The Lineman: The Art Of Norman Rockwell

I recently came across an illustration of a lineman painted by the late, great artist Noman Rockwell.

The Lineman caught my attention as my late father, Edward M. Davis, was a lineman after serving in the Navy as a UDT frogman during WWII. 

The Lineman was used in a Bell Telephone advertisement, which stated that the lineman “helps get the message through.”

The Norman Rockwell Museum offers the below:

Humor and wit were central aspects of Norman Rockwell’s character. From his first Saturday Evening Post cover, Boy with Baby Carriage, in 1916 to his thematic No Swimming paintings to The Gossips, Rockwell filled a societal niche by providing levity during times of great strife. As Pablo Picasso noted, “the purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” 

Through two World Wars, the Great Depression, civil rights struggles, and the wars in Korea and Vietnam, Norman Rockwell’s paintings presented Americans with a window into a more idyllic world.

Though Rockwell is often regarded for paintings that addressed serious issues occurring at the moment of their creation, a great deal of Rockwell’s oeuvre is reflective of his sense of humor and natural playfulness.

You can visit the Norman Rockwell Museum via the below link:

https://www.nrm.org/ 

Note: The above painting is Norman Rockwell’s self-portrait.

Tis The Season For Christmas Carols: Why I Love Christmas Music

Christmas carols are being aired on a good number of radio stations now and I hear the usual complaints of it being too early for Christmas carols and how some people truly hate the holiday music. 

A few years back I had tried to answer these seasonal complaints with a piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer on why I love Christmas carols. 

You can read the piece below:   

Note: Above is the cover of a CD my daughter Brittany bought me a few years back. The CD offers some great, classic Christmas carols by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Sammy Davis, Jr and others.

The Late Danny Aiello: How He Went From ‘Part-Time Thief’ To ‘Do The Right Thing’

Rob Baily-Millado at the New York Post offers a piece on the late actor Danny Aiello.

Danny Aiello didn’t launch his scene-stealing acting career until he was 40 — but he was born to do it.

“It must be something I was more or less destined to do,” the Bronx native told me in 2014 upon the publication of his autobiography. “The reason being, I didn’t voluntarily leave one life for another; it just so happened to be that way.”

The first-time author’s 320-page memoir dropped with an epic title: “I Only Know Who I Am When I Am Somebody Else: My Life on the Street, on the Stage, and in the Movies.”

A whole lotta words for a lotta life.

Aiello’s life ended Thursday night at age 86 in New Jersey after a brief illness. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Sandy Cohen, with whom he had four children.

As the public mourns a beloved character actor, I can’t help but remember that the Oscar nominee was so much more than Sal, the pizzeria owner, in Spike Lee’s iconic “Do the Right Thing,” or Cher’s cuckolded fiancé Johnny in “Moonstruck.” 

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

https://nypost.com/2019/12/13/from-petty-thief-to-union-boss-danny-aiello-was-so-much-more-than-a-beloved-actor/?_ga=2.144341491.715793091.1576276041-2.221816984.166377045.1559744977-2.245623044.166377045.1559744977-2.157468730.166377045.1559744977-2.254397704.166377045.1559744977-2.96836312.637863766.1559590502-2.135288310.637863766.1559590502-2.144179317.1368529669.1559500392-2.173952995.1368529669.1559500392-2.240212811.99568973.1559150609-2.203390809.99568973 

Massachusetts Man Pleads Guilty To Illegally Retaining Classified National Defense Information Regarding U.S. Military Programs

A Sharon, Massachusetts, man pleaded guilty today to willfully retaining national defense information.

Ahmedelhadi Yassin Serageldin, 66, an Egyptian-born nationalized U.S. citizen, admitted to removing classified national defense information from his workplace at a defense contractor without authorization and keeping it unsecured within his home.  Serageldin was originally indicted and arrested in November 2018 on one count of misleading conduct with intent to hinder, delay, or prevent communications to a law enforcement officer relating to the commission or possible commission of a federal offense.

The original indictment alleged that Serageldin was a systems engineer at Raytheon Company in Massachusetts from August 1997 until he was terminated in May 2017.  Serageldin had a secret-level security clearance in order to complete his assignments on several defense contracts for the U.S. government involving military radar technology.

