“Fruit Tramp” by Daniel Mainwaring

 

[A Labor Day week offering.]

Still the fruit tramps came every year when the Elbertas were turning yellow in the shiny leaves. Not so many came, but the grove was pretty well filled with men and women and children who drove along the highway leading to the hills and pitched their camps in the shade of the trees planted there by a man named Cole fifty years before.

When times were bad it wasn't easy to make a living picking peaches and grapes, cutting the peaches in half, laying them in orderly rows on the trays. It was hard, unpleasant work. Out in the orchards the heat waves rose, and when you knelt on the earth to pick the fruit up the sand burned through your overalls. The cutting sheds offered little shelter from the sun, and the fuzz from the peaches crept up the women's arms and down the necks of their dresses. They stood all day on the packed earth of the shed, picking the fruit up with their nimble fingers, jabbing the knife point to the soft flesh and, with a twist, halving the fruit.

This 1934 short story by Daniel Mainwaring is an example of the proletarian fiction that was popular in the Depression era, the most notable example being Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.

This genre emphasized the plight of the common man, often had a political bent to it, and when in an urban setting, there was often a strong union element to it.

Alternately, when proletarian fiction had a rural setting as in the case of the itinerant fruit pickers in this story or the melon industry in Elmore Leonard’s Mr. Majestyk, the tales take on a decidedly gritty western feel. We are treated to accurate descriptions of hard work and when there is confrontation,as in this story and Mr. Majestyk, one is hard-pressed to deny that these are “Western Stories” in their own right.

[The Leonard novel is also reviewed on in this blog]

Mainwaring’s story, found in the July 1934 issue of Harper’s Magazine is a strong example of the proletarian genre with an obvious element of the Western to it.

In addition, it is a fine piece of writing well in the vein of the aforementioned Mr. Leonard.

Well worth a read.

Jade: Outlaw by Robert Flynn

 

He didn’t take a bottle but stopped at the half-shack, half-tent saloon, walked across the dirt floor, asked for a beer and took it to the end of the short and dusty bar that was under the wooden roof. Shep, in for his two beers before bed, spoke to him. Two pistoleros nodded. Jade nodded but didn’t invite conversation. Jade was drinking his beer when a woman joined him. “New to town, ain’t you? Thought we might get acquainted.” She tried to look bright but looked over-handled despite her youth, and her eyes were dull with knowledge of men. Jade had calico fever but the misery in her face was twin to his own and he didn’t want to know more of it.

A beautifully written brief novel of the confusion of hatred, desire, duty, shame, doubt, remorse and sundry other adult themes.

Our protagonist, not written to be admired but he still is by others although he does not admire himself is moved to conflict by his fascination with a woman who was a former Indian captive.

“It’s done,” he said, and watched as she cut her steak and ate biscuits and gravy. She had a healthy appetite but didn’t talk with her mouth full or chew with her mouth open. She cooked regular fare and there was plenty of it. She had enough sand for two brooms. Strong enough to carry her side of the teepee in both ways. But she was Indian. Not by birth but by choice. She looked Indian--dark eyes, long, straight black hair. He didn’t know that he could abide that. But her dark eyes were really brown with green flecks, hair so black it sometimes had a blue sheen. Her lips were even, neither thin nor blown, but with small lines above her upper lip. From chewing leather to soften it?

“What did you like about being Indian?” he asked, believing that no decent white woman could.

“Family. Boys competed to be the fastest, the strongest, best with a horse, best with a bow, with a lance but it was for the tribe not just personal glory. Listening to the stories and making our own stories. Girls worked beside their mothers who showed us how to gather roots, nuts, berries, firewood, buffalo chips, finding and cooking with a new herb, sewing skins to make a teepee, smoking meat, making moccasins to please our husbands who fed and protected the village. I loved following my mother, playing at cooking, washing, making and taking down teepees.

“Every girl had a doll and learned to make clothing for it. Sometimes girls worked and sang together cleaning and softening hides. When the village moved we helped our mothers take down the teepee and helped them move the poles, the hides to wherever we went. When our fathers had no horses to spare we carried everything. “When one died, all grieved. No one owned the land, or the river, or the sky. There was no glory in owning. It would be dishonorable to ride one horse and lead one if another brave was afoot. If you had two robes and someone was cold, you gave them one. Not to do so would be disgraceful. When one triumphed all celebrated. Here, smaller than an Indian village, they allow brutality to neighbors.”

Jade remains puzzled, confused, repelled by the woman who embraces what he loathes.

The novel, while not action heavy, reveals enough pragmatic scoutcraft to let us know this author and character knows what’s what.

