Category Archives: Podcasts

Marie Antoinette (Volume Six, Episode One) Part One

May 17, 2023 Phil Gibbons Leave a comment

In 1770, the French people greeted Austrian Marie Antoinette as the beautiful and future French queen. Twenty-three years later they guillotined her as the most reviled woman in France.

Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria and Marie Antoinette’s mother

Maria Theresa gave birth to sixteen children, unusually thirteen survived into at least early childhood, including the second youngest, Maria Antonia. As the house of Hapsburg was decidedly Roman Catholic all ten of the Empress’ daughters had the first name of Maria, an acknowledgement of the Virgin Mary. Maria Theresa was a workaholic who spent most of her days focused on the affairs of state, but she closely supervised the tutors and nannies who were responsible for her children’s upbringing and education. Her strong work ethic and stubborn determination were fortunate personality traits. Only months after her ascension, many of the European monarchs who had formally agreed with her father to recognize her as his heir renounced this agreement, perhaps sensing weakness. Frederick the Great’s 1740 invasion of the Austrian province of Silesia set off an eight-year war that eventually involved all of the great powers of Europe. It was not until 1748 that diplomacy resolved this conflict, and firmly established Maria Theresa as de facto Holy Roman Empress and Archduchess of Austria, but Prussia and Frederick remained hostile and within eight years another war broke out. The Seven Years War strengthened Austria’s profile in Europe but the immense cost of this conflict convinced the Empress that diplomacy was a much more reasonable way to maintain political power and preserve her domain.

In Europe, with most political powers ruled by monarchies, the best method of insuring a stable alliance with another ruling dynasty was through marriage. Maria Theresa aggressively forged alliances with the French Bourbons dynasty through marriages of her daughters Maria Amalia and Maria Karolina to the rulers of the Italian duchies of Parma and Naples. But her most ambitious union was reserved for her youngest daughter, Maria Antonia. Approximately the same age as the heir to the French crown, the grandson of France’s King Louis XV seemed an obvious match and serious negotiations began between the two courts to make this wedding happen. A special tutor, the Abbe Jacques de Vermond was brought to Vienna’s Hofburg palace from France to improve the teenager’s language skills and overall social polish, underlining the serious nature of the discussion. A French dentist even surgically and painfully straightened her teeth. But this was only the beginning of a process demanded by Louis XV, that focused obsessively on the physical appearance of France’s potential queen. Louis’ womanizing exceeded that of even his royal contemporaries, the famous mistresses Madame Du Pompadour and Madame Du Barry among the dozens of women achieving notoriety during his fifty-nine-year reign.

In April of 1770, Maria Theresa packed off her daughter as well as the Abbe de Vermond, by then subtly cultivated as the Empress’ eventual eyes and ears once the marriage took place and Maria Antonia began a journey that proved emotionally overwhelming. This trip started on April 21, 1770, in the main courtyard of Vienna’s Hofburg, the sprawling palace of Austrian emperors and in this case the Empress, Maria Therese. The empress’ daughter was placed in a magnificent gilded carriage, saluted by a crowd of patrician well-wishers and Swiss Guard ceremonial rifle volleys, and then sent off while all of the church bells of the city pealed in a congratulatory farewell.

Although Marie’s Austrian royal family lived in the sprawling Hofburg complex and also constructed the impressive Schonbrunn Palace on the outskirts of Vienna, probably nothing prepared her for the grandiosity of the seat of the French monarchy. Built by Louis XIV as not only a statement of his national superiority and absolute power, the king also wished to contain all of the members of his court under one roof. Hundreds of apartments were provided for those members of French society who were prominent enough to merit such status. But Louis’ ostensible generosity concealed an underlying motive, that of keeping the nobility under his literal eye and stripping them of any political power or even ability to unite against his absolute rule. Thousands of inhabitants lived within the palace, which could hold as many as ten thousand residents but typically housed between two and four thousand occupants.

Louis XVI also attempted to remove any legacy of the former mistress, the Madame de Pompadour, by officially presenting his wife the Petit Trianon, a small chateau on the grounds of Versailles, formerly built and occupied by De Pompadour. Initially, the ascension of the new king and his beautiful wife was greeted by the public with happiness and the young couple was popular, the staggering deficits and disastrous foreign policy of Louis XV rendering him a bad memory. It was hoped that a new reign would also bring new attitudes and a new direction.

Marginalized politically, with her husband’s chief advisors hostile to Austria, Marie Antoinette immersed herself in a pastime meant to underline her status as the court’s most important female. She began the practice of weekly masked, costumed balls, centered around various themes, her costumes sparing no expense and distinguishing her from her guests with spectacular clothing. Her husband, perhaps guilty at his ongoing sexual disinterest allowed her to spend fantastic amounts on her wardrobe and the parties themselves which frequently lasted until dawn. These exercises were undertaken to at least publicly maintain the façade that Marie Antoinette enjoyed great influence with the king and she hoped over time to regain the same political prestige as that of Louis XV’s mistresses.

Mortality suddenly intervened in the spring of 1774 to permanently change the relatively vapid routine of the heir and his wife. On April 27, Louis XV went hunting with his entourage but suddenly felt too sick to even leave his carriage. By May 3 even he acknowledged that the red lesions on his body were indicative of smallpox. The king lasted another week, many accounts stating that in his final hours he uttered the phrase “Apres moi, le deluge,” After me, the deluge, a supposed acknowledgement that the financial excesses and utter governmental mismanagement of France could only result in catastrophe. Like many storied quotations, this one most likely never occurred but it should have and it was a fitting admonition for especially the now Louis the XVI and Marie Antoinette.

On the 19^th of August, the Commune removed all eight non-royal members of the entourage. Most were eventually released unharmed, one, Marie, Princess de Lamballe, a close friend and confidante of Marie Antoinette, who had faithfully remained with the Queen during her recent ordeals was dragged before an impromptu September 3^rd Commune tribunal at her new prison location. These tribunals, a violent response meant to liquidate any prisoners formerly associated with the monarchy, were convened as a result of the Austro-Prussian offensive that initially made great progress in its intent to overturn the Revolution. Asked to swear loyalty to the new government and to denounce the King and Queen, the Princess de Lamballe affirmed the former but refused the latter, stating that whether she died then or shortly thereafter was not worth her honor and dignity. Released into the courtyard she was beaten and stabbed to death by a mob assembled to execute those condemned by the tribunal with the words, Let them go,” the victim unaware that this was actually a death sentence. The Princess’ body was beheaded, disemboweled and her remains paraded through the city on pikes, this procession reaching the Temple with the intent to display this grisly artifact to the King and Queen. Although she did not see this display, Marie Antoinette fainted upon hearing about the fate of her former friend. This killing, and hundreds of others that occurred during this incident became known as the September Massacres.

