​After all the victims had been cleared from the scene and taken to the hospital, after the press and onlookers had all cleared out and after the actual dust had settled and adrenaline had died down, the real investigation started.  Yes, the “missing stiffeners” had originally and immediately been identified as the reason for the collapse.  But what is that and more importantly, how could something like this have happened?  Is there not a system of checks and balances in place to prevent such catastrophes?  Well…there is now.
 
It's hard to determine where to start when explaining what went so cataclysmically wrong in this situation.  I suppose the easiest answer would be to first explain the “missing stiffeners” that Gillum first said was the cause of the collapse, because honestly, the language isn’t very clear unless you look around a bit.
 
You will see from the image that what he is actually referring to are the box beams and the connections they encase.  The original design called for one long steel support rod to go from ceiling to the bottom of the second-floor skywalk, running through each walkway and basically having reinforcing bolts to secure the position and weight load at the bottom of the box beam at each intersection of walkway and this rod.  This was to be in multiple places along the sides of the skywalk.  The idea was to make the skywalks appear to be floating in mid-air and visitors of the hotel would be given a grand visual experience when using these walkways to observe the large lavish lobby below.  It was certainly intended to be used for events such as the Tea Dances.

​However, the finished design was different.  In the finished design, the one that collapsed, the floating walkways were suspended and supported by two steel rods, set in multiple places.  As shown in the image, they were parallel to each other and offset, and bolted to the box beam.  Also, in this design, the top rod that supported the fourth-floor walkway was through only the top of the box beam and bolted on the top of the box beam.  The rod that supported the second floor went only through the bottom of the box beam support and was only bolted to the bottom of the support.    Again, it is very clear to see in the diagram.
 
Now, many would think this may not matter.  After all, there’s still support rods and bolts and box beams and everything right?  Well, this just isn’t the case.  The first design had more properly accounted for the full and even distribution of the  weight load upon all the rods supporting all of the walkway surfaces.  It also had been more eye appealing.  The  second design merely took into consideration the basic function of these support rods and the easiest way to provide this function and then considered the ease of fabrication.
 
And that’s where we go next. 
 
When the first design was sent for fabrication, the fabricator told the project people that this design was simply just a very unrealistic idea.   Put simply, for the first design to work and the bolts to be threaded on in the proper place was to fabricate the rod completely threaded from end to end.  This did not appeal to the fabricator, nor did it appeal to the project engineer or manager, as it would risk damage when the fourth-floor walkway was hoisted up and set at permanent height.  Now, one could possibly make the argument that the fabricator was being helpful.  One could possibly argue the fabricator was being lazy.  One could say that fabricator may not have even had the machine capabilities at the time to produce a threaded rod of more than forty feet.  Who knows?  Bottom line ended up being that the fabricator said they were not able to get the fabrication done as is and suggestions for revisions to the design were made.
 
The original design called for six individual rods, three on each side, penetrating through both the second and fourth floor walkway, as the fourth-floor walkway was directly above and parallel to the second.  These rods would be attached to the steel beams in the roof, then come through the ceiling and continue through the walkway and through the fourth-floor box beams, then through the second-floor box beams and through the second walkway.  This would have completely supported and distributed the seventy-two tons of concrete that comprised these skywalks.
 
But the change to twelve rods, making each intersection at the skywalk a double rod intersection inside the box beams, was less than stable and sound engineering.  This change catastrophically redistributed this massive load of weight to rods that didn’t have the capacity to endure such a test of endurance and strength.  The load put on the fourth-floor box beams was actually doubled and when one beam connection failed, they all went bad.  With the weight already disproportionally distributed and the added weight of the partygoers, the fourth-floor box beam snapped, weaking the strength of this crucial weight bearing connection.  Once the fourth-floor skywalk box beam snapped and the walkway popped free, it dropped several feet.  This caused an unmanageable strain on the box beams as now they were not only unable to hold the extra weight, let alone the original weight they had been tasked with.  Under this strain the fourth-floor skywalk crashed to the second-floor skywalk which then snapped immediately under the enormous structural burden.  Thus, sending the seventy-two tons of concrete and building materials crashing down upon the party below.

​​Now, that’s what happened as far as the cause of the collapse.   But, how could such a mistake have been made?
 
Here’s where it gets sticky.
 
The fabricator claimed he got the new design approved by the engineer of record.  The engineer of record, at first, claimed to not have approved any such design change.  But the fabricator had the engineer’s red stamp on the design showing that he had seen in, looked it over, done any calculations and made any changes that were necessary, stamped it and sent it back for fabrication.  And yes, like I said, the design did in fact have the approval stamp on it.
 
So…who’s to blame?
 
Well, like most tragedies of such an unintentional nature, the blame kind of goes to a few people.  Also, like most tragedies, there is a single party that assumes all the blame.  I know, it seems like the two can’t go together but they do.
 
First, let’s look at the party who actually got legally assigned blame.  That would be Jack Gillum and his company, Gillum and Associates, the engineer of record.  Fact is, while he had spoken to people about the altered design over the phone, he had not actually seen design schematics in person.  He gave the final design approval over the phone having never laid eyes on the actual design itself, doing any recalculations or any manipulations.  He took the word of the fabricator who frankly, no disrespect, was not an engineer.  In doing that, he approved a design that was destined to fail and wreak havoc.
 
Gillum was found to be culpable of gross negligence, misconduct and unprofessional conduct in the practice of engineering.  However, he was acquitted of all criminal charges filed against him.  He and his company did receive sanctions from various organizations.  Gillum and Associates lost their license to practice engineering in Missouri, where this happened, in Kansas and in Texas.  They were also members of the American Society of Civil Engineers.  Their membership was promptly revoked upon the findings of the investigation.
 
Several departments opened investigations when this happened.  The local metropolitan newspaper, The Kansas City Star, hired architectural engineer Wayne G. Lischka to look into the collapse.  He looked at everything involved with the entire project from start to finish.  Lischka discovered the significant alteration to the original design.  
 
At this same time, Havens Steel Co., the fabricator of the hanger support rods, requested that the box beams be tested at the labs at Lehigh University.
 