They didn’t ride like Indians but one had a star or concho that glittered when the sun hit it. Or a gold watch hanging from his shirt. Why would someone wear glitter in Indian country? Jade wondered. Might as well hold the arrow to your breast and ask a brave to let go of the bow string.

The stark lyricism of the prose is not confined to our protagonists, all characters have a sense of desolation to them.

“Hannah believed I would fulfill her dreams but instead she fell victim to mine.”

While not a classic, this mature novel is well worth a read for the discerning.

“Have you ever seen the sea?” she asked him.

“No.”

“They tell me it tastes of salt.”

“I’ve heard that,” Jade agreed “Rain is not salty. Tears are salty. The sea must be the collected tears of people.”

“I have heard that beneath the ground is a great fire and it breaks through sometimes,” Jade said. “I have seen where the fire has broken through. Maybe tears are what keeps it from burning up the earth.”

Allan W. Eckert & The Frontier Fraud

 

[Here she be, The conclusion—A villain’s name is revealed! IF YOU HAVE NOT READ PARTS 1-3, well, it’d be silly to consume the blow that follows.

Parts 1-3 set the stage for what is the reality as compared with the hoax of the so-called Devil’s Triangle.

The origins of this hoax bear directly on a series of Frontier Historical volumes that many use in good faith to inform their knowledge of early frontier ways, Early American history, and combat matters.

While, initially, the first three parts of this series may seem to be nothing more than an exploration of the hallmark case of The Bermuda Triangle, but it has a direct link to a blackmark on Frontier Historical Combat Research—practically every resource I see on early tomahawk “fighting” and like Eastern Woodland Warfare matters are implicated in this hoax. I know all this seems unrelated but stay with me—the Warrior-Scholar will be rewarded. Now, dig in, as I’ve been putting this together for a long time, a lotta work here and the revelation, well, stay with me, you’ll see.]

“Science must begin with myths and with the criticism of myths.”—Karl Popper, Philosopher of Science

The Story Thus Far

·        27 men died the day Flight 19 was lost.

·        All subsequent military inquiries confirm pilot error + compounding weather effects.

·        Pilots within Flight 19 itself point to this as the causative factor.

·        Maternal and amital love led to the military altering the record slightly to preserve the sensibilities of two litigious women.

What the Story DOES NOT Say

·        There is no reference to supernatural phenomenon that day from pilots, rescue crews, or crew on the ground.

·        There are no anomalous radar images pointing to some extraterrestrial involvement.

·        There is zero, absolutely zero mention made of anything hoodoo like from any of the lost flight crews.

Quite the opposite, nothing but mundane radio chatter and confusion over bearings.

The events of Flight 19 occurred on December 5, 1945.

Flash Forward 17 years to April 1962.

That is the year American Legion Magazine published a brief article titled “The Mystery of the Lost Patrol.”

The article begins with this paragraph.

“On December 5, 1946 a flight of five TBM Avenger propeller-driven torpedo bombers took off from the United States Naval Air Station at Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. For all intents and purposes it was a routine patrol flight differing not in the least from dozens of other patrol flights having originated there. This particular flight, however, was destined never to be forgotten because it flew directly into one of the greatest and most incredible mysteries in the history of manned flight. A mystery no closer to being solved today than it was 16 years ago.”

Right off the bat notice that the date is wrong by a full year. So much for accuracy.

But, let us carry on.

Those last two sentences in this opening paragraph are the beginning of the assertion that this was some unsolved mysterious occurrence.

Nothing of the sort was ever reported the day of the tragedy or in the 17 years that followed and yet the author of the article assumedly peered into the record to say something no one had ever said.

The article’s author goes on to offer dialogue from the radio communication between the ground and Flight 19.

Some of which we find in the official transcripts and other bits of dialogue, well, it occurs nowhere but in this article, only to go on and be trumpeted by other purveyors of the mysterious who never bothered to go to the original source. Rather all decided that it’s more fun to stick with the mysterious than go the extra five minutes to test counter-factuals regarding the lives of 27 lost men and their grieving families.

We are treated to such made-up dialogue as…

"We cannot be sure of any direction . . . everything is wrong . . . strange . . . the ocean doesn't look as it should."

Again, the above is not in the record, but our article author frames this as the beginnings of, “Ah, something mighty mysterious is occurring!”

We are also treated with this paragraph of fantasy…

“An immediate investigation of the strange occurrence was made by the Navy. After exhaustive study of the entire incident, the Naval Board of Inquiry reported in detail all that had transpired and then summed up with this succinct phrase : "We are not able to even make a good guess as to what happened."

I repeat that final line: "We are not able to even make a good guess as to what happened."

