Local 98 Leader John Dougherty, Philadelphia City Councilmember Robert Henon Found Guilty Of Public Corruption

 The U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Pennsylvania released the below information: 

PHILADELPHIA – Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced that John Dougherty, Business Manager of Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (“Local 98”), 61, of Philadelphia, PA, and Robert Henon, Philadelphia City Councilmember, 52, of Philadelphia, PA, were convicted at trial today of multiple crimes involving public corruption

The jury convicted John Dougherty of the following crimes: one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud (Count One), and seven counts of honest services wire fraud (Counts Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten). The jury convicted Robert Henon of the following crimes: one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud (Count One), eight counts of honest services wire fraud (Counts Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, and Twelve), and one count of bribery (Count Sixteen). 

The honest services wire fraud convictions against both defendants were premised on the following schemes proven at trial: L&I/CHOP; Plumbing Code/Building Trades; Towing; Comcast; and Soda Tax #2. The additional honest services wire fraud count against Henon (Count Twelve) was predicated on a $5,000 campaign contribution from CWA to Henon’s campaign bank account. The bribery conviction against Henon (Count Sixteen) was based on the same $5,000 check, written on the account of the CWA.

Dougherty, Henon and others affiliated with Local 98 were charged by Indictment in January 2019. The trials were bifurcated thereafter, leaving Dougherty and the other defendants to stand trial on the embezzlement and tax fraud charges at a later date. The Indictment charged that Dougherty and Henon defrauded the City of Philadelphia and its citizens of the right to Henon’s honest services as a member of City Council. Evidence presented at trial demonstrated that Henon received a salary and other things of value from Dougherty and, in exchange, Henon used his position as a member of City Council to serve Dougherty’s interests. 

“Today’s verdict is a strong message to the political power players of this city that the citizens of Philadelphia will not tolerate public corruption as ‘business as usual',” said Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams. “John Dougherty is not above the law. He is not entitled, had no right, to pull the strings of official City business as if he were elected to office. And Bobby Henon was not elected to represent Local 98 or John Dougherty’s interests on City Council, or any union for that matter, but to represent all the people of the City’s 6^th Councilmanic District – a fact which he failed to remember in doing the bidding of his political godfather, Dougherty. Philadelphians deserve more than a system that favors the few who have a ‘person they can call’ to get things done. Everyone deserves equal access to the decision-makers in their government.”

“From the start, John Dougherty and Bobby Henon sought to tag this as an anti-union case,” said Jacqueline Maguire, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Philadelphia Division. “Let's be clear. The FBI has no problem with labor unions. It's criminals we're after, like a local power broker who gives an elected official a handsome salary and benefits he didn't earn, in exchange for doing that benefactor's business at City Hall. Today, the jury called it what it was, a crooked quid pro quo — one that tilted the playing field in Dougherty's favor, giving him an unfair advantage over every Philadelphian who acts with fairness and integrity. That is corruption, that is wrong, and this city deserves so much better.”

“The consequences to those who betray the public trust by making and receiving bribe payments are evident by today’s convictions,” said Yury Kruty, Acting Special Agent in Charge of IRS-Criminal Investigation. “Cases involving betrayal of the public’s trust are of utmost importance and IRS-CI will continue to be a partner in the efforts to bring criminals like this to justice.”

“One of the functions of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards is to see to it that union funds are used for proper purposes. It is never proper – and is indeed criminal – to do what Mr. Dougherty did here: use union funds to bribe a politician. Working with our Federal and state investigative partners, OLMS will hold accountable anyone who misuses their office and their union’s funds in this way,” said OLMS District Director Megan Underwood.   

“Union officials must ensure that only those individuals who perform rightful union work be permitted to participate in union employee benefit plans. EBSA will vigorously pursue those who arrogate employee benefits intended exclusively for hard–working union members,” said Michael Schloss, Philadelphia Regional Director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration. 

