title: False accusation of rape

text: Researchers Cassia Spohn, Clair White and Katharine Tellis examined data provided by the Los Angeles Police Department in the US from 2008, and found that false reports among rape cases was about 4.5 percent. Upon review of Cassia Spohn's work, the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, which initially collaborated in the report, concluded "the perspective, conclusions and policy recommendations are inconsistent with American constitutional principles of justice, due process protections and the ethical obligations of prosecutors." The LADO noted that Spohn et al. likely had ideological biases against the accused and "failed to develop an understanding of the criminal justice system in Los Angeles County."


title: False accusation of rape

text: A report by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) examined rape allegations in England and Wales over a 17-month period between January 2011 and May 2012. It showed that in 35 cases authorities prosecuted a person for making a false allegation, while they brought 5,651 prosecutions for rape. Keir Starmer, the head of the CPS, said that the "mere fact that someone did not pursue a complaint or retracted it, is not of itself evidence that it was false" and that it is a "misplaced belief" that false accusations of rape are commonplace. He added that the report also showed that a significant number of false allegations of rape (and domestic violence) "involved young, often vulnerable people. About half of the cases involved people aged 21 years old and under, and some involved people with mental health difficulties. In some cases, the person alleged to have made the false report had undoubtedly been the victim of some kind of offence, even if not the one that he or she had reported."


title: False accusation of rape

text: David Lisak's study, published in 2010 in "Violence Against Women", classified as demonstrably false 8 out of the 136 (5.9%) reported rapes at an American university over a ten-year period. However, a much larger number of reports (44.9%) were classified by the authors as "Case Did Not Proceed", which includes reports that could ultimately be determined to be false allegations, though how many is unknown.


title: False accusation of rape

text: Applying IACP guidelines, a case was classified as a false report if there was evidence that a thorough investigation was pursued and that the investigation had yielded evidence that the reported sexual assault had in fact not occurred. A thorough investigation would involve, potentially, multiple interviews of the alleged perpetrator, the victim, and other witnesses, and where applicable, the collection of other forensic evidence (e.g., medical records, security camera records). For example, if key elements of a victim's account of an assault were internally inconsistent and directly contradicted by multiple witnesses and if the victim then altered those key elements of his or her account, investigators might conclude that the report was false. That conclusion would have been based not on a single interview, or on intuitions about the credibility of the victim, but on a "preponderance of evidence gathered over the course of a thorough investigation."


title: False accusation of rape

text: In a study of the first 100 rape reports after April 1, 2004, in Scotland, researchers found that about 4% of reports were designated by police to be false. In a separate report by the same researchers that year which studied primary data from several countries in Europe, including Austria, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, Sweden, and Wales, found the average proportion of reports designated by police as false was about 4%, and wasn't higher than 9% in any country they studied. They noted that cases where the police doubt the allegation may be "hidden in the ‘no evidence of sexual assault' category" instead of designated false category and suggested more detailed research into explicating both categories.


title: False accusation of rape

text: The UK Ministry of Justice in their Research Series published a report describing the analysis of 1,149 case files of violent crimes recorded April 2008 to March 2009. They noted that 12% of rape allegations fell into a broader definition of false accusations (victim was intoxicated, there was a delay in reporting the crime, victim retracted the complaint after the fact, or no evidence of bodily harm was recorded). Approximately 3% of the rape allegations were identified as malicious (determined to be intentionally false). When it came to cases with grievous bodily harm (GBH), even the broader definition (no evidence, delayed report, retraction, or intoxicated victim) accounted for only 2% of crimes.


title: False accusation of rape

text: A 2006 paper by Philip N.S. Rumney in the "Cambridge Law Journal" offers a review of studies of false reporting in the US, New Zealand and the UK. Rumney draws two conclusions from his review of literature. First, the police continue to misapply the "no-crime" or "unfounding" criteria. Studies by Kelly "et al". (2005), Lea "et al". (2003), HMCPSI/HMIC (2002), Harris and Grace (1999), Smith (1989), and others found that police decisions to no-crime were frequently dubious and based entirely on the officer's personal judgment. Rumney notes that some officers seem to "have fixed views and expectations about how genuine rape victims should react to their victimization". He adds that "qualitative research also suggests that some officers continue to exhibit an unjustified scepticism of rape complainants, while others interpret such things as lack of evidence or complaint withdrawal as 'proof' of a false allegation".


title: False accusation of rape

text: Rumney's second conclusion is that it is impossible to "discern with any degree of certainty the actual rate of false allegations" because many of the studies of false allegations have adopted unreliable or untested research methodologies. He argues, for instance, that in addition to their small sample size, the studies by Maclean (1979) and Stewart (1981) used questionable criteria to judge an allegation to be false. MacLean deemed reports "false" if, for instance, the victim did not appear "dishevelled" and Stewart, in one instance, considered a case disproved, stating that "it was totally impossible to have removed her extremely tight undergarments from her extremely large body against her will".


title: False accusation of rape

text: American psychologist David Lisak criticized the collection of studies used in Rumney's 2006 paper, which estimated the rate of false allegations as between 1.5 and 90%. Lisak stated that many of the stats are misleading upon investigation and "when the sources of these estimates are examined carefully it is clear that only a fraction of the reports represent credible studies and that these credible studies indicate far less variability in false reporting rates." Lisak points out that even in the original paper, Rumney concludes that many of the studies have inadequacies and should not be used to estimate the frequency of false rape reports.


title: False accusation of rape

text: According to Statistics Canada, 19% and 14% of sexual assault allegations were deemed unfounded in 2016 and 2017, respectively. It also declared, however, that more severe and violent cases of sexual assault were less likely to be declared unfounded than less severe ones. Cases declared to be unfounded are cases where police has determined that the assault did not occur and was not attempted.


title: False accusation of rape

text: According to the Globe and Mail, the statistics about unfounded cases are often kept secret, providing no incentive for police forces to analyze and account for them.


title: False accusation of rape

text: A study of 850 rape accusations made to police in Victoria, Australia between 2000 and 2003 found that 2.1% were ultimately classified by police as false, with the complainants then charged or threatened with charges for filing a false police report.


title: False accusation of rape

text: The Home Office on UK rape crime in 2005 released a study that followed 2,643 sexual assault cases from initial reporting of a rape through to legal prosecutions. The study was based on 2,643 sexual assault cases, of these, police classified 8% as false reports based on police judgement, and the rate was 2.5% when determined using official criteria for false reports. The researchers concluded that "one cannot take all police designations at face value" and that "[t]here is an over-estimation of the scale of false allegations by both police officers and prosecutors."


title: False accusation of rape

text: Jan Jordan of the Victoria University of Wellington examined police files from 1997 on rape and sexual assault from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Around 75% of the 164 police files concerned rape, the rest concerned sexual assault cases without penile penetration. Jordan separated cases into four main categories. First, in 34 cases (21%), the police considered the complaint to be genuine. Second, in 62 cases (38%), the police were unsure if the complaint was true or false. Third, in 55 cases (33%), the police considered the complaint to be false. Fourth, in 13 cases (8%), the complainant stated that their allegations were false. For the cases in this fourth category, 8 of these 13 cases (62%) had another party calling the police on the complainant's behalf, or another party pressuring the complainant to contact the police.


title: False accusation of rape

text: The Kanin study was replicated by Daniel Kennedy and Michael Witkowski of the University of Detroit. They recorded data from the period of 1988 to 1997 in an unnamed suburb of around 100,000, situated close to Detroit in the American state of Michigan. The authors found 68 reports of forcible rape, of which in 22 cases (32%) the complainants admitted that their reports were false. Similar to the Kanin study, most of these false reports served as an alibi (15 out of 22, 68% of the false reports). Diverging from the Kanin study, revenge was rarely cited as a reason (1 out of 22, 5% of the false reports). The remaining cases were cited to attention-seeking (6 out of 22, 27% of false reports).


title: False accusation of rape

text: In the US, FBI reports from 1995, 1996, and 1997 consistently put the number of "unfounded" forcible rape accusations around 8%. In contrast, the average rate of unfounded reports for all "index crimes" (murder, aggravated assault, forcible rape, robbery, arson, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft) tracked by the FBI is 2%. This estimate, however, does not appear in subsequent FBI reports. This estimate was criticised by academic Bruce Gross as almost meaningless as many jurisdictions from which FBI collects data use different definition of "unfounded", which, he wrote, includes cases where the victim did not physically fight off the suspect or the suspect did not use a weapon, and cases where the victim had a prior relationship to the suspect.


title: False accusation of rape

text: In 1994, Eugene J. Kanin of Purdue University investigated the incidences of false rape allegations made to the police in one small urban community in the Midwest United States (population 70,000) between 1978 and 1987. He states that unlike in many larger jurisdictions, this police department had the resources to "seriously record and pursue to closure all rape complaints, regardless of their merits". He further states each investigation "always involves a serious offer to polygraph the complainants and the suspects" and "the complainant must admit that no rape had occurred. She is the sole agent who can say that the rape charge is false".


title: False accusation of rape

text: The number of false rape allegations in the studied period was 45; this was 41% of the 109 total complaints filed in this period. The researchers verified, whenever possible, for all of the complainants who recanted their allegations, that their new account of the events matched the accused's version of events.


title: False accusation of rape

text: After reviewing the police files, Kanin categorized the false accusations into three broad motivations: alibis, revenge, and attention-seeking. These motivations were assigned prevalence of roughly 50%, 30%, and 20% respectively. This categorization was supported by the details of complainant recantations and other documentation of their cases.


