Free Republic

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...

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...

DALLAS (AP) _ The tearful testimonial Madelyne Gorman Toogood gave in front of glaring TV cameras after she was videotaped beating her daughter was starkly uncharacteristic of the reclusive, media-shy Irish Travelers culture to which she belongs, experts say. Toogood, who was caught beating her 4-year-old daughter, Martha, in a department store parking lot, said she is a member of the clannish, nomadic culture of Irish descendants, most of whom came to the United States as refugees during the potato famine in the 1840s. ``By nature, they're very reclusive people,'' said Joe Livingston, a South Carolina state investigator who has...

<p>MOTHER of the Year Madelyne Toogood has three small children, four driver's licenses, and two names to chose from - depending upon the state in which she parks her trailer. But Mommie Dearest has not one permanent address.</p> <p>The country now is as familiar with Toogood's parenting skills as it is with the danger of Hurricane Isidore. This past weekend, the savage in blue jeans was all over TV, furiously whacking her small daughter about the head, a scene caught on surveillance videotape.</p>