THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2011
PAGE 3
REENACTMENT FROM PAGE 1
CONTRIBUTED BY P&N PHOTOGRAPHY
Portrait of American bank robbers Clyde Barrow (1909 - 1934) and Bonnie Parker (1911 - 1934), popularly known as Bonnie and Clive, circa 1933.
lege in Fort Worth, Texas, and author of "Running with Bonnie and Clyde: The Ten Fast Years of Ralph Fults," said in an e-mail that during his interviews Fults explicitly described the Lawrence robbery.
Last spring, Tom Wilson, owner of Teller's restaurant at 746 Massachusetts St., was approached by a customer with some documents regarding the history of his restaurant's building. Retired University of Kansas professor Ray Souza said that after reading Phillip's book "Running with Bonnie and Clyde," he wanted to share his discovery with Wilson.
"Do you realize that this was the first bank that Clyde Barrow robbed?" Souza asked.
"That's interesting — how many are in your party?" Wilson replied.
THE BACKGROUND
"Ralph was always crystal clear about every detail of this Lawrence robbery," Phillips wrote. "He was adamant that the place was Lawrence, the perpetrators were he, Barrow, and Hamilton, and the take was $33K."
To corroborate Fults' statements on the Lawrence robbery, Phillips spoke with three eyewitnesses that knew Barrow, Hamilton and Fults had committed a robbery in late March or early April 1932. Phillips said that everything Fults told him about the robbery checked out, including things he didn't believe at first.
Wilson said that at first he dismissed Souza's claims, but after researching the bank robbery he's convinced of its truth.
One theory of why the robbery was unreported is that it was in the bank's interest to avoid attention of the event. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was not yet founded and account-holders' money was not federally insured. A robbery could represent an insecure bank which might have caused depositors to withdraw their money.
"He brought me all this information and for the next six months' I studied and tried to trip myself up. I didn't want to announce this to the world if it wasn't true." Wilson said. "I'm ironclad, as sure as it can be now that this was the first bank that he robbed."
After investigating the robbery, Wilson spoke with Patti McCormick, director of media and special events for the Eldridge Hotel, about coordinating an event to inform the Lawrence community.
"One of my concerns was: Did this really happen? There was
Once McCormick confirmed that the robbery took place, she approached Theater Lawrence about staging a reenactment of the robbery.
Kay Traver, market development coordinator for Theater Lawrence, said she was thrilled when McCormick asked the theater to do a production.
really no record of it with police, the LJ-World or the bank. We had to do a lot of research to find out if this really happened," McCormick said. "Once we found out it was a real event, we both said, 'Let's try to stage it and reenact it.'"
"It's something that could have been lost and forgotten," Traver said. "But because of a few determined individuals we're able to bring out this really cool event."
THE COLLABORATION
The Eldridge Hotel, 701 Massachusetts St., will be hosting a cocktail party from 5:45 to 6:30 p.m. this Friday where guests can meet the actors portraying Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker, Ralph Fults and Raymond Hamilton. Afterward, Barrow and Fults will walk down Massachusetts Street with unloaded sawed-off shotguns, hold-up the bank president and rob the vault. Hamilton will wait in the getaway car, which is the same 1933 Ford used in the movie "O Brother, Where Art
Thou," and drive north across the Second Street bridge.
McCormick said that in order to accomplish the reenactment, which uses real guns and closes Massachusetts Street traffic temporarily, she had to pitch the idea to the Lawrence City Commission.
Aron Cromwell, Mayor of Lawrence, will be performing as the First National Bank president, William Docking. Cromwell said he was unaware that Barrow began robbing banks in Lawrence and thinks the history would intrigue the community.
"We're always interested in our history in Lawrence. It wouldn't surprise me to see this reenactment becomes a regular feature," Cromwell said. "Not that we're celebrating bank robbery, but more appreciating our town's place in history."
Tom Wilson said that Teller's diners will watch as Barrow and Fults guide president Docking by gun-point to the vault, which now holds the restaurant's bathrooms, to snag the bags of cash. Wilson said that he hopes the reenactment becomes an annual event in Lawrence, and plans to team up with the Eldridge to offer hotel and dinner packages.
— Edited by Jonathan Shorman
BTBC FROM PAGE 1
and faculty at the University. It also allows its businesses access to the funds it receives from local, state and federal government agencies. Some products these tenants are developing include a drug for ovarian cancer and a software program for managing legislation for the government.
Matthew McClorey, executive director of the BTBC, said the entrepreneurial skills his staff provides help create strong businesses in the area.
"The University has assets that [potential] companies wants access to," McClorey said. "This is about getting a large company to establish a site here in this community."
Having these companies in Lawrence and on KU's campuses helps to provide jobs for students and members of the community, as well as helping to keep these new businesses local.
"Without this support system of facilities and services, technologies developed at the University would be exported out of state to another company," McClory said. "This is creating opportunities for students to stay here and work here, as opposed to leave the state. Why should you have to go to California to work with a software company?"
John Ferguson, a computer programmer for Garmin, works at the BTBC at its main facility on West Campus. Unlike small start-up companies that need help launching their businesses, Garmin rented space at the incubator for other reasons.
