Return of the Scammer

 You can't hide!

Beware of this lady

How do I know this person is a scammer?

She contacted me claiming she lives in Bristol, yet several Facebook profiles she raised say she is either in the USA, or a small village in Italy.

She can change he name, her city of residence, the one thing she cannot change, without a lot of pain, and money is the distinctive tattoo.

I reported her several time to Facebook for having fake profiles, I don't know if anything happened

The new age of Alan

 Alan Place - Indie Writer

The writer returns

From today, I hope to be able to write more to some of my unfished short story section, beginning with Wild Child, the story of a lady, who in her 40's decided to quit the sex trade to try and find her identity.

If I finish my story, I aim to add it to my page on Amazon, rather than adding it to my Draft2Digital page, as D2D have not paid me in years for my sales, I have nothing to lose by adding the futre books to Amazon, and possibly I have something to gain.

eBay complaints

 Mehmood

DVD Bundles

This morning, I received another complaint for the Hindi DVDs I sell on eBay, from the same person, I think who complained about the Mehmood box set shown here.

I think it is the same person because they used the same terms as the previous set, "I should be ashamamed to make money from DVDs of dead actors."

Today's complaint is because some of the discs in this set have Rishi Kapoor in, he died in 2020.

Self Promotion Time

 Here I go Spamming!

The Spam fight back

I don't approve of spam, sending a mass of blind links to people you dont know, but from this week I am doing this each time I get some on Twitter.

From now on, when I get some spam, I will send back an Amazon link from my eBook page. As I have time on my hands most days, I am considering writing again, if only to occupy my mind

Are people reading my Twitter posts?

 Coincidence or realisation?

The Spam fight back

I realise there is no definite way of proving yesterday's post about being spammed on Twitter, is related to the drop off of people trying to spam me on Twitter. The one thing definite is since I posted my warning about spamming anybody who spams me, I have had one tag, instead of dozens per day

Occam's razor

 The K.I.S.S. Principle

Don't look for a complex reason to a simple solution

The theory behind Occam's razor is easy to understand, most mysteries have a simple reason behind them, why make a large case for something straight forward.

Two Curses?

Here are two examples.

The Curse of Tutankhamun

Since Howard Carter opened the tomb in 1923, a lot has been said about the deaths of the three men involved in the opening; there is no curse.

Howard Carter died shartly after opening the tomb, what did you expect, the tomb hadn't been opened in all the time, Lord knows what bacteria had evolved in the 2,000 years since his burial.

His assistant died from an infection he got from a cut, even now, the medical knowledge in Egypt is abbysmal, back then it was almost unknown.

The third person died after being hit by a bus in London, if he hadn't been part of the expedition nobody would have known about his death.

The Kennedy Curse

Most people would say the curse began with JFK being shot in Dallas, but his elder brother died in WW2.

Joe Kennedy Jnr died in WW2, he was the pilot of a drone bomb, the bombs were notorious for failing. The theory was a bomb would be attached to a bomber, and flown close to its target were it would be releaded, to be guided to its final destination where the pilot would bail out as the bomb flew on. 

However, there were many flaws in the plan. First, the bombs were electrically connected to their guide, which meant the pilot had to turn the power off to release the bomb.

People forgot, once the bomb is released it became a dead weight with no momentum, and would plummet to earth. very few got more than a few miles from their release point.

Then, you have the pilot's escape, very few pilots escaped. Mainly because the down draught of the falling bomb stopped the canopy from opening so they could escape.

John Fitzpatrick Kennedy.

Thories to both the killer, and the reason for the murder of JFK are as many as summer flies in a heatwave. I am certain of two things, Lee Harvey Oswald was a "patsy," a stool-pigeon to take the fall, that is why he was killed by Jack Ruby, who died a few days later, was silenced before he could say who gave him the job. From is position, LHO would have had little sight of his target, and only for a brief moment.

To me, the killer was the man on the knoll. For him, the target was moving to him in full view. The mystery for me is who paid for the killing? There were many possibles, JFK had annoyed people from far and near, including his family. My view is it was LBJ, at the time of the shoooting JFK was investigating his vice-President for misappropriation of party funds. The evidence is there, but in the furore of the shooting it was forgotten, and LBJ walked free.

Robert Kennedy

Robert Kennedy, Attorney General, was killed by someone he knew, and probably trusted, why do I say that? He was ushered from his route at the hotel into the kitchen, where Sirhan Sirhan was waiting gun-in-hand. At the time, it was well-known that LBJ had a strong dislike for the Kennedy family. RFK had made a lot of enemies as AG, among them the teamsters, and unions, it is not beyond belief they had a hand in his death, I never thought until this post, the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa could be linked to these cases, as the leader of the Teamster Union disappeared not long after RFK's death, did he know something?

I put down Hoffa's disappearance to crossing swords with the MAFIA, not long before he vanished he was known to have seen the Dockworkers boss, Vito Genovese. The dockers are the vital link in any orginisation, the seamen transport the goods across the seas, and the teamsters deliver the goods around the country, but neither union is allowed to load the trucks. Crossing swords with the Genovese family usually had one end, you died.

Why I think they had nothing to do with his disappearance, it isn't the style of the mob to hide a killing, especially if it's as high-profile as Hoffa was. However, after being to jail, and pardoned, on the grounds he stayed out of politics, Hoffa was in no position to be a threat.

Where is Jimmy Hoffa?

In my mind, he didn't move far from where he was last seen in Detroit, why?

Theories as to the location of the body abound, from the end-zone of the New York Giants stadium ,to the Nevada desert. I have no doubt the "family" has the power, and connections to bury a body in the stadium, but why?

Why go to Nevada?

Trucks even then had large ice coolers, and could have taken the body to the desert, but why go to Nevada, when you have states closer?

Why do I think he's close to Detroit?

There is a large body of water not far from the area, ideal for a "quick dump" of a body. The body never turned up because it was probably attacked by fish, as they tore the flesh, any gas build up would have escaped, causing the body not to rise.

An interesting aspect of this scenario is after his disappearance, nobody took his place, fear or threat?

Edward Kennedy Jnr.

The death of Mary Jo Kopechne while in the car with Kennedy is no more a curse, it is a case of drunken driving causing a fatal accident.

True, they have had a series of mishaps, but consider this; if they were not so well-known, would we have heard of them?

Who were the Jueues?

 Jack the Ripper

Did Police know Jack the Ripper?

Since the 1980's when I came across the term Jueues in a replica of the Illustrated Police Times, at the time of Jack the Ripper, I have searched for information on the term Jueues.

The only connection I have found is the Jueues were a 16th Century secret society in Spain.

There is evidence the police tampered with the crime scene, the "original" photo of the scene clearly shows the term Jueues, but the official release in the paper shows were it has been erased, and replaced with Jews, as Jews were despised in many cities in Europe for their business accumen.

It came as no surprise, to me, to find a theory that supported the original claim the murders were done by a Jew. However, this claim has been negated as the blood sample was so weak it could not be truly examined, and the man who proposed the theory was discreditted as an author.

What is not told is around this time there were a series of similiar murders in Mexico, and later in Russia. Which is why I think the crimes were done by a sailor, if he'd been working on a whaler, he'd know how to quickly dissect a body

The death of Natalie Wood

 My Theory

A Fatal Accident

The death of actress Natalie Wood has foxed many people over the years, mainly because the forgot the K.I.S.S. Principle.

What does K.I.S.S.  stand for?

Keep It Simple Stupid.

My theory, which is open to debate, is her death was no more than a fatal accident. Yes, they owned a yacht, and had basic training in seamanship, but many sailors would have called the group "Martini Sailors," meaning weekend sailors who used the boat for showing off, with disregard to the sea.

I think what happened was there was either a large swell, or a change in the wind which caused the boom to swing, not being a sailor, she wouldn't have been watching the boom, and got hit and winded.

Being winded, and struggling to breathe, even wearing a lifejacket it would be easy to drown

The Spam fight back

 June's Journey

Partners in Crime

From now on, each time I get spammed by people on Twitter, I am returning the favour with a blog post link. I don't expect anything from this, but it such good fun to post to a group, then leave 🤣🤣🤣🤣

My eBay store has many viewers

 Few buyers

Some of my DVDs I am not selling

My pages on eBay attract a lot of attention.

Many of my Hindi DVD selection I am willing to sell, but there are some movies I am not selling.

