title: Apostasy in Islam

text: Zakir Naik, the Indian Islamic televangelist and preacher takes a less strict line (mentioned above), stating that only those Muslims who "propagate the non-Islamic faith and speak against Islam" after converting from Islam should be put to death.


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: While not speaking to the issue of executing apostates, Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah, an Egyptian Islamic advisory, justiciary and governmental body, issued a fatwa in the case of an Egyptian Christian convert to Islam but "sought to return to Christianity", stating: “Those who embraced Islam voluntarily and without coercion cannot later deviate from the public order of society by revealing their act of apostasy because such behavior would discourage other people from embracing Islam.” (The Egyptian court followed the fatwa.)


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: The charge of apostasy has often been used by religious authorities to condemn and punish skeptics, dissidents, and minorities in their communities. From the earliest times of the history of Islam, the crime of apostasy and execution for apostasy has driven major events in the development of the Islamic religion. For example, the Ridda wars (civil wars of apostasy) shook the Muslim community in 632–633 AD, immediately after the death of Muhammad. These wars caused the split between the two major sects of Islam: Sunnis and Shias, and numerous deaths on both sides. Sunni and Shia sects of Islam have long accused each other of apostasy.


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: The charge of apostasy dates back to the early history of Islam with the emergence of the Kharijites in the 7th century CE. The original schism between Kharijites, Sunnis, and Shias among Muslims was disputed over the political and religious succession to the guidance of the Muslim community ("Ummah") after the death of Muhammad. From their essentially political position, the Kharijites developed extreme doctrines that set them apart from both mainstream Sunni and Shia Muslims. Shias believe ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib is the true successor to Muhammad, while Sunnis consider Abu Bakr to hold that position. The Kharijites broke away from both the Shias and the Sunnis during the First Fitna (the first Islamic Civil War); they were particularly noted for adopting a radical approach to "takfīr" (excommunication), whereby they declared both Sunni and Shia Muslims to be either infidels ("kuffār") or false Muslims ("munāfiḳūn"), and therefore deemed them worthy of death for their perceived apostasy ("ridda").


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: Modern historians recognize that the Christian populations living in the lands invaded by the Arab Muslim armies between the 7th and 10th centuries AD suffered religious persecution, religious violence, and martyrdom multiple times at the hands of Arab Muslim officials and rulers; many were executed under the Islamic death penalty for defending their Christian faith through dramatic acts of resistance such as refusing to convert to Islam, repudiation of the Islamic religion and subsequent reconversion to Christianity, and blasphemy towards Muslim beliefs. Notable Christian converts to Islam who reportedly reverted to Christianity and were executed under the Islamic death penalty for this reason include "Kyros", who was executed by burning in 769 CE, “Holy Elias” in 795 CE, and “Holy Bacchus” in 806 CE. The martyrdoms of forty-eight Christian martyrs that took place in the Emirate of Córdoba between 850 and 859 AD are recorded in the hagiographical treatise written by the Iberian Christian and Latinist scholar Eulogius of Córdoba. The Martyrs of Córdoba were executed under the rule of Abd al-Rahman II and Muhammad I, and Eulogius' hagiography describes in detail the executions of the martyrs for capital violations of Islamic law, including apostasy and blasphemy.


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: Historian David Cook writes that "it is only with the 'Abbasi caliphs al-Mu'taṣim (218-28 AH/833-42 CE) and al-Mutawakkil (233-47 /847-61) that we find detailed accounts" of apostates and what was done with them. Prior to that, in the Umayyad and early Abbasid periods, measures to defend Islam from apostasy "appear to have mostly remained limited to intellectual debates"


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: He also states that "the most common category of apostates" — at least of apostates who converted to another religion — "from the very first days of Islam" were "Christians and Jews who converted to Islam and after some time" reconverted back to their former faith.


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: Some sources emphasize that executions of apostates have been "rare in Islamic history". According to historian Bernard Lewis, in "religious polemic" in the "early times" of Islam, "charges of apostasy were not unusual", but the accused were seldom prosecuted, and "some even held high offices in the Muslim state". Later, "as the rules and penalties of the Muslim law were systematized and more regularly enforced, charges of apostasy became rarer." When action was taken against an alleged apostate, it was much more likely to be "quarantine" than execution, unless the innovation was "extreme, persistent and aggressive". Another source, legal historian Sadakat Kadri, argues execution was rare because "it was widely believed" that any accused apostate "who repented by articulating the "shahada" [...] had to be forgiven" and their punishment delayed until after Judgement Day. This principle was upheld "even in extreme situations", such as when an offender adopted Islam "only for fear of death" and their sincerity seemed highly implausible. It was based on the hadith that Muhammad had upbraided a follower for killing a raider who had uttered the "shahada".


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: "The New Encyclopedia of Islam" also states that after the early period, with some notable exceptions, the practice in Islam regarding atheism or various forms of heresy, grew more tolerant as long as it was a private matter. However heresy and atheism expressed in public may well be considered a scandal and a menace to a society; in some societies they are punishable, at least to the extent the perpetrator is silenced. In particular, blasphemy against God and insulting Muhammad are major crimes.


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: In contrast, historian David Cook maintains the issue of apostasy and punishment for it was not uncommon in Islamic history. However, he also states that prior to 11th century execution seems rare he gives an example of a Jew who had converted to Islam and used the threat of reverting to Judaism in order to gain better treatment and privilege.


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: "Zindīq" (often a "blanket phrase" for "intellectuals" under suspicion of having abandoned Islam" or freethinker, atheist or heretic who conceal their religion), experienced a wave of persecutions from 779 to 786. A history of those times states:


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: The famous Sufi mystic of 10th-century Iraq, Mansur Al-Hallaj was officially executed for possessing a heretical document suggesting hajj pilgrimage was not required of a pure Muslim (i.e. killed for heresy which made him an apostate), but it is thought he would have been spared execution except that the Caliph at the time Al-Muqtadir wished to discredit "certain figures who had associated themselves" with al-Hallaj. (Previously al-Hallaj had been punished for talking about being at one with God by being shaved, pilloried and beaten with the flat of a sword. He was not executed because the Shafi'ite judge had ruled that his words were not "proof of disbelief.")


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: In 12th-century Iran, al-Suhrawardi along with followers of Ismaili sect of Islam were killed on charges of being apostates; in 14th-century Syria, Ibn Taymiyyah declared Central Asian Turko-Mongol Muslims as apostates due to the invasion of Ghazan Khan; in 17th-century India, Dara Shikoh and other sons of Shah Jahan were captured and executed on charges of apostasy from Islam by his brother Aurangzeb although historians agree it was more political than a religious execution.


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: From around 1800 up until 1970, there were only a few cases of executions of apostates in the Muslim world, including the strangling of a woman in Egypt (sometime between 1825 and 1835), and the beheading of an Armenian youth in the Ottoman Empire in 1843.


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: Western powers campaigned intensely for a prohibition on the execution of apostates in the Ottoman Empire. British envoy to the court of Sultan Abdülmecid i (1839–1861), Stratford Canning, led diplomatic representatives from Austria, Russia, Prussia, and France in a "tug of war" with the Ottoman government. In the end (following the execution of the Armenian), the Sublime Porte agreed to allow "complete freedom of Christian missionaries" to try to convert Muslims in the Empire. The death sentence for apostasy from Islam was abolished by the Edict of Toleration, and substituted with other forms of punishment by the Ottoman government in 1844. The implementation of this ban was resisted by religious officials and proved difficult. A series of edicts followed during the Ottoman Tanzimat period, such as the 1856 Reform Edict.


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: This was also the time that Islamic modernists like Muhammad Abduh (d.1905) argued that to be executed, it was not enough to be an apostate, the perpetrator had to pose a real threat to public safety. Islamic scholars like Muhammad Rashid Rida (d.1935) and Muhammad al Ghazzali (d.1996), on the other hand, asserted that public, explicit apostasy automatically tened public order and hence; punishable by death. These scholars reconciled the Qur'anic verse "There is no compulsion in religion.." by arguing that freedom of religion in Islam doesn't extend for Muslims who seek to change their religion. Other authors like 'Abd al-Muta'ali al-Sa'idi, S.A. Rahman, etc assert that capital punishment for apostasy is contradictory to freedom of religion and need to be banished.


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: Efforts to convert Muslims to other religions were extremely unpopular with the Muslim community. Despite these edicts on apostasy, there was constant pressure on non-Muslims to convert to Islam, and apostates from Islam continued to be persecuted, punished and threatened with execution, particularly in eastern and Levant parts of the then Ottoman Empire. The Edict of Toleration ultimately failed when Sultan Abdul Hamid II assumed power, re-asserted pan-Islamism with sharia as Ottoman state philosophy, and initiated Hamidian massacres in 1894 against Christians, particularly the Genocides of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, and crypto-Christian apostates from Islam in Turkey (Stavriotes, Kromlides).


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: In the colonial era, the death penalty for apostasy was abolished in Islamic countries that had come under Western rule or in places, such as the Ottoman Empire, Western powers could apply enough pressure to abolish it. Writing in the mid 1970s, Rudolph Peters and Gert J. J. De Vries stated that "apostasy no longer falls under criminal law" in the Muslim world, but that some Muslims (such as 'Adb al-Qadir 'Awdah) were preaching that "the killing of an apostate" had "become a duty of individual Moslems" (rather than a less important collective duty in "hisbah" doctrine) and giving advice on how to plead in court after being arrested for such a murder to avoid punishment.


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: Some (Louay M. Safi), have argued that this situation, with the adoption of "European legal codes ... enforced by state elites without any public debate", created an identification of tolerance with foreign/alien control in the mind of the Muslim public, and rigid literalist interpretations (such as the execution of apostates), with authenticity and legitimacy. Autocratic rulers "often align themselves with traditional religious scholars" to deflect grassroots discontent, which took the form of angry pious traditionalists.


