FIRST COMMERCIAL ROCKET

On 22 May 2012 the first commercial rocket had been blasted off to carry supplies to the International Space Station. The SpaceX Falcon9 took off from Cape Canaveral and took over the service from the cancelled Space Shuttles.

The billionaire founder Elon Musk of paypal sent a highly delighted message on Twitter that Falcon9 flew perfectly. It was the first time the mission was financed by a private firm.

Falcon 9 its 178ft long unmanned rocket carrying a capsule Dragon which ejected. The 14.5ft capsule opened its solar panels and unpacked its navigation equipment. Dragon is programmed to carry out a series of manoeuvres. This will happen 1.6miles away from ISS to prove its perfection.

NASA decided to deliver 1000lbs of clothes, food and other supplies to the six astronauts and Russian cosmonauts there at the moment. On completion the capsule Dragon will be filled with rubbish and return to earth.

So far there were no successful Falcon9 missions. Last year the Shuttles program was cancelled and the US relied on Russian Soyuz craft. Chief science adviser John Holdren stated that the launch started a new era in American Space-flight.

The ashes of the actor James Doohan, who played the chief engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in the original Star Trek TV series, were on board of the Falcon9. The lipstick-sized capsule was launched from the rocket when it was nine minutes into its flight. There were also 307 further capsules of fellow space fans.  Doohan died of pneumonia in 2005 aged 85.

An US-company Celestis organises these Earth orbiting space memorial which cost £1,900. Relatives are attending the launch and memorial service.

VERNON KELL -- FOUNDER OF MI5

100 years ago this Vernon George Waldegrave Kell founded the Secret Service Bureau and later on it was called MI5.

When you saw him in public there was nothing outstanding about Kell. He did not look like a dashing James Bond. But he could smell a spy like a terrier the rat. He practically invented the spy catching.

A former British Army captain he had a sharp mind and spoke fluent English, French, German, Italian, Polish and Russian. His father was a wealthy Zulu War Veteran. Kell went through the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst in 1892 and was involved in defeated the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900.

At the age of 36 he was asked to head the first British counter-espionage department since Kell's ordinary appearances did not make him look suspicious. When he started he had a tiny office and a staff of 10 and all he had his instinct, observation and word-of-mouth. Kell started off with contacting chief constables and asked for information on anyone looking suspicious. Then he started a card-index system.

By 1914 he gathered16,000 information which were type up, filed, indexed and cross-referenced. Before the First World War Kell managed to uncover an entire German spy ring of 22 agents in Britain meeting in a barber's shop in north London. Kell had 21 arrested. A year after that he caught another seven spies of which some were executed.

As the war progressed he needed more agents. Some worked in British ports and their stories could have fitted in any spy novel. One day Kell intercepted a telegram saying 'Father dead. Await instructions.' Kell changed the telegram 'Father Deceased. What action?' The message came back 'Father Deceased or dead? Please explain' that convinced Kell it wasn't genuine. It was a report on the death of a senior fellow spy.

His successes earned Kell an acknowledgement to be the best counter-espionage experts in the world. He was quietly promoted to Major-General.

Before the Second World War there were people who weren't impressed of his skills. Churchill was one of them. When a British battleship the Royal Oak was sunk with 834 men it was due to being undetected by Kell's agents. Churchill told Kell to go.

Kell resigned after 30 years of dedication and determination. He moved to a small cottage in Buckingham. His wife wrote later that he never coped with the humiliation. While his beloved country was fighting to survive, he was still determined to do his bit. He became a special constable but it wasn't enough.

TRUE STORY -- 'THE MAN THAT NEVER WAS'

EWEN MONTAGU

The true story of 'The man that never was' is all about the intriguing world of espionage. It is a new book written by Ben Macintyre called  'Operation Mincemeat'

The story as such is about a young Major William Martin of the Royal Marines who served in the Second World War. He had great courage and taking on mission in hostile territories and dying in the attempt.