The Missouri Licensing Board along with the Attorney General and other Jackson County officials also opened investigations, which ended up taking years to complete.  They, along with the National Bureau of Standards, found that structural overload resulting from design flaws was the cause of failure and that the skywalks “had only minimal capacity to resist their own weight”.   Which basically means that they were barely hanging on as they were.  You add people to them, plus dancing and music vibrations and you get the fatal overload and collapse.
 
Now, that’s Gillum’s responsibility.  He had the final say on the design.  That is true.  However, I really do believe that there were others that knew this was a bad idea, thought perhaps this wouldn’t work or just plain didn’t know better.
 
Take the fabricator at Havens Steel Co.  The person who rejected the original design, as far as I know, has never been named publicly.  Yet this person made changes to an engineer’s design without permission.  To me, it doesn’t matter so much that he had the rubber stamp of approval.  He made design changes he should not have made.  If anything, he should have just returned the schematics and told the engineer why he couldn’t manufacture the requested piece.  He could have then waited for the engineer himself to make changes and resubmit the design for fabrication.  Instead, he made a command decision on a matter he had no business making decisions on and then he and Gillum both only verified everything over the phone.  There is some of that blame on each of them, in my opinion.
 
Not to mention that Gillum had to have had people working for him that saw this design.  This wasn’t some sort of clandestine project kept hush hush.  This was actually a very big deal at the time, this hotel being built.  Did nobody question this new design at all?  Not one of his colleagues saw this design in all the time this hotel was being planned and built? 
 
I can’t seem to really believe that.  And those people know (or knew, depending on how old they were at the time, it’s been forty years this July) who they are and what they did.
 
Jack Gillum actually owns this disaster all to himself.  He takes all responsibility as he was the engineer of record, so the buck stops with him.  He has used this very catastrophic oversight as lecture material  for engineering conferences as a cautionary tale, and “to help ease his conscience”. (His words, not mine)
 
So, okay, I talked about all that first to get it clarified and out of the way.  Because it’s only right that the victims get the attention they deserve.  So now, we are going to turn our focus to them.

On November 12, 2015, twenty-four and half years after the devastating events of the Hyatt Regency collapse of 1981, a memorial dedicated to the victims of the tragedy was unveiled by the Skywalk Memorial  Foundation, a non-profit organization established for the victims, which Hallmark Cards donated $25.000 to.  It is located across the street from the hotel in Hospital Hill  Park.  
​
In 1983 the hotel was remodeled and reconstructed at the cost of $50 million and the newly upgraded was said to be “possibly the safest in the country”, according to local authorities at the time of reopening on October 2, 1981,  just less than three months after the collapse itself.  In my humble opinion, and I’m not an engineer, I’ve never studied engineering, I’ve never pretended to be an engineer, BUT I do wonder if it’s really possible to make a building that just had the worst accidental structural failure in history the safest building in the country in a little over two months.  Seems like an ambitious idea given the circumstances you are starting with.  I may even dare to say it’s almost arrogant to say that the building that just incurred this disaster is now the safest building in the country while people who were there at the time of collapse are still reeling and recovering from the tragic events.  That seems rather bold and callous to me.

The story of this devastating structural failure has always remained close to my heart.  And here’s why.
 
In 1981 my father was in his fifth year as a patrolman for a neighboring city police department.  That day he had just come off a very long eight-hour shift.  He must have gotten home around a little after 3pm and the shift started I think at probably 6am.  He was exhausted.  Mom asked him as soon as he walked in the door if they could go to the Hyatt that night because it was Friday and they were having their weekly Tea Dance.  It started at 5pm and went until 8pm.  My mother loved to dance and although Dad didn’t care to dance much past a certain age I guess, but I can personally say that Dad was a very good dancer.  But he was raised by a man’s man and dancing just didn’t always fit into that personality.  Not to mention that his feet and back were both killing him.  All he wanted to do was take a hot shower, shave and brush his teeth and relax in front of the TV, probably to watch an episode of M*A*S*H or something (hey great show, don’t knock it, lol).  Mom must have hounded him for at least thirty minutes, maybe even longer.  Eventually Dad put his foot down and said they weren’t going that night.
 
Sitting in a huff and feeling disappointed, Mom and Dad watched television that night after dinner and it seemed that it would be a normal night.  That was, of course, until a breaking news announcement came on the airwaves reporting that there had been a tragic accident at the Hyatt, that a structural collapse of the fourth and second floor skywalks had collapsed on several of those attending the Tea Dance.
 
As my parents watched in horror as each network worked tirelessly to cover the horrific tragedy, it hit them both like a brick to the face that they had escaped serious injury if not outright death by staying home that night.  Dad, always being the one to try to lighten a serious mood like that, made the joke that his laziness and tiredness saved their lives.  At the time, it WAS a joke.  But, looking back now as an adult, it occurs to be often that I could have been orphaned at eleven months old.  My brother would have been just under four years old at the time.  And my godmother , my Mom’s sister, who was supposed to take us in if something had ever happened to both our parents was only nineteen at that time, just two months shy of twenty.
 
So, for me, this was what I have always considered a close call and fate, the balance of the universe, the cosmos, God, whatever you want to call it, kept my folks from going dancing that night and it probably saved their lives.
 
On the evening of July 17, 1981 approximately 1600 people gathered at the Hyatt around 5pm for the start of the evening’s festivities.  The party was going well and there were no problems…yet.
 
To make this easy to follow, we are going to start with a basic timeline of what happened that hot evening in July of 1981.  Things in this timeline will be elaborated on later in other articles, but for now this gives us the basic play by play.  
 
During the course of this timeline, I will be referencing various people involved by name.  I feel it’s not only easier on the flow of the timeline, but I also believe that these should be named, deserve to be named.  So many times, with these kinds of catastrophes we can easily feel removed or detached from the tragedy.  But all of the people this affected, from the victims to the survivors to the rescue workers to volunteers and yes, even the ones determined to be at fault should all be given the solemn respect we would all want for our loved ones had they been the ones involved.
 
