title: Alferd Packer

text: Upon arriving at the agency, Packer came face to face with General Adams, and five men he had not seen since February. The agency officer came in after Packer and relayed to General Adams that a man named Preston Nutter had told him Packer had spent several hundred dollars over his six-week stay in Saguache as well as buying a new horse and saddle, that he was in possession of things that belonged to missing men, and that he was penniless when he had originally joined their party. Loutsenhizer demanded an explanation from Packer, who repeated the story exactly as he had told it the first time. Packer showed amazement that the men had not been heard from, and was concerned for their well-being. Loutsenhizer scoffed at his story, demanding to know where his newly-acquired wealth came from, with Packer stating that he had received a cash loan from a man in Saguache. Adams told Packer that if this were true, then he should not mind staying at the agency while the officer was sent back to Saguache to verify his story. Packer agreed with slight hesitation. The officer was dispatched at once, and after a short while returned with news from various sources that Packer had been seen with several different wallets and had told varying stories regarding his journey. He had arrived in Saguache with plenty of cash, and no one in town claimed to have lent him a penny. Adams convened a council of the five miners, himself, Packer, and the agency officers to settle the matter. As they began the proceedings, two Ute tribesmen rushed into the agency holding strips of dried human flesh they referred to as "white man's meat", which they had found on a hill near the agency while hunting. Packer reportedly fainted and crumpled to the floor. He was revived and profusely began begging for mercy, swearing to make a full confession. After a long silence, he cryptically stated to Adams, "It would not be the first time that people had been obliged to eat each other when they were hungry." Packer slowly and sobbingly began to tell what was to become one of several different official statements, over the next three decades.


title: Alferd Packer

text: Herman Lauter, the agency clerk, was in attendance and transcribed Packer's first official statement. Packer claimed that the men had left Ouray's camp with what they thought was sufficient food for the anticipated 14-day journey ahead of them. Before they knew it, provisions were exhausted owing to the rough terrain and expenditure of energy needed for the traverse. They survived for days on roots dug from the ground, pine gum, rose buds, and the occasional rabbit. After a few days of no wildlife activity due to the extreme cold and eating virtually nothing but roots, he claimed that the men started to eye each other in an unsettling way, their stomachs twisting in hunger. A few days after this, he left camp to gather dry firewood and returned to find four men around the slain body of Israel Swan, who had been struck in the head with a hatchet and killed instantly. The four started to butcher Swan, with Packer accepting the situation and joining them. He claimed several thousand dollars was found on Swan's person and divided between the men. They consumed the most agreeable parts of Swan's body, packed some up, and moved on, with Packer appropriating Swan's rifle. Within two days, however, the five men were again out of meat, and game continued to elude them. Packer, Bell, Humphrey, and Noon decided in secret that Miller would be the next to go. Packer confessed that Miller was a stocky man, and was chosen for his amount of soft flesh. He was killed with a hatchet blow to the head, while he was stooping to pick up wood for the fire, then butchered and consumed. Packer took Miller's knife, having admired it, and Miller's share of Swan's money was redistributed among the four men, who then moved on to Los Pinós.


title: Alferd Packer

text: The winter was relentless and the men were slow-moving, barely able to see in front of them, cursing the wind that was cutting at their exposed skin. Humphrey was next to be sacrificed, followed before too long by George Noon. At last it was just down to Bell and Packer. He claimed that the two men swore on Almighty God not to eat each other. They each had a rifle at this point and a couple of thousand dollars of Swan's cash, and presumed that two men would fare well on the remainder of their trip with what minimal game there was to be found. They agreed they would say the four men had perished from the elements and were buried with dignity, vowing never to speak of the cannibalism. They felt no one would ever believe it was "necessary", as they had. After trekking for a few days, with little else eaten other than a rabbit and some roots, the men were exhausted and set up camp next to a large lake that was skirted on one side by a large grove of hemlock trees. Packer said that a few days after this, Bell snapped up out of his blanket and screamed that he could not take it anymore. He told Packer that one of them was going to die for food. He snatched his rifle and sprinted at Packer with it readied to bash his skull in. Packer deflected the blow and struck Bell in the head with the hatchet. He claimed that at this point the only fear he had left was to starve to death. He then butchered Bell, eating as much as he could in preparation for the remaining leg of his journey, and packed a good amount away. He relieved Bell of his share of Swan's money and then headed on, unsure how far he was from anywhere or whether he was even going to survive. After a while he mounted a hill and saw at long last the Los Pinós Indian Agency. He threw the remaining strips of Bell's flesh away, presuming that an animal would hastily eat them, and admitted that he did so with a fair degree of hesitation. He confessed that he had grown quite fond of human flesh, and found the portion around the breasts to be especially delicious.


title: Alferd Packer

text: Loutsenhizer erupted with anger, but General Adams exerted his authority, and called for a conference among the five men and the agency officers to determine the next course of action. It was decided that a search party would be assembled at once to find the men's remains. The five Utah men claimed that they did not believe one part of Packer's story, and that Bell was the sort of man that would lay down his life for another if needed. General Adams asked of the two Ute men if they knew of an area next to a lake that Packer had described. They said that such a place existed roughly 50 miles away, across the hills. The search party was headed by agency clerk Herman Lauter and consisted of the five miners from Utah, a few agency officers, and Packer acting as guide. After two weeks, as the party was reaching the area of the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River, Packer claimed he was lost and that the area did not look right. Loutsenhizer called Packer a liar and a murderer, and insisted that he be hanged then and there. Nothing was found, and the party headed back to the agency. Along their route back, Packer attempted to murder Herman Lauter with a large knife he had concealed in his clothing. He was caught in the act, restrained, and arrested. General Adams had been willing to believe Packer up to this point, but the unprovoked attempt made on his officer's life convinced him that Packer was dangerous. He was transported to Saguache and jailed by the sheriff outside the town itself for his own protection.


title: Alferd Packer

text: During Packer's detention, he retracted what he had told the men at the agency about the events leading up to the five men losing their lives. He now claimed that the men had encountered a strong blizzard along their way through the mountains. The snow fell so heavily and persistently that they became hopelessly lost, and were unable to retrace their steps back to their starting point. Provisions were already minimal when they began the trek, and quickly ran out. They just as quickly ran out of matches, and were forced to carry hot embers in a steel coffee pot to have a means to light fires. Days went by with no signs of game, and attempts at ice fishing proved utterly futile. After roasting and eating their shoes and attempting to survive on what scant and edible vegetation they could find, the men, claimed Packer, entered into a pact whereby if one died, his meat would serve to save the others from starvation. After days of hiking with virtually nothing to eat, Israel Swan could go no further, and the others were dangerously fatigued. They found a pine-shaded gulch next to a lake, and set up camp. A short time after this, Swan died of a combination of hunger and exposure, according to Packer.


title: Alferd Packer

text: In Packer's later amended version of this story, the men had endured almost 20 days from Ouray's camp and more than 10 without any substantial food at all. Packer elaborated that James Humphrey had also died of exposure to the extreme cold, and that George Noon was killed days later by Shannon Bell for the sole purpose of food, after there was no more substantial meat to be had from the three fallen men. Then it was just down to Bell and himself. He claimed that he and Bell had agreed that they would stand together until the end, swearing not to eat each other. Days went by, and Bell could no longer take the hunger and rushed at Packer with his rifle, intending to bludgeon him with its stock. Packer then shot Bell with his pistol. Packer confessed to taking the valuables of the deceased members, claiming they no longer needed them, but made no statements as to the exact items taken nor to the amount of money accrued.


title: Alferd Packer

text: The following August, the site of the incident was happened upon by John A. Randolph, an illustrator who worked for "Harper's Weekly" magazine. He discovered all five of the bodies at the foot of Slumgullion Pass, two miles southeast of Lake City, Colorado, in a pine-shaded gulch skirted by hemlock trees. They lay above the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River, now known colloquially as Dead Man's Gulch, which matched the description of where Packer had originally claimed that only Bell had met his end. The men would have been well within hiking distance of the nearby city had they descended the Lake Fork instead of traversing up it, especially in their alleged desperate situation, but Packer was the guide. The snow that had been covering the bodies and campsite had melted in the intervening four months. Randolph sketched the scene as he found it, and then alerted authorities in nearby Lake City. The story was covered two months later in the October 17, 1874, edition of "Harper's Weekly", and included his illustration of the site.


title: Alferd Packer

text: The local coroner and law enforcement set out for the site along with about 20 volunteers and discovered the bodies of all five men in various states of decomposition, having been left to the elements and animals for four months. First responders to the site noted that it appeared that "extreme violence" had befallen the men, and it was putrid with the smell of death. Frank Miller's head was missing entirely from the campsite; his and Israel Swan's corpses had been considerably worked upon by scavengers and were little more than scattered bones. Israel's skull had a jagged chunk missing out of it, and it was presumed that Miller's head had been carried away by an animal. The bodies of George Noon and James Humphrey were largely flayed torsos of rotting viscera, attached to skeletal legs, but with intact and bearded faces, with Humphrey's face being slightly more decayed than Noon's. They had received blows to the head, the shape indicating perhaps a hatchet, and their bodies had noticeable broken bones. Shannon Bell lay with largely skeletal legs splayed and arms to his sides that were crudely cut to their bones leading to hands that were still fully skinned. His remaining corpse was a putrid mass of viscera encased in an almost wholly flayed torso, which led to an almost still-living face, complete with a thick red beard and bushy hair. The lack of noticeable decay in his face suggested that he had been the last to die. The top of Bell's skull had been ripped open and his brains were lying on the ground beneath him. The three men whose bodies were still intact or partly intact, had flesh and muscle excised from choice and meaty locations: no attempt had been made to consume bone marrow or any organs at all.