Since he was of a middle rank he could be trusted with the most sensitive information about strategies of the Allies in the war. These entailed letters of the planned invasion in Italy and written by Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Nye, vice-chief of the Imperial General Staff to General Sir Harold Alexander, commander of the 18th Army Group in Algeria and Tunisia.

Young Bill, as Major William Martin was known, was in love and engaged to his pretty sweetheart Pam. He carried her love letters right to his end.

However, he was a young officer in London and enjoyed himself in theatres and nightclubs. In his precious days of leave and he was reckless with money and therefore overdrew his account. Lloyds' bank wrote him a letter accordingly. Another letter from his father Mr John C Morris who gave a stern advice to curb his spending. These two letters were also found on him

A story which was of a young man with a promising future and was cut short in his prime. Hollywood made a film called, 'The Man Who Never Was'.

The whole story was entirely made up by two men back at the Admiralty in London. It was a daring operation designed to deceive the enemy over the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Southern Europe.

Churchill decided to invade Europe via Italy after they defeated the Nazis in Africa. Obviously Sicily was perfect but the German were not that stupid and not realizing that was the next point of attack. Therefore they invented 'Operation Mincemeat' and William Martin to convince the enemy that the Allies would invade Sardinia and Greece.

A young flight lieutenant in the RAF Charles Cholmondely and second to MI5 and Lieutenant-Commander Ewen Montagu a brilliant barrister recruited in wartime to the head of Section 17M. This British intelligence section was so secret it was barely known within the service. However, they control the agents, double agents, espionage and counter-espionage.

Cholmondely had the idea to plant this vital information of the Allied invasion on a dead body. It would be found and handed over to the Germans. Montagu had contacts with a coroner called Bentley Purchase. He informed Montague that a 34 year old Welshman had died of rat poison and he would keep him in cold storage until Montague was ready.

Cholmondely and Montague created a life story with a fake identity which spies called it a legend. That dead man become a Marine since they were under the authority of the admiralty and be given the rank of acting major - senior enough to be trusted with such high information and junior enough to pass unnoticed among many dozens of other majors. The name Martin was chosen because it was quite common and the Germans managed to get a Navy list but only from A to L.

Martin became a Roman Catholic, born in Cardiff, a family, social habits (a smoker, theatres and dancer) and financial history. The letters from Lloyds were written by Ernest Whitley Jones, manager of Lloyds, at Montagu's request. An attractive MI5 secretary was his fiancée Pam and her boss Hester Leggett wrote Pam's passionate letters.

Cholmondely worn Major Martin's uniform for three months to make it look worn. They also got a replacement ID card to make him look reckless and an expired Combined Operations HQ pass. The sensitive documents Major Martin carried were named 'Operation Husky and the invasion of Greece from Egypt and Libya and two assault beaches. The documents were placed in a briefcase and chained to Major Martin's wrist.

They invented a further point that Major Martin died in an aircrash and they put the body with everything in a steel canister filled with dry ice. It was loaded onto a submarine at Holy Head, Scotland; HMS Seraph sailed to Spain on April 19.

The submarine arrived in Huelva, Spain and surfaced at 4.30am. They put a lifejacket on Martin and put him into the sea. Huelva was known that the Spaniards were friendly with a German intelligence officer. The body was found five hours later and the British military attaché in Spain was informed three days later.

The Germans seen the documents and believed every word of it. They reinforced Sardinia and Corsica instead Sicily.

The man behind Major Martin was Glyndwr Michael born on 4 January 1909 in Abergoed in South Wales to unmarried and illiterate Parents. His father was a miner and went mad and died when Glyndwr was 15. His mother died in 1940. He was homeless, penniless and was found in an empty warehouse in London's King's Cross on January 26, 1943. Nobody knows whether he swallowed the rat poison because he ate the food which was put down or he committed suicide.

The amazing turn of his destiny was that he was buried in Huelva on May 4, 1943 with full military honour

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SAS -- ALWAYS EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

'Always Expect The Unexpected' is a title of a new book which describes the start and early days of the Parachute Regiment and becoming world famous.

