NCAA Championship game, April 1, 1985 — The Big East dominated the NCAA tournament, placing three teams in the Final Four. But few expected the Wildcats to be the eventual champ instead of powerhouses Georgetown or St. John’s. But No. 8 seed Villanova did just that, beating the Hoyas 66-64, largely because the Wildcats rarely missed. Their shooting (22-of-28, 78 percent from the field) remains a championship game record.
(Picture from the Ronald Reagan Library)
Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan at the “Stork Club” in New York City. (Early 1950s)
1980 Presidential Debate Reagan v Carter
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GOVERNOR REAGAN
Yes, I would like to add my words of thanks, too, to the ladies of the League of Women Voters for making these debates possible. I’m sorry that we couldn’t persuade the bringing in of the third candidate, so that he could have been seen also in these debates. But still, it’s good that at least once, all three of us were heard by the people of this country.
Next Tuesday is election day. Next Tuesday all of you will go to the polls: you’ll stand there in the polling place and make a decision. I think when you make that decision. it might be well if you would ask yourself, are you better off than you were 4 years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was 4 years ago? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was 4 years ago? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was? Do you feel that our security is as safe, that we’re as strong as we were 4 years ago? And if you answer all of those questions yes, why then, I think your choice is very obvious as to who you’ll vote for. If you don’t agree, if you don’t think that this course that we’ve been on for the last 4 years is what you would like to see us follow for the next 4, then I could suggest another choice that you have.
This country doesn’t have to be in the shape that it is in. We do not have to go on sharing in scarcity, with the country getting worse off, with unemployment growing. We talk about the unemployment lines. If all of the unemployed today were in a single line allowing 2 feet for each one of them, that line would reach from New York City to Los Angeles, California. All of this can be cured, and all of it can be solved.
I have not had the experience the President has had in holding that office, but I think in being Governor of California, the most populous State in the Union — if it were a nation, it would be the seventh-ranking economic power in the world — I, too, had some lonely moments and decisions to make. I know that the economic program that I have proposed for this Nation in the next few years can resolve many of the problems that trouble us today. I know because we did it there. We cut the cost — the increased cost of government — the increase in half over the 8 years. We returned $5.7 billion in tax rebates, credits, and cuts to our people. We, as I’ve said earlier, fell below the national average in inflation when we did that. And I know that we did give back authority and autonomy to the people.
I would like to have a crusade today, and I would like to lead that crusade with your help. And it would be one to take government off the backs of the great people of this country and turn you loose again to do those things that I know you can do so well, because you did them and made this country great.
Thank you.
MR. SMITH
Gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, for 60 years the League of Women Voters has been committed to citizen education and effective participation of Americans in governmental and political affairs. The most critical element of all in that process is an informed citizen who goes to the polls and who votes.
On behalf of the League of Women Voters, now, I would like to thank President Carter and Governor Reagan for being with us in Cleveland tonight. And, ladies and gentlemen, thank you and good night.
A US naval air crewman hugs a resident after delivering supplies from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan in Wakuya, Miyagi prefecture
It has been 150 years since the beginning of the Civil War that started in April of 1861 at Ft Sumter.
The Cassius M. Clay Battery defending the White House in 1861
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Book review – Widow’s Web – By Gene Lyons – Simon & Schuster, $23, hardcover, 447 pages
Those who imagine Little Rock, Ark., as a haven of jogging idealists, heartland virtues and journalists who don’t lie are about to get their wake-up call in Widow’s Web, a true-crime tale of a 1981 double murder that ensnared rival law enforcement agencies, craven judges, a publicity-mad county sheriff and the city’s astonishingly gullible newspapers.It should be noted that Bill Clinton was way out of the loop during the investigation, arrest and ultimate conviction of white trash femme fatale Mary Lee Orsini, a pathological liar who had almost the entire state believing that a conspiracy of honky-tonk nightclub owners, cocaine-snorting Chicago Mafiosi, Little Rock lowlifes and her former defense attorney, William McArthur, had murdered both her faithful, hard-working husband, Ron, and McArthur’s wife, Alice.But those seeking an insight into the character of leadership, as well as the integrity of the news media in a place that author Gene Lyons, a former Newsweek writer, describes as ”as brutally anonymous as any big city in America, and as intimate and small-minded as any country town” should look no further than former Pulaski County sheriff Tommy Robinson.Lyons exposes Robinson as an unabashed media demagogue, who freely tampered with evidence, made baseless arrests, withheld information from other police investigators and gleefully passed on Mary Lee Orsini’s preposterous conspiracy theories to the warring Little Rock Gazette and Democrat newspapers, which not only printed them without challenge, but added their own self-serving distortions (the newspapers have since merged).The events reported in Widow’s Web cover only two years, beginning with Mary Lee’s March 1981 discovery of her dead husband, shot in the head in her suburban Little Rock bedroom. While members of the North Little Rock Police Department are inclined to believe Mary Lee’s initial claim that the death was a suicide, the gun Ron may have used is missing, and other circumstantial evidence points toward murder.
