document_title: Geraldine Ferraro

question_text: who was running as vice president in 1984

question_tokens: who was running as vice president in 1984

text: Geraldine Ferraro

text: Early life and education[edit]

text: Geraldine Ferraro was born on August 26, 1935 in Newburgh, New York,[1] the daughter of Antonetta L. Ferraro (née Corrieri), a first-generation Italian American seamstress, and Dominick Ferraro, an Italian immigrant (from Marcianise, Campania) and owner of two restaurants.[2][3][4][5] She had three brothers born before her, but one died in infancy and another at age three.[4] Ferraro attended the parochial school Mount Saint Mary's in Newburgh when she was young.[6] Her father died of a heart attack in May 1944, when she was eight.[7] Ferraro's mother soon invested and lost the remainder of the family's money, forcing the family to move to a low-income area in the South Bronx while Ferraro's mother worked in the garment industry to support them.[1][4][8]

text: Ferraro stayed on at Mount Saint Mary's as a boarder for a while, then briefly attended a parochial school in the South Bronx.[9] Beginning in 1947, she attended and lived at the parochial Marymount Academy in Tarrytown, New York, using income from a family rental property in Italy and skipping seventh grade.[9][10] At Marymount Ferraro was a member of the honor society, active in several clubs and sports, voted most likely to succeed,[4] and graduated in 1952.[11] Her mother was adamant that she get a full education,[12] despite an uncle in the family saying, "Why bother? She's pretty. She's a girl. She'll get married."[13] Ferraro attended Marymount Manhattan College with a scholarship[4] while sometimes holding two or three jobs at the same time.[14] During her senior year she began dating John Zaccaro of Forest Hills, Queens, who had graduated from Iona College with a commission in the U.S. Marine Corps.[15] Ferraro received a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1956;[8] she was the first woman in her family to gain a college degree.[15] She also passed the city exam to become a licensed school teacher.[15]

text: Ferraro began working as an elementary school teacher in public schools in Astoria, Queens,[1][8] "because that's what women were supposed to do."[4] Unsatisfied, she decided to attend law school;[4] an admissions officer said to her, "I hope you're serious, Gerry. You're taking a man's place, you know."[16] She earned a Juris Doctor degree with honors from Fordham University School of Law in 1960,[11][17] going to classes at night while continuing to work as a second-grade teacher at schools such as P.S. 57 during the day.[1][8][18] Ferraro was one of only two women in her graduating class of 179.[17] She was admitted to the bar of New York State in March 1961.[17]

text: Family, lawyer, prosecutor[edit]

text: Ferraro became engaged to Zaccaro in August 1959[10] and married him on July 16, 1960.[19] He became a realtor and businessman.[8] She kept her birth name professionally, as a way to honor her mother for having supported the family after her father's death,[1][2] but used his name in parts of her private life.[20] The couple had three children, Donna (born 1962), John Jr. (born 1964), and Laura (born 1966).[19] They lived in Forest Hills Gardens, Queens, and in 1971, added a vacation house in Saltaire on Fire Island.[21][22] They would buy a condominium in Saint Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1983.[21][23]

text: While raising the children, Ferraro worked part-time as a civil lawyer in her husband's real estate firm for 13 years.[17] She also occasionally worked for other clients and did some pro bono work for women in family court.[24][25] She spent time at local Democratic clubs, which allowed her to maintain contacts within the legal profession and become involved in local politics and campaigns.[24] While organizing community opposition to a proposed building, Ferraro met lawyer and Democratic figure Mario Cuomo, who became a political mentor.[26] In 1970, she was elected president of the Queens County Women's Bar Association.[27][28]

text: Ferraro's first full-time political job came in January 1974, when she was appointed Assistant District Attorney for Queens County, New York,[29] by her cousin, District Attorney Nicholas Ferraro.[17] At the time, women prosecutors in the city were uncommon.[17] Grumblings that she was the beneficiary of nepotism were countered by her being rated as qualified by a screening committee and by her early job performance in the Investigations Bureau.[17] The following year, Ferraro was assigned to the new Special Victims Bureau, which prosecuted cases involving rape, child abuse, spouse abuse, and domestic violence.[17][29] She was named head of the unit in 1977, with two other assistant district attorneys assigned to her.[17] In this role, she became a strong advocate for abused children.[29] She was admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court Bar in 1978.[28]

text: As part of the D.A. office, Ferraro worked long hours, and gained a reputation for being a tough prosecutor but fair in plea negotiations.[17] Although her unit was supposed to turn over cases which were bound for trial to another division, she took an active role in trying some cases herself, and juries were persuaded by her summations.[17] Ferraro was upset to discover that her superior was paying her less than equivalent male colleagues because she was a married woman and already had a husband.[24] Moreover, Ferraro found the nature of the cases she dealt with debilitating;[1] the work left her "drained and angry" and she developed an ulcer.[30] She grew frustrated that she was unable to deal with root causes, and talked about running for legislative office;[17] Cuomo, now Secretary of State of New York, suggested the United States Congress.[31]

text: House of Representatives[edit]

text: Ferraro ran for election to the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 9th Congressional District in Queens in 1978, after longtime Democratic incumbent James Delaney announced his retirement.[32] The location for the television series All in the Family, the district, which stretched from Astoria to Ozone Park was known for its ethnic composition and conservative views.[1] In a three-candidate primary race for the Democratic nomination, Ferraro faced two better-known rivals, the party organization candidate, City Councilman Thomas J. Manton and Patrick Deignan.[32][33][34] Her main issues were law and order, support for the elderly, and neighborhood preservation.[24] She labeled herself a "'small c' conservative"[1] and emphasized that she was not a bleeding-heart liberal; her campaign slogan was "Finally, A Tough Democrat".[35] Her Italian heritage also appealed to ethnic residents in the district.[24] She won the three-way primary with 53 percent of the vote, and then captured the general election as well, defeating Republican Alfred A. DelliBovi by a 10-percentage-point margin in a contest in which dealing with crime was the major issue and personal attacks by DelliBovi were frequent.[24][32] She had been aided by $130,000 in campaign loans and donations from her own family, including $110,000 in loans from Zaccaro, of which only $4,000 was legal.[36][37] The source and nature of these transactions were declared illegal by the Federal Election Commission shortly before the primary, causing Ferraro to pay back the loans in October 1978, via several real estate transactions.[36] In 1979, the campaign and Zaccaro paid $750 in fines for civil violations of election law.[36]

text: Despite being a newcomer to the House, Ferraro made a vivid impression upon arrival[38] and quickly found prominence.[8] She became a protégé of House Speaker Tip O'Neil,[39] established a rapport with other House Democratic leaders,[29] and rose rapidly in the party hierarchy.[1] She was elected to be the Secretary of the House Democratic Caucus for 1981–1983 and again for 1983–1985;[40] this entitled her to a seat on the influential Steering and Policy Committee.[29] In 1983, she was named to the powerful House Budget Committee.[29] She also served on the Public Works and Transportation Committee[1] and the Post Office and Civil Service Committee,[41] both of which allowed Ferraro to push through projects to benefit her district.[42] In particular, she assisted the successful effort of the Ridgewood and Glendale neighborhoods to get their ZIP codes changed from Brooklyn to their native Queens.[43][44] Male colleagues viewed her with respect as someone who was tough and ambitious[38] and in turn she was, as The New York Times later wrote, "comfortable with the boys".[31]

text: Ferraro was active in Democratic presidential politics as well. She served as one of the deputy chairs for the 1980 Carter-Mondale campaign.[13][38] Following the election, she served actively on the Hunt Commission that in 1982, rewrote the Democratic delegate selection rules; Ferraro was credited as having been the prime agent behind the creation of superdelegates.[38] By 1983, she was regarded as one of the up-and-coming stars of the party.[13][37] She was the Chairwoman of the Platform Committee for the 1984 Democratic National Convention, the first woman to hold that position.[8] There she held multiple hearings around the country and further gained in visibility.[1]

text: While in Congress, Ferraro focused much of her legislative attention on equity for women in the areas of wages, pensions, and retirement plans.[29] She was a cosponsor of the 1981 Economic Equity Act.[29] On the House Select Committee on Aging, she concentrated on the problems of elderly women.[29] In 1984, she championed a pension equity law revision that would improve the benefits of people who left work for long periods and then returned, a typical case for women with families.[45] The Reagan administration, at first lukewarm to the measure, decided to sign it to gain the benefits of its popular appeal.[45]

