Born in Barrow County, Georgia, in 1904, Charles Arthur Floyd, alias "Pretty Boy", participated in the Kansas City Massacre in 1933 when four law enforcement officers, including one FBI Special Agent, were killed.  A leading …

AKA The Boston Strangler.  Or was he?  And come to that, was he really a plumber?  His father Frank DeSalvo certainly was, although he let down the profession by being an alcoholic who knocked seven …

He was the pianist who brought joy with his tinkling fingers and his twinkling smile.  This attractive combination brought Russ Conway huge success in live concert and on record, and made him one of Britain’s …

A comic genius from the golden age of the silent cinema, the Prince of Whales was the first comedian ever to be hit by an on-screen custard pie.  He was working as an overweight plumber …

The former FBI agent who helped plan the Watergate break-in has capitalized on his burglary legend and taken his political views to the airwaves.  George Gordon Liddy’s ultra-conservative radio talk show based in Fairfax, Virginia …

AKA Sam DeCavalcante.  AKA Sam the Plumber.  He was the boss of the Mafia’s New Jersey based DeCavalcante Family from the 1960s until the mid 1970s.  In 1961, the FBI planted a listening device in …

General Dostum is the whisky-drinking former plumber who rose through the ranks of the Afghan puppet army that the Soviet Union ran in Afghanistan in the 1980s.  He was eventually appointed head of Khad, the …

Haiku on the Stockline factory explosion

On the occasion of a slight hiccup in the justice system

Well blow me down with a gift voucher from B&Q.
I was in this house in Argyll Avenue, up to my elbow in this woman’s waste pipe, when I heard the news on the radio. Turns …