{"id":261040,"date":"2024-04-29T08:51:32","date_gmt":"2024-04-29T13:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/?p=261040"},"modified":"2024-04-29T08:51:32","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T13:51:32","slug":"he-was-liberaces-lover-and-then-ran-drugs-for-the-mafia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/2024\/04\/29\/he-was-liberaces-lover-and-then-ran-drugs-for-the-mafia\/","title":{"rendered":"He was Liberace’s lover and then ran drugs for the Mafia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From AirMail<\/a>: “Scott Thorson is now 65. In late 2020, he was granted an early release after serving nearly seven years in a Nevada state prison for credit-card fraud. Last year I began interviewing him for a book project and quickly understood why he\u2019s been referred to as the \u201cZelig of Awful.\u201d Thorson was a teenage runaway bouncing around West Hollywood when he met Liberace, who at the time was the highest-paid entertainer in the world. Liberace was 57 and Scott had just turned 18. Liberace suggested that he go into business with Eddie Nash\u2014a Palestinian immigrant who was the No. 1 club owner in Los Angeles at the time. He also happened to be the biggest drug lord in all of Los Angeles.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why this temple priest is one of India’s most highly-prized voters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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From IndiaTV<\/a>: “Mahant Bharatdas Darshandas is the lone voter in the midst of Gujarat’s Gir forest, home to the Asiatic lion, for whom an entire election team sets up a polling booth every election – and will do so again on April 30. Darshandas, in his early 60s, is the lone occupant of a hamlet called Banej in Gir forest. He has been casting his vote for the past elections, including the 2004 and 2009 parliamentary elections and the 2007 and 2012 state elections. This time too, the Election Commission of India is making all arrangements to ensure that Darshandas, a temple priest, gets to cast his precious single vote. Darshandas lives in Banej Tirthdham and looks after an ancient Shiva temple there.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note<\/strong>: This is a version of my personal newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can\u00a0see other issues\u00a0and sign up here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Suitcases that belonged to residents of a New York mental hospital tell their stories<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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From American Scholar<\/a>: “In 1995, New York Governor George Pataki announced plans to close the Willard Asylum for the Insane, which opened in 1869 on the eastern shore of Seneca Lake. Before this could happen, however, the hospital\u2019s many artifacts needed to be documented and preserved. This is what Craig Williams, a curator at the New York State Museum in Albany, did for much of the spring of 1995. One morning he went up to the attic and found rough-hewn wood shelves with hundreds of old suitcases, each with a handwritten tag bearing a patient\u2019s name and date of admittance. Williams\u2019s supervisors told him to keep a small sample for archiving, and to destroy the rest. But Williams said he couldn\u2019t do that. He decided to save them all.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor’s note<\/strong><\/em>: If you like this newsletter, please share it with someone else. And if you <\/em>really <\/strong><\/em>like it, perhaps you could subscribe, or contribute something via <\/em>my Patreon<\/em><\/a>. Thanks for being a reader!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ancient humans lived inside a giant lava tube in the Arabian desert<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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From New Scientist<\/a>: “Archaeologists have found evidence of human habitation within lava tubes for the first time, in the deserts of northern Saudi Arabia. Lava tubes are caves that form during a volcanic eruption. The surface of a river of lava cools and solidifies, while hot molten rock continues to flow beneath it. Eventually, lava drains out of the tube, leaving behind a tunnel. excavated a trench inside Umm Jirsan. At 1.5 kilometres in length, it is the biggest lava tube in Saudi Arabia. The researchers discovered animal bones, stone tools and pottery stretching back at least 7000 years and possibly as much as 10,000 years.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miss May Whitley was a self-defense expert in 1930s London<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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From Mental Floss<\/a>: “In the video, a well-dressed young woman from 1930s London throws an assailant to the ground and incapacitates him in a variety of ways. The lady in question was Miss May Whitley, and for a period of time in the 1930s, she entertained Londoners with a stage performance in which she demonstrated female self-defense. Whitley\u2019s sparring partner\u2014whose dialogue consists primarily of moaning in agony\u2014was Charles Cawkell, a member of Britain\u2019s first international Judo team. Whitley\u2019s act caught the attention of Ahmed Abdullah, a millionaire from Turkey whose father was a wealthy tobacco merchant, making Whitley the eventual heiress to a fortune.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the turn of the century the hot new crime-solving technology was fingerprints<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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From The Smithsonian<\/a>: “Prosecutors wrung high drama out of this curious new technique. When Thomas Jennings in 1910 was the first U.S. defendant to face a murder trial that relied on fingerprinted evidence, prosecutors handed out blown-up copies of the prints to the jury. Yet it also became clear, over time, that fingerprinting wasn\u2019t as rock solid as boosters would suggest. Police experts would often proclaim in court that \u201cno two people have identical prints\u201d\u2014even though this had never been proven, or even carefully studied. (It\u2019s still not proven.) How many points of similarity should two prints have before the expert analyst declares they\u2019re the same? Eight? Ten? Twenty? Depending on what city you were tried in, the standards could vary dramatically.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists discover new species of green anaconda that is 26 feet long<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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A team of scientists has discovered a new species of green anaconda in the Amazon rain forest.

Prof. Freek Vonk has recorded a video of a 26-feet-long green anaconda, believed to be the biggest snake in the world.pic.twitter.com\/4rYdHJMJKs<\/a><\/p>— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 28, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote>