WOMAN ARRESTED FOR AIDING ARABS IN DRIVER'S LICENSE SCAM PRESUMED DEAD

WLAC RADIO NEWS | 2-11-02 | SELF

[Blood of Tyrants]

Katherine Smith, a Memphis driver's license examiner who was arrested for selling Tennessee driver's licenses to 5 Middle Eastern men is apparently dead. Ms. Smith's family had not heard from her in two days when they received word that her car had been involved in a fatal one car accident near the Mississippi/Tennesse state line.

The victim inside was burnt beyond recognition and the body was transported to the Memphis medical examiners office in an attempt to identify the body. At this point it is assumed that the body is indeed of Katherine Smith.

[archy]

How common is it for the interior only to burn completely in a car accident? Could a dropped cigarette do the job that completely? Doesn't seem like an engine fire and the gas tank did not ignite.

The car fires I've driven by in my life did not appear to be fatalities (generally a single vehicle pulled over to the shoulder), some of these starting with the engine on fire.

It's common enough for a cigarette dropped when occupants exit a vehicle to ignite carpet or upholstery that totally burns out the interior of a vehicle after smouldering for a while, often several hours. If that vehicle is parked inside a garage that's a part of a residence, it can total the structure and all occupants within it, of course. That's far different from such an incident happening while an awake and aware person is inside the auto however.

Now think about one of those fairly common situations you've seen, only in which the driver strikes another vehicle [often headon] or an object in their panic, and is knocked unconscious or otherwise dazed in the carsh. In two to five minutes, it'll all be over.

I'm certainly not suggesting that what happened to Katherine Smith here in Memphis was an accident; and murders of every sort here have been covered up and had details rearranged, from Martin Luther King's on down, some with police assistance or complicity and others without. But I am observing that it's surer and easier to have the fire to cause the accident rather than vice-versa.

[archy]

The photographer Weegee was a pro at catching moments like this (a dead gangster under a movie marquee advertising "The Joy Of Living", a building on fire with a large add that says "Just Add Boiling Water"...)

Don't tease; see below. I got one of our local firemen going into a grease fire at a local restaurant with a *Come in and try our smoked steaks* sign out front in the pic. They were one of our advertisers though, and my editor spiked it.

[Shermy]

Also, from one of two video stories I located on that website, there were no skid marks and little damage to the car.

My guess is that the car/bomb/whatever exploded while she was driving. The car veered off the road, slowed down and hit the pole.

[archy]

Interesting. An incindiary device that let out a small amount of toxic gas would quickly incapacitate the driver. Gonna be interesting. It doesn't even have to be toxic- all it needs to do is quickly utilize all the oxygen inside a vehicle with the windows rolled up in the wintertime.

There was a case in Indiana of a teenager killed who had a thermite incendiary grenade he'd obtained go off inside his pickup, asphyxiating him before he could burn to death in the resulting fire, which understandably gutted the vehicle. Though the fire was not toxic, it used up the air available to him in the first few seconds of ignition, probably a mercy compared to the suffering he'd have undergone a half-minute or so later.

[archy]

The photographer Weegee was a pro at catching moments like this (a dead gangster under a movie marquee advertising "The Joy Of Living", a building on fire with a large add that says "Just Add Boiling Water"...)

No! You don't say...

[rdavis84]

"It sure is a strange story, but now that the FBI is on the case, we'll get to the bottom of it. Right? :-("

O.K. !! Smarty !!! You're being moved UP on the Red List!! Way Up!!

[archy]

Odtllah has lived in Shelby County two and a half years. Until a few months ago, he owned a Phillips 66 gas station. He also buys and sells cars.

Isn't there [or wasn't there] a Phillips 66 station out near Memphis International....

Phillips 66
2534 Mt Moriah Rd Memphis, TN
(901) 366-2100

N & A Phillips 66
1502 Goodman Rd W Horn Lake, MS
(662) 342-5965

Germantown Phillip's 66
7600 Poplar Ave Germantown, TN
(901) 754-2605

Scott's Phillips 66 Foodmart
17225 US Highway 64, Somerville, TN 38068,
(901) 465-1995

[Inge_CAV]

I believe Weegee used a Speed Graphic Camera.

[mancini]

O.K. !! Smarty !!! You're being moved UP on the Red List!! Way Up!!

Hey, Jim Robinson didn't say that we couldn't knock globalist organizations! Show me, where did he say that! Why I oughta . . .

[Salvation]

The speculation is obviously that this was a hit.

BTTT for new info.

[Salvation]

Coroner Says Visiting Scientist Died in Accidental Fall off Bridge [Jan. 14]

Didn't Gore lose Tennessee?

[Salvation]

February 12th connection?

[Blood of Tyrants]

Read more of the posts and the links. There is much more to this story. For instance, the car interior burned but not the gas tank or engine and she was buying the car from one of the suspects.

[archy]

Weegee Fellig was certainly best known for his classic 4x5 inch photos taken with his Speed Graf, which offers those beautifully large negatives that make clear and sharp darkroom work seem easy. Well, if you're good at it anyway.

But he used a few other rigs for special purposes, though he was indeed a master of both the Speed Graf and it's nighttime use with flash, another skill that requires both intuition and experience.

And if his monochrome images capture some memorable moments, so do those of many other photogs simultaneously blessed and cursed with the equipment of those days. O Winston Link immediately comes to mind, as do Will Counts and Dick Bell.

But that mug of Weegees was made for a Speed Graphic, indeed. I wonder what he'd have thought of digital photography and Photoshop- he was quite the image manipulator.

<img src="

[Inge_CAV]

Thanks archy, I have some experience with a 4x5 Graflex and darkroom work. Love those 4 x 5's but just use a Sony Mavica now for email pics only.

[Shermy]

Body confirmed:

Body from car was defendant in driver's license case, medical examiner rules

[Inge_CAV]

BTTT!

[weegee]

From the article...

Lt. Col. Mark Fagan said Katherine Smith was identified by the Shelby County Medical Examiner's office through dental records. The office also found "evidence of smoke inhalation," Fagan said. This indicates Smith was alive when her car left the road, crossed a ditch and ran into a utility pole.

Keep me posted if any inflamables are detected inside the car or if any sedatives, alcohol, etc. can be detected in the body.

[archy]

Body confirmed:

Body from car was defendant in driver's license case, medical examiner rules

Wait a moment...did they by any chance identify her on the basis of her driver's license....

Just wondering....

-archy-/-