A prime candidate for me to keep is the film on this post. 

You can keep Marilyn Munroe, and Brigette Bardot, I am more into Jane Russell and Ava Gardner. When people go on about the sexual attrtaction of BB, it does nothing for me; to me the blond beauty of the cinema is Catherine Deneuve.

Part of the reason I prefer CD is I am not into the light comedy of the 1960's such as the films of Audrey Hepburn. My films of the era were from the French New Wave, gritty crime movies with ladies with raw sexual appeal, another favourite of mine is Jeanne Moreau.

eBay shop run down

Adding DVDs to eBay 

Final call

As my store on eBay hardly makes it worth my while adding to the page, I earned less than £3.00 a week this month. I shall be deleting stock over 6 months old that hasn't raised any interest. If it hasn't sold by now, it probably won't.

Why do I bother?

 eBay

Blogger

Gone are the days when my eBay pages thrived, this month I earmed less than £0.50p a day.

The blog gets fewer than 100 readers a day these days.

Twitter

Some of my posts on Twitter get several readers, but few, if any find their way to the blog. Most of the contact on Twitter is from young girls on sex sites, or people trying to scam me into joining their Crypto pyramid

World of Books

 eBay seller

WeBuyGanes

For the same reasons as I qouted in the post on WeBuyGames, I won't buy again from the eBay seller World of Books, this is another site whose customer service needs to be seriously reviewed

WeBuyGames

eBay seller

An eBay Issue

Over my years on eBay, I have come across few sites I would not trust.

One of the worst is WeBuyGames, there sales attitude, to put it politely, stinks of condesention. I've had several discs sent which I didn't order, the rerason being they didn't have what was on the site. One disc had the image of a film, but the write-up of another on the site; I had no objection, as I wanted both films, but as they couldn't tell me what they were sending, I didn't get the mystery DVD.

There are a few others, but I can't recall their names for now; I would say 90% of the sites are reliable. 

Adding DVDs to eBay

 Non-Hindi DVDs are being added from this month

An experiment in expansion

Though most of the DVD selection I am selling on eBay is Hindi, from this month, I am going to add more non-Hindi dvds to the pages. This is not a new expansion for my stock, I already have a lot for sale, my wife's Quincy M.E. sets went like wildfire.

The Book Fair SCAM

 A ploy that cannot fail

The easiest SCAM

One of the easiest scam projects is the Book Fair SCAM.

I was approached by several vanity publishers, with regards to putting my books in book fairs.

This may seem a great opportunity for sales, but it is the easiest, and most successful way to scam a writer.

The usual approach is they give you a list of fairs they "say" they will put your book in, knowing well you cannot prove they did nothing, but take your money. You cannot get to all the fairs, and if you go to one, all they'd say is either we were there, but you couldn't find us, or we were somewhere else.

What is a Vanity Publisher?

The usual ploy of a vanity publisher is to say, "if you pay for the first book to be published, we may give you a contract for the sequel."

If you have to pay for the first book, which does well, why give someone the credit of publishing a sequel, when they had no faith in you?

Did Police know Jack the Ripper?

 Freemasons

                                                          Tampering with the Crime Scene

I have my suspicions the Police knew Jack the Ripper.

Certain aspects of the case have given me concerns over the years; mainly they tampered with the crime scene, before releasing the drawing of one of the victims.

The "original" drawing clearly displays the term Jueues, but the "official" release has the term changed to Jews, and you can see where the chalk was erased.

I have searched for decades, and the only connection I can find for Jueues is to a secret organistion based in 16th Century Spain. But, if you are a secret society there would be no trace of you.

Another aspect is whoever did the killings knew a lot about the time it would take the police to get to a crime scene, something a police officer would know.

I have witnessed how police cover crimes up, to protect their friends; in 1984, I reported a crime in Bristol City Museum, this crime is central to my eBook short story, Sexual Explosions.

There were other aspects of me being constantly passed for promotion, but, I have been adamant over the years since I reported the crime, still unsolved, I was passed over because the police knew if I was permitted to go to security meetings, I WOULD bring the matter up, and it would go on record. Meaning some of their colleagues would come under suspicion of theft.

