My first animal execution

On this day in 1888, a 76-pound Newfoundland dog was “executed” by an agent of Thomas Alva Edison to “prove” that AC current (as opposed to the DC electric current he promoted) was dangerous to living things. Harold P. Brown, the executioner, went all around New York State for awhile shocking to death all the manner of fauna, but he preferred stray dogs and cats and paid little boys twenty-five cents each to round them up. (One wonders how many of those “strays” were pets stolen from people’s yards.)

That Newfoundland was the first to go. They are wonderful dogs, so sweet-hearted and patient. Nana, the dog in Peter Pan, was a Newfie. My family has had two.

Thomas Edison was an ass. The Epic Rap Battles of History people proved that.

Tuesday rolls around again

This missing person of the week is Ricky Lee Parsons. He disappeared from Texas in 1998, when he was only 21 years old. The police are investigating his case as a homicide — with good reason, as you’ll see in his Charley Project casefile.