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: While as of 2004 apostasy from Islam is a capital offence in only eight majority-Muslim states, in other states that do not directly execute apostates, apostate killing is sometimes facilitated through extrajudicial killings performed by the apostate's family, particularly if the apostate is vocal. In some countries, it is not uncommon for "vigilante" Muslims to kill or attempt to kill apostates or alleged apostates, in the belief they are enforcing sharia law that the government has failed to.


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: More than 20 Muslim-majority states have laws that punish apostasy by Muslims to be a crime some de facto other de jure. As of 2014, apostasy was a capital offense in Afghanistan, Brunei, Mauritania, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Executions for religious conversion have been infrequent in recent times, with four cases reported since 1985: one in Sudan in 1985; two in Iran, in 1989 and 1998; and one in Saudi Arabia in 1992. In Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Yemen apostasy laws have been used to charge persons for acts other than conversion. In addition, some predominantly Islamic countries without laws specifically addressing apostasy have prosecuted individuals or minorities for apostasy using broadly-defined blasphemy laws. In many nations, the Hisbah doctrine of Islam has traditionally allowed any Muslim to accuse another Muslim or ex-Muslim for beliefs that may harm Islamic society, i.e. violate the norms of sharia (Islamic law). This principle has been used in countries such as Egypt, Pakistan and others to bring blasphemy charges against apostates.


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: The source of most violence or threats of violence against apostate has come from outside of state judicial systems in the Muslim world in recent years, either from extralegal acts by government authorities or from other individuals or groups operating unrestricted by the government. There has also been social persecution for Muslims converting to Christianity. For example, the Christian organisation Barnabas Fund reports:


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: Similar views are expressed by the non-theistic International Humanist and Ethical Union. Author Mohsin Hamid points out that the logic of widely accepted claim that anyone helping an apostate is themselves an apostate, is a powerful weapon in spreading fear among those who oppose the killings (in at least the country of Pakistan). It means that a doctor who agrees to treat an apostate wounded by attacker(s), or a police officer who has agreed to protect that doctor after they have been threatened is also an apostate -- "and on and on".


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: Contemporary reformist/liberal Muslims such as Quranist Ahmed Subhy Mansour, Edip Yuksel, and Mohammed Shahrour have suffered from accusations of apostasy and demands to execute them, issued by Islamic clerics such as Mahmoud Ashur, Mustafa Al-Shak'a, Mohammed Ra'fat Othman and Yusif Al-Badri.


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: Regarding Muslim converts to Christianity, Duane Alexander Miller (2016) identified two different categories:


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: Miller introduced the term 'Muslim-background believers' (MBBs) to encompass both groups, adding that the latter group are generally regarded as apostates from Islam, but orthodox Muslims' opinions on the former group is more mixed (either that 'Muslim followers of Jesus' are 'heterodox Muslims', 'heretical Muslims' or 'crypto-Christian liars').


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: Writing in 2015, Ahmed Benchemsi argued that while Westerners have great difficulty even conceiving of the existence of an Arab atheist, "a generational dynamic" is underway with "large numbers" of young people brought up as Muslims "tilting away from ... rote religiosity" after having "personal doubts" about the "illogicalities" of the Quran and Sunnah.


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: A survey based on face-to-face interviews conducted in 80 languages by the Pew Research Center between 2008 and 2012 among thousands of Muslims in many countries, found varied views on the death penalty for those who leave Islam to become an atheist or to convert to another religion. In some countries (especially in Central Asia, Southeast Europe, and Turkey), support for the death penalty for apostasy was confined to a tiny fringe; in other countries (especially in the Arab world and South Asia) majorities and large minorities support the death penalty.


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: In the survey, Muslims who favored making Sharia the law of the land were asked for their views on the death penalty for apostasy from Islam. The results are summarized in the table below. (Note that values for "Group C" have been derived from the values for the other two groups and are not part of the Pew report.)


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: Overall, the figures in the 2012 survey suggest that the percentage of Muslims in the countries surveyed who approve the death penalty for Muslims who leave Islam to become an atheist or convert to another religion varies widely, from 0.4% (in Kazakhstan) to 78.2% (in Afghanistan). The Governments of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait) did not permit Pew Research to survey nationwide public opinion on apostasy in 2010 or 2012. The survey also did not include China, India, Syria, or West African countries such as Nigeria.


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: The situation for apostates from Islam varies markedly between Muslim-minority and Muslim-majority regions. In Muslim-minority countries "any violence against those who abandon Islam is already illegal". But in Muslim-majority countries, violence is sometimes "institutionalised", and (at least in 2007) "hundreds and thousands of closet apostates" live in fear of violence and are compelled to live lives of "extreme duplicity and mental stress."


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: Laws prohibiting religious conversion run contrary to Article 18 of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states the following:


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Syria voted in favor of the Declaration. The governments of other Muslim-majority countries have responded by criticizing the Declaration as an attempt by the non-Muslim world to impose their values on Muslims, with a presumption of cultural superiority, and by issuing the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam—a joint declaration of the member states of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference made in 1990 in Cairo, Egypt. The Cairo Declaration differs from the Universal Declaration in affirming Sharia as the sole source of rights, and in limits of equality and behavior in religion, gender, sexuality, etc.


title: Apostasy in Islam

text: Islamic scholars such as Muhammad Rashid Rida in Tafsir al-Minar, argue that the "freedom to apostatize", is different from freedom of religion on the grounds that apostasy from Islam infringes on the freedom of others and the respect due the religion of Islamic states.


title: SVT-40

text: The SVT-40 (Samozaryadnaya Vintovka Tokareva, Obrazets 1940 goda, "Tokarev self-loading rifle, model of 1940", Russian: Самозарядная винтовка Токарева, образец 1940 года, often nicknamed ""Sveta"") is a Soviet semi-automatic battle rifle. The SVT-40 saw widespread service during and after World War II. It was intended to be the Soviet Red Army's new service rifle, but its production was disrupted by the German invasion in 1941, resulting in a change back to the Mosin–Nagant rifle for the duration of World War II. After the war, the Soviet Union adopted new rifles, such as the SKS and the AK-47.


title: SVT-40

text: In the early 1930s, the Soviet Union requested the development of a semi-automatic rifle to replace the Mosin-Nagant, taking inspiration from the Mexican Mondragón rifle. The design was left up to two individuals, Sergei Simonov and Fedor Tokarev. Simonov, who had experience in developing the Fedorov Avtomat, created a prototype for the AVS-36 in 1931, which was used during the Winter War but due to design flaws it was removed from service by 1941.


title: SVT-40

text: In 1938, Tokarev's rifle was accepted for production, under the designation "SVT-38" with hopes that it would become the new standard issue rifle of the Red Army. Ambitious production plans anticipated two million rifles per year by 1942. Production began at Tula Arsenal in July 1939 (production at Izhmash began in late 1939).


title: SVT-40

text: The SVT-38 is a gas-operated rifle with a short-stroke, spring-loaded piston above the barrel and a tilting bolt, a system that would later be used in the FN FAL. The SVT-38 was equipped with a bayonet and a 10-round detachable magazine. The receiver was open-top, which enabled reloading of the magazine using five-round Mosin–Nagant stripper clips. The sniper variant had an additional locking notch for a see-through scope mount and was equipped with a 3.5×21 PU telescopic sight.


title: SVT-40

text: The SVT-38 saw its combat debut in the 1939–1940 Winter War with Finland. The rifle had many design flaws, as its gas port was prone to fouling, the magazine would sometimes fall out during use, and it was inaccurate, only being effective up to 600m. Production of the SVT-38 was terminated in April 1940 after some 150,000 examples had been manufactured.


title: SVT-40

text: With the removal of the SVT-38 from service, an improved design, the SVT-40, entered production. It was a more refined, lighter design incorporating a modified, folding, magazine release. The hand guard was now of one-piece construction and the cleaning rod was housed under the barrel. Other changes were made to simplify manufacturing. Production of the improved version began in July 1940 at Tula and later at factories in Izhevsk and Podolsk. Production of the Mosin–Nagant M1891/30 bolt-action rifle continued and it remained the standard-issue rifle to Red Army troops, with the SVT-40 more often issued to non-commissioned officers and elite units like the naval infantry. Since these factories already had experience manufacturing the SVT-38, output increased quickly and an estimated 70,000 SVT-40s were produced in 1940.


title: SVT-40

text: By the time of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the USSR in June 1941, the SVT-40 was already in widespread use by the Red Army. In a Soviet infantry division's table of organization and equipment, one-third of rifles were supposed to be SVTs, though in practice they seldom achieved this ratio. The first months of the war were disastrous for the Soviet Union; they lost hundreds of thousands of SVT-40s. To make up for this, the production of the Mosin–Nagant rifles was reintroduced. In contrast, the SVT was more difficult to manufacture, and troops with only rudimentary training had difficulty maintaining it. Submachine guns like the PPSh-41 had proven their value as simple, cheap, and effective weapons to supplement infantry firepower. This led to a gradual decline in SVT production. In 1941, over one million SVTs were produced but in 1942 Izhevsk arsenal was ordered to cease SVT production and switch back to the Mosin–Nagant 91/30. Only 264,000 SVTs were manufactured in 1942 and production continued to diminish until the order to cease production was finally given in January 1945. Total production of the SVT-38/40 was around 1,600,000 rifles, of which 51,710 were the SVT-40 sniper variant.


title: SVT-40

text: SVTs frequently suffered from vertical shot dispersion; the army reported that the rifles were of "flimsy construction and there were difficulties experienced in their repair and maintenance". The stock, made of Arctic Birch, was prone to cracking in the wrist from recoil. This was generally remedied by drilling and inserting one or two large industrial bolts horizontally into the stock just before the wrist meets the receiver. Many rifles were also poorly seated in their stocks, letting the receiver shift on firing. This led to a field modification that selectively shimmed the stock with birch chips, usually around the receiver and in between where the wood stock meets the lower metal handguard. For a sniper rifle, this was unacceptable and production of the specialized sniper variant of the SVT was terminated in 1942. Milling scope rails in the receivers of standard SVT rifles was also discontinued. Other production changes included a new, simpler muzzle brake design with two vents per-side instead of the six on the original.


