Diamond in Dad's Eye Father Daughter Dinner Dance 2-22-10 Photos by Erica M Brooks

2-24-10 DH-10001 The City of East St. Louis, IL held it first 2010 Diamond in Dad's Eye Father and Daughter Dinner Dance at the ESL Rotunda Sunday, February 22, 2010. Families from in the metro area attended to share an special moment with their daughters. Erica M Brooks, Photography 2010 Business Pluss++ Photography

Michael Jackson Memorial in Gary, IN July 10, 2009 Video by Erica M. Brooks 2009 Business Pluss++ Photography

On Friday, July 10, 2009 in Gary, IN, the City of Gary hosted a memorial to celebrate the life of Michael Joseph Jackson. It was at the U.S. Steelyard Stadium, 300 E. 5th Ave. With approximately 10,000 people present and standing room only, there was love, laugh, and a trial of memories that will forever keep his contribution to humanity life for generations to come.

Fw: Please join with me in wishing Abraham Bolden a very, very Happy Birthday!: author@echofromdealeyplaza.net

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Abraham W Bolden <a.bolden@sbcglobal.net>
To: Erica Brooks <erimon2@yahoo.com>
Sent: Tue, January 19, 2010 6:32:48 PM
Subject: Fw: Please join with me in wishing Abraham Bolden a very, very Happy Birthday!: author@echofromdealeyplaza.net

Erica:   This is a recording of an interview that I had.  It should answer a lot of questions for you.   Thanks for everything and I will get that book off tomorrow for sure.   Abraham W. Bolden, Sr. 7632 South Sangamon Street Chicago, Illinois 60620 Email:a.bolden@sbcglobal.net Telephone: 1-773-488-4822 Fax: 1-773-409-0660 Visit website at:www.echofromdealeyplaza.net --- On Tue, 1/19/10, Night Fright Radio Show <bhgoldmusic@persona.ca> wrote: From: Night Fright Radio Show <bhgoldmusic@persona.ca> Subject: Please join with me in wishing Abraham Bolden a very, very Happy Birthday!: author@echofromdealeyplaza.net To: Undisclosed-Recipient@yahoo.com Date: Tuesday, January 19, 2010, 6:22 PM Web site: http://www.nightfrightshow.com/   Download show: http://www.nightfrightshow.com/Night_Fright_Archives_MP3s/2009-11-25%20Abraham%20Bolden%20SHOW%20MASTERED%20mp3.mp3   http://www.nightfrightshow.com/Night_Fright_Archives_MP3s/2008-11-12%20JFK%20Abraham%20Bolden%20MASTEREDShow.mp3     Please join with me in wishing Abraham Bolden a very, very Happy Birthday! author@echofromdealeyplaza.net Some folks choose to live contently in a bubble while the world passes by. Some folks make it out of bed and down the stairs, but never off their front porch. Some folks live for self, equating success with a dollar sign and the things the accumulate over the years. Then there are the legends, the luminaries, the leaders who engage life at every level and refuse to take no for answer. They stand history on its head and change the way we look at life forever. Long before there was Michael Jordon there were men like Abraham Bolden. Long before Snoop Dog & 50 Cent there were men like Abraham Bolden. Long before Barack Obama there were men like Abraham Bolden.  Abraham Bolden is such a fellow human being.  I have been most humbled by having the honour to speak with Mr. Bolden on several occasions.  To celebrate please listen to the shows below and send him greetings. How many times will have an opportunity to email a living legend in your life? G-d bless you always Abraham, my friend. Broadcast Date: 2009 - 11 - 25 Show Title: "The Echo From Dealey Plaza " Guest: Abraham Bolden - Abraham Bolden was the 1st African American Secret Service Agent on White House detail, handpicked by President Kennedy himself. Bolden was not on duty that fateful day in Dallas and that haunts him to this day. He fully  believes  that had he only been there, that somehow, someway, he would have found away to keep the president alive, even if that meant taking that fatal bullet himself. Bolden was subsequently set up by the Secret service to silence his whistle blowing damning accusations about drunk agents that day in Dallas, accusations that were validated shortly thereafter. Synopsis: Tonight living history. Fate & destiny took its turn throughout this story, including where he first met and was introduced to JFK. Bolden, a "Negro" agent living in Chicago in 1962, was assigned the derogatory task of guarding the toilet; out of sight, out of mind. Too much coffee at breakfast brought JFK bounding down the stairs, entourage in tow, until he saw Bolden. He stopped mid-stride, spoke with Bolden for several minutes and then asked him if he would serve on his protective detail. Of course he would; "see you next week in Washington" was the response by the young president. There are heart wrenching and riveting personal stories about how Bolden was willing to lay his life down not only for the president but for the first lady and Caroline as he recounts a story when on duty protecting them. Bolden was highly liked by Kennedy who took a shining to him and introduced him to a who's who of White House movers & shakers including his brother Bobby who offered him a job as an ambassador. Appallingly, Bolden also witnessed fellow agents pick up women to have sex with while on duty, supposedly protecting the president. On many occasions, there were also agents on duty too drunk to walk, let alone be called upon in an emergency. Indeed his fears were realized when it was discovered the Secret Service agents on Kennedy's trip to Dallas that fateful day were all found to have been boozing all night long at a strip club until 7 am, some never having been to bed at all. Bolden was also subjected to rampant racism from his fellow Secret Service agents who did not like the fact he was working alongside them. They put a noose above his desk, called him "Nigger" to his face, and set him up in an effort to silence Bolden's whistle blowing, damning statements about the president's lack of professional Secret Service protection and drunken agents.

A Pardon for Mr. Abraham W. Bolden, Sr.