title: False accusation of rape

text: Kanin also investigated the combined police records of two large Midwestern universities over a three-year period (1986–1988) and found that 50% of the reported forcible rapes were determined to be false accusations (32 of the total 64). No polygraphs were used, the investigations were the sole responsibility of a ranking female officer, and a rape charge was only counted as false under complainant recantation. In this sample, the motivations mentioned above were roughly evenly split between alibi and revenge, with only one case characterized as attention-seeking.


title: False accusation of rape

text: Critics of Kanin's report include David Lisak, an associate professor of psychology and director of the Men's Sexual Trauma Research Project at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He states, "Kanin's 1994 article on false allegations is a provocative opinion piece, but it is not a scientific study of the issue of false reporting of rape. It certainly should never be used to assert a scientific foundation for the frequency of false allegations."


title: False accusation of rape

text: According to Lisak, Kanin's study lacked any kind of systematic methodology and did not independently define a false report, instead recording as false any report which the police department classified as false, whereas Kanin stated that the women filing the false allegations of rape had recanted. The department classified reports as false which the complainant later said were false, but Lisak points out that Kanin's study did not scrutinize the police's processes or employ independent checkers to protect results from bias.


title: False accusation of rape

text: Kanin, Lisak writes, took his data from a police department which used investigation procedures (polygraphs) that are discouraged by the U.S. Justice Department and denounced by the International Association of Chiefs of Police. These procedures include the "serious offer", in this department, of polygraph testing of complainants, which is viewed as a tactic of intimidation that leads victims to avoid the justice process and which, Lisak says, is "based on the misperception that a significant percentage of sexual assault reports are false". The police department's "biases...were then echoed in Kanin's unchallenged reporting of their findings". While also noting some of the same criticisms of Kanin, Rumney's 2006 metastudy of US and UK false rape allegation studies adds that "if, indeed, officers did abide by this policy then the 41% could, in fact, be an underestimate given the restrictive definition of false complaints offered by the police in this study. The reliability of these findings may be somewhat bolstered by the fact that the police appeared to record the details and circumstances of the fabrications."


title: False accusation of rape

text: Bruce Gross writes in the "Forensic Examiner" that Kanin's study is an example of the limitations of existing studies on false rape accusations. "Small sample sizes and non-representative samples preclude generalizability." Philip N.S. Rumney questions the reliability of Kanin's study stating that it "must be approached with caution". He argues that the study's most significant problem is Kanin's assumption "that police officers abided by departmental policy in only labeling as false those cases where the complainant admitted to fabrication. He does not consider that actual police practice, as other studies have shown, might have departed from guidelines."


title: False accusation of rape

text: Surveys of police and prosecutors find that many in law enforcement consistently over-estimate the prevalence of false accusations, leading to what some researchers have characterized as a culture of skepticism toward accusers in sexual assault cases. In 2018, Lesley McMillan analysed police perception of likelihood of false reporting of rape. She concluded though police anticipated 5% to 95% of claims were likely to be false, no more than 3-4% could have been fabricated.


title: False accusation of rape

text: There are studies about the extent which the media affects the public perception of false rape accusations. Incorrect assumptions about false rape allegations increases the likelihood that a person who reports rape will be blamed or disbelieved. Megan Sacks in "Deviant Behavior" says that the media perpetuates rape myths when reporting on sexual assaults. Rapes that are reported in news media are typically sensational and do not often correspond with the reality of most rapes. For example, the majority of sexual assaults are committed by someone the person knows as opposed to a stranger. Sacks says, the media also normalizes sexual violence in general, often blames the person who reported the assault, and commonly expresses sympathy for the alleged perpetrators instead of the victim. Laura Niemi, a postdoctoral psychology associate at Harvard University, speculated that mythologizing of rape could contribute to the idea that "no normal person" could rape. As a result, the people commonly had a difficult time believing someone they know or like is a rapist, and this could contribute to the idea that the person who reported the rape is at fault.


title: False accusation of rape

text: In the "European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context", André De Zutter and a team described how false rape allegations often resemble stories of rape portrayed in the media, which are not typical of most true incidents of rape. False stories tend to be quick and straightforward with few details or complex interactions, and usually involve only vaginal intercourse. Some behaviors associated with lying by juries is actually typical of true rapes, including kissing or a previous relationship with the rapist. True rape reports often include many details rarely seen in media or false rape reports, for example pseudo-intimate actions, detailed verbal interactions and an otherwise wide range of behaviors besides simply face-to-face vaginal intercourse.


title: False accusation of rape

text: Individuals suspected of making a false accusation of rape may be charged with the civil crime of "wasting police time" or the criminal charge of "Perverting the Course of Justice".


title: False accusation of rape

text: Over a five-year period ending in 2014, a total of 109 women were prosecuted for crimes related to making false accusations of rape. The report did not indicate the verdicts following prosecution. Another report identified 121 charging decisions involving allegations of false accusations of rape and an additional 11 false allegations of both domestic violence and rape between January 2011 and May 2012 and found of these cases, 35 were prosecuted based upon false accusations of rape. A further 3 were prosecuted based upon charges of false accusations of both rape and domestic abuse. The report did not indicate the verdicts following prosecution.


title: False accusation of rape

text: In 1895, Ida B. Wells published "The Red Record" which documented lynchings from 1892 and their causes. Of the 241 lynchings she documented, rape and murder were the two most common justifications for lynchings. Wells found that many victims of lynching had been falsely accused of rape or some other offense because they had engaged in economic competition with white-owned businesses. Subsequent analyses have confirmed Wells' argument that economic competition caused lynchings and found that lynchings increased during difficult economic times. In other cases, African American men had consensual sexual relationships with white women and were lynched after the relationships were discovered by other people.


title: False accusation of rape

text: In Louisiana, rape was the second most common reason used between 1889 and 1896 to justify a lynching. In a survey done in the 1930s of a small town in Mississippi, 60 percent of respondents stated that lynching was an appropriate response to a case of rape and that it was necessary to maintain law and order and protect white women.


title: False accusation of rape

text: In the Tulsa race massacre of 1921, white mobs killed between 75 and 300 people, mostly black, and injured an additional 800 people. The massacre began over a false allegation that a 19-year-old black shoeshiner had attempted to rape a white 17-year-old elevator operator.


title: False accusation of rape

text: The Rosewood massacre of 1923 began after a white woman in nearby Sumner claimed that she had been physically assaulted by a black man from Rosewood. Rumors circulated that she was raped and robbed. An angry mob surrounded a house which was filled with black residents and a standoff ensued. The mob killed several people inside the house and two white people were killed outside it. This event attracted additional angry mobs which razed Rosewood to the ground. Black residents fled into the forest, escaped in cars, and escaped on a train. At a minimum, eight black people and two white people were killed, but it is possible that as many as 150 black residents were killed.


title: False accusation of rape

text: Two white women falsely accused the Scottsboro Boys, a group of nine African American boys and young men, of rape on a train in 1931. They had boarded a train across state lines in hopes of finding work but they were stopped by police. One of the accusers was rumored to be "a common street prostitute of the lowest type" who had been overhead asking "negro men" about the size of their "private parts". She was reputed to be a heavy drinker. Afraid that they would be arrested for violating the Mann Act, they told police that they had been raped by nine black men who were aboard the train. White southerners argued that the women's histories of prostitution should not impact the case, in the words of one contemporary account "[she] might be a fallen woman, but by God she is a white woman." The mob that gathered to lynch the men was only dispersed by assurances of a speedy trial.


title: False accusation of rape

text: The case inspired a national movement to free the men. Eight of the boys were found guilty and the case was appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court and then it was appealed to the United States Supreme Court twice. In "Powell v. Alabama" the United States Supreme Court reversed the Alabama Supreme Court's decision because it found that the defendants had inadequate counsel. In "Patterson v. Alabama" the United States Supreme Court sent the case back to Alabama for retrial because the Alabama Supreme Court's jury pool had excluded African-Americans, a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Five of the nine Scottsboro boys were ultimately found guilty and sentenced to prison. In 2013, Alabama's parole board voted to grant posthumous pardons to all of the Scottsboro Boys who had previously not been pardoned because their convictions had not been overturned.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: Mark William Hofmann (born December 7, 1954) is an American counterfeiter, forger, and convicted murderer. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished forgers in history, Hofmann is especially noted for his creation of documents related to the history of the Latter Day Saint movement. When his schemes began to unravel, he constructed bombs to murder three people in Salt Lake City, Utah. The first two bombs killed two people on October 15, 1985. On the following day, a third bomb exploded in Hofmann's car. He was arrested for the bombings three months later, and in 1987 pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, one count of theft by deception and one count of fraud.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: Mark Hofmann was born in 1954 in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Lucille ("née" Sears) and William Hofmann (1928–1993). He was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He was a below-average high school student, but had many hobbies including stage magic, electronics, chemistry, and stamp and coin collecting. Hofmann and his friends were said to have made bombs for fun on the outskirts of Murray, Utah. Hofmann graduated 573 in a class of 700. According to Hofmann, while still a teenage coin collector, he forged a rare mint mark on a dime and was told by an organization of coin collectors that it was genuine.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: Like many young men in the LDS Church, Hofmann volunteered to spend two years as an LDS missionary, and in 1973 the church sent him to its mission in Bristol, England. Hofmann told his parents that he had baptized several converts; he did not tell them that he had also perused Fawn M. Brodie's biography of Joseph Smith, "No Man Knows My History". While in England, Hofmann enjoyed investigating bookshops and buying early Mormon material, as well as books critiquing Mormonism. He later told prosecutors that he had lost his faith in the LDS Church and become an atheist around age 14. He had learned that his maternal grandparents had continued to secretly practice polygamy for more than a decade after the church publicly ended the practice (it was not fully renounced until 1904). A former girlfriend believed Hofmann performed his mission only because of social pressure and the desire not to disappoint his parents.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: After Hofmann returned from his mission, he enrolled as a pre-med major at Utah State University. In 1979, he married Doralee "Dorie" Olds, and the couple eventually had four children. Dorie Olds Hofmann filed for divorce in 1987, two years after Hofmann's crimes came to light, and became co-founder of a holistic medicine company.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: In 1980, Hofmann claimed that he had found a 17th-century King James Bible with a folded paper gummed inside. The document seemed to be the transcript that Smith's scribe Martin Harris had presented to Charles Anthon, a Columbia classics professor, in 1828. According to the Mormon scripture Joseph Smith–History, the transcript and its unusual reformed Egyptian characters were copied by Smith from the golden plates from which he translated the Book of Mormon.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: Hofmann constructed his version to fit Anthon's description of the document, and its discovery made Hofmann's reputation. Dean Jessee, an editor of Smith's papers and the best-known expert on handwriting and old documents in the Historical Department of the LDS Church, concluded that the document was a Smith holograph. The LDS Church announced the discovery of the Anthon Transcript in April and purchased it from Hofmann for more than US$20,000. Appraised by the LDS Church for US$25,000, it was purchased on October 13 in exchange for several artifacts the church owned in duplicate, including a $5 gold Mormon coin, Deseret banknotes, and a first edition of the Book of Mormon. Assuming the document to be genuine, prominent Mormon academic Hugh Nibley predicted that the discovery promised "as good a test as we'll ever get of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon" because he thought the paper might be translated. Zoology professor Barry Fell soon after claimed to have decoded the text.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: Hofmann promptly dropped out of school and went into business as a dealer in rare books. He soon fabricated other historically significant documents and became noted among LDS Church history buffs for his "discoveries" of previously unknown materials pertaining to the Latter Day Saint movement. These deceived not only members of the First Presidency – notably Gordon B. Hinckley, then the "de facto" president of the church due to the poor health of more senior leaders – but also document experts and distinguished historians. According to Richard and Joan Ostling, Hofmann was by this time a "closet apostate" motivated not only by greed but also by "the desire to embarrass the church by undermining church history".