Convinced that he was on the verge of a great political restoration and even deluded enough to believe that Marie Antoinette was physically attracted to him, De Rohan now reached out to the jewelers, who were also blinded by their zeal to unload the necklace. With, unbeknownst to him, forged letters in hand from the purported Marie Antoinette, requesting that the Cardinal act as her representative, a deal was negotiated whereby the necklace would be paid for in installments. Of course, the transaction was to occur amidst the utmost secrecy, a condition De La Motte could not emphasize enough. The necklace was secured by the Bishop, he then was instructed to turn it over to an individual described as a valet of the Queen, in fact Nicholas de la Motte, who hastily fled to London. By the time the alleged count arrived in England, the diamonds had been pried out of their settings, many damaged during the process, but still able to be fenced. Jean De La Motte briefly fended off both the Cardinal and the jewelers by forwarding token sums as “installments,” but by July of 1785, with Marie Antoinette having never worn the elaborate necklace publicly or reaching out to the Cardinal to acknowledge his noble deed and De La Motte no longer making any installments, both parties decided that it was time to act. A letter dictated by the Cardinal, and signed and sent by Boehmer was meant to subtly remind the Queen of both her new acquisition and financial obligation. But Marie Antoinette was so baffled by the July 12th letter that after discussing it with her first lady in waiting, Henriette Campan, she burnt it, thinking only that Boehmer was somehow trying to peddle her some more jewelry. Disturbed and now alarmed by any lack of response Boehmer waited until the 3^rd of August before showing up at Henriette Campan’s residence. Campan was so shocked by first his insistent claim that the queen had made such a byzantine purchase and the details surrounding those involved, that she decided against informing the queen herself, advising that Boehmer should take the matter up with the Minister of the Royal Household.

In 1775, the Comte and Comtesse de Polignac, like many other members of the French nobility, visited Versailles to pay their respects to the new king and queen. Although aristocratic the couple had fallen on hard times and were deeply in debt. The Comtesse, Yolande Gabrielle de Polignac, was extremely pretty and immediately ingratiated herself with Marie Antoinette, who encouraged her to spend more time at court. The Polignac debt was quickly taken care of by the king and upon the birth of Marie’s first child, Gabrielle was named governess, a lucrative official position. The post also came with a palace apartment, in this case a luxurious spread of thirteen rooms. Her husband Jules de Polignac also received several paid court positions as well as the title of Duc de Polignac. Other family members received considerable pensions paid out for virtually no responsibility. Because Marie enjoyed her company, Louis XVI was enthusiastic about such expense, if only to placate his wife. When Gabrielle’s daughter married into another noble family, the king paid the dowry, equivalent to millions of dollars today. Marie Antoinette’s affection for her best friend was further underlined by the assignment of one of the cottages constructed in the faux village of the Petit Trianon to Madame de Polignac, in an area that was physically off limits to all but the most prominent members of the French court. Gabrielle’s new son-in-law was immediately named captain of the guards, her brother in law ambassador to Switzerland. The de Polignac’s became quite unpopular at court, they did their best to exploit their new positions, and isolated other courtiers from Marie, as no one could enter her inner circle without the Comtesse de Polignac’s approval. Their initial lowly status made their receipt of such largesse a point of deep resentment amidst the intensely status conscious world of Versailles. This animus prompted external gossip about such extravagance, the De Polignac’s hated by the public as much as Marie Antoinette herself. With no guarantee of their personal security, the entire extended family fled the country on July 15, one day after the storming of the Bastille.

But neither Marie or her husband would be respected as dutiful monarchs if the continued sexual reticence of the king prevented any progress in the process of producing an heir. When Louis XVI’s younger brother married and produced a son in 1775, this only increased the pressure on the sovereigns to behave accordingly. This issue became so serious especially for the Austrian court because they would lose any connection to the French throne if Marie Antoinette did not give birth, that it was decided that Maria Theresa’s son, Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor and heir to the Austrian throne would visit his sister to attempt to get to the bottom as to what exactly was holding up the process. Although happy to see any relative, the Queen was also apprehensive as her elder brother frequently could be insensitive and critical and had already admonished her in numerous letters over the current situation. In April of 1777, travelling incognito as Count Falkenstein to avoid any embarrassing attention over his mission, the Emperor also resorted to a plain wardrobe and an absence of medals and decorations. To avoid the time wasting rituals of Versailles, he stayed in a nearby hotel, maximizing his interaction with both his sister and Louis XVI. He spent a great deal of time with his sister but also had some frank discussions with the king as to what exactly was required in this situation. Whatever difficulty or apathy that formerly plagued the king subsided and shortly after her brother’s visit, Marie Antoinette was able to report to her mother that more than seven years after his wedding day, Louis XVI successfully consummated his marriage.

Maria Therese, Marie Antoinette’s daughter

Maria Therese was able to survive the excesses of the Revolution, eventually exchanged for various French dignitaries imprisoned throughout Europe. France would then undergo the Reign of Terror, the ascendance of Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars that resulted in a restoration of the Bourbon dynasty in 1814. Louis XVI’s brother, the Comte de Provence was crowned Louis XVIII after Napoleon’s exile to Elba. His reign interrupted by the one hundred days and Waterloo, he ruled until 1824, when he was succeeded by the Comte D’Artois, Louis XVI’s youngest brother as Charles X, a ruler so odious and reactionary that he prompted a second popular revolution, an event that caused his abdication. Officially, his son, known historically as Louis XIX, reigned for twenty minutes, while Marie Therese, the daughter of Marie Antoinette, now married to the prospective king of France, begged him not to abdicate. He refused, signing off on any claim to the throne, but in this final flickering twilight of the French monarchy, Marie Antoinette’s daughter reigned briefly as the last Queen of France.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Podcasts

Marie Antoinette (Volume Six, Episode One) Part Two

May 17, 2023 Phil Gibbons Leave a comment

In 1770, the French people greeted Austrian Marie Antoinette as the beautiful and future French queen. Twenty-three years later they guillotined her as the most reviled woman in France.

