tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-111891892011-07-28T06:21:01.492-05:00For the aficionado of historical mystery literature & the student of real-life mysteries & intriguesDaniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.comBlogger701100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-87126000920426081382010-01-23T19:55:00.005-05:002010-01-23T20:24:20.567-05:00

My daughter and son-in-law had warned me last year, after they viewed it on the big screen, that this clearly is not intended to be a realistic account of the Dillinger-Purvis record. Surrealism is what the producers/directors were after. The actors aren't realistic (Depp as John Dillinger the gangster, Bale as Melvin Purvis the Bureau of Investigation chief (a South Carolinian)). The facts are

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-23493573231470913472010-01-03T16:37:00.005-05:002010-01-03T16:46:59.808-05:00

Just launched: The Illustrated Harper & MacTavish Reader, a quarterly e-magazette distributed online in .pdf format. Each issue features a story from "The Harper Chronicles" and "The Casebook of MacTavish" plus a classic period mystery, as well as notes on historic crimes and criminals and 19th-Century lifestyles. BONUS: Subscriptions include new, unpublished Harper and MacTavish stories

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-30264469372875875232009-12-25T21:44:00.003-05:002009-12-25T22:10:48.988-05:00

Each December I'm reminded of Flight 19, the so-called "Lost Patrol"—five Avenger torpedo bombers tbat vanished while on a training flight, 5 December 1945. The group took off from the Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station at mid-afternoon with a two-hour flight plan. It called for a low-level practice bombing run over a target near the Bahamas, then a northward maneuver, then a southwesterly return

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-46260414779933797772009-04-12T21:03:00.004-05:002009-12-25T13:17:33.763-05:00

The History Channel, the Discovery Channel and other cable networks, as well as mainstream networks and print media, are relentless in trying to undermine Christianity at Christmas and Easter season with their "documentaries" and "holiday features" that challenge the virgin birth and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was merely an "historical character" (although admittedly a very interesting

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-22558690685169788112007-01-22T08:54:00.000-05:002007-01-22T09:20:15.659-05:00

Alston Purvis has achieved a remarkable thing: write a son’s perspective of a “hero” father with neither biased glorification nor unveiled animosity. The Vendetta: FBI Hero Melvin Purvis’s War Against Crime, and J. Edgar Hoover’s War Against Him (PublicAffairs, 2005) is a deeply personal documentary, reflection, exposé and quest for answers. When he set about the five-year task of assembling The

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-90082606567494087982007-01-04T21:05:00.000-05:002007-01-04T21:19:53.706-05:00

Every American knows the essential details of the Lincoln assassination: shot in the back of the head by actor John Wilkes Booth while attending a play in Washington, DC. It occurred on 14 April 1865, at the very end of the Civil War.But do you know how Booth met his own death?Booth, a Maryland-born Shakespearean and southern sympathizer, broke a leg when he leaped from the Lincolns’ box onto the

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1166217844364042932006-12-15T16:18:00.000-05:002006-12-15T16:24:04.633-05:00

Which Bureau of Investigation agent was on the scene when Pretty Boy Floyd was slain by law enforcement officers in an Ohio farm field in October 1934?a) Ray Caffrey, b) Sam Cowley, c) Melvin Purvis, d) J. Edgar Hoover

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1156286072132746332006-08-22T17:18:00.000-05:002006-08-22T17:37:40.246-05:00

Have you noticed that in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's story "The Solitary Cyclist" . . . there was no solitary cyclist? Sherlock Holmes solved the mystery of the two Charlington bicyclists—the tutor Violet Smith and her disguised employer/admirer/protector Bob Carruthers—in a thrilling action finish. Since Miss Smith, as client and victim, was the central character of the tale, she's generally

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1140901374347835342006-02-25T16:00:00.000-05:002006-02-25T16:02:54.363-05:00

