Kirjahaku

Within a span of seventeen days in September 1975, two women, acting independently of each other, attempted to assassinate President Gerald R. Ford. This book deals with those ludicrous, but potentially deadly attempts and explores the reasons behind them.

Some people are bigger than life - they just are. Sidney Johnston Catts, Florida's 22nd Governor was one of those people. In 1917, Catt became the first Governor of Florida since 1877 (during the period of Reconstruction) to represent a party other than the Democratic Party. As of this date, Catts remains the only person ever elected to a statewide office on the Prohibition ticket. However, Catts was more than just a "third-party" leader.Florida, as was the rest of America, was in turmoil for decades after the end of the Civil War. Racism, anti-foreignism, and anti-Catholicism were rampant. The states of the old Confederacy were even more receptive to intolerance than the rest of the country. This led to the rise of several loud and rambunctious demagogues. The populists won elections across the South with wild, emotional appeals to religious and racial bigotry. If the mass of voters did not agree with the intolerance preached by these men, enough did agree to elect them to afford them great power. Florida's most important addition to the Southern demagoguery was Sidney J. Catts. Catts enjoyed a meteoric rise in Florida beginning in 1916 and while he only won one election, he remained an important political figure in Sunshine State until around 1930. While many condemned Catts, and often for good reason, one cannot doubt he made some important and positive changes in the Sunshine State during his single term as Governor.Catts was a natural born earth shaker. He also threw convention to the wind. After the Florida Democratic Party connived with the State Supreme Court and denied him the Democratic nomination for Governor that he rightly won, he accepted the nomination of the Prohibition Party, defied all odds, and won the General Election. This brief volume sketches the life and political career of Sidney Catts. It is a fair accounting of Catts the man and Catts the politician. There is no doubt that Sydney Catts was a great reformer and there is no doubt that he was a raging bigot. It would not be fair to the reader, or to Catts, to leave out either side of his story. This book also looks at the age in which Catts lived and the attitudes of that age.

Over the decades, moonshiners, bootleggers, and rumrunners have taken on the mantle of anti-heroes. They have been romanized in old movies like Thunder Road and Smoky and the Bandit. NASCAR still claims a kinship with fast driving moonshiners of old. A soft drink bears the name "Mountain Dew." Songs and even institutions of higher education glorify them. For instance, the fight song of the University of Tennessee refers to moonshiners and (by implication) to the murder of revenuers. This book deals with the efforts to curb the illicit liquor trade in one small Tennessee county - that of Macon - between 1877 and 1941. The 69 short articles illustrating those efforts represent but a tiny fraction of the events that took place during the whiskey war. Make no mistake about it - it was a real war. As with all wars, it had real casualties and a real death toll. All sides suffered immensely from it.

This volume relates 75 true crime stories from Macon County, Tennessee between 1879 and 1939. These stories run the gamut of crime. Some are tragic, some bizarre, some grotesque, and some are a little humorous. Although all of the alleged crimes mentioned here took place decades ago, many of them detail the types of crimes that remain common today across the United States and the world. Besides murder, there are stories about child abduction, rape, bullying, domestic violence, racial problems, drunk driving, confidence games, and others.

This book takes a brief look at Macon County, Tennessee during World War II and some of the men and women that took part in it, either in direct combat or in support roles. It lists more than 900 soldiers, seamen, and Marines. It identifies some of those wounded or captured and includes brief articles on the soldiers that died in uniform. Those that served were as diverse a group as Macon County could offer. Some were Black, others were White; some were men, others were women; some were teenagers, others were past forty; some were well-to-do, others were dirt poor; some were college graduates, others had never been inside a classroom; some were volunteers, others were draftees. Brothers often served together, and fathers and sons were sometimes in the service at the same time. The one thing they all shared was they were willing to put themselves in harm's way in the service of their country. The book is about more than the soldiers, however. It includes a chapter on the military training "maneuvers" conducted in Macon in the 1940s. It even describes some of the "war games" conducted on Macon County soil. The book details some of the sacrifices the homefolk made for the war effort and some of the hardships they faced. The people of that era have been described as "America's Greatest Generation" and no one can challenge that fact. Macon County, Tennessee was a proud part of that generation of heroes.

This cookbook is a faithful rendering of old Southern recipes. These 131 recipes span the spectrum from lobster to possum, from shrimp to groundhog, from catfish to fried chicken. Although some of these recipes have been modernized, they all reflect the food of the Old South and give an insight into the people that lived there in times past.

This book is about the resort at Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee from 1900 to 1945. Also, there are articles about its many famous visitors including a Speaker of the US House, and a jazz legend. It also explores the search for mythical gold and silver mines there and an archeologist's efforts to prove that Neanderthal man inhabited nearby caves. There are many other items mentioned as well.

Over the years, there have been many legal proceedings dubbed "The Trial of the Century." Few of those trials have deserved that hyperbolic title. The Scopes trial (better known as the "Monkey Trial") certainly lived up to its hype. For nearly two weeks in the sweltering summer heat of 1925, some of the best legal minds in America squared off against each other in an overcrowded, courtroom that lacked the benefit of air conditioning. It was high drama and it was broad comedy. It was serious and it was farcical. The whole world followed it on the still new medium of radio and in sensationalized newspaper accounts. A state legislator from a small town, who had no desire to be in the spotlight, nor any ambition to do more than to serve his friends and neighbors, became famous with incredible speed. Some viewed him as a hero, while others viewed him as a villain. He did not think he was either one. This book covers the events from the time that John Butler decided to take it upon himself to drive Darwinism out of Tennessee's public schools until the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled on the law's validity - and somewhat beyond that. Of course, a brief accounting of John Butler's early life was necessary to give insight into who he was and why he decided to pen the law that bears his name. Along the way, some of the most colorful, and interesting persons in American history entered the story including William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow.

In 1692, it did not pay to be a nonconformist in Salem Village, Massachusetts. This was especially true if the nonconformist just happened to be an elderly, improvised widow. Susannah Martin found this out the hard way. Susannah Martin stood trial, received a conviction, and suffered hanging for bewitching some of the good folk of Salem, Massachusetts and the surrounding area. More than two dozen persons related the crimes Martin committed. It seems that Susannah Martin's most heinous crime may have been that she had a sense of humor. When she heard the ridiculous accusations made against her, she laughed aloud. When the stern judge asked her what she was laughing at, she replied, "Well I may at such folly." While Martin's laughter may have doomed her, it is unlikely that she would have escaped even if she had been somber and had held her tongue. This brief volume deals with the accusations against, the trial, the conviction, and the execution of Susannah Martin for the infamous crime of witchcraft. While Martin was just one of the twenty persons killed by authorities in Salem (at least five others died in jail), her story is unique to the extent that she was one of the very few accused persons who saw and pointed out publicly the absurdity of the whole affair. Sadly, her story is not a comedy; it is a tragedy. Had the accusers, or more so, the judges been as able to release a boisterous laugh as was Susanna Martin, we would view Salem Village in 1692 in a very different light.