The humans know that they can't fly and therefore naturally scared of fallen, especially from great heights. Even sudden drops in altitude in modern aeroplane make stomach churning.

The author of the books remembers the experience of jumping into battle creates a spirit that transcends all ranks. When he was serving in the Parachute Regiment, he met parachutists from all nations. They came from Europe, America, Middle East and Africa. He states further that wherever he served the intangible airborne brotherhood was a uniting bond.

When Churchill was barely 12 days in office he issued a memo to General Ismay at the War Office on Jun 22, 1940. He wrote that they should have corps of at least 5,000 parachute troops and asked for a note on the subject. The staffs were shocked because there were not even any spare aircraft. Furthermore, nobody ever jumped out of an aeroplane except pilots who had to bale out. The general view of the RAF was that no sane man would jump from a perfect aircraft.                                         

The reason for Churchill's concern was that a large number of parachutists were captured in Holland. Major John Rock was barely back from Dunkirk when he was ordered to start a parachute troops at Ringway airfield in Manchester. He was given parachutist's boots and smock suit.

Six Whitley bombers and crews were allocated by Churchill and 1,000 parachutes were ordered. A senior RAF officer wrote, "There are very real difficulties in this parachute business. We are trying to introduce a completely new arm into the service at about five minutes notice and with totally inadequate resources and personnel. Little - if any - practical experience is possessed in England of any of these problems and it will be necessary to cover in six months the ground the Germans have covered in six years."

On July 11, 1940 pilots and instructors were hurling 200lbs dummies through a three-foot-wide hole in the floor of a Whitley bomber. Pupils on the ground were not very encouraged by what they saw.

One observer wrote, "We had all eyes on the approaching aircraft and open door when the dummy exited at 1,500 feet. The dummy dropped with all the speed and grace of a ton of bricks and slammed into the ground less the 60 yards from the soldiers. Confidence deflated but they were assured by an officer that if it were a human being the reserve parachute would have saved the life.

Sergeant T Dawes was second in line to jump during one live demonstration.

He remembered that with great effort he dared to look down on this first bird's-eye view of the English countryside. He saw at five hundred feet below a tiny stretcher with a dark motionless figure being lifted on the blood wagon (ambulance). It was not exactly encouraging. The number one had knocked himself out. After a three hour search they found Dawes six miles away, helplessly hanging in a tree by his parachute. To learn to perfect the jump was a painful experience.

Second Lieutenant Ian Smith also remembers that some clever ones developed devices to soften the landing. Some went into some extremes. "One inventor thought it best if we all wore under our boots a series of clip-on springs, about the size of bed springs."

Guardsman Frankie Garlic became entangled by his static line when his pack snagged on the line of the previous jumper. He hangs helpless underneath the hole and couldn't be pulled back in either. The pilot Edward Cutler had no other choice but to land in spite of him hanging there which meant certain death. Cutler manages to slow down the approach over grass and at the same time keeping the tail of the aircraft as high as possible. Garlic realized what is happening and went on his back while the parachute acted as a sledge. It disintegrated as friction stripped off layers of silk. Corporal Reg Curtis watched the landing and stated afterwards, "Frankie just slid out from under the Whitley, unlocked his harness and calmly walked away."

It is amazing how some tough and courageous soldiers found parachuting nerve racking and some just done it calmly.

"Parachuting is really a conflict between one's rational and emotional self," states Parachute Regiment Captain Peter Lunn. "Rationally one believes that there is now a very great risk; emotionally one is convinced that to jump out of a flying aeroplane means certain death."

"Parachuting should be 'debunked', it must become an everyday affair," according to Wing Commander Maurice Newnham at Ringway. "To do this we've got to build up confidence, stop the blood-curling tales that are spread about."  Parachuting has to be an automatic re-action when performed under stress.

The most important point, to succumb the fear factor, is the type of aircraft itself. The German JU-52 or the American Douglas Dakota were much easier to jump through because of the door exits. The British Whitley had to be jump through the bomb bay and had been condemned by instructors and students.