The term “I love my work!” is a delight to hear in modern times—when so many workers don’t. As a catchphrase, it turns up in varied contexts. For example, it was uttered by Porthos the Pirate in a particularly funny action scene in the 1992 film version of The Three Musketeers.One (all too) true-life figure who professed to love his work was Jack the Ripper. In a euphoric, taunting note to London

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1137623785728218932006-01-18T17:17:00.000-05:002006-01-18T17:41:12.756-05:00

I don't typically offer negative reviews, but after ordering up a small fortune in archival Sherlock Holmes audio recordings earlier this month (as belated Christmas gifts to myself), I have to report that the Dove Audio readings by Ben Kingsley, circa 1992, are not recommendable. I've been listening to Hardwick, Timson and countless old radio performers along with Kingsley. Kingsley's readings

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1137184685449903212006-01-13T15:33:00.000-05:002006-01-18T17:48:54.986-05:00

I discovered this week the wonderful cassette sets of Sherlock Holmes stories recorded by Edward Hardwick during the 1990s, as well as the more recent DVD sets read by David Timson. Inspired, I probed the Internet for other Holmes audio recordings. Two key—and free—resources are available for downloading period productions. Many of you have discovered one or both of them already, no doubt, but

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1136295666873511092006-01-03T08:37:00.000-05:002006-01-03T08:41:06.886-05:00

A favorite routine during our occasional weekends in the Gatlinburg, TN, vicinity is dinner at the Greenbrier Restaurant. Situated on a small mountain slope on an obscure, winding lane off Highway 321, it’s a woodsy, warm haven—especially in autumn and winter—and the cuisine (most notably trout and prime rib) is outstanding. Not until our latest visit in November did we hear that the restaurant

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1135004415899105682005-12-19T09:56:00.000-05:002005-12-19T10:00:15.913-05:00

Speaking of A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens' 1843 classic seasonal ghost story, the folks at askSam have posted a free, searchable e-book version of it, including illustrations. It's at www.asksam.com/ebooks/Dickens/Christmas_Carol.asp.

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1134179841727534212005-12-09T20:50:00.000-05:002005-12-09T20:57:21.740-05:00

A Christmas Carol not only is (possibly) Charles Dickens' most famous work of fiction but is, as you undoubtedly know, a ghost story. Unless you've dabbled more deeply into Dickens' legacy, you may not know he followed up during the course of his career with various other short stories and longer pieces returning to the Christmas ghost theme. Next week we will be posting one of them, "The Story

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1133526141218576432005-12-02T07:21:00.000-05:002005-12-09T21:00:43.816-05:00

What was young Sherlock Holmes first case?a) "The Musgrave Ritual," b) "The Gloria Scott," c) "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton," d) "The Bravoes of Market-Drayton."

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1133441264967098542005-12-01T07:45:00.000-05:002005-12-01T07:47:44.993-05:00

Have you noticed that in the “Radiance” image of the moonscape (one of the desktop backgrounds available in Windows), along with the myriad pockmarks of various-sized meteor craters is the partial rim of what appears to be a vast, circular lunar mountain ridge? You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize that must have been formed by some ancient mega-meteor, and that a wallop from a

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1133195620156582552005-11-28T11:27:00.000-05:002005-11-28T11:33:40.186-05:00

Two short stories have been added to the "Vintage Short Mystery Classics" series this month. "The Dancing-Partner" is English author/playwright Jerome K. Jerome's horror tale of entertainment gone awry. "The New Pass" is the second of Amelia B. Edward's fine ghost yarns posted to the series ("The North Mail" was among the first selections)."Vintage Short Mystery Classics" are downloadable mystery

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1132694791387508112005-11-22T16:21:00.000-05:002005-11-22T16:26:31.410-05:00

Apologies for the interruption in these history/mystery notes, quiz questions, etc. We were long-weekending near Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where a friend periodically lets us stay at his mountain lodgings.A developing tradition on this trip for us is “movie night.” Tim, our benefactor, keeps a good stock of old films on hand. Included are several classic horror black-and-whites. This time we settled

