title: Satanic panic

text: Dutch investigation journalists from "Argos" (NPO Radio 1) collected the experiences and stories of over two hundred victims of organized sexual abuse. A hundred and forty victims told Argos about ritual abuse. Six well-known people were mentioned as perpetrators by multiple participants in the investigation, and over ten abuse locations. A warehouse in the Bollenstreek was marked as a location for 'storage' and the production of child pornography. During the investigation the "Argos" journalists received an anonymous email stating the journalists had to 'beaware' because 'they know about your investigation', remarking 'they're going to get rid of evidence just like they did with Dutroux'. The same day as the journalists received the e-mail, the warehouse in the Bollenstreek burnt down. According to Argos, the damage had been classified so severe by the fire department, that a cause of fire could not be determined.


title: Satanic panic

text: As a response to parliamentary questions following the "Argos" investigation, Dutch minister of Justice and Safety Ferdinand Grapperhaus said on August 27, 2020, that there would be 'no independent investigation into Ritual Abuse' of children in The Netherlands. The Green Left, the Socialist Party and the Labour Party criticized Grapperhaus for his decision. On October 13 (2020), the Dutch House of Representatives approved a motion in which the PvdA, GL and the SP requested that an independent investigation be conducted into the nature and extent of "organized sadistic abuse of children", bypassing Grapperhaus' original refusal to investigate.


title: Satanic panic

text: The majority of adult testimonials were given by adults while they were undergoing psychotherapy, in most cases they were undergoing therapy which was designed to elicit memories of SRA. Therapists claimed that the pain which their patients felt, the internal consistency of their stories and the similarities of the allegations which were made by different patients all proved the existence of SRA, but despite this, the disclosures of patients never resulted in any corroboration; The allegations which were obtained from the alleged victims by mental health practitioners all lacked verifiable evidence, they were entirely anecdotal and they all involved incidents which occurred years or decades earlier. The concern for therapists revolved around the pain of their clients, which is for them more important than the truth of their patients' statements. A sample of 29 patients in a medical clinic reporting SRA found no corroboration of the claims in medical records or in discussion with family members. and a survey of 2,709 American therapists found the majority of allegations of SRA came from only sixteen therapists, suggesting that the determining factor in a patient making allegations of SRA was the therapist's predisposition. Further, the alleged similarities between patient accounts (particularly between adults and children) turned out to be illusory upon review, with adults describing far more elaborate, severe and bizarre abuse than children. Bette Bottoms, who reviewed hundreds of claims of adult and child abuse, described the ultimate evidence for the abuse as "astonishingly weak and ambiguous" particularly given the severity of the alleged abuse. Therapists however, were found to believe patients more as the allegations became more bizarre and severe.


title: Satanic panic

text: In cases in which patients made claims that were physically impossible, or in cases in which the evidence which was found by police is contradictory, the details which are reported will often change. If patients pointed to a spot where a body was buried, but no body was found and no earth was disturbed, therapists resort to special pleading, saying that the patient was hypnotically programmed to direct investigators to the wrong location, or the patient was fooled by the cult into believing that a crime was not committed. If the alleged bodies were cremated and police point out that ordinary fires are inadequate to completely destroy a body, stories include special industrial furnaces. The patients' allegations change and they creatively find "solutions" to objections.


title: Satanic panic

text: The second group to make allegations of SRA were young children. During the "Satanic Panic" of the 1980s, the techniques used by investigators to gather evidence from witnesses, particularly young children, evolved to become very leading, coercive and suggestive, pressuring young children to provide testimony and refusing to accept denials while offering inducements that encouraged false disclosures. The interviewing techniques used were the factors believed to have led to the construction of the bizarre disclosures of SRA by the children and changes to forensic and interviewing techniques since that time has resulted in a disappearance of the allegations. Analysis of the techniques used in two key cases (the McMartin preschool and Wee Care Nursery School trials) concluded that the children were questioned in a highly suggestive manner. Compared with a set of interviews from Child Protective Services, the interviews from the two trials were "significantly more likely to (a) introduce new suggestive information into the interview, (b) provide praise, promises, and positive reinforcement, (c) express disapproval, disbelief, or disagreement with children, (d) exert conformity pressure, and (e) invite children to pretend or speculate about supposed events."


title: Satanic panic

text: A variety of these allegations resulted in criminal convictions; in an analysis of these cases Mary de Young found that many had had their convictions overturned. Of 22 day care employees and their sentences reviewed in 2007, three were still incarcerated, eleven had charges dismissed or overturned, and eight were released before serving their full sentences. Grounds included technical dismissals, constitutional challenges and prosecutorial misconduct.


title: Satanic panic

text: SRA and the so-called "Satanic Panic" have been called a moral panic and compared to the blood libel and witch-hunts of historical Europe, and McCarthyism in the United States during the 20th century. Stanley Cohen, who originated the term "moral panic", called the episode "one of the purest cases of moral panic." The initial investigations of SRA were performed by anthropologists and sociologists, who failed to find evidence of SRA actually occurring; instead they concluded that SRA was a result of rumors and folk legends that were spread by "media hype, Christian fundamentalism, mental health and law enforcement professionals and child abuse advocates." Sociologists and journalists noted the vigorous nature with which some evangelical activists and groups were using claims of SRA to further their religious and political goals. Other commentators suggested that the entire phenomenon may be evidence of a moral panic over Satanism and child abuse. Skeptical explanations for allegations of SRA have included an attempt by radical feminists to undermine the nuclear family, a backlash against working women, homophobic attacks on gay childcare workers, a universal need to believe in evil, fear of alternative spiritualities, "end of the millennium" anxieties, or a transient form of temporal lobe epilepsy.


title: Satanic panic

text: In his book "Satanic Panic", the 1994 Mencken Award winner for Best Book presented by the Free Press Association, Jeffery Victor writes that, in the United States, the groups most likely to believe rumors of SRA are rural, poorly educated, religiously conservative white blue-collar families with an unquestioning belief in American values who feel significant anxieties over job loss, economic decline and family disintegration. Victor considers rumours of SRA a symptom of a moral crisis and a form of scapegoating for economic and social ills.


title: Satanic panic

text: Information about SRA claims spread through conferences presented to religious groups, churches and professionals such as police forces and therapists as well as parents. These conferences and presentations served to organize agencies and foster communication between groups, maintaining and spreading disproven or exaggerated stories as fact. Members of local police forces organized into loose networks focused on cult crimes, some of whom billed themselves as "experts" and were paid to speak at conferences throughout the United States. Religious revivalists also took advantage of the rumors and preached about the dangers of Satanism to youth and presented themselves at paid engagements as secular experts. At the height of the panic, the highly emotional accusations and circumstances of SRA allegations made it difficult to investigate the claims, with the accused being assumed as guilty and skeptics becoming co-accused during trials, and trials moving forward based solely on the testimony of very young children without corroborating evidence. No forensic or corroborating evidence has ever been found for religiously based cannibalistic or murderous SRA, despite extensive investigations. The concern and reaction expressed by various groups regarding the seriousness or threat of SRA has been considered out of proportion to the actual threat by satanically motivated crimes, and the rare crime that exists that may be labeled "satanic" does not justify the existence of a conspiracy or network of religiously motivated child abusers.


title: Satanic panic

text: Jeffrey Victor reviewed 67 rumors about SRA in the United States and Canada reported in newspapers or television, and found no evidence supporting the existence of murderous satanic cults. LaFontaine states that cases of alleged SRA investigated in the United Kingdom were reviewed in detail and the majority were unsubstantiated; three were found to involve sexual abuse of children in the context of rituals, but none involved the Witches' Sabbath or devil worship that are characteristic of allegations of SRA. LaFontaine also states that no material evidence has been forthcoming in allegations of SRA; no bones, bodies or blood, in either the United States or Britain.


title: Satanic panic

text: Kenneth Lanning, an FBI expert in the investigation of child sexual abuse, has stated that pseudo-Satanism may exist but there is "little or no evidence for ... large-scale baby breeding, human sacrifice, and organized satanic conspiracies." There are many possible alternative answers to the question of why victims are alleging things that don't seem to be true. ... I believe that there is a middle ground—a continuum of possible activity. Some of what the victims allege may be true and accurate, some may be misperceived or distorted, some may be screened or symbolic, and some may be "contaminated" or false. The problem and challenge, especially for law enforcement, is to determine which is which. This can only be done through active investigation. I believe that the majority of victims alleging "ritual" abuse are in fact victims of some form of abuse or trauma.


title: Satanic panic

text: Lanning produced a monograph in 1994 on SRA aimed at child protection authorities, which contained his opinion that despite hundreds of investigations no corroboration of SRA had been found. Following this report, several convictions based on SRA allegations were overturned and the defendants released.


title: Satanic panic

text: Reported cases of SRA involve bizarre activities, some of which are impossible (like people flying), that makes the credibility of victims of child sexual abuse questionable. In cases where SRA is alleged to occur, Lanning describes common dynamics of the use of fear to control multiple young victims, the presence of multiple perpetrators and strange or ritualized behaviors, though allegations of crimes such as human sacrifice and cannibalism do not seem to be true. Lanning also suggests several reasons why adult victims may make allegations of SRA, including "pathological distortion, traumatic memory, normal childhood fears and fantasies, misperception, and confusion."


title: Satanic panic

text: Allegations of SRA have appeared throughout the world. The failure of certain high-profile legal cases generated worldwide media attention, and came to play a central feature in the growing controversies over child abuse, memory and the law. The testimony of children in these cases may have led to their collapse, as juries came to believe that the sources of the allegations were the use of suggestive and manipulative interviewing techniques, rather than actual events. Research since that time has supported these concerns and without the use of these techniques it is unlikely the cases would ever have reached trial.