Aircraft fitter G Abbot remembered "dry-lipped, white-knuckled young men" boarding the Whitleys. Flying in the open tail gave a unique view of exiting paratroopers. "Only feet below the tail the exiting man would suddenly appear travelling rapidly backwards, arms and legs flailing, every facial expression visible - usually one of fear."

The resources were very limited to the British Paratroopers which makes them feel like even more as guinea-pig. Jumping through a hole was a stupid idea, was the opinion of the parachute instructor Harry Ward. Sergeant PTI Gerrad Turnbull, serving at Ringway, was convinced that it would only take 50 per cent training jumping through a door.

By September 1940, 21 officer and 321 soldiers had passed the selection. They went to parachute training with No 2 Commando Squadron Leader Maurice Newnham who eventually took over the parachute school. From this selection 30 found themselves unable to screw up the necessary determination to jump, two were killed because their parachutes didn't opened and 20 were either unsuitable or sustained injuries which made them medically unfit.

These great failure rates proved a problem to get the 5,000 parachutists, Churchill demanded.

"What manner of men are these who wear the red beret?" asked Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery rhetorically in 1947. "They are in fact men apart - every man an emperor," he declared.

A number of characteristics set Sky Men apart from other soldiers.

American paratroopers regard non-parachute infantry as simply "legs", because they do not go by air to battle. Russian paratroopers agreed they were "more equal than others". This exclusivity lies at the core of the "airborne spirit". Paratroopers often fight alone and unsupported. Acceptance of high casualties is implicit in all of this.

Volunteering for a tough selection process and the act of parachuting - a tangible display of courage and daring - Paratroopers are selected for their psychological staying power and determination to withstand the rigours of a low-level jump, probably in darkness.

FIRST FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM -- 19TH CENTURY --

WILLIAM MELVILLE

THIS IS A GREAT EYE OPENER 
WHAT WENT ON ALREADY AT THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY AND STILL GOES ON. 
 ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.

A book written by Alex Butterworth about the first war on terrorism. There was a serial of bombings in London and Europe at the end of 19th century and its history still has to be fully revealed. The book is called 'The World That Never Was' and the author put in a lot of effort into research.

Apparently, across Europe there was a high alert and for weeks undercover agents reported increased terrorism. One report was about a planned synchronised bombing attacks and the other a suspected assassination of heads of state.

All this sounds like a fiction film but there was a thorough research on a pile of deteriorating papers of French police' reports. These reports from the 1894 give a glimpse on a 'first war on terrorism' and it wasn't the Islamic fundamentalists but anarchists.

Admittedly there was a high immigration and amid revolutionaries finding safe heaven while in their homeland was political upheaval.  In the 1890 whole areas were foreign colonies in London. The most dangerous people were the Russians; plotting bloody action against their own government

Peter Rachkovsky, the head of Russia's sinister political police the Okharana, was brilliant and unscrupulous. From his Paris HQ he skilfully disrupts the activities against the Tsar. The father of the Tsar Alexander II they had assassinated in 1881. Rachkovsky used any method he could, such as sabotage, blackmail, propaganda and provocation.

Victoria showed herself and her government as liberal.  The Tsaristic Russia was seen as tyrants and anybody who seeked shelter in Britain was protected. But Rachkovsky knew how to sway the public opinion. A bomb scare implied coming from a foreign anarchist would soon help the change.

Inspector William Melville, Inspector of the British Special Branch was against the immigrants and a letter stated that he was willing to work with the Russians. Before the end of the year Melville planned the kind of bomb scare Rachkovski needed.

In Fitzroy Square in central London the grand Georgian Houses were full with immigrant families. A plot was hatched.  Anarchists in Walsall were making the bomb.  In January 1892, Melville arrested the Walsall man as he arrived in London and soon arrested the others.

Who was behind the whole set-up? There were rumours of a black book which detailed the Special Branch. But first it was under the 30 years secret act and then it supposed to be destroyed during the Second World War.