title: Alferd Packer

text: The state of the bodies immediately contradicted Packer's version of events. They were all together in one spot, not scattered across miles. Both Humphrey and Noon had large portions of remaining flesh, muscle, organs, etc., that could have been consumed long before Bell succumbed to the madness of hunger and attempted to murder Packer, as he had claimed. The men had tattered cloths lashed to their rotting feet, which had replaced the shoes they had eaten in their desperation, and moldy and tattered blankets lay beneath and beside them. A beaten path went from the resting place of the corpses to a crude shelter that was used by Packer, and there was evidence to suggest that the deaths had occurred before supplies were totally exhausted. Within the shelter were possessions of the men which Packer had left behind. The theory at the time was that Packer killed the men before supplies ran out to rob them of their possessions, got snowed in, and then lived in his makeshift shelter for months, walking to his slain companions and slicing meat off as needed. Preston Nutter accompanied the party to the site, and identified the bodies as belonging to the five missing men. A rifle broken in two was found close to the bodies. Owing to the damage apparent on their remains, it is presumed that it was used to bludgeon one or more of them. Their remains were buried at the site by officials, and the search party returned to Packer's makeshift jail to confront him, only to find him missing.


title: Alferd Packer

text: The "jail" in question was little more than a log cabin located on ranch property belonging to the Saguache County Sheriff. Months had passed with no definitive evidence of a crime having been committed, no bodies discovered, and no formal charges lodged against Packer — other than the attempt on Lauter's life, which was not tenaciously sought for prosecution and used more as a means to keep him under custody. Saguache County authorities were reportedly not happy about taxpayer dollars being spent so exorbitantly on keeping Packer housed and under constant guard. He was allegedly passed a makeshift key for his irons and given some supplies, and easily escaped. Even so, nearly the entirety of Saguache was convinced, either through rumor or rational deduction, that Packer was guilty of either robbery or murder. His life was threatened constantly by the nearby townspeople. Packer never divulged who helped him escape, how this was achieved, or why. It was presumed that his guard had been bribed by Packer himself or by someone else.


title: Alferd Packer

text: The generally accepted theory at the time was that Packer had attached himself to the party under highly overstated qualifications of being a mountain guide familiar with the area in order to accompany the men to Breckenridge, and had at best led his party to miserable deaths due to gross incompetence. This was enough of a crime in itself as far as the local population was concerned. However, an ultimately more popular theory was that he had set out with his party of five men from Ouray's camp, with a premeditated plan to lead them into the wilderness where he would kill and rob them. Nutter and Loutsenhizer made it a personal mission to discredit Packer's alleged qualifications for being a guide, let alone a mountain guide, pointed out all of his character flaws that they had come to know, and stressed his numerous different stories and inconsistencies. Local papers picked up the story and the incident received constant coverage, with highly sensational headlines, many negative comments regarding Packer's character, and highly imagined theories that grabbed both national and international attention. Regardless as to how it may have happened, nearly the entire population of Saguache, and soon nearly the entire country and beyond, found that Packer's culpability for his party's deaths was beyond doubt.


title: Alferd Packer

text: The cannibalism aspect of his charges, although shocking, was not necessarily the foremost issue of his guilt. People at that time were well-acquainted with the story of the ill-fated Donner Party, who had resorted to cannibalism during the winter of 1846–1847, and were understanding to a degree of the dire need to eat in the unforgiving wilderness. Additionally cannibalism was not, then or now, illegal per se in the United States unless one committed murder in order to obtain the flesh to be consumed. Even in such a case, the accused would be charged with murder, with the cannibalism itself being charged as the desecration and/or abuse of a corpse. Packer would claim for the remainder of his life that he had been unjustly vilified and convicted for engaging in cannibalism rather than for cold-blooded murder, which he continued to deny ever having committed. In the end, it came down to the question: Did five men die due to incompetence or greed?


title: Alferd Packer

text: On March 11, 1883, Packer was discovered by Jean "Frenchy" Cabazon in Cheyenne, Wyoming, living under the alias of "John Schwartze", one of the original members of the Utah mining party who stayed in Chief Ouray's camp in the winter of 1874. Cabazon was himself a member of the original party of men who left Provo, and wisely decided to stay put in Chief Ouray's camp, later safely making his way to their destination with Bob McGrue and Preston Nutter's party.


title: Alferd Packer

text: He encountered Packer by chance when Packer approached him looking to buy some supplies. Cabazon reported Packer to the local sheriff, who apprehended him and contacted General Adams. He was summoned to Cheyenne where he confirmed Packer's identity and accompanied him by train to Denver for his second confession, which Packer signed on March 16. Packer stated that his main reason for fleeing was out of a fear of mob justice being exacted upon him by the populace of Saguache. Because the actual crime was committed within the confines of Hinsdale County, rather than neighboring Saguache County, Packer was accordingly sent to Lake City for detention and prosecution.


title: Alferd Packer

text: Instead of claiming that the men were gradually eaten as they died until Bell killed Noon and Packer in turn killed Bell in self-defense, Packer now claimed that Bell had killed the others after Bell had told him to go scouting for any way out of the mountains and to find some food. He had been gone the better part of the day and returned in the late evening. Packer told General Adams:


title: Alferd Packer

text: In the ensuing moments of shooting Bell and going for the hatchet, Packer dropped his revolver in the deep snow and subsequently lost it. He claimed he made himself a crude shelter out of stray logs to combat the snow and wind, aways down from the bodies. Another strong storm set in and he hunkered down for hours. He was starving and made the decision that he had to eat something or die. He continued:


title: Alferd Packer

text: Adams asked Packer why he had not told him this story nine years previous, with Packer replying: "I was excited, I wanted to say something, and the story, as I told it, came first to my mind!" It was the argument of the prosecution that the only logical reason for Packer to have attempted such a perilous journey through the mountains with such minimal food and supplies was for the sole purpose to lead the men into the wilderness to both kill and rob them.


title: Alferd Packer

text: At the time of Packer's trial, it was reported by the family of Israel Swan that he had left to go on the expedition with around $6,000 () in cash and gold, and that he also had a valuable Winchester rifle with him, which would give a strong motivation for murder, as well as his senior age of 65 at the time of his death. The other four members may have been either complicit in his murder and later betrayed by Packer, or were murdered by him for having been witnesses. Packer was not found with any gold on him at the time of his arrest, and although he did have money left, it did not total in the thousands. His spending had been frivolous.


title: Alferd Packer

text: Nevertheless, on April 6, a trial began in Lake City. Packer pleaded not guilty. After seven days of testimonies and examinations, he was found guilty of the premeditated murder of Israel Swan, and sentenced to death by hanging, which was scheduled for May 19, 1883. It was presumed that Swan's death had occurred on, or around, March 1. It was determined by the prosecution in court that Swan's remains showed signs of a struggle at the time of death, and that the others appeared to be killed in their sleep. Among those who testified on behalf of the prosecution were Otto Mears, Larry Dolan, Oliver D. Loutsenhizer, and Preston Nutter, who acted as the prosecution's key witness. According to a local newspaper, which received their quote from Larry Dolan, the presiding judge, M.B. Gerry, said:


title: Alferd Packer

text: Packer was spared the death penalty when his lawyers discovered that the murder statutes on the books for 1874 had been repealed and replaced with a "savings clause", which spared him being tried for murder on a technicality. In October 1885, the sentence was reversed by the Colorado Supreme Court being based on an "ex post facto" law. They had declared that the government could not sentence a man to death for committing a crime, if it had indeed occurred, before Colorado officially became a state as opposed to a territory.


title: Alferd Packer

text: The overturning of his murder charge and scheduled execution did not spare Packer culpability for the men's deaths, however. A second trial was held in Gunnison following a change of venue for his hearing that was also granted per the Colorado Supreme Court as well as having a new Judge of Republican Party standing to preside, pursuant to Packer and his Counsel feeling as though the prejudices and pre-affirmed guilt within the community of Lake City (most of them Democrats), made it impossible for him to receive a fair and unbiased trial. He again pleaded not guilty. After a swift trial and even speedier verdict deliberation, on June 8, 1886, Packer was convicted of five counts of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 40 years in prison (8 years for each count, as well as the maximum sentence allowed per count). At the time, this was the longest custodial sentence in U.S. history.


title: Alferd Packer

text: At the time of his second hearing, local hunters and officials made statements that although the winter of 1874 was one of the worst they had encountered for quite some time, the area of the San Juans where Packer and his party were camped was still plenty active with such large wild game as deer and antelope, as well as smaller game. There was even a report that the carcass of a deer was found near the campsite. This significantly damaged Packer's claims that the area was so scant with wildlife that the men had to resort to cannibalism quickly. Further emphasis was placed on the fact that Packer's choice to hike through the San Juan Mountains during the middle of winter, where snow depths can exceed more than six feet in a single downfall, coupled with blistering winds and freezing temperatures, was practically suicidal. He had been given a safe route to follow by locals that was next to a main water source that could have yielded fresh fish if nothing else as well as serve to keep them on course, but he perilously chose a mountain path with minimal supplies in the naive belief that it would be a faster route. In actuality, the route Packer and his companions took was nearly identical in length to the recommended route (though not in traverse), yet far more dangerous.


title: Alferd Packer

text: Packer took the stand in his own defense. His version of the events that took place at the campsite remained relatively the same as his second official version. He made a request that he be charged the 40 years, but only for the death of Shannon Bell, who is the only man that Packer continued to claim he had killed, with the other deaths being beyond his control. His request was denied. He was sent to serve out his sentence at the Canon City Penitentiary.


