It became a trope in movies and TV. The steely-eyed assassin who lurks in shadows ruthlessly taking money to end a life is simply mesmerizing. We can’t look away.
History
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Rodney King, Latasha Harlins, Rooftop Koreans, and the Terminator
BY Will Dabbs Updated: January 8, 2023The grisly beating of Rodney King ultimately precipitated some of the worst rioting in American history. Early in the morning of March 3, 1991, Rodney Glen King was driving a 1987 Hyundai Excel along the Foothill Freeway in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. He was accompanied by his friends Freddie Helms and Bryant [...]
“Hoss” from Bonanza was a Real Life War Hero
BY Will Dabbs Updated: December 31, 2022The fact that he was 6’4″ and weighed 320 pounds didn’t hurt his gridiron prospects.
Yang Kyoungjong: The Reluctant Soldier
BY Will Dabbs Updated: November 27, 2022In 2011, Yang’s story formed the basis for a South Korean movie titled My Way. However, documentary filmmakers in Korea have researched the story and cast doubt on its veracity.
Oberscharführer Franz Staudegger and the Origins of the Tiger Legend
BY Will Dabbs Updated: November 20, 2022During World War 2 the German Tiger tank earned an outsized reputation among those who faced it.
1SG Bradley Kasal: A Real-Live Superhero Amidst a Company of Superheroes
BY Will Dabbs Updated: November 13, 2022In the winter of 2004 a joint US, Iraqi, and British operation kicked off in Iraq. Local forces called it Operation Al-Fajr. Allied troops titled it Operation Phantom Fury. The world came to know this simply epic scrap as the Second Battle of Fallujah.
Bukit Kepong: The Malaysian Alamo
BY Will Dabbs Updated: November 4, 2022There is something visceral about the last stand. A small forlorn band bereft of support arrayed against insurmountable odds fighting to the last simply strikes a primal chord. Examples are well-documented. The Hot Gates at Thermopylae, Custer’s slaughter, and the Alamo stand out. These many tales of selfless bravery are profound and powerful. One lesser-known example is the siege of Bukit Kepong.
Albert Johnson: The Mad Trapper of Rat River
BY Will Dabbs Updated: October 25, 2022Why the heck couldn’t they have just left this poor guy alone? He lived in a cabin about the size of a large dinner table some sixty miles from civilization. He clearly just wanted to be by himself. Yet the Canadian government just couldn’t stand it.
Roy Chapman Andrews: The Real-Life Raider of the Lost Ark
BY Will Dabbs Updated: October 23, 2022The similarities between Roy Chapman Andrews and the fictional Indiana Jones were uncanny.
Marc Lépine, Militarized Misogyny, and the Ecole Polytechnique Massacre
BY Will Dabbs Updated: October 14, 2022I don’t carry a gun every day because I am paranoid or insecure. I carry a gun because my family and I share the planet with homicidal lunatics like Marc Lépine. If you feel differently then good for you. Do whatever you want, just leave me alone to make my own choices. There was exactly one thing that could have stopped Marc Lépine on that horrible day in 1989, and it wasn’t some ill-conceived piece of feel-good legislation. It was a good guy with a gun.