– by Nicholas DeSutter

(Magna intern Nicholas DeSutter is a student at Ball State University. He is a sophomore majoring in Business Entrepreneurship.)

 by Brian L. Foust

In the last issue of Pomp and Circumstantial Evidence, I described how the Arsenic and Oolong Society and some Magna Cum Murder alumni embarked on the "Crime Thru Time" literary mystery tour. We are "traveling" through time by reading a mystery either written in or set in each decade of the twentieth century. So let’s pick up our journey where we left off, shortly after the mysterious disappearance of our fictitious mystery author Nina Rose Lancgood in 1929.

1930-1939 – In the Great Depression the American dream had become a nightmare. What was once the land of opportunity was now the land of desperation. What had been the land of hope and optimism had become the land of despair. The American people were questioning all the maxims on which they had based their lives - democracy, capitalism, individualism. Between 1929 and 1932 the income of the average American family was reduced by 40%, from $2,300 to $1,500. Instead of advancement, survival became the keyword. Because money was so scarce, people did what they could to make their lives happy. Movies were hot; parlor games and board games were popular. People gathered around radios to listen to the Yankees. Young people danced to the big bands. Franklin Roosevelt influenced Americans with his fireside chats. The golden age of the mystery novel continued as people escaped into books, reading writers like Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler.

Notable true crimes in this decade included the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby in 1932 (the inspiration and basis for many mystery novels including Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and Max Alan Collins’ Stolen Away), and the deaths of many notorious gangsters – Bonnie & Clyde, John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson. Some of the authors we have read during our travels in this decade include John Dickson Carr and Dorothy Sayers, and contemporary authors Jill Churchill and George Baxt.

1940-1949 – The 1940’s were dominated by World War II. European artists and intellectuals fled Hitler and the Holocaust, bringing new ideas created in disillusionment. War production pulled us out of the Great Depression. Women were needed to replace men who had gone off to war, and so a first great exodus of women from the home to the workplace began. Rationing affected the food we ate, the clothes we wore, the toys with which children played. The United States emerged from World War II as a world superpower, challenged only by the U.S.S.R. While the U.S.S.R. subjugated the defeated countries, the U.S. implemented the Marshall Plan, helping war-torn countries to rebuild and rejoin the world economy. Disputes over ideology and control led to the Cold War. Communism was treated as a contagious disease, and anyone who had contact with it was under suspicion. After the war the men returned, having seen the rest of the world. No longer was the family farm an ideal; no longer would blacks accept inferior status. Returning G.I.’s created the baby boom, which is still having repercussions on American society today. The G.I. Bill allowed more men than ever before a college education. In 1949, three times as many college degrees were conferred as in 1940. College became available to the capable rather than the privileged few.

Television made its debut at the 1939 World Fair, but the war interrupted further development. In 1947, commercial television with 13 stations became available to the public. Computers were developed during the early forties. The digital computer, named ENIAC, weighing 30 tons and standing two stories high, was completed in 1945. Notable crimes in this decade included: The "Black Magic" murder of millionaire Harry Oakes in Nassau in 1943 and the Black Dahlia murder, and the murder of gangster Bugsy Segal (the first promoter of Las Vegas as a gambling mecca) in 1947. Our historical "tour guides" for this decade include Leslie Ford and Craig Rice and, contemporary authors Stuart Kaminsky and Terence Faherty.

1950-1959 – Perhaps one of the things which most characterizes the 1950’s was the strong element of conservatism and anticommunist feeling which ran throughout much of society. America had just begun her recovery from World War II, when suddenly the Korean Conflict developed. The U.S.S.R. became a major enemy in the Cold War. Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed to know that Communists had infiltrated the United States government at the highest levels. Americans were feeling a sense of national anxiety. Was America the greatest country in the world? Was life in America the best it had ever been?

During the 1950’s, television became the dominant mass media as people viewed in greater numbers of hours per week than ever before. In the early fifties, young people watched television more hours than they went to school, a trend which has not changed greatly since that time. What was portrayed on television became accepted as normal despite the fact that it had only a partial basis in reality (another trend that has not changed greatly since that time.)  And of course when the 1950’s are mentioned, the first type of music to come to most people’s minds is rock ‘n roll. Developed from a blend of Southern blues and gospel music with a strong back beat, this type of music was popular with teenagers who were trying to break out of the mainstream conservative American middle class mold.

