Blog

  • Del Norte’s First Pioneer Woman

    Born Ann Kelley, in Ireland in 1819, she immigrated to Boston, where she met her future husband, John McLaughlin. He was a sailor, whose home port was New Orleans, where his parents died of a yellow fever epidemic.

    While living in New Orleans, the McLaughlin’s became friends with a family named Cadahi, who lived nearby in the Irish distinct of the town. When gold was found in California in 1848, both families set out for the fields.

    By this time Ann and John had two sons, John Jr., and Cornelius.  They travelled by ship to Panama, then by mule across the Isthmus from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.

    They then secured passage from Panama to San Francisco and up the Sacramento River. Once they’d gone as far as the boat could carry them, they set out with a pack train to Scotts Bar on the Klamath River, which was in Del Norte County at the time.

    Ann was the first white woman to come the area and the miners pitched in and built her a cabin for the family. By all accounts the McLaughlin’s were successful in their endeavors, remaining in the area for 18-years.

    Eventually John travelled over the Kelsey Trail by way of Happy Camp and Big Flat to Crescent City to attain his citizenship papers. Once the mining played out, the family, having added another boy named Thomas, returned to San Francisco.

    There, John operated a pig farm in what’s now the heart of the city, while Ann began a small laundry service. Four-years after settling in San Francisco, Peter Darby contacted John.

    At the time, Darby owned the Reservation Ranch in Smith River. He wanted the McLaughlin’s to run it for him, giving them the option to buy it if they like the place once there.

    The McLaughlin’s arrived jus’ in time for 1870s floods, which damaged several homesteads along the Smith River. This discouraged them from purchasing the property.

    Instead, with another son and four daughters added to the family, and Ann expecting yet another child, they looked for other land to purchase, something that would not be destroyed by flooding. In 1874, they located and settled on a ranch in the Lake Earl district.

    Ann, who could neither read or write, instead signing her name with an ‘X’, lived to be nearly 100-years old. She’s buried in the McLaughlin Family Plot of the Catholic Cemetery, in Crescent City, California.

  • The Body of Trayvon

    Over the past ten days I’ve been struggling with Facebook and the fact that they seem intent on shutting up those of us who have been telling those rioting in the streets to go home, George Zimmerman has been acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin and that is the end of this so-called ‘battle over race.’ I started out with a simple comment, “Zimmerman found not guilty,”  but within a couple of hours, my post was taken down.

    So I upped the ante, I posted pictures, published in the ‘Washington Post,’ of Trayvon smoking and looking like a gangster. Those too, were pulled down by Facebook.

    Next, I posted a video that was sent to me by a friend in California, that talked about the background of Trayvon’s purchase of “Skittles and ice tea.” It explained how the combination when added to another ingredient or two, produced a chemical high that kid’s are currently experiencing.

    It too disappeared from my FB page.

    Martin had Skittles and Arizona Watermelon Fruit Juice Cocktail drink the night he died. These are ingredients that, when mixed with dextromethorphan (DXM) cough syrup, create “Lean”, a concocted high which can cause psychosis and aggression over the longer term.

    Furthermore, an autopsy report on Martin’s liver showed damage consistent with DXM abuse.

    Then a friend of mine in New York sent me a side-by-side picture of Trayvon when he was about 12-years-old and a rapper known as “Game.” I posted it, only to have it removed within 15 minutes. Now, I’m getting down and dirty.

    This is an actual crime-scene photograph of Trayvon Martin’s lifeless body.

    Trayvon dead
    Go ahead — ask me to take it down and I’ll tell you to kiss my ass.

  • Eagle Canyon Flyer, 22 July 2013

    Two rival motorcycle gang members are facing charges in court, Monday, nearly two years after a fight at John Ascuaga’s in Sparks. Vagos member Ernesto Gonzalez is charged with the murder of Hell’s Angels San Jose Chapter President Jeffrey Pettigrew.  Rival Hell’s Angel Cesar Villagrana is charged with attempted murder after shooting a Vagos member in the leg.