According to court documents, in 2017, Raytheon investigated Serageldin for time-card fraud.  The time-card fraud investigation allegedly led Raytheon to uncover evidence that Serageldin had downloaded a substantial number of files from Raytheon’s computer network and had connected removable electronic storage devices to the network in violation of Raytheon’s security policy.  During the company’s internal investigation, the indictment alleges, Serageldin engaged in misleading conduct to hinder, delay, or prevent Raytheon employees from communicating with law enforcement about his time-card fraud and his potential mishandling and retention of classified information and national defense information.

Today, Serageldin pleaded guilty before Chief United States District Judge Patti B. Saris to a Superseding Information charging him with having unauthorized possession of, access to, and control over numerous classified documents, writings, and notes relating to the national defense, and then willfully retaining the same and failing to deliver them to the United States.  At the plea hearing, the prosecutor noted that while executing a search warrant at Serageldin’s house, federal agents found thousands of paper documents and electronic files belonging to Raytheon or the U.S. Department of Defense, and that many of them were marked as containing classified information.  The Superseding Information lists five specific documents, all of which pertain to U.S. military programs involving missile defense and are classified at the SECRET level.

According to a plea agreement filed in the case, the original charge of obstruction of justice will be dismissed at the time of sentencing.  Sentencing is scheduled for April 14, 2020.

The charge of willfully retaining documents relating to the national defense and failing to deliver them to the United States provides for a sentence of no greater than 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of $250,000 or twice the gain or loss, whichever is greatest, restitution, and forfeiture.  Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Joseph Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI, Boston Field Division; and Leo Lamont Special Agent in Charge of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Northeast Field Office, made the announcement today.  Assistance with the investigation was provided by Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Air Force Office of Special Investigations, and Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston.  Raytheon Company has cooperated with the investigation, which was launched after they notified federal authorities about the suspicious conduct.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott L. Garland, Deputy Chief of Lelling’s National Security Unit, is prosecuting this case with the assistance of Trial Attorney Scott Claffee of the Justice Department’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section of the National Security Division.

The True Stories Behind 'The Godfather' Novel And Films

Eudie Pak at Biography.com offers a piece of the real-life people and events that inspired Mario Puzo’s The Godfather novel and the Francis Ford Coppola Godfather films.

Based on Mario Puzo's 1969 crime novel of the same name, Francis Ford Coppola's cinematic masterpiece The Godfather (1972) chronicles the fictional Corleone family and its rise to becoming one of the most powerful mafia families in America. 

Starring Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone and Al Pacino as his son Michael, The Godfather was lauded by both critics and audiences alike and spawned a pair of sequels: The Godfather II (1974) and The Godfather III (1990).

The Godfather franchise is heavily influenced by many real-life mobsters and events. Here are some of the true stories behind the films:

Real-life mobsters and entertainers served as inspiration for the characters

Vito Corleone was inspired by Frank Costello. 

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

https://www.biography.com/news/godfather-true-stories-books-movies

You can also read my Washington Times review of The Godfather: 50^th Anniversary Edition via the below link: 

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2019/04/my-washington-times-review-of-mario.html

And you can read my Crime Beat column, Goodfellas Don’t Sue Goodfellas, which covers The Godfather, Goodfellas, organized crime and the Philly mob via the below link:   

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2011/09/goodfellas-dont-sue-goodfellas-look.html 

A Nostalgic Visit To The Old South Philadelphia Quartermaster Compound

Accompanying my wife to Kindy’s on the old Quartermaster compound in South Philly to look for Christmas decorations last week, I experienced a sense of nostalgia as the outlet is housed in an warehouse in the eastern end of a long row of warehouses where I worked for more than 25 years.

I mentioned to a Kindy's employee that I had worked here years ago and he said a lot of customers also told him that they had worked at the Quartermaster in the old days.  

We walked up on a dock that was very familiar to me. To the west of Kindy’s was the warehouse area where for years we stored Defense Department files that were boxed and placed on wooden flatbeds with steel wheels while waiting to be placed on trucks bound for the Philadelphia Federal Records Center. 