The notable crimes from the 1950’s include the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for espionage in 1951, the imprisonment of Dr. Sam Sheppard in 1954 for murdering his wife. (He was found innocent in 1965) His story provided the inspiration of the television series The Fugitive. In 1957 Wisconsin cannibal-murderer Ed Gein’s horrific crimes were uncovered and became the basis for Psycho and Silence of the Lambs. In 1957 and ‘58, Charles Starkweather and his teenage girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, went on multi-state murder sprees throughout the Midwest. Authors that we have read for this period included Mickey Spillane and Carter Dickson (pseudonym of John Dickson Carr), and contemporary authors Walter Mosley and Ed Gorman.

"And now for something completely different…" – Monty Python

During our spring cleaning this year, my wife and I came across several boxes of what can best be described as "Mystery-llaneous stuff" or perhaps "Mystery-bilia." In other words, all kinds of mystery related items that we have accumulated over the 14 year history of the Arsenic and Oolong Society. These items consist of buttons, badges, keychains, puzzles, games, wooden guns from our "Dillinger Day Road Trip", plastic hatchets from our "Lizzie Borden Centennial Family Picnic" and any number of other bizarre one-of-a-kind items that we simply do not have room to store any more. This year at the Tenth Annual Magna Cum Murder Crime Writing Convention, the Arsenic and Oolong Society will be holding a "Charity Bizarre" and selling these unique, rare and perhaps collectible items with all proceeds going to Muncie’s Animal Rescue Fund (A.R.F. for short). And you can help! If you have a jigsaw puzzle that you’ve already worked, or some other mystery related item that is just taking up space in your closet, bring it with you to the festival. As you donate to charity, you will make room for more books! We will accept donations of any mystery related item – except books (we want you to spend your book money with the vendors who support Magna). For donations or more information about the Arsenic and Oolong Charity Bizarre please e-mail me at mirbane@justcatholic.net Thank you in advance for your support.

– Your Humble Servant, Brian Foust (Mirbane, the butler)

Carolyn Gilbert is the founder of the International Association of Obituarists, editor of www.ObitPage.com, and the host for a continuing series of events for obituarists. She has hosted the First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Great Obituary Writers’ National Conferences in the United States. In addition, she has convened international seminars on the "Art of the Obituary" for obituary writers and readers in San Miguel de Allende, Gto., Mexico.

Gilbert has been recognized in a number of professional publications including the prestigious Outstanding Young Women of America; Women of the Metroplex; the North American Directory of Who’s Who in Executives and Professionals, Millennium Edition 2000; National Register’s WHO’S WHO in Executives and Professionals 2002-2003.

A graduate of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, she was a teacher of English and speech for a number of years. She served as Director of Professional Services and Teacher Training for the Texas Classroom Teachers Association, Austin, Texas. Based in Dallas, Texas, she served for ten years as Executive Director of the Dallas Alliance, a precedent-setting community affairs organization composed of leaders from all segments of the greater Dallas area addressing emerging urban issues such as school desegregation, criminal justice, neighborhood development and leadership training before going into private practice.

Gilbert is a specialist in private practice in the areas of public policy, current affairs, organizational leadership, problem resolution and communications. She has been instrumental in helping to found a number of community service organizations to address specific needs such as the Dispute Mediation Service of Dallas and the Dallas Legal Hospice for persons with AIDS and other terminal illnesses. She has served as an adjunct professor of alternative dispute resolution at Southern Methodist School of Law in Dallas.

A frequent guest on National Public Radio, she is also in demand as a speaker for conferences and writers’ workshops on the Art of the Obituary. She has become a point of contact and a resource person for a world-wide network of writers and readers who have a professional interest in the art of the obituary. She has established a body of work on the obituary including "The Global Obituary," Grassroots Editor, Volume 42, no. 3, Fall 201; "The Obituary As Literary Form" (see page 10), and "The International Association of Obituarists," Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook, Bruccoli Clark Layman, Inc.

Carolyn Gilbert will be the keynote speaker at the 2003 Magna cum Murder banquet.