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1130800401194973182005-10-31T18:11:00.000-05:002005-10-31T18:13:21.213-05:00

Yes! We have our share of “haunts” here in upstate South Carolina. For our entries into the plethora of seasonal spookiness this day, might we submit our mysterious rocking chair at Limestone College in Gaffney, which rocks by itself? How about our vanishing woman in blue, observed at roadside by motorists near Blacksburg?I’ve had the pleasure of lodging on occasion at the Inn at Merridun in

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1130360098158771882005-10-26T15:46:00.000-05:002005-10-26T15:54:58.166-05:00

October additions to the "Vintage Short Mystery Classics" series of free e-book downloads include: "The Mystery of Essex Stairs" by Sir Gilbert Campbell, "Talma Gordon" by Pauline E. Hopkins, "The Sapient Monkey" by Headon Hill (Francis Edward Grainger), "Thrawn Janet" by Robert Louis Stevenson, "A Tale of the Great Plague" by Thomas Hood and "The Bravoes of Market-Drayton" by Sir Arthur Conan

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1129940528161115822005-10-21T19:15:00.000-05:002005-10-21T19:22:08.190-05:00

I—like many of you, I'm sure—collect quotable quotes. Especially interesting to me are those from the pens of mystery authors. A few examples:“Like fire or the sea, he was too simple to be trusted.”—G.K. Chesterton, in “The Paradise of Thieves”“No country is so wild and difficult but men will make it a theatre of war. . . .”—Ambrose Bierce, in “A Horseman in the Sky”“ ‘Don’t be alarmed,’ said I

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1129330813538386552005-10-14T17:57:00.000-05:002005-10-14T18:00:13.550-05:00

An excellent online resource for modern-day investigators of the still-open 1892 Borden hatchet murder case is the project developed by the University of Massachusetts/Amherst’s History Department and Center for Computer-Based Instructional Technology. It’s at http://ccbit.cs.umass.edu/lizzie/intro/home.html. The site contains primary as well as secondary sources, including Edmund Pearson’s 1937

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1128041514452782552005-09-29T19:48:00.000-05:002005-09-30T19:54:54.763-05:00

We all know what the term “bull’s-eye” means in target practice—dead center (literally “dead” center, in the lingo of police officers who are training at the firing range to protect themselves and to stop capital criminals). It has other meanings, though. A new one, to me, occurs in Sir Gilbert Campbell’s “The Mystery of Essex Stairs,” an 1891 story we're currently typesetting and proofreading

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1127593412511046942005-09-24T15:12:00.000-05:002005-09-24T15:23:32.520-05:00

Six short stories have been added to the "Vintage Short Mystery Classics" series this month. To wit: "The Shed Chamber," Laura E. Richards' adventure of a juvenile farm sleuth; "The Ghost Ship," a fantastical spoof by Richard Middleton; "The Executioner," a heart-rending Napoleonic tale of the ultimate familial dilemma by Honoré de Balzac; "The Fenchurch Street Mystery," Baroness Orczy's

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1127511501420718282005-09-23T16:33:00.000-05:002005-09-23T16:38:36.600-05:00

The UFO (unidentified flying object) phenomenon generally is dated to 1947, when businessman Kenneth Arnold, flying a small plane over Washington State, observed nine saucer-shaped objects in the sky (seemingly) nearby. But Arnold wasn’t the first credible witness. A spate of strange “airship” sightings were reported by numerous Americans in 1896-97. Assuming these were extraterrestrial visitors,

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1126921870694515022005-09-16T20:45:00.000-05:002005-09-16T20:51:10.710-05:00

So often when I turn to a biography of Chesterton or an encyclopedic synopsis of his strange little sleuth Father Brown among the annals of detective fiction, I encounter adjectives like “inconspicuous,” “innocent,” “simple,” “nondescript,” “ordinary.” That ambience, so widely perceived concerning the ecclesiastical crime solver, has mystified me from the very first Father Brown story I ever read

