[UA] Interesting news item this morning...
Kevin Elmore
kelmore at rocketmail.com
Fri Jun 23 10:26:21 PDT 2000
Ooh, what a fascinating story!
If I was to adopt this in an UA game, I would be more
inclined to yank my players' chain.
The real culprit is planning on a ritual and doesn't want
to be disturbed. So, he organized this stunt so that
police will focus more attention on the graveyard. In
fact, if the police's presence is diminished, he'll do it
again.
Then, when the police focus a lot of effort on the
graveyard, the culprit performs his miracle, quite
successfully. What is that miracle? Well, it doesn't
really employ the use of a brave officer's skull, but that
is a lovely bookend he has.
The players can investigate (probably rousing the suspicion
of the police) and realize that the graverobbing is nothing
special. Only they can stop this person and his ritual.
Trying to convince the police where the real cultist is
would be difficult since mundane police officers believe
that great evil is committed in graveyards and not the
backroom of Sue Ann's beauty salon.
Kevin
--- Yiannakos <yiannako at geneseo.edu> wrote:
> This showed up in my local paper this morning. Let's see
> what you folks
> can make of it.
>
>
> ---Dave ('s not here man)
>
> =====================================================
> www.rochesternews.com/0623grave.html
>
> Civil War general's skull
> stolen at Mt. Hope
>
> By Alan Morrell
> Democrat and Chronicle
>
> (June 23, 2000) -- The skull of a
> Civil
> War general who was known as an
> "evil genius" has been stolen from
> his grave at Mt. Hope Cemetery.
>
> A vandal or vandals dug up the
> remains of Gen. Elisha G. Marshall
> between 8 p.m. Tuesday and 11:30
> a.m. Wednesday, according to
> Rochester Police. Bones were found
> near the gravesite, but the skull
> remains missing.
>
> "This is very unusual," said
> cemetery manager Nancy Hilliard.
> "We get vandalism periodically, but
> it's substantially less than it
> used to
> be. This is the first time I've had
> a
> grave dug up."
>
> The cemetery has a section for
> Civil
> War veterans, but Marshall's grave
> is
> in a different area -- beneath a
> cluster of evergreen and oak trees
> atop a hill in the northern, or
> older,
> part of Mt. Hope. His first and
> second wives and children are
> buried
> near him.
>
> Police think the vandal or vandals
> specifically targeted Marshall's
> grave. No other graves or
> tombstones were disturbed, Hilliard
> said.
>
> Police said they found satanic
> symbols near
> Marshall's grave. The
> grave-robbing occurred during the
> summer solstice
> -- the day with the
> longest period of sunshine, when
> police said they
> typically find evidence
> of satanic activities.
>
> Rochester police normally station
> officers in Mt.
> Hope Cemetery on
> Halloween night and during the
> solstice, but they
> weren't there this
> week.
>
> "We try to do (details at the
> cemetery) two or
> three times a year,
> depending on the satanic calendar,"
> said Sgt. Dan
> Magill. "I've been
> there the last five years during
> the summer
> solstice. Unfortunately, we
> were doing something else that
> night."
>
> He gave no specifics.
>
> Marshall, who died in 1883, was
> buried 6 feet
> underground in a pine
> casket, as was customary at that
> time, Hilliard
> said.
>
> The casket was not secured in a
> concrete burial
> vault, a requirement
> that Hilliard said most cemeteries
> adopted in the
> 1970s.
>
> There was nothing valuable in the
> grave to be
> taken, she said. Marshall
> was not buried in his dress
> uniform, which has
> been sold at auction, or
> with his military medals.
>
> Marshall was one of the more
> colorful of
> Rochester's Civil War heroes.
>
> Born near Rochester in 1829,
> Marshall was an 1850
> graduate of the
> U.S. Military Academy at West Point
> who fought
> Indians in the West
> before the Civil War.
>
> Historical accounts portray him as
> a gruff,
> no-nonsense type. Within
> days after federal forces
> surrendered at Fort
> Sumter, S.C., Marshall,
> who was the Army's recruiting
> officer in
> Rochester, attended a war rally.
>
> After a great deal of
> chest-thumping oratory from
> politicians, there were
> calls for Marshall to speak. He
> declined, saying
> he was a fighting man
> and not a talker.
>
> Marshall was chosen to be the
> lieutenant colonel
> (second in command)
> of Rochester's first regiment, the
> 13th, but the
> Army kept him in
> Rochester until the following
> spring. He then was
> appointed the 13th's
> commander and joined it during the
> spring of 1862.
>
> His courage under fire was
> unquestioned. Marshall
> led troops into some
> of the bloodiest battles of the
> war, serving as
> the head of the 13th New
> York volunteer infantry regiment at
> both Second
> Bull Run and
> Fredericksburg. He later commanded
> the lead
> brigade in the infamous
> assault on the Crater at
> Petersburg.
>
> He was twice wounded and earned
> brevet rank as
> brigadier general for
> bravery.
>
> Marshall was a schemer who also had
> a knack for
> ruffling feathers.
> When he was trying to organize the
> 14th New York
> Heavy Artillery
> regiment in Rochester later in the
> war, he managed
> to divert recruits
> from another regiment, leading a
> historian of the
> other regiment to
> describe him as an "evil genius."
>
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