title: Satanic panic

text: In one analysis of 36 court cases involving sexual abuse of children within rituals, only one quarter resulted in convictions, all of which had little to do with ritual sex abuse. In a 1994 survey of more than 11,000 psychiatric and police workers throughout the US, conducted for the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, researchers investigated approximately 12,000 accusations of group cult sexual abuse based on satanic ritual. The survey found no substantiated reports of well-organized satanic rings of people who sexually abuse children, but did find incidents in which the ritualistic aspects were secondary to the abuse and were used to intimidate victims. Victor reviewed 21 court cases alleging SRA between 1983 and 1987 in which no prosecutions were obtained for ritual abuse.


title: Satanic panic

text: During the early 1980s, some courts attempted "ad hoc" accommodations to address the anxieties of child witnesses in relation to testifying before defendants. Screens or CCTV technology are a common feature of child sexual assault trials today; children in the early 1980s were typically forced into direct visual contact with the accused abuser while in court. SRA allegations in the courts catalyzed a broad agenda of research into the nature of children's testimony and the reliability of their oral evidence in court. Ultimately in SRA cases, the coercive techniques used by believing district attorneys, therapists and police officers were critical in establishing, and often resolving, SRA cases. In courts, when juries were able to see recordings or transcripts of interviews with children, the alleged abusers were acquitted. The reaction by successful prosecutors, spread throughout conventions and conferences on SRA, was to destroy, or fail to take notes of the interviews in the first place. One group of researchers concluded that children usually lack the sufficient amount of "explicit knowledge" of satanic ritual abuse to fabricate all of the details of an SRA claim on their own. However, the same researchers also concluded that children usually have the sufficient amount of general knowledge of "violence and the occult" to "serve as a starting point from which ritual claims could develop."


title: Satanic panic

text: In 2006, psychologist and attorney Christopher Barden drafted an "amicus curiae" brief to the Supreme Court of California signed by nearly 100 international experts in the field of human memory emphasizing the lack of credible scientific support for repressed and recovered memories.


title: Satanic panic

text: SRA has been linked to dissociative identity disorder (DID, formerly known as multiple personality disorder or MPD), with many DID patients also alleging cult abuse. The first person to write a first-person narrative about SRA was Michelle Smith, co-author of "Michelle Remembers"; Smith was diagnosed with DID by her therapist and later husband Lawrence Pazder. Psychiatrists involved with the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (then called the International Society for the Study of Multiple Personality and Dissociation), especially associate editor Bennett G. Braun, uncritically promoted the idea that actual groups of persons who worshiped Satan were abusing and ritually sacrificing children and, furthermore, that thousands of persons were recovering actual memories of such abuse during therapy, openly discussing such claims in the organization's journal, "Dissociation". In a 1989 editorial, "Dissociation" editor-in-chief Richard Kluft likened clinicians who did not speak of their patients with recovered memories of SRA to the "good Germans" during the Holocaust. One particularly controversial article found parallels between SRA accounts and pre-Inquisition historical records of satanism, hence claimed to find support for the existence of ancient and intergenerational satanic cults. A review of these claims by sociologist Mary de Young in a 1994 "Behavioral Sciences and the Law" article noted that the historical basis for these claims, and in particular their continuity of cults, ceremonies and rituals was questionable. However at a conference in November 1990, psychiatrist and researcher Frank Putnam, then chief of the Dissociative Disorders Unit of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, led a plenary session panel that proved to be the first public presentation of psychiatric, historical and law enforcement skepticism concerning SRA claims. Other members of the panel included psychiatrist George Ganaway, anthropologist Sherrill Mulhern, and psychologist Richard Noll. Putnam, a skeptic, was viewed by SRA advocates in attendance as using fellow skeptics such as Noll and Mulhern as allies in a disinformation campaign to split the SRA-believing community.


title: Satanic panic

text: A survey investigating 12,000 cases of alleged SRA found that most were diagnosed with DID as well as post-traumatic stress disorder. The level of dissociation in a sample of women alleging SRA was found to be higher than a comparable sample of non-SRA peers, approaching the levels shown by patients diagnosed with DID. A sample of patients diagnosed with DID and reporting childhood SRA also present other symptoms including "dissociative states with satanic overtones, severe post-traumatic stress disorder, survivor guilt, bizarre self abuse, unusual fears, sexualization of sadistic impulses, indoctrinated beliefs, and substance abuse." Commenting on the study, Philip Coons stated that patients were held together in a ward dedicated to dissociative disorders with ample opportunity to socialize, and that the memories were recovered through the use of hypnosis (which he considered questionable). No cases were referred to law enforcement for verification, nor was verification attempted through family members. Coons also pointed out that existing injuries could have been self-inflicted, that the experiences reported were "strikingly similar" and that "many of the SRA reports developed while patients were hospitalized." The reliability of memories of DID clients who alleged SRA in treatment has been questioned and a point of contention in the popular media and with clinicians; many of the allegations made are fundamentally impossible and alleged survivors lack the physical scars that would result were their allegations true.


title: Satanic panic

text: Many women claiming to be SRA survivors have been diagnosed with DID, and it is unclear if their claims of childhood abuse are accurate or a manifestation of their diagnosis. Of a sample of 29 patients who presented with SRA, 22 were diagnosed with dissociative disorders including DID. The authors noted that 58 percent of the SRA claims appeared in the years following the Geraldo Rivera special on SRA and a further 34 percent following a workshop on SRA presented in the area; in only two patients were the memories elicited without the use of "questionable therapeutic practices for memory retrieval." Claims of SRA by DID patients have been called "...often nothing more than fantastic pseudomemories implanted or reinforced in psychotherapy" and SRA a cultural script of the perception of DID. Some believe that memories of SRA are solely iatrogenically implanted memories from suggestive therapeutic techniques, though this has been criticized by Daniel Brown, Alan Scheflin and Corydon Hammond for what they argue as over-reaching the scientific data that supports an iatrogenic theory. Others have criticized Hammond specifically for using therapeutic techniques to gather information from clients that rely solely on information fed by the therapist in a manner that highly suggests iatrogenesis. Skeptics said that the increase in DID diagnosis on the 1980s and 1990s and its association with memories of SRA is evidence of malpractice by treating professionals.


title: Satanic panic

text: Much of the body of literature on the treatment of ritually abused patients focuses on dissociative disorders.


title: Satanic panic

text: One explanation for the SRA allegations is that they were based upon false memories caused by use of discredited suggestive techniques such as hypnosis and leading questions by therapists underestimating the suggestibility of their clients. The altered state of consciousness induced by hypnosis rendered patients an unusual ability to produce confabulations, often with the assistance of their therapists.


title: Satanic panic

text: Paul R. McHugh, professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University, discusses in his book "Try to Remember" the developments that led to the creation of false memories in the SRA moral panic and the formation of the FMSF as an effort to bring contemporary scientific research and political action to the polarizing struggle about false memories within the mental health disciplines. According to McHugh, there is no coherent scientific basis for the core belief of one side of the struggle, that sexual abuse can cause massive systemic repression of memories that can only be accessed through hypnosis, coercive interviews and other dubious techniques. The group of psychiatrists who promoted these ideas, whom McHugh terms "Mannerist Freudians," consistently followed a deductive approach to diagnosis in which the theory and causal explanation of symptoms was assumed to be childhood sexual abuse leading to dissociation, followed by a set of unproven and unreliable treatments with a strong confirmation bias that inevitably produced the allegations and causes that were assumed to be there.


title: Satanic panic

text: The treatment approach involved isolation of the patient from friends and family within psychiatric wards dedicated to the treatment of dissociation, filled with other patients who were treated by the same doctors with the same flawed methods and staff members who also coherently and universally ascribed to the same set of beliefs. These methods began in the 1980s and continued for several years until a series of court cases and medical malpractice lawsuits resulted in hospitals failing to support the approach. In cases where the dissociative symptoms were ignored, the coercive treatment approach ceased and the patients were removed from dedicated wards, allegations of satanic rape and abuse normally ceased, "recovered" memories were identified as fabrications and conventional treatments for presenting symptoms were generally successful.


title: Aimee Osbourne

text: Aimee Rachel Osbourne (born 2 September 1983) is an English actress and singer. She is the eldest daughter of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. Her father Ozzy also has three older children from his previous eleven year marriage to his first wife Thelma Riley, one of whom is adopted. Aimee is Ozzy's second daughter, the oldest being half-sister Jessica. While her younger siblings Jack and Kelly achieved pop culture fame for appearing in the family's MTV reality series "The Osbournes", Aimée declined to appear on the show, feeling that doing so would typecast her and affect her musical career. She has expressed discomfort with some of her parents' behaviour on television.


title: Aimee Osbourne

text: In 1991, Osbourne appeared as a child in some videos and documentaries relating to her father's musical career, and appeared on" The Howard Stern Show" in 1998, but did not reach mainstream acting success until being cast in MTV's 2003 adaptation of "Wuthering Heights". She later provided voiceover work in the 2014 animated film "".


title: Aimee Osbourne

text: Around 2010, she began recording and releasing music under the project name ARO (her initials). ARO, in contrast to her father's heavy metal, has been described as synth pop, and is influenced by Kate Bush and Portishead, as well as PJ Harvey and Massive Attack. She has appeared in her own music videos, and her video for "Raining Gold" received two million hits in just two months.


title: Aimee Osbourne

text: ARO so far have performed only three live shows. Union Pool, Brooklyn on 1 April 2015, Mercury Lounge, New York City, on 2 April 2015 and The Echo, Los Angeles, on 9 February 2016.


title: Aimee Osbourne

text: In 2016, after releasing three songs "Raining Gold", "I Can Change" and "Cocaine Style", updates on the project started to become few and far between. On 17 October 2018, ARO announced on their official Instagram page that an EP was in the works thanking the fans for their patience. ARO teased new material on Instagram on 5 December 2018 with a snippet of a song called "Beats of My Heart". As of 2020 neither the EP or the single have been released and no new updates regarding the band had been released which suggests the band was either on hiatus or broken up.


