Centenaries - whole and half

[GUT]

100 years ago - 1916 February 29 - In Victoria, Australia, taxi driver William Haines is shot and killed after being called out for a false fare. Leslie "Squizzy" Taylor and John Williamson were tried for the crime but were acquitted. The murder case remains officially unsolved.

With Squizzy involved not many really think it is unsolved.

[Rosella]

Squizzy was suspected of threatening witnesses and paying off jurors on several occasions I believe.

[Ginger]

Squizzy was suspected of threatening witnesses and paying off jurors on several occasions I believe.

Now I'm curious. What's the significance (if any) of the name "Squizzy"?

[Rosella]

You still occasionally hear someone here in Oz say "Have a squiz at this" that is 'have a look' He was supposed to have had a squint as a child, with his little beady eyes darting everywhere, and schoolmates gave him the name. He apparently hated his first name, Leslie, so the nickname stuck.

[GUT]

You still occasionally hear someone here in Oz say "Have a squiz at this" that is 'have a look' He was supposed to have had a squint as a child, with his little beady eyes darting everywhere, and schoolmates gave him the name. He apparently hated his first name, Leslie, so the nickname stuck.

I frequently use Squiz in that context.

[GUT]

Squizzy was suspected of threatening witnesses and paying off jurors on several occasions I believe.

No Squizzy would do that surely.

[GUT]

You still occasionally hear someone here in Oz say "Have a squiz at this" that is 'have a look' He was supposed to have had a squint as a child, with his little beady eyes darting everywhere, and schoolmates gave him the name. He apparently hated his first name, Leslie, so the nickname stuck.

I think (may be wrong) his first name was Joseph, Leslie was about 4th on the list, he had one of those names that took a page to write.

[GUT]

An added point he was born in the year of JtR.

[Rosella]

I frequently use Squiz in that context.

Yes, but I was just thinking the other day when I heard it that you wouldn't get any Gen Y's or Z's saying it, Gut. All the old slang is going, even 'Fair dinkum', which I love.

You are right, his names were Joseph Theodore Leslie, and he never used any of them!

[GUT]

Yes, but I was just thinking the other day when I heard it that you wouldn't get any Gen Y's or Z's saying it, Gut. All the old slang is going, even 'Fair dinkum', which I love.

You are right, his names were Joseph Theodore Leslie, and he never used any of them!

Yeah I miss 'em too.

On another forum a Yank wanted to know about Aussie terms and I gave him a long list and ended by saying he'd probably hear very few, maybe mate and g'day.

I've seen the Theodore and Leslie swapped too, so not totally sure of the order.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1966 March 8 - In the early morning hours at a club named Mr. Smith's, near Greenwich, England, a gunfight climaxes an altercation between associates of the Kray and Richardson gangs. Several men are wounded and Dickie Hart, a Kray affiliate, is killed. Hart's killing never resulted in a conviction.

50 years ago - 1966 March 8 - Wendy Sue Wolin, 7, is waiting on the sidewalk in front of her Elizabeth, New Jersey residence while her mother retrieves their car from a back parking lot. They have an afternoon outing planned but, as Wendy stands there, a never identified man for unknown reasons walks up to her and stabs her in the stomach then ambles off. The little girl's murder was never solved.

[sdreid]

450 years ago - 1566 March 9 - Lord Darnley, aka Henry Stuart, and his associates stab David Rizzio to death. The lord was King Consort of Mary, Queen of Scots and the murder was inspired by rumors that Rizzio had gotten the monarch pregnant. Darnley escaped arrest due to his position but, in less than a year, was murdered himself.

100 years ago - 1916 March 9 - A band headed by Pancho Villa invades Columbus, New Mexico with the loss of at least 90 of his force. The invaders succeeded in killing 8 U.S. soldiers and 10 civilians. Villa escaped but was assassinated in 1923. Six of his men who were captured were later hanged.

50 years ago - 1966 March 9 - At an East London pub, Ronald Kray, of the infamous Kray Brothers Gang, shoots and kills George Cornell, a Richardson Gang associate. Kray received a life term for the murder and died incarcerated in 1995.

[GUT]

I assume the Kray incident of 9 March was a result of the incident on 8 March?

[sdreid]

I assume the Kray incident of 9 March was a result of the incident on 8 March?

It would seem so GUT and it didn't help when Cornell called Kray a "fat poof".

[GUT]

It would seem so GUT and it didn't help when Cornell called Kray a "fat poof".

I get called worse by Mrs Gut, every day.