Pride and Petitions

Parked outside the local Kmart yesterday were a couple asking for signatures on a few petitions. I was stopped as I entered the store and asked if I’d like to put my Jane Hancock on the form. They explained that the petitions were to increase the penalty for people accused of sexually abusing a child. Outraged by the likes of Mark Guido and his wife, two of the most despicable human beings on the planet who kidnapped and raped a child and held her against her will for decades, the petitioners felt the time had come for stiffer penalties. I agree that the type of individuals mentioned in the previous sentence should be put away for ever. Actually, I believe they should be put down in much the same way you would do a rabid animal but there wasn’t a petition for that option. I believe the same punishment is due those who falsely accuse someone of a crime. I didn’t shy away from sharing that idea with the folks looking for signatures. They were taken aback by my reaction. I was too. My thoughts on that subject are strong and never far from the service. I’ve had enough untruths in my life. I never get far away from the subject of lies even in my day to day job. I spent most of the day working on rewrite for a book about the so-called bad girl Ma Barker. Ma had four sons. All of them were rotten. All of them were criminals. Even after all the research I’ve done on the Barkers I’m not convinced Ma was the leader of the Barker gang. According to records on file with the Federal Bureau of Investigation there was no one to blame for the violent end of the Barker boys but Ma Barker herself. The records claim she “taught her four boys how to rob, kidnap and murder.” It also maintains that Ma “gave them private lessons in the fine art of loading and firing a Thompson submachine gun” and that she “patted them on the back when they carried out her carefully planned crimes.” According to the August 29, 1979 edition of the Hutchinson News, Alvin Karpis (one of the Barker gang members) insisted that Ma Barker was not capable of such things. “She was just a plain little old hillbilly out of the Ozarks,” Karpis told reporters. “She never even knew how to use a machine gun.” Ma Barker was fifty-seven years old when she was killed in a gun battle with the Feds. Because I know first hand that investigators lie I don’t believe the government report. Sorry to say I think Karpis was telling the truth about Ma Barker. Guess there was no pride, fame or money in that notion for the G-men of the 30s and 40s. Wealth makes everything easy – honesty most of all.