text: Ferraro also worked on some environmental issues. During 1980, she tried to prevent the federal government from gaining the power to override local laws on hazardous materials transportation, an effort she continued in subsequent years.[46][47] In August 1984, she led passage of a Superfund renewal bill and attacked the Reagan administration's handling of environmental site cleanups.[48]

text: Ferraro took a congressional trip to Nicaragua at the start of 1984, where she spoke to the Contras.[49] She decided that the Reagan Administration's military interventions there and in El Salvador were counterproductive towards reaching U.S. security goals, and that regional negotiations would be better.[49]

text: In all, Ferraro served three two-year terms, being re-elected in 1980 and 1982.[11] Her vote shares increased to 58 percent and then 73 percent and much of her funding came from political action committees.[24] While Ferraro's pro-choice views conflicted with those of many of her constituents as well as the Catholic Church to which she belonged, her positions on other social and foreign policy issues were in alignment with the district.[29] She broke with her party in favoring an anti-busing amendment to the Constitution.[41][50] She supported deployment of the Pershing II missile and the Trident submarine, although she opposed funding for the MX missile, the B-1B bomber, and the Strategic Defense Initiative.[50]

text: While in the House, Ferraro's political self-description evolved to "moderate".[1] In 1982, she said her experiences as assistant district attorney had changed some of her views: "... because no matter how concerned I am about spending, I have seen first hand what poverty can do to people's lives and I just can't, in good conscience, not do something about it."[17] For her six years in Congress, Ferraro had an average 78 percent "Liberal Quotient" from Americans for Democratic Action[51] and an average 8 percent rating from the American Conservative Union.[52] The AFL-CIO's Committee on Political Education gave her an average approval rating of 91 percent.[42]

text: 1984 vice-presidential candidacy[edit]

text: As the 1984 U.S. presidential election primary season neared its end and Walter Mondale became the likely Democratic nominee, the idea of picking a woman as his vice-presidential running mate gained considerable momentum.[53] The National Organization for Women and the National Women's Political Caucus pushed the notion, as did several top Democratic figures such as Speaker Tip O'Neill.[53] Women mentioned for the role included Ferraro and Mayor of San Francisco Dianne Feinstein,[54] both of whom were on Mondale's five-person short list.[55]

text: Mondale selected Ferraro to be his Vice-Presidential candidate on July 12, 1984. She stated, "I am absolutely thrilled."[56] The Mondale campaign hoped that her selection would change a campaign in which he was well behind; in addition to attracting women, they hoped she could attract ethnic Democrats in the Northeast U.S. who had abandoned their party for Reagan in 1980.[35][41] Her personality, variously described as blunt, feisty, spirited, and somewhat saucy, was also viewed as an asset.[31][57] In turn, Mondale accepted the risk that came with her inexperience.[58]

text: As Ferraro was the first woman to run on a major party national ticket in the United States,[59] and the first Italian American,[60] her July 19 nomination at the 1984 Democratic National Convention was one of the most emotional moments of that gathering, with female delegates appearing joyous and proud at the historic occasion.[61] In her acceptance speech, Ferraro said, "The daughter of an immigrant from Italy has been chosen to run for vice president in the new land my father came to love."[62] Convention attendees were in tears during the speech, not just for its significance for women but for all those who had immigrated to America.[63] The speech was listed as number 56 in American Rhetoric's Top 100 Speeches of the 20th Century.[64]

text: Ferraro gained immediate, large-scale media attention.[65] At first, journalists focused on her novelty as a woman and her poor family background, and their coverage was overwhelmingly favorable.[66] Nevertheless, Ferraro faced many press questions about her foreign policy inexperience, and responded by discussing her attention to foreign and national security issues in Congress.[65] She faced a threshold of proving competence that other high-level female political figures have had to face, especially those who might become commander-in-chief; the question "Are you tough enough?" was often directed to her.[67] Ted Koppel questioned her closely about nuclear strategy[68] and during Meet the Press she was asked, "Do you think that in any way the Soviets might be tempted to try to take advantage of you simply because you are a woman?"[69]

text: The choice of Ferraro was viewed as a gamble, and pundits were uncertain whether it would result in a net gain or loss of votes for the Mondale campaign.[70] While her choice was popular among Democratic activists, polls immediately after the announcement showed that only 22 percent of women were excited about Ferraro's selection, versus 18 percent who agreed that it was a "bad idea". By a three-to-one margin, voters thought that pressure from women's groups had led to Mondale's decision rather than his having chosen the best available candidate.[71] Nonetheless, in the days after the convention Ferraro proved an effective campaigner, with a brash and confident style that forcefully criticized the Reagan administration and sometimes almost overshadowed Mondale.[35][61][62] Mondale had been 16 points behind Reagan in polls before the pick, and after the convention he pulled even for a short time.[56]

text: By the last week of July, however, questions—due initially to reporting by The New York Times[37]—began about Ferraro's finances, the finances of her husband, John Zaccaro, and their separately filed tax returns.[36] (While the Mondale campaign had anticipated some questions, it had only spent 48 hours on vetting Ferraro's family's finances.[37][72]) This was also the first time the American media had to deal with a national candidate's husband.[68] Ferraro said she would release both their returns within a month, but maintained she was correct not to have included her husband's financial holdings on her past annual Congressional disclosure statements.[36] The media also reported on the FEC's past investigation into Ferraro's 1978 campaign funds.[36] Although Ferraro and Zaccaro's finances were often interwoven on paper,[23] with each half partners in Zaccaro's company,[37] Ferraro had little knowledge of his business, or even how much he was worth.[73] Zaccaro did not understand the greater public exposure that his wife's new position brought to their family, and resisted releasing his financial information.[73] On August 12, Ferraro announced that her husband would not in fact be releasing his tax returns, on the grounds that to do so would disadvantage his real estate business and that such a disclosure was voluntary and not part of election law.[74] She joked, "If you're married to an Italian man, you know what it's like",[75] angering fellow Italian Americans.[31]

text: The announcement dominated television and newspapers;[76] Ferraro was besieged by questions regarding the finances[77] as well as criticism for ethnic stereotyping.[75] As she later wrote, "I had created a monster."[75] Republicans saw her finances as a "genderless" issue that they could attack Ferraro with without creating a backlash,[74] and some Mondale staffers thought Ferraro might have to leave the ticket.[73] The Philadelphia Inquirer went even further in its investigations, seeking to link Zaccaro to organized crime figures, but most publishers avoided this topic and law enforcement officials did not treat the allegations with much seriousness.[78] A week after her previous statement, Ferraro said Zaccaro had changed his mind and would indeed release his tax records,[77] which was done on August 20.[79] The full statements included notice of payment of some $53,000 in back federal taxes that she owed due to what was described as an accountant's error.[79] Ferraro said the statements proved overall that she had nothing to hide and that there had been no financial wrongdoing.[79] The disclosures indicated that Ferraro and her husband were worth nearly $4 million, had a full-time maid, and owned a boat and the two vacation homes.[31] Much of their wealth was tied up in real estate rather than being disposable income,[21] but the disclosures hurt Ferraro's image as a rags-to-riches story.[31]

text: Ferraro's strong performance at an August 22 press conference covering the final disclosure—where she answered all questions for two hours—effectively ended the issue for the remainder of the campaign, but significant damage had been done.[80][81] No campaign issue during the entire 1984 presidential campaign received more media attention than Ferraro's finances.[76] The exposure diminished Ferraro's rising stardom, removed whatever momentum the Mondale–Ferraro ticket gained out of the convention, and delayed formation of a coherent message for the fall campaign.[35][61][80]

text: Sharp criticism from Catholic Church authorities put Ferraro on the defensive during the entire campaign, with abortion opponents frequently protesting her appearances with a level of fervor not usually encountered by pro-choice Catholic male candidates such as Mario Cuomo and Ted Kennedy.[31][82][83] In a 1982 briefing for Congress, Ferraro had written that "the Catholic position on abortion is not monolithic and there can be a range of personal and political responses to the issue."[84][85] Ferraro was criticized by Cardinal John O'Connor, the Catholic Archbishop of New York, and James Timlin, the Bishop of Scranton, for misrepresenting the Catholic Church's position on abortion.[86][87][88] After several days of back-and-forth debate in the public media, Ferraro finally conceded that, "the Catholic Church's position on abortion is monolithic" but went on to say that "But I do believe that there are a lot of Catholics who do not share the view of the Catholic Church".[85] Ferraro was also criticized for saying that Reagan was not a "good Christian" because, she said, his policies hurt the poor.[31] To defend Ferraro, the pro-choice group Catholics for a Free Choice placed an October 7, 1984, full-page ad in The New York Times titled "A Catholic Statement on Pluralism and Abortion".[84]