This being the case, I thought I should tell you who the main people I mention are, that way you won’t be confused as to their role or place in the situation.
 
Dr. Joe Waeckerle was an Emergency Medicine Specialist, an ER doctor at Baptist Medical Center.
 
Jack Gillum (Gillum & Associates) was the engineer of record for the hotel.
 
Michael Mahoney was an on scene new reporter for KMBC Channel 9 News, an ABC affiliate in Kansas City.
 
Arnet Williams was the KCFD (Kansas City Fire Department) Deputy Chief from 1980 to 1983.  He was Deputy Chief of the KCFD at the time of the collapse.
 
Chuck and Jean (Regina) Hayes, Tom and Jean Weir, Dalton Grant (who was eleven years old at the time) and Connie Grant (Dalton’s mother) were all partygoers attending the Tea Dance that night.

6:50p  Wall to wall people attending the dance with more still showing up.
 
7:00p  KMBC News reporter takes escalator to 2nd floor restaurant to get wide shot and film his report where there is less noise, during this take the tape and battery run out in the news camera, the technician replaces both in a matter of minutes.

July 17, 1981  

The Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, MO was holding its ever popular weekly Tea Dance from 5pm-8pm that Friday the 17th.  It would be a day that would be forever cemented in Kansas City and national history as the largest structure failure in the nation until the horrific events of 9/11.  This event also served as an eternal reminder to me of how your life can change forever in a matter of seconds.  

This collapse killed 114 people and injured 216 other partygoers.  These people, their friends and their families will forever be changed by the catastrophic events of that one solitary evening.  The partygoers planned for an evening of drinking, dancing and socializing.  But what they got was far worse than any of them could have ever imagined.


History First 
 
The Hyatt Regency Hotel first opened July 1, 1980.  It was a grand hotel, designed to attract visitors from near and far and create a sense of awe to those who walked through its heavy glass double doors.  Set in the booming and high class Crown Center area, this forty story hotel was the creation of dreams and luxury.  It included three suspended walkways that each overlooked the hotel lobby, two of which backed up against large glass windows on the west side of the building to allow partygoers to see the lights and wonders of Crown Center lit up at night as well have an elevated view of the party or event happening.  The lobby contained a multi-story atrium that was to be the main view from the suspended walkways overhead.
 
This lobby was designed to be one of the biggest defining features and the central highlight of this grand and extravagant hotel.  The lobby was the set for lavish parties, an array of events and of course, the weekly Friday night Tea Dance, playing both the role of hotel lobby and grand ballroom.  At the south end of the large room was the live band, playing every toe-tapping tune they knew and working some slow dances in from time to time to appease the romantics in the crowd.  To the east of the lobby was the Terrace Restaurant.  Directly in the center of this elaborate and opulent chamber was the lounge area, set up for visitors and guests to relax comfortably on beautiful furniture while they sipped at their drink they had gotten from the lobby bar directly west of the lounge.  Off behind the bar was the Alcove area where partygoers would stand and people watch and converse amongst themselves as others danced and mingled around the room.  This Alcove area was directly under the second and fourth floor suspended walkways while the third floor walkway was offset and more out to the side of the other two, the staggering set up giving great eye appeal for visitors and guests who wanted to see the bigger picture of the event at the time.  
 

I know this is VERY LAST MINUTE BUT...

I got notified of a Trick 'r Treat watch along tonight at 7pm Pacific time, for me here in Central Time that is 9pm.  

What you do is you start your copy of Trick 'r Treat right at 7pm Pacific Time.  (Google for the time conversion if you need to, I only know mine is 9pm and that California would be the 7pm which means New York and Florida would be 10pm.  If that helps anyone.)

So, start your copy at the beginning of the movie at 7pm Pacific.
Then follow along on Twitter with @Legendary to get a walk through commentary of the movie from the Director Michael Dougherty himself.

There's more in store afterwards too!  
Check this out!

TRICK 'R TREAT Director Michael Dougherty to Host Special Watch-along of Legendary’s Iconic Halloween Anthology Film on October 30!


Legendary Entertainment invites fans to a special Halloween watch-along of the beloved horror saga TRICK ‘R TREAT on Friday, October 30. Director Michael Dougherty will guide fans through the twisted, interwoven tales featuring the iconic star Sam, the mischievous spirit of Halloween who enforces the holiday’s ancient traditions, providing special commentary and a rare glimpse behind-the-scenes of the cult classic film. 


To participate, fans should hit play at exactly 7pm PT / 10pm ET on Friday, October 30 and follow along as director @mike_dougherty  tweets from the @Legendary twitter account.

Fans can choose their preferred way to watch at JustWatch.com and can join the conversation using #LegendaryHalloweenatHome. This is fantastic because you can get right into the mix of the conversation with this creative and talented director as he opens secrets and reveals gems we might have otherwise not have known.

After the film, fans will be treated to a special Instagram Live Q&A featuring Dougherty and Nerdist.

Watch Along Instagram Teaser Link Below.  
​CHECK THIS OUT!!!

 https://www.instagram.com/p/CG3bO25h9y2/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
​

Fast forward to 1808, another British magistrate named Thomas Perry arrives in northern India in the town of Etawah.  This town turns out to be the flaming epicenter of a sprawling crime wave.  Practically once a week, sometimes more, bodies were turning up in the wells that lined the roads leading into town.  The bellies of the victims had all been sliced open.  Additionally, it was clear that these poor and unfortunate souls were travelers as nobody in town knew them or identified them.  With no way to solidify identification of the victims and no witnesses to any part of any crime, Perry could not arrest anyone for the killings.
 
At this time, the British East India Company was set up and divided into three presidencies.  This meant, of course, no one was sharing information with anyone else.  In turn, this caused Perry to have no access to Wright’s notes and findings on the Thuggee group, even though it would have been incredibly helpful at the time.
 