The affair of the Diamond Necklace had its origin in a piece of jewelry that was commissioned by Louis XV in 1772 and meant as a gift for his mistress, the Madame Du Barry. He requested that the royal jewelers Charles Boehmer and Paul Bassenge create a diamond necklace that exceeded anything previously produced. On spec, the two men took great pains to assemble a creation that incorporated a great number of exquisite diamonds in a staggeringly large and ornate necklace. Called, “The Slave’s Collar,” and consisting of over 2800 carats of diamonds, the worth of this necklace today has been estimated to be as high as one hundred million dollars. Unfortunately, the King died before this accoutrement could be finalized, the jewelers now stuck with a very expensive piece of jewelry and an extremely small pool of potential buyers, the most obvious Louis XVI. But twice, in 1778 and again in 1781, for one reason or another both the King and Marie Antoinette declined to purchase the necklace. Unsold, this became the basis of an elaborate confidence scheme hatched by a socially and financially ambitious woman who called herself the Comtesse Jeanne de la Motte.

By late 1784, Jeanne had ingratiated herself as the mistress of the Cardinal de Rohan, not only a member of the powerful de Rohan noble family but a former diplomat deployed in Vienna to the court of Maria Theresa. Unfortunately, his dissolute lifestyle and anti-Austrian bias earned him the antagonism of the Empress, who in turn delivered her opinion of the Cardinal to Marie Antoinette. Upon Louis XVI assuming the throne, De Rohan, most likely upon the urging of the Queen, was hastily recalled. Understanding that the Cardinal was desperate to improve his status within the French court, Jeanne de La Motte convinced De Rohan that she was well connected to especially Marie Antoinette. In fact, through a forger, fellow huckster and also feigned aristocrat Armand Retaux de Villette, Jeanne was able to access the French Court. She further convinced de Rohan that the Queen had officially acknowledged her and that Marie Antoinette held her in high esteem. De Rohan then began what he thought was a correspondence with the Queen, receiving letters in return that were actually forged by Retaux de Villette. Blinded by his ambition, De Rohan did not hesitate when Jeanne began asking for loans and even produced signed letters which requested that he help the Queen secretly acquire the, “Slave’s Collar,” to avoid public and even Louis XVI’s awareness of such an exorbitant purchase, an acquisition that might inflame hostility over royal expenditures even further. To add further credibility to the scheme, De La Motte and Retaux de Villette staged a nocturnal, secret liaison between the Cardinal and a woman he thought was Marie Antoinette. In fact, the two confederates hired a prostitute who resembled the queen, Nicole d’Oliva, the three arranging to meet the Cardinal in a remote corner of the gardens of Versailles. In the darkness, d’Oliva, dressed fashionably, approached the Cardinal, handed him a rose and breathlessly intoned, “You know what this means, the past will be forgotten” before quickly and stealthily retreating.

A zirconium replica of the “Slave’s Collar”

Marie Antoinette’s son and heir, the dauphin Louis Charles, already considered by royalist emigres as the de facto Louis XVII, was treated just as brutally. After his mother’s execution, he was placed in a solitary, damp cell, fed through the bars, with little interaction with his jailers. He endured such conditions for sixth months, until a change in government allowed for the improvement of his confinement. By then he had contracted tuberculosis, the ailment which killed him on June 8, 1795, aged ten years old.

Louis XVI’s brother, the Comte de Provence was crowned Louis XVIII after Napoleon’s exile to Elba. His reign interrupted by the one hundred days and Waterloo, he ruled until 1824.

Louis XVI’s youngest brother as Charles X, a ruler so odious and reactionary that he prompted a second popular revolution, an event that caused his abdication.

Back at the Temple, Marie Antoinette was not formally told of her husband’s death but the noise and tumult from the street down below told her and her family everything they needed to know. From that day on, she received and wore black mourning clothes and descended into a hopeless depression.

On July 3^rd, Marie’s status took an ominous turn when she was informed by her jailers that she was to be separated from her son. Additional Austrian victories now placed Paris in even greater danger. As a result, at two o’clock in the morning on August 2, Marie Antoinette was transferred to the Conciergerie, a much more secure and foreboding courthouse and prison. There was no attempt to spruce up her new environment or disguise its intent, the damp brick, bed, rudimentary chair and bucket toilet of a prison cell. A hapless attempt by royal sympathizers within the prison known as the Carnation plot only served to tighten the security around Marie Antoinette. From then on armed sentries remained in her cell, subdivided with a simple wooden screen which did little to protect Marie’s modesty.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Podcasts

Crockett, Bowie and Travis, Defenders of the Alamo (Volume 5, Episode 12) Part One

April 12, 2023 Phil Gibbons Leave a comment

An enduring American legend, hear what actually happened at the Battle of the Alamo

By 1817, after emerging from the military, David situated his family in Lawrence County, Tennessee as one of the area’s first inhabitants. Making a living as a professional hunter, mostly of wild bears, Crockett also began to involve himself in local politics, serving as a county commissioner and eventually as a state appointed justice of the peace. He also served several terms in the state legislature and was eventually elected to the US House of Representatives in 1826. He was re-elected to a second term in 1828 but ran into trouble when he emphatically opposed Andrew Jackson’s plans to relocate native Americans, an especially unpopular stance in Jackson’s home state of Tennessee. Defeated for re-election in 1830, he was returned to Congress one more time in 1833. It was during this time period that Crockett co-wrote an autobiography entitled, “A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee,” an attempt to take advantage of popularity generated by an 1831 play entitled, “The Lion of the West,” about a larger than life pioneer named Nimrod Wildfire, but obviously fashioned after Crockett. It was during his publicity tour promoting this book’s publication that a quote attributed to Crockett discussing his immediate political future appeared in numerous newspapers, “I told the people of my district that I would serve them as faithfully as I had done; but if not, they might go to hell, and I would go to Texas.”

