Posted on 12/04/2018 8:31:08 PM PST by buckalfa
COLUMBIA, SC A prosecutor heatedly told a federal judge Tuesday that South Carolina’s Irish Travelers — with their white-collar crimes that bilk insurance companies and government agencies — operate in a culture of lies, theft and ignorance, and should not be romanticized as modern-day “Robin Hoods.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim May, overseeing a yearslong FBI investigation into the group’s criminal schemes, was reacting to a claim by a defense attorney, seeking a light sentence for an Irish Traveler.
“The whole village” — Aiken County’s Murphy Village, home of the Irish Travelers — “has a Robin Hood-type philosophy,” defense attorney Ralph Kennedy told U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs, a reference to a romantic English outlaw who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor during the Middle Ages.
That assertion brought May, the lead prosecutor in the case, to his feet a few minutes later.
Let’s make sure we understand this. This is not a Robin Hood philosophy. It is theft!” May said, his voice rising.
Noting Kennedy’s client, Rose Smith, was going to get probation, instead of a prison sentence like almost two dozen other Irish Travelers, May boomed, “Let’s make sure there is no mistake. If she does this again, she’s going to prison!”
If the Irish Travelers think of themselves as modern-day Robin Hoods, then federal authorities will go to Murphy Village and “set up camp, and we will prosecute everybody,” May continued.
Tuesday’s exchange came during sentencing hearings for two S.C. Irish Travelers and an English Traveler:
▪ Melissa Riley, 42, of Murphy Village was sentenced to six months in federal prison, followed by six months of home detention. Riley pleaded guilty to carrying out four major frauds, including filing false claims to get food stamps and filing false income tax returns to get $5,000 refunds. Judge Childs could have given Riley more time. But Riley and her lawyer, Jason Peavy, told the judge the defendant’s school-age children and disabled parents depend on her to keep their household going.
▪ Harry Smith, a 53-year-old English Traveler who lives in Aiken County and is married to Rose Smith, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for fraudulently taking out a $250,000 life insurance policy on a dying man. Such schemes are common in the Irish Traveler community, according to prosecutors. Smith could have received less prison time, but he has an extensive criminal history, including convictions for forgery, embezzlement, theft and drug offenses, the judge said.
▪ Rose Smith received two years’ probation for misprision of a felony. That means she knew about her husband’s crime but concealed the illegal act.
Tuesday’s hearings are part of a five-plus year investigation into South Carolina’s Irish Travelers. So far, that investigation has resulted in approximately 55 indictments for fraud, prosecutors say. About 50 suspects have pleaded guilty. Of those, 26 have been sentenced, including 22 sent to prison.
Ever see the movie “Snatch?”
What’s an “Irish Traveler”?
A person walking with a potato in one hand and a stout in the other? :)
JK!!
"Oh my, such ostracized, scorned, belittled people," Clifford thought, as the drizzling rains washed away his newly-"paved" driveway and rinsed the "paint" off the vinyl siding of his house. He finally turned and walked back inside his home, increasingly concerned that his young daughter had not yet returned from her "date."
Cons and thieves.
They prey on elderly home owners by starting, but never finishing home improvement jobs. Money up front, of course.
There’s a big nest of them in White Settlement, in west Fort Worth.
Not that modern. Genetic testing has indicated they’ve been a distinct clan for 1,000 years or more. They’re a nomadic people that wandered around Ireland for centuries and then transitioned to the U.S.A and elsewhere. My grandmother called them “tinkers” in Ireland. They were known for metalwork, specifically repairing pots and pans when that was a lucrative trade. They’ve also long been known as swindlers.
Irish Travelers are minority subset of the Irish who “travel” peddling scam repair work and other trauds, especially against life insurance companies. Very secretive, close knit, inter-married communities.
But why are they called Irish Travelers?
Or is that self evident?
Illegals? I know there’s an illegal Irish presence in America but only about 10 to 20,000. Which is still a big number.
I lived across the river from them for a number of years. They live in fancy houses with aluminum foil on the windows. I have no idea why.
They are known for fraud and theft. My ex’s father had a business and they occasionally dealt with them. He made sure he got his money, up front. I was once told that they were not allowed to have anything to do with collecting or counting the offering in the Catholic church.
