The Destroying Angels

 

                                            The assassination of Joseph Smith

Vigilantes, posses, paramilitaries, militias, armed clans' vendettas and feuds, range wars, murderous mobs...

Warlords, dictators, would-be dictators and cult leaders have used mayhem, terror and murder over and over again to further their greed for power.  Civilization, it seems, just cannot end mindless tribal behavior.  

In 1838, a secret society was established in Missouri by Mormons to protect themselves from attacks and to carry out reprisals -- the Danites, or as they were also called, the Destroying Angels.  Their early leaders such as Sampson Avard, Porter Blackwell and Bill Hickman left their violent mark on American history, from the Missouri War of 1838 up to the awful climax of the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 120 innocent pioneers near present-day  St. George, Utah, in 1857.  The LDS church disavowed them officially, and eventually by 1870 the armed militia had dwindled.  A predecessor group, the "Armies of Israel," was somewhat organized in 1834 under founder Joseph Smith, when the attacks against their sect began and went on unrelentingly, forcing their moves westward year after year.  Smith himself was assassinated.

                                             Mountain Meadows massacre
 

 It is one thing to counter violence with the same.  But today we see the unfortunate result of a frontier tradition of individualism becoming an unthinking belligerence and expressing a hatred of a rational civil structure by means of promoting armed resistance to...what?  Misdirected rage is easily manipulated by cult leaders (political and religious) who demand conformity, surrender of individual thinking and basic human rights in a climate of antisocial disdain for all decent norms.  The inherent hypocrisy and blatant contradiction are not even noticed by their zombie-like followers.

In the course of history, light is periodically extinguished by the darkness.  We're not intelligent enough to light a candle and dispel it. 

 

 

Wilhelm's Eleven

 

Friedrich Wilhelm Voight was born in Prussia in 1849 and learned the shoemaking trade from his father.  But at the early age of 14, he began his criminal career with a two-week jail stay for theft.  He did not learn much from that: during a 27-year period, he spent 25 of them in prison.  Out in early 1906, he came up with a caper that Danny Ocean would have appreciated.

Wilhelm bought an army captain's uniform in a pawnshop, collected ten local soldiers solely on the authority represented by his uniform, and marched into the city hall of Koepenick, Prussia.  There the cowed city officials handed over 4,002 marks and change to the "captain," who obligingly signed a receipt (with someone else's name, of course). He sent his troop on their way back to duty, and disappeared.

                                                             City Hall, Koepenick

But, he was arrested a few weeks later in October 1906 and sentenced to two years.  While serving his time, the story spread around Germany and even the Kaiser was amused ("he seems like an amiable fellow") and pardoned Wilhelm.  Quickly becoming a folk hero, a wax figure was made for a museum, and he wrote a play  about his hijinks and toured central Europe.  Subsequently, in 1909, he published a successful book.  Over the next three-quarters of a century, another play, movies and television retold his story, a Clyde without a Bonnie, a Jesse James, a Robin Hood, and yes, like Zorro too.  The tried and true course of criminal to popular hero to media figure.

The ruse of using a false uniform has been employed for more sinister purposes.  One hundred and fifty Austrian Nazis did so in the first, unsuccessful, putsch in Austria (1934); the Wehrmacht did during the World War II invasion of the Netherlands and later impersonation of American MPs during the Battle of the Bulge, and it works in Afghanistan today.

Nothing is stranger than a true story.

Legends Are Made of These

 

In the Sunday newspaper, I saw a short review of a new book, Zorro's Shadow: How a Mexican Legend Became America's Superhero by Stephen J. C. Andes.  Thus the inspiration to look into the Zorro story, especially because of growing up with the well-produced Disney television show beginning in 1957 and starring Guy Williams (who personifies Sade's "Smooth Operator" song).

Television's "The Lone Ranger," we find, was based on a lawman in the Old West named Bass Reeves who was actually Black.  But that would not have played with the mid-century American audience.  Neither would the real-life characters behind the legend of El Zorro (The Fox).