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1126307922183151752005-09-09T18:12:00.000-05:002005-09-09T18:18:42.190-05:00

A mystery that long has intrigued me is the nature of “Shoeless Joe” Jackson’s involvement in the 1919 Chicago “Black Sox” scandal. Did he or didn’t he accept money to help throw the World Series?Jackson, one of the all-time great hitters and fielders, was banned from professional baseball after he and seven White Sox teammates were accused of accepting bribes from organized crime, or of knowing

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1125664177183706562005-09-02T07:25:00.000-05:002005-09-02T07:29:37.196-05:00

Until a year before his death in 1921 at age 48, Enrico Caruso was a star of the stage. No other dramatic tenor was his equal during his lifetime, and he became a pioneering recording artist, making phonographs for the Victor company as early as 1903.While most Americans know him by his incredible performing voice, not so many know of his brush with the Sicilian-American extortion organization

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1125057767775588712005-08-26T06:55:00.000-05:002005-08-26T07:02:47.800-05:00

Four stories have been added to "Vintage Short Mystery Classics," the new series of free e-booklets available for download in PDF format. August additions are:* "How Thomas of Reading Was Murdered" by Thomas Deloney, an early crime story written in the late 1500s.* "The Doomdorf Mystery" by Melville Davisson Post, one of Post's "Uncle Abner" stories set in ante-bellum western Virginia.* "A

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1123341694180869552005-08-06T10:09:00.000-05:002005-08-06T13:36:45.220-05:00

REVIEW: The Secret Agent (Joseph Conrad)I don’t much like this book. Likely, that’s a personal problem. A simpleton, I need for a story to be told in a straightforward fashion—straightforward enough, at least, that it doesn’t end with too many more unresolved questions than it has answered. Some literati regard The Secret Agent as an obscure masterpiece, a landmark spy novel and one of Conrad’s

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1122731177101190372005-07-30T08:33:00.000-05:002005-07-30T08:46:17.110-05:00

In researching the Flannan Islands mystery, I've been unable to locate the text of the actual log entries made by the lost lighthouse keepers during the days leading up to the tragedy. Fragments of notes have been published in different sources, but I'm keen to review the entire record. Do any of you know if it's obtainable, and where?The three light keepers on station at the remote Scottish

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1122590494650260442005-07-28T17:39:00.000-05:002005-07-28T17:41:34.656-05:00

Did you know the Braille method of reading for the visually impaired was developed from a military innovation for reading in the dark? Capt. Charles Barbier, a French cavalry officer of the early 19th Century, devised a system of pressing different dot-and-dash configurations into heavy paper. Though a tedious process, this point-writing code enabled commanders to exchange brief dispatches that

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1122121004319377732005-07-23T07:11:00.000-05:002005-07-23T07:20:35.176-05:00

In a previous post (15 July 2005), we considered briefly the lingering question of the ghost stories included in Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers: Were they written specifically as part of the Pickwick serial, or were they written as individual short stories which Dickens ultimately cast into the Pickwick sequence to meet publishing deadlines?Pickwick was tarnished by a real-life tragedy, as well. It

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1122034092917392022005-07-22T07:05:00.000-05:002005-07-23T07:17:17.656-05:00

A physical disability often serves to heighten one’s other senses and powers -- a truth you’ve very possibly observed in people you know. British author Ernest Bramah made use of such traits in developing his blind detective character, Max Carrados. Bramah produced three books of Carrados episodes: Max Carrados, The Eyes of Max Carrados and Max Carrados Mysteries.Ernest Bramah (1868-1942) was the

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1121543309258507312005-07-16T14:43:00.000-05:002005-07-16T14:48:29.270-05:00

