MAY 6 - MAY 12, 2000
MAY 12, 2K
More about the fat lady
Good morning. It is 61.5 degrees at 6:19 A.M. Headlines from The Error are:
Robert Bromeley, industrial leader, dies at 90
and; Slocum keeps mum. On behalf of our readers
we offer our condolences to the Bromley family. Mr. Bromley was a good and fine man. As
for Slocum, it is good to sit back and see him finally come to justice.
Me, I have been fighting a personal battle with a 600 pound bear that feels my bird
feeders and now my hummingbird feeders are his personal snack every morning around three.
He is the largest bear I have ever seen and he is not afraid of anything. He comes right
up on my porch. This is getting annoying. The hummingbirds will be fed one way or the
other. I am probably going to have to consult with Cornplanter and Red Jacket on this one.
It looks like a long night at the Bradford Hotel coming up.
Now, on to Tom Clark and the Marilyn Horne controversy.
The Fat Lady Hasn't Sung By Tom Clark
Occasionally, I receive an e-mail or am approached by a person that would like their story
told. Most of the time it is a personal issue that would not be appropriate for publishing
on these pages. However, I'm working on an expose now that will knock your socks off.
Rest easy, City Line Bob, this does not involve anything that we've discussed in
private. It does, however, include all of the good stuff...cover-ups, lies and scandals,
mostly involving The Bradford Era and what they aren't telling you.
I'm following up on a few leads and am lining up some key interviews. Check these pages
next week for some surprising twists to a couple of the slanted articles that you've read
in the Error.
The topic at hand for this week is, what else, Marilyn Horne. The Bradford City
Council, displaying yet another stellar example of their ineptness, passed an ordinance
naming the street around Veterans Square after the opera singer. Yepper, they went done
and did it.
I have one simple question for Jim Guelfi, the man who seems to be the driving force
behind this, and City Council. What is to be gained by naming a street after a woman who
has done zilch for Bradford?
Note to Bud and Greg...can we get a judge to put a stop order on the ordinance? If so,
can we have the issue put on the ballot for November?
"Question...Should the City of Bradford rename Parker Place as Marilyn Horne
Way?"
Five bucks says that the voters would blow this stupid dedication out of the water.
City Council busted their humps to get the voters to outlaw nude clubs in the city limits,
let's throw one back in their faces.
Not one person who I've spoke to thinks naming a street after Horne is appropriate. Not
one. The act of naming a street after someone who happened to be born here, yet doesn't
give a crap about our town, is senseless.
First, the higher ups say that Horne is coming to Bradford for the dedication. How are
they going to get the scummers and welfarites out of the Square long enough to have their
ceremony?
Perhaps we could turn this into a positive. There could be an ordinance that, if you
choose to live on welfare, you can only listen to Marilyn Horne CDs. That would send these
bums scurrying to the employment office.
Second, if Guelfi and City Council are so Hell-bent on naming a street after someone
from the entertainment industry (not that one could say opera is entertainment...yawn)
with local ties, why not Sorrell Booke?
As Boss Hogg on the "Dukes of Hazzard", Booke has 50 times the name
recognition that Horne has. Booke once played a general in the TV series, M*A*S*H... top
that, Marilyn. And, before he passed away, Booke would at least visit Bradford
periodically. Horne couldn't even drag her fat ass across the state line to say hi when
she was recently in Allegany.
So, what are we going for with this street naming? Potential tourism opportunities? How
many tourists would Bradford attract if they made it known that this is the birthplace of
Marilyn Horne? My guess is 4-6 per year, tops. And that is only if they happen to be
passing through. "Oh, look, Muffy! This decrepit, run down town has a street named
after Marilyn! I have all of her CDs and concert shirts, you know!"
Its a shame that Bud and Tom sold the building across the street from Veterans Square
to the city. I would plaster the front of it with banners on the day of the dedication
ceremony. "Who The Hell Is Marilyn Horne?", "Opera Sucks", "Nice
Of You To Drop In, Marilyn, After 20 F@#king Years", and "Speak, Wave and Shake
Hands - For God's Sake, Please Don't Sing".