October 27, 1993|By Reviewed by Bill Kent, Washington Post Book Review Service
(Page 2 of 2)
Mary Lee begins fabricating evidence that supports her increasingly convoluted tale of a midnight break-in, her husband’s shadowy dealings with criminal types and a police conspiracy to frame her. Her lawyer, William McArthur, who also is a partner in a Little Rock nightclub, is almost certain that she’s guilty, but he lives up to the ethics of his profession – don’t ask what you don’t want to know. When a grand jury finds insufficient evidence to indict Orsini, McArthur hopes only that Orsini will pay his fees.When McArthur isn’t impressed by Orsini’s attempt at seduction, and McArthur’s wife, Alice, snubs Orsini in their nightclub, Orsini has a different payback in mind. She starts by spreading rumors that the conspiracy that claimed her husband was much larger than even she had anticipated.At first, McArthur suspects that the car bomb that nearly kills his wife was planted by a rival nightclub owner. Then he finds his wife shot dead. Before the Little Rock cops even can begin their investigation, County Sheriff Tommy Robinson is on the local news, repeating Mary Lee Orsini’s wildly improbable conspiracy theories verbatim, naming William McArthur as the mastermind.From then on, Widow’s Web reads like a more intricate, but no less suspenseful, version of Scott Turow’s fictional Presumed Innocent, in which McArthur finds himself accused of his wife’s murder by corrupt cops, incompetent reporters, ignorant Little Rock citizens, devious newspaper editors embroiled in a circulation war and other people who don’t ask what they don’t want to know.Lyons skillfully juggles gossipy details, police procedures and the tedious complexities of Arkansas jurisprudence. Quite a bit of dust must settle before McArthur is exonerated and Mary Lee Orsini is convicted of first-degree murder and is sentenced to life in prison without parole.
NCAA Championship game, March 31, 1975 — This was the only way to retire. John Wooden made UCLA into a dynasty, leading the Bruins to nine NCAA titles between 1964 and 1973. After a Final Four win against Louisville, and at age 65, he surprisingly announced his retirement during the postgame press conference. Two days later, the Bruins outran Kentucky, 92-85, for his 10th crown. No other coach has more than three.
(Picture from the Ronald Reagan Library)
Ronald Reagan, son Ron, Mrs. Reagan and daughter Patti outside their Pacific Palisades home in California. (1960)
1980 Presidential Debate Reagan v Carter
Governor Reagan, yours is the last word.
GOVERNOR REAGAN
Well, my last word is again to say that we were talking about this very simple amendment and women’s rights. And I make it plain again: I am for women’s rights. But I would like to call the attention of the people to the fact that so-called simple amendment could be used by mischievous men to destroy discriminations that properly belong, by law, to women, respecting the physical differences between the two sexes, labor laws that protect them against doing things that would be physically harmful to them. Those could all be challenged by men. And the same would be true with regard to combat service in the military and so forth.
I thought that was the subject we were supposed to be on. But, if we’re talking about how much we think about the working people and so forth, I’m the only fellow that ever ran for this job who was six times president of his own union and still has a lifetime membership in that union.
MR. SMITH
Japan earthquake: country on brink of massive blackouts
Millions of Japanese people are bracing themselves for massive blackouts as the country’s power system struggles to cope amid the nuclear crisis.
Densely populated Tokyo endures more blackouts and faces at least six months of power shortages sfter earthquake Photo: AP
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Free-lance columnist Rex Nelson is the president of Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities. He’s also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried. com.
1. Drive all the way from Helena to Fayetteville, staying off the interstate highways, in order to get a feel for the state. (That would take a lot of time.)
2. Fish for trout early one morning on the upper White River when the fog is thick. (My grandson who is four rode with me to Memphis the other day and I told him that was the “white river” and he said, “Maybe brown but not white.”)
3. Attend the blues festival in Helena. On the way home, walk into the swamp to see the Louisiana Purchase monument.
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Mary Lee Orsini (1947–2003)
On December 22, 1963, when she was sixteen, she married Douglas Sudbury, who was stationed at LRAFB. They moved briefly to Riverside, California. After divorcing, they remarried on July 14, 1966, but divorced again in 1967, the year their daughter was born. After the second divorce, she was living in North Little Rock (Pulaski County) and working as a sales representative for the Arkansas Democrat. In 1971, she married David Raymond May of North Little Rock but left him six months later.
In 1976, she met Ron Orsini, a partner at Central Heating and Air located in the Mabelvale (Pulaski County) area of southwest Little Rock. After the couple’s marriage on September 17, 1976, Orsini, her husband, and her daughter lived in the Indian Hills subdivision of North Little Rock.
On March 13, 1981, a report appeared in the Arkansas Gazette and the Arkansas Democrat stating that Ron Orsini of North Little Rock had been found dead in his bed the previous morning. The cause of death was a gunshot wound to the crown of the head. The case was investigated by the North Little Rock Police Department, who noticed some inconsistencies and curious elements in his wife’s story. They also uncovered financial problems incurred by Orsini, of which her husband had been apparently unaware. As suspicion mounted against her, Orsini enlisted noted Little Rock trial lawyer William Charles (Bill) McArthur to serve as her defense attorney for the grand jury investigation.
Later that year, in the fall of 1981, McArthur became a partner in BJ’s Star Studded Honky Tonk, located at 9515 Interstate 30 in Little Rock, during the height of the “Urban Cowboy” disco craze. The club opened in December 1981. Suspicious fires and other incidents involving the nightclub began. The news media quoted the Pulaski County sheriff as saying that these incidents represented an influx of organized crime into central Arkansas.
Orsini began spending a great deal of time at McArthur’s law office, once organizing a champagne party there for his birthday. Witnesses recall her visiting BJ’s and chatting with McArthur and his wife, Alice.