Bowie became nationally famous after an incident that occurred on September 19, 1827 known as the Sandbar Fight. The conflict, essentially a violent, murderous brawl between two competing business and political entities competing over elected offices and business interests in Central Louisiana resulted after a duel that occurred on a sandbar situated on what was then neutral territory along the Mississippi River, near Natchez, Mississippi. Initially two men, Samuel Wells and Dr Thomas H. Maddox, fought a formal duel that typically concluded with shots fired but no injuries. While these two individuals seemed content to bury the hatchet, several other members of each contingent had a history of animosity and violent interaction. A spontaneous gunfight broke out in which Jim Bowie was first wounded in the leg, sending him to his knees. Bowie then got up and unsheathed the large hunting knife he always carried for protection and lunged after the individual who shot him, Robert Crain. Bowie was knocked to the ground again when Crain hit him with the butt of his now empty pistol. Norris Wright, an individual who had previously tried to shoot Bowie on another occasion, then fired an errant pistol shot and followed that up with a sword cane attempt to stab Bowie in the chest. The thin blade apparently stuck in Bowie’s sternum, while he then mortally plunged his 9 by 1.5 inch knife into Wright’s mid-section, ripping upward. Wright bled out quickly while other assailants continued to stab and shoot at Bowie, but he successfully fought off his attackers, suffering two bullet wounds and seven knife wounds, including the sword cane that was impaled in his chest. In total, two men were killed, four injured, including Bowie who needed months to recuperate.News of this sensational episode spread initially through regional and then national newspapers, with the focus on Bowie, his outsized knife as well as aggrandizing tales of roping alligators on the bayou and similar exploits, transforming him into a frontiersman in the fashion of Daniel Boone. Subsequently, business boomed in the production of Bowie styled knives and Bowie himself wore one, sheathed, for the rest of his life.

Smith then turned to the individual designated as officially responsible for recruiting soldiers into the newly elected provisional government’s army, William B. Travis, and ordered him to reinforce the garrison at San Antonio. Travis was previously supposed to round up as many as one hundred men into a cavalry force, which he would lead as a lieutenant colonel. Of the three most famous individuals killed at the Battle of the Alamo, Jim Bowie, David Crockett and William Travis, Travis was by far the most obscure at the time of the incident.

Fifteen years earlier, in 1821, a lengthy military insurgency was able to unofficially establish Mexico’s independence from Spain. Although Spain sporadically attempted to reassert control over the country, all of these efforts ultimately failed. However, the Mexican government and political situation remained both violent and unstable. From this chaos emerged the general and warlord, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, a military figure who achieved national prominence for his role in defeating Spanish attempts to reclaim Mexico. Santa Anna eventually consolidated political and military authority and in 1835, dissolved the Mexican constitution attempting to transform the Mexican government from a loosely autonomous group of Mexican states into an entity controlled by a federal government.

While Santa Anna casually headed east toward what he believed would be an eventually similar destruction of both the Texian government in San Felipe, Texas and any remnants of a Texian army, Fannin was ordered by Sam Houston to abandon Goliad and head east towards Victoria, Texas. He was pursued by another army commanded by General Jose de Urrea, which originated in Matamoros and was proceeding directly toward Goliad.

By 1830, Bowie, hearing of land speculation opportunities in Texas, set out for the territory. He formally introduced himself to such prominent locals as Stephen F. Austin and then, after taking an oath of allegiance to Mexico, began acquiring cheap land grants, ultimately setting in San Antonio de Bexar. There he began romancing the nineteen year old daughter of Juan Martin Veramendi, the wealthiest businessman and politician in the region. Bowie eventually married Ursula de Veramendi, went into business with his father in law and professed to be a wealthy and successful businessman in his own right, selling his holdings outside of Texas. However, after his land sales in Arkansas were ruled fraudulent, he relied mostly on his relatives for both housing and living expenses. Involving himself in the secessionist politics of the region, Bowie was a firm believer in creating a Texas independent from Mexico.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Podcasts

Crockett, Bowie and Travis, Defenders of the Alamo (Volume 5, Episode 12) Part Two

April 12, 2023 Phil Gibbons Leave a comment

An enduring American legend, hear what actually happened at the Battle of the Alamo.

Fannin’s typically sluggish retreat left him out in the open and resulted in a March 19 battle near Coleto Creek only a few miles east of Goliad. Fannin’s men successfully repulsed repeated Mexican attacks but suffered many wounded troops that they could neither treat or transport. The following morning, with another Mexican attack imminent, Fannin surrendered with Urrea only promising that he would try to intercede with Santa Anna to spare any prisoners, although most of the Texians, who in a written agreement were officially categorized as prisoners of war, believed that they were to be pardoned.

Knife allegedly used by David Crockett at the Alamo

While even some Mexican accounts have David Crockett inflicting dozens of casualties, many with his bare hands and a rifle butt, several eyewitnesses claimed he was actually captured alive and subsequently executed with the half dozen defenders Santa Anna personally ordered killed only minutes after the battle’s conclusion. Susannah Dickinson did say in several interviews that she saw Crockett’s mutilated body in the plaza, after the battle, his distinctive fur cap lying at his side.

Sam Houston emerged as the leading political figure in Texas, winning election over Stephen F. Austin as President of the Republic of Texas and ultimately Houston was elected to the US Senate. While loyal to the state of Texas, he personally opposed secession from the Union and died in 1863 before the end of the Civil War.

San Jacinto Memorial column at the site of the Texas battlefield

Charging out of wooded areas which concealed their initial advance, Houston’s troops, shouting Remember the Alamo and Remember Goliad inflicted a lopsided 18 minute victory, much of it spent massacring surprised and unarmed fleeing Mexican troops, over 600 killed and 700 taken prisoner. Santa Anna escaped for the moment; he was caught the following day, hiding along the river bank dressed in a private’s uniform and slippers. Only his value as the de facto ruler of the Mexico prevented his immediate execution.

Today, most of the former Alamo complex has been swallowed up by downtown San Antonio. The only remaining structures are the former mission chapel, familiar to most Americans and part of the Long Barrack, with two small courtyards in between. However, the distinctive oval roof line over the front entrance of the chapel building was not added until 1849. Initially, after the Texas revolution the military used the chapel as a warehouse, other parts of the complex were used by private interests for commercial purposes. The chapel eventually reverted back to the Catholic Church who sold it to the state of Texas.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Podcasts

Elvis Presley’s Manager: Colonel Tom Parker (Volume 5, Episode 11) Part One

March 9, 2023 Phil Gibbons Leave a comment

The true story about the man who contributed mightily to the destruction of one of America’s greatest 20th century icons.

According to Colonel Tom Parker personally, he was born in early 1900, in Huntington, West Virginia and began working in touring carnivals at a very young age. He served in the military, eventually developed and promoted his own carnival acts and graduated to first promoting and then managing country musicians until obtaining the exclusive management contract of Elvis Presley in 1954. While he was always able to obscure his true beginnings, his singular accent was ascribed to his origins in rural Appalachia. In fact, although slight, his accent was Dutch because Colonel Tom Parker was not born anywhere near West Virginia, he was not even born in the United States. He was born Andreas Van Kuijk on June 26, 1909, in Breda, The Netherlands, the seventh of eleven children of Maria and Adam Van Kuijk.

