Short Introduction to Al Capone

Al Capone: Chicago's King of Crime by Nate Hendley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


If you don't know very much about Al Capone or the heyday of Chicago criminal activity this is an excellent overview. Easily read in one sitting and written in a clear factual manner, yet far from boring. There is no hyperbole or drama just a conversational saga of the mob scene and the corrupt graft taking legal and governmental attitude of Prohibition America. It is interesting to learn of the various personalities of these cruel, vicious, murderous men. One crime lord a florist who drew a line at being involved in prostitution; the Mafia's Sicilian only membership--Capone was Neapolitan!; the personalities that could carry out the Valentine's Day massacre and then play golf or attend family dinners; the politicians who sincerely tried to fight crime and yet socialized with its biggest leaders. Simply unbelieveable and yet historically true and not confined to Chicago or Cicero Illinois--New York City was equally corrupt. I kept waiting for the appearance of Elliot Ness and the Untouchables , but television and movies aside, he entered the Capone picture pretty late in Scarface Al's spree. Also, though he pulled some pretty incredible raids on Capone's installations and some fun irritating stunts on Alphonse, his actions were secondary in the Federal Governments efforts to bring Capone down on tax evasion charges.



In the beginning it was hard to keep all the actors straight with their Italian, Jewish and Irish names to say nothing of their colorful monikers but eventually they and the slang of the day attained a rhythm and familiarity and became easier to navigate. One thing I always enjoy are photos of the characters and events. Unfortunately, there are none here. Nevertheless, this is a good starting off place for anyone interested in the history of organized crime in the 20's-30's Chicago.



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McCullough Has Done It Again!

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's McCullough! Don't like history? You haven't read him, then! This one is so many things--a love letter to Paris ( I'm so jealous of his son, Bill, going with him to find all the sites mentioned in the book ), a history of the Western world really. 1830--USA is still a baby--Paris is the center of everything--the best medical training, the best artists under which to study, the best fashion, the best food---and young Americans are converging on it in droves. The names just pour over the reader. Ever been young and a student? Driven to learn, driven to excel, driven to absorb all you can in however short time you have until the money runs out? Here they are--writing home to friends and family--miles away across a dangerous ocean, crossed only by ships under sail that take weeks to arrive if they do. The writing --you see and feel and smell the things these people are experiencing. The overland ride in the huge diligence into a city that is not clean, not rich but oh, so exciting and at its center, so beautiful. The narrative moves through the years as though walking through a great house--here the lighting provided by gas lamps, the streets narrow, the pensions crowded. Bodies of the poor used for dissection in the medical schools, the operations open to the public. Now, the tumult of the ascension of Napoleon III, tearing up the streets to make over a new Paris. Soon the siege by Bismarck, the Communard uprising, artists and doctors returning to America, a new group arriving. The first wave reaching middle age and becoming the famous teachers and practitioners of all sorts of artistic endeavors at home. Eventually, yet another group arrives and the first start to die off, the middle group now the old men and women of their fields. In the beginning, Lafayette is still alive by the end the world is on the brink of a new century--electric lights, automobiles, telephones, the modern age has arrived. The Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty, today's landmarks have just been built. The telegraph, once such an all consuming obsession of an artist turned inventor, almost passe. And through it all runs the irresistible lure of Paris.


The book was even more enjoyable for me since I've been to Paris and had a host in Sevres refer to the Eiffel Tower as the Awful Tower--it made the description of the French reaction to its construction quite interesting. So many of the places in the book, I've strolled.How I wish I could return as so many of these men and women did in their life-times but this book brings back the parks and boulevards to memory in great detail.
I grew up in New York and as a child sat on the bench at Farragut's feet more times than I can remember and leaned looking up at Victory so gleaming and high above my small head.
Living in New England the MFA in Boston and the Boston Public Library and Fanuiel Hall are equally familiar as is Aspet in Cornish, NH where I attend summer concerts outside St Gauden's studio.

But, if the reader hasn't been to any of these places McCullough's pen is as descriptive as any of the works of the artists of which he writes. I found myself referring back frequently to the portraits of the these young Americans and the Parisians with whom they came in contact and the places where they spent their time. Also to the pictures of the paintings about which so much is written.

Here is all one could wish, history, art, medicine, emerging America, fascinating Paris with side excursions to other places in Europe--London,Italy, Spain but most importantly the young men and women who were the breathing living students who lived it and through whose letters and diaries and artistic works we live it again.



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Soldier--yes; Parent--not so much; Legacy--National, not Personal

Not enough info about his early life or his parents or siblings. But then perhaps he left it that way. His son and grandchildren certainly were not cut from the same cloth--no wonder they died out

I LOVE New York!