On May 21, 1982, Alice McArthur suffered cuts and abrasions when a bomb exploded in her car; it had failed to detonate fully. Again, some sources tied it to the nightclub and organized crime, with Orsini making a statement that she and Alice McArthur were on a “hit list.”
On Friday, July 2, 1982, Alice McArthur, in her Pleasant Valley home in west Little Rock, was packing for a holiday weekend trip to Hot Springs (Garland County) with her husband and several other couples. Later testimony indicated that she apparently answered her front door for what appeared to be a deliveryman carrying a bouquet of flowers at about 4:00 p.m. Orsini had requested a late afternoon meeting with Bill McArthur at his office. After determining she had no legal business to discuss, he left for the weekend at about 4:40, arriving home shortly after 5:00. He and a neighbor found his wife on the floor of an upstairs closet, dead of a gunshot wound to the head.
Alice McArthur’s murder generated an ensuing circus of competing law enforcement agencies and breathless media coverage. At one point, Bill McArthur was arrested by Pulaski County sheriff’s officers, marched before news reporters in handcuffs, and later photographed in an orange prison jumpsuit. Evidence against McArthur was presented in two hearings, the second before a grand jury, but he was never indicted.
Orsini was arrested for conspiracy to commit murder, having been implicated in the confession of Eugene “Yankee” Hall, who affirmed that he and Larry Darnell McClendon had killed Alice McArthur. In October 1982, Orsini was convicted of hiring Hall and McClendon to pose as florist deliverymen and kill Alice McArthur. She was again tried in 1983 and convicted of the murder of Ron Orsini, though this conviction was later overturned by the Arkansas Supreme Court. She was one of the first inmates transferred to the McPherson Unit near Newport (Jackson County) when that prison opened in 1998, and she died there of an apparent heart attack on August 11, 2003. Bill McArthur died in Little Rock of natural causes on October 4, 2009.
According to Gene Lyons in his book Widow’s Web, what came to be known as the McArthur case was the most meticulously documented homicide in the history of the Little Rock Police Department. In addition to a torrent of newspaper articles and Lyons’s book, it was also the subject of the book Murder in Little Rock (earlier published under the title Bouquet for Murder) by Jan Meins. A made-for-television filmed dramatization was broadcast during the first season of A&E TV’s City Confidential in 1999, titled “Little Rock: The Politics of Murder.”
There have been various speculations about Orsini’s motives, including mental illness, sociopathic tendencies, imagined romances, money problems, influence of the soap opera–style mentality of the time manifest in such TV shows as Dallas and Dynasty, and addiction to the drama and media spotlight. However, there has been no definitive conclusion to date, despite her confession, shortly before her death, to murdering her husband and being involved in the bombing of Alice McArthur’s car.
NCAA Championship game, March 26, 1973 — The box score of UCLA’s 87-66 victory over Memphis seems like a misprint. Bill Walton, 21-of-22 from the field, 13 rebounds, 44 points. He shrugged off foul trouble and Tiger triple-teams to turn in a game for the ages. “We tried everything on him – we had players double-teaming him, we even put players in front and in back of him,” said Memphis coach Gene Bartow. “But somehow they always found a way to get the ball to him.”
(Picture from the Ronald Reagan Library)
Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan aboard a boat in California. (August 1964)
1980 Presidential Debate Carter v Reagan
Governor Reagan.
GOVERNOR REAGAN
Yes. Mr. President, once again, I happen to be against the amendment, because I think the amendment will take this problem out of the hands of elected legislators and put it in the hands of unelected judges. I am for equal rights, and while you have been in office for 4 years, and not one single State — and most of them have a majority of Democratic legislators — has added to the ratification or voted to ratify the equal rights amendment.
While I was Governor, more than 8 years ago, I found 14 separate instances where women were discriminated against in the body of California law, and I had passed and signed into law 14 statutes that eliminated those discriminations, including the economic ones that you have just mentioned, equal pay and so forth. I believe that if in all these years that we’ve spent trying to get the amendment, that we’d spent as much time correcting these laws, as we did in California — and we were the first to do it.
If I were President, I would also now take a look at the hundreds of Federal regulations which discriminate against women and which go right on while everyone is looking for an amendment. I would have someone ride herd on those regulations, and we’d start eliminating those discriminations in the Federal Government against women.
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It has been 150 years since the beginning of the Civil War that started in April of 1861 at Ft Sumter.
15. 1990 Loyola Marymount
Playing just two weeks after the death of All-American Hank Gathers during the West Coast Conference Tournament, the Loyola Marymount Lions make an emotional and heartwarming run to the Elite Eight.
The Lions entered the tournament as a #11 seed in the West Regional and faced New Mexico in their first round matchup.
When Bo Kimble, Gathers’ best friend and teammate since high school, went to the free throw line for the first time in the game, he shot his first free throw left-handed, the way Gathers shot free throws, in his friend’s memory.
The free throw was good and Kimble went on to score 45 points in a 111-92 win over New Mexico.
Kimble would repeat this act in the Lions’ second round matchup with #3 seed Michigan as the Lions defeated the Wolverines 149-115 in the highest scoring game in NCAA tournament history.
Kimble did not go to the foul line in the Lions’ Sweet Sixteen game with the Alabama Crimson Tide, but Loyola Marymount came away with a 62-60 win to advance to the Elite Eight where Kimble would make his left-handed free throw for the third time in a 131-101 loss to eventual national champion UNLV.