title: Aimee Osbourne

text: On 13 February 2020, ARO posted their first update in over a year stating "Thank you all so much for your interest. Not long to go now". The post also revealed the debut album will be released on indie record label "Makerecords". On 24 July 2020, ARO released their first single in four years "Shared Something With the Night". Osbourne revealed the title of ARO's upcoming LP to be "Vacare Adamaré" and that they plan to release it in "EP-like chapters, built around videos for each song". Speaking of upcoming live shows she stated: "I want the live show to feel like you’re on the haunted mansion ride at Disneyland, with a little Studio 54, a touch of vaudeville and a lot of "Blade Runner". It will be ghostly and poetic with some neon and hypnotic laser lights to captivate all the senses."


title: Aimee Osbourne

text: In May 2022, Aimee narrowly escaped a fire in a Hollywood recording studio. She was saved by fellow record producer and rapper Jamal Rajad. While Osbourne and Rajad survived, producer Nathan Avery Edwards, Rajad's friend, was killed in the blaze, along with Rajad's four cats. Two other people experienced minor smoke inhalation.


title: Aimee Osbourne

text: Osbourne's maternal grandfather was the English music manager Don Arden (Harry Levy). She is of partial English, Irish and Jewish descent.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: Umberto "Albert" Anastasia (, ; ; September 26, 1902 – October 25, 1957) was an Italian-American mobster, hitman, and crime boss. One of the founders of the modern American Mafia, and a co-founder and later boss of the Murder, Inc. organization, Anastasia eventually rose to the position of boss in what became the modern Gambino crime family. He also controlled New York City's waterfront for most of his criminal career, including the dockworker unions. Anastasia was murdered on October 25, 1957, on the orders of Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino; Gambino subsequently became boss of the family.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: Anastasia was one of the most ruthless and feared organized crime figures in American history; his reputation earned him the nicknames "The Earthquake", "The One-Man Army", "Mad Hatter" and "Lord High Executioner".


title: Albert Anastasia

text: Anastasia was born Umberto Anastasio on September 26, 1902, in Parghelia, Calabria, Italy, to Bartolomeo Anastasio and Marianna Polistena. Anastasia's father was a railway worker who died after World War I, leaving behind nine children. Anastasia had seven brothers: Raffaele; Frank; Anthony; Joseph; Gerardo; Luigi (who moved to Australia) and Salvatore Anastasio; and a sister, Maria.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: In 1919, Anastasia, with his brothers Joseph, Anthony, and Gerardo, illegally entered the United States after they deserted a freighter they were working aboard in New York City. They soon started working as longshoremen on the Brooklyn waterfront.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: On March 17, 1921, Anastasia was convicted of murdering longshoreman George Turino as the result of a quarrel. He was sentenced to death and sent to Sing Sing State Prison in Ossining, New York, to await execution. Due to a legal technicality, Anastasia won a retrial in 1922; four of the original prosecution witnesses had since disappeared, and Anastasia was released from custody. During that time, he changed his surname from "Anastasio" to "Anastasia".


title: Albert Anastasia

text: On June 6, 1923, Anastasia was convicted of illegal possession of a firearm and sentenced to two years in prison. In 1937, he married Elsa Bargnesi and they had two sons, Umberto and Richard; and two daughters, Joyana and Gloriana.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: By the late 1920s, Anastasia had become a top leader of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), controlling six local chapters of the labor union in Brooklyn. Anastasia allied himself with Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria, a powerful mafia leader in Brooklyn. He soon became close associates with future "Cosa Nostra" bosses Joe Adonis, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Vito Genovese, and Frank Costello.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: In 1928, Anastasia was charged with a murder in Brooklyn, but the witnesses either disappeared or refused to testify in court.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: In early 1931, the Castellammarese War broke out between Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. In a secret deal with Maranzano, Luciano agreed to engineer the death of his boss, Masseria, in return for receiving Masseria's rackets and becoming Maranzano's second-in-command. On April 15, 1931, Luciano had lured Masseria to a meeting where he was murdered at a restaurant called Nuova Villa Tammaro on Coney Island. While they played cards, Luciano allegedly excused himself to the bathroom, with the gunmen reportedly being Anastasia, Vito Genovese, Joe Adonis, and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel; Ciro "The Artichoke King" Terranova drove the getaway car, but legend has it that he was too shaken up to drive away and had to be shoved out of the driver's seat by Siegel. Luciano took over Masseria's family, with Genovese as his underboss.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: In September 1931, Luciano and Genovese planned the murder of Salvatore Maranzano. Luciano had received word that Maranzano was planning to kill him and Genovese, and prepared a hit team to kill Maranzano first. On September 10, 1931, when Maranzano summoned Luciano, Genovese, and Frank Costello to a meeting at his office, they knew Maranzano would kill them there. Instead, Luciano sent to Maranzano's office four Jewish gangsters whose faces were unknown to Maranzano's people. They had been secured with the aid of Lansky and Siegel. With the National Crime Syndicate already created by Luciano since 1929, after the death of Maranzano he also subsequently created The Commission to serve as the governing body for organized crime. The Syndicate was meant to serve as a deliberative body to solve disputes, carve up and distribute territories, and regulate lucrative illegal activities such as racketeering, gambling, and bootlegging (which came to a close with the repeal of Prohibition in 1933).


title: Albert Anastasia

text: In 1932, Anastasia was indicted on charges of murdering another man with an ice pick, but the case was dropped due to lack of witnesses. The following year, he was charged with killing a man who worked in a laundry; again, there were no witnesses willing to testify.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: To reward Anastasia's loyalty, Luciano placed him and Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, the leading labor racketeer in the country, in control of the Syndicate's enforcement arm, Murder, Inc. The troop, also known as "The Brownsville Boys", was a group of Jewish and Italian contract killers that operated out of the back room of Midnight Rose's, a candy store owned by mobster Louis Capone in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. During its ten years of operation, it is estimated that Murder Inc. committed thousands of murders, many of which were never solved. For his leadership in Murder, Inc., Anastasia was nicknamed the "Mad Hatter" and the "Lord High Executioner".


title: Albert Anastasia

text: The Commission's first test came in 1935, when it ordered Dutch Schultz to drop his plans to murder Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey. Luciano argued that a Dewey assassination would precipitate a massive law enforcement crackdown. An enraged Schultz said he would kill Dewey anyway and walked out of the meeting. Anastasia approached Luciano with information that Schultz had asked him to stake out Dewey's apartment building on Fifth Avenue. Upon hearing the news, the Commission held a discreet meeting to discuss the matter. After six hours of deliberations the Commission ordered Buchalter to eliminate Schultz. On October 23, 1935, before he could kill Dewey, Schultz was shot in a tavern in Newark, New Jersey, and succumbed to his injuries the following day.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: On June 7, 1936, following a prosecution by Dewey's office masterminded by Eunice Carter, Luciano was convicted on 62 counts of forced prostitution. On July 18, 1936, he received a 30 to 50-year sentence in state prison.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: In May 1939, Anastasia allegedly ordered the murder of Morris Diamond, a Teamsters Union official in Brooklyn who had opposed Buchalter's attempts to maintain control of the Garment District in Manhattan. In the summer of 1939, he allegedly organized the murder of Peter Panto, an ILA activist who had been leading a movement for democratic reforms in the union's local chapters, and refused to be intimidated by ILA officials. On July 14, 1939, Panto disappeared; his body was later recovered on a farm in New Jersey.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: In 1941, Abe Reles, a gang leader from Brownsville, Brooklyn who had been supplying Anastasia and Murder, Inc. with hitmen for the previous decade, was arrested by law enforcement, effectively ending Murder, Inc. Reles decided to testify for the government to