I would be willing to help organize a counter-rally to spice up the dedication
ceremony. We could have a Marilyn Horne record burning party. That is, if anyone actually
owns any. We could get Rock'n Rick to bring down his sound system and blast some Metallica
while they are dedicating the street to the old broad.
Naming a street after this obscure opera singer is flat-out wrong. She doesn't deserve
it and it should be stopped. Perhaps I can find her e-mail address and I can flood her
with so many ugly e-mails from Bradford that she would decline the honor. I'll sign her up
for the Gross Joke of the Day and tell her it was a gift from Bradford City Council.
Anyways, enough on this for another week. Like I said earlier in this column, next
week's writings will be a "don't miss". All comments are coldly welcome and you
may write me at tcclark@2-cool.com.
This address may become the official e-mail listing for the Anti-Marilyn revolution,.'Til
next week...
And I have a question, too.
With the plans being solidified for Mutant Beach Fest 2000 (copyright), with
great names like Sam Stone and Darrell Dodge already one the entertainment bill, with Bud
Beck's Bunnies already prepared to make live guest appearances; will Marilyn Horne appear
and treat all the attendees of the beach fest to her singing?
My point is that if she will agree to participate in a genuine home grown and
spun activity like Mutant Beach Fest 2000 (copyright), then she deserves to have
not only the street named after her, but one of the 234 incubators the city owns also.
What do you think? Comments are welcome at editor@mlrmag.com.
MAY 11, 2K
Where was Mike Fisher?
Good morning. It is 41.0 degrees at 6:15 A.M.
With Governor Ridge calling for Sludge King Billy Slocum to resign his seat in
the senate, I am forced to ask the question "Where was Mike Fisher?"
The sentence handed down on Tuesday by a Federal Judge was a gift. When you consider
the seriousness of the crimes he committed, our Sludge King is lucky he is not going to
one of the FCI (Federal Correctional Institute) locations around the country.
Looking back at the history of what happened, it was more than just getting rid of
excess sewage. No. It was a scheme to save the Borough of Youngsville hundreds of
thousands of dollars in annual fees that allowed them to pay off the water treatment plant
early. Bob Williams ran successfully for County Commissioner showing that he was a
fiscally responsible Borough leader just on that exact point. And the savings converted
into immediate benefits for the community. They were able to build a new community
swimming pool with the savings.
Nevertheless, there were some people who understood what was happening. One man, part
of the Slocum scheme committed suicide. It is up for question if this was the reason he
killed himself, or if it was just a contributing factor. Still, a life is gone and who is
to say the overall impact that single act has had on other lives? Then there is Mr. Martin
who is still awaiting sentencing.
Martin turned states evidence on Slocum. Without him, Slocum would be in the midst of
his powerful bid to be re-elected as State Senator. He is to be sentenced for his part in
the not too distant future. We can only hope that Martin's punishment will be less than
Slocum who has contended many things: from it being "only an exceedence" to
"not paying attention to what his employees were doing." Oh my!
Then there is our Attorney General.
Think back only a year or so, or was it two years or so? Anyway, our Attorney General
said he could find Slocum guilty of no wrong doing. In fact, he thought the whole thing
that went on in Youngsville was fine and dandy. He cleared Slocum of any and all wrong
doing even though the Borough of Youngsville was slapped with a fine in the area of
$100,000 by the DEP.
Fisher's actions, or lack of actions, opened the way for Slocum to keep his job and
escape the state punishment for what he did. I said it then and I will say it again. It
was politics, politics, politics - the same as the charges that still pend against me for,
according to them, using the wrong form to report $374. And even my enemies are forced to
admit that one.
Now Mike Fisher is running for re-election, too. He is running against some guy named
Eisenhower. I don't know anything about this man, but can he be any worse than Fisher? Is
politics supposed to rule the office of the highest law enforcement officer in the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania? Are the party bosses, like our C. Russell Johnson, (also on
the Slocum payroll) to be afforded access and input to the process that decides who did
and did not commit a crime? I would say no but under Fisher that is exactly what is and
has been going on! The political insiders get and give and Fisher is glad to go along
because down the road he wants to be Governor.
It really is a shame that the Federal Government had to do Fisher's job for him. Yes it
is. It is because there is too much federal interference in our lives. And there is
because of people like Mike Fisher.