Aficionados of period mystery stories hopefully will take advantage of this new, free resource of classic short fiction. Hornpipe Vintage Publications has just launched the “Vintage Short Mystery Classics” series of e-booklets at www.hornpipe.com/mysclas.htm. Each short story is so old it’s now in the public domain. It’s contained in an e-booklet (PDF format), available free of charge for

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1121436111722719232005-07-15T08:55:00.000-05:002005-07-15T09:01:51.743-05:00

Charles Dickens’ early comic work The Pickwick Papers (1837) contains no fewer than five ghost stories: “The Lawyer and the Ghost,” “The Queer Chair,” “The Ghosts of the Mail,” “A Madman’s Manuscript” and “The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton.” The book consists of a series of stories Dickens recently had written for the publishing firm of Chapman and Hall. The Posthumous Papers of the

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1120785516330972632005-07-07T19:54:00.000-05:002005-07-07T20:18:36.336-05:00

Ooooo. Oooo! A paycheck, a few extra dollars after tithing and bill-paying, and a trip to the downtown library to return some books brought me today to the rear entrance of my favorite used bookshop on Spartanburg’s Main Street (Books ’n’ Stuff; phone (864) 542-0887). For my time invested browing the shelves on this blustery day, waiting out the aftereffects of a tropical storm that has swirled

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1120225257306538302005-07-01T08:38:00.000-05:002005-07-01T08:40:57.333-05:00

The British airship R101 was a marvel of Depression-era transportation. Powered by five diesel engines, it was designed for global flight -- and it offered attractive accommodations to monied travelers. More than 700 feet long, the R101 could transport 100 passengers in style, with berths, excellent dining and recreational quarters. What it could not offer was secure passage.In October 1930, a

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1119452635097421532005-06-22T10:01:00.000-05:002005-06-22T10:08:19.223-05:00

The formal announcement will be made in July, but I’d like to “clue” you to an exciting (to me) new mystery e-book project. Hornpipe Vintage Publications is developing a series of classic short stories in the genres of mystery, crime, gothic and intrigue. These period works, now in the public domain, were written by authors both famous and obscure. Each story will be available to the public in

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1119012812151525332005-06-17T07:51:00.000-05:002005-06-17T07:53:32.156-05:00

Eccentrics operate in all shapes and sizes . . . and attires. In the latter category was one Robert Cook, a farmer in Cappoquin, County Waterford, at the turn of the 17th Century. Cook was in his 80s when he died in 1726, and no one was surprised at his instruction that he be wrapped for burial in a white cloth.You see, Cook had lived his entire life dressed in white. Everything from his dress

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1118867286025640982005-06-15T15:19:00.000-05:002005-06-16T11:11:19.463-05:00

Hornpipe Vintage Publications, my own publishing handle, has a couple of e-book projects in the works which you might find interesting. Launched this week is the Quick Reads From "The Harper Chronicles" series, which offers in e-book format each of the short stories from Volume One of my "Harper" historical mystery series. Check out the details here. These story books are in PDF format for

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1118449874835882082005-06-10T19:24:00.000-05:002005-06-10T19:38:00.210-05:00

Sailors for ages have told tales of jinxed vessels. If ever there was one, it had to have been a little tugboat named the Bratt. It sank in March 1956 in the Gulf of Mexico -- but that was neither the first nor last calamity that befell it. Weirdly, its sequence of astonishing mishaps all occurred in less than a week.First, a barge it was towing sank in the waters of Mobile Bay. The next day, the

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1117804662867584852005-06-03T08:12:00.000-05:002005-06-03T08:22:54.556-05:00

Those of you who haven’t yet probed back in time to the early works of gothic and mystery literature might be enticed to do so if you come to know something of the authors’ lives. That, more than forced readings of their stodgy prose, is primarily what got me interested. I had to read some of Poe, for instance, when I was in high school -- and didn’t much enjoy it because I was a slow reader, I

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1117205597003604462005-05-27T09:48:00.000-05:002005-05-27T09:55:25.410-05:00