title: SVT-40

text: To supplement the Red Army's shortage of machine guns, an SVT version capable of full-automatic fire (designated the "AVT-40") was ordered into production on 20 May 1942; the first batches reached the troops in July. It was externally similar to the SVT, but its modified safety also acted as a fire selector allowing for both semi-automatic and fully automatic fire modes. When fired automatically the rifle had a rate of fire of approximately 750 RPM, faster than even the DP machine gun which fired the same cartridge at 550 RPM. To better resist the stress of automatic fire, the AVT featured a slightly stouter stock made of hardwood usually distinguished with a large “A” engraved in it; surplus AVT stocks were later used on refurbished SVTs. In service, the AVT proved a disappointment: the automatic fire was largely uncontrollable, and the rifles often suffered breakages under the increased strain.(Documents discovered after the war indicated that during testing, under continuous Full Auto fire, an AVT-40's barrel would be "shot out", meaning the rifling in the barrel would be completely worn down, in as little as 200-250 rounds.) The use of the AVT's automatic fire mode was subsequently prohibited, and production of the rifle was relatively brief; none were made after the summer of 1943.


title: SVT-40

text: A shorter carbine version "SKT-40" (СКТ-40) was designed in 1940 and was submitted to a competitive test with a design of Simonov in the same year; neither was accepted for service. Later, a prototype version chambered for the new, shorter, 7.62×39mm round was developed, but was not accepted for production. An assault rifle based on a scaled-down SVT with 7.62x41mm chambering called the AT-44 was also put into development, competing with the AS-44 design. It failed to be accepted for similar reliability issues as the AVT. A silenced variation was also experimented with, though it too ended in failure.


title: SVT-40

text: The first country outside the Soviet Union to employ the SVT was Finland, which captured some 2,700 SVT-38s during the Winter War, and over 15,000 SVTs during the Continuation War. The SVT saw extensive use in Finnish hands. The Finns even attempted to make their own clone of the SVT-38 designated "Tapako", though only a prototype was ever conceived. The Finns would continue to experiment with producing their own SVT based rifles until the late 1950s with the introduction of the RK-62.Germany captured hundreds of thousands of SVTs from the Eastern Front. As the Germans were short of self-loading rifles themselves, SVT-38 and 40s, designated respectively as Selbstladegewehr 258(r) and Selbstladegewehr 259(r) by the Wehrmacht, saw widespread use in German hands against their former owners. The study of the SVT's gas-operated action also aided in the development of the German Gewehr 43 rifle.


title: SVT-40

text: During the 1940s, Switzerland began looking into equipping its military with semi-auto rifles. Although never officially adopted, W+F Bern produced an almost faithful clone of the SVT with 7.5 mm Swiss chambering and a 6-round magazine called the AK44.


title: SVT-40

text: Italy also produced at least one prototype loosely copying an SVT, which is extant in Beretta's collection, but its designation or exact details are unknown.


title: SVT-40

text: After the war, SVTs were mostly withdrawn from service and refurbished in arsenals, then stored. In Soviet service, firearms like the SKS and the AK-47 as well as the later SVD made the SVT obsolete, and the rifle was generally out of service by 1955. Only a few SVTs were exported to Soviet allies and clients. The Korean People's Army reportedly received some before the Korean War. The Finnish Army retired the SVT in 1958, and about 7,500 rifles were sold to the United States civilian market through firearm importer Interarms. This marked the end of SVTs in regular service.


title: SVT-40

text: In the Soviet Union, some SVTs (without bayonets) were sold as civilian hunting rifles, although other SVTs were kept in storage until the 1990s, when many rifles were sold abroad, along with other surplus military firearms.


title: Kavya Madhavan

text: Kavya Madhavan (born 19 September 1984) is a former Indian actress, who appeared predominantly in Malayalam films. She made her debut in 1991 as a child artist in "Pookkalam Varavayi". Her debut role as a lead actress was in Lal Jose's "Chandranudikkunna Dikhil" in 1999, when she was in the ninth grade. Its success established her status as a leading actress in the industry during the 2000s. She has acted in over 75 movies. She has won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress twice, for her performances in "Perumazhakkalam" (2004) and "Gaddama" (2010).


title: Kavya Madhavan

text: Kavya first appeared as a child actor in Kamal's film "Pookkalam Varavayi" (1991) at the age of six. Subsequently, she was offered parts in other projects such as "Pavam IA Ivachan" (1994), "Parassala Pachan Payyannur Paramu" (1994) by P. Venu and "Azhakiya Ravanan" (1996), directed by Kamal. She was offered the female lead in "Chandranudikkunna Dikhil", also starring Dileep, in 1999. After the success of "Chandranudikkunna Dikhil", Kavya and Dileep became a popular pairing in Malayalam cinema, and they worked together in 21 movies. Some of their movies are "Thenkasipattanam" (2000)," Darling Darling" (2000), "Dhosth" (2001), "Meesa Madhavan" (2002) which was one of biggest grosser of the year and was directed by Lal Jose, "Mizhi Randilum" (2003) in which she played a double role, "Sadanandante Samayam" (2003), "Thilakkam" (2003) directed by Jayaraj, "Runway" (2004) directed by Joshiy, "Kochi Rajavu" (2005), "Lion" (2006) again directed by Joshiy, "Chakkara Muthu" (2006), "Inspector Garud" (2007), "Paappi Appacha" (2010), "Vellaripravinte Changathi" (2011) and "Pinneyum" (2016). Most of their movies were in the romantic comedy genre.


title: Kavya Madhavan

text: She also acted in films with Mammootty and Mohanlal, and in movies with several stars, such as "Ee Pattanathil Bhootham", "Christian Brothers" and "China Town".


title: Kavya Madhavan

text: She got critical acclaim for her performance of the role of Ganga in "Perumazhakkalam" for which she won 2004 Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress and for the role of Ashwati in "Gaddama" where she played a housemaid working in Saudi Arabia. The movie was based on a feature by K. U. Iqbal, published in "Bhashaposhini". The movie was directed by her mentor Kamal, and she got her second Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress for 2011. She won the 2011 Kerala Film Critics Awards for Best Actress, Amrita-FEFKA Film Awards for Best Actress, Best Actress-Malayalam cinema in 59th Filmfare Awards South and Best Actress in Thikkurissy Foundation Awards. She was part of big grossers like "Christian Brothers" and "China Town" in 2011 and was selected as Top Star (Female) 2011 in Malayalam.


title: Kavya Madhavan

text: Though she had many offers from Tamil cinema, she was very reluctant to act due to her busy schedule in Malayalam. Her first was "Kasi" (2001) which was the remake of Vinayans "Vasanthiyum Lakshmiyum Pinne Njaanum". She went on to act in "En Mana Vaanil" and "Sadhu Miranda" and enjoyed moderate success.


title: Kavya Madhavan

text: She wrote lyrics for the song "En Khalbillulloru Pennaanu" for the film "One Way Ticket" (2008) and for "Akashavani" (2016). She sang her first movie song for the Malayalam film "Matinee" (2012). She has appeared in many advertisements, TV shows, short films and stage shows. She also sang songs for the movies "Hadiya" (2017) and "Daivame Kaithozham K. Kumar Akanam" (2018).


title: Kavya Madhavan

text: From acting as a child to acting as an actress, Sreeja has provided voice to her in many films. Devi, Praveena, Bhagyalakshmi and Vimmy Mariam George and Nithuna Nevil Dinesh have also lent their voices in some films.


title: Kavya Madhavan

text: Kavya married Nishal Chandra on 9 February 2009, after which she moved to Kuwait. However, she returned home in June the same year and filed for divorce on 24 July 2009. Both Kavya and Nishal appeared before the court on 25 May 2011 and expressed their willingness for a mutual divorce. The divorce was granted on 30 May 2011. She married actor Dileep on 25 November 2016 at Vedanta Hotel, Kochi. The couple have a daughter, Mahalakshmi born on 19 October 2018.


