Soho Pam

'Pamela Jennings, who has died aged 48, was known in her central London stamping ground as “Soho Pam”; a professional beggar, she nightly brought her considerable powers of persuasion to the clientele of such establishments as The French House and the Coach & Horses'.


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The man who wouldn't die

'The plot to kill Michael Malloy for life-insurance money seemed foolproof—until the conspirators actually tried it'.

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Everything was fake but her wealth

'Ida Wood never had any intention of renewing contact with the outside world, but on March 5, 1931, death made it necessary. At four o’clock that afternoon, the 93-year-old did something she hadn’t done in 24 years of living at the Herald Square Hotel: she voluntarily opened the door, craned her neck down the corridor, and called for help'.


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Closer than that

'The problem is having too much intelligence to add up intelligently'.

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My father, the old man

'My parents decided to speak to me in French and Italian, not in my mother’s native Spanish. My mum hadn’t had a happy childhood, so she rarely talked about it. Dad, on the other hand, talked about his childhood a lot and I often think I can hear his voice when I’m in my parents’ kitchen even. He made Italian peasant soup and told me stories from a different era, mainly Rome in the 1920s'.

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An astonishing moment from a Bluegrass legend

'The organizers of the event in Raleigh didn’t know for sure until shortly before the curtain rose that Rice would appear. He was introduced by the musicians Sam Bush and Peter Rowan, both of whom have worked extensively with him. He was wearing a pink shirt too large for his thin neck, a red-and-blue striped tie, and a blue suit, with a detail I have never seen before: what appeared to be satin, or maybe grosgrain, lapels. He was terribly thin, and his face was shining in the lights. He looked like a man returned from the desert to deliver a message'.

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Walter R. Walsh Dies at 106; Terrorized Gangsters and Targets

'Walter R. Walsh, a world-class marksman who shot clothespins off laundry lines as a boy and went on to become an FBI legend in shootouts with gangsters in the 1930s, an Olympic competitor and a trainer of generations of Marine Corps sharpshooters, died on Tuesday at his home in Arlington, Va. He was 106'.

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