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Harold Louis Humes, Jr. (April 11, 1926 - September 10, 1992) was known as HL Humes in his books, and usually as "Doc" Humes in life. He was the originator of The Paris Review literary magazine, author of two novels in the late 1950s, and a gregarious fixture of the cultural scene in Paris, London, and New York in the 1950s and early 1960s. He was a champion talker, activist, filmmaker, architect, and contemporary Don Quixote.

In 1966, in London, he took large amounts of LSD, which was given to him by Timothy Leary, and he became paranoid and sometimes delusional. After this, he no longer published any writing. When he returned to the US in 1969, he reinvented himself as a "guru on campus", a self-appointed visiting professor, and spent the next 20-odd years living on or near-campus at Columbia, Princeton, Bennington, and Harvard, dependent on both his family, and on students who were fascinated by his mixture of erudition and mental illness.

Early life[link]

Humes was born in Douglas, Arizona. His father was a chemical engineer from Michigan who studied at McGill. His mother, Alexandra Elizabeth McGonnigle, came from Montreal. Both parents were Christian Science practitioners.

Humes grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, graduating from Princeton High. It was there that he won his lifelong nickname, when his classmates dubbed him Doc after "Doc Huer", a brilliant scientist/nutty professor in Buck Rogers, a popular comic strip.

He attended MIT, and did a stint in the United States Navy, but left in 1948 to go to Paris.

Work[link]

In Paris, Humes owned an English language magazine called The Paris News Post, edited by Leon Kafka. Humes recruited the young American blueblood Peter Matthiessen as literary editor, not knowing until much later that Matthiessen was working for the CIA at the time. Together they founded The Paris Review, a literary journal, and soon brought in George Plimpton, who would remain its editor for fifty years.

Humes studied fiction writing with Archibald MacLeish at Harvard, graduating in 1954.

He wrote two novels, The Underground City (Random House, 1958) and Men Die (Random House, 1959). Humes was mentioned in Esquire magazine (along with John Updike and William Styron) as among the nation's most promising young novelists.

He also directed Don Peyote, a movie starring Ojo de Vidrio, and designed and built a paper house, which he hoped would be an affordable housing alternative. Although never successfully marketed, the paper house was widely regarded as a substantial improvement over his earlier plans for living inside a hollowed out ox carcass.

Humes was reputed to have worked for several years as a meteorologist in London.

He managed Lord Buckley, the great spoken word artist; fought the New York City Police Department over the Cabaret Card Laws; and was Norman Mailer's campaign manager for Mailer's first run for New York City mayor—a campaign that was aborted by Mailer's stabbing of his wife.

In 1964, Humes wrote a paper entitled "Bernoulli's Epitaph" espousing a theory of the shape of the universe as that of a spherical vortex, noting as an aside that a cross-section of a spherical vortex looks like a yin-yang symbol...

He started a third novel, titled The Memoirs of Dorsey Slade, but never finished it.

By 1967, Humes had developed a detoxification method for heroin addiction that involved, in his terms, micro-doses of LSD, medical-grade hashish, emergency-massage techniques, flotation exercises and breath work, which he claimed - if done correctly - would lead to a 'rebirthing' experience over a 3-5 day length of time. He was practicing these techniques in what he termed 'crash-pad clinics' in Rome, Italy.

By 1968, he was in Paris in time to be jailed in the demonstrations that were part of the student revolution there.

He was back in the United States by April, 1969, which is when he gave away many thousands of dollars in cash on and around the Columbia University campus.

The novelist Paul Auster described him as "a ravaged, burnt-out writer who had run aground on the shoals of his own consciousness."^[1] Humes once camped on Auster's sofa and did not leave for some time until politely nudged along. He would "wheel around and start addressing total strangers, breaking off in midsentence to slap another fifty-dollar bill in someone's hand and urge him to spend it like there was no tomorrow."^[2]

Humes also frequented the Princeton University campus in the Spring of 1970. He would entertain groups of students with elaborately wrought, delusional accounts of the F.I.D.O. computer system (a supposed underground maze of interconnected computers, run by the Government); disappearing and reappearing "lenticular" clouds (claimed by Humes to be heat sinks for alien UFOs); and systems for decoding the supposed hidden messages embedded in the "snow" that would fill a television screen after a broadcast television station had signed off for the night.

"After Doc died of cancer in 1992, Immy [his daughter] filed a Freedom of Information Act request that eventually turned up a thick file. It turns out that the U.S. government was keeping tabs on Doc, from 1948 to 1977." ^[3] Perhaps some of Mr. Humes' 'paranoia' was not so far-fetched after all.