title: Mark Hofmann

text: During the early 1980s, a significant number of new Mormon documents came into the marketplace. Sometimes the church received these as donations, and others it purchased. According to the Ostlings, "The church publicized some of the acquisitions; it orchestrated public relations for some that were known to be sensitive; others it acquired secretly and suppressed."


title: Mark Hofmann

text: In 1981, Hofmann presented the LDS Church with a document which supposedly provided evidence that Smith had designated his son Joseph Smith III, rather than Brigham Young, as his successor. In a forged cover letter, purportedly written by Thomas Bullock and dated January 27, 1865, Bullock chastises Young for having all copies of the blessing destroyed. Bullock writes that although he believes Young to be the legitimate leader of the LDS Church, he would keep his copy of the blessing. Such a letter, if true, would portray Young and, by extension, the LDS Church, in an unfavorable light.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: In February 1981, Hofmann tried to sell the letter to the chief archivist of the LDS Church. He expected the church to "buy the blessing on the spot and "bury" it." When the archivist balked at the price, Hofmann offered it to the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church; now known as the Community of Christ), which had always claimed that the line of succession had been bestowed on Smith's descendants but had never had written proof. A scramble to acquire the document occurred, and Hofmann, posing as a faithful Mormon, presented it to his church in exchange for items worth more than $20,000. Nevertheless, he also ensured that the document would be made public. The next day, a "New York Times" headline read, "Mormon Document Raises Doubts on Succession of Church's Leaders," and the LDS Church was forced to confirm the discovery and publicly present the document to the RLDS Church.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: During the race by the Utah and Missouri churches to acquire the blessing document, Hofmann discovered "a lever to exercise enormous power over his church", a power to "menace and manipulate its leaders with nothing more sinister than a sheet of paper". Salt Lake County District Attorney's investigator Michael George believed that, after Hofmann had successfully forged the blessing, his ultimate goal was to create the lost 116 pages of the Book of Mormon, which he could have filled with inconsistencies and errors, sell them "to the church to be hidden away" and then – as he had done often with embarrassing documents – "make sure its contents were made public."


title: Mark Hofmann

text: Perhaps the most famous of Hofmann's Mormon forgeries, the Salamander letter, appeared in 1984. Supposedly written by Martin Harris to W. W. Phelps, the letter presented a version of the recovery of the gold plates that contrasted markedly with the church-sanctioned version of events. Not only did the letter intimate that Smith had been practicing "money digging" through magical practices, but it also replaced the angel that Smith said had appeared to him with a white salamander.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: After the letter had been purchased for the church and became public knowledge, LDS Church apostle Dallin H. Oaks asserted to Mormon educators that the words "white salamander" could be reconciled with Smith's Angel Moroni because, in the 1820s, the word "salamander" might also refer to a mythical being thought to be able to live in fire, and a "being that is able to live in fire is a good approximation of the description Joseph Smith gave of the Angel Moroni."


title: Mark Hofmann

text: In 1984, longtime critics of Mormonism Jerald and Sandra Tanner became the first to declare the Salamander letter a forgery, despite the fact that it, as well as others of Hofmann's purported discoveries, would have strengthened the Tanners' arguments against the veracity of official Mormon history. Document expert Kenneth W. Rendell later said that while there was "the absence of any indication of forgery in the letter itself, there was also no evidence that it was genuine."


title: Mark Hofmann

text: No one is certain how many forged documents Hofmann created during the early 1980s, but they included a letter from Smith's mother, Lucy Mack Smith, describing the origin of the Book of Mormon; letters from Martin Harris and David Whitmer, two of the Three Witnesses, each giving a personal account of their visions; a contract between Smith and Egbert Bratt Grandin for the printing of the first edition of the Book of Mormon; and two pages of the original Book of Mormon manuscript taken in dictation from Smith to Oliver Cowdery.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: In 1983, Hofmann bypassed the LDS Church's historical department and sold to Hinckley an 1825 Smith holograph purporting to confirm that Smith had been treasure hunting and practicing magic five years after his First Vision. Hofmann had the signature authenticated by Charles Hamilton, the contemporary "dean of American autograph dealers", sold the letter to the church for $15,000, and gave his word that no one else had a copy. Hofmann then leaked its existence to the press, after which the church was virtually forced to release the letter to scholars for study, despite previously denying it had it in its possession.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: To make this sudden flood of important Mormon documents seem plausible, Hofmann explained that he relied on a network of tipsters, had methodically tracked down modern descendants of early Mormons, and had mined collections of 19th-century letters that had been saved by collectors for their postmarks rather than for their contents. Hofmann also traded in many legitimate historical documents acquired from rare book sellers and collectors. The forgeries were thus intermingled with many legitimate historical documents, which bolstered Hofmann's credibility.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: In addition to documents from Mormon history, Hofmann also forged and sold signatures of many famous non-Mormons, including George Washington, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Daniel Boone, John Brown, Andrew Jackson, Mark Twain, Nathan Hale, John Hancock, Francis Scott Key, Abraham Lincoln, John Milton, Paul Revere, Myles Standish, and Button Gwinnett, whose signature was the rarest, and therefore the most valuable, of any signer of the Declaration of Independence. Hofmann also forged a previously unknown poem in the hand of Emily Dickinson.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: But Hofmann's grandest scheme was to forge what was perhaps the most famous missing document in American colonial history, the "Oath of a Freeman". The one-page "Oath" had been printed in 1639, the first document to be printed in Britain's American colonies, but only about fifty copies had been made, and none of them were extant. A genuine example was probably worth over US$1 million in 1985, and Hofmann's agents began to negotiate a sale to the Library of Congress.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: Despite the considerable amounts of money Hofmann had made from document sales, he was deeply in debt, in part because of his increasingly lavish lifestyle and his purchases of genuine first-edition books. In an effort to clear his debts, he attempted to broker a sale of the "McLellin collection" – a supposedly extensive group of documents written by William E. McLellin, an early Mormon apostle who eventually broke with the LDS Church. Hofmann hinted that the McLellin collection would provide revelations unfavorable to the LDS Church. It was already known that McLellin had written various letters and papers dealing with controversial subjects in Joseph Smith's life; in 1879 the RLDS Church printed a letter from McLellin to Joseph Smith III stating that the elder Smith's wife, Emma, knew and disapproved of her husband's adultery. When McLellin was visited by this same Joseph Smith III, McLellin asserted: “Emma Smith told him [McLellin] that Joseph was both a polygamist and an adulterer."


