Breakthrough in child beating case
Police believe that Gorman's sister,
Margaret Daley, is lying about
Gorman's whereabouts
Police are still searching
for Martha Toogood
Posted on 09/20/2002 9:37:35 PM PDT by Shermy
Some local authorities will not refer to Madelyn Gorman/Toogood and Margaret Daley as 'Travelers' but a local expert on Travelers says from the video he's seen, he believes the women are Irish Travelers. There are an estimated 12,000 to 20,000 Irish Travelers in the United States, mostly in South Carolina and Texas. This is where it is believed Gorman and her family is from.
Travelers live a nomadic lifestyle, moving from town to town in large groups to do seasonal work but they've also been labeled, by some, as scam artists. Most Irish Travelers in this country are descendents of 19th century Irish immigrants. They are also known as Irish gypsies or "tinkers".
Traveler expert
Elkhart resident Don Wright has been investigating the Travelers for 24 years. He's published books including one called 'Scam!'. Wright says many of these scams take place in our own backyard. Between April and October, there are between 15 to 20 families in the Michiana area running these scams. When Wright saw the Kohl's parking lot assault video, he knew this was more than just a case of child abuse.
After seeing the video, Traveler expert Don Wright says he called police and other Travelers and came to this conclusion. "I started making calls right away and found out, yes indeed, they were Irish Travelers."
Reasons behind the beating
Wright believes the beating happened for one of two reasons. "The little girl gave away the scam to an employee or the mom was so ticked off at not getting refunds she took it out on the little girl. As far as beating a kid like this, I've never heard of it."
Wright has heard of Travelers working in the Michiana area. He says certain things in the video lend him to believe these women are Travelers. "The fact that the license plate was from Texas - I knew who they were."
Why do they travel here?
Wright wrote about Travelers who travel from Fort Worth, Texas to Indiana in his 1996 book called 'Scam!' "A majority of the Travelers come to Elkhart a few times a year to pick up travel trailers they use for different scams." Wright says the trailer is a scam in and of itself. They live in it until they can sell it for an exorbitant price. Meanwhile, men of the Travelers do house scams and the women do shoplifting scams. Wright says it is common to take along their children. "This is on the job training for kids. They learn to shoplift at their mothers elbows."
Prosecutor Chris Toth said today that the reason Kohl's began to follow these two women and their daughters was because they had scammed the store before. Police in Fort Worth say in March they arrested Madelyn Gorman for an alleged theft at Kohls.
Breakthrough in child beating case
Police believe that Gorman's sister,
Margaret Daley, is lying about
Gorman's whereabouts
Police are still searching
for Martha Toogood
Kid popped back up into the seat like it was regular business.
Didn't look like the girl did anything to incite it, unless she said something. Just getting in the car. and the beating went on long time. And with the arm swinging motions of the mom, it sure looked brutal to me, no matter what the kid did. But then it was odd the way the girl seemed to agilely get up from the floor to the seat.
Hard for me to imagine that if blows were landed, especially the big ones, that kid would be so agile. Unless the blows, or the big ones were just threats, perhaps a cultural conditioning? Or the girl is pretty damn used to it - trained to take it in that culture or family.
Irish Travellers' history as storied as group
Hompage of an Irish Traveller, with interesting stuff including MIDI music links.
Four main Irish Traveler communities are identifiable in the United States: those who reside in the area of North Augusta, South Carolina, those from Memphis, Tennessee., the Texas Travelers and the Northern Travelers in the area of New York, New Jersey and Delaware. Scottish Travelers live and work especially in the Appalachian States. The men are still itinerant in the sense that their work takes them away from home for many months at a time, but they have a home base where the women and children stay during the school year. For example, the community of Irish Travelers in North Augusta, South Carolina live in an area called Murphy's Village surrounding St. Edward's Catholic Church. The village is named after the local parish priest who took an interest in them and convinced them to buy property in the area where they have built their homes or established their trailers.
http://www.nccbuscc.org/mrs/pcmr/gypsy.htm#irish
Irish Traveler's - 3 Irish Travelers pled guilty to making false statements on an elderly woman who had a tracheotomy due to throat cancer. They stated in life insurance applications that she was in good health and that they were related! They admitted that they were not related to her and that her health condition was not good.
http://www.scinsnews.com/fraudtop102000.html
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