title: Albert Anastasia

text: save himself from the death penalty, leading to the conviction of seven members of Murder Inc. Reles also had information that could implicate Anastasia in the Diamond and Panto murders. Fearful of prosecution, Anastasia offered a $100,000 reward for Reles's murder. On November 12, 1941, Reles was found dead on a restaurant roof outside the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island. Reles was being guarded in a sixth-floor room during an ongoing trial. In 1951, a grand jury ruled that Reles accidentally died while climbing down to the fifth floor using sheets tied to a heating radiator. However, many officials still suspected that Reles had been murdered.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: In the spring of 1942, Anastasia allegedly ordered the murder of an associate, Anthony Romeo, who had been arrested and questioned in the Panto killing. At the end of June, Romeo's body was discovered near Guyencourt, Delaware; he had been beaten and shot a number of times.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: During World War II, Anastasia reportedly conceived the plan to win a pardon for the imprisoned Luciano by helping the war effort. With America needing allies in Sicily to advance the invasion of Italy, and the desire of the U.S. Navy to dedicate its resources to the war, Anastasia orchestrated a deal to obtain lighter treatment and eventual parole for Luciano, in exchange for the Mafia's protection of the waterfront and Luciano's assistance with his associates in Sicily.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: In 1942, Anastasia joined the U.S. Army, possibly motivated by a desire to escape the criminal investigations that were dismantling Murder, Inc. Attaining the rank of technical sergeant, he trained soldiers to be longshoremen at Fort Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania. In 1943, as a reward for his military service, he received U.S. citizenship. The following year, Anastasia was honorably discharged and moved his family to a ranch house on Bluff Road in Fort Lee, New Jersey.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: In 1945, U.S. military authorities in Sicily returned Genovese to the U.S. to be tried for the murder of Ferdinand Boccia in 1934. However, after the death of the main prosecution witness, all charges were dropped against Genovese. In 1946, New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey commuted Luciano's sentence, and the federal government immediately deported him to Italy.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: In 1948, Anastasia bought a dressmaking factory in Hazleton, Pennsylvania and left his waterfront activities in the control of his brother Anthony.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: In 1951, the U.S. Senate summoned Anastasia to answer questions about organized crime at the Kefauver Hearings. Anastasia refused to answer any questions.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: Despite being a mob power in his own right, Anastasia was nominally the underboss of the Mangano crime family, under boss Vincent Mangano. During his 20-year rule, Mangano had resented Anastasia's close ties to Luciano and Costello, particularly the fact that they had obtained Anastasia's services without first seeking Mangano's permission. This and other business disputes led to heated, almost physical fights between the two mobsters. On April 19, 1951, Mangano went missing and his body was never found. The same day, the body of Vincent's brother Philip was discovered in Jamaica Bay. No one was ever arrested in the Mangano murders, but it was widely assumed that Anastasia had them killed.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: After the deaths of the Manganos, Anastasia, who had been serving as acting boss of their family, met with the Commission, claiming that the brothers wanted to kill him, yet did not admit to killing them. With Costello's prodding, the Commission confirmed Anastasia's ascension as boss of the renamed Anastasia family; Costello wanted Anastasia as an ally against the ambitious and resentful Genovese. Anastasia was also supported by Joseph Bonanno, who simply wanted to avoid a gang war.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: In March 1952, Anastasia allegedly ordered the murder of Arnold Schuster, a New York man who successfully identified fugitive bank robber Willie Sutton, resulting in Sutton's arrest. When Anastasia saw Schuster being interviewed on television, he allegedly said: "I can't stand squealers! Hit that guy!" On March 8, 1952, a gunman shot Schuster to death on a street in Borough Park, Brooklyn. In 1963, government witness Joseph Valachi accused Anastasia of ordering the murder, but many people in law enforcement were skeptical of it. No one was ever arrested in the Schuster murder.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: On December 9, 1952, the federal government filed suit to denaturalize Anastasia and deport him because he lied on his citizenship application.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: To take control of the Luciano family, Genovese needed to kill Costello. Unable to do so without also eliminating Anastasia, Genovese looked for allies. He used Anastasia's brutal behavior against him in an effort to win supporters, portraying Anastasia as an unstable killer who threatened to bring law enforcement pressure on the "Cosa Nostra". In addition, Genovese pointed out that Anastasia had been selling memberships to his crime family for $50,000, a clear violation of Commission rules that infuriated many high-level mobsters. According to Valachi, Anastasia had been losing large amounts of money betting on horse races, making him even more surly and unpredictable.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: Over the next few years, Genovese secretly won the support of Anastasia "caporegime" Carlo Gambino, offering him the leadership of Anastasia's family in return for his cooperation.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: On May 23, 1955, Anastasia pleaded guilty to tax evasion for underreporting his income during the late 1940s. On June 3, 1955, Anastasia was sentenced to one year in federal prison and a $20,000 fine. After his conviction, the federal government successfully petitioned to revoke Anastasia's citizenship so he could be deported. However, on September 19, 1955, a higher court overturned this ruling.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: In early 1957, Genovese decided to move on Costello. On May 2, 1957, gunman Vincent Gigante shot and wounded Costello outside his apartment building. Although the wound was superficial, it persuaded Costello to relinquish power to Genovese and retire. Genovese then controlled what is now called the Genovese crime family. Bonanno later credited himself with arranging a sitdown, where he kept Anastasia from immediately taking Genovese to war in response.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: On June 17 of that year, Frank Scalice, Anastasia's underboss and the man identified as directly responsible for selling Gambino memberships, was also assassinated. According to Valachi, Anastasia approved the hit, and the subsequent murder of Scalice's brother Joseph, after offering to forgive his threats to avenge Frank.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: On the morning of October 25, 1957, Anastasia entered the barber shop of the Park Sheraton Hotel, at 56th Street and 7th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. Anastasia's driver parked the car in an underground garage and then took a walk outside, leaving him unprotected. As Anastasia relaxed in the barber's chair, two men with scarves covering their faces rushed in, shoved the barber out of the way, and fired at Anastasia. After the first volley of bullets, Anastasia reportedly lunged at his killers. However, the stunned Anastasia had actually attacked the gunmen's reflections in the wall mirror of the barber shop. The gunmen continued firing until Anastasia finally fell dead on the floor.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: The Anastasia homicide generated a tremendous amount of public interest and sparked a high-profile police investigation. According to "The New York Times" journalist and "Five Families" author Selwyn Raab, "The vivid image of a helpless victim swathed in white towels was stamped in the public memory". However, no one was charged in the case. Speculation on who killed Anastasia has centered on Profaci crime family mobster Joe Gallo, the Patriarca crime family of Providence, Rhode Island, and certain drug dealers within the Gambino family. Initially, the NYPD concluded that Anastasia's homicide had been arranged by Genovese and Gambino and that it was carried out by a crew led by Gallo. At one point, Gallo boasted to an associate of his part in the hit, "You can just call the five of us the barbershop quintet". Elsewhere, Genovese had traditionally strong ties to Patriarca boss Raymond L. S. Patriarca.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: Anastasia's funeral service was conducted at a Brooklyn funeral home; the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn had refused to sanction a church burial. Anastasia was interred in Green-Wood Cemetery in Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn, attended by a handful of friends and relatives. It is marked "Anastasio". In 1958, his family emigrated to Canada, and changed the name to "Anisio".


title: Albert Anastasia

text: Gambino was expected to be proclaimed boss of Anastasia's family at the November 14, 1957, Apalachin Meeting, called by Genovese to discuss the future of "Cosa Nostra" in light of his takeover. When the meeting was raided by police, to the detriment of Genovese's reputation, Gambino's appointment was postponed to a later meeting in New York City. Under Gambino, Anthony Anastasio saw his power curtailed, and in frustration, he began passing information to the FBI shortly before his 1963 death.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: Genovese enjoyed a short reign as family boss. In 1957, after the disastrous Apalachin Meeting, Luciano, Costello, and Gambino conspired to entrap Genovese with a narcotics conviction, bribing a drug dealer to testify he had personally worked with Genovese. On July 7, 1958, Genovese was indicted on narcotics trafficking charges. On April 17, 1959, he was sentenced to 15 years in state prison.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: Anastasia lived in the 25-room, 6,529-square-foot, hilltop mansion located in Fort Lee, New Jersey from 1947, until his assassination. In 1958, less than a year after his death, comedian Buddy Hackett and his wife purchased the mansion, and after renovations, lived there through most of the 1960s. The mansion sold for $6.9 million in late December 2017.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: Actor and former heavyweight boxing contender Jack O'Halloran claims to be Anastasia's illegitimate son.


title: Albert Anastasia

text: After the Anastasia assassination, the barber chairs at the Park Sheraton Hotel were repositioned to face away from the mirror. The Anastasia chair was later auctioned off for $7,000. In February 2012, the chair became an exhibit at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas.


title: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

text: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is a painting by German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich made in 1818. It depicts a man standing upon a rocky precipice with his back to the viewer; he is gazing out on a landscape covered in a thick sea of fog through which other ridges, trees, and mountains pierce, which stretches out into the distance indefinitely.


title: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

text: It has been considered one of the masterpieces of the Romantic movement and one of its most representative works. The painting has been widely interpreted as an emblem of self-reflection or contemplation of life's path, and the landscape is widely considered to evoke the sublime. Friedrich was a common user of "Rückenfigur" (German: Rear-facing figure) in his paintings; "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog" is perhaps the most famous Rückenfigur in art due to the subject's prominence. The painting also expresses Friedrich's German liberal and nationalist feeling by depicting the figure wearing an "Altdeutsche" ("Old German") outfit, which was associated with the nationalist movement and banned by the states of the German Confederation in 1819.


title: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

text: While Friedrich was respected in German and Russian circles, "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog" and Friedrich's work in general were not immediately regarded as masterpieces. Friedrich's reputation improved in the early 20th century, and in particular during the 1970s; "Wanderer" became particularly popular, appearing as an example of "popular art" as well as high culture on books and other works. The provenance of the artwork after its creation is unknown, but by 1939 was on display in the gallery of Wilhelm August Luz in Berlin, and was acquired by the Hamburger Kunsthalle in Hamburg, Germany in 1970 where it has been displayed ever since.


title: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

text: In the foreground, a man stands upon a rocky precipice with his back to the viewer. He is wrapped in a dark green overcoat, and grips a walking stick in his right hand. His hair caught in a wind, the wanderer gazes out on a landscape covered in a thick sea of fog. In the middle ground, several other ridges, perhaps not unlike the ones the wanderer himself stands upon, jut out from the mass. Through the wreaths of fog, forests of trees can be perceived atop these escarpments. In the far distance, faded mountains rise in the left, gently leveling off into lowland plains in the right. Beyond here, the pervading fog stretches out indefinitely, eventually commingling with the horizon and becoming indistinguishable from the cloud-filled sky.


title: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

text: The painting is composed of various elements from the Elbe Sandstone Mountains in Saxony and Bohemia, sketched in the field but in accordance with his usual practice, rearranged by Friedrich himself in the studio for the painting. In the background to the right is the Zirkelstein. The mountain in the background to the left could be either the Rosenberg or the Kaltenberg. The group of rocks in front of it represent the Gamrig near Rathen. The rocks on which the traveler stands are a group on the Kaiserkrone.


title: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

text: The date of creation of "Wanderer" is generally given as 1818, although some sources indicate 1817. The provenance of the painting in the 19th century is unclear, but it came to the ownership of the gallery of Wilhelm August Luz in Berlin in 1939. It was then apparently sold to Ernst Henke, a German lawyer, before returning to the Luz gallery. The painting bounced between private collections before being acquired by the Hamburger Kunsthalle (Hamburg Art Hall) in 1970, where it has been on display since.


title: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

text: Notable events in Friedrich's life in 1817 and 1818 include him striking up a friendship with the scientist Carl Gustav Carus and the Norwegian painter Johan Christian Dahl in 1817, Friedrich marrying Caroline Brommer in January 1818, and the couple going on a honeymoon back to Friedrich's hometown of Greifswald for weeks after.


title: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

text: "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog" is closely associated with Romanticism, a broad artistic and literary movement that emerged after the Age of Enlightenment. While the identity of the man is uncertain, some have suggested it is a self-portrait of the artist himself, pointing to similarities in appearance, such as the red hair, and for this reason the painting has been widely interpreted as an emblem of self-reflection or contemplation of life's path. The landscape of "Wanderer" is widely considered to evoke the sublime, of greater mysteries and potential beyond the typical. Friedrich stated his ideas in regards to this, "The artist should paint not only what he has in front of him but also what he sees inside himself." On mist, he wrote "When a region cloaks itself in mist, it appears larger and more sublime, elevating the imagination, and rousing the expectations like a veiled girl."