Your comments are welcome at editor@mlrmag.com.
MAY 10, 2K
A morning of laughs - Slocum and the City!
Good morning. It is 59.0 degrees at 6:16 A.M. and a few thunderstorms just
rolled on through.
Watching the morning Erie news, the top story besides Power Ball was the Sludge King,
our own Senator William Slocum getting a month in jail and a $15,000 fine for regularly
dumping raw sewage into the Brokenstraw Creek, a direct tributary of the Allegheny River.
"I'm shocked," the overweight pompous ass said to the television cameras.
"I'm shocked, too," Sharyn said when she heard the sentence handed down to
her former classmate and employee of her father's when he had the Walter Hardware Store in
Youngsville.
Both were shocked for pretty much the same reason. Neither expected him to receive such
a harsh sentence even though he could have done 16 years and been fined up to $600,000.
Me? Nothing surprises me anymore. Look at the City of (soon to be the Borough of)
Bradford. The headline in The Error read:
Marilyn Horne to get her own way
Big hairy deal!
This is a waste of time, money, and effort. Marilyn Horne doesn't give a
hoot about Bradford or having the road around the square named after her. I agree with Tom
Clark that this is stupid, stupid, stupid. And the Mayor really disappoints me. I thought
she had more on the ball than to go on the record to back such a ridiculous idea. But
then, she did back buying 9 Main Street, didn't she?
And then there was the lie that City Council told at the meeting, too.
9 Main Street will cost $9,500 in repairs! Is that last week or is that
next week? The inference is that it will cost $9,500 in repairs in total. That is absurd!
The roof alone was to cost $12,000 last December. And I have other
estimates, too. I said that it would have cost me close to $75,000 just to get it in the
order that I needed so that Tom Riel could open Club Bradford. And that was ignoring the
second and third floors, too.
And then there was the news about the airport. (I missed the meeting
because I was hot on the trail of Marjorie West).
Alliance wants consultant to study airport
None other than the Bradford Area Alliance, the same people who were going
to kick in around $30 grand to help finance the hiring of the manager, Tom Frongillo, now
want to finance a consultant.
Guess what! They never came up with the first $30 grand. What makes anyone
believe that they will come up with the cash for the study? And seeing how the financial
crisis at the airport was highlighted in the article in The Error, why then
wasn't the question of the first offer of money ever raised, and where is it today?
The same players are involved - Mike Glesk and Mike Schuler. These are the
same guys who first took over Tourism in the county. My God, the tourists they have
produced since Charlie Dach was dismissed by the rich boys club and one of Schuler's
employee's wives was hired to take his place! Then it was the Chamber of Commerce. Candy
Bush held on until they got a hold of the books and accused her of stealing funds from a
budget of $42,000 annually. Whether she did or not is still up in the air, and it seems
they don't really care. The idea was just to get rid of Candy.
So, with this study they are proposing, what next? If I was Tom Frongillo,
I would start sending resumes out to other airports.
John Gates always says: "You judge a horse by his track record."
When the Bradford Area Alliance gets involved with anything, the outcome
is certain. They replace the management with their own yes person. Frongillo wasn't exactly
the choice of Glesk during the hiring process. He wanted some other stuffed shirt
from out west, Lake Tahoe, if I remember and he wanted to pay him in the area of $70,000 -
a far cry from the $36,000 or so we got Tom for. And, Tom did make the mistake of crossing
one of the wives of one of the Alliance's members this past winter. Is payment in full
finally due?
All I know is that what Homer said two thousand or so years ago still
holds true. "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts." And that holds true for the rich
boys of the Alliance. Generally they forget about the money they promise, but what if they
don't? Maybe that might be worse.
Your comments are welcome at editor@mlrmag.com.
MAY 9, 2K
A few notes and Tommy Clark
Good morning. It is 66.9 degrees at 6:12 A.M.
It seemed ironic to me that sixty-two years to the date and the actual time of
day, that yesterday evening I was closing in on the woman I believe may be Marjorie West.
After weeks of no activity and dead end phone calls and investigation pieces started
falling into place. I hung up the phone and tried to imagine the men pouring out of
Bradford to search for the little four year old girl. And then I likened that to my search
for the sixty-six year old woman.
