American History: A Famous American Criminal

John Herbert Dillinger, Jr. (June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934) was an American bank robber in the Depression-era United States. His gang robbed two dozen banks and four police stations. Dillinger escaped from jail twice. Dillinger was also charged with, but never convicted of, the murder of an East Chicago, Indiana, police officer during a shoot-out, Dillinger's only homicide charge. In 1933–34, seen in retrospect as the heyday of the Depression-era outlaw, Dillinger was the most notorious of all, standing out even among more violent criminals such as Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Bonnie and Clyde. (Decades later, the first major book about '30s gangsters was titled The Dillinger Days.) Media reports in his time were spiced with exaggerated accounts of Dillinger's bravado and daring and his colorful personality. The government demanded federal action, and J. Edgar Hoover developed a more sophisticated Federal Bureau of Investigation as a weapon against organized crime and used Dillinger and his gang as his campaign platform to launch the FBI. After evading police in four states for almost a year, Dillinger was wounded and returned to his father's home to recover. He returned to Chicago in July 1934 and met his end at the hands of police and federal agents who were informed of his whereabouts by Ana Cumpănaş (the owner of the brothel where Dillinger sought refuge at the time). On July 22, the police and Division of Investigation closed in on the Biograph Theater. Federal agents, led by Melvin Purvis and Samuel P. Cowley, moved to arrest him as he left the theater. He pulled a weapon and attempted to flee but was shot three times (four according to some historians) and killed. And In A Tucson Hotel… A fire broke out at the Hotel Congress in Tucson where members of the Dillinger gang were staying. Forced to leave their luggage behind, they were rescued through a window and down a fire truck ladder. Charles Makley and Russell Clark tipped a couple of firemen $12 to climb back up and retrieve the luggage, affording the firefighters a good look at several members of Dillinger's gang. One of them, William Benedict, later recognized Makley, Pierpont, and Ed Shouse while thumbing through a copy of True Detective and informed the police, who tracked Makley's luggage to a second hideout. Makley was the first to be arrested. Clark was the next one to be arrested at the hideout. To arrest Pierpont, the police staged a routine traffic stop and lured him to the police station, where they took him by surprise and arrested him. Dillinger was the last one to be arrested.They found them in possession of over $25,000 in cash and several automatic weapons. Tucson celebrates the historic arrest with an annual "Dillinger Days" festival, the highlight of which is a reenactment., Now, stay clear of the bad guys!

The Roadrunner

Most of us who travel the deserts have seen the Roadrunner. And if you never have been in the desert you sure have seen Walt Disney’s Roadrunner figure zapping along the ground, accompanied by the typical sound of a car horn. The enormous speed these birds show when running is legendary. And it is a great deal of fun watching them.   Under running the body stretches out close to a flat line. The neck and beak is lowered forward and the long tail of this bird pokes straight backward, emphasizing the impression of speed.       But as soon as the roadrunner stops, neck and beak are raised up and so is the tail. They are very shy and consequently hard to take a picture of. I found a good description of the bird at Desert USA.       Geography – Range Throughout the Mojave, Sonoran, Chihuahuan and southern Great Basin deserts They in all the Southwestern states. Curious Facts Roadrunners are quick enough to catch and eat rattlesnakes. Roadrunners prefer walking or running and attain speeds up to 17 mph. hour The Roadrunner is also called the Chaparral Cock. The Roadrunner reabsorbs water from its feces before excretion. The Roadrunner’s nasal gland eliminates excess salt, instead of using the urinary tract like most birds. The Roadrunner is the state bird of New Mexico. Vital Stats Weight: 8-24 oz. Length: 20-24 inches" Height: 10-12" Sexual Maturity: 2-3 yrs.. Mating Season: Spring Incubation: 18-20 days No. of Eggs: 2-12 Birth Interval: 1 year Lifespan: 7 to 8 years Typical diet: insects, lizards, snakes, Related Species Roadrunners are ground cuckoos, are any of about 15 species of birds constituting the subfamily Neomorphinae of the Cuckoo Family (Cuculidae), noted for terrestrial habits. There are 11 New World species, 3 of which lay their eggs in the nests of other birds. Other ground cuckoos include the Morococcyx erythropygus, a species widespread in Central America and 5 species of Neomorphus, found from Costa Rica to Bolivia.Three species of the very large Carpococcyx, are found in Southeast Asia and acquire a length of 24 inches. Comparisons The two species of Roadrunners include the Lesser Roadrunner (G. velox) a slightly smaller, buffier and less streaky bird, of Mexico and Central America, which grows to a length of 18 inches.

