Las Vegas Sins and Scams – Appendix to Book 1 - Good Guys, Scammers, and Scams (Up to 1999)

Paul W. Winquist

Published by Paul W. Winquist at Smashwords

pwinquist.com

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ISBN

eBooks Version 1.2

Introduction

Compiled to go with the Las Vegas Sins and Scams books this is a non-copyrighted free e-book

These characters were an inspiration for my writing.

The black type is mostly from Wikipedia. The green type is myself, including the comments in the headings.

Many corrections were made to the grammar, and it still remains gross.

Fremont Street 1952

Wikipedia

Table of Contents

Introduction

Benny Binion - Cowboy, Gangster, Ca$ino Owner

Jack Binion - - Ca$ino Operator

Ted Binion - - Ca$ino Operator

Herbert Blitzstein - Gangster

Joseph Aiuppa - Gangster

Anthony Spilotro - Gangster

Sam DeStefano - - Chicago Mobster and sociopathic killer

Lefty Rosenthal - Casino Operator and Mobster

Moe Dalitz - Ca$ino Operator

Meyer Lansky - Casino Operator / Gangster

Frank Sinatra - Singer

Sam Giancana - Sicilian-American Mobster

Tony Accardo - Boss of the Chicago Outfit

Jimmy Fratianno - Gangster

Sheldon Adelson - CasinosMagnate

Bob Stupak - Casino Owner and Gambler

Bob Cohen - A Nice Guy

Oscar Goodman - Lawyer and Mayor of Las Vegas

Doug Da Silva - Super Real Estate Manipulator

Ed Torres - Casino Owner

Jackie Gaughan - Casino Owner

Ann Myers - Slumlord Hotel/Ca$ino Owner

Fulgencio BATISTA - Former Dictator of Cuba

Havana Conference

Ernest Hemingway - Writer (A Good Guy)

Fidel Castro - Communist Revolutionary and Former Dictator of Cuba

Che Guevara - Marxist Revolutionary

Michael Milken - Junkbond Scammer

Day traders

Direct access trading - - Flash Trading

Racket (crime), Racketeering

Jake Bernstein - Bullshit Artist

Dot-Com Company - - Acquisitions

United States v. Thomas

Hank Greenspun – Media Supporter of Gambling in Nevada

George Soros -- Number One Greedy Money Trader

Carlos Slim - World’s Most Greedy Price Gouger

Bill Gates - Software Monopolist - Price Gouger

Paul Allen - A good Guy

Steve Jobs - iCon-Man

Warren Buffett

Oral Roberts - Faith Healer = Religion Scammer

Tammy Faye (Bakker) Messner - Religion Scammer

Jerry Falwell - Religion Scammer

Pat Robertson - Religion Scammer and Right Wing Screwball

Crystal Cathedral - Robert H. Schuller – Religon Scammer

Charles Manson - Screwball

Jimmy Swaggart - Religion Scammer

Bernard (Bernie) Madoff - Biggest Scammer Ever

Catholic Church - Biggest Scam on the Face of the Earth

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints - Religion/Scammer/Huge Company

Dick Cheney - Politician and Warmonger

Adolf Hitler - Super Psychopathic Killer

Heinrich Himmler - Super Psychopathic Killer

Ed Gein - Psychopath and Body Snatcher

Peter Woodcock - Serial Killer and Child Rapist

Steve Wright - Serial Killer

Vincent Johnson - The Brooklyn Strangler

Aileen Wuornos - Man Killer

Timothy Krajcir - Serial Killer

Peter Kürten - The Vampire of Düsseldorf

Guillotines

Luis Garavito - The World's Worst Serial Killer

Gerald and Charlene Gallego - Kept Sex Slaves, Then Killed Them

Gary Ridgway - Green River Killer - Murdered At Least 71 Women - Necrophile

Ted Bundy - Sadistic Sociopath, Necrophile, Rapist, Kidnapper, and Serial Killer

Electric Chair

Walmart - Sam Walton - Super Greedy Businessman

Pol Pot - The Khmer Rouge Regime - The Killing Fields

Manuel Noriega - Panamanian Politician and Drug Trafficker

Pablo Escobar - Big Time Gangbanger

Medellin Cartel - Drug Movers - Gangbangers

Cali Cartel - Drug Movers and Gangbangers

MDMA "Ecstasy" ("E", "X", or "M") - A GOOD Drug

Cocaine - A Drug

Marijuana - Cannabis (Herb)

Heroin - A Narcotic Drug

Harm Caused by Drugs

Frank Lloyd Wright - An Inspiration For My Books

Mark Twain aka Samuel Langhorne Clemens – an Inspiration for My Books

Joseph Stalin - Ruler of USSR - Mass Killer

Dr. Albert Einstein – Physicist – An Inspiration for My Books

Benny Binion - Cowboy, Gangster, Ca$ino Owner

Benny Binion at the 1979 World Series of Poker

Wikipedia

Lester Ben "Benny" Binion (November 20, 1904 - - December 25, 1989) was a well-known American casino owner, mobster, poker enthusiast, and convicted felon.

Binion was born and raised in Grayson County, Texas, north of Dallas. His parents initially kept him out of school due to precarious health. His father, a horse trader, let him accompany him on trips. While the outdoor life restored his health, Benny Binion never had any formal education.

Binion's FBI file reveals a criminal history dating back to 1924, listing offenses such as theft, carrying concealed weapons, and two murder convictions. Binion moved to El Paso when he was 17; there, he began moonshining, for which he was twice convicted. In 1928, in fear of legal consequences, he gave up moonshining and opened a number of operations. While he was in El Paso, he also learned to gamble, a favorite pastime of the traders waiting on the campgrounds.

In 1931, Binion was convicted of murdering an African American rum-runner, Frank Bolding, "cowboy style." This was the origin of Binion's "Cowboy" nickname. Binion received a two-year suspended sentence. Binion would later kill Ben Frieden, a numbers operator in competition with Binion. By 1936, Binion had gained control of gambling operations in Dallas, with protection from a powerful local politician.

On September 12, 1936, Binion and a henchman reportedly stalked Frieden and emptied their .45’s into the unarmed man. Binion then shot himself in the shoulder and turned himself in to police, claiming that Frieden had shot him first. Binion was indicted, but the indictments were later dismissed on the grounds that Binion had acted in self-defense. In 1938, Binion and his henchmen allegedly killed Sam Murray, another of his competitors in the gambling rackets. Binion was never indicted for this murder, and charges were dropped against his henchmen.

By the early 1940s, Binion had become the reigning mob boss of Dallas. He then sought to take over the gambling rackets in Fort Worth. The local mob boss of that city, Lewis Tindell, was murdered shortly afterwards.

The Chicago Outfit made a successful move into Dallas after World War II. Binion lost his fix with the local government after the 1946 elections, and fled to Las Vegas.

While in Dallas, Binion had begun a long-running feud with Herb Noble, a small-time gambler in Dallas, which continued after Binion moved to Las Vegas. Binion demanded that Noble increase his payoff to Binion from 25 to 40 percent, which Noble refused to do. Binion posted a reward on Noble's scalp that eventually reached $25,000 and control of a Dallas crap game. Many tried to kill Noble, but he escaped or survived numerous attempts on his life, although sometimes with gunshot wounds. Eventually Noble's wife was killed in a car bombing intended for him. In retaliation, Noble planned to fly his private plane to Las Vegas to bomb Binion's house, but was restrained by local law enforcement before he could execute his plan. Eventually, a car bomber succeeded in assassinating Noble.

Because of the nationwide publicity over the Binion/Noble feud, Binion was unpopular with national Mafia bosses, who felt that he was drawing unwanted attention to their operations in Las Vegas and Dallas. After one of Binion's bodyguards committed a murder in the men's room of Binion's Westerner Club in Las Vegas, the mobsters helped the federal government put Binion away. Binion lost his gambling license in 1951, and was sentenced to a five-year term in 1953 at Leavenworth federal penitentiary for tax evasion.

In Las Vegas, Binion became a partner of the Las Vegas Club casino, but left after a year because of disagreements about limits on bets. In 1951, Benny purchased the building which had previously housed the Las Vegas Club, and opened it as the Westerner Gambling House and Saloon.

In 1951, he purchased the Eldorado Club and the Apache Hotel, opening them as Binion's Horseshoe Casino, which immediately became popular because of the high limits on bets. He initially set a craps table limit of $500, ten times higher than the limit at his competitors of the time. Because of the competition, Binion sometimes received death threats, although eventually casinos raised their limits to keep up with him. Additionally, the Horseshoe would honor a bet of any size as long as it was the first one made.

Binion was in the vanguard of Las Vegas casino innovation, being the first in the downtown Glitter Gulch to replace sawdust-covered floors with carpeting, dispatch limousines to transport customers to and from the casino, and offer free drinks to players. Although comps were normal for high rollers, Binion opened the door for all players. He also shied away from the gaudy performing acts typical of other Las Vegas casinos.

Binion, in a Nevada oral history said he followed a simple philosophy when serving his customers: "Good food, good whiskey, good gamble.” He was more generous to gamblers than any other casino owner in Las Vegas was. Although the Horseshoe was privately owned, it was reportedly the most profitable casino in town.

One of the tourist attractions in Binion's was a large horseshoe with $1 million in $10,000 bills, embedded in plastic.

Binion was forced to sell his share of the casino to pay approximately $5 million in legal costs, resulting from his trial and conviction. His family regained controlling interest in the Horseshoe in 1957, but did not regain full control until 1964. Benny was never allowed to hold a gambling license afterwards, although he remained on the payroll as a consultant.

Binion styled himself a cowboy throughout his life. He almost never wore a necktie, and used gold coins for his cowboy shirts. Despite being technically barred from owning guns, he carried at least one pistol all his life, and kept a sawed-off shotgun close by. His office was a booth in the downstairs restaurant, and he knew most of his customers by name.

Jack and Ted took over as president and casino manager, respectively, in 1964. Benny's wife, Teddy Jane, managed the casino cage until her death in 1994. In 1998, Binion's daughter, Becky, took over the presidency after a legal battle, and Jack moved on to other gambling interests. Becky's presidency saw the casino sink into debt. In 2004, federal agents seized $1 million from the Horseshoe's bankroll to satisfy unpaid union benefits, forcing its closure and eventual sale to Harrah's Entertainment. It now operates as Binion's Gambling Hall and Hotel under the ownership of TLC Gaming Group.

(Becky Binyon-Behnen -was my next door neighbor in Las Vegas. They and the neighbor on the other side, purchased my house, (that had a club shaped swimming pool was in Architectural Digest magazine,) to tear it down to expand their lots. (1910 Silver Ave. Las Vegas NV) PWW)

Photo by Paul Winquist

Moving In Day

Photo by Paul Winquist

House is gone!

Photo by Paul Winquist

Jack Binion - - Ca$ino Operator

Jack Binion Date 24 May 2007

Wikipedia

Jack Binion (born 1937) is an American Ca$ino operator. Jack is the son of casino magnate Benny Binion and worked for his father at Binion's Horseshoe, a casino and hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Jack became president of the Horseshoe in 1963 at the age of 26.

Jack's fame grew following his 1970 hosting of the first World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe, which became the largest set of poker tournaments in the world. Privately held, Binion's Horseshoe became renowned as one of Nevada's most successful casino operations.

In 1998, following a protracted legal battle for control of the Horseshoe among Benny Binion's heirs, Jack sold his interest in Binion's Horseshoe to his sister, Becky Behnen, while retaining a token 1% interest in the operation, so that he could lawfully retain his Nevada Gaming License. He also acquired the rights to the Horseshoe brand outside of Nevada.

Jack went on to form Horseshoe Gaming Holding Corporation that developed and operated several riverboat casinos under the Horseshoe name. Jack continued to promote the casinos for Harrah's Entertainment following his sale of the company in 2004 to Harrah's. As of 2008, Binion's name appears on the "Jack Binion's Steakhouse" at Horseshoe Tunica and Horseshoe Hammond and several of the Horseshoe-branded casinos still carry slot machines bearing Binion's likeness called "Who Wants To Be A Binionaire?" that originated before the Harrah's acquisition.

While running Horseshoe Gaming, Jack started the World Poker Open, which has become one of the major feeder tournaments for the World Series of Poker.

Jack was inducted into the American Gaming Association's Gaming Hall of Fame on June 11, 2004. The following year on July 6, 2005 the World Series of Poker, inducted him into the Poker Hall of Fame.

In July 2006, Jack became chairman of Wynn International. His responsibilities included opening the Wynn Macau. He has since resigned the position but has remained with Wynn Resorts in a consulting role.

Ted Binion - - Ca$ino Operator

Ted Binion booking photos from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police

Qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law.

Lonnie Theodore ‘‘Ted’’ Binion (November 28, 1943 to September 17, 1998) was a wealthy U.S. gambling executive and one of the sons of famed Las Vegas casino magnate Lester Ben ‘‘Benny’’ Binion, owner of Binion's Horseshoe. His death has been a subject of controversy; girlfriend Sandra Murphy and her lover Rick Tabish were initially charged and convicted in Binion's death, but were later granted a new trial and acquitted on the murder charges.

Ted Binion was born in Dallas in 1943. He had an older brother, Jack, and three sisters: Becky, Brenda, and Barbara. Binion moved to Las Vegas with his father in 1947. He was involved early on in his father's casino, the Horseshoe.

While growing up, Ted spent summers at the family's Montana retreat, a cattle ranch in Jordan Montana, to work with the ranch hands. Later, in the 1970s, Benny sent his three grandsons, his daughter Barbara’s sons, to Montana to run the ranch. By the 1980s, Benny had amassed an 85,000 acres (340 km2) ranch, according to the county recorder’s office. The last parcel he purchased was in 1985. The family sold all the parcels in April 1998 to John Hillenbrand.

In 1964, Benny Binion regained full control of the Horseshoe after previously selling his interest to cover his legal costs defending himself from tax evasion and other charges. Since he was a convicted criminal, Benny was no longer allowed to hold a gaming license. His sons Jack and Ted took over the day-to-day operation of the casino. Jack filled the role of president, while Ted became the casino manager.

Ted was under nearly constant scrutiny from the Nevada Gaming Commission from 1986 onwards for his involvement in drugs and associating with known mob figures. His gaming license was revoked in 1998, and he died in mysterious circumstances a few months later. Ted Binion was found dead on a small mattress on the floor of his Las Vegas estate home, 2408 Palomino Lane near Rancho Drive and Charleston Boulevard, on September 17, 1998. Empty pill bottles were found near the body, and an autopsy and toxicology report revealed that he died of a lethal dosage combination of the prescription sedative Xanax and heroin, with traces of Valium. The day before, Binion had himself purchased 12 pieces of tar heroin from a street drug dealer, and had earlier gotten a prescription from his next-door neighbor, a doctor, for Xanax, and evidence introduced at trial showed that Binion personally took the prescription to be filled at a local pharmacy.

Binion's death was initially treated as a probable suicide. His live-in girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, said that Binion had been suicidal ever since losing his gaming license a few months earlier. His sister Barbara, afflicted with the same kinds of drug problems as her brother, committed suicide in 1977, which also helped contribute to the perception that Ted could have been vulnerable to suicide as well. However, his sister Becky discounted any talk of suicide, saying that in her conversations with him that he didn't sound despondent.

Las Vegas homicide detectives suspected that the scene had been staged, as his body didn't show the typical signs of a drug overdose. Also, the stomach contained heroin and the police thought that neither an addict nor a suicide would take heroin in that manner. However, despite the urgings of Becky Behnen and Jack Binion, they refused to open a full-scale homicide investigation. Six months later, chief medical examiner Lary Simms ruled Binion had died of a heroin and Xanax overdose. After six months, however, the coroner's office reclassified Ted's death a homicide on May 5, 1999. Although there were no specifics, law enforcement sources cited evidence that the death scene had been staged, as well as witness statements implicating Murphy and Tabish. Detectives had suspected for some time that Murphy and Tabish had been romantically involved, and had learned that Binion suspected Murphy was cheating on him.

In June 1999, Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish were arrested for Binion's murder, as well as for conspiracy, robbery, grand larceny and burglary. The prosecution contended that Murphy and Tabish had conspired to kill Binion and steal his riches, drugging Binion into unconsciousness and burking him, a form of manual suffocation. The suffocation, in this theory, was done because the overdose was taking too long, and the pair feared discovery. They were each charged with murder and burglary charges connected to the removal of his fortune from the vault on the desert floor in Pahrump.

Courtroom artist, Paulette Frankl sketched this image of Judge Joseph Bonaventure during the Binion trial

Wikipedia

Herbert Blitzstein - Gangster

Herbert "Fat Herbie" Blitzstein (November 2, 1934 - January 6, 1997) was a loanshark, bookmaker, and top lieutenant to Tony "The Ant" Spilotro and the Chicago Outfit in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Born in Chicago, Herbie started working the rackets in the late 1950s. He was later convicted of racketeering. When he was released from prison, he moved to Las Vegas to serve as muscle for Spilotro. Tony Spilotro, John Spilotro and Herbie ran the Gold Rush Jewelry Store, a front for the Hole in the Wall Gang, so named because they punched holes through walls and ceilings to grab the loot and run. Blitzstein also worked as a fence for stolen goods at the combination jewelry store and electronics factory.

He was one of the few Hole in the Wall Gang members who was not arrested after the botched July 4 burglary at Bertha's Household Products in 1981. Blitzstein is described by FBI agent William Roemer in his book The Enforcer as one of the mobsters tested by the FBI in the early days of the Top Hoodlum Program. Herbert was a 183-cm, 135-kg (six-foot, three-hundred pound) man who drove a white 1973 Cadillac Eldorado and dressed impeccably.

In 1967, according to FBI affidavits, "Fat Herbie" ordered the murder of associate loan shark and bookmaker Arthur "Boodie" Cowan for holding back a street tax. Although Herbie did not participate in the July 4 robbery, he was indicted with Tony Spilotro on federal racketeering charges. The charges were later dropped for insufficient evidence.

In January 1997, Blitzstein was himself killed gangland style, three shots to the back of the head with a .22-caliber handgun, by Mob members from Buffalo and Los Angeles who planned to take over his street rackets, which included prostitution, insurance fraud and loansharking. Of the seven people arrested in the plot to kill Blitzstein, four pleaded guilty to lesser charges in order to receive reduced sentences. One died in prison awaiting trial, and two went to trial and were acquitted.

Joseph Aiuppa - Gangster

This is a mugshot of Joseph Aiuppa, former boss of the Chicago Outfit. Having been submitted as prosecution evidence in the 2007 Federal trial United States of America v. Frank Calabrese,

Wikipedia

Joseph John Aiuppa (pronounced, "I-U-PA") (December 1, 1907, February 22, 1997), also known as "Doves," "Mourning Doves," "O'Brien," or "Joey Doves," was a Chicago mobster who became a leader of the Chicago Outfit.

In June 1975, Aiuppa allegedly conspired with Johnny 'Johnny Handsome' Roselli to kill Giancana. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) suspected that the Outfit killed Giancana because he refused to share his offshore gambling profits from Mexico. Another murder theory states that Giancana's murder was connected to the U.S. Senate's investigation into the alleged CIA role in the conspiracy to assassinate Cuba leader Fidel Castro. Roselli himself was also killed soon afterward for apparently being too forthcoming in the Church Committee hearings, which were being held at this time.

Anthony Spilotro - Gangster

This is an FBI mugshot of Chicago Outfit mobster, Anthony Spilotro

FBI Photo

Anthony "The Ant" Spilotro (May 19, 1938 to June 14, 1986) was an Italian-American mobster and enforcer for the Chicago Outfit in Las Vegas during the 1970s and 1980s. His job was to protect and oversee the Outfit's illegal casino profits (the "skim"). Spilotro replaced Outfit member Marshall Caifano in Las Vegas.

Bookmaker Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal was first linked to Spilotro in 1962, when Spilotro pleaded guilty to attempted bribery of a New York University basketball player in a game against West Virginia University. The FBI and New York State authorities also suspected that Spilotro tried to bribe a University of Oregon football player, but were never able to find evidence to make a case in that instance.

Spilotro became a marked man to local law enforcement. He was arrested numerous times for mopery, a vague and a spurious criminal charge defined as "walking down the street with no clear destination or purpose". Spilotro befriended Vincent Inserro, who introduced him to Chicago Outfit higher ups, such as Joseph Aiuppa ("Joey Doves"), James Torello ("Jimmy the Turk"), Joseph Lombardo ("Joey the Clown") and William Daddano, Sr. ("Willie Potatoes"), all of whom were successfully climbing the ranks of the Chicago mob. Spilotro joined the crew led by Sam DeStefano ("Mad Sam") and was mentored by Felix Alderisio ("Milwaukee Phil") and Charles Nicoletti ("Chuckie"). Spilotro became a "made man" in 1963 after squeezing a man's head in an industrial vice to get a confession and was assigned to a large bookmaking operation. For a while, Spilotro was a bail bondsman for reputed mob associate Irwin "Red" Weiner.

In 1971, Spilotro succeeded Marshall Caifano as the Mob's representative in Las Vegas. Spilotro reunited with his boyhood friend Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, who ran several Outfit-backed casinos, including the Stardust. Spilotro's legal counsel in Vegas was provided by Oscar Goodman, Las Vegas' former mayor.

Spilotro and Rosenthal worked together to embezzle profits from the casinos (i.e., "the skim"), which were then sent back to The Outfit and other Midwestern Mafia families, such as Kansas City, St. Louis and Milwaukee. On his own, Spilotro (under the alias Tony Stuart) took over the gift shop at the Circus-Circus Hotel, a "family" hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. The hotel offered first-class entertainment for children, while their parents gambled in the casino. In 1971, the hotel was owned by Jay Sarno, who had purchased the property with a $43 million loan from The Teamsters Central States Pension Fund. In 1974, Circus-Circus was sold; for Spilotro's $70,000 investment, he received $700,000. In the early 1970s, Spilotro started a loan shark business with Los Angeles crime family capo, Frank "Bomp" Bompensiero, in Las Vegas. In 1972, Spilotro was indicted in Chicago for the murder of Leo Foreman, a real estate agent/loan shark, who had made the mistake of throwing Sam DeStefano out of his office, in May 1963. Foreman was eventually lured to Sam's home to play cards. There, Foreman was tortured by repeatedly being stabbed with an ice pick and had pieces of his flesh cut out, before being shot and killed.

In November 1975, Spilotro, with the help of Los Angeles crime family capo, Frank "Bomp" Bompensiero, murdered Tamara Rand, a millionaire real estate broker and investor from San Diego. At the time, Rand was suing Allen Glick, a mob front man in Las Vegas, to pay back a $2 million loan that she had made to him. Spilotro sneaked into Rand's house and fatally shot her.

In 1976, Spilotro opened "The Gold Rush, Ltd.,” with Chicago bookmaker Herbert "Fat Herbie" Blitzstein, and brother, Michael Spilotro. The Gold Rush, located one block from the Las Vegas Strip, was a combination jewelry store and electronics factory. Here Spilotro, brother Michael and Blitzstein gained expertise in fencing stolen goods.

Where Rosenthal was responsible for the actual management of the casinos, Spilotro's primary task was to control casino employees, and other personnel involved in the skim/embezzlement scheme. Spilotro's role as enforcer, however, was severely curtailed after he was blacklisted by the Nevada Gaming Commission, in December 1979 (then chaired by future United States Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid), a ruling that legally prevented Spilotro from being physically present in any Nevada casino. He was blacklisted as a direct result of court testimony of Aladena "Jimmy The Weasel" Fratianno, following his arrest, in 1977.

Sam DeStefano - - Chicago Mobster and sociopathic killer

This is a mugshot of prominent Chicago mobster, Sam DeStefano

Wikipedia

Sam "Mad Sam" DeStefano (September 13, 1909 to April 14, 1973) was an Italian-American gangster who became one of the Chicago Outfit's most notorious loan sharks and sociopathic killers. Chicago-based Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents such as William F. Roemer, Jr., considered DeStefano to be the worst torture-murderer in the history of the United States. The Outfit used the mentally unstable and sadistic DeStefano for the torture-murders of Leo Foreman, Arthur Adler, the murder of DeStefano's younger brother, Michael DeStefano, and Outfit enforcer and fellow loan shark William "Action" Jackson and many others. However, due to DeStefano's deranged mental state, The Outfit never let him become a “Made man”. At least one Outfit insider, Charles Crimaldi, claimed DeStefano was a Devil worshipper.

In 1955, underboss Giancana allegedly ordered DeStefano and his brother, Mario, to murder their younger brother Michael DeStefano, a mob wannabe and drug addict. On September 27, Michael's body was found in a car trunk in a West Side neighborhood; he had been shot to death. When police questioned DeStefano about the murder, he allegedly began laughing uncontrollably. The police later released DeStefano due to his political influence and a lack of evidence. Neither he nor Mario was charged with Michael's murder.

In 1961, the Outfit mistakenly suspected enforcer and loanshark William "Action" Jackson had become an FBI informant, after he met with the FBI in Milwaukee and someone spotted Jackson there. Jackson was then grabbed off the street and taken to a meat-rendering plant on Chicago's south side, where DeStefano and others brutalized Jackson with a cattle prod, while he was suspended on and tied onto a meat hook, where he died within three days after lapsing into unconsciousness. On August 11, his naked body was found stuffed in the trunk of his Cadillac. Jackson had never become an informant.

On April 14, 1973, DeStefano was to meet with his crew in the garage of his West Side, Austin neighborhood home, in the 1600 block of North Sayre Avenue. Before the meeting began, Spilotro allegedly entered the lot and shot DeStefano twice with a shotgun, hitting him in the chest and tearing his right arm off at the elbow, instantly killing him.

In another incident, Peter Cappelletti, a collector for DeStefano, fled Chicago with $25,000 from a loan shark victim. DeStefano's men located Cappelletti in Wisconsin and brought him back to Chicago. DeStefano chained Cappelletti to a radiator and tortured him for three days. While a banquet was going on, Cappelletti was secretly being tortured in the back of the restaurant. Finally, DeStefano's men dragged the severely burned Cappelletti into the dining area. DeStefano then forced the man's family to urinate on Cappelletti in unison. Following the banquet, the family quickly paid back the stolen money.

Lefty Rosenthal - Casino Operator and Mobster

Frank Lawrence "Lefty" Rosenthal (June 12, 1929 to October 13, 2008) was a professional sports bettor, former Las Vegas casino executive, and organized crime associate. The film Casino is loosely based on his life.

Rosenthal was born in Chicago, Illinois, growing up in the city's West Side. As a youth, Rosenthal learned sports betting in the bleachers of Wrigley Field, and would often skip classes to attend Chicago sporting events. By the mid 1950s, he was working with the Chicago Outfit. Chosen for his gambling ability, Rosenthal ran the biggest illegal bookmaking office in the US on behalf of the Mafia. Based in Cicero, Illinois under the guise of the Cicero Home Improvement company, the Outfit and Rosenthal bought "contracts" from sports bribers to fix sporting events. After being indicted as a co-conspirator on multiple sports bribery charges, Rosenthal moved the operation to North Bay Village in Miami to avoid attention.

By 1961 Rosenthal had acquired a national reputation as a sports bettor, oddsmaker, and handicapper and was frequently seen in the company of prominent Chicago Outfit members Jackie Cerone and Fiore Buccieri while living in Miami. At this time Rosenthal was issued with a subpoena to appear before Senator McClellan's subcommittee on Gambling and Organized Crime, accused of match fixing. He invoked the Fifth Amendment 37 times and was never charged. Due to this, he was barred from racing establishments in Florida. Despite his frequent arrests for illegal gambling and bookmaking, Rosenthal was convicted only once, pleading no contest in 1963, for allegedly bribing New York University player Ray Paprocky to shave points for a college basketball game in North Carolina. Once again, to escape police attention, Rosenthal moved to Las Vegas in 1968.

Las Vegas career:

A pioneer of sports gambling, Rosenthal secretly ran the Stardust, Fremont, Marina, and Hacienda casinos when they were controlled by the Chicago Outfit. He created the first sports book that operated from within a casino making the Stardust one of the world's leading centers for sports gambling. Another Rosenthal innovation was to allow female blackjack dealers, which in one year doubled the Stardust's income.

In 1976, when authorities discovered that Rosenthal was secretly running casinos without a Nevada gaming license, they held a hearing to determine his legal ability to obtain one. Rosenthal was quickly denied a license because of his unsavory reputation as an organized crime associate, particularly because of his boyhood friendship with Chicago hitman Anthony Spilotro.

Rosenthal married Geraldine McGee May 4, 1969, and while she had a daughter, Robin L. Marmor, prior to their marriage (fathered by Lenny Marmor), Frank and Geri had two children together, Steven and Stephanie. The marriage ultimately ended in divorce, with Rosenthal attributing the failure primarily to McGee's inability to escape her alcohol and drug addictions. After leaving Rosenthal and stealing a significant portion of his savings, Geri died at a motel in Los Angeles on November 9, 1982, at age 46, of an apparent drug overdose. Her death was ruled accidental, from a combination of Valium, cocaine, and alcohol.

Rosenthal survived an assassination attempt, in October 1982, after his car was rigged with explosives. He survived because his car was a 1981 Cadillac Eldorado which had a metal plate under the driver's seat (GM installed it to correct a balancing problem) which absorbed most of the force of the explosion. While nobody was ever charged, Milwaukee Mob Boss Frank Balistrieri was most likely responsible. Balistrieri, who was known as the "Mad Bomber" to law enforcement, was heard via wiretap blaming Rosenthal for the legal problems the mob-controlled casinos were having. Similarly, just weeks before the attempt, Balistrieri told his sons he intended to get "full satisfaction" from Rosenthal's perceived wrongdoing. Other less likely suspects include Spilotro, and outlaw bikers who were friends of Geri Rosenthal.

Rosenthal left Las Vegas months later. and retired to Laguna Niguel, California. He was officially forced out of Las Vegas in 1987, when he was placed in "The Black Book," making him persona non grata (unable to work, or even enter) all Nevada casinos because of his alleged ties to organized crime. After Laguna Niguel, Rosenthal then moved to Boca Raton, Florida, and finally Miami Beach, where he ran a sports betting website, and worked as a consultant for several offshore sports betting companies. He died on October 13, 2008 at the age of 79.

Moe Dalitz - Ca$ino Operator

Las Vegas Review-Journal

Morris Barney "Moe" Dalitz (December 25, 1899 to August 31, 1989) was a Jewish American bootlegger, racketeer, casino owner and philanthropist who was one of the major figures who helped shape Las Vegas, Nevada in the 20th century. He was often referred to as Mr. Las Vegas for his tireless work to mould Las Vegas into a modern city.

His investments in Las Vegas began in the late 1940s with the Desert Inn when the original builder of the resort, Wilbur Clark, ran out of money, and Dalitz took over the construction. When it opened in 1950, Clark remained the public face and frontman of the resort, while Dalitz quietly remained in the background as the real owner. He also ran the Stardust Resort and Casino for a time after the death of Tony Cornero. Dalitz owned the Desert Inn until 1967, when he sold it to businessman Howard Hughes. Since he had been under constant pressure from law enforcement for many years, selling the resort was seen as an opportunity to get the authorities off his back. Dalitz had ties to both Jimmy Hoffa and Lew Wasserman of MCA, both of whom were subject to extensive criminal and anti-trust investigations in the 1960s. Hoffa had testified to his longtime relationship with Dalitz through union representation of his dry cleaners. Wasserman had first worked at a Cleveland club owned by Dalitz and his associates.

Moe Dalitz was also a longtime friend of Meyer Lansky, one of the main architects of modern organized crime. To the FBI, Dalitz played a vital role inside Lansky's powerful organization which many believed stretched as far as Israel. Aside from Dalitz, The Lansky Group, as they were called included several other big names. Among those were Sam Cohen, Vincent "Jimmy Blue Eyes" Alo, Harry "Nig Rosen" Stromberg, Doc Stacher, Eddie Levinson and actor, George Raft. In 1982, Dalitz received the "Torch of Liberty" award from the Anti-Defamation League.

In the 1970s, Dalitz filed a massive defamation suit against Penthouse magazine over an article written by Lowell Bergman about Rancho La Costa, a resort funded by the Teamsters.

Dalitz was an associate of Nevada Senator Paul Laxalt, and contributed tens of thousands of dollars to his campaigns.

The last casino that Dalitz owned was the Sundance Hotel Casino, later renamed the Fitzgerald, which currently (2011) belongs to Don Barden.

Dalitz built the Las Vegas Country Club, Sunrise Hospital, and many other important Las Vegas institutions. He was a frequent donor to the Las Vegas Public Library system along with other community organizations in Las Vegas.

He counted among his frequent visitors in his later years such well known personalities as Barbara Walters, Senator Harry Reid, Suzanne Somers, Wayne Newton, Buddy Hackett, and Frank Sinatra. Dalitz was proud of helping performers like Frank Sinatra get their first big breaks in show business.

Dalitz continued to be active in the Las Vegas community, but except for trips to visit friends in the Las Vegas area or occasional trips in his Rolls Royce to Mt Charleston, he stayed in his Regency Towers penthouse apartment. When he died in 1989 many organizations received substantial donations he left in his will.

Meyer Lansky - Casino Operator / Gangster

Meyer Lansky 1958

Wikipedia

Meyer Lansky, born Meyer Suchowljansky; July 4, 1902 - - January 15, 1983, known as the "Mob's Accountant", was a Russian-born American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the "National Crime Syndicate" in the United States. For decades, he was thought to be one of the most powerful people in the country.

Lansky developed a gambling empire, which stretched from Saratoga, New York to Miami to Council Bluffs and Las Vegas; it is also said that he oversaw gambling concessions in Cuba. Although a member of the Jewish Mafia, Lansky undoubtedly had strong influence with the Italian Mafia and played a large role in the consolidation of the criminal underworld (although the full extent of this role has been the subject of some debate)

Frank Sinatra - Singer

Wikipedia

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra (December 12, 1915 to May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. (“The Charmin of the Board”)

Sinatra garnered considerable attention due to his alleged personal and professional links with organized crime, including figures such as Carlo Gambino, Sam Giancana, Lucky Luciano, and Joseph Fischetti. The Federal Bureau of Investigation kept records amounting to 2,403 pages on Sinatra. With his alleged Mafia ties, his ardent New Deal politics and his friendship with John F. Kennedy, he was a natural target for J. Edgar Hoover's FBI. The FBI kept Sinatra under surveillance for almost five decades beginning in the 1940s. The documents include accounts of Sinatra as the target of death threats and extortion schemes they also portray rampant paranoia and strange obsessions at the FBI and reveal nearly every celebrated Sinatra foible and peccadillo.

For a year, Hoover investigated Sinatra's alleged Communist affiliations, but found no evidence. The files include his rendezvous with prostitutes, and his extramarital affair with Ava Gardner, which preceded their marriage. Celebrities mentioned in the files are Dean Martin, Marilyn Monroe, Peter Lawford, and Giancana's girlfriend, singer Phyllis McGuire.

The FBI's secret dossier on Sinatra was released in 1998 in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

Publicity Photos

The released FBI files reveal some tantalizing insights into Sinatra’s lifetime consistency in pursuing and embracing seemingly conflicting affiliations. But, Sinatra’s alliances had a practical aspect. They were adaptive mechanisms for behavior motivated by self-interest and inner anxieties. In September 1950, Sinatra felt particularly vulnerable. He was in a panic over his moribund career and haunted by the continual speculations and innuendos in circulation regarding his draft status in World War II. Sinatra “was scared, his career had sprung a leak.” In a letter dated September 17, 1950 to Clyde Tolson, Sinatra offered to be of service to the FBI as an informer. An excerpted passage from a memo in FBI files states that Sinatra “. . . feels he can be of help as a result of going anywhere the Bureau desires and contacting any people from whom he might be able to obtain information. Sinatra feels as a result of his publicity he can operate without suspicion…he is willing to go the whole way.” The FBI declined his assistance.

Photo hanging in a Restaurant - Photo of Photo by Paul Winquist

Sam Giancana - Sicilian-American Mobster

Salvatore Giancana (born Salvatore Giangana; June 15, 1908 to June 19, 1975), better known as Sam Giancana, was a Sicilian-American mobster and boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1957-1966. Among his other nicknames were, "Momo", "Mooney," "Sam the Cigar," and "Sammy."

Sam Giancana joined the Forty-Two Gang, a juvenile street crew answering to political boss Joseph Esposito. Giancana soon developed a reputation for being an excellent getaway driver, a high earner, and a vicious killer. After Esposito's murder, in which Giancana was allegedly involved, the 42 Gang transformed into a de facto extension of the Chicago Outfit. The Outfit was initially wary of the 42er’s at first, thinking them too wild. However, Giancana's leadership qualities, the fact that he was an excellent "wheel man" with a get-away car and his knack for making money on the street gained him the notice of Cosa Nostra higher-ups like Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti, Paul "The Waiter" Ricca and Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo. In the late 1930s, Giancana became the first 42er to join the Outfit. In 1942, Giancana also allegedly forced jazz musician Tommy Dorsey into letting singer Frank Sinatra out of his contract early, so that Sinatra could expand his career. This story was famously referenced in The Godfather. Giancana is also credited with the murder of Chicago "Policy King" Theodore Roe in 1952.

Tony Accardo - Boss of the Chicago Outfit

Antonino Joseph Accardo (born Antonino Leonardo Accardo; April 28, 1906 to May 22, 1992), also known as "Joe Batters" or "Big Tuna", rose from small-time hoodlum to the position of day-to-day boss of the Chicago Outfit in 1947, to ultimately become the final Outfit authority in 1972, until his death. Accardo moved The Outfit into new operations and territories, greatly increasing its power and wealth during his tenure as boss.

In 1978, while Accardo vacationed in California, burglars brazenly entered his River Forest home. Within a month, five of the suspected thieves were found strangled and with their throats cut. Prosecutors at the time believed Accardo, furious that his home had been violated, had ordered the killings.

In 2002, this theory was confirmed on the witness stand, by Outfit turncoat Nicholas Calabrese, who had participated in all of the subsequent murders. The surviving assassins were all convicted in the famous, "Family Secrets Trial," and sentenced to long prison terms.

In later years, Accardo spent much of his time in Palm Springs, California, flying to Chicago to preside over Outfit "sit-downs" and mediate disputes. By this time, Accardo's personal holdings included legal investments in commercial office buildings, retail centers, lumber farms, paper factories, hotels, car dealerships, trucking companies, newspaper companies, restaurants, and travel agencies.

Accardo spent his last years in Barrington Hills, Illinois living with his daughter and son-in-law. On May 22, 1992, Anthony Accardo died of congestive heart failure at age 86. He left behind heirs including younger second generation nephew Michael Anthony Accardo who presumably is the only relative left to carry on the family name.

Accardo was buried in Queen of Heaven Cemetery, in Hillside, Illinois. Despite an arrest record dating back to 1922, Accardo spent only one night in jail or avoided the inside of a cell entirely (depending on the source).

Jimmy Fratianno - Gangster

Jimmy Fratianno - Aladena "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno (November 14, 1913 - - June 30, 1993) was a Cleveland, Ohio, mobster and later acting head of the Los Angeles crime family before becoming a government witness. Fratianno was the most powerful mobster to become a federal witness until Sammy "the Bull" Gravano agreed to testify against the Gambino crime family in 1991. Fratianno attempted several times to build, own, or obtain a share in a Las Vegas casino, but failed each time.

Steve Winn - - Casino Owner +++

Stephen Alan "Steve" Wynn (born: Stephen Alan Weinberg) (born January 27, 1942) is an American business magnate who played a pivotal role in the 1990s resurgence and expansion of the Las Vegas Strip. His companies refurbished or built what are now widely recognized resorts in Las Vegas, including the Golden Nugget, the Mirage, Treasure Island, Bellagio, Wynn, and Encore.

As of 2011, Wynn is the 512th richest man in the world with a net worth of $2.3 billion (up from $1.5 billion). He made his debut in the Forbes 400 at #377 with a net worth of $650 million in September 2003, but was reported to be worth $1.1 billion only six months later in Forbes' list of world billionaires published in March 2004. Religion - Judaism

In April 2010, Wynn caused a stir when he chided the government on CNBC and said he was considering moving the company's global headquarters from Las Vegas to Macau. A few weeks later, amidst criticism from his rivals, he clarified that he meant a greater allocation of time spent in Macau, because of the substantially higher profits made there.

Early life, Frontier, and the Golden Nugget:

Wynn was born Stephen Alan Weinberg in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, Michael, changed the family's last name in 1946 from "Weinberg" to "Wynn" when Steve was six months old "to avoid anti-Jewish discrimination" according to several sources.

Wynn's father ran a string of bingo parlors in eastern United States. In 1963, his father died of complications from open heart surgery in Minneapolis, leaving $350,000 of gaming debts, shortly before Wynn graduated from Penn with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature.