They have a distinct accent and I’ve heard them use words now generally considered archaic, such as a mother saying that her baby was “whingeing” (rather than whining as most of us would say).
They don’t limit their activities to the local areas. A couple of years ago I was visiting with a friend who owns a local business (here in West Texas). A pickup truck pulled up and two men came in the store. They were talking to my friend about re-roofing the building. She was suspicious and sent them away. They were Travelers, whether from South Carolina or somewhere else in Texas. I recognnized their accent immediately.
Sounds like modern day ‘rats....
For those who haven't seen it, "Snatch" is a somewhat obscure English gangster movie but it's an excellent watch if you can understand the dialogue.
Laughter ensues when a bunch of bumbling crooks can't seem to get their jobs done without screwing them up.
It's in English but not easy to understand. I've watched it several times and pick up new lines I couldn't understand previously, each time I watch it.
Not to give the plot away, but Brad Pitt plays a member of an Irish Traveler family. Just to master the brogue he uses in the part takes some real acting.
It's very entertaining and funny. One of those movies that's funny to watch each time you see it. It's a keeper.
I didn’t know they were still there.
I recall they were in the news for awhile about 10-15 years ago when one of their kids had a wreck on I-20, but thought the lawmen had finally run them off.
I formerly lived in a town in the Upper Midwest that was struck by tornadoes twice in ten years. They are smooth talkers who convince the elderly and unsophisticated victims of these tragedies to pay up front for home repair then skip town with the money. Leeches.
My ancestral people are from Ireland. My grandmother (my late fathers mother)emigrated here about one hundred years ago. I grew up with words like ‘’whinging’’ and ‘’whist’’ which is Gaelic for “Be quiet’’. It’s said in a sort of sharp tone and sounds like you’re saying ‘’wished’’. Another expression was ‘’’give orr’’, ‘’give over’ or let someone else speak or simply be quiet’’. In fact the Irish have a number of words and expressions to keeping ones mouth shut. “Gob ‘’ is mouth and “Shut yer gob’’ means just that, ‘’shut your mouth’’. Another is simply “Be still’’. “God bless’’ is used as a greeting or a salutation. Growing up in my home my parents enjoined us to say ‘’God Bless’’ when leaving each others company or ending a phone conversation with each other.
They are an ancient race driven out of north India eons ago. Then out of Iran, Armenia, Turkey and Eastern Europe, where they are called “Roma.”
Some of these grifters settled in the British Isles where their unwelcoming hosts derisively called them “tinkers;” not for their skilled metalworking but because of their “front” of showing up to sharpen women’s knifes, etc., while their accomplices would loot the house.
The Anglo-Saxon American media won’t use the well-known words - gypsies, Roma, tinkers - rather smearing the Irish who have endured centuries of Anglo-Saxon disrespect.
dp06 - I wonder why the media doesn’t call gypsies Italian Travellers?
Perhaps it’s because they’ve had over a century of insulting Italians already, no?
Look real carefully at the traditional power structures of the Dem’s. Clinton, Rodham,McClellan,O’neil, Kennedy ect… Get the picture?
The Dem’s are full of Irish grifter types!
Can we get an amen for that fake Hispanic...Robert “Beto” O’Rourke?
No one will really go there, but the grifter “traveler” Irish types are quite embedded in the most sordid financial schemes against the American people via the Democrat party;I imagine even responsible for a good chunk of our total state and federal deficits.
“Modern day gypsies, tramps and thieves?”
The origin of the “Travelers” is somewhat obscure. I’ve read that their ancestors were gypsies. They are sometimes known as “Tinkers,” after the trade many of them followed. There is another clan/community of them in Georgia, whose scam is to travel around the country soliciting home repair work, which is always done poorly and cheaply (”Hello, we were doing some work in the neighborhood, and we have some leftover supplies. I notice that you could use some work done on your roof/siding/driveway/whatever....We could take care of that for you, and you wouldn’t have to pay for materials, ‘cause we could use the stuff we have leftover from the other job we’re doing....”); they are known as the Williamses.
Yeah, they are like Robin Hood, as in ‘rob from the rich and split it 3 ways.’
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.