Personal life[link]

In 1954, he married Anna Lou Elianoff, daughter of the linens designer Luba Elianoff. They had four daughters. She divorced him in 1966 and married Nelson W. Aldrich Jr in 1967, who had worked at The Paris Review as an editor.

He had one son in Italy in 1968, and another, Devin Lomon-Humes - an artist - with the cellist Glynis Lomon, in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1977.

Death[link]

Humes died of prostate cancer at St. Rose's Home in New York City in 1992.

Philosophical and/or political views[link]

Humes was a passionate and early advocate of medical marijuana.

In some ways, he was the original hippie.

Bibliography[link]

• The Underground City (Random House, 1958) (Random House, 2007)
• Men Die (Random House, 1959) (Random House, 2007)

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Paul Auster, From Hand to Mouth: A memoir of early failure; recounts his encounter with Doc in 1969
• Alan Cheuse, article about Doc's books in the anthology Rediscoveries II (1988?)
• Celia McGee, "Burgeoning Rebirth of Bygone Literary Star", The New York Times, 1/13/07
• Gay Talese, "Looking for Hemingway", an Esquire article from the early 1960s about The Paris Review crowd, reprinted in Talese' anthology

Sources[link]

• Orlando Sentinel

External links[link]

• The Doc Humes Institute
• Paul Auster reading a long passage about Humes from his memoir Hand to Mouth [1]
• Doc an Independent Lens film perspective on the Life of HL Humes by his daughter, Immy Humes.

Amanda Marie Knox (born July 9, 1987) is an American woman who was accused of the murder of Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Umbria, Italy. She served four years of a 26-year sentence before the murder conviction was overturned on October 3, 2011. Raffaele Sollecito, Knox's boyfriend at the time of the murder, was also accused of the murder and had his conviction overturned on appeal.^[1][2][3][4] The jury upheld Knox's calunnia conviction for falsely implicating bar owner Patrick Lumumba. For this Knox was sentenced to three years in prison, which she had already served, and was ordered to pay Lumumba's court costs of about 22,000 euros.^[5]

Early life[link]

Knox was born in Seattle, Washington, to Edda Mellas, a math teacher, and Curt Knox, a vice president of finance at Macy's. The couple divorced when Knox was a toddler. Knox attended Seattle Preparatory School, from which she graduated in 2005. In 2005 she began studies at the University of Washington.^[6]

Meredith Kercher murder case[link]

In 2007 Knox moved to Perugia, Italy, to study Italian, German, and creative writing at the University for Foreigners for one year.^[7][6] She shared a house with Meredith Kercher, a student from England, as well as two Italian women.^[6] In mid-October 2007 she began a romantic relationship with an Italian engineering student, Raffaele Sollecito, from Bari, Apulia.^[6]

On November 1, 2007, Meredith Kercher was murdered in the apartment she shared with Knox. On November 6, 2007, Knox was arrested by the Italian police and, along with Sollecito, charged with the murder of Kercher. During the subsequent four-year trial and appeal process she was held under cautionary detention (carcerazione preventiva) at the Capanne prison in Perugia. In 2009, Knox and Sollecito were convicted of sexual assault, murder and simulating a burglary at the first level (primo grado) of trial (see Italian Criminal Procedure). However, according to Italian law, she would not be considered guilty until the verdict was confirmed by higher courts.^[8] During her appeal at the second level (secondo grado) of trial, which concluded on October 3, 2011, the original conviction was overturned, she was found innocent of the murder and she was released from prison.^[9][10]

Related legal proceedings[link]

Knox was ordered to pay Patrick Lumumba, the man originally accused by Knox of murdering Kercher, €10,000 in restitution as a result of her conviction for calunnia and €40,000 as compensation for Lumumba's legal expenses he incurred to be represented at the first trial.^[11][12] The decision was upheld by the appeals court and Knox was sentenced to three years imprisonment, and ordered to pay a further €22,000.^[13][5]

