Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Corpsenapping
Hey, Matt!:
I was watching President Ford's funeral on C-SPAN and something occurred to me. The cameras kept cutting away to Betty, who was sitting in a huge armored Cadillac. At least I assume it was armored because the widows were really small and the roof posts were really thick. Is the president's hearse armored? Does his body have any value to our country's enemies? Has the U.S. ever paid ransom to get back a VIP's corpse? I can't think why the hearse should need built-in protection, but there are a lot of goofy people out there.
-- Bob Tepedino, Hillcrest
That's the motto of the Secret Service, isn't it -- there are a lot of goofy people out there? One of the perks of being an ex-president is full-time protection for life (and beyond, apparently) by the guys in black suits and aviator specs. With guns. The Ford hearse and the Caddy are attack proofed. As for U.S. willingness to ransom people, dead or alive, we're not crazy about it these days, but in the time of Thomas Jefferson it was a different story. A frigateload of U.S. sailors ran aground off Tripoli (Libya) and ended up being taken as slaves of the reigning pasha. He demanded a ransom for them. Instead, Jefferson sent the Marines and some covert operatives who planned to off the pasha and put his brother in power and release the sailors (laying the philosophical foundation for the CIA, I think). Things went sideways, and the U.S. ended up paying the pasha $60,000 ransom.
As for ransoming dead people, for some reason, the late 1800s seemed to be a popular time for grave robbing. Some of the deceased ended up in anatomy classes for med students, but thieves were not above digging up some rich guy and holding his body for ransom from the rich guy's heirs. But the closest we've come to a presidential corpsenapping involved -- who else? -- Abe Lincoln. The man didn't get a moment's peace, even in death.
When Lincoln died, Mrs. Lincoln wanted his tomb built in Illinois. His body was moved there and for the next six or seven years was transferred between temporary vaults and crypts while the townspeople toiled over the huge building. He didn't rest in his permanent sarcophagus until 1874, nine years after his death. Then, in 1876, four counterfeiters in Chicago decided to steal the body to hold it for ransom (terms: $200,000 and the release of one of their friends from prison). They broke into the tomb and were hauling out the coffin just as the feds closed in. Seems three of the thieves were bona fide crooks, the fourth was a Secret Service agent.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Corpsenapping
Corpsenapping
Hey, Matt!:
I was watching President Ford's funeral on C-SPAN and something occurred to me. The cameras kept cutting away to Betty, who was sitting in a huge armored Cadillac. At least I assume it was armored because the widows were really small and the roof posts were really thick. Is the president's hearse armored? Does his body have any value to our country's enemies? Has the U.S. ever paid ransom to get back a VIP's corpse? I can't think why the hearse should need built-in protection, but there are a lot of goofy people out there.
-- Bob Tepedino, Hillcrest
That's the motto of the Secret Service, isn't it -- there are a lot of goofy people out there? One of the perks of being an ex-president is full-time protection for life (and beyond, apparently) by the guys in black suits and aviator specs. With guns. The Ford hearse and the Caddy are attack proofed. As for U.S. willingness to ransom people, dead or alive, we're not crazy about it these days, but in the time of Thomas Jefferson it was a different story. A frigateload of U.S. sailors ran aground off Tripoli (Libya) and ended up being taken as slaves of the reigning pasha. He demanded a ransom for them. Instead, Jefferson sent the Marines and some covert operatives who planned to off the pasha and put his brother in power and release the sailors (laying the philosophical foundation for the CIA, I think). Things went sideways, and the U.S. ended up paying the pasha $60,000 ransom.
As for ransoming dead people, for some reason, the late 1800s seemed to be a popular time for grave robbing. Some of the deceased ended up in anatomy classes for med students, but thieves were not above digging up some rich guy and holding his body for ransom from the rich guy's heirs. But the closest we've come to a presidential corpsenapping involved -- who else? -- Abe Lincoln. The man didn't get a moment's peace, even in death.
When Lincoln died, Mrs. Lincoln wanted his tomb built in Illinois. His body was moved there and for the next six or seven years was transferred between temporary vaults and crypts while the townspeople toiled over the huge building. He didn't rest in his permanent sarcophagus until 1874, nine years after his death. Then, in 1876, four counterfeiters in Chicago decided to steal the body to hold it for ransom (terms: $200,000 and the release of one of their friends from prison). They broke into the tomb and were hauling out the coffin just as the feds closed in. Seems three of the thieves were bona fide crooks, the fourth was a Secret Service agent.
Comments