Many people who read Bram Stoker’s Dracula assume Transylvania, home country of the vampire, is fictitious. In fact, it’s a region of some 24,000 square miles in the Carpathian Mountains of what is now Romania. In Roman times, it was part of the Dacia province. Later, it was part of Hungary, then for a time became independent. It fell under the dominion of Austria in 1765, became part of

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1116640828758209372005-05-20T20:54:00.000-05:002005-05-20T21:00:28.940-05:00

Like many of you, I suppose, I’ve always wanted to believe there’s something to the UFO fascination. But my interest is waning. Skeptics say approximately 90 percent of UFO reports easily can be explained with rational, earthly analysis. Personally, I wonder if the modern-day statistic doesn’t approach 100 percent.Biblical accounts of fantastic heavenly phenomena will hold my interest until I die

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1116034231101378262005-05-13T20:27:00.000-05:002005-05-13T20:30:31.106-05:00

Weather is often violent but usually predictable. Of course, we repeatedly mock forecasters for missing daily prognostications, but they point -- with solid evidence -- to records showing increased accuracy in their work.From time to time, however, a weather event occurs which is not only unpredictable but unexplainable. One such was reported 28 July 1874 in the vicinity of a valley town called

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1115381919120328062005-05-06T07:14:00.000-05:002005-05-06T07:18:39.136-05:00

An entry for the Faddish Enigmas Department:They called it “dermal vision” or “paroptic vision” -- “seeing” with the skin. Blind people and claimants with faces bandaged tight to shut out the light and seal in the sight reportedly could “see” by touching. For example, they could describe details of a photograph you placed before them, or tell you the color of paper.The phenomena came into vogue

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1114776788984544222005-04-29T07:10:00.000-05:002005-04-29T07:13:08.986-05:00

His name was Herbert Osborne Yardley, and he founded one of the American government’s very most top-secret agencies: the Black Chamber. It functioned during the 1920s, deciphering coded messages of interest to those charged with national security. This was a period of heightening edginess in Washington regarding the military “rising sun” -- Japan.Yardley, an Indiana Hoosier, began his government

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1114180706059463302005-04-22T09:34:00.000-05:002005-04-22T09:38:26.060-05:00

The real lives of classic mystery and gothic horror authors make for interesting reading. Their biographies usually (though not always) lack the weirdness and gore about which they wrote -- which sometimes makes them all the more fascinating.Consider Bram Stoker (1847-1912). His novel Dracula inspired a lasting infatuation with vampirism, one of the very most repulsive forms of criminal deviance.

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1113344657350479182005-04-12T17:21:00.000-05:002005-04-12T17:24:17.350-05:00

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle based not one but two Sherlock Holmes stories on the theme of outlaws returned from Australia to establish genteel, nondescript identities in rural England. In “The Gloria Scott,” a deported convict escapes while being transported to the lower continent. He travels the world before establishing himself as an English country judge . . . only to be plagued by a vile character

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1113083468806060542005-04-09T16:48:00.000-05:002005-04-09T16:51:08.806-05:00

Elements of nature have wrought horrific and amazing feats. Some seem more mysterious than science fiction. For example, currents and winds have caused boats, ships and other items to drift incredible distances in relatively brief time frames.An instance of drifting that challenged belief involved the Blue Jacket. The swift clipper ship, on a homeward voyage to America from New Zealand in March

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1112825842450999752005-04-06T17:12:00.000-05:002005-04-06T17:17:22.453-05:00

E.C. Bentley (1875-1956), a pioneering London writer of detective fiction, made his mark largely because of his annoyance with Sherlock Holmes. He (like many readers of Arthur Conan Doyle) ultimately decided the humorless, unemotional, automaton nature of Holmes simply wouldn’t do. Bentley’s fictional detective, Philip Trent, was certainly human. In Trent’s Last Case, Bentley’s first detective

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1112633445371419662005-04-04T11:47:00.000-05:002005-04-04T11:50:45.373-05:00