Elvis, Jailhouse Rock, 1968, NBC special

Initially conceived as a Christmas special by Tom Parker, both Elvis and the shows creative team of Steve Binder and Bones Howe agreed that they wanted a more stripped down return to Elvis’ musical roots and were able to convince Parker to generally accept moving away from Elvis singing Christmas carols, most likely because that was something Presley wanted no part of. Once they got that general agreement, Elvis made the creative decisions on his own with a great deal of input from Binder whose perspective Presley respected. The resulting special, with a tanned, refreshed Elvis in an especially remarkable leather outfit, among other wardrobes, performing an extended medley of some of his most popular or distinctive hits was the highest rated television show of the year, the program also a critical hit.

With Elvis on the road and her husband engaging in various romantic adventures as a result of his newfound notoriety, Gladys Presley, already a heavy drinker, began to consume alcohol on a daily basis and abuse sleeping pills. Quite domineering in her relationship with Vernon, it is believed as she deteriorated physically, her husband, in Elvis’ absence began to be much more physically abusive. Her son’s fame was also troubling and overwhelming, her fear that an hysterical crowd might eventually harm or even kill Elvis. Depressed because her neighbors disliked her habit of raising chickens and feeding them on the front lawn of Graceland, Gladys never really adjusted to her family’s radical transformation, once telling her friend, “I wish we had stayed poor.”

Elvis and Priscilla, shortly after the birth of his daughter.

While in Germany, Presley also met Priscilla Beaulieu, a fourteen year old daughter of an Air Force officer stationed in Wiesbaden, Germany. Because of her youth, her relationship with Presley was extremely restrained until 1962, although her ability to then visit Elvis and ultimately live at Graceland while Priscilla attended a local Catholic High school, was conditional upon an agreement that the couple eventually marry.

Because some of the Memphis Mafia especially Joe Esposito, were conduits to the Colonel, he was fully aware of Preley’s restlessness and anger over his stalled career. He also was mindful that at some point, Elvis’ public might completely tire of the formulaic nonsense that was now the mainstay of Elvis’ income stream. He began discussions with NBC for a television special live performance that would be billed as Presley’s comeback as an entertainer.

Another close associate of Presley, Lamar Fike, was in Portland, Maine, also to help get ready for the tour. He was attempting to get some sleep after taking a redeye from Los Angeles when there was a loud knock on his door, a voice telling him intently that the Colonel needed to see him right away, despite Fike’s protestations. Entering the Colonel’s hotel room, he noticed other employees avoiding his gaze as Parker hung up the phone. In an unemotional tone of voice, the Colonel explained that Fike needed to go to Memphis and be with Vernon Presley, Elvis’ father and that Elvis was dead. Like many members of the entourage and even Elvis himself, Fike’s relationship with Parker at this point was at best, ambivalent, in Fike’s case, he frequently expressed concern over Elvis Presley’s physical condition. Parker typically ignored such entreaties, maintaining whenever forcefully pressed on this concern “that the only thing that mattered was getting Elvis ready to appear on stage that night.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Podcasts

Elvis Presley’s Manager: Colonel Tom Parker (Volume 5, Episode11) Part Two

March 9, 2023 Phil Gibbons Leave a comment

The true story about the man who contributed mightily to the destruction of one of America’s greatest 20th century icons.

The Colonel, understanding that the lack of international touring was a major irritant for Elvis, then devised an ingenious plan to circumvent his personal abhorrence of such a tour. He made a deal with various television networks all over the world for Elvis to appear in a live format for live international satellite transmission to countries including Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, South Vietnam, the Phillippines and Australia. Because the Super Bowl would take place on the same day, January 14, 1973 and because special attention and additional material was to be supplied for the version shown in the United States, the American edition of the show appeared on April 4. Elvis became excited about this novel showcase, lost twenty-five pounds in the month leading up to the show and also cut way back on his pharmaceutical consumption, evident when he hit the stage in a specially designed American eagle jumpsuit, this preparation helping to produce an iconic appearance. The show was again NBC’s highest rated program of the year and the subsequent release of a live double album sold a half million copies in two weeks, startling numbers in the age of vinyl.

Linda Thompson, the Tennessee beauty queen that became Elvis’ official girlfriend after his marriage dissolved, hoped that Presley’s ability to get himself into some semblance of normal sober shape might be a permanent transition. But only hours after the concert ended in the early morning, Presley was again so narcotically intoxicated he could not even get off of his hotel room balcony to accompany his entourage to the USS Arizona memorial. Thompson herself would personally witness Presley’s final harrowing descent and bizarre behavior that transformed him into a tragic monstrosity.

The four engine jet that flew Elvis’ entourage across America.

Despite his resurgence, Elvis Presley’s spending habits, large payroll and maintenance of both Graceland and a succession of households in Bel-Air and Beverly Hills necessitated a great deal of cash. While his live shows were lucrative, they entailed transportation eventually aboard a Convair 880 four engine jet, named the Lisa Marie after his only daughter, which transported a large entourage of security and band members to most shows.

With financial necessity having forced Kirk Kekorian to sell the International to the Hilton Hotel Corporation, Presley spent his time at what was now the Las Vegas Hilton, isolated In his hotel suite, avoiding Colonel Parker, who he rarely spoke to, Parker spending most of his time at the gaming tables running up a debt that eventually reached thirty million dollars. Stories of Presley spontaneously shooting out television sets and streetlights were absolutely true, the paranoid singer usually armed with several handguns, once coming within inches of accidentally shooting Linda Thompson while she was using the bathroom.

Elvis, Rapid City, South Dakota, only weeks before his death.

By August of 1977, Elvis Presley, 6 feet tall, weighed 350 pounds, 175 pounds more than what he weighed only four and a half years earlier during his Aloha from Hawaii concert. His heart was three times its normal size and his nervous system routinely contained as many as twelve separate types of mostly narcotic medication, including several types of opiates. His remarkable tolerance of these medications was the product of massive abuse that stretched back over two decades.

