This is worth reading because it highlights many details, including the ambushing of the Duke of Buckingham.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Malory
Book
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Morte_d%27Arthur
"Much more detail was added to Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel's biography by Edward Hicks in 1928, revealing that this Thomas Malory had been imprisoned as a thief, bandit, kidnapper, attempted murderer, and rapist; which hardly seemed in keeping with the high chivalric standards of his book."
His father served as a Justice of the Peace. . .
Shorter summary of his crimes (though I recommend reading Wikipedia) :
https://literature.fandom.com/wiki/Thom ... %20offense.
There were at least six different men named Thomas Malory alive at the time that Le Morte d'Arthur was written, The only clues as to who the author was are contained in the text of Le Morte d'Arthur itself, in sentences such as "For this was written by a knight prisoner Thomas Malleore". The author seems to have been familiar with the Yorkshire dialect of English and obviously knew French, from which most of the Arthurian tales in the book were translated. His knowledge of French means that the author must have come from a family that was wealthy enough to pay for an education.
Most modern scholars believe that the author was Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel in Warwickshire, known to have been a violent criminal, thief, kidnapper and rapist who behaved very differently from the chivalrous knights described in his tales.
Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel
Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel, Warwickshire was born some time between 1393 and 1416 and grew up to become a professional soldier. In 1443, he was accused of attacking and kidnapping one Thomas Smyth and stealing forty pounds worth of goods from him. He was not charged with the offense. In the same year he married Elizabeth Walsh and was elected to parliament.
As a member of parliament, Malory was charged with distributing money to the poor of Warwickshire and appears to have lived respectably for a while.
In 1450, Malory was accused of being part of a gang that attacked the Duke of Buckingham. In June 1450, he broke into the home of one Hugh Smyth, robbed him and raped his wife. He attacked the same woman again in Coventry two months later. Malory and his gang went on to commit over a hundred violent crimes. He was briefly imprisoned in the castle in the Warwickshire town of Maxstoke but managed to escape, swim the moat and rejoin his gang.
Malory was put on trial for his numerous crimes on August 23, 1451 and sent to London's Marshalsea Prison. Malory would spend most of the next decade as a prisoner in the Marshalsea and Newgate prisons in London and in Colchester. He would have had plenty of time to write Le Morte d'Arthur during that decade.
In 1461 Malory was pardoned by the newly crowned King Edward IV. He died in 1470 and was buried in an elaborate tomb in Greyfriar's Chapel near London's Newgate Prison. The tomb was destroyed a few decades later during the religious reforms of King Henry VIII.
Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel is known to have had one son, Robert, and one grandson, Nicholas.
Thomas Malory in fiction
A young Thomas Malory appears as a character in the Arthurian novel The Once and Future King by T.H. White. The character also appears briefly in Camelot, the Broadway musical adptation of The Once and Future King.
A lot of criminals are also sent to war where they become knighted, so the "knightly valor" akin to the bushido code, probably is propaganda to try and sanitize the true nature of those professions. His father being a Justice of the Peace is a bit like the "wild west' and its similar reputation, where corruption can often manifest.
Shakespeare's father was a bit of a thief himself, which might have allowed William to write his plays.
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/201 ... ather-wool
Don Quixote was also written by Miguel Cervantes while in prison, and so did Dante (though for other reason.)
Seems the great literary traditions did not persist past the rennaisance.
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Within 1 year this place would go up in flames with 50 killed, and 80 injured.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summerland_disaster
On the day leading up to the disaster
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... -survivors
It was rebuilt and finally torn down starting in 2004-6
https://culturevannin.im/watchlisten/im ... emolition/
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The THIN BLUE LINE (Errol Morris, 1988) documentary of a night in Dallas on Nov 1976 with a stolen vehicle driven by David Harris, with a hitchiking passenger Randall Dale Adams, involving a court case where the Police Officer who was shot while pulling them over.
Part 1
Part 2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randall_Dale_Adams
https://murderpedia.org/male.H/h1/harris-david-ray.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Grigson
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Another Dallas Archival footage from 1961 with Walter Cronkite (supposedly.) It sounds like a promotional, though it is interesting. I've probably seen some of the areas shown in the footage, and they are grown over with trees.
Dallas at the Crossroads (1961)
https://texasarchive.org/2010_01599
The Chocolate Bayou Story
https://texasarchive.org/2011_02141
Windows in Time (1980)
https://texasarchive.org/2014_04419
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The Time Colonel Sanders Shot Another Person
https://www.thedailymeal.com/1132748/th ... her-person
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A 7th century Chinese Monarch, similar in influence as Queen Elizabeth I.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Zetian
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Prison Houdini
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/prison-hou ... own-tools/