Wynn took over running the family's bingo operation in Maryland. He did well enough at it to accumulate the money to buy a small stake in the Frontier Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where he and his wife Elaine moved in 1967. Between 1968 and 1972, Wynn also owned a wine and liquor importing company. He managed to parlay his profits from a land deal in 1971 (the deal involved Howard Hughes and Caesars Palace) into a controlling interest in the landmark downtown casino, the Golden Nugget Las Vegas (he also owned Golden Nugget Atlantic City in Atlantic City, New Jersey). Wynn renovated, revamped, and expanded the Golden Nugget from a gambling hall to a resort hotel and casino with enormous success, in the process attracting a new upscale clientele to downtown Las Vegas.

The Mirage, Treasure Island, and Bellagio:

Wynn had previously acquired interests in various existing casinos. His first major Strip casino, the Mirage, which opened in 1989, set a new standard for size, opulence, and construction costs. The Mirage featured an indoor forest and an outdoor "volcano"; and with high-quality room appointments, and an emphasis on service, the Mirage was another major success. The Mirage was the first project in which he was involved in the design and construction of a casino. The $630 million cost to build the facility was financed largely with junk bonds issued by Michael Milken. The property was considered a high-risk venture by the standards then prevailing in Las Vegas because of its expensiveness and emphasis on luxury. However, it became enormously lucrative and made Wynn a major part of Las Vegas history.

Wynn's next project was Treasure Island Hotel and Casino, which opened in 1993 at a cost of $450 million. With its live pirate show and location next to the Mirage, Treasure Island was another victory for Wynn. The Cirque du Soleil show at the Treasure Island was the first permanent Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas. (I worked on this construction project on sound system wiring. Steve walked through the project many times, and was a friendly owner getting along good with the contractors, unlike competitor Sheldon Adelson)

Wynn expanded further on his concept of the luxury casino with Bellagio, a $1.6 billion resort, including an artificial lake, indoor conservatory, a museum-quality art gallery and branches of high-end boutiques and restaurants from Paris, San Francisco, and New York City. The architect was the famous American Jon Jerde of The Jerde Partnerships. When built, Bellagio was the most expensive hotel in the world. The Bellagio is credited with starting a new spree of luxurious developments in Las Vegas. Among these developments, include The Venetian, Mandalay Bay, and Paris Las Vegas.

Beau Rivage:

He also designed and built a luxury resort, the Beau Rivage, in Biloxi. Beau Rivage was originally the name he wanted to give to the Bellagio. He then went to Italy on vacation and decided Bellagio was a better name for the hotel.

Wynn Las Vegas to Wynn Macau to present and Encore:

Mirage Resorts was sold to MGM Grand Inc. for $6.6 billion ($21 a share), in June 2000 to form MGM Mirage. Five weeks before the deal was closed (April 27, 2000) Steve Wynn purchased the Desert Inn for $270 million. He closed the Inn in only 18 weeks, and with the money he made on that deal, and with his ability to secure ever-greater financing, Steve Wynn took Wynn Resorts Limited public in 2002. Wynn became a billionaire in 2004, when his net worth doubled to $1.3 billion. On April 28, 2005, he opened his most expensive resort to that date, the Wynn Las Vegas, on the site of the former Desert Inn.

Wynn successfully bid for one of three gaming concessions that were opened for tender in Macau, a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China, which has a long history of gaming and is the largest gaming market in the world, having surpassed Las Vegas in 2006. This property, known as Wynn Macau, opened on September 5, 2006.

In the summer of 2008, hiring began for Encore Las Vegas, the newest in Steve Wynn's collection of resorts (the tower of Encore is modeled after the Wynn Las Vegas tower, and in fact, they share the same "property" though they are separate hotels). Wynn hired 3500 employees for this property. Encore opened on December 22, 2008.

Wynn Encore Macau opened on April 21, 2010.

Recently he spent a record price for a painting by J. M. W. Turner, $35.8 million for the Giudecca, La Donna Della Salute and San Giorgio, and spent $33.2 million on a Rembrandt, the auction record for the artist.

Many of the collection's pieces were on display at the Bellagio. The collection was on display at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno while the Wynn Las Vegas was being constructed, and was installed in the resort shortly before it was opened. The Wynn Las Vegas gallery, which had charged an entrance fee, closed shortly after the start of 2006. The artwork from the former gallery is now scattered around the resort. Although the artwork is owned personally by Wynn, Wynn Resorts pays an annual lease of $1. As part of the lease agreement, insurance and security are the responsibility of the company.

Sheldon Adelson - Casinos Magnate

Sheldon Gary Adelson (born August 6, 1933) is an American casino magnate. Adelson is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited which operates The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. Adelson vastly increased his net worth upon the initial public offering of Las Vegas Sands in December 2004. He is currently the 8th wealthiest American and 16th wealthiest person in the world, with a net worth of $21.5 billion.

Originally, a Democrat, Adelson became a Republican as his wealth increased. "Why is it fair that I should be paying a higher percentage of taxes than anyone else?" he once asked. He began making major contributions to the Republican National Committee following clashes with labor unions at his Las Vegas properties

COMDEX and casinos:

The original source of Adelson's wealth and current investments was the computer trade show COMDEX, which he and his partners developed for the computer industry; the first show was in 1979. It was the premier computer trade show through much of the 1980s and 1990s.

In 1988, Adelson and his partners purchased the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, the former hangout of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, in order to bring Las Vegas to a new phase of business through the exhibition industry. The following year, Adelson and his partners constructed the Sands Expo and Convention Center, then, the only privately owned and operated convention center in the United States.

In 1991, while honeymooning in Venice with his second wife, Miriam, Adelson said he found the inspiration for a mega-resort hotel. He razed (by implosion) the Sands and spent $1.5-billion to construct The Venetian, a Venice-themed resort hotel and casino. The luxurious, all-suite Venetian revolutionized the Las Vegas hotel industry, and has been honored with architectural and other awards naming it as one the finest hotels in the world. In 2003, The Venetian added the 1,013-suite Venezia tower - giving The Venetian 4,049 suites, 18 leading-chef restaurants, a shopping mall with canals, gondolas and singing gondoliers.

In 1995, Adelson and his partners sold the Interface Group Show Division, including the COMDEX shows, to SoftBank Corporation of Japan for $862 million; Adelson's share was over $500 million.

Adelson spearheaded a major project to bring the Sands name to the Macao SAR, China, the Chinese gambling city that was a Portuguese colony until December 1999. The one million-square-foot Sands Macau became the People's Republic of China's first Las Vegas-style casino when it opened in May 2004. Adelson made back his initial 265 million dollar investment in one year and, because he owns 69% of the stock, he increased his wealth when he took the stock public in December 2004. Since the opening of the Sands Macao Adelson's personal wealth has multiplied more than fourteen times.

In May 2006, Adelson's Las Vegas Sands was awarded a hotly contested license to construct a casino resort in Singapore's Marina Bay. The new casino, Marina Bay Sands, opened in 2010 at a rumored cost of US$5.4 billion.

In August 2007, Adelson opened the $2.4 billion Venetian Macao Resort Hotel on Cotai and announced that he planned to create a massive, concentrated resort area he called the Cotai Strip, after its Las Vegas counterpart. Adelson said that he planned to open more hotels under brands such as Four Seasons, Sheraton and St. Regis. His Las Vegas Sands plans to invest $12 billion and build 20,000 hotel rooms on the Cotai Strip by 2010.

In 2007, Adelson made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Israeli newspaper Maariv. When this failed, he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006 but had left. The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel HaYom, was published on July 30, 2007.

Bob Stupak - Casino Owner and Gambler

Robert E. "Bob" Stupak (April 6, 1942 - September 25, 2009) was a Las Vegas casino owner and entrepreneur.

He was also a poker player, winning titles at the World Series of Poker and the Super Bowl of Poker. He also competed on the World Poker Tour, and various other tournaments, as well as cash games, including High Stakes Poker on GSN.

In Las Vegas:

Stupak returned to Las Vegas in 1971, eventually raising enough money to acquire a small, 1.5 acres (0.61 ha) parcel north of Sahara Avenue at Las Vegas Boulevard South. On March 31, 1974, Bob Stupak's World Famous Historic Gambling Museum opened for business. "The name was about 10 ft (3.0 m) longer than the casino," Stupak recalled years later. On May 21, an air conditioner caught fire and the building burned down.

In 1979 Stupak opened Vegas World, a casino known for its promotions and new twists on games. At its peak in the mid-1980s, Vegas World grossed $100 million per year.

In 1989, Stupak won a widely publicized million-dollar wager on Super Bowl XXIII. Later that year, he won the Deuce to Seven Lowball championship bracelet at the World Series of Poker.

In 1995 Stupak suffered a motorcycle accident, breaking every bone in his face and going into a coma. Although the initial prognosis was that he would not survive, Stupak recovered, although with lingering health problems. (He became an idiot PWW)

At the time of his motorcycle crash, Stupak was at work developing The Stratosphere, a massive observation tower that would be the largest sign in Las Vegas. The tower opened in late April 1996 at a cost of $550 million but was a financial disaster. Many came to see the tower, but few stopped long enough to gamble, dine, or shop. The Stratosphere went bankrupt three months after its opening.

Stupak continued to plan Vegas projects, including a purchase of the Moulin Rouge Hotel and a huge hotel shaped like the RMS Titanic, but these endeavors never bore fruit.

In 2006, Stupak unsuccessfully ran as a Democrat for Lieutenant Governor of Nevada.

(In his Vegas World, in the 90s, he would take prostitutes up to his suite telling them he would give them $100, but then later tell them they were worthless whores, and only give them $50. He was known by many of his employees, contractors, and acquaintances as a super asshole. PWW)

Bob Cohen - A Nice Guy

No information in Wikipedia today……

He had 3 hotels in Las Vegas; the City Center Motel was demolished to make room for the Bellagio, and the Beverly Palms for a condominium project; The Downtowner went to his wife when he divorced much earlier. Bob has a lot of real estate in the western part of old downtown Las Vegas, including land under parts of the El Cortez.

He ducked out to Israel because of child prostitution going on at his Beverly Palms hotel in the 60s, and returned after the matter was settled.

When the Aladdin was going to be imploded several of my friends and I were on the roof of the City Center, directly across the street from the Aladdin; just before the implosion was to have taken place, we ran across the roof to get a closer view and photos. The guys in a helicopter yelled on their bull horn to move back past the orange line; so we delayed the implosion by a couple minutes. Then once the implosion was started, we ran back up close again; but then there was a tremendous dust cloud headed our way, so we ran back across the long roof to get less dust on us.

He was a very nice old man to deal with, always paying his bills on time, and other contractors felt the same. PWW

The Sign

One day as the Bellagio project was fairly well along, and its huge sign was about half way up, the Bellagio people offered Bob around twelve million dollars for his City Center motel, whose super ugly yellow sigh was blocking the view of Bellagio’s huge expensive sign; I was in his office and said, “…Why don’t you take the twelve million and move to the Philippines where you can have all the little girls you want?” His secretary gave both of us a very pissed-off look, so the conversation was stopped. He ended up with eighteen million, but stayed in town. The day after the City Center closed, the crew removed the ugly sign.

Oscar Goodman - Lawyer and Mayor of Las Vegas

Oscar Baylin Goodman (born July 26, 1939) is an American lawyer and politician. He was the mayor of Las Vegas, Nevada from 1999 to 2011. Mayor Goodman is an Independent and a former member of the Democratic Party.

Goodman was born to a Jewish family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

During his career as a defense attorney he represented defendants accused of being some of the leading organized crime figures in Las Vegas, such as Meyer Lansky, Nicky Scarfo, Herbert "Fat Herbie" Blitzstein, Phil Leonetti, former Stardust Casino boss Frank 'Lefty' Rosenthal, and Jamiel "Jimmy" Chagra a 1970s drug trafficker who was acquitted of ordering the murder of Federal Judge John H. Wood, Jr. His most notorious client was reputed Chicago mobster Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro, who was known to have a short and violent temper. In the semi-factual 1995 movie Casino, the character of Nicky Santoro was based on Spilotro and was portrayed by actor Joe Pesci. Goodman had a cameo appearance in the film as himself while defending "Ace Rothstein", which was a character closely based on Lefty Rosenthal and played by Robert DeNiro. Goodman also represented former San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock, who was convicted of accepting illegal campaign contributions and eventually forced to resign; Hedgecock was later cleared of all charges on appeal.

Goodman was a senior partner in the law firm of Goodman and Chesnoff. Goodman currently serves as Of Counsel to Goodman Law Group, a Las Vegas law firm formed by his son, Ross C. Goodman. Goodman was elected mayor of Las Vegas on June 8, 1999; receiving 32,765 (63.76 percent) votes while his opponent, then-Las Vegas City Councilman Arnie Adamsen, received 18,620 (36.24 percent). Goodman was re-elected to a second four-year term in 2003, defeating five opponents and receiving 29,356 (85.72 percent) of the votes. On April 3, 2007, he was re-elected to a third and final term with 26,845 votes (83.69 percent), again defeating five opponents. Las Vegas law prevents the mayor, who has been called the town's "most popular mayor", from serving more than three terms.

(The Federal Government donated the ancient post office to the city and they made a gangster museum out of it).

(Oscar Goodman was my neighbor in the Las Vegas Scotch Eighties neighborhood; he personally answers the door for trick-or-treaters on Halloween, so you know he has no serious enemies. PWW)

Doug Da Silva - Super Real Estate Manipulator and Losing Gambler

I did business with Doug; he is a pathological liar, bad check writer, loosing gambler, and gay hotel owner. He purchased the remaining parts of the old Thunderbird hotel from Bob Stupak and split it into three worthless hotels, making a huge profit that he gambled away.

There are many stories about him in the Review Journal in Las Vegas and the papers in El Paso; he is in the news lately about his scams at the Artisan Hotels in Las Vegas and El Paso. He has (2011) bankruptcy filings in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Las Vegas; Da Silva owes more than $25 million - including almost $11.5 million to investors who lent him money to open at least one of the Artisan hotels.

When Doug purchased the old Thunderbird buildings from Bob Stupak, bob left some coins and rocks, supposedly from the moon, in the huge safe, with the agreement that Bob had 90 days to get the stuff moved. On the 89th day Bobs crew of security guards came to get the stuff; Doug told them, “…I don’t have time to deal with it today; come back tomorrow…” the next day when they returned Doug said, “…You waited too long; the stuff is mine now…”; he got charged with extortion over that matter, and it made the news. A few days later, I was trying to get a check from the illusive Doug; I slipped up the stairs to his office and he started to write the check. I said, “I can’t believe that you tried to scam one of the old original mobsters, and you are still alive.” The first part of the check was with good penmanship, but the numbers part was just nervous scribble. The month later, when I went to get a check, he had moved into a very secure office with a bulletproof door.

About 3:00 in the morning, I was staying in what was called the Vegas Hotel at the time, now it’s the Artisan; the fire alarm started ringing constantly. After about five munities, I called down to the front desk and asked, “When are they going to shut off the fire alarm?” The reply was, “Ahhhh, I guess when they put out the fire”. I was in the third building over from the main building and walked out to the balcony to see what was up, and noticed a very small fire coming out of the air handling equipment on the roof of the main building; a fireman could have pissed it out at this point; or killing the power probably would have let it go out. About ten minutes later a group of fire trucks arrived along with a huge fire command center motor home type vehicle. The fire continued to grow as the firefighters evacuated the building for about ten minutes. I had gone down to the parking lot to observe the situation and struck up a conversation with another customer that was staying in the end room to the left on the top floor; he said, “…Those idiots are going to let the whole building burn down; shit; my keys and wallet are up there”; he made a mad dash for the stairwell and a fireman tackled him like a football player. He was pissed; as he watched, the bungling firefighters not put a drop of water in the building until the entire top floor was burning. Notice how the power is still on as the building is burning; Jewish lightning?

After the hotel was shut down for several years, Doug purchased it and quickly sold off the two good buildings and used the proceeds to renovate the main building into the gay Artisan Hotel. Of course, he gambled away the profits and went. After the hotel was shut down for several years, Doug purchased it and quickly sold off the two good buildings and used the proceeds to renovate the main building into the gay Artisan Hotel. Of course, he gambled away the profits and went bankrupt.

Photo by Paul Winquist

Doug has an air-conditioned doghouse for his guard dogs. (PWW-2011)

Ed Torres - Casino Owner

The El Rancho was constructed on the site of the Thunderbird that opened in September 1948. In 1976, it was renamed the Silverbird. On August 31, 1982, it was renamed Ed Torres' El Rancho. Ed Torres had close ties with some of the organized crimes most notorious characters of the time according to the Gaming Control Board and law enforcement officers. However, this did not restrict him from owning a gaming license.

Jackie Gaughan - Casino Owner

John D. "Jackie" Gaughan, Sr. (born October 24, 1920) is a casino owner and operator from the early 1950s in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jackie is a native of Omaha, Nebraska who currently calls the El Cortez home. He is often seen daily on the El Cortez's modest size casino floor which begins at the hotel's front desk and main entrance doors. Many players have been surprised by his unpretentious manner and willingness to talk about "old Las Vegas". (He had 13 hotels in Las Vegas at his peak).

Ann Myers - Slumlord Hotel/Ca$ino Owner

She was an immigrant from Austria that survived a death camp in Austria at the age of eight. She purchased the Nevada Hotel from Jackie Gaughan, and over the years ran it into the ground from her lack of spending money on maintenance and cleaning.

She purchased the old Algiers hotel and renamed it the Queen of Hearts. She kept it full of weekly residents, of the lowest possible economic status, that spent most of their time in the convenient bar/casino down stairs, or distributing drugs. One could find any illegal drug known to man within her hotels or on the convenient sidewalk.

The one thing she did pay for was a good TV system, knowing that would retain her low budget customers.

Barack Gamming purchased the two hotels and threw out all the riffraff in an attempt to turn them back into tourist hotels; a quick failure. (PWW 2011)

Fulgencio Batista - Former Dictator of Cuba

A young Batista ---- Batista in 1938

Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar; (January 16, 1901 - - August 6, 1973) was the United States-aligned Cuban President, dictator, and military leader who served as the leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1944 and from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Castro Cuban Revolution.

Relationship with organized crime:

“Brothels flourished. A major industry grew up around them; government officials received bribes, policemen collected protection money. Prostitutes could be seen standing in doorways, strolling the streets, or leaning from windows. One report estimated that 11,500 of them worked their trade in Havana. Beyond the outskirts of the capital, beyond the slot machines, was one of the poorest, and most beautiful countries in the Western world.” David Detzer, American journalist, after visiting Havana in the 1950s

Batista established lasting relationships with organized crime, notably with American mobsters Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano, and under his rule Havana became known as "the Latin Las Vegas.” Batista and Lansky formed a friendship and business relationship that flourished for a decade. During a stay at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York in the late 1940s, it was mutually agreed that, in return for kickbacks, Batista would give Lansky and the Mafia control of Havana's racetracks and casinos.

After World War II, American mobster Lucky Luciano was paroled from prison on the condition that he permanently return to Sicily. Luciano secretly moved to Cuba where he worked to resume control over American mafia operations. Luciano also ran a number of casinos in Cuba with the sanction of Batista, though the American government eventually succeeded in pressuring the Batista regime to deport Luciano.

Batista encouraged large-scale gambling in Havana, announcing in 1955 that Cuba would grant a gaming license to anyone who invested US$1 million in a hotel or $200,000 in a new nightclub - - and that the government would provide matching public funds for construction, a 10-year exemption from taxes, and impose no duties on imports of equipment and furnishings for new hotels. From each casino, the government was to receive $250,000 for the license and a percentage of the profits. The policy waived the background checks that were required for casino operations in the United States, and opened the door for casino investors with illegally obtained sources of funding. Cuban contractors with the right connections made windfalls by importing, duty-free, more materials than were needed for new hotels and selling the surplus to others. It was rumored that besides the $250,000 to obtain a license an additional fee was sometimes required under the table.

Lansky became a prominent figure in Cuba's gambling operations, and exerted influence over Batista's casino policies. Lansky associate Chauncey Holt described Batista as "always in Lansky's pocket.” Lansky also turned Cuba into an international drug trafficking port.

The Mafia's Havana Conference was held on December 22, 1946 at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba. This was the first full-scale meeting of American underworld leaders since the Chicago meeting in 1932.

Lansky set about cleaning up the games at the Montmartre Club, which soon became the place to be in Havana. He also wanted to open a casino in the Hotel Nacional, the most elegant hotel in Havana. Batista endorsed Lansky's idea over the objections of American expatriates like Ernest Hemingway and the renovated casino wing opened for business in 1955, with a show by Eartha Kitt. The casino was an immediate success.

As the new hotels, nightclubs, and casinos opened, Batista wasted no time collecting his share of the profits. Nightly, the "bagman" for his wife collected 10 percent of the profits at Trafficante's interests; the Sans Souci cabaret, and the casinos in the hotels Sevilla-Biltmore, Commodoro, Deauville, and Capri (partly owned by the actor George Raft). His take from the Lansky casinos -- his prized Habana Riviera, the Hotel Nacional, the Montmartre Club, and others -- was said to be 30 percent. Lansky was said to have personally contributed millions of dollars per year to Batista's Swiss bank accounts.

Museo de la Revolucion, Havanna, Cuba:Gold-coated telephone given as a gift to Batista by the International Telegraph and Telephone Company (ITT).

Soldiers for the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista executing a revolutionary by firing squad in 1956 during the early stages of the Cuban Revolution

Havana Conference

The Havana Conference of 1946, Havana Cuba, was a historic meeting of United States Mafia and Cosa Nostra leaders in Havana, Cuba. Supposedly arranged by Charles "Lucky" Luciano, the conference was held to discuss important mob policies, rules, and business interests. The Havana Conference was attended by delegations representing crime families throughout the United States. The conference was held during the week of December 22, 1946 at the Hotel Nacional. The Havana Conference is considered to have been the most important mob summit since the Atlantic City Conference of 1929. Decisions made in Havana resonated throughout the US crime families for the ensuing decades.

Ernest Hemingway - Writer (A Good Guy)

Hemingway's 1923 passport photo; at this time he lived in Paris with his wife Hadley, and worked as a journalist.

American Author Ernest Hemingway aboard his Yacht around 1950 Ernest Hemingway in the cabin of his boat Pilar, off the coast of Cuba

Owned by John F. Kennedy library

Statue of Hemingway by Jose Villa Soberon, El Floridita bar in Havana Image from the interior of the Floridita bar, in Havanna, Cuba, with a photo of Hemingway awarding Fidel Castro a prize in a fishing contest in 1960 (after the Cuban revolution) on the wall

Statue of Ernest Hemmingway by Cuban artist Jose Villa Soberon. Photo: Frederic Schmalzbauer, own picture

Hemingway posing for a dust jacket photo by Lloyd Arnold for the first edition of "For Whom the Bell Tolls", at the Sun Valley Lodge, Idaho, late 1939

Hemingway at a fishing camp in 1954; his hand and arms are burned from a recent brushfire; his hair burned from the recent plane crashes

Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 -- July 2, 1961) was an American author and journalist. His distinctive writing style, characterized by economy and understatement, strongly influenced 20th-century fiction, as did his life of adventure and his public image. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works during his lifetime; a further three novels, four collections of short stories, and three non-fiction works were published posthumously. Many of his works are classics of American literature.

(Hemmingway built a hotel in Costa Rica. PWW)

Hemmingway Inn, in San Jose, Costa Rica

Photo by Paul Winquist

The Little Bar - Outside Part of the Restaurant at Dusk - Photos by Paul Winquist

Outside Part of the Restaurant

Photos by Paul Winquist

Fidel Castro - Communist Revolutionary and Former Dictator of Cuba

Left - Castro arriving at the MATS Terminal in Washington, D.C. in 1959

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

Right - Castro in 2003

Creative Commons 2.0 Brazil

Fidel Castro and Camilo Cienfuegos, Havana, January 8, 1959

Datei stammt vom Sohn des Fotografen. Dieser lebt in Kuba, hat kein Internet und ist mit mir befreundet. Er hat mich gebeten einen Artikel über seinen Vater anzulegen und dieses Foto zu veröffentlichen.

Castro in Brazil with Brazilian President

This photograph was produced by Agencia Brasil, a public Brazilian news agency; their website states: "O conteudo deste site e publicado sob a licença Creative Commons Atribuição 2.5 Brasil"

(The content of this website is published under the Creative Commons License Attribution 2.5 Brazil)

Fidel Alejandro Castro; born August 13, 1926, is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011. Politically a Marxist-Leninist, under his administration Cuba was converted into a one-party socialist state, with industry and business being nationalized under state ownership and socialist reforms implemented in all areas of society.

Born the illegitimate son of a wealthy farmer, Castro became involved in anti-imperialist politics whilst studying law at the University of Havana. Subsequently involving himself in armed rebellions against rightist governments in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, he went on to conclude that the U.S.-backed Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, who was widely seen as a dictator, had to be overthrown; to this end he led a failed armed attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953. Imprisoned for a year, he then traveled to Mexico, and with the aid of his brother Raul Castro and friend Che Guevara, he assembled together a group of Cuban revolutionaries, the July 26 Movement. Returning with them to Cuba, he took a key role in the Cuban Revolution, leading a successful guerilla war against Batista's forces, with Batista himself fleeing into exile in 1959.

Castro subsequently came to power and shortly thereafter became Prime Minister. His anti-imperialist views, as well as a suspected relationship with Nikita Khrushchev, alarmed the United States, who, through the CIA, organized the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 to overthrow his government, before proceeding to orchestrate repeated assassination attempts against him and implement an economic blockade of Cuba. To counter this threat, Castro forged an alliance with the Soviet Union and allowed them to store nuclear weapons on the island, leading to the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Adopting Marxism-Leninism as his guiding ideology, in 1961 Castro proclaimed the socialist nature of the Cuban revolution, and in 1965 became First Secretary of the newly founded Communist Party, with all other parties being abolished. He then led the transformation of Cuba into a socialist republic, nationalizing industry and introducing free universal healthcare and education. A keen internationalist, Castro also introduced Cuban medical brigades who traveled to various parts of the developing world, and aided a number of foreign leftist revolutionary groups.

Castro is a controversial and highly divisive world figure, being lauded as a champion of anti-imperialism and the oppressed by his supporters, but alternately his critics have accused him of being a dictator whose authoritarian administration has overseen multiple human rights abuses. Nonetheless, he has had a significant influence on the politics of a number of other world leaders, namely Nelson Mandela, Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales, and he is widely idolized by many leftists, socialists, and anti-imperialists across the world.

Dictatorship:

Many observers refer to Castro as a dictator, and his rule was the longest to-date in modern Latin American history.

Human rights abuses:

The Human Rights Watch organization has suggested that Castro constructed a "repressive machinery" which "continues to deprive Cubans of their basic rights".

Castro's 49-year regime remains one of the most controversial in the history of Latin America; Scholar R J Rummel estimates the casualties of his regime to 73,000, with one study estimating over 119,000 and several others suggesting significantly lower figures.

Allegations of mismanagement:

In their book, Corruption in Cuba, Sergio Diaz-Briquets and Jorge F. Perez-Lopez Servando state that Castro "institutionalized" corruption and that "Castro's state-run monopolies, cronyism, and lack of accountability have made Cuba one of the world's most corrupt states". Servando Gonzalez, in The Secret Fidel Castro, calls Castro a "corrupt tyrant".

In 1959, according to Gonzalez, Castro established "Fidel's checking account", from which he could draw funds as he pleased. The "Comandante's reserves" were created in 1970, from which Castro allegedly "provided gifts to many of his cronies, both home and abroad". Gonzalez asserts that Comandante's reserves have been linked to counterfeiting business empires and as early as 1968, a once-close friend of Castro's wrote that Castro had huge accounts in Swiss banks. Castro's secretary was allegedly seen using Zürich banks. Gonzalez wrote that Cuba's paucity of trade with Switzerland contrasts oddly with the National Office of Cuba's relatively large office in Zurich. Castro has denied having a bank account abroad with even a dollar in it.

Allegations of wealth:

A KGB officer, Alexei Novikov, stated that Castro's personal life, like the lives of the rest of the Communist elite, is "shrouded under an impenetrable veil of secrecy". Among other things, he asserted that Castro has a personal guard of more than 9,700 men and three luxurious yachts.

In 2005, American business and financial magazine Forbes listed Castro among the world's richest people, with an estimated net worth of US$550 million. The estimates, which the magazine admitted were "more art than science", claimed that the Cuban leader's personal wealth was nearly double that of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, despite anecdotal evidence from diplomats and businessmen that the Cuban leader's personal life was notably austere. This assessment was drawn by making economic estimates of the net worth of Cuba's state-owned companies, and used the assumption that Castro had personal economic control. Forbes later increased the estimates to US$900 million, adding rumors of large cash stashes in Switzerland. The magazine offered no proof of this information, and according to CBS News, Castro's entry on the rich list was notably brief compared to the amount of information provided on other figures. Castro, who had considered suing the magazine, responded that the claims were "lies and slander", and that they were part of a US campaign to discredit him. He declared: "If they can prove that I have a bank account abroad, with US$900m, with US$1m, US$500,000, US$100,000 or US$1 in it, I will resign." President of Cuba's Central Bank, Francisco Soberon, called the claims a "grotesque slander", asserting that money made from various state owned companies is pumped back into the island's economy, "in sectors including health, education, science, internal security, national defense, and solidarity projects with other countries."

Che Guevara - Marxist Revolutionary - Guerrillero Heroico

Popularized cropped version of Guerrillero Heroico - Che Guevara at the funeral for the victims of the La Coubre explosion - Alberto Korda

in Public domain

A 22 year old Ernesto Guevara in 1951 while in Argentina

Author: His Father, This image is in the public domain because the copyright of this photograph, registered in Argentina, has expired

Che Guevara smoking a pipe at his guerrilla base in Caballete de Casas, Cuba (in the Escambray Mountains) during the final months of the Cuban Revolution

This work was created in Cuba and is now in the public domain because its term of copyright has expired, according to Cuban law #14 and subsequent amendments

Guevara (left) and Fidel Castro, photographed by Alberto Korda in 1961

Source: Museo Che Guevara, Havana Cuba - This work was created in Cuba and is now in the public domain because its term of copyright has expired, according to Cuban law #14 and subsequent amendments.

Ernesto "Che" Guevara (1928 - - October 9, 1967), commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia within popular culture.

As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout Latin America and was radically transformed by the endemic poverty and alienation he witnessed. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to conclude that the region's ingrained economic inequalities were an intrinsic result of capitalism, monopolism, neocolonialism, and imperialism, with the only remedy being world revolution. This belief prompted his involvement in Guatemala's social reforms under President Jacobo Arbenz, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow solidified Guevara's political ideology. Later, while living in Mexico City, he met Raul and Fidel Castro, joined their 26th of July Movement, and sailed to Cuba aboard the yacht, Granma, with the intention of overthrowing U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to second-in-command, and played a pivotal role in the victorious two year guerrilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime.

Following the Cuban Revolution, Guevara performed a number of key roles in the new government. These included reviewing the appeals and firing squads for those convicted as war criminals during the revolutionary tribunals, instituting agrarian reform as minister of industries, helping spearhead a successful nationwide literacy campaign, serving as both national bank president and instructional director for Cuba’s armed forces, and traversing the globe as a diplomat on behalf of Cuban socialism. Such positions also allowed him to play a central role in training the militia forces who repelled the Bay of Pigs Invasion and bringing the Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles to Cuba which precipitated the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Additionally, he was a prolific writer and diarist, composing a seminal manual on guerrilla warfare, along with a best-selling memoir about his youthful motorcycle journey across South America. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment revolution abroad, first unsuccessfully in Congo-Kinshasa and later in Bolivia, where he was captured by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces and executed.

Guevara remains both a revered and reviled historical figure, polarized in the collective imagination in a multitude of biographies, memoirs, essays, documentaries, songs, and films. As a result of his perceived martyrdom, poetic invocations for class struggle, and desire to create the consciousness of a "new man" driven by moral rather than material incentives; he has evolved into a quintessential icon of various leftist-inspired movements. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, while an Alberto Korda photograph of him entitled Guerrillero Heroico (shown at the top of the article), was declared "the most famous photograph in the world".

The day after his execution on October 10, 1967, Guevara's corpse was displayed to the world press in the laundry house of the Vallegrande hospital

Photo by Freddy Alborta - Titled "The passion of the Che,” this photo displays the corpse of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara one day after his execution. His body was put on display to the world's press to prove that in fact he had been captured and killed by Bolivian rangers with assistance from the CIA.

Michael Milken - Junkbond Scammer

US Government Photo

Michael Robert Milken (born July 4, 1946) is an American business magnate, financier, and philanthropist noted for his role in the development of the market for high-yield bonds (also called junk bonds) during the 1970s and 1980s, for his 1990 guilty plea to felony charges for violating US securities laws, and for his funding of medical research.

Milken was indicted on 98 counts of racketeering and securities fraud in 1989 as the result of an insider trading investigation. After a plea bargain, he pled guilty to six securities and reporting violations but was never convicted of racketeering or insider trading. Milken was sentenced to ten years in prison and permanently barred from the securities industry by the Securities and Exchange Commission. After the presiding judge reduced his sentence for cooperating with testimony against his former colleagues and good behavior, he was released after less than two years.

His critics cited him as the epitome of Wall Street greed during the 1980s, and nicknamed him the Junk Bond King. Supporters, like George Gilder in his book, Telecosm, note that "Milken was a key source of the organizational changes that have impelled economic growth over the last twenty years. Most striking was the productivity surge in capital, as Milken … and others took the vast sums trapped in old-line businesses and put them back into the markets."

Milken has also been engaged in philanthropic activities since the early 1980s; he is co-founder of the Milken Family Foundation, chairman of the Milken Institute, and founder of medical philanthropies funding research into melanoma, cancer and other life-threatening diseases. In a November 2004 cover article, Fortune magazine called him "The Man Who Changed Medicine" for his positive influence on medical research.

Milken's compensation, while head of the high-yield bond department at Drexel Burnham Lambert in the late 1980s, exceeded $1 billion in a four-year period, a new record for US income at that time. Drexel went bankrupt in 1990. With an estimated net worth of around $2 billion as of 2010, he is ranked by Forbes magazine as the 488th richest person in the world. Much of that wealth comes from his success as a bond trader; he only had four losing months in 17 years of trading.

Day traders

A day trader is a trader who buys and sells financial instruments (e.g. stocks, options, futures, derivatives, currencies) within the same trading day such that all positions will usually be closed before the market close of the trading day. This trading style is called day trading. Depending on one's trading strategy, it may range from several to hundreds of orders a day.

Types of day traders:

There are two major types of day traders: institutional and retail.

An institutional day trader is a trader who works for a financial institution. This type of trader has certain advantages over retail traders as he/she generally has access to more resources, tools, equipment, large amounts of capital and leverage, large availability of fresh fund inflows to trade continuously on the markets, dedicated and direct lines to data centers and exchanges, expensive and high-end trading and analytical software, support teams to help, and more. All these advantages give them certain edges over retail day traders.

A retail day trader is a trader who works for himself, or in partnership with a few other traders; a retail trader generally trades with his own capital, though he may also trade with other people's money. Law has restricted the amount of other people's money a retail trader can manage. In the United States, day traders may not advertise as advisors or financial managers. Although not required, nearly all retail day traders use direct access brokers as they offer the fastest order entry and to the exchanges, as well as superior software trading platforms.

In the past, most day traders were institutional traders due to the huge advantages they had over retail traders. However, since the technology boom in the second half of the 1990s, advances in personal computing and communications technology, realized in the accessibility of powerful personal computers and the Internet, have brought fast online trading and powerful market analytical tools to the mainstream. Low, affordable commissions from discount brokers as well as regulation improvements in favor of retail traders have also helped level the trading playing field, making success as a retail trader a possibility for many and a reality for some.

Pros and cons:

Day traders' objective is to make profits by taking advantage of small price movements in highly liquid stocks or indexes as well.

A day trader who wants to achieve success needs appropriate knowledge, equipment, tools and markets together with the ability to trade the right electronic trading platform. A day trader with the right information will be able to succeed, otherwise, success will go to the other person in the transaction or to the broker, if he happens to be the best informed person in the transaction.

Besides all these technical requirements some personal traits are also necessary; they include the right psychological and emotional traits. Two emotions that the day trader faces and should manage are fear and greed. A balance between these two emotions is necessary to achieve successful trades.

Also, a successful day trader needs to know which stocks to trade, when to enter the trade, and when to get out of the trade; part of this knowledge is to find those stocks with liquidity and volatility, in order to generate profits.

Day trading, as part of the market timing, however, is an activity that academics do not support. They question the market timing and believe in the efficient market theory; however, market timing is not illegal, and it is not considered unethical. (Bullshit! These are scammers…PWW)

Although the activity can be profitable, it requires effort to be put in and is a difficult skill to master. Many people expect to make large profits with little effort, and the fact is that around 80% of day traders lose money. (To be successful one must be at it 24/7 for years. PWW)

Markets for retail day traders:

Previously seen as a niche market, or something for institutional investors, the forex market, by 2010 had increased exponentially to an average daily volume of about $4 Trillion, with spot retail trades now accounting for an estimated 10% of that volume. Possible reasons for the surge in retail forex is the now high margin requirements in individual U.S. equities (stocks) for day traders imposed after 2001 and apparent overt manipulation of commodities markets making the 'rigged' commodity futures markets a less desirable or 'fair' market in which to participate. However ETFs have gained rapidly in popularity, being seen as a less expensive way to trade all futures markets as well as some more exotic markets not otherwise available to retail day traders.

The amount of margin required by most retail forex brokers in contrast is negligible. With full size lots (100,000 units of currency), mini-lots (10,000) and even micro-lots (1,000) all with up to as much as 1000:1 leverage being available (although not in the US where the maximum is now 50:1 after a ruling by the CFTC), means a retail day trader could in theory trade a single micro-lot of USD for the cost of $1. Realistically most brokers require a minimum deposit of $500. The sheer volume of the FX market makes it a difficult one to manipulate in any meaningful way, even with the money available to large proprietary and institutional trading interests.

Auto Trader

An auto trader (stocks, bonds, and commodities) is the person who performs auto-trading, which stands for automated trading and the use of computer programs and other tools to enter trading orders. Because this all happens with the help of the computer algorithm it is also called algorithmic trading or high-frequency trading.

Direct access trading - - Flash Trading

Direct access trading is a technology which allows stock traders to trade directly with market makers or specialists, rather than trading through stock brokers.

Direct access trading systems use front-end trading software and high-speed computer links to stock exchanges such as NASDAQ, NYSE and the various electronic communication networks. Direct access trading system transactions are executed in a fraction of a second and their confirmations are instantly displayed on the trader's computer screen. This is in contrast to a typical conventional online trader who requires seconds or minutes to execute a trade.

Direct access trading is primarily for self-helped and active traders who value speed of execution and try hard to minimize costs and slippage. Also they get to take care of themselves and make trade decisions on their own (without the help of brokers or advisors). These people typically include:

Day traders - they trade a lot per trading day. Direct access brokers can give them front-end trading software and platforms, and offer deep discounts on commissions and brokerage fees.

Scalpers - they trade in a large volume for small gains; slow execution may kill profits, and even incur losses.

Momentum (event-based) traders - their trading decisions based on news or incidents happened in normal trading days. When the news breaks out, the market will usually become very volatile. They need lightning fast execution to enable them to grasp these opportunities; the difference between success or failure may be determined in just a fraction of a second. A delay of seconds to minutes, as is common in traditional online trading, would therefore not be acceptable to such traders.

(Flash Traders) Momentum (technical-based) day or swing traders - they trade on high momentum stocks, in which it has high volatility. They need their orders executed lightning fast, and may need to get out quickly if the market goes against them.

Direct access trading is not typically for: novice traders - Direct-access trading typically requires experience and knowledge, (or a hell of a good software package).

Speedy execution (Flash Trading): It allows very fast execution, measured in terms of milliseconds.

Liquidity rebates: Traditional online brokerages usually have a simple and flat commission fee per trade because they sell order flows. Direct-access brokerages do not sell order flows and get rebates; they earn money from serving their customers. An active trader can gain what traditional online brokerages gain.

Knowledge: New and inexperienced traders may find it difficult to become familiar with direct access trading. Knowledge is required when dealing with something like making trade decisions and order routing.

Racket (crime), Racketeering

A racket is an illegal business, usually run as part of organized crime. Engaging in a racket is called racketeering.

Several forms of racket exist. The best-known is the protection racket, in which criminals demand money from businesses in exchange for the service of "protection" against crimes that the racketeers themselves instigate if unpaid (see extortion). A second well known example is the numbers racket, a form of illegal lottery.

Traditionally, the word racket is used to describe a business (or syndicate) that is based on the example of the protection racket and indicates a belief that it is engaged in the sale of a solution to a problem that the institution itself creates or perpetuates, with the specific intent to engender continual patronage. One example is computer spyware that pretends to be detecting infections and offers to download a cleaning utility for a fee, being itself distributed by the maker of the cleaning utility.

In the example of a protection racket, the racketeer informs a store-owner that a substantial monthly fee will be required in exchange for protection. The concurrent "protection" provided takes the form of the absence of damage inflicted upon the store or its employees by the racket itself.