text: Ferraro drew large crowds on the campaign trail, many of whom wished to see the history-making candidate in person, who often chanted, "Ger-ry! Ger-ry!"[89] Mondale and Ferraro rarely touched during their appearances together, to the point that he would not even place his palm on her back when they stood side-by-side; Ferraro later said this was because anything more and "people were afraid that it would look like, 'Oh, my God, they're dating.'".[90]

text: There was one vice-presidential debate between Congresswoman Ferraro and Vice President George H. W. Bush. Held on October 11, the result was proclaimed mostly even by the press and historians;[62][91] women voters tended to think Ferraro had won, while men, Bush.[83] At it, Ferraro criticized Reagan's initial refusal to support an extension to the Voting Rights Act.[92] Her experience was questioned at the debate and she was asked how her three terms in Congress stacked up with Bush's extensive government experience.[92] To one Bush statement she said, "Let me just say first of all, that I almost resent, Vice President Bush, your patronizing attitude that you have to teach me about foreign policy."[62] She strongly defended her position on abortion, which earned her applause and a respectful reply from her opponent.[92] In the days leading up to the debate, Second Lady of the United States Barbara Bush had publicly referred to Ferraro as "that four-million-dollar—I can't say it, but it rhymes with 'rich'."[93] Barbara Bush soon apologized, saying she had not meant to infer Ferraro was "a witch".[93] Peter Teeley, Vice President Bush's press secretary, had dispensed with rhymes as he said of Ferraro just prior to the debate, "She's too bitchy. She's very arrogant. Humility isn't one of her strong points and I think that comes through."[94] Teeley declined to apologize for the remark, saying it had no sexist implications and the Ferraro campaign was being "hypersensitive" in complaining about it.[94]

text: On October 18 the New York Post accurately reported that Ferraro's father had been arrested for possession of numbers slips in Newburgh shortly before his death, and inaccurately speculated that something mysterious had been covered up about that death.[95] Ferraro's mother had never told her about his arrest;[95] she had been also arrested as an accomplice but released after her husband's death.[31] The printing of the story led Ferraro to state that Post publisher Rupert Murdoch "does not have the worth to wipe the dirt under [my mother's] shoes."[96]

text: Ferraro's womanhood was consistently discussed during the campaign; one study found that a quarter of newspaper articles written about her contained gendered language.[97] Throughout, Ferraro kept campaigning, taking on the traditional running mate role of attacking the opposition vigorously.[31] By the end, she had traveled more than Mondale and more than Reagan and Bush combined.[98]

text: On November 6, Mondale and Ferraro lost the general election in a landslide. They received only 41 percent of the popular vote compared to Reagan and Bush's 59 percent, and in the Electoral College won only Mondale's home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia.[99] The ticket even lost Ferraro's to congressional district, which had long been one of the more conservative districts in New York City; it tended to vote Republican in presidential races.[100] Ferraro's presence on the ticket had little measurable effect overall.[83] Reagan captured 55 percent of women voters[100] and about the same share of Catholic voters, the latter being the highest level yet for a Republican presidential candidate.[101] Of the tenth of voters who decided based on the vice-presidential candidates, 54 percent went to Mondale–Ferraro,[83] establishing that Ferraro provided a net gain to the Democrats of 0.8 percent.[102] Reagan's personal appeal and campaign themes of prosperity and "It's morning again in America" were quite strong, while Mondale's liberal campaign alienated Southern whites and northern blue-collar workers who usually voted Democratic.[103] Political observers generally agree that no combination of Democrats could have won the election in 1984.[61] Mondale himself would later reflect that "I knew that I was in for it with Reagan" and that he had no regrets about choosing Ferraro.[104]

text: After the election, the House Ethics Committee found that Ferraro had technically violated the Ethics in Government Act by failing to report, or reporting incorrectly, details of her family's finances, and that she should have reported her husband's holdings on her Congressional disclosure forms.[105][106] However, the committee concluded that she had acted without "deceptive intent", and since she was leaving Congress anyway, no action against her was taken.[105][106] Ferraro said, "I consider myself completely vindicated."[106] The scrutiny of her husband and his business dealings presaged a trend that women candidates would face in American electoral politics.[107]

text: Ferraro is one of only three U.S. women to run on a major party national ticket. The others are Alaska governor Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee,[108] and Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee. All three major party tickets lost their respective elections.

text: First Senate run and ambassadorship[edit]

text: Ferraro had relinquished her House seat to run for the vice-presidency. Her new-found fame led to an appearance in a Diet Pepsi commercial in 1985.[3][109] She published Ferraro: My Story, an account of the campaign with some of her life leading up to it, in November 1985. It was a best seller and earned her $1 million.[110] She also earned over $300,000 by giving speeches.[111]

text: Despite the one-sided national loss in 1984, Ferraro was still viewed as someone with a bright political future. Many expected her to run in the 1986 United States Senate election in New York against first-term Republican incumbent Al D'Amato,[110] and during 1985 she did Upstate New York groundwork towards that end.[112] A Senate candidacy had been her original plan for her career, before she was named to Mondale's ticket. But in December 1985, she said she would not run, due to an ongoing U.S. Justice Department probe on her and her husband's finances stemming from the 1984 campaign revelations.[110]

text: Members of Ferraro's family were indeed facing legal issues. Her husband John Zaccaro had pleaded guilty in January 1985, to fraudulently obtaining bank financing in a real estate transaction and had been sentenced to 150 hours of community service.[113] Then in October 1986, he was indicted on unrelated felony charges regarding an alleged 1981 bribery of Queens Borough President Donald Manes concerning a cable television contract.[114] A full year later, he was acquitted at trial.[115] The case against him was circumstantial, a key prosecution witness proved unreliable, and the defense did not have to present its own testimony.[116][117] Ferraro said her husband never would have been charged had she not run for vice president.[117] Meanwhile, in February 1986, the couple's son John had been arrested for possession and sale of cocaine.[118] He was convicted, and in June 1988, sentenced to four months imprisonment; Ferraro broke down in tears in court relating the stress the episode had placed on her family.[118] Ferraro worked on an unpublished book about the conflicting rights between a free press and being able to have fair trials.[119] Asked in September 1987, whether she would have accepted the vice-presidential nomination had she known of all the family problems that would follow, she said, "More than once I have sat down and said to myself, oh, God, I wish I had never gone through with it ... I think the candidacy opened a door for women in national politics, and I don't regret that for one minute. I'm proud of that. But I just wish it could have been done in a different way."[120]

text: Ferraro remained active in raising money for Democratic candidates nationwide, especially women candidates.[121] She founded the Americans Concerned for Tomorrow political action committee, which focused on getting ten women candidates elected in the 1986 Congressional elections (eight of whom would be successful).[121] During the 1988 presidential election, Ferraro served as vice chair of the party's Victory Fund.[119]

text: She also did some commentating for television.[119] Ferraro was a fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics from 1988 to 1992,[28] teaching in-demand seminars such as "So You Want to be President?"[121] She also took care of her mother, who suffered from emphysema for several years before her death in early 1990.[122]

text: By October 1991, Ferraro was ready to enter elective politics again, and ran for the Democratic nomination in the 1992 United States Senate election in New York.[123] Her opponents were State Attorney General Robert Abrams, Reverend Al Sharpton, Congressman Robert J. Mrazek, and New York City Comptroller and former Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman. Abrams was considered the early front-runner.[123] The D'Amato campaign feared facing Ferraro the most among these, as her Italian ancestry, effective debating and stump speech skills, and her staunch pro-choice views would eat into several of D'Amato's usual bases of support.[124] Ferraro emphasized her career as a teacher, prosecutor, congresswoman, and mother, and talked about how she was tough on crime.[125] Ferraro drew renewed attacks during the primary campaign from the media and her opponents over Zaccaro's finances and business relationships.[126] She objected that a male candidate would not receive nearly as much attention regarding his wife's activities.[126] Ferraro became the front-runner, capitalizing on her star power from 1984, and using the campaign attacks against her as an explicitly feminist rallying point for women voters.[126] As the primary date neared, her lead began to dwindle under the charges, and she released additional tax returns from the 1980s to try to defray the attacks.[111]

