Archive for November 11th, 2022

Veterans Day.

Friday, November 11th, 2022

I’ve been struggling with where I wanted to go after finishing my ongoing series, and I’ve also been struggling a little with time constraints. It just doesn’t feel like there’s enough time in the days for me to do everything I want to do.

So: “Chaplain Medal of Honor Recipients” from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

I’ve already covered five of these men (see the first link). It’s interesting to me that the other four men were all MoH recipients during the Civil War.

And for those who complain that Veterans Day is to honor all veterans, while Memorial Day is for those who died in service: all four men survived the war. Three died after 1900: the fourth died in 1899.

It’s also interesting to me how short the Medal of Honor citations are for the Civil War veterans, as opposed to the longer much more detailed ones for the veterans of the 20th Century wars. I feel sure there are historical reasons for that, but I haven’t done enough research on Medal of Honor history to know what those reasons are.

Posted in Heroism, History | Comments Closed

Obit watch: November 11, 2022.

Friday, November 11th, 2022

Paul Morantz, lawyer.

He specialized in “taking on cults, abusive psychotherapists and self-proclaimed gurus”.

Mr. Morantz made his name taking down one such movement, Synanon. It had begun as a last-chance drug rehabilitation program in the late 1950s but had, by the early ’70s, become an insular, oppressive organization under its founder, Charles Dederich.

…

Synanon and Mr. Dederich were known for using violence against their enemies, even in minor run-ins. In 1977, a group of Synanon thugs pistol-whipped a truck driver who had cut off their vehicle on a highway. Mr. Dederich even kept an elite squad of enforcers that he called the Imperial Marines. Mr. Morantz would become one of their targets.
On Oct. 10, 1978, he met with police officers to discuss next steps against Synanon, then hurried back to his home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood to catch the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees play game one of the World Series.
As he walked in the door, he reached his left hand into his mailbox. As he did, he noticed a dark, lumpy shape. He didn’t have time to pull back before the object, a four-and-a-half-foot diamondback rattlesnake, bit him on his wrist.

He survived the bite. Two Synanon members were charged with attempted murder. Mr. Dederich was charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

The judge, calling the attack on Mr. Morantz an “aberration,” went easy on the two assailants, owing, he said, to the group’s history of helping addicts. Each was sentenced to a year in prison, while Mr. Dederich received five years’ probation.

Posted in Law, Obits, Reptiles, Snakes | 1 Comment »