I slept with 16 men in one night

 Armed Forces

Read the story not the headline

By reading the headline, you would get the impression I am a rampant homosexual, I am not. now read on.

I was watching a video on YouTube about the sexual appetites of the stars of the Golden age of Hollywood, and I realised something; it depends on how you read the news, as to what you understand.

Anyone who served in the Armed Forces can say they slept with numerous people in one night, we had no choice sleeping in barracks.

Some of the claims of multiple encounters in a night I consider tongue-in-cheek, they were for publicity; however, there are some I am not sure of such as Tallulah Bankhead who was known for her wild lifestyle; having multiple lovers of both sexes

Why do ladies feel safe with me?

 I treat people with respect

Respect to me is not always forthcoming

When I begin a chat, whether on Facebook, Twitter, or WhatsApp, I treat people with the respect I expect in return.

The respect is not always returned, at times I have been offended, and that takes a lot for me; especially when the rudeness is at the beginning of the chat.

Last year, I had two coloured young ladies expecting me to want to go out with as they were young, coloured, and had large breasts. They had no idea what I liked, but assumed, wrongly, I was into large breasts and bottoms. Large breasts, within reason, are attrractive to me, but these were oversize, and turned me off.

I have nothing against, colour, race, or religion as long as the lady is respectful to me.

I have been told ladies prefer chatting to me as I don't force myself on them. and never expect a lady online is looking for no more than a pleasant chat.

Politics Live

 Rupert Lowe

Richard Tice

The term Politics Live is a misnomer when concerned with the Labour Party, since the 80's, they have had one aggenda punish the disabled.

Until Penny Mordaunt gets her seat back, which she will soon, there were only two voices in the House of Commons; Rupert Lowe, and Richard Tice. However, Mr. Tice has become like most of the Reform UK party, and rather than speak up, he's running the Nigel Farage line, like any of the Labour rejects in the Reform party.

As Mr. Lowe said, "Nigel is a good entertainer, but I wouldn't want him as the leader."

To emphasise the policy of the Reform Party, they recently elected two teenagers to run a council, these are people probably living with their parents, who have no concept of paying bills.

Farage says a lot, but as I said often about the Labour Party, "the easiest job in the country is being the opposition, you don't have to do anything but moan." Moaning about spending is a the only thing Labour are good at, look at how much has gone wrong in the UK since the election.

Don't think Farage will change anything, after all, he had the opportunity to unseat several Labour MPs, yet didn't, and nobody is alllowed to question him, the same as Josef Stalin in Russia

What a choice!

 Carole Lombard

On January 16th, 1942, Carole Lombard boarded the flight from Las Vegas to Burbank, California. The reason she didn't take the sleeper train with her mother was she was worried her husband, Clark Gable was meeting Lana Turner. That night, in heavy snow the plane crashed, killing everbody onboard. Clark Gable never recovered from his loss.

Lana Turner

Lana Tuner, and Clark Gable admitted they were freinds, but neither wished to take the friendship to the next stage. Lana's career was upstaged by the murder of her husband, gangster, Johnny Stompanato.

Donna Reed

On the topic of plane crashes, actress Donna Reed spent many years wondering why she was spared from dying in a crash. On January 9th, 1945, she was taken off a flight from El Paso to Los Angeles as her seat was needed for an Army Officer.

She was walking back to the terminal, thinking about making a hotel booking when she turned to see the plane she should have been on crash into the hills.

This escape plagued Donna for years, she couldn't stop wondering why was she spared?

I think the reason she lost her seat is she was the person nearest the door, so was the first to be asked, no matter, it is still eerie.

Buying goods from YouTube channels

Some of my YouTube Favourite channels

Hollywood Mysteries

From this month, I decided to treat myself to some teeshirts from some of my favourite YouTube channels, not only as I need them, but to help the channels I watch thrive.

Not all of the channels I like have a shop, but some do, these include Hollywood Mysteries, The History Guy, History's Forgotten People, and Tasting History with Max Miller. It is very likely, I shall buy mugs from the shops too

Why is it hard it answer a simple question?

 Sex  chat sites

Who was Lana Pawcel?

Last night, I was approached on Twitter by two young ladies, one of which wished me to join her on the ONLY FANS site for intimate chat.