As I related earlier I slept until 930 am this morning despite the fact that the train crossing was right outside our window--should have taken a picture!  LOL But it WAS and, as is the law, every train, all night long, blared its whistle and rattled the walls of our room with each of its cars. Yet, as tired as I was, I only heard it before sleeping and once or twice during the night and fell right back to sleep. So, with check out at 11 we just made it at 1050!

Off we went to the Finger Lake region. Chose a route that brought us in to the middle of Keuka, which we followed to the top and then hit Seneca about midway also and followed it to the top. Penn Yan is at the north end of Keuka and is really kind of touristy though the bell tower on the Methodist Episcopal Church is very beautiful.

All along the shores of the lakes and in the surrounding vallies there are vineyards. They've been there forever.

 I remember as a kid riding in the back seat of our buick with my sister and our dog,Rebel. Reb was an adorable black long haired dachshund who thought she was the third daughter. She sat between us and gobbled down Concord grapes with us. She didn't like the skin and would spit it out. In recent years I've read that grapes are bad for dogs--hmm, she lived to be 12 or 13 just fine. Used to chew bones, too! And loved chocolate--especially Loft's and she knew how to spell candy. But I digress.

And for each of those vineyards there is a winery which offers tasting. Dear God, if you stopped at everyone you'd be drunk for a week or else drown in whichever lake you drove off the road and into!  We did not stop at any--I really wasn't interested today. I just wanted to enjoy the drive in this beautiful part of my home State on such a sunny but cold--32 degrees!--day.

The head of Seneca has the pretty town of Seneca Falls. I was going to visit the Elizabeth Cady Stanton --Womens' Rights National Historic Site--but there certainly are no good signs to find it. Soooo, that will wait for another trip--not spending time looking all over for a National Site!

Picked up Rt 20 and headed East on what used to be the major East-West road prior to the Thruway and the road we traveled often to the St Lawrence every fall as a kid. Came to the Star Diner which had an old decrepit motel behind it. Cannot remember where we stayed on these trips--could we have stayed there?  Well, I don't know but I do know this place serves terrific food, lots of it and very reasonably.

As we drove along North of Cayuga Lake we noticed large nests on the top of high power line poles--this is the largest but they are all along the road--Bald Eagle and other raptor nests! Montezuma NWR has been implementing reintroduction of the bald eagle in NYS. We stopped and took a short drive in the refuge. They are redoing the tour road so we were only able to go about a mile into the refuge--up to the inlet where fish enter from the canal. Geese, a peregrine falcon eating flies and a heron sitting at the inlet just waiting for a fish to come through!  Pretty neat.

Continued on 20 passing from the lakes to the farmland north toward the thruway. The electricity in the motel last night was questionable. Every time the refrigerator turned on or off the channel on TV became unavailable. What I didn't notice was that the outlet into which I plugged my battery charger apparently disconnected,too. Soooo my battery died before we reached Rome, where we are spending the night.

Betsy called after we left the refuge--was hoping she wouldn't see angry parents in a dirty house tomorrow but rather happy parents in a clean house on Wednesday. We hope so, too. And tomorrow, after lunch at my sister's in Saratoga, we will once more return to Vermont. 2012's cross country adventure will come to an end. But not before we check out Fort Stannix across the street in the morning. Till then--good night, all!

The Long Way Home

Hi, We left E. Liverpool around 10 am yesterday. I was quite tired since we had driven almost non-stop for two days since other than the River and Grant's birthplace there were no major sites to explore. I would have liked to have stayed an additional day there---the room with the whirlpool was wonderful and I still have a great book to read. Bill, on the other hand, opted not to since he said there was nothing to do there. I know he was tired, too, since the River road was a tough drive, what with the curves, the narrowness and the roughness but when we get this close to home, he doesn't realize it, but he gets antsy and started so cover lots of distance in a short time. In fairness, the upper Ohio was not as beautiful as the lower part.

At any rate, within a few minutes of getting on the road we came across the somewhat contradictory--or at least not definitive--signs about the location of a marker that finalized the Virginia-Pennsylvania border and allowed the survey of the lands to the West to commence. Of course, after the Civil War the boundary became that between WEST Virginia and Pennsylvania. Thank goodness for the obelisk--for there was no Welcome to Pennsylvania sign to let one know that Ohio and West Virginia were both in our rear view mirror. Not so the Ohio River, however; we followed that for several more miles towards Pittsburgh and its head before veering to the Northeast toward one of its formative rivers, The Allegheny. It is interesting that rather than the Allegheny being a tributary of the Monongahela or vice versa, the two come together at Pittsburgh and give rise to a new river--the Ohio.