title: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

text: Differences still exist between Friedrich and other Romanticists. Werner Hofmann wrote that "Wanderer" was more open-ended and questioning than typical Romantic works. He compares Friedrich's searching "Wanderer" who does not know the future with Delacroix's "Liberty Leading the People", which is more certain about the course of action required, perhaps related to the differences in German and French nationalism of the era.


title: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

text: Friedrich criticized other artists of his day as painting overfilled "curiosity shops" that covered every part of the canvass with new features. While "Wanderer" is detailed, it does not lose focus by including an array of geographic features, other people, or buildings; the work stays centered on the mountains and the mist, and lets the viewer's eye explore it at its own pace.


title: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

text: Traditional art standards hold that if people are present in a scene, they are turned toward the viewer or in profile. Exceptions exist but are generally for minor characters in a crowded scene. While Friedrich was not the first artist to use a "Rückenfigur", he used such figures turned away from the viewer considerably more frequently and persistently than other artists. Friedrich's use of the "Rückenfigur" was generally considered to invite viewers "inside" the painting and encourage the viewer to consider the perspective from the depicted mysterious person whose face cannot be seen. "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog" is perhaps the most famous "Rückenfigur" in art due to the subject's prominence. The figure changes the sense and focus of the painting. wrote that "It is harder to imagine this landscape without a figure than it is in any other painting."


title: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

text: Other works of Friedrich's comparable to "Wanderer" with such a "Rückenfigur" motif include "Woman at a Window", "Two Men by the Sea at Moonrise", and "Neubrandenburg".


title: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

text: Wieland Schmied argues that "Wanderer" was a precursor to the surrealism of René Magritte; Friedrich included subtle incongruities in his work and seemingly impossible perspectives, as seen in "Wanderer", and Magritte took such elements even further in his work. The background of the picture seemingly plunges into the foreground, with the depth between them unclear.


title: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

text: Friedrich was an outspoken supporter of German liberal and nationalist feeling. The old German princely states were disrupted and saw their authority compromised in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars of 1803–1815. German nationalists advocated for the Unification of Germany and the abolition of the conservative German nobility and leadership of the German Confederation. One of the ways German liberals identified themselves and showed their support was a fashion trend: "Altdeutsche" ("Old German") outfits, a restoration of a heroic unified German past of the 1500s–1600s and the age of Martin Luther. Nationalists such as Friedrich thus identified themselves with restoring a lost national greatness. The figure in "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog" wears just such an "Altdeutsche" outfit, a political statement in the era when the painting was created. The trend was sufficiently alarming to the "Vormärz" post-Napoleonic governments that "Altdeutsche" costumes were banned in 1819 by the Carlsbad Decrees, a year after the painting of "Wanderer".


title: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

text: A matter less clear is how Friedrich's Lutheranism affected "Wanderer", if at all. Friedrich's religious side is seen in other paintings of his, such as the 1810 painting "Cross in the Mountains", which fit a humble sort of Christianity that found beauty in nature. This corresponds with Luther's writing that all the great cathedrals and pompous buildings of the Catholic Church of his era could be torn down with little loss. To Friedrich's interpretation of Lutheranism, true religion was found in nature, simplicity, and individual people, all elements of "Wanderer" . Another potential link was how Friedrich met and befriended the scientist and fellow painter Carl Gustav Carus in 1817 just before he would have been preparing and painting "Wanderer". Art historian Joseph Koerner notes that Carus wrote on a particular verse in the Luther Bible: Luther translated the account of God's creation of Earth in the Book of Genesis 2:6 as (English: A fog arose from the Earth and moistened the entire land). Carus argued the fog was God's assistant in the Creation, turning barren mountains into verdant forests. Koerner hypothesizes that Carus and Friedrich could have discussed the matter in the course of their friendship. He sees that "Wanderer" could well be depicting a Creation-esque scene: the figure views a land of unknown possibility, hidden in the mist.


title: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

text: Robert Macfarlane argues the painting had significant influence on how mountain climbing has been viewed in the Western world since the Romantic era, calling it the "archetypical image of the mountain-climbing visionary". He admires its power in representing the concept that standing on mountain tops is something to be admired, an idea which barely existed in earlier centuries.


title: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

text: While Friedrich was respected in German and Russian circles, "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog" and Friedrich's work in general were not immediately regarded as masterpieces. His fame waned as he grew older; he wrote that the art judges of his day did not appreciate winter landscapes and mist enough. Friedrich's reputation improved in the early 20th century, and in particular during the 1970s. "Wanderer" became particularly popular: used as an inspiration for a variety of works since, and not merely known among art scholars. "Wanderer" has appeared on the cover of numerous books, T-shirts, CDs, coffee mugs, and so on, becoming a staple of "popular art" as well as high culture. Werner Hofmann hypothesizes that the subject looking upon a canvass of open possibility, ready to make a choice and find what awaits him, appeals to modern viewers.


title: Micrometre

text: The micrometre (international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American spelling), also commonly known as a micron, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI) equalling (SI standard prefix "micro-" = ); that is, one millionth of a metre (or one thousandth of a millimetre, , or about ).


title: Micrometre

text: The nearest smaller common SI unit is the nanometre, equivalent to one thousandth of a micrometre, one millionth of a millimetre or one billionth of a metre ().


title: Micrometre

text: The micrometre is a common unit of measurement for wavelengths of infrared radiation as well as sizes of biological cells and bacteria, and for grading wool by the diameter of the fibres. The width of a single human hair ranges from approximately 20 to . The longest human chromosome, chromosome 1, is approximately in length.


title: Micrometre

text: The term "micron" and the symbol μ were officially accepted for use in isolation to denote the micrometre in 1879, but officially revoked by the International System of Units (SI) in 1967. This became necessary because the older usage was incompatible with the official adoption of the unit prefix "micro-", denoted μ, during the creation of the SI in 1960.


title: Micrometre

text: In the SI, the systematic name "micrometre" became the official name of the unit, and μm became the official unit symbol.


title: Micrometre

text: The official symbol for the SI prefix "micro-" is a Greek lowercase mu. In Unicode, there is also a micro sign with the code point U+00B5 (µ), distinct from the code point U+03BC (μ) of the Greek letter lowercase mu. According to the Unicode Consortium, the Greek letter character is preferred, but implementations must recognize the micro sign as well. Most fonts use the same glyph for the two characters.


title: Connie Francis

text: known professionally as Connie Francis, is an American pop singer, actress, and top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Called the “First Lady of Rock & Roll” in one headline of a marginal publication, she is estimated to have sold more than 100 million records worldwide.


title: Connie Francis

text: In 1960, Francis was recognized as the most successful female artist in Germany, Japan, England, Italy, Australia and in every other country where records were purchased. She was the first woman in history to reach No. 1 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, just one of her other 53 career hits.


title: Connie Francis

text: Francis was born to an Italian-American family in the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey, the first child of George and Ida (née Ferrari-di Vito) Franconero, spending her first years in the Crown Heights, Brooklyn area (Utica Avenue/St. Marks Avenue) before the family moved to New Jersey.


title: Connie Francis

text: Growing up in an Italian-Jewish neighborhood, Francis became fluent in Yiddish, which led her later to record songs in Yiddish and Hebrew.


title: Connie Francis

text: In her autobiography "Who's Sorry Now?" published in 1984, Francis recalls that she was encouraged by her father to appear regularly at talent contests, pageants, and other neighborhood festivities from the age of four as a singer and accordion player.


title: Connie Francis

text: Francis attended Newark Arts High School in 1951 and 1952. She and her family moved to Belleville, New Jersey, where Francis graduated as salutatorian from Belleville High School Class of 1955.


title: Connie Francis

text: During this time, Francis continued to perform at neighborhood festivities and talent shows (some of which were broadcast on television), appearing alternately as Concetta Franconero and Connie Franconero. Under the latter name, she also appeared on NBC's variety show "Startime Kids" between 1953 and 1955.


title: Connie Francis

text: During the rehearsals for her appearance on "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts" in December 1950, Francis was advised by Godfrey to change her stage name to Connie Francis for the sake of easier pronunciation. Godfrey also told her to drop the accordion—advice she gladly followed, as she had begun to hate the large and heavy instrument. Around the same time, Francis took a job as a singer on demonstration records, which brought unreleased songs to the attention of established singers and/or their management who might choose to record them for a professional commercial record.


title: Connie Francis

text: In 1955, "Startime Kids" went off the air. In May that same year, George Franconero Sr. and Francis's manager George Scheck raised money for a recording session of four songs which they hoped to sell to a major record company under Francis's own name. Finally, even when MGM Records decided to sign a contract with her, it was basically because one track she had recorded, "Freddy", happened to be the name of the son of a company co-executive, Harry A. Meyerson, who thought of this song as a nice birthday gift. Hence, "Freddy" was released as Francis's first single, which turned out to be a commercial failure, just as her following eight solo singles were.


title: Connie Francis

text: Despite these failures, Francis was hired to record the vocals for Tuesday Weld's "singing" scenes in the 1956 movie "Rock, Rock, Rock", and for Freda Holloway in the 1957 Warner Brothers rock and roll movie "Jamboree".


title: Connie Francis

text: In the fall of 1957, Francis enjoyed her first chart success with a duet single she had recorded with Marvin Rainwater: "The Majesty of Love", with "You, My Darlin' You" as the B-side, peaked at number 93 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Eventually, the single sold over one million copies.


title: Connie Francis

text: However, her minor chart success came too late for her record label—Francis's recording contract consisted of ten solo singles and one duet single. Though success had finally seemed to come with "The Majesty of Love", Francis was informed by MGM Records that her contract would not be renewed after her last solo single.