Perry decided to set up a checkpoint on one of the roads where a number of bodies had been discarded. Eighteen months later this led to the arrest of eight men.  One man, Gholam Hossyn, gave his occupation as “Thug” upon questioning after capture.  He eventually admitted to being part of more than ninety murders in the span of about three years or so.  Other men of this group confessed to taking part in killings as well, one even laying claim to having personally strangled some forty-five victims himself.
 
After learning that hundreds of Thugs in various gangs existed in and around Etawah, Perry set out to change things and his men arrested some 70 gang members.  Those captured were sent to Bengal for trial.  However, a particular requirement at that time for prosecution of crimes was a formal complaint to be filed by the victim’s family.  Since the victims were travelers there were no family members to file such a complaint.  Thus, the captured Thugs were acquitted.
 
Also happening at the same time in 1808 is the arrival of William Sleeman.  Sleeman decided to use the anti-Thug campaign as a way to make a strong name for himself and give himself notoriety.  He developed a system to interrogate and flush out the remaining active Thugs.  This system was so effective, it was soon adopted across India as general practice. 
 
Thugs who gave up information were labeled “approvers”.  They were promised their lives would be spared IF they would give specific information as to names, dates, events, locations of bodies, etc.
 
Now we are to 1812.  Perry orders a group of British soldiers and sepoys to go to Sindouse, where intelligence has said is the base of operations for the Thuggee group.  Apparently, this is where the Thugs have been able to operate with impunity and under the protection of a wealthy land owner naked Laljee.
 
After many battles and lives and livelihoods lost, Perry is was able to drive the Thugs out of Etawah.
 
Simultaneously, the East India Company still does not want to expend the resources for what they deemed a lost cause and a waste of funds and said resources. Worse yet, some British didn’t even believe that the Thugs and the Thuggee cult even existed.  Eventually, having finally recognized the threat the Thugs posed to the fortune and power of the Company, they decide to share information and issue formal warnings to their men about the group.
 
Fast forward again to 1829 and we come to the William Borthwick capture.  British Officer William Borthwick convincingly lured seventy Thugs to a village near Indore (central India) and arrested them.  Upon being detained, some confessed.  Others did not.
 
All this led to the new Governor-General of India to change policy, effectively allowing officers to pursue Thugs not only in their own territory, but in other native states as well if the need arose.
 
In 1836, Sleeman is appointed Superintendent for the Suppression of Thuggee.  He announced is success of the suppression four years later in 1840.  
 
His capture of Feringeea, one of the most successful Thuggee leaders, procured a wealth of information that led to the arrests of hundreds of Thugs.  Various statements made by captured gang members about the depth of their belief, devotion and involvement led Sleeman to be convinced that these particular criminals could never be rehabilitated.  Once imprisoned, they were never released.  Not even the “approvers” were set free.
 
During the suppression campaign somewhere around 4500 Thugs were brought to trial.  Of this 4500 about 500 were hanged, the remainder sentenced to life in prison, somewhat on display like exotic animals or some kind of attraction.  Some who were considered extremely unlucky were branded or tattooed with the word “THUG” and transported in chains and shackles to the worst penal colonies in all of the East Indies.  

​There is some controversy about whether this group was truly religiously motivated or if they were more crime and greed driven.  They used their undying belief in Kali (the Hindu goddess of death and destruction, but also of creation) to justify their behavior and make themselves feel righteous.
 
The word “thug” comes from the Hindi word “thag” which may quite possibly be derived from the Sanskrit word “sthag” meaning “to conceal”.  The earliest reference to Thuggee is in the 14th century.  However, most believe that gangs like what Perry encountered were around for about 150-200 years.  Some oral traditions, folk tales and legends trace some Thugs back to seven original families from Delhi during the Mongol Empire and the reign of Akbar the Great.  Those seven families fell out of favor and good graces of the Emperor.  They were cast out and dispersed across the entire subcontinent as punishment.

​Generally, the Thugs (even the Muslims among their members) worshipped the Hindu deity Kali.  (This is the same group bad guys and the deity they worship in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, ya know, with the glowing sacred stones and the fire pit and all that Kali Ma chanting and ripping out hearts...yeah, that stuff…)  The Thuggee group believed their actions were commanded by Kali and that they would not be punished for any of them.  Considered to be deeply spiritual and very religious, Thuggees were always on the lookout for signs or omens from their deity Kali.  These were usually found in the behavior of animals, like birds and such.
 
Many of the followers considered their chosen profession a holy and honorable path which was virtually opposite from the dacoits.  Although some were born into the life, others would adopt the lifestyle for a year or two in order to make ends meet.  Plus, the Thugs had strict rules they were to follow that prohibited them from killing all women and foreigners, members of particular social orders, lepers and people they deemed crippled (presumably out of mercy, at least that’s my guess), goldsmiths, potters, oil venders (probably because they were merchants they needed to do business with), elephant drivers (yes, this is true, likely for the same reason as the merchants) and a plethora of others.  (Additionally, in the cases where the followers did kill women, they never disrespected the women before dispatching them.)
 
The Thugs had definite rituals they would perform before going out on what they deemed as missions.  These rituals were usually done in prayer for strength, protection and guidance in the coming journey.
 
Typically traveling in gangs of ten to forty men for each mission, the followers would sometimes reach numbers up to two hundred in order to complete a mission.  At other times, different gangs would band together in order to pursue and achieve a bigger prize.  Once the bounty was won, the spoils would be divided evenly amongst the group, which was typically fairly organized with a system and a method for stealing and killing.  Their usual pattern would be:

• Pick their target
• Pose as a merchant or soldier
• Hitch a ride with target victim
• Gain victim’s trust
• Travel with victim (sometimes for several days), generally picking up other members along the way
• Invoke ruse to get into position to strangle victim
• Murder and divide victim’s money and property

 
Many times, the gang members would take on new roles or personalities to better fit in with their chosen target or targets, who would more often than not be people who looked like they had something worth taking.
 
Though there were various methods of murder used throughout the 18th century including hanging and poison, the method of choice became strangulation by the 19th century.  As stranglers, they would be known as bhutortes.  Assistants to the bhutortes called shumseeas would hold the victim’s limbs during the attack to ensure little struggle.
 
