Who Will Speak Truth to Power Now?

The last of the truly great newsmen has passed: Daniel Shore, the newsman Nixon hated most, has died at the age of 93. (See the NPR story.)


Jim Thorpe's Children Want Their Father to Come Home:

Back in 1953, the third Mrs. Jim Thorpe, with aid of police, stole Jim Thorpe's body from his children, in the middle of the night, and transported half-way across the country from Oklahoma, where "the world's greatest athlete" was born, to Philadelphia. She was trying to sell it, but she found few takers.

Ironically, this was only two years after the Burt Lancaster film, Jim Thorpe-All-American, was released. No doubt, Mrs. Thorpe believed the city of Carlisle, not far from Philadelphia and the place where Jim came to national prominence for his athletic abilities, would pay handsomely for the right to bury his body.

While in Philadelphia, Mrs. Thorpe learned of a pair of little towns some 100 miles north that had accumulated cash in an attempt to revitalize themselves. How she learned about this has never been made exactly clear. Eventually, she sold Jim's body to the two towns, one of which is the county seat of Carbon county, and the two towns became one. A mausoleum was built and the new town was renamed in honor of Jim Thorpe.

To this day, no one knows how much money actually passed hands in the deal or who the men were who accompanied the third Mrs. Thorpe were. This aspect of the transaction has never been discussed publicly. (See The New York Times' story.)