title: Connie Francis

text: Francis considered a career in medicine and was about to accept a four-year scholarship offered at New York University. At what was to have been her final recording session for MGM on October 2, 1957, with Joe Lipman and his orchestra, she recorded a cover version of the 1923 song "Who's Sorry Now?" written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. Francis has said that she recorded it at the insistence of her father, who was convinced it stood a chance of becoming a hit because it was a song adults already knew and that teenagers would dance to if it had a contemporary arrangement.


title: Connie Francis

text: Francis, who did not like the song and had been arguing about it with her father heatedly, delayed the recording of the two other songs during the session so much that, in her opinion, no time was left on the continuously running recording tape. Her father insisted, though, and when the recording "Who's Sorry Now?" was finished, only a few seconds were left on the tape.


title: Connie Francis

text: The single seemed to go unnoticed like all previous releases, just as Francis had predicted, but on January 1, 1958, it debuted on Dick Clark's "American Bandstand". Francis watched the show and wrote in her diary:


title: Connie Francis

text: "I heard Dick Clark mention something about a new girl singer. So, what else is new? Another girl singer. There are ninety-five millions females in the country, and I'll bet ninety-five percent of them sing. "There's no doubt about it", predicted Mr. Clark. "She's is headed straight for the number one spot". I began feeling sorry for myself and a bit envious, too. Good luck to her, I thought. And then Mr. Clark just happened to play a song called "Who's sorry now" - MY "Who's Sorry Now"! Well, the feeling was cosmic - just cosmic! Right there in my living-room, it became Mardi Gras-time, the kick-off at the Super Bowl, and New Year's Eve at the turn of the century!"


title: Connie Francis

text: And on February 15 of that same year, Francis performed it on the first episode of "The Saturday Night Beechnut Show", also hosted by Clark. By mid-year, over a million copies had been sold, and Francis was suddenly launched into worldwide stardom. In April 1958, "Who's Sorry Now?" reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart and number 4 in the US. For the next four years, Francis was voted the "Best Female Vocalist" by "American Bandstand" viewers.


title: Connie Francis

text: As Connie Francis explains at each of her concerts, she began searching for a new hit immediately after the success of "Who's Sorry Now?" since MGM Records had renewed her contract. After the relative failure of the follow-up singles "I'm Sorry I Made You Cry" (which stalled at No. 36) and "Heartaches" (failing to chart at all), Francis met Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, who sang a number of ballads they had written for her. After a few hours, Francis began writing in her diary while the songwriters played the last of their ballads. (This, and her refusal to let Sedaka and Greenfield see the diary to mine it for material, inspired the duo to write Sedaka's own breakthrough hit "The Diary.") Afterwards, Francis told them that she considered their ballads too intellectual and sophisticated for the young generation and requested a more lively song. Greenfield urged Sedaka to sing a song they had written that morning with the Shepherd Sisters in mind. Sedaka protested that Francis would be insulted, but Greenfield said that since she hated all the other songs they had performed, they had nothing to lose. Sedaka then played "Stupid Cupid." When he finished, Francis announced that he had just played her new hit song. It went on to reach number 14 on the "Billboard" chart and was her second number 1 in the UK.


title: Connie Francis

text: The success of "Stupid Cupid" restored momentum to Francis' chart career, and she reached the U.S. top 40 an additional eight times during the remainder of the 1950s. She managed to churn out more hits by covering several older songs, such as "My Happiness" (number 2 on the Hot 100) and "Among My Souvenirs" (number 7), as well as performing her own original songs. In 1959, she gained two gold records for a double-sided hit: on the A-side, "Lipstick on Your Collar" (number 5), and on the B-side, "Frankie" (number 9).


title: Connie Francis

text: Following another idea from her father, Francis traveled to London in August 1959 to record an Italian album at EMI's famous Abbey Road Studios. Titled "Connie Francis Sings Italian Favorites", the album was released in November 1959. It soon entered the album charts where it remained for 81 weeks, peaking at number 4. To this day, it is still Francis's most successful album. "Mama," the single taken from the album, reached number 8 in the United States and number 2 in the United Kingdom.


title: Connie Francis

text: Following this success, Francis recorded seven more albums of "favorites" between 1960 and 1964, including Jewish, German, and Irish, among others. These albums marked Francis's transition from the youth-oriented rock 'n' roll music to adult contemporary music, which George Franconero, Sr. had realized to be necessary if his daughter wanted to pursue a successful longterm career in music.


title: Connie Francis

text: Nevertheless, Francis continued to record singles aimed at the youth-oriented market. Among her top-ten hits on the Hot 100 were "Breakin' in a Brand New Broken Heart" (1961, number 7), "When the Boy in Your Arms (Is the Boy in Your Heart)" (1961, number 10), "Second Hand Love" (1962, number 7), and "Where the Boys Are" (1961, number 4). The last became her signature tune and was also the theme song of Francis's first motion picture of the same name. The movie also introduced the concept of spring break, as the once sleepy town of Fort Lauderdale became the hotspot for college students on their spring vacation in the wake of the movie's success.


title: Connie Francis

text: The success of "Connie Francis Sings Italian Favorites" in late 1959/early 1960 led Francis to become one of the first American artists to record in other languages regularly. She was to be followed by other major British and American recording stars including Wanda Jackson, Cliff Richard, Petula Clark, Brenda Lee, the Supremes, Peggy March, Pat Boone, Lesley Gore, the Beatles and Johnny Cash, among many others. In her autobiography, Francis mentioned that in the early years of her career, the language barrier in certain European countries made it difficult for her songs to get airplay, especially in Germany.


title: Connie Francis

text: Francis used these reflections as the basis for her April 1960 recording, "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" which would go on to become the first single by a female artist to top the Hot 100. Veteran lyricist Ralph Maria Siegel penned a set of German lyrics, named ""Die Liebe ist ein seltsames Spiel"", which, after some friction between Francis and her MGM executives, was recorded and released. The song peaked at number 1 in West Germany. She had two more number one hits there, "Paradiso" in September 1962 and "Barcarole in der Nacht" in July 1963.


title: Connie Francis

text: It was not until her number 7 on the US charts, "Many Tears Ago", later in 1960 when Francis began to record cover versions of her own songs in foreign languages besides German. Over the following years, she eventually expanded her recording portfolio up to 15 languages. She also sang in Romanian during a live performance at the 1970 edition of the Cerbul de Aur in Brașov, Romania. Francis was not fluent in all of these languages and she had to learn her foreign language songs phonetically. Francis explained in a 1961 television interview that she was fluent in Spanish and Italian, but always had a translator nearby to make sure her translated lyrics and especially her pronunciation were as correct as possible.


title: Connie Francis

text: In the wake of ""Die Liebe ist ein seltsames Spiel"", Francis enjoyed her greatest successes outside the United States. During the 1960s, her songs not only topped the charts in numerous countries around the world, but she was also voted the number 1 singer in over 10 countries. In 1960, she was named the most popular artist in Europe, the first time a non-European received this honor. From mid-1961 to mid-1963, Radio Luxembourg closed each day's broadcasts with "It's Time to Say Goodnight", a song Francis had recorded especially for this purpose and which was never officially released until 1996.


title: Connie Francis

text: Francis's enduring popularity overseas led to her having television specials in numerous countries around the world, such as Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy. Even at the height of the Cold War, Francis's music was well received in Iron Curtain countries, and some of her recordings were made available on state-owned record labels such as Melodiya in the former Soviet Union and on Jugoton in former Yugoslavia, although it was common knowledge that rock 'n' roll was highly looked down upon in Eastern bloc countries.


title: Connie Francis

text: In the US, Connie Francis had a third number-one hit in 1962: "Don't Break the Heart That Loves You", and her success led MGM to give her complete freedom to choose whichever songs she wanted to record.


title: Connie Francis

text: Francis's first autobiographical book, "For Every Young Heart", was published in 1963. On July 3 that same year, she played a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth II at the Alhambra Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland. During the height of the Vietnam War in 1967, Connie Francis performed for US troops. Francis recalls this story frequently during the introduction to "God Bless America" at her live concerts.


title: Connie Francis

text: Due to changing trends in the early and mid-1960s, namely the British Invasion, Francis's chart success on "Billboard's" Hot 100 began to wane after 1963. She had her final top-ten hit, "Vacation", in 1962. A number of Francis's singles continued to reach the top 40 in the US Hot 100 through the mid-1960s, with her last top-40 entry in 1964 being her cover version of "Be Anything (but Be Mine)", a 1952 song made famous by singer/bandleader Eddy Howard. Despite her declining success on the Hot 100, Francis remained a top concert draw, and her singles – now following a more mature style – were charting on the top quarter of" Billboard's" Adult Contemporary (AC) Charts and sometimes even reached "Billboard's" Country Charts. Therefore, Francis enjoyed lasting chart success in the US until her contract with MGM Records ran out in 1969.


title: Connie Francis

text: In 1965, Connie Francis participated in that year's edition of the annual San Remo Festival, where her team partner Gigliola Cinquetti and she presented ""Ho bisogno di vederti"", which finished on number 5 of the final ranking.


title: Connie Francis

text: Francis returned to San Remo in 1967 to present ""Canta Ragazzina"" with her team partner Bobby Solo. In the US, however, "Time Alone Will Tell", Francis's cover version of San Remo's 1967 winning entry ""Non pensare a me"" which had been presented by Iva Zanicchi and Claudio Villa, peaked at number 94 on Billboard's Hot 100 and at number 14 on "Billboard's" AC charts.


title: Connie Francis

text: In 1973, Francis returned to the recording studio, cutting "(Should I) Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree?", b/w "Paint the Rain" on GSF Records. This answer song to "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree" by Tony Orlando & Dawn bubbled under the charts. The project of recording a German version, though, remained unfinished.