title: Mark Hofmann

text: However, Hofmann had no idea where the McLellin collection was, nor did he have the time to forge a suitably large group of documents. Those to whom Hofmann had promised documents or repayments of debts began to hound him, and the sale of the "Oath of a Freeman" was delayed by questions about its authenticity.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: In an effort to buy more time, Hofmann began constructing bombs. On October 15, 1985, he first killed document collector Steven Christensen (as well as injuring a secretary in the leg with shrapnel). Later the same day, a second bomb killed Kathy Sheets, the wife of Christensen's former employer. As Hofmann had intended, police initially suspected that the bombings were related to the impending collapse of an investment business of which Sheets's husband, J. Gary Sheets, was the principal and Christensen his protégé.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: The following day, Hofmann himself was severely injured when a bomb exploded in his Toyota MR2. Although police quickly focused on Hofmann as the suspect in the bombings, some of his business associates went into hiding, fearing they might also become victims.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: During the bombing investigation, police discovered evidence of the forgeries in Hofmann's basement. They also found the engraving plant where the forged plate for "Oath of a Freeman" was made. Document examiner George Throckmorton analyzed several Hofmann documents that had previously been deemed authentic and determined they were forgeries. Three letters purportedly written from an Illinois prison by Smith used different ink, paper, and writing instruments. Because the letters had been authenticated by different experts, the inconsistencies had earlier escaped detection. Throckmorton also discovered that some documents, supposedly written by different people, had similar writing styles and that they had been written with homemade iron gall ink that looked cracked like alligator skin under a microscope, although authentic period ink did not. Investigators also found that a poem used to authenticate the handwriting in the Salamander Letter had been forged by Hofmann and inserted in a "Book of Common Prayer" once owned by Martin Harris.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: Hofmann was arrested in January 1986 and charged on four indictments totaling 27 counts, including first-degree murder, delivering a bomb, constructing or possessing a bomb, theft by deception, and communication fraud. A fifth indictment, containing an additional five counts of theft by deception, was added later in January. Hofmann initially maintained his innocence. However, at a preliminary hearing, prosecutors produced voluminous evidence of his forgeries and debts, as well as evidence linking him to the bombs. During the investigations, many of the prosecution team became convinced that they were being stonewalled by leaders of the LDS Church. Chief investigator Jim Bell said, "They're hiding something; the church is doing everything it can to make this as difficult as possible. I've never seen anything like this in a homicide investigation."


title: Mark Hofmann

text: Hofmann not only faced the prospect of the death penalty in Utah but was indicted on federal charges of possession of an unregistered machine gun. New York prosecutors also sought an indictment for the fraudulent sale of "Oath of a Freeman". In January 1987, Hofmann pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, one count of theft by deception for forging the Salamander Letter, and one count of fraud for the bogus sale of the McLellin collection. The fact that Hofmann got off with a plea bargain instead of going to trial, where he would likely have faced the death penalty if found guilty, was quite puzzling to a reporter from the "Los Angeles Times", who wrote, "In any other state, you'd see this thing go on trial, because that's how prosecutors’ reputations are made. Going to trial and getting bad guys, big splashes, lots of exposure. Here you have a nice plea bargain."


title: Mark Hofmann

text: Hofmann agreed to confess his forgeries in open court, in return for which prosecutors in Utah and New York dropped additional charges against him. He was sentenced to five years to life, but the judge recommended that Hofmann never be released. The sentence of five years to life was the maximum under Utah law of the time; changes to sentencing guidelines have since increased the minimum sentence for murder to 15 years to life.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: In 1988, Hofmann told the Board of Pardons that he thought planting the bomb that killed Kathy Sheets was "almost a game ... at the time I made the bomb, my thoughts were that it didn't matter if it was Mrs. Sheets, a child, a dog ... whoever" [was killed]. Within the hour the board, citing Hofmann's "callous disregard for human life", decided that he would indeed spend the remainder of his "natural life in prison". Hofmann also told investigator Michael George that he was bewildered by the attention paid to his murder victims: "I don't feel anything for them. My philosophy is that they're "dead". They're not suffering. I think life is basically worthless. They could have died just as easily in a car accident. I don't believe in God. I don't believe in an afterlife. "They don't know they're dead"."


title: Mark Hofmann

text: After Hofmann was imprisoned, he was excommunicated by the LDS Church and his wife filed for divorce. Hofmann attempted suicide in his cell by taking an overdose of antidepressants. He was revived, but not before spending twelve hours lying on his right arm and blocking its circulation, thus causing muscle atrophy. His forging hand was thereby permanently disabled.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: Hofmann, Utah Department of Corrections offender number 41235, was originally incarcerated at Utah State Prison in Draper. However, in 2016, he was transferred to Central Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: As a master forger, Hofmann deceived a number of renowned document experts during his short career. Some of his forgeries were accepted by scholars for years, and an unknown number of them may still be in circulation. But it is Hofmann's forgeries of Mormon documents that have had the greatest historical significance. In August 1987, the sensationalist aspects of the Hofmann case led apostle Dallin H. Oaks to believe that Mormons had witnessed "some of the most intense LDS Church-bashing since the turn of the [20th] century."


title: Mark Hofmann

text: A student of Mormonism, Jan Shipps, agreed that press reports "contained an astonishing amount of innuendo associating Hofmann's plagiarism with Mormon beginnings. Myriad reports alleged secrecy and cover-up on the part of LDS general authorities, and not a few writers referred to the way in which a culture that rests on a found scripture is particularly vulnerable to the offerings of con-artists."


title: Mark Hofmann

text: According to the Ostlings, the Hofmann forgeries could only have been perpetrated "in connection with the curious mixture of paranoia and obsessiveness with which Mormons approach church history." After Hofmann's exposure, the LDS Church tried to correct the record, but the "public relations damage as well as the forgery losses meant the church was also a Hofmann victim." Robert Lindsey has also suggested that Hofmann "stimulated a burst of historical inquiry regarding Joseph Smith's youthful enthusiasm for magic [that] did not wither after his conviction".


title: Mark Hofmann

text: A three-part documentary series about Hofmann's illegal activities, entitled "Murder Among the Mormons", premiered on Netflix on March 3, 2021. The limited series debuted for the week ending March 7, 2021, as the third most streamed video on demand original-content program, according to Nielsen streaming ratings with 587 million viewer minutes.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: The events were a part of the series, "City Confidential" in the 1998 episode, "Faith and Foul Play in Salt Lake City".


title: Mark Hofmann

text: The murders were also covered by a 1997 episode of "Forensic Files", "Postal Mortem", and a 2010 episode of "Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry?", “An Explosive Love”.


title: Mark Hofmann

text: Hofmann's crimes are fictionalized in the episode "The Saint", "" (2004). The forger is portrayed by Stephen Colbert.


title: Jamie Fraser (character)

text: James "Jamie" Fraser is a fictional character in the "Outlander" series of multi-genre novels by American author Diana Gabaldon, and its television adaptation. In the series, married World War II nurse Claire Randall is visiting Scotland when she is transported through time from 1945 back to 1743. There she finds adventure, war and romance with the dashing Highland warrior Jamie Fraser, a member of Gabaldon's fictionalized Clan Fraser of Lovat. Jamie also appears in two novels in the "Lord John" series of historical mysteries, and in the 2013 novella "Virgins".


title: Jamie Fraser (character)

text: Gabaldon took the name "Jamie" from the "Doctor Who" character Jamie McCrimmon, portrayed in the television series by Frazer Hines. Gabaldon had seen the "Doctor Who" serial "The War Games", which inspired her to set her novel in Scotland. Gabaldon developed Jamie from an account in the Eric Linklater book "Prince in the Heather", in which a single Jacobite named Fraser survives the mass execution of his fellows. Jamie's looks and character are based on Gabaldon's husband, Doug Watkins, as the author has herself confirmed on her Twitter account.


title: Jamie Fraser (character)

text: Hines guest starred in the May 2015 episode "Wentworth Prison" of "Outlander", the television series adaptation of Gabaldon's novels.


title: Jamie Fraser (character)

text: When married World War II nurse Claire Randall is transported through time from 1945 back to 1743, she meets dashing Highland warrior Jamie Fraser.


title: Jamie Fraser (character)

text: Jeff Jensen of "Entertainment Weekly" wrote, "The stories the show told during the second half of the first season deepened [Claire and Jamie's] bond and their need for each other. Jamie in particular was made to confront his personal and cultural attitudes about gender roles, understand how they impact Claire, and recognize the value to him of having a wife that was his equal in every way."


title: Jamie Fraser (character)

text: Gabaldon describes Jamie as handsome and unusually tall, with distinctive red hair, deep blue eyes, and fair skin. The character uses many aliases throughout the series, including Jamie MacTavish, The Dunbonnet, Red Jamie/Seumas Ruadh, Mac Dubh, Alex MacKenzie, and Alexander Malcolm.


title: Jamie Fraser (character)

text: Jamie is a main character of Gabaldon's "Outlander" series. He also appears in two novels in the "Lord John" series of historical mysteries, and in the 2013 novella "Virgins".


title: Jamie Fraser (character)

text: Heughan was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor on Television in 2015, and Best Actor on Television in 2016. Heughan was also nominated for a People's Choice Award for Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Actor in 2016 and 2017, a 2016 BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Actor in Television, and a 2016 Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series.


title: Peter Palandjian

text: Peter Palandjian (born February 12, 1964) is the CEO of Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation, a company his father founded. He's also a former collegiate and professional tennis player.


title: Peter Palandjian

text: Born in Boston, to a family of Armenian descent. Palandjian attended Phillips Academy Andover, then went to Harvard University where he had a noted varsity tennis career, and later to Harvard Business School. He twice captained the Harvard team and played in the NCAA championships, both in singles and doubles, as the team's number one player. Palandjian, who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and American literature, defeated Pat McEnroe at the NCAA Championships in 1986.


title: Peter Palandjian

text: Palandjian competed professionally after leaving college and won six ATP tour Challenger titles, all in doubles. He also made main draw appearances in singles and doubles at various Grand Prix tournaments. Notable victories include wins over Jay Lapidus (Stratton Mountain, 1987), Ricardo Acuna and Mark Dickson (Raleigh, 1987) Tony Mmoh (Boston, 1998), Martin Laurendeau (Miami, 1998), Andrew Sznajder (Seattle, 1998). One of his doubles partners, at the 1988 U.S. Pro Tennis Championships in Boston, was future world number one Jim Courier. In 1988 he featured in the men's doubles at three Grand Slam events, the French Open, Wimbledon Championships and US Open. He also played men's doubles at the 1989 French Open and mixed doubles at the 1989 Wimbledon Championships. His brother, Paul, was also a collegiate tennis player. The pair played a Grand Prix tournament together at Boston in 1989. During Palandjian's highest career world ranking in doubles he reached No. 175 on July 10, 1989.