Shortly before her trial Knox began legal action against Fiorenza Sarzanini, the author of a best selling book about her that had been published in Italy. The book included accounts of events as imagined or invented by Sarzanini, witness transcripts not in the public domain and selected excerpts from Knox's private journals, which Sarzanini had somehow obtained. Lawyers for Knox said that the book had "reported in a prurient manner, aimed solely at arousing the morbid imagination of readers."^[14][15][16] According to US legal commentator Kendal Coffrey, "In this country we would say, with this kind of media exposure, you could not get a fair trial".^[17] In March 2010, Knox won a civil case against Fiorenza Sarzanini, author of a book about the Kercher case, Amanda e gli altri (Amanda and the Others), and her publisher for violation of her privacy and illegal publication of court documents. The book contained long excerpts from Knox's diary, as well as from witness interviews that were not in the public domain, and intimate details professing to be about Knox's sex life. Knox was awarded €40,000 in damages.^[15]

Following an investigation into Knox's statements that she was slapped by police during questioning about the murder, another case for calunnia was opened against her on June 1, 2010, for falsely implicating police. Knox has claimed she was hit and put under pressure by police when she was questioned in the aftermath of Kercher's November 1, 2007, slaying. She said police repeatedly called her a "stupid liar". Police denied misconduct and filed charges saying Knox's comments were slanderous.^[18] The trial was adjourned until November 15, 2011. According Italian Penal Code, for this crime she can be imprisoned from two to six years.

In February 2011, Knox's parents, Curt Knox and Edda Mellas, were indicted on charges of criminal slander as a result of an interview published by The Sunday Times in 2009, in which they said their daughter "had not been given an interpreter, had not received food and water, and had been physically and verbally abused" by police officers after her arrest.^[19] They sought to have the charges dismissed on the grounds that there was no intent.^[20] On July 4, 2011, Judge Paolo Micheli resigned from the case, citing his involvement in the trial of Knox and Sollecito. Knox's parents' trial was adjourned until January 24, 2012.^[19]

After Knox was found innocent of the murder, several media outlets reported that Kercher's family were suing her for $12 million. Kercher's family have stated that the reports are incorrect and that they do not believe anyone should profit from the murder.^[21]

Prison life[link]

Capanne Prison in Perugia, where Knox was held from 2007 to 2011

Knox spent almost four years in jail while she waited for her first trial and appealed the initial verdict. Soon after arriving in prison, following a blood test, Knox was mistakenly told she was HIV positive.^[22][23] Officials prompted her to write a list of previous lovers, which they later leaked to the media.^[22][23]

Knox has stated that during her time in prison she was sexually harassed and intimidated by prison officials.^[24][25] Knox said that a high-ranking prison administrator would take her to his office alone at night and make inappropriate statements to her, which left her feeling terrified.^[24] Furthermore, prison guards forced her to have unwanted sexual conversations.^[22][25] ABC News reported that one male guard entered Knox's cell alone and made sexual remarks to her.^[22][25]

While Knox was in prison, she frequently met a local lawmaker named Rocco Girlanda. He later published a book about his conversations with Knox while she was in prison.^[26] Knox also befriended the members of a local Italian band that played at the prison three times while she was an inmate. She wrote a screenplay for one of their videos.^[27]

Support for Knox[link]

In late 2008, a number of Seattle-area residents, including lawyer Anne Bremner, founded the "Friends of Amanda", a support group to raise money and awareness.^[28][29] Maria Cantwell, United States Senator for Washington, issued a statement on December 4, 2009, that the evidence against Knox was inadequate, that she had been subjected to harsh treatment after her arrest, and that there had been negligence in the handling of the evidence.^[30] The Idaho Innocence Project, a non-profit investigative organization dedicated to proving the innocence of wrongly convicted people through the use of DNA testing, volunteered to work for the Knox defense. On May 23, 2011, Dr. Gregory Hampikian, director of the project, announced that, based on its independent investigation and review, DNA samples taken at the crime scene all pointed to African drifter Rudy Guede and excluded Knox and Sollecito.^[31]

On May 26, 2011, 11 members of the Italian parliament, led by Rocco Girlanda and all members of The People of Freedom Party founded by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, issued a document as an act of parliament addressed to Justice Minister Angelino Alfano. The document criticized the evidence that resulted in the Knox/Sollecito guilty verdicts, and the extended detention to which they were subject.^[32][33] Girlanda also addressed a letter to President Giorgio Napolitano, in Girlanda's capacity as president of the Italy-USA Foundation, in which he wrote, "These distortions, not without reason, are fuelling accusations against the administration of justice in our country."^[34]

Release[link]

ANSA's news alert announcing Knox's conviction being overturned was made using the character size and style reserved for the most important events. According to Italy's national TV broadcaster, this last happened when Pope Benedict XVI was elected in 2005.^[35]