Finally in 2002 a Special Branch officer 'rediscovered' contents revealing that a teacher from an anarchist school was paid by Melville, was the man behind it. The so-called book was three vast ledgers and each line listed and cross-referenced letters sent or received by Special Branch. Even then you had to sign a document to reveal nothing of the contents. Mr Alex Butterworth who wrote the book 'The World That Never Was' insisted on the Freedom of Information law. The Metropolitan Police prevented him for three years. The Information Commissioner finally agreed for documents to be realized.

The Met appealed, the Information Tribunal heard testimony from three senior counter-terrorist officers and the ruling was that the names should be kept secret to avoid future informers being put off. The documents turned out to be a sea of black ink which could have been a historical evidence.

To protect informers is a very good reason but we are talking here about documents over a century old. Another reason for secrecy would be Melville involvement with the Russian Okhrana.  In 1893 Melville became chief inspector of Special Branch. Anarchist terrorism set Europe alight and the people of Paris and Barcelona lived in fear of bombings. In February 1894 in London a bomb was carried by a young Frenchman exploded near the Greenwich Royal Observatory.

Joseph Conrad, used the story as the basis for his novel 'The Secret Agent' which pointed at the Russian embassy. Conrad claimed it was a fiction. However, Alex Butterworth's research showed it was facts. Within weeks of the Greenwich bombings a bomb exploded in the Belgium city of Liege. Letters found in the flat pointed to the Russian embassy in Paris again Rachkovsky's agent.

Within a few years the attacks ran its course but the facts remained that Rachkovsky's war on terror' was a terrible 'blowback'.

His forgery of 'The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion' which supposed to be a plan for Jews to achieve worldwide domination; started off an anti-Semitism which snow-balled into the gas chambers.

THIS SHOULD BE A WARNING TO ALL OF US -- HOW SOMETHING LIKE THAT CAN SNOW-BALL INTO A HOLOCAUST.  IT ALWAYS STARTS SMALL - SO DON'T IGNORE IT.

The then home secretary Charles Clarke insisted after the bombings in 2005 that the 19th century war on terror held lessons for us today.

Alex Butterworth wrote a book 'The World That Never Was' and it will give many more information.

TRIBUTE TO ANTI-WAR DEMONSTRATOR -- BRIAN HAW -- RIP

He fought so hard to prevent another war. We all should have been there to add strength to his efforts but we all let him down.

BRIAN HAW

This is a most deservedly tribute to an anti-war protester. Brian Haw whose protest lasted over a decade and at the end cost him his life, He was an idealist and a man with high principles. He was a thorn in the government but not enough for them to stop the war. He done what we all should have done -- protesting against their illegal war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, most people are 'armchair protesters'.

It began in 2001 where Brian Haw first started to protest against British support for UN sanctions against Iraq. He was an evangelical Christian and his principals went all against it. He increased his fight after the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq which was and is an illegal war. Other protesters joined him but only for some time and than they drifted away. But Haw carried on with his anti war protest and set up a camp outside Parliament on the green island. There were numerous attempts to move him and stop the war protests.

A year after he set-up a tent and was using a megaphone at all hours, literally, to get his message across. The complains to the Westminster City Council increased constantly. After all the MPs couldn't sleep during their meetings. Downing Street couldn't sleep at night. All this will never do. The Westminster City Council managed to find a law - the Highway Act under which they could remove him. Aha, the Highway Act stated clearly he has to move because he was a "nuisance". Now, they have done it and were very pleased with themselves

                                 THE ANTI WAR PROTEST CAMP IN FRONT OF THE PARLIAMENT

Then it turn out that Haw's assortment of placards, anti-war banners and images of war weren't a nuisance after all because he wasn't on the road or high way. It shows that one just can't trust the law.

All these efforts and sacrifices Brian Haw gave cost him his family, home and eventually his life. In 2003 his wife Kay asked for a divorce. Unfortunately, this also lost him his seven children because he very rarely saw them. Yet, they should have been the proudest children of them all.

