A Good Professional hit never looks like it
The newspapers reported that notable author and muckraker David Graham Phillips was murdered in January 23, 1911. No relation to the robber barons, senators or congressmen. How convenient.
Nice and neat.
A political writer, extremely critical of the legislature, Phillips claimed to have uncovered a conspiracy which would alter our financial lives permanently. He named names, places and attempted to connect the dots. His critics said he was just a "Muckraker" barking up all the wrong trees, and was paid little attention publicly, though it was increasing. He was murdered supposedly by an unrelated critic who then conveniently commits suicide.
With David Graham Phillips murdered, "muckrakers" seemed to be slightly less interested in uncovering governmental scandal. No one it seemed was all that motivated now to expose the greatest financial overhaul and worldwide economic manipulation in history - planned for decades, with full implementation only two short years away.
It was very clear that David Graham Phillips was on to something. Maybe he wasn't quite sure what it was, but as they say in the south, that dog could hunt - and he was definitely barking up the right tree. Should the public learn about his research it could have been very damaging to many super-wealthy industrialists as well as bring down some very well-connected high profile national politicians and maybe even land at least some of them in prison. At the very least, they would have had to slow the process.
We could believe the story as reported, or perhaps Mr. Phillips untimely accident didn't quite happen that way.
A brief digression...
Shortly after boarding a flight for the initial leg of a vacation trip to the Bahamas with my wife, the pilot came over the loudspeaker and informed us that our flight would be delayed a little over an hour due to weather conditions - so he said.
It was a little foggy and drizzling outside, yet other planes were taking off and landing. Our flight was less than half full, and coincidentally, another flight was to take off to the same destination at the gate next to ours in a little more than an hour - same time the pilot said we were to leave.
We re-boarded in an hour, and along with us came the entire passenger list from the second plane to take off for Atlanta. We traveled in much worse weather an hour and a half after our scheduled departure time, but this time, with a nearly full plane.
Most of the people on the initial flight were only inconvenienced an hour or two out of their day, and so got over it relatively quickly. Some of us (me) missed our connecting flights and had to pay to stay in Atlanta for an entire day and then return to the airport and do it all over again the following morning.
When we asked how we were to be compensated for this unacceptable lie about the weather, we were told that the computer says the delay was weather related and so, no compensation, no ones fault. We were wrong, it was weather, so, no food, no hotel, not even an apology - nothing.
Clearly they combined two flights to save money and reported it as weather related to justify breach of contract so they wouldn't have to compensate the few of us who had the first day of our vacations destroyed. Only a handful of the passengers were seriously inconvenienced like we were, so it seemed to be worth the risk to the airline to save thousands of dollars it costs to bring an additional plane into Atlanta when one could do the job that morning.
Official word was: "Flight delayed due to weather". The ability to combine the passengers on our flight with those of the subsequent one was just a serendipitous coincidence and financial bonus for the airline. As proof of this, it was entered on a computer, and as we all know, a computer, or a typewriter doesn't lie.
The flight was delayed for our safety; just ask them. 100 years from now they can look it up, and it will prove the same thing. The resulting economic savings to the airline was just a happy coincidence. The weather cleared enough in time to load the additional passengers onto the plane and get it in the air almost on schedule. It was completely unrelated to the fact that both aircraft just happened to be scheduled to depart with more than half of the seats empty.
Why whine about an unscheduled layover in Atlanta in the middle of a discourse about a murdered muckraker? We all know the airlines routinely do this now. Get over it.
There is a point. The official word about David Graham Phillips death was that he was murdered by a lunatic music teacher. Like the airline decision was based on a weather report, the police report is a permanent document. Goldsborough cared nothing about his scathing writing about national politicians or the robber barons, he was just an unstable wingnut who was personally insulted by a fictional work, completely unrelated to "The Treason of the Senate".
Do you buy that? How about the weather in Atlanta?
There are only three possible conclusions we could draw from the death of David Graham Phillips:
Option 1 – The Official Word
Goldsborough the lunatic killed Phillips as reported.
Maybe it did happen as reported. Maybe Goldsborough did kill Phillips because he was so angry at him for defaming his sister and family. Maybe he did then kill himself as reported. For some reason he pumped six bullets into Phillips body, much like a professional hitter might; but any human is capable of pulling a trigger six times just as easily as once or twice.
Sure there were plenty of other far more powerful people interested in silencing Phillips' pen. It was just a coincidence that Goldsborough's actions solved their problem for them.
This was the official report. Who are we 100 years later to dispute it? Maybe it was also the weather and not the desire to fill up the plane – after all, I have no meteorological degree.
OPTION 2 – Officials accidentally missed something:
Goldsborough killed Phillips, and then he himself was murdered by an unknown killer. So they tell us that this music teacher killed Phillips, six bullets, execution style, and for some unknown reason and without evidence was immediately murdered by someone else, who disappeared and made it look like Goldsborough killed himself. Again possible, because it doesn't seem like the guy had reason to kill himself - but he was nuts, so maybe he did. We have to admit though, that it was nice and neat and pretty convenient that he also wound up dead. Dead men sell no fables.
OPTION 3 – Professional Designated Hitter
Both Phillips and Goldsborough were part of the same hit. In order to leave no trail, or questions, pin the murder on a crazy music teacher with the blessing of the power brokers, no investigation, and that's the end of it. Men like the robber barons rarely allow their financial futures to be left to chance.
No matter how it really went down, the murder of David Graham Phillips played perfectly into the hands of the robber barons. Phillips was right. What they were doing in the legislature was treasonous; better that the people didn't know about it until it was too late.
Could it be that the mega-wealthy robber barons and the legislature were just lucky that Phillips pen was silenced? Maybe - if you believe in coincidences. I find coincidences harder to believe in than conspiracies. At least a conspiracy has reason; money. Coincidence has no logic behind it. It really doesn't matter now; history can't be changed. What matters is how we change the future.
Had David Graham Phillips remained alive to continue his assault on the treachery and treason going on in the legislature, we would very likely not be living under the government we do today. Maybe we wouldn’t have an income tax, or a Federal Reserve. Perhaps government would be much smaller, and who knows, maybe we would all be far more wealthy, happy and free.
If only we knew what really happened that night in New York City. I guess it is too late to do anything about it now.
Where is CSI when we really need them?
Is this too old a file for "Cold Case"?
Next: Nothing Happens By Accident