title: Kavya Madhavan

text: Kavya owns a textile shop named Laksyah. In April 2013, Mathrubhumi Books published a collection of memoirs written by Kavya, titled "Kathayil Alpam Kavyam" which gives a glimpse into her childhood memories and the experiences of her school days and in the film industry. The book was released by writers Subhash Chandran and Deedi Damodaran at a function held in K. P. Kesava Menon Hall in Kozhikode on 11 April.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Cholecystectomy is the surgical removal of the gallbladder. Cholecystectomy is a common treatment of symptomatic gallstones and other gallbladder conditions. In 2011, cholecystectomy was the eighth most common operating room procedure performed in hospitals in the United States. Cholecystectomy can be performed either laparoscopically, or via an open surgical technique.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: The surgery is usually successful in relieving symptoms, but up to 10 percent of people may continue to experience similar symptoms after cholecystectomy, a condition called postcholecystectomy syndrome. Complications of cholecystectomy include bile duct injury, wound infection, bleeding, retained gallstones, abscess formation and stenosis (narrowing) of the bile duct.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Pain and complications caused by gallstones are the most common reasons for removal of the gallbladder. The gallbladder can also be removed in order to treat biliary dyskinesia or gallbladder cancer.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Gallstones are very common but 50–80% of people with gallstones are asymptomatic and do not need surgery; their stones are noticed incidentally on imaging tests of the abdomen (such as ultrasound or CT) done for some other reason. Of the more than 20 million people in the US with gallstones, only about 30% will eventually require cholecystectomy to relieve symptoms (pain) or treat complications.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Biliary colic, or pain caused by gallstones, occurs when a gallstone temporarily blocks the bile duct that drains the gallbladder. Typically, pain from biliary colic is felt in the right upper part of the abdomen, is moderate to severe, and goes away on its own after a few hours when the stone dislodges. Biliary colic usually occurs after meals when the gallbladder contracts to push bile out into the digestive tract. After a first attack of biliary colic, more than 90% of people will have a repeat attack in the next 10 years. Repeated attacks of biliary colic are the most common reason for removing the gallbladder, and lead to about 300,000 cholecystectomies in the US each year.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Cholecystitis, or inflammation of the gallbladder caused by interruption in the normal flow of bile, is another reason for cholecystectomy. It is the most common complication of gallstones; 90–95% of acute cholecystitis is caused by gallstones blocking drainage of the gallbladder. If the blockage is incomplete and the stone passes quickly, the person experiences biliary colic. If the gallbladder is completely blocked and remains so for a prolonged period, the person develops acute cholecystitis.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Pain in cholecystitis is similar to that of biliary colic, but lasts longer than six hours and occurs together with signs of infection such as fever, chills, or an elevated white blood cell count. People with cholecystitis will also usually have a positive Murphy sign on physical exam – meaning that when a doctor asks the patient to take a deep breath and then pushes down on the upper right side of their abdomen, the patient stops their inhalation due to pain from the pressure on their inflamed gallbladder.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Five to ten percent of acute cholecystitis occurs in people without gallstones, and for this reason, is called "acalculous" cholecystitis. It usually develops in people who have abnormal bile drainage secondary to a serious illness, such as people with multi-organ failure, serious trauma, recent major surgery, or following a long stay in the intensive care unit.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: People with repeat episodes of acute cholecystitis can develop chronic cholecystitis from changes in the normal anatomy of the gallbladder. This can also be an indication for cholecystectomy if the person has ongoing pain.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Cholangitis and gallstone pancreatitis are rarer and more serious complications from gallstone disease. Both can occur if gallstones leave the gallbladder, pass through the cystic duct, and get stuck in the common bile duct. The common bile duct drains the liver and pancreas, and a blockage there can lead to inflammation and infection in both the pancreas and biliary system. While cholecystectomy is not usually the immediate treatment choice for either of these conditions, it is often recommended to prevent repeat episodes from additional gallstones getting stuck.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Gallbladder cancer (also called carcinoma of the gallbladder) is a rare indication for cholecystectomy. In cases where cancer is suspected, the open technique for cholecystectomy is usually performed.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: In living donor liver transplantation between adults, a cholecystectomy is performed in the donor because gallbladder interferes with removal of the right (lateral) lobe of the liver and to prevent the formation of gallstones in the recipient. The gallbladder is not removed in pediatric transplantations as the left lobe of the liver is used instead.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: There are no specific contraindications for cholecystectomy, and in general it is considered a low-risk surgery. However, anyone who cannot tolerate surgery under general anesthesia should not undergo cholecystectomy. People can be split into high and low risk groups using a tool such as the ASA physical status classification system. In this system, people who are ASA categories III, IV, and V are considered high risk for cholecystectomy. Typically this includes very elderly people and people with co-existing illness, such as end-stage liver disease with portal hypertension and whose blood does not clot properly. Alternatives to surgery are briefly mentioned below.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: All surgery carries risk of serious complications including damage to nearby structures, bleeding, infection, or even death. The operative death rate in cholecystectomy is about 0.1% in people under age 50 and about 0.5% in people over age 50. The greatest risk of death comes from co-existing illness like cardiac or pulmonary disease.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: A serious complication of cholecystectomy is biliary injury, or damage to the bile ducts. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy has a higher risk of bile duct injury than the open approach, with injury to bile ducts occurring in 0.3% to 0.5% of laparoscopic cases and 0.1% to 0.2% of open cases. In laparoscopic cholecystectomy, approximately 25–30% of biliary injuries are identified during the operation; the rest become apparent in the early post-operative period.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Damage to the bile ducts is very serious because it causes leakage of bile into the abdomen. Signs and symptoms of a bile leak include abdominal pain, tenderness, fever and signs of sepsis several days following surgery, or through laboratory studies as rising total bilirubin and alkaline phosphatase. Complications from a bile leak can follow a person for years and can lead to death. Bile leak should always be considered in any patient who is not recovering as expected after cholecystectomy. Most bile injuries require repair by a surgeon with special training in biliary reconstruction. If biliary injuries are properly treated and repaired, more than 90% of patients can have a long-term successful recovery.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Injury of the bile ducts can be prevented and treated by routinely using X-ray investigation of the bile ducts (intraoperative cholangiography (IOC)). This method was assessed by the Swedish SBU and routine use deemed to decrease risk of injury and morbidity following unaddressed injury while only increasing cancer rates due to radiation exposure by a lesser fraction.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: A review of safety data in laparoscopic cholecystectomy found the following complications to be most common:


title: Cholecystectomy

text: The same study found the prevalence of bowel injury, sepsis, pancreatitis, and deep vein thrombosis/pulmonary embolism to be around 0.15% each.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Leakage from the stump of the cystic duct is a complication that is more common with the laparoscopic approach than the open approach but is still rare, occurring in less than 1% of procedures; it is treated by drainage followed by insertion of a bile duct stent.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Another complication singular to the laparoscopic procedure is the phenomenon of the "spilled gallstone" which complicates 0.08–0.3% of cases. Here a stone escapes the resected gallbladder into the abdomen where it can become a focus for infection if it is not identified and removed. Some reports exist of spilled stones lying unnoticed for up to 20 years before eventually causing an abscess to form.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Experts agree that many biliary injuries in laparoscopic cases are caused by difficulties seeing and identifying the anatomy clearly. If the surgeon has problems identifying anatomical structures, they might need to convert from laparoscopic to open cholecystectomy.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Peroperative Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangio-Pancreaticography (ERCP)/ Laparo-endoscopic rendezvous (LERV) technique


title: Cholecystectomy

text: CBDS are found in 10-15% of patients during cholecystectomy when intraoperative cholangiography (IOC) is routinely performed. There are several strategies to manage choledocholithiasis but the optimal method as well as the timing of treatment is still under debate.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: In recent years the LERV technique, in which access to the common bile duct by ERCP is facilitated by an antegrade guidewire, which is intraoperatively introduced during fluoroscopy and is advanced through the cystic duct to the duodenum, has been established as an alternative to treat common bile duct stones discovered during laparoscopic cholecystectomy. This technique was first described in 1993 by Deslandres et al. and has, in several studies, been shown to have a high rate of CBD stones clearance and a reduced number of complications, particularly post-ERCP pancreatitis, in comparison with conventional ERCP. This is probably due to the facilitated access to the common bile duct with a lesser degree of manipulation and trauma to the papilla Vateri. In a study by Swahn et al. the rendezvous method was shown to reduce the risk of PEP from 3.6 to 2.2% compared with conventional biliary cannulation. The success rate of passing the transcystic guidewire into the duodenum has been reported to be over 80%.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Before surgery, a complete blood count and liver function tests are usually obtained. Prophylactic treatment is given to prevent deep vein thrombosis. Use of prophylactic antibiotics is controversial; however, a dose may be given prior to surgery to prevent infection in certain people at high risk. Gas may be removed from the stomach with an OG or NG tube. A Foley catheter may be used to empty the patient's bladder.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy uses several (usually 4) small incisions in the abdomen to allow the insertion of operating ports, small cylindrical tubes approximately 5 to 10 mm in diameter, through which surgical instruments are placed into the abdominal cavity. The laparoscope, an instrument with a video camera and light source at the end, illuminates the abdominal cavity and sends a magnified image from inside the abdomen to a video screen, giving the surgeon a clear view of the organs and tissues. The cystic duct and cystic artery are identified and dissected, then ligated with clips and cut in order to remove the gallbladder. The gallbladder is then removed through one of the ports.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: As of 2008, 90% of cholecystectomies in the United States were done laparoscopically. Laparoscopic surgery is thought to have fewer complications, shorter hospital stay, and quicker recovery than open cholecystectomy.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Single incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS) or laparoendoscopic single site surgery (LESS) is a technique in which a single incision is made through the navel, instead of the 3-4 four small different incisions used in standard laparoscopy. There appears to be a cosmetic benefit over conventional four-hole laparoscopic cholecystectomy, and no advantage in postoperative pain and hospital stay compared with standard laparoscopic procedures. There is no scientific consensus regarding risk for bile duct injury with SILS versus traditional laparoscopic cholecystectomy.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) is an experimental technique where the laparoscope is inserted through natural orifices and internal incisions, rather than skin incisions, to access to the abdominal cavity. This offers the potential to eliminate visible scars. Since 2007, cholecystectomy by NOTES has been performed anecdotally via transgastric and transvaginal routes. As of 2009 the risk of gastrointestinal leak, difficulty visualizing the abdominal cavity and other technical limitations limited further adoption of NOTES for cholecystectomy.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: In open cholecystectomy, a surgical incision of around 8 to 12 cm is made below the edge of the right rib cage and the gallbladder is removed through this large opening, typically using electrocautery. Open cholecystectomy is often done if difficulties arise during a laparoscopic cholecystecomy, for example, the patient has unusual anatomy, the surgeon cannot see well enough through the camera, or the patient is found to have cancer. It can also be done if the patient has severe cholecystitis, emphysematous gallbladder, fistulization of gallbladder and gallstone ileus, cholangitis, cirrhosis or portal hypertension, and blood dyscrasias.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: After removal, the gallbladder should be sent for pathological examination to confirm the diagnosis and look for any incidental cancer. Incidental cancer of the gallbladder is found in approximately 1% of cholecystectomies. If cancer is present in the gallbladder, it is usually necessary to re-operate to remove parts of the liver and lymph nodes and test them for additional cancer.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: After surgery, most patients are admitted to the hospital for routine monitoring. For uncomplicated laparoscopic cholecystectomies, people may be discharged on the day of surgery after adequate control of pain and nausea. Patients who were high-risk, those who required emergency surgery, and/or those undergoing open cholecystectomy usually need to stay in the hospital several days after surgery.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: In 95% of people undergoing cholecystectomy as treatment for simple biliary colic, removing the gallbladder completely resolves their symptoms.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Up to 10% of people who undergo cholecystectomy develop a condition called postcholecystectomy syndrome. Symptoms are typically similar to the pain and discomfort of biliary colic with persistent pain in the upper right abdomen and commonly include gastrointestinal distress (dyspepsia).