It was called “Vinland” and it’s believed to have been a site the Vikings discovered on the eastern coast of North America. Leif Eriksson named it when his explorations, some historians believe, brought him to the Atlantic’s western shores approximately 1000 A.D. Eriksson may not have been the first Viking to see Vinland, and the locale is cloaked in mystery.Where, exactly, was it? Robert Wernick

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1112486150887957262005-04-02T18:39:00.000-05:002005-04-02T18:55:50.890-05:00

In the annals of nautical drifters (seaworthy vessels found adrift, abandoned for no apparent reason) the experiences of the sailors aboard the British ship Ellen Austin in 1881 deserve special attention. They came upon a drifter. A prize crew claimed it for salvage . . . and themselves joined the lost realm of maritime drifters.The Austin's crew found the aimlessly wandering schooner in the

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1112207287089473482005-03-30T13:25:00.000-05:002005-03-30T13:31:37.266-05:00

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957), creator of dapper detective Lord Peter Wimsey, is known for her complicated plots and aristocratic characters. What some may not know is that she developed her upper-class scenarios and players partly out of envy. During the 1920s, when she began writing the Wimsey adventures, she was living on a meager salary as an advertising agency copywriter in London.

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1112022904781720342005-03-28T10:09:00.000-05:002005-04-02T20:13:12.816-05:00

It’s possible more explanations have been proposed for the lights over North Carolina’s Brown Mountain than for any other mystery of either natural science or the supernatural. First studied more than two centuries ago, they’ve drawn countless curious tourists to the Morganton area -- where the U.S. Forest Service has placed an observation marker. Private scientists as well as officials of the

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1111875986711245642005-03-26T17:17:00.000-05:002005-04-02T20:17:04.106-05:00

It’s interesting to see the Bermuda Triangle issue revisited via history and science documentaries on cable TV these days. I became intrigued by the Triangle while in high school when I read Invisible Horizons, Vincent Gaddis’ study of nautical mysteries (Ace/Chilton, 1965). This was not long after Gaddis’ article in Argosy magazine first had aroused public interest in the phenomena which seem to

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1111583530250932412005-03-23T08:04:00.000-05:002005-03-23T08:12:10.253-05:00

Funny thing about Iceland: It has no human “prehistory,” insofar as anthropologists can determine. That is to say, the first people to settle there are believed to have been the Vikings -- and that wasn’t very long ago, in anthropological measurements: approximately the 9th Century A.D. An early record titled The Book of Settlements goes so far as to identify the first settlers, a Norwegian

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1111405217450520652005-03-21T06:37:00.000-05:002005-03-22T15:14:48.466-05:00

Murder by knife has been one of the most common methods throughout history. A gruesome “twist,” as it were, is the occasional murder by poisoned blade.Several incidents of it recently came to light during my research of Arab history. A Persian slave killed Umar, the second Islamic caliph, with a poisoned dagger in 644 A.D. Seventeen years later, the caliph Ali was slain with a poisoned saber.In

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1111252195910782182005-03-19T12:05:00.000-05:002005-03-19T12:13:14.286-05:00

Of all nautical mysteries, the most haunting are those involving shipshape vessels found adrift with no one aboard. The Mary Celeste (1872) is the most famous “wanderer.” Others are lesser known but no less mysterious.Case in point: the Seabird. It ran ashore at Easton’s Beach in Rhode Island in 1850, nearing its base at Newport after a cargo voyage up the coast from Honduras. The sails were

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1110980804095563742005-03-16T08:44:00.000-05:002005-03-21T06:50:42.593-05:00

Lycanthropy is the medical term for one of the weirdest forms of delusion: the belief that a human can become a wolf (or other animal). During the Middle Ages, when many folk lived in mortal fear of werewolves, lycanthropes sometimes took to the woods at the rising of a full moon. They howled like wild beasts and, given the opportunity, attacked people, scratching and brutalizing their victims.