  Roadrunner Baby

Description
The legendary Roadrunner is famous for its distinctive appearance, its ability to eat rattlesnakes and its preference for scooting across the American deserts, as popularized in
Warner Bros. cartoons.
The Roadrunner is a large, black-and-white, mottled ground bird with a distinctive head crest. It has strong feet, a long, white-tipped tail and an oversized bill.
It ranges in length from 20 to 24 inches from the tip of its tail to the end of its beak. It is a member of the Cuckoo Family (Cuculidae), characterized by feet with 2 forward toes and 2 behind.
When the Roadrunner senses danger or is traveling downhill, it flies, revealing short, rounded wings with a white crescent. But it cannot keep its large body airborne for more than a few seconds, and so prefers walking or running (up to 17 miles per hour) usually with a clownish gait.
VocalizationThe Roadrunner makes a series of 6 to 8, low, dovelike coos dropping in pitch, as well as a clattering sound by rolling mandibles together.
TailThe Roadrunner has a long, graduated tail carried at an upward angle.
Legs
The Roadrunner has long stout legs.
Behavior
The Roadrunner is uniquely suited to a desert environment by a number of physiological and behavioral adaptations
Its carnivorous habits offer it a large supply of very moist food
It reabsorbs water from its feces before excretion
A nasal gland eliminates excess salt, instead of using the urinary tract like most birds
It reduces its activity 50% during the heat of midday
Its extreme quickness allows it to snatch a humming bird or dragonfly from midair.
Habitat
The Roadrunner inhabits open, flat or rolling terrain with scattered cover of dry brush, chaparral or other desert scrub.
Food & HuntingThe Roadrunner feeds almost exclusively on other animals, including insects, scorpions, lizards, snakes, rodents and other birds. Up to 10 % of its winter diet may consist of plant material due to the scarcity of desert animals at that time of the year.
Because of its lightening quickness, the Roadrunner is one of the few animals that preys upon rattlesnakes. Using its wings like a matador's cape, it snaps up a coiled rattlesnake by the tail, cracks it like a whip and repeatedly slams its head against the ground till dead.
It then swallows its prey whole, but is often unable to swallow the entire length at one time. This does not stop the Roadrunner from its normal routine. It will continue to meander about with the snake dangling from its mouth, consuming another inch or two as the snake slowly digests.
Breeding
When spring arrives, the male Roadrunner, in addition to acquiring food for himself, offers choice morsels to a female as an inducement to mating. He usually dances around her while she begs for food, then gives her the morsel after breeding briefly.
Both parents collect the small sticks used for building a shallow, saucer-like nest, but the female actually constructs it in a bush, cactus or small tree. She then lays from 2 to 12 white eggs over a period of 3 days, which results in staggered hatching. . Incubation is from 18-20 days and is done by either parent, though preferably the male, because the nocturnally incubating males maintain normal body temperature.
The first to hatch often crowd out the late-arriving runts, which are sometimes eaten by the parents. Usually only 3 or 4 young are finally fledged from the nest after about 18 days. These remain near the adults for up to 2 more weeks before dispersing to the surrounding desert.
In the Sonoran and Mojave deserts of California where there is only one rainy season, Roadrunners nest in Spring, the only time there is abundant prey to raise a brood. In the Sonoran Desert of Arizona, they breed again in August or September after summer rains increase their food sources.
Source:  DesertUSA.com

Beautiful Days Are Here Again

The powers of winter seem to be broken. We are enjoying gorgeous warm days again. Today’s high is supposed to be 79F (about 27C), which means I won’t be sitting in the sun. (but under the awning it’s very comfortable) And with warming days  we are thinking about spring, spring flowers and green grass. It’s gotto be our northern upbringing which has induced those feelings. Even though we don’t have snow and ice out here, but the colors of winter in the desert are kinda bleak. Next month we want to go over to Borrego for a day to enjoy a ride along the blooming desert. In fact we saw the first yellow flowers coming up along Hwy 95 after the recent rain. To check on the status of spring flowers at Borrego Springs you can click here. Recently we have seen new followers climb onboard here. Welcome to the show! Al and Kelly have developed their “plan B” and it involves selling their motor home privately. We have done that as well and I think it’s a good idea. We can all help them to find a buyer for it by putting a little ad on our blog. Next week the town of Holtville will again celebrate their “Carrot Festival”. We are looking forward to see their fancy parade along Main Street. We are delighted to read about Sassy’s recovery after her major illness a few weeks ago. And I won’t be mistaken if I say that she’s not in need of running her generator anymore. Just look and see what she’s done. Way to go, Sassy! It’s time to take my coffee, hang in there and thanks for dropping by!

Short And Odd

Monkeying Around People are known to develop all kind of odd interests. Recently the French police confiscated a collection of 121 monkeys from a private home in Marseille. They had been kept in small dirty bird cages. YIKES! No Drivers License? Another Frenchman was recently stopped in a routine check stop. When he could not produce a drivers license he admitted having driven without a license for 34 years. In fact he never did the test. Now He has to pay a fine – not only for driving without a license, but also for driving a car without the bi-annual technical inspection sticker! Burnt And Run-away  A tenant received life threatening injuries during a fire in his basement apartment in the German town of Bad Worishofen. In order to cool of his body he jumped into a pond. Afterwards he climbed over a fence and disappeared. Firefighters found him later in a barn close by and brought him to a hospital.  Watch Your Vehicle!   A 33-year old was standing behind loading his van, when he notices that the vehicle started to roll away. Quickly he discovered that someone was sitting behind the wheel driving it. On foot he was too slow to follow so he stopped the driver of a snowplow asking him to follow the stolen van. The snowplow driver forgot all about plowing city streets and started the chase. They managed to stop the thief and discovered that he was a drunk wanting to drive home from last nights party. Dog Goes To Church After the passing of his owner an Italian dog has taken up regular church visits. His female owner used to be a regular at local church services and her burial s ervice was conducted there as well. Every afternoon when the church bells are ringing the dog makes his way to church and takes his place in front of the altar. According to the Italian newspaper “Il Messagero” the local priest has accepted the dog’s quiet presence. Before his owner died, the dog used to sit in front of the church waiting for the woman to return. Now he participates in every wedding, baptism, and regular Sunday services. The woman had also adopted 3 street dogs. All dogs are now fed by the locals. and the last one: The Thief Was A Washing Machine The police was recently called to a house where the caller thought he had heard a thief rummaging in his laundry room. However, it turned out to be the washing machine itself who had started to wander around the premises under spinning. The cops helped the man getting his washing machine back on track. And over here. it really looks like spring has sprung. It is way too warm to sit in the sun, but we are not complaining. Have a great day and thanks for dropping by!