1980 Presidential Debate Reagan v Carter
Yes, thank you. Realizing that you may be equally reluctant to speak ill of your opponent, may I ask why people should not vote for your opponent, why his Presidency could be harmful to the Nation? And having examined both your opponent’s record and the man himself, could, you tell us his greatest weakness?
GOVERNOR REAGAN
Well, Barbara, I believe that there is a fundamental difference — and I think it has been evident in most of the answers that Mr. Carter has given tonight — that he seeks the solution to anything as another opportunity for a Federal Government program. I happen to believe that the Federal Government has usurped powers and autonomy and authority that belongs back at the State and local level — it has imposed on the individual freedoms of the people — and that there are more of these things that could be solved by the people themselves, if they were given a chance, or by the levels of government that were closer to them.
Now, as to why I should be and he shouldn’t be, when he was a candidate in 1976, President Carter invented a thing he called the misery index. He added the rate of unemployment and the rate of inflation, and it came, at that time, to 12.5 under President Ford. And he said that no man with that size misery index had a right to seek reelection to the Presidency. Today, by his own decision, the misery index is in excess of 20 percent, and I think this must suggest something.
But when I have quoted it Democrat President, as the President says, I was a Democrat. I said many foolish things back in those days. [Laughter] But the President that I quoted had made a promise, a Democrat promise, and I quoted him because it was never kept. And today, you would find that that promise is at the very heart of what Republicanism represents in this country today. And that’s why I believe there are going to be millions of Democrats that are going to vote with us this time around, because they too want that promise kept. It was a promise for less government and less taxes and more freedom for the people.
MR. SMITH
Japan begins the clear-up and buries victims of the earthquake and tsunami
School bags recovered from Okawa primary school in Ishinomaki are seen. Only 24 of 84 schoolchildren and 13 teachers have been confirmed as alive by the school.
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Free-lance columnist Rex Nelson is the president of Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities. He’s also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried. com.
1. Listen to live music one Saturday night on the courthouse lawn at Mountain View.
2. Go to the infield at Oaklawn on Arkansas Derby day and then eat anOaklawn burger at a table under a crab apple tree.
3. Descend deep below the ground at Blanchard Springs Caverns to cool off on a hot summer day. (I really enjoyed my visit to Blanchard Springs Caverns. Here is a picture below.)
18. 1991 Duke-UNLV
One year after losing to UNLV 103-73 in the championship game, Duke avenges that humiliating by knocking off the undefeated and defending national champion Runnin’ Rebels 79-77 as Christian Lattener hits two free throws with 12.7 seconds left.
Duke would win the national championship two nights later as they defeated Kansas 72-65 to give coach Mike Krzyzewski his first national title after five trips to the Final Four.
My brother in law Robert Parks once met Mike Krzyzewski when Mike spoke at a convention he attended for his business. His son Jeremy Parks went to high school with Elliot Williams at St Georges in Memphis and Elliot played for Coach K at Duke, but later transferred to Memphis and now is in the NBA.
1980 Presidential Debate Carter v Reagan
MR. ELLIS
Governor Reagan, Americans, through conservation, are importing much less oil today than we were even a year ago. And yet, U.S. reliance on Arab oil as a percentage of total imports is much higher today than it was during the 1973 Arab oil embargo. And the substantial loss of Arab oil could plunge the United States into depression.
The question is whether the development of alternative energy sources, in order to reduce this dependence, can be done without damaging the environment, and will it mean for American families steadily higher fuel bills?
GOVERNOR REAGAN
I’m not sure that it means steadily higher fuel costs, but I do believe that this Nation has been portrayed for too long a time to the people as being energy-poor when it is energy-rich. The coal that the President mentioned: Yes, we have it, and yet one-eighth of our total coal resources is not being utilized at all right now. The mines are closed down; there are 22,000 miners out of work. Most of this is due to regulations which either interfere with the mining of it or prevent the burning of it. With our modern technology, yes, we can burn our coal within the limits of the Clean Air Act. I think, as technology improves, we’ll be able to do even better with that.
The other thing is that we have only leased out and begun to explore 2 percent of our Outer Continental Shelf for oil, where it is believed by everyone familiar with that fuel and that source of energy that there are vast supplies yet to be found. Our Government has, in the last year or so, taken out of multiple use millions of acres of public lands that once were — well, they were public lands subject to multiple-use exploration for minerals and so forth. It is believed that probably 70 percent of the potential oil in the United States is probably hidden in those lands, and no one is allowed to even go and explore to find out if it is there. This is particularly true of the recent efforts to shut down part of Alaska.
Nuclear power: There were 36 powerplants planned in this country — and let me add the word “safety”; it must be done with the utmost of safety. But 32 of those have given up and cancelled their plans to build, and again, because Government regulations and permits and so forth make it take more than twice as long to build a nuclear plant in the United States as it does to build one in Japan or in Western Europe.
We have the sources here. We are energy-rich, and coal is one of the great potentials were have.
This photo, taken on 11 March and released on 23 March, shows waves forming in the sea after the tsunami hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant
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Free-lance columnist Rex Nelson is the president of Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities. He’s also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried. com.