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Some people following cholecystectomy may develop diarrhea. The cause is unclear, but is presumed to be due to disturbances in the biliary system that speed up enterohepatic recycling of bile salts. The terminal ileum, the portion of the intestine where these salts are normally reabsorbed, becomes overwhelmed, does not absorb everything, and the person develops diarrhea. Most cases resolve within weeks or a few months, though in rare cases the condition can last for years. It can be controlled with medication such as cholestyramine.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: It is generally safe for pregnant women to undergo laparoscopic cholecystectomy during any trimester of pregnancy. Early elective surgery is recommended for women with symptomatic gallstones to decrease the risk of spontaneous abortion and pre-term delivery. Without cholecystectomy, more than half of such women will have recurrent symptoms during their pregnancy, and nearly one in four will develop a complication, such as acute cholecystitis, that requires urgent surgery. Acute cholecystitis is the second most common cause of acute abdomen in pregnant women after appendectomy.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Porcelain gallbladder (PGB), a condition where the gallbladder wall shows calcification on imaging tests, was previously considered a reason to remove the gallbladder because it was thought that people with this condition had a high risk of developing gallbladder cancer. However, recent studies have shown that there is no strong association between gallbladder cancer and porcelain gallbladder, and that PGB alone is not a strong enough indication for a prophylactic cholecystectomy.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: There are several alternatives to cholecystectomy for people who do not want surgery, or in whom the benefits of surgery would not outweigh the risks.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Conservative management for biliary colic involves a "watch and wait" approach—treating symptoms as-needed with oral medications. Experts agree that this is the preferred treatment for people with gallstones but no symptoms. Conservative management may also be appropriate for people with mild biliary colic, as the pain from colic can be managed with pain medications like NSAIDs (ex: ketorolac) or opioids.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Conservative management for acute cholecystitis involves treating the infection without surgery. It is usually only considered in patients at very high risk for surgery or other interventions listed below. It consists of treatment with intravenous antibiotics and fluids.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: ERCP, short for endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, is an endoscopic procedure that can remove gallstones or prevent blockages by widening parts of the bile duct where gallstones frequently get stuck. ERCP is often used to retrieve stones stuck in the common bile duct in patients with gallstone pancreatitis or cholangitis. In this procedure, an endoscope, or small, long thin tube with a camera on the end, is passed through the mouth and down the esophagus. The doctor advances the camera through the stomach and into the first part of the small intestine to reach the opening of the bile duct. The doctor can inject a special, radiopaque dye through the endoscope into the bile duct to see stones or other blockages on x-ray. ERCP does not require general anaesthesia and can be done outside of the operating room. While ERCP can be used to remove a specific stone that is causing a blockage to allow drainage, it cannot remove all stones in the gallbladder. Thus, it is not considered a definitive treatment and people with recurrent complications from stones will still likely need a cholecystectomy.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Cholecystostomy is the drainage of the gallbladder via insertion of a small tube through the abdominal wall. This is usually done using guidance from imaging scans to find the right place to insert the tube. Cholecystostomy can be used for people who need immediate drainage of the gallbladder but have a high risk of complications from surgery under general anaesthesia, such as elderly people and those with co-existing illnesses. Draining pus and infected material through the tube reduces inflammation in and around the gallbladder. It can be a lifesaving procedure, without requiring that the person undergo emergency surgery.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: The procedure does come with significant risks and complications—in one retrospective study of patients who received percutaneous cholecystostomy for acute cholecystitis, 44% developed choledocholithiasis (one or more stones stuck in the common bile duct), 27% had tube dislodgment, and 23% developed postoperative abscess.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: For some people, drainage with cholecystostomy is enough and they do not need to have the gallbladder removed later. For others, percutaneous cholecystostomy allows them to improve enough in the short term that they can get surgery at a later time. There is no clear evidence one way or another to indicate that surgical removal after cholecystostomy is best for high-risk surgical patients with acute cholecystitis.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: In a study of Medicaid-covered and uninsured U.S. hospital stays in 2012, cholecystectomy was the most common operating room procedure.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Carl Langenbuch performed the first successful cholecystectomy at the Lazarus hospital in Berlin on July 15, 1882. Before this, surgical therapy for symptomatic gallstones was limited to cholecystostomy, or gallstone removal. Langenbuch's rationale for developing the new technique stemmed from 17th century studies in dogs that demonstrated the gallbladder to be nonessential and medical opinion among his colleagues that gallstones formed in the gallbladder. Although the technique was initially controversial, cholecystectomy became established as a lower mortality procedure than cholecystostomy by the 20th century.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Erich Mühe performed the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy on September 12, 1985, in Böblingen, Germany. Mühe was inspired to develop a technique for laparoscopic cholecystectomy by the first laparoscopic appendectomy, performed by gynecologist Kurt Semm in 1980. He subsequently designed an optical laparoscope with a working channel large enough to fit a distended gallbladder. Mühe presented his technique to the Congress of the German Surgical Society in 1986, claiming reduced postoperative pain and shorter hospitalization. His work was met with strong resistance by the German surgical establishment and he had difficulty communicating it in English. It was consequently ignored. Mühe's work was further disparaged in 1987, when he was charged with manslaughter for a postoperative patient death that was mistakenly attributed to his innovative technique. He was exonerated in 1990 after further investigation. His pioneering work was eventually recognized by the German Surgical Society Congress in 1992.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Philippe Mouret performed laparoscopic cholecystectomy on March 17, 1987, in Lyon, France. His technique was rapidly adopted and improved in France. It was subsequently introduced to the rest of the world over the next three years. Driven by popularity among patients, the laparoscopic technique became preferred over open surgery and noninvasive treatments for gallstones.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: By 2013, laparoscopic cholecystectomy had replaced open cholecystectomy as the first-choice of treatment for people with uncomplicated gallstones and acute cholecystitis.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: By 2014 laparoscopic cholecystectomy had become the gold standard for the treatment of symptomatic gallstones.


title: Cholecystectomy

text: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy can be a challenging procedure and surgeons must be trained with advanced laparoscopic skills to complete the operation with safety and effectiveness.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: Clarence Seward Darrow (; April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer who became famous in the early 20th century for his involvement in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. He was a leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union, and a prominent advocate for Georgist economic reform.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: Called a "sophisticated country lawyer", Darrow's wit and eloquence made him one of the most prominent attorneys and civil libertarians in the nation. He defended high-profile clients in many famous trials of the early 20th century, including teenage thrill killers Leopold and Loeb for murdering 14-year-old Robert "Bobby" Franks (1924); teacher John T. Scopes in the Scopes "Monkey" Trial (1925), in which he opposed statesman and orator William Jennings Bryan; and Ossian Sweet in a racially charged self-defense case (1926).


