The famous "From Hell" letter (From Casebook: Jack the Ripper) London, 1888. A fiend stalks the dank, filthy streets of the Whitechapel district, preying upon prostitutes -- gruesomely dismembering his victims -- and then disappears into the night. He is never caught. In the years since, identifying Jack the Ripper has been a parlor game that both criminologists and laypersons have played. Was the murderer a member of royalty -- a prince or a duke with a boundless and ferocious hatred of women? One such candidate is Prince Albert Victor, a grandson to Queen Victoria, who, it is theorized, killed women as revenge for contracting a nasty case of the clap. Or maybe the Ripper was a Freemason, who killed the women as part of some ghastly Masonic rite? Then again, maybe Jack was an artist. Patricia Cornwell, a crime novelist and former medical examiner, argues that he was a painter named Walter Sickert, who in a plot straight out of the "The Da Vinci Code" inserted clues to the slayings into his paintings. Arguing against these and other popular Ripper candidates is FBI profiler John Douglas, who proposes that the killer was too disorganized in thought and behavior to have fit in among the upper classes. Douglas proposes that the killer was probably a laborer who blended in well with the poverty and wretched surroundings of Whitechapel, and was thus able to escape detection. At the time of the murders, hundreds of letters claiming to be from the real killer were sent to the authorities. Of the letters received, the "From Hell" letter, received on September 15, 1888, is deemed as the strongest candidate to have come from the actual killer. The text of the "From Hell" letter reads as follows: From hell Mr Lusk, Sor I send you half the Kidne I took from one women prasarved it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was very nise. I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wate a whil longer signed Catch me when you can Mishter Lusk The letter was sent to George Lusk, head of the Whitechapel Vigilance committee, and did indeed contain half of a kidney. A test confirmed it was from an adult female suffering from Brights disease, a condition common among the alcoholic prostitutes of Whitechapel. But because of the limitations of forensic science in Victorian London, the kidney was never conclusively linked to any of the victims. Because so much time has passed, it is unlikely that the identity of Jack the Ripper will ever be proven. Barring an earth-shattering piece of new evidence, the name of the person who killed in frenzy on those London nights in 1888, and then faded into the night, will remain lost to history. Suggested Sites... Casebook: Jack the Ripper - a comprehensive summary of all things Jack. Whitechapel Society - a contemporary organization that studies the Ripper case. Crime Library - case facts about one of history's most notorious serial killers.

Directory categories: Jack the Ripper, UK Serial Killers, Victorian Era, "From Hell" Movie

Archived under: 19th Century, Crime, Criminals, History, Jack the Ripper, London, Murder, Mysteries, U.K. History

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"If anyone wants me, I'll be in my trailer!" The cast of "Roundhay Garden Scene" A two-second shot of people walking and laughing isn't very exciting and doesn't have much of a plot, but it made history by becoming the first motion picture ever made. On October 14, 1888, French inventor Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince gathered his wife Elizabeth, son Adolphe, mother-in-law Sarah Whitley, and friends Joseph and Harriet Hartley on Whitley's property in Roundhay, West Yorkshire, England, and filmed the "Roundhay Garden Scene." Ten years after Eadweard Muybridge captured a galloping horse with a series of still images on his zoopraxiscope, and a few years before either Edison's Kinetoscope or the Lumière Brothers' "L’arroseur arrosé" ("The Sprinkler Sprinkled"), Le Prince used the single-lens camera he invented to capture an ephemeral family scene. Le Prince was introduced to photography by Louis Daguerre himself, and shot portraits of Queen Victoria and Prime Minister Gladstone that were put into the time capsule buried in the foundation of Cleopatra’s Needle in London in 1878. Le Prince also invented several cameras, and was about to leave France on a trip to promote his latest inventions in the United States when he disappeared on a train between Dijon and Paris. Murder? Suicide? Voluntary disappearance? The mystery has never been solved, even after more than a century, but in 2003, a photograph of an unidentified drowned man who resembled Le Prince was found in the Paris police archives. That's not the only tragedy surrounding Le Prince, though: his mother-in-law, one of the stars of "Roundhay Garden Scene," died only ten days after it was filmed, and Le Prince's son Adolphe was shot dead in New York in 1902. We've heard of tough critics, but that takes things a little too far. Suggested Sites... Louis Le Prince, a Prolific Inventor - his life, his work, his inventions. Cinema History - from 900 BC to today, the "complete" history of motion pictures. "Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge" - Le Prince's hit sequel to "Roundhay Garden Scene." A three-second epic. "Accordion Player" - Le Prince's first musical. Louis Le Prince - biography from the Louis Le Prince Centre at the University of Leeds.