Sounds like a kicker for a fine unsolved mystery.

The only mystery is where this succinct phrase is found. The author claims it is in the official Naval Board of Inquiry record.

It is not.

The author then goes on to detail other “mysterious” losses within the Devil’s Triangle, all of which [ALL] if one bothers to check the record have zero unknown circumstances surrounding the losses.

In one single article the author is constructing an entire myth of mystery out of thin air.

Perhaps feeling that maybe this is all a bit too much he then adds a “source” for his material.

Wise to the fact that anyone with a brain would want to check his story, he assigns the source a pseudonym and cops to the fact that the source is not quite real—a composite-- then switches from straight reporting to novelistic reconstruction. [This novelistic reconstruction is important—stay with me.]

“Commercial pilots unwilling to discuss the matter are even more unwilling to have their names connected with opinions regarding such disappearances. Yet, most of them have very strong opinions which are basically alike. In dozens of coffeecup interviews, here's what a composite pilot—let's call him Captain Jimmy Drake — had to say on the subject:”

Bullshit Scorecard Thus Far

·        Incorrect dates regarding the subject of your own article.

·        Manufactured dialogue claiming to be from the official record. It is not.

·        Manufactured dialogue from men who lost their lives. Despicable.

·        Claims of intrigue and mystery where there are none.

·        And now, a fake source created in novelistic form, complete with gestures and shakes of the head to lend some sort of personal patina of reality to the BS “Captain Jimmy” will spew.

Let’s hear from this fake “Captain Jimmy.”

"There are a great many things about this old world we don't know yet. Some- times when you're way up there alone you get to thinking about it and you almost feel you don't have a right up there, knowing as little as you do about things. A lot of pilots have seen a lot of strange things they can't explain. If they attempt to talk about them or report them, it damages their reputations. More than one pilot has wished he'd kept quiet about what he saw."

“He shook his head. "It's a sad state of affairs when you have to pretend you've seen nothing unusual when you've actually seen things that've raised your hair…

“He looked up sharply. "Let me tell you something. There are plenty who don't believe it and who can't understand why it's considered such a loss of face to admit something has happened that we can't comprehend and have no control over. But, we just keep on flying and hope we won't be next for whatever it is."

Boy, this fake captain Jimmy---What a guy!

All fake, all bullshit.

Cobbled together to sell an article.

To put cash in pocket.

Lies on the backs of the lives and memories of dead men.

The author of this piece that spawned a thousand dishonesties: Allan W. Eckert.

The Frontier Combat Research Connection

Eckert went on to become the author of several books of frontier history.

The titles include The Frontiersmen, The Wilderness Empire, The Conquerors, Gateway to Empire, Twilight of Empire, The Dark and Bloody River, Blue Jacket: War Chief of the Shawnees, and A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh.

Why do these titles matter to our exploration of the originator of The Bermuda Triangle lies?

Each of these volumes opens with the following Author’s Note:

“This book is fact, not fiction.

“In ferreting out the truth of history, the researcher finds that some of his most important sources are documents of any nature written during the historical period of which he intends writing. And when, on rare occasions--more rare the further back in history he digs--he encounters material written and dictated by the very people about whom he intends to write, it is indeed a windfall.

·        Hmm, so our manufacturer of lies ensures us that this time he’s telling the truth.

·        This time he’s got his facts correct.

·        This time he’s playing above board.

[Recall our resort to novelistic techniques in the American Legion piece? Eckert goes on to say…]

“In order to help provide continuity and maintain a high degree of reader interest, certain techniques normally associated with the novel form have been utilized. but in no case has this been at the expense of historical accuracy.”

·        Really?

·        This all sounds familiar somehow.

·        How close does the author tend to hew to the truth?

“It should be borne in mind, then, that where the dialogue takes place in this book, it is actual quoted conversation from another source, or dialogue constructed in the matter above described, or in a few scattered instances--historical fact utilized in the form of conversation to maintain the dramatic narrative pace. In no case has there been any “whole cloth” fabrication or fanciful fictionalization.”

·        We are further assured…

“Equally, every incident described in this book actually occurred; every date historically accurate; every character, regardless of how major or minor, actually lived in the role in which he is portrayed.”

So, Did the Bermuda Triangle Myth Perpetrator Turn Over a New Leaf?

Did he change his ways from the Bermuda Triangle Myth he concocted in 1962 to 5 years later when he takes on the monumental task of being “historically accurate” for thousands of pages of “history”?

Well, I am a historical researcher myself and I avidly inhaled Mr. Eckert’s “historical” work decades ago and marveled at how he could marshal such resources.

I thought to myself, I need to be as comprehensive.