title: Clarence Darrow

text: Clarence Darrow was born in the small town of Farmdale, Ohio, on April 18, 1857, the fifth son of Amirus and Emily Darrow (née Eddy), but grew up in nearby Kinsman, Ohio. Both the Darrow and Eddy families had deep roots in colonial New England, and several of Darrow's ancestors served in the American Revolution. Darrow's father was an ardent abolitionist and a proud iconoclast and religious freethinker. He was known throughout the town as the "village infidel". Emily Darrow was an early supporter of female suffrage and a women's rights advocate.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: The young Clarence attended Allegheny College and the University of Michigan Law School, but did not graduate from either institution. He attended Allegheny College for only one year before the Panic of 1873 struck, and Darrow was determined not to be a financial burden to his father any longer. Over the next three years he taught in the winter at the district school in a country community.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: While teaching, Darrow started to study the law on his own, and by the end of his third year of teaching, his family urged him to enter the law department at Ann Arbor. Darrow studied there for only a year when he decided that it would be much more cost-effective to apprentice (read law) in an actual law office. When he felt that he was ready, he took the Ohio bar exam and passed. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1878. The Clarence Darrow Octagon House, his childhood home in Kinsman, contains a memorial to him.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: Darrow married Jessie Ohl in April 1880. They had one child, Paul Edward Darrow, in 1883. They were divorced in 1897. Darrow married Ruby Hammerstrom, a journalist 16 years his junior, in 1903. They had no children.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: Darrow opened his first law office in Andover, Ohio, a small farming town just ten miles from Kinsman. Having little to no experience, he started off slowly and gradually built up his career by dealing with the everyday complaints and problems of a farming community. After two years Darrow felt he was ready to take on new and different cases and moved his practice to Ashtabula, Ohio, which had a population of 5,000 people and was the largest city in the county. There he became involved in Democratic Party politics and served as the town counsel.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: In 1880, he married Jessie Ohl, and eight years later he moved to Chicago with his wife and young son, Paul. He did not have much business when he first moved to Chicago, and spent as little as possible. He joined the Henry George Club and made some friends and connections in the city. Being part of the club also gave him an opportunity to speak for the Democratic Party on the upcoming election. He slowly made a name for himself through these speeches, eventually earning the standing to speak in whatever hall he liked. He was offered work as an attorney for the city of Chicago. Darrow worked in the city law department for two years when he resigned and took a position as a lawyer at the Chicago and North-Western Railway Company. In 1894, Darrow represented Eugene V. Debs, the leader of the American Railway Union, who was prosecuted by the federal government for leading the Pullman Strike of 1894. Darrow severed his ties with the railroad to represent Debs, making a financial sacrifice. He saved Debs in one trial but could not keep him from being jailed in another.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: Also in 1894, Darrow took on the first murder case of his career, defending Patrick Eugene Prendergast, the "mentally deranged drifter" who had confessed to murdering Chicago mayor Carter Harrison, Sr. Darrow's "insanity defense" failed and Prendergast was executed that same year. Among fifty defenses in murder cases throughout the whole of Darrow's career, the Prendergast case would prove to be the only one resulting in an execution, though Darrow did not join the defense team until after Prendergast's conviction and sentence, in an effort to spare him the noose.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: Darrow soon became one of America's leading labor attorneys. He helped organize the Populist Party in Illinois and then ran for U.S. Congress as a Democrat in 1895 but lost to Hugh R. Belknap. In 1897, his marriage to Jessie Ohl ended in divorce. He joined the Anti-Imperialist League in 1898 in opposition to the U.S. annexation of the Philippines. He represented the woodworkers of Wisconsin in a notable case in Oshkosh in 1898 and the United Mine Workers in Pennsylvania in the great anthracite coal strike of 1902. He flirted with the idea of running for mayor of Chicago in 1903 but ultimately decided against it. The following year, in July, Darrow married Ruby Hammerstrom, a young Chicago journalist. His former mentor, Governor John Peter Altgeld, joined Darrow's firm following his Chicago mayoral electoral defeat in 1899 and worked with Darrow until his death in 1902.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: From 1906 to 1908, Darrow represented the Western Federation of Miners leaders William "Big Bill" Haywood, Charles Moyer, and George Pettibone when they were arrested and charged with conspiring to murder former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg in 1905. Haywood and Pettibone were acquitted in separate trials, and the charges against Moyer were then dropped.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: In 1911, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) called on Darrow to defend the McNamara brothers, John and James, who were charged in the Los Angeles "Times" bombing on October 1, 1910, during the bitter struggle over the open shop in Southern California. The bomb had been placed in an alley behind the building, and although the explosion itself did not bring the building down, it ignited nearby ink barrels and natural gas main lines. In the ensuing fire, 20 people were killed. The AFL appealed to local, state, regional and national unions to donate 25 cents per capita to the defense fund, and set up defense committees in larger cities throughout the nation to accept donations.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: In the weeks before the jury was seated, Darrow became increasingly concerned about the outcome of the trial and began negotiations for a plea bargain to spare the defendants' lives. During the weekend of November 19–20, 1911, he discussed with pro-labor journalist Lincoln Steffens and newspaper publisher E.W. Scripps the possibility of reaching out to the "Times" about the terms of a plea agreement. The prosecution had demands of its own, however, including an admission of guilt in open court and longer sentences than the defense proposed.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: The defense's position weakened when, on November 28, Darrow was accused of orchestrating to bribe a prospective juror. The juror reported the offer to police, who set up a sting and observed the defense team's chief investigator, Bert Franklin, delivering $4,000 to the juror two blocks away from Darrow's office. After making payment, Franklin walked one block in the direction of Darrow's office before being arrested right in front of Darrow himself, who had just walked to that very intersection after receiving a phone call in his office. With Darrow himself on the verge of being discredited, the defense's hope for a simple plea agreement ended. On December 1, 1911, the McNamara brothers changed their pleas to guilty, in open court. The plea bargain Darrow helped arrange earned John fifteen years and James life imprisonment. Despite sparing the brothers the death penalty, Darrow was accused by many in organized labor of selling the movement out.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: Two months later, Darrow was charged with two counts of attempting to bribe jurors in both cases. He faced two lengthy trials. In the first, defended by Earl Rogers, he was acquitted. Rogers became ill during the second trial and rarely came to court. Darrow served as his own attorney for the remainder of the trial, which ended with a hung jury. A deal was struck in which the district attorney agreed not to retry Darrow if he promised not to practice law again in California. Darrow's early biographers, Irving Stone and Arthur and Lila Weinberg, asserted that he was not involved in the bribery conspiracy, but more recently, Geoffrey Cowan and John A. Farrell, with the help of new evidence, concluded that he almost certainly was. In the biography of Earl Rogers by his daughter Adela, she wrote: "I never had any doubts, even before one of my father's private conversations with Darrow included an admission of guilt to his lawyer."


title: Clarence Darrow

text: As a consequence of the bribery charges, most labor unions dropped Darrow from their list of preferred attorneys. This effectively put Darrow out of business as a labor lawyer, and he switched to civil and criminal cases. He took the latter because he had become convinced that the criminal justice system could ruin people's lives if they were not adequately represented.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: Throughout his career, Darrow devoted himself to opposing the death penalty, which he felt to be in conflict with humanitarian progress. In more than 100 cases, only one of Darrow's clients was executed. He became renowned for moving juries and even judges to tears with his eloquence. Darrow had a keen intellect often hidden by his rumpled, unassuming appearance.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: A July 23, 1915, article in the "Chicago Tribune" describes Darrow's effort on behalf of J.H. Fox, an Evanston, Illinois, landlord, to have Mary S. Brazelton committed to an insane asylum against the wishes of her family. Fox alleged that Brazelton owed him rent money, although other residents of Fox's boarding house testified to her sanity.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: In the summer of 1924, Darrow took on the case of Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb, the teenage sons of two wealthy Chicago families who were accused of kidnapping and killing Bobby Franks, a 14-year-old boy, from their stylish southside Kenwood neighborhood. Leopold was a law student at the University of Chicago about to transfer to Harvard Law School, and Loeb was the youngest graduate ever from the University of Michigan; they were 19 and 18, respectively, when they were arrested. When asked why they committed the crime, Leopold told his captors: "The thing that prompted Dick to want to do this thing and prompted me to want to do this thing was a sort of pure love of excitement ... the imaginary love of thrills, doing something different ... the satisfaction and the ego of putting something over."


title: Clarence Darrow

text: Chicago newspapers labeled the case the "Trial of the Century" and Americans around the country wondered what could drive the two young men, blessed with everything their society could offer, to commit such a depraved act. The killers had been arrested after a passing workman spotted the victim's body in an isolated nature preserve near the Indiana border just half a day after it was hidden, before they could collect a $10,000 ransom. Nearby were Leopold's eyeglasses with their distinctive, traceable frames, which he had dropped at the scene.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: Leopold and Loeb made full confessions and took police on a hunt around Chicago to collect the evidence that would be used against them. The state's attorney told the press that he had a "hanging case" for sure. Darrow stunned the prosecution when he had his clients plead guilty in order to avoid a vengeance-minded jury and place the case before a judge. The trial, then, was actually a long sentencing hearing in which Darrow contended, with the help of expert testimony, that Leopold and Loeb were mentally diseased.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: Darrow's closing argument lasted 12 hours. He repeatedly stressed the ages of the "boys" (before the Vietnam War, the age of majority was 21) and noted that "never had there been a case in Chicago where on a plea of guilty a boy under 21 had been sentenced to death." His plea was designed to soften the heart of Judge John Caverly, but also to mold public opinion, so that Caverly could follow precedent without too huge an uproar. Darrow succeeded. Caverly sentenced Leopold and Loeb to life in prison plus 99 years. Darrow's closing argument was published in several editions in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and was reissued at the time of his death.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: The Leopold and Loeb case raised, in a well-publicized trial, Darrow's lifelong contention that psychological, physical, and environmental influences—not a conscious choice between right and wrong—control human behavior. Darrow's psychiatric expert witnesses testified that both boys "were decidedly deficient in emotion". Darrow later argued that emotion is necessary for the decisions that people make. When someone tries to go against a certain law or custom that is forbidden, he wrote, he should feel a sense of revulsion. As neither Leopold nor Loeb had a working emotional system, they did not feel revolted.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: During the trial, the newspapers claimed that Darrow was presenting a "million dollar defense" for the two wealthy families. Many ordinary Americans were angered at his apparent greed. He had the families issue a statement insisting that there would be no large legal fees and that his fees would be determined by a committee composed of officers from the Chicago Bar Association. After trial, Darrow suggested $200,000 would be reasonable. After lengthy negotiations with the defendants' families, he ended up getting some $70,000 in gross fees, which, after expenses and taxes, netted Darrow $30,000, worth over $375,000 in 2016.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: In 1925, Darrow defended John T. Scopes in the "State of Tennessee v. Scopes" trial. It has often been called the "Scopes Monkey Trial," a title popularized by author and journalist H.L. Mencken. The trial, which was deliberately staged to bring publicity to the issue at hand, pitted Darrow against William Jennings Bryan in a court case that tested Tennessee's Butler Act, which had been passed on March 21, 1925. The act forbade the teaching of "the Evolution Theory" in any state-funded educational establishment. More broadly, it outlawed in state-funded schools (including universities) the teaching of "any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals."


title: Clarence Darrow

text: During the trial, Darrow requested that Bryan be called to the stand as an expert witness on the Bible. Over the other prosecutor's objection, Bryan agreed. Popular media at the time portrayed the following exchange as the deciding factor that turned public opinion against Bryan in the trial:


title: Clarence Darrow

text: After about two hours, Judge John T. Raulston cut the questioning short and on the following morning ordered that the whole session (which in any case the jury had not witnessed) be expunged from the record, ruling that the testimony had no bearing on whether Scopes was guilty of teaching evolution. Scopes was found guilty and ordered to pay the minimum fine of $100.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: A year later, the Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Dayton court on a procedural technicality—not on constitutional grounds, as Darrow had hoped. According to the court, the fine should have been set by the jury, not Raulston. Rather than send the case back for further action, however, the Tennessee Supreme Court dismissed the case. The court commented, "Nothing is to be gained by prolonging the life of this bizarre case."