    A thousand dollar reward is offered for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the suspects wanted for battery with a deadly weapon and the shooting of a man, Saturday morning. Sparks Police say the victim and his friends were approached by several people in a car who shot at the victim multiple times. Secret Witness: 322-4900.

    A missing Oregon woman has been spotted in Reno. Jessica Chastain dropped her daughter at a friends home in Klamath Falls a week ago and never returned. Chastain is traveling with a man named Billie Rose. She and Rose were seen Saturday at the Chevron on Eleventh. The couple is driving a white Volvo with Oregon license plates. Call Secret Witness at 322-4900 if you see her.

    A local man is missing and his family is asking for your help to find him.  Stephen Metzner suffers from dementia and other health problems. He wandered off Friday morning from Klamath Court in the Highland Ranch area of Sun Valley. Call Secret Witness at 322-4900 if you see him.

    A motorcycle versus a vehicle accident slowed traffic on Sand Harbor at State Route 28 Sunday. Two people were taken to a Reno hospital; the extent of their injuries is unclear. No names have been released and the crash is under investigation.

    The Carson County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man who threatened to shoot two people at Olive Garden Sunday night. Deputies say, David Lane started complaining about the food and after asking for the manger, eventually pulling a gun on him and the chef. Witnesses got his license plate number as he drove off.

    Fire crews put out a blaze following an explosion Sunday evening, at the PSC hazardous materials disposal facility in Fernley. Lyon County officials say the company has its own crews at the scene cleaning up the mess, and there is no threat to the public. No one was hurt and the incident remains under investigation.

    Fire officials are trying to figure out what caused a playground to catch fire, Friday evening in the Wingfield Springs area. Authorities say the blaze at Del Cobre Park destroyed much of the playground equipment. No injuries were reported. If you have info, call Secret Witness: 322-4900.

    A bank robber from Carson City known as the “Fedora Bandit” was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison on three counts of armed robbery. In each of his seven robberies, David Osborne wore a hat, sunglasses, a fake mustache and goatee, and demanded money while brandishing a firearm. Osborne is also required to pay restitution.

    A planned subdivision in Washoe Valley is meeting some backlash. Residents say it will create too much traffic and have an environmental impact on the area. Washoe County Commissioners approved the plan in May. A public hearing is scheduled Tuesday morning at the Commission Chambers on East Ninth beginning at ten.

    The Regional Transportation Commission begins road work on Red Rock Road, Tuesday. The RTC says they’re redoing the pavement between Adobe and Argosy Road, north or Reno. One lane will be open and traffic will be directed by pilot car, but you should expect a 20 to 30 minute delay.

    Harrah’s Casino in Reno is hosting an on-site job fair, Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. They plan to hire blackjack dealers, security officers, facilities managers and engineers, table games supervisors, slot technicians, box office agent, stage technicians and dancers. Free training is offered, if hired.

  • Punishing the Many

    South Carolina’s Progressive Republican Lindsey ‘Goober’ Graham is suggesting the U.S boycott the Winter Olympics in the former Soviet Union, if the Russians grant asylum to NAS whistleblower Edward Snowden.  Graham says he knows “athletes would be heartbroken” but claims the move would put pressure on President Vladimir Putin.

    Typical Progressivism — punish the ‘many’ because of the ‘few.’

    “If you could go back in time, would you have allowed Adolf Hitler to host the Olympics in Germany?” Graham asked rhetorically. “To have the propaganda coup of inviting the world into Nazi Germany and putting on a false front?”

    Hey, dumb shit – the Nazi’s did host the Summer Olympics in 1936 , besides Putin couldn’t give a damn about whether we take part or not.

  • The Genteel Rachel Jeantel

    She’s the newest sensation in the same-stream media, Rachel Jeantel. She is Trayvon Martin’s friend and was exploited interviewed by that dashing Brit host Pierce Morgan on CNN.

    I’ve edited the report tête-à-tête into what I believe to be the more entertaining informative parts.

    Rachel Jeantel on ‘People in Law or Security Enforcement…’

    MORGAN: Let’s talk about creepy ass cracker. People have said that that is a phrase used by black people, cracker, to describe a white person. Is that true?