I fell asleep around nine thirty last night, but woke at midnight. I wandered
through the house and tried to imagine what it was like here sixty-two years ago. What was
in the minds of Cecilia and Shirley West? How they must have felt with their baby gone!
And what was in the mind of little Marjorie? What could she have felt? How
scared she must have been in that car traveling south with the strange man who snatched
her from Chapel Fork Road at three that afternoon? What she must have thought as she fell
asleep that night.
And now for more of Tom Clark.
T.J. And The Bradford Welfare Baby Factory
Thursday evening turned out to be a mild one, once the threat of rain subsided. I had a
little time to kill and took a ride around Bradford. There were many residents outside
mowing lawns, walking their dogs or just porch sitting and being thankful that winter is
finally behind us.
Riding around the hospital area, I noticed quite a few well-groomed children playing in
yards or walking with their friends. Ah, the innocence of youth!
I remember when I was young teenager and couldn't wait til the family dinner was over
so that I could run out and play with my friends for just a little while longer before
darkness descended.
We would get up an impromptu game of baseball in a field across the creek from
Constitution Avenue, a site that now bears thirty or so homes. Or, I'd hop on my dirt bike
and meet the boys for one more ride up on the hill before it was time to go inside.
Girls? Yeah, I think they existed, at least I would see them in school. Who cared about
girls? Hey, I was fourteen, there were too many lease roads to navigate on my dirt bike to
worry about girls.
As I was riding around Thursday night and conjuring memories of my own past youth,
reality smacked me right in the face as I turned on to Main Street. Welcome to Bradford's
version of Losers Row.
Main Street in any town should be, or was, the showpiece for residents to be proud of.
Yes, our Main Street happens to be a dead horse with no life support in sight. But, the
boys at the DPW do an outstanding job keeping the thoroughfare landscaped and fairly clean
of debris. Unless, you consider the human litter that slinks between South Center Street
and Tops Unfriendly Market.
The onset of nice weather brings out Bradford's ever-growing slew of scummers,
relievers and losers. From 10:00 am to well past dark, Main Street is a constant parade of
those who lay around on their dead asses and collect off our hard-earned tax money.
Veterans Square is constantly jammed with welfare monkeys clinging to the gazebo like they
have claimed squatters rights. They are part of the Bradford scenery, like it or not.
What was particular disturbing this Thursday evening was the metamorphosis I witnessed
as I past from one neighborhood to the next.Around the hospital area, I saw a few teenaged
girls sitting on a porch and talking. I imagined they were catching up on some giggly
gossip or dreaming of when they would be old enough to go to the Prom.
Just a short distance down the road, I entered the Hell Zone. Barbour Street, Brookline
Court and the welfare equivalent of the Camp David Compound, South Center Street. My first
sight in the area was three young girls, probably the same age as the porch sitters up the
street, each pushing a baby carriage down the sidewalk.
I pass South Center Street and see two more very young looking girls holding babies in
their arms. As I turned from South Avenue onto the Marilyn Horne Expressway, there are
four more adolescent girls in the gazebo with their offspring. What the @#$% is going on?
Why are these people allowed to reproduce? Are they turning out future citizens who
will contribute to our society? Certainly not. It's just another generation of slackers
being groomed to take their rightful place on the welfare rolls.
I thought we pumped a boat-load of money into agencies that are supposed to educate
these people on the ways of life, including reproduction. We have all of these programs
for after the babies are born, i.e. WIC, but where is the prevention? Castration and
sterilization for welfare recipients? You've got my vote.
Meanwhile, in Monticello, Virginia, the ongoing debate about Thomas Jefferson's sexual
promiscuity is reaching a crescendo. The third President of the United States would have a
field day on South Center Street.
For those not familiar with the story, scientists have all but proved, through DNA
analysis, that T.J. fathered at least one, if not all six, of one of his slaves' children.
Now the fight is about who is allowed to attend the annual gala for descendants of
Jefferson. One of the perks of being a blood relative is the eligibility to be buried in
Monticello's private cemetery.
I can picture these good ol' boy Virginia aristocrats loathing the thought of being
buried next to "dem coloreds". When we say ethnic around here, we mean Italian,
Polish, German, etc. In the South, ethnic is black or white. Witness the ongoing battles
over removing the Confederate flag from some of the states' capitols.
