tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post286947784081013432..comments2024-03-28T10:31:55.774-07:00Comments on The Passing Tramp: Guess Who's Coming to Murder? Death Shall Overcome (1966), by Emma LathenThe Passing Tramphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-60660869564499516522018-01-16T21:27:06.669-08:002018-01-16T21:27:06.669-08:00Yes, I think their books are a good updating. As ...Yes, I think their books are a good updating. As Emma Lathen (one of the ladies) said, the people in their books work--no lazing around country houses all weekend until the murder takes place!<br /><br />Yes, I wanted to commemorate MLK day some way on the blog.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-38401430020733782182018-01-16T15:17:31.079-08:002018-01-16T15:17:31.079-08:00Good choice of review for MLK day. I haven't y...Good choice of review for MLK day. I haven't yet read <i>Death Shall Overcome</i>, which is why I had to just skip and skim here to avoid spoilers. I have sampled the Thatcher series, though, with the debut being the earliest one I've read and <i>Brewing Up a Storm</i> being the most recent. It's very much a Silver Age crime series, I think, adapting the amateur detective subgenre for a slightly more skeptical age.Benhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06590397694589547524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-41151941745741098122018-01-16T13:59:52.440-08:002018-01-16T13:59:52.440-08:00Also disturbing is this YouTube video. Evidently ...Also disturbing is this YouTube video. Evidently this is Deaver Brown.<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhU3AnBhJv8<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-53301286439960480292018-01-16T13:55:22.555-08:002018-01-16T13:55:22.555-08:00Another troubling article:
http://www.nhbr.com/Se...Another troubling article:<br /><br />http://www.nhbr.com/September-26-2008/Judge-rules-two-bilked-1.6-million-out-of-investors-in-scam-0/<br /><br />Published: October 8, 2008 <br />CONCORD - A Lincoln, Mass., couple swindled investors in their New Hampshire company out of some $1.6 million, a federal judge has ruled.<br /><br />In a ruling Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe reduced a jury's $2.9 million verdict to $1.6 million, but his ruling suggests the case might best have been handled by federal prosecutors.<br /><br />"This case arises out of a business operation that had all the earmarks of an old-fashioned investment scam," McAuliffe wrote.<br /><br />No criminal charges have been filed, however, against the couple who McAuliffe said perpetrated the scam, Christina and Deaver Brown of Lincoln, so far as The Telegraph was able to find.<br /><br />McAuliffe's ruling arose out of the Chapter 7 bankruptcy case of Simply Media Inc. of Campton. The corporation filed for bankruptcy in 2006, purporting to have no assets whatsoever, according to court records.<br /><br />In August, attorney Steven Notinger, the Nashua lawyer appointed as a trustee to oversee the bankruptcy case, filed a complaint against Christina (Rago) Brown and other nominal directors of the company, seeking a jury trial.<br /><br />Notinger claimed that the company's directors failed to exert any control over the company, ceding all authority to Christina and Deaver Brown, "and sat idly by as the Browns benefited personally while Simply Media endured significant harm."<br /><br />Notinger could not be reached Tuesday afternoon.<br /><br />A jury in U.S. District Court heard the case in June and returned a $2.9 million judgment for the trustee, money that would ultimately be used to repay people who invested or loaned money to Simply Media.<br /><br />McAuliffe also issued a scathing ruling Monday, suggesting that the Browns' corporation was little more than a scam.<br /><br />"The scheme proved to be highly effective, yet it was quite simple," McAuliffe wrote. "First, the Browns formed Simply Media, Inc. Then, armed with apparently bogus profit and loss statements prepared by Deaver, a few sample products, and a compelling yarn of historical success woven by Deaver, the couple approached well-to-do friends and acquaintances and offered them the 'opportunity' to own a portion of the company."<br /><br />The Browns persuaded investors to part with a total of about $1.6 million, McAuliffe wrote. "The Browns used that money to pay for all manner of personal expenses, including, for example, personal dry cleaning bills, individual memberships at an athletic club and payments on the mortgage loan on their home," he wrote.