The term "racketeering" was coined by the Employers' Association of Chicago in June 1927 in a statement about the influence of organized crime in the Teamsters union.

The RICO Act:

On October 15, 1970, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (18 U.S.C. §§ 1961 - - 1968), commonly referred to as the "RICO Act", became United States law. The RICO Act allowed law enforcement to charge a person or group of people with racketeering, defined as committing multiple violations of certain varieties within a ten-year period. The purpose of the RICO Act was stated as "the elimination of the infiltration of organized crime and racketeering into legitimate organizations operating in interstate commerce". S.Rep. No. 617, 91st Cong., 1st Sess. 76 (1968). However, the statute is sufficiently broad to encompass illegal activities relating to any enterprise affecting interstate or foreign commerce.

Section 1961(10) of Title 18 provides that the Attorney General of the United States may designate any department or agency to conduct investigations authorized by the RICO statute and such department or agency may use the investigative provisions of the statute or the investigative power of such department or agency otherwise conferred by law. Absent a specific designation by the Attorney General, jurisdiction to conduct investigations for violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1962 lies with the agency having jurisdiction over the violations constituting the pattern of racketeering activity listed in 18 U.S.C. § 1961.

In the U.S., civil racketeering laws are also used in federal and state courts. The National Federation of Independent Business challenged these civil laws in 2006 for being excessively abusive.

Jake Bernstein - Bullshit Artist

Jake Bernstein is President of Network Press, Inc. in Santa Cruz, California. Bernstein claims expertise in seasonal trading and has developed methods of trading in futures markets, and has been a featured speaker at many investment conferences and trading seminars. His work is controversial in that many analysts claim that his methods do not, in fact, make money.

Bernstein is publisher of the "Jake Bernstein Weekly Futures Trading Letter," "Bernstein on Stocks," "The Letter of Long-Term Trends, and "COT Analysis". Jake Bernstein has written more than 42 books and research studies on futures trading, stock trading, trader psychology, and economic forecasting. Articles by Bernstein have appeared in Futures Magazine, Money Maker, Stocks and Commodities, Barron’s Financial Weekly, Stocks, Futures and Options Magazine, and FarmFutures.

Criticism:

Some sources dispute the effectiveness of Bernstein's methods. According to William Green of Forbes magazine, "Commodity Traders Consumer Report, a respected futures publication, tracks the trades Bernstein recommends in his $895 flagship newsletter. If you had acted on these weekly tips from 1988 through 1992, you would have lost money for five consecutive years (assuming typical transaction costs)."

In 1996, the Business Conduct Committee of the National Futures Association charged MBH and Bernstein for using misleading and deceptive promotional materials in an infomercial. The NFA also charged that "MBH and Bernstein engaged in deceptive and misleading sales solicitations" and that their customers all either lost money on their trades or failed to realize the returns they claimed in the infomercial during the time the infomercial aired. Finally, they charged that the infomercial and web site falsely stated that Bernstein was a successful trader, when in fact, according to figures provided by Bernstein, the NFA's analysis showed that the account had lost $3,286.33 during 1992, $8,499.13 during 1993, $1,793.82 during 1994, $14,300.26 during 1995, and $8,374.34 during the first 11 months of 1996.

Following an unsuccessful appeal to the NFA Appeals Committee, Bernstein and MBH brought their case to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC or Commission), which summarily affirmed the NFA's findings. As a sanction, the NFA expelled Jake Bernstein, fined his companies $200,000, and charged him for “using misleading promotional material”, “making false profit claims”, and “downplaying the risk involved in trading”. This decision was subsequently confirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

In response to his critics, Bernstein characterized the NFA hearing as a "Kangaroo court."

DOJ Photo

Dot-Com Company - - Acquisitions

List of Well-Known Failed Dot-Coms - Scams???

In the late 1990s (as well as today) many businesses were interested in investing in the Internet to expand their market. The Internet has the ability to reach out to consumers globally as well as providing more convenient shopping to the consumer. If planned and executed correctly, the Internet can greatly improve sales; however, there were many businesses in the early 2000s that did not plan correctly and that cost them their business.

One of the biggest mistakes early dot com businesses made was that they were more interested in attracting visitors to their website but not necessarily winning them over to customers. Early e-commerce thought the most important factor was to have as many visitors as possible gather to their website and this would eventually translate into profits for their business. This was not necessarily the case and businesses failed. Early dot com businesses also failed to take the time to properly research the situation before starting their businesses. There are many factors that come into play when starting a new business. Research needs to go into the product the business is actually trying to sell. The business also need to research price of their product. They need to be competitive with the cost of their product compared to their competitors. Early businesses failed to research how they promoted their product. If they decided to advertise their product only through the cheapest avenues (i.e. banner ads, radio), then most likely they would not get the amount of consumers they would if they advertised through more productive means.

There are thousands of failed companies from the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. Here are a few of the largest and most famous:

AmCy.com: American Cybercast was the publisher of pioneering episodic sites TheSpot.com and EON4.com, with backing from Intel and Softbank. The company's collapse is documented in the book "Digital Babylon: How the Geeks, the Suits, and the Ponytails Fought to Bring Hollywood to the Internet."

boo.com

Broadband Sports: A network of sports-content Web sites that raised over $60 million before going bust in February 2001. (Where did the $60 million go?)

Cyberian Outpost: Founded in 1994 and one of the first successful online retailers. Controversial marketing campaigns. Acquired by Fry's Electronics in 2001.

CyberRebate: Promised customers a 100% rebate after purchasing products priced at nearly ten times the retail cost. Went bankrupt in 2002, leaving thousands of customers holding the bag. The bankruptcy was settled in 2005 and customers received about eight cents on the dollar from their original rebates.

DigiScents: Tried to transmit smells over the internet. (Maybe in 2020)

E-Loft.com: A pan European portal for university students, covering Italy, Germany, UK, Spain and France.

Excite@Home: Excite, a pioneering Internet portal, merged with high-speed Internet service @Home in 1999 to become Excite@Home, promising to be the "AOL of Broadband" and partnering with cable operators to become the largest broadband ISP in the United States. After spending billions (Who put up the Billions?) on acquisitions and trying unsuccessfully to sell the Excite portal, during a sharp downturn in online advertising, the company filed for bankruptcy in September 2001 and shut down operations.

Flooz.com: a service touted as "e-currency" launched at the height of the dot com boom in the late 90s and subsequently folded in 2001 due to lack of consumer acceptance and a basic lack of necessity. Famous for having Whoopi Goldberg as their spokesperson.

Kozmo.com: delivered small goods (like a pint of ice cream) via messenger courier in under an hour to anyone in their service area. They charged normal retail rates and did not charge a delivery fee. They (erroneously) thought they could make up the difference by avoiding the expense of a retail storefront and on volume.

theGlobe.com: Broke the record as the company having the largest percentage change in its stock price on its first day of trading. CEO Stephan Paternot was famously filmed dancing in a Manhattan nightclub wearing plastic pants. Limped along in various forms until an anti-spam lawsuit forced its closure in 2007.

Kibu.com: Online community for teen girls, founded in 1999 and backed, among others, by Jim Clark. Although traffic to its website had begun to materialize, kibu.com abruptly closed its doors 46 days after a launch party in San Francisco, in October 2000. It had not run out of its $22 million in venture capital, but company officials concluded, "Kibu's timing in financial markets could not have been worse."

Pseudo.com: One of the first live streaming video websites. Pseudo produced its own content in a SoHo, NYC studio and streamed up to 7 hours of live programming a day from its website in a format divided into channels by topic.

Ritmoteca.com: One of the first online music stores retailing music on a pay-per-download basis and an early predecessor to highly successful iTunes business model. They pioneered the digital distribution deal as one of first companies to sign agreements with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Bertelsmann Music Group, and Warner Music Group.

Yadayada.com: Founded in 1999; Internet browser and portal technologies for the first generation of wireless PalmPilot and Handspring organizers, and Kyocera smartphone devices, competing with OmniSky (also defunct) and AvantGo. The name of the company came from a Hindi phrase (its CEO was of Indian origin), and not as was widely reported from the similar phrase "Yada yada yada" made famous by a Seinfeld episode (although the similarity certainly helped marketing). The business plan specified 12x as many sales as actually occurred in the first 12 months of operations. The cheap plastic, easily breakable HandSpring devices, sold directly by YadaYada via a reseller agreement, accounted for 96% of support calls vs. the magnesium cased Palm devices, despite the latter's market predominance at the time, and the resulting consumer discontent resulted in many returns and canceled contracts. The company's CEO was also CFO and embarked without oversight on disastrous, expensive marketing campaigns, such as planned Super Bowl ads without basics like a target market. 90%+ of all sales were within the Manhattan area, and the 3GL networks needed to expand the service failed to materialize after the telecom market meltdown in 2000 - - 2001. The most-hyped feature of the service was a public bathroom rank-and-search service, available in Manhattan only, which allowed users to rank bathrooms by several factors such as cleanliness, appointment, etc., and provided directions to such bathrooms based on the user's location. The company laid off practically all workers in 2001, and shutdown formally shortly afterwards. Its CEO was rumored to have fled to Canada to avoid the IRS and lawsuits filed by a few disgruntled employees who were terminated with no severance despite existing written employment contracts. The URL is now in use by another, unrelated company.

Zap.com: an internet media venture founded by Zapata Corporation, a fish protein company intent on monetizing its domain name.

United States v. Thomas

Citation. 332 C.M.R. 278 (Ct. Mil. App. 1962).

Brief Fact Summary: Defendants had intercourse with a corpse believing the girl to be alive. Defendants contested the charge of attempted rape based on factual or alternatively legal impossibility assertion.

Synopsis of Rule of Law: The crime of attempt has become one of criminal purpose implemented by an overt act strongly corroborative of such purpose.

Facts: Defendants were bar hopping on the evening in question. At one bar they met a girl who subsequently collapsed on the dance floor. Defendant carried her off the dance floor and took her to his car. Each Defendant attempted to have intercourse with the girl who remained unresponsive. Becoming concerned with her lack of consciousness, Defendants called for help and when the police arrived, they determined the girl was dead. An autopsy revealed that she died of heart failure and most likely died immediately after collapsing on the dance floor or shortly thereafter. Defendants were convicted of attempted rape. The Board reversed and found them guilty of lewd and lascivious conduct.

Hank Greenspun - Media Supporter of Gambling in Nevada

Herman "Hank" Milton Greenspun (August 27, 1909 - July 23, 1989) was the longtime, and often controversial, publisher of the Las Vegas Sun newspaper. He purchased the Sun in 1949, and served as its editor and publisher until his death.

As a young man, Greenspun became closely involved with Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and the work he was doing to reopen his Flamingo casino. Greenspun worked as the Flamingos's publicity agent. Following the murder of Siegel in 1947, Greenspun renewed his interest in his Jewish heritage and became a prominent figure in supporting the struggle to establish the State of Israel.

Greenspun began an angry feud with Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1952, publishing several articles attacking him as a demagogue. He also wrote articles accusing McCarthy of being a homosexual, an act that brought Greenspun considerable criticism, even among McCarthy foes. He became further entrenched in domestic politics when allegations were made that he held blackmail information against prominent Democratic presidential nominees.

On June 17, 1972, Virgilio Gonzalez, Bernard Barker, James W. McCord, Jr., Eugenio Martinez, and Frank Sturgis were arrested while placing electronic devices in the Democratic Party campaign offices in an apartment block called Watergate. It later emerged that people working for Richard Nixon wanted to wiretap the conversations of Larry O'Brien, chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

On May 23, 1973, James W. McCord later admitted that this group (known as the "Plumbers") had been involved in several covert activities. This included a plot to steal documents from Hank Greenspun's safe. McCord testified that Attorney General John N. Mitchell had told him that Greenspun had in his possession blackmail type information involving a Democratic candidate for President. An avowed Republican, it was assumed that Greenspun would use his political influence and connections to sway the election.

Upon his death, the Greenspun family entered the Sun into a joint operating agreement with the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The Sun operated as an afternoon daily from 1990 on. Beginning in October 2005, under an amended joint operating agreement, the paper began delivery with the morning Review-Journal.

Greenspun formed The Greenspun Corporation to manage the family's assets.

Greenspun was also heavily involved in real estate, acquiring most of the western portion of Henderson, Nevada for a development that would eventually become Green Valley. Much of the original seed money for this real estate investment was acquired through a loan from the Teamsters Union. His family still controls the majority of this land and the associated real estate developments including golf courses and the Green Valley Ranch, Resort and Spa with interest being held through The Greenspun Corporation. There is a school located in Henderson, Nevada dedicated to Hank and Barbara Greenspun.

Greenspun also started the first TV station in Nevada, KLAS-TV.

In 2008 SgpMedia produced the feature documentary about the life and times of Hank Greenspun narrated by Anthony Hopkins.

George Soros -- Number One Greedy Money Trader

DAVOS SWITZERLAND, 27JAN10 - George Soros, Chairman, Soros Fund Management, USA, captured during the session 'Rebuilding Economics' of the Annual Meeting 2010 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 27, 2010 at the Congress Centre. - by Sandstein (talk) This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

Early life:

Soros was born in Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary, the son of the Esperantist writer Tivadar Soros and Elizabeth Soros. Tivadar (also known as Teodoro) was a Hungarian Jew, who was a prisoner of war during and after World War I and eventually escaped from Russia to rejoin his family in Budapest. Tivadar taught George to speak Esperanto from birth. Soros later said that he grew up in a Jewish home and that his parents were cautious with their religious roots. Soros was thirteen years old in March 1944 when Nazi Germany occupied Hungary. Soros took a job with the Jewish Council, which had been established during the Nazi occupation of Hungary to carry out Nazi and Hungarian government anti-Jewish measures; Soros later described this time to writer Michael Lewis: “The Jewish Council asked the little kids to hand out the deportation notices. I was told to go to the Jewish Council. And there I was given these small slips of paper. . .It said report to the rabbi seminary at 9 am. . .And I was given this list of names. I took this piece of paper to my father. He instantly recognized it; this was a list of Hungarian Jewish lawyers. He said, "You deliver the slips of paper and tell the people that if they report they will be deported."

Soros emigrated to England in 1947 and, as an impoverished student, lived with his uncle, an Orthodox Jew. His uncle paid his living expenses while he attended the London School of Economics, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Philosophy in 1952.

Emigration:

In 1956, Soros moved to New York City, where he worked as an arbitrage trader with F. M. Mayer (1956 - - 59) and as an analyst with Wertheim and Co. (1959 - - 63). Throughout this time, Soros developed a philosophy of reflexivity based on the ideas of Karl Popper. Reflexivity, as used by Soros, is the belief that the action of beholding the valuation of any market, by its participants, affects said valuation of the market in a procyclical "virtuous or vicious" circle.

Soros realized, however, that he would not make any money from the concept of reflexivity until he went into investing on his own. He began to investigate how to deal in investments. From 1963 to 1973, he worked at Arnhold and S. Bleichroder, where he attained the position of Vice-President. Soros finally concluded that he was a better investor than he was a philosopher or an executive. In 1967, he persuaded the company to set up First Eagle, an offshore investment fund for him to run; and, in 1969, it founded the Double Eagle hedge fund for him.

In 1973, when investment regulations restricted his ability to run the funds as he wished, he resigned his position and established a private investment company, which evolved into the Quantum Fund. He has stated that his intent was to earn enough money on Wall Street to support himself as an author and philosopher - - he calculated that $500,000 after five years would be possible and adequate.

In 1970, Soros founded Soros Fund Management and became its Chairman with the firm's day-to-day operations being managed by Soros's two elder sons and the firm's Chief Investment Officer Keith Anderson. In August 2010, Soros bought a 4 per cent stake in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) for about $35 million.

In July 2011, Soros announced that he had returned funds from outside investors money (valued at $1 billion) and instead invested funds from his $24.5 billion family fortune due to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure rules.

On September 16, 1992, Black Wednesday, Soros's fund sold short more than $10 billion in pounds, profiting from the UK government's reluctance to either raise its interest rates to levels comparable to those of other European Exchange Rate Mechanism countries or to float its currency.

Finally, the UK withdrew from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, devaluing the pound, earning Soros an estimated $1.1 billion. He was dubbed "The man who broke the Bank of England". In 1997, the UK Treasury estimated the cost of Black Wednesday at £3.4 billion.

On Monday, October 26, 1992, The Times quoted Soros as saying: "Our total position by Black Wednesday had to be worth almost $10 billion. We planned to sell more than that. In fact, when Norman Lamont said just before the devaluation that he would borrow nearly $15 billion to defend sterling, we were amused because that was about how much we wanted to sell."

In 1997, during the Asian financial crisis, the Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir bin Mohamad accused Soros of using the wealth under his control to punish the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for welcoming Myanmar as a member. Following on a history of antisemitic remarks, Mahathir made specific reference to Soros's Jewish background ("It is a Jew who triggered the currency plunge") and implied Soros was orchestrating the crash as part of a larger Jewish conspiracy. Nine years later, in 2006, Mahathir met with Soros and afterwards stated that he accepted that Soros had not been responsible for the crisis.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is critical of Soros's effect on financial markets. "Nobody who has read a business magazine in the last few years can be unaware that these days there really are investors who not only move money in anticipation of a currency crisis, but actually do their best to trigger that crisis for fun and profit. These new actors on the scene do not yet have a standard name; my proposed term is 'Soroi.'" (Mine is Greedy Assholes PWW)

I'm only rich because I know when I'm wrong. . . I basically have survived by recognizing my mistakes.

In February 2009, Soros said the world financial system had effectively disintegrated, adding that there was no prospect of a near-term resolution to the crisis; "We witnessed the collapse of the financial system[. . .] It was placed on life support, and it's still on life support. There's no sign that we are anywhere near a bottom."

Insider trading conviction:

In 1988 Soros was interested in purchasing shares in French companies. The Socialist party had lost its majority of seats in the Assembly, and the new government under Chirac had instituted an aggressive privatization program. Many people considered shares in the newly privatized companies undervalued. During this period, a French financier named Georges Pebereau contacted one of Soros’ advisors in an effort to assemble a group of investors to purchase a large amount of shares in Societe Generale, a leading French bank that was part of the program.

The advisor reported to Soros that Pebereau's plan was ambiguous and included an implausible takeover plan (it would indeed fail). On that advice, and without ever meeting the financier, Soros decided against participating. He did, however, move forward with his strategy of accumulating shares in four French companies: Societe Generale, as well as Suez, Paribas and the Compagnie Generale d’Electricite.

In 1989, the Commission des Operations de Bourse (the French stock exchange regulatory authority) conducted an investigation of whether Soros' transaction in Societe Generale should be considered insider trading. Soros had received no information from the Societe Generale, and had no insider knowledge of the business, but he did possess knowledge that a group of investors was planning a takeover attempt. The COB concluded that the statutes, regulations and case law relating to insider trading did not clearly establish that a crime had occurred, and that no charges should be brought against Soros.

Several years later, a Paris-based prosecutor reopened the case against Soros and two other French businessmen, disregarding the COB's findings. This resulted in Soros' 2005 conviction for insider trading by the Court of Appeals (he was the only one of the three to receive a conviction). The French Supreme Court confirmed the conviction on June 14, 2006, but reduced the penalty to the minimum.

Punitive damages were not sought because of the delay in bringing the case to trial. Soros denied any wrongdoing, saying news of the takeover was public knowledge, and it was documented that his intent to acquire shares of the company predated his own awareness of the takeover.

His insider trading conviction was upheld by the highest court in France on June 14, 2006. In December 2006, he appealed to the European Court of Human Rights on various grounds including that the 14-year delay in bringing the case to trial precluded a fair hearing. On the basis of Article 7 of the European convention on human rights, stating that no person may be punished for an act that was not a criminal offense at the time that it was committed, the Court agreed to hear the appeal. In October 2011, the court rejected his appeal in a 4 - - 3 decision, saying that Soros has been aware of the risk of breaking insider trading laws.

He received honorary doctoral degrees from the New School for Social Research (New York), the University of Oxford in 1980, the Corvinus University of Budapest, and Yale University in 1991. Soros also received the Yale International Center for Finance Award from the Yale School of Management in 2000 as well as the Laurea Honoris Causa, the highest honor of the University of Bologna in 1995.

Soros played a role in the peaceful transition from communism to capitalism in Hungary (1984 - - 89) and provided Europe's largest-ever higher education endowment to Central European University in Budapest. Later, the Open Society Institute's programs in Georgia were considered by Russian and Western observers to have been crucial in the success of the Rose Revolution.

In the United States, he donated large sums of money in an effort to defeat President George W. Bush's bid for re-election in 2004. In 2010, he donated $1 million in support of Proposition 19, which would have legalized marijuana in the state of California. He was an initial donor to the Center for American Progress, and he continues to support the organization through the Open Society Foundations.

In an interview with The Washington Post on November 11, 2003, Soros said that removing President George W. Bush from office was the "central focus of my life" and "a matter of life and death." He said he would sacrifice his entire fortune to defeat President Bush, "if someone guaranteed it." Soros gave $3 million to the Center for American Progress, $2.5 million to MoveOn.org, and $20 million to America Coming Together. These groups worked to support Democrats in the 2004 election. On September 28, 2004 he dedicated more money to the campaign and kicked off his own multi-state tour with a speech: Why We Must Not Re-elect President Bush, delivered at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The online transcript to this speech received many hits after Dick Cheney accidentally referred to FactCheck.org as "factcheck.com" in the Vice Presidential debate, causing the owner of that domain to redirect all traffic to Soros's site. Asked in 2006 about his statement in The Age of Fallibility that "The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States", Soros responded that "it happens to coincide with the prevailing opinion in the world; and I think that's rather shocking for Americans to hear. The United States sets the agenda for the world; and the rest of the world has to respond to that agenda. By declaring a 'war on terror' after September 11, we set the wrong agenda for the world… when you wage war, you inevitably create innocent victims."

On October 26, 2010, Soros donated $1 million, the largest donation in the campaign, to the Drug Policy Alliance to fund Proposition 19, which would have legalized marijuana in the state of California, if it had passed in the November 2, 2010 elections.

Soros has funded worldwide efforts to promote drug policy reform. In 2008, Soros donated $400,000 to help fund a successful ballot measure in Massachusetts known as the Massachusetts Sensible Marijuana Policy Initiative which decriminalized possession of less than 1 oz (28g) of marijuana in the state. Soros has also funded similar measures in California, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Nevada, and Maine. Among the drug decriminalization groups that have received funding from Soros are the Lindesmith Center and Drug Policy Foundation. Soros donated $1.4 million to publicity efforts to support California's Proposition 5 in 2008, a failed ballot measure that would have expanded drug rehabilitation programs as alternatives to prison for persons convicted of non-violent drug-related offenses.

In October 2010, Soros donated $1 million to support California's Proposition 19.

According to remarks in an interview in October 2009, it is Soros's opinion that marijuana is less addictive but not appropriate for use by children and students. He himself has not used marijuana for years.

Despite working as an investor and currency speculator, he argues that the current system of financial speculation undermines healthy economic development in many underdeveloped countries (Because of scammers like Soros himself). Soros blames many of the world's problems on the failures inherent in what he characterizes as market fundamentalism. His opposition to many aspects of globalization has made him a controversial figure.

Soros claims to draw a distinction between being a participant in the market and working to change the rules that market participants must follow. (Yes the rules need to be changed to eliminate currency trading: a one world currency!!! PWW)

In an interview regarding the late-2000s recession, Soros referred to it as the most serious crisis since the 1930s. According to Soros, market fundamentalism with its assumption that markets will correct themselves with no need for government intervention in financial affairs has been "some kind of an ideological excess". In Soros' view, the markets' moods - - a "mood" of the markets being a prevailing bias or optimism/pessimism with which the markets look at reality - - "Actually can reinforce themselves so that there are these initially self-reinforcing but eventually unsustainable and self-defeating boom/bust sequences or bubbles".

In reaction to the late-2000s recession, he founded the Institute for New Economic Thinking in October 2009. This is a think tank composed of international economic, business and financial experts, mandated to investigate radical new approaches to organizing the international economic and financial system.

Views on China:

Soros has expressed concern about the growth of Chinese economic and political power. "China has risen very rapidly by looking out for its own interests . . . They have now got to accept responsibility for world order and the interests of other people as well.” Regarding the political gridlock in America, he said, "Today China has not only a more vigorous economy, but actually a better functioning government than the United States.”

Wealth:

On September 21st 2011, Forbes announced that Soros, at 81, has for the first time made the list of the 10 wealthiest Americans, with a net worth estimated at $22.0 billion. According to this list, Soros is the 46th richest person in the world. Soros has given away $8 billion to various causes since 1979.

(Think about the millions of people that contributed to his wealth through his ruthless financial manipulations/scams. His $8 billion in good donations won’t get him into some kind of heaven. PWW 2011)

Here is a guy that could afford a million of the finest rent-a-girls on the face of the earth; but, I bet the fucker’s dick doesn’t work any more. (PWW)

So; what good is it to be so greedy, ruining countries money and getting massive amounts of money by squeezing it out of people’s retirement funds.(PWW)

Someone needs to go around and kill about fifty of the world’s greediest ass holes; too bad I don’t have the resources to do it. Then donate their money to the Social Security Fund of that particular country, so it will benefit the real people.(PEE)

Someone in my fiction book is scamming some of the scammers, in book 10. PWW 2011

Carlos Slim - World’s Most Greedy Price Gouger

Mexican businessman Carlos Slim Helu - 24 October 2007

- This photograph was produced by Agencia Brasil, a public Brazilian news agency

Slim and his siblings were taught basic business practices by their father, and at the age of 12 Slim bought shares in a Mexican bank. He went on to study engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, while simultaneously teaching algebra and linear programming there. In 1965, he incorporated Inversora Bursatil and then bought Jarritos del Sur. In 1966, already worth US$40 million, he founded Inmobiliaria Carso. Three months later he married Soumaya Domit Gemayel (the Carso name derives from the first three letters of Carlo and the first two of Soumaya) and they remained married until her death in 1999.

Construction, real estate, and mining businesses were the focus of his early career; by 1972 he had established or acquired a further seven businesses in these categories, including one which rented construction equipment. In 1976 he branched out by buying a 60% interest in a printing business, and in 1980 he consolidated his business interests by forming Grupo Galas as the parent company of a conglomerate that had interests in industry, construction, mining, retail, food and tobacco.

In 1990 the Grupo Carso was floated as a public company, with share placements initially in Mexico and then worldwide.

Later in 1990 he acted in concert with France Telecom and Southwestern Bell Corporation in order to buy landline telephony company Telmex from the Mexican government. By 2006, 90 percent of the telephone lines in Mexico are operated by Telmex, whilst his mobile telephony company, Telcel, operates almost eighty percent of all the country's cellphones. Telcel was created out of the Radiomovil Dipsa company.

America Telecom, the holding company for America Movil was incorporated in 2000. It took stakes in various cellular telephone companies outside Mexico, including the Brazilian ATL and Telecom Americas concerns, Techtel in Argentina, and others in Guatemala and Ecuador. In subsequent years there was further investment in this sphere, including deals involving companies in Colombia, Nicaragua, Peru, Chile, Honduras and El Salvador. 2000 also saw a venture with Microsoft which led to the start of the Spanish T1msn portal, later renamed ProdigyMSN.

Personal wealth:

On March 29, 2007, Slim surpassed Warren Buffett as the world's second richest person with an estimated net worth of $53.1 billion compared to Buffet's $52.4 billion.

On August 4, 2007, The Wall Street Journal ran a cover story profiling Slim. The article said, "While the market value of his stake in publicly traded companies could decline at any time, at the moment he is probably wealthier than Bill Gates". According to The Wall Street Journal, Slim credits part of his ability to "discover investment opportunities" early to the writings of his friend, futurist author Alvin Toffler.

On August 8, 2007, Fortune reported that Slim had overtaken Gates as the world's richest man. Slim's estimated fortune soared to $59 billion, based on the value of his public holdings at the end of July; Gates' net worth was estimated to be at least $58 billion.

On March 10, 2010, Forbes once again reported that Slim had overtaken Gates as the world's richest man, with a net worth of $53.5 billion. Gates and Buffett now have a net worth of $53 billion and $47 billion respectively. He was the first Mexican to top the list. It was the first time in 16 years that the person on top of the list was not from the United States. It was also the first time the person at the top of the list was from an "emerging economy."

In March 2011, Forbes stated that Slim had maintained his position as the wealthiest person in the world, with his fortune estimated at $74 billion.

Achievements and directorships:

Slim has been vice-president of the Mexican Stock Exchange and president of the Mexican Association of Brokerage Houses. He was the first president of the Latin-American Committee of the New York Stock Exchange Administration Council, and was in office from 1996 through 1998.

Slim was on the Board of Directors of the Altria Group (previously known as Philip Morris) until his resignation in April 2006; Slim was also on the Board of Directors of Alcatel. Slim currently sits on the Board of Directors for Philip Morris International. He was on the Board of Directors of SBC Communications until July 2004, when he quit to devote more time to the World Education and Development Fund, which is focused on infrastructure, health, and education projects. In 1997, just before the company introduced its iMac line, Slim bought 3% of Apple Inc.'s stock.

Criticism:

The Mexican magnate's growing fortune has caused a controversy because it has been amassed in a developing country where per capita income does not surpass $14,500 a year, and nearly 17% of the population lives in poverty. Critics claim that Slim is a monopolist, pointing to Telmex's control of 90% of the Mexican landline telephone market. Slim's wealth is the equivalent of roughly 5% of Mexico's annual economic output. Telmex, of which 49.1% is owned by Slim and his family, charges among the highest usage fees in the world, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

According to Professor Celso Garrido, an economist at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Slim's domination of Mexico's conglomerates prevents the growth of smaller companies, resulting in a shortage of paying jobs and forcing many Mexicans to seek better lives north of the Rio Grande.

"When you live for others' opinions, you are dead. I don't want to live thinking about how I'll be remembered.” Slim claims indifference about his position on Forbes list of the world’s richest people and says he has no interest in becoming the world's richest person. When asked to explain his sudden increase in wealth at a press conference soon after Forbes annual rankings were published, he reportedly said, "The stock market goes up . . . and down", and noted that his fortune could quickly drop.

Bill Gates - Software Monopolist - Price Gouger

Bill Gates was photographed by the Albuquerque, New Mexico police in 1977 after a traffic violation (details of which have been lost over time)

Author: Albuquerque, New Mexico police department

Bill Gates at the World Economic Forum , 26 January 2007

Copyright World Economic Forum (www.weforum.org), swiss-image.ch/Photo by Severin Nowacki - This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

3 June 2009 Cropped Author: Kjetil Ree

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955), is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, author, and former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people, and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked third. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder, with more than 8 percent of the common stock. He has also authored or co-authored several books.

Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is admired by many, a number of industry insiders criticize his business tactics; which they consider anti-competitive, an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts. In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000.

Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January 2000; he remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect. In June 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work, and full-time work at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie, chief software architect, and Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer. Gates' last full-time day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. He remains at Microsoft as non-executive chairman.

Antitrust litigation:

Many decisions that led to antitrust litigation over Microsoft's business practices have had Gates' approval. In the 1998 United States v. Microsoft case, Gates gave deposition testimony that several journalists characterized as evasive . He argued with examiner David Boies over the contextual meaning of words like "compete", "concerned" and "we".

BusinessWeek reported: “Early rounds of his deposition show him offering obfuscatory answers and saying 'I don't recall,' so many times that even the presiding judge had to chuckle. Worse, many of the technology chief's denials and pleas of ignorance were directly refuted by prosecutors with snippets of e-mail that Gates both sent and received.”

Gates later said he had simply resisted attempts by Boies to mischaracterize his words and actions. As to his demeanor during the deposition, he said, "Did I fence with Boies? . . . I plead guilty. Whatever that penalty is should be levied against me: rudeness to Boies in the first degree." Despite Gates's denials, the judge ruled that Microsoft had committed monopolization and tying, and blocking competition, both in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Paul Allen - A good Guy

Paul Allen in 2005

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

Paul Gardner Allen (born January 21, 1953) is an American business magnate, investor, real estate developer and philanthropist. Allen co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates. He is also the 57th richest along with Viktor Vekselberg and Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor ( and family) who all rank the same with an estimated wealth of $13 billion as of 2011. He is the founder and chairman of Vulcan Inc., which manages his business and philanthropic efforts. Allen also has a multi-billion dollar investment portfolio which includes technology companies such as Evri and Gist, real estate holdings, and stakes in other technology, media, and content companies. Allen also owns two professional sports teams, the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL), and the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is also part-owner of the Seattle Sounders FC, which joined Major League Soccer (MLS) in 2009. Allen's memoir Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft was released on April 19, 2011.

Microsoft:

Allen co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1975, and began marketing a BASIC programming language interpreter. Allen came up with the original name of "Micro-Soft," as recounted in a 1995 Fortune magazine article. In 1980, after promising to deliver IBM a Disk Operating System (DOS) they had not yet developed for the Intel 8088-based IBM PC, Allen spearheaded a deal for Microsoft to purchase a Quick and Dirty Operating System (QDOS) written by Tim Paterson who, at the time, was employed at Seattle Computer Products. As a result of this transaction, Microsoft was able to secure a contract to supply the DOS that would eventually run on IBM's PC line. This contract with IBM was the watershed in Microsoft history that led to Allen and Gates's fabulous wealth.

Allen was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1982. His cancer was successfully treated by several months of radiation therapy. However, he did not return to Microsoft and began distancing himself from the company. Allen officially resigned from his position on the Microsoft board in November 2000 but was asked to consult as a senior strategy advisor to the company's executives. He sold 68 million shares of Microsoft stock that year, but still owns a reported 138 million shares.

Steve Jobs - iCon-Man

Credit: Matt Yohe - - Wikipedia 2010

Walter Mossberg and Kara Swisher interview Steve Jobs and Bill Gates at 'D5: All Things Digital' conference in Carlsbad, California, in 2007

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Jobs demonstrating the iPhone 4 to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on 23 June 2010

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Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs (February 24, 1955 - - October 5, 2011) was an American business magnate and inventor. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Jobs was co-founder and previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of the Walt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney.

In the late 1970s, Jobs - - along with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Mike Markkula and others - - designed, developed, and marketed one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of the Apple Lisa and, one year later, the Macintosh. After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs left Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher-education and business markets.

In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd, which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios. He was credited in Toy Story (1995) as an executive producer. He remained CEO and majority shareholder at 50.1 percent until its acquisition by The Walt Disney Company in 2006, making Jobs Disney's largest individual shareholder at seven percent and a member of Disney's Board of Directors. Apple's 1996 buyout of NeXT brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he served as its interim CEO from 1997, then becoming permanent CEO from 2000 onwards, spearheading the advent of the iPod, iPhone and iPad. From 2003, he fought a eight-year battle with cancer, and eventually resigned as CEO in August 2011, while on his third medical leave. He was then elected chairman of Apple's board of directors.

On October 5, 2011, around 3:00 p.m., Jobs died at his home in Palo Alto, California, aged 56, six weeks after resigning as CEO of Apple. A copy of his death certificate indicated respiratory arrest as the immediate cause of death, with "metastatic pancreas neuroendocrine tumor" as the underlying cause. His occupation was listed as "entrepreneur" in the "high tech" business.

Wealth:

Jobs earned only $1 a year as CEO of Apple, but held 5.426 million Apple shares, as well as 138 million shares in Disney (which he received in exchange for Disney's acquisition of Pixar). Jobs quipped that the $1 per annum he was paid by Apple was based on attending one meeting for 50 cents while the other 50 cents was based on his performance. Forbes estimated his net wealth at $8.3 billion in 2010, making him the 42nd wealthiest American.

Stock options backdating issue:

In 2001, Jobs was granted stock options in the amount of 7.5 million shares of Apple, with an exercise price of $18.30. It was alleged that the options had been backdated, and that the exercise price should have been $21.10. It was further alleged that Jobs had thereby incurred taxable income of $20,000,000 that he did not report, and that Apple overstated its earnings by that same amount. As a result, Jobs potentially faced a number of criminal charges and civil penalties. The case was the subject of active criminal and civil government investigations, though an independent internal Apple investigation completed on December 29, 2006, found that Jobs was unaware of these issues, and that the options granted to him were returned without being exercised in 2003.

On July 1, 2008, a $7 billion class action suit was filed against several members of the Apple Board of Directors for revenue lost due to the alleged securities fraud.

Management style:

Much was made of Jobs's aggressive and demanding personality. Fortune wrote that he was "considered one of Silicon Valley's leading egomaniacs.”

Cofounder Dan'l Lewin was quoted in Fortune as saying of that period, "The highs were unbelievable . . . But the lows were unimaginable", to which Jobs's office replied that his personality had changed since then.

In 2005, Jobs banned all books published by John Wiley and Sons from Apple Stores in response to their publishing an unauthorized biography, iCon: Steve Jobs. In its 2010 annual earnings report, Wiley said it had "closed a deal . . . to make its titles available for the iPad.". Jef Raskin, a former colleague, once said that Jobs "would have made an excellent king of France", alluding to Jobs's compelling and larger-than-life persona. Floyd Norman said that at Pixar, Jobs was a "mature, mellow individual" and never interfered with the creative process of the filmmakers.

Criticism:

Free software pioneer Richard Stallman dissented from the prevailing hagiographic views of Jobs in his blog, to draw attention to the legendary tight control that Apple exercised as corporate policy over their computers and handheld devices, restrictions over media and uses, and persistent violations of privacy: "Steve Jobs, the pioneer of the computer as a jail made cool, designed to sever fools from their freedom, has died".

USA Article

Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett speaking to a group of students from the Kansas University School of Business 6 May 2005

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Warren Edward Buffett (born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is widely regarded as one of the most successful investors in the world. Often introduced as "Legendary investor, Warren Buffett", he is the primary shareholder, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people. He was ranked as the world's wealthiest person in 2008, and is the third wealthiest person in the world as of 2011.

Buffett is called the "Wizard of Omaha", "Oracle of Omaha", or the "Sage of Omaha", and is noted for his adherence to the value investing philosophy and for his personal frugality despite his immense wealth. Buffett is also a notable philanthropist, having pledged to give away 99 percent of his fortune to philanthropic causes, primarily via the Gates Foundation. He also serves as a member of the board of trustees at Grinnell College.

Buffett was born in 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska, the second of three children and only son of U.S. Representative Howard Buffett, a fierce critic of the interventionist New Deal domestic and foreign policy.

Buffett became involved with Maurice R. Greenberg at AIG, with General Re providing reinsurance. On March 15, 2005, AIG's board forced Greenberg to resign from his post as Chairman and CEO under the shadow of criticism from Eliot Spitzer, former attorney general of the state of New York. On February 9, 2006, AIG and the New York State Attorney General's office agreed to a settlement in which AIG would pay a fine of $1.6 billion. In 2010, the federal government settled with Berkshire Hathaway for $92 million in return for the firm avoiding prosecution in an AIG fraud scheme, and undergoing 'corporate governance concessions'.

In 2002, Buffett entered in $11 billion worth of forward contracts to deliver U.S. dollars against other currencies. By April 2006, his total gain on these contracts was over $2 billion.

Buffett ran into criticism during the subprime crisis of 2007 -- 2008, part of the late 2000s recession, that he had allocated capital too early resulting in suboptimal deals. “Buy American. I am.” he wrote for an opinion piece published recently in the New York Times. Buffett has called the 2007—present downturn in the financial sector "poetic justice". Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway suffered a 77% drop in earnings during Q3 2008 and several of his recent deals appear to be running into large mark-to-market losses.

Berkshire Hathaway acquired 10% perpetual preferred stock of Goldman Sachs. Some of Buffett's Index put options (European exercise at expiry only) that he wrote (sold) are currently running around $6.73 billion mark-to-market losses. The scale of the potential loss prompted the SEC to demand that Berkshire produce, "a more robust disclosure" of factors used to value the contracts. Buffett also helped Dow Chemical pay for its $18.8 billion takeover of Rohm and Haas. He thus became the single largest shareholder in the enlarged group with his Berkshire Hathaway, which provided $3 billion, underlining his instrumental role during the current crisis in debt and equity markets.

On March 18, 2011, Goldman Sachs acquired Federal Reserve approval to buy back Berkshire's preferred stock in Goldman. Buffet has been reluctant to give up the stock which averaged $1.4 million in dividends a day, stating: “I'm going to be the Osama bin Laden of capitalism; I'm on my way to an unknown destination in Asia where I'm going to look for a cave. If the U.S. Armed forces can't find Osama bin Laden in 10 years, let Goldman Sachs try to find me.”