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1110825852687432492005-03-14T13:41:00.000-05:002005-03-14T13:44:12.690-05:00

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” published in 1841, is considered literature’s first “modern detective story.” Have you read it? Until recent decades, it was almost standard fare in high school lit classes. Today, most youths learn something of Poe -- but not necessarily of his leading character Dupin, arguably the first “fictional detective.” (Our 18-year-old reports having

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1110657166348908222005-03-12T14:49:00.000-05:002005-03-14T13:53:14.590-05:00

The Patriot was a schooner, at one time used by privateers and later engaged in commerce along the Atlantic coast. It sailed from Georgetown, SC, on 30 December 1812 . . . into the mist of nautical mystery. It made for a particularly good mystery, nurtured by two generations of rumors -- some of which rang tantalizingly true. None of the crew or passengers arrived safely ashore. Among the missing

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1110490913164555192005-03-10T16:27:00.000-05:002005-03-10T16:54:21.576-05:00

Many mysterious cultures inhabit Planet Earth (possibly some yet remain to be discovered!). Most are mysterious because they’ve deliberately lived in isolation from generation to generation. To me, the very most mysterious are the Roma, for while they inherently segregate themselves from society at large, they intrepidly stride into the midst of society at large when it suits their purposes.The

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1110421343444083412005-03-09T21:16:00.000-05:002005-03-09T21:30:53.010-05:00

One of my favorite period authors -- not considered a mystery or gothic writer, but not far off, in certain respects -- is John Galsworthy. Awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1932, the year before his death, Galsworthy was an English barrister turned novelist and playwright. He also wrote short pieces. I discovered him at the back of “The World’s One Hundred Best Short Stories” series,

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1110336532467300122005-03-08T21:42:00.000-05:002005-03-08T21:52:26.493-05:00

. . . Ambrose Bierce? The eccentric writer and columnist, a Civil War veteran, produced some of the most oddly morbid short stories on record (“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” “A Horseman in the Sky,” “The Man and the Snake,” “The Eyes of the Panther,” etc.). Many of his tales are set during the great conflict, lending a curious reprieve from the sheer, brute militarism of typical Civil War

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1110201281708919612005-03-07T08:12:00.000-05:002005-03-07T08:14:41.710-05:00

Well, it isn’t exactly a mystery novel, but Mark Twain demonstrated in Pudd'nhead Wilson a serious interest in crime detection in addition to his established flare for humor, social commentary and memorable characterization.Published in 1894, the novel is set, like so many of Twain's classic tales, in an antebellum Mississippi River town. The “detective”: an eccentric lawyer given the nickname “

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1110061023657547172005-03-05T17:14:00.000-05:002005-03-06T12:46:26.903-05:00

You’re a serious student of mystery literature (or any literature) if you can you get through the following short passage without clicking to some other place on the Web:The Bohuns were one of the very few aristocratic families really dating from the Middle Ages, and their pennon had actually seen Palestine. But it is a great mistake to suppose that such houses stand high in chivalric traditions.

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1109896452842761502005-03-03T19:29:00.000-05:002005-03-03T19:34:12.846-05:00

Here’s a mystery for Christians to ponder: Will Judas Iscariot dwell among us in heaven?The very suggestion that history’s ultimate betrayer might be brought into God’s eternal presence may seem heretical. For one thing, Judas rates only a sliver above the antichrist as the very worst examples of evil in human form. For another, he committed suicide -- an unpardonable act, in the opinion of

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11189189.post-1109789084209533542005-03-02T13:40:00.000-05:002005-03-02T14:27:49.986-05:00

Did you know . . .. . . Arthur Conan Doyle, creator/author of the Sherlock Holmes canon, was practicing medicine in Southsea, England, at the time the first Holmes work (A Study in Scarlet) was published in 1887? Doyle later served during the Boer War as a British Army doctor.

Daniel Elton Harmonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09918959370647034910noreply@blogger.com0