Vincent Girolamo

Big Vinny Girolamo 12.05.47 - 09.12.79

After the completion of his military service in 1966, Girolamo joined the Hell's Angels and became the sergeant-at-arms of the Manhattan chapter. He is responsible for the club's motto "When in Doubt, Knock 'em Out" and their insignia "Evil Force".

On September 21, 1977, 22 year old waitress/girlfriend Mary Ann Campbell died after Girolamo pushed her from the roof of a 6 story building. That night, the drunken Girolamo was also accused of attempting to rape two other members. Girolamo was charged with Campbell's murder but before he could stand trial, he died from an injury to his spleen after a dispute turned physical with Oakland Hell's Angel President Michael "Irish" O'Farrell.

Girolamo is featured prominently in this fascinating documentary about the outlaw biker gang. Hurricane Vinny enjoys third billing, right after Sonny Barger and Sandy Alexander.

Hells Angels Forever, 1983 documentary

Observer Reporter, 1979

Three Can Keep a Secret if Two are Dead

Showdown- How the Outlaws, Hells Angels and Cops Fought for Control of the Streets

Trouble with Angels, NY Times 1994

The Vroom of Engines, NY Times 2007

wikipedia

Mark and Claudia Kelly

Apparently it is easier to put a man on the moon than to educate people about the dangers of gripping dogs or hold them responsible for the mayhem their mutant grippers create.

Claudia Kelly and Shiner

During a family vacation on Laguna Beach, the gripper belonging to CLAUDIA KELLY, daughter of astronaut MARK KELLY and stepdaughter of Gabrielle Giffords, over powered her in order to attack a baby sea lion on the beach. CLAUDIA and two other women halfheartedly worked to free the federally protected marine mammal from the gripper's locked jaws while men from above videotaped the mayhem and instructed her to hold her ugly dog under water to get it to release. The incensed princess promptly fired back "what the fuck".

Daddy to the rescue
Astronaut MARK KELLY intervened and shook the ugly mutant off the dead seal and high tailed it out of there, while another woman consoled his blubbering princess, all caught on video. Law enforcement failed to issue any citations to the traumatized little princess and her celebrity dad citing, "It was legal for her to have the dog on the beach this time of year, and she did have it leashed. It was so strong that it pulled free of her when it saw the sea lion." Capt. Jason Kravetz

Like the border collie that herds ants, this purpose bred dog will exercise its gripping DNA on whatever is handy, there is nothing accidental about it.


Daddy and Shiner on the Walk of Shame

MARK KELLY and Gabrielle Giffords are behind the non-profit americans for responsible solutions calling for a tightening of gun laws while endangering our public beaches with vicious gripping dogs.


Daily Mail


Please sign the petition to hold the KELLYS accountable.

George Herman Ruth Jr aka Babe Ruth aka "the Bambino" aka "the Sultan of Swat"

The Bambino learned the hard way about the danger of
pit bulls and switched to the watered down pit fighter.

February 6, 1895 - August 16, 1948

Babe Ruth is considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time but few realize that The Babe is also found among the ranks of famous pit bull owners. The Babe's pit bull hobby didn't last long. He retired from pit bull ownership when he learned the hard way that it was much harder to keep pit bulls safely contained on his property than it was to knock the ball out of the park.

“The farm definitely had become more nuisance than nirvana.  An adventure raising chickens had fallen apart when the chickens died.  A second adventure, raising pit bulls was disbanded when one of the dogs got out of its pen and attacked and killed a neighbor’s cow.”

page195 The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth, Leigh Montville

"Ruth used to tell his wife he was going fishing, then come home tipsy, carrying a store-bought fish still wrapped in paper. The day his neighbor Henry Ford (who wanted to build an industrial village in town) complained that Ruth's pit bulls had killed his chickens, Ruth went to the barn, and "all Dorothy heard was shotgun blasts as he killed every dog."

http://www.thehistoryhound.com/babe-ruth-piano.html

Young Babe Ruth: His Early Life and Baseball Career from the Memoirs of a Xaverian Brother, Brother Gilbert

Ira Glass and Anaheed Alani

IRA GLASS and ANAHEED ALANI

Ira Glass reveals his dirty little secret on his national radio show This American Life. The secret: he and his wife not only harbor a dangerous pit bulldog that has bitten 6 people, they dote on it.


This American Nutter: The Piney Files

This American Life

The I Love My Bad Dog Blog

Act five: HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

This is where the couple resides.

Buster Brown

Buster Brown

Pit Nutter Mission statement established in 1903. It's time for a new one guys! :-)

Outcault is probably laughing in his grave at how accurately his depiction of pit bull owners was and would still be 100 years later.