Thomas Jefferson went about his personal affairs quietly, much like the guy or guys who
are knocking up all the welfare girls. It took 200 years and the miracle of DNA research
to determine that he was the father of slave children.
It should take us about one hour to round up all of the scumbags who have nothing
better to do than collect welfare and have sex with these nasty, little welfare teens. If
they want to continue on with their useless lives and being unproductive members of
society, we should have one requirement ...bring in Dr. Snip.
Your questions and comments are somewhat appreciated and are usually
skimmed over before deletion into cyber oblivion. Write me at cclark@2-cool.com.
And there you have Tom's words of wisdom and they make a lot of sense. And so
did the other Tom (That's Tom the real deal Riel) last night. Quoted once more in The
Bradford Error, he had the following to say about the Foster Township attempts to ban
adult entertainment.
After the meeting, Riel pointed out on a zoning map of the township that only three
places were applicable for putting adult entertainment businesses in.
One is a parcel of land located along South Kendall Avenue near Lafferty Hollow; a second
is a piece of land behind Evan's Rollerdrome on East Main Street, which is currently being
cleared for possible development ; and a third is on either side of U.S. Route 219 between
the Baltimore and Ohio railroad
tracks and the Tunungwant Creek on the side nearest Seaward Avenue near the sewage
treatment plant.
"If they don't want to make it less than 1,000 feet why don't they just make it a
mile," Riel said later. "I'm not saying I want to put a business in there. But,
they should enact an ordinance that's plausible and makes sense, not one that restricts
them (businesses) to areas they legally cannot go."
"I feel that this ordinance is nothing but an attempt to banish adult businesses from
coming to Foster Township," Riel added.
And I saw that Dickie Mutzabaugh finally showed up and he brought Tony Clarke,
his junior partner, with him. Was Clarke his designated driver? Whether he was or not, it
was good to see the Foster Township Solicitor finally attend a meeting.
And as I read that an e-mail I recently received seemed to apply.
Subject: Surgeon General Warning - 2 Much sex causes Dirty Vision! =>
Surgeon General warns: Too much sex causes distorted vision! That's exactly why they call
this place Dirty Vision! (Are they talking about Bradford or Foster
Township?) They have so many amateur babes from every category getting it in
every way imaginable LIVE! You name it these chicks do it! (Oh my God! It
makes my hair curl! Is this what Muttzie's Morality is all about? Is he
protecting us from this or is it something else?)
And with that I will leave this open to your comments at editor@mlrmag.com.
MAY 8, 2K
Searching for Marjorie West. It was sixty-two years ago today!
Good morning. It is 56.8 degrees at 6:08 A.M.
Sixty years ago today it was Mother's Day in McKean County and the rest of the
nation. It was a chilly Sunday morning. The temperature at sunrise was around 36 down in
Bradford. Up on the hill in Marshburg there was a thin layer of frost on the open fields.
It was 1938 and while the rest of the county was just getting back to work and recovering
from the depression, an oil boom was going on here.
Life wasn't bad around here. Work was plentiful and wages were more than decent. Men
needing work from south of here, from as far away as the Carolinas and even farther south,
came and took jobs so they could send money home to support their families and keep the
lands their ancestors had live on for generations.
While war was spreading across Asia and Europe was on the brink, it was peaceful here.
Cecilia West rose about this time of the morning and soon her husband, Shirley, was up.
They had their morning coffee, woke the children, had breakfast, and went to church.
Following church, the West family, consisting of father Shirley Mills West, mother
Cecilia R. West, Dorothea age 11, Allan age 7, and Marjorie age 4, accompanied by their
friends Lloyd and Helen Akerlind, planned a picnic. They would leave Bradford, PA and go
south on Route 219. At Custer City they would follow the old Pennsylvania Railroad grade
up into the hills to Marshburg. There they would continue along the old grade to the White
Gravel area along Chapel Fork Road. In all, the trip would take nearly 40 minutes.
Allan, Marjorie and Dorothea 1937
To reach that remote area they would travel through hills that had been timbered to the
point that they were naked of trees. Only stumps and the scattering of pumping oil wells
would be visible then. This was the case for most of the hills in McKean County. They had
been timbered and the oil and gas industry was now making a heavy mark.