title: Clarence Darrow

text: The event led to a change in public sentiment and an increased discourse on the creation claims of religious teachers versus those of secular scientists i.e., creationism compared to evolutionism that still exists. It also became popularized in a play based loosely on the trial, "Inherit the Wind", which has been adapted several times on film and television.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: On September 9, 1925, a white mob in Detroit attempted to drive a black family out of the home they had purchased in a white neighborhood. During the struggle, a white man was killed, and the eleven black men in the house were later arrested and charged with murder. Ossian Sweet, a doctor, and three members of his family were brought to trial, and after an initial deadlock, Darrow argued to the all-white jury: "I insist that there is nothing but prejudice in this case; that if it was reversed and eleven white men had shot and killed a black man while protecting their home and their lives against a mob of blacks, nobody would have dreamed of having them indicted. They would have been given medals instead..."


title: Clarence Darrow

text: Following a mistrial, it was agreed that each of the eleven defendants would be tried individually. Darrow, alongside Thomas Chawke, would first defend Ossian's brother Henry, who had confessed to firing the shot on Garland Street. Henry was found not guilty on grounds of self-defense, and the prosecution determined to drop the charges on the remaining ten. The trials were presided over by Frank Murphy, who went on to become Governor of Michigan and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: Darrow's closing statement, which lasted over seven hours, is seen as a landmark in the civil rights movement and was included in the book "Speeches that Changed the World" (given the name "I Believe in the Law of Love"). The two closing arguments of Clarence Darrow, from the first and second trials, show how he learned from the first trial and reshaped his remarks.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: The Scopes Trial and the Sweet trial were the last big cases that Darrow took on before he retired from full-time practice at the age of 68. He still took on a few cases such as the 1932 Massie Trial in Hawaii.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: In his last headline-making case, the Massie Trial, Darrow, devastated by the Great Depression, was hired by Eva Stotesbury, the wife of Darrow's old family friend Edward T. Stotesbury, to come to the defense of Grace Fortescue, Edward J. Lord, Deacon Jones, and Thomas Massie, Fortescue's son-in-law, who were accused of murdering Joseph Kahahawai. Kahahawai had been accused, along with four other men, of raping and beating Thalia Massie, Thomas's wife and Fortescue's daughter; the resulting 1931 case ended in a hung jury (though the charges were later dropped and repeated investigation has shown them to be innocent). Enraged, Fortescue and Massie then orchestrated the murder of Kahahawai in order to extract a confession and were caught by police officers while transporting his dead body.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: Darrow entered the racially charged atmosphere as the lawyer for the defendants. Darrow reconstructed the case as a justified honor killing by Thomas Massie. Considered by "The New York Times" to be one of Darrow's three most compelling trials (along with the Scopes Trial and the Leopold and Loeb case), the case captivated the nation and most of white America strongly supported the honor killing defense. In fact, the final defense arguments were transmitted to the mainland through a special radio hookup. In the end, the jury came back with a unanimous verdict of guilty, but on the lesser crime of manslaughter. As to Darrow's closing, one juror commented, "[h]e talked to us like a bunch of farmers. That stuff may go over big in the Middle West, but not here." Governor Lawrence Judd later commuted the sentences to one hour in his office. Years later Deacon admitted to shooting Kahahawai; Massie was found not guilty in a posthumous trial.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: As part of a public symposium on belief held in Columbus, Ohio, in 1929, Darrow delivered a speech, later titled "Why I Am An Agnostic", on agnosticism, skepticism, belief, and religion. In the speech, Darrow thoroughly discussed the meaning of being an agnostic and questioned the doctrines of Christianity and the Bible. He concluded that "the fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the death of wisdom. Skepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom."


title: Clarence Darrow

text: In January 1931 Darrow had a debate with English writer G. K. Chesterton during the latter's second trip to America. This was held at New York City's Mecca Temple. The topic was "Will the World Return to Religion?". At the end of the debate those in the hall were asked to vote for the man they thought had won the debate. Darrow received 1,022 votes while Chesterton received 2,359 votes. There is no known transcript of what was said except for third party accounts published later on. The earliest of these was that of February 4, 1931, issue of "The Nation" with an article written by Henry Hazlitt.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: In the edition of November 18, 1915, of "The Washington Post", Darrow stated: "Chloroform unfit children. Show them the same mercy that is shown beasts that are no longer fit to live." However, Darrow was also critical of some eugenics advocates.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: By the 1920s, the eugenics movement was very powerful and Darrow was a pointed critic of that movement. In the years immediately before the Supreme Court of the United States would endorse eugenics through "Buck v. Bell", Darrow wrote multiple essays criticizing the illogic of the eugenicists, especially the confirmation bias in eugenicist arguments.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: In a 1925 essay, "The Edwardses and the Jukeses", he imitated the eugenicists' tracking of pedigrees as a way to demonstrate that their retrospective centuries-long family tree studies were omitting literally thousands of relatives whose lives did not support the researchers' preconceptions. Eugenicist arguments about the eminent Edwards family (of the theologian Jonathan Edwards) ignored that family's mediocre relatives, and even ignored some immediately related murderers. Eugenicist arguments about the Jukes family did just the opposite, leaving ignored or untraced many functional and law-abiding relatives.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: In Darrow's subsequent essay, "The Eugenics Cult" (1926), he attacked the reasoning of eugenicists. "On the basis of what biological principles, and by what psychological hocus-pocus [Dr. William McDougall] reaches the conclusion that the ability to read intelligently denotes a good germ-plasm and desirable citizens I cannot say," he wrote. Darrow also criticized the idea that humanity knows what qualities it would take to make humanity "better," and compared humanity's biology experiments unfavorably to those of Nature.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: In the 1903 Chicago mayoral election there was a strong push by members of the Chicago Federation of Labor and others to draft Darrow as a third-party candidate. Darrow considered accepting, and even seemed prepared to announce his candidacy, but ultimately declined to run. Darrow served in the Illinois House of Representatives from the 17th district during the 43rd General Assembly as one of two members of the Public Ownership Party along with John J. McManaman. He was elected on a platform "advocating the municipal ownership of public utilities."


title: Clarence Darrow

text: Darrow was appointed in 1905 by newly elected Chicago mayor Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne to serve in the position of "Special Traction Counsel to the Mayor", assisting Dunne in his attempts to resolve the city's traction problem. He and Dunne had presented two plans to the Chicago City Council, both of which it rejected. Darrow resigned his position in November 1905.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: Today, Clarence Darrow is remembered for his reputation as a fierce trial attorney who, in many cases, championed the cause of the underdog; because of this, he is generally regarded as one of the greatest criminal defense lawyers in American history.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: According to legend, before he died, Darrow declared that if there was an afterlife, he would return on the small bridge (now known as the Clarence Darrow Memorial Bridge) located just south of the Museum of Science and Industry in Hyde Park, Chicago on the date of his death. Darrow was skeptical of a belief in life after death (he is reported to have said: "Every man knows when his life began... If I did not exist in the past, why should I, or could I, exist in the future?") but he made this promise to dissuade mediums from charging people money to "talk" to his spirit. People still gather on the bridge in the hopes of seeing his ghost.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: A volume of Darrow's boyhood reminiscences, entitled "Farmington", was published in Chicago in 1903 by McClurg and Company.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: Darrow shared offices with Edgar Lee Masters, who achieved more fame for his poetry, in particular, the "Spoon River Anthology", than for his advocacy.


title: Clarence Darrow

text: The papers of Clarence Darrow are located at the Library of Congress and the University of Minnesota Libraries. The Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center of the University of Minnesota Law School has the largest collection of Clarence Darrow material including personal letters to and from Darrow. Many of these letters and other material are available on the U of M's Clarence Darrow Digital Collection website.


title: Jay Gould

text: Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who is generally identified as one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made him one of the wealthiest men of the late nineteenth century. Gould was an unpopular figure during his life and remains controversial.


title: Jay Gould

text: Gould was born in Roxbury, New York, to Mary More (1798–1841) and John Burr Gould (1792–1866). His maternal grandfather Alexander T. More was a businessman, and his great-grandfather John More was a Scottish immigrant who founded the town of Moresville, New York. Gould studied at the Hobart Academy in Hobart, New York, paying his way by bookkeeping. As a young boy, he decided that he wanted nothing to do with farming, his father's occupation, so his father dropped him off at a nearby school with fifty cents and a sack of clothes.


title: Jay Gould

text: Gould's school principal was credited with getting him a job as a bookkeeper for a blacksmith. A year later, the blacksmith offered him half interest in the blacksmith shop, which he sold to his father during the early part of 1854. Gould devoted himself to private study, emphasizing surveying and mathematics. In 1854, he surveyed and created maps of the Ulster County, New York, area. In 1856, he published "History of Delaware County, and Border Wars of New York," which he had spent several years writing. While engaged in surveying he started a side activity financing operators making woodash for tannin used in tanning leather.


title: Jay Gould

text: In 1856, Gould entered a partnership with Zadock Pratt to create a tanning business in Pennsylvania in an area that was later named Gouldsboro. He eventually bought out Pratt, who retired. In 1856, Gould entered a partnership with Charles Mortimer Leupp, a son-in-law of Gideon Lee and one of the leading leather merchants in the United States. The partnership was successful, until the Panic of 1857. Leupp lost all his money in that financial crisis, but Gould took advantage of the depreciation in property value and bought up former partnership properties.


title: Jay Gould

text: Gould also started an ice harvesting industry on the large Gouldsboro lake. In the winter ice was harvested and stored in large ice houses at the side of the lake. He had a railroad line installed next to the lake and he supplied New York City with ice during the summer months.


title: Jay Gould

text: The Gouldsboro Tannery became a disputed property after Leupp's death. Leupp's brother-in-law David W. Lee was also a partner in Leupp and Gould, and he took armed control of the tannery. He believed that Gould had cheated the Leupp and Lee families in the collapse of the business. Gould eventually took physical possession, but he was later forced to sell his shares in the company to Lee's brother.