Finding suppression of the Thugs the perfect reason for trying to settle in India, the British soon used it as the main excuse for what they would deem altruistic means of imposition.  Although the Thugs reported never actually attacked the British, they still seemed it necessary to protect themselves from the dangers of the gangs of Thuggee followers and their practices, eventually leading to the dissolution of the Thugs by the late 1830s.  
 
Recently, historians are starting to question just how organized this cult-like group actually was AND exactly how much of a threat they truly were.  Just like anything else in history from that long ago, things can get, shall we say…misconstrued, over time.  I wonder what the final determination will be.
 
Thanks for reading!!!  More to come!

Okay guys, so here’s the real of my situation.  I’m under a stay at home order by my local government, in case you haven’t been reading my new blog section, listening to or watching the news or have been living under a rock for the past seven weeks.  All non-essential businesses have been ordered to shut down.
 
This is also happening on both coasts of the country.  This means that nothing is shipping out of the country and nothing is coming in…like comic books, graphic novels and such.  
 
My comic book store has been closed and it looks like it will be through the month of April.  Now, I have a HUGE stockpile of comics that I can still read and review.  But I won’t be able to get anything new until the owners and I figure out some sort of shipping arrangement or something.  My standard pick-up order is fairly extensive so shipping would be rather costly unless it was one of those flat rate box deals.
 
Anyway, I also cannot go to the movie store and buy any new movies to review.  Again, I have a fair amount to still get through and review for you, but with no way of knowing how long this way of life will last, I don’t know when I will be able to replenish my resources.  Regular shipping on online shopping and eBay has slowed way down already and if that is going to be the only way to get a lot of things for a while, things might get a little bumpy.
 
But don’t you worry.  I want you guys to have something fun to read and do while you are all cooped up as well.  The good news is a lot of the movies I have and choose to review are older and can usually be found online somewhere to watch.  I will do my best to try to find links or suggestions of where to find the movies if I can so you can watch while you are asked to stay at home as well.
 
I also will be doing my best to post as often as I can to keep new content coming.  Please keep in mind I am the only one doing everything on this website so have a little patience.  I just want to publish the best content I can for you, my readers.
 
Lastly, I am going to take this moment to extend my deepest wishes to all of you, hoping that you stay safe, stay healthy, take care of yourselves and loved ones.  Remember that we are all in this together.  We all live in this nation.  We all share the burden of responsibility to care for each other and we share the burden of responsibility in the failure of that care.  Each of us can and should be doing our part, what is being asked of us, the common sense exercises that will save countless lives.  Including yours and mine.
 
I appreciate ALL of you for being loyal fans.  I have some ideas for a new section coming up this month for Horror TV.  I hope you guys and gals will get a kick out of the new stuff.
 
Thank you all so much. 
 
The Countess

​So, please know that I fully understand I very well could be starting a war here with this post.  I fully admit from the beginning that I don’t know all the story lines from the beginning and I don’t read every Marvel comic book that comes out.  I’m not an X-Men fan and I really only like Wolverine.  SO, there’s my disclaimer.  So, if you are going to get on the comments section and bitch at me or attack me…take all that into consideration FIRST.  Okay?  Thank you.
 
Now, the other day I was watching what I believe to be the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie.  I was all into it at first. I even recognized Stryker from my Punisher comics.  I was diggin’ the whole two brothers thing, fighting side by side through all the years, neither can die.  Wicked shit, right?  Then, in Vietnam, during the war, they formed a special team under the command of Stryker.   At first Jimmy and Victor, ummm…that would be Wolverine and his older brother, are totally down to work for the government, because they believe what they are doing is just and is right.   But Victor starts to enjoy killing just a little too much for Jimmy’s taste and Stryker sees this, thus starting to use Victor’s bloodlust as a viable weapon.  Jimmy vehemently disagrees with THAT kind of work and chooses to walk away and live a regular life…well, regular for a mutant that is hiding amongst us "Normals".

Now, Wolverine is the product of Stryker’s experiment called Weapon X, where they infused his skeleton with Adamantium, making him visually indestructible.  That’s Wolverine…Weapon X.  It actually means Weapon 10, but since young people these days don’t know what Roman numerals are, it’s just like with iPhone X, they called it iPhone “ex” instead of iPhone “ten”.  But that’s him.  

Weapon Ten = Weapon X = Wolverine…got it?
 
Later on, in the movie, Stryker says he has taken all of the mutants’ powers and none of their weaknesses and put them all into one weapon…Weapon XI (that’s weapon 11 young peeps)…which happens to be…wait for it…Wade Wilson.
 

As you all know, a while back I posted an article about how the makers of The Walking Dead had their boxers in a bunch because the guys at The Toking Dead were, and I’m paraphrasing here, going to cause confusion among consumers between the brands AND that the guys at The Toking Dead were, in their minds, making money off of The Walking Dead success and riding their coattails, so to speak.
 
I have to be honest, ever since I found out about this, it hasn’t left my mind.  Now, I don’t usually use my website as a forum to spout my opinions from a soapbox but, I am truly just in shock that this whole thing is even going to trial. 
 
When I posted that first article, I felt compelled to voice my disapproval and frankly, my disgust for a number of reasons.  First and foremost, I still believe in free enterprise, which I consider to be one of the vital cores of the foundation of this country.  Second, I found the allegations against The Toking Dead were not only petty but, outright ridiculous once I read the complaint myself.  Third, I am a HUGE supporter of small business.  I like to support the little guy and, in all actuality, I tend to keep my money pretty local, because for the most part, I want my money to go back into my community.
 
When I found out that the guys were being sued because of their name The Toking Dead, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  How many products do we see day in and day out that have similar names and do similar things or have similar content?  It’s called a competitive market.  
 
In my original article I used an analogy to try to get people to stop thinking of this as strictly ZOMBIE related or strictly MARIJUANA related.  We are too intelligent of a species to allow ourselves to focus a decision on a LEGAL matter based solely on our personal feelings about the subject at hand.  I feel that, in the horror community (and please, correct me if I’m wrong), zombies are a very personal issue to a lot of fans.  It’s almost like one of those things where you either love it or you don’t.  I feel that although we’ve come a long way in a number of states, the general consensus about marijuana is still a very heated topic for people as well.  It seems you have to be on one side of the line or the other, you either fully support or you don’t.
 
