Insane People

[Jim Kalafus]

Oh, and lest anyone doubt...

In April 1956, N.Y. Mirror Labor columnist Victor Riesel was attacked in a legendary incident that saw sulphuric acid thrown into both his eyes. His paper ran an article titled "It's Not Safe To Be A Reporter" that listed perhaps a dozen infamous attacks on newspeople. Among them the tragic departure of Mr. Rothrock. The Mirror article states, emphaticaly, that Aleck was commited for 'life' to an asylum.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

>>In April 1956, N.Y. Mirror Labor columnist Victor Riesel was attacked in a legendary incident that saw sulphuric acid thrown into both his eyes.<<

YEOWCH!!!!!

I see by the article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Riesel that he was rendered permanently blind by this incident. Interestingly enough, the perps were linked to organized crime.

 

[Jim Kalafus]

Yes, the Riesel affair was certainly unpleasant, but also typical of that era.

Will contact Eastern State to inquire about Mr. Aleck's tenure there, and then we can put the entire matter to rest.

Would like to read Spokane coverage of this, because I STRONGLY suspect that there was more to the story than appeared in the other papers. Not guilty by reason of insanity was NOT a verdict freely handed out in 1912. My guess is that this represented a culmination of sorts, and that Aleck was probably the 'weird scary guy' at the logging camp with a record of similar, non-lethal blowups. Would like to know, as well, what WERE the 'allegations' alluded to by the articles that his coworkers supposedly attributed to Rothrock?

 

[Michael H. Standart]

>>Yes, the Riesel affair was certainly unpleasant, but also typical of that era.<<

Considering that he was fencing with the cement overshoes crowd, he could have faced a lot worse.

 

[Chris Shea]

WOW! Things do seem to get creepy about this. I mean It's tragic, but so many people don't have to go insane about it.


(P.S: Please ignore my bad grammar)

 

[Michael H. Standart]

>>I mean It's tragic, but so many people don't have to go insane about it.<<

Most of them didn't. The thing is that these people lived a real world horror which we only read about and for the survivors, it would haunt them for the rest of their lives. It's not at all surprising that some of them didn't manage very well with it.

 

[Mark Robert Hopkins]

That's what some surviving soldiers have said about war: "Those who died were far better off."