1.Attend the Hope Watermelon Festival and buy cold slices of watermelon for all of your friends. (Back in 1977 I drove my grandparents from Memphis, TN to Crosy, TX to spend Thanksgiving with my cousins. My grandfather Everette Hatcher Sr. told me that he read an article in the Wall Street Journal about Hope Arkansas having the largest Watermelons in the world. I continued to drive that same path from 1977 to 1982 for my grandparents and every year we passed through Hope, my grandfather repeated that trivia fact. It is about time I get down there and check out the Watermelon festival. I am probably one of the few Arkansans that has not got around to it.)
2.Eat a watermelon from Hope and Cave City on the same afternoon before beginning a debate on which one is better.
19. 1990 Connecticut-Clemson
With exactly one second left, Uconn guard Tate George catches a full-court pass from Scott Burrell, lands, then squares up to shoots a jumper that goes in the basket at the buzzer to give the Huskies a miraculous 71-70 win over the Clemson Tigers and send Connecticut to their first ever Elite Eight.
The Arkansas State Government is still battling over the Congressional Districts. Maybe it will be resolved soon. You never know with Arkansas politics though. You will notice below a mention of Hot Springs and Lucky Luciano. Back then Luciano was able to take advantage of the crooked politicians running Hot Springs. Politics may get dirty sometimes but hopefully not as bad as it was back then in Hot Springs.
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1980 Presidential Debate Reagan v Carter
GOVERNOR REAGAN
Well, that just isn’t true. It has, as I said, delayed the actuarial imbalance falling on us for just a few years with that increase in taxes. And I don’t believe we can go on increasing the tax, because the problem for the young people today is that they’re paying in far more than they can ever expect to get out.
Now, again this statement that somehow I wanted to destroy it. and I just changed my tune, that I am for voluntary social security, which would mean the ruin of it. Mr. President, the voluntary thing that I suggested many years ago was that a young man, orphaned and raised by an aunt who died, his aunt was ineligible for social security insurance, because she was not his mother. And I suggested that if this is an insurance program, certainly the person who’s paying in should be able to name his own beneficiaries. And that’s the closest I’ve ever come to anything voluntary with social security. I, too, am pledged to a social security program that will reassure these senior citizens of ours they’re going to continue to get their money.
There are some changes I’d like to make. I would like to make a change that discriminates in the regulations against a wife who works and finds that she then is faced with a choice between her husband’s benefits, if he dies first, or what she has paid in; but it does not recognize that she has also been paying in herself, and she is entitled to more than she presently can get. I’d like to change that.
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Free-lance columnist Rex Nelson is the president of Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities. He’s also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried. com.
This picture is believed to be Al Capone and an unidentified friend at Happy Hollow in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
(Photo and info. courtesy of the Garland County Historical Society)
Our most famous visitor down through the ages…. must have been Al Capone. During the prohibition era, Capone came from Chicago to strike deals with bootleggers in Hot Springs to stock his clubs in Chicago with alcohol. Not only is Hot Springs a remote town located in the middle of the Ouachita mountains, but the pine trees provide “cover” for the moonshine stills year round. Capone would ship his bootleg liquor in tanker railroad cars, and for protection, he had the words “Mountain Valley Water” painted on the side of the railcars!
In Chicago, Detroit, New York – when the heat was on because of a robbery or murder, the overlords knew where to come to relax in safety. Hot Springs was a sanctuary from prosecution and enemies. Gangsters could enjoy the entertainment of gambling, and be pampered with the hot mineral baths and massages.
At one time, Capone and his entourage occupied the 4th floor of the Arlington Hotel. (Legend has it that Capone always stayed in room 442, and that the Arlington Hotel has locked that room up and will not rent it to anyone to this day) Capone’s arch enemy Bugs Moran and his gang were checked in at the Majestic Hotel, just one block away. There was no conflict, and no violence – both gangsters were on vacation!
In the early 1930s, Luciano lived in a penthouse suite at New York’s Waldorf Towers, where he was registered as Charles Ross. In March 1936, Luciano fled New York after being alerted by a friendly desk clerk that two men who looked like detectives were on their way up to see him. He drove to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, changed cars, and borrowed $25,000 from friends. He then drove to Cleveland, Ohio, where he took the train to Hot Springs, which at the time was a gambling sanctuary run by fellow gangster Owen “Owney the Killer” Madden.
New York special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey proclaimed Luciano “Public Enemy Number One” and started a nationwide manhunt to arrest Luciano and return him to New York to face indictment for allegedly running a $12 million prostitution syndicate. Luciano was originally charged with ninety counts of compulsory prostitution, later reduced to sixty-two.
New York detective John J. Brennan went to Hot Springs on an unrelated case and, on April 1, 1936, saw Luciano strolling along Bathhouse Row with Hot Springs’ chief of detectives. Brennan approached Luciano and invited the gangster to return with him to New York. Luciano declined, saying that he was having a good time in Hot Springs.
New York authorities asked Hot Springs and Arkansas officials to extradite Luciano to New York, and he was arrested on April 1, 1936. However, a local judge released Luciano after setting a $5,000 bond. An enraged Dewey contacted Governor J. Marion Futrell and state attorney general Carl E. Bailey, demanding action. Futrell ordered Hot Springs officials to re-capture Luciano, but Hot Springs officials were reluctant to begin extradition hearings. Bailey issued a fugitive warrant on April 3 and ordered Luciano transported to Little Rock (Pulaski County), sending twenty state troopers to Hot Springs to collect Luciano. They removed him from the Hot Springs jail at midnight and rushed him to Little Rock.