title: Peter Palandjian

text: Palandjian worked for two years with Bain & Company, as an Associate. He was then an assistant to the CEO of Staples, during which time he studied for his MBA at Harvard Business School.


title: Peter Palandjian

text: Since 1993 he has been CEO of Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation, a company founded in Boston in 1959 by his father Petros A. Palandjian, an Armenian immigrant, originally as a construction firm.


title: Peter Palandjian

text: Palandjian lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and has four children with his former wife Marie-Louise "Minou" Palandjian: Manon Palandjian, Petros Palandjian, Margot Palandjian, and Madelon Palandjian. His daughter Manon oversees marketing and communications for his family's company.


title: Peter Palandjian

text: He married actress Eliza Dushku in August 2018. In February 2019, Dushku announced that she was pregnant with their first child. Six months later in August of that year, they welcomed their son Bourne. In August 2021, Dushku gave birth to the couple's second son, Bodan.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Cartagena () is a Spanish city and a major naval station on the Mediterranean coast, south-eastern Iberia. As of January 2018, it has a population of 218,943 inhabitants, being the region's second-largest municipality and the country's sixth-largest non-provincial-capital city. The metropolitan area of Cartagena, known as "Campo de Cartagena", has a population of 409,586 inhabitants.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Cartagena has been inhabited for over two millennia, being founded around 227 BC by the Carthaginian Hasdrubal the Fair as "Qart Hadasht" (; meaning "New Town"), the same name as the original city of Carthage. The city had its heyday during the Roman Empire, when it was known as "Carthago Nova" (the New Carthage) and "Carthago Spartaria", capital of the province of Carthaginensis.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Much of the historical significance of Cartagena stemmed from its coveted defensive port, one of the most important in the western Mediterranean. Cartagena has been the capital of the Spanish Navy's Maritime Department of the Mediterranean since the arrival of the Spanish Bourbons in the 18th century. As far back as the 16th century it was one of the most important naval ports in Spain, together with Ferrol in the North. It is still an important naval seaport, the main military haven of Spain, and is home to a large naval shipyard.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The confluence of civilizations as well as its strategic harbour, together with the rise of the local mining industry is manifested by a unique artistic heritage, with a number of landmarks such as the Roman Theatre, the second largest of the Iberian Peninsula after the one in Mérida, an abundance of Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine and Moorish remains, and a plethora of Art Nouveau buildings, a result of the bourgeoisie from the early 20th century. Cartagena is now established as a major cruise ship destination in the Mediterranean and an emerging cultural focus.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: It was the first of a number of cities that have been named Cartagena, most notably Cartagena, Colombia.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The Cartagena region can be viewed as a great plain inclined slightly in the direction NW-SE, bordered at the north and the northwest by pre-coastal mountain ranges (Carrascoy, El Puerto, Los Villares, Columbares and Escalona), and at the south and southwest by coastal mountain ranges (El Algarrobo, La Muela, Pelayo, Gorda, La Fausilla y Minera, with its last spurs in Cape Palos).


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The dominant geology of the region is metamorphic (slate, marble) and sedimentary (limestone). The most widely present kind of soil is calcic xerosol. Other soils that occur in the municipality are the leptosol, which forms the Mediterranean coast, and the petrocalcic xerosol.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The city is located just at the end of the new AP-7 motorway. The following villages are part of Cartagena municipality: La Azohía, Isla Plana, Los Urrutias and Los Nietos.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The Old Town is limited by five small hills (Molinete, Monte Sacro, Monte de San José, Despeñaperros and Monte de la Concepción) following the example of Rome. In the past, there was an inner sea between the hills called the Estero that eventually dried up. On this site, the "Ensanche" (Expansion or New Town) was built at the beginning of the 20th century.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The urban area is delimited or crossed by several watercourses, some of which go deep into the urban network during a large part of their courses.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Cartagena has a hot semi-arid climate. Its location near the sea moderates the temperature, and annual precipitation typically does not surpass .


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The annual average temperature goes up to around . The coldest month is January, with an average temperature of . In August, the warmest month, the average temperature is . The wind is an important climatic factor in the region.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The municipality has 24 districts, known as "diputaciones" (councils). The origin of this administrative structure has its date in the beginning of the 18th century when population was increasing and the municipality was becoming less tractable. The districts are:


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Despite the intense mining, tourist and industrial exploitation that the area has suffered for centuries, the territory around Cartagena city hosts an extraordinary natural wealth and diversity, with a large number of botanical endemic species. Part of its area is subject to different levels of legal protection.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Cartagena's coastal mountains have one of the highest levels of botanical biodiversity on the Iberian Peninsula. A number of surprising Ibero-African species, which are only found in southern Spain (mostly in the provinces of Murcia and Almería) and North Africa. Among these, there stands out "Tetraclinis articulata" or "Sandarac" (sabina mora o ciprés de Cartagena—"Cartagena's cypress" in Spanish) native to Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Malta, and Cartagena, growing at relatively low altitudes in a hot, dry Mediterranean woodland. Some species are seriously endangered like the siempreviva de Cartagena (Limonium carthaginense), the (Sideritis marmironensis), the zamarrilla de Cartagena (Teucrium carthaginense), the manzanilla de Escombreras (Anthemis chrysantha), the garbancillo de Tallante (Astragalus nitidiflorus) and the jara de Cartagena Cistus heterophyllus carthaginensis).


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Among the animal species includes some threatened or endangered ones like the peregrine falcon, the Eurasian eagle-owl, the golden eagle and the Bonelli's eagle, the Spur-thighed tortoise, the Greater Horseshoe Bat and, especially, the Spanish toothcarp, a fish endemic to south-eastern Spain. In addition, the presence of the common chameleon (the only chameleon in Europe) has been documented for about 30 years, although it is not clear whether it is native or introduced. Some other species of note include the greater flamingo, the red fox, the European rabbit, the European badger, the Beech marten, the common genet, the wildcat and the wild boar.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: There is mention of the presence of individuals belonging to the genus "Homo" in the cave Cueva Victoria 1,300,000 years ago. This cave is located in the southeastern quarter of Cartagena.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Remains of Neanderthal individuals of the Mousterian culture were found in the Cave of Los Aviones. This place is located close to Cartagena. There were also remains of Neanderthals belonging to the Mousterian culture in the cave Cueva Bermeja, which is placed in the southwestern quarter of the municipality.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: At the southeast corner of the municipality remains of humans of the Upper Paleolithic were discovered. The paleonthological sites are the Abrigo de Los Déntoles cove, the Cueva de Los Mejillones cave, and the Cabezo de San Ginés (hill). The West of the municipality was also the scene of human activity in that period. Concrete evidence of this are the Cueva del Caballo and Cueva Bermeja caves.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The southeast end of Cartagena was inhabited again during the Mesolithic. Important spots are the Cueva de Los Pájaros and Cueva de Los Mejillones (caves). Neolithic components such as ceramic remains were located.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The southeast of Cartagena was again inhabited during the Neolithic. The sites are Las Amoladeras and Calblanque. The south of the Alumbres district was also inhabited during that period. The archaeological site is located in the Cerro del Gorguel hill and in it a characteristic Neolithic hamlet was discovered.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The reasons for the dearth of human presence and structures in this municipality during the Neolithic period were the lack of rainfall and the absence of water beds. During the Bronze Age there was a similar situation.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The Argaric civilization inhabited the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula (Región de Murcia and Almería) during the Bronze Age. Nevertheless, they did not significantly occupy this municipality, there were few structures belonging to them and they had little relevance here. They lived in the northwest.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The town was originally named Mastia. Possessing one of the best harbors in the Western Mediterranean, it was re-founded by the Carthaginian general Hasdrubal in 228 BC as "Qart Hadasht" ("New City"), a name identical to Carthage, for the purpose of serving as a stepping-off point for the conquest of Spain. The Roman general Scipio Africanus conquered it in 209 BC and renamed it as "Carthago Nova" (literally "New "New City"") to distinguish it from the mother city. It became a tributary community ("civitas stipendaria"). Julius Caesar gave the town Latin Rights, and Octavian renamed it in his honor as the colony "Colonia Victrix Iulia Nova Carthago" or "Colonia Vrbs Iulia Nova Carthago" (C. V. I. N. C.) depending on the source. The city was very relevant both in the Carthaginian and the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. In 298 AD, Diocletian constituted a new Roman province in Hispania called Carthaginensis and settled the capital in this city. It remained important until it was sacked by the Vandals in 435 AD.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: During the Roman period, it was the site of major silver mines, yielding a daily revenue of 25,000 drachmae. It was known also for the production of garum, a fermented fish sauce, and for esparto grass which granted it a new name, "Cartago Spartaria".