title: Connie Francis

text: After her modest success with "(Should I) Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree?" Francis began performing regularly again. While appearing at the Westbury Music Fair in New York, on November 8, 1974, Francis was raped at the Jericho Turnpike Howard Johnson's Lodge in Jericho, New York, and nearly suffocated under the weight of a heavy mattress the culprit had thrown upon her. She subsequently sued the motel chain for failing to provide adequate security and reportedly won a $2.5 million judgment, at the time one of the largest such judgments in history, leading to a reform in hotel security. Her rapist was never found. During the years after the incident, Francis went into depression, taking as many as 50 Darvon pills a day and rarely leaving her home in Essex Fells, New Jersey.


title: Connie Francis

text: In 1977, Francis underwent nasal surgery and completely lost her voice. She went through three more operations to regain her singing voice and was unable to sing for four years.


title: Connie Francis

text: In 1978, Francis returned to the recording studio to cut an album titled "Who's Happy Now?" The leading recording on this album was a disco version of "Where the Boys Are". She recorded the song also in Japanese, Italian, and Spanish, as she had done before with her original 1960 version. Several songs from the "Who's Happy Now?" sessions were subsequently recorded in Italian, Spanish, Japanese, and German. The Spanish and German recordings became albums of their own in as "Connie Francis en Español" in Spain and as "Was ich bin" (What I Am) in Germany. All three albums and the singles culled from them were released on United Artists Records.


title: Connie Francis

text: Francis returned to the recording studio in 1981 to cut ""Comme ci, comme ça"", and "I'm Me Again", the latter of which became the title track of an album which featured the aforementioned new songs. "I'm Me Again" became Francis' last single to chart on the AC charts.


title: Connie Francis

text: In 1981, further tragedy struck Francis when her brother, George Franconero, Jr., with whom she was very close, was murdered by Mafia hitmen.


title: Connie Francis

text: Despite that, she took up live performing again, even gracing the "American Bandstand" 30th Anniversary Special Episode, and appearing in the town where she had been raped. Francis' new-found success was short-lived, though, as she was diagnosed with manic depression, which again brought her career to a halt, and she was committed to multiple psychiatric hospitals. Francis attempted suicide in 1984.


title: Connie Francis

text: Nevertheless, in 1984, Francis was able to write and publish her autobiography, "Who's Sorry Now?", which became a "New York Times" bestseller.


title: Connie Francis

text: In 1989, Francis resumed her recording and performing career again. For Malaco Records, Francis recorded a double album entitled "Where the Hits Are", containing re-recordings of 18 of her biggest hits, as well as six classics of yesteryear Francis had always wanted to record such as "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" and "Torn Between Two Lovers".


title: Connie Francis

text: In 1992, a medley of remixed versions of her biggest German hits charted in Germany. A single, entitled "Jive, Connie", ended up among the top-ten best-selling singles of the year, which brought Francis the prestigious R.SH-Gold award for the "Best Comeback of the Year" from R.SH (short for "Radio Schleswig-Holstein"), back then one of Germany's most important private radio stations. A subsequent compilation album of her biggest German hits in their original versions was also released successfully. In the wake of this, Francis recorded two duets for the German Herzklang label (a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment) with Peter Kraus, with whom she had already worked several times in the late 1950s and early 1960s. A German-language solo album was supposed to follow on Herzklang, but despite all songs being recorded and mixed, the album remains unreleased.


title: Connie Francis

text: In 1996, Francis released the live album "The Return Concert: Live at Trump's Castle". That same year, she also released "With Love to Buddy", a tribute album of songs made famous by the late Buddy Holly.


title: Connie Francis

text: In late December 2004, Francis headlined in Las Vegas for the first time since 1989. In March and October 2007, Francis performed to sold-out crowds at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. She appeared in concert in Manila, Philippines, on Valentine's Day 2008.


title: Connie Francis

text: In 2010, she also appeared at the Las Vegas Hilton with Dionne Warwick, a show billed as "Eric Floyd's Grand Divas of Stage".


title: Connie Francis

text: While her singles were mostly kept in the then-current sounds of the day such as rock 'n' roll, novelty songs, the twist, torch ballads, or the girl group sound created by Brill Building alumni Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, Francis' albums represented her in a variety of styles, ranging from R&B, vocal jazz, and country to Broadway standards, children's music, waltzes, spiritual music, schlager music, traditionals from various ethnic groups represented in the US, and select songs from popular songwriters of the day, such as Burt Bacharach and Hal David, or Les Reed.


title: Connie Francis

text: Francis has been married four times. In 1964, she was briefly married to Dick Kanellis, a press agent and entertainment director for the Aladdin Hotel. In January 1971, she married Izzy Marion, a hair-salon owner, divorcing 10 months later. In 1973, Francis married for the third timeher only marriage to last more than a few monthsJoseph Garzilli, a restaurateur and travel-agency owner; they divorced in 1977. It was during the third marriage that Francis adopted a baby boy, Joey. Francis married TV producer Bob Parkinson in 1985, divorcing later that year.


title: Connie Francis

text: Early in her career, Francis was introduced to Bobby Darin, then an up-and-coming singer and songwriter. Darin's manager arranged for him to help write several songs for her. Despite some disagreement about material, after several weeks Darin and Francis developed a romantic relationship. Francis' strict Italian father would separate the couple whenever possible. When her father learned that Darin had suggested the two elope after one of her shows, he ran Darin out of the building at gunpoint.


title: Connie Francis

text: Francis saw Darin only two more times: once when the two were scheduled to sing together for a television show, and again when she was spotlighted on the TV series "This Is Your Life". By the time of the latter's taping, Darin had married actress Sandra Dee. In her autobiography, Francis stated she and her father were driving into the Lincoln Tunnel when the radio DJ announced Dee and Darin's marriage. Her father made a negative comment about Darin finally being out of their lives. Angered, Francis wrote she hoped the Hudson River would fill the Lincoln Tunnel, killing both her and her father; she later wrote that not marrying Darin was the biggest mistake of her life.


title: Connie Francis

text: Francis and singer Gloria Estefan completed a screenplay for a movie based on Francis' life titled "Who's Sorry Now?" Estefan announced that she would produce and play the lead. She said, "[Connie Francis] isn't even in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and yet she was the first female pop star worldwide, and has recorded in nine languages. She has done a lot of things for victims' rights since her rape in the '70s... There's a major story there." In December 2009 the film project was dropped. According to Francis:


title: Connie Francis

text: In the same article, Francis said that Dolly Parton had been contacting her for years trying to produce her life story, but owing to her previous commitment to Estefan's organization, she was not able to accept Parton's offer. She noted in the article that both she and Parton had considered, independently of each other, actress Valerie Bertinelli to play Francis.


title: Connie Francis

text: Francis supported Richard Nixon's 1968 bid for the Presidency when she recorded a campaign song for him.


title: Connie Francis

text: In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan appointed her as head of his task force on violent crime. She has also been the spokeswoman for Mental Health America's trauma campaign, as well as an involved worker for the USO and UNICEF.


title: Connie Francis

text: Francis brought a suit alleging that Universal Music Group (UMG) took advantage of her condition and stopped paying royalties. The lawsuit was dismissed.


title: Connie Francis

text: On November 27, 2002, she filed a second suit against UMG alleging the label had inflicted severe emotional distress on her and violated her moral rights when, without her permission, it synchronized several of her songs into "sexually themed" movies: the 1994 film "Post Cards from America", the 1996 film "The Craft", and the 1999 film "Jawbreaker". This suit was also dismissed.


title: Connie Francis

text: Francis also sued the producers of "Jawbreaker" for using her song "Lollipop Lips," which is heard during a sex scene.


title: Connie Francis

text: A "Connie Francis Way" street sign is displayed at the corner of Greylock Parkway and Forest Street in Belleville, New Jersey, near the house in which she grew up.


title: Contralto

text: A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type.


title: Contralto

text: The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typically between the F below middle C (F in scientific pitch notation) to the second F above middle C (F), although, at the extremes, some voices can reach the D below middle C (D) or the second B above middle C (B). The contralto voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, lyric, and dramatic contralto.


title: Contralto

text: "Contralto" is primarily meaningful only in reference to classical and operatic singing, as other traditions lack a comparable system of vocal categorization. The term "contralto" is only applied to female singers; men singing in a similar range are called "countertenors". The Italian terms "contralto" and "alto" are not synonymous, "alto" technically denoting a specific vocal range in choral singing without regard to factors like tessitura, vocal timbre, vocal facility, and vocal weight. However, there exists some French choral writing (including that of Ravel and Poulenc) with a part labelled "contralto", despite the tessitura and function being that of a classical alto part. The Saracen princess Clorinde in André Campra's 1702 opera "Tancrède" was written for Julie d'Aubigny and is considered the earliest major role for "bas-dessus" or contralto voice.


title: Contralto

text: Although tenors, baritones, and basses are male singers, some women can sing as low (albeit with a slightly different timbre and texture) as their male counterparts. Some of the rare female singers who specialized in the tenor and baritone registers include film actress Zarah Leander, the Persian "āvāz" singer Hayedeh, the child prodigy Ruby Helder (1890–1938), and Bavarian novelty singer Bally Prell.


title: Contralto

text: Within the contralto voice type category are three generally recognized subcategories: coloratura contralto, an agile voice specializing in florid passages; lyric contralto, a voice lighter in timbre; and dramatic contralto, the deepest, darkest, and most powerful contralto voice. The coloratura contralto was a favorite voice type of Rossini's. Many of his roles listed below were written with this type of voice in mind. Lyric contraltos are heavily utilized in both the French and English operatic repertoire. Many of the Gilbert and Sullivan contralto roles are best suited with a lyric contralto voice. Ma Moss in "The Tender Land" is a notable lyric contralto role. The dramatic contralto voice is heard in much of the German operatic repertoire. Erda in "Der Ring des Nibelungen" and Gaea in "Daphne" are both good examples of the dramatic contralto.


