BLACK DAYS FOR AMERICA

On this day in 1865, Abraham Lincoln was shot. It was 5 days after Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Court House. Lincoln was at the Ford Theater watching a show.

John Wilkes Booth snuck up behind Lincoln and shot him in the head. Lincoln died the next morning.

The 2 days were black days for the Nation.

Following the shooting, Lincoln was immediately taken across the street to a lodging house. The Petersen House. He died at 7:22 the next morning.

Lincoln was a tall man. The bed was too short for him. He was laid diagonally on the bed.

Both the Ford Theater and the Petersen House today are under the supervision of the National Park Service.

Both facilities open to the public.

The furniture in the room Lincoln spent his last hours is not the same. It was sold and resold. Today is on display at the Chicago Historical Museum. Replicas however have taken their place in the Petersen House.

Part of the Petersen House exhibit does contain the original blood stained pillow and pillow case that held Lincoln’s head.

During my professional career, I visited Washington often. Always on business, never for pleasure. Never a tourist. Rarely saw anything of an historical nature. I would fly in in the morning and fly out in the evening.

Five yeas ago, I decided it was time to see my Nation’s capital. I took a one week vacation. I played tourist.

Nothing like Washington. Most museums and exhibits free. Long lines, however. The only negative. I did as much as time permitted.

Thrilling the only way to describe the trip.

The Smithsonian exhibits mind blowing. The Holocaust Museum sad to the point of tears on occasion. Especially a box car that was used to transport Jews to the death camps.

The Jefferson Memorial left me speechless. Jefferson standing tall. The Lincoln Memorial, likewise. Except, Lincoln was majestically seated.

If you ever have the opportunity, go! Take the kids and grandkids. As perfect for them as for you.

Amazing. I had to be in my late 70’s before I became a Washington tourist.

I plan on returning some day. Impossible to see it all in one week.

Last night, a pleasant one. Dinner at Antonia’s  with a new friend. Bobbie Cotton.

A pic in this morning’s KONK Life E-Blast startled me. It was of a 4 seater scooter. The 4 people sitting one behind the other.

I assume it is the newest toy that will be plaguing Key West streets.

Key West has enough traffic. Too many different type vehicles and bikes. Just what we need now. A 4 seater scooter.

What less than intelligent public official approved the scooter’s use? Should be fired!

Key West is a city of many strange tales. Some real, others concocted. A real one happens to be the tale of a sick eccentric romantic. Carl Tanzler aka Count Carl von Cosel. It concerns his time with the woman he loved, Elena Hoyos Mesa. A young Cuban beauty.

They were in love. The Count most definitely in love.

The Count was a medical technologist at whatever was the Key West hospital at the time.

Elena died on October 25, 1931. The Count was lost. The love of his life gone. He devised a plan.

She had been buried in a lovely mausoleum at the Key West Cemetery. Paid for by the Count, of course.

Two years following Elena’s death, the Count in the dark of night removed her body from the mausoleum. Took Elena’s bones, etc. home with him. He reconstructed her body. Covered the final product in wax. Dressed her. Heavily bathe her in perfumes to keep the decomposition stench down.

The Count put her in his bed. He slept next to her. For 7 years till Elena’s sister discovered the madness which was taking place.

The Count was arrested. The charges involved moving a deceased’s body parts. He was never tried nor convicted. The statute of limitations had run.

The authorities took Elena’s body and buried her in an unmarked grave. Hoping the Count would not do the same thing again.

On April 14, 1941, Elena’s empty mausoleum blew up. Some one had set the charges.

The Count had left the day before to spend the rest of his life in Pasco County, Florida.

It is suspected the Count blew up the mausoleum.

The matter gets a bit sicker.

In 1972, 2 doctors who had examined Elena’s remains in 1940 mentioned that the body they examined contained a paper type tube in the woman’s vagina.

The doctors recalled the discovery as part of their 1940 examination. However, did not include it in their report.

Elena was buried in an unmarked grave back when. The authorities did not want the Count doing anything further with Elena’s body. The paper tube led persons to conclude the Count was having sex with Elena’s dead body the 7 years she was in his bed.

The situation became more convoluted. The Count died in 1952. At his home. His body not discovered for several days. There were some items in the room where he died, in the house, and surrounding his body. These items led  authorities to conclude that the Count might have discovered the location of her body in the unmarked grave, removed it, and returned Elena to Pasco County with him.

No one bothered to check the unmarked grave to see if her body was still there. Not then, nor to this day.

My April 3 blog concerned itself with The Americans. A group that considered women second class citizens. The group were leading male citizens. Under the guise of preventing the spread of venereal disease, a law was passed that made any woman viewed as suspicious by the police subject to arrest, incarceration, sometimes sterilization.

The law is still on the books in some states, though rarely enforced these days.

The law was/is known as the Chamberlain-Kahn Act.

Jasper Jottings is a weekly blog put out by F. John Reinke. His blog concerns Jaspers. Jaspers are Manhattan College graduates. Reinke graduated from Manhattan in the late 1960’s. I graduated from Manhattan in 1957. We have never met. Know each other however by our respective blogs.

Reinke refers to his blog as the Achievement Journal of My Fellow Jaspers, Alumni of Manhattan College.

Reinke carried my April 3 article re Women Second Class Citizens. I appreciate it. Reinke ran the article in his publication dated April 14.

I want to thank John. It was nice of him to print it.

Today, Sunday. Love Sundays! Pleasant things to do. Hot Dog Church, Kate Miano’s Gardens, the Chart Room. I hope to get at least 2 in tonight.

Enjoy your Sunday!

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