Colonel Parker on Nightline, interview plugging an Elvis convention years after Elvis’ death

Following the circuslike funeral and public outpouring of grief after Elvis Presley’s death, life went on normally for Colonel Parker and Presley’s immediate family. A year later, a convention was held at the Las Vegas Hilton, organized by Tom Parker, that included a dedication of a statue of Elvis in the lobby, separate admission to an Elvis re-creation for a fifteen dollar additional charge, appearances by Priscilla and Vernon Presley, and the Colonel signing an autographed poem for a buck a throw. Over a million dollars came in in 1978 for merchandise profits at least half paid to Parker.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Podcasts

The Untold Story of Crime Boss and Sixteen-Year Federal Fugitive, James (Whitey) Bulger (Volume 5, Episode 10) Part One

February 7, 2023 Phil Gibbons Leave a comment

For twenty years, Whitey Bulger terrorized Boston with the full collusion of the FBI. On the run for sixteen years, he was eventually arrested on June 22, 2011.

Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen Bulger was arrested ten times, for crimes ranging from larceny, drunk in public and assault and battery. Only once were charges ever pursued to the point of a criminal conviction and even then, Whitey was able to get the charge reduced on appeal. It is no wonder that he developed an arrogant disdain for the criminal justice system and a sense of invulnerability. Unfortunately, this mentality only increased the severity of his transgressions. In May of 1948, Bulger and two accomplices enticed a young female into Whitey’s car and attempted to rape her at a beach in Dorchester. The girl fought back and was kicked to the curb, but not before getting the license plate. All three teens were quickly arrested. Again, Bulger plead guilty to a lesser assault charge, paid a fine and avoided a serious prison term. Within two months, he was arrested again, this time for a drunken assault in a diner that turned into a brawl with the police who showed up to arrest him. Again, he plead guilty to the lesser charge of public drunkenness, paid a modest fine and walked away.

Despite Bill Bulger’s vehement and relentless involvement, including an eleventh hour visit to DC to the Director’s office for an unscheduled, in person request for a last minute reprieve, on November 13, 1959, Whitey was flown commercial, with federal marshals, from Baltimore to San Francisco. From there, in leg irons, he was placed on the small ship that transported him to the center of San Francisco Bay and the Rock. This was an especially isolating development for Whitey for in the late fifties transcontinental flight was a luxury the Bulger family certainly could not afford. He would have to rely on letters only, the occasional visit from his brother or other family members now an impossibility.

On May 27, 1981. In broad daylight, at a country club in Tulsa, Martorano followed Roger Wheeler to his car in the parking lot and as Wheeler got in Martorano pulled the door open, put a bullet right between Wheeler’s eyes and hopped into a getaway car driven by another Winter Hill mobster. Tulsa investigators quickly determined that criminals from Boston were probably involved, but when they and Oklahoma City FBI agents contacted Boston FBI, they got nowhere.

Gradually, even the highest level coke and pot dealers were invited to the upstairs office of the Triple O’s Bar. There, Whitey would be waiting, usually with at least Kevin Weeks, a former bouncer that Whitey took under his wing, gradually relying on him as one of his top enforcers.

In July of 1956, there was no cushy Club Fed where Whitey could serve out his time in relative penal comfort. Instead, he was sent to the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, a huge, forbidding edifice that had housed the likes of Al Capone, Mickey Cohen and Vito Genovese. By comparison Whitey Bulger was a two-bit, bank robber, not exactly intimidating at 5’10”, 150 pounds and other than a few hoodlums back in Boston not particularly well connected. After thirty days of quarantine that was mandatory for every new inmate, Bulger was assigned to one of the eight man cells that comprised most of the tiers of the prison.

The Triple O’s Lounge, today it is an upscale Italian restaurant

Although Bulger had shot some gangster rivals to death in his early battles with the Mullens, his hands on violence began to ramp up in the late seventies, probably as a result of his newfound power as the most powerful criminal in South Boston. This attitude was evidenced in the matter of Louie Latif, a bookmaker and drug dealer who began to behave erratically, first by murdering several business associates who caught him stealing and then by dealing cocaine. Both behaviors were not only repeatedly unsanctioned by Bulger, Litif also refused to pay rent. Summoned to the upstairs office at Triple O’s, Litif was pointedly warned that he was crossing a very serious line. Litif responded that as long as he and Whitey were friends, he didn’t have a problem. Bulger fixed him with what must have been a terrifying stare and responded, “We’re not friends anymore.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Podcasts

The Untold Story of Crime Boss and Sixteen-Year Federal Fugitive, James (Whitey) Bulger (Volume 5, Episode 10) Part Two

February 7, 2023 Phil Gibbons Leave a comment

For twenty years, Whitey Bulger terrorized Boston with the full collusion of the FBI. On the run for sixteen years, he was eventually arrested on June 22, 2011.

Litif got off with this stern warning but then made the mistake of telling Bulger that he was going to murder his bookmaker partner, a last straw. On April, he was invited to the Triple O’s where Bulger stabbed him repeatedly with an ice pick and Steve Flemmi shot him in the head. His body was found in the trunk of his car, in garbage bags, abandoned on a South End street. In another example of his macabre sense of humor Whitey explained to associates afterwards that Litif, known as a flashy dresser, was wearing green underwear after they stripped his body. Therefore, they made sure that they used green garbage bags, so that Louis would be found, color coordinated.

Only a few months later, a Southie criminal named Brian Halloran tried to extricate himself from some serious criminal charges by going to the FBI, with details tying Bulger and Flemmi to the murders of Louie Litif and Roger Wheeler, even claiming to be an eye witness in both cases. Although Halloran was at least embellishing if not outright lying about his presence at the Wheeler slaying, he was close enough to Callahan to be able to secretly record potentially incriminating conversations. He pleaded to be allowed into the witness protection program and the agent handling his case figured he would run that by supervisor John Morris, to see what he thought. Morris immediately told Connolly who told Whitey Bulger.

The Haunty, 799 3rd Street, South Boston

With two bodies now buried in its basement, Whitey Bulger began referring to the Nee house as the Haunty. The cellar would have another permanent guest, Deborah Hussey, Steve Flemmi’s quasi-stepdaughter. Although he and Marion Hussey never married, he lived within the Hussey household and was perceived as the father in the family. That is, until Deborah Hussey revealed that Flemmi had molested her sexually, beginning when she was a young teenager. As an adult, Debbie developed a serious drug addiction and resorted to prostitution to feed her habit. Arrested on numerous occasions, she frequently named dropped both Flemmi and Bulger to the police. She also took to hanging around the Triple O’s and demanding drinks from the customers or hitting up Southie dope dealers for freebies, bragging that she had connections to Whitey, another big red flag. Bulger believed her to be a dangerous loose cannon and began pushing Flemmi to do something about it. In early January, 1985, Flemmi did. He got her to meet him by feigning guilt over what had happened between them and the general situation with her mother. He asked to make it up to her by taking her clothes shopping and telling her he was thinking of buying her her own place. Why don’t we drop by and take a look and see if you like it? The house in question was The Haunty.