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The demise and fall of Western Roman sovereignty caused Cartago Spartaria to go into decline. It was occupied successively by the Vandals (409–425), the Visigoths (425–551 and 624–714) and the Eastern Romans (551–624), who made it the capital of Spania (the Byzantine Empire's westernmost province). Cartagena was re-conquered by the Visigoths, who held it until the Muslim conquest in 714 AD. By that time it was barely a fishing village. It was called Qartayannat-al-Halfa. It was subsequently ruled by the Umayyads (714–756), the Caliphate of Cordova (756–1031), the Taifa of Denia (1031–1076), the Taifa of Saragossa (1076–1081), the Taifa of Tortosa (1081–1092), the Almoravids (1092–1145), the Almohads (1145–1229) and the Taifa of Murcia (1229–1245). Following the local refusal to abide to the 1243 Treaty of Alcazaz, a Castilian army led by the infante Alfonso of Castile took Cartagena by force in 1245 by means of a military operation combining land forces and a Cantabrian fleet. It was granted a "fuero" copied after Córdoba's in 1246. Similarly to the other subdued rebel towns, it early underwent an aggressive process of Castilianization. The Bishopric of Cartagena was created. In 1270, Alfonso created the Order of Santa María de España for the naval defense of the Crown of Castile and established its headquarters in Cartagena. In 1296, Cartagena was briefly annexed to the Crown of Aragon, but returned to Castile by the Treaty of Elx in 1305, which fixed the final boundary between the kingdoms of Valencia and Murcia. Cartagena then lost its status as royal demesne and became a seigneurial jurisdiction, a situation which lasted until 1346. Cartagena did not fully recover until the 18th century, when it became a leading naval port in the Mediterranean.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: On 3 September 1643, the Battle of Cartagena took place near the Cabo de Gata between a Spanish fleet and a French fleet.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: In 1728, Cartagena became the capital of the Spanish Navy's Maritime Department of the Mediterranean and the city was heavily fortified with the construction of a modern castle in the place of a former Moorish Kasbah, several barracks and a huge arsenal. In a relatively short period of time, the population of the city grew from around 10,000 to 50,000 inhabitants.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: In 1757, during the Seven Years' War, a French naval force was forced to take shelter in the port. A squadron under Duquesne sent to reinforce them was attacked and defeated by a British squadron under Henry Osborn at the Battle of Cartagena.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: In 1873, the city established a self-governing Canton of Cartagena and become the center of the Cantonal Revolution. Governmental forces besieged the city for several months until they surrendered.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: During the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), Cartagena was the main base of the Spanish Republican Navy and one of the primary strongholds of the Republican Government. It held out against the forces of General Francisco Franco longer than any other city in Spain, being the last of its cities to surrender. The city saw its industrial activity increased during the 1950s, resulting in more prosperity and this trend continued until a general decline in manufacturing throughout Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: At the moment, Cartagena comprises part of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and is the seat of the Regional Assembly of Murcia. It is also capital of the maritime province of Cartagena, which was granted by the Royal Decree of 5 October 1607 under the reign of Philip III.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: According to the Municipal census, as of January 2011, Cartagena has 218,210 inhabitants, ranking 24th in Spain in terms of population (and 6th among the non-capitals). 182,021 people live in the urban area and 39,840 in the several satellite quarters. According to the official population data, 14.73% of the municipality's population had a foreign nationality.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Its metropolitan area, which includes the municipalities of La Unión, Fuente Álamo de Murcia, Los Alcázares, San Javier, Torre Pacheco, San Pedro del Pinatar and Mazarrón, has a total of 390,983 inhabitants.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Economy activities related to energy are among the main ones in the municipality. They are located in Valle de Escombreras. This spot, which is a valley, is located in a district named Escombreras that is placed in the south of the municipality and of 5–10 km from the main locality by its west. Agriculture is another noteworthy activity in the Cartagena and 37.9% of the territory consisted of crop lands in 2017. The most widely grown products are melons, lettuces, potatoes, lemons and almonds. 52.77% of the agreements occurred in this sector and 42.83% of the workers were hired as labourers in 2012. the Shipbuilding has less weight than some centuries ago, but it is still moderately important. This is performed in the port of Cartagena, the main locality of the municipality. Plastic production is also performed, specifically in the northwest of the territory. The tertiary sector has risen during the last decades, specifically tourism and hotel industry. 14,12% of the agreements in the municipality were aimed at waiters in 2012.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: As generally in Spain, the governors of the municipalities are indirectly elected on the day of municipal and regional elections, every four years. The D'Hondt system is used for allocating the governors from the votes. The body of all the elected councilors is named "pleno" and has 27 members in Cartagena. The head governor has the name of "alcalde" (feminine, "alcaldesa"). Since Cartagena is inhabited by more than 5,000 people, there is also a "junta de gobierno local", the members are selected by the "alcalde" from the "pleno". Currently, there are 9 members in the governing cabinet. Four members of the cabinet belong to Partido Popular party, one to Ciudadanos and there are also four nonpartisan politicians, including the "alcaldesa", who belonged to PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) party but were expelled of the party because they had made an agreement with Partido Popular party and Ciudadanos in order to compose the "pleno".


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: There are also committees named "juntas vecinales" in some localities and districts. Administrative centres are also available for inhabitants who don't live in the main town and the can perform some administrative processes there. They are located in some districts and localities and name is "omitas".


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Thanks to its strategic position on the Mediterranean, Cartagena has been inhabited by many different cultures, which have left their mark on its rich cultural heritage during a glorious and turbulent history.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The "Cartagena, Port of Cultures" initiative was created to allow visitors to enjoy a wide range of activities and visits, discovering the cultural wealth and rich history of the city. It is one of several projects to energize the tourist possibilities of this potential major cultural destination, frequently neglected by the mass-tourism, due to the proximity of several holiday resorts, and the refinery and other industrial development, which gave a bad reputation to the city because of pollution; these last have now fortunately been eradicated.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Although there are some ruins from the Carthaginian period, like the remains of the Punic rampart (built in 227 BC with the foundation of the city), most of its oldest monuments date from the time of the Roman Empire when Cartagena flourished.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The archaeologist Blanca Roldán studied this Punic Rampart and other Punic remains, especially on the Molinete Hill. Among its numerous Roman remains, the recently restored Roman theatre of Carthago Nova is prominent and is one of the city's landmarks. Work on it started at the end of the 2nd century BC. The Roman Theatre Museum was recently officially inaugurated. In Roman Republican Times, the mines near Cartagena provided silver and lead for all the Roman Empire.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Other Roman remains can be found in several buildings and interpretative centres, including the Roman Colonnade, the House of Fortune, the "decumanus/cardo" and the "Augusteum".


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The Roman Amphitheatre (1st century AD) was sited where the now-abandoned Bullring was built, but only some of the surrounding walls and part of the rooms under the stands are still visible. Recent work is revealing more evidence.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Besides the Roman heritage, archaeological sights include the remains of the Santa María la Vieja Cathedral, which was irreversibly destroyed during the Spanish Civil War. It dates from the end of the 13th century. The decorated floor of a Roman house of the 1st century BC can be found in the crypt.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The Concepción Castle (now Centre for the Interpretation of the History of Cartagena) was reconstructed in the 13th century using large structures from the Amphitheatre. Apart from the Roman Theatre Museum, there are also two important archaeological museums: the Municipal Archaeological Museum and the recently opened Arqua (National Museum of Maritime Archaeology).


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The "Campus Muralla del Mar", an old military hospital, was one of the first works carried out after the transformation of the city into the main Spanish naval base in the Mediterranean, and is now the seat of the Polytechnic University. In the vicinity, there is the Autopsy Theatre, which is where anatomy classes used to be given. Rehabilitation for tourism provides for the interpretation of the nearby buildings at the time of their construction.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: These buildings and several other baroque or neo-classical buildings demonstrate the military importance of Cartagena. These include the Charles III Rampart, the Castillo de San Julián, the Arsenal, the Midshipmen's Barracks (academy and naval barracks), the Naval Headquarter Palace (built in 1740 and subsequently rebuilt) and the Artillery Headquarters, which also houses the Military Museum.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Among the Baroque or Neo-classical Churches in Cartagena are "El Carmen", "Santo Domingo" and "Santa Maria de Gracia".


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Cartagena is home to numerous Art Nouveau buildings from the early 20th century, when a bourgeoisie settled in the city due to the growth of the local mining industry. These buildings include the City Hall, the Grand Hotel, the Casino (all of them among the city's landmarks).


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The Railway Station has some outstanding iron doors and columns on its facade, and inside can still be seen the original ticket office, door frame, ceiling, and lamps. Other modernist or eclectic houses include the Clares House, the Aguirre Palace (which houses the Regional Museum of Modern Art, or MURAM), the Cervantes House (relatively big in comparison with other modernist buildings), the Llagostera House, the Pedreño Palace, the Dorda House, the Zapata House and the Urban Expansion Company House.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Several charming, lively streets cover this area, such as Calle Mayor (High Street), the major pedestrian and commercial street of the city, full of boutiques and bars with typical "tapas", Carmen Street, Puertas de Murcia Street and many more.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The Caridad church is one of the most important churches in the city, since it is dedicated to the patron of Cartagena, Nuestra Señora de Caridad. The interior is dominated by a dome, similar to the Pantheon of Agrippa, in Rome. There are also several outstanding sculptures by the famous Murcian sculptor Francisco Salzillo and his school.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The Civil War Shelter-Museum is based on the galleries excavated out the Concepción hill (site of the Castle) to serve as air-raid shelters during the Spanish Civil War. Many naval and military attractions belong to this era, such as the Naval Museum and the world-famous Peral Submarine invented by Isaac Peral (born in Cartagena) that was launched in 1888 as one of the first submarines ever. It was displayed on Cartagena's harbour promenade until its move to the Naval Museum, after a full restoration.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: The Monument to the Heroes of Santiago de Cuba and Cavite (1923) is a war memorial erected in honour of the Spanish sailors who died in combat with the US Navy in waters off Cavite and Santiago off the Philippine and Cuban coasts.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Other attractions include the Lift-Gangway near the former Bullring and the Concepción Hill, the Regional Assembly (the Parliament of the Region of Murcia) whose facade includes architectural influences from the Renaissance while maintaining a modernist air (typical in the Levant), and the Carmen Conde-Antonio Moliner Museum that reconstructs the atmosphere in which these poets from Cartagena created some of their most important works.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Although the city itself is only a port, within the city limits lies part of La Manga del Mar Menor (the other part belonging to the municipality of San Javier) which encompasses the Mar Menor. Cartagena also includes part of the Murcian Mediterranean Coast. Cartagena holds the distinction of being the Spanish city with the most beaches (10) certified "Q for Quality" by the ICTE (Instituto para la Calidad Turística Española). These beaches are: Cala Cortina, Islas Menores, Playa Honda beach, Mar de Cristal, Cala del Pino, Cavanna beach, Barco Perdido beach, El Galúa beach, Levante beach and La Gola beach.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: El Portús beach is adjacent to the naturist camping site, so nude bathing is practiced on this beach.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Cartagena is in Healtharea II (Cartagena) in Region of Murcia. In this area there are 17 subareas, and 13 are in the municipality. 2 hospitals are included in the region and both are placed in the municipality. Cartagena is also home to 30 "consultorios" (primary care health centres with fewer functions than the "centros de salud") and 12 "centros de salud".