 In 1919, a pulp magazine (above) published a five part serial by Johnston McCulley on the exploits of   Californio Don Diego de la Vega during the Spanish era in Alta California (1769 - 1821).  It was an immediate hit, followed by 65 more pieces by McCulley and a movie in 1920 starring Douglas Fairbanks.  Tyrone Power, Alain Delon, Antonio Banderas and many others over the next century appeared in successful Zorro films, not to mention plays, a musical, television shows both acted (one in Spanish) and animated, and a comic strip and books.  The character was irresistible, possessisng all positive human qualities along with superior skills, wit and daring.  Batman was, some think, based on Zorro (mask, cape, adventures at night, a daytime identity, fighting for justice and not gain), but already the superhero mold was being cast, as Batman was above the restraints of gravity and the limits of human ability.

 The two main historical personages our fictional hero was based on were not such fine gentlemen.

Salomon Pico (1821 - 1860) from central California was related to the last Mexican governor and his father was the manager of Rancho del Rey San Pedro.  He was given a large Mexican land grant in 1844, but the fateful year of the Gold Rush arrived soon after and he lost his land to squatters as well as his beloved wife.  Proud and wronged, he vowed vengeance, trading cattle and horses by day but riding at night down a path of violence, claiming to have killed 39 Yankees.  He was protected by fellow Californios who also were being dispossessed, seemingly disappearing into the air when chased.  Pico fled to Baja California where he held posts under an official who was an old military colleague.  But a new governor succeeded who was bent on ridding the state of outlaws, and Pico's eventful life was ended by a firing squad.

Joaquin Murrieta (1829 - 1853?) was as aggrieved by the invading Americans as Pico.  Arriving from Mexico to participate in the Gold Rush with numerous members of his family, his claim was taken away and he was falsely accused of stealing a mule. Solid facts about Murrieta are sketchy, but his legend in California, Mexico and Chile (because of a fictional claim he was born there) reverberates today as an avenger of wrongs.  Not that he didn't thereafter commit many of his own, from horse thievery to robbery and murder of ranchers, travelers and many Chinese miners.  One by one, his gang members fell: a stepbrother hanged early on, a brother-in-law killed during a shootout; even the notorious Three-Fingered Jack went down with him in the final face off, gunned down by a posse. His severed head was preserved in a large glass jug filled with alcohol as proof in order to collect the reward.  The grisly display was last seen at the Golden Nugget Saloon in San Francisco, before disappearing in the 1906 earthquake.

Their stories were embellished and published over and over again by newspapermen and sundry other highly imaginative writers, eventually coalescing into the Spanish-American Robin Hood/Scarlet Pimpernel folk hero we know as the dashing Zorro.  

    

What Have We Learned?

 

Lifelong learning is like the hamster wheel.  It never ends; there's always more to come!  (After all these years, I still think homework, however, is a waste of effort and time.  I only remember one assignment that was interesting.  We were tasked to write ten stories in Spanish.  Didn't want to stop at ten).  Here are some things I've learned after schooling ended.  And let's hear yours!

 Buddhism proposes that you must let go of regrets to achieve peace.  In theory, okay, but that is not realistic.  Only psychopaths have no regrets.  The greatest one is not being able to fix very much of what you messed up in the past.

 Nothing much good for you happens after midnight or in the desert.

"Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be."  Take charge of your own mental and physical health.  

Work on not paying rent or interest any longer than necessary.  Read  Your Money or Your Life  to get started on that.

Buy quality.  These days that is easier to do using consignment stores, library sales and local marketplace web sites.  You can pick up all the hand tools you would want at an estate sale for the retail price of one.

We will never figure out why the music and electronics were so great in the 70s and the clothing and hair styles were so hideous.

Bob Dylan was right:  "Don't follow leaders but watch the parking meters."

Don't do anything that will result in your being on "Dateline."

Don't fall for every new medium, which will probably be obsolete in a few years (remember laser discs?).  The mountain of audio cassettes still residing here is a constant reminder of that.

The best no-calorie treat is a tree's shade on a hot sunny day.  And it's free to all.

"No one knows anything."  So said writer William Goldman of Hollywood producers.  But think how widely that applies.