History & Comment for May 23, 2025

A look at historical and current events on this day, comment and humor so dry it would make a camel thirsty. 

Transcript

This is History and Comment for Friday the 23rd of May, 2025

Here we are at the Front Door of Summer and Memorial Day Weekend.   There was a time when Memorial Day was the 30th of May, now to be convenient it is the last Monday of the month which can be quite early,  as it is this year.   Actually it can only be one day earlier.  

Memorial Day is the first patriotic holiday of the year.   It seems they have all been mashed up into the same which misses the point.   Memorial Day is the oldest, originating during the Civil War at several places to honor the fallen soldiers.    

Armed forces day in June is to recognize current service members and Veteran’s Day in November is to recognize those who served.    

If you have ever visited the Hampton Virginia area with an intent on more obscure history, you might have visited Fort Monroe.   This is a later fort but the location is significant in earlier times.  It is know as Point Comfort. A point of land where the James River meets the Chessapeak Bay and they all meet the Atlantic Ocean.  On this day in 1609,  a charter is granted for settlement of land.  In surveying terms Comfort Point is the point of beginning.   The charter gives title to land for 400 miles of coastline centered on Point Comfort.  It further extended those lands from Sea to Sea, West and Northwest.    Along with all coastal islands..   

That seems straight forward, but the smart people missed one detail.  It would be easy to fix the Northmost and Southern most points with a reasonable degree of accuracy,  the intent of the West and Northwest clause could be debated.    If you extended the boundary west from the Southern point and NW from the Northern point it encompassed most of North America.   The opposite could also be debated, which was a much smaller tract.    The later was the common interpretation.    For reference these lands would include the coast of most of North Carolina down to about Surf City and North to New Jersey, near Tom’s River.   The Northerly line would pass near Niagra Fall, New York.   

Once the United States is formed, Viginia ceeds most of this land to the Federal Government. 

The Accordion is patented in 1829.   It is issued in Vienna, Austria. 

The Mexican President declares war on the United States in 1846.   This date was a technicality as the hostilities has been active for at least a month.    Some sort of clash was inevitable,   There was a lot of territory between the two Countries that was of dispute.    Then there was the Texas issue.  Mexico still had not given up hope to regaining control.    The agreement between the Texians and Santa Anna was signed under duress and not well recognized in Mexico.     President James Polk wanted to settle the matter and set the border at the Rio Grande River.  He had offered Mexico a $25 million dollar buy out. Which they rejected.   Polk sent a mass of 80 troops into the disputed territory and the war was off.    There was a great deal of political divide in the US about the idea of a war with Mexico.  After a year and nine months of fighting, Mexico aquessed and settled for $18 million.  

The war was ended and brought California into the United State in the late winter of 1848 less than a year before Gold was discovered.

The forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is established in the newly acquired Northwest Territory. This is in 1873.   The RMCP does not have a counter part in the United States.   While we have several federal agencies, we do not have a Uniformed Federal Police Force.   In Many instances out State Police Force is inferior to the County Sherrif.    Which brings up a strange bit of trivia.  In Indiana the County Sherrif is the highest law enforcement officer in his Jurisdiction.   But should a warrant be issued for a rogue sherriff,   it is the County Coroner who has the authority to make the arrest.  Encroachment by Federal Agencies in the 20th Century blurred these lines.   Much of this we can blame on J. Edgar Hoover and the crime wave in the Depression era.   

Which brings us to a bit from 1934.   The depression era,  was a hard time across America.  We could devote weeks of programs discussing the issues, causes and affects.   The bottom line is it brought out the worst in a few people.    Prohibition played a part in the equation.   It was a way to make fast money.   Elements of society who were willing to break the rules could get rich.   Not very different from the drug problem today.  

A few audacious criminals went from small time to public figures overnight.    

The idea of a robber gang arose in the post- Civil War era.  In some tales the gangs were equated with Robin Hood, who robbed from the Rich and gave to the poor.   That concept is warped a good bit.  Jesse James was maybe the most well known.   But he and Brother Frank were not alone nor the first.   We might be able to tract the story line back to the Frontier during the war or even Kansas in the 1850s.  

During the depression Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were maybe the most famous.  Neither were old hardened criminals.   Parker was just out of her teens, from a poorer background but with a very dark side.   Some argue she was the gang leader and the bad influence.  Then Clyde Barrow did not need much of a push in the wrong direction.  He had a history of petty crime and severed time for such acts.   Time in a infamous Texas Penitentiary turned Clyde to despise the Texas Law.   While the end should never justify the means, Clyde might have had a case.   

The crimes began in early 1932. It appears the goal at first was to gain money and guns to lead a raid against the Eastham prison.    The first killing during a robbery was in April of 1932 and the first Police officer killed in August.  Things were pretty quite for awhile.   The gang had grown to Bonnie, Clyde, clyde’s brother Buck, his wife Blance and a childhood friend.  Buck was just out of prison and tried to convince Clyde to surrender.  

The group laid low in Jopin, Missouri until the loud parties drew the attention of local police, thinking they might be bootleggers, and they paid them a visit.   With outstanding warrants the Barrow’s opened fire.    This was April of 1933.   The event and captured photos brought the gang to national attention. From here it is run, rob and shoot on sight.   

There were narrow escapes and a few shootouts with police in a couple of states.  IN January of 1934 Clyde lead a breakout from the outside of several inmates at Eastham Prison in a way getting his revenge.   But the event galvanized Texas Law Enforcement and they brought in a retired Texas Ranger to lead a manhunt.    Public opinion turned on the gang when two police officers were shot as they approached the vehicle thinking it was a stranded car.   This was at least the third time the Gang had attached police on sight. No time had police approached the gang knowing who it was.   Yet the story was sensationalized in the national press.  This was the last straw in the public eye.   

Our Texas Ranger Frank Hamer was relentless and meticulous.  He had tracked the gang since February and knew their routine to skirt state lines while visiting family.   He had a good idea they would be near family in Lousiana in late May.   On the 22nd and 23rd they set-up a road block, the gang was flagged down by a distant family member and the Posse opened a massive gun fire.   

The scene and normal events leading to the burial of both Parker and Barrow were turned into a circus by the macbre and curious public.  One account says news boys in Dallas sent flowers, as the story sold half a million papers.  

Later that summer Bank Robbery and Kidnapping were made Federal Crimes and under the jurisdiction of the newly reorganized FBI.  Two-way radios also came into play greatly aiding law enforcement. 

We could argue that the Texas Posse had extended their power well beyond their limits.   An equal case could be made that Barrow and Parker would have shot at the least hint of capture.    And just what is excessive force?   The questions are profound and still apply to this day.     J. Edgar Hoover lead the FBI and its predecessors for 48 years.   A case could be made that he was the embodiment of the idea that in law enforcement the end justifies the means.  The Television Series Chicago PD,  plays into this in most episodes.   Watch this season’s last four episodes to see the concept play out.  

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