2024_April_14 Decision to Escape.to.Kansas.City.MO.

This section precedes my actual decision to drive to KC to get myself comitted to psychiatric hospital with hope that in Memphis court Nash would be able to have the case of my driving with suspended license dropped, that by “seeking help” ie., psychiatric help – this would be an avenue to avert having to later go to court and explain why I was driving with Arkansas driver license showing my residence the same as my attorney’s home address. 

This event happened in 1965 – 59 years ago [as of 2024) and then I was just 19, still a ‘juvenile’ in the eyes of the law and that has to be taken into account when one questions my thought processes at that time. 

month and a week I think it was.  [Remember now and possibly include in the narartve the “group session” in which both Dr. Grant and Dr. Harte participated – and how the one of the “twins” from, I believe it was Illinoise, became overly aggressive with Dr Harte (we are talking about a small 13 year old boy and his struggle was more in the nature of, I think, wanting attention as his “aggression” was of the very tame nature. 

The kid grabes Dr Harte’s lapel pin from his tie and I am standing near-by and the kid reaches over and hands the pin to me.  Immediately Dr Grant, whose patient was actually that kid, make a comment to me, clear enough for all of the other boys to hear (the wards were segregated by sex and interestingly I did not see ANY black kids in the ward – perhaps they had their s&%t together and did not need counsling or perhaps few could afford it as most of the cost was not covered by insurance.  This was 1959.

Dr Grant said something about how was I reacting to my mother’s rejection of me ...thus they the psychiatrist there, including Dr Harte had already concluded that my emotional disturbances (the term at that time was, he is (emotionally disturbed.”  Today there are so many more varieties of names to kid the kid who has problems, and now codes to boot.  And the large diagnostic manual for psychiatrists, volume 5 of which I have. 

was a strange experience for me during the Jewish Hospital time.  I was scheduled typically for three “sessions” with Dr Harte per week. 

I would walk into his office (hosptial) and sit down in front of his big desk and wait for him to tell me what to do. But he never did.  At that time (I am 13) I did not know the ritual I was supposed to participate in in order to “get well.”  It was not until I had moved to University City (16) and the city had a really nice large library that I started to study up on this subject of “the talking cure.”

Dr. Harte would sit there waiting for me to “express my feeling” etc., which if I did it properly then at time the proper time I would, in theory, have my very own “catharsis” [Gk purification, cleansing, etc.] through an emotional “release” of energy, a “primal scream” which a later book describes as the end goal of the “talking cure” and following this “purification through the scream” this release of this pent up energy  - the root cause of my “emotional disturbance” I would be liberated, liberation psychiatry I suppose.

He waited for me to talk. I waited for him to talk, to engage in conversation, etc.

[Tell about the time with the in one session when he finally asks me what interested me and I said, “the brain.” And he asks me to sketch it out for him and I draw the cross section, a slice along the line of the Corpus Callosum,

https://i2.wp.com/imedscholar.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Screen-Shot-2018-05-14-at-4.00.18-PM.png?ssl=1 

This view. And he says to me, “That’s wrong” and proceeds to sketch out the TOP VIEW, which kind of looks like the top view of an open walnut. 

 

Well, I just looked at him and he looked at me. And neither of us said anything. I did not want to hurt his feelings.  [this goes back to the lapel pin in a moment]. I am typically slow to act.  And if I don’t know what to say I will say nothing.

I knew I had drawn my sketch correctly because I often would visit the Manhattan Musium of Natural History which had a whole section of brains on display and also embryols. And one time Lena, Ruth and I visited the museium together because I wanted to show them what I had found so interesting. Lena later remarked (on visit to Radja and Lena when I got my driver license, 16) to me that it was then she realized that I had learned better how to read than any of them had suspected.

[Mention about my visit to Dr Langer’s pathology lab at Mt. Sini Hospital when he showed me his collection of brains in bottles.]

[Mention the time (1965) when I am able to examine closely a freshly killed man’s brain. It was in West Memphyis, ARK just across the Memphis Arkansas bridge.  I was going across the bridge to visit Nash again and ahead on the side of the road, the part that is gravel, I see this all smashed up car.  I pull over, out of curiosity as many people do, nothing abnormal about that.  I see this human brain resting on the front seat of the smashed up car. I knew what it was because I had seen them for myself at Mt. Sini and also, the doctor (Mary Jane Sherfey , MD) had a carved model of a brain which she kept next to her desk in the office part of the big house we lived in in Terrytown, NY (I am ~10, and ask her questions about it, especially I want to know about the convolutions, the WHY.  And she tells me they are because the brain expands much faster than the cranium. I bought that line, hook and stinker for a long time. I don’t buy this explanation at all.

https://mcgovern.mit.edu/2019/04/24/ask-the-brain-why-is-the-brain-shaped-like-it-is/      

If what he says is true – why the close uniformity and location of the convolutions.  Like, the fissue of orlando is pretty much at the same location in all brains. (Unless I am wrong, but every anatomy picture I have looked at show the Fissure of Orlando, at the same location; Broca’s region – same thing.