CHRIS BRONSON/KANSAN
"We wanted to build relationships with the University and set up an office where we can bring in potential future employees," Ferguson said.
By being so close to University students, Garmin can find computer science and engineering students like Alonzi to work or intern
The BTBC will further connect the University with companies and technology firms and provide invaluable assets to KU students in the field.
0
Alonzi's experience with Garmin would not have happened if the company was not present in Lawrence, so the BTBC is not only helping companies flourish, but students as well.
for them.
Dealing with a professional software program daily and working with Ferguson to learn code has
complemented Alonzi's computer science education.
"It's helped me so much with school." Alonzi said. "It's going to be great for my career just being involved with such a great company."
STUDENT SENATE
Edited by Lindsey Deiter
Campus FedEx Office to close
JESSIE BLAKEBOROUGH
jblakeborough@kansan.com
Student Senate Treasurer David Cohen announced in his member report Wednesday that the FedEx office in the Kansas Union will be shutting down, Cohen is working with University officials to replace FedEx with another organization that will work to maintain similar student fees.
"Keeping students' money on campus where it's convenient is very important to me." Cohen said.
In addition to the closing announcement, three guest speakers and organizations kicked off Wednesday's Student Senate meeting with presentations, including the School of Engineering Student Council.
School of Engineering Student Council President Amir Bachelani said that transparency with Student Senate, which funds various Engineering clubs throughout the academic year, is important to him. The purpose of the Engineering Student Council's presentation was to show off previous projects including
"You don't get to have donations from a company and not show them your progress," Bachelani said. "The same applies with Student Senate."
Presidents, team leaders and members from KU EcoHawks and Engineers Without Borders also attended the presentation. Senior Phillip Twist from Morris, Okla., has been working with Jayhawk Motor Sports Club for two years. Last year, Twist designed and built the carbon fiber monolith rims that reduced rotational mass and improved performance and fuel economy.
"This is my baby right here," Twist told senators. "The less it takes to spin the wheel, the better it is for everyone. This is the future."
Bachelani said he thinks that in order to continue to recruit the best and the brightest students, funding is essential.
This year Twist is responsible for building the chassis, or the body of the car, in his senior design project class. Of the 70 members of Jayhawk Motor Sports, 36 are getting credit from the club. The president of EcoHawks, Ryan King, said these engineering clubs offer more for students than just credit.
Jayhawk Motor Sporting Club's first place winning car and an airplane built by Jayhawk Heavylift.
"In class you learn a lot of theory but in the work place you have to apply theory to make something and to get a result," King said, "We are able to design and build a project from the bottom up, testing all of the design stages like we would in a real job."
"We can make more informed decisions on how to better serve the University by having these people come speak, so thank you to them," Cohen said.
"Showing that students can make the fastest race car in the world, build an airplane or go to Bolivia inspires and creates some of the best and brightest in the industry," Bachelani said.
Cohen said that having guest speakers is important for senators to hear from students and administration about the business processes that go on at the University.
— Edited by Alexandra Esposito
A CHINESE PAPERCUT
CHRIS BRONSON/KANSAN
Beijing-based artist Qiao Xiaqiang sits amongst the crowd in the Central Court of the Spencer Museum of Art for his papercut techniques demonstration Wednesday. Xiaqiang is an artist who specializes in traditional Chinese papercut techniques.
COMMITTEES
Students in task force list never contacted
SARA SNEATH
ssneath@kansan.com
On Tuesday the University released the final report from KU's Americans with Disabilities Act task force. The report is the outcome of several months of committee meetings among more than 100 members of the University community, according to KU's press release.
In the report, under each of the six subcommittees' titles are the names of at least one KU student. The names are marked with an asterisk; a note on the bottom reads: "Student representatives appointed after the sub-groups were established may not have participated in sub-group meetings."
Preston Brown's name can be found under the Academic Accommodations sub-group.
Brown, a sophomore from Wichita,
said he told KU's ADA-Title IX
At least one KU student served on each of the six subcommittees, said Fred Rodriguez, co-chair of the task force. Rodriguez said it's likely that some people in the subcommittees could not make all the meetings. The students involved in each of the subcommittees should have been part of the contact list, Rodriguez said.
Elizabeth Bore, a senior from Leawood, was appointed to the Employment sub-group. She said she emailed Rodriguez earlier this month about the subcommittee meetings and was told that they still had not met this year. Bore said she was surprised to find her name listed in the report.
"They played an absolutely critical role in what we did," Rodriguez said.
Coordinator that he would participate in one of the ADA task force subcommittees back in March.
Although he gave the coordinator his contact information, Brown said he never received an email or phone call to tell him when the subcommittee meetings were.
— Edited by Sarah McCabe
Co-chair of the task force, Fred Rodriguez, said students had a voice in bringing issues to the task force's attention.
Student Services and Programs subgroup chair, Mary Ann Rasnak, said the student in her subcommittee attended at least half of the meetings. Rasnak said her subcommittee worked around the student's schedule to ensure she was able to attend as many meetings as possible.
"Most of us never heard anything and are waiting to be invited to our first meeting," Bore said. "We were promised involvement."
"We met as a task force every few weeks. In between the meetings we had were separate subcommittee meetings." Rasnak said.
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