<br /><br />"Not surprisingly, the capital was soon spent, and the supply of gullible investors dried up. Simply Media was put into bankruptcy," McAuliffe wrote.<br /><br />Reached Tuesday by e-mail, Deaver Brown wrote that the company will appeal McAuliffe's order. Brown added that he was not a defendant in the case and that none of the directors of Simply Media took a salary from the company.<br /><br />The Browns have been found responsible for similar conduct before, involving a former Massachusetts company, CD Titles Inc., court records show. CD Titles Inc. filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Massachusetts in 1998, and the case was finally closed in 2005, court records show.<br /><br />David Schmerin of Las Vegas, and his company, Wrightwood Laboratories, sued CD Titles in 1998, and won a judgment against the company in Suffolk County Superior Court in Massachusetts, but Schmerin said Tuesday that collecting has been another battle. "He'll shut down a company and start up another one," Schmerin said of Deaver Brown. "There is no stopping this man."The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-30817117658989229562018-01-16T13:45:25.716-08:002018-01-16T13:45:25.716-08:00Brown claims to have met Martha Henissart in 2016,...Brown claims to have met Martha Henissart in 2016, when she was 90, though in fact she would have been 87 then. I notice the "new" Emma Lathen books are copyrighted then, in the names of Emma Lathen, Martha Henissart, Simply Media and Deaver Brown.<br /><br />A Goodreads page lists six books in the supposed Elizabeth Thatcher series by Emma Lathen:<br /><br />Political Murder 1999. Death of a Senator. <br />Dot Com Murder 2001. Death of a Dot Com Leader. <br />Biking Murder 2005. Death of a Bike Lane Advocate.<br />Nonprofit Murder 2008. Death of a Nonprofit CEO. <br />Union Murder 2010. Death of a Union Leader. <br />Gig Murder. 2016.<br /><br />Yet the only two available are the first two, and they are both copyrighted 2016. Very odd. Hard to believe any of these are really Emma Lathen titles. Emma Lathen herself was quoted in 2012 as saying she hadn't written a word of mystery fiction since Mary Jane Latsis's death in 1997.<br /><br /><br />It's a shame to see an author of Emma Lathen's stature being made available in such poorly produced editions, but the legal question is whether it was done with Henissart's consent or not. If it was, that's too bad, but that's the way it goes (assuming Henissart was not taken advantage of in some way). But if no permission was obtained this is criminal. It would be nice to get to the bottom of it.<br /><br />The great irony here is that this is a plot worthy of an Emma Lathen novel.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-26109954554304358342018-01-16T12:25:48.588-08:002018-01-16T12:25:48.588-08:00I was intrigued by this "An Elizabeth Thatche...I was intrigued by this "An Elizabeth Thatcher Mystery" nonsense. So I read the reviews for <i>Dot Com Murder</i>. All of them are scathing and dismissive. It appears to be a book based on Brown's shady past ("There's much excruciating detail about big money manipulations, ways to disguise one's identity, and impenetrable machinations of international money laundering." Another review says that Deaver Brown's books are mentioned throughout the text!<br /><br />Here's a review for the other one called <i>Political Murder</i>: "Horrible writing, ridiculous plot, no mystery. Compared bank leaving US for a tax haven to Jews fleeing Hitler's Germany. Married heroine to self-identified gay man to make his parents happy."<br /><br />That right there tells me that these are fake books and have nothing to do with Lathen's series. The gall of this crook passing off his bad writing as a partnership with Emma Lathen.<br /><br />I then looked up the non-fiction audio books still offered by Simply Media. Some of them seem to tell his life story: <i>Angel Investing: Finding and Closing the Right Deal; Business Startup: Launch Your Dream; Financial Statements: Learning from Them and Making Them Work for You; Legal Proceedings: Being a Witness, Deponent, Plaintiff or Defendant; Handling Difficult People;</i> and <i>Legal Survival Kit.