Well, gettting back to the brain on the seat of the smashed up car. To me, and if you think I am crazy, then so be it. Both Kathy Nash and Jerry thought I was crazy – as the West Memphis paper carried the story of how the police could not figure out how the brain of the victim landed up on the car’s battery. At the Dojo one early evening when I was still going there to teach – they brought up about the article and I told them what was what. Looking back on that time 59 years ago, and I was a minor under the law back the then.

If I am crazy because I want to learn things like about the brain, so is a Dr. G. And she goes into her curiosty really deep and makes money doing so.

But I saw this moment to get a real close look at this guy’s brain, where the gray areas, the cebrebal cortex, was still gray like color, not snowy white. [best as I remember, the brains in Dr. Langer’s lab where mainly white. But I could be wrong.]  So I found a Y stick and was able to reach in and lift the brain up and over onto the car’s batter where I could look closer at the details. 

The accident had caused a clean horizontal slice; if you look up at the drawing then the cut line was horizontally along the line of the rostrum and the splenium.  A complete clean horizontal shear, evidently leaving the cerebellum, midbrain, pons and the medullagotcha with the driver of the car – who was, my guess, taken to the city morgue as I doubt there was any question as to whether the victim survived.

 

So how does this fit in with Dr. Naomi Grant’s response to me when I accepted Dr. Harte’s tie clasp from the kid who snatch it from Dr. Harte’s tie as Dr. Harte tried to restrain the kid (all the time of which I thought the kid was just acting, having fun and the psychiatrist thought the kid was really upset about something serious.)

When I handed the tieclasp to Dr. Harte he thanked me and the kid turned to me and said, “why did you do that anyway,”  But I paid him no mind and turned to Dr. Grant and looked straight at her, eye to eye, said nothing, didn’t smirk or any of that, then walk back over to the wall and sat down on the floor with the rest of the “patients” To watch the remainder of the show. To me, it was then and is still today, all of that psychiatry stuff is voodoo medicine. 

[End it here, put on its own html and post once corrected some,  but include perhaps the small paint bottle throwing incident, the all night typewriting of the story I wrote, Dr. Harte wanting it later, the “escape” through the front door of the ward to Dr. Fingert’s (MD, psychoanalyst) house and meeting with Patricia Fingert, yields a change in the hospital’s policy. Go if you want but don’t break the door class.  Results in no more breaking the glass of the ward door “to escape” and now nobody wants to escape anymore. 

 

I was also teaching Karate lessons and some Judo at the Memphis Karate Academy (long gone) and would ride my old 10 speed bike down to Bellview Blvd, where the school was located, in the evening.

 

Link My license was suspended for too many tickets to new page on going to Kansas City, MO to "escape" Escape.to.Kansas.City.MO.html

 

 

 

Posted 2022-04-26

 

My license was suspended for too many tickets from riding my BSA 650 motorcyle, a device that draws cops and traffic tickets like honey draws bears. 

Glenn had a suggestion and as he was a criminal laywer I was all ears. Glenn lived in W. Memphis, ARK, at the far west end of the city in a developing subdivision (1965). He suggested I get a driver license from Arkansas and use his house address, which I believe was 402 S. Oxford St. as my residence. It sounded good and that is what I did.

 

A few weeks later I did in fact have a small fender-bender with a car driven by an elderly man. I believe the accident happened on Jackson Ave. near the now extinct FireStone Auto Tire Co. I thought nothing of it. Glenn was after all a crimnal lawyer and should be ablte to fix the problem.

 

The Police Visit.

About six weeks later I was awakened at the house I lived in, [I believe, Edwards Street] by the Memphis City Police. The police explained that I was being arrested for driving with a suspended license. I ask the cop (though I did address him as sir) if I could call my lawyer, Glenn Nash. The cop said no problem and I put a call into Glenn at his home in West Memphis. I explained to Glenn what was happening and he said that I should "sit tight until morning" when I would appear in City traffic court. He said he would represent me in City Court. Then he told me again to “sit tight” and he would see me in court.

 

Ruth woke up also and walked into my room where the police were handcuffing me.  I asked if it was necessary and they said it was standard procedure. Then Ruth asked, “What is going on?” I explained briefly what had happened as regards changing my license to Arkansas and that Mr. Nash was going to reprenent me and that all would be OK. Ruth said nothing more.

The city police car was parked on the street in front of the house. The two cops escorted me to the passenger side back door and then one of the copy and me to put my hands behind my back, which I did and then he proceeded to put the cuffs on me. I asked if he it was really necessary and he said, “standard procedure.”

It was cold that night, about 2pm in the morning. I did have my suite coat with me which the police allowed me to keep warm with but in the house they would not let me take a heavy coat. The cop said the heavy coat would probably get stolen and that I was better off with a suite when I faced the judge.