Sat, February 20, 2010 8:50:57 AM



To: Erica Brooks



Erica:





AN APPEAL FOR PRESIDENTIAL EXECUTIVE ACTION


A great miscarriage of justice has kept most Americas from learning about a Civil Rights pioneer who worked with President John F. Kennedy. After having exhausted all legal proceedings and having been refused a pardon by either Presidents Nixon or Clinton, Bolden now seeks executive action from the current president as a last hope to clear his name and reputation from an unlawful conviction that occurred in 1964 in the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.



After becoming the first African American to serve as an investigator for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in St. Louis, Missouri and serving in the Illinois State Police, Abraham Bolden was asked by JFK to become the first African American Secret Service Agent to be assigned to the White House in Washington, D.C.



Due to the blatant racism exhibited by a few of his fellow agents and conduct that Bolden noted was inconsistent with the maintenance of proper security around President John F. Kennedy, Bolden asked to be relieved of the White House Detail and returned to Chicago. Prior to returning to Chicago, Bolden discussed what he deemed to be conduct by a few of the detail agents that endangered the security of the President with the then Chief of the Secret Service U.E. Baughman.



After the president was assassinated, Bolden sought to contact the Warren Commission for the purpose of relating to them some of the problems with the president’s security that Bolden had previously noted and reported to his supervisors.



While he was in Washington on May 18, 1964, Bolden was escorted back to Chicago, under a pretext concocted by his supervisors, and charged with committing a federal crime by revealing the contents of an official report and conspiring to solicit a bribe.



In July, 1964, Bolden was tried in the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois , the Honorable Judge J. Sam Perry presiding. During the deliberation of the jury, the judge offered his opinion that the evidence sustained a verdict of guilty. The judge characterized his statement as an instruction and prompted the jury to take his instruction into consideration as the jury continued to deliberate.



Not withstanding the judge’s opinion, the first trial ended in a hung jury. After denying a motion for a substitution of judge by The Honorable J. Sam Perry, a second trial was concluded on August 12, 1964. During the deliberation of the second jury, the judge, stating that the court would be closed and that the jury would be dismissed for the night, locked all spectators, Bolden, Bolden’s attorney, George Howard, and Bolden’s relatives out of the court building. Contrary to what Bolden and his attorney were told, the jury continued to deliberate during the absence of the defendant Bolden, and found Bolden guilty.



Subsequent to Bolden’s conviction, one of the key witnesses against Bolden admitted, under oath in open court before the Honorable J. Sam Perry, that he committed perjury in both of Bolden’s trials. The witness, Joseph Spagnoli stated that a member of the government attorney’s office instructed him to do so. The recanting witness further produced a writing which the witness testified that he stole from the office of the U.S. Attorney. The witness further testified that the writing was given to him by the office of the United States Attorney for the purpose of remembering the lies that he was to assert in the Bolden trials. When the issue of Spagnoli’s assertions were brought before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals during oral arguments of the case, the accused assistant U.S. Attorney refused to deny Spagnoli’s allegations stating that he was refusing to answer the question of soliciting perjured testimony in a federal criminal trial because his answer would tend to incriminate him. Nevertheless, the conviction was affirmed by the court of appeals.



The United States Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari and Bolden was taken into custody on June 26, 1966.



After having served several months in the Federal Penitentiary at Terre Haute Indiana , Bolden was transferred through Leavenworth Penitentiary to the Federal Medical Center Prison Camp in Springfield , Missouri . During his stay there, Bolden was abruptly removed from the camp and placed in the psychiatric ward for a period of 30 days. Bolden was forced to ingest psychotropic medications without any legal determination that such medications were necessary. The reason given for the abrupt transfer of Bolden to the ward was that Bolden should not have threatened to defend himself with a bucket of scalding water when approached by one of the psychiatric patients who approached and threatened Bolden with a twelve inch butcher knife. The Chief of Classification and Parole was of the opinion that Bolden should have used his previous police experience and wrested the knife away from the patient. The staff psychiatrist, Dr. Kinsel, stated to Bolden that Bolden’s handling of the incident with the patient combined with Bolden’s vehement insistence that he had not received a fair trial and was innocent of the crimes alleged indicated that Bolden was possibly suffering from a persecution complex augmented by a sociopathic personality. On the 29th day of Bolden’s confinement in the psychiatric division of the medical center, the Chief of Classification and Parole committed suicide and Bolden was returned to the prison camp.



Bolden was transferred from Springfield Medical Center to the prison camp at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama and was paroled on September 25, 1969.



Bolden spent the next 32 years as quality control coordinator and manager for several machining companies in the Chicago area. He retired on September 11, 2001.



Bolden maintains that 46 years is too long a period to suffer for a crime that he did not commit and there is sufficient evidence, supported by the trial transcripts and records, of extremely serious violations of constitutional guarantees in the treatment of Bolden. He maintains that executive action by the President of These United States is his only recourse of action. He has been a model citizen, father, and law abiding individual both before and after his unlawful arrest by the United States Secret Service.



Abraham W. Bolden, Sr. prays that such executive action will be forthcoming from the President of These United States of America .

Abraham W. Bolden, Sr.
7632 South Sangamon Street
Chicago, Illinois 60620
Email:a.bolden@sbcglobal.net
Telephone: 1-773-488-4822
Fax: 1-773-409-0660
Visit website at:www.echofromdealeyplaza.net









http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307382016



He may be contacted at www.echofromdealeyplaza.net






An Appeal for Presidential Executive Action
...











Contact Information:



Abraham W. Bolden, Sr.
7632 South Sangamon Street

Chicago, Illinois 60620
Telephone: (773) 488-4822

Email: a.bolden@sbcglobal.net
Fax: (773) 409-0660
Visit website at:www.echofromdealeyplaza.net