My first step in being comprehensive in my own work is to make sure it is accurate. I must confirm my own work only AFTER attempting to Disconfirm it.

That is how science is done.

That is how real history is done.

I took the confirmation/disconfirmation tool to Mr. Eckert’s work to assemble a collection of his marvelously exact resources to have as treasures in my own library.

What I discovered is… Well, you can guess, much like the Bermuda Triangle work, much of it is non-existent, and that which does exist, very little of the details in Mr. Eckert’s work match the selfsame sources he touts.

Much like the Naval Board of Inquiry records, if you have the spare time, you can check.

I checked.

Not the First to Notice

I am not the first to notice Mr. Eckert’s prevarications, there are researchers Larry Kusche, Jerome Clark and a host of book reviewers offering such observations as Kirkus Reviews calling his “narrative biography” “an apparent euphemism for poetic license” and "in its interpretative zeal … strays from … the historical record to the point of being suspect."

It seems, the Kirkus Reviewer was being kind.

What they chalk up to zeal, we know from examining Eckert’s Bermuda Triangle work are not mistakes of zeal but pure OD fabrication of the lowest order.

Historical Research

To be a credible researcher one should read much, gather much, visit sites, marshal experience, synthesize material and before we confirm, we must seek to disconfirm.

Mendacious ones such as Mr. Eckert lead many down wrong paths through sheer deceit.

Others who follow Mr. Eckert down paths do less so out of deceit than placing trust in the wrong guide.

To that I offer my signature sign-off in bold:

Resources for Livin’ the Warrior Life, Not Just Readin’ About It

All historically accurate and viciously verified!

The Black Box Warehouse

https://www.extremeselfprotection.com/

The Indigenous Ability Blog

https://indigenousability.blogspot.com/

The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast

https://anchor.fm/mark-hatmaker

The Devil’s Triangle & Fraudulent Research, Part 3

 

[Here she be, Part 3! IF YOU HAVE NOT READ PARTS 1 & 2, well, it’d be silly to consume the blow that follows.

Parts 1 & 2 set the stage for what is the reality as compared with the hoax of the so-called Devil’s Triangle.

The origins of this hoax bear directly on a series of Frontier Historical volumes that many use in good faith to inform their knowledge of early frontier ways, Early American history, and combat matters.

Again, bear with me through Parts 1 & 2 where we set the stage for the Revelation in Part 4. While, initially, this may seem to be nothing more than an exploration of the hallmark case of The Bermuda Triangle, it has a direct link to a blackmark on Frontier Historical Combat Research—practically every resource I see on early tomahawk “fighting” and like Eastern Woodland Warfare matters are implicated in this hoax. I know all this seems unrelated but stay with me—the Warrior-Scholar will be rewarded. Now, dig in, as I’ve been putting this together for a long time, a lotta work here and the revelation, well, stay with me, you’ll see.]

[Oh, and if it’s not already obvious, reading Part 1  & Part 2 is essential to understanding what follows, as the Timeline is continuous in the official military records.]

“Science must begin with myths and with the criticism of myths.”—Karl Popper, Philosopher of Science

THE BIRTH OF THE LEGEND, THE ORIGIN OF LIES

Parts 1 & 2 definitively lay the case for the Tragedy of Flight 19 being a combination of pilot error and poor weather conditions.

All expert opinion, including pilots in Flight 19 itself agree—a bearing error was THE causative factor.

Nothing supernatural.

Nothing extraterrestrial.

Nothing mysterious.

Pilot Error + Poor Weather. Period.

But…cold hard facts never stand in the way of raging ignorance or cold-hearted cupidity.

Some pervert narratives to feel like “They have the real skinny on life as opposed to the rest of the sheeples.”

Some know better but concoct lies to cash checks or enhance stature.

It is the case now; it was the case then.

The Devil’s Triangle/Bermuda Triangle Heyday

1969

John Wallace Spencer self-publishes a book titled, Limbo of the Lost. It picks up on fragments of inferences about “mysterious” doin’s in the region and concocts a book-length fact-free treatise on the fearsomeness of this region of the Atlantic.

1970

The feature-length documentary, The Devil’s Triangle takes the previously fringe belief to a wider audience. The documentary makes an unknown myth/lie/cash-grab to a larger audience. [For more on the odd trend in the 70’s of mendacious “documentaries” see the superlative book Weirdumentary: Ancient Aliens, Fallacious Prophecies, and Mysterious Monsters from 1970s Documentaries by Gary D. Rhodes.]

1973

Mainstream publisher Bantam cashes in on the public’s interest in this nonsense and publishes Spencer’s previously little-known Limbo of the Lost as a wide-release paperback.