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President Barack Obama and Warren Buffett in the Oval Office, July 14, 2010

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Politics:

In addition to other political contributions over the years, Buffett has formally endorsed and made campaign contributions to Barack Obama's presidential campaign. On July 2, 2008, Buffett attended a $28,500 per plate fundraiser for Obama's campaign in Chicago hosted by Obama's National Finance Chair, Penny Pritzker and her husband, as well as Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett. Buffett backed Obama for president, and intimated that John McCain's views on social justice were so far from his own that McCain would need a "lobotomy" for Buffett to change his endorsement. During the second 2008 U.S. presidential debate, candidates John McCain and Barack Obama, after being asked first by presidential debate mediator Tom Brokaw, both mentioned Buffett as a possible future Secretary of the Treasury. Later, in the third and final presidential debate, Obama mentioned Buffett as a potential economic advisor. Buffett was also finance advisor to California Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger during his 2003 election campaign

During the RJR Nabisco, Inc. hostile takeover fight in 1987, Buffett was quoted as telling John Gutfreund: “I’ll tell you why I like the cigarette business. It costs a penny to make. Sell it for a dollar. It’s addictive. And there’s fantastic brand loyalty.” Buffett, quoted in Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco.

Dollar and gold:

The trade deficit induced Buffett to enter the foreign currency market for the first time in 2002. However, he substantially reduced his stake in 2005 as changing interest rates increased the costs of holding currency contracts. Buffett continues to be bearish on the dollar, and says he is looking to acquire companies which derive a substantial portion of their revenues from outside the United States. Buffett emphasized the non-productive aspect of a gold standard for the USD in 1998 at Harvard: “It gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.”

Buffett stated that he only paid 19% of his income for 2006 ($48.1 million) in total federal taxes (due to their being from dividends and capital gains), while his employees paid 33% of theirs, despite making much less money. “How can this be fair?” Buffet asked, regarding how little he pays in taxes compared to his employees. “How can this be right?” He also added: “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

Oral Roberts - Faith Healer = Religion Scammer

Granville "Oral" Roberts (January 24, 1918 - - December 15, 2009) was an American Pentecostal televangelist and a Christian charismatic. He founded the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association and Oral Roberts University.

As one of the most well-known and controversial religious leaders of the 20th century, Roberts' ministries reached millions of followers worldwide spanning a period of over six decades. His healing ministry and bringing American Pentecostalism into the mainstream had the most impact, but he also pioneered TV evangelism and laid the foundations of the prosperity gospel and abundant life teachings.

Roberts became a traveling faith healer after ending his college studies without a degree. According to a TIME Magazine profile of 1972, Roberts originally made a name for himself with a large mobile tent "that sat 3,000 on metal folding chairs" where "he shouted at petitioners who did not respond to his healing."

At the age of 29 Roberts claims he picked up his Bible and it fell open at the Third Epistle of John where verse two read: "I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." Roberts decided immediately that it was all right to be rich. The next day he said he bought a Buick and God appeared, he said, telling him to heal the sick.

He also ran direct mail campaigns of seed-faith, which appealed to poor Americans, often from ethnic minorities. At its peak in the early 1980s, Roberts was the leader of a $120 million-a-year organization employing 2,300 people. This spanned not only a university but also a medical school and hospital as well as buildings on 50 acres (200,000 m2) south of Tulsa valued at $500 million.

Roberts was a pioneer televangelist, and attracted a vast viewership. He began broadcasting by radio in 1947, and began broadcasting his revivals by television in 1954.

In 1996, he founded Golden Eagle Broadcasting.

In 1977, Roberts claimed to have had a vision from a 900-foot-tall Jesus who told him to build City of Faith Medical and Research Center, and the hospital would be a success.

In 1983 Roberts said Jesus had appeared to him in person and commissioned him to find a cure for cancer.

Roberts' fundraising was controversial. In January 1987, during a fundraising drive, Roberts announced to a television audience that unless he raised $8 million by that March, God would "call him home." Some were fearful that he was referring to suicide, given the impassioned pleas and tears that accompanied his statement. He raised $9.1 million. Later that year, he announced that God had raised the dead through Roberts' ministry. Some of Roberts' fundraising letters were written by Gene Ewing, who headed a business writing donation letters for other evangelicals such as Don Stewart and Robert Tilton.

Roberts maintained his love of finery and one obituary claimed that even when times become hard, "he continued to wear his Italian silk suits, diamond rings and gold bracelets - - airbrushed out by his staff on publicity pictures".

He stirred up controversy when Time reported in 1987 that his son Richard Roberts claimed that he had seen his father raise a child from the dead. That year, the Bloom County comic strip recast its character Bill the Cat as a satirized televangelist, "Fundamentally Oral Bill." In 1987 Time stated that he was "re-emphasizing faith healing and [is] reaching for his old-time constituency." However, his income continued to decrease (from $88 million in 1980 to $55 million in 1986, according to the Tulsa Tribune) and his largely vacant City of Faith Medical Center continued to lose money.

Harry McNevin said that in 1988 the ORU Board of Regents "rubber-stamped" the "use of millions in endowment money to buy a Beverly Hills property so that Oral Roberts could have a West Coast office and house". In addition, he said a country club membership was purchased for the Roberts' home. The lavish expenses led to McNevin's resignation from the Board.

His organizations were also affected by scandals involving other televangelists, and the City of Faith hospital was forced to close in 1989, after losing money. Roberts was forced to respond with the sale of his holiday homes in Palm Springs and Beverly Hills as well as three of his Mercedes cars.

Jim Bakker - - Religion Scammer/Scumbag

Highly cropped Non-Copyrighted web posting

James Orsen "Jim" Bakker (born January 2, 1940, pronounced "Baker") is an American televangelist, a former Assemblies of God minister, and a former host (with his then-wife Tammy Faye Bakker) of The PTL Club, a popular evangelical Christian television program.

A sex scandal led to his resignation from the ministry. Subsequent revelations of accounting fraud brought about his imprisonment and divorce and effectively ended his time in the larger public eye.

Scandals:

PTL's fund raising activities between 1984 - - 1987 underwent scrutiny by The Charlotte Observer newspaper, eventually leading to criminal charges against Jim Bakker. From 1984 to 1987, Bakker and his PTL associates sold $1,000 "lifetime memberships", which entitled buyers to a three-night stay annually at a luxury hotel at Heritage USA. According to the prosecution at Bakker's later fraud trial, tens of thousands of memberships had been sold, but only one 500-room hotel was ever completed. Bakker "sold" more "exclusive partnerships" than could be accommodated, while raising more than twice the money needed to build the actual hotel. A good deal of the money went into Heritage USA's operating expenses, and Bakker kept $3.4 million in bonuses for himself. A $279,000 payoff for the silence of Jessica Hahn, a staff secretary at the church, was paid with PTL's funds to Hahn through Bakker associate Roe Messner, who later married Tammy Fay Bakker. Bakker, who apparently made all of the financial decisions for the PTL organization, allegedly kept two sets of books to conceal the accounting irregularities. Reporters from The Charlotte Observer, led by Charles Shepard, investigated and published a series of articles regarding the PTL organization's finances.

On March 19, 1987, following the revelation of a payoff to Jessica Hahn to keep secret her allegation that Bakker and another minister had raped her, Bakker resigned from PTL. Bakker acknowledges he met Hahn at a hotel room in Clearwater Beach, Florida, but denies raping her. Following Bakker's resignation as PTL head, he was succeeded in late March, 1987, by Jerry Falwell. Later that summer, as donations sharply declined in the wake of Bakker's resignation and the end of the Bakkers' popular PTL Club TV show, Falwell raised $20 million to help keep the Heritage USA Theme Park solvent, including a well-publicized waterslide plunge there. Falwell called Bakker a liar, an embezzler, a sexual deviant, and "the greatest scab and cancer on the face of Christianity in 2,000 years of church history". (Sounds like the pot calling the kettle black. PWW) In 1988, Falwell said that the Bakker scandal had "strengthened broadcast evangelism and made Christianity stronger, more mature and more committed". Bakker's son, Jay, wrote in 2001 that the Bakkers felt betrayed by Falwell, who they thought, at the time of Bakker's resignation, intended to help in Bakker's eventual restoration as head of the PTL ministry organization.

Legal problems:

Following a 16-month Federal grand jury probe, Bakker was indicted in 1988 on eight counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy. In 1989, after a five-week trial which began on August 28 in Charlotte, the jury found him guilty on all 24 counts, and Judge Robert Potter sentenced him to 45 years in federal prison and a $500,000 fine.

He served time in the Federal Medical Center, Rochester, in Rochester, Minnesota, sharing a cell with activist Lyndon LaRouche and skydiver Roger Nelson.

In early 1991, a federal appeals court upheld Bakker's conviction on the fraud and conspiracy charges, but voided Bakker's 45-year sentence, as well as the $500,000 fine, and ordered that a new sentencing hearing be held.

Jim and Tammy Bakker were divorced on March 13, 1992. On November 16, 1992, a sentence reduction hearing was held and Bakker's sentence was reduced to eight years.

In August 1993, Bakker was transferred to a minimum security federal prison in Jesup, Georgia, and was subsequently granted parole in July 1994, after serving almost five years of his sentence. Bakker's son, Jay, spearheaded a letter-writing campaign to the parole board on his father's behalf, urging leniency.

His Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) number was 07407-058, and he was released from BOP custody on December 1, 1994.

On July 23, 1996, a North Carolina jury threw out a class action suit brought on behalf of more than 160,000 onetime supporters who contributed as much as $7,000 each to Bakker's coffers in the 1980s.

The Charlotte Observer reported that the Internal Revenue Service still holds Bakker and Roe Messner, Tammy Faye's husband from 1993 until her death in 2007, liable for personal income taxes owed from the 1980s when they were building the PTL empire, taxes assessed after the IRS revoked the PTL ministry's nonprofit status. Tammy Faye Messner's new husband said that the original tax amount was about $500,000, with penalties and interest accounting for the rest. Notices stating the IRS liens list still identify "James O. and Tamara F. Bakker" as owing $6,000,000, liens on which Jim Bakker still pays.

Tammy Faye (Bakker) Messner - Religion Scammer

Tammy Faye Messner Date 14 April 2004 Source “The higher the hair, the closer to the lord” Author Darwin Bell

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Tamara Faye LaValley Bakker Messner (March 7, 1942 - - July 20, 2007) was an American Christian singer, evangelist, entrepreneur, author, talk show host, and television personality. She was married to televangelist, and later convicted felon, Jim Bakker (1961 - - 92). She co-hosted with him on The PTL Club (1976 - - 87). She was a participant in the 2004 season of the reality show The Surreal Life.

PTL collapse:

The Bakkers' control of PTL collapsed in 1987 after revelations that $287,000 had been paid from the organization to buy the silence of Jessica Hahn, who claims a forced sexual encounter with Jim Bakker.

The revelations invited scrutiny of the Bakkers, and charges made about their opulent lifestyle, including media reports of an air-conditioned doghouse at their Tega Cay, South Carolina, lakefront parsonage as well as gold-plated bathroom fixtures, dominated newscasts in the 1980s. The Bakkers' home, owned by the ministry, was actually an older home built in the early 1970s, and it was a few miles away from Heritage USA. Jim Bakker stated that the much-talked-about dog house was heated with an old heater to keep the dogs warm in the winter and the reported gold-plated fixtures were actually brass. The home was later sold by the ministry and burned to the ground not long thereafter. Jim Bakker wrote in his book I Was Wrong ,that he watched the home burn on live television while incarcerated.

Her second husband was jailed and she was first diagnosed with colon cancer, she re-entered the public eye in a series of books, movies and television appearances.

Jerry Falwell - Religion Scammer and Right-Wing Super-Screwball

Dr. Jerry Falwell (2007), the founder of Liberty University, was a Christian pastor and televangelist

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Jerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. (August 11, 1933 - - May 15, 2007) was an evangelical fundamentalist Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator from the United States. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia. He founded Lynchburg Christian Academy (now Liberty Christian Academy) in 1967, Liberty University in 1971, and cofounded the Moral Majority in 1979.

In 1956, at age 22, Falwell founded the Thomas Road Baptist Church of Lynchburg, (TRBC) where he served as pastor. The Church went on to become a megachurch, and is now run by Jerry Falwell's son Jonathan Falwell, who serves in the same capacity as his father.

Moral Majority:

In 1979, Falwell founded the Moral Majority, which became one of the largest political lobby groups for evangelical Christians in the United States during the 1980s. The Moral Majority was founded as being "pro-family", "pro-life", "pro-defense" and pro-Israel. The group is credited with delivering two thirds of the white, evangelical Christian vote to Ronald Reagan during the 1980 presidential election. During his time as head of the Moral Majority, Falwell consistently pushed for Republican candidates and for conservative politics. This led Billy Graham, and other conservative Christian leaders, to criticize him for sermons about political issues that lacked a moral element. (Note: it is illegal to mention politics and retain the tax exempt status; I guess he is an exception to the rule for being a good Republican. PWW)

Civil rights:

On his evangelist program The Old-Time Gospel Hour in the mid 1960s, Falwell regularly featured segregationist politicians like Lester Maddox and George Wallace. About Martin Luther King he said: "I do question the sincerity and nonviolent intentions of some civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mr. James Farmer, and others, who are known to have left wing associations."

In speaking of the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, he said, in 1958:

"If Chief Justice Warren and his associates had known God's word and had desired to do the Lord's will, I am quite confident that the 1954 decision would never had been made. The facilities should be separate. When God has drawn a line of distinction, we should not attempt to cross that line."

In 1977, Falwell supported Anita Bryant's campaign, which was called by its proponents "Save Our Children", to overturn an ordinance in Dade County, Florida prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and he supported a similar movement in California.

“Jews can make more money accidentally than you can on purpose”, was another of his famious lines.

Falwell condemned homosexuality as forbidden by the Bible. Pro-gay rights groups called Falwell an "agent of intolerance" and "the founder of the anti-gay industry" for statements he has made and for campaigning against LGBT social movements. Falwell told one crowd, "Gay folks would just as soon kill you as look at you."

Falwell also regularly linked the AIDS pandemic to LGBT issues and stated, "AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals, it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals." Amongst many remarks over the years he is probably most known for statements attributed to him about a Teletubby being a homosexual role model for homosexual recruitment and stating that LGBT organizations angered God, thereby in part causing God to let the September 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina happen.

Labor unions:

Falwell has also said, "Labor unions should study and read the Bible instead of asking for more money. When people get right with God, they are better workers."

SEC and bonds:

In 1972, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched an investigation of bonds issued by Falwell's organizations. The SEC charged Falwell's church with "fraud and deceit" in the issuance of $6.5 million in unsecured church bonds. The church won a 1973 federal court case prosecuted at the behest of the SEC, in which the Court exonerated the church and ruled that while technical violations of law did occur, there was no proof the Church intended any wrong-doing.

Falwell versus Penthouse:

Falwell filed a $10 million lawsuit against Penthouse for publishing an article based upon interviews he gave to freelance reporters, after failing to convince a federal court to place an injunction upon the publication of that article. The suit was dismissed in Federal district court on the grounds that the article was not defamatory or an invasion of Falwell's privacy (the Virginia courts had not recognized this privacy tort, which is recognized in other states).

Falwell versus Hustler:

In November 1983, Larry Flynt's pornographic magazine, Hustler, carried a parody advertisement of a Campari ad, featuring a fake interview with Falwell in which he admits that his "first time" was incest with his mother in an outhouse while drunk. Falwell sued for $45 million in compensation alleging invasion of privacy, libel, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. A jury rejected the invasion of privacy and libel claims, holding that the parody could not have reasonably been taken to describe true events, but ruled in favor of Falwell on the emotional distress claim. This was upheld on appeal. Flynt then appealed to the Supreme Court, winning a unanimous decision on February 24, 1988. The ruling held that public figures cannot circumvent First Amendment protections by attempting to recover damages based on emotional distress suffered from parodies. The decision in favor of Flynt strengthened free speech rights in the United States in relation to parodies of public figures.

After the death of Falwell, Larry Flynt released a comment regarding his friendship over the years with Falwell. "My mother always told me that no matter how much you dislike a person, when you meet them face to face you will find characteristics about them that you like. Jerry Falwell was a perfect example of that. I hated everything he stood for, but after meeting him in person, years after the trial, Jerry Falwell and I became good friends. He would visit me in California and we would debate together on college campuses. I always appreciated his sincerity even though I knew what he was selling and he knew what I was selling."

Pat Robertson - Religion Scammer and Right Wing Screwball

12 February 2006

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Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson (born March 22, 1930) is a media mogul, television evangelist, (Politician), ex-Baptist minister and businessman who is politically aligned with the Christian Right in the United States.

He is the founder of numerous organizations and corporations, including the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), the Christian Coalition, Flying Hospital, International Family Entertainment Inc., Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation, CBN Asia and Regent University. He is the host of The 700 Club, a Christian TV program airing on channels throughout the United States and on CBN network affiliates worldwide.

The son of U.S. Senator A. Willis Robertson, Robertson is a Southern Baptist and was active as an ordained minister with that denomination for many years, but holds to a charismatic theology not traditionally common among Southern Baptists. He unsuccessfully campaigned to become the Republican Party's nominee in the 1988 presidential election. As a result of his seeking political office, he no longer serves in an official role for any church. His media and financial resources make him a recognized, influential, and controversial public voice for conservative Christianity in the United States.

1988 presidential bid:

In September 1986, Robertson announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination for President of the United States. Robertson said he would pursue the nomination only if three million people signed up to volunteer for his campaign by September 1987. Three million responded, and by the time Robertson announced he would be running in September 1987, he also had raised millions of dollars for his campaign fund. He surrendered his ministerial credentials and turned leadership of CBN over to his son, Tim. His campaign, however, against incumbent Vice President George H. W. Bush, was seen as a long shot.

Robertson ran on a standard conservative platform. Among his policies, he wanted to ban pornography, reform the education system, and eliminate departments such as the Department of Education and the Department of Energy. He also supported a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget.

Robertson's campaign got off to a strong second-place finish in the Iowa caucus, ahead of Bush. He did poorly in the subsequent New Hampshire primary, however, and was unable to be competitive once the multiple-state primaries began. Robertson ended his campaign before the primaries were finished. His best finish was in Washington, winning the majority of caucus delegates. He later spoke at the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans and told his remaining supporters to cast their votes for Bush, who ended up winning the nomination and the election. He then returned to CBN and has remained there as a religious broadcasting broadcaster.

Robertson's extensive business interests have earned him a net worth estimated between $200 million and $1 billion

A fan of Thoroughbred horse racing, Robertson paid $520,000 for a colt he named Mr. Pat. Trained by John Kimmel, Mr. Pat was not a successful runner. He was nominated for, but did not run in, the 2000 Kentucky Derby.

According to a June 2, 1999, article in The Virginian-Pilot, Robertson had extensive business dealings with Liberian president Charles Taylor. According to the article, Taylor gave Robertson the rights to mine for diamonds in Liberia's mineral-rich countryside. According to two Operation Blessing pilots who reported this incident to the state of Virginia for investigation in 1994, Robertson used his Operation Blessing planes to haul diamond-mining equipment to Robertson's mines in Liberia, despite the fact that Robertson was telling his 700 Club viewers that the planes were sending relief supplies to the victims of the genocide in Rwanda. In response to Taylor's alleged crimes against humanity, the United States Congress passed a bill In November 2003 that offered two million dollars for his capture. Robertson accused President George W. Bush of "undermining a Christian, Baptist president to bring in Muslim rebels to take over the country." At the time Taylor was harboring Al Qaeda operatives who were funding their operations through the illegal diamond trade. On February 4, 2010, at his war crimes trial in the Hague, Taylor testified that Robertson was his main political ally in the U.S., and that he had volunteered to make Liberia's case before U.S. administration officials in exchange for concessions to Robertson's Freedom Gold, Ltd., to which Taylor gave a contract to mine gold in southeast Liberia. In 2010, a spokesman for Robertson said that the company's arrangements — in which the Liberian government got a 10 percent equity interest in the company and Liberians could purchase at least 15 percent of the shares after the exploration period — were similar to many American companies doing business in Africa at the time.

Political activism:

After his unsuccessful presidential campaign, Robertson started the Christian Coalition, a 1.7 million member Christian right organization that campaigned mostly for conservative candidates. It was sued by the Federal Election Commission "for coordinating its activities with Republican candidates for office in 1990, 1992 and 1994 and failing to report its expenditures".

In 1994, the Coalition was fined for "improperly [aiding] then Representative Newt Gingrich (R-GA) and Oliver North, who was then the Republican Senate nominee in Virginia." Robertson left the Coalition in 2001.

On November 7, 2007, Robertson announced that he was endorsing Rudy Giuliani to be the Republican nominee in the 2008 Presidential election.

While usually associated with the political right, Pat Robertson has recently begun endorsing environmental causes. He appears in a commercial with Al Sharpton, joking about this, and urging people to join the We can Solve it Campaign against global warming.

In January 2009, on a broadcast of The 700 Club, Robertson stated that he is "adamantly opposed" to the division of Jerusalem between Israel and the Palestinians. He also stated that Armageddon is "not going to be fought at Megiddo" but will be the "battle of Jerusalem," when "the forces of all nations come together and try to take Jerusalem away from the Jews. Jews are not going to give up Jerusalem — they shouldn't — and the rest of the world is going to insist they give it up." Robertson added that Jerusalem is a "spiritual symbol that must not be given away" because "Jesus Christ the Messiah will come down to the part of Jerusalem that the Arabs want," and that's "not good."

Controversies and criticisms:

Controversies surrounding Robertson include his earlier work as a faith healer, his claim that some Protestant denominations harbor the spirit of the Antichrist, and his claims of having the power to deflect hurricanes through prayer; he has also denounced Hinduism as "demonic", and Islam as "Satanic.” Robertson has issued multiple condemnations of feminism, homosexuality, abortion, and liberal college professors. Robertson also had financial ties to former presidents Charles Taylor of Liberia and Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, both internationally denounced for their human rights violations. Robertson was criticized worldwide for his call for Hugo Chavez’s assassination and for his remarks concerning Ariel Sharon's health as an act of God.

The week of September 11, 2001, Robertson discussed the terror attacks with Jerry Falwell, who said that "the ACLU has to take a lot of blame for this" in addition to "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays, and the lesbians [who have] helped [the terror attacks of September 11th] happen." Robertson replied, "I totally concur." Both evangelists came under attack from President George W. Bush for their statements, for which Falwell later issued an apology.

Less than two weeks after Hurricane Katrina killed 1,836 people, Robertson implied on the September 12th broadcast of The 700 Club that the storm was God's punishment in response to America's abortion policy. He suggested that September 11 and the disaster in New Orleans "could. . . be connected in some way".

On November 9, 2009, Robertson said that Islam is "a violent political system bent on the overthrow of the governments of the world and world domination." He went on to elaborate that "you're dealing with not a religion, you're dealing with a political system, and I think we should treat it as such, and treat its adherents as such as we would members of the communist party, members of some fascist group."

Robertson's response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake also drew controversy and condemnation. Robertson claimed that Haiti's founders had sworn a "pact to the Devil" in order to liberate themselves from the French slave owners and indirectly attributed the earthquake to the consequences of the Haitian people being "cursed" for doing so. CBN later issued a statement saying that Robertson's comments "were based on the widely-discussed 1791 slave rebellion led by Dutty Boukman at Bois Caiman, where the slaves allegedly made a famous pact with the devil in exchange for victory over the French." Various prominent voices of mainline and evangelical Christianity promptly denounced Robertson's remarks as false, untimely, insensitive, and not representative of Christian thought on the issue.

Predictions:

Several times near New Year, Robertson has announced that God told him several truths or events that would happen in the following year. "I have a relatively good track record," he said. "Sometimes I miss."

1982: Doomsday: In late 1976, Robertson predicted that the end of the world was coming in October or November 1982. In a May 1980 broadcast of The 700 Club he stated, "I guarantee you by the end of 1982 there is going to be a judgment on the world."

In September 2011, Robertson and several others who incorrectly predicted various dates for the end of world were jointly awarded an Ig Nobel Prize for "teaching the world to be careful when making mathematical assumptions and calculations".

2006: Pacific Northwestern tsunami: In May 2006, Robertson declared that storms and possibly a tsunami would hit America's coastline sometime in 2006. Robertson supposedly received this revelation from God during an annual personal prayer retreat in January. The claim was repeated four times on The 700 Club.

On May 8, 2006, Robertson said, "If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed by storms." On May 17, 2006, he elaborated, "There well may be something as bad as a tsunami in the Pacific Northwest." While this claim didn't garner the same level of controversy as some of his other statements, it was generally received with mild amusement by the Pacific Northwest media. The History Channel's initial airing of its new series, Mega Disasters, debut episode "West Coast Tsunami", was broadcast the first week of May.

2007: Terror attack: On the January 2, 2007, broadcast of The 700 Club, Robertson said that God spoke to him and told him that "mass killings" were to come during 2007, due to a terrorist attack on the United States. He added, "The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that." When a terrorist attack failed to happen in 2007, Robertson said, in January 2008, "All I can think is that somehow the people of God prayed and God in his mercy spared us."

2008: Worldwide violence and American recession: On the January 2, 2008 episode of The 700 Club, Pat Robertson predicted that 2008 would be a year of worldwide violence. He also predicted that a recession would occur in the United States that would be followed by a stock market crash by 2010. However, there was a decrease in overall deaths for the period, and the American economy had already entered a recession in 2007, with increased household debt and the collapse of financial institutions.

2008: Mideast meltdown: In October 2008, Robertson posted a press release on the Georgian Conflict speculating that the conflict is a Russian ploy to enter the Middle East, and that instability caused by a predicted pre-emptive strike by Israel on Iran would result in Syria's and Iran's launching nuclear strikes on other targets. He also said that if the United States were to oppose Russia's expansion, nuclear strikes on American soil are also pending. "We will suffer grave economic damage, but will not engage in military action to stop the conflict. However, we may not be spared nuclear strikes against coastal cities. In conclusion, it is my opinion that we have between 75 and 120 days before the Middle East starts spinning out of control."

2009: Economic chaos and recovery: On the January 1, 2009 broadcast of The 700 Club, Robertson said, "If I'm hearing [God] right, gold will go to about $1900 an ounce and oil to $300 a barrel." He also suggested that Americans would broadly accept socialism. Despite these predictions, he also said that economically, "things are getting ready to turn around."

Hustler Magazine jokes about Pat Robertson

If there are problems with Hustler’s okay, these will need to be pulled

Crystal Cathedral - Robert H. Schuller – Religon Scammer

The exteriors of Crystal Cathedral, Garden Grove, CA, USA. 8 May 2007

Arnold C (Buchanan-Hermit) The copyright holder of this file allows anyone to use it for any purpose, provided that the copyright holder is properly attributed. Redistribution, derivative work, commercial use, and all other use is permitted.

The Crystal Cathedral is a Protestant Christian church in the city of Garden Grove, in Orange County, California, United States founded by Robert H. Schuller. The prominent architect Philip Johnson designed the main sanctuary building which seats 2,736. It was constructed using over 10,000 rectangular panes of glass.

The name "Crystal Cathedral" is merely an alliterative colloquialism and does not mean that the church is a cathedral in the sense of being a church where there is a bishop's official seat; the Reformed Church in America is governed by elders. Nor is the church made of crystal. Nevertheless, it is a Southern California architectural landmark.

The Interior of the Crystal Cathedral, with the "Glory of Easter" set installed

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

On October 18, 2010, the board of the Crystal Cathedral filed for bankruptcy in Santa Ana, California. Beginning in 2010, creditors filed lawsuits to collect money due to them for providing goods, services and broadcasting The Hour of Power weekly TV show. A board member said that the total debt was $55 million. The church's board filed for bankruptcy on October 18, 2010, citing $43 million in debt including a $36 million mortgage and $7.5 million in other debt. Church officials said that they had been trying to negotiate payments but after several suits were filed and writs of attachment were granted the church had to declare bankruptcy. The church has received offers for the building from a real estate investment group and from Chapman University, both with the provision of being leased back to the church.

Robert H. Schuller

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

On July 3, 2011, local newspapers and other outlets reported that Robert H. Schuller had been voted off the church's board of trustees by the other board members.

On July 7, 2011, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange announced that it was "potentially interested in buying" the building "to meet the needs of the 1.2 million Catholics in Orange County". Two weeks later, the diocese followed up with a cash offer of $53.6 million which included a lease-back provision at below market rates for a period of time.

The Crystal Cathedral broadcasts its church services around the world on a television show called The Hour of Power, said to be the most-watched Christian program worldwide, with an estimated average of 20 million viewers tuning in each week

(20 million viewers, and they can’t get enough out of the fools/customers to pay their bills??? Where did the money go? Many years ago, a friend of mine put in a surveillance TV system to watch the 8 full time money counters; Schuller didn’t trust his Christians not to steal some of the money. PWW)

Charles Manson - Screwball

San Quentin Correctional Center - Widely Spread Internet and T-shirts Picture

Manson at age 74 (March 2009)

Mugshot from California

Charles Milles Manson (born November 12, 1934) is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction. He was convicted of the murders through the joint-responsibility rule, which makes each member of a conspiracy guilty of crimes his fellow conspirators commit in furtherance of the conspiracy's object. (Note Manson did not kill any of the people. PWW)

Manson believed in what he called "Helter Skelter," a term he took from the homonymous song by The Beatles. Manson believed Helter Skelter to be an impending apocalyptic race war, which he described in his own version of the lyrics to the Beatles' song. He believed his murders would help precipitate that war. From the beginning of his notoriety, this connection with rock music linked him with a pop culture in which he ultimately became an emblem of insanity, violence and the macabre. The term was later used by Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi as the title of a book he wrote about the Manson murders.

At the time the Family began to form, Manson was an unemployed ex-convict, who had spent half of his life in correctional institutions for a variety of offenses. Before the murders, he was a singer-songwriter on the fringe of the Los Angeles music industry, chiefly through a chance association with Dennis Wilson, founding member and drummer of The Beach Boys. After Manson was charged with the crimes he was later convicted of, recordings of songs written and performed by him were released commercially. Artists, including Guns N' Roses, White Zombie and Marilyn Manson, have covered his songs.

Manson's death sentence was automatically commuted to life imprisonment when a 1972 decision by the Supreme Court of California temporarily eliminated the state's death penalty. California's eventual reinstatement of capital punishment did not affect Manson, who is currently incarcerated at Corcoran State Prison.

Sharon Tate one of the Manson Family Victims.

Jimmy Swaggart - Religion Scammer

Swaggart confession screenshot

Jimmy Lee Swaggart (born March 15, 1935) is a Pentecostal American pastor, teacher, musician, television host, and televangelist. He has preached to crowds around the world through his weekly telecast. According to the official website for Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, his 1980s telecast was transmitted to over 3,000 stations and cable systems each week.

In February 1988, Swaggart stirred controversy after a private investigation found he had solicited a prostitute. Initially, Swaggart denied the accusations; but, as a media investigation proceeded, he acknowledged that some allegations were true. He later apologized for the acts in a televised broadcast.

1991 scandal:

On October 11, 1991, Swaggart was found, for the second time, in the company of a prostitute, Rosemary Garcia, when he was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol in Indio, California, for driving on the wrong side of the road. According to Garcia, Swaggart stopped to proposition her on the side of the road. When the patrolman asked Garcia why she was with Swaggart, she replied, "He asked me for sex. I mean, that's why he stopped me. That's what I do. I'm a prostitute." Rather than confessing to his congregation, Swaggart told those at Family Worship Center that "The Lord told me it's flat none of your business." Swaggart's son then announced to the stunned audience, that his father would be temporarily stepping down as head of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, for "a time of healing and counseling."

Bernard (Bernie) Madoff - Biggest Scammer Ever

Bernard Madoff's mugshot

This image is a work of a United States Department of Justice employee, taken or made during the course of an employee's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain (17 U.S.C. § 101 and 105).

Bernard Lawrence "Bernie" Madoff born April 29, 1938) is a former American stockbroker, entrepreneur, and investor. He is the former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market, and the admitted operator of a Ponzi scheme that is considered to be the largest financial fraud in U.S. history.

In March 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and admitted to turning his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of investors of billions of dollars. Madoff said he began the Ponzi scheme in the early 1990s. However, federal investigators believe the fraud began as early as the 1970s, and those charged with recovering the missing money believe the investment operation may never have been legitimate. The amount missing from client accounts, including fabricated gains, was almost $65 billion. The court-appointed trustee estimated actual losses to investors of $18 billion. On June 29, 2009, he was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum allowed.

Jeffry Picower, rather than Madoff, appears to have been the largest beneficiary of Madoff's Ponzi scheme, and his estate settled the claims against it for $7.2 billion. J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. may have also benefitted from the scheme - - through interest and fees charged - - to the tune of $1 billion. Trustee Irving Picard has filed suit seeking the return of $1 billion and damages of $5.4 billion. Morgan denied complicity. According to the same lawsuit, New York Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz and associated individuals and firms, received $300 million from the scheme. Wilpon and Katz "categorically reject" the charges.

Madoff founded the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC in 1960, and was its chairman until his arrest on December 11, 2008. The firm was one of the top market maker businesses on Wall Street, which bypassed "specialist" firms by directly executing orders over the counter from retail brokers.

On December 10, 2008, Madoff's sons told authorities that their father had confessed to them that the asset management unit of his firm was a massive Ponzi scheme, and quoted him as describing it as "one big lie." The following day, FBI agents arrested Madoff and charged him with one count of securities fraud. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had previously conducted investigations into Madoff's business practices, but did not uncover the massive fraud.

Early life:

Madoff was born on April 29, 1938 in Queens, New York City, New York. He is the son of Jewish parents Sylvia (nee Muntner) (December 1911 - - December 1974), a homemaker, and Ralph Madoff (June 1910 - - July 1972), a plumber and stockbroker. Madoff's grandparents were Jewish emigrants from Poland, Romania and Austria. He is the second of three children; his siblings are Sondra (Weiner) and Peter. Madoff graduated from Far Rockaway High School in 1956. He attended the University of Alabama for one year, where he became a brother of the Tau Chapter of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity, then transferred to and graduated from Hofstra University in 1960 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. Madoff briefly attended Brooklyn Law School, but founded the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC and remained working for his own company.

Career:

Madoff was chairman of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC from its startup in 1960 until his arrest on December 11, 2008.

The firm started as a penny stock trader with $5,000 ($37,000 today) that Madoff earned from working as a lifeguard and sprinkler installer. He further secured a loan of $50,000 from his father-in-law which he also used to set up Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. His business grew with the assistance of his father-in-law, accountant Saul Alpern, who referred a circle of friends and their families. Initially, the firm made markets (quoted bid and ask prices) via the National Quotation Bureau's Pink Sheets. In order to compete with firms that were members of the New York Stock Exchange trading on the stock exchange's floor, his firm began using innovative computer information technology to disseminate its quotes. After a trial run, the technology that the firm helped develop became the NASDAQ.

The firm functioned as a third-market provider, which bypassed exchange specialist firms, by directly executing orders over the counter from retail brokers. At one point, Madoff Securities was the largest market maker at the NASDAQ and in 2008 was the sixth largest market maker on Wall Street. The firm also had an investment management and advisory division, which it did not publicize, that was the focus of the fraud investigation.

Madoff was "the first prominent practitioner" of payment for order flow, in which a dealer pays a broker for the right to execute a customer's order. This has been called a "legal kickback." Some academics have questioned the ethics of these payments. Madoff has argued that these payments did not alter the price that the customer received. He viewed the payments as a normal business practice: "If your girlfriend goes to buy stockings at a supermarket, the racks that display those stockings are usually paid for by the company that manufactured the stockings. Order flow is an issue that attracted a lot of attention but is grossly overrated."

Madoff was active in the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), a self-regulatory securities industry organization and has served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors and on the Board of Governors of the NASD.

Government access:

Since 1991, Madoff and his wife have contributed about $240,000 to federal candidates, parties and committees, including $25,000 a year from 2005 through 2008 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The Committee has returned $100,000 of the Madoffs' contributions to Irving Picard, the bankruptcy trustee who oversees all claims. Senator Charles E. Schumer returned almost $30,000 received from Madoff and his relatives to the trustee, and Senator Christopher J. Dodd donated $1,500 to the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, a Madoff victim.

The Madoff family gained access to Washington's lawmakers and regulators through the industry's top trade group. The Madoff family has long-standing, high-level ties to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), the primary securities industry organization. Bernard Madoff sat on the Board of Directors of the Securities Industry Association, which merged with the Bond Market Association in 2006 to form SIFMA.

Madoff's brother Peter then served two terms as a member of SIFMA's Board of Directors. He stepped down from the Board of Directors of SIFMA in December 2008, as news of the Ponzi scheme broke. From 2000 to 2008 the two Madoff brothers gave $56,000 to SIFMA, and tens of thousands of dollars more to sponsor SIFMA industry meetings. Bernard Madoff's niece Shana Madoff was active on the Executive Committee of SIFMA's Compliance and Legal Division, but resigned her SIFMA position shortly after her uncle's arrest.

In 2004 Genevievette Walker-Lightfoot, a lawyer in the SEC's Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, informed her supervisor branch chief Mark Donohue that her review of Madoff found numerous inconsistencies and recommended further questioning. However, because of agency pressure to investigate the mutual fund industry, she had to conclude work on the probe. Donohue's boss, Eric Swanson, an assistant director of the department, married Shana Madoff, after the investigation concluded in 2005. A spokesman for Swanson, who has left the SEC, said he "did not participate in any inquiry of Bernard Madoff Securities or its affiliates while involved in a relationship" with Shana Madoff.

While awaiting sentencing, Madoff met with the SEC's Inspector General, H. David Kotz, who is conducting an investigation into how regulators failed to detect the fraud despite numerous red flags. Madoff said he could have been caught in 2003, but bumbling investigators acted like "Lt. Colombo" and never asked the right questions.

"I was astonished. They never even looked at my stock records. If investigators had checked with the Depository Trust Company, a central securities depository, it would've been easy for them to see. If you're looking at a Ponzi scheme, it's the first thing you do." Madoff said in the June 17, 2009, interview that SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro was a "dear friend," and SEC Commissioner Elisse Walter was a "terrific lady" whom he knew "pretty well."

Since Madoff's arrest, the SEC has been criticized for its lack of financial expertise and lack of due diligence, despite having received complaints from Harry Markopolos and others for almost a decade. The SEC's Inspector General, H. David Kotz, found that since 1992, there were six botched investigations of Madoff by the SEC, either through incompetent staff work or neglecting allegations of financial experts and whistle-blowers. At least some of the SEC investigators doubted whether Madoff was even trading.

Investment scandal:

Concerns about Madoff's business surfaced as early as 1999, when financial analyst Harry Markopolos informed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that he believed it was legally and mathematically impossible to achieve the gains Madoff claimed to deliver. According to Markopolos, he knew within five minutes that Madoff's numbers didn't add up, and it took four hours of failed attempts to replicate them to conclude Madoff was a fraud. He was ignored by the Boston SEC in 2000 and 2001, as well as by Meaghan Cheung at the New York SEC in 2005 and 2007 when he presented further evidence. He has since published a book, No One Would Listen, about the frustrating efforts he and his team made over a ten-year period to alert the government, the industry, and the press about the Madoff fraud.

Although Madoff's wealth management business ultimately grew into a multi-billion-dollar operation, none of the major derivatives firms traded with him because they didn't think his numbers were real. None of the major Wall Street firms invested with him either, and several high-ranking executives at those firms suspected he wasn't legitimate.

Others also contended it was inconceivable that the growing volume of Madoff accounts could be competently and legitimately serviced by his documented accounting/auditing firm, a three-person firm with only one active accountant.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation complaint says that during the first week of December 2008, Madoff confided to a senior employee, identified by Bloomberg News as one of his sons, that he said he was struggling to meet $7 billion in redemptions. According to the sons, Madoff told Mark Madoff on December 9 that he planned to pay out $173 million in bonuses two months early. Madoff said that "he had recently made profits through business operations, and that now was a good time to distribute it." Mark told Andrew Madoff, and the next morning they went to their father's apartment and asked him how he could pay bonuses to his staff if he was having trouble paying clients. With Ruth Madoff nearby, Madoff told them he was "finished," that he had "absolutely nothing" left, that his investment fund was "just one big lie" and "basically, a giant Ponzi scheme." According to their attorney, Madoff's sons then reported their father to federal authorities. On December 11, 2008, he was arrested and charged with securities fraud.

Madoff posted $10 million bail in December 2008 and remained under 24-hour monitoring and house arrest in his Upper East Side penthouse apartment until March 12, 2009, when Judge Denny Chin revoked his bail and remanded him to the Metropolitan Correctional Center. Chin claimed Madoff was a flight risk, because of his age, wealth, and the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison. Prosecutors filed two asset forfeiture pleadings which include lists of valuable real and personal property as well as financial interests and entities.

Madoff's lawyer, Ira Sorkin, filed an appeal, and prosecutors responded with a notice of opposition. On March 20, 2009, an appellate court denied Madoff's request to be released from jail and returned to home confinement until his June 29, 2009, sentencing. On June 22, 2009, Sorkin hand-delivered a customary pre-sentencing letter to the judge requesting a sentence of 12 years, because of tables cited from the Social Security Administration that his life span is predicted to be 13 years.

On June 26, 2009, Chin ordered Madoff to forfeit $170 million in assets. Prosecutors asked Chin to sentence Madoff to the maximum 150 years in prison. Irving Picard indicated that "Mr. Madoff has not provided meaningful cooperation or assistance."