title: Alferd Packer

text: Packer filed appeals on his case on five separate occasions and was roundly denied upon every submission. He sent letters to local newspapers stating he had been unjustly convicted by an unfair and unsympathetic judicial system, and by the ignorant conclusions and judgments of small-minded people. On June 19, 1899, Packer's sentence was officially upheld by the Colorado Supreme Court. Nevertheless, he was paroled on February 8, 1901, following a campaign that was initially spearheaded by an old acquaintance of Packer's named Duane Hatch, who petitioned for his release for nearly a decade before his labors came to the attention of Polly Pry. Packer had served 18 years of his 40-year sentence.


title: Alferd Packer

text: An entrepreneurial and resourceful reporter for "The Denver Post", Pry saw and appreciated the sensationalism of Packer's case and how his story and pre-existing reputation could generate a buzz. She used Packer's service in the Army as a basis to portray him as a common man of the people who got caught in a regrettable situation, a victim of circumstances who did what he had to do to survive, and a man who had essentially been crucified for violating civilized sensibilities by having to resort to cannibalism. Her stories on Packer led to a change of heart within the local businesses and people such that a series of petitions and requests made their way to the office of Colorado Governor Charles Thomas, which were still met with strong opposition. Thomas ultimately relented, and his last official act before leaving office was to parole, but not pardon, Packer under the agreement that he would not try to profit from his story.


title: Alferd Packer

text: After his parole, Packer went to work as a guard at "The Denver Post", and later as a ranch hand. His employment at "The Denver Post" came about, many believe, as a direct result of Pry and her employers securing his release. Packer had an endearing respect for Pry for his remaining years, and referred to her as his "Liberator".


title: Alferd Packer

text: Alfred Packer died on April 23, 1907, aged 65, in Deer Creek, Jefferson County, Colorado. The cause of his death was cited as "Dementia – trouble & worry", although his clinical cause of death has been described as the result of a stroke. Packer is today widely rumored to have become a vegetarian before his death and was reported by those who knew him as a man rich with stories and well-liked by children. He lived modestly and was reported to be a charitable man.


title: Alferd Packer

text: Packer was interred in Littleton, Colorado. His grave is marked with a veteran's tombstone listing his original regiment in 1862, which is a replacement, as his original grave marker was stolen. His first name is listed as Alfred on his headstone, as opposed to the actual spelling of Alferd, but he is known to have gone by both in life. He was never successful in getting an official state pardon for his crimes.


title: Alferd Packer

text: The Littleton Cemetery Association cemented over Packer's grave in 1973 to deter grave robbing and vandalism. Despite their belief that his corpse is intact, claims have been made by Edward Meyer, the Vice-President of Exhibits and Archives for the Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum, that they are in possession of Packer's dissected skull, which they bought from an anonymous party for a reported sum of $20,000. No statement was made as to how they verified the authenticity of the skull, which is partially mummified, other than to state that the seller's information regarding its origin was sufficient.


title: Alferd Packer

text: If the skull in question does belong to Packer, it is presumed that his head was removed from his body shortly before or after his burial, was then dissected with the brain being removed for study, and was then preserved through an arsenic curing process. It is then said to have fallen into the hands of a traveling sideshow, which displayed it, until it was later sold to a private party who in turn later sold it to Ripley's. As of 2008, the skull is reported to be at the Ripley's Museum in San Antonio, Texas, following its relocation from their New Orleans facility in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.


title: Alferd Packer

text: On July 17, 1989, 115 years after Packer consumed his companions, an exhumation of the five bodies was undertaken by James E. Starrs, then a professor of law specializing in forensic science at George Washington University, following an exhaustive search for the precise location of the remains around the area of Cannibal Plateau. The men's remains were located at the end of a residential driveway of a home belonging to a local surgeon, and were buried only thirteen inches below ground level. Starrs and his colleague Walter H. Birkby concluded, regarding the cannibalism: "I don't think there will ever be any way to scientifically demonstrate cannibalism. Cannibalism per se is the ingestion of human flesh. So you'd have to have a picture of the guy actually eating." Packer never denied cannibalism, so this was not the men's main intent for their investigation. The evidence uncovered was sufficient for Starrs to conclude that Packer had indeed murdered his comrades. Starrs came away with the belief that Packer more than likely murdered his companions for their belongings, and resorted to cannibalism out of necessity rather than intent. The men were re-interred and given a proper burial, complete with funeral rites being read.


title: Alferd Packer

text: Exhumation of the skeletal remains showed signs of what appeared to be blunt force trauma to the skulls of two of the men, with no other noteworthy disturbance to their skeletal remains aside from those made during their butchering. All skulls had damage to varying extents to their upper craniums, with fabric fibers being found within some of the skulls themselves, suggesting that their heads were possibly covered with a blanket at the time of their deaths. The three other skeletons showed defensive signs of hacking marks across the radial and ulna bones of their forearms (Shannon Bell being one), which one could sustain whilst shielding his face and body from an attack. Although Packer claimed that Bell had murdered the others with hatchet blows to the head, in his second version of the story, he never claimed that he had to fight off Bell with the hatchet in any rendition. In one version of his story, Bell had charged at Packer with Swan's rifle, and Packer shot him. In Packer's second official version of the story, he claimed he finished off Bell with a hatchet blow to the head, but that was the extent of his claim in regards to the hatchet. All five of the skeletons had numerous differing post-mortem injuries to them, including depressed fractures, butterfly fractures, butchering trauma, and hacking trauma, which seems to contradict Packer's claims of "minimal cannibalism".


title: Alferd Packer

text: Two skeletons aside from that of Shannon Bell were found to have cylindrical puncture wounds in the pelvic bone, which has led some to question if all three marks are the result of the scavenging marks of a bear, or even possibly bullet wounds. No definitive conclusions have been made to these discoveries.


title: Alferd Packer

text: This discovery suggested a scenario in which two of the men were bludgeoned in their sleep by Packer, the three remaining men awoke, and Packer shot them in the hips to incapacitate them (if the punctures are in fact bullet wounds). They then attempted to fight off Packer who was wielding a hatchet and he killed them all with blows to the head. He then butchered the men and used their flesh to survive in his snowbound state and during his journey. The differing states of decomposition of the bodies does contradict this theory, though it is plausible. It would seem unlikely that Packer had shot three of the five men in the hip, which is not by itself an outright kill shot, unless it was to debilitate them while he went in for the kill. Further analysis into the entry and exit geometry could be telling as to what their initial cause was, but no such examination has been done to date. His ultimate motivation for their murder has been debated heavily, and has several possible theories.


title: Alferd Packer

text: In 1994, David P. Bailey, Curator of History at the Museum of Western Colorado, undertook an investigation to turn up more conclusive results than Starrs' with respect to Packer's claims of having shot Bell. In the Audrey Thrailkill collection of firearms owned by the museum was a Colt revolver that had reportedly been found at the site of Packer's alleged crime. Exhaustive investigation into the pistol's background turned up documents from the time of the trial: "A Civil War veteran that visited the crime scene stated that Shannon Bell had been shot twice and the other victims were killed with a hatchet. Upon careful study of Bell, he noticed a severe bullet wound to the pelvic area and that Bell's wallet had a bullet hole through it." This seems to corroborate Packer's claim that Bell had killed the other victims and that Packer shot Bell in self-defense. By 2000, Bailey had not yet proven a link between the antique pistol and Alferd Packer, but he discovered that forensic samples from the 1989 exhumation had been archived, and analysis in 2001 with an electron microscope by Dr. Richard Dujay at Mesa State College found microscopic lead fragments in the soil taken from under Shannon Bell's remains that were matched by spectrograph with the bullets remaining in what was indeed Packer's pistol. While it appears certain that at least Bell was shot, the question of whether or not it was in self-defense remains unanswered.


title: Alferd Packer

text: In Bud Grace's comic strip "The Piranha Club", one of the madcap denizens of Bayonne, New Jersey, is an old lady named "Alferda Packer, consumer advocate", who wages a humorously violent Carrie Nation-style crusade against unscrupulous business practices. One of her most frequent targets is her own son-in-law Dr. Enos Pork, a quack surgeon who demands outrageous prices from his patients for the malpractice he performs on them.


title: Alferd Packer

text: In Dashiell Hammett's hardboiled detective novel "The Thin Man", Nick Charles advises Gilbert Wynant to read a selection about Packer's expeditions. The selection, from Thomas Samuel Duke's "Celebrated Criminal Cases of America", gives Packer's first name as "Alfred".


title: Alferd Packer

text: In 1968, students at the University of Colorado Boulder named their new cafeteria grill the "Alferd G. Packer Memorial Grill", with the slogan, "Have a friend for lunch!" Students can order an "El Canibal" beefburger, and on the wall is a giant map outlining Packer's travels through Colorado. It has since been renamed the Alferd Packer Restaurant & Grill.


title: Alferd Packer

text: In 1977, the US Secretary of Agriculture, Bob Bergland, attempted to terminate a contract for the department's cafeteria food service but was prevented by the General Services Administration (GSA). To embarrass the GSA, Bergland and his employees convened a press conference on August 10, 1977, to unveil a plaque naming the executive cafeteria "The Alferd Packer Memorial Grill", announcing that Packer's life exemplified the spirit and fare of the cafeteria and would "serve all mankind". The event was covered on ABC-TV Evening News by Barbara Walters. The stratagem succeeded, and the contracts were terminated soon thereafter. Magnanimous in victory, Bergland yielded to the bureaucratic objection that the plaque lacked official GSA authorization and removed it. The plaque is currently displayed on the wall of the National Press Club's "The Reliable Source" members-only bar. It doubles as a memorial to Stanley Weston (1931–84), a man who worked at the USDA. The Press Club's hamburger is called the "Alferd Packer Burger".


title: Alferd Packer

text: The annual Philadelphia Folk Festival features a dining tent emblazoned with the tongue-in-cheek moniker: "The Alfred E. Packer Memorial Dining Hall...serving humanity since 1874".