I went to work at the Quartermaster in 1972 after serving on an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War. As a young clerk, I prepared those boxes of records, verifyed the contents were correct and proper, and loaded them on the flatbeds. I spent a good deal of time in this warehouse and on the dock. I later became the chief of the files unit and supervised the shipping operations. 

Further west of the Kindy’s outlet in the long building was an area that housed the Defense Personnel Support Center’s (DPSC) computer room. After serving as the chief of the files unit, I was promoted and worked in the Defense Contract Administration Services Region (DCASR) computer support unit attached to the DPSC computer room. (This was before personal computers and remote servers). 

The Quartermaster was then the second largest defense procurement center in the U.S., purchasing clothing, medicene, and other material for the American armed forces stationed across the world. The compound also housed a Defense Department command that oversaw defense contractors in the tri-state area who supplied the military with everything from cruise missiles to parachutes for special operators. 

The Quartermaster was closed in 1999 and the Defense Department commands moved to the Navy base in Northeast Philadelphia. The Defense Department sold the site to the City of Philadelphia, and the city resold the site to a commercial firm. 

The commercial firm recently announced that they plan a major redevelopment of the Quartermaster.

I retired from the Defense Department in 2007 and became a full time writer.

Prior to my visit to Kindy’s, I had returned to the Quartermaster to interview Philadelphia Police Department officials who now occupy a part of old building 6 that serves as the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center.     

You can read my interviews via the below links: 

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2014/02/fusing-counterterrorism-crime-and.html

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2019/08/my-q-with-chief-inspector-daniel.html

You can also read my history of the Quartermaster via the below link:

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2010/06/philadelphia-quartermaster-revisited.html 

On This Day In History "Goodfellas" Mobsters Stole Millions From JFK Airport In Infamous 'Lufthansa Heist'

As History.com notes, on this day in 1978 the New York criminal crew led by James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke committed the infamous robbery of Lufthansa, which was the basis of Nicholos Pileggi’s book Wiseguy and Martin Scorsese’s classic crime film, Goodfellas.

On December 11, 1978 half a dozen masked robbers raided the Lufthansa Airlines cargo building at JFK Airport in New York, making off with more than $5 million in cash ($21 million in today's dollars) and almost $1 million in jewelry. To this day, the Lufthansa heist, as it is known, is considered one of the greatest in U.S. history.

The plan was dreamed up by Peter Gruenewald, a Lufthansa cargo worker at JFK Airport. Gruenewald knew that Lufthansa regularly flew large amounts of unmarked cash from Europe—the U.S. currency exchanged overseas by American tourists and servicemen—to JFK. 

Typically, this money would immediately be transferred to American banks via Brink’s trucks. However, delays sometimes caused the cash delivery to arrive after the last of the trucks had left for the day, which meant it was stored at the airport until the next business day—and vulnerable to theft.

Gruenewald took his plan to fellow cargo worker and friend Louis Werner, in the hopes of putting it in motion. Unfortunately for Gruenewald, Werner saw the robbery as an opportunity to get out from under a mountain of personal gambling debt and double-crossed his friend. 

He took Gruenewald's plan to a big-time bookmaker in the area, Martin Krugman, who took the idea to his buddy, infamous mobster-turned-movie-consultant Henry Hill. 

As depicted in the famous movie Goodfellas, Hill was part of a crew of gangsters run by James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke. After years of earning money through nefarious deeds, Jimmy’s crew had become closely associated with the Lucchese crime family, and had amassed a solid reputation in the seedy world of organized crime. 

Burke and Hill took over the planning for the robbery. Jimmy’s crew was very familiar with JFK. Whenever they needed easy cash, the airport was an easy mark. The crew regularly hijacked trucks from JFK, often taking two or three trucks per week from there for quick money. Whether they were filled with televisions, clothes or food, they knew how to move merchandise to make extra cash. 

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

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lufthansa-heist-jfk-airport-
goodfellas-henry-hill?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2019-1211-12112019&om_rid=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117
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Note: The top photo shows the Robert’s Lounge gang with Henry Hill on the left (portrayed by Ray Liotta in Goodfellas), James Burke in the center (portrayed by Robert De Niro) and Tommy DeSimone (portrayed by Joe Pesci) to the right of Burke.