Directory categories: Louis Le Prince , Movies and Film History, Silent Movies, Auguste and Louis Lumiere, Thomas Edison

Archived under: 19th Century, Eadweard Muybridge, Filmmaking, Movie History, Movies, Mysteries, U.K. History

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Wonder if the Cream of Wheat man will ever be made CEO, like Uncle Ben was? What's the greatest invention to come out of North Dakota? The "Roughrider State" takes credit for the first parking meter, but in my humble estimation, Cream of Wheat is a far more notable contribution to world happiness. The hot cereal made its debut exactly 116 years ago, when a wheat miller in Grand Forks, ND, sold the first box. I've always liked my Cream of Wheat with milk and honey, but today's online foodies are showing me up with their creations. They're serving up the cereal with coconut milk, rhubarb, and even pumpkin and spices. We're also seeing a proliferation of recipes that use Cream of Wheat for non-cereal, non-breakfast purposes. While I can't vouch for the quality of these recipes, apparently Cream of Wheat can be a key ingredient for such diverse foods as filet of fish, chocolate bread, and dumplings. And for the category of "stuff I learned on the Internet that I never would have asked:" most dogs can safely eat Cream of Wheat. It's not the recommended use, folks, but there’s an eHow article devoted entirely to the question, "Can dogs eat Cream of Wheat?" The answer is yes, but you should remember that dogs, like humans, can have food allergies. Suggested Sites... About.com: Nutrition - find out why breakfast is the most important meal of the day. RecipeZaar - more recipes using Cream of Wheat. The History of Cream of Wheat - 116 years of hot farina cereal. Was the Cream of Wheat Chef a Real Person? - he was, and his name was Frank White.

Directory categories: Food and Drink, Eating Practices, Breakfast Recipes, Nutrition, Recipes

Archived under: 19th Century, Anniversaries, Brands, Cooking, Eating, Food and Drink, In Character, Nutrition, Recipes

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Cecil B. DeMille in the trailer for 1952's "The Greatest Show on Earth" Few Hollywood filmmakers have fit the cliché of a "Hollywood director" as well as Cecil B. DeMille. He was egotistical, a tyrant on the set, he oversaw even the smallest details of every scene -- and he even wore riding pants and boots and used a megaphone while working. But, then, few Hollywood filmmakers were as successful and popular as DeMille. From the mid 1910s to the late 1950s, De Mille turned out hit after hit by combining comedy, drama, overacting, sex, and the Bible into a style that the public couldn't get enough of. Born on August 12, 1881, "C.B." was working by the age of 19 for legendary Broadway producer Charles Frohman as an actor, writer, and director. In 1913, film producer Jesse Lasky hired DeMille to direct a feature version of the stage play, "The Squaw Man." Since Lasky's studios in New York City weren't really suited for filming a Western, it was decided to take the production on location. Originally, the film was intended to film in Arizona, but bad weather forced the company to keep moving west, until they ended up in Hollywood, California (specifically around what is now the corner of Selma and Vine). Over the next fifteen years, DeMille turned out more than 60 feature films, ranging from sex comedies to westerns to Biblical epics. In the late '20s, his fortunes dipped a bit, but with a series of pictures that were filled with the bizarre -- Exploding dirigibles! Baths in asses’ milk! Lesbian orgies! -- he made it back to the top. The wilder it got, the more moviegoers ate it up, and DeMille never looked back. His fame increased. He hosted a weekly radio program; he appeared in the trailers for his films as a guarantee of their quality; he even showed up in other directors' pictures as the model of what a Hollywood director looked like. Although his pictures were always box office hits ("The Ten Commandments" alone made the 2009 equivalent of more than $600,000,000), they won only one Oscar for Best Picture (1952's "The Greatest Show on Earth.") For all his success, DeMille's legacy (other than filming the first feature picture in Hollywood) may lie in three things he didn't have much to do with: The first is the annual television airings of "The Ten Commandments." Each year, new viewers are exposed to the hammy acting of Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, and Edward G, Robinson in a film that somehow combines piousness and ballyhoo. The second is an anecdote from the filming of that same picture. While probably apocryphal, the story of DeMille and a cameraman gave us the expression, "Ready when you are, C.B." The last is from Billy Wilder's film, "Sunset Boulevard." Wilder cast DeMille as himself in this story of the deluded silent-film star Norma Desmond, played by Gloria Swanson (who had herself starred in many of DeMille's biggest hits of the '10s and '20s). Norma, who has just murdered her lover, retreats into a world of past glory, calling to her former mentor, "All right, Mr. DeMille; I'm ready for my close-up." Suggested Sites... Cecil B DeMille.com - dedicated to the work, life, and legacy of the director. Classic Movie Favorites: Cecil B. DeMille - all kinds of epic information about the director. Greenbriar Picture Shows: Pre-Code DeMille on DVD - it's not dirty; it's morally uplifting! MySpace: Cecil B. DeMille - he's got a MySpace page!? Who knew? DeMille's Lost City - in 1923, DeMille filmed a silent version of "The Ten Commandments," and left the set as a ruin to confuse archaeologists.