title: Alferd Packer

text: University of Colorado students Trey Parker and Matt Stone, co-creators of "South Park", made a musical comedy film called "Cannibal! The Musical" (1993), based loosely on Packer's life, with Parker billed as "Juan Schwartz" (a variation of Packer's "John Schwartze"). The film was released commercially in 1996 by Troma Entertainment and produced as a stage play, titled "Alferd Packer: The Musical", initially by Dad's Garage Theatre Company and by several other theatre companies since. Lesser known film adaptions include "The Legend of Alfred Packer" (1980) and the horror film "" (2005).


title: Alferd Packer

text: Folk singer Phil Ochs wrote the song "The Ballad of Alferd Packer" (1964), documenting the events of the expedition and its aftermath. Ochs' use of humor in the song is typical of the seemingly lighthearted ongoing attitude toward Packer and his alleged crimes. Although the track never appeared on any of Ochs' studio or live album releases, it has appeared on several compilations issued since his death in 1976, most recently on the "On My Way" (2010) compilation of demos from 1963.


title: Alferd Packer

text: Country artist C.W. McCall (of "Convoy" fame) recorded a track on his album "The Real McCall" titled "Coming Back for More" (1990), which revived the legend and implied that Packer's ghost still haunts Lake City.


title: Alferd Packer

text: The American death metal band Cannibal Corpse dedicated their debut album, "Eaten Back to Life" (1990), to Packer. The following statement can be found in the inlay of this album: "This album is dedicated to the memory of Alfred Packer, the first American cannibal (R.I.P.)"


title: Alferd Packer

text: Macabre, the self-proclaimed Murder-Metal band from Chicago, released a song about Packer's trek for gold called "In the Mountains" from their 2002 "Morbid Campfire Songs" album.


title: Fordlândia

text: Fordlândia (, "Ford-land") is a district and adjacent area of in the city of Aveiro, in the Brazilian state of Pará. It is located on the east banks of the Tapajós river roughly south of the city of Santarém.


title: Fordlândia

text: It was established by American industrialist Henry Ford in the Amazon Rainforest in 1928 as a prefabricated industrial town intended to be inhabited by 10,000 people to secure a source of cultivated rubber for the automobile manufacturing operations of the Ford Motor Company in the United States. Ford had negotiated a deal with the Brazilian government granting him a concession of of land on the banks of the Rio Tapajós near the city of Santarém, Brazil, in exchange for a 9% share in the profits generated. Ford's project failed, and the city was abandoned in 1934.


title: Fordlândia

text: The town was mostly deserted, with only 90 residents still living in the city until the early 2000s when it saw an increase of population, being home to around 3,000 people .


title: Fordlândia

text: In the 1920s, the Ford Motor Company sought to elude the British monopoly over the supply of rubber, mainly used for producing tires and other car parts. Henry Ford looked for alternatives and a permanent place to establish a colony to produce rubber. Central America was considered; however, information about the rubber trees in the Amazon was uncovered and this, along with other factors, caused a change of plans.


title: Fordlândia

text: Negotiations with the Brazilian government started during the visit by then-governor of the State of Pará, , to the United States to meet Ford. An agreement was signed and the American industrialist received an area of about 2.5 million acres (10,100 km) called "Boa Vista". The agreement exempted Ford from taxes on the exportation of goods produced in Brazil in exchange for 9% of the profits, 7% going to the Brazilian government and 2% of profits to local municipalities.


title: Fordlândia

text: Work on the area began in 1926 by the "Companhia Ford Industrial do Brasil". It was immediately hindered by poor logistics and diseases that affected the workers who succumbed to yellow fever and malaria. No roads were available in the area thus the area was only accessible by the Tapajós River. The site was developed as a planned community with different areas of the city being designated for the Brazilian workers and the American managers, who lived in the so-called American Village. Typical American houses were built, as were a hospital, school, library, and hotel. The town also had a swimming pool, a playground, and a golf course.


title: Fordlândia

text: In 1928, the Ford Motor Company sent two merchant ships – "Lake Ormoc" and "Lake Farge" – loaded with equipment and furnishings ranging from door knobs to the town's water tower. The town was then founded under the name Fordlândia.


title: Fordlândia

text: Seeking workers, several offices were opened in the cities of Belém and Manaus, and, with the promise of good wages, people of the nearby states answered.


title: Fordlândia

text: In lower temperatures the latex is concentrated in the lower areas of the tree, as the temperature rises during the day the latex spreads throughout the tree, making the tapping less effective. Due to this, the typical journey of a rubber tapper began early in the morning, at around 5 am, ending at noon. The plantation was divided into areas and each worker was assigned to a different area to prevent workers from tapping the same trees successively.


title: Fordlândia

text: The town had a strict set of rules imposed by the managers. Alcohol, women, tobacco and even football were forbidden within the town, including inside the workers' own homes. Inspectors would go from house to house to check how organised the houses were and to enforce these rules. The inhabitants circumvented these prohibitions by paddling out to merchant riverboats moored beyond the town jurisdiction, often hiding contraband goods inside fruits like watermelons. A small settlement was established upstream on the "Island of Innocence" with bars, nightclubs and brothels.


title: Fordlândia

text: The land was hilly, rocky and infertile. None of Ford's managers had the requisite knowledge of tropical agriculture. In the wild, the rubber trees grow apart from each other as a protection mechanism against plagues and diseases, often growing close to bigger trees of other species for added support. In Fordlândia, however, the trees were planted close together in plantations, easy prey for tree blight, sauva ants, lace bugs, red spiders, and leaf caterpillars.


title: Fordlândia

text: The workers on the plantations were given unfamiliar food, such as hamburgers and canned food, and forced to live in American-style housing. Most disliked the way they were treated – being required to wear ID badges and work through the middle of the day under the tropical sun – and would often refuse to work.


title: Fordlândia

text: In 1930, the native workers grew tired of the American food and revolted in the town's cafeteria. This became known as the "Breaking Pans" (Portuguese: "Quebra-Panelas"). The rebels proceeded to cut the telegraph wires and chased away the managers and even the town's cook into the jungle for a few days until the Brazilian Army arrived and the revolt ended. Agreements were then made on the type of food the workers would be served.


title: Fordlândia

text: The government of Brazil was suspicious of any foreign investments, particularly in the northern Amazonian region, and offered little help. It wasn't long before the numerous problems began to take a toll on the project and the decision was made to relocate. Fordlândia was abandoned by the Ford Motor Company in 1934, and the project was relocated downstream to Belterra, south of the city of Santarém, where better conditions to grow rubber existed. By 1945, synthetic rubber had been developed, reducing world demand for natural rubber. Ford's investment opportunity dried up overnight without producing any rubber for Ford's tires, and the second town was also abandoned. In 1945, Henry Ford's grandson Henry Ford II sold the area comprising both towns back to the Brazilian government for a loss of over US$20 million (equivalent to $ million in ).


title: Fordlândia

text: In spite of the huge investment and numerous invitations, Henry Ford never visited either of his ill-fated towns.


title: Fordlândia

text: Between the 1950s and late 1970s, after being given back the rights to the lands, the Brazilian government, through its Ministry of Agriculture, installed several facilities in the area. The houses that once belonged to Ford's rubber tappers were then given to the families of the Ministry's employees, whose descendants still occupy them.


title: Fordlândia

text: This project was also short-lived and left the city nearly completely abandoned upon reaching its end.


title: Fordlândia

text: The town remained inhabited by roughly 90 people until the latter half of the first decade of the twenty-first century. No basic services were offered in the area, with medical help only coming by boat at long intervals. That changed when people looking for places to live decided to go back into the town, often claiming houses. The town, now a district of Aveiro, is home to nearly 3,000 people .


title: Fordlândia

text: Most of the original buildings still stand, with the exception of the hospital, which was dismantled by looters.


title: Fordlândia

text: Regarded as the symbol of Fordlândia, the tall water tower is located by the main warehouses. As with most of the equipment in the town, it was built in Michigan and brought to Fordlândia by merchant ship. The water tower, water treatment plant and all of its original plumbing are still operational.


title: Fordlândia

text: The hospital was left intact until the late 2000s, when looters completely dismantled the hospital and removed its contents.


title: Fordlândia

text: Before being dismantled, a number of controversies occurred regarding the hospital's X-ray machines. As a local TV station reported, several marked boxes containing radioactive material were left behind. This generated fears of contamination among the population of nearby towns and cities, with people often mentioning the Goiânia accident, causing the authorities to remove the materials following an outcry.


title: Fordlândia

text: The town had a sawmill responsible for providing lumber for all the construction around. The sawmill and kiln still stand; however, most equipment is gone.


title: Fordlândia

text: The town's workshop was a three-story warehouse responsible for manufacturing parts for the machines working in the town. It still stands and has most of the original equipment. It is now used as a warehouse where most artifacts from Ford's era are kept. Hospital beds, equipment, a lead coffin and parts of an X-ray machine are stored in this warehouse.


title: Fordlândia

text: The second floor of the warehouse was allowed to be used for the processing of seeds for a community project. The oil extracted from those seeds greatly accelerated the rotting of the wooden floor which has collapsed in some areas.


title: Fordlândia

text: The six houses in the American Village still had their original furniture, silverware and even clothes that were left behind when the town was deserted. The houses were claimed by locals and most items were sold or taken as souvenirs. One of the houses was lost to a fire.


title: Ecclesiastical Latin

text: Ecclesiastical Latin, also called Church Latin or Liturgical Latin, is a form of Latin developed to discuss Christian thought in Late Antiquity and used in Christian liturgy, theology, and church administration down to the present day, especially in the Catholic Church. It includes words from Vulgar Latin and Classical Latin (as well as Greek and Hebrew) re-purposed with Christian meaning. It is less stylized and rigid in form than Classical Latin, sharing vocabulary, forms, and syntax, while at the same time incorporating informal elements which had always been with the language but which were excluded by the literary authors of Classical Latin.