The public now has two main pushes into the consciousness telling us the Devil’s Triangle is real!

A “documentary” and a real-live book.

Others jump on the lie-wagon.

1974

Sees the publication of Charles Berlitz’s and J. Manson Valentine’s The Bermuda TTriangle,which goes on to sell five million copies worldwide, making it a bestseller.

That same year our self-published Mr. Spencer returns to the fray with a new book, No Earthly Explanation.

The same year sees a book also released to impressive sales, Richard Winer’s The Devil’s Triangle.

1975

Richard Winer writes a follow-up The Devil's Triangle 2.

1976

Elwood D. Baumann joins the book liars with another tome of lies also called The Devil’s Triangle.

1977

Richard Winer strikes again with From The Devil's Triangle to The Devil's Jaw.

All purport to be full of “Real-live factual reporting!”

The Book That Mattered

1975

Research librarian and licensed pilot, Larry Kusche of the University of Arizona publishes The Bermuda Triangle Mystery—Solved.

The book is a devastating knockdown of all prior books and documentaries on the subject.

Mr. Kusche did what the other authors did not.

He checked sources.

He conducted interviews.

He collated weather data.

What he found was not just misunderstandings of the truth, a failure of the layman to glean the true reality of Atlantic weather, highs seas, the hazards of aviation and sea travel—he found out-and-out lies that in no way, shape or form match the true record of events.

His book is manna for all who are disgusted by, in the words of an Al Franken book title, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.

MONEY WHERE THEIR MOUTH IS

Logic dictates that those with money to lose would put the most research into knowing if a particular region was conspicuously hazardous.

The insurance companies that must pay out when losses occur have a bonafide skin-in-the-game reason to know the truth and charge premiums or deny coverage accordingly.

So, what do the people who have money to lose in this devastating region have to say?

In a letter dated April 4, 1975, written to Mary Margaret Fuller, editor of the always credulous magazine Fate, the famous and respected insurer Lloyd’s of London had this to say:

“According to Lloyd's records, 428 vessels have been reported missing throughout the world since 1955, and it may interest you to know that our intelligence service can find no evidence to support the claim that the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ has more losses than elsewhere. This finding is upheld by the United States Coast Guard whose computer based-records of casualties in the Atlantic go back to 1958.”

So, the folks with money to lose see no hazard.

The Coast Guard, folks who risk their lives to search for and rescue others in hazardous conditions, folks who would want to know if a particular region was more dicey than others, they would most definitely want to know if there was anything particularly dangerous about a region as they must send themselves into harm’s way.

Both entities call bullshit.

There ya go.

The Bermuda Triangle, The Devil’s Triangle—Bullshit.

WHAT’S THE HARM?

Some may see these self-aggrandizing books as entertainment.

Some may see the reproduction of lies as a harmless bit of fun.

I get that.

That is the view from the spectator seats.

But…

Let’s assume you are a family member of a one of the men who lost their lives in Flight 19.

A relative of those who perished in the subsequent search/rescue attempts.

I ask you, if it were your father, your brother, hell, your own legacy had you perished---how comfortable would you be with someone perverting the record, skewing facts, manufacturing dialogue for the mere sake of “mystery,” for the thrill of a moment’s entertainment for strangers?

My father perished in an exploding aircraft.

That was personal tragedy enough.

I am grateful I did not suffer any subsequent, “You know your dad was probably taken by aliens” or “You know Mark, likely, your dad’s plane entered a dimensional wormhole” or [Fill in the Blank with Gobbledygook Here.]

Grief is enough.

Grief is not entertainment.

Grief is not a sideshow for hucksters.

THE QUESTION

Now some of you may be asking yourselves, “Just a minute Old Man, is that it? I mean you make us learn all about Flight 19, then you switch to the weirdly persistent myth of the Devil’s Triangle as started in the 70s. What’s that go to do with combat research?”

Great question, to which I offer this question…

What is it that led all of these mendacious authors [or at the very least shitty researchers] what is it that led them down this path of lies at worst or fallacious assumptions at best?

The answer to that question will lead us to a single man.

A man who planted the seed for this myth.

A man who planted far more seeds of deceit in the realm of American Frontier History.

In Part 4, we will name that liar and outline his plot of lies in two domains—The literature of The Devil’s Triangle, and his 11 volumes of frontier history that many of you may have on your shelves right now.

Resources for Livin’ the Warrior Life, Not Just Readin’ About It

All historically accurate and viciously verified!

The Black Box Warehouse

https://www.extremeselfprotection.com/

The Indigenous Ability Blog

https://indigenousability.blogspot.com/

The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast

https://anchor.fm/mark-hatmaker