    JEANTEL: No. Like I said —

    MORGAN: How do you spell it, first of all?

    JEANTEL: Cracker. Well —

    MORGAN: There’s no E-R, right? It’s —

    JEANTEL: No. It’s A at the end.

    MORGAN: C-R-A-C-K-A?

    JEANTEL: Yes, and that’s a person who act like they are police, who like (unintelligible), who acting like, that’s what I said to them. Trayvon said creepy ass cracka.

    MORGAN: It means he thought it was a policeman or a security guy.

    JEANTEL: Yes. Who’s acting like a policeman and then he keeps telling me that the man still watch him. So if it was a security guard or a policeman, they would come up to Trayvon and say, do you have — do you need — do you have a problem, do you need help? You know, like normal people.

    Rachel Jeantel on the word, ‘Male…”

    JEANTEL: People — the whole world say it’s a racist word. Mind you — mind you, around 2000, that was not. They changed it around, I think. It started spelling it n-i-g-g-a. Nigga.

    MORGAN: What does that mean to you, that — that way of spelling it? What does that word mean to you?

    JEANTEL: That means a male.

    MORGAN: A black male?

    JEANTEL: No, any kind of male.

    MORGAN: Black or white?

    JEANTEL: Any kind — Chinese could say Nigga. That’s my Chino Nigga. They could say that.

    Rachel Jeantel on ‘Homosexuals and Pedophiles…’

    JEANTEL: Yes. Definitely after I say may be a rapist, for every boy, for every man, every — who’s not that kind of way, seeing a grown man following them, would they be creep out? So you have to take it — as a parent, when you tell your child, when you see a grown person following you, run away, and all that.

    Would you go stand there? You going to tell your child stand there? If you tell your child stand there, we’re going to see your child on the news for missing person.

    And people need to understand, he didn’t want that creepy ass cracker going to his father or girlfriend’s house to go get — mind you, his little brother was there. You know — now, mind you, I told you — I told Trayvon it might have been a rapist.

    Parents need to stop acting dumb. If you’re going to tell your child, oh, a stranger, oh, you tell your child one thing — run away, trying to find somebody, that’s not what Trayvon was doing?

    So why — so why the jury — they’re all parents — well, some of them are parents. And they’ve been telling their — their child that. Now, you’re going to tell me you’re going to tell your child to stand there? No.

    So in the end, the same-stream media’s template that this story is about ‘race,’ has been wrong from the outset.

  • Rioting about the All the Wrong Things

    While some protest, riot and decry injustice and out rage over the Zimmerman verdict, the Treasury Department is admitting the confidential tax information of  political candidates and campaign donors are being improperly scrutinized by government officials. However, the Justice Department is declining to prosecute any of the instances of potential wrongdoing.

    Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration, J. Russell George, told Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley investigators are looking into two allegations the IRS “targeted for audit candidates for public office.” George also told Grassley that government officials have taken part in at least four “unauthorized access or disclosure of tax records of political donors or candidates,” since 2006.

    Grassley has given DOJ Head, Eric Holder until July 26th to answer his questions. Holder has yet to respond.

    This is no longer about politics, but rather about civil liberties. The more Progressives do this and get away with it — the more embolden they’ll be to continue stepping on our rights.

  • Reidus Interuptus

    Senator Harry Reid was answering questions at the Center for American Progress on Monday when a man identified himself as a student at the University of Southern California.  Turns out Reid’s not a fan of the Trojans.

    As the guy was asking the Senate Leader a question, Reid interrupted him, saying, “I hope you have a better football team than last year, that was a disaster.”

    The country is going to Hell in a Progressive hand basket — and “USA Today” thinks this is news worth reporting. No wonder this nation is full of so-called low information voters.

    Someone ought to put a ‘trojan’ over Reid’s head, protecting us from his brand of social disease.

  • Reid on Zimmerman

    Senator Harry Reid says the Justice Department should review George Zimmerman’s case following his acquittal in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.  But not once did he ever call for calm from protesters and rioters.

    “This isn’t over with and I think that’s good,” he said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’

    Whadda ass-hat.