The first town we entered--Midland, Pa--had the steam and other gasses pouring out of looming stacks and cooling towers. Nice Church though. Don't think I'd want to live there. Moving along we came upon an interesting looking restaurant in one of the old lockhouses. Beaver is not far from Beaver Falls, the home of Joe Namath. And then we climbed out of the valley up, up, up to Zelienople. The Strand is a 1913 building--just looked so cute. Harmony was very interesting and when I looked it up online last night I wish we had stopped. The cemetery is on a hillside as you come around and down a hill into town. It is a great old wall with neat newels at the corners surrounding a field of grass! Not a marker or anything in the field.Check it out: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/1101 or http://pittsburgh.about.com/od/butler/p/harmony.htm

This road we were travelling is the  Washington Trail--he must have been one of the surveyors--1753--he did that as well as made a name for himself in the French and Indian Wars. I'm not sure right now what town we entered at noon but one of the many Churches was playing its bells for the Angelus. I haven't heard that in years--always in Glens Falls--do they still?  And play Christmas carols? It is a sound I've always loved--church bells.

Another thing I love--the lushness of the magnolias and forsythia even this far north in Pa. I did notice that the trees are not as far along as they were in Ohio but then we are not near the moderating affect of the water. Cut across the Allegheny for the first time in Allegheny Point and it was fairly good size as it was at Brady's Bend . Located near this point, 1839-73. Organized as the Great Western and later known as the Brady's Bend Iron Company. One of that era's largest iron works, and first to make iron rails west of the Alleghenies.  We reached a high point with a great overlook of part of Brady's Bend. We then followed a truck up and down and around until the end of Pa 66 in Kane where we picked up 6 East. I'm not at all sure what Mt Jewett had to offer other than a beautiful welcome sign. Several almost non-existent towns did the same but it is possible that we didn't pass down the middle of Main St!
Kind of an interesting Do 6 mural though--probably a bird's eye view of what is in store along it. The sold Victorian in Smethville was just one of many beauties in town.  So sad so see so many old buildings--even those associated with mills and other commercial enterprises--that were designed to be visually appealing either empty or plastered with horrible modern signs or both. 1895 for that nice brick empty storefront. Sigh!

And then we were finally far enough away from Pittsburgh that the Allegheny was a small creek--for we were close to its head in Randolph, Pa--in Couderport, with its small theatre. Wish they were having a showing --I would have made Bill stop--I'm dying to see The Artist.

Shortly after passing through town we turned North on 449 headed into New York. Gold has an intriguing name but all that's there is a general store at the crossroads.  Bill said there won't be a welcome to New York sign on this backroad, either. Uh, huh, sweetie, think again. Of course, the adopt a road program is more important!

 And a few miles later, in Hornell, we called it a night. I was so exhausted I literally fell onto the bed and said I'm done. Bill went over to the Italian restaurant and had spaghetti and brought me the best bbq ribs I've had in a long time. Ate them as I watched DWTS and had a Millers while watching Castle. Fell asleep at 11  and slept until 930 this morning.

From The Junction of Pa, WVa and Oh!

Woke to bright sunshine and almost cloudless sky after overnight rain and the cacophony of Spring peepers beneath our window. Since the Ohio makes several rather deep Southern dips that would be time consuming to follow we decided to cut across them by travelling through some of the hills of Appalachia on the Ohio side. The path lead north on 23 and then east on 124. Some of the hollers are filled with trailers, broken down shacks and debris all of which are inhabited. Yet others have very nice homes and manicured fields. It seemed to depend upon the richness of the fields for either cultivation or pasturing and/or the nearness of a mining operation. The roads also reflected the relative affluence of the county in which they were found but this seems to be the case in almost every State in which we've travelled.

It was fun to come across the historical marker for Brewster Higley VI since Barb and I came across the sod cottage in which he lived and wrote Home on the Range in Kansas. It too is on a back road--as a matter of fact it is in the farmyard of a family in Kansas and is being held up by a very stout chain about its middle. Just goes to show that when you travel the less traveled ways in this country you keep crossing paths with the same historical figures.

A couple of miles east of Rutland we picked up 32/7 and so returned to the Ohio River in Belpre, continuing on through Marietta---plants of all kinds on both sides of the river---one right after the other and the first of many bridges connecting to West Virginia on the East shore. Downtown Marietta is quite beautiful but the strip that follows is industrial and dirty. I think we may have skipped more of the quaint and beautiful portions of the River drive by cutting across the dips. For the rest of the way to E. Liverpool there was power plant after power plant--mostly on the East side--all coal fed, all spewing steam into the air.

