the others I'm sure, will also be charged once they are released from the hospital.

Why the murder charge?

Under Arizona law, if a person dies during the commission of a felony, the person or persons committing the felony can and will be charged with capital murder in the first degree. There is potential here for a death sentence, and in this kind of circumstance if the victim of the felony fires a weapon in self defense and kills one of the criminals, it will be the criminal's accomplices who end up getting charged. My understanding is that this is also the case in California. As for the Arizona law, I ended up learning that when I was being questioned for prospective juror service in an instance where an accomplice was killed and the mastermind was charged with murder.

Is that fair?

Well, look at this way. If a robber enters a business waving a gun, I think it's reasonable to assume that the robber is prepared to use that gun if things aren't going to go his way. If you have doubts on that, then feel free to contact that business owner who was shot last night. And I can empathize with that business owner, as that I too was staring at the business end of a handgun when the Jack-in-the-Box I worked at was being robbed. I really thought for a few moments that I was going to die.

Now was it right for the business owner to pick up his shotgun? Was it right for the employee to get his handgun and return fire?

There are no doubt people out there who would rather grieve for the 18 year old who was killed last night in the practice of criminal enterprise. They probably think that the owner and employee lowered themselves by taking this kind of action. Perhaps they think the "system" somehow failed that 18 year old and his accomplices, and that they view the owner and employee as being the "real" criminals. Maybe in some twisted way, the robbers were trying to correct a societal wrong, as that it somehow wasn't right for that business owner to possess more money than the robbers.

I think that's easy for someone to take that kind of viewpoint, especially if that someone has never had the experience of having a loaded gun pointed at them in the commission of a felony.

I know exactly what that's like. I've been in that spot before. And I never again want to be in that spot.

As for that business owner and his employee, their lives will never be the same. They may face retaliatory attacks from other gang members, or they may not. But they were in a position where deadly force was used against them, and they had to return deadly force to escape with their lives. That could not have felt "good" for them. It could not have.

It is unfortunate that there are bad people out there.

It is even more unfortunate when the bad guys force you into a drastic action.

* * * * * * *

References:

LINK ONE

LINK TWO