  • Connecting Monica and April to a Murderer

    Back in 1988 I started studying criminal profiling as I looked to pursue a career as a true crime writer. One of the cases I delved into was that of seven-year-old Monica DaSilva, who disappeared from her bedroom in October 1990.

    Initially, Reno police believed that the parents did something to her. Three weeks later, Monica skull, ribs and collarbone were found in Lagomarsino Canyon at the Lockwood Dump, east of Reno, in Storey County in October 1990.

    I had other idea’s about who killed Monica.

    According to my findings, she was kidnapped and murdered by a white male, about 30, who had been escalating into becoming a serial murderer for at least eight years prior to Monica. I also believed he lived in the Reno/Sparks area and had knowledge of the homes lay out, because he did not enter through the window as detectives suspected.

    Instead, he moved through the house undetected — showing he had a strong sense of his skill-set. For RPD, this was one of the first times they’d ever dealt with anyone with a stalker, kidnapping, murdering pedophile.

    There are other things about this murderer that I’ve come to believe over the years as well. He is moderately educated: a high school graduate — but with an above average IQ.

    My findings showed that Monica’s murderer also worked at jobs that he believed he was above, but these same jobs place him in or near his victims or the victim’s homes. He is also comfortable with the dark and blends in well with his environment in both the day and the night.

    Now a 61-year-old Missouri man, arrested in the killing of a girl in North Las Vegas decades ago is being looked at for the kidnapping and murder of Monica. Jasper Everett Goddard, a registered sex offender was arrested on a felony warrant from the state of Nevada in the 1986 death of April Marie Rhodes.

    The police report says in 1986, Goddard lived in a Statz Street apartment two doors away from where April lived. The little girl went to a drive-in movie with her mother, Katherine, and 11-year-old brother, Thomas, on November 23, 1986.

    They came home from the movie and the children went to bed. Police later found April is an isolated storage room in the same complex, where she had been raped and beaten to death.

    Goddard is linked to April’s death through DNA evidence left at the scene.

    At the time of their abductions, both April and Monica were seven years old. They were both sleeping near windows in rooms with their brothers, who were left unharmed.

    Goddard was also convicted on charges of sodomy and sexual abuse of an 8-year-old girl in 1989 in Springfield, Missouri.

  • Daisy Marilyn Wildgrube, 1935-2013

    aunt daisy

    Daisy Marilyn (Smith) Wildgrube died May 25, 2013.  She was my Uncle, Adam Smith’s, sister.

    Daisy was born on December 11, 1935 in Fortuna, the youngest of seven children of Harry and Iva Smith from the Dyerville area. Daisy was laid at the Fortuna Sunrise Cemetery.

    She went to elementary school in Rohnerville and graduated from Fortuna High School in 1954, marrying Luke Wildgrube a year later. Daisy spent many years working for ‘Twin Harbors Lumber Mill’ pulling green chain and running the stacker, and her last years in the office as the secretary.

    Daisy spent many years putting lunches together for the ‘Six Rivers National Forest Service’ during fire season; and looking for a new recipe. After her job ended at the mill after it closed, she was the head cook at the ‘Dinsmore Lodge Recovery Center’ when it opened back in the early 80’s.

    Mid 80’s Daisy was co-owner/partners with Linda Elliott and Judy Allen of the ‘Dinsmore Cafe’ until it became a hardware store. Daisy retired after all that working and enjoyed traveling with her husband.

    Daisy is survived by her children Neil and Kathy of Rio Dell; grandson Travis Wildgrube, Fortuna; Nadine Hartman, Fortuna; grandson Luke Hartman, Fortuna; granddaughter Lisa and Mike Williamson of Arlington, WA; and Marilyn D. Wildgrube, Rio Dell, her brother Ozzie Smith, his wife Joann, Fortuna; sister-in-law Barbara Smith and brother-in-law Albert Mendes.

    She was preceded in death by her parents Harry and Iva Smith; siblings Ed Smith, William Smith, Nancy McCullough, Emma Mendes, Adam Smith and husband, Luke Wildgrube.