In settlement with federal prosecutors, Madoff's wife Ruth agreed to forfeit her claim to US$85 million in assets, leaving her with $2.5 million in cash. The order allowed the SEC and Court appointed trustee Irving Picard to pursue Ruth Madoff's funds. Massachusetts regulators also accused her of withdrawing $15 million from company-related accounts shortly before he confessed.

In February 2009, Madoff reached an agreement with the SEC, banning him from the securities industry for life.

Picard has sued Madoff's sons, Mark and Andrew, his brother Peter, and Peter's daughter, Shana, for negligence and breach of fiduciary duty, for $198 million. The defendants had received over $80 million in compensation since 2001 and "used the bank account at BLMIS like a personal piggy bank." The trustee believes they knew about the fraud because of their personal investments in the scheme, the longevity of the fraud, and because of their work at the company including roles as corporate and compliance officers. Since 1995, Peter Madoff had invested only $32,146, but withdrew over $16 million. Mark and Andrew Madoff withdrew more than $35 million from a small original investment. Picard asserts Mark Madoff conspired with his father to hide $25 million in unknown Swiss accounts.

Mechanics of the fraud:

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission indictment against Annette Bongiorno and Joann Crupi, two back office workers who worked for Madoff, they created false trading reports based on the returns that Madoff ordered for each customer. For example, once Madoff determined a customer's return, one of the back office workers would enter a false trade from a previous date and then enter a false closing trade in the amount of the required profit, according to the indictment. Prosecutors allege that Bongiorno used a computer program specially designed to backdate trades and manipulate account statements. They quote her as writing to a manager in the early 1990s "I need the ability to give any settlement date I want." In some cases returns were allegedly determined before the account was even opened.

Madoff admitted during his March 2009 guilty plea that the essence of his scheme was to deposit client money into a Chase account, rather than invest it and generate steady returns as clients had believed. When clients wanted their money, "I used the money in the Chase Manhattan bank account that belonged to them or other clients to pay the requested funds," he told the court.

Affinity fraud:

Affected institutions include the Stony Brook Foundation, the James Harris Simons family foundation, Kentucky University, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, the Elie Wiesel Foundation, and Steven Spielberg's Wunderkinder Foundation. Jewish federations and hospitals have lost millions of dollars, forcing some organizations to close. The Lappin Foundation, for instance, was temporarily forced to halt operations because it had invested its entire $8 million endowment with Madoff.

Size of loss to investors:

David Sheehan, chief counsel to trustee Picard, stated on September 27, 2009, that about $36 billion was invested into the scam, returning $18 billion to investors, with $18 billion missing. About half of Madoff's investors were "net winners," earning more than their investment. The withdrawal amounts in the final six years were subject to "clawback" (return of money) lawsuits.

In a May 4, 2011 statement, trustee Picard said that the total fictitious amounts owed to customers (with some adjustments) were $57 billion, of which $17.3 billion was actually invested by the customers. $7.6 billion has been recovered, but pending lawsuits, only $2.6 billion is available to repay victims. If all the recovered funds are returned to victims, their net loss would be just under $10 billion.

The Internal Revenue Service ruled that investors' capital loss in this and other fraudulent investment schemes will be treated as a business loss, thereby allowing the victims to claim them as net operating losses to reduce tax liability.

The size of the fraud was often stated as $65 billion early in the investigation, but former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt estimated the actual net fraud to be between $10 and $17 billion. Erin Arvedlund, who publicly questioned Madoff's reported investment performance in 2001, stated that the actual amount of the fraud might never be known, but was likely between $12 and $20 billion.

Plea, sentencing, and prison life:

On March 12, 2009, Madoff pled guilty to 11 federal felonies, including securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, making false statements, perjury, theft from an employee benefit plan, and making false filings with the SEC. The plea was the response to a criminal complaint filed two days earlier, which stated that over the past 20 years, Madoff had defrauded his clients of almost $65 billion in the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Madoff insisted he was solely responsible for the fraud. Madoff did not plea bargain with the government. Rather, he pleaded guilty to all charges. It has been speculated that Madoff pleaded guilty because he refused to cooperate with the authorities in order to avoid naming any associates and conspirators who were involved with him in the Ponzi scheme.

On November 3, 2009, David Friehling, Madoff's accounting front man pleaded guilty to securities fraud, investment adviser fraud, making false filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and obstructing the IRS. Madoff's right hand man, Frank DiPascali pleaded guilty in August, 2009, and is awaiting bail.

In his plea allocution, Madoff stated he began his Ponzi scheme in 1991. He admitted he had never made any legitimate investments with his clients' money during this time. Instead, he said, he simply deposited the money into his personal business account at Chase Manhattan Bank. When his customers asked for withdrawals, he paid them out of the Chase account—a classic "robbing Peter to pay Paul" scenario. Chase and its successor, JPMorgan Chase, may have earned as much as $483 million from his bank account. He was committed to satisfying his clients' expectations of high returns, despite an economic recession. He admitted to false trading activities masked by foreign transfers and false SEC filings. He stated that he always intended to resume legitimate trading activity, but it proved "difficult, and ultimately impossible" to reconcile his client accounts. In the end, Madoff said, he realized that his scam would eventually be exposed.

On June 29, 2009, Chin sentenced Madoff to the maximum sentence of 150 years in federal prison. Madoff's lawyers originally asked the judge to impose a sentence of 7 years because of Madoff's old age.

Madoff apologized to his victims, saying, "I have left a legacy of shame, as some of my victims have pointed out, to my family and my grandchildren. This is something I will live in for the rest of my life. I'm sorry." He added, "I know that doesn't help you," after his victims recommended to the judge that he receive a life sentence. Chin had not received any mitigating letters from friends or family testifying to Madoff's good deeds. "The absence of such support is telling," he said.

Chin also said that Madoff had not been forthcoming about his crimes. "I have a sense Mr. Madoff has not done all that he could do or told all that he knows," said Chin, calling the fraud "extraordinarily evil," "unprecedented" and "staggering," and that the sentence would deter others from committing similar frauds. Chin also agreed with prosecutors' contention that the fraud began at some point in the 1980s. He also noted that Madoff's crimes were "off the charts" since federal sentencing guidelines for fraud only go up to $400 million in losses.

Ruth did not attend court but issued a statement, saying "I am breaking my silence now because my reluctance to speak has been interpreted as indifference or lack of sympathy for the victims of my husband Bernie's crime, which is exactly the opposite of the truth. I am embarrassed and ashamed. Like everyone else, I feel betrayed and confused. The man who committed this horrible fraud is not the man whom I have known for all these years."

Incarceration :

Madoff's attorney asked the judge to recommend that the Federal Bureau of Prisons place Madoff in the Federal Correctional Institution, Otisville, which is located 70 miles (110 km) from Manhattan. The judge, however, only recommended that Madoff be sent to a facility in the Northeast United States. Madoff was transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution, Butner Medium, near Butner, North Carolina, about 45 miles (72 km) northwest of Raleigh; he is Bureau of Prisons Register #61727-054. Jeff Gammage of the Philadelphia Inquirer said "Madoff's heavy sentence likely determined his fate."

Madoff's projected release date is November 14, 2139. The release date, described as "academic" in Madoff's case, reflects a reduction for good behavior. On October 13, 2009, it was reported that Madoff experienced his first prison yard fight with another senior citizen inmate. When he began his sentence, Madoff's stress levels were so severe that he broke out in hives and other skin maladies soon after.

On December 18, 2009, Madoff was moved to Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and was treated for several facial injuries. A former inmate later claimed that the injuries were received during an alleged altercation with another inmate. Other news reports described Madoff's injuries as more serious and including "facial fractures, broken ribs, and a collapsed lung". The Federal Bureau of Prisons said Madoff signed an affidavit on December 24, 2009, which indicated that he had not been assaulted and that he had been admitted to the hospital for hypertension.

In his letter to his daughter-in-law, Madoff claimed that he was being treated in prison like a "Mafia don". "They call me either Uncle Bernie or Mr. Madoff. I can't walk anywhere without someone shouting their greetings and encouragement, to keep my spirit up. It's really quite sweet, how concerned everyone is about my well being, including the staff. . .It's much safer here than walking the streets of New York."

Catholic Church - Biggest Scam on the Face of the Earth

Interior del Convento de San Francisco, Centro Historico de la Ciudad de Mexico 20 August 2011

Author: ProtoplasmaKid - This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Medieval religion with hocus pocus rituals that have evolved about 2000 years, by gay priests, bishops, and popes, and scammed the poorest people on the earth to donate 10% of their hard earned income to their gold covered buildings.

There isn’t much in the super biased Wikipedia website that I would want to share.

They profess to be using Jesus as one of their main idols, but they destroyed all that Jesus and Mary of Magdalene (original Greek Μαρία ἡ Μαγδαληνή) wrote, killing thousands of people in their Crusades.

Their main idol is the supposed virgin Mary: 100% evolved bullshit. Other writers of the time mention that she was having sex at a very early age with her biological father, not some god.

Within this group of people, some individuals have been very good for humanity; but, they themselves have been brainwashed into the religion aspects. (PWW)

One paragraph from Wikipedia:

Sex abuse cases: In the 1990s and 2000s, the issue of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy became the subject of media coverage, legal action, and public debate in the United States, Ireland, Australia, and other countries. The Church was criticized for its handling of abuse complaints when it became known that some bishops had shielded accused priests, transferring them to other pastoral assignments where some continued to commit sexual offences. In response to the scandal, the Church has established formal procedures to prevent abuse, encourage reporting of any abuse that occurs and to handle such reports promptly, although groups representing victims have disputed their effectiveness. In September 2011, a submission was lodged with the International Criminal Court alleging that the Pope, Cardinal Angelo Sodano dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone Vatican Secretary of State, and Cardinal William Levada head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, had committed a crime against humanity by failing to prevent or punish perpetrators of rape and sexual violence in a "systematic and widespread" concealment which included failure to co-operate with relevant law enforcement agencies.

This panorama, shot from the top of St. Peter's Basilica, shows pretty much all that there is to Vatican City

Marcus Winter from Potsdam, Germany - This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

Panorama of St Peter's Square in Vatican City

François Malan - This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Photo of the Vatican Gardens 15 August 2007

Marek69 This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Where are all the gay priest today; oh, up in the housing area enjoying the altar boys. (PWW)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints - Religion/Scammer/Huge Company

Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS Church or, colloquially, the Mormon Church) is the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement, a Christian primitivist movement started by Joseph Smith. The church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has established congregations and built temples worldwide. The church currently claims a growing membership of over 14.1 million.

Brigham Young

This work is in the public domain in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 80 years or fewer.

Under the doctrine of continuing revelation, Latter-day Saints believe that Jesus, under the direction of Heavenly Father, leads the church by revealing his will to its president, whom adherents regard as a modern-day "prophet, seer, and revelator.” The current president is Thomas S. Monson.

Painting by an unknown painter, circa 1842

This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired in the US.

Faithful members contribute 10 percent of their income to the church as a tithe.

Finances:

Although the church has not released church-wide financial statements since 1959, in 1997, Time magazine called it one of the world's wealthiest churches per capita. In a June 2011 cover story, Newsweek magazine stated that the LDS church "resembles a sanctified multinational corporation—the General Electric of American religion, with global ambitions and an estimated net worth of $30 billion.

The church receives significant funds from tithes (ten percent of a member's income) and fast offerings (money given to the church to assist individuals in need). According to the church, tithing and fast offering moneys collected are devoted to ecclesiastical purposes and not used in for-profit ventures.

The church has also invested in for-profit business and real estate ventures such as Bonneville International, Deseret Book Company, and cattle ranches in Utah, Florida, Nebraska, Canada and other locations. However, these ranches are split between Church Welfare Work (Bishops' Storehouse and Welfare Square) for which funds are used from tithing and are not for profit.

Current U.S. politics: (2011)

Politically there are 15 Mormons in the current 112th United States Congress. This includes five U.S. Senators: Harry Reid (D-Nevada), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Tom Udall (D-New Mexico); and ten U.S. Representatives: Rob Bishop (R-Utah), Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), Jeff Flake (R-Arizona), Dean Heller (R-Nevada), Wally Herger (R-California), Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), Jim Matheson (D-Utah), Buck McKeon (R-California), Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), and Eni Faleomavaega (D-American Samoa).[116] There is one Mormon State Governor, Gary Herbert of Utah. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, Jr. are both Mormon, and are vying for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination.

Officially, the current position of the church is that they will take no partisan role in politics. This means a hands-off approach to candidate races like those of Mitt Romney or Jon Huntsman, Jr. While the church takes an apolitical approach to the candidates themselves, it still actively works to counter anti-Mormonism that may come up during political campaigns. According to Michael Otterson, the LDS Church's managing director for public affairs, "We now have two Latter-day Saints running, and the potential for misunderstanding or missteps is therefore twice what it was before." However, the official church stance on staying out of politics does not include what church leaders feel are moral issues, and it has not been hesitant to endorse such political change.

Controversy and criticism:

The church has been subject to criticism and sometimes discrimination since its early years in New York and Pennsylvania. In the late 1820s, criticism centered around the claim by Joseph Smith, Jr. to have been led to a set of golden plates from which the Book of Mormon was reputedly translated (True Religious-Bullshit PWW).

In the 1830s, the greatest criticism was for Smith's handling of a banking failure in Kirtland, Ohio, and the LDS Church's political and military power in Missouri, culminating in the 1838 Mormon War. In the 1840s, criticism of the church centered on the church's theocratic aspirations in Nauvoo, Illinois. Criticism of the practice of plural marriage and other doctrines taught by Smith appeared in the Nauvoo Expositor, which led to a series of events culminating in Smith's murder in 1844.

As the church began openly practicing plural marriage under Brigham Young during the second half of the 19th century, the church became the target of nation-wide criticism for that practice (which was banned by the church in 1890), as well as for the church's theocratic aspirations in the Utah Territory. Beginning in 1857, the church also came under significant media criticism after the Mountain Meadows massacre in southern Utah (They got rid of all the slaves that helped them move to Utah, so they wouldn’t breed their nice little blond girls).

Academic critics have questioned the legitimacy of Smith as a prophet as well as the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham. Criticism has expanded to include claims of historical revisionism, homophobia, racism, and sexist policies. Notable 20th-century critics include Jerald and Sandra Tanner and Fawn Brodie. Evangelical Christians continue to argue that Smith was either fraudulent or delusional.

In recent years, the Internet has provided a new forum for proponents and critics of Mormonism. The church's support in 2008 of California's Proposition 8 sparked heated debate and protest by gay-rights organizations and others. While the church remains opposed to same-sex marriage, it has come out in support of certain protections for members of the LGBT community in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Due to differences in doctrines, the LDS Church is generally considered to be distinct from historical Christianity by Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches, which express differences from one another as well. Many have accused the LDS Church of not being a Christian church at all as a result of disagreements with Apostolic succession and the "Great Apostasy," the Nicene Creed and more so, Mormon cosmology and its plan of salvation including the doctrines of pre-mortal life, baptism for the dead, three degrees of heaven, and exaltation, the last of which allows for the belief that humans may become gods and goddesses achieving the same status that Jesus achieved, which is also referred to as becoming a "joint-heir with Christ." (Give me money, and you get to live after you are dead! Scam. PWW)

Dick Cheney - Politician and Warmonger

This image is a work of an employee of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, taken or made during the course of the person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney, (born January 30, 1941) served as the 46th Vice President of the United States (2001 - - 2009), under George W. Bush.

Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, but was primarily raised in Sumner, Nebraska and Casper, Wyoming. He began his political career as an intern for Congressman William A. Steiger, eventually working his way into the White House during the Nixon and Ford administrations, where he served the latter as White House Chief of Staff. I n 1978, Cheney was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Wyoming; he was reelected five times, eventually becoming House Minority Whip. Cheney was selected to be the Secretary of Defense during the presidency of George H. W. Bush, holding the position for the majority of Bush's term. During this time, Cheney oversaw the 1991 Operation Desert Storm, among other actions.

Out of office during the Clinton presidency, Cheney was chairman and CEO of Halliburton Company from 1995 to 2000.

History:

In November 1962, at the age of 21, Cheney was convicted of driving while intoxicated (DWI). He was arrested for DWI again the following year. Cheney said that the arrests made him "think about where I was and where I was headed. I was headed down a bad road if I continued on that course."

When Cheney became eligible for the draft, during the Vietnam War, he applied for and received five draft deferments. In 1989, The Washington Post writer George C. Wilson interviewed Cheney as the next Secretary of Defense; when asked about his deferments, Cheney reportedly said, "I had other priorities in the '60s than military service." Cheney testified during his confirmation hearings in 1989 that he received deferments to finish a college career that lasted six years rather than four, owing to sub par academic performance and the need to work to pay for his education. In January 1967, Cheney turned 26 and was no longer eligible for the draft.

Originally declining, U.S. Congressman Barber Conable persuaded Cheney to join the moderate Republican Wednesday Group in order to move up the leadership ranks. He was elected Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee from 1981 to 1987. Cheney was the Ranking Member of the Select Committee to investigate the Iran-Contra Affair. He promoted Wyoming's petroleum and coal businesses as well.

President Ronald Reagan greets Congressman Dick Cheney in the Oval Office after Cheney's recent trip to the Soviet Union 25 July 1983

This image is a work of an employee of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, taken or made during the course of the person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

Secretary of Defense:

President George H. W. Bush nominated Cheney for the office of Secretary of Defense immediately after the U.S. Senate failed to confirm John Tower for that position. The senate confirmed Cheney by a vote of 92 to 0 and he served in that office from March 1989 to January 1993. He directed the United States invasion of Panama and Operation Desert Storm in the Middle East. (With no military background)

Using economic sanctions and political pressure, the United States mounted a campaign to drive Panamanian ruler General Manuel Antonio Noriega from power after he fell from favor. In May 1989, after Guillermo Endara had been duly elected President of Panama, Noriega nullified the election outcome, drawing intensified pressure. In October, Noriega suppressed a military coup, but in December, after soldiers of the Panamanian army killed a US serviceman, the United States invasion of Panama began under Cheney's direction. The stated reason for the invasion was to seize Noriega to face drug charges in the United States, protect US lives and property, and restore Panamanian civil liberties. Although the mission was controversial, US forces achieved control of Panama and Endara assumed the Presidency; Noriega was convicted and imprisoned on racketeering and drug trafficking charges in April 1992.

Iraqi invasion of Kuwait:

On August 1, 1990, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein sent invading forces into neighboring Kuwait, a small petroleum-rich state long claimed by Iraq as part of its territory. An estimated 140,000 Iraqi troops quickly took control of Kuwait City and moved on to the Saudi Arabia/Kuwait border. The United States had already begun to develop contingency plans for the defense of Saudi Arabia by the US Central Command, headed by General Norman Schwarzkopf, because of its important petroleum reserves. (War for Oil Companies)

Dick Cheney meets with Prince Sultan, Minister of Defense and Aviation in Saudi Arabia, December 1990

This image is a work of a U.S. military or Department of Defense employee, taken or made during the course of an employee's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

Private sector career:

With the new Democratic administration under President Bill Clinton in January 1993, Cheney left the Department of Defense and joined the American Enterprise Institute. He also served a second term as a Council on Foreign Relations director from 1993 to 1995. From 1995 until 2000, he served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Halliburton, a Fortune 500 company and market leader in the energy sector. (Halliburton built the Boulder Dam, the Golden Gate Bridge, and many other huge projects, and does a lot of work in the oil industry. PWW)

Cheney's record as CEO was subject to some dispute among Wall Street analysts; a 1998 merger between Halliburton and Dresser Industries attracted the criticism of some Dresser executives for Halliburton's lack of accounting transparency. Although Cheney is not named as an individual defendant in the suit, Halliburton shareholders are pursuing a class-action lawsuit alleging that the corporation artificially inflated its stock price during this period; the United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments on whether the case can continue to be litigated.

Cheney was named in a December 2010 corruption complaint filed by the Nigerian government against Halliburton, which the company settled for $250 million.

During Cheney's tenure, Halliburton changed its accounting practices regarding revenue realization of disputed costs on major construction projects. Cheney resigned as CEO of Halliburton on July 25, 2000. As vice president, he argued that this step removed any conflict of interest. Cheney's net worth, estimated to be between $30 million and $100 million, is largely derived from his post at Halliburton, as well as the Cheneys' gross income of nearly $8.82 million.

He was also a member of the board of advisors of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) before becoming vice president.

2000 election:

In early 2000, while serving as the CEO of Halliburton, Cheney headed then-Governor of Texas George W. Bush's vice-presidential search committee. On July 25, after reviewing Cheney's findings, Bush surprised some pundits by asking Cheney himself to join the Republican ticket. Halliburton reportedly reached agreement on July 20 to allow Cheney to retire, with a package estimated at $20 million.

A few months before the election Cheney put his home in Dallas up for sale and changed his drivers' license and voter registration back to Wyoming. This change was necessary to allow Texas' presidential electors to vote for both Bush and Cheney without contravening the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which forbids electors from voting for someone from their own state for both President and Vice-President.

Criticism of President Obama:

Cheney has publicly criticized President Obama since the 2008 presidential election. On December 29, 2009, four days after the attempted bombing of an international passenger flight from Netherlands to United States, Cheney criticized Obama: "[We] are at war and when President Obama pretends we aren't, it makes us less safe… Why doesn't he want to admit we're at war? It doesn't fit with the view of the world he brought with him to the Oval Office. It doesn't fit with what seems to be the goal of his presidency—social transformation—the restructuring of American society."

Dick Cheney speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on February 10, 2011, after receiving the "Defender of the Constitution Award"

Gage Skidmore Photo - This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

In response, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer wrote on the official White House blog the following day, "[I]t is telling that Vice President Cheney and others seem to be more focused on criticizing the Administration than condemning the attackers. Unfortunately too many are engaged in the typical Washington game of pointing fingers and making political hay, instead of working together to find solutions to make our country safer."

During a February 14, 2010 appearance on ABC's This Week, Cheney reiterated his criticism of the Obama administration's policies for handling suspected terrorists, criticizing the "mindset" of treating "terror attacks against the United States as criminal acts as opposed to acts of war".

In a May 2, 2011, interview with ABC News, Cheney praised the Obama administration for the operation that resulted in the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Hunting incident:

On February 11, 2006, Cheney accidentally shot Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old Texas attorney, in the face, neck, and upper torso with birdshot pellets when he turned to shoot a quail while hunting on a southern Texas ranch.

Whittington suffered a mild heart attack and atrial fibrillation due to a pellet that embedded in the outer layers of his heart. The Kenedy County Sheriff's office cleared Cheney of any criminal wrongdoing in the matter, and in an interview with Fox News, Cheney accepted full responsibility for the incident. Whittington was discharged from the hospital on February 17, 2006. Later, Whittington stated, "My family and I are deeply sorry for all that vice president Cheney has had to go through this past week."

Adolf Hitler - Super Psychopathic Killer

Hitler in 1937

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-S33882, Adolf Hitler retouched.jpg - Original historic description: Adolf Hitler ADN-ZB Mitch, national-sozialistischen Führer, Hauptkriegsverbrecher. geb. 20.4.1889 in Braunau (Inn), gest. (Selbstmord) 30.4.1945 in Berlin übernahm 1921 die Führung der NSDAP; stand im November 1923 an der Spitze eines gegen die Demokratie westlicher Prägung gerichteten Putschversuchs in München (Hitler Putsch). Am 30.1.1933 wurde Hitler Reichskanzler; damit begann die Errichtung der national-sozialistischen Diktatur . Am 2.8.1934 wurde er Nachfolger Hindenburgs als Staatsoberhaupt; 1938 Oberbefehlshaber der Wehrmacht. Hauptkonkurrent des international-sozialistischen Diktators Stalin . UBz: Porträtaufnahme vom 20.4.1937. 2754-49 Abgebildete Personen: Hitler, Adolf: Reichskanzler, Deutschland - - Public Domain

Adolf Hitler; (20 April 1889 - 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state (as Führer and Reichskanzler) from 1934 to 1945. Hitler is most commonly associated with the rise of fascism in Europe, World War II, and the Holocaust.

A decorated veteran of World War I, Hitler joined the German Workers' Party, precursor of the Nazi Party, in 1919, and became leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923 Hitler attempted a coup d'etat, known as the Beer Hall Putsch, at the Bürgerbräukeller beer hall in Munich. The failed coup resulted in Hitler's imprisonment, during which time he wrote his memoir, Mein Kampf (My Struggle). After his release in 1924, Hitler gained support by promoting Pan-Germanism, antisemitism, and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and propaganda. He was appointed chancellor in 1933 and transformed the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich, a single-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of Nazism.

Hitler's avowed aim was to establish a New Order of absolute Nazi German hegemony in continental Europe. His foreign and domestic policies had the goal of seizing Lebensraum (living space) for the Germanic people. He oversaw the rearmament of Germany and the invasion of Poland by the Wehrmacht in September 1939, which led to the outbreak of World War II in Europe.

Under Hitler's direction, German forces and their European allies at one point occupied most of Europe and North Africa. These gains were reversed in 1945 when the Allied armies defeated the German army. Hitler's racially motivated policies resulted in the deaths of as many as 17 million people, including an estimated six million Jews targeted in the Holocaust and between 500,000 and 1,500,000 Roma.

Hitler's father, Alois Hitler, was an illegitimate child of Maria Anna Schicklgruber.

Hitler stated that he first became an antisemite in Vienna, which had a large Jewish community, including Orthodox Jews who had fled the pogroms in Russia.

Adolf Hitler as a soldier during the First World War (1914 - 1918)

This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired and its author is anonymous.

History:

In July 1919 Hitler was appointed Verbindungsmann (intelligence agent) of an Aufklärungskommando (reconnaissance commando) of the Reichswehr, both to influence other soldiers and to infiltrate the German Workers' Party (DAP). While he studied the activities of the DAP, Hitler became impressed with founder Anton Drexler's anti-Semitic, nationalist, anti-capitalist and anti-Marxist ideas. Drexler favored a strong active government, a "non-Jewish" version of socialism, and solidarity among all members of society. Drexler was impressed with Hitler's oratory skills and invited him to join the DAP.; Hitler accepted on 12 September 1919, becoming the party's 55th member.

At the DAP, Hitler met Dietrich Eckart, one of its early founders and a member of the occult Thule Society.

To increase the party's appeal, the party changed its name to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party - - NSDAP). Hitler designed the party's banner of a swastika in a white circle on a red background.

An American soldier stands near a wagon loaded with corpses outside the crematorium of the Buchenwald concentration camp, Germany, following its liberation

This image is a work of a U.S. Army soldier or employee, taken or made during the course of the person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

Between 1939 and 1945, the Schutzstaffel, assisted by collaborationist governments and recruits from occupied countries, were responsible for the deaths of eleven to fourteen million people, including about six million Jews, representing two-thirds of the Jewish population in Europe. Deaths took place in concentration camps, ghettos, and through mass executions. Many victims of the Holocaust were gassed to death, whereas others died of starvation or disease while working as slave laborers.

Romani (Gipsy) children in Auschwitz, victims of medical experiments - States Holocaust Memorial Museum in The World Must Know by Michael Berenbaum, which credits Federation Nationale des Deportes et Internes Resistent et Patriotes, Paris, France.

Rows of bodies fill the yard of Lager Nordhausen, a Gestapo concentration camp

This image is a work of a U.S. Army soldier or employee, taken or made during the course of the person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married Eva Braun, his long-time mistress. To avoid capture by the Red Army, the two committed suicide less than two days later on 30 April 1945 and their corpses were burned.

Heinrich Himmler - Super Psychopathic Killer

Heinrich Himmler, Reichsfuhrer-SS und Chef der deutschen Polizei. Aufnahme 1942

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license.

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (7 October 1900 - - 23 May 1945) was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and later the Minister of the Interior, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo (Secret State Police). Serving as Reichsführer and later as Commander of the Replacement (Home) Army and General Plenipotentiary for the entire Reich's administration (Generalbevollmächtigter für die Verwaltung), Himmler rose to become one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany as well as one of the persons most directly responsible for the Holocaust.

As overseer of the concentration camps, extermination camps, and Einsatzgruppen (literally: task forces, often used as killing squads), Himmler coordinated the killing of some six million Jews, between 200,000 and 500,000 Roma, many prisoners of war, and possibly another three to four million Poles, communists, or other groups whom the Nazis deemed unworthy to live or simply "in the way", including homosexuals, people with physical and mental disabilities, Jehovah's Witnesses and members of the Confessing Church. Shortly before the end of the war, he offered to surrender both Germany and himself to the Western Allies if he were spared prosecution. After being arrested by British forces on 22 May 1945, he committed suicide the following day before he could be questioned.

The body of Heinrich Himmler lying on the floor at British 2nd Army HQ after his suicide on 23 May 1945

This artistic work created by the United Kingdom Government is in the public domain.

Ed Gein - Psychopath and Body Snatcher

Edward Theodore "Ed" Gein (August 27, 1906 - July 26, 1984) was an American murderer and body snatcher. His crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, garnered widespread notoriety after authorities discovered Gein had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes from their bones and skin. After police found body parts in his house in 1957, Gein confessed to killing two women: tavern owner Mary Hogan in 1954 and a Plainfield hardware store owner Bernice Worden in 1957.

Initially found unfit to stand trial, following confinement in a mental health facility he was tried in 1968 for the murder of Worden and sentenced to life imprisonment, which he spent in a mental hospital. The body of Bernice Worden was found in Gein's shed; her head and the head of Mary Hogan were found inside his house. Robert H. Gollmar, the judge in the Gein case, wrote, "Due to prohibitive costs, Gein was tried for only one murder - - that of Mrs. Worden.” With fewer than three murders attributed to him, Gein does not meet the traditional definition of a serial killer. His case influenced the creation of several fictional serial killers, including Norman Bates from Psycho, Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Jame Gumb from The Silence of the Lambs.

Arrest:

On November 16, 1957, Plainfield hardware store owner Bernice Worden disappeared and police had reason to suspect Gein. Worden's son had told investigators that Gein had been in the store the evening before the disappearance, saying he would return the following morning for a gallon of anti-freeze. A sales slip for a gallon of anti-freeze was the last receipt written by Worden on the morning she disappeared. Upon searching Gein's property, investigators discovered Worden's decapitated body in a shed, hung upside down by ropes at her wrists, with a crossbar at her ankles. The torso was "dressed out" like that of a deer. She had been shot with a .22-caliber rifle, and the mutilations were made after death.

Searching the house, authorities found:

Four noses

Whole human bones and fragments

Nine masks of human skin

Bowls made from human skulls

Ten female heads with the tops sawn off

Human skin covering several chair seats

Mary Hogan's head in a paper bag

Bernice Worden's head in a burlap sack

Nine vulvae in a shoe box

A belt made from human female nipples

Skulls on his bedposts

Organs in the refrigerator

A pair of lips on a draw string for a window-shade

A lampshade made from the skin from a human face

These artifacts were photographed at the crime lab and then were properly destroyed.

When questioned, Gein told investigators that between 1947 and 1952, he made as many as 40 nocturnal visits to three local graveyards to exhume recently buried bodies while he was in a "daze-like" state. On about 30 of those visits, he said he had come out of the daze while in the cemetery, left the grave in good order, and returned home empty handed. On the other occasions, he dug up the graves of recently buried middle-aged women he thought resembled his mother and took the bodies home, where he tanned their skins to make his paraphernalia. Gein admitted robbing nine graves, leading investigators to their locations. Because authorities were uncertain as to whether the slight Gein was capable of single-handedly digging up a grave in a single evening, they exhumed two of the graves and found them empty, thus corroborating Gein's confession.

Shortly after his mother's death, Gein had decided he wanted a sex change and began to create a "woman suit" so he could pretend to be a female. Gein's practice of donning the tanned skins of women was described as an "insane transvestite ritual". Gein denied having sex with the bodies he exhumed, explaining, "They smelled too bad.” During interrogation, Gein also admitted to the shooting death of Mary Hogan, a tavern operator missing since 1954.

A 16-year-old youth whose parents were friends of Gein and who attended ball games and movies with him reported that he was aware of the shrunken heads, which Gein had described as relics from the Philippines sent by a cousin who had served in World War II. Upon investigation by the police, these were determined to be human facial skins, carefully peeled from cadavers, and used as masks by Gein.

Waushara County sheriff Art Schley reportedly physically assaulted Gein during questioning by banging Gein's head and face into a brick wall; as a result, Gein's initial confession was ruled inadmissible. Schley died of a heart attack in December 1968, at age 43, only a month after testifying at Gein's trial. Many who knew him said he was traumatized by the horror of Gein's crime and that this, along with the fear of having to testify (especially about assaulting Gein), led to his death. One of his friends said, "He was a victim of Ed Gein as surely as if he had butchered him."

Popular Culture:

The story of Ed Gein has had a lasting impact on western popular culture as evidenced by its numerous appearances in movies, music, and literature. Gein's story was adapted into a number of movies, including Deranged (1974), In the Light of the Moon (2000) released in the U.S. as Ed Gein (2001), and Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield (2007). Gein served as a model for several book and film characters, most notably such fictional serial killers as Norman Bates (Psycho), Leatherface (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), and Buffalo Bill (The Silence of the Lambs).

At the time, the news reports of Gein's crimes spawned a subgenre of black humor. Since the 1950s, Gein has frequently been exploited in transgressive art or shock rock, often with no connection to his life or crimes beyond the shock value of his name. Examples of this include the song titled Dead Skin Mask from the band Slayer's album Seasons in the Abyss. Ed Gein: the Musical premiered on January 2, 2010 in Menasha, Wisconsin.

Peter Woodcock - Serial Killer and Child Rapist

Mug shot of Peter Woodcock, 1957

David Michael Krueger (March 5, 1939 - - March 5, 2010), best known by his birth name, Peter Woodcock, was a Canadian serial killer and child rapist who gained notoriety for the brutal murders of three young children in Toronto, Canada in 1956 and 1957 when he himself was still a teenager. He was subsequently diagnosed as a psychopath and placed in a psychiatric facility. Expensive treatment programs for Woodcock proved ineffective when he murdered a fellow psychiatric patient in 1991; after his death in 2010, he was dubbed by the Toronto Star as "The serial killer they couldn't cure”.

Steve Wright - Serial Killer

Wright's mugshot - Steve Wright, convicted murderer responsible for the 2006 Ipswich serial killings

Wikipedia

Steven Gerald James Wright (born 24 April 1958) is an English serial killer, also known as the Suffolk Strangler. He is currently serving life imprisonment for the murder of five women who worked as prostitutes in Ipswich, Suffolk. The killings took place during late 2006 and Wright was found guilty in February 2008.

Vincent Johnson - The Brooklyn Strangler

Mug shot of serial killer Vincent Johnson

Wikipedia

Between the summers of 1999 and 2000, a series of murders of prostitutes in the Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhoods of Brooklyn by Vincent Johnson, 5'3" (1.6 m) and 130 lb (59 kg).

Johnson initially refused to provide a DNA sample to police, and denied knowing any of the women. However, one of the detectives had observed him spitting on the street, and Johnson's saliva was retrieved and given to the medical examiner for testing. Johnson's DNA matched that which was found on four of the victims. Johnson later confessed to the murders of five women: Patricia Sullivan, Rhonda Tucker, Joanne Feliciano, Vivian Caraballo and Laura Nusser, all of whom had arrest records for prostitution and drug offenses, and were themselves addicts. He remained a suspect in the murder of Katrina Niles, although, as of 2006, he continues to deny involvement in her death. Police consider it likely he had sex with at least three of his victims.

Johnson reportedly claimed he was acting out a hatred of his mother. Three of the victims — Caraballo, Feliciano and Sullivan — were killed on Thursdays, and Rhonda Tucker probably was as well, although her body was discovered on a Saturday. According to Johnson, this deliberate fixation came about due to his loathing of his mother's one day off from work, always a Thursday.

Johnson admitted little, if any, feelings of guilt. Of Patricia Sullivan, he said, "I didn't see strangling her as doing something wrong at the time"; although after killing his first victim, Laura Nusser, he said he reported feeling "sorry" and wanting to apologize to her family.

Each of the victims was strangled, apparently with whatever ligature was at hand: two with their own shoelaces, one with a drawstring from a pair of sweatpants, two with electrical wire and one with what was probably a discarded piece of cloth. Johnson bound their bodies with the ligatures, but did not attempt to hide them. The women were left where they were killed, two on rooftops and one in a vacant lot in roughly the same vicinity in Williamsburg, two in apartments in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and one in a utility room under the Williamsburg Bridge, where Johnson was known to have slept occasionally on a cot.

Johnson is currently serving a life sentence without parole in Clinton Correctional Facility, in Dannemora, New York.

Aileen Wuornos - Man Killer

Florida Department of Corrections

Wikipedia - - Public Domain

Aileen Carol Wuornos (29 February 1956 - - 9 October 2002) was an American serial killer who killed seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990, claiming they raped or attempted to rape her while she was working as a prostitute. She was convicted and sentenced to death for six of the murders and executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002.

Murders:

Richard Mallory, age 51, 30 November 1989—Electronics store owner in Clearwater, Florida. Wuornos' first victim was a convicted rapist whom she claimed to have killed in self-defense. Two days later, a Volusia County, Florida, Deputy Sheriff found Mallory's abandoned vehicle. On December 13, Mallory's body was found several miles away in a wooded area. He had been shot several times, but two bullets to the left lung were found to have been the cause of death. It was on this murder that Wuornos would eventually be condemned.

David Spears, age 43—Construction worker in Winter Garden, Florida. On 1 June 1990, his nude body was found along Highway 19 in Citrus County, Florida. He had been shot six times.

Charles Carskaddon, age 40, 31 May 1990—Part-time rodeo worker. On 6 June 1990, his body was found in Pasco County, Florida. He had been shot nine times with a small-caliber weapon.

Peter Siems, age 65—In June 1990, Siems left Jupiter, Florida, for New Jersey. On 4 July 1990, his car was found in Orange Springs, Florida. Moore and Wuornos were seen abandoning the car, and Wuornos' palm print was found on the interior door handle. His body was never found.

Troy Burress, age 50—Sausage salesman from Ocala, Florida. On 31 July 1990, he was reported missing. On 4 August 1990, his body was found in a wooded area along State Road 19 in Marion County, Florida. He had been shot twice.

Charles "Dick" Humphreys, age 56, 11 September 1990—Retired U.S. Air Force Major, former State Child Abuse Investigator, and former Chief of Police. On 12 September 1990, his body was found in Marion County, Florida. He was fully clothed and had been shot six times in the head and torso. His car was found in Suwannee County, Florida.

Walter Jeno Antonio, age 62—Police Reservist, On 19 November 1990; Antonio's nearly nude body was found near a remote logging road in Dixie County, Florida. He had been shot four times. Five days later, his car was found in Brevard County, Florida.

Court

She petitioned the Florida Supreme Court for the right to fire her legal counsel and stop all appeals, saying, "I killed those men, robbed them as cold as ice. And I'd do it again, too. There's no chance in keeping me alive or anything, because I'd kill again. I have hate crawling through my system. . .I am so sick of hearing this 'she's crazy' stuff. I've been evaluated so many times. I'm competent, sane, and I'm trying to tell the truth. I'm one who seriously hates human life and would kill again.” A defense attorney argued that she was in no state for them to honor such a request.

Florida Governor Jeb Bush instructed three psychiatrists to give Wuornos a 15-minute interview. The test for competency requires the psychiatrist(s) to be convinced that the condemned person understands that she will die and for which crime(s) she is being executed. All three judged her mentally fit to be executed.

Timothy Krajcir - Serial Killer

Illinois Department of Corrections - Wikipedia

Timothy Wayne Krajcir (born November 28, 1944) is a convicted American serial killer from West Mahanoy Township, Pennsylvania who has confessed to killing over nine women, five in Missouri and four others in Illinois and Pennsylvania.

After a stint of just fourteen months in the Navy, he was dishonorably discharged in 1963 for sexual assault. Krajcir first entered the Illinois prison system in 1963 on a rape conviction. Since then, he has spent most of his adult life behind bars for sex crimes, except for a brief period of freedom in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Krajcir has been incarcerated since 1982.

Krajcir would travel to various towns that he had no connection to, stalk his victims, and then break into their homes and wait for them to arrive. In 1977, Krajcir was released from prison after serving time for rape when he enrolled at Southern Illinois University Carbondale as a condition of his parole. There, in 1981, he earned a degree in Administrative Justice with a minor in psychology.

Some victims were found tied up in their beds. Others were kidnapped and transported across state lines before they were killed. Most of them were raped or forced to perform sexual acts. Some were killed by a gunshot to the head. Others were stabbed or aphysixiated, often with little evidence to connect any of the murders together or to any one person. The lack of forensic and DNA technology at the time and the multiple methods of murder made it difficult for investigators to link all the crimes to a single suspect.