Directory categories: Cecil B. DeMille, The Ten Commandments, Movie Directors, Film History, Hollywood

Archived under: 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 19th Century, Biographies, Birthdays, Broadway, California, Celebrities, Directors, Entertainment, Filmmaking, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Men, Movie History, Movies, Silent Movies

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Phoebe Ann Mosey, aka Annie Oakley She could split a playing card through the side with a single shot, advocated for women to defend themselves with firearms, and was adopted by the Sioux holy man, Sitting Bull, who called her "Watanya Cicilla," or "Little Sure Shot." She was Annie Oakley, and she  was born this week nearly a century and a half ago. She become known worldwide for her sharpshooting skills and inspired numerous stage productions, films, and even a TV show. Perhaps the most well known of these was "Annie Get Your Gun," the musical written by Irving Berlin, Herbert Fields, and his sister Dorothy Fields. Unfortunately, that musical (which was also turned into an Academy Award-winning film) turned Annie from an independent young woman who dug her family out of poverty and shared in an equal partnership with her husband Frank Butler, into a lovesick hillbilly who threw a match just to snag her jealous and overly sensitive rival. Actually, it was Butler who was the love-struck one; he married Oakley inside of a year, and eventually gave up his own performing career to manage Oakley's as she toured with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Oakley's road to stardom wasn't exactly smooth, however. At 26, she was challenged by a 15 year-old rival named Lillian Smith, who clashed with Oakley in everything from dress to choice of firearm. Smith eventually left the show, unable to command the same crowds, and Oakley returned. Later, Oakley was slandered by one of William Randolph Hearst's newspapers, with a false story that she had been arrested for stealing (to support a cocaine habit). She spent the next six years suing several newspapers for libel, winning 54 of 55 of her cases. In 1922, she was in a severe car accident with Butler, forcing her to wear a steel brace on her leg. In spite of that, she continued to set records following the accident, although eventually died of pernicious anemia in 1926. Since Annie Oakley, there have been other women known for their skill with weapons, including numerous fictional ones: Lara Croft, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Xena. But the real-life Annie Oakley was a pioneer and truly in a league of her own. Suggested Sites... Annie Oakley at PBS's American Experience - features biographies, pictures, and more. Annie Oakley at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center - information about Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill, and the show's other performers. Biography of Annie Oakley - from the Dorchester County Public Library. Women's History Month at the Smithsonian - exhibits, history, pictures, and more about women who made a difference. Biography of Calamity Jane - the frontier woman who gained notoriety for fighting Native Americans.

Directory categories: Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Get Your Gun, Women's History, The American West

Archived under: 1920s, 19th Century, American History, Biographies, Birthdays, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Celebrities, Cowboys and Cowgirls, Entertainment, Guns, History, Musicals, Old West, The West, Women

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