She was not unattractive, and I have nothing against the sites, but it isn't really my thing, especially when I hardly know the lady. Yet again, I stopped her in her tracks with a simple question, which none of the ladies who approach me can answer, what do you find interesting about me?

This young lady thought she could entice me by saying she would have to buy a copy of my eBook - A Sailor'sLove - as it sounds arousing, I don't expect any sales.

LANA PAWCEL

The identity of the writer Lana Pawcel was a mystery for a while, and to me, a time of fun.

The fun came years ago, I was writing for a childrens charity book at the time, so to distance my different genres from being connected to my charity work, I created some pen-names, Al Place (detectives) is an obvious link. P.A. Canella - (mysteries) is another of my aliases, but the fun of writing as erotica writer Lana Pawcel came as much from the reaction of one writer I knew as from the writing.

We had been chatting online for weeks, when he asked, are you male or female, talking about Lana?

Considering he is better educated than me, we'd been chatting for some time, and my sense of humour. I was surprised he didn't catch the joke; Lana Pawcel is an anagram of my name - Alan W. Place.

Another funny moment came when a friend in Texas asked me if  would do an online interview in the guise of my character, Mark Johnson, the lead in my awardwinng eBook - The Chronicles of Mark Johnson - we did the interview, and posted it online, what amused us, everyone who read the interview thought it was me talking, not me talking as Mark Johnson. Mark and I share certain traits, but we are different in many ways, the interview was tounge-in-cheek, yet nobody saw that

Life without Facebook

 A Thriving Blog

Back on form

Several months ago, Facebook deleted my account, since then the blog has been struggling for readers.

This week, with help from readers in Hong Kong, Mexico, Singapore, and now Spain, the figures are back to the time when I was allowed to use Faceboo, proving my point, the site was no use for this blog.

Only Fools and Horses

Climate Control 

The BIG scam

Only fools and horses believe we can contol the climate 🤣🤣

It is a fact of science, there is nothing we can do, no matter what the Labour Party, or Greta Thunberg say.
 The planet revolves in an  elliptic orbit around our sun, so from time to time, the poles will melt. They have been doing this since before man walked, and will go on doing it, long after man ceases to exist.

Have you considered how hypocritical Greta is?

She goes on about air pollution from air traffic, yet, in the age of video conferences, she flies everywhere.

In the 1960's there was a film about a man who was given the power to do anything for a day by the Gods. At the end of the day, he decided he wanted more sun, so he stopped the Earth rotating, everyone ended up in space. The end flashed back to the beginning when he said if he could turn a lamp could his bar bill be cleared; he tried, but as expected - nothing happened.

June's Journey

 Partmers in Crime

Miss Fisher Mysteries

My late wife would have loved playing June's Journey on her phone. We saw it advertised on one of our favourite YouTube channels. Sadly, she never had the opportunity before she died in January, 2025.

The game is in the same vein as two of our favourite TV series; Partners in Crime, and Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries.

I didn't watch the remake of Partners in Crime with David Walliams; the film of Miss Fisher was an excellent movie. 

The modern version of Miss Fisher followed the same fate as The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. both were dropped after two series. Girl was a mix of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Get Smart, and failed to gel.

Miss Fisher didn't go well as a modern series set in the 1960's, and the acting was bad.

Twitter Book Maketeers

 Too little and too late

A forlorn hope

The term "Forlorn Hope," goes back along way; the term means a last stand. It came into public usage during the wars in Spain, when men were promised either a rise in rank, or pay if they succedded in storming a fortress.

The men knew they had little chance to succed, but the "promise" of a better life pushed them forward, few, if any, got their reward.

That is the situation with book marketeers on Twitter about my writing.

1n 2012, when I earned an award, and my eBooks were selling; I may have considered the concept of marketing, now over a decade later with no sales; I have no interest. Another factor is I doubt I would cover my outlay, even if my books sold, before I passed away

Could you blame Rex Harrison?

  Carole Landis

What he did was wrong!

On this day, in 1948, actress Carole Landis took her own life. The reason was actor Rex Harrison refused to leave his wife, Lilli Palmer, for her.

What Rex did after being told of her death was wrong, tampering with evidence is WRONG, however, would any man willing marry a lady who had FOUR marriages, none lasting more than two years who claimed he was the "love of her life"

Even by standards of Zsa Zsa Gabor, Elizabeth Taylor, and Ava Gardner you have to question her love.