title: Ecclesiastical Latin

text: Its pronunciation was partly standardized in the late 8th century during the Carolingian Renaissance as part of Charlemagne's educational reforms, and this new letter-by-letter pronunciation, used in France and England, was adopted in Iberia and Italy a couple of centuries afterwards. As time passed, pronunciation diverged depending on the local vernacular language, giving rise to even highly divergent forms such as the traditional English pronunciation of Latin, which has now been largely abandoned for reading Latin texts. Within the Catholic Church and in certain Protestant churches, such as the Anglican Church, a pronunciation based on modern Italian phonology, known as Italianate Latin, became common by the 20th century.


title: Ecclesiastical Latin

text: Ecclesiastical Latin was the language of liturgical rites in the Latin Church, as well as the Anglican Church, Lutheran Church, Methodist Church, and in the Western Rite of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Today, ecclesiastical Latin is primarily used in official documents of the Catholic Church, in the Tridentine Mass, and it is still learned by clergy.


title: Ecclesiastical Latin

text: The Ecclesiastical Latin that is used in theological works, liturgical rites and dogmatic proclamations varies in style: syntactically simple in the Vulgate Bible, hieratic (very restrained) in the Roman Canon of the Mass, terse and technical in Thomas Aquinas's , and Ciceronian (syntactically complex) in Pope John Paul II's encyclical letter .


title: Ecclesiastical Latin

text: The use of Latin in the Church started in the late fourth century with the split of the Roman Empire after Emperor Theodosius in 395. Before this split, Greek was the primary language of the Church as well as the language of the eastern half of the Roman Empire. Following the split, early theologians like Jerome translated Greek and Hebrew texts into Latin, the dominant language of the Western Roman Empire. The loss of Greek in the Western half of the Roman Empire, and the loss of Latin in the Eastern half of the Roman Empire were not immediate, but changed the culture of language as well as the development of the Church. What especially differentiates Ecclesiastical Latin from Classical Latin is its utility as a language for translating, since it borrows and assimilates constructions and borrows vocabulary from the "koine" Greek, while adapting the meanings of some Latin words to those of the "koine" Greek originals, which are sometimes themselves translations of Hebrew originals.


title: Ecclesiastical Latin

text: At first there was no distinction between Latin and the actual Romance vernacular, the former being just the traditional written form of the latter. For instance, in ninth-century Spain was simply the correct way to spell , meaning 'century'. The writer would not have actually read it aloud as any more than an English speaker today would pronounce ⟨knight⟩ as .


title: Ecclesiastical Latin

text: The spoken version of Ecclesiastical Latin was created later during the Carolingian Renaissance. The English scholar Alcuin, tasked by Charlemagne with improving the standards of Latin writing in France, prescribed a pronunciation based on a fairly literal interpretation of Latin spelling. For example, in a radical break from the traditional system, a word such as ⟨⟩ 'orchard' now had to be read aloud precisely as it was spelled rather than (later spelled as Old French ). The Carolingian reforms soon brought the new Church Latin from France to other lands where Romance was spoken.


title: Ecclesiastical Latin

text: The use of Latin in the Western Church continued into the Early modern period. One of Martin Luther's tenets during the Reformation was to have services and religious texts in the common tongue, rather than Latin, a language that at the time, many did not understand. Protestants refrained from using Latin in services, however Protestant clergy had to learn and understand Latin as it was the language of higher learning and theological thought until the 18th century. After the Reformation, in the Lutheran churches, Latin was retained as the language of the Mass for weekdays, although for the Sunday Sabbath, the Deutsche Messe was to be said. In Geneva, among the Reformed churches, "persons called before the consistory to prove their faith answered by reciting the "Paternoster", the "Ave Maria", and the "Credo" in Latin." In the Anglican Church, the Book of Common Prayer was published in Latin, alongside English. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist churches, "used Latin text in doctrinal writings", as Martin Luther and John Calvin did in their era. In the training of Protestant clergy in Württemberg, as well as in the Rhineland, universities instructed divinity students in Latin and their examinations were conducted in this language. The University of Montauban, under Reformed auspices, required that seminarians complete two theses, with one being in Latin; thus Reformed ministers were "Latinist by training", comparable to Catholic seminarians.


title: Ecclesiastical Latin

text: Ecclesiastical Latin continues to be the official language of the Catholic Church. The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) decreed that the Mass would be translated into vernacular languages. The Church produces liturgical texts in Latin, which provide a single clear point of reference for translations into all other languages. The same holds for the texts of canon law. Pope Benedict XVI gave his unexpected resignation speech in Latin.


title: Ecclesiastical Latin

text: The Holy See has for some centuries usually drafted documents in a modern language, but the authoritative text, published in the "Acta Apostolicae Sedis", is usually in Latin. Some texts may be published initially in a modern language and be later revised, according to a Latin version (or “editio typica”), after this Latin version is published. For example, the Catechism of the Catholic Church was drafted and published, in 1992, in French. The Latin text appeared five years later, in 1997, and the French text was corrected to match the Latin version, which is regarded as the official text. The Latin-language department of the Vatican Secretariat of State (formerly the "Secretaria brevium ad principes et epistolarum latinarum") is charged with the preparation in Latin of papal and curial documents. Sometimes, the official text is published in a modern language, e.g., the well-known edict "Tra le sollecitudini" (1903) by Pope Pius X (in Italian) and "Mit brennender Sorge" (1937) by Pope Pius XI (in German).


title: Ecclesiastical Latin

text: There are not many differences between Classical Latin and Church Latin. One can understand Church Latin knowing the Latin of classical texts, as the main differences between the two are in pronunciation and spelling, as well as vocabulary.


title: Ecclesiastical Latin

text: In many countries, those who speak Latin for liturgical or other ecclesiastical purposes use the pronunciation that has become traditional in Rome by giving the letters the value they have in modern Italian but without distinguishing between open and close "E" and "O". "AE" and "OE" coalesce with "E". "C" and "G" before "AE", "OE", "E" and "I" are pronounced (English "CH") and (English "J"), respectively. "TI" before a vowel is generally pronounced (unless preceded by "S", "T" or "X"). Such speakers pronounce consonantal "V" (not written as "U") as as in English, not as Classical . Like in Classical Latin, double consonants are pronounced with gemination.


title: Ecclesiastical Latin

text: The distinction in Classical Latin between long and short vowels is ignored, and instead of the 'macron' or 'apex', lines to mark the long vowel, an acute accent is used for stress. The first syllable of two-syllable words is stressed; in longer words, an acute accent is placed over the stressed vowel: adorémus 'let us adore'; Dómini 'of the Lord'.


title: Ecclesiastical Latin

text: The complete text of the Bible in Latin, the revised Vulgate, appears at Nova Vulgata - Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio. New Advent gives the entire Bible, in the Douay version, verse by verse, accompanied by the Vulgate Latin of each verse.


title: Ecclesiastical Latin

text: In 1976, the Latinitas Foundation ("Opus Fundatum Latinitas" in Latin) was established by Pope Paul VI to promote the study and use of Latin. Its headquarters are in Vatican City. The foundation publishes an eponymous quarterly in Latin. The foundation also published a 15,000-word Italian-Latin "Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis" ("Dictionary of Recent Latin"), which provides Latin coinages for modern concepts, such as a bicycle ("birota"), a cigarette ("fistula nicotiana"), a computer ("instrumentum computatorium"), a cowboy ("armentarius"), a motel ("deversorium autocineticum"), shampoo ("capitilavium"), a strike ("operistitium"), a terrorist ("tromocrates"), a trademark ("ergasterii nota"), an unemployed person ("invite otiosus"), a waltz ("chorea Vindobonensis"), and even a miniskirt ("tunicula minima") and hot pants ("brevissimae bracae femineae"). Some 600 such terms extracted from the book appear on a page of the Vatican website. The Latinitas Foundation was superseded by the Pontifical Academy for Latin () in 2012.


title: Ecclesiastical Latin

text: Latin remains the official language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Until the 1960s and still later in Roman colleges like the Gregorian, Catholic priests studied theology using Latin textbooks and the language of instruction in many seminaries was also Latin, which was seen as the language of the Church Fathers. The use of Latin in pedagogy and in theological research, however, has since declined. Nevertheless, canon law requires for seminary formation to provide for a thorough training in Latin, though "the use of Latin in seminaries and pontifical universities has now dwindled to the point of extinction." Latin was still spoken in recent international gatherings of Catholic leaders, such as the Second Vatican Council, and it is still used at conclaves to elect a new Pope. The Tenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in 2004 was the most recent to have a Latin-language group for discussions.


title: Ecclesiastical Latin

text: Although Latin is the traditional liturgical language of the Western (Latin) Church, the liturgical use of the vernacular has predominated since the liturgical reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council: liturgical law for the Latin Church states that Mass may be celebrated either in Latin or another language in which the liturgical texts, translated from Latin, have been legitimately approved. The permission granted for continued use of the Tridentine Mass in its 1962 form authorizes use of the vernacular language in proclaiming the Scripture readings after they are first read in Latin.


title: Ecclesiastical Latin

text: In historic Protestant churches, such as the Anglican Communion and Lutheran churches, Ecclesiastical Latin is occasionally employed in sung celebrations of the Mass.


title: Ecclesiastical Latin

text: In the hymnbook used in the Catholic Church in Japan, there are some special kana characters. To represent the sound in the Latin language, the R column kana letters with ゜(the handakuten diacritic) are used (such as for [la], for [le], for [li], for [lo] and for [lu]).


title: Shivaji Satam

text: Shivaji Satam (born 21 April 1950), is an Indian television and film actor. He is best known for his role as ACP Pradyuman on the TV series "C.I.D." on SET India. A former bank official and Inspection Officer, he has appeared in Hindi and Marathi films, including "Vaastav", "Ghulam-E-Mustafa", "Yeshwant", "China Gate", "Taxi No. 9211", "Nayak", "Jis Desh Me Ganga Reheta Hai", "Sooryavansham", "Hu Tu Tu". In Marathi, he has received recognition through movies like "Uttarayan".