Amanda Knox leaving the prison in Perugia in a car with Corrado Maria Daclon, secretary general of the Italy–USA Foundation

According to Corrado Maria Daclon, secretary general of the Italy-USA Foundation, who became a close friend of Knox's while she was in prison and managed Knox's departure from the penitentiary to the airport, when Knox returned to her former prison after her appeal, "[a]ll the prisoners, 500 or 600 of them, started to greet Amanda from the windows, like soccer stardom." She then said goodbye to her cellmate, other prisoners, and some of the guards. The next day she flew home to Seattle.^[36][37] Upon her arrival, Knox gave a brief press conference in which she thanked those who had supported her and her family.^[38]

Knox wrote a letter to Corrado Maria Daclon the day after regaining her freedom:

To hold my hand and offer support and respect throughout the obstacles and the controversy, there were Italians. There was the Italy-USA Foundation, and many others that shared my pain and that helped me survive, with hope. I am eternally grateful for their caring hospitality and their courageous commitment. To those that wrote me, that defended me, that stood by me, that prayed for me... I am forever grateful to you.^[39]

Public image[link]

Due to the allegations made against her, Knox became the focus of worldwide media coverage, especially in Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. Supporters of Knox and certain members of the US media criticized Italian and British newspapers' coverage of the story as constituting character assassination and demonization.^[40] According to author Candace Dempsey, the press reported a number of falsehoods and distortions in their articles about the case.^[41] In order to address these perceived inaccuracies, Knox's family engaged the services of David Marriott of Gogerty Stark Marriott, a Seattle-based public relations firm.^[42]

In June 2009, due to all her televised court hearings, an Italian television poll listed Amanda Knox as a bigger personality than Carla Bruni.^[43] Barbara Walters named Knox as one of the ten most fascinating people of 2011.^[44]

Official and unofficial media projects[link]

In February 2011, Lifetime, an American television network, produced a television film about the case, titled Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy. It focused on Knox, who was played by American actress Hayden Panettiere. Kercher was played by the British actress Amanda Fernando Stevens. The Kercher family condemned the film and described its images as "horrific and distressing".^[45] Before the film was broadcast, lawyers for both Knox and Sollecito formally demanded that Lifetime abandon the production.^[46][47]

In December 2011, it was reported that Knox had secured the services of Washington, DC-based lawyer Robert Barnett in order to negotiate an official book deal.^[48] On February 16, 2012, HarperCollins announced that Knox had signed with them to write her memoir in a deal that will pay her $4 million.^[49]

Documentaries about Amanda Knox[link]

• A Long Way From Home: CBS 48 Hours documentary, broadcast in April 2008 in the United States^[50]
• American Girl, Italian Nightmare: CBS 48 Hours documentary, broadcast in April 2009 in the United States,^[51]
• The Trial of Amanda Knox: NBC Dateline NBC documentary, broadcast on December 4, 2009, in the United States^[52]
• The Trials of Amanda Knox: The Learning Channel documentary, broadcast on March 24, 2010, in the United States^[53]
• Beyond the Headlines: Amanda Knox: Lifetime documentary, broadcast on February 21, 2011, in the United States^[54]
• Cold Blood: Life Behind Bars For Amanda Knox: Investigation Discovery Cold Blood documentary, broadcast on April 20, 2011, in the United States^[55]
• Murder Abroad: The Amanda Knox Story: CNN Presents documentary, broadcast on May 8, 2011, in the United States^[56][57]
• Amanda Knox: The untold story, CBS 48 Hours documentary October 8, 2011, 7:45 PM^[58]

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	Italy portal

References[link]

Gregory Raymond "Greg" Kelly (born December 17, 1968) is an American broadcast journalist. He is the co-host of Good Day New York; previously, he was the co-host of Fox and Friends and a White House correspondent for Fox News. Kelly is also a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves.

Journalist[link]

Kelly is a host of Good Day New York on Fox 5. Previously, Kelly was a co-host of Fox and Friends and a White House Correspondent for Fox News.

In 2003, he provided extensive coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom as an embedded journalist with the United States Army's 3rd Infantry Division, 2nd Brigade. He received a minor shrapnel wound to the face when a mortar round exploded near him while crossing the Euphrates River with the 3rd Infantry Division on March 31, 2003.

Kelly was the first television journalist to broadcast live pictures of U.S. military forces reaching Baghdad on April 5, 2003. Information Minister Muhammad Said al-Sahhaf, a.k.a. Baghdad Bob, was shown at one of his press conferences saying that Coalition forces were not in Baghdad, Fox News was showing, in split screen, reporter Kelly riding a tank through the city. Two days later, Kelly captured another exclusive during the storming of Saddam Hussein's presidential palace.