A man claiming to be an associate of Madden’s allegedly approached Bailey and offered him $50,000 (ten times his yearly salary) to make sure the extradition was denied. As the extradition hearing was being held in the governor’s conference room on April 6, Bailey made the bribery attempt public, saying Arkansas was not for sale: “Every time a major criminal of this country wants asylum, he heads for Hot Springs. We must show that Arkansas cannot be made an asylum for them.” Bailey’s revelation led to Futrell’s upholding the extradition warrant. Within days, Luciano was returned from Arkansas to New York to stand trial.
On June 18, 1936, Luciano was sentenced to thirty to fifty years at the maximum security Dannemora Prison in New York. It was the longest sentence ever handed down in New York for compulsory prostitution.
He served his time quietly, determined to be a model prisoner. During World War II, Luciano allegedly helped the government by forging ties and collecting intelligence in Sicily prior to the Allied invasion of Italy. He also claimed that he helped prevent maritime sabotage by the enemy in the United States through his connections on the waterfront. In 1946, his sentence was commuted, and Luciano was deported to Italy, as he had never become an American citizen. The U.S. government blocked his attempts to return to the Americas, including Cuba, and he lived the rest of his days in Italy.
While he had several long-term mistresses in the United States and Italy, he never married and claimed no children. Luciano died of a heart attack on January 26, 1962, at Capodichino Airport in Naples, Italy, where he had gone to meet a Hollywood movie producer. Though Luciano was denied entry into the United States during his lifetime, he was buried at St. John’s Cathedral Cemetery in Queens, New York.
For additional information: Buchanan, Edna. “Lucky Luciano.” Time. December 7, 1998, pp. 131–32.
Gosch, Martin, and Richard Hammer. The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1974.
Ledbetter, Calvin Jr. “Carl Bailey: A Pragmatic Reformer.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 57 (Summer 1998): 134–159.
McMath, Sid. Promises Kept. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2003.
Reppetto, Thomas. American Mafia: A History of its Rise to Power. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2004.
Baker Hospital (now the Crescent Hotel) in Eureka Springs (Carroll County); circa early 1940s
The hotel boasted every modern convenience, from electricity to elevators, and was well known for its location near the springs that supposedly held healing waters. The cost for this hotel, declared America’s most opulent resort, was $294,000. The hotel opened its doors to the public on May 1, 1886, with an open house two weeks later. On May 20, a banquet was held for guest of honor James G. Blaine, the 1884 Republican presidential nominee. A gala ball was held for the 400 attendants, with Harry Barton’s orchestra entertaining, followed by a speech from Blaine.
The Crescent enjoyed great success for many years, but as the economy worsened in the 1900s, the hotel opened for business only during the summer months.
The Crescent fell into disrepair for six years, and not until 1946 was the property purchased again and renovated to its original look, reopening on July 4, 1946, as “A Castle in the Air High Atop the Ozarks.”
The hotel has enjoyed a long period of success, despite a fire on the fourth floor in 1967, which damaged some of the building. In 1973, restorations began, and the hotel was again open to the public by May of that year. Renovations came again in 1980 to restore the original luxury to the hotel, and improvements continued to be made until 2002. The hotel remains open as of 2010, with the addition of the New Moon Spa to the basement level, which reflects the original purpose of the hotel as a destination for relaxation and healing. It is also a member of the National Trust Historic Hotels of America and has been featured on the Discovery Channel for its historic Victorian beauty and many reported ghost sightings.
20. 1998 Valparaiso-Ole Miss
With 2.5 seconds left and trailing 69-67, Valpo’s Jaime Skyes throws a 60-foot pass down the length of the court that is caught by Bill Jenkins, who then passes it over to Bryce Drew (the head coach’s son), who then proceeds to drill a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give #13 seed Valparaiso an improbable 70-69 victory over the #4 seed Ole Miss Rebels in their first round game.
Governor Reagan, you have the last word on this question.
GOVERNOR REAGAN
Yes. If it is a well-known fact that I opposed air pollution laws in California, the only thing I can possibly think of is that the President must be suggesting the law that the Federal Government tried to impose on the State of California — not a law, regulations that would have made it impossible to drive an automobile within the city limits of any California city, or have a place to put it if you did drive it against their regulations. It would have destroyed the economy of California, and, I must say, we had the support of Congress when we pointed out how ridiculous this attempt was by the Environmental Protection Agency. We still have the strictest air control or air pollution laws in the country.
As for offshore oiling, only 2 percent now is so leased and is producing oil. The rest, as to whether the lands are going to be opened in the next 5 years or so — we’re already 5 years behind in what we should be doing. There is more oil now in the wells that have been drilled than has been taken out in the 121 years that they’ve been drilled.
MR. SMITH
Thank you, Governor.
Thank you, Mr. President.
The next question goes to Governor Reagan from William Hilliard.
MR. HILLIARD
Governor Reagan, wage earners in this country — especially the young — are supporting a social security system that continues to affect their income drastically. The system is fostering a struggle between the young and the old, and is drifting the country toward a polarization of these two groups. How much longer can the young wage earner expect to bear the ever-increasing burden of the social security system?