title: Shivaji Satam

text: Shivaji made his screen debut in 1980 in the TV series "Rishte-Naate". In 1988, he appeared in the series "Famous Trials of India". He played a role in the Marathi show "Ek Shunya Shunya". He then appeared in numerous serials and films, and became noted for appearing in the Hindi films "Vaastav", "Kurukshetra" and "100 Days".


title: Mary Badham

text: Mary Badham (born October 7, 1952) is an American actress who portrayed Jean Louise "Scout" Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. At the time, Badham (aged 10) was the youngest actress ever nominated in this category.


title: Mary Badham

text: Mary Badham had no film acting experience before being cast in "To Kill a Mockingbird". The Oscar in her category went to another child actress, Patty Duke for "The Miracle Worker". During filming, Badham became particularly close to actor Gregory Peck, who played Scout's father, Atticus Finch; she kept in touch with him, always calling him "Atticus," until his death in 2003. Peck called her "Scout" in return.


title: Mary Badham

text: Badham played Sport Sharewood in "The Bewitchin' Pool", the final episode of the original "Twilight Zone" series. Due to technical issues, her voice in outdoor scenes was dubbed in post production by adult voice actress June Foray. She also appeared in the films "This Property Is Condemned" and "Let's Kill Uncle" before retiring from the acting profession.


title: Mary Badham

text: In 2005, at the urging of actor/writer/director Cameron Watson, Badham came out of retirement to play an offbeat cameo opposite Keith Carradine for his film, "Our Very Own". Watson stated he would not accept any other actress for the part. He had managed to contact her in Monroeville, Alabama, where she had been invited to attend a stage version of "To Kill a Mockingbird". Badham made her tour debut as a stage actor portraying Mrs. Dubose in the U.S. national tour of Aaron Sorkin's stage adaptation of "To Kill a Mockingbird" on March 27, 2022.


title: Mary Badham

text: , Badham was an art restorer and a college testing coordinator. She is married to Richard W. Wilt, dean of Library and Educational Support Services at Lehigh Carbon Community College, and the mother of two children. She has traveled around the world recalling her experiences making "To Kill a Mockingbird", while expounding the book's messages of tolerance and compassion.


title: Mary Badham

text: In 2012, she attended a screening of "To Kill a Mockingbird" with President Barack Obama at the White House to mark the 50th anniversary of its release. In 2015, she defended the release of Harper Lee's first draft of "Go Set a Watchman" and its portrayal of an older, more bigoted, Atticus Finch.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: Kiryas Joel (, ; often locally abbreviated as KJ) is a village coterminous with the Town of Palm Tree in Orange County, New York, United States. The village shares one government with the Town. The vast majority of its residents are Yiddish-speaking Hasidic Jews who belong to the worldwide Satmar sect of Hasidism.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: Kiryas Joel is part of the Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown New York Metropolitan Statistical Area, as well as the larger Combined Statistical Area.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: According to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, Kiryas Joel has by far the youngest median age population of any municipality in the United States, and the youngest, at 13.2 years old, of any population center of over 5,000 residents in the United States.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: Residents of Kiryas Joel, like those of other Haredi and Orthodox Jewish communities, typically have large families, and this has driven rapid population growth.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: According to 2008 census figures, the village has the highest poverty rate in the nation. More than two-thirds of the residents live below the federal poverty line, and 40% receive food stamps. It is also the place in the United States with the highest percentage of people who reported Hungarian ancestry, as 18.9% of the population reported Hungarian descent in 2000.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: Kiryas Joel is named for the late Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, the "rebbe" of Satmar and driving spirit behind the project.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: The Satmar Hasidim came from Satu Mare, Romania, known when under Hungarian rule as Szatmár. Teitelbaum, originally from Romania, rebuilt the Satmar Hasidic dynasty after World War II.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: In 1947, Teitelbaum settled with his followers in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, a borough of New York City. By the 1970s, he decided to move the growing community to Monroe, New York, a location more secluded from what he considered the harmful influences and immorality of the outside world, yet close to the metropolitan area's commercial center. The land for Kiryas Joel was purchased in the early 1970s, and 14 Satmar families settled there in the summer of 1974. When he died in 1979, Teitelbaum was the first person to be buried in the town's cemetery. His funeral reportedly brought over 100,000 mourners to Kiryas Joel.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: It is widely believed that no candidates run for the village's board or the school board unless approved by the grand rebbe, Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum. In 2001, Kiryas Joel held a competitive election in which all candidates supported by the grand rebbe were re-elected by a 55–45% margin.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: As of 2019, the village of Kiryas Joel separated from the town of Monroe, to become part of the town of Palm Tree, New York's first new town in 38 years. On July 1, 2018, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill to create Palm Tree, triggering elections for the first governing board. The new town had 10 elected positions on the November 2018 ballot, including a supervisor, four council members, and two justices to preside over a town court.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: The name "Palm Tree" is a calque (translation) of the surname/family name of Joel Teitelbaum. In Yiddish, "teitel" (טייטל) means "date palm" and "baum" means "tree".


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 1.1 square miles (2.8 km), and only a very small portion of the area (a small duck pond called "Forest Road Lake" in the center of the village) is covered with water.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 13,138 people, 2,229 households, and 2,137 families residing in the village. The population density was . There were 2,233 housing units, at an average density of . The racial make-up of the village was 99.02% White, 0.21% African American, 0.02% Asian, 0.12% from other races, and 0.63% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.93% of the population.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: Kiryas Joel has the highest percentage of people who reported Hungarian ancestry in the United States, as 18.9% of the population reported Hungarian ancestry in 2000. 3% of the residents of Kiryas Joel were Israeli, 2% Romanian, 1% Polish, and 1% European.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: The 2000 census also reported that 6.3% of village residents spoke only English at home, one of the lowest such percentages in the United States. 91.5% of residents spoke Yiddish at home, while 2.3% spoke Hebrew. Of the Yiddish-speaking population in 2000, 46% spoke English "not well" or "not at all". Overall, including those who primarily spoke Hebrew and European languages, as well as primary Yiddish speakers, 46% of Kiryas Joel residents speak English "not well" or "not at all".


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: There were 2,229 households, out of which 79.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 93.2% were married couples living together, 1.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 4.1% were non-families. 2.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 2.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 5.74, and the average family size was 5.84. In the village, the population was very young, with 57.5% under the age of 18, 17.2% from 18 to 24, 16.5% from 25 to 44, 7.2% from 45 to 64, and 1.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 15 years. For every 100 females, there were 116.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 118.0 males.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: The village abides by strict Jewish customs, and its welcome sign asks visitors to dress conservatively and to "maintain gender separation in all public areas".


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: The median income for a household in the village was $15,138, and the median income for a family was $15,372. Males had a median income of $25,043, versus $16,364 for females. The per capita income for the village was $4,355. About 61.7% of families and 62.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 63.9% of those under age 18 and 50.5% of those age 65 or over.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: According to 2008 census figures, the village has the highest poverty rate in the nation, and the largest percentage of residents who receive food stamps. More than five-eighths of Kiryas Joel residents live below the federal poverty line, and more than 40 percent receive food stamps, according to the American Community Survey, a U.S. Census Bureau study of every place in the country with 20,000 residents or more. A 2011 "New York Times" report noted that, despite the town's very high statistical poverty rates, "It has no slums or homeless people. No one who lives there is shabbily dressed or has to go hungry. Crime is virtually non-existent."


