Paper Plane Theft Infographic

This guy and Hiromi Shumizuko should work on a project together. A legal one, obviously.

©2015 James Mathurin

Least Effective Charity Event Infographic

It's always important to do things for a good cause, but there are limits.

©2015 James Mathurin

Worst lie (contender) Infographic

It's hard to determine whether 'worst' in this case means an effective lie or a useless one.

©2014 James Mathurin

The Sydney Nick-Name War Infographic

I was a London resident when I originally wrote this in 2010, but being a Sydney resident now, I suppose this is local history.

©2010 James Mathurin

The longest prison sentence ever received for spitting chewing gum infographic

Cautionary tales of mastication, now in infographic form.

©2013 James Mathurin

Bepe, infographic-style

This week is kind of an experiment, a way of presenting TYDKYDNTK articles is a more visual, share-friendly format. Feedback is, as always, appreciated. I'm sure you all remember Bepé, from a few weeks ago.

Edit:
Here's an edited version I made based on feedback from the Facebook page, which I've placed above the original:

 ©2013 James Mathurin

Bepé, the Hitman's dog

In 2012, Francois "Franky" Petitmal was implicated in 13 attempted and 9 successful assassinations across Europe and Central America between 2003 and 2009. Petitmal was notorious for always being accompanied by his dog, Bepé, a Boxer / Australian Stumpy-tailed cattle dog mongrel. 

Several witnesses from the failed assassinations spoke in court about having seen Bepé playing active roles in several cases, including supplying ammunition, distracting security, and mauling bodyguards. After protracted discussions,  prosecutors, in an unprecedented step, indicted Bepé as an accessory in a total of 15 cases.

While being transported to a hearing in November 2010, Bepé slipped free of his guards, dived through a passing tram, and lost himself in the crowd. He is still wanted, at large, and considered dangerous.

Bepé has not been seen since since November 2010, although a dog fitting his description was photographed, parachuting into an Eastern European demilitarised zone. Investigators connected to the Petitmal case have looking into the possibility that Bepé may be operating as a soldier of fortune. Photograph by by ♪_Lisa_♪.

 ©2013 James Mathurin

Another contender for best lie

In 1988, Governor Peter Mintrell, of New Jersey, found himself running for re-election against Cherie Switzler, the prostitute he’d been caught having sex with in the back of his official limousine 3 months previously, the scandal of which had led to the snap election. Mintrell had attempted to play the incident down, claiming at a press conference that he had been forced to sleep with the prostitute because of ‘a hysterical psychological condition she suffers from, which sends her into fits which can only be prevented by sexual intercourse.’ Mintrell, with his wife Sally by his side, further claimed that his limousine had only been in Switzler’s vicinity because his driver, Ernie Ballenti, had taken a detour to pick up a sick relative who lived there, leaving Mintrell alone in the car when he saw Mss. Switzler going in to convulsions.  

“I pulled her into the limousine because I thought she’d have less chance of injuring herself on the leather seats than if I left her on the sidewallk,”

he said, continuing, 

“Once in the limousine, I recognised her symptoms from a Discovery documentary I’d seen the week before, and knew that, no matter how uncomfortable I felt with it, my having sexual intercourse with this young lady may well have been the only way to save her life.”

Switzler entered the election race as an Independent, under the slogan ‘I’ve swallowed a lot of things, but I wouldn’t swallow that story.’ She pulled out of the race when Mintrell offered her a position on his staff.

©2012 James Mathurin 

The longest prison sentence ever received for spitting chewing gum

The longest prison sentence ever received for spitting chewing gum onto a pavement was 17 years, imposed on Pierre Bonnechop by a court in Paris France, in 1976. Bonnechop had been seen spitting out 79 kilogrammes of gum on the rue de Cheveux, over 3 hours, on the morning of February 16^th that year. By the time he was arrested, the pile of gum measured 76cm high. Pleading guilty in court, Bonnechop told the Magistrate, Henri Poivre, “I don’t know what came over me, but for those 3 hours, literally all I could think was chew, spit, chew, spit, chew, spit. It may have been a reaction to my worries over the French dairy farming industry.”

After his early release in 1990, Bonnechop moved to this farm, outside of Tours. He has voluntarily taken part in several public awareness campaigns about public hygiene, including 3 videos where he appears as the anti-chewing gum mascot, "Le monstre qui mâche". Photograph by PhillipC.

©2012 James Mathurin

The Great Sydney Nick-name war

In Australia, in 1920, Sean McGrady, a renowned knife-fighter was so in demand by rival gangs that their assurances of money, power and women became so evenly matched that the only way of settling it was for each gang to use the local newspaper under their control to run a competition asking readers to send in nicknames that McGrady could have.

In a move that stunned both the readership, and the gangs in question, McGrady  was, according to friends, so impressed by the entries on either side that he decided to start his own gang, instead of joining the others, so that he could hand out the nicknames to members of his new gang. This instigated a period of violent conflict between the gangs, which came to be known as the Great Sydney Nick-name war.

McGrady's new gang came to include members like Eyebrows McGhee, the Doyle brothers, Patches and Six-Toes, Seamus The Hat, Mike "Bollock-Punching" Thomas, Trousers McGoldrick, Patrick Three-Hats, Sausages Hoolihan, 3-Card Monty O'Hanlon, Devilled Eggs O'Connor, and his sister Devilled Ham, Toe Caps Pritchard, Meat Hook O'Shaughnessy, Pickles McGuinness, Five-Beers Burlington and Terrence 'Stinky' Calhoon.

 McGrady (fourth from the right, seated on the car), pictured in 1921, with several of his lieutenants. Photo from the SMA archive.

©2010 James Mathurin

Least Effective Charity Event

The least effective charity event ever organised was the “Mugging for Charity Fortnight” organised by the mayor of Llanllewy, Wales in 1998. Over the two weeks there was an amnesty on all street crime, as long as 50% of all money taken was given to a charity set up to raise money for a new gift shop in the town’s hospital. Unfortunately, the steep rise in crime was too much for the town’s 9 police officers to deal with, and by Wednesday on the second week, the entire hospital had been burned down. Gwynnford Powys, the mayor of Llanllewy's only comment was, “I still believe it was a basically sound idea, and you can’t deny that it got a lot of people very excited.”


























Reg Dennis, one of the 'Mugging For Charity' organisers, in his role of 'Donation-encourager'. Picture courtesy of Swamibu

©2008 James Mathurin