I decided to use soda (pop, to some of you folks) as a general product of replacement to take the personal fire out of the equation.  The fact is, common sense doesn’t really exist anymore, so I don’t address common sense as much as I used to.  But logic DOES exist, we have proof after proof of logic in math and in science.  So, I tried to apply LOGIC to the situation, instead of emotion.  And yet, to my amazement, what I considered to be logical in this situation seemed to go unacknowledged by the complainant’s representative in this matter.  I’ll get to that in a minute.  But it became clear to me that this law suit was not about LOGIC and more about ego and money, if anything.

​So, it seems the creators of The Walking Dead think they should have some kind of corner on the entire “zombie” market.  I have remained in contact with the makers of The Toking Dead ever since I received their first issue, which I thought was fantastic.  Yesterday, Jeff Homan, co-creator with Benjamin Bartlett, brought to my attention an article that had posted on digboston.com.  You can find the article HERE.
 
It seems that TWD creators are alleging that because TTD has a zombie theme it is too close to the theme of their content and will basically, create confusion amongst the masses. I have to say this has to be the dumbest thing I think I may have heard all year.
 
Let’s first address the fact that Homan and Bartlett applied for and received all patent and copyright approvals from the appropriate government agencies BEFORE publishing their comic.  Now, if their idea had been considered too close to TWD, they never would have gotten approval for those.  Period, the end.  But wait, there’s more.
 
The Walking Dead is centered around zombies coming after humans and attacking them during the very common idea of a zombie apocalypse.  It also has the age-old idea of the surviving humans banning together in small tribes with the idea that within each tribe they hold their own set of laws and morals. Now, if you want my HONEST opinion…
 
TWD people stole the zombie idea from George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead) and modernized it, then combined it with a modernization of Lord of the Flies.  SO NOT ORIGINAL.
 
Now, as far as I’m aware, this is the first comic book that fuses cannabis and zombies together in this particular fashion.  THAT is ORIGINAL.  This comic series in NOT just about smoking pot and a bunch of zombies running rampant and biting people.  Homan and Bartlett know that one very excellent way to communicate AND educate is through an entertainment medium.  They are passionate advocates for the medicinal benefits of cannabis and truly felt that a comic book would be a better medium for informing the masses than some dry old boring textbook of sorts.
 
But let’s get to THE REAL abhorrent nature of this lawsuit.  How about we put it into a formula EVERYONE can understand.  Not pot related.
 
We all know about the huge soda conglomerate, the Coca-Cola Company, introduced in 1886.  We also all know they aren’t the only cola product out there, although they WERE the first (unlike The Walking Dead with their zombies). In the 1980s, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola went head to head, spending millions of dollars in advertising campaigns in what were called “The Rock and Roller Cola Wars” to prove who had the best product.  At the same time, products like Shasta Cola (1960s), RC Cola (Royal Crown Cola around since 1906), and Sam’s Choice Cola (1990s) were all on the market while Coke and Pepsi continued to battle it out.  Yet, I need you to notice one major thing.  
 
THEY ARE ALL COLA DRINKS.

Coca-Cola tried to do the same thing by suing other cola companies claiming that because they used “cola” in the name that it would be too confusing and ruin their sales. Unfortunately, there were a lot of underdogs that lost that ridiculous fight.  
 
But these are new times. I hope that people nowadays are more rational in realizing that this is truly a ridiculous lawsuit, probably aimed at depleting time, money and further resources to push the little guy out of the market.
 
But here’s the thing. First off, these guys don’t want in TWD’s market.  They aren’t in this for the money and if you read the article you will see that they only make $2 on every issue printed.  They also go to trade shows and fundraisers, and that is coming out of THEIR pockets, NOT profit, I guarantee you.  

Unless you’ve worked in trade show business, you have NO CLUE what it costs just to get a booth at those places, let alone get any kind of advertising in their show brochures, etc.  Then, you have to add the cost of travel, inventory, hotel stays, food expenses, paying people who work for you there, their expenses…it just goes on and on. If you want the Union guys to haul pallets in for you, that costs money, a couple thousand dollars actually.  If you want carpet in your booth, that costs money, again a couple thousand.  If you want the convention to provide a sound system or A/V equipment, put drapes on your booth tables, that costs money, and again, it's thousands.  Then, you have to understand that these guys are finding TOP QUALITY artists to work with them on their issues.  By the time it’s all over, these guys are probably just barely keeping their heads above water just wanting to get information out in a more appealing way, they’re not making any money off of anyone’s coattails ​(as TWD is claiming).  ​I’m wondering if these guys are making any money at all.  From what I can tell, they are passionate advocates and they love what they do.
 
Now, if there IS someone that should probably get sued here, maybe it should be TWD people for doing a modern-day rip-off of George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.  Or am I the only one who has put the basic premises of these two stories together like that???  Maybe I’m just the only one not caught up in the hype of the masses. I tend to think that if EVERYONE is on the bandwagon about something (anything), that’s usually my cue to step back and re-evaluate for myself, get my OWN thoughts. 
 
(Side note: Believe it or not the FIRST actual zombie film ever made was in 1932 called White Zombie by Victor Halperin.)  
 
So, I ask you?  Should everyone who ever made anything zombie related be sued by Halperin’s heirs because it “might cause confusion”???  Or do you think there might be enough zombie material for everyone.  Besides, Homan and Bartlett were at least creative and did something different. How many times do we need a typical zombie apocalypse theme before people get over the hoopla?  
 
I’m a staunch supporter of small business and indie filmmakers and writers.  I’m also pro-marijuana.  I am also for free enterprise as that is the cornerstone of our economy.  We have laws to prevent monopolies to keep big bad Goliath-like money wranglers such as Coca-Cola and TWD from pushing out the Davids of the world like The Toking Dead and RC Cola (which by the way, tasted so close to real Coke you couldn’t tell a difference.)
 