title: Contralto

text: True operatic contraltos are rare, and the operatic literature contains few roles written specifically for them. Contraltos sometimes are assigned feminine roles like Teodata in "Flavio", Angelina in "La Cenerentola", Rosina in "The Barber of Seville", Isabella in "L'italiana in Algeri", and Olga in "Eugene Onegin", but more frequently they play female villains or trouser roles. Contraltos may also be cast in roles originally written for castrati. A common saying among contraltos is that they may play only "witches, bitches, or ."


title: Bakersfield, California

text: Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's population as of the 2020 census was 403,455, making it the 48th-most populous city in the United States of America and the 9th-most populous city in California. The Bakersfield–Delano Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Kern County, had a 2020 census population of 909,235, making it the 62nd-largest metropolitan area in the United States. The more built-up portion of the metro area that includes Bakersfield and areas immediately around the city, such as East Bakersfield, Oildale, and Rosedale, has a population of 523,994.


title: Bakersfield, California

text: Bakersfield is a significant hub for both agriculture and energy production. Kern County is the most productive oil-producing county in California and the fourth-most productive agricultural county (by value) in the United States. Industries in and around Bakersfield include natural gas and other energy extraction, mining, petroleum refining, distribution, food processing, and corporate regional offices. The city is the birthplace of the country music genre known as the Bakersfield sound.


title: Bakersfield, California

text: Archaeological evidence indicates the presence of Native American settlements dating back thousands of years. Upon Spanish arrival, present-day Bakersfield was inhabited by the Yowlumne, a Yokuts people. Yowlumne accounts indicate that the village of Woilu was situated in the bounds of the present city.


title: Bakersfield, California

text: The Yokuts of the region lived in lodges along the branches of the Kern River delta and hunted antelope, tule elk, deer, bear, fish, and game birds.


title: Bakersfield, California

text: In 1776, Spanish missionary Francisco Garcés became the first European to explore the area. Recording his May 1 arrival to a Yokuts village along the Kern River, immediately northeast of present-Bakersfield, Garcés wrote,


title: Bakersfield, California

text: Given the remoteness and inaccessibility of the region, the Yokuts remained largely isolated from further contact until after the Mexican War of Independence, when Mexican settlers began to migrate to the area. Following the discovery of gold in California in 1848, settlers flooded into the San Joaquin Valley. In 1851, gold was discovered along the Kern River in the southern Sierra Nevada, and in 1865, oil was discovered in the valley. The Bakersfield area, once a tule reed-covered marshland, was first known as Kern Island to the handful of pioneers, who built log cabins there in 1860. The area was subject to periodic flooding from the Kern River, which occupied what is now the downtown area, and experienced outbreaks of malaria.


title: Bakersfield, California

text: Bakersfield is the fifth-largest majority-Hispanic city in the United States, with 53% of its population being Hispanic in 2020.


title: Bakersfield, California

text: In 1861, disastrous floods swept away the original settlement founded in 1860 by the German-born Christian Bohna. Among those attracted to the area by the California gold rush was Thomas Baker, a lawyer and former colonel in the militia of Ohio, his home state. Baker moved to the banks of the Kern River in 1863, at what became known as Baker's Field, which became a stopover for travelers. By 1870, with a population of 600, what is now known as Bakersfield was becoming the principal town in Kern County.


title: Bakersfield, California

text: In 1873, Bakersfield was officially incorporated as a city, and by 1874, it officially replaced the town of Havilah as the county seat. Alexander Mills was hired as the city marshal, a man one historian would describe as "... an old man by the time he became Marshal of Bakersfield, and he walked with a cane. But he was a Kentuckian, a handy man with a gun, and not lacking in initiative and resource when the mood moved him." Businessmen and others began to resent Mills, who was cantankerous and high-handed in his treatment of them. Wanting to fire him but fearing reprisals, they came up with a scheme to disincorporate, effectively leaving him without an employer. According to local historian Gilbert Gia the city was also failing to collect the taxes it needed for services. In 1876, the city voted to disincorporate. For the next 22 years, a citizen's council managed the community.


title: Bakersfield, California

text: By 1890, it had a population of 2,626. Migration from Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Southern California brought new residents, who were mostly employed by the oil industry.


title: Bakersfield, California

text: On July 21, 1952, an earthquake struck at 4:52 am Pacific Daylight Time. The earthquake, which measured 7.5 on the moment magnitude scale and was felt from San Francisco to the Mexican border, destroyed the nearby communities of Tehachapi and Arvin. The earthquake's destructive force bent cotton fields into U shapes, slid a shoulder of the Tehachapi Mountains across all four lanes of the Ridge Route, collapsed a water tower creating a flash flood, and destroyed the railroad tunnels in the mountain chain. Bakersfield was somewhat spared, experiencing minor architectural damage without loss of life.


title: Bakersfield, California

text: A large aftershock occurred on July 29, and did minor architectural damage, but raised fears that the flow of the Friant-Kern Canal could be dangerously altered, potentially flooding the city and surrounding areas.


title: Bakersfield, California

text: Aftershocks continued for the next month, and on August 22 at 3:42 pm, another earthquake, measured at 5.8, struck directly under the city's center in the most densely populated area of the southern San Joaquin Valley. Four people died in the aftershock, and many of the town's historic structures sustained heavy damage.


title: Bakersfield, California

text: Between 1970 and 2010, Bakersfield grew 400% (from 70,000 to 347,483), making it one of the fastest-growing cities in California.


title: Bakersfield, California

text: Bakersfield's close proximity to mountain passes, primarily the Tejon Pass on Interstate 5 between the Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Joaquin Valley, has made the city a regional transportation hub.


title: Bakersfield, California

text: In 1990, Bakersfield was one of 10 U.S. communities to receive the All-America City Award from the National Civic League.


title: Bakersfield, California

text: In 2010, the Bakersfield MSA had a gross metropolitan product of $29.466 billion, making it the 73rd-largest metropolitan economy in the United States.


title: Bakersfield, California

text: Bakersfield has a number of buildings and locations that have been designated as historic sites at the national, state, and city levels. Five buildings have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), including the First Baptist Church (NRHP 1/2/79); Baker Street Library (NRHP 4/1/81) and Bakersfield Californian Building (NRHP 3/10/83). Four sites have been designated as California Historical Landmarks, including Garces Memorial Circle (designated in 1937) and the Colonel Thomas Baker Memorial (designated in 1944). In addition, 16 sites have been locally designated on the Bakersfield Register of Historic Places, including the Fox Theater (designated 8/24/94) and Kern County Chamber of Commerce Building (designated 3/12/08). With only 16 sites on its local register (compared to more than 300 sites designated by the City of Fresno), Bakersfield has been criticized for its lack of focus on historic preservation.


title: Bakersfield, California

text: Bakersfield lies near the southern "horseshoe" end of the San Joaquin Valley, with the southern tip of the Sierra Nevada just to the east. The city limits extend to the Sequoia National Forest, at the foot of the Greenhorn Mountain Range and at the entrance to the Kern Canyon. To the south, the Tehachapi Mountains, rising more than a vertical mile, feature the historic Tejon Ranch. To the west is the Temblor Range, behind which is the Carrizo Plain National Monument and the San Andreas Fault. The Temblor Range is about from Bakersfield across the valley floor.


title: Bakersfield, California

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which are land (98.99%) and are covered by water (1.01%).


title: Bakersfield, California

text: At the 2000 census, the city had a total area of , of which were land (98.86%) and were water-covered (1.14%).


title: Bakersfield, California

text: Bakersfield lies around north of Los Angeles (about a 2-hour drive on I-5 and State Route 99) and about southeast of the state capital, Sacramento (about a 4-hour drive on State Route 99).


title: Bakersfield, California

text: Bakersfield has historically referred to its regions by directional names. They include: North Bakersfield, Northeast, Southeast, South Bakersfield, Southwest, and Northwest. East Bakersfield generally refers to the former town of Sumner (later renamed East Bakersfield). As a result, the Northeast wraps around East Bakersfield.


title: Bakersfield, California

text: Bakersfield has a hot arid climate (Köppen "BWh"), with very hot, dry summers, and winters that consist of mild days with chilly/cold nights. Rainfall is low in the city, averaging only annually, with most of it falling in the winter. Bakersfield averages about 191 clear days a year. Bakersfield's climate makes the region suitable for growing crops ranging from carrots to citrus and almonds.


title: Bakersfield, California

text: Bakersfield summers are very hot with extended stretches of hot weather and 112 days per year with high temperatures of + (on average between April 18 and October 13); in addition, there are 36 days with highs of + (on average between June 2 and September 19), and 0.9 days with highs of +. Some years can see wide fluctuations in temperatures throughout seasons, with triple digit temperature readings in May (rarely April) and October in addition to occasional highs below in June not being uncommon. Except for occasional monsoons which may bring light rain, typically no rain or almost no rain will fall from May to September. Winters feature mild daytime temperatures and chilly/cold nights. Frost and/or dense fog usually occurs in winter with accompanying low visibility, causing many schools to have fog delays. Winters will usually produce a very dense layer of fog from time to time. Due to years of prolonged drought and rapid development of many new neighborhoods around Bakersfield, the density of the fog and number of "fog days" has been steadily decreasing, while areas outside the city still experience thick fog. The official time frame for tule fog to form is about 5 months long – various days from November 1 to March 31. Most noticeable in summer and winter, the urban heat island phenomenon can be observed throughout various neighborhoods in Bakersfield. Areas closer to downtown and along the 99 freeway corridor can experience warmer temperatures at night than neighborhoods on the edge of the city limits and rural Kern County areas, with temperature differences up to between these areas at any given time. On average, 10 mornings have freezing lows (on average between December 14 and January 24) annually, and the coldest night of the year typically bottoms out below .


title: Bakersfield, California

text: Snow is rare on the valley floor although frost may occur. The last snow fell on January 25, 1999, when the city received up to , with at the airport. The record maximum temperature was on July 28, 1908, and the record minimum temperature was on January 3, 1908. The most rainfall in one month was in December 2010, and the maximum 24-hour rainfall was on February 9, 1978. The wettest "rain year" has been from July 1997 to June 1998 with and the driest from July 1933 to June 1934 with .