text: Holtzman, who was trailing last in polls, borrowed over $400,000 from Fleet Bank to run a negative ad accusing Ferraro and Zaccaro of taking more than $300,000 in rent in the 1980s from a pornographer with ties to organized crime.[127] Ferraro said there had been efforts to oust the man, Robert DiBernardo, after reports of the tenancy originated during her 1984 vice-presidential campaign, but he had remained in the building for three more years.[128] In addition, a report by an investigator for the New York State Organized Crime Task Force found its way to the media via a tip from a Holtzman aide; it said that Zaccaro had been seen meeting with the DiBernardo in 1985.[128] Ferraro said in response that those two had never met.[128]

text: The final debates were nasty, and Holtzman in particular constantly attacked Ferraro's integrity and finances.[129][130] In an unusual election-eve television broadcast, Ferraro talked about "the ethnic slur that I am somehow or other connected to organized crime. There's lots of innuendo but no proof. However, it is made plausible because of the fact that I am an Italian-American. This tactic comes from the poisoned well of fear and stereotype ..."[131] On the September 15, 1992, primary, Abrams edged out Ferraro by less than a percentage point, winning 37 percent of the vote to 36 percent, with Sharpton and Holtzman well behind.[130] Ferraro did not concede she had lost for two weeks.[132]

text: Abrams spent much of the remainder of the campaign trying to get Ferraro's endorsement.[133] Ferraro, enraged and bitter after the nature of the primary,[129][132] ignored Abrams and accepted Bill Clinton's request to campaign for his presidential bid instead.[134] She was eventually persuaded by Governor Mario Cuomo and state party leaders into giving an unenthusiastic endorsement with just three days to go before the general election, in exchange for an apology by Abrams for the tone of the primary.[133] D'Amato won the election by a very narrow margin.[129] Overall the 1992 U.S. Senate elections saw five victories that it became known as the "Year of the Woman". The Ferraro-Holtzman fighting of the campaign was viewed as a disaster by many feminists, however, with Ferraro denied her political comeback while Holtzman also politically damaged herself.[135][130] The feud between Ferraro and Holtzman from the 1992 Senate primary lingered, as the following year Ferraro supported Assemblyman Alan Hevesi's successful primary challenge that unseated Holtzman as New York City comptroller; Ferraro denied that her endorsement was motivated by revenge against Holtzman, saying it was due to his liberal State Assembly voting record.[136][137][138]

text: Following the Senate primary loss, Ferraro became a managing partner in the New York office of Keck, Mahin & Cate, a Chicago-based law firm.[139][140] There she organized the office and spoke with clients, but did not actively practice law and left before the firm fell into difficulties.[140] Ferraro's second book, a collection of her speeches, was titled Changing History: Women, Power and Politics and was published in 1993.[141]

text: President Clinton appointed Ferraro as a member of the United States delegation to United Nations Commission on Human Rights in January 1993.[142] She attended the June 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna as the alternate U.S. delegate.[143] Then in October 1993, Clinton promoted her to be United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, saying that Ferraro had been "a highly effective voice for the human rights of women around the world."[144] The Clinton administration named Ferraro vice-chair of the U.S. delegation to the landmark September 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing; in this role she picked a strong team of experts in human rights issues to serve with her.[145] During her stint on the commission, it for the first time condemned anti-Semitism as a human rights violation,[146] and also for the first time prevented China from blocking a motion criticizing its human rights record.[147] Regarding a previous China motion that had failed, Ferraro had told the commission, "Let us do what we were sent here to do—decide important questions of human rights on their merits, not avoid them."[146] Ferraro held the U.N. position into 1996.[11]

text: Commentator and second Senate run[edit]

text: In February 1996, Ferraro joined the high-visibility CNN political talk show Crossfire,[148] as the co-host representing the "from the left" vantage. She kept her brassy, rapid-fire speech and New York accent intact, and her trial experience from her prosecutor days was a good fit for the program's format.[149] She sparred effectively with "from the right" co-host Pat Buchanan,[149] for whom she developed a personal liking.[150] The show stayed strong in ratings for CNN,[151] and the job was lucrative.[109][152] She welcomed how the role "keeps me visible [and] keeps me extremely well informed on the issues."[149]

text: At the start of 1998, Ferraro left Crossfire and ran for the Democratic nomination again in the 1998 United States Senate election in New York.[151] The other candidates were Congressman Charles Schumer and New York City Public Advocate Mark J. Green.[153] She had done no fundraising, out of fear of conflict of interest with her Crossfire job, but was nonetheless immediately perceived as the front-runner.[153] Indeed, December and January polls had her 25 percentage points ahead of Green in the race and even further ahead of Schumer.[109][154] Unlike the previous campaigns, her family finances never became an issue.[109] However, she lost ground during the summer, with Schumer catching up in the polls by early August and then soon passing her.[155] Schumer, a tireless fundraiser, outspent her by a five-to-one margin, and Ferraro failed to establish a political image current with the times.[109][156] In the September 15, 1998 primary, she was beaten soundly by Schumer by a 51 percent to 26 percent margin.[109] Unlike 1992, the contest was not divisive, and Ferraro and third-place finisher Green endorsed Schumer at a unity breakfast the following day.[157] Schumer would go on to decisively unseat D'Amato in the general election.

text: The 1998 primary defeat brought an end to Ferraro's political career. The New York Times wrote at the time: "If Ms. Ferraro's rise was meteoric, her political career's denouement was protracted, often agonizing and, at first glance, baffling."[109] She still retained admirers, though. Anita Perez Ferguson, president of the National Women's Political Caucus, noted that female New York political figures in the past had been reluctant to enter the state's notoriously fierce primary races, and said: "This woman has probably been more of an opinion maker than most people sitting for six terms straight in the House of Representatives or Senate. Her attempts, and even her losses, have accomplished far beyond what others have accomplished by winning."[109]

text: Business career, illness and medical activism[edit]

text: In 1980, Ferraro co-founded the National Organization of Italian American Women,[158] which sought to support the educational and professional goals of its members and put forward positive role models in order to fight ethnic stereotyping,[159] and was still a distinguished member of its board at the time of her death.[160] Ferraro was connected with many other political and non-profit organizations. She was a board member of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs,[161] and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[28] She became president of the newly established International Institute for Women's Political Leadership in 1989.[162] In 1992, she was on the founding board of Project Vote Smart.[163] By 1993, she was serving on the Fordham Law School Board of Visitors, as well as on the boards of the National Breast Cancer Research Fund, the New York Easter Seal Society, and the Pension Rights Center, and was one of hundreds of public figures on the Planned Parenthood Federation of America's Board of Advocates.[28][139] In 1999, she joined the board of the Bertarelli Foundation,[164] and in 2003, the board of the National Women's Health Resource Center.[165] During the 2000s she was on the board of advisors to the Committee to Free Lori Berenson.[166]

text: Framing a Life: A Family Memoir was published by Ferraro in November 1998. It depicts the life story of her mother and immigrant grandmother; it also portrays the rest of her family, and is a memoir of her early life, but includes relatively little about her political career.[167]

text: Ferraro had felt unusually tired at the end of her second senate campaign.[168] In November 1998, she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer where plasma cells secrete abnormal antibodies known as Bence-Jones proteins, which can cause bones to disintegrate and dump toxic amounts of calcium into the bloodstream.[169] She did not publicly disclose the illness until June 2001, when she went to Washington to successfully press in Congressional hearings for passage of the Hematological Cancer Research Investment and Education Act.[169] A portion of the Act created the Geraldine Ferraro Cancer Education Program, which directs the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish an education program for patients of blood cancers and the general public.[170] Ferraro became a frequent speaker on the disease,[171] and an avid supporter and honorary board member of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.[169]

text: Though initially given only three to five years to live, by virtue of several new drug therapies and a bone marrow transplant in 2005,[169] she would beat the disease's Stage 1 survival mean of 62 months by over a factor of two.[172] Her advocacy helped make the new treatments approved and available for others as well.[173] For much of the last decade of her life, Ferraro was not in remission, but the disease was managed by continually adjusting her treatments.[168]

text: Ferraro joined Fox News Channel as a regular political commentator in October 1999.[174] By 2005, she was making sporadic appearances on the channel,[171] which continued into 2007, and beyond.[169] She partnered with Laura Ingraham, starting in December 1999, in writing the alternate-weeks column "Campaign Countdown" on the 2000 presidential election for The New York Times Syndicate.[175] During the 2000s, Ferraro was an affiliated faculty member at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute.[176]