Mr Haw said: "I want to go back to my own kids and look them in the face again, knowing that I've done all I can to try to save the children of Iraq and other countries who are dying because of my government's unjust, immoral, money-driven policies. Unfortunately, that was not to be granted to him and yet he gave so much to achieve it.

Kind strangers used to bring him food and offered emotional support. Haw knew how much his action cost him but as the time went by and people became less interested he was called anything from an eccentric to "a nut".

When Labour government, at that time, passed a law that no unauthorised protest was allowed within a square mile of Parliament he refused to go. He stated that his protest began before the new legislation.

In 2006 the Court of Appeal decided that he needs a police permission to continue protesting. It was granted but only for a very small area.

Three months before his death Lord Major Boris Johnson won a possession order to evict him and also other protesters from the Great London Authority-owned Parliament Square gardens. I hope Mr Johnson is proud of himself. Mr Haw objected and was determined that he would remain in the square for the rest of his life.

Brian Haw was born on 7 January 1949 in Woodford Green, north-east London. He was a twin. He was fully aware of the great impact war can have on individuals, families and communities. His father was with his troops who stepped first into the concentration camp at Belsen. He could never get over it and committed suicide.

Mr Haw joined the merchant navy for some time. After that he ran a removals business and was a carpenter. He found his true vocation when he went to Northern Ireland and started preaching during their troubles. Then he worked with troubled youngsters in Redditch in the West Midlands where he lived before his protest.

Channel 4 voted him as the most inspiring political figure and he won an award in 2007. Mr Haw was regularly including in the sightseeing tours of London because of his anti war protest became so famous. When there were documentaries made about Britian's involvement in Iraq, they also included Brian Haw and his protest.

Brian Haw died of lung cancer on 18 June, 2011. He was 62 years old. It was the lung cancer which he didn't deserve after all he tried to do to prevent suffering. He is survived by his children. May he RIP and we should all be proud of him trying to prevent this terrible slaughter single handed. 

WE ALL SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE  AND DEMONSTRATE.

SUMMARY:

Brian Haw gave his all and more for a dream that he could save children suffering from the hands of his government. It was over 10 years he lived there in a tent.

What must he have gone through? Day and night being uncomfortable, hungry, cold and lonely.  Lonely, especially in the night. Also, I am sure, drunkards and yob went there to harass him. He must have missed his home, wife and kids. He loved them otherwise he wouldn't suffer so much for them.

He really gave the lot to his country. Will we think of him in a month time or a year of the man who gave so much?

GANGS AND GANGSTERS -- PART THREE

Jack Comer was born as Jacob Comadio and was the youngest of four children. His father was a poor Jewish tailor machinist. They moved to London from Lodz, Poland in 1903. They changed their name to Comer to sound more English but still received anti-semitism.

Jack Comer grew up in a Jewish ghetto street in Fieldgate Mansions. At the age of seven he joined a gang of Jewish boys who were the rivals of Catholic Irish.

He was called spotty because he had a mole on his left cheek                              .

JACK COMER

Spot Comer claimed he was taken part in the 'Battle of Cable Street'. For people who don't know it were a street battle between the Black Shirts of Mosley (British Nazis) and the East Ender of London including Jews. He was badly beaten by the police with truncheons and ended up in Hospital and then in prison. He stated afterwards that it wasn't a mob fight; it was a victory over the Nazis.

Spot lost control of the East Ender rackets in 1952. After his partner Bill Hill was released from prison when Jack Comer failed to heist the £1.25 in London Heathrow. Also the Betting and Booking was legalized and Spot lost a lucrative market.

In 1955 a knife fight in Frith Street, Soho between Albert Dimes and Spot ended with both men badly insured. Both men pleaded not guilty and neither man was jailed.

After that Spot kept loosing control over the crime empire. In 1959 he and his wife were attacked by "Mad" Frankie Frazer, Bobby Warren and many others.

Frazer and Warren were given seven years.

In his hay-days, Spot was living in a ten guineas flat in Hyde Park Mansion near Edgeware Road.