Krajcir was finally connected to a murder because of DNA evidence left at the crime scene, which at the time, was still considered new technology and not available. Krajcir was sentenced on December 10, 2007 to 40 years in prison for the 1982 killing of Southern Illinois University Carbondale student Deborah Sheppard and, in addition, has been charged with five counts of murder and three counts of rape against women in the Cape Girardeau area from 1977 to 1982.

On January 18, 2008, Krajcir pleaded guilty and was sentenced to another 40 years in prison for the 1978 killing of Marion resident Virginia Lee Witte. The new sentence will be served consecutively with the 40-year sentence he received in December 2007. On April 4, 2008, Krajcir pleaded guilty to the murder of five women in Cape Girardeau, to seven sexual assaults, and one robbery. He was then sentenced to an additional 13 consecutive life terms. Relatives of the victims agreed to the plea bargain, which took the death penalty off the table.

At his sentencing in April, Krajcir stated, "I don't know if I could have been so generous if I were in the same situation. Thank you for sparing my life."

Krajcir is currently held at the Pontiac Correctional Facility in Pontiac, Illinois.

Peter Kürten - The Vampire of Düsseldorf

Mugshot of German serial Killer Peter Kürten 1931

Wikipedia - This file is in the public domain, because Obsolete and issued by a legal authority that no longer exists (the German Weimar Republic, defunct since March 1933) and whose copyright (if existing) therefore expired in 1983. Furthermore, this police photograph has never been published with attribution.

Peter Kürten (26 May 1883 - - 2 July 1931) was a German serial killer dubbed The Vampire of Düsseldorf by the contemporary media. He committed a series of sex crimes, assaults and murders against adults and children, most notoriously from February to November 1929 in Düsseldorf.

Kürten was born into a poverty-stricken, abusive family in Mülheim am Rhein, the third of 13 children. As a child, he witnessed his alcoholic father repeatedly sexually assault his mother and his sisters. He followed in his father's footsteps, and was soon sexually abusing his sisters. He engaged in petty criminality from a young age, and was a frequent runaway. He later claimed to have committed his first murders at the age of nine, drowning two young friends while swimming. He moved with his family to Düsseldorf in 1894 and received a number of short prison sentences for various crimes, including theft and arson. As a youth he was employed by the local dogcatcher, a job which allowed him to indulge in animal cruelty.

Kürten progressed from torturing animals to attacks on people. He committed his first provable murder in 1913, strangling a 10-year-old girl, Christine Klein, during the course of a burglary. His crimes were then halted by World War I and an eight-year prison sentence. In 1921 he left prison and moved to Altenburg, where he married. In 1925 he returned to Düsseldorf, where he began the series of crimes that would culminate in his capture and his sentencing to prison for several years.

Murders:

On 8 February 1929 he assaulted a woman and molested and murdered an eight-year-old girl. On 13 February he murdered a middle-aged mechanic, stabbing him 20 times. Kürten did not attack again until August, stabbing three people in separate attacks on the 21st; murdering two sisters, aged five and 14, on the 23rd; and stabbing another woman on the 24th. In September he committed a single rape and murder, brutally beating a servant girl with a hammer in woods that lay just outside of Düsseldorf. In October he attacked two women with a hammer. On 7 November he killed a five-year-old girl by strangling and stabbing her 36 times with scissors, and then sent a map to a local newspaper disclosing the location of her grave. The variety of victims and murder methods gave police the impression that more than one killer was at large: the public turned in over 900,000 different names to the police as potential suspects.

The November murder was Kürten's last, although he engaged in a spate of non-fatal hammer attacks from February to March 1930. In May he accosted a young woman named Maria Budlick; he initially took her to his home, and then to the Grafenberger Woods, where he raped but did not kill her. Budlick led the police to Kürten's home. He avoided the police, but confessed to his wife and told her to inform the police. On 24 May he was located and arrested.

Trial and execution:

Kürten confessed to 79 offenses, and was charged with nine murders and seven attempted murders. He went on trial in April 1931. He initially pleaded not guilty, but after some weeks changed his plea. He was found guilty and sentenced to death.

As Kürten was awaiting execution, he was interviewed by Dr. Karl Berg, whose interviews and accompanying analysis of Kürten formed the basis of his book, The Sadist. Kürten stated to Berg that his primary motive was one of sexual pleasure. The number of stab wounds varied because it sometimes took longer to achieve orgasm; the sight of blood was integral to his sexual stimulation.

Kürten was executed on 2 July 1931 by guillotine in Cologne.

Guillotines

Photo of two guillotines from the French Revolution - These were actually used during that time

Wikipedia - "I have no problem releasing my pictures for any public use, even if it means giving then away to 'everybody'.” (E-Mail to uploader, 10 Aug 2006)

The Execution of Robespierre and his supporters on 28 July 1794

Wikipedia - - Copyright expired.

German Fallbeil of 1854, Munich

Wikipedia: "I have no problem releasing my pictures for any public use, even if it means giving then away to 'everybody'." (E-Mail to uploader, 24 May 2007)

Luis Garavito - The World's Worst Serial Killer

Luis Garavito mug shot - Government of Colombia

Wikipedia

Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos, aka "La Bestia" ("The Beast") or "Tribilin" (American Spanish translation of Disney's "Goofy") (born 25 January 1957 in Genova, Quindio, Colombia) is a Colombian rapist and serial killer. In 1999, he admitted to the rape and murder of 140 young boys. The number of his victims, based on the locations of skeletons listed on maps that Garavito drew in prison, could eventually exceed 300. He has been described by local media as "the world's worst serial killer" because of the high number of victims.

Garavito's victims were poor children, peasant children, or street children, between the ages of 6 and 16. Garavito approached them on the street or countryside and offered them gifts or small amounts of money. After gaining their trust, he took the children for a walk and when they got tired, he would take advantage of them. He then raped them, cut their throats, and usually dismembered their corpses. Most corpses showed signs of torture.

Garavito was captured on 22 April 1999. He confessed to murdering 140 children. However, he is still under investigation for the murder of 172 children in more than 59 towns in Colombia.

Once captured, Garavito was subject to the maximum penalty available in Colombia, which was 30 years. However, as he confessed the crimes and helped authorities locate bodies, Colombian law allowed him to apply for special benefits, including a reduction of his sentence to 22 years and possibly an even earlier release for further cooperation and good behavior.

In subsequent years, Colombians have increasingly felt that due to Garavito's approaching early release, his sentence is not sufficient punishment for his crimes. Colombian law originally had no way to extend the sentence, because cases of serial killers like Garavito had no legal precedent in the country and thus the legal system could not properly address this case.

In late 2006, however, a judicial review of the cases against Garavito in different local jurisdictions found that his sentence could be extended and his release delayed, due to the existence of crimes he did not admit to and for which he was not previously condemned.

Gerald and Charlene Gallego - Kept Sex Slaves, Then Killed Them

Gerald and Charlene Gallego mug shots California Department of Corrections

Wikipedia - Usable under Fair Use guidelines only

Gerald Armond (July 17, 1946 - - July 18, 2002) and Charlene Adelle Gallego (b. October 10, 1956) are two American serial killers who terrorized Sacramento, California between 1978 and 1980. They killed a total of 10 victims, mostly teenagers, whom they kept as sex slaves before killing them.

Victims:

Rhonda Scheffler and Kippi Vaught

On September 10, 1978, Rhonda Scheffler (age 17) and Kippi Vaught (age 16) were shopping at Country Club Plaza in Sacramento County when Charlene enticed them into their van.

Gerald and Charlene raped and further sexually abused the two victims throughout the night in rural Placer County. Evidence showed that Charlene bit the breasts of one victim; and Gerald, the other. The next day, the Gallegos drove back to Sacramento County, where Gerald made Rhonda and Kippi get out of the van and walk across a field to a ditch. He hit the girls with a tire iron and shot them in the head with a 25-caliber pistol. As Gerald was walking back to the van, he saw one of the victims (later revealed to be Kippi Vaught) move; the bullet had only grazed her skull. He returned and shot her three more times in the head, killing her. Charlene would later tell a cellmate how ecstatic she felt during this cruel kidnap-rape.

Brenda Judd and Sandra Colley

On June 24, 1979, Brenda Judd (age 14) and Sandra Colley (age 13) were lured into the Gallegos' van at the Washoe County, Nevada, Fair with the promise of making some money delivering leaflets. Charlene drove northeast out of Reno on I-80 while, in the back of the van, Gerald repeatedly raped the girls as Charlene watched in the rearview mirror.

Charlene found a place to park in a desolate area known as Humboldt Sink. Gerald took a shovel and pulled Sandra Colley out of the vehicle, marching her toward a dry creek bed. He then stepped behind her and swung the shovel. Charlene would later recall the moment as the sound of "a loud splat like a flat rock hitting mud, and the girl sank to her knees and slowly toppled over on her face.” Gerald beat Brenda Judd to death and then dug a deep hole; he folded their naked bodies into it and placed a rock over the grave.

The teenagers were listed as runaways for four years, until Charlene confessed to their murders during the 1982 trial. In November 1999, their remains were discovered by a tractor operator.

Stacey Redican and Karen Chipman Twiggs

On April 24, 1980, the Gallegos kidnapped Stacey Redican and Karen Chipman Twiggs from Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, California. As with their other victims, Gerald and Charlene sexually abused and killed them.

Other victims

Linda Aguilar and unborn child

Virginia Mochel

Craig Miller and Mary Elizabeth Sowers

In the early morning hours of November 2, 1980, Gerald saw a young couple, twenty-two-year-old Craig Miller, and his fiancee, twenty-one-year-old Mary Elizabeth Sowers, standing on the side of the street. In his most brazen attempt yet, Gerald got out of the car, walked right up to them, pulled out a .25 caliber Beretta, pointed it in the couples face, and ordered them into the car. Unfortunately for Gerald, friends of the young couple saw them get into the vehicle and wrote down the license plate number. After driving to a secluded area, Gerald commanded Craig out of the car, as the young man turned to walk towards the front of the vehicle; Gerald aimed his pistol and shot the boy at point-blank range in the back of the head while his fiancee looked on in horror. Gerald then fired two more shots into Craig’s head, as he lay lifeless on the ground. Gerald got back into the vehicle and ordered Charlene to drive to their apartment. Once back at the apartment, Gerald took his new sex slave into the bedroom and raped her for hours on end. After he was satisfied, he ordered Charlene to drive to a rural area. Once there, Gerald ordered Mary out of the car. He then shot her three times at point blank range.

Gary Ridgway - Green River Killer - Murdered At Least 71 Women - Necrophile

Gary Leon Ridgway (born February 18, 1949) is an American serial killer known as the Green River Killer. He murdered numerous women in Washington during the 1980s and 1990s, earning his nickname when the first five victims were found in the Green River. He strangled them, usually with his arm but sometimes using ligatures. After strangling the women, he would dump their bodies throughout forested and overgrown areas in King CountyWashington.

On November 30, 2001, as he was leaving the Renton Washington Kenworth Truck factory, where he worked, he was arrested for the murders of four women whose cases were linked to him through DNA evidence. As part of a plea bargain wherein he agreed to disclose the whereabouts of still "missing" women, he was spared the death penalty and received a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.

Murders:

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Ridgway is believed to have murdered at least 71 women (according to Ridgway, in an interview with Sheriff Reichert 2001) near Seattle and Tacoma, Washington. His court statements later reported that he had killed so many, he lost count. A majority of the murders occurred between 1982 to 1984. The victims were believed to be either prostitutes or runaways picked up along Pacific Highway South (International Blvd. 99) whom he strangled. Most of their bodies were dumped in wooded areas around the Green River except for two confirmed and another two suspected victims found in the Portland, Oregon area. The bodies were often left in clusters, sometimes posed, usually nude. He would sometimes return to the victims' bodies and have intercourse with them (an act of necrophilia). Because most of the bodies were not discovered until only the skeletons remained, four victims are still unidentified. Ridgway occasionally contaminated the dump sites with gum, cigarettes, and written materials belonging to others, and he even transported a few victims' remains across state lines into Oregon to confuse the police.

Ridgway began each murder by picking up a woman, usually a prostitute. He sometimes showed the woman a picture of his son, to help her trust him. After having sex with her, Ridgway strangled her from behind. He initially strangled them manually; however, many victims inflicted wounds and bruises on his arm while trying to defend themselves. Concerned these wounds and bruises would draw attention, Ridgway began using ligatures to strangle his victims. Most victims were killed in his home, his truck, or a secluded area.

In the early 1980s, the King County Sheriff's Office formed the Green River Task Force to investigate the murders. The most notable members of the task force were Robert Keppel and Dave Reichert, who periodically interviewed incarcerated serial killer Ted Bundy from 1984. Their interviews with Bundy were of little help in the Green River investigations but elicited confessions from Bundy on unsolved cases. Also contributing was John E. Douglas, who has since written much on the subject of the Green River Killer.

Ridgway was arrested in 1982, and 2001 on charges related to prostitution. He became a suspect in 1983 in the Green River killings. In 1984, Ridgway took and passed a polygraph test, and on April 7, 1987, police took hair and saliva samples from Ridgway.

Around 1985, Ridgway began dating Judith Mawson, who became his third wife in 1988. Mawson claimed in a 2010 television interview that when she moved into his house while they were dating, there was no carpet. Detectives later told her he had probably wrapped a body in the carpet. In the same interview, she described how he would leave for work early in the morning some days, ostensibly for the overtime pay. Mawson speculated that he must have committed some of the murders while supposedly working these early morning shifts. She claimed that she had not suspected Ridgway's crimes before he was contacted by authorities in 1987, and in fact had not even heard of the Green River Killer before that time because she didn't watch the news.

Author Pennie Morehead says that when she interviewed Ridgway in prison, he said his urge to kill was reduced while he was in a relationship with Mawson, causing him to commit fewer murders than he otherwise would have, and that he truly loved her. Mawson told a local television reporter, "I feel I have saved lives . . . by being his wife and making him happy."

The samples collected in 1987 were later subjected to a DNA analysis, providing the evidence for his arrest warrant. On November 30, 2001, Ridgway was at the Kenworth Truck factory, where he worked as a spray painter, when police arrived to arrest him. Ridgway was arrested on suspicion of murder of four women nearly 20 years after first being identified as a potential suspect when DNA evidence conclusively linked semen left in the victims to the saliva swab taken by the police.

Ted Bundy - Sadistic Sociopath, Necrophile, Rapist, Kidnapper, and Serial Killer

Ted Bundy in custody, Florida, July 1978

Florida Memory Project, Florida Photographic Collection, #N035653 and Wikipedia

Theodore Robert "Ted" Bundy (born Theodore Robert Cowell; November 24, 1946 - - January 24, 1989) was an American serial killer, rapist, kidnapper, and necrophile who assaulted and murdered numerous young women during the 1970s, and possibly earlier. After more than a decade of denials he confessed shortly before his execution to 30 homicides committed in seven states between 1974 and 1978; the true total remains unknown, and could be much higher.

Bundy was handsome and charismatic, traits he exploited in winning the confidence of his young, attractive female victims. He typically approached them in public places and feigned injury or disability, or impersonated an authority figure, before overpowering and assaulting them at a more secluded location. He sometimes revisited his secondary crime scenes for hours at a time, grooming and performing sexual acts with the decomposing corpses until putrefaction and destruction by wild animals made further interaction impossible. He decapitated at least four victims and kept the severed heads in his apartment for a period of time as mementos. On a few occasions he simply broke into dwellings in the dead of night and bludgeoned victims as they slept.

Initially charged in Utah in 1975 and convicted of aggravated kidnapping and attempted criminal assault, Bundy became linked to a progressively longer list of unsolved homicides in multiple states. Facing murder charges in Colorado, he engineered two dramatic escapes, and committed at least three additional murders and several violent assaults in Florida before his ultimate recapture in 1978. He received three death sentences in two separate trials for the three known Florida homicides.

Ted Bundy died in the electric chair at Raiford Prison in Starke, Florida, in January 1989. Biographer Ann Rule described him as ". . .a sadistic sociopath who took pleasure from another human's pain and the control he had over his victims, to the point of death, and even after." He once called himself ". . .the most cold-hearted son of a bitch you'll ever meet.” Attorney Polly Nelson, a member of his last defense team, agreed. "Ted," she wrote, "was the very definition of heartless evil."

Electric Chair

Left = Old Sparky, the electric chair used at Sing Sing prison

Wikipedia

Right = Original Death Chamber at the Red Hat Cell Block. The chair is a replica of the original. The Red Hat was closed in the early 1970

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license – Wikipedia

'Old Sparky' is the electric chair that Nebraska used for executions. It is housed in the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, Nebraska

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Walmart - Sam Walton - Super Greedy Businessman

Sam Walton voted most versatile boy in the David H. Hickman High School yearbook in 1936

The yearbook (The Cresset) was published with no copyright notice and is now in the public domain of the United States.

Samuel Moore "Sam" Walton (March 29, 1918 - - April 5, 1992) was a businessman, entrepreneur, and Eagle Scout born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma best known for founding the retailers Wal-Mart and Sam's Club.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000 list, and the largest public corporation when ranked by revenue. It is also the biggest private employer in the world with over 2 million employees, and is the largest company in the world.

The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. It is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. Walmart is also the largest grocery retailer in the United States. In 2009, it generated 51% of its US$258 billion sales in the U.S. from grocery business. It also owns and operates the Sam's Club retail warehouses in North America.

A Loyola University Chicago study which suggested that impact a Wal-Mart store has on a local business is correlated to its distance from that store. The leader of that study admits that this factor is stronger in smaller towns and doesn't apply to more urban areas saying "It'd be so tough to nail down what's up with Wal-Mart". Another study found Wal-Mart's entry into a new market has a profound impact on its retail competition. When a Wal-Mart opens in a new market, median sales drop 40% at similar high-volume stores, 17% at supermarkets and 6% at drugstores, according to a June 2009 study by researchers at several universities and led by the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

Labor unions, Christian organizations, and environmental groups have criticized Wal-Mart for its policies and/or business practices. In particular, several labor unions blame Wal-Mart workers' unwillingness to join their organizations on the company's anti-union stance. Others disapprove of the corporation's extensive foreign product sourcing, (Chinese crap) treatment of employees and product suppliers, environmental practices, and use of public subsidies, and the impact of stores on the local economies of towns in which they operate. (Walmart stores do not carry CDs and DVDs that do not conform to their religious beliefs. PWW)

In 2005, two national campaigns to criticize Wal-Mart were launched: the (United Food and Commercial Workers) launched Wake Up Wal-Mart and The Center for Community and Corporate Ethics launched Wal-Mart Watch. By the end of 2005, Wal-Mart launched Working Families for Wal-Mart, an operation managed by Wal-Mart to tell the company's side of the story. Additional efforts to counter criticism included a PR campaign in 2005, managed through its PR website walmartfacts.com, as well as several television commercials. The company retained the PR firm Edelman to respond to negative media attention, and started interacting directly with bloggers by sending them news, suggesting topics for postings, and sometimes inviting them to visit its corporate headquarters. Similarly, in 2010, several of Wal-Mart's opponents have hired The Saint Consulting Group to support grass-roots campaigns against Wal-Mart. The most notable of these include grocery chains such as Safeway Inc., SuperValu, and Ahold, concerned that the presence of Wal-Mart will add more competition to their operations. (Good clean competition is good. PWW)

In June 2006, Walmart was excluded from the investment portfolio of The Government Pension Fund of Norway, which held stock values of about US$ 430 million in the company, due to a social audit into alleged labor rights violations in the company's operations in the US and worldwide. Although Walmart did not respond to questions from the fund's auditors, the company later claimed the decision "don't appear to be based on complete information.”

In the past, Wal-mart has been accused of locking night-shift workers in at night, paying employees below minimum wage, and exposing employees to health hazards. Wal-Mart's own "Standards for Suppliers" reports document extensive problems of this kind among the company's "directly-sourced" factories. Full-time Wal-Mart employees earn an average of $10.78 per hour, but critics point out that the starting pay can be far lower — placing some employees with children below the poverty line — and that pay rates do not rise as quickly as with unionized companies. Others decry low levels of health coverage or overpriced health insurance, though the company reports that it offers rates as low as $5 per month in some areas ($9 per month nationwide) and that 92% of its associates are insured (though not necessarily through Wal-Mart). Other grievances regard poor working conditions, unfavorable employer-employee relationships, and anti-union policies. Many suggest that Wal-Mart's high annual turnover-rate of ~70% shows that workers are dissatisfied and maltreated.

Wal-Mart has opposed the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would make it easier for workers to unionize by removing the employer's ability to demand a secret ballot in union elections, and which would require mandatory arbitration of labor disputes. In mid-2008, the company required store managers and department heads to attend meetings at which opposition to the EFCA was used as a fulcrum for criticism of Democratic candidates in the elections for the United States Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as of the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee, Senator Barack Obama. At these meetings, Wal-Mart human resources managers warned that Democratic victories might result in passage of the EFCA and hence more unionization. At one meeting, a Wal-Mart customer service supervisor from Missouri stated, "I am not telling you how to vote, but if the Democrats win, this bill will pass and you won't have a vote on whether you want a union. A Wal-Mart spokesman, while acknowledging that the meetings were taking place nationwide, said, "If anyone representing Wal-Mart gave the impression we were telling associates how to vote, they were wrong and acting without approval." Several labor-rights groups including the AFL-CIO have asked the Federal Election Commission to investigate whether Wal-Mart broke federal election rules by advocating against Democratic candidate Barack Obama in meetings with employees.

According to a Newsweek article, Wal-Mart, after years of fierce fighting, accepted organized labor in China. Labor unions in China do not negotiate contracts, but rather they are an arm of the state "to secure the social order" and provide funding to the Communist Party.

Gender and sexual orientation:

In 2007, a gender discrimination lawsuit, Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., was filed against Walmart, alleging that female employees were discriminated against in matters regarding pay and promotions. A class action suit was sought, which would have been the nation's largest in history, covering 1.5 million past and current employees of Wal-Mart. On June 20, 2011, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Wal-Mart's favor, stating that the plaintiffs did not have enough in common to constitute a class. The court ruled unanimously that because of the variability of the plaintiffs' circumstances, the class action could not proceed as presented, and furthermore, in a 5-4 decision that it could not proceed as any kind of class action suit. However, several plaintiffs, including Ms. Dukes, still intend to file individual discrimination lawsuits separately.

According to a consultant hired by plaintiffs in a sex discrimination lawsuit, in 2001, Wal-Mart's EEOC filings showed that female employees made up 65% of Wal-Mart's hourly paid workforce, but only 33% of its management. Just 35% of its store managers were women, whereas 57% were at comparable retailers. Wal-Mart says comparisons with other retailers are unfair, because it classifies employees differently; if department managers were included in the totals, women would make up 60% of the managerial ranks. Others have criticized the lawsuit as without basis in the law and as an abuse of the class action mechanism. In 2007, Wal-Mart was named by the National Association for Female Executives as one of the top 35 companies for Executive Women.

Mislabeling:

Since opening in 2006 in China, the company has been punished 21 times for false advertising, for selling expired food or not passed safety inspections. And on October 2011, two Wal-Mart Stores Inc. employees arrested in Chinese mislabeling probe of ordinary pork as organic made the Chongging government fined the retailer 3.65 million Yuan ($574,000).

Pol Pot - The Khmer Rouge Regime - The Killing Fields

Pol Pot

Wikipedia

The Killing Fields: Choeung Ek, near Phnom Penh, Cambodia. These are the bones of young children who were killed by Khmer Rouge soldiers

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The Khmer Rouge regime arrested and eventually executed almost everyone suspected of connections with the former government or with foreign governments, as well as professionals and intellectuals. Ethnic Vietnamese, ethnic Thai, ethnic Chinese (except for those already prominent among the Khmer Rouge themselves), ethnic Chams (Muslim Cambodians), Cambodian Christians, and the Buddhist monkhood were the demographic targets of persecution. As a result, Pol Pot is sometimes described as "the Hitler of Cambodia" and "a genocidal tyrant." Martin Shaw described the Cambodian genocide as "the purest genocide of the Cold War era."

A commemorative stupa filled with the skulls of the victims at Choeung Ek.

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Quadell grants anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

Mass grave in Choeung Ek

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According to Michael Vickery, 750,000 people in Cambodia in a population of about 8 million died due to disease, overwork, and political repression. However many scholars disregard his claims because the number of victims of execution found in the mass graves is higher than his estimate for deaths from all causes during the rule of the Khmer Rouge and the civil war combined. The most widely accepted estimate, from scholar Ben Kiernan, is that about 1.7 million people were killed. It is described by the Yale University Cambodian Genocide Program as, "one of the worst human tragedies of the last century." Researcher Craig Etcheson of the Documentation Center of Cambodia suggests that the death toll was between 2 and 2.5 million, with a "most likely" figure of 2.2 million. After 5 years of researching some 20,000 grave sites, he concludes that, "these mass graves contain the remains of 1,386,734 victims of execution." Execution is believed to have accounted for about 30 - - 50% of the death toll. This would indicate 2.5 to 3 million deaths, but normal mortality over this period would have accounted for about 500,000 deaths—subtracting this from the total sum, we arrive at Etcheson's range for the number of "excess" deaths attributable to the Khmer Rouge regime. A UN investigation reported 2 - - 3 million dead, while UNICEF estimated 3 million had been killed. Even the Khmer Rouge acknowledged that 2 million had been killed—though they attributed those deaths to a subsequent Vietnamese invasion. By late 1979, UN and Red Cross officials were warning that another 2.25 million Cambodians faced death by starvation due to “the near destruction of Cambodian society under the regime of ousted Prime Minister Pol Pot,” who were saved by American and international aid after the Vietnamese invasion.

Although the death of one quarter of the Cambodian population is attributed to Pol Pot, there is debate as to whether or not this constitutes genocide under international law. Moreover, there is a separate debate as to whether or not the persecution of minorities by the Khmer Rouge constituted genocide.

Cambodia's ethnic minorities constituted 15 percent of the population in pre-Khmer Rouge era. Of the 400,000 Vietnamese who lived in Cambodia before 1975, some 150 - - 300,000 were expelled by the previous Lon Nol regime. When Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge came to power, there remained about 100 - - 250,000 Vietnamese in the country. Almost all of them were repatriated by December 1975. Some argue that the Khmer Rouge had no intent to cause serious mental and physical harm to the Vietnamese during the repatriation process.

The Chinese community (about 425,000 people in 1975) was reduced to 200,000 during the next four years. In the Khmer Rouge's Standing Committee, four members were of Chinese ancestry, two Vietnamese, and two Khmers. Some observers argue that this mixed composition makes it difficult to argue that there was an intent to kill off minorities. R.J. Rummel, an analyst of political killings, argues that there was a clear genocidal intent:

Not only did the Khmer Rouge run amok massacring their people, but also everywhere the Khmer Rouge tried to destroy the very heart of peasant life. Hinayana Buddhism had been a state religion, and the priesthood of monks with their saffron robes was a central part of Cambodian culture. Some 90 percent of Cambodians believed in some form of Buddhism. Many received a rudimentary schooling from the monks, and many young people became monks for part of their lives. The Khmer Rouge could not allow so powerful an institution to stand and therefore set out with vigor to destroy it. They exterminated all leading monks and either murdered or defrocked the lesser ones. One estimate is that out of 40,000 to 60,000 monks only 800 to 1,000 survived to carry on their religion. We do know that of 2,680 monks in eight monasteries, merely seventy were alive in 1979. As for the Buddhist temples that populated the landscape of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge destroyed 95 percent of them, and turned the few remaining into warehouses or allocated them for some other degrading use. Amazingly, in the very short span of a year or so, the small gang of Khmer Rouge wiped out the center of Cambodian culture, its spiritual incarnation, and its institutions. This was an act of genocide within the larger Cambodian democide, and it was not the only one. In most if not all the country, simply being of Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, or Lao ancestry meant death. As part of a planned genocide campaign, the Khmer Rouge sought out and killed other minorities, such as the Moslem Cham. In the district of Kompong Xiem, for example, they demolished five Cham hamlets and reportedly massacred 20,000 that lived there; in the district of Koong Neas only four Cham apparently survived out of some 20,000. The cadre threw the Cham Grand Mufti, their spiritual leader, into boiling water and then hit him on the head with an iron bar. They beat another leader, the First Mufti, to death, tortured and disemboweled the Second Mufti, and murdered by starvation in prison the Chairman of the Islamic Association of Kampuchea (Cambodia). Overall, the Khmer Rouge annihilated nearly half—about 125,000—of all the Cambodian Cham. As to the other minorities, the Khmer Rouge also slaughtered about 200,000 ethnic Chinese, almost half of those in Cambodia—a calamity for ethnic Chinese in this part of the world unequaled in modern times—additionally, they murdered 3,000 Protestants and 5,000 Catholics; around 150,000 ethnic Vietnamese (over half); and 12,000 ethnic Thai out of 20,000. One Cambodian peasant, Heng Chan, whose wife was of Vietnamese descent, lost not only his wife, but also five sons, three daughters, three grandchildren, and sixteen of his wife's relatives. In this genocide, the Khmer Rouge probably murdered 541,000 Chinese, Chams, Vietnamese, and other minorities.

Manuel Noriega - Panamanian Politician and Drug Trafficker

Cropped version of File: Manuel Noriega mug shot, U.S. Marshals Service in Miami, Florida

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code

Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno (born February 11, 1934) is a Panamanian politician and soldier. He was military dictator of Panama from 1983 to 1989.

Summary:

The 1989 invasion of Panama by the United States removed him from power; he was captured, detained as a prisoner of war, and flown to the United States. Noriega was tried on eight counts of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering in April 1992. Noriega's U.S. prison sentence ended in September 2007; pending the outcome of extradition requests by both Panama and France, for convictions in absentia for murder in 1995 and money laundering in 1999. France was granted its extradition request in April 2010. He arrived in Paris on April 27, 2010, and after a re-trial as a condition of the extradition, he was found guilty and sentenced to seven years in jail in July 2010. A conditional release was granted on September 23, 2011 for Noriega to be extradited on October 1, 2011 to serve 20 years in Panama.

Involvement with CIA:

Although the relationship did not become contractual until 1967, Noriega worked with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from the late 1950s until the 1980s. In 1988 the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration indicted him on federal drug charges.

The 1988 Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations concluded that "The saga of Panama's General Manuel Antonio Noriega represents one of the most serious foreign policy failures for the United States. Throughout the 1970s and the 1980s, Noriega was able to manipulate U.S. policy toward his country, while skillfully accumulating near-absolute power in Panama. It is clear that each U.S. government agency which had a relationship with Noriega turned a blind eye to his corruption and drug dealing, even as he was emerging as a key player on behalf of the Medellin Cartel (a member of which was notorious Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar).” Noriega was allowed to establish "the hemisphere's first 'narcokleptocracy'". One of the large financial institutions that he was able to use to launder money was the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) which was shut down at the end of the Cold War by the FBI. Noriega shared his cell with ex-BCCI executives in the facility that is known as "Club Med".

In the 1988 U.S. presidential election, Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis highlighted this history in a campaign commercial attacking his opponent, Vice President (and former CIA Director) George H. W. Bush for his close relationship with "Panamanian drug lord Noriega."

United States Invasion of Panama:

The United States invasion of Panama was launched on December 20, 1989. Losses on the U.S. side were 24 troops, plus 3 civilian casualties. Statistics of the number of Panamanian civilian deaths remain disputed; the New York Times and Newsweek magazine reported between 202 and 220. The conflict also caused some considerable internal displacement, with 20,000 to 30,000 having been rendered homeless.

On December 29, the General Assembly of the United Nations voted 75 - - 20 with 40 abstentions to condemn the invasion as a flagrant violation of international law. According to a CBS poll, 92% of Panamanian adults supported the U.S. incursion, and 76% wished that U.S. forces had invaded in October during the coup. However, others dispute this finding, claiming that the Panamanian surveys were completed in wealthy, English-speaking neighborhoods in Panama City, among Panamanians most likely to support US actions.

Capture:

January 1, 1990, Gen. Manuel Noriega is escorted onto a U.S. Air Force aircraft by agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

In 1989, the general was overthrown and captured during Operation Nifty Package, as part of the United States invasion of Panama. He was detained as a prisoner of war (What war?), and later taken to the United States.

Noriega fled during the invasion, and a manhunt ensued. He threatened that he would call for guerilla warfare if the Apostolic Nuncio did not give him refuge. He was discovered to be in the Apostolic Nunciature, the Holy See's embassy in Panama. Noriega surrendered on January 3, 1990.

Gen. Manuel Noriega is escorted onto a U.S. Air Force aircraft by agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The former Panamanian leader will be flown to the United States, where he will be held for trial on drug charges 1 January 1990

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Pablo Escobar - Big Time Gangbanger

Pablo Escobar graffitti

Wikipedia

Members of Colonel Martinez's Search Bloc celebrate over Pablo Escobar's body on December 2, 1993. Pablo's death ended a fifteen-month effort that cost hundreds of millions of dollars

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.

Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (December 1, 1949 - - December 2, 1993) was a Colombian Drug Lord. He was an elusive cocaine trafficker and rich and successful criminal. He owned a number of luxury residences and automobiles and, in 1986, entered Colombian politics. At a later stage he offered to pay off the nation's US $10 billion national debt.

Pablo Escobar once said that the essence of the cocaine business was "simple - you bribe someone here, you bribe someone there, and you pay a friendly banker to help you bring the money back.” In 1989, Forbes magazine estimated Escobar to be the seventh-richest man in the world with a personal wealth of close to US$25 billion while his Medellin cartel controlled 80% of the global cocaine market.

While seen as an enemy of the United States and Colombian governments, Escobar was a hero to many in Medellin (especially the poor people); he was a natural at public relations and he worked to create goodwill among the poor people of Colombia. A lifelong sports fan, he was credited with building football fields and multi-sports courts, as well as sponsoring children's football teams.

Escobar was responsible for the construction of many hospitals, schools, and churches in western Colombia, which gained him popularity inside the local Roman Catholic Church. He worked hard to cultivate his "Robin Hood" image, and frequently distributed money to the poor through housing projects and other civic activities, which gained him notable popularity among the poor. The population of Medellin often helped Escobar by serving as lookouts, hiding information from the authorities, or doing whatever else they could do to protect him.

Despite his popular image among Medellin's impoverished community, Escobar was well known among his business associates to be a calm and sensible negotiator, that preferred to use money before the gun. Many of the wealthier residents of Medellin also viewed him as a threat. His brother said that Pablo knew that money generated more loyalty than fear, so violence was often unnecessary. At the height of his power, drug traffickers from Medellin and other areas were handing over between 20 and 35% of their Colombian cocaine-related profits to Escobar, because he was the one who shipped the cocaine successfully to the US.

Some of Pablo Escobar's memorable quotations are:

"I prefer to be in the grave in Colombia than in a jail cell in the United States."

"I'm a decent man who exports flowers."

"All empires are created of blood and fire."

"I can replace things, but I could never replace my wife and kids."

"Everyone has a price; the important thing is to find out what it is."

"There can only be one king."

"Sometimes I am God, if I say a man dies, he dies that same day."

"There are two hundred million idiots, manipulated by a million intelligent men."

Medellin Cartel - Drug Movers - Gangbangers

Medellin Cartel members, Marihuana and Cocaine Images

Public Domain images. - - Author: Amnesico29 - - Wikipedia

The Medellin Cartel was an organized network of "drug suppliers and smugglers" originating in the city of Medellin, Colombia. The drug cartel operated in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Central America, the United States, as well as Canada and even Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was founded and run by Ochoa Vazquez brothers Jorge Luis, Juan David, and Fabio together with Pablo Escobar. By 1993, the Colombian government, helped by the US, had successfully dismantled the cartel by imprisoning or hunting and gunning down its members.

During the height of its operations, the cartel brought in more than $60 million per day. The total amount of money made by the cartel was in the tens of billions, and very possibly the hundreds of billions of dollars. There were many "groups" during the cartel's years, usually white Americans, Canadians or Europeans, organized for the sole purpose of transporting shipments of cocaine destined for the United States, Europe and Canada. While many groups were infiltrated and taken down by Federal agents and informers, a few were stumbled upon by authorities, usually due to some small misstep or careless behavior by a group member. (Some of my friends/acquaintances/pilots flew DC-3s and DC-6s down to Colombia in those days, making a lot of money. One group tried to rob the cartel; they never returned, and their plane landed in the ocean with no one aboard. PWW)

Once authorities were made aware of "questionable activities", the group would be put under Federal Drug Task Force surveillance. Evidence would be gathered, compiled, and presented to a Grand Jury, resulting in indictments, arrests, and prison sentences, for those convicted. The number of Colombian Cartel Leaders actually taken into custody because of these operations was very few. Mostly non-Colombians, conspiring with the Cartel, were the "fruits" of these indictments.

Most Colombians targeted, as well as those named in such indictments, lived and stayed in Colombia, or fled before indictments were unsealed. However, by 1993 most, if not all, cartel fugitives had been imprisoned or hunted and gunned down by the Colombian National Police trained and assisted by U.S. Delta Force units and the CIA.

While it is broadly believed that the group "Los Pepes" have been instrumental in the assassination of the cartel's members over the last 17 years, it is still in dispute whether the mantle is just a screen designed to deflect political repercussions from both the Colombian and United States governments’ involvement in these assassinations. (Some good FICTIONAL stories are in my books, patterned after some of the activities of the involved groups. PWW)

The Cartel and Terrorism:

On August 18, 1989, the cartel murdered leading presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan, and declared "Total and absolute war" against the Colombian Government, seeking to stop potential extradition of its members. The strategy consisted of terrorizing the civilian population and cornering the government. The cartel conducted hundreds of terrorist attacks against civilian and governmental targets. However, the cartel had already started a campaign of assassinations of key political figures, as far back as 1984.

The following is a List of the Most Notable Incidents Involving the Medellin Cartel:

May 30, 1989: Attempted assassination of Miguel Maza Marquez, director of the Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS) in Bogota. Car bomb. 4 dead, 37 injured.

September 2, 1989: Car bomb against major newspaper El Espectador in Bogota; 84 wounded. Guillermo Cano Isaza, director of the newspaper had been killed on Escobar's orders on December 17, 1986.

October 16, 1989: Car bomb against newspaper Vanguardia Liberal, in Bucaramanga; four killed.

November 27, 1989: The cartel bombs Avianca Flight 203 during flight over Bogota while attempting to kill presidential candidate Cesar Gaviria Trujillo, who had not boarded the plane; 110 are killed.

December 6, 1989: DAS headquarters in downtown Bogota is bombed with over 1,100 pounds of explosives during the morning rush. The attack kills over 50, injures more than 600, and levels several city blocks, destroying more than 300 commercial properties.

May 13, 1990: Two bombs detonate separately at the Quirigua and Niza shopping malls during Mother's Day in Bogota, killing 14 and wounding over 100.

February 16, 1991: The cartel detonates a 440-pound car bomb outside La Macarena, a Bullring in Medellin; killing 22.

January 30, 1993: A car bomb in downtown Bogota kills 20. The bomb was set off in a high-rise area, and most of the dead were in higher floors as the explosive wave traveled up the buildings.

April 15, 1993: A car bomb kills 15 and injures over 100 outside the Centro 93 shopping mall in northern Bogota.

Assassinations:

As a means of intimidation, the cartel conducted several hundred assassinations throughout the country. Escobar and his associates made it clear that whoever stood against them would risk being killed along with his/her families. Some estimates put the total around 3,500 killed during the height of the cartel, including over 500 police officers in Medellin, but the entire list is impossible to assemble, due to the limitation of the judiciary power in Colombia.

The following is a brief list of the most notorious assassinations conducted by the cartel:

Luis Vasco and Gilberto Hernandez, two DAS agents who had arrested Pablo Escobar in 1976; one of the earliest assassinations of authority figures by the cartel.

Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, Minister of Justice, killed on a Bogota highway on April 30, 1984 when two gunmen riding a motorcycle approached his vehicle in traffic and opened fire.

Tulio Manuel Castro Gil, Superior Judge, killed by motorcycle gunmen in July 1985 shortly after indicting Escobar.

Hernando Baquero Borda, Supreme Court Justice, killed by gunmen in Bogota on July 31, 1986.

Jaime Ramirez, Police Colonel and head of the anti-narcotics unit of the National Police of Colombia. Killed on a Medellin highway in November 1986 when assassins in a red Renault pulled up beside his white Toyota minivan and opened fire. Ramirez was killed instantly; his wife and two sons were wounded.

Guillermo Cano Isaza, director of El Espectador, killed on December 1986 in Bogota by gunmen riding a motorcycle.

Jaime Pardo Leal, presidential candidate and head of the Patriotic Union party, killed by a gunman on October, 1987.

Carlos Mauro Hoyos, Attorney General, killed by gunmen in Medellin on January 1988.

Antonio Roldan Betancur, governor of Antioquia, killed by a car bomb in July 1989.

Valdemar Franklin Quintero, Commander of the Antioquia police, killed by gunmen in Medellin in August, 1989.

Luis Carlos Galan, presidential candidate, killed by gunmen during a rally in Soacha in August, 1989. The assassination was carried out on the same day the commander of the Antioquia police was gunned down by the cartel.

