by Robert A. Waters
On May 9, 1962, Daniel Schmidt died on an operating table at Fort Miley Veteran’s Hospital in San Francisco. The former airman, only 31, expired as doctors performed open heart surgery.
July 9, 2013 Libcom
Over 30,000 inmates across California’s vast prison estate have been refusing meals since yesterday morning. A further 2,300 prisoners have refused to attend work or educational classes – claiming they are sick. Prisoners are protesting against the use of a draconian solitary confinement policy that can see prisoners held in solitary for several decades – often with little or no attempt at a justification.
California currently has 10,000 prisoners in solitary confinement, and several dozen who have spent more than 20 years each in solitary.
The protest has been organised by a small group of prisoners held in solitary at Pelican Bay State Prison. They are demanding a 5 year limit on solitary confinement, the right to educational, rehabilitation opportunities, and the right to monthly phone-calls. The organisers have released the following statement:
Michael Stone
On July 9, 1996, Dr. Lin Russell, her two daughters, Josie and Megan, and their dog, Lucy, are all brutally attacked by a man wielding a hammer on their way home to Nonington Village, Kent, England, after a family outing. Forcing them to sit down in the woods, the attacker blindfolded and tied up his victims, and then bludgeoned them one by one. Nine-year-old Josie was the sole survivor of the vicious assault.
Francis Gary Powers
On July 8, 1960, CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers is charged with espionage by the Soviet Union. Powers' indictment signaled a massive setback in the peace process between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Mary Surratt
On July 7, 1865, Mary Surratt is executed by the U.S. government for her role as a conspirator in Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Surratt, who owned a tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland, had to convert her row house in Washington, D.C., into a boardinghouse as a result of financial difficulties. Located a few blocks from Ford's Theatre, where Lincoln was murdered, this house served as the place where a group of Confederate supporters, including John Wilkes Booth, conspired to assassinate the president. It was Surratt's association with Booth that ultimately led to her conviction, though debate continues as to the extent of her involvement and whether it really warranted so harsh a sentence.
George "Bugs" Moran
On July 6, 1946, FBI agents arrest George "Bugs" Moran in Ohio for robbing a bank messenger. Moran was at one point, one of the biggest organized crime figures in America, by the time of his arrest he had been reduced to small bank robberies.
On the night of November 29, 1988, near the impoverished Marlborough neighborhood in south Kansas City, an explosion at a construction site killed six of the city’s firefighters. It was a clear case of arson, and five people from Marlborough were duly convicted of the crime. But for veteran crime writer and crusading editor J. Patrick O’Connor, the facts—or a lack of them—didn’t add up. Justice on Fire is OConnor’s detailed account of the terrible explosion that led to the firefighters’ deaths and the terrible injustice that followed. Also available from Amazon
July 7, 2013 