Ambitious, Connolly was fully aware that for the FBI, the American Mafia to the exclusion of all other organized crime entities was the paramount target of Federal law enforcement. Aware that Steve Flemmi already had provided information, Connolly set his sights on forming the same relationship with Whitey Bulger. Thus far in his brief FBI career in New York, Connolly received high praise during his ongoing evaluations with the stipulation that he had not developed any confidential informants. The agent, knowing Whitey from the old neighborhood and willing to cut ethical and professional corners, understood that developing Whitey as a Top echelon informant could be, within the bureau, a career maker.

In the cat and mouse game of criminal informant, it quickly became clear that the lines were being blurred as to who was the cat and who was the mouse. John Connolly introduced Bulger and Flemmi to his newly installed supervisor within the FBI’s Boston Organized Crime Unit, John Morris. Connolly also arranged for regular dinners at Morris’ home in Lexington, Mass, dinners that included Whitey showing up with cases of very expensive wine, that always got left behind. Morris was blown away by Connolly’s ability to gain access to two such high level informants and was also manipulated by Whitey’s slick Robin Hood façade of claiming to abhor drugs, detesting the Mafia and keeping his neighborhood free from hard drugs like cocaine and heroin and the junkies and pushers who came with such pestilence. All of these claims were either ultimately self-serving or outright lies, but Morris was taken in.

Whitey’s apartment building, Santa Monica, his apartment was the last apartment, 3rd floor, all the way to the right.

In the late afternoon of June 22, 2011, in Santa Monica, California a property manager name Josh Bond was sitting in his office at the Embassy Hotel. Picking up the phone, Bond punched in the number of tenants from another property across the street, the Princess Eugenia Apartments at 1012 3^rdStreet, only blocks from the Pacific Ocean.

Whitey also made the most crucial connection of his criminal career when he began to interact with Stephen Flemmi, a member of the Winter Hill Gang who had ambitions of bigger and better things. Nicknamed “The Rifleman,” based on two Army tours of duty in Korea, in which he earned both a Bronze and Silver Star, Flemmi also had an ongoing relationship with longtime Boston FBI agent Paul Rico who specialized in developing informants in the New England criminal underworld.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Podcasts

The Untold Story of Crime Boss and Sixteen-Year Federal Fugitive, James (Whitey) Bulger (Volume 5, Episode 10) Part Three

February 7, 2023 Phil Gibbons Leave a comment

For twenty years, Whitey Bulger terrorized Boston with the full collusion of the FBI. On the run for sixteen years, he was eventually arrested on June 22, 2011.

The Massachusetts State Police Wanted poster for Whitey.

Whitey did not limit himself geographically to South Boston. No longer able to access Marshall Motors because a jailed, cash strapped Howie Winter’s family needed to rent it out, in early 1980, in a location owned by confederate George Kaufman, he set up another headquarters at a garage on Lancaster Street, only blocks away from Jerry Angiulo’s North End office in a restaurant on Prince Street. Here Bulger routinely met with Ilario “Larry” Zannino, Angiulo’s number two man, among other bookies and criminals. An initially strategic spot for such interactions, the Lancaster location set off a law enforcement reaction that was practically a keystone cop imitation. When the Boston State Police received a tip that the garage was actually a chop shop, two investigators began surveillance from across the street. Stunned when they observed the entrance and exit of some of Boston’s most notorious mobsters, they realized bugging the garage would probably provide a mother lode of indictments. Jack O’Donovan, the head of the organized crime unit for the Massachusetts State Police had long suspected that the FBI was colluding with Bulger, and O’Donovan was intent on investigating and arresting Bulger himself.

Final mug shot, after sixteen years on the run

When Charley Gasko emerged from the elevator into the rear area of the apartment building he would not be meeting up with Josh Bond. Instead, he would be confronted by a half dozen FBI agents and various other law enforcement officials, guns drawn. They ordered him to get on the ground, but despite his age and relative frailty, his response underlined that this was not your typical 81 year old senior citizen, in fact it was not Charlie Gasko at all. It was America’s Most Wanted criminal, James J. (Whitey) Bulger.

Catherine Grieg, mugshot after Santa Monica arrest.

Minutes later he called his longtime companion, the alleged Carol Gasko, who was in fact Bulger’s longtime girlfriend and fellow fugitive, Catherine Grieg, his accomplice during Whitey’s 16 year odyssey. He told her that he had been arrested, that she should stay in the apartment and minutes later she was also brought down to the garage, both fugitives now in handcuffs.

Josh Bond, property manager and Whitey’s next door neighbor

Bond, who also managed the Princess Eugenia, needed to reach Charles or Carol Gasko, the elderly, childless couple that occupied the northeast third floor corner apartment, #304. The property manager actually knew the Gaskos’ quite well, his own apartment was next door to theirs and he interacted with Charlie Gasko quite frequently. Bond heard the phone ringing in his earpiece but there was no answer. He hung up, not sure what to do. The reason for his call was that the Gasko’s storage unit at the rear of the building was broken into and he needed to know how the couple wanted to handle the situation. Come down and meet him, Josh, in the back of the building or just have Josh notify the police.

Foteas “Freddy” Geas, indicted for the prison murder of Whitey Bulger, now in Florence Supermax Prison

On the evening of October 29, Bulger arrived at the US Penitentiary in Hazelton, West Virginia. A high security prison where two inmates were murdered in the previous six weeks, unfortunately it also housed at least two individuals who made it completely unsuitable for Bulger. One was Fotios (Freddy) Geas, serving a life sentence for the murder of two underworld criminals. Although of Greek ethnicity, Geas was a hitman who operated in Springfield, Mass and was affiliated with the Mafia’s Genovese crime family. In fact, he was arrested as part of the FBI’s investigation of organized crime in the Western Massachusetts area, an investigation that eventually involved the administration of Mayor Michael Albano. Paul DeCologero was also a Northeastern Massachusetts organized crime figure, serving a lengthy sentence for murder. On the morning of October 30, only minutes after Whitey Bulger’s prison cell door was unlocked at 6 AM, close circuit cameras showed Geas and DeCologero entering Bulger’s cell. They left seven minutes later. Whitey Bulger was discovered dead at approximately 8:20 AM,

Whitey Bulger’s grave, St. Joseph’s Cemetery, West Roxbury, MA. He is buried with his parents, but has no individual marker.