If TWD gets away with this, even though the guys went through all the proper channels and got approval for everything, they’ll continue to go after ANYONE who has any idea that involves zombies that walk.  That is just too broad of a spectrum to sue someone over and much too broad of a market to try to corner.  These guys need to get over themselves and realize that they’ve made so much money already and that these Toking Dead guys aren’t going to affect that.
 
I mean, when did you last hear about Nordstrom’s complaining about Macy’s or Wal-Mart selling clothes too and that it was going to confuse their customers and impact sales??? Nordstrom’s doesn’t give a shit what Macy’s or Wal-Mart does.  And vice versa.  And do you know why?  Because they know those stores aren’t cutting into their sales.  Sure, it’s clothes.  But it’s a different kind of customer, there’s different brands, etc. Just like this is a zombie comic but a different kind of comic, with different details and quirks.  
 
Look, in the retail market there are all kinds of customers.  That means there’s plenty to go around for everyone who wants to put in the work and effort to service THOSE customers.  Obviously, The Toking Dead has found a client base that TWD hasn’t tapped and now won’t be able to.  Poor babies. But they really should back off and realize that they didn’t create the zombie idea, they don’t own the zombie idea and they can’t corner the zombie idea.
 
Much love to my awesome friends and crew at The Toking Dead!!!  

​In 1964 there was a brutal double attack on a young woman named Kitty Genovese that resulted in her death.  The attack was not covered in the press for around two weeks and when it finally got some ink, it was grossly misreported.  This crime and the behavior of witnesses reported by the newspapers led professionals in the psychology community to conduct a number of experiments to determine what went wrong in the response of bystanders and why people seem to be so reluctant to help in such situations.

​Kitty was born Catherine Susan Genovese on July 7, 1935.  She was kind of a wild Italian girl at times with a confident attitude and a pleasant disposition.  She lived with her parents and then her grandparents all the way up until she got married in 1954 at age 29.  But, the marriage was short lived and was annulled towards the end of that same year.
 
She moved in her own apartment in Brooklyn and worked clerical jobs, which she didn’t like, until the late 1950s when she found a job as a bartender.  While working behind the bar, she also made money on the side as a bookie.  Unfortunately, she got busted for this in 1961 with her girlfriend, Dee Guarnieri. They each had to pay a $50 fine and Kitty lost her job.
 
She quickly got another bartending job and soon she was managing the place because apparently, the owner was hardly ever there.  This allowed her to work a lot of overtime.  She saved as much money as she could and planned to open her own Italian restaurant.  

​A number of people heard her cry out but, only a few identified the sound as a cry for help. One of her neighbors, a gentleman by the name of Robert Mozer, even yelled at the attacker trying to scare him off and it worked.  Once Mozer hollered, “Let that girl alone!” the attacker ran off leaving Genovese seriously injured and to fend for herself.  She made her way toward the back of the building at a snail’s pace. At this point, she is bleeding profusely and quickly losing strength.  She is also now in a more secluded area, out of the view of any witnesses.
 
This is when witnesses say they saw the perpetrator enter his vehicle and leave the scene only to return 10 minutes later.  This time he was wearing a hat with a wide brim.  This allowed him to obscure his face from any onlookers.  He began to carefully and systematically search the area for Kitty.  Eventually, he found her.  She was lying nearly unconscious in a back hallway at the rear of her apartment building. To her heartbreak and dismay, once she had reached the building, a locked door had forbidden her from entering to safety.
 
Now out of earshot and eyesight of any and all would-be onlookers good samaritans, the attacker proceeded to stab Kitty Genovese several more times.  Then, in a very cold and brutal act of savagery, he raped her as she lay there bleeding to death and crying.  Once he was finished defiling this terrified young woman, he added insult to injury by taking $49 from her wallet and then bolted off like a coward.
 
The vicious attacks on Ms. Genovese spanned the period of about a half an hour, during which time defensive wounds suggest that Kitty put up a hell of a struggle as she fought the assailant for her life.  In the end, one of Kitty’s neighbors, a Ms. Sophia Farrar, found her a brief time after the second attack and held Genovese in her arms until emergency services arrived.
 
Kitty Genovese was put in an ambulance at 4:15am.  She died on the way to the hospital.

​Almost a week later, on March 19, a guy by the name of Winston Moseley was picked up for being suspected for robbery when the cops found a TV set in the trunk of his white Chevrolet Corvair.  At the time, a detective remembered that a white car had been reported as being seen leaving the scene of the Genovese murder just a week before.
 
Once the interrogation started, Moseley admitted not only to killing Kitty Genovese but, also to killing two other women, Annie Mae Johnson, who he had shot and burned to her death in her apartment a few weeks prior and Barbara Kralik, who was murdered in her parents’ home in July the previous year.

​Moseley had been sitting in his car when he spotted Genovese driving home.  He had seen her as she was stopped at a stoplight.  He began to follow her home and when she arrived and parked her car, he parked his car a little ways away, armed himself with his hunting knife and began to pursue her on foot.
 
Two weeks after the Genovese murder happened, it FINALLY made headlines.  If it hadn’t been for the NYPD Commissioner making a comment about the murder to an editor of the NY Times, this story might not have made the papers hardly at all.  
 
However, when the papers did get around to reporting the horrifying tragedy, they got it all kinds of screwed up.  Whether it was for the purpose of selling papers or whether they were just that bad at getting the facts straight, both are something that I can make a case for either way.  

​The papers stated that thirty-seven people stood by and watched this sadistic attack go down and nobody did anything to help.  Once word of THAT got around people were even MORE horrified with what had happened. It’s bad enough that a young lady would lose her life in such a callus and heinous way but, for all those people to just stand by and watch, to look out their windows and stare and do nothing. To open their doors and see a woman in such desperate need of help and turn around, close the door and go back to what they were doing before they heard the blood curdling screams.
 