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Cartagena is served by the Autopista AP-7 linking it to towns and cities further up the Mediterranean coast, and Autovía A-30 to Murcia. The Chinchilla–Cartagena railway reached Cartagena railway station in 1863 and the current station opened in 1903. It will be the future terminus of the Madrid–Levante high-speed rail network. The narrow-gauge Cartagena-Los Nietos Line serves commuters between Cartagena and La Unión and Los Nietos to the east.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Bus facilities are also present in Cartagena by the urban bus service. There are lines to localities of the municipalities and adjacent municipalities such as La Unión and Torre-Pacheco.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: There are 9 early childhood and primary education public centres in the main town and 5 secondary centres. Four "concertados" (semiprivate or quasiprivate) centres are also placed in the territory and they include primary as well as secondary education. 38 primary education centres are located in the other districts as well as 10 secondary education centres. A special education centre can be found in the district El Plan, that is in the east of the western half of Cartagena.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: A public university named Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (UPCT), a centre of the public distance university UNED, a campus of the private university Universidad Católica de Murcia (UCAM) and a private university, which name is ISEN, occur in the municipality. UPCT includes degrees related to engineering and architecture, in UNED there are 28 degrees, in UCAM people can choose among 9 degrees and in ISEN 9 degrees are taught.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: There are also three vocational education centres (CIFP) in the municipality, but vocational degrees are taught in some secondary education centres (IES). The main town is home to a centre of a national public organisation about language teaching. English, French, German, Arabic and Italian are taught from A1 level to C2.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: They town council has an organisation named Universidad Popular de Cartagena where several courses are taught and courses for access to middle vocational degrees, higher vocational degrees and university degrees are included. A centre for adult education can also be found in the main town where people can study elemental contents, secondary education for adults, the contents of the secondary education examination, the contents of the entry examination for CFGS (higher level vocational education), the contents of the entry examination for university degrees, Spanish, English, and a FPB (basic vocational education) for Computing.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Probably, the most remarkable element in regards to sports is Fútbol Club Cartagena (F. C. Cartagena) team, which is in Segunda División, the second level of the Spanish football league system. Another sport team is Futsal Cartagena, which is most in Segunda División during most seasons. A successful team is UCAM Cartagena Tenis de Mesa.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: Others sport that are played in the municipality is basketball along with Club Basket Cartagena; handball, which most noteworthy team is C.A.B. Cartagena and badminton along with UPCT Bádminton Cartagena.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: An international competition of aesthetic group gymnastics was held along with IFAGG (International Federation of Aesthetic Group Gymnastics) in Cartagena from 17 May to 19.


title: Cartagena, Spain

text: In regards to sports facilities, the two main ones for the average citizen are two pavilions, which names are Pabellón Central or Wsell de Guimbarda and Piscina Municipal, but there are also pavilions and sports facilities in the districts. A stadium can also be found in the main city area.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: McAllen is the largest city in Hidalgo County, Texas, United States, and the 22nd-most populous city in Texas. It is located at the southern tip of the state in the Rio Grande Valley, on the Mexico–United States border. The city limits extend south to the Rio Grande, across from the Mexican city of Reynosa. McAllen is about west of the Gulf of Mexico. As of the 2020 census, McAllen's population was 142,210. It is the fifth-most populous metropolitan area (McAllen–Edinburg–Mission) in the state of Texas, and the binational Reynosa–McAllen metropolitan area counts a population of more than 1.5 million.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: From its settlement in 1904, the area around McAllen was largely rural and agricultural in character, but the latter half of the 20th century had steady growth, which has continued in the 21st century in the metropolitan area. The introduction of the "maquiladora" economy and the North American Free Trade Association led to an increase in cross-border trading with Mexico.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: In 1904, the Hidalgo and San Miguel Extension (now the Sam Fordyce Branch) of the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway reached the Santa Anita Ranch. John McAllen and his son James had donated land to the railroad to guarantee it would cross this area. On December 5, 1904, the McAllen Townsite Company was formed by Uriah Lott, Leonidas C. Hill Sr., John McAllen, James Ballí McAllen, and John J. Young. The new community, which was named for John McAllen, had the depot nearest the county seat, Hidalgo, to the south.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: By 1911, were under cultivation in East McAllen: commodity crops of cotton, alfalfa, broom corn, citrus fruits, grapes, and figs were raised. East McAllen had an estimated population of 1,000 that year, and West McAllen had ceased to exist. In 1911, the town applied for and was issued a charter of incorporation under the name McAllen. In 1916, 20,000 New York state troops were stationed at McAllen to help quell border disturbances related to the Mexican Civil War. The resulting economic boom increased the population from 1,200 in 1916 to 6,000 in 1920.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: McAllen adopted a home rule charter in 1927. Canning factories, a winery, tortilla plants, wood-working plants, and some oil exploration increased the population to 9,074 by 1930. In 1936, Hiram Garner opened the Valley Distillery, Incorporated, which produced wines from citrus juices. The town was a petroleum and farm chemurgic center with a population of 11,877 in 1940, by which time it had adopted the nickname "The City of Palms". In 1941, a suspension bridge replaced the old bridge from Hidalgo to Reynosa in Tamaulipas; the new toll bridge was purchased by McAllen and was named the McAllen–Hidalgo–Reynosa International Bridge. Its construction resulted in increased tourist trade, making McAllen a winter resort and port of entry to Mexico.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: The discovery of oil in the Reynosa area in 1947 attracted a large migration of people from the Mexican interior to jobs the region. They both constituted a new tourist market and a cheap labor supply for McAllen. The sister cities were linked as a result of the increased traffic between them. The population of McAllen was 20,005 in 1950 and 32,728 in 1960. In 1954 the McAllen–Hidalgo–Reynosa International Bridge was the number-two port of entry into Mexico.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: McAllen was an agricultural, oil, and tourist center in 1970, when the population reached 37,636. By the start of the 1970s, McAllen had a 200-bed hospital and a new air-conditioned high school, the first school in the nation featuring on-site power generated by natural gas-powered turbines. The tourism industry continued to expand as people traveled to the area from both Mexico and the northern United States. The population continued to grow steadily through the 1970s, and reached 66,281 by 1980. During the late 1980s, the McAllen Foreign Trade Zone was an important general-purpose foreign trade zone. At the time, McAllen's main industries were retail, tourism and farming, and each was in trouble. The devaluation of the Mexican peso in the 1980s put a damper on cross-border shopping; local tourism was down because of the recession. In 1983, a freeze took out much of the valley's citrus crop.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: In the mid-1980s, fueled by trade and the growth of the "maquiladora" (in which components are shipped to Mexico from the United States, assembled, and shipped back as finished products), the economy began to improve in Hidalgo County. McAllen sits across the border from Reynosa, a large manufacturing center. After the peso devalued, Mexico was more successful in attracting companies to run their plants in Mexico, with support operations in Texas.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: Border crossing is a daily event for many and is a key component in the local economy. The city became a focal point for concerns about the border during the United States federal government shutdown of 2018–2019 over the Mexico–United States barrier. President Donald Trump held a briefing with the border agents at the patrol station here in January 2019. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen also visited the Border Patrol station in March 2019. In order to deal with overcrowded facilities in 2019 resulting from the arrival of Central American migrant caravans, immigration authorities were releasing a few hundred asylum seekers daily to private groups that assist them with basic needs and travel arrangements.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: The mayor emphasized how safe and secure the city is when U.S military troops were mobilized in the city to help the Border Patrol. Portions of the razor wire coils considered unnecessary by the city were removed after troops had placed it at the border. The troops assisted by using military helicopters to carry border patrol agents to and from locations along the Mexico–United States border and by maintaining vehicles. During these border support activities, they are prohibited from law enforcement activities, such as detaining migrants or seizing drugs. U.S. military troops are prohibited from carrying out law enforcement duties. The Marine Corps Commandant General Robert Neller expressed concerns about the impact of continuing border support on combat readiness for the troops.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: McAllen is located in southern Hidalgo County at (26.216263, −98.236385). It is bordered to the southwest by Granjeno; to the west by Mission, Palmhurst, and Alton; to the north by Edinburg, the Hidalgo county seat; to the east by Pharr; and to the south by Hidalgo. The McAllen city limits extend to the southwest as far as the Rio Grande, directly north of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, in Mexico. The Anzalduas International Bridge crosses the Rio Grande at this point, southwest of downtown McAllen.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: McAllen is south of San Antonio, southeast of Laredo, northwest of Brownsville, and northeast of Monterrey.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which are land and , or 0.62%, is covered by water.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: Although McAllen is named the "City of Palms", tropical vegetation is only locally dominant. Many thorny shrubs and deciduous trees occur in the area, such as the Rio Grande ash ("Fraxinus berlandieriana"), cedar elm ("Ulmus crassifolia"), and honey mesquite ("Prosopis glandulosa").