GOVERNOR REAGAN
The social security system was based on a false premise, with regard to how fast the number of workers would increase and how fast the number of retirees would increase. It is actuarially out of balance, and this first became evident about 16 years ago, and some of us were voicing warnings then. Now, it is trillions of dollars out of balance, and the only answer that has come so far is the biggest single tax increase in our Nation’s history, the payroll tax increase for social security, which will only put a Band-aid on this and postpone the day of reckoning by a few years at most.
What is needed is a study that I have proposed by a task force of experts to look into this entire problem as to how it can be reformed and made actuarially sound, but with the premise that no one presently dependent on social security is going to have the rug pulled out from under them and not get their check. We cannot frighten, as we have with the threats and the campaign rhetoric that has gone on in this campaign, our senior citizens, leave them thinking that in some way they’re endangered and they would have no place to turn. They must continue to get those checks, and I believe that the system can be put on a sound actuarial basis. But it’s going to take some study and some work, and not just passing a tax increase to let the roof fall in on the next administration.
MR. SMITH
Volunteer firefighters (L) pour hot soup into foam bowls for a volunteer woman (R) to hand them out to evacuees at an evacuation center in coastal city of Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture, northeastern Japan, 19 March 2011. The number of estimated dead and missing persons kept rising on 19 March, adding another fear to evacuees who have already been spending their days in dire conditions as they hopelessly wait for a good news on their loved ones whereabouts since a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit Japan on 11 March 2011. EPA/DAI KUROKAWA
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Free-lance columnist Rex Nelson is the president of Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities. He’s also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried. com.
1.Take part in a tailgate party prior to an Arkansas-LSU football game at War Memorial Stadium. Then, attend the duck gumbo cookoff that same weekend in Stuttgart. (I have been to many Arkansas-LSU games at War Memorial Stadium. I have had Little Rock Razorback Football Season Tickets since 1984. This year’s game was outstanding because it is one of only two razorback games I can remember where the complete crowd stood the whole game. The same game in 2006 was the only other game where that occurred. I would love for Razorback fans to correct me on that. Is there a third game that the whole crowd stood the whole game?)
2.Hike to the top of Pinnacle Mountain. (My late uncle Harold Hatcher told me about his habit of hiking up Pinnacle in 1983 and he first took me up the mountain. Shortly after that my girlfriend, Jill Sawyer and I went up the mountain together. Two and a half years later when Jill and I were married, Jill’s mother Sandra told me that she knew it was true love when Jill had actually gone up the mountain with me. Jill had actually acted excited at the time with my suggestion but little did I know that would be the most athletic thing she had ever done her whole life!!!)
3. Have an all-you-can-eat dinner of catfish straight from the lower White River at the Georgetown One Stop. Watch the sun rise from a duck blind on the Grand Prairie.
My sons Wilson (on right) and Hunter went to California and visited Yosemite National Park with our friend Sherwood Haisty Jr. (Sherwood on left) March 21-27. Here they are standing in front of the tallest waterfall in North America
16. 1973 UCLA-Memphis
One year earlier, UCLA center Bill Walton gives a near-perfect performance as he hits on 21 of 22 shots for a championship game record 44 points to give the Bruins their seventh straight national championship with a 87-66 victory over the Memphis Tigers.
It is fitting that it is time to post this today because we are also remembering the great life of Larry Finch who died yesterday at age 60 after a long and hard illness. I had the opportunity to attend the 1972 summer Memphis State Basketball Camp and Larry was one of the helpers at the camp. I will never forget his lessons on free throw shooting. It helped me out tremendously.
I later got to visit with him in 1988 when I saw him at a high school game in Chattanooga. He was always a gentleman and very personable. I got to attend the Memphis v UT Chattanooga game in 1995 or so (in Chattanooga) and I got to visit with him after the game too. That was the last time I saw him in person. You can read about his life in today’s Commercial Appeal.
(Picture from the Ronald Reagan Library)
Official portrait of the Nancy and Ronald Reagan on the White House grounds. (November 16, 1988)
MR. SMITH
Governor Reagan.
GOVERNOR REAGAN
That is a misstatement, of course, of my position. I just happen to believe that free enterprise can do a better job of producing the things that people need than Government can. The Department of Energy has a multibillion-dollar budget, in excess of $10 billion. It hasn’t produced a quart of oil or a lump of coal or anything else in the line of energy.
And for Mr. Carter to suggest that I want to do away with the safety laws and with the laws that pertain to clean water and clean air, and so forth — as Governor of California, I took charge of passing the strictest air pollution laws in the United States — the strictest air quality law that has ever been adopted in the United States. And we created an OSHA, an occupational safety and health agency, for the protection of employees before the Federal Government had one in place. And to this day, not one of its decisions or rulings has ever been challenged.
So, I think some of those charges are missing the point. I am suggesting that there are literally thousands of unnecessary regulations that invade every facet of business, and indeed, very much of our personal lives, that are unnecessary; that Government can do without; that have added $130 billion to the cost of production in this country; and that are contributing their part to inflation. And I would like to see us a little more free, as we once were.
MR. SMITH
Volunteers are reflected in a glass door as they work to distribute used clothings for evacuees as a man wearing a mask walks in front of a room at an evacuation center in coastal city of Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture, northeastern Japan, 19 March 2011. The number of estimated dead and missing person kept rising on 19 March, adding another fear to evacuees who have already been spending their days in dire conditions as they hopelessly wait for a good news on their loved ones whereabouts since a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit Japan on 11 March 2011. EPA/DAI KUROKAWA
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Free-lance columnist Rex Nelson is the president of Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities. He’s also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried. com.
