Archive for August, 2023

Muncy’s murder mystery

Posted: August 8, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper 

Unfortunately, almost every city and town have an unsolved murder mystery. 
 
Here in Muncy, the case happened in 1997 with the murder of 10-year-old Joline Faye Witt. I learned about the case when Pennsylvania Crimewatch recently posted a $5,000 reward for information about the murder. 

The case is receiving some attention again, as Pennsylvania Crimewatch recently posted a $5,000 reward is being offered for information on the homicide case. 

Witt stayed at her mother’s home in Muncy the night she disappeared on July 27, 1997. According to Pennsylvania Crimewatch, she was last seen by her mother at approximately 2 a.m. sleeping in a bedroom at the home at 1 Grant Street. Witt had been sleeping in bed with her cousin, who discovered early that morning that Witt was gone. There were no signs of struggle or forced entry into the home. 

The community came together to search for Witt. Volunteers, Witt’s family, and police searched wooded county areas for over a month. On Sept. 6, 1997, two hikers discovered Witt’s badly decomposed body on Bald Eagle Mountain about 40 miles west of Muncy. A forensic pathologist determined that the young girl had been murdered, according to Crimewatch. 

Although several suspects were interviewed, some believed the girl’s uncle, Bruce Longenecker, was her killer. Witt, whose parents were divorced, stayed with her mother, Linda, on weekends in the home she shared with her brother Bruce and sister-in-law, Christina. Longenecker committed suicide three months after his niece disappeared.  

Fifteen years after Witt’s disappearance, Kenneth Mains was hired as a Lycoming County District Attorney’s Office detective. Eric Lindhard, the district attorney at the time, asked him to review Witt’s case. “I talked to witnesses, family members, and I presented him my findings,” Mains said recently. “[It]is my opinion the killer is still out there.” 

“[M]y analysis of the case pointed me to a different suspect still alive and living in Lycoming County today,” Mains said. 

“I have worked side by side with Jolene’s sister since 2012 to help solve this case, and that is where my loyalty is and always will be…with families of victims,” Mains said. 

Mains, who has had a true crime show on the History Channel and a YouTube series called “Unsolved No More,” said he is still in communication with the Witt family. “I hope the new reward will lead to this case being solved once and for all. Especially for the investigators who worked the case, the community that has endured, and the family who still suffers from this tragedy,” Mains said. 

Anyone with information about the case may contact the Pennsylvania State Police in Montoursville at 570 368-5700 or the Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers at 1-800-4PA-TIPS (8477) or online. All callers to Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers remain anonymous and could be eligible for a cash reward. 

Shades of the Yanks & Red Barber in Baltimore and Kevin Brown

Posted: August 8, 2023 by datechguy in baseball, media, Uncategorized
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I first heard of the Kevin Brown business on the drive home last night hearing he was suspended for something he said on his broadcast.

Things being what they are these days I had presumed he had said something either affirming conservative values or noting liberal insanity, things which are VERBOTEN by those who run sports media these days.

Then however they played the clip of what he said and all of us in the car were confused. Barber noted that if the O’s won that night it would be their first series victory in Tampa bay since 2017. My thought was, hey this is a positive thing highlighting the difference between the bad old days and what they have now.

Apparently any mention of the bad old days was too much for the o’s and denials by Baltimore not withstanding. broadcasters from all kinds of teams are having fits over it and are shocked that a team would so such a thing.

Apparently none of them remember what happened to Red Barber.

His entry at the encyclopedia Britannia reads thus:

Known for his integrity, Barber left the Dodgers after he was urged to make his commentary more supportive of the team, and he was fired by the Yankees after he reported that the last-place team had attracted a mere 413 fans for a September game.

A little more detail on the story is here:

That September 22 [1966], the day Michael Burke became president, 413 specked 65,010-seat Yankee Stadium. On WPIX television, Barber thought it “the perfect place for Burke to start, nowhere to go but up.” Red asked director Don Carney to pan the stands. No shot. He asked again. Zip. Later he said, “I found out [Yanks radio/TV head] Perry Smith was in the control room. He told them not to show the seats

Well he may not have gotten the shot but Barber spoke up anyways:

Barber recalled from using 1930s radio teletype, leaning into his mic: “I don’t know what the paid attendance is, but whatever it is, it is the smallest crowd in the history of Yankee Stadium, and this crowd is the story, not the game.” Red’s act defied. Next week, like Mel Allen in fall 1964, he misjudged. Asked to breakfast by Burke, Barber, like Allen then, anticipated a new pact—indeed, thought Burke was going to ask about player personnel! Instead, the new Yanks head said. “We have decided not to renew your contract.” Barber convened the press, said that “I have a record of thirty-seven years of fine work. I am not going to allow Mr. Burke, or anybody, to trifle with it,”

Now in fairness there is always the possibility that the O’s will be able to produce some other reason for this nonsense, but let’s not pretend that this is a shock, after all if the Yanks were willing to do this to a broadcast legend like Red Barber how less likely are the O’s going to feel guilty over doing something similar with Brown if the owner digs in his heels?