Another thing in the news report that people seemed to really focus on was a quote of a witness that stated “I didn’t want to get involved.”  Many saw this as a clear representation of the decaying sense of care from one common human to another and the lack of empathy throughout large cities across the country, specifically New York.
 
In reality, there were at least two phone calls to the police, a man that yelled at the assailant and a woman that held the victim until help arrived.  At the time this incident happened there was no established centralized emergency services number, so 911 didn’t exist.  What people did was dial ‘0’ for the Operator and ask for the Police, hoping they weren’t too busy to transfer you in your time of need. Hardly an efficient way to render aid to someone who is having a heart attack or being stabbed several times and raped in the back of an apartment building.  
 
In 1968, 911 officially became the national emergency services number for the United States. And it would not have happened had it not been for the Kitty Genovese murder case.

If you are like the majority of the human race, you would most likely look with curiosity, perhaps strain to hear or even take your phone out to video the incident and continue walking. Many would assume that this was likely two drunk fans that after watching their team lose for over three hours, probably knocked a few too many back and now these chuckleheads can’t stand up on their own.  It might never even occur to you that this could be a domestic dispute or an intoxicated woman in trouble trying to flee or even a man being attacked by a sloshed date that he wishes he had cancelled.  
 
However, had they been wearing the home team’s jerseys we would have been much more likely to at least stop and watch to see the event unfold, to see if there was an emergency, to see if help was needed.  We would have seen that jersey as a symbol of a teammate, a comrade, a friend.  The opposing jersey would have psychologically represented an enemy.  After all, we did just watch over three hours of a total sanctioned war being played out on a field in the model of a true just society.  (Look, football is the model for true justice if you think about it. I mean in theory, people.  There’s a specific set of rules and everyone knows them.  There’s people there to monitor that the rules are followed.  And the moment someone breaks the rules, a swift and just punishment is handed out and it’s the same for that infraction pretty much every time. JUSTICE.)  Likewise, we are more apt to help people we feel have similar likes, lifestyles, opinions, etc.  Especially psychologically as we seem to always have this “us vs. them” mentality when it comes to difference of opinion.  
 
Next, people are always afraid to “get involved”.  It can be for a number of reasons.  At the time of the crime people are often scared of being hurt themselves or that their aid will hinder rather than help.  (We rarely think that we are qualified to help in an emergency.)  In women’s defense classes they sometimes teach to yell, “Fire!” instead of, “Rape!” because people are so much more likely to come to look at the horrors of a blazing person or building and so much less likely to intervene on a violent sexual assault.  (That’s messed up, seriously.  That’s just plain horrible and disgusting, thinking that carnage garners more curiosity than cries for help garner aid.  Humans can be so heartlessly morbid sometimes.)  
 
People are often afraid of the police and don’t want to talk to them.  We often get nervous around police or maybe look at them a little sideways, perhaps.  They also don’t want to have the police coming back to their home over and over to ask questions, thinking it looks bad to neighbors.  They don’t want the publicity of their names in the papers or their faces on the news and these days, everything is online first.  They are reluctant to be part of a trial. That’s a big one.  Everyone knows that when you become a witness for a trial, your opposing side is going to try their hardest to discredit you and rip you to shreds.  It takes a lot to sit in that witness chair and go through the criminal event, what you know and then for THEM to go through what they now know about you. And as a witness, yeah your side can object but, two things you gotta know.  One, the jury still hears it and remembers it, even when they are told to forget it and two, there are no WITNESS shield laws (like the rape shield laws that protect rape victims) that protect you from being exposed, exploited, hounded, followed, vilified, embarrassed, whatever they want to do to make you look like a bad witness.

​Now, I don’t want you to take this as set in stone.  As with pretty much all research, for every study showing one conclusion, you can find one showing the opposite.  Such is true for this topic as well.  There are studies in later years that have concluded that the number of people around when an emergency occurs does NOT affect whether or not someone will help. I would like to point out though, that these studies were done after the year 2000 and all research concluding the former was done prior to pretty much 1990.  

​In addition to all of that, despite the facts being proven to be different than that of the story in the papers, that exaggerated tale is STILL the account that is used in psychology textbooks everywhere to this day.  It is used more as a parable now rather than represented as fact but, that is RARELY noted in the texts and students are led to believe the fictitious account is the truth.
 
We live in a different time now.  In the 60s, nobody was opposed to minding their own business and even the President was given latitude with his personal indiscretions not being printed in the daily paper or read on the morning news like they are now.  In fact, White House aides used to call reporters and tell them things like you’re gonna find out that the President was out at a certain hotel this evening with a certain young lady.  He’d really appreciate it if you didn’t print that tomorrow and for your discretion he’ll give you exclusive access to BLANK, or whatever the appropriate offer of thanks would be.  Nowadays, there is no reasonable expectancy of right to privacy with all the technology we have.  Privacy is a reasonable right that has been turned into a variable myth.  As such, our behavior out in the open changes as well as behind closed doors.  
 
In the wake of so many mass shootings and the rise of outward violence hitting our streets once again, we tend to be somewhat desensitized to horrors that confront us every day.  In fact, I just found out today that a man who murdered one of my close friends and my friend’s girlfriend in high school, and was acquitted, was just found guilty of five robbery/homicides in my city that he committed almost five years ago. I had been following the case rather closely hoping he wouldn’t escape justice this time.  And yet, the news was presented the same way the rest of the news is presented, with the same emotional void or fake emotion, the same lack of realization that there are real people behind these headlines, real victims.
 
We all want to think that we know what we would do or how we would react in certain high risk/high stress situations.  And while we HAVE grown in some ways as a society, we still lack the general cohesiveness that pushes us to look out for a fellow stranger in addition to our family, friends and loved ones.  As these mass shootings and other horrific events continue to take place we see that there ARE people that are willing to help people they don’t know, willing to put themselves in harm’s way to render aid in times of need and emergency.  And we see that even within an average, everyday person can emerge the greatest of heroes.  People who don’t care what is viewed as right or wrong, what is being filmed or not, and what credit they would get or what fame would be given. They help because they are there, they can and someone needs it.  And when it comes down to it, isn’t that really what it should be about?