Chamblee54

TRIGGER WARNING: This post is a bit gross. Proceed with caution. You can skip over the text, and enjoy the pictures. These images are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost from 2019.
The post before this borrowed text from Gartalker, known to the government as Gary Simmons. PG chatted with him a few times, and we moved on. The last time PG checked in, Gartalker was fighting cancer. That was in 2017. PG decided to take another look. He googled “Gary Simmons Mississippi.”
Gruesome murder, rape case recalled: Gary ‘The Butcher’ Simmons scheduled to be executed June 20 Before we go any further, note that GTBS was executed in 2012. GTBS is a different Gary Simmons.
“Simmons, at the time 33, and his former brother-in-law Timothy Milano, 21, were convicted of the murder of Texas man Jeffrey Wolfe, to whom they owed money for marijuana, and the rape of his girlfriend, Charlene Leaser. After Wolfe was shot dead by Milano, Simmons carved the body into pieces with knives that he had possibly sharpened earlier that day at work, testimony showed. He then dumped the pieces in the bayou near his Moss Point house.”
“The one picture I remember in particular is of the head that was recovered intact, chopped off from about here,” (District Attorney Tony) Lawrence said, gesturing across the middle of his neck. Instead, about 80 percent of Wolfe’s body was recovered, Lawrence estimated. It was the testimony of Charlene Leaser that solved the case, Lawrence said. Simmons had locked her in a large steel box and raped her. The 18-year-old Leaser was wearing only a sock when she was thrown into the box.”
Gary Carl Simmons Jr. Executed June 20, 2012 “Wolfe’s father Paskiel Wolfe reacted emotionally to the execution. “Do you think God is going to forgive you for doing such a good deed? No. You are going to go to Hell. And that is where you are gonna be. And I hope you burn in Hell. When you take your last breath I will be leaving to go and have a cold beer.”
Before Mr. Wolfe had his cold beer, Mr. Simmons had his final meal. “One Pizza Hut medium Super Supreme Deep Dish pizza, double portion, with mushrooms, onions, jalapeno peppers, and pepperoni; pizza, regular portion, with three cheeses, olives, bell pepper, tomato, garlic and Italian sausage; 10 8-oz. packs of Parmesan cheese; 10 8-oz. packs of ranch dressing; one family size bag of Doritos nacho cheese flavor; 8 oz. jalapeno nacho cheese; 4 oz. sliced jalapenos; 2 large strawberry shakes; two 20-oz. cherry Cokes; one super-size order of McDonald’s fries with extra ketchup and mayonnaise; and two pints of strawberry ice cream.”
The Simmons case was similar to a case in Georgia. “On March 28, 1984 a maintenance man employed at (Robert Dale) Conklin’s apartment complex was collecting aluminum cans from the trash dumpster when he discovered dissected human body parts, knives, bloody bed clothes, screwdriver, rope, credit cards, a wallet and miscellaneous papers belonging to George Crooks, all encased in black plastic garbage bags. The body parts were identified as those of attorney George Crooks, who was acquainted with Conklin and had begun a physical relationship with him. When Conklin’s apartment was searched, police found the bed clothing was missing and the mattress appeared to be blood-soaked. The jammed kitchen garbage disposal contained what appeared to be internal organs. When questioned, Conklin stated that he and Crooks were wrestling on the bed when he grabbed a screwdriver and stuck him, then pushed the screwdriver into his ear and wriggled the weapon around. Conklin admitted to dissecting the body and disposing of incriminating evidence in the dumpster. A book describing the dissection of a body was found on the bedroom floor. At the time of the murder, Conklin was on parole for Armed Robbery and Burglary.”
Mr. Conklin had a gourmet last meal. “Filet mignon wrapped with bacon; de-veined shrimp sautéed in garlic butter with lemon; baked potato with butter, sour cream, chives and real bacon bits; corn on the cob; asparagus with hollandaise sauce; French bread with butter; goat cheese; cantaloupe; apple pie; vanilla bean ice cream and iced tea.”

This is a repost from 2021. … Eleanor Roosevelt has become the focus of a facebook meme. A flattering portrait illustrates a quote about “liberal.” “Long ago, there was a noble word, liberal, which derives from the word free. Now a strange thing happened to that word. A man named Hitler made it a term of abuse, a matter of suspicion, because those who were not with him were against him, and liberals had no use for Hitler. And then another man named McCarthy cast the same opprobrium on the word … We must cherish and honor the word free or it will cease to apply to us.”
“Did Eleanor Roosevelt Say This About the Word ‘Liberal’?” Apparently, she did. The text appears in Tomorrow Is Now. The book is the last word of Mrs. Roosevelt, who died November 7, 1962. Tomorrow Is Now was published in 1963.
The l-word has had a wild time in the last 58 years. In the sixties, it essentially meant someone who supported civil rights. Liberal came to be a favored insult of many conservatives, a role that continues to this day. As with many english words, liberal continues to evolve. Today a popular phrase is “classical liberal,” which means something to people who say it. It is safe to assume that Mrs. Roosevelt had a different concept of what liberal means, than many people today.
Merriam-Webster has several definitions for liberal, some of which are not related to political ideology. The etymology: “Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin liberalis suitable for a freeman, generous, from liber free; perhaps akin to Old English lēodan to grow, Greek eleutheros free.” This compares to the etymology for liberty: “Middle English, from Anglo-French liberté, from Latin libertat-, libertas, from liber free — more at liberal.” As for Mrs. Roosevelt’s claim that liberal is the same as free … she appears to be taking *liberties* in her use of language.
A red flag is dragging Adolph Hitler into the quarrel. Hitler comparisons are an easy gimmick for cheap rhetoric. Mr. Hitler spoke in German. Der Liberale probably has different implications than the American term liberal. A google search for “did Hitler say liberal” did not yield helpful results.
Wikiquotes did have 2 direct quotes of Hitler using the l-word. “… We might have called ourselves the Liberal Party. We chose to call ourselves the National Socialists. … ” Interview with George Sylvester Viereck, 1923 … “The main plank in the National Socialist program is to abolish the liberalistic concept of the individual and the Marxist concept of humanity and to substitute therefore the folk community.” Speech in the German Reichstag (January 30, 1937). Neither of these quotes is the type of Republican rhetoric so familiar to modern Americans.
Citing Joe McCarthy is ironic in 2021 America. Today, one danger to freedom is social justice jihad. An insistence on ideological purity is ever present in the “woke” landscape. Radical anti-racism is plausibly considered to be the new McCarthyism. A “classical liberal” is open to a discussion of ideas, rather that condemning people for having incorrect opinions. One wonders if Eleanor Roosevelt would be considered liberal today.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The men pictured are Confederate soldiers, from The War Between the States.