title: Jay Gould

text: In 1859, Gould began speculative investing by buying stock in small railways. His father-in-law Daniel S. Miller introduced him to the railroad industry by suggesting that Gould help him save his investment in the Rutland and Washington Railroad in the Panic of 1857. Gould purchased stock for 10 cents on the dollar, which left him in control of the company. He engaged in more speculation on railroad stocks in New York City throughout the Civil War, and he was appointed manager of the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad in 1863.


title: Jay Gould

text: The Erie Railroad encountered financial troubles in the 1850s, despite receiving loans from financiers Cornelius Vanderbilt and Daniel Drew. It entered receivership in 1859 and was reorganized as the Erie Railway. Gould, Drew, and James Fisk engaged in stock manipulations known as the Erie War, and Drew, Fisk, and Vanderbilt lost control of the Erie in the summer of 1868, while Gould became its president.


title: Jay Gould

text: It was during the same period that Gould and Fisk became involved with Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that largely ran New York City at the time. They made its boss, William M. Tweed, a director of the Erie Railroad, and Tweed arranged favorable legislation. Tweed and Gould became the subjects of political cartoons by Thomas Nast in 1869. Gould was the chief bondsman in October 1871 when Tweed was held on $1 million bail. Tweed was eventually convicted of corruption and died in jail.


title: Jay Gould

text: In August 1869, Gould and Fisk began to buy gold in an attempt to corner the market, hoping that the increase in the price of gold would increase the price of wheat and motivate western farmers to sell. This, in turn, would cause a great amount of shipping eastward, increasing freight business for the Erie Railroad. During this time, Gould used contacts with President Ulysses S. Grant's brother-in-law Abel Corbin to influence the president and his Secretary General Horace Porter. These speculations culminated in the panic of Black Friday on September 24, 1869, when the greenback (cash) premium over face value fell on a gold double eagle from 62 percent to 35 percent. Gould made a small profit from this operation by hedging against his own attempted corner as it was about to collapse, but he lost it in subsequent lawsuits. The gold corner established Gould's reputation in the press as an all-powerful figure who could drive the market up and down at will.


title: Jay Gould

text: In 1873, Gould attempted to take control of the Erie Railroad by recruiting foreign investments from Lord Gordon-Gordon, supposedly a cousin of the wealthy Campbell clan who was buying land for immigrants. He bribed Gordon-Gordon with a million dollars in stock, but Gordon-Gordon was an impostor and cashed the stock immediately. Gould sued him, and the case went to trial in March 1873. In court, Gordon-Gordon gave the names of the Europeans whom he claimed to represent, and he was granted bail while the references were checked. He immediately fled to Canada, where he convinced authorities that the charges were false.


title: Jay Gould

text: Having failed to convince Canadian authorities to hand over Gordon-Gordon, Gould attempted to kidnap Gordon-Gordon with the help of his associates and future members of Congress Loren Fletcher, John Gilfillan, and Eugene McLanahan Wilson. The group captured him successfully, but they were stopped and arrested by the North-West Mounted Police before they could return to the US. Canadian authorities put them in prison and refused them bail, and this led to an international incident between the United States and Canada. Governor Horace Austin of Minnesota demanded their return when he learned that they had been denied bail, and he put the local militia on full readiness, and thousands of Minnesotans volunteered for an invasion of Canada. After negotiations, the Canadian authorities released them on bail. Gordon-Gordon was eventually ordered to be deported but committed suicide before the order could be carried out.


title: Jay Gould

text: After being forced out of the Erie Railroad, Gould started to build up a system of railroads in the midwest and west. He took control of the Union Pacific in 1873 when its stock was depressed by the Panic of 1873, and he built a viable railroad that depended on shipments from farmers and ranchers. He immersed himself in every operational and financial detail of the Union Pacific system, building an encyclopedic knowledge and acting decisively to shape its destiny. Biographer Maury Klein states that "he revised its financial structure, waged its competitive struggles, captained its political battles, revamped its administration, formulated its rate policies, and promoted the development of resources along its lines."


title: Jay Gould

text: By 1879, Gould gained control of three more important western railroads, including the Missouri Pacific Railroad. He controlled 10,000 miles (16,000 km) of railway, about one-ninth of the rail in the United States at that time, and he had controlling interest in 15 percent of the country's railway tracks by 1882. The railroads were making profits and set their own rates, and his wealth increased dramatically. He withdrew from management of the Union Pacific in 1883 amid political controversy over its debts to the federal government, but he realized a large profit for himself. He obtained a controlling interest in the Western Union telegraph company and in the elevated railways in New York City after 1881. In 1889, he organized the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis which acquired a bottleneck in east–west railroad traffic at St. Louis, but the government brought an antitrust suit to eliminate the bottleneck control after Gould died.


title: Jay Gould

text: Gould was a member of West Presbyterian Church at 31 West 42nd Street. It later merged with Park Presbyterian to form West-Park Presbyterian.


title: Jay Gould

text: Together with his son George, Gould was a founding member of American Yacht Club. He owned the steam yacht Atalanta (1883).


title: Jay Gould

text: Gould died of tuberculosis, then referred to as "consumption" on December 2, 1892, and was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, New York. His fortune was conservatively estimated for tax purposes at $72 million (equivalent to $ in 2022), which he willed in its entirety to his family.


title: Jay Gould

text: At the time of his death, Gould was a benefactor in the reconstruction of the Reformed Church of Roxbury, New York, now known as the Jay Gould Memorial Reformed Church. It is located within the Main Street Historic District and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. The family mausoleum was designed by Francis O'Hara.


title: Revisionist Western

text: The revisionist Western (also called the anti-Western, sometimes revisionist antiwestern) is a sub-genre of the Western film. Designated a post-classical variation of the traditional Western, the revisionist subverts the myth and romance of the traditional by means of character development and realism to present a less simplistic view of life in the "Old West". While the traditional Western always embodies a clear boundary between good and evil, the revisionist Western does not.


title: Revisionist Western

text: Revisionist themes have existed since the early 20th century but it was not until 1968, when the Hays Code restrictions were relaxed, that revisionism finally supplanted the traditional. Although many earlier Westerns are labelled revisionist, the distinction between them is often blurred by variable themes and plot devices. Some are labelled psychological Westerns which is closely related to and sometimes overlaps with the psychological drama and psychological thriller genres because of their focus on character at the expense of the action and thrills that predominate in the traditional. Other revisionist films, in which action and adventure remain prominent, are labelled Indian Westerns or Outlaw/Gunfighter Westerns because, instead of the traditional hero, the protagonist is a Native American, an outlaw or a gunfighter. The Spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s, not bound by the Hays Code, were strongly revisionist by presenting morally ambiguous storylines featuring an anti-hero or a sympathetic villain. From 1969 onwards, revisionism has prevailed in Western film production.


title: Revisionist Western

text: The traditional Western typically features a strong male lead character, often a lawman or cavalry officer, who takes direct action on behalf of supposedly civilised people against those deemed to be uncivilised. The former are portrayed as honest townsfolk or travellers, the latter as outlaws or hostile Native Americans.


title: Revisionist Western

text: In the revisionist Western, the traditional format and themes are subverted by such devices as the Native American protagonist; strong female characters; the outlaw protagonist; plots that are pre-eminently concerned with survival in a wild environment; or the presentation of a morally ambiguous storyline without definite heroes, these often featuring the so-called anti-hero or a sympathetic villain. The object is to blur the traditionally clear boundaries between "right" and "wrong" (the "good guy" against the "bad guy") by emphasising the need for survival amidst ambiguity.


title: Revisionist Western

text: The traditional Western treats characters in simplistic terms as good or bad with minimal character development. The psychological Western, which began in the 1940s and was hugely popular through the 1950s and 1960s, prioritises character development ahead of action whilst retaining most of the traditional aspects. For the most part, the psychological Western morphed into the revisionist Western as censorship restrictions were relaxed and removed in the 1960s.


title: Revisionist Western

text: "Shane" (1953), directed by George Stevens, is a psychological Western. The title character (Alan Ladd) seems at first to be a traditional Western drifter riding across a traditional Western landscape but it is soon apparent that he has entered a complex setting which is populated by, as Kim Newman puts it, "believable characters with mixed motives". Even though rancher Riker (Emile Meyer) is ostensibly the villain of the piece, he makes the point that he has striven for thirty years to develop the cattle range which is now being taken over by fence-building "sodbusters", many of whom have the mixed motives noted by Newman. Despite the complexity of its characters, "Shane" is nevertheless filmed in a conventional setting and ends with the hero outshooting and killing the three main villains. There is, however, an element of revisionism in the ending when the disillusioned Shane admits to Riker that he knows his day as a gunfighter is over. Shane rides away to an uncertain future, possibly to die as he is wounded, and it is farmer Starrett (Van Heflin) and his family who endure.


title: Revisionist Western

text: "Shane" is a psychological Western with many of the trappings of a traditional one. Fifteen years later, Sergio Leone directed "Once Upon a Time in the West", a revisionist Western which completely subverts the traditional with complex characters and multiple plot devices, the key one being revenge – the motive of enigmatic gunfighter Harmonica (Charles Bronson). As in "Shane", it is not the gunfighters who "inherit the West" but in this case the compassionate town-building ex-prostitute Jill (Claudia Cardinale). By the end of the film, all of the antagonists except Harmonica are dead and, like Shane, he rides away to an uncertain future.


title: Revisionist Western

text: Opinion is divided on the origin of the revisionist or psychological Western but it is generally agreed that there were hints of a darker perspective in some films of the 1930s such as "Westward Ho" (1935), directed by Robert N. Bradbury and starring John Wayne, in which the hero leads a band of vigilantes on a quest for revenge. "Westward Ho" is the earliest film in AllMovie's list of revisionist Westerns. The earliest films classified by AllMovie as psychological Westerns are "The Ox-Bow Incident" and "The Outlaw" (both 1943).