Buster Brown, the pit bull owning cartoon created by R. F. Outcault in 1903. Nutters wear this famous pit bull as a badge of honor but they fail to realize that Tige is no Lassie or Rin Tin Tin. In fact, Tige's primary contribution to the comic seems to be Buster's partner in mayhem.

Tige bites the doctor
Tige bites policeman
Tige bites the skipper
Tige bites man
Tige mayhem
Tige biting burglar
Tige bites Buster when he is forced to give Auntie a kiss
Tige creates mayhem while chasing a cat
Tige gets jealous when Buster fawns over a goat
And my personal favorite, Tige shows his true racist colors:
Tige bites the balloon man, he doesn't like "dagos".

Directory of all Buster Brown comics

Buster and America's Dog

The Truth About Buster Brown and Tige

DIGITAL COMIC MUSEUM

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826

Our third and one of our greatest presidents is on the list of famous pit bull owners. There is only one small problem. The pit bull terrier did not exist in Jefferson's lifetime. Therefore, if you believe that Thomas Jefferson owned pit bulls, you also acknowledge that bulldogs ARE pit bulls, something most bulldog and APBT fanciers are loathe to do.

Historical records indicate upon his return from France in 1789, Jefferson brought back French Shepherds and shortly after the turn of the century, General Lafayette gave Jefferson a couple of Briards to protect his sheep. Jefferson later imported Briards. There is also one very odd, very brief reference from a slave who stated that Jefferson owned two bulldogs. (possibly one of these bulldogs?)

Jefferson had little tolerance for dogs that brought harm to his sheep, regardless of whether the harm was done by his own dogs or those belonging to his slaves or his neighbors. Jefferson once ordered a dog hung for killing his sheep and he destroyed many of his own dogs who were described as "mischievous".

He was not so lucky with Grizzle, a second sheepdog sent to Monticello from Normandy in 1790. In 1796 Grizzle's line, which had proved "mischievous," was destroyed - all except Damon, who was kept out of mischief at the end of a chain.

No one has yet solved the mystery of what Bergère, Grizzle and their progeny looked like. Some have suggested they were long-tailed shaggy Briards. This breed, however, bears little resemblance to the chien de berger in Buffon's Histoire naturelle. In the only eyewitness account, which raises more questions than it answers, the slave Isaac remembered that Jefferson "had dogs named Ceres, Bull, Armandy, and Claremont; most of 'em French dogs; he brought 'em over with him from France. Bull and Ceres were bulldogs. He brought over Buzzy with him too; she pupped at sea: Armandy and Claremont, stump tails, both black." Buzzy was obviously Bergère, and Claremont - correctly Clermont - was no doubt one of her pups born on that vessel. Ceres may have been the second of Bergère's pups, named for the ship that had carried Jefferson in the opposite direction in 1784. Armandy was perhaps Norman, one of only three of Bergère's descendants left at Monticello in 1796; a fourth, Sancho, belonged to Thomas Mann Randolph. The reference to bulldogs is puzzling, since no other mention of the presence of this breed at Monticello has been found.

"I participate in all your hostility to dogs, and would readily join in any plan for exterminating the whole race."

and

"To secure wool enough, the negroes dogs must all be killed. Do not spare a single one. ..Let this be carried into execution immediately."

Yep, sounds like Jefferson had experience with bulldogs.

Thomas Jefferson: an intimate history

American Presidents Dogs

Letter: Hostility to Dogs

Lafayette's Dogs

Thomas Jefferson Hated Dogs and Clergymen

American Pit Bull a documentary by Marilyn Braverman

Is an american bulldog a pit bull?

Harry S Lucenay

Harry S Lucenay

May 8, 1887 - May 28, 1944

The owner and trainer of the dogs who portrayed Pete in the Little Rascals died at the age of 57. After a long night of a low stakes poker game, Lucenay grabbed and twisted the arm of 71 year old Charles Z. Bailey and accused him of cheating. Bailey claimed that Lucenay "was going to beat him up" so he pulled a gun and shot him in the arm. Bailey stated that Lucenay "kept coming" so he fired again. The second bullet hit Lucenay's heart and he died.

* The Calgary Herald lists Lucenay's age at 47, yet Find A Grave Memorial lists his age at 57.

The man responsible for killing Lucenay was a decorated soldier and a famous California panoramic photographer.

The Calgary Herald, May 27, 1944

Find A Grave Memorial

Find A Grave Memorial

US Militaria Forum (look! more medals than Stubby!!)

California Views

Jack Dempsey

click to view larger image of Jack Dempsey and his bulldog King.

William Harrison "Jack" Demspey (The Manassa Mauler)
June 24, 1895 - May 31, 1983

Jack Dempsey's bulldog bit Artemis Geranois (a child) in Shelby, Montana during his training for his famous July 4, 1923 fight with Tom Gibbons. A $10,000 lawsuit was filed against Dempsey and his manager Jack Kearns on behalf of the victim.