title: McAllen, Texas

text: McAllen, like much of South Texas, has a subtropical climate. Under the Köppen climate classification, the city features a hot semiarid climate (BSh), featuring long, very hot and humid summers, and brief, warm winters. The city has two distinct seasons; a wet season from May to October and a dry season from November to April. The normal monthly mean temperature ranges from in January to in August. The warm season is extremely long, as average high temperatures from May through September are above and average low temperatures are above , with relatively high dew point values, resulting in higher relative humidity values and heat index values. Heat indices consistently reach over during these months. Winter temperatures in McAllen and surrounding Rio Grande Valley are some of the warmest in the contiguous United States outside of South Florida, and comparable to the Coachella and Imperial valleys and Yuma Desert, but with warmer nighttime lows and higher dew points.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: Average annual precipitation is . Most precipitation occurs in the warm season, with the least precipitation distinctly occurring in the cooler winter. As September is the peak of the north Atlantic hurricane season and tropical storms and hurricanes occasionally drop copious amounts of rainfall on the region, this month tends by far to be the wettest, averaging of rain. The driest month is February, with only of precipitation. Since 1941, it has snowed twice, once when the city received on December 25, 2004.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: Temperatures consistently rise above from June through August, with exceptionally high humidity. The highest temperature ever recorded in McAllen was , set on June 22, 2017. The lowest temperature ever recorded in McAllen was , on January 12, 1962.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: While usually a dry, hot climate, McAllen, Texas has received unusual weather phenomena. In 2013, McAllen, Texas received a large hail storm that destroyed many vehicles and buildings. The storm came suddenly and many people were unprepared. In December 2017, McAllen received almost 3 inches of snow, nearly 13 years since the last snowfall which took place during the 2004 Christmas Eve United States winter storm. In February 2021, McAllen reached record low temperatures between and and lost power, heat, and water for a week due to Winter Storm Uri. Regardless of these freak weather events, McAllen is prone to tropical storms, hurricanes such as Hurricane Dolly (2008) and Hurricane Hanna (2020), and heatwaves.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: As of the 2020 United States census, there were 142,210 people, 45,429 households, and 34,119 families residing in the city.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: As of the census of 2010, 129,877 people, 41,573 households, and 31,823 families resided in the city. Of the 45,862 housing units, 4,289, or 9.4%, were vacant.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: The racial makeup of the city was 83.9% White, 0.9% African American, 0.4% Native American, 2.6% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 10.4% some other race, and 1.8% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 84.6% of the population.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: Of the 41,573 households, 46.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.2% were married couples living together, 19.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.5% were not families. About 19.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 23.9% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.10, and the average family size was 3.58.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: In the city, the population was distributed as 30.1% under the age of 18, 9.6% from 18 to 24, 28.1% from 25 to 44, 21.3% from 45 to 64, and 10.9% 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32.2 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.2 males.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: For the period 2012–2016, the estimated median annual income for a household in the city was $45,568, and for a family was $50,184. The per capita income for the city was $21,726. About 22.5% of families and 25.7% of the entire population were below the poverty line, including 36.6% of those under age 18 and 21.4% of those age 65 or over.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: Based on the Texas Department of Public Safety's Annual Crime in Texas report and the FBI's Crime in the United States report, there were zero (0) murders reported during 2018. The city has been consistently ranked among the safest cities in Texas.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: McAllen was the focus of a 2009 article in "The New Yorker" by Atul Gawande entitled "The Cost Conundrum", an inquiry into the factors that contribute to the cost of health care. The McAllen area had the highest taxpayer-sponsored spending per beneficiary in the United States, despite areas with similar demographics and health profiles having half the cost per recipient. The article noted that while the area has a higher prevalence of obesity and diabetes, its rates of infant mortality, HIV, and tobacco use were lower than the national average.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: McAllen was the most obese metropolitan area in the country in 2012, with 38.5% of the adult population considered obese. The high obesity rate has likely contributed to area residents' poor health. More than 21% of the population has been diagnosed with diabetes, more than any other metro area in the United States. Poverty may play a large role in the community's health problems, as well. Over 25% of the city population was living below the poverty line during the period 2012–2016. More than 29% of the population also lacked health coverage during that time.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: McAllen is featured in "Supersize vs Superskinny", a British television programme on Channel 4 that features information about dieting and extreme eating lifestyles. One of the main show features is a weekly comparison between an overweight person and an underweight person. In the show, the overweight participant visits morbidly obese McAllen residents to find motivation for lifestyle and diet changes.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: The Rio Grande Valley began its rapid development with the introduction of irrigation in 1898 and the construction of the railroad in 1904. These major additions turned a once relatively desolate area into a major agricultural center. Throughout much of the 1900s, McAllen was a rural, agriculture-based economy characterized by sporadic growth.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: Today, the area is transforming into a major international trade area. As recently as 1990, McAllen's unemployment rate was at 22.6%. By the end of 2005, that figure had dropped to 7.7%. However, in 2011, census.gov listed the McAllen metro area the poorest in the nation. As of 2012, the average cost of a home in McAllen was the third-least expensive in the country, at $178,000, while average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment was $708. In 2012, the cost of living in McAllen was 16.2% lower than the national average.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: Since the 1980s and especially since the ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, the focal point of economic activity has shifted from agriculture to international trade, health care, retail, and tourism.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: The McAllen Foreign-Trade Zone (FTZ) is located south of McAllen between McAllen and Reynosa. Commissioned in 1973, it was the first inland foreign-trade zone in the United States. Also, an FTZ designation site is at the McAllen Miller International Airport to facilitate air cargo needs. Under U.S. and Mexican laws and NAFTA provisions, the FTZ designation offers specific cost-saving opportunities to manufacturers. Products can be brought into the FTZ duty-free. Services have recently expanded to include full logistic support services, including public warehouse services such as pick and pack, order processing, inventory control, incoming/outgoing quality inspection, and kitting.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: McAllen hosted the NAIA National Football Championship in the late 1970s and NCAA Division II national football championship games in the 1980s.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: Until 2014, McAllen was home to the Texas Thunder of the independent United League Baseball, who played at Edinburg Stadium.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: McAllen is positioned on a major flyway, the migratory path of birds between North and South America, presenting opportunities for bird and butterfly expeditions. The landscape hosts a diverse wildlife population. The Quinta Mazatlan, a historic Spanish colonial mansion, is used as McAllen's wing of the World Birding Center.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: The Bicentennial Bike Path runs from Highway 83 on the south side to Bicentennial and Trenton Road on the north side. The International Museum of Art & Science, Smithsonian affiliate and AAM-accredited museum founded in 1967, is located near the path at the corner of Bicentennial and Nolana Avenue.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: The Zinnia Spray Water Park is McAllen's first sprayground park. It is located at 29th and Zinnia Ave.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: Palm View Golf Course is located on South Ware Road just south of Highway 83. The golf course has 18 holes plus a driving range. This course hosts numerous tournaments year round.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas McAllen Division is located at Bentsen Tower 1701 W. Hwy. 83, Suite 1011, McAllen, Texas.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: The United States Postal Service operates two post offices in McAllen: McAllen Post Office, located at 620 Pecan Blvd, and the McAllen Downtown Post Office at 406 12th Street.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: The United States Border Patrol Central Processing Center is located at 3700 W Ursula Avenue, McAllen, Texas.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: The 2LT Luis G. Garcia United States Army Reserve Center located at 600 S Col Rowe Blvd is home for the United States Army Reserve 961st Quartermaster Company, 461st Transportation Detachment, and 519th Transportation Detachment.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: McAllen is represented in the United States House of Representatives by two Democrats: Vicente Gonzalez of the 15th Congressional District, and Henry Cuellar of the 28th Congressional District.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: Metro McAllen (formerly McAllen Express Transit – MET) has provided public transportation for the City of McAllen since June 1997. In the beginning, McAllen Express was administered by the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council. Since 2005, Metro McAllen has been operated as a department of the city of McAllen. Metro McAllen now has nine fixed routes and paratransit, serving residents and visitors. It operates seven days a week, from 6am–9pm Monday through Saturday and from 8am-6pm on Sunday. LRGVDC continues to operate regional buses under the name Valley Metro.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: The City of McAllen also operates the bus terminal facility in downtown McAllen, known as McAllen Central Station. Central Station serves as a hub for MET and for 14 private domestic and international bus lines. Around 60 buses depart from Central Station on a daily basis. It is centrally located in downtown McAllen at 1501 W Hwy 83.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: The McAllen Independent School District serves most of the city followed by the Valley View Independent School District and the Sharyland Independent School District. Portions of the city extend into the Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District, which operates two elementary schools within the McAllen city limits. The Hidalgo Independent School District, Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District also serve McAllen.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: In addition, residents are allowed to apply to magnet schools operated by the South Texas Independent School District.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: The Catholic Diocese of Brownsville operates Our Lady of Sorrows School, an elementary and middle school.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: McAllen Public Library operates a main library and two branches, the Lark Branch and the Palm View Branch. The New Main Library opened in the fall of 2011 inside a former Walmart big box store. The library earned high praise and received the International Interior Design Association's 2012 Library Interior Design Award.


title: McAllen, Texas

text: International Museum of Art & Science (IMAS), founded in 1967, is a Smithsonian Affiliate and American Alliance of Museums (AAM) accredited museum located in McAllen at the corner of Bicentennial and Nolana Avenue.