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: Kiryas Joel has a very high rate of public transportation usage. Local transit within the area is operated by the Village of Kiryas Joel Bus System, and also has service to Manhattan and to the heavily Haredi Jewish-populated Williamsburg and Borough Park sections of Brooklyn.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: The village has become a contentious issue in Orange County for several reasons, mainly related to its rapid growth. Unlike most other small communities, it lacks a real downtown and much of it is given over to residential property, which has mostly taken the form of contemporary townhouse-style condominiums. New construction is ongoing throughout the community.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: Population growth is strong. In 1990, there were 7,400 people in Kiryas Joel; in 2000, 13,100, nearly doubling the population. In 2005, the population had risen to 18,300. The 2010 census showed a population of 20,175, for a population growth rate of 53.6% between 2000 and 2010, which was less than anticipated, as it was projected that the population would double in that time period.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: The Town of Monroe also contains two other villages – Monroe, and Harriman. Kiryas Joel's boundaries also come close to the neighboring towns of Blooming Grove and Woodbury.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: Residents of these communities and local Orange County politicians view the village as encroaching on them. Due to the rapid population growth in Kiryas Joel, resulting almost entirely from the high birth rates of its Hasidic population, the village government has undertaken various annexation efforts to expand its area, to the dismay of the majority of the residents of the surrounding communities. Many of these area residents see the expansion of the high-density residential-commercial village as a threat to the quality of life in the surrounding suburban communities, due to suburban sprawl. Other concerns of the surrounding communities are the impact on local aquifers and the projected increased volume of sewage reaching the county's sewerage treatment plants, already near capacity by 2005.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: On August 11, 2006, residents of Woodbury voted, by a 3-to-1 margin, to incorporate much of the town as a village, to constrain further annexation. Kiryas Joel has opposed such moves in court.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: In March 2007, the village of Kiryas Joel sued the county to stop it from selling off of excess capacity at its sewage plant in Harriman. Two years earlier, the county had sued the village to stop its plans to tap into New York City's Catskill Aqueduct, arguing that the village's environmental review for the project had inadequately addressed concerns about the additional wastewater it would generate. The village was appealing an early ruling which sided with the county. In its action, Kiryas Joel accused the county of inconsistently claiming limited capacity in its suit when it is selling the million gallons to three communities outside its sewer district.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: In 2017, the village proposed to settle a lawsuit over some additional annexations it had proposed by petitioning the county legislature to allow it to become the county's 21st town. It would be named Palm Tree, after the English translation of Joel Teitelbaum's name. In return for the village dropping its request to annex , United Monroe and Preserve Hudson Valley, the plaintiffs, agreed to withdraw their appeal of a decision allowing the annexation of a parcel. The new town would also be prohibited from filing annexation proposals or encouraging the creation of new villages for 10 years. Two-thirds of the county legislature must approve the creation of the new town, and a vote of Monroe residents may also be required. The referendum passed on November 7, 2017.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: Critics of the village cite its impact on local politics. Villagers are perceived as voting in a solid bloc. While this is not always the case, the highly concentrated population often does skew strongly toward one candidate or the other in local elections, making Kiryas Joel a heavily courted swing vote for whichever politician offers Kiryas Joel the most favorable environment for continued growth. In the hotly contested 2013 Town Supervisors race, the Kiryas Joel bloc vote elected Harley Doles to the position of town supervisor. Kiryas Joel then sought to annex of land into their village and the new Monroe Town Board has had no comment on this issue. In late 2014 village leadership proposed alternatively that a new village, to be called Gilios Kiryas Joel, be created on the south of the village within Monroe, including all the land it had wanted to annex.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: Kiryas Joel played a major role in the 2006 Congressional election. The village was at that time in the congressional district represented by Republican Sue Kelly. Village residents had been loyal to Kelly in the past, but in 2006, voters were upset over what they saw as lack of adequate representation from Kelly for the village. In a bloc, Kiryas Joel swung around 2,900 votes to Kelly's Democratic opponent, John Hall . The vote in Kiryas Joel was one reason Hall carried the election, which he did by 4,800 votes.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: Joel Teitelbaum had no son, and thus no clear successor. His nephew, Moses, was appointed by the community's committee members. But not all Satmar accepted Moses as the community leader, and even some of those that did questioned some of his actions and pronouncements. He responded by running the village in what they called an autocratic manner, through his deputy, Abraham Weider, who also served as mayor and president of the school board, as well as the main synagogue and yeshiva in the village.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: In 1989, the village forbade any property owner from selling or renting an apartment without its permission. Teitelbaum elaborated that "anyone that rents without this permission has to be dealt with like a real murderer ... and he should be torn out from the roots".


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: In the early 1990s, New York State Police responded many times to the village, which has a generally low crime rate otherwise, when self-described dissidents reported harassment such as broken windows and graffiti of Hebrew profanity on their property. In one incident, troopers rode a school bus undercover to catch teenage boys stoning it; the boys later stoned a back-up police cruiser when it arrived. One of Weider's nephews was among those arrested. He admitted that some of the village's young men took it upon themselves to act violently against dissidents because they could not bear to hear the grand rebbe criticized, although he said most of them were provoked to do so by dissidents.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: "Someone not following breaks down the whole system of being able to educate and being able to bring up our children with strong family values", Weider told "The New York Times" in 1992. "Why do you think we have no drugs? If we lost respect for the Grand Rabbi, we lose the whole thing."


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: In January 1990, the village held its first, and, for a decade, only, school board election. "It's like this", Teitelbaum explained when he announced the names of seven hand-picked candidates. "With the power of the Torah, I am here the authority in the rabbinical leadership ... As you know, I want to nominate seven people, and I want these people to be the people."


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: One dissident, Joseph Waldman, decided nevertheless to run on his own. He was made unwelcome at the synagogue, his children were expelled from yeshiva, his car's tires slashed, and his windows broken. Several hundred residents marched in the streets in front of his house chanting, "Death to Joseph Waldman!", after posters calling for that fate were posted in the synagogue. After the election, in which Waldman finished last, but still won 673 votes, 60 families who were known to have voted for him were barred from visiting their fathers' graves in the village cemetery that was owned by the rabbi, and banned from the synagogue (also, at the time, the village's only polling place). Waldman compared Teitelbaum to Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: After the election, a state court ruled that Waldman's children had to be reinstated at the yeshiva, an action that was only taken after the judge held Teitelbaum in contempt and fined him personally. Friction continued as some of the dissidents banned from the synagogue circulated a petition calling for the polls to be moved to a neutral location. It originally drew 150 signatures, but all but 15 retracted their names after being threatened with excommunication by the grand rabbi, signing a document that they had not actually read the petition. One of the dissidents who signed was attacked while praying, and state troopers had to be called in again to disperse a mob that gathered on Waldman's lawn and broke his windows.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: In November 2017, a local divorce mediator and an Israeli rabbi with ties to the village were involved in the planning of a contract killing on an estranged husband. They were sentenced to prison.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: On four occasions since 1990, the Middletown "Times-Herald Record" has run lengthy investigative articles on claims of electoral fraud in the village. A 1996 article found that Kiryas Joel residents who were students at yeshivas in Brooklyn had on many occasions apparently registered and voted in both the village and in Brooklyn; a year later, the paper reported that it had happened again. In 2001, absentee ballots were apparently cast by voters who did not normally reside in the village. In some cases, ballots were cast by people who seemed to reside in Antwerp, Belgium, without a set date of expected return, and, thus, would not be allowed under New York law to vote in any election for state or local office. That article led to a county grand jury investigation in 2001, which concluded that while procedures were not followed, and many mistakes were made, there was no evidence of deliberate intent to violate the law.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: Before the 2013 Republican primary in that year's special election for the state assembly seat vacated by Annie Rabbitt, later elected county clerk, members of United Monroe, a local group that organizes and co-ordinates political opposition to the village and those local officials it believes support it, asked the county's Board of Elections to assign them to Kiryas Joel as election inspectors, who verify that voters are registered before allowing them to vote. The board's Democratic commissioner, Sue Bahrens, initially agreed to appoint six to serve in the village, but later reversed that decision. The six sued the county, alleging religious discrimination; it responded that they had no standing to sue. Village Manager Gedalye Szegedin said the citizens were entitled to have inspectors who spoke Yiddish and understood their culture and customs. A state court justice dismissed the discrimination claim, but ruled that the United Monroe inspectors had been dismissed arbitrarily and capriciously, and were entitled to their appointments, but did not say when or where.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: In 2014, the newspaper examined claims by poll watchers from United Monroe that they were intimidated and harassed by other poll watchers sympathetic to the village government when they tried to challenge voters whose signatures did not initially appear to match those on file during the previous year's elections for county offices. They further alleged that election inspectors in the polling place, a banquet hall where 6,000 residents voted, sometimes gave the voters ballots before the signatures could be checked.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: Some of the United Monroe poll watchers claimed that Langdon Chapman, an attorney for the Monroe town board, which they believe is controlled by members deferential to Kiryas Joel and its interests, was one of those who intimidated them. Coleman told the "Record" that while he had been at the banquet hall in question, he had only insisted that poll watchers state the reason for their challenges, as legally required, and had left after two hours. He was subsequently appointed county attorney (the lawyer who represents the county in civil matters) by new county executive Steve Neuhaus, whose margin of victory included all but 20 of the votes from the village.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: After the election, United Monroe members found more than 800 voters in Kiryas Joel whose signatures did not match those on file, in addition to 25 they had challenged at the polls, three of whom were later investigated by the county sheriff; the rest were considered unfounded. Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler, elected along with Neuhaus, told the newspaper it was difficult to investigate the allegations, since they could not verify the identity of either signer, if, in fact, there were two. The "Record" attempted to contact some of those voters; the only one they reached hung up when asked about the election.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: Women in Kiryas Joel usually stop working outside the home after the birth of a second child. Most families have only one income, and many children. The resulting poverty rate makes a disproportionate number of families in Kiryas Joel eligible for welfare benefits, when compared to the rest of the county. "The New York Times" wrote,


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: A 60-bed post-natal maternal care center was built with $10 million in state and federal grants. Mothers can recuperate there for two weeks away from their large families.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: In the 1990s, the first clinical trials for the hepatitis A vaccine took place in Kiryas Joel, where 70 percent of residents had been affected. This disproportionate rate of hepatitis A infection was due in part to Kiryas Joel's high birth rate and crowded conditions among children, who bathed together in pools and ate from communal food at school. Children who were not infected with hepatitis A were separated into two groups, one receiving the experimental vaccine and the other receiving a placebo injection. Based on this study, the vaccine was declared 100 percent effective. Merck licensed the vaccine in 1995, and it became available in 1996, after which the hepatitis A infection rate fell by 75 percent in the United States.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: The unusual lifestyle and growth pattern of Kiryas Joel has led to litigation on a number of fronts. In 1994, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of "Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet" that the Kiryas Joel School District, which covered only the village, was designed in violation of the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment, because the design accommodated one group on the basis of religious affiliation. Subsequently, the New York State Legislature established a similar school district in the village that has passed legal muster. Further litigation has resulted over what entity should pay for the education of children with disabilities in Kiryas Joel, and over whether the community's boys must ride buses driven by women. In 2011, a case against the village was heard in federal district court; plaintiffs, asked for the village to be dissolved, said that Kiryas Joel is a theocracy whose existence violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, where local government leaders abuse the laws, such as those for tax-exempt status, zoning, and sanitation, to favor members of their own sect and persecute other Orthodox Jews. They also said that the leaders commit vote fraud by intimidating dissident voters and busing in non-residents.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: The district served 217 students in the 2007-2008 school year, and 123 in 2008-2009, all of them under special education, according to NYSED documents.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: Most students go to private religious schools; in 2021 there were about 12,000 students attending them. In 2020 the area had almost 24 such schools. In 1994 Kiryas Joel had 5,000 children in the K-12 level with the majority going to private yeshivas and about 200 going to the public special education school.