Carlos Ernesto Valencia, Superior Judge, killed by gunmen shortly after indicting Escobar on the death of Guillermo Cano, in August 1989.

Jorge Enrique Pulido, journalist, director of JEP Television, killed by gunmen in Bogota in November 1989.

Diana Turbay, journalist, chief editor of the Hoy por Hoy magazine, killed during a rescue attempt in January 1991.

Enrique Low Murtra, Minister of Justice, killed by gunmen in downtown Bogota on May 1991.

Myriam Rocio Velez, Superior Judge, killed by gunmen shortly before she was to sentence Escobar on the assassination of Galan, in September 1992.

End of the Cartel:

The cartel's violence earned it the enmity of the Colombian and U.S. governments in addition to that of its rival Cali Cartel.

Many members of the cartel, including Pablo Escobar, were hunted and killed by a National Police of Colombia force, the Search Bloc, which had been trained and assisted by both the U.S. Delta Force as well as the CIA. Escobar's cartel associates were also targeted by the Los Pepes vigilante group.

DEA Agents considered that their four-pronged 'Kingpin Strategy', specifically targeting senior cartel figures, was a major contributing factor to the collapse of the organization.

Cali Cartel - Drug Movers and Gangbangers

Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela

This image or file is a work of a Drug Enforcement Administration employee, taken or made during the course of an employee's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

The Cali Cartel was a drug cartel based in southern Colombia, around the city of Cali and the Valle del Cauca Department. The Cali Cartel was founded by the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers, Gilberto and Miguel, as well as associate Jose Santacruz Londoño. Later Cali cartel principals included Helmer Herrera, Jairo Ivan Urdinola Grajales, Julio Fabio Urdinola Grajales, Henry Loaiza Ceballos, Victor Patiño Fomeque, Phanor Arizabaleta Arzayus, Raul Grajales Lemos, Luis Grajales Posso, Bernardo Saenz, Juan Carlos Ortiz Escobar, Jose Quervo, Javier Marlin Rojas, and James Andrae.

The Cali Cartel was formed by the Rodriguez brothers and Santacruz, all coming from what is described as a higher social background than most other traffickers of all time. The recognition of this social background was displayed in the group's nickname as "Cali's Gentlemen."

The group originally assembled as a ring of kidnappers known as Las Chemas, which was led by Luis Fernando Tamayo Garcia. Las Chemas were implicated in numerous kidnappings including that of two Swiss citizens, a diplomat Herman Buff and a student, Zack Jazz Milis Martin. They reportedly received $700,000 dollars in ransom, which is believed to have gone on to fund their drug trafficking empire.

The assembled group first involved itself in trafficking marijuana. Due to the products low profit rate, and larger amount required to traffic to cover resources, the fledgling group decided to shift their focus to the more lucrative drug: cocaine.

In the early 1970s the cartel sent Helmer "Pacho" Herrera to New York City to establish a distribution center. This action came during a time when the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was not fully pursuing cocaine, and viewed the drug as less critical than heroin, at one point releasing a report stating of cocaine it "is not physically addictive . . . and does not usually result in serious consequences, such as crime, hospital emergency room admissions or both."

Miguel Rodriguez-Orejuela being escorted by DEA and ICE Agents

This image is a work of a United States Department of Justice employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

MDMA "Ecstasy" ("E", "X", or "M") - A GOOD Drug

MDMA (3, 4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine) is an entactogenic drug of the phenethylamine and amphetamine class of drugs. In popular culture, MDMA has become widely known as "Ecstasy" ("E", "X", or "M"), usually referring to its street pill form, although this term may also include the presence of possible adulterants. The terms "molly" and "mandy" can colloquially refer to MDMA in crystalline or powder form.

MDMA can induce euphoria, a sense of intimacy with others, and diminished anxiety. Many studies, particularly in the fields of psychology and cognitive therapy, have suggested that MDMA has therapeutic benefits and facilitates therapy sessions in certain individuals, a practice for which it had formally been used in the past. Clinical trials are now testing the therapeutic potential of MDMA for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety associated with terminal cancer.

MDMA is criminalized in most countries under a United Nations (UN) agreement, and its possession, manufacture, or sale may result in criminal prosecution, although some limited exceptions exist for scientific and medical research. MDMA is one of the most widely used recreational drugs in the world and is taken in a variety of contexts far removed from its roots in psychotherapeutic settings. It is commonly associated with dance parties (or "raves") and electronic dance music.

Regulatory authorities in several locations around the world have approved scientific studies administering MDMA to humans to examine its therapeutic potential and its effects.

Medical Uses:

There have long been suggestions that MDMA might be useful in psychotherapy, facilitating self-examination with reduced fear; indeed, some therapists, including Leo Zeff, Claudio Naranjo, George Greer, Joseph Downing, and Philip Wolfson, used MDMA in their practices until it was made illegal.

George Greer synthesized MDMA in the lab of Alexander Shulgin and administered it to about 80 of his clients over the course of the remaining years preceding MDMA's Schedule I placement in 1985. In a published summary of the effects, the authors reported patients felt improved in various, mild psychiatric disorders and experienced other personal benefits, especially improved intimate communication with their significant others. In a subsequent publication on the treatment method, the authors reported that one patient with severe pain from terminal cancer experienced lasting pain relief and improved quality of life.

Three neurobiological mechanisms for the therapeutic effects of MDMA have been suggested: "1) MDMA increases oxytocin levels, which may strengthen the therapeutic alliance; 2) MDMA increases ventromedial prefrontal activity and decreases amygdala activity, which may improve emotional regulation and decrease avoidance, and 3) MDMA increases norepinephrine release and circulating cortisol levels, which may facilitate emotional engagement and enhance extinction of learned fear associations."

The first phase-II double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial into the potential therapeutic benefits of using the drug as an augment to psychotherapy showed that most patients in the trial given psychotherapy treatment along with doses of MDMA experienced statistically significant reductions in the severity of their condition after two months, compared with a control group receiving psychotherapy and a placebo. The authors concludes "MDMA-assisted psychotherapy can be administered to posttraumatic stress disorder patients without evidence of harm, and it may be useful in patients refractory to other treatments."

The possible therapeutic potential of MDMA is being tested in several ongoing studies, some sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). Studies in the U.S., Switzerland, and Israel are evaluating the efficacy of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for treating those diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or anxiety related to cancer.

Small doses of MDMA are used as an entheogen to enhance meditation by some Buddhist Monks.

Recreational use:

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction notes that, although there are some reports of tablets being sold for as little as €1, most countries in Europe now report typical retail prices in the range of €3 to €9 per tablet. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime claimed in its 2008 World Drug Report that typical U.S. retail prices are lower, costing 10 to 15 dollars per tablet, or from 4 to 6 dollars per tablet if bought in batches.

Polysubstance Use:

MDMA is occasionally known for being taken in conjunction with psychedelic drugs, such as LSD or psilocybin mushrooms, or even common drugs such as cannabis. As this practice has become more prevalent, most of the more common combinations have been given nicknames, such as "candy flipping", for MDMA combined with LSD, "hippy flipping", for MDMA with psilocybin, or "kitty flipping" for MDMA with Ketamine. Many users use mentholated products while taking MDMA for its cooling sensation while experiencing the drug's effects. Examples include menthol cigarettes, Vick's Vapo Rub, NyQuil, and lozenges.

Subjective Effects:

The primary effects attributable to MDMA consumption are predictable and fairly consistent among users. In general, users report feeling effects within 30 - - 60 minutes of consumption, hitting a peak at approximately 1 - - 1.5 hours, reaching a plateau that lasts about 2 - - 3 hours, followed by a comedown of a few hours, which may be accompanied by fatigue and minor effects.

The most common effects reported by users include:

A general and subjective alteration in consciousness

A strong sense of inner peace and self-acceptance

Diminished aggression, hostility, and jealousy

Diminished fear, anxiety, and insecurity

Extreme mood lift with accompanying euphoria

Feelings of empathy, compassion, and forgiveness toward others

Feelings of intimacy, and even love for others

Improved self-confidence

The ability to discuss normally anxiety-provoking topics with marked ease

An intensification of all of the bodily senses (hearing, touch, smell, vision, taste)

Substantial enhancement of the appreciation of music quality

Mild psychedelia, consisting of mental imagery and auditory and visual distortions

Stimulation, arousal, and hyperactivity (e.g., many users get an "uncontrollable urge to dance" while under the influence)

Increased energy and endurance

Increased alertness, awareness, and wakefulness

Increased desire, drive, and motivation

Analgesia or decreased pain sensitivity

Adverse effects:

In January 2001, an overview of the subjective side-effects of MDMA was published by Liechti, Gamma, and Vollenweider in the journal Psychopharmacology. Their paper was based on clinical research conducted over several years involving 74 healthy volunteers. The researchers found that there were a number of common side-effects and that many of the effects seemed to occur in different amounts based on gender. The top side-effects reported were difficulty concentrating, jaw clenching, grinding of the teeth during sleep, lack of appetite, and dry mouth/thirst (all occurring in more than 50% of the 74 volunteers). Liechti, et al. also measured some of the test subjects for blood pressure, heart rate, and body temperature against a placebo control but no statistically significant changes were seen.

A 2011 study carried out by Harvard Medical School and published in the journal Addiction found no signs of cognitive impairment due to ecstasy use, and that it did not decrease mental ability. The report also raised concerns that previous methods used to conduct that research on ecstasy had been flawed, and the experiments overstated the cognitive differences between ecstasy users and nonusers.

(Essentially no adverse side effects PWW)

After-effects:

Effects reported by some users once the acute effects of MDMA have worn off include:

Psychological: Anxiety and paranoia (back to normal); Depression (back to normal); Irritability (back to normal); Fatigue / Exhaustion (From dancing too much, or other forms of enjoying life, like too much strenuous pleasurable sex); Impaired attention, focus, and concentration, as well as drive and motivation (due to depleted serotonin levels); Residual feelings of empathy, emotional sensitivity, and a sense of closeness to others (afterglow), (A good after affect)

Physiological: Dizziness, lightheadedness, or vertigo; Loss of appetite (A good for overweight people); Gastrointestinal disturbances, such as diarrhea or constipation; Insomnia (Too much happiness to sleep); Aches and pains, usually from excessive physical activity (e.g., dancing); Jaw soreness, from trismus or bruxism.

Much more information is on the Wikipedia web page MDMA.

While in prison, I met Doug Housley, the person that reintroduced X for recreational purposes in the US; he did 20 years; we both went to the same halfway house in Las Vegas too. Doug felt X is a good drug, not a bad one, it should not be outlawed. He has gone straight and is setting up a diamond manufacturing business. At the time, 2008, almost no drug test kits tested for X; they may be different now. PWW)

Whatever happened to: “Life, liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

Psilocybin Mushrooms - Magic Mushrooms - Hallucinogenic Psilocybe -- A Good Herb

Psilocybe Cubensis

Wikipedia - Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Psilocybin mushrooms (Magic Mushrooms, teonanacatl, teotlaquilnanacatl, xochinanacatl) are fungi that contain the psychoactive compounds psilocybin and psilocin. There are multiple colloquial terms for psilocybin mushrooms, the most common being shrooms or magic mushrooms. Biological genera containing psilocybin mushrooms include Agrocybe, Conocybe, Copelandia, Galerina, Gerronema, Gymnopilus, Hypholoma, Inocybe, Mycena, Panaeolus, Pluteus, and Psilocybe. There are approximately 190 species of psilocybin mushrooms and most of them fall in the genus Psilocybe.

Early History:

There is some archaeological evidence for the use of psyilocybin-containing mushrooms in ancient times. Several mesolithic rock paintings from Tassili n'Ajjer (a prehistoric North African site identified with the Capsian culture) have been identified by author Giorgio Samorini as possibly depicting the shamanic use of mushrooms, possibly Psilocybe. Hallucinogenic species of Psilocybe have a history of use among the native peoples of Mesoamerica for religious communion, divination, and healing, from pre-Columbian times up to the present day. Mushroom-shaped statuettes found at archaeological sites seem to indicate that ritual use of hallucinogenic mushrooms is quite ancient. Mushroom stones and motifs have been found in Mayan temple ruins in Guatemala, though there is considerable controversy as to whether these objects indicate the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms or whether they had some other significance with the mushroom shape being simply a coincidence. More concretely, a statuette dating from ca. 200 AD and depicting a mushroom strongly resembling Psilocybe mexicana was found in a west Mexican shaft and chamber tomb in the state of Colima. Hallucinogenic Psilocybe were known to the Aztecs as teonanacatl (literally "divine mushroom" - agglutinative form of teo (god, sacred) and nanacatl (mushroom) in Nahuatl) and were reportedly served at the coronation of the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II in 1502. Aztecs and Mazatecs referred to psilocybin mushrooms as genius mushrooms, divinatory mushrooms, and wondrous mushrooms, when translated into English. Bernardino de Sahagun reported ritualistic use of teonanacatl by the Aztecs, when he traveled to Central America after the expedition of Hernan Cortes.

After the Spanish conquest, Catholic missionaries campaigned against the "pagan idolatry," and as a result the use of hallucinogenic plants and mushrooms like other pre-Christian traditions was quickly suppressed. The Spanish believed the mushroom allowed the Aztecs and others to communicate with "devils". In converting people to Catholicism, the Spanish pushed for a switch from teonanacatl to the Catholic sacrament of the Eucharist. Despite this history, in some remote areas, the use of teonanacatl has remained.

The first mention of hallucinogenic mushrooms in the Western medicinal literature appeared in the London Medical and Physical Journal in 1799: a man had served Psilocybe semilanceata mushrooms that he had picked for breakfast in London's Green Park to his family. The doctor who treated them later described how the youngest child "was attacked with fits of immoderate laughter, nor could the threats of his father or mother refrain him."

Modern History:

In 1955, Valentina and R. Gordon Wasson became the first Westerners to actively participate in an indigenous mushroom ceremony. The Wassons did much to publicize their discovery, even publishing an article on their experiences in Life in 1957. In 1956 Roger Heim identified the hallucinogenic mushroom that the Wassons had brought back from Mexico as Psilocybe, and in 1958, Albert Hofmann first identified psilocin and psilocybin as the active compounds in these mushrooms.

Inspired by the Wassons' Life article, Timothy Leary traveled to Mexico to experience hallucinogenic mushrooms firsthand. Upon returning to Harvard in 1960, he and Richard Alpert started the Harvard Psilocybin Project, promoting psychological and religious study of psilocybin and other hallucinogenic drugs. After Leary and Alpert were dismissed by Harvard in 1963, they turned their attention toward promoting the psychedelic experience to the nascent hippie counterculture.

The popularization of entheogens by Wasson, Leary, authors Terence McKenna and Robert Anton Wilson, and others has led to an explosion in the use of hallucinogenic Psilocybe throughout the world. By the early 1970s, a number of psychoactive Psilocybe species were described from temperate North America, Europe, and Asia and were widely collected. Books describing methods of cultivating Psilocybe cubensis in large quantities were also published. The availability of hallucinogenic Psilocybe from wild and cultivated sources has made it among the most widely used of the hallucinogenic drugs.

At present, hallucinogenic mushroom use has been reported among a number of groups spanning from central Mexico to Oaxaca, including groups of Nahua, Mixtecs, Mixe, Mazatecs, Zapotecs, and others. An important figure of mushroom usage in Mexico was Maria Sabina.

Effects:

The effects of Psilocybin mushrooms come from psilocybin and psilocin. They do create short-term increases in tolerance of users, thus making it difficult to abuse them because the more often they are taken within a short period of time, the weaker the resultant effects are. Poisonous (sometimes lethal) wild picked mushrooms can be easily mistaken for psilocybin mushrooms. When psilocybin is ingested, it is broken down to produce psilocin, which is responsible for the hallucinogenic effects.

As with many psychedelic substances, the effects of psychedelic mushrooms are subjective and can vary considerably among individual users. The mind-altering effects of psilocybin-containing mushrooms typically last anywhere from 3 to 8 hours depending on dosage, preparation method, and personal metabolism. However, the effects can seem to last much longer because of psilocybin's ability to alter time perception.

Some users suffer from hallucinogen persisting perception disorder although how many, and why, is unknown. Perceptual disturbances causing discomfort are rarely reported after using psylocybin, but they may be more likely if the drug is mixed with cannabis. There have been reports of such disturbances lasting 5 years or more. Magic mushrooms have also been controversially associated with long term effects such as panic attacks, depression and paranoid delusions. On the other hand, magic mushrooms were rated as causing some of the least damage in the UK compared to other recreational drugs by experts in a study by the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs. Other researchers have said that the main chemical component (psilocybin) is "remarkably non-toxic to the body's organ systems", explaining that the risks are indirect: higher dosages are more likely to cause fear and may result in dangerous behavior.

One study found that the most desirable results may come from starting with very low doses first; and trying slightly higher doses over months. The researchers explain that the peak experiences occur at quantities that are only slightly lower than a sort of anxiety threshold. Although risks of experiencing fear and anxiety increased somewhat consistently along with dosage and overall quality of experience, at dosages exceeding the individual's threshold, there was suddenly greater increases in anxiety than before. In other words, after finding the optimum dose, there are diminishing returns for using more (since risks of anxiety now increase at a greater rate).

Sensory:

Noticeable changes to the audio, visual, and tactile senses may become apparent around thirty minutes to an hour after ingestion. These shifts in perception visually include enhancement and contrasting of colors, strange light phenomena (such as auras or "halos" around light sources), increased visual acuity, surfaces that seem to ripple, shimmer, or breathe; complex open and closed eye visuals of form constants or images, objects that warp, morph, or change solid colors; a sense of melting into the environment, and trails behind moving objects. Sounds seem to be heard with increased clarity; music, for example, can often take on a profound sense of cadence and depth. Some users experience synesthesia, wherein they perceive, for example, a visualization of color upon hearing a particular sound.

Emotional:

As with other psychedelics such as LSD, the experience, or "Trip," is strongly dependent upon set and setting. A negative environment could likely induce a bad trip, whereas a comfortable and familiar environment would allow for a pleasant experience. Many users find it preferable to ingest the mushrooms with friends, people they are familiar with, or people that are also 'Tripping'. (In the back yard, in good weather, and around the pool, is a perfect setting to watch the clouds forming interesting shapes, the trees alive with continual colorful motion, birds gracefully flying around, and the little kids playing with their toys that become extremely fun, and funny, to the adults, from this bizarre vantage point, with good quality music floating into your ears, that is keeping bizarre rhythms to the moving leaves on the trees, and the dogs’ waging tails. Another good place is a Las Vegas casino, where you know the owners, so there can be no legal problems. The millions of amusing lights, bizarre people, and sounds are very entertaining. Of course, nothing can top an outdoor Grateful Dead concert in San Diego or the Bay area, with the colorful clothing the people wear, good music, good food, and their entertaining behaviors; too bad those days are over. [Other spots mentioned in my books are aerobatic flying, (A straight pilot is required to use for landing and to recover from the fuck-ups). Naked in the woods with your favorite partner, and on secluded beaches, are super awesome.] PWW)

Spiritual and well being:

In 2006, the United States government funded a randomized and double-blinded study by Johns Hopkins University, which studied the spiritual effects of psilocybin in particular. That is, they did not use mushrooms specifically (in fact, each individual mushroom piece can vary wildly in psilocybin and psilocin content). The study involved 36 college-educated adults (average age of 46) who had never tried psilocybin nor had a history of drug use, and who had religious or spiritual interests. The participants were closely observed for eight-hour intervals in a laboratory while under the influence of psilocybin mushrooms.

One-third of the participants reported that the experience was the single most spiritually significant moment of their lives and more than two-thirds reported it was among the top five most spiritually significant experiences. Two months after the study, 79% of the participants reported increased well-being or satisfaction; friends, relatives, and associates confirmed this. They also reported anxiety and depression symptoms to be decreased or completely gone.

Despite highly controlled conditions to minimize adverse effects, 22% of subjects (8 of 36) had notable experiences of fear, some with paranoia. The authors, however, reported that all these instances were "Readily managed with reassurance."

As medicine:

There have been calls for medical investigation of the use of synthetic and mushroom-derived psilocybin for the development of improved treatments of various mental conditions, including chronic cluster headaches, following numerous anecdotal reports of benefits. There are also several accounts of psilocybin mushrooms sending both obsessive-compulsive disorders ("OCD") and OCD-related clinical depression (both being widespread and debilitating mental health conditions) into complete remission immediately and for up to months at a time, compared to current medications which often have both limited efficacy and frequent undesirable side-effects. One such study states: "Developing drugs that are more effective and faster acting for the treatment of OCD is of utmost importance and until recently, little hope was in hand. A new potential avenue of treatment may exist. There are several reported cases concerning the beneficial effects of hallucinogenic drugs (psilocybin and LSD), potent stimulators of 5-HT2A and 5-HT2C receptors, in patients with OCD (Brandrup and Vanggaard, 1977, Rapoport, 1987, Moreno and Delgado, 1997) and related disorders such as body dysmorphic disorder (Hanes, 1996)."

"If it can be established that this class of drug can indeed lead to rapid and substantial reduction in OCD symptoms, then it opens the way for a variety of future studies with new drugs that might possibly have the anti-OCD but not the psychedelic effects… Psilocybin, LSD, and mescaline are extremely potent agonists at 5-HT2A and 5-HT2C receptors and their binding potency to these receptors is correlated with their human potency as hallucinogens (Glennon et al., 1984). The acute improvement in symptoms described in the published case reports (Brandrup and Vanggaard, 1977, Rapoport, 1987, Moreno and Delgado, 1997) suggests that interactions with 5-HT2A and 5-HT2C receptors may be an essential component of anti-OCD drug action. The observations that administration of the non-selective 5-HT antagonists metergoline or ritanserin exacerbate OCD symptoms further supports this view."

Dosage:

Dosage of mushrooms containing psilocybin depends on the potency of the mushroom (the total psilocybin and psilocin content of the mushrooms), which varies significantly both between species and within the same species, but is typically around 0.5-2% of the dried weight of the mushroom. A typical dose of the rather common species, Psilocybe cubensis, is approximately 1 to 2.5 grams, while about 2.5 to 5 grams dried mushroom material is considered a strong dose. Above 5 dried grams is often considered a heavy dose.

The concentration of active psilocybin mushroom compounds varies not only from species to species, but also from mushroom to mushroom inside a given species, subspecies or variety. The same holds true even for different parts of the same mushroom. In the species Psilocybe samuiensis Guzman, Bandala and Allen, the dried cap of the mushroom contains the most psilocybin at about 0.23% - - 0.90%. The mycelia contain about 0.24% - - 0.32%.[32]

Legality:

Psilocybin and psilocin are listed as Schedule I drugs under the United Nations 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Schedule I drugs are deemed to have a high potential for abuse and are not recognized for medical use. However, psilocybin mushrooms are not covered by UN drug treaties.

Psilocybin mushrooms are regulated or prohibited in many countries, often carrying severe legal penalties (for example, the U.S. Psychotropic Substances Act, the UK Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and Drugs Act 2005, and the Canadian Controlled Drugs and Substances Act).

Magic mushrooms in their fresh form still remain legal in some countries including Spain, Austria, and Canada. On November 29, 2008, The Netherlands announced it would ban the cultivation and use of psilocybin-containing fungi beginning December 1, 2008. The UK ban on fresh mushrooms (dried ones were illegal as they were considered a psilocybin-containing preparation) introduced in 2005 came under much criticism, but was rushed through at the end of the 2001-2005 Parliament; until then magic mushrooms had been sold in the UK.

New Mexico appeals court ruled on June 14, 2005, that growing psilocybin mushrooms for personal consumption could not be considered "Manufacturing a controlled substance" under state law. However, it remains illegal under federal law.

(This is another herb that should not be chastised by the governments; X, Mushroom, and Weed are GOOD. PWW)

Panaeolus subbalteatus (NOT the good ones)

Wikipedia - This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Psilocybe cyanofriscosa - This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Cocaine - A Drug

A woman smoking crack cocaine

Author: Oaktown Crack Comics: Released under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Cocaine (benzoylmethylecgonine) (INN) is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. (Or made from the green part of potato or tomato plants, with the super critical fluid extraction process or other less efficient processes. PWW) The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic. Specifically, it is a serotonin - - norepinephrine - - dopamine reuptake inhibitor, which mediates functionality of these neurotransmitters as an exogenous catecholamine transporter ligand. Because of the way it affects the mesolimbic reward pathway, cocaine is addictive.

Unlike most molecules, cocaine possesses both high hydrophilic and lipophilic efficiency, violating the rule of hydrophilic-lipophilic balance. This causes it to cross the blood-brain barrier with vastly superior reinforcement than to other psychoactive chemicals.

Its possession, cultivation, and distribution are illegal for non-medicinal and non-government sanctioned purposes in virtually all parts of the world. Although its free commercialization is illegal and has been severely penalized in virtually all countries, its use worldwide remains widespread in many social, cultural, and personal settings.

"Cocaine Toothache drops", 1885 Advertisement of cocaine for dental pain in children. Original caption: "Available from many sources, this version (highest quality I've found) comes from [Encyclopædia Dramatica, with upload history lost due to shutdown/restoration of ED.

The image is unaltered, thus its PD status is not in [question]"

Cocaine as a Local Anesthetic:

Cocaine was historically useful as a topical anesthetic in eye and nasal surgery, although it is now predominantly used for nasal and lacrimal duct surgery. The major disadvantages of this use are cocaine's intense vasoconstrictor activity and potential for cardiovascular toxicity. Cocaine has since been largely replaced in Western medicine by synthetic local anesthetics such as benzocaine, proparacaine, lignocaine/xylocaine/lidocaine, and tetracaine though it remains available for use if specified. If vasoconstriction is desired for a procedure (as it reduces bleeding), the anesthetic is combined with a vasoconstrictor such as phenylephrine or epinephrine. In Australia it is currently prescribed for use as a local anesthetic for conditions such as mouth and lung ulcers. Some ENT specialists occasionally use cocaine within the practice when performing procedures such as nasal cauterization. In this scenario dissolved cocaine is soaked into a ball of cotton wool, which is placed in the nostril for the 10 - - 15 minutes immediately prior to the procedure, thus performing the dual role of both numbing the area to be cauterized and also vasoconstriction. Even when used this way, some of the used cocaine may be absorbed through oral or nasal mucosa and give systemic effects.

In 2005, researchers from Kyoto University Hospital proposed the use of cocaine in conjunction with phenylephrine administered in the form of an eye drop as a diagnostic test for Parkinson's disease.

Coca leaf in Bolivia:

For over a thousand years South American indigenous peoples have chewed the leaves of Erythroxylon coca, a plant that contains vital nutrients as well as numerous alkaloids, including cocaine. The coca leaf was, and still is, chewed almost universally by some indigenous communities. The remains of coca leaves have been found with ancient Peruvian mummies, and pottery from the time period depicts humans with bulged cheeks, indicating the presence of something on which they are chewing. There is also evidence that these cultures used a mixture of coca leaves and saliva as an anesthetic for the performance of trepanation.

When the Spanish arrived in South America, most at first ignored aboriginal claims that the leaf gave them strength and energy, and declared the practice of chewing it the work of the Devil. But after discovering that these claims were true, they legalized and taxed the leaf, taking 10% off the value of each crop.

In 1569, Nicolas Monardes described the practice of the natives of chewing a mixture of tobacco and coca leaves to induce "great contentment": “When they wished to make themselves drunk and out of judgment they chewed a mixture of tobacco and coca leaves which make them go as they were out of their wittes.”

In 1609, Padre Blas Valera wrote: “Coca protects the body from many ailments, and our doctors use it in powdered form to reduce the swelling of wounds, to strengthen broken bones, to expel cold from the body or prevent it from entering, and to cure rotten wounds or sores that are full of maggots. And if it does so much for outward ailments, will not its singular virtue have even greater effect in the entrails of those who eat it?”

Coca Leaf

This photograph was produced by Agencia Brasil, a public Brazilian news agency. (The content of this website is published under the Creative Commons License Attribution 2.5 Brazil)

Modern usage:

In many countries, cocaine is a popular recreational drug. In the United States, the development of "crack" cocaine introduced the substance to a generally poorer inner-city market. Use of the powder form has stayed relatively constant, experiencing a new height of use during the late 1990s and early 2000s in the U.S., and has become much more popular in the last few years in the UK.

Cocaine use is prevalent across all socioeconomic strata, including age, demographics, economic, social, political, religious, and livelihood.

The estimated U.S. cocaine market exceeded $70 billion in street value for the year 2005. There is a tremendous demand for cocaine in the U.S. market, particularly among those who are making incomes affording luxury spending, such as single adults and professionals with discretionary income. Cocaine’s status as a club drug shows its immense popularity among the "party crowd".

In 1995 the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) announced in a press release the publication of the results of the largest global study on cocaine use ever undertaken. However, a decision by an American representative in the World Health Assembly banned the publication of the study, because it seemed to make a case for the positive uses of cocaine. An excerpt of the report strongly conflicted with accepted paradigms, for example "that occasional cocaine use does not typically lead to severe or even minor physical or social problems." In the sixth meeting of the B committee the US representative threatened that "If WHO activities relating to drugs failed to reinforce proven drug control approaches, funds for the relevant programs should be curtailed". This led to the decision to discontinue publication. A part of the study has been recuperated. Available are profiles of cocaine use in 20 countries.

It was reported in October 2010, that the use of cocaine in Australia has doubled since monitoring began in 2003.

A problem with illegal cocaine use, especially in the higher volumes used to combat fatigue (rather than increase euphoria) by long-term users, is the risk of ill effects or damage caused by the compounds used in adulteration. Cutting or "stepping on" the drug is commonplace, using compounds which simulate ingestion effects, such as Novocain (procaine) producing temporary anesthaesia as many users believe a strong numbing effect is the result of strong and/or pure cocaine, ephedrine or similar stimulants that are to produce an increased heart rate. The normal adulterants for profit are inactive sugars, usually mannitol, creatine or glucose, so introducing active adulterants gives the illusion of purity and to 'stretch' or make it so a dealer can sell more product than without the adulterants. The adulterant of sugars therefore allows the dealer to sell the product for a higher price because of the illusion of purity and allows to sell more of the product at that higher price, enabling dealers to make a lot of revenue with little cost of the adulterants. Cocaine trading carries large penalties in most jurisdictions, so user deception about purity and consequent high profits for dealers are the norm. A study by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction in 2007 showed that the purity levels for street purchased cocaine was often under 5% and on average under 50% pure.

Legal status:

The production, distribution and sale of cocaine products is restricted (and illegal in most contexts) in most countries as regulated by the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. In the United States the manufacture, importation, possession, and distribution of cocaine is additionally regulated by the 1970 Controlled Substances Act.

Some countries, such as Peru and Bolivia permit the cultivation of coca leaf for traditional consumption by the local indigenous population, but nevertheless prohibit the production, sale and consumption of cocaine. In addition, some parts of Europe and Australia allow processed cocaine for medicinal uses only.

Illicit Trade:

Because of the extensive processing it undergoes during preparation, cocaine is generally treated as a 'hard drug', with severe penalties for possession and trafficking. Demand remains high, and consequently black market cocaine is quite expensive. Unprocessed cocaine, such as coca leaves, are occasionally purchased and sold, but this is exceedingly rare as it is much easier and more profitable to conceal and smuggle it in powdered form. The scale of the market is immense: 770 tons times $100 per gram retail = up to $77 billion.

Synthesis:

Synthetic cocaine would be highly desirable to the illegal drug industry, as it would eliminate the high visibility and low reliability of offshore sources and international smuggling, replacing them with clandestine domestic laboratories, as are common for illicit methamphetamine. However, natural cocaine remains the lowest cost and highest quality supply of cocaine. Actual full synthesis of cocaine is rarely done. Formation of inactive enantiomers (cocaine has 4 chiral centres - - 1R,2R,3S,5S - - hence a total potential of 16 possible enantiomers and disteroisomers) plus synthetic by-products limits the yield and purity. Names like "synthetic cocaine" and "new cocaine" have been misapplied to phencyclidine (PCP) and various designer drugs.

(The above author doesn’t know about the supercritical fluid extraction process for making absolutely pure cocaine out of the green part of tomato, potato, or Jepson weed plants. The pure form of cocaine has no smell for the sniffing dogs or electronic sensors; the dogs sniff the chemicals used in processing the cocaine in Colombia. This technique is very cheap to produce once the $150,000 setup equipment is paid for. Naturally the governments don’t want the world to know this. I met an old farmer that was making cocaine by another process back in the probation era; he was also growing hemp for rope at the time (1920s to 1940s), and up through WW-2. PWW)

Caribbean and Mexican Routes:

Cocaine shipments from South America transported through Mexico or Central America are generally moved over land or by air to staging sites in northern Mexico. The cocaine is then broken down into smaller loads for smuggling across the U.S. - - Mexico border. The primary cocaine importation points in the United States are in Arizona, southern California, southern Florida, and Texas. Typically, land vehicles are driven across the U.S.-Mexico border. Sixty five percent of cocaine enters the United States through Mexico, and the vast majority of the rest enters through Florida. (A tremendous amount of cocaine comes across the border in El Paso, in containers on trains, that the DEA doesn’t notice, and is taken to warehouses at the public airport, and then transported by private jets around the country. PWW)

Cocaine hydrochloride for medicinal use. This is a CII controlled substance in the United States

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Cocaine traffickers from Colombia, and recently Mexico, have also established a labyrinth of smuggling routes throughout the Caribbean, the Bahama Island chain, and South Florida. They often hire traffickers from Mexico or the Dominican Republic to transport the drug. The traffickers use a variety of smuggling techniques to transfer their drug to U.S. markets. These include airdrops of 500 - - 700 kg in the Bahama Islands or off the coast of Puerto Rico, mid-ocean boat-to-boat transfers of 500 - - 2,000 kg, and the commercial shipment of tons of cocaine through the port of Miami. (Also stealth submarines from Grand Bahama west into Florida’ port areas where the submarine surfaces into a building that looks like a warehouse from above the water. PWW)

Consumption:

World annual cocaine consumption currently [2010?] stands at around 600 tons, with the United States consuming around 300 t, 50% of the total, Europe about 150 t, 25% of the total, and the rest of the world the remaining 150 t or 25%.

The 2010 UN World Drug Report concluded, "It appears that the North American cocaine market has declined in value from US$47 billion in 1998 to US$38 billion in 2008. Between 2006 and 2008, the value of the market remained basically stable."

Main Side Effects of Chronic Use of Cocaine

Author Mikael Häggström, I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions

Marijuana - Cannabis (Herb)

Cannabis, also known as marijuana, (sometimes spelled "marihuana") among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana. According to the United Nations, “. . . Cannabis. . . is the most widely used illicit substance in the world."

The typical herbal form of cannabis consists of the flowers and subtending leaves and stalks of mature pistillate female plants. The resinous form of the drug is known as hashish (or merely as 'hash').

The major psychoactive chemical compound in cannabis is Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (commonly abbreviated as THC). Cannabis contains more than 400 different chemical compounds, including at least 66 other cannabinoids (cannabidiol (CBD), cannabinol (CBN) and tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV), etc.) which can result in different effects from those of THC alone.

Documented instances of cannabis use go back as far as the 3rd millennium BC. In modern times, the drug has been used for recreational, religious or spiritual, and medicinal purposes. The UN estimated that in 2004 about 4% of the world's adult population (162 million people) use cannabis annually, and about 0.6% (22.5 million) use it on a daily basis. The possession, use, or sale of cannabis preparations containing psychoactive cannabinoids became illegal in most parts of the world in the early 20th century.

The use of cannabis, at least as fiber, has been shown to go back at least 10,000 years in Taiwan. Ma (麻), the Chinese expression for hemp, is a pictograph of two plants under a shelter

Author Photohound; I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide.

Short-Term Physical Effects of Cannabis:

Cannabis has psychoactive and physiological effects when consumed. The minimum amount of THC required to have a perceptible psychoactive effect is about 10 micrograms per kilogram of body weight. Aside from a subjective change in perception and, most notably, mood, the most common short-term physical and neurological effects include increased heart rate, lowered blood pressure, impairment of short-term and working memory, psychomotor coordination, and concentration. Long-term effects are less clear.

Psychoactive Effects:

While many drugs clearly fall into the category of either stimulant, depressant, or hallucinogen, cannabis exhibits a mix of all properties, perhaps leaning the most towards hallucinogenic or psychedelic properties, though with other effects quite pronounced as well. Though THC is typically considered the primary active component of the cannabis plant, various scientific studies have suggested that certain other cannabinoids like CBD may also play a significant role in its psychoactive effects.

Illustration from the Vienna Dioscurides

This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.

Medical Use: Medical Cannabis:

Cannabis used medically does have several well-documented beneficial effects. Among these are: the amelioration of nausea and vomiting, stimulation of hunger in chemotherapy and AIDS patients, lowered intraocular eye pressure (shown to be effective for treating glaucoma), as well as general analgesic effects (pain reliever).

Less confirmed individual studies also have been conducted indicating cannabis to be beneficial to a gamut of conditions running from multiple sclerosis to depression. Synthesized cannabinoids are also sold as prescription drugs, including Marinol (dronabinol in the United States and Germany) and Cesamet (nabilone in Canada, Mexico, the United States and the United Kingdom). In 2011, an oromucosal spray for Multiple Sclerosis patients became licensed for use as a medicine from the European regulatory body, allowing it to be routinely prescribed by doctors.

Currently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved smoked marijuana for any condition or disease in the United States, largely because good quality scientific evidence for its use from U.S. studies is lacking; however, a major barrier to acquiring the necessary evidence is the lack of federal funding for this kind of research. Regardless, fourteen states have legalized cannabis for medical use. The United States Supreme Court has ruled in United States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Coop and Gonzales v. Raich that it is the federal government that has the right to regulate and criminalize cannabis, even for medical purposes. Canada, Spain, The Netherlands and Austria have legalized some form of cannabis for medicinal use.

Main Bud of a "Northern lights" after 58 days of flowering. It is growing under 400W sodiumlamp

Photo by Rotbuche is released to public domain.

Some Wonderful Buds

From http://www.marijuana.com/pictures/ where there are many more photos to see;

I suggest the website highly for interested folks

Long-term effects:

Cannabis is ranked one of the least harmful drugs by a study published in the UK medical journal, The Lancet.

Though the long-term effects of cannabis have been studied, there remains much to be concluded. Debated aspects include the possibility of cannabis dependence, the potential of cannabis as a "gateway drug", its effects on intelligence and memory, and the relationship, if any, of cannabis use to mental disorders such as schizophrenia and depression. On some topics, such as the drug's effects on the lungs, relatively little research has been conducted, leading to division as to the severity of its impact.

While cannabis has been correlated with the development of various mental disorders in multiple studies, these studies differ widely as to whether cannabis use is the cause of the mental problems, whether the mental problems encourage cannabis use, or whether both the cannabis use and the mental problems are the effects of some other cause. Still other studies even encourage the use of cannabis in treating schizophrenia. Similarly, efforts to prove the "gateway drug" hypothesis that cannabis and alcohol makes users more inclined to become addicted to "harder" drugs like cocaine and heroin have produced mixed results, with different studies finding varying degrees of correlation between the use of cannabis and other drugs, and some finding none. (It depends who is paying for the study. PWW) Generally, no scientific consensus exists regarding many of cannabis's long-term effects, despite a large number of studies.

Forms:

Unprocessed: Dried Cannabis flowers in natural herbal form:

The terms cannabis or marijuana generally refer to the dried flowers and subtending leaves and stems of the female cannabis plant. This is the most widely consumed form, containing 3% to 22% THC. In contrast, cannabis strains used to produce industrial hemp contain less than 1% THC and are thus not valued for recreational use.

Processed: Kief:

Kief is a powder, rich in trichomes, which can be sifted from the leaves and flowers of cannabis plants and either consumed in powder form or compressed to produce cakes of hashish.

Cultivation of industrial hemp for fiber and for grain in France

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Hashish:

Hashish (also spelled hasheesh, hashisha, or simply hash) is a concentrated resin produced from the flowers of the female cannabis plant. Hash can often be more potent than marijuana and can be smoked or chewed. It varies in color from black to golden brown depending upon purity.

Hash oil:

Hash oil, or "butane honey oil" (BHO), is a mix of essential oils and resins extracted from mature cannabis foliage through the use of various solvents. It has a high proportion of cannabinoids (ranging from 40 to 90%), and is used in a variety of cannabis foods.

Cannabis plants growing at the village of Kalopani, Nepal. These plants are litterally growing like weed there. The snow covered mountain in the background is the summit of Dhaulagiri

Of course, you can use this picture for any purpose you like. That's what wikipedia is all about anyway.

Residue (resin):

Because of THC's adhesive properties, a sticky residue, most commonly known as "resin", builds up inside utensils used to smoke cannabis. It has tar-like properties but still contains THC as well as other cannabinoids. This buildup retains some of the psychoactive properties of cannabis but is more difficult to smoke without discomfort caused to the throat and lungs. This tar may also contain CBN, which is a breakdown product of THC. Cannabis users typically only smoke residue when cannabis is unavailable. Glass pipes may be water-steamed at a low temperature prior to scraping in order to make the residue easier to remove.