Several places along the River, either because of rapids or shallows there are dams and huge lock arrangements. Still, there were some stretches of mirror smooth, wide River with little villages and WV rte 2 visible to the East and a tug or two moving a string of barges up with gravel or down with coal.

Hungry, we stopped in Fly, Ohio at the Riverview Restaurant overlooking the ferry landing that connects to Sistersville, W Va. As we ate we watched the ferry carry one or two cars in either direction. At one point it sat idle outside our window until two cars lined up on the WVa side and it went to fetch them. Today was its first day of operation for the season. If it had been upriver from Wheeling we would have crossed but we did not want to deal with the confusion of merging roads in Wheeling.

Visit the historic Fly Ferry Landing in Fly, Ohio. Operating since 1815, the ferry is the longest continuous working mode of transportation in Monroe County and one of only four remaining on the Ohio River between Pittsburgh and the Mississippi River. It is the only one in operation along the 277 miles of river bordering West Virginia.
The Fly Landing is located on the apex of the longest straight stretch on the Ohio River called the "Long Reach." The landing is near the site where George Washington encamped during a survey trip to the west on Oct. 25, 1770. It is owned and operated by the City of Sisterville, WV.

For an interesting article on the ferry check out this link:http://www.themariettatimes.com/page/content.detail/id/537488/Crossin--the-Ohio.html?nav=5002

Steubenville is the hometown of Dean Martin and there is a Dean Martin Boulevard. The city is so dirty--a typical mining, mill, factory town. I bet he was happy to get to the clean air and sunshine of California. 20 miles northwest is Cadiz, the hometown of Clark Gable. We did not venture there.

In this area of the River are huge stratified cliffs on both sides--laid down by this water over many millennia. The new bridge north of Steubenville appears to lead one right into the immovable cliffs on the East side. From here on the bridges come one right after the other, just as they do along any River where cities have grown on each side. The ages and styles vary greatly but all of them are beautiful works of art and examples of fine engineering of the time. I don't like crossing them but I do think they are wonderful to look at.

Eventually, we reached Stratton and were able to pull over and watch a tug and its barges move downriver through the locks. I didn't take a full picture of this Power Plant and should have since it has one of the tallest chimneys in the world! It is the W.H. Sammis Plant and I took a picture of the tunnel because there is a Powerhouse on the East River in NYC which also has a tunnel for the Eastside Highway to pass under. Haven't thought about it for years!

Block 7 includes one of the tallest chimneys in the world (305 m), which was built in 1970. The power plant includes a tunnel for State Route 7, a four-lane freeway. The tunnel goes under the Baghouse structure, which filters particulate and toxic gases from the exhaust before entering the smoke stack.

Across the River--Homer Laughlin --my sister would love to check that out!  LOL

As we turned to the West away from the River, we glimpsed one last bridge crossing the Ohio from East Liverpool to Newell ,West Virginia with a tug-pushed barge passing beneath it.

Arrived at the Comfort Inn just outside town toward Calcutta. A comfy suite with the best whirlpool tub I've ever seen. I want one!  Two person and comfy. I'm off to enjoy a soak once more. Tomorrow--we cross into Pennsylvania and leave the Ohio and its head in Pittsburgh in our rear view mirror. We do not cross it but head along it for a bit before swinging north east toward New York's Alleghany Plateau and the Finger Lakes. More on that tomorrow night. We are painfully close to home, alas.

Cruisin' Up the Ohio

Left the motel and headed through Madison on Indiana 56. Just outside of town we came to a huge power plant, the first of many we would see on both sides of the Ohio. Madison itself is a old river city with  beautiful homes and not much else. It was difficult to take pix as we were driving into the sun and with cars behind us Bill worries about holding them up and won't slow down to the town speed at all. Or drive on the right side so they can pass us as we sightsee. I guess he's right--we're probably as irritating as leaf peepers in Vt.

The most wonderful thing about this road in both Indiana and Ohio is that is truly follows the River and we are often on its banks. Sometimes the road moves away a bit to allow for campgrounds or rest areas or cultivated fields or little communities. For the most part, however, you can see the ribbon of water--very muddy brown and the opposite shore which today was Kentucky.