The Bulger family was not aware of his transfer to West Virginia and Jackie Bulger found out about his brother’s death from the media. However, it seems that many inmates knew of Whitey’s impending transfer, Sean McKinnon, Geas’ cellmate, and the third man eventually indicted for his murder was recorded on a prison line telling his mother in advance that Whitey was on his way.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Podcasts

Harry Houdini (Volume 5, Episode 9) Part One

January 6, 2023 Phil Gibbons Leave a comment

Few personalities have achieved the worldwide fame and popularity of Harry Houdini. Successful in several different media ranging from vaudeville to motion pictures, this performer was also an astute businessman who incorporated both groundbreaking copyright implementation and sensational publicity to establish himself as the first 20^thcentury entertainment superstar.

To garner publicity, Houdini now started to promote himself by slipping handcuffs in police stations after a meticulous search by detectives. In San Francisco, he stripped down to a veritable loin cloth to illustrate that he could not possibly be concealing a key or lock pick. Then police restrained him with at least ten of their own pairs off handcuffs, even going so far as fastening ankle shackles to the wrists with an additional set of cuffs. Houdini was then lifted up and placed in a nearby closet, emerging minutes later with each set of handcuffs removed and now attached together, the magician still practically naked. Publicity photos of Houdini’s scantily clad muscular frame, draped with all nature of restraints became commonplace. Because he could not perform in such a risqué costume, Houdini instead added the wardrobe obstacle of a straitjacket strapped over and under the numerous locks, cuffs and metal restraints he typically employed. This became another of the performer’s trademark routines.

Although Houdini himself provided intense drama for his audience, he personally experienced one of the most dramatic moments of his own life when his mother, Cecelia, died on July 17, 1913. Although all such mother-son relationships are typically close, Houdini had an especially strong maternal bond. Having become a worldwide success, the rock that his family and especially his mother relied upon and an attentive son who lived up to his vow to his dying father, Harry Houdini’s interaction with his mother was a typically Old World relationship. Unlike his behavior with non-family members, which was egotistical, controlling and financially ruthless, Houdini even described himself as a Mama’s Boy and it is has been speculated that his entire career and especially his death defying stunts were nothing more than an attempt to arouse approval, attention but most importantly Cecelia’s concern.

However, the nineteen year old was anything but an overnight success. He first paired himself with an acquaintance factory co-worker and briefly with two of his brothers, most notably his younger brother, Theo, nicknamed Dash from his middle name of Dezo. Eventually, Dash would strike out successfully on his own, performing as Hardeen, but Harry Houdini’s co-performer by then was Wilhemina Beatrice Rahner, nicknamed Bess, who also became Houdini’s wife in mid-1894. Bess came from a German Catholic background, an unusual union within such a devoutly Jewish family. All of the relatives eventually accepted the marriage and Bess became an integral part of Houdini’s act.

What resulted was one of his most famous tricks, the milk can escape. Onstage, Houdini had audience members kick the four foot tall can to establish that it was in fact metallic and inflexible. The can was then filled with water while offstage Houdini changed into a bathing suit. When he returned, he was handcuffed and placed inside of the can after telling the audience to hold their breath for as long as they could. Six hasps secured by locks, some even provided by spectators, were then secured and a screen was placed in front of the can, this process itself taking approximately a minute. Houdini’s assistant, Franz Kukol, an Austrian hired while Houdini performed in Europe, stood by with an axe, the audience told that he was to break open the can if Houdini did not emerge in a set amount of time, the Austrian’s presence designed to add additional tension to the already potentially fatal undertaking. Houdini did employ a remarkable ability to hold his breath, as a young man he is said to have been able to do this for 3 minutes 45 seconds. But on a regular basis he was able to not breath for about two and a half minutes, more than enough to take advantage of one aspect of his specially designed enclosure. The so called milk can had rivets on it that were in fact fake. Although anyone examining the top of the can who tried to pull it off would not be able to do so, anyone inside the can could quickly and easily push the top part of the can off with the locks still in place, put the top back on and in Houdini’s case easily slip out of his handcuffs. He typically emerged in about three minutes, soaking wet, but free of his cuffs, having seemingly defied death in an inexplicable manner.

Houdini, as he is lowered into Chinese Water Torture Cell

Having received numerous challenges from various individuals incorporating Asian themed restraining devices, Houdini wished to adapt these exotic components within the ultimate escape challenge. What resulted was the Chinese Water Torture Cell, an elaborate specially constructed glass, telephone booth sized container into which Houdini was lowered headfirst, his feet locked into wooden stocks. But, before he even performed this trick in front of a live audience, Houdini attempted to anticipate any of the inevitable copycats who might attempt something similar. Understanding that patents did nothing to stop any of his imitators who merely slightly varied any devices or performances to circumvent such restrictions, he instead performed what he eventually described as a one act play which he called Houdini Upside Down. This performance deliberately took place in front of an audience of one individual, Houdini then able to copyright it and its contents, asserting that only he had the legal right to perform such a trick. Granted an official copyright by the Lord Chamberlain, entertainment managers were then formally notified of this legal perspective, warning them of consequences if this alleged intellectual property was infringed.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Byte Sized Biographies…

Category Archives: Podcasts

Marie Antoinette (Volume Six, Episode One) Part One

Marie Antoinette (Volume Six, Episode One) Part Two

Crockett, Bowie and Travis, Defenders of the Alamo (Volume 5, Episode 12) Part One

Crockett, Bowie and Travis, Defenders of the Alamo (Volume 5, Episode 12) Part Two

Elvis Presley’s Manager: Colonel Tom Parker (Volume 5, Episode 11) Part One

Elvis Presley’s Manager: Colonel Tom Parker (Volume 5, Episode11) Part Two

The Untold Story of Crime Boss and Sixteen-Year Federal Fugitive, James (Whitey) Bulger (Volume 5, Episode 10) Part One

The Untold Story of Crime Boss and Sixteen-Year Federal Fugitive, James (Whitey) Bulger (Volume 5, Episode 10) Part Two

The Untold Story of Crime Boss and Sixteen-Year Federal Fugitive, James (Whitey) Bulger (Volume 5, Episode 10) Part Three

Harry Houdini (Volume 5, Episode 9) Part One

Of Some Very Famous People You've Never Really Heard Of…In Less Than An Hour.