title: Kiryas Joel, New York

text: The public Kiryas Joel School District has a school for special education students. Before 1985, special education students were taught by public school teachers in separate classes within yeshivas, and between 1985 and 1989 special education students were taught in Monroe–Woodbury Central School District facilities.


title: Kudu

text: The two species look similar, though greaters are larger than lessers. A large adult male greater kudu stands over tall at the shoulder, and a large male lesser kudu stands about tall. Males of both species have long horns, which point upward and slightly back, curling in a corkscrew shape.


title: Kudu

text: The name of the animal was imported into English in the 18th century from isiXhosa "iqhude", via Afrikaans "koedoe".


title: Kudu

text: Kudu, or koodoo, is the Khoikhoi and seTswana name for this antelope. "Tragos" (Greek) denotes a he-goat and "elaphos" (Greek) a deer. "Strepho" (Greek) means "I twist", and "strephis" is "twisting". "Keras" (Greek) means "horn".


title: Kudu

text: Lesser kudus occupy savanna near "Acacia" and "Commiphora" shrubs. They rely on thickets for protection, so they are rarely seen in the open. Their brown and striped pelts help to camouflage them in scrub environments.


title: Kudu

text: As in many other antelopes, male kudus can be found in bachelor groups, but they are more likely to be solitary. Their dominance displays tend not to last long and are generally fairly peaceful, consisting of one male making himself look big by making his hair stand on end. When males do have a face-off, they will lock their horns in a competition to determine the stronger puller; kudus' necks enlarge during the mating season for this reason. Sometimes two competing males are unable to unlock their horns and, if unable to disengage, will die of starvation or dehydration. Males are seen with females only in the mating season, when they join in groups of 5–15 kudus, including offspring. Calves grow quickly and at six months are largely independent of their mothers.


title: Kudu

text: A pregnant female will leave the herd to give birth to a single offspring. She will leave the newborn lying hidden for 4–5 weeks while coming back only to nurse it, which is the longest nursing period of any antelope species. Then the calf will start accompanying its mother for short periods. At 3 or 4 months, the calf will be with its mother constantly, and at about six months they will rejoin the group.


title: Kudu

text: When threatened, kudu will often run away rather than fight. Wounded bulls have been known to charge an attacker, hitting the attacker with their sturdy horn base rather than stabbing it. Wounded females can keep running for many miles without stopping to rest for more than a minute. They have a powerful kick and are capable of breaking a wild dog's or jackal's neck or back. They are good jumpers and can clear a 5-foot fence from a standing start.


title: Kudu

text: Kudus are browsers and eat leaves and shoots. In dry seasons they eat wild watermelons and other fruit for their liquid content and natural sugars. The lesser kudu is less dependent on water sources than the greater kudu.


title: Kudu

text: Predators, such as lions, leopards, cheetahs, wild dogs, hyenas, crocodiles and sometimes pythons, hunt adult kudu or their young. Kudu numbers are also affected by humans hunting them for their meat, hides and horns, or using their habitats for charcoal burning and farming.


title: Kudu

text: Kudus were highly susceptible to the rinderpest virus (now eradicated after a vaccination program in domestic cattle), and many scientists believe that, in earlier times, recurring epidemics of the disease reduced kudu populations in East Africa.


title: Kudu

text: Kudus are susceptible to rabies in times of extended drought. They have been known to enter farm houses and other buildings when infected. Infected animals appear tame and have a distinct frothing at the mouth. Rabid kudu are fearless, and bulls may sometimes attack humans who get too close.


title: Kudu

text: Kudu meat is similar to venison (deer), with a slight gamey, liver-like flavor. It is a very dry and lean meat, so it needs to be cooked carefully to avoid drying it out.


title: Kudu

text: Kudu meat is reckoned to produce the best biltong, air-dried meat that accompanies a sundowner on the khonde.


title: Kudu

text: A kudu horn is a musical instrument made from the horn of the kudu. A form of it is sometimes used as a shofar in Jewish ceremonies. It is seen in the Western world in its use as a part of the Scouting movement's Wood Badge training program; the sounding of the horn signals the start of a Wood Badge training course or activity. A horn of this shape, when used by football fans, is called "kuduzela" (a portmanteau of "kudu" and "vuvuzela").


title: Kudu

text: The kudu, "tholo" in the languages of Sepedi, Setswana and Venda, is a tribal totem of the Barolong and Batlhaping people of Botswana and South Africa.


title: Kudu

text: In the sport of kudu dung-spitting, contestants spit pellets of kudu dung, with the farthest distance (including the roll) reached being the winner. The sport is mostly popular among the Afrikaner community in South Africa, and a world championship is held each year.


title: Babloo Prithiveeraj

text: Babloo Prithiveeraj (born 29 November 1965) is an Indian actor, who has appeared in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada language films.


title: Babloo Prithiveeraj

text: Prithveeraj made his acting debut as a child artiste and featured in films including "Naan Vazhavaippen" (1979), under the stage name of Babloo. He made a comeback as an actor in the 1980s by acting in some low budget Malayalam movies before starring in "Vaaname Ellai" directed by K.Balachander. He then started acting in negative roles in movies like "Aval Varuvaala" before entering tele serials. In the 2000s, he played crucial roles in the serials "Ramany vs Ramany" and the supernatural thriller "Marma Desam", both directed by Naga. These serials gained him a breakthrough, while he also hosted the show "Savaal" in Jaya TV. He then appeared as transgender goon Ganga in Raadhika’s serial "Arasi", before continuing to act further in the serials "Raja Rajeshwari" and "Vani Rani".


title: Babloo Prithiveeraj

text: As film offers became less frequent, Prithveeraj spent a year competing as a part of the dance reality show, Jodi Number One during its second season. During the show, he was involved in an on-air altercation with actor and show judge Silambarasan. Since 2010, he has predominantly concentrated on television roles and has featured as a lead character in the soap, "Vani Rani". In 2014, he set up a bubble tea shop, Cha Republic, in Besant Nagar, Chennai after being inspired to set up a store following a visit to Malaysia.


title: Monmouth County, New Jersey

text: Monmouth County () is a county located on the coast of central New Jersey. The county is part of the New York metropolitan area and is situated along the northern half of the Jersey Shore. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population was 643,615, making it the state's fifth most populous county, representing an increase of 13,245 (2.1%) from the 2010 census, when the population was counted to be 630,380, which, in turn, represented an increase of 15,079 from 615,301 at the 2000 census. As of 2010, the county fell to the fifth-most populous county in the state, having been surpassed by Hudson County. Monmouth County's geographic area comprises 30% water.


title: Monmouth County, New Jersey

text: Monmouth's county seat is Freehold Borough. The most populous place was Middletown Township, with 67,106 residents at the time of the 2020 Census, while Howell Township covered , the largest total area of any municipality.


title: Monmouth County, New Jersey

text: The naming of Monmouth County has different historical theories. It is thought that the county received its name from the Rhode Island Monmouth Society. This is likely, due to many of the county's earliest settlers originating from Rhode Island. Another plausible theory, is from a suggestion from Colonel Lewis Morris that the county should be named after Monmouthshire in Wales, Great Britain. Other suggestions include that it was named for James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth (1649–1685), who had many allies among the East Jersey leadership.


title: Monmouth County, New Jersey

text: Around the year 1000, the area of Monmouth County began to be inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans prior to the arrival of European settlers. They came from the Mississippi River area. They lived along the vicinity of the Jersey Shore, the Raritan Bay, the Raritan River and other areas in the northeastern United States. The Lenape were a hunter-gatherer society. They were largely sedentary, changing campsites seasonally. They were prolific hunters of small game and birds. They were also skilled fisherman, and were known to harvest vast amounts of clams from the bays and inlets on the Jersey Shore. They also practiced some agriculture to augment their food supply. During this time, an important crossroad of two major Lenape trails was located in the area of Freehold in western Monmouth County.


title: Monmouth County, New Jersey

text: In 1609, the English navigator, Henry Hudson, and his crew aboard the Dutch vessel "Half Moon" spotted land in what is now Monmouth County, most likely off Sandy Hook; however, some historical accounts credit this landing to present-day Keansburg.


title: Monmouth County, New Jersey

text: Among the first European settlers and majority landowners in the area were Richard and Penelope Stout. Penelope "miraculously" survived her wounds from a native attack in Sandy Hook and further lived to the age of 110. Additionally, a group of Quaker families from Long Island settled the Monmouth Tract, an early land grant from Richard Nicolls issued in 1665. They were followed by a group of Scottish settlers who inhabited Freehold Township in about 1682–1885, followed several years later by Dutch settlers. As they arrived in this area, they were greeted by Lenape people, who lived in scattered small family bands and developed a largely amicable relationship with the new arrivals. Enslaved Africans were present in the area from at least 1680, and by 1726 made up 9% of the total population of the county.


title: Monmouth County, New Jersey

text: Monmouth County was established on March 7, 1683, while part of the province of East Jersey. On October 31, 1693, the county was partitioned into the townships of Freehold, Middletown and Shrewsbury.


title: Monmouth County, New Jersey

text: At the June 28, 1778, Battle of Monmouth, near Freehold Township, General George Washington's soldiers battled the British under Sir Henry Clinton, in the longest land battle of the American Revolutionary War. It was at Monmouth that the tactics and training from Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben developed at Valley Forge during the winter encampment were first implemented on a large scale.


title: Monmouth County, New Jersey

text: At independence, Monmouth's population included 1,640 slaves, as well as an undetermined number of free African Americans. The number of enslaved persons fell steeply after 1820, though a small number remained until at least 1850. Monmouth's free African American population climbed from 353 in 1790 to 2,658 in 1860. There was a small African-American middle class consisting of freedmen present in Monmouth County by the 1840s and 1850s.