However, the mountains south of Marshburg were not only heavily wooded, but untouched
by the oil industry because of the forbidding terrain. The former railroad grade, now a
fire road, ran from Marshburg to the town of Morrison. It was a well known shortcut for
the people of the area. Also, with the tracks gone, it was now ideal for Sunday drivers,
or young couples just wanting to be alone. It was also a fast way out of the county to the
roads leading south.
Several years ago I spoke with Dorothea West Nicholson regarding that day.
"My mother, Mrs.West and Helen Akerlind were at the car which was parked in a
clearing where we were going to picnic. Marjorie and I were picking spring violets near a
rock. I remember it as a boulder. I had been cautioned not to go on the other side of the
rock where Mother and Helen could not see us. Even though Lloyd and Dad had checked the
area, they were worried about rattlesnakes.
"Allan was with Lloyd and Dad at the stream fishing. We children were not
permitted on the fire road because of traffic. Mother and Helen never had a chance to put
out the picnic lunch that day. I tried to show Marjorie how to pick violets with the
stems, not just the heads, and showed her a little spot on the far side of the rock where
there were lots of violets. I told her I would be back and went to the car. I said 'Happy
Mother's Day' and gave mother her bouquet. I told Helen, 'Marjorie is going to bring you a
bouquet...OF VIOLET HEADS' and laughed. When I returned to the rock, I didn't see Marjorie
and started calling her. Mother and Helen came running and they were calling her name. Dad
and Lloyd heard us and they, with my brother Allan, came running."
In that short period of time, Marjorie West was gone.
What ensued was one of the largest manhunts in the history of Pennsylvania to that time
and was only exceeded by the search for the missing Lindbergh child. Blood hounds were
used in the search later that day. They stopped cold at a spot on the road where Marjorie
had been and the violet heads still were laying. It was as if she had been taken from that
spot.
That night a a child resembling Marjorie West was seen with a man in a car in Thomas,
West Virginia. The report was made to the West Virginia State Police.
The man attempted to register for the night at a local hotel. When he was told no rooms
were available he then visited a local liquor store and drove away. A taxi driver
stationed at the hotel supplied the description of the man and the child.
Thomas, West Virginia is located on US 219 and at that time was a major route south.
Thomas was also a railroad center and a coal mining town of 3,000. If Marjorie was picked
up by a man at three o'clock, six to seven hours later they would have arrived in Thomas.
To this day no trace of Marjorie West has ever been found. Her parents have
long since passed away. Her brother is dead and I have not heard from Dorothea since
sometime in early 1998.
For the past three years I have been circulating Dorothea's picture across the internet
and with organizations dedicated to finding lost children. It was taken when she was 65.
Also, as she pointed out her baby pictures and Marjorie's baby pictures were often
mistaken for one another. So, if that was the case then, why not now?
And maybe, just maybe we might have something.
"I would not have written had it not have been for the uncanny
resemblance," I received one morning.
That came from a woman who worked directly with the Dorothea look alike for several
years. And she said more.
"The last time I saw her we hugged each other good bye and wished each
other well and her last words to me were "Live a good life."
She "wears her hair exactly the same as Dorothea. In the years I have
known her she has become more of a blond than red head (as we all do
with a little help from our hair dresser."
She "was country and spoke with a southern accent. She often used
southern phrases for living i.e "my plate is already full", when she didn't want
to take on any more work. "
Ironically, on the same day three other people identified the same woman as a Dorothea
picture look alike.
"I read your story about the missing child. The picture I saw is (Name
Taken Out) or her twin. I have known her for years. She was a natural red head and
speaks with a soft southern accent."
The description of Marjorie that was circulated with her picture in 1938 was that she
was: "a little blue-eyed red-headed girl who talked with a slight southern
accent."
The woman who retired and moved away from that location is in the area of 66 or
67 years old. Could it be Marjorie? Could it be her after all of these years?
I have followed several blind leads and am still trying to find the woman was was
identified. I expect that I will shortly. I will keep you posted.
In the meantime, your comments and help are welcome at editor@mlrmag.com.
MAY 6 & 7, 2K
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