1. Attend a Battle of the Ravine one fall Saturday afternoon between Ouachita and Henderson in Arkadelphia. (I have not done this but I really want to. I have attended a game at OBU’s stadium. It was in 2003 and it was a practice game between the senior high Bryant Hornet football team and the Eldorado Wildcats. My son Hunter was a 10th grader and he got his first playing time at the senior high level that day. There was a beautiful sunset that August day and the campus was very beautiful.)
2.Eat barbecue at Craig’s in De-Valls Bluff and then walk across U.S. Highway 70 to buy a whole pie at the Family Pie Shop. (I have eaten at Craig’s and I was told to go across the street and get some pie from my friend Sherwood Haisty Jr. who nows lives in California and was very jealous of my opportunity to go to Craig’s. He says they just don’t have good Barbeque in California.)
White House advisers and Cabinet members meet with Vice President George Bush. L-R at far end of table: National Security Adviser Richard Allen, Counselor to the President Edwin Meese, Vice President Bush, Secretary of State Alexander Haig, White House Chief of Staff James Baker
14. 1989 Michigan-Seton Hall
Assistant coach Steve Fisher takes the head coaching duties at Michigan right before the tournament begins, after head coach Bill Frieder was fired because he accepted the head coaching job at Arizona State, and leads the Wolverines to the national championship.
Michigan point guard Rumeal Robinson nails the game-winning free throws with three seconds to play in overtime after a controversial foul to give the Wolverines an 80-79 victory over the Seton Hall Pirates.
Network coverage of President Ronald Reagan being shot March 30, 1981. Part 10 of 11.Assassination Attempt
The assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan occurred a mere 69 days into his administration March 30, 1981. He is the only president to survive taking a bullet thanks to surgeons at George Washington University Hospital.
Many key people were involved in the shooting that day. Had the assassination attempt never happened, many of the key figures surrounding the event would not be known today.
President Ronald Reagan
Reagan finished giving a speech to the AFL-CIO at the Washington Hilton. Just before 1:45 p.m., a man brandishing a gun called out to Reagan and then fired six bullets, four of which found their marks on four separate individuals. Reagan spent nearly two weeks in the hospital recovering at George Washington University Hospital.
Dr. John Hopper
Dr. John Hopper was a psychologist who interviewed Hinckley in Colorado from October 1980 until February 1981. Hopper didn’t realize the depths of Hinkley’s psychosis and was sued by those who were shot by the assassin other than the president. The suit was dismissed in 1983 because he never saw any violent tendencies in Hinckley, just bouts of depression and loneliness.
Network coverage of President Ronald Reagan being shot March 30, 1981. Assassination Attempt. Part 11 of 11.
NCAA Championship game, March 29, 1982 — Dean Smith’s sixth trip to the Final Four gave him his first title, courtesy of a precocious player and a last-second gaffe. Freshman Michael Jordan (No. 23) swished a 16-foot jumper from left wing, but the Hoyas had enough time to set up a game-winner of their own. Yet Fred Brown mistook teammate Eric Floyd for UNC’s James Worthy, who dribbled out the clock on an improbable finish.
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I thought John Thompson did a good job of just taking the focus off of the late turnover.
NCAA 1982 at Superdome, N.O.
Image courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Library.
4 of 4
Just after the shooting, gunman John Hinckley is buried under a pile of Secret Service agents outside the Hilton Hotel.
Network coverage of President Ronald Reagan being shot March 30, 1981. Part 8 of 11.
The assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan occurred a mere 69 days into his administration March 30, 1981. He is the only president to survive taking a bullet thanks to surgeons at George Washington University Hospital.
Many key people were involved in the shooting that day. Had the assassination attempt never happened, many of the key figures surrounding the event would not be known today.
President Ronald Reagan
Reagan finished giving a speech to the AFL-CIO at the Washington Hilton. Just before 1:45 p.m., a man brandishing a gun called out to Reagan and then fired six bullets, four of which found their marks on four separate individuals. Reagan spent nearly two weeks in the hospital recovering at George Washington University Hospital.
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Timothy McCarthy
Timothy McCarthy was the Secret Service agent who was shot in the stomach. He also survived and received as many at 50,000 get well cards during his recovery from surgery. Reagan honored him as a true American hero who took a bullet for the president. Ironically, McCarthy wasn’t supposed to be on duty that day as he and another agent flipped a coin to see who would fulfill the call for extra protection the afternoon of the shooting. McCarthy has no regrets about the decision to this day.
Dr. Benjamin Aaron
Dr. Benjamin Aaron operated on Reagan at George Washington University and was credited with saving the president’s life. After an 80 minute operation, the president recovered fully for about two weeks before being released to the White House. Aaron was the head of the hospital’s Cardiothoracic Surgery department as an expert in the field. The New York Times reports he was subject to a later lawsuit revolving around the death of terminally ill patient in 1986.
Vincent Fuller
Vincent Fuller was Hinckley’s main attorney who was able to convince jurors he was insane. The New York Times reports His argument to the jury was that no one knew the depths of Hinckley’s psychotic behavior despite being examined by a psychologist. Fuller died in 2006.
Network coverage of President Ronald Reagan being shot March 30, 1981. Part 9 of 11.
The Daily Hatch 