“An important part of the mission of the Office of Inspector General is to investigate allegations relating to labor racketeering. Today’s guilty verdict for John Dougherty, Business Manager of Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and City of Philadelphia Councilmember Robert Henon for conspiracy and honest services fraud is an affirmation of our commitment to working with our law enforcement partners and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards and Employee Benefits Security Administration to pursue union-affiliated corruption investigations,” said Syreeta Scott, Special Agent-in-Charge, Philadelphia Region, U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, the U.S. Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration, the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Labor Management Standards, the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, and the Pennsylvania State Police, with assistance from the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Frank Costello, Bea Witzleben, and Richard Barrett.

They Shoot Cowboys, Don’t They?: Earps Take On Biggest Gang In Arizona

John Boessenecker offer his take on one of the famous gun battles in American history, the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, at Historynet.com. 

The story of Wyatt Earp, his brothers, friend Doc Holliday and events surrounding the inaptly named Gunfight at the O.K. Corral remains one of the most infamous episodes in the history of the American West. For nearly 140 years the tale has been told and retold in countless newspapers, magazines, books and films. 

Most accounts scrutinize the goings-on in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, in a vacuum, detailing the relationship and antagonism between the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday on one side and the Clanton and McLaury brothers on the other in the weeks and months leading up to the October 26, 1881, shootout in a vacant lot near the O.K. Corral. 

More recent revisionist narratives even claim the troubles in Tombstone were essentially a vendetta between two rival factions, the Cowboys and the Earps. Those accounts are wrong. 

Truth is, Virgil, Wyatt and Morgan Earp, while clearly flawed—each had seen the inside of a jail cell—took on and defeated the biggest outlaw gang in Arizona Territory. It is impossible to understand the brothers and their actions in Tombstone unless one understands who the Cowboys were, where they came from and what they did. 

The Cowboys were a loosely organized band of some 200 to 300 desperadoes that raided freely on both sides of the Mexican border. To Mexicans they were broadly Tejanos, or Texans, while Americans dubbed them the Cowboys. In the wake of their depredations the formerly innocuous term “cowboy” became a dirty word in Arizona and New Mexico territories. “The cowboy is a cross between a vaquero and a highwayman,” one contemporary Southwestern newspaperman declared. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

They Shoot Cowboys, Don’t They? Earps Take on Biggest Gang in Arizona (historynet.com)

You can also watch a trailer of what I believe is the best film on the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Tombstone, via the below link:

"Tombstone (1993)" Theatrical Trailer - YouTube

And if you would like to read a good biography of Wyatt Earp, I'd recommend Casey Tofertiller's Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend. 

James Bond Author Ian Fleming's Pearl Cufflinks Inscribed With Unsolved Secret Message Are Set To Fetch Up To £1,200 At Auction

 Mark Tovey at the Daily Mail offers a piece on the late, great thriller writer Ian Fleming’s mysterious cufflinks. 

A mysterious spy-like code has been found on a pair of cufflinks owned by James Bond author Ian Fleming. 

Author Fleming wore the cultured pearl set to the 'Dr No' post-film screening party in 1962.

They are now due to be auctioned - but contain a 007-esque code made up of a series of letters.

The backs of the cufflinks are inscribed with 'WUS', 'SIL', 'UDH' and 'NUF' - believed to represent a so-far unsolved secret message.  

The enigmatic cufflinks will go on sale at Mallams auctioneers in Oxford on November 17. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link: 

James Bond author's pearl cufflinks inscribed with unsolved secret message go up for auction | Daily Mail Online

TCM Offers A Look Back At Dean Martin, 'The King Of Cool'

I'm a huge fan of Dean Martin, known by all affectionately as "Dino."

He was a great singer, comedian and actor, but he was always so casual about it all, he was called “The King of Cool.”

TCM will air a documentary On Dino on Friday, November 19^th. 

Michael Starr at the New York Post offers a piece on Dino and the upcoming documentary.   

The life and times of Dean Martin were tinged with fame, fortune, worldwide celebrity and a late-in-life tragedy — and they’re concisely and lovingly documented in “Dean Martin: King of Cool,” premiering Friday (Nov. 19) at 8 p.m. on TCM.