text: In January 2000, Ferraro and Lynn Martin—a former Republican Congresswoman and U.S. Secretary of Labor who had played Ferraro in George H. W. Bush's debate preparations in 1984[177]—co-founded, and served as co-presidents of, G&L Strategies, a management consulting firm underneath Weber McGinn.[178] Its goal was to advise corporations on how to develop more women leaders and make their workplaces more amenable to female employees.[177] G&L Strategies subsequently became part of Golin Harris International.[179] In June 2003, Ferraro was made executive vice president and managing director of the public affairs practice of the Global Consulting Group,[179] an international investor relations and corporate communications component of Huntsworth. There she worked with corporations, non-profit organizations, state governments and political figures.[180] She continued there as a senior advisor working about two days a month.[169]

text: After living for many years in Forest Hills Gardens, Queens, she and her husband moved to Manhattan in 2002.[149][181][182] She republished Ferraro: My Story in 2004, with a postscript summarizing her life in the twenty years since the campaign.[183]

text: Ferraro was a member of the board of directors of Goodrich Petroleum beginning in August 2003.[184] She was also a board member for New York Bancorp in the 1990s.[152]

text: Ferraro became a principal in the government relations practice of the Blank Rome law firm in February 2007, working both in New York and Washington[180][181] about two days a week in their lobbying and communications activities.[169] As she passed the age of 70, she was thankful for still being alive, and said "This is about as retired as I get, which is part time,"[169] and that if she fully retired, she would "go nuts".[181]

text: 2008 presidential election involvement[edit]

text: In December 2006, Ferraro announced her support for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Later, she vowed to help defend Clinton from being "swiftboated" in a manner akin to 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry.[185] She assisted with fundraising by assuming an honorary post on the finance committee for Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign.[186]

text: A heated nomination battle emerged between Clinton and Barack Obama.[187] Ferraro became livid and distraught when one of her daughters voted for Obama in the Massachusetts primary, saying "What is the matter with you? You know Hillary. You have seen my involvement with her." When her daughter responded by noting that Obama was inspirational, Ferraro snapped, "What does he inspire you to do, leave your husband and three kids and your practice and go work for Doctors Without Borders?" This was seen as an example of a generational difference among American women; in contrast to Ferraro's generation, younger women saw nothing special about electing a woman president (especially one with Clinton's past history) compared to what writer Anne Kornblut called "the milestone of electing an African American president". According to Kornblut, younger voters saw "Clinton [as] both a relic of that era and a victim of its success. She was the wrong woman at the wrong time; she was a Clinton; she hadn't gotten there on her own".[188]

text: The campaign between the two also saw racial dust-ups caused by perceptions of remarks made by campaign surrogates.[187] In March 2008 Ferraro gave an interview with the Daily Breeze in which she said: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."[186][189] (Ferraro had made a similar comment in 1988 disparaging Jesse Jackson's candidacy in the party's presidential primaries, saying that because of his "radical" views, "if Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn't be in the race."[190]) Ferraro justified the statements by referring to her own run for vice president. Echoing a statement she wrote about herself in 1988,[31] Ferraro said that "I was talking about historic candidacies and what I started off by saying (was that) if you go back to 1984 and look at my historic candidacy, which I had just talked about all these things, in 1984, if my name was Gerard Ferraro instead of Geraldine Ferraro, I would have never been chosen as a vice-presidential candidate. It had nothing to do with my qualification."[186] Her comments resonated with some older white women, but generated an immediate backlash elsewhere.[191] There was strong criticism and charges of racism from many supporters of Obama[192] and Obama called them "patently absurd".[187] Clinton publicly expressed disagreement with Ferraro's remarks, while Ferraro vehemently denied she was a racist.[186] Again speaking to the Breeze, Ferraro responded to the attacks by saying: "I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"[187][193] Ferraro resigned from Clinton's finance committee on March 12, 2008, two days after the firestorm began, saying that she didn't want the Obama camp to use her comments to hurt Clinton's campaign.[194]

text: Ferraro continued to engage the issue and criticize the Obama campaign via her position as a Fox News Channel contributor.[195][196][197] By early April, Ferraro said people were deluging her with negative comments and trying to get her removed from one of the boards she was on: "This has been the worst three weeks of my life."[197] Ferraro stated in mid-May 2008 that Clinton had "raised this whole woman candidate thing to a whole different level than when I ran".[198] She thought Obama had behaved in a sexist manner and that she might not vote for him.[198]

text: During September 2008, Ferraro gained attention yet again after the announcement of Sarah Palin as the Republican vice-presidential nominee, the first such major party bid for a woman since her own in 1984.[199][200][201] Palin mentioned Ferraro as well as Clinton as forerunners in her introductory appearance.[202] In reaction to the nomination, Ferraro said, "It's great to be the first, but I don't want to be the only. And so now it is wonderful to see a woman on a national ticket."[108] Ferraro speculated that the pick might win Republican presidential nominee John McCain the election,[203] but said that she was supporting Obama now due to his running mate selection of Joe Biden having resolved her concerns about Obama's lack of experience in certain areas.[199][204] Ferraro criticized the media's scrutiny of Palin's background and family as gender-based and saw parallels with how she was treated by the media during her own run;[199][205] a University of Alabama study also found that media framing of Ferraro and Palin was similar and often revolved around their nominations being political gambles.[206] A Newsweek cover story detected a change in how women voters responded to a female vice presidential candidate from Ferraro's time to Palin's, but Ferraro correctly predicted that the bounce that McCain received from the Palin pick would dissipate.[200] In a friendly joint retrospective of her 1984 debate with George H. W. Bush, Ferraro said she had had more national issues experience in 1984 than Palin did now, but that it was important that Palin make a good showing in her vice presidential debate so that "little girls [could] see someone there who can stand toe to toe with [Biden]."[201] McCain and Palin ended up losing, but regardless of the 1984 or 2008 election result, Ferraro said that "Every time a woman runs, women win."[200] Ferraro made a joint appearance with Palin on Fox News during the network's election-night coverage of the 2010 midterms.

text: Final year, death and tributes[edit]

text: Ferraro continued to battle cancer, making repeated visits to hospitals during her last year and undergoing difficult procedures.[207] Much of her care took place at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, where she also acted as an informal advocate for other patients.[173] She was able to make a joint appearance with Palin on Fox News Channel's coverage of the November 2010 midterm elections.[208]

text: In March 2011 she went to Massachusetts General Hospital to receive treatment for pain caused by a fracture, a common complication of multiple myeloma.[57] Once there, however, doctors discovered she had come down with pneumonia. Unable to return to her New York home, Ferraro died at Massachusetts General on March 26, 2011.[57][209] In addition to her husband and three children, who were all present, she was survived by eight grandchildren.[57][210]

text: President Obama said upon her death that "Geraldine will forever be remembered as a trailblazer who broke down barriers for women, and Americans of all backgrounds and walks of life," and said that his own two daughters would grow up in a more equal country because of what Ferraro had done.[211] Mondale called her "a remarkable woman and a dear human being ... She was a pioneer in our country for justice for women and a more open society. She broke a lot of molds and it's a better country for what she did."[209] George H. W. Bush said, "Though we were one-time political opponents, I am happy to say Gerry and I became friends in time – a friendship marked by respect and affection. I admired Gerry in many ways, not the least of which was the dignified and principled manner she blazed new trails for women in politics."[211] Palin paid tribute to her on Facebook, expressing gratitude for having been able to work with her the year before and saying, "She broke one huge barrier and then went on to break many more. May her example of hard work and dedication to America continue to inspire all women."[208] Bill and Hillary Clinton said in a statement that, "Gerry Ferraro was one of a kind – tough, brilliant, and never afraid to speak her mind or stand up for what she believed in – a New York icon and a true American original."[210]

text: A funeral Mass was held for her on March 31 at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer in New York, the site where Ferraro and Zaccaro had been married and had renewed their vows on their 50th anniversary the year before.[212] Figures from local, state, and national politics were present, and Mondale and both Clintons were among the speakers.[212][213] She is buried in St. John Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens, within her old congressional district.[213]

text: When Hillary Clinton finally captured the Democratic nomination in the 2016 presidential election, becoming the first woman to do so for a major party, there was considerable media commentary recalling, and relating this to, Ferraro's breakthrough thirty-two years earlier.[214][215][216]