Ten years later, Dempsey's sister in law would find herself and one of her bulldogs before a judge. Susan Dempsey was ordered to fork over $3K Claire Hoffman. Mrs Dempsey tried to blame Hoffman's pekinese. Judge Percy Hight ordered the dogs to the courtroom and measured their teeth.

"It was the bulldog, all right."


Jack Dempsey and Jack Kearns

Sources
Reading Eagle 08.31.1923

Ogden Standard 06.01.1919

San Jose Evening News 04.27.1933

Jack Dempsey wiki

Benny Quinn McEntyre a.k.a. Benny Mack

file photo of a bank robber/murderer

In 1929, Featherweight boxer Benny Quinn McEntyre aka Benny Mack was convicted of the murder of landscape architect W. R. Moore. Mack shot and killed Moore as the two argued over a bulldog that Moore purchased but still had not paid for 2 weeks earlier.

Mack was sentenced to 22-30 years but was pardoned by the governor. He returned to boxing and a life of crime. At one time Mack was working as a Hollywood stunt double. In 1936, he was charged with car theft. In 1961 at the age of 57, Mack was sentenced to 15 years for bank robbery

Mack eventually landed in an insane asylum.

links

Border Cities Star 02.04.29

Boxrec.com

Barnes and Noble

William Faversham

February 12, 1868 - April 7, 1940

Legendary british film and stage actor William Faversham had a passion for fighting dogs and when he came to America, he brought them with him. Faversham was a significant player among bull terrier breeders. He was a breeder and judge of bull terrier show dogs.

During his early years in the America, Faversham was at times homeless and spent his sundays pitting his bull terrier against laborers' dogs in Harlem. Faversham's pit dog was a champion.

On August 3, 1891, two of Faversham's 30+ bull terriers SOMEHOW managed to escape their kennels and go on a mauling spree. The bull terriers attacked 2 women and 3 kids and when William Truss came to their aid, they mauled him. Faversham responded and called the dogs off. Truss' flesh was tore from both arms and the back of his legs.

Mayor Thomas H Leonard ordered the man biters removed from the town within 24 hours, not culled.

In September 1897 when he was starring in a Chicago play, he found being apart from one of his dogs unbearable so he wired his friends in New York and asked them to ship one of his dogs. It died en route and Faversham wept and stated he was heart broken.

Faversham died in poverty at the age of 72 in a New York rooming house.

Links

New York Times September 20, 1897

New York Times August 4, 1891

The Outing Magazine 1912

New York Times April 5, 1914

New York Times May 6, 1917

http://www.wayneturney.20m.com/favershamwilliam.htm

Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson, wife and gripping dog in Chicago

Jack Johnson nee John Authur Johnson

March 31, 1878 - June 10, 1946

One of Johnson's "prize bulldogs" attacked one of Johnson's fans in Detroit and "nearly chewed his arm off". "...after considerable trouble [Johnson] succeeded in releasing the dog's hold..." The victim, Sam Lewis pressed charges. The outcome is unknown.

interesting factoids

Johnson's first wife killed herself in September 1912. Johnson beat her many times during their turbulent relationship.

Three months later, he married 18 yr old prostitute, Lucille Cameron. She divorced him in 1924 citing his infidelity.

Johnson had a penchant for young white hookers. He even married one to avoid prison but later was found guilty after another prostitute testified against him. Johnson was convicted under the Mann Act and served 2 years in Leavenworth after living in exile for 7 years in Europe.

Johnson was killed in a car accident in North Carolina. Angry at being denied service in a diner, he took his aggression out on the road. Johnson was 68.

links

new york times 02.09.11

theselvedgeyard.wordpress.com

wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Johnson

www.dailymail.co.uk


John Colby and Jack Johnson

Adele Rowland and Conway Tearle

Adele Rowland

July 10, 1883 - August 8, 1971

Conway Tearle née Frederick Levy

May 17, 1878 - October 1, 1938 (heart attack)

Four year old Jacques Weinberg was walking past the Chappaqua, New York home of Hollywood's dashing leading man Conway Tearle and his actress wife, Adele Rowland when their cook called to the boy to give him an orange. The four year old was promptly greeted by their gripping dog which resulted in a trip to the Babies' Hospital in New York. Jacques' scalp was so badly torn, he was listed in critical condition. Max Weinberg fought to have the dog shot. Tearle and Rowland fought the Weinberg's demands for destruction but it is not clear if the gripping dog was eventually destroyed. The Tearles japanese cook committed hara kari and 4 years after the attack, the Weinbergs were awarded $20,000.

To my knowledge, this is the earliest documention of a pit bull scalping.

links

new york times 12.22.1921

new york times 05.12.1925

www.digitaldeliftp.com