Actually now that I think about it I guess Brown was suspended for advancing a conservative value: The same conservative value that Barber was fired for, telling the truth.

Under the Fedora: So Let Me Get This Straight…

Posted: August 7, 2023 by datechguy in Uncategorized

….All Season the Red Sox have been streaky good and bad and after a very hot streak the Redsox have yet another cold streak…and this one is because they didn’t make moves?

…according to the MSM it’s perfectly fine that the US woman’s soccer team publicly disrespect the country they play for on foreign soil but when they lose and Americans who didn’t like how the team treated their country cheer THEY’RE beyond the pale?

…Australia had some of strictest vaccine mandates in the world and yet Pfizer employers in the country got a different shot then the general public?

…New York State raised the age of criminal liability to 18 and made it almost impossible to send offenders under 18 to prison and they are suddenly shocked SCHOCKED that the violent crime and recidivism rate among said teens is through the roof?

…a Canadian hospital denies a man a transplant because he did not take the COVID Jab, he dies and then health care officials approached his grief stricken wife asking if she would donate his organs?

Chicago Mayor Johnson upset about reporter calling last week’s riot a “mob action” even though it was a mob action

Posted: August 6, 2023 by John Ruberry in crime, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

While he hasn’t yet devolved to the level of Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, Brandon Johnson, the new leftist mayor of Chicago, certainly says some stupid things. 

Worse, for Johnson that is, his moronic statements add arrows to the quivers of his critics, particularly snarky ones like the writers a the Hey Jackass site, and yes, people like me.

Last week, 300-400 youths attacked a South Loop 7-Eleven in Chicago and looted it. Sadly, the thugs were beaten with clubs by employees–that was in Stockton, California. 

Maybe next time for Chicago.

But 40 of the creeps were arrested, they were aged from 12 to 20. Yep, 12-years-old. Well, as it’s still summer vacation time in Chicago, at least Sunday wasn’t what my parents called a school night. 

Speaking of schools, Johnson was the mayoral candidate of the far-left Chicago Teachers Union. He went from being a CTU teacher, to a CTU organizer, then on to being elected a Cook County commissioner. In that last post, Johnson still collected a $100,000 annual salary from the CTU.

The Chicago Teachers Union is a longtime apologist for the failures of Chicago’s youths, partly because they bear some responsibility for those failures, because Chicago’s schools educate children quite poorly.

Chicago is in for a bumpy ride.

Last week, while being questioned about the convenience store riot, oops, make that “large gathering,” Johnson scolded a reporter for calling the mayhem “mob action,” even though it is a legal term in state law.

“Respectfully, these large gatherings — these large gatherings — hang on a second. I promise you we have time to talk,” Johnson replied. He added, “It’s important that we speak of these dynamics in an appropriate way. This is not to obfuscate what has actually taken place. We have to be very careful when we use language to describe certain behavior. There’s history in this city. I mean, to refer to children as, like, ‘baby Al Capones’ is not appropriate.”

After the next youth riot, which the rioters call “teen takeovers,” I will probably use a headline here, or on my own blog, along the lines of “Baby Al Capones involved in yet another Chicago mob action.” Thanks for the material, Mr. Mayor! Keep ’em coming!

I’ve lived my whole life in the Chicago area, and the term “baby Al Capones” is a new one for me. As it is for Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara, who said in a YouTube video:

Nobody is renaming anybody little mini-Al Capones. But they certainly, in many cases, had the same, terrorizing effect that Al Capone had 100 years ago with these teen takeovers, where they think they can do whatever they want with no repercussions, no parental supervision and no accountability — specifically apparent by the mayor’s office in City Hall, who wants to excuse all of this bad behavior because Chicago has a past. So that means: Do whatever the hell you want apparently.

Indeed, it does. 

Johnson has also called the teen takeovers “trends.” You know, a trend, like a new style of clothing. 

Do you have your “riot chic” duds yet? Don’t toss out your COVID masks! They’re back in style!

In the last Chicago riot, a much larger one which happened in April, two weeks after Johnson’s victory over a law-and-order moderate Democrat in a runoff election, Johnson said, “It is not constructive to demonize youth who have otherwise been starved of opportunities in their own communities.”

Hey teens! If you don’t want to be demonized, don’t act demonically. 

Johnson dismissed the riot, where at least two people were brutally beaten, by saying that sometimes kids make “silly decisions.”

The mayor, who is expected to name a new police commissioner this week, campaigned on a “holistic” approach to fighting crime.

The first attempt at holistic crimefighting in Chicago was tried over Memorial Day weekend with the introduction of yellow-donned civilian “peacekeepers.” But one of them, an ex-con, joined in as a mob, uh, make that “large gathering,” beat and robbed a man. 

After the violent attack, the accused removed his yellow peacekeeper vest, his version, I guess, of giving two weeks’ notice.

Let’s go Brandon!

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

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