He died of "Cerebrovascular accident and immobility" at the age of 83 in reduced circumstances.

Jack Comer's ashes were scattered in Israel

REGINALD (LEFT) 
AND RONALD KRAY

The Kray's brothers were notorious. Even in our time, people gave them folk hero's status. Ronnie and Reggie Kray were twins. They controlled a 'protection' racket in the East End of London in the 1960. Their friends or admirers, whatever you may call them, stated that they helped fellow East-Enders who were hard up. Whether it was a method to rope them in is not known. Also they made the streets safe for women and children which sound controversial to their activities but they did. Nevertheless, they only fought other gangster who either double crossed them or trying to muscled in, in their territory. They dealt with them ruthlessly.

Their gang was called the 'Firm' and Reggie Kray was the 'chairman of the board'. Ronnie Kray was the second in command. The company prospered and they opened up a smart nightclub 'Esmeralda's Barn' There they mixed with TV personalities, politicians and American movie stars.

However, underneath all that glamour the reign of terror continued.  Apparently, on one occasion, Ronnie Kray walked into a crowded bar. He shot a man dead because that man insulted him and then calmly walked out again. Another man offended the twins and Reggie Kray dealt with him with a carving knife. He was found and sent to the mortuary. There are a number of deaths in the East End of London occurring at that time which are still unexplained. Some are linked to the Kray’s Brothers but never proven.

In 1969, the two Kray's brother went on trial and found guilty. Both became life in prison and eventually died there.

GANGS AND GANGSTERS -- PART TWO

AL CAPOME                                                          

Al Capone was a son of an Italian Immigrant and born in 1899 he move from New York to Chicago in 1919.

When the US government declared prohibition of manufacturing, distributing and selling intoxicating drinks; Al Capone made a fortune in supplying illegal alcohol. With a fast income of US 100 million in 1924 he bribed most of the Chicago top officials. The mayor, chief of police, judges and lawyers were all on his payroll.

The rival’s gangs and their leaders argued with Capone because they didn't want him to muscle in on their territory. It became so bad with the gangs fighting wars with Thompson sub-machine gun that it became known as the 'Chicago typewriter'. This weapon could fire a thousand rounds per minute and penetrate a 7cm thick pine board at 4572m.

The height of the killing was the so-called St Valentine's Day Massacre on 14 February 1929. Some of Capone's men lined up seven of their rivals and shot them in cold blood. There was a public outcry and finally the police took action. No witnesses could be found. They charged Al Capone with tax evasion. He died in 1947 after being in prison for eight years. He was sick and insane.

Now Al Capone's empire became a large and more ambitious crime Syndicate. The prohibition ended in 1933. The Syndicate was launched in 1934 and had leaders of the country's most powerful gangs. Millions of Dollar came from an assortment of other underworld rackets such as gambling, vice, extortion and drugs.

The gangs didn't want any wars like it raged in Chicago. They worked out territories, rules and regulations. They even had an appointed national board of directors. They set up a squad of full-time killers - Murder, Inc - to deal with anyone who would not obey the rules or an order. Each killer was paid between US$1000 and US$5000 to carry out the 'assignment'. They also received a regular salary and all kinds of benefits which were normally only enjoyed by top executives. - life insurance, medical care and retirement plans.

In the 1940 the Syndicate was taken over by an even more powerful group, the Mafia.

In the 9th Century the Mafia was founded to resist foreign invaders. It slowly became a criminal organisation and by the 19th century practically controlled the island government. It did not expand into the mainland Italy because it was and is controlled by the Camorra.

It found that the USA was a great open ground to expand. Large numbers of Italian immigrants and Sicilians flood to America.

They began in New Orleans but soon spread to other cities with large Sicilian communities. Loyalty was absolute paramount. A new member held his hand over a sheet of paper with a picture of a saint on it. The middle finger was pricked and a few drops of blood fell onto the paper. This was crumpled up and set alight. The new member had to say the words, 'I swear to be loyal to my brothers, never to betray them, and if I fail may I burn and be turned to ashes like the ashes of the image.' This oath of loyalty was the strength and backbone of the Mafia.