We went through many little River towns, each one welcoming us to "Historic" X,Y or Z and in fairness many of them were established in the early 19th C.  At Vevray 56 goes inland and 156 follows the River as the truck route. We followed it. I was able to get a nice shot of the Ohio River Scenic Byway sign and it perfectly tells the take--church spires, domed city halls and River traffic, though not Riverboats but rather tugs pushing barges as long as a football field and churning up muddy water as they go. I'd love to be able to cruise the length of the river on one of them--it looks so serene and relaxing. Riding alongside it on a narrow, winding, non-shouldered road with potholes and slight roller coaster heaves was actually peaceful and soothing. Though maybe not so much for the driver. LOL

One never knew what would be around the next bend---in one case, this little town had a huge resort and golf club and in another, a big marina!  The rest of the town was the old buildings that are distinctively river town. Patriot was interesting--huge eagle bedecked banners and elegant welcome signs and a historical marker about a native son, in charge of the damming of the Colorado. Wonder how he would have felt had they dammed the Ohio. The creation of Lake Mead was controversial at the time and my father and his friends were still against the whole project when I was growing up.  Probably no one left now who remembers it before the dam or gives a damn about its impact so many years ago.

56 rejoined 156, which thereby came to an end and on we went through more little towns.  Aurora and Lawrenceburg run right into each other. Lawrenceburg is the town in which a tornado set down for a few streets and then rose back up into the air last night, causing some damage but no injuries. We didn't see any evidence of its arrival. At this point we were due south of Cincinnati and in order to avoid it we crossed the Ohio into Kentucky and then crossed it once more back into Ohio.  Once more we were aware of the congested sky--thunderheads still all around despite the sun and cool temperatures.

As we proceeded east once more on Ohio 56 we came to a tiny crossroads called Pt Pleasant and we spent a pleasant half hour exploring the site of US Grant's birth. We read the hours of operation on the house and saw that on Sat they close from noon to one. As it was almost one we wandered down to the River and the memorial bridge and park. Read all the signs and were amused by the movement all over of this house and its final return to its original foundation. When we tried to open the door to the house after our explorations we found it still locked. THEN I read the first line " April-October"!  Oh, well, it was a nice stroll and one always needs to stretch one's legs while sitting for so long. Now I've seen where he was born and where he died. We did not go up to Georgetown to see his school and boyhood home--where he lived until he was 17 and went away to West Point--but we did eat at the corner of 221 which was just 8 miles south of the town.

In my picture on the stone wall, Big Indian Creek is right behind me and the Ohio River is to my left. In what seemed like minutes after leaving Pt Pleasant--actually it was minutes for I saw the cooling tower just up river a bit from the Grant Park---we came to Moscow, Ohio. Trees were ripped to pieces and had been cut and bucked up, a gift shop which is in a three story house had part of its roof missing and the Marathon gas station was no more.
Moscow is a village in Clermont County, Ohio, United States. The population was 244 at the 2000 census.
The William H. Zimmer Power Station, nuclear power plant converted to coal-fired generation that creates 1300-megawatts of electricity is partially located within village limits.
On March 2, 2012, a tornado destroyed over 80% of the town and caused 1 death, as multiple tornadoes ripped through Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.
So horribly sad!

Passed through Utopia, of which there was not much, into Higginsport and The Old Dinner Bell. Had club sandwiches with fries and cole slaw.  Stuffed!!

Aberdeen Ohio has TWO bridges connecting it to Maysville Ky--you could almost toss a rock from one to the other and hit a car they are so close. Somebody from one of these towns got some PORK!

Manchester is an elegant old town--and then I started to doze on occasion; but not before having noticed a Tobacco Museum in Ripley and the claim on the Higginsport welcome sign that white burley tobacco was grown here first in 1864. Now the landscape was filled with old tobacco drying barns. Some of them are in desperate shape but others have been maintained and are used for storage or as business offices. The fields that stretch to the River are not cultivated now and are just beautiful green expanses. I would say the valley on this side of the River, at any rate is no longer used for tobacco growth. Some of the fields have been converted to housing developments or, as in one case, part of the Shawnee State Forest which contains an extensive golf course and marina. Farther along some of the fields are used to grow corn.

In Higginsport we had decided to call it a day in Portsmouth and I'd called ahead for a reservation. As we turned northward on Ohio 23 to our motel the clouds that had threatened all day finally opened up in a heavy downpour and we were glad we'd planned it this way. Upon arrival, Nanette told us she had upgraded us to a suite and so we raced between the raindrops and got cozy in our spacious apartment for the night. I gave her one of the 1000 points cards I have from Choice Hotels.

Tomorrow our plan is to continue along the Ohio to East Liverpool--at the tippy top of West Virginia but still in Ohio. Don't think we'll take the detour to Cadiz and Clark Gable's birthplace!  LOL  Until tomorrow and our continued cruise we bid you good night. Storms are well northeast of us in Va so we should be fine.