The new documentary, directed by Tom Donahue, features a treasure trove of personal photos, home movies, archival television appearances and interviews with Martin’s friends and family, including his daughter, Deana Martin, talking about this performer who kept his inner feelings hidden behind a carefree public persona of a guy from working-class Ohio (Steubenville) who just wanted to play golf and watch television.

Martin’s image is the impetus that drives “King of Cool” as it digs deep into the arc of his childhood and teenage years as the son of Italian immigrants to discover his “Rosebud” (what made him tick) in tracking his rise to the heights of stardom with the comedy team of Martin & Lewis (Jerry Lewis is heard on audio recordings), the Sinatra Rat Pack years, “The Dean Martin Show,” etc. The answer? No one really knows. Martin died at the age of 77 in 1995 on Christmas Day — a broken man, ravaged by health problems who never recovered from the death of his son, Dean Paul Martin, a captain in the Air National Guard who was killed in 1987 piloting a plane during a routine mission.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

Why Dean Martin was the 'King of Cool' (nypost.com)

You can listen to Dean Martin’s Italian songs via the below link: 

Just Say I Love Her (Dicitencello Vuie) - YouTube

And you can listen to Dean Martin’s Christmas Album via the below link: 

White Christmas - YouTube

And you can learn more about Dean Martin by reading Nick Tosches' biography of him, Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams, as well as his daughter's memoir, Memories Are Made of This. .  

My Accessories: No Well-Dressed Man Should Leave Home Without Them

In addition to my wallet and keys, the above photo shows the things I carry when I venture out. 

In the center of the photo is my most prized possession, my Rolex Submariner diver’s watch. 

A beautiful woman bought this watch for me for my 30^th birthday. 

I married her a month later. 

I first became enamored with the Rolex Submariner when I saw actor Sean Connery as James Bond wear one in the early Bond films. 

In the opening scenes in Goldfinger, Connery glances at the watch while waiting for his explosives at a heroin processing plant to ignite. The camera then goes in for a close-up of the watch’s face.

Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, outfitted his iconic character with a Rolex in the novels, as he himself wore one. 

I later learned that legendary Air Force pilot Chuck Yeager and legendary scuba diver and explorer Jacques Cousteau also wore Rolex Submariner watches. 

While serving in the U.S. Navy aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk during the Vietnam War, and later serving aboard the Navy tugboat USS Saugus at the U.S. nuclear submarine base at Holy Loch, Scotland, I discovered that many pilots, Seabee divers, Navy SEALs, submariners, and other sailors also wore Rolex Submariner diver watches. 

I’ve long wanted one, which I happened to mention to a beautiful woman that I was seeing in the early 1980s  As she worked part-time for a jeweler, she was able to get a good deal and presented me with my own Rolex Submariner on my 30^th birthday.  

To the right in the above photo is a gold scuba diver that I wear on a gold chain around my neck. My wife bought the finely detailed gold scuba diver for me to celebrate her first scuba diving experience with me in the U.S. Virgin Islands.  

Under the gold diver is one of my U.S. Navy dog tags, which was issued to me while I was attending Navy bootcamp in 1970. I consider it my “lucky dog tag.” The other dog tag is on my key ring.  

To the left in the photo is my Spyderco folding pocketknife. I’ve carried a knife since my teens for protection. I consider a pocket knife an essential tool and the knife is always in my pocket. 

Above the Rolex Submariner in the photo is my Ruger LCR 38 Double-Action hammerless revolver, which was a gift from my stepson. 

I possess a state License to Carry, and I mostly carry the Ruger, although I also own a 9mm Beretta Couger semiautomatic, a .25 Beretta semiautomatic, and a .38 Smith and Weston revolver with a four-inch barrel.  

Having performed security work in the Navy and later as a Defense Department civilian employee, as well as working today as a newspaper crime reporter and columnist, I’m very security conscious.  

So having been Navy trained in the safety and use of firearms, I’m always “heeled,” as they used to say in the old Wild West.  

And as Sean Connery as James Bond said in Thunderball, “No well-dressed man should be without one.”  

Note: The below photo is of me wearing my Rolex in Jamaica some years ago as my wife and I celebrated our wedding anniversary. 