text: Awards and honors[edit]

text: Ferraro was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1994.[217]

text: Ferraro received honorary degrees during the 1980s and early 1990s, from Marymount Manhattan College (1982), New York University Law School (1984), Hunter College (1985), Plattsburgh College (1985), College of Boca Raton (1989), Virginia State University (1989), Muhlenberg College (1990), Briarcliffe College for Business (1990), and Potsdam College (1991).[28] She subsequently received an honorary degree from Case Western Reserve University (2003).[218]

text: During her time in Congress, Ferraro received numerous awards from local organizations in Queens.[3]

text: In 2007, Ferraro received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Sons of Italy Foundation.[219] In 2008, Ferraro was the initial recipient of the annual Trailblazer Award from the National Conference of Women's Bar Associations,[220] and received the Edith I. Spivack Award from the New York County Lawyers' Association.[221] In 2009, legislation passed the House of Representatives calling for a post office in Long Island City in Queens to be renamed for Ferraro,[222] and in 2010, the Geraldine A Ferraro Post Office was accordingly rededicated.[44]

text: In the fall of 2013, P.S. 290 in Maspeth in Queens was renamed the Geraldine A. Ferraro Campus.[223][224]

text: In 2018 she was chosen by the National Women's History Project as one of its honorees for Women's History Month in the United States.[225]

text: Electoral history[edit]

text: Democratic primary for New York's 9th congressional district, 1978[226]

text:
Geraldine Ferraro – 10,254 (52.98%)
Thomas J. Manton – 5,499 (28.41%)
Patrick C. Deignan – 3,603 (18.61%)

text: New York's 9th congressional district, 1978[227]

text:
Geraldine Ferraro (D) – 51,350 (54.17%)
Alfred A. DelliBovi (R, Conservative) – 42,108 (44.42%)
Theodore E. Garrison (Liberal) – 1,329 (1.40%)

text: New York's 9th congressional district, 1980[228]

text:
Geraldine Ferraro (D) (Inc.) – 63,796 (58.34%)
Vito P. Battista (R, Conservative, Right to Life) – 44,473 (40.67%)
Gertrude Geniale (Liberal) – 1,091 (1.00%)

text: New York's 9th congressional district, 1982[229]

text:
Geraldine Ferraro (D) (Inc.) – 75,286 (73.22%)
John J. Weigandt (R) – 20,352 (19.79%)
Ralph G. Groves (Conservative) – 6,011 (5.85%)
Patricia A. Salargo (Liberal) – 1,171 (1.14%)

text: 1984 Democratic National Convention (Vice-Presidential tally)[230]

text:
Geraldine Ferraro – 3,920
Shirley Chisholm – 3

text: United States presidential election, 1984[231]

text:
Ronald Reagan/George H. W. Bush (R) (Inc.) – 54,166,829 (58.5%) and 525 electoral votes (49 states carried)
Walter Mondale/Geraldine Ferraro (D) – 37,449,813 (40.4%) and 13 electoral votes (1 state and D.C. carried)
David Bergland/Jim Lewis (L) – 227,204 (0.2%) and 0 electoral votes

text: Democratic primary for the United States Senate, 1992[132]

text:
Robert Abrams – 426,904 (37%)
Geraldine Ferraro – 415,650 (36%)
Al Sharpton – 166,665 (14%)
Elizabeth Holtzman – 144,026 (12%)

text: Democratic primary for the United States Senate, 1998[232]

text:
Chuck Schumer – 388,701 (50.83%)
Geraldine Ferraro – 201,625 (26.37%)
Mark Green – 145,819 (19.07%)
Eric Ruano-Melendez – 28,493 (3.73%)


document_title: Salt mining

question_text: where is the largest salt mine in the us

root

text: Salt mining

text: History[edit]

text: Before the advent of the modern internal combustion engine and earth moving equipment, mining salt was one of the most expensive and dangerous of operations, due to rapid dehydration caused by constant contact with the salt (both in the mine passages and scattered in the air as salt dust), among other problems borne of accidental excessive sodium intake. While salt is now plentiful, until the Industrial Revolution it was difficult to come by, and salt mining was often done by slave or prison labor and life expectancy among those sentenced was low.

tag: p

text: In ancient Rome, salt on the table was a mark of a rich patron; those who sat nearer the host were "above the salt", and those less favored were "below the salt". The Roman historian Pliny the Elder stated as an aside in his Natural History's discussion of sea water, that "[I]n Rome ... the soldier's pay was originally salt and the word 'salary' derives from it ..."[2]

text: Ancient China was among the earliest civilizations in the world with cultivation and trade of salt mining.[3] They first discovered natural gas when they excavated rock salt. The Chinese writer, poet, and politician Zhang Hua of the Jin Dynasty wrote in his book Bowuzhi how people in Zigong, Sichuan excavated natural gas and used it to boil a rock salt solution.[4] The ancient Chinese gradually mastered and advanced the techniques of producing salt. Salt mining was an arduous task for the ancient Chinese, who faced geographical and technological constraints. Salt was mainly extracted from the sea, and salt works in the coastal areas in late imperial China equated to more than 80 percent of national production.[5] In conjunction with this, the Chinese made use of natural crystallization of salt lakes and constructed some artificial evaporation basins close to shore.[3] In 1041, during the medieval Song dynasty, a well with a diameter about the size of a bowl and several dozen feet deep was drilled for salt production.[6] In Southwestern China, natural salt deposits were mined with bores that could reach to a depth of more than 1000 meters but the yields of ground and salt were relatively low.[5] As salt was a necessity of life for human civilization, salt mining played a pivotal role as one of the most important sources of Imperial Chinese government revenue and state development.[5]

text: Most modern salt mines are privately operated or operated by large multinational companies such K+S, AkzoNobel, Cargill, and Compass Minerals.

text: Mining regions around the world[edit]

text: Areas known for their salt mines include:

text:
Country
Site/s

Austria
Hallstatt and Salzkammergut.

Bosnia
Tuzla

Bulgaria
Provadiya; and Solnitsata, an ancient town believed by Bulgarian archaeologists to be the oldest in Europe and the site of a salt production facility approximately six millennia ago.[7]

Canada
Sifto Salt Mine in Goderich, Ontario, which, at 1.5 miles (2.4 km) wide and 2 miles (3.2 km) long,[8] is one of the largest salt mines in the world extending 7 km2 (2.7 sq mi) .[9]

Colombia
Zipaquirá

England
The "-wich towns" of Cheshire and Worcestershire.

Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti
Danakil Desert, where manual labor is used.[10]

Germany
Rheinberg, Berchtesgaden, Heilbronn

Italy
Racalmuto, Realmonte and Petralia Soprana[11] within the production sites managed by Italkali.

Morocco
JMS salt mine in Khemisset.

N. Ireland
Kilroot, near Carrickfergus, more than a century old and containing passages whose combined length exceeds 25 km.

Pakistan
Khewra Salt Mines, the world's second largest salt-mining operation, spanning over 300 km.

Poland
Wieliczka and Bochnia, both established in the mid-13th century and still operating, mostly as museums. Kłodawa Salt Mine.

Romania
Slănic (with Salina Veche, Europe's largest salt mine), Cacica, Ocnele Mari, Salina Turda, Târgu Ocna, Ocna Sibiului, Praid and Salina Ocna Dej.