Routes of administration:

A Joint:

Cannabis is consumed in many different ways, most of which involve inhaling vaporized cannabinoids ("smoke") from small pipes, bongs (portable version of hookah with water chamber), paper-wrapped joints or tobacco-leaf-wrapped blunts.

A Vaporizer:

A Vaporizer heats herbal cannabis to 365 - - 410 &#186;F (185 - - 210 &#186;C), causing the active ingredients to evaporate into a vapor without burning the plant material (the boiling point of THC is 390.4 &#186;F (199.1 &#186;C) at 760 mmHg pressure). A lower proportion of toxic chemicals is released than by smoking, depending on the design of the vaporizer and the temperature setting. This method of consuming cannabis produces markedly different effects than smoking due to the flash points of different cannabinoids; for example, CBN (usually considered undesirable) has a flash point of 212.7 &#186;C (414.9 &#186;F) and would normally be present in smoke but not in vapor.

Fresh, non-dried cannabis may be consumed orally. However, the cannabis or its extract must be sufficiently heated or dehydrated to cause decarboxylation of its most abundant cannabinoid, tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA), into psychoactive THC.

Cannabinoids can be extracted from cannabis plant matter using high-proof spirits (often grain alcohol) to create a tincture, often referred to as Green Dragon.

Cannabis can also be consumed as a tea. THC is lipophilic and only slightly water-soluble (with a solubility of 2.8 mg per liter), so tea is made by first adding a saturated fat to hot water (i.e. cream or any milk except skim) with a small amount of cannabis.

Mechanism of action:

The high lipid-solubility of cannabinoids results in their persisting in the body for long periods of time. Even after a single administration of THC, detectable levels of THC can be found in the body for weeks or longer (depending on the amount administered and the sensitivity of the assessment method). A number of investigators have suggested that this is an important factor in marijuana's effects, perhaps because cannabinoids may accumulate in the body, particularly in the lipid membranes of neurons.

Until recently, little was known about the specific mechanisms of action of THC at the neuronal level. However, researchers have now confirmed that THC exerts its most prominent effects via its actions on two types of cannabinoid receptors, the CB1 receptor and the CB2 receptor, both of which are G-Protein coupled receptors. The CB1 receptor is found primarily in the brain as well as in some peripheral tissues, and the CB2 receptor is found exclusively in peripheral tissues. THC appears to alter mood and cognition through its agonist actions on the CB1 receptors, which inhibit a secondary messenger system (adenylate cyclase) in a dose dependent manner. These actions can be blocked by the selective CB1 receptor antagonist SR141716A (rimonabant), which interestingly has been shown in clinical trials to be an effective treatment for smoking cessation, weight loss, and as a means of controlling or reducing metabolic syndrome risk factors.

Potency:

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), "the amount of THC present in a cannabis sample is generally used as a measure of cannabis potency." The three main forms of cannabis products are the herb (marijuana), resin (hashish), and oil (hash oil). The UNODC states that marijuana often contains 5% THC content, resin "can contain up to 20% THC content", and that "Cannabis oil may contain more than 60% THC content."

A scientific study published in 2000 in the Journal of Forensic Sciences (JFS) found that the potency (THC content) of confiscated cannabis in the United States (US) rose from "approximately 3.3% in 1983 and 1984", to "4.47% in 1997". It also concluded that "other major cannabinoids (i.e., CBD, CBN, and CBC)" (other chemicals in cannabis) "showed no significant change in their concentration over the years". More recent research undertaken at the University of Mississippi's Potency Monitoring Project has found that average THC levels in cannabis samples between 1975 and 2007 have increased from 4% in 1983 to 9.6% in 2007.

Australia's National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre (NCPIC) states that the buds (flowers) of the female cannabis plant contain the highest concentration of THC, followed by the leaves. The stalks and seeds have "much lower THC levels". The UN states that the leaves can contain ten times less THC than the buds, and the stalks one hundred times less THC.

After revisions to cannabis rescheduling in the UK, the government moved cannabis back from a class C to a class B drug. A purported reason was the appearance of high potency cannabis. They believe skunk accounts for between 70 and 80% of samples seized by police (despite the fact that skunk can sometimes be incorrectly mistaken for all types of herbal cannabis). Extracts such as hashish and hash oil typicality contain more THC than high potency cannabis flowers.

While commentators have warned that greater cannabis "strength" could represent a health risk, others have noted that users readily learn to compensate by reducing their dosage, thus benefiting from reductions in smoking side-hazards such as heat shock or carbon monoxide.

Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) in the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge.

The photo at that site is marked as being copyright-free, and is credited to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

Adulterants:

Chalk (in the Netherlands) and glass particles (in the UK) have been used to make cannabis appear to be higher quality. Increasing the weight of hashish products in Germany with lead caused lead intoxication in at least 29 users. In the Netherlands two chemical analogs of Sildenafil (Viagra) were found in adulterated marijuana.

According to both the "Talk to FRANK" website and the UKCIA website, Soap Bar, "perhaps the most common type of hash in the UK", was found "at worst" to contain turpentine, tranquilizers, boot polish, henna and animal feces—amongst several other things. One small study of five "soap-bar" samples seized by UK Customs in 2001 found huge adulteration by many toxic substances, including soil, glue, engine oil and animal feces.

Detection of use:

THC and its major (inactive) metabolite, THC-COOH, can be quantitated in blood, urine, hair, oral fluid or sweat using chromatographic techniques as part of a drug use testing program or a forensic investigation of a traffic or other criminal offense. The concentrations obtained from such analyses can often be helpful in distinguishing active use from passive exposure, prescription use from illicit use, elapsed time since use, and extent or duration of use. These tests cannot, however, distinguish authorized cannabis smoking for medical purposes from unauthorized recreational smoking. Commercial cannabinoid immunoassays, often employed as the initial screening method when testing physiological specimens for marijuana presence, have different degrees of cross-reactivity with THC and its metabolites. Urine contains predominantly THC-COOH, while hair, oral fluid and sweat contain primarily THC. Blood may contain both substances, with the relative amounts dependent on the recency and extent of usage.

Sativa Bud

This work has been released into the public domain by its proud author, Psychonaught at the wikipedia project. This applies worldwide.

The Duquenois-Levine test is commonly used as a screening test in the field, but it cannot definitively confirm the presence of marijuana, as a large range of substances have been shown to give false positives. Despite this, it is common in the United States for prosecutors to seek plea bargains on the basis of positive D-L tests, claiming them definitive, or even to seek conviction without the use of gas chromatography confirmation, which can only be done in the lab.

Gateway drug theory:

Some claim that trying cannabis increases the probability that users will eventually use "harder" drugs. This hypothesis has been one of the central pillars of anti-cannabis drug policy in the United States, though the validity and implications of these hypotheses are hotly debated. Studies have shown that tobacco smoking is a better predictor of concurrent illicit hard drug use than smoking cannabis.

No widely accepted study has ever demonstrated a cause-and-effect relationship between the use of cannabis and the later use of harder drugs like heroin and cocaine. However, the prevalence of tobacco cigarette advertising and the practice of mixing tobacco and cannabis together in a single large joint, common in Europe, are believed to be cofactors in promoting nicotine dependency among young people trying cannabis.

A 2005 comprehensive review of the literature on the cannabis gateway hypothesis found that pre-existing traits may predispose users to addiction in general, the availability of multiple drugs in a given setting confounds predictive patterns in their usage, and drug sub-cultures are more influential than cannabis itself. The study called for further research on "social context, individual characteristics, and drug effects" to discover the actual relationships between cannabis and the use of other drugs.

A new user of cannabis who feels there is a difference between anti-drug information and their own experiences will apply this distrust to public information about other, more powerful drugs. Some studies state that while there is no proof for this gateway hypothesis, young cannabis users should still be considered as a risk group for intervention programs. Other findings indicate that hard drug users are likely to be "poly-drug" users, and that interventions must address the use of multiple drugs instead of a single hard drug.

Another gateway hypothesis is that while cannabis is not as harmful or addictive as other drugs, a gateway effect may be detected as a result of the "common factors" involved with using any illegal drug. Because of its illegal status, cannabis users are more likely to be in situations, which allow them to become acquainted with people who use and sell other illegal drugs. By this argument, some studies have shown that alcohol and tobacco may be regarded as gateway drugs. However, a more parsimonious explanation could be that cannabis is simply more readily available (and at an earlier age) than illegal hard drugs, and alcohol/tobacco are in turn easier to obtain earlier than cannabis (though the reverse may be true in some areas), thus leading to the "gateway sequence" in those people who are most likely to experiment with any drug offered.

A 2010 study published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior found that the main factors in users moving on to other drugs were age, wealth, unemployment status, and psychological stress. The study found there is no "gateway theory" and that drug use is more closely tied to a person's life situation, although marijuana users are more likely to use other drugs.

History:

Cannabis is indigenous to Central and South Asia. Evidence of the inhalation of cannabis smoke can be found in the 3rd millennium BC, as indicated by charred cannabis seeds found in a ritual brazier at an ancient burial site in present day Romania. In 2003, a leather basket filled with cannabis leaf fragments and seeds was found next to a 2,500- to 2,800-year-old mummified shaman in the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. Cannabis is also known to have been used by the ancient Hindus of India and Nepal thousands of years ago. The herb was called ganjika in Sanskrit. The ancient drug soma, mentioned in the Vedas, was sometimes associated with cannabis.

Cannabis was also known to the ancient Assyrians, who discovered its psychoactive properties through the Aryans. Using it in some religious ceremonies, they called it qunubu (meaning "way to produce smoke"), a probable origin of the modern word "cannabis". Cannabis was also introduced by the Aryans to the Scythians, Thracians and Dacians, whose shamans (the kapnobatai—"those who walk on smoke/clouds") burned cannabis flowers to induce a state of trance. Members of the cult of Dionysus, believed to have originated in Thrace (Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey), are also thought to have inhaled cannabis smoke.

Cannabis sativa from Vienna Dioscurides, 512 AD

Cannabis has an ancient history of ritual use and is found in pharmacological cults around the world. Hemp seeds discovered by archaeologists at Pazyryk suggest early ceremonial practices like eating by the Scythians occurred during the 5th to 2nd century BC, confirming previous historical reports by Herodotus. One writer has claimed that cannabis was used as a religious sacrament by ancient Jews and early Christians due to the similarity between the Hebrew word "qannabbos" ("cannabis") and the Hebrew phrase "qene bosem" ("aromatic cane"). It was used by Muslims in various Sufi orders as early as the Mamluk period, for example by the Qalandars.

A study published in the South African Journal of Science showed that "pipes dug up from the garden of Shakespeare's home in Stratford-upon-Avon contain traces of cannabis.” The chemical analysis was carried out after researchers hypothesized that the "Noted Weed" mentioned in Sonnet 76 and the "Journey in my head" from Sonnet 27 could be references to cannabis and the use thereof.

Cannabis was criminalized in various countries beginning in the early 20th century. In the United States, the first restrictions for sale of cannabis came in 1906 (in District of Columbia). It was outlawed in South Africa in 1911, in Jamaica (then a British colony) in 1913, and in the United Kingdom and New Zealand in the 1920s. Canada criminalized marijuana in the Opium and Drug Act of 1923, before any reports of use of the drug in Canada. In 1925 a compromise was made at an international conference in The Hague about the International Opium Convention that banned exportation of "Indian hemp" to countries that had prohibited its use, and requiring importing countries to issue certificates approving the importation and stating that the shipment was required "exclusively for medical or scientific purposes". It also required parties to "exercise an effective control of such a nature as to prevent the illicit international traffic in Indian hemp and especially in the resin".

In 1937 in the United States, the Marijuana Transfer Tax Act was passed, and prohibited the production of hemp in addition to marijuana. The reasons that hemp was also included in this law are disputed. Several scholars have claimed that the Act was passed in order to destroy the hemp industry, largely as an effort of businessmen Andrew Mellon, Randolph Hearst, and the Du Pont family. With the invention of the decorticator, hemp became a very cheap substitute for the paper pulp that was used in the newspaper industry. Hearst felt that this was a threat to his extensive timber holdings. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury and the wealthiest man in America, had invested heavily in the DuPont's new synthetic fiber, nylon, and considered its success to depend on its replacement of the traditional resource, hemp. The claims that hemp could have been a successful substitute for wood pulp have been based on an incorrect government report of 1916 which concluded that hemp hurds, broken parts of the inner core of the hemp stem, were a suitable source for paper production. This has not been confirmed by later research, as hemp hurds are not reported to be a good enough substitute. In 2003, 95% of the hemp hurds in EU were used for animal bedding, almost 5% were used as building material.

Legal status:

Since the beginning of the 20th century, most countries have enacted laws against the cultivation, possession or transfer of cannabis. These laws have impacted adversely on the cannabis plant's cultivation for non-recreational purposes, but there are many regions where, under certain circumstances, handling of cannabis is legal or licensed. Many jurisdictions have lessened the penalties for possession of small quantities of cannabis, so that it is punished by confiscation and sometimes a fine, rather than imprisonment, focusing more on those who traffic the drug on the black market.

In some areas where cannabis use has been historically tolerated, some new restrictions have been put in place, such as the closing of cannabis coffee shops near the borders of the Netherlands, closing of coffee shops near secondary schools in the Netherlands and crackdowns on "Pusher Street" in Christiania, Copenhagen in 2004.

Some jurisdictions use free voluntary treatment programs and/or mandatory treatment programs for frequent known users. Simple possession can carry long prison terms in some countries, particularly in East Asia, where the sale of cannabis may lead to a sentence of life in prison or even execution. More recently however, many political parties, non-profit organizations and causes based on the legalization of medical cannabis and/or legalizing the plant entirely (with some restrictions) have emerged.

Price:

The price or street value of cannabis varies strongly by region and area. In addition, some dealers may sell potent buds at a higher price.

In the United States, cannabis is overall the #4 value crop, and is #1 or #2 in many states including California, New York and Florida, averaging $3,000/lb. It is believed to generate an estimated $36 billion market. Most of the money is spent not on growing and producing but on smuggling the supply to buyers. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime claims in its 2008 World Drug Report that typical U.S. retail prices are $10 - - 15 per gram (approximately $280 - - 420 per ounce). Street prices in North America are known to range from about $150 to $400 per ounce, depending on quality.

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction reports that typical retail prices in Europe for cannabis varies from 2€ to 14€ per gram, with a majority of European countries reporting prices in the range 4 - - 10€. In the United Kingdom, a cannabis plant has an approximate street value of £300, but retails to the end-user at about £160/oz.

Truth serum:

Cannabis was used as a truth serum by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a US government intelligence agency formed during World War II. In the early 1940s, it was the most effective truth drug developed at the OSS labs at St. Elizabeths Hospital; it caused a subject "to be loquacious and free in his impartation of information."

In May 1943, Major George Hunter White, head of OSS counter-intelligence operations in the US, arranged a meeting with Augusto Del Gracio, an enforcer for gangster Lucky Luciano. Del Gracio was given cigarettes spiked with THC concentrate from cannabis, and subsequently talked openly about Luciano's heroin operation. On a second occasion the dosage was increased such that Del Gracio passed out for two hours.

Breeding and Cultivation:

It is often claimed by growers and breeders of herbal cannabis that advances in breeding and cultivation techniques have increased the potency of cannabis since the late 1960s and early '70s, when THC was first discovered and understood. However, potent seedless marijuana such as "Thai sticks" were already available at that time. Sinsemilla (Spanish for "without seed") is the dried, seedless inflorescences of female cannabis plants. Because THC production drops off once pollination occurs, the male plants (which produce little THC themselves) are eliminated before they shed pollen to prevent pollination. Advanced cultivation techniques such as hydroponics, cloning, high-intensity artificial lighting, and the sea of green method are frequently employed as a response (in part) to prohibition enforcement efforts that make outdoor cultivation more risky. These intensive horticultural techniques have made it possible to grow strains with fewer seeds and higher potency. It is often cited that the average levels of THC in cannabis sold in United States rose dramatically between the 1970s and 2000, but such statements are likely skewed because of undue weight given to much more expensive and potent, but less prevalent samples. The average THC level in coffee shops in the Netherlands is about 18 - - 19%.

Heroin - A Narcotic Drug

US Army Soldier in a Poppy Field

Heroin (diacetylmorphine (INN)), also known as diamorphine (BAN), or, especially in older literature, as morphine diacetate, is an opioid drug synthesized from morphine, which is a derivative of the opium poppy. It is the 3,6-diacetyl ester of morphine, and functions as a morphine prodrug (meaning that it is metabolically converted to morphine inside the body). The white crystalline form considered "pure heroin" is usually the hydrochloride salt, diacetylmorphine hydrochloride. When heroin is supplied illegally, though, it is often adulterated to a freebase form, dulling the sheen and consistency to a matte white powder. As of 2004, roughly 87% of the world supply of opium and its derivatives, including heroin, was thought to be produced in Afghanistan.

As with other opioids, diacetylmorphine is used as both an analgesic and a recreational drug. Frequent and regular administration is associated with tolerance and physical dependence, which may develop into addiction. Internationally, diacetylmorphine is controlled under Schedules I and IV of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. It is illegal to manufacture, possess, or sell diacetylmorphine without a license in almost every country.

Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum)

This work has been released into the public domain by its author, Geogre at the English Wikipedia project. This applies worldwide.

Converting Heroin Tar into "Monkey Water" for Administration through the Nasal Cavities, Rectum, or Veins.

I, Psychonaught he copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide.

Black Tar Heroin

source, cropped - This image or file is a work of a Drug Enforcement Administration employee, taken or made during the course of an employee's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

Under the chemical name diamorphine, diacetylmorphine is a legally prescribed controlled drug in the United Kingdom, and is supplied in tablet or injectable form for the same indications as morphine is. It is available for prescription to long-term users in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark alongside psycho-social care, and a similar program is being campaigned for by liberal political parties in Norway.

Harm Caused by Drugs

For the following charts:

Researchers asked drug-harm experts to rank these illegal and legal drugs on various measures of harm both to the user and to others in society. These measures include damage to health, drug dependency, economic costs and crime. The researchers claim that the rankings are stable because they are based on so many different measures and would require significant discoveries about these drugs to affect the rankings.

Note that alcohol (despite being legal more often than the other drugs) is by far the most harmful; not only is it the most damaging to societies, it is also the fourth most dangerous for the user. Most of the drugs were rated significantly less harmful than alcohol, with most of the harm befalling the user.

The authors explain that one of the limitation of this study is that drug harms are functions of their availability and legal status in the UK, and so other cultures' control systems could yield different rankings.

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Rational scale to assess the harm of drugs (mean physical harm and mean dependence)

A rational scale to assess the harm of drugs. Data source is the March 24, 2007 article: Nutt, David, Leslie A King, William Saulsbury, Colin Blakemore. "Development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse" The Lancet 2007; 369:1047-1053. (PMID 17382831; doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(07)60464-4) The data in the paper is obtained solely from questionnaire results obtained from two groups of people: the first comprised people from the UK national group of consultant psychiatrists who were on the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ register as specialists in addiction, while the second comprised of people with experience in one of the many areas of addiction, ranging from chemistry, pharmacology, and forensic science, through psychiatry and other medical specialties, including epidemiology, as well as the legal and police services; the experts are not named and were chosen by the authors.

This is a tertiary source (see Wikipedia policy on primary, secondary, tertiary sources) as it summarizes experts' opinions on the matter (which are secondary sources) without any direct references to primary sources. The data was first reported in appendix 14 of "Drug classification: making a hash of it?"[1] I made the the svg version of Image:20drugs.gif. - - Wikipedia - I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide.

Active/Lethal Dose Ratio and Dependence Potential of Psychoactive Drugs.

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Frank Lloyd Wright - An Inspiration For My Books

Portrait photograph of Frank Lloyd Wright – 1954

Wikipedia

Left: Portrait March 1, 1926

Right: Walter H. Gale House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, 1893

Wikipedia

Mature Organic Style - Fallingwater in West Orange Illinois 1937

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Frank Lloyd Wright (born Frank Lincoln Wright, June 8, 1867 - - April 9, 1959) was an American architect, interior designer, writer, and educator, who designed more than 1,000 projects and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture, best exemplified by his design for Fallingwater (1935). He was a leader of the Prairie School movement of architecture, and developed the concept of the Usonian home, his unique vision for urban planning in the United States.

His work includes original and innovative examples of many different building types, including offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, and museums. Wright also designed many of the interior elements of his buildings, such as the furniture and stained glass. Wright authored 20 books and many articles, and was a popular lecturer in the United States and in Europe. His colorful personal life often made headlines, most notably for the 1914 fire and murders at his Taliesin studio. Already well-known during his lifetime, Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as "the greatest American architect of all time"

River Forest IL USA 1894

The shapes and color schemes were completely new in 1894

Oak Park, IL, USA 10 April 2010

J. Crocker Photographer - Wiokipedia

It was originally completed in 1895 in the Tudor Revival style at the request of client Nathan Moore. Wright obliged his client's wishes, but long after disliked the house for its adherence to historical styles.

A 1922 fire gave Wright the opportunity to redesign the house. The structure was completely rebuilt above the first floor in a manner in keeping with Wright's other works of the late 1910s and early 1920s. While the new design stayed evocative of Tudor architecture, the house was heavily ornamented by details of Sullivanesque, Mayan, and other exotic origins. Wright’s second scheme remains largely intact today and the house continues to be a private residence despite a brief period as a tour home.

Panoramic View of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West - “Western Paradise”

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

Mark Twain aka Samuel Langhorne Clemens – An Inspiration For My Books

1907

30 September 1867

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 - - April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He is most noted for his novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called "the Great American Novel."

Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He apprenticed with a printer. He also worked as a typesetter and contributed articles to his older brother Orion's newspaper. After toiling as a printer in various cities, he became a master riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River, before heading west to join Orion. He was a failure at gold mining, so he next turned to journalism. While a reporter, he wrote a humorous story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, which became very popular and brought nationwide attention. His travelogues were also well-received. Twain had found his calling.

He achieved great success as a writer and public speaker. His wit and satire earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty. An Inspiration for My Books

He lacked financial acumen, and, though he made a great deal of money from his writings and lectures, he squandered it on various ventures, in particular the Paige Compositor, and was forced to declare bankruptcy. With the help of Henry Huttleston Rogers he eventually overcame his financial troubles. Twain worked hard to ensure that all of his creditors were paid in full, even though his bankruptcy had relieved him of the legal responsibility.

Twain was born during a visit by Halley's Comet, and predicted that he would "go out with it" as well. He died the day following the comet's subsequent return. He was lauded as the "greatest American humorist of his age," and William Faulkner called Twain "the father of American literature."

Views:

Twain's views became more radical as he grew older. He acknowledged that his views changed and developed over his life….

Civil Rights:

Twain was an adamant supporter of abolition and emancipation, even going so far to say “Lincoln's Proclamation . . . not only set the black slaves free, but set the white man free also.” He argued that non-whites did not receive justice in the United States, once saying “I have seen Chinamen abused and maltreated in all the mean, cowardly ways possible to the invention of a degraded nature. . ..but I never saw a Chinaman righted in a court of justice for wrongs thus done to him.” He paid for at least one black person to attend Yale University Law School and for another black person to attend a southern university to become a minister.

Mark Twain was a staunch supporter of women's rights and an active campaigner for women's suffrage. His "Votes for Women" speech, in which he pressed for the granting of voting rights to women, is considered one of the most famous in history.

Helen Keller benefited from Twain's support, as she pursued her college education and publishing, despite her disabilities and financial limitations.

Religion:

Although Twain was a Presbyterian, he was sometimes critical of organized religion and certain elements of Christianity through his later life. He wrote, for example, "Faith is believing what you know ain't so," and "If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be - - a Christian." Nonetheless, as a mature adult he engaged in religious discussions and attended services, his theology developing as he wrestled with the deaths of loved ones and his own mortality. His own experiences and suffering of his family made him particularly critical of "faith healing," such as espoused by Mary Baker Eddy and Christian Science. His more inflammatory works on religion require a nuanced understanding of his theological arguments and criticism.

Twain generally avoided publishing his most heretical opinions on religion in his lifetime, and they are known from essays and stories that were published later. In the essay Three Statements of the Eighties in the 1880s, Twain stated that he believed in an almighty God, but not in any messages, revelations, holy scriptures such as the Bible, Providence, or retribution in the afterlife. He did state that "The goodness, the justice, and the mercy of God are manifested in His works," but also that "The universe is governed by strict and immutable laws," which determine "Small matters," such as who dies in a pestilence. At other times, he wrote or spoke in ways that contradicted a strict deist view, for example, plainly professing a belief in Providence. In some later writings in the 1890s, he was less optimistic about the goodness of God, observing that "If our Maker is all-powerful for good or evil, He is not in His right mind.” At other times, he conjectured sardonically that perhaps God had created the world with all its tortures for some purpose of His own, but was otherwise indifferent to humanity, which was too petty and insignificant to deserve His attention anyway.

In 1901 Twain criticized the actions of missionary Dr. William Scott Ament (1851 - - 1909) because Ament and other missionaries had collected indemnities from Chinese subjects in the aftermath of the Boxer Uprising of 1900. Twain's response to hearing of Ament's methods was published in the North American Review in February 1901: To the Person Sitting in Darkness, and deals with examples of imperialism in China, South Africa, and with the U.S. occupation of the Philippines. A subsequent article, "To My Missionary Critics" published in The North American Review in April 1901, unapologetically continues his attack, but with the focus shifted from Ament to his missionary superiors, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

After his death, Twain's family suppressed some of his work that was especially irreverent toward conventional religion, notably Letters from the Earth, which was not published until his daughter Clara reversed her position in 1962 in response to Soviet propaganda about the withholding. The anti-religious The Mysterious Stranger was published in 1916. Little Bessie, a story ridiculing Christianity, was first published in the 1972 collection Mark Twain's Fables of Man.

Despite these views, he raised money to build a Presbyterian Church in Nevada in 1864, although it has been argued that it was only by his association with his Presbyterian brother that he did that.

Twain created a reverent portrayal of Joan of Arc, a subject over which he had obsessed for forty years, studied for a dozen years and spent two years writing. In 1900 and again in 1908, he stated, "I like Joan of Arc best of all my books, it is the best."

Those who knew Twain well late in life recount that he dwelt on the subject of the afterlife, his daughter Clara saying: "Sometimes he believed death ended everything, but most of the time he felt sure of a life beyond."

Mark Twain's frankest views on religion appeared in his final Autobiography, which was published 100 years after his death, in November 2010. In it, he said:

There is one notable thing about our Christianity: bad, bloody, merciless, money-grabbing, and predatory. The invention of hell measured by our Christianity of today, bad as it is, hypocritical as it is, empty and hollow as it is, neither the deity nor his son is a Christian, nor qualified for that moderately high place. Ours is a terrible religion. The fleets of the world could swim in spacious comfort in the innocent blood it has spilled.

Twain was a Freemason. He belonged to Polar Star Lodge No. 79 A.F. and A.M., based in St. Louis. He was initiated an Entered Apprentice on May 22, 1861, passed to the degree of Fellow Craft on June 12, and raised to the degree of Master Mason on July 10.

Mark Twain's house, front view 1914

Joseph Stalin - Ruler of USSR - Mass Killer

Photos in Public Domain in Russa

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (18 December 1878 - - 5 March 1953) was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. While formally the office of the General Secretary was elective and was not initially regarded as the top position in the Soviet state, after Vladimir Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin managed to consolidate more and more power in his hands, gradually putting down all opposition groups within the party; this included Leon Trotsky, the Red Army organizer, proponent of world revolution, and principal critic of Stalin among the early Soviet leaders, who was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1929. Instead, Stalin's idea of socialism in one country became the primary line of the Soviet politics.

In 1928, Stalin replaced the New Economic Policy of the 1920s with a highly centralized command economy and Five-Year Plans, launching a period of rapid industrialization and economic collectivization in the countryside. As a result, the USSR was transformed from a largely agrarian society into a great industrial power, and the basis was provided for its emergence as the world's second largest economy after World War II. However, during this period of rapid economic and social changes, millions of people were sent to penal labor camps, including many political convicts, and millions were deported and exiled to remote areas of the Soviet Union. The initial upheaval in the changing agricultural sector disrupted food production in the early 1930s, contributing to the catastrophic Soviet famine of 1932 - - 1933, one of the last major famines in Russia. In 1937 - - 38, a campaign against former members of the communist opposition, potential rivals in the party, and other alleged enemies of the regime culminated in the Great Purge, a period of mass repression in which hundreds of thousands of people were executed, including Red Army leaders convicted in coup d'etat plots.

In August 1939, after the failure to establish an Anglo-Franco-Soviet Alliance, Stalin's USSR entered into a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany, dividing their spheres of influence in Eastern Europe. This pact allowed the Soviet Union to regain some of the former territories of the Russian Empire in Poland, Finland, the Baltics, Bessarabia, and northern Bukovina during the early period of World War II. After Germany violated the pact by invading the Soviet Union in 1941 and thus opening the largest and bloodiest theatre of war in history, the Soviet Union joined the Allies. Despite heavy human and territorial losses in the initial period of war, the Soviet Union managed to stop the Axis advance in the battles of Moscow and Stalingrad. Eventually, the Red Army drove through Eastern Europe in 1944 - - 45 and captured Berlin in May 1945. Having played the decisive role in the Allied victory, the USSR emerged a recognized superpower after the war.

Stalin headed the Soviet delegations at the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences, which defined the map of post-war Europe. Communist-dominated leftist governments loyal to the Soviet Union were installed in the Eastern Bloc satellite states as the USSR entered a struggle for global dominance, known as the Cold War, with the United States and NATO. In Asia, Stalin established good relations with Mao Zedong and Kim Il-sung, and the Stalin-era Soviet Union in various ways served as a model for the newly formed People's Republic of China and Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea).

In power until his death in 1953, Stalin led the USSR during the period of post-war reconstruction, marked by the dominance of Stalinist architecture (most famously represented by the Stalin skyscrapers). The successful development of the Soviet nuclear program enabled the country to become the world's second nuclear weapons power; the Soviet space program was started as spin-off of the nuclear project. In his last years, Stalin also launched the so-called Great Construction Projects of Communism and the Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature.

Following his death, Stalin and his regime have both been questioned on numerous occasions, the most significant of these being the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956, when Stalin's successor, Nikita Khrushchev, denounced his legacy and drove the process of de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union. Modern views of Stalin in the Russian Federation remain mixed, with some viewing him as a tyrant, while others consider him a capable leader.

Religion:

Stalin followed the position adopted by Lenin that religion was an opiate that needed to be removed in order to construct the ideal communist society. To this end, his government promoted atheism through special atheistic education in schools, massive amounts of anti-religious propaganda, the antireligious work of public institutions (especially the Society of the Godless), discriminatory laws, and also a terror campaign against religious believers. By the late 1930s it had become dangerous to be publicly associated with religion.

Stalin's role in the fortunes of the Russian Orthodox Church is complex. Continuous persecution in the 1930s resulted in its near-extinction as a public institution: by 1939, active parishes numbered in the low hundreds (down from 54,000 in 1917), many churches had been leveled, and tens of thousands of priests, monks and nuns were persecuted and killed; over 100,000 were shot during the purges of 1937 - - 1938. During World War II, the Church was allowed a revival as a patriotic organization, and thousands of parishes were reactivated until a further round of suppression in Khrushchev's time. The Russian Orthodox Church Synod's recognition of the Soviet government and of Stalin personally led to a schism with the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia.

Just days before Stalin's death, certain religious sects were outlawed and persecuted. Many religions popular in the ethnic regions of the Soviet Union including the Roman Catholic Church (including the Eastern Catholic Churches), Baptists, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, etc. underwent ordeals similar to the Orthodox churches in other parts: thousands of monks were persecuted, and hundreds of churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, sacred monuments, monasteries and other religious buildings were razed.

Stalin had a different policy outside of the Soviet Union, he supported the Communist Uyghur Muslim separatists under Ehmetjan Qasim in the Ili Rebellion against the Anti Communist Republic of China regime. He supplied weapons to the Uyghur Ili army and Red Army support against Chinese forces, and helped them established the Second East Turkestan Republic of which Islam was the official state religion.

Calculating the number of victims:

Researchers before the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union attempting to count the number of people killed under Stalin's regime produced estimates ranging from 3 to 60 million. After the Soviet Union dissolved, evidence from the Soviet archives also became available, containing official records of the execution of approximately 800,000 prisoners under Stalin for either political or criminal offenses, around 1.7 million deaths in the Gulags and some 390,000 deaths during kulak forced resettlement - - for a total of about 3 million officially recorded victims in these categories.

The official Soviet archival records do not contain comprehensive figures for some categories of victims, such as the those of ethnic deportations or of German population transfers in the aftermath of World War II. Eric D. Weitz wrote, "By 1948, according to Nicolas Werth, the mortality rate of the 600,000 people deported from the Caucasus between 1943 and 1944 had reached 25%.". Other notable exclusions from NKVD data on repression deaths include the Katyn massacre, other killings in the newly occupied areas, and the mass shootings of Red Army personnel (deserters and so-called deserters) in 1941. The Soviets executed 158,000 soldiers for desertion during the war, and the "blocking detachments" of the NKVD shot thousands more. Also, the official statistics on Gulag mortality exclude deaths of prisoners taking place shortly after their release but which resulted from the harsh treatment in the camps. Some historians also believe the official archival figures of the categories that were recorded by Soviet authorities to be unreliable and incomplete. In addition to failures regarding comprehensive recordings, as one additional example, Robert Gellately and Simon Sebag-Montefiore argue the many suspects beaten and tortured to death while in "investigative custody" were likely not to have been counted amongst the executed.

Historians working after the Soviet Union's dissolution have estimated victim totals ranging from approximately 4 million to nearly 10 million, not including those who died in famines. Russian writer Vadim Erlikman, for example, makes the following estimates: executions, 1.5 million; gulags, 5 million; deportations, 1.7 million out of 7.5 million deported; and POWs and German civilians, 1 million - - a total of about 9 million victims of repression.

Some have also included deaths of 6 to 8 million people in the 1932 - - 1933 famine as victims of Stalin's repression. This categorization is controversial however, as historians differ as to whether the famine was a deliberate part of the campaign of repression against kulaks and others, or simply an unintended consequence of the struggle over forced collectivization.

Accordingly, if famine victims are included, a minimum of around 10 million deaths—6 million from famine and 4 million from other causes—are attributable to the regime, with a number of recent historians suggesting a likely total of around 20 million, citing much higher victim totals from executions, gulags, deportations and other causes. Adding 6 - - 8 million famine victims to Erlikman's estimates above, for example, would yield a total of between 15 and 17 million victims. Researcher Robert Conquest, meanwhile, has revised his original estimate of up to 30 million victims down to 20 million. In his most recent edition of The Great Terror (2007), Conquest states that while exact numbers may never be known with complete certainty, the various terror campaigns launched by the Soviet government claimed no fewer than 15 million lives. Others maintain that their earlier higher victim total estimates are correct.

Questionable tactics:

After taking around 300,000 Polish prisoners in 1939 and early 1940, 25,700 Polish POWs were executed on 5 March 1940, pursuant to a note to Stalin from Lavrenty Beria, in what became known as the Katyn massacre. While Stalin personally told a Polish general they'd "lost track" of the officers in Manchuria, Polish railroad workers found the mass grave after the 1941 Nazi invasion. The massacre became a source of political controversy, with the Soviets eventually claiming that Germany committed the executions when the Soviet Union retook Poland in 1944. The Soviets did not admit responsibility until 1990.

Stalin introduced controversial military orders, such as Order No. 270, requiring superiors to shoot deserters on the spot while their family members were subject to arrest. Thereafter, Stalin also conducted a purge of several military commanders that were shot for "cowardice" without a trial. Stalin issued Order No. 227, directing that commanders permitting retreat without permission to be subject to a military tribunal, and soldiers guilty of disciplinary procedures to be forced into "penal battalions", which were sent to the most dangerous sections of the front lines. From 1942 to 1945, 427,910 soldiers were assigned to penal battalions. The order also directed "blocking detachments" to shoot fleeing panicked troops at the rear.

In June 1941, weeks after the German invasion began, Stalin also directed employing a scorched earth policy of destroying the infrastructure and food supplies of areas before the Germans could seize them, and that partisans were to be set up in evacuated areas. He also ordered the NKVD to murder around one hundred thousand political prisoners in areas where the Wermacht approached, while others were deported east.

After the capture of Berlin, Soviet troops reportedly raped from tens of thousands to two million women, and 50,000 during and after the occupation of Budapest. In former Axis countries, such as Germany, Romania and Hungary, Red Army officers generally viewed cities, villages and farms as being open to pillaging and looting.

In the Soviet Occupation Zone of post-war Germany, the Soviets set up ten NKVD-run "special camps" subordinate to the gulag. These "special camps" were former Stalags, prisons, or Nazi concentration camps such as Sachsenhausen (special camp number 7) and Buchenwald (special camp number 2). According to German government estimates, "65,000 people died in those Soviet-run camps or in transportation to them."

According to recent figures, of an estimated four million POWs taken by the Soviets, including Germans, Japanese, Hungarians, Romanians and others, some 580,000 never returned, presumably victims of privation or the Gulags. Soviet POWs and forced laborers who survived German captivity were sent to special "transit" or "filtration" camps to determine which were potential traitors.

Of the approximately 4 million to be repatriated 2,660,013 were civilians and 1,539,475 were former POWs. Of the total, 2,427,906 were sent home and 801,152 were reconscripted into the armed forces. 608,095 were enrolled in the work battalions of the defense ministry. 272,867 were transferred to the authority of the NKVD for punishment, which meant a transfer to the Gulag system. 89,468 remained in the transit camps as reception personnel until the repatriation process was finally wound up in the early 1950s.

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Dr. Albert Einstein – Physicist – An Inspiration for My Books

Dr. Albert Einstein in 1904

Wikipedia

Dr. Albert Einstein during a lecture in Vienna in 1921

Dr. Albert Einstein 14 March 1879 - - 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". The latter was pivotal in establishing quantum theory within physics.

Near the beginning of his career, Einstein thought that Newtonian mechanics was no longer enough to reconcile the laws of classical mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. This led to the development of his special theory of relativity. He realized, however, that the principle of relativity could also be extended to gravitational fields, and with his subsequent theory of gravitation in 1916, he published a paper on the general theory of relativity. He continued to deal with problems of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, which led to his explanations of particle theory and the motion of molecules. He also investigated the thermal properties of light which laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. In 1917, Einstein applied the general theory of relativity to model the structure of the universe as a whole.

He was visiting the United States when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, and did not go back to Germany, where he had been a professor at the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He settled in the U.S., becoming a citizen in 1940. On the eve of World War II, he helped alert President Franklin D. Roosevelt that Germany might be developing an atomic weapon, and recommended that the U.S. begin similar research; this eventually led to what would become the Manhattan Project. Einstein was in support of defending the Allied forces, but largely denounced using the new discovery of nuclear fission as a weapon. Later, together with Bertrand Russell, Einstein signed the Russell - - Einstein Manifesto, which highlighted the danger of nuclear weapons. Einstein was affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, until his death in 1955.

Einstein published more than 300 scientific papers along with over 150 non-scientific works. His great intelligence and originality have made the word "Einstein" synonymous with genius.

Academic career”

In 1901, Einstein had a paper on the capillary forces of a straw published in the prestigious Annalen der Physik. On 30 April 1905, he completed his thesis, with Alfred Kleiner, Professor of Experimental Physics, serving as pro-forma advisor . Einstein was awarded a PhD by the University of Zurich. His dissertation was entitled "A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions". That same year, which has been called Einstein's annus mirabilis or "miracle year", he published four groundbreaking papers, on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity, and the equivalence of matter and energy, which were to bring him to the notice of the academic world.

1951

Wikipedia

By 1908, he was recognized as a leading scientist, and he was appointed lecturer at the University of Bern. The following year, he quit the patent office and the lectureship to take the position of physics docent at the University of Zurich. He became a full professor at Karl-Ferdinand University in Prague in 1911. In 1914, he returned to Germany after being appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics (1914 - - 1932) and a professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin, with a special clause in his contract that freed him from most teaching obligations. He became a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. In 1916, Einstein was appointed president of the German Physical Society (1916 - - 1918).

In 1911, he had calculated that, based on his new theory of general relativity, light from another star would be bent by the Sun's gravity. That prediction was claimed confirmed by observations made by a British expedition led by Sir Arthur Eddington during the solar eclipse of 29 May 1919. International media reports of this made Einstein world famous. On 7 November 1919, the leading British newspaper The Times printed a banner headline that read: "Revolution in Science - - New Theory of the Universe - - Newtonian Ideas Overthrown". (Much later, questions were raised whether the measurements had been accurate enough to support Einstein's theory.)

In 1921, Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Because relativity was still considered somewhat controversial, it was officially bestowed for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. He also received the Copley Medal from the Royal Society in 1925.