The champagne? Why, Dom Perignon, of course.  

John Pearson, Biographer Of Ian Fleming, Has Died

As I've noted here before, as a teenager in the early 1960s, I saw Sean Connery as James Bond in in Dr. No and From Russia With Love. 

The great films inspired me to go out and buy and read Ian Flemings’s James Bond novels. Fleming's thrillers were the first books in my now extensive library. And I became a life-long Ian Fleming aficionado.

 I later read John Pearson’s biography of the late Bond author.

 At 12-years-old I knew I wanted to be a newspaper reporter and a crime thriller writer, and reading John Pearson’s biography of Fleming cemented those ambitions.

 

I loved how Pearson described Ian Fleming’s fascinating life as a naval intelligence officer in WWII, a globe-trotting journalist, and a world-famous thriller writer. The book is a must read for true Fleming and Bond fans.

I also enjoyed Pearson’s “biography” of Fleming’s fictional character, James Bond, and I enjoyed his book on the notorious London gangsters, the Kray twins.  

 Sadly, The Spy Command reports that John Pearson has died.

 

John Pearson, a British journalist whose works included a biography of Ian Fleming, has died at 91. His death was announced on Pearson’s Instagram page, maintained by his granddaughter, Lydia Pearson.

 

Pearson worked at The Economist, BBC and The Sunday Times, according to his biography on his website. At The Sunday Times, Pearson worked with Fleming on the Atticus column, described by Ian Fleming Publications as a “pseudonymous weekly column for publishing society gossip.”

 

Pearson, in a message on the home page of his website, said working with Fleming “was my springboard to becoming a writer.”

 

What followed was a series of non-fiction works and novels. They included the biography The Life of Ian Fleming in 1966 and the fiction work, James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007 in 1973.

 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

John Pearson, Fleming biographer, dies | The Spy Command (wordpress.com)

 

You can also visit John Pearson’s website via the below link:

Writer | John Pearson 

Former Metallurgist Lab Director Pleads Guilty To Major Fraud: Repeatedly Falsified Test Results On Strength Of Metal Used For Submarine Parts

 The U.S. Attorney’s Office Western District of Washington released the below information: 

Tacoma – The former Director of Metallurgy at Bradken Inc. pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to defrauding the United States by falsifying test results that measure the strength and toughness of steel used in U.S. Navy submarines, announced U.S. Attorney Nick Brown.  

Elaine Thomas, 67, of Auburn, Washington, pleaded guilty to major fraud on the United States.  She faces up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine when sentenced by U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle on February 14, 2022.

According to records filed in the case, Bradken is the U.S. Navy’s leading supplier of cast high-yield steel for naval submarines.  Bradken’s Tacoma foundry produces castings that prime contractors use to fabricate submarine hulls.  The Navy requires that the steel meets certain standards for strength and toughness to ensure that it does not fail under certain circumstances, such as a collision.  For 30 years, the Tacoma foundry (which was acquired by Bradken in 2008), produced castings, many of which had failed lab tests and did not meet the Navy’s standards.  Elaine Thomas, as Director of Metallurgy, falsified test results to hide the fact that the steel had failed the tests.  Thomas falsified results for over 240 productions of steel, which represent a substantial percentage of the castings Bradken produced for the Navy. 

Court filings indicate there is no evidence that Bradken’s management was aware of the fraud until May 2017.  At that time, a lab employee discovered that test cards had been altered and that other discrepancies existed in Bradken’s records.  In June 2020, Bradken entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, accepting responsibility for the offense and agreeing to take remedial measures.  Bradken also entered into a civil settlement, paying $10,896,924 to resolve allegations that the foundry produced and sold substandard steel components for installation on U.S. Navy submarines.

The Navy has taken extensive steps to ensure the safe operation of the affected submarines.  Those measures will result in increased costs and maintenance as the substandard parts are monitored.  

The criminal case against Thomas, deferred prosecution agreement, and civil settlement with Bradken are the result of a coordinated effort among the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington, the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch, the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General's Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and the Defense Contract Audit Agency. 

The criminal prosecution is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Seth Wilkinson.