Those who dared to betray were killed. The Mafia grew to enormous power and a few attempts were made to break them. In the 1940's it was the most powerful and profitable criminal organization. However, it was not until JF Kennedy became President that the Mafia felt a thread. He put them of top of the list to smash them but in November 1963 he was killed. It was assumed that he was a victim of a Mafia assassination plot.

However, the Mafia has and is still flourishing. Other powerful Mafia-type gangs emerged in other countries. In Russia they have their own Mafia and the underworld became a state within a state. The rate of crimes has shot up in the last five years. Businessmen, politicians and policemen are on the payroll.

Underworld Slang

BUZZERS; Pickers of Gentlemen's pockets.

PROP-NAILERS; Those who steal pins and brooches.

TIMBLE-SCREWERS; Watch-snatchers

DEAD LURKERS; Those who steal coats and umbrellas from passages at dusk or on Sunday afternoons.

SNOW GATHERERS; Those who steal drying clothes off the hedges.

BLUEY-HUNERS; Those who steal lead from the roofs of houses.

MUDLARKS; Those who steal pieces of rope and lumps of coal from ships along the River Thames.

RESURRECTIONISTS; Those who steal dead bodies to sell to medical schools and scientists.

I am sure these phrases are more likely from the older days.

CAPONE'S HEADQUARTERS IN CHICAGO -- THE LEXINGTON HOTEL -- IT WAS DEMOLISHED IN 1995

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GANGS AND GANGSTERS -- PART ONE

JONATHAN WILD

HENRY FIELDING --  A NOVELIST

Henry Fielding, a novelist, was the earliest expert of the underworld. He was an appointed magistrate at Bow Street in 1749. He also founded the detective force the Bow Street Runners. He published a pamphlet in which he wrote about the gangs of thieves and beggars which plagued London in 1751. He wrote, and I quote, 'The Innocent are put in Terror, affronted and alarmed with Threads and Execrations, endangered with loaded Pistols, beat with Bludgeons and hacked with Cutlasses, of which the Loss of Health, of Limbs, and often of Life, is the Consequence; and all without any Respect of Age, Dignity, or Sex...'

Fielding knew about the activities of 'a great Gang of Rogues, whose Number falls little short of a Hundred, who are incorporated in one Body, have Officers and a Treasury' and he was outraged about it. That gang had organised Theft and Robbery into a regular system.

Gang members often avoid punishment even if they were arrested. If they failed to rescue a prisoner (which doesn't happen very often) they then bribed the Prosecution or organized false witnesses.

The greatest operator in the 18th century was Jonathan Wild. Born in Wolverhampton in 1682 and since he was trained as a buckle-maker he set up shop in Birmingham. He got bored and left his wife and young family to run off to London. There he lived a life of luxury and landed in prison because of his debts.

When he came out in 1714, he opened an inn. However, this was a cover up. He knew that thieves had problems with disposing goods they stole. He accepted the goods and sold them back to the rightful owners. It was clever and daring but profitable. He then opened an 'Office for the Recovery of Lost and Stolen Property'. People could go there and buy back their stolen property. Wild split the money with the thieves. The criminal who didn't want to join and disagreed with his money, were dealt with. He would betray him to the authorities.

He became a more than well known figure as the 'Thief-taker General of Great Britain and Ireland'. He also hunted his rivals down and turned them in for reward money. His luck ran out when in 1725 he helped a highwayman to escape. All his other activities were found out and he was tried and hanged. His last act was that he picked the chaplain's pocket on the way to the gallows.

Wild was cunning and ruthless but his notoriety captures the imagination of people. It inspired Henry Fielding to write a novel 'Jonathan Wild'. The 'Beggar's Opera by John Gray's, a musical satire was based on his exploits and the underworld. It was staged in 1728.

Many other criminals managed to get a similar hold and fired the imagination of writers and film producers. Dick Turpin the highwayman, the 19th century Australian bank robber Ned Kelly and American outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

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