Russia
Solikamsk

United States

Hutchinson, Kansas, Underground mining began at Hutchinson in 1923. In 1990 the Hutchinson Salt Company was formed and purchased the mine.
Avery Island, Louisiana;
Detroit, Michigan, 1,100 feet (340 m) beneath which the Detroit Salt Company's 1,500-acre (10 km2) subterranean complex extends;[12]
Saltville, Virginia, which served as the site of one of the Confederacy's main saltworks.
Western New York and Central New York, location of American Rock Salt, the largest operating salt mine in the United States with a capacity for producing up to 18,000 tons each day.[13] Syracuse earned the nickname "The Salt City" for its salt mining, an activity that continues in the region to the present day.[14]

Houston, Texas, near Minute Maid Park is a newly discovered saltworks. Grand Saline in East Texas has a Morton Salt mine. It is one of the largest in the world.

tag: table


document_title: List of states and union territories of India by population

question_text: state with highest population growth rate in india 2011

text: Census of India[edit]

text: The first population census in British India was conducted in 1872. Since India's independence in 1947, a census has been conducted every 10 years, the first occurring in 1951.[4] The census in India is conducted by the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner under the Ministry of Home Affairs, and is one of the largest administrative tasks conducted by a federal government.[5]

text: The latest population figures are based on data from the 2011 census of India.[6] During the decade of 2001–2011, India's annual population growth rate has slowed down from 2.15 percent to 1.76 percent.[6] Based on decennial census data, Dadra and Nagar Haveli have the fastest growth rate of 55.5 percent, followed by Daman and Diu (53.5 percent), Meghalaya (27.8 percent) and Arunachal Pradesh (25.9 percent). Nagaland recorded the lowest growth rate of -0.5 percent.[7]

text: India has 641,000 inhabited villages and 72.2 percent of the total population reside in these rural areas.[8] Of them 145,000 villages have population size of 500–999 persons; 130,000 villages have population size of 1000–1999 and 128,000 villages have population size of 200–499. There are 3,961 villages that have a population of 10,000 persons or more.[2] India's 27.8 percent urban population lives in more than 5,100 towns and over 380 urban agglomerations.[9] In the decade of 1991–2001, migration to major cities caused rapid increase in urban population.[10][11] On the basis of net migrants by last residence during the past decade, Maharashtra had most immigration with 2.3 million, followed by National Capital Territory of Delhi (1.7 million), Gujarat (0.68 million) and Haryana (0.67 million). Uttar Pradesh (−2.6 million) and Bihar (−1.7 million) topped the list for interstate emigration.[12] The five states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh account for almost half (47.90 percent) of the total Indian population.[6]

text: While the national average for sex ratio shows an increase from 933 in 2001 to 940 in 2011,[6] the 2011 census shows a sharp decline in child sex ratio, the number of females per thousand males in a population between age group 0–6 years.[6] States such as Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and Andaman and Nicobar Islands recorded an increase in child sex ratio.[6] National child sex ratio has declined from 927 in 2001 to 914 in 2011.[6] Telangana census was separated from Andhra Pradesh state census figures, after Telangana formally took birth on 2 June 2014.[13]

text: States and union territories (by population)[edit]

text: The total geographical area of India is 3,287,240 square kilometres (1,269,210 sq mi)α.[2] Population density is rounded to the nearest integer.

text: As per provisional census data of 2011, the total population of India is: 1,210,193,422.[6]

text:
Rank
State or union territory
Population (2011 Census)[14]
(% of population of India)[15]
Decadal growth (2001–2011)
Rural pop.[16]
(%)
Urban pop.[16]
(%)
Area[17]
Density
Sex ratio

1
Uttar Pradesh
7008207281477000000♠207,281,477
(16.49%)
20.1%
7008155111022000000♠155,111,022
(77.72%)
7007444704550000000♠44,470,455
(22.28%)
7011240928000000000♠240,928 km2 (93,023 sq mi)
6996828000000000000♠828/km2 (2,140/sq mi)
908

2
Maharashtra
7008112372972000000♠112,372,972
(9.28%)
16.0%
7007615454410000000♠61,545,441
(54.77%)
7007508275310000000♠50,827,531
(45.23%)
7011307713000000000♠307,713 km2 (118,809 sq mi)
6996365000000000000♠365/km2 (950/sq mi)
946

3
Bihar
7008103804637000000♠103,804,637
(8.58%)
25.1%
7007920750280000000♠92,075,028
(88.70%)
7007117296090000000♠11,729,609
(11.30%)
7010941630000000000♠94,163 km2 (36,357 sq mi)
6997110199999999999♠1,102/km2 (2,850/sq mi)
916

4
West Bengal
7007913477360000000♠91,347,736
(7.55%)
13.9%
7007622136760000000♠62,213,676
(68.11%)
7007291340600000000♠29,134,060
(31.89%)
7010887520000000000♠88,752 km2 (34,267 sq mi)
6997102900000000000♠1,029/km2 (2,670/sq mi)
947

5
Madhya Pradesh
7007725975650000000♠72,597,565
(6.00%)
20.3%
7007525378990000000♠52,537,899
(72.37%)
7007200596660000000♠20,059,666
(27.63%)
7011308245000000000♠308,245 km2 (119,014 sq mi)
6996236000000000000♠236/km2 (610/sq mi)
931

6
Tamil Nadu
7007721389580000000♠72,138,958
(5.96%)
15.6%
7007371892290000000♠37,189,229
(51.55%)
7007349497290000000♠34,949,729
(48.45%)
7011130058000000000♠130,058 km2 (50,216 sq mi)
6996554999999999999♠555/km2 (1,440/sq mi)
995

7
Rajasthan
7007686210120000000♠68,621,012
(5.67%)
21.4%
7007515402360000000♠51,540,236
(75.11%)
7007170807760000000♠17,080,776
(24.89%)
7011342239000000000♠342,239 km2 (132,139 sq mi)
6996200999999999999♠201/km2 (520/sq mi)
926

8
Karnataka
7007611307040000000♠61,130,704
(5.05%)
15.7%
7007375525290000000♠37,552,529
(61.43%)
7007235781750000000♠23,578,175
(38.57%)
7011191791000000000♠191,791 km2 (74,051 sq mi)
6996319000000000000♠319/km2 (830/sq mi)
968

9
Gujarat
7007603836280000000♠60,383,628
(5.00%)
19.2%
7007346708170000000♠34,670,817
(57.42%)
7007257128110000000♠25,712,811
(42.58%)
7011196024000000000♠196,024 km2 (75,685 sq mi)
6996308000000000000♠308/km2 (800/sq mi)
918

10
Andhra Pradesh
7007493867990000000♠49,386,799
 (4.08%)
11.1%
7007347763890000000♠34,776,389
(70.42%)
7007146104100000000♠14,610,410
(29.58%)
7011162968000000000♠162,968 km2 (62,922 sq mi)
6996303000000000000♠303/km2 (780/sq mi)
993

11
Odisha
7007419473580000000♠41,947,358
(3.47%)
14.0%
7007349512340000000♠34,951,234
(83.32%)
7006699612400000000♠6,996,124
(16.68%)
7011155707000000000♠155,707 km2 (60,119 sq mi)
6996268999999999999♠269/km2 (700/sq mi)
978

12
Telangana
7007352867570000000♠35,286,757
(2.97%)
17.87%
7007215853130000000♠21,585,313
(61.33%)
7007136086650000000♠13,608,665
(38.66%)
7011114840000000000♠114,840 km2 (44,340 sq mi)
6996307000000000000♠307/km2 (800/sq mi)
988

13
Kerala
7007333876770000000♠33,387,677
(2.76%)
4.9%
7007174455060000000♠17,445,506
(52.28%)
7007159321710000000♠15,932,171
(47.72%)
7010388630000000000♠38,863 km2 (15,005 sq mi)
6996859000000000000♠859/km2 (2,220/sq mi)
1,084

14
Jharkhand
7007329662380000000♠32,966,238
(2.72%)
22.3%
7007250369460000000♠25,036,946
(75.95%)
7006792929200000000♠7,929,292
(24.05%)
7010797140000000000♠79,714 km2 (30,778 sq mi)
6996414000000000000♠414/km2 (1,070/sq mi)
947

15
Assam
7007311692720000000♠31,169,272
(2.58%)
16.9%
7007267805260000000♠26,780,526
(85.92%)
7006438875600000000♠4,388,756
(14.08%)
7010784380000000000♠78,438 km2 (30,285 sq mi)
6996397000000000000♠397/km2 (1,030/sq mi)
954

16
Punjab
7007277042360000000♠27,704,236
(2.30%)
13.7%
7007173168000000000♠17,316,800
(62.51%)
7007103874360000000♠10,387,436
(37.49%)
7010503620000000000♠50,362 km2 (19,445 sq mi)
6996549999999999999♠550/km2 (1,400/sq mi)
893

17
Chhattisgarh
7007255401960000000♠25,540,196
(2.11%)
22.6%
7007196036580000000♠19,603,658
(76.76%)
7006593653800000000♠5,936,538
(23.24%)
7011135191000000000♠135,191 km2 (52,198 sq mi)
6996189000000000000♠189/km2 (490/sq mi)
991

18
Haryana
7007253530810000000♠25,353,081
(2.09%)
19.9%
7007165314930000000♠16,531,493
(75.75%)
7006882158800000000♠8,821,588
(24.25%)
7010442120000000000♠44,212 km2 (17,070 sq mi)
6996573000000000000♠573/km2 (1,480/sq mi)
877

