MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1996
Declaring she was sick to her stomach at being in the same room with the man charged with stalking her, Madonna told a jury he haunted her nightmares. The pop star, subdued and nervous, took the witness stand reluctantly in the trial of Robert Dewey Hoskins, who is charged with stalking, making terrorist threats and assault. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Madonna testified she was told by one of her bodyguards that Hoskins had scaled the walls of her property, declared he would marry her and said “I’m going to slice her throat from ear to ear.” Asked by a prosecutor how she felt hearing of the threat, she said, “I guess I felt incredibly violated.” Earlier, a judge ordered Madonna to testify despite her lawyer’s efforts to keep her off the stand. He said the pop star was coming to court reluctantly after being threatened with a $5 million arrest warrant if she didn’t appear.
50 years ago — 1971
WASHINGTON — Fourteen top Soviet scientists and legal experts have been invited as first-hand observers to the murder and kidnapping trial of Angela Davis in California, the State Department said Sunday. In a letter, Asst. Secretary of State Martin Hillenbrand also suggested that Soviet officials reciprocate by allowing United States observers to attend Soviet trials. Hillenbrand’s letter to Soviet physicist Pyotr Kapitza was prompted by a cable from 14 Russians expressing concern Davis would not receive a fair trial, a State Department spokesman said. A California grand jury has charged Davis with purchasing weapons used in the Aug. 7 shootout in the Marin County courthouse in San Rafael in which a judge and three other persons died.
75 years ago — 1946
ALBANY, NY — Gov. Thomas E. Dewey Thursday night freed Charles “Lucky” Luciano, notorious gangster and vice “king,” so that he can be deported to Italy. Dewey, who as assistant district attorney for New York City sent Luciano to prison nearly 10 years ago, reduced the burly gangster’s long jail sentences after studying a report by the State Parole Board. Luciano was serving sentences of 30 years minimum and 50 years maximum for conviction on 62 counts of compulsory prostitution.
100 years ago — 1921
The speaker of the new Tennessee House of Representatives elected Monday changed gavels, but not his title. It is still “Mr. Speaker.” He served during the last Legislature as speaker of the Senate. Speaker Andrew L. Todd has long been prominent in Tennessee politics.
During the Patterson administration, he was assistant state superintendent of education. In 1913 he was sent to the lower hours from Rutherford County as a regular Democrat and was defeated as the regular nominee for speaker by the candidate of the Hooper-crump fusion, W.M. Stanton of Memphis.