</i> The only thing missing is a how-to guide for surviving bankruptcy. But then seeing as he filed Chapter 7 more than once (for two other companies!) looks like he hasn't quite figured that out yet.J F Norrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06473487417479127354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-30620322191921925352018-01-16T04:16:44.368-08:002018-01-16T04:16:44.368-08:00This is very troubling to me. The Emma Lathen eBo...This is very troubling to me. The Emma Lathen eBooks seem to be a product of Deaver Brown and Simply Media, which sounds like a questionable affair. Are those two new books really authored by Martha Henissart, the surviving Emma Lathen partner, as they are purported to have been? She would have been 87 when they were published. I hope someone has not been taking advantage. The Lathen books deserve a far better reissuing than this.<br /><br />http://www.derrynews.com/opinion/the-rip-off-artists/article_ecf44e28-4998-55de-9c6b-1aa3dff3da9d.html<br /><br />“While financial leaders wring their hands over the alleged $50 billion fraud of Bernard Madoff, New Hampshire and Massachusetts saw an investment scam on a smaller scale in terms of dollars, but just as blatant in its abuse of investors.<br /><br />The case of Simply Media Inc. "had all the earmarks of an old-fashioned investment scam" is how Chief Judge Steven McAuliffe of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire opened his decision in the matter.<br /><br />Christina and Deaver Brown, of Lincoln, Mass., started a company they called Simply Media Inc. Then they cooked up what the court called bogus profit and loss statements to bilk unwitting investors out of $1.6 million.<br /><br />The Browns went to wealthy friends and acquaintances, offering an "opportunity" to get in on the ground floor of the phony company. Deaver Brown apparently used his "personal charm" in pushing the investment. He also claimed "enormous" sales through the big-box retailers we all recognize.<br /><br />After pocketing $1.6 million from investors, the Browns, the court found, paid "all manner of personal expenses, including, for example, personal dry cleaning bills, individual memberships at an athletic club, and payments on the mortgage loan on their home." (Notinger v. Brown, et. al., U.S. District Court, District of NH, Oct. 6, 2008.)<br /><br />Either there was one huge pile of dry cleaning or the mortgage on the Lincoln, Mass., home was exorbitant. As the New Hampshire judge put it, not surprisingly, the money was soon spent and the supply of gullible investors dried up.<br /><br />In bankruptcy, it was found that the Browns "deliberately and systematically" destroyed financial documents. Bank statements, lists of investors, product inventories and retail sale records all vanished. The case goes into the law books on the issue of spoliation of evidence.<br /><br />The Browns' undoing was the discovery of a trail of bank checks on the corporation's accounts. Corporate accounts, filled with investor money, were treated like personal funds. One of several cases in the federal courts was to recover investor money that Christina Brown was found to have used for personal expenses.<br /><br />Brown was found to have engaged in a civil conspiracy, siphoning money away from the company in order to hinder, delay or defraud creditors.<br /><br />In the end, evidence showed that Simply Media was little more than a sham corporation with few if any real customers, virtually no inventory of products or operational expenses, and laughably fictitious "obviously fabricated" accounting records. Little investor money was actually used to fund legitimate business operations.<br /><br />Financial experts tell us to check out any investment to make sure it is solid. Bernard Madoff apparently pulled it off, because who would question a former head of NASDAQ? In the Simply Media case, the Browns are said to have used their personal charm and social skills. But if investors had gone to the big box stores to see if any Simply Media products were actually being sold, they could have saved themselves some consternation.<br /><br />ÔÇæÔÇæÔÇæ<br /><br />Andrew Myers of Derry has law offices in Derry and North Andover, Mass. He is a member of the American Association for Justice and the New Hampshire Trial Lawyers Association.“<br /><br />The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-62067687400183324592018-01-16T02:51:08.038-08:002018-01-16T02:51:08.038-08:00Lathen is a favourite of mine too - particularly t...Lathen is a favourite of mine too - particularly the early ones. I note from Amazon that there are two books labelled "Elizabeth Thatcher mysteries" supposedly co-authored by Lathen and Deaver Brown (with one extremely negative review for each) - do you know anything about these?<br />Jonathan Ohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12653613829349599589noreply@blogger.com