Jane Fonda

 Sean Flynn

                                              Hollywood soon Forgets

I disagree with the popular idea that Sean Flynn, the son of Errol Flynn, was captured in Vietnam, why?

My theory for the dissapearance is the two men Sean, and Dana Stone, had an accident in the jungle, their bodies were eaten by animals, and the motorcycle parts were used in vehicles.

If he was captured the Vietnamese would have put him, and Dana Stone on  in a show trial, though his father was passed his prime as a well-known actor in Hollywood, the name Errol Flynn would still have been a huge publicity draw for the Vietnamese government of the time; plus the capture of US personnel close to the Loas and Cambodia border, at a time when they were not "supposed" to be there would have caused the USA a great commotion in the world of politics.

Consider how the war made Jane Fonda. Before she became known as "Hanoi Jane," she was a bit part actress known for Barefoot in the Park, and Barberella. After her furore went down, she became an Oscar nominated actress, and is known now for Grace & Frankie.

The same thing happened to Ingrid Bergman, when she married Roberto Rossolini, she was called the Root of Evil on the House of Senate floor, and Hollywood shunned her, she returned five years later to win the Best Actress Oscar.

DVDs from Hong Kong

 Believe it or not

The Stupidity of the EU

I bought this DVD for my wife, but she died before she got the opportunity to see it; the film is a Hindi remake of King Solomon's mines, and for once the remake is good.

Though I don't write about Hong Kong, the blog has several readers in the city. I have bought several series, and many films from Asia via sellers on eBay in Hong Kong, I get the delivery sooner than from sellers in the EU.

Read the Reviews

 Tropico 6

Tropico 4

After reading the reviews of Tropico 6, I decided not to purchase the game.

The main complaints are the army is ineffective, even on the highest priority, there are endless storms, and you have to spend an inordinate amount of money finding mines. The online aspect of the game is almost inoperative, as few people play the games.

The general view is Tropico 4 is the best of the games.

The Thin man

eBay bidding 

Set a limit

This afternoon on eBay, I did something I haven't done since my wife passed away in January; I eneres a bidding contest.

My wife, and I enjoyed The Thin Man series with William Powell, and Myrna Loy, so I decided to enter a bid for the series.

I have other sets from this era with Lupe Velez, Mae West, and Fred Astaire, with more lined up.

I keep to a strct set of rules when bidding, never go higher than I can buy off another buyer, and watch for unusual bids. The issue with online bidding is you don't know how high the other bidders could go.

Tropico 6

 Tropico 5

A Thriving Business

I have enjoyed the Tropico series from the start, the only game I couldn't get on with was Tropico 2, where you build a pirate island.

Tropico 4 is my favourite, but I am getting on well with Tropico 5. I am undecided on buying Tropico 6, the buzz would be selling to other islands, possibly online gamers, one thing which interested me was the possibility of stealing well-known treasures from other countries to enhance my island, however they are so few to steal, having looked at the option, none attract me.

I can afford the game; one thing is the fact I won't being buying Frostpunk 2, I can't get on with Frostpunk, so there is no point buying the sequel

The Lost city of Z

 Did we see him?

Percy Fawcett

In my short story about the final expedtion of Lord Percy Fawcett, I give my explanation of how I think the expedition ended. 

Most videos, and reports on the subject don't mention that had he returned, a group named The Hand were repotedly eager to fund another expecition, which begs the question why take two inexperienced young men on a trip into the heaviest jungle?

One theory could be Percy Fawcett had no intention of returning.

Around this time, another mystery gripped the world, did Mallory, and Irvine conquer Mount Everest? I think they did, but died on the descent.

My reson for thinking this is when Mallory's body was found, he was not wearing sunglasses, meaning the sun was going down as they descended. There is no denying Sir Edmund Hilary deserves credit for being the first to do both journeys, I have always said Mallory, and Irvine should be credited with the first to ascend the peak.

As a side-note, it is not well-known that on this journey the only reporter was John Morris, who later became the writer Jan Morris. He was forced to travel to South Africa for the sex-change as the operation was not allowed in Europe in 1962. He lived happily with his long-time partner in Wales, dying in 2020