I was booked into city. Then I was led to the cells by one of the jail house guards.I was put into a large  cell with steel bed but no mattress or pillow. There was about 5 other prisoners in the cell. Just steel, cold steel. I was glad I had brought the suite coat but it did little good. For some reason the jail kept the temperature quite cold at least compared to what I was used to.

 

I never could get to sleep that night. I stayed awake all night thinking and wondering what was going to happen.  I figured that Nash would be able to get the charges dismissed.

 

The Court is in Order

The morning came.  I wanted to shave so I looked more presentable to the judge but that was not allowed.  There were about 5 other inmates in the cell with me. We were lined up and then, about 9am (we were not given any coffee or breakfast) we were all marched into the very crowded court room. 

I believe the city judge was a Bernie Weisman, but I am not sure. I was sitting with the other prisoners on the front row bench awaiting for my case to be called up. Then Nash appared and came over to me and said “I’ll handle it.” I figured he would.

My case was called. “Downing!” the bailiff called out load.  

Nash then stepped forward toward the bench.

Your honor, I represent the defendant in this case.

Nash then pointed out that I had a valid driver Arkansas driver license and moved that the case be dismissed. The judge looked over at the attorney general laywer’s bench and asked, “any objections?” One of the DA lawyers replied, “No your honor and we move to have the case remaned to Sessions Court.”

At this, Nash objected stating that the judge had agreed to dismiss the case. The attorney for the state asked Nash what he, Nash, was objecting to. Nash replied, double jeapardy.  At which point the judge interjected, “there is no double jeapardy Mr. Nash. Sessions is an independent court.” The Judge then looked at the state attorney and said, “So moved.”

Nash then looked at the judge and requested that I be bonded out on my own recognizance. The judge agreed. Nash looked at me and said quietly, “Nenad, grab your coat and lets go to my office.”

 

In the Lawyer’s Office in the Dojo

Glenn’s “law office” was actually a room, about 12x12 which had been the dojo’s sales room where I closed sales on prospective customers wanting to take karate or judo. I taught both arts but karate (Tae Kwon Do in Korean style, Tai = hand, Kwon = foot Do = way) but karate (“hand and foot way” in Japanese) was the main attraction.

Jan 24, 1987.

Early History of Memhis Karate Academy

Originally (1964) the Memphis Karate Academy was called “Japan Ways”.  Japan Ways had been started by the late Jim Arwood who was originally from Halls, Tennessee.  Arwood had opened a number of karate schools in Jackson, Mississippi and Houston, Texas. But he started his first karate school in Memphis and it was located at 620 S. Belleview avenue. 

Jim Arwood had learned karate while stationed in the air force in Japan. In Japan he earned his second decree black belt rank, Ni-Dan in a school whose highst rank was 5^th Dan. While in Japan, Arwood also studied Russian and leaned to speak reasonably well Japanese.

The ”Master” of the school of karate under which Japan Ways for formed was a Master Okano. Okan’s prize student was an instructor named Takashi Akasawa. After Japan Ways had been opened a while Arwood brought Akasawa over to the United States as a karate teacher.

Jim Arwood was a legitimate black belt karataka. He was a real expert in the martial arts. But he excelled at salesmanship.  He learned this art from the Victanies Health Studios of New York. From Arwood I learned many of the methods of selling – in particlar selling karate and judo lessons to prospective students of all ages. 

One of Arwood’s early students was a Henry Batten who was blind in one eye.  He worked out with weights and was quite strong.  Henry had a small 70 acre farm in Raleigh-Bartlett area. Henry’s primary instructor was Takash Akasawa himself. Henry’s life centered around the karate school as did mine when I started lessons later on. 

Jim Arwood had a girl friend who was about 18 years old in 1964.  Her name was Jane X.  She committed suicide a few years later while living with Arwood in Houston, Texas where Jim had opened a chain of schools. She went by the name of “Jannie Bird” and she was a very beautiful girl.  Jane assisted Arwood as his secretary. Arwood sold the karate courses and taught some of the classes. Arwood was very intelligent but failed to pay his taxes and eventually his karate empire collapsed following IRS action. He decided to move to California where he started another school but not in such grandeous fashion. 

 

Glenn Nash entered the karate school as a student.  He had wanted to learn karate, according to his story to me, because one time while livin in Chattanooga, he

 

[2024-April_14 tell story of how he made lewd comment to a woman at restaurant and her husband, boy friend, whoever, punched Nash hard to the head knocking him down. This experience, his inablility to defend himself decided for him that he needed to learn something such as karate.]

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I usually got up about 5am as I still do. And after a meal I went to the vocation school and continued to learn how to fix TVs. This was 1965-1966. I did not and do not consider myself prejudice and so I fixed color TVs also.

 

 

 

================== 2022-04-25 5pm put all on newest template. Nsd

 

 

 

 

 

 

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