His reporting assignments have brought him back to Iraq numerous times, as well as to Gaza, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait.

Before joining Fox News, Kelly was a political affairs reporter for NY1, in New York City, where he covered the 2001 mayoral campaign, and provided extensive coverage from Ground Zero on September 11, 2001.

Prior to his stint at NY1, Kelly served as an anchor for the morning news program at WIVT-TV (ABC) in Binghamton, New York, where he secured an exclusive interview with then U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Military career[link]

Kelly is an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves.^[1] During his 1991-2000 active duty military service Kelly was an AV-8B Harrier jump jet pilot assigned to Marine Attack Squadron 211, the "Wake Island Avengers". Kelly amassed over 158 aircraft carrier landings and flew over Iraq in Operation Southern Watch, enforcing the United Nations imposed No-Fly Zone. ^[2]

Personal life[link]

Kelly is a native of Garden City, New York. His father is New York City Police Commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly. Kelly graduated from Fordham University with a B.A. in political science. While attending Fordham, Kelly worked at WFUV as an on-air reporter.

See also[link]

United States Marine Corps portal

References[link]

External links[link]

• Biography at Fox News
• Greg Kelly Unofficial Fan Site

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (March 2010)

Luca Parmitano
Astronaut, European Space Agency (ESA)
Status	Active
Born	(1976-09-27) September 27, 1976 (age 35) Paternò, Italy
Other occupation	pilot, Italian Air Force
Previous occupation	Test Pilot
Rank	Captain
Selection	2009 ESA Group

Luca Parmitano (born 27 September, 1976) is an astronaut in the European Astronaut Corps for the European Space Agency (ESA). The astronauts work on missions at the International Space Station. He was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009. Parmitano is also a captain and pilot for the Italian Air Force. He was born in Paternò in Italy.

Background[link]

Parmitano considers Catania his hometown. He is married with two daughters. He is an active scuba diver and enjoys snowboarding, skydiving, weight training and swimming. Other interests include reading and music.

Education[link]

Parmitano graduated from the Liceo Scientifico Statale `Galileo Galilei´ in Catania, Italy, in 1995.

In 1999, he completed a bachelor's degree in political sciences at the University of Naples Federico II, Italy, with a thesis on international law. In 2000, he graduated from the Italian Air Force Academy, in Pozzuoli, Italy.

Parmitano completed basic training with the U.S. Air Force at the Euro-Nato Joint Jet Pilot Training in Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, US, in 2001. He completed the JCO/CAS course with the USAFE in Sembach, Germany, in 2002.

In 2003, he qualified as Electronic Warfare Officer at the ReSTOGE in Pratica di Mare, Italy. He completed the Tactical Leadership Programme (TLP) in Florennes, Belgium, in 2005.

In July 2009, Parmitano completed a master’s degree in experimental flight test engineering at the Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace (ISAE), in Toulouse, France.

Special honours[link]

Awarded a Silver Medal to the Aeronautical Valour by the President of the Italian Republic in 2007.

Career[link]

Following completion of undergraduate pilot training in 2001, Parmitano flew the AM-X aircraft with the 13th Squadron, 32nd Wing in Amendola, Italy, from 2001 to 2007. During that time, he obtained all the qualifications on the aircraft, including Combat Ready, Four Ship Leader, Mission Commander/Package Leader.

Within the 13th Squadron he served as Chief of Training Section and Commander of the 76th Flight. He was also the 32nd Wing Electronic Warfare Officer (EWO).

In 2007, he was selected by the Italian Air Force to become a test pilot. He trained as an Experimental Test Pilot at EPNER, the French test pilot school in Istres.

Parmitano is a captain in the Italian Air Force. He has logged more than 2000 hours flying time, is qualified on more than 20 types of military airplanes and helicopters, and has flown over 40 types of aircraft.

He has been selected to fly on Soyuz TMA-09M to the International Space Station in 2013, where he will be a member of Expedition 36/37.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Spacefacts biography of Luca Parmitano
• Profile Page at ESA

Robert Augustus Nelson (born May 17, 1964) is a former Major League Baseball first baseman. He played parts of five seasons in the majors, from 1986 until 1990, for the Oakland Athletics and the San Diego Padres. He also started a company called Big League Chew which sells bubble gum in a pouch.

Sources[link]

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)

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