19
Jammu and Kashmir
7007125489260000000♠12,548,926
(1.04%)
23.7%
7006913482000000000♠9,134,820
(72.79%)
7006341410600000000♠3,414,106
(27.21%)
7011222236000000000♠222,236 km2 (85,806 sq mi)
6995570000000000000♠57/km2 (150/sq mi)
883

20
Uttarakhand
7007101167520000000♠10,116,752
(0.84%)
19.2%
7006702558300000000♠7,025,583
(69.45%)
7006309116900000000♠3,091,169
(30.55%)
7010534830000000000♠53,483 km2 (20,650 sq mi)
6996189000000000000♠189/km2 (490/sq mi)
963

21
Himachal Pradesh
7006686460200000000♠6,864,602
(0.57%)
12.8%
7006616780500000000♠6,167,805
(89.96%)
7005688704000000000♠688,704
(10.04%)
7010556730000000000♠55,673 km2 (21,495 sq mi)
6996122999999999999♠123/km2 (320/sq mi)
974

22
Tripura
7006367103200000000♠3,671,032
(0.30%)
14.7%
7006271005100000000♠2,710,051
(73.82%)
7005960981000000000♠960,981
(26.18%)
7010104860000000000♠10,486 km2 (4,049 sq mi)
6996350000000000000♠350/km2 (910/sq mi)
961

23
Meghalaya
7006296400700000000♠2,964,007
(0.24%)
27.8%
7006236897100000000♠2,368,971
(79.92%)
7005595036000000000♠595,036
(20.08%)
7010224290000000000♠22,429 km2 (8,660 sq mi)
6996131999999999999♠132/km2 (340/sq mi)
986

24
Manipurβ
7006272175600000000♠2,721,756
(0.22%)
18.7%
7006189962400000000♠1,899,624
(79.79%)
7005822132000000000♠822,132
(20.21%)
7010223270000000000♠22,327 km2 (8,621 sq mi)
6996122000000000000♠122/km2 (320/sq mi)
987

25
Nagaland
7006198060200000000♠1,980,602
(0.16%)
-0.5%
7006140686100000000♠1,406,861
(71.03%)
7005573741000000000♠573,741
(28.97%)
7010165790000000000♠16,579 km2 (6,401 sq mi)
6996119000000000000♠119/km2 (310/sq mi)
931

26
Goa
7006145772300000000♠1,457,723
(0.12%)
8.2%
7005551414000000000♠551,414
(37.83%)
7005906309000000000♠906,309
(62.17%)
7009370200000000000♠3,702 km2 (1,429 sq mi)
6996394000000000000♠394/km2 (1,020/sq mi)
968

27
Arunachal Pradesh
7006138261100000000♠1,382,611
(0.11%)
25.9%
7006106916500000000♠1,069,165
(77.33%)
7005313446000000000♠313,446
(22.67%)
7010837430000000000♠83,743 km2 (32,333 sq mi)
6995170000000000000♠17/km2 (44/sq mi)
920

28
Mizoram
7006109101400000000♠1,091,014
(0.09%)
22.8%
7005529037000000000♠529,037
(48.49%)
7005561997000000000♠561,997
(51.51%)
7010210810000000000♠21,081 km2 (8,139 sq mi)
6995519999999999999♠52/km2 (130/sq mi)
975

29
Sikkim
7005607688000000000♠607,688
(0.05%)
12.4%
7005455962000000000♠455,962
(75.03%)
7005151726000000000♠151,726
(24.97%)
7009709600000000000♠7,096 km2 (2,740 sq mi)
6995859999999999999♠86/km2 (220/sq mi)
889

7001300000000000000♠NCT
Delhi
7007189800000000000♠18,980,000
(1.38%)
21%
7005419319000000000♠419,319
(2.50%)
7007163339160000000♠16,333,916
(97.50%)
7009148400000000000♠1,484 km2 (573 sq mi)
6998112970000000000♠11,297/km2 (29,260/sq mi)
866

7001310000000000000♠UT1
Puducherry
7006124446400000000♠1,244,464
(0.10%)
27.7%
7005394341000000000♠394,341
(31.69%)
7005850123000000000♠850,123
(68.31%)
7008479000000000000♠479 km2 (185 sq mi)
6997259800000000000♠2,598/km2 (6,730/sq mi)
1,038

7001320000000000000♠UT2
Chandigarh
7006105545000000000♠1,055,450
(0.09%)
17.1%
7004290040000000000♠29,004
(2.75%)
7006102568200000000♠1,025,682
(97.25%)
7008114000000000000♠114 km2 (44 sq mi)
6997925200000000000♠9,252/km2 (23,960/sq mi)
818

7001330000000000000♠UT3
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
7005379944000000000♠379,944
(0.03%)
6.7%
7005244411000000000♠244,411
(64.33%)
7005135533000000000♠135,533
(35.67%)
7009824900000000000♠8,249 km2 (3,185 sq mi)
6995460000000000000♠46/km2 (120/sq mi)
878

7001340000000000000♠UT4
Dadra and Nagar Haveli
7005342853000000000♠342,853
(0.03%)
55.5%
7005183024000000000♠183,024
(53.38%)
7005159829000000000♠159,829
(46.62%)
7008491000000000000♠491 km2 (190 sq mi)
6996698000000000000♠698/km2 (1,810/sq mi)
775

7001350000000000000♠UT5
Daman and Diu
7005242911000000000♠242,911
(0.02%)
53.5%
7004603310000000000♠60,331
(24.84%)
7005182580000000000♠182,580
(75.16%)
7008112000000000000♠112 km2 (43 sq mi)
6997216900000000000♠2,169/km2 (5,620/sq mi)
618

7001360000000000000♠UT6
Lakshadweep
7004644290000000000♠64,429
(0.01%)
6.2%
7004141210000000000♠14,121
(21.92%)
7004503080000000000♠50,308
(78.08%)
7007320000000000000♠32 km2 (12 sq mi)
6997201300000000000♠2,013/km2 (5,210/sq mi)
946

Total
India
1,210,193,422
(100%)
17.64%
833,087,662
(68.84%)
377,105,760
(31.16%)
3,287,240 km2 (1,269,210 sq mi)
382/km2 (990/sq mi)
943

text: Notes[edit]

text:
For determining population density of India and the State of Jammu and Kashmir, the data excludes areas claimed by India but controlled by Pakistan (78,114 km2) and China (42,735 km2).[18][19]
This includes 120,849 square kilometres (46,660 sq mi) of territory controlled by Pakistan, but claimed by India along with Aksai Chin and Shaksgam Valley, territories administered by the People's Republic of China.
^β Excludes Mao-Maram, Paomata, and Purul sub-divisions of Senapati district of Manipur.

tag: ul


document_title: List of cities and towns in India by nicknames

question_text: which city is called the manchester of north india

text: List by states[edit]

text: Andhra Pradesh[edit]

text:
City/town
Nickname

Dharmavaram

Silk City of Andhra Pradesh[1]

Kakinada

Pensioner's Paradise[2]

Piduguralla

Lime City[3]

Rajahmundry

Cultural Capital of Andhra Pradesh[4]

Tenali

Andhra Paris[5]

Tirupati

Spiritual Capital of India
Spiritual Capital of Andhra Pradesh[6]

Visakhapatnam

Financial Capital of Andhra Pradesh[6]
The Jewel of the East Coast[7]
Goa of the East[7]
The City of Destiny[7]

text: Bihar[edit]

text:
City/town
Nickname

Muzaffarpur

The Land of Leechi[8]

Bhagalpur

Silk City[9][10]

Nalanda

land of knowledge

text: Gujarat[edit]

text:
City/town
Nickname

Ahmedabad

INDIA'S first world heritage city
Manchester City Of India
Boston of India

Surat

Textile City of India
Diamond City of India

Baroda (Vadodara)

Banyan City[11]
Cultural Capital of Gujarat (Sanskari Nagari)[12]
Power Hub of India[13]

text: Haryana[edit]

text:
City/town
Nickname

Gurgaon

Millennium city of India

text: Jharkhand[edit]

text:
City/town
Nickname

Jamshedpur

Steel City of India[14]

Dhanbad

The Coal Capital of India

text: Karnataka[edit]

text:
City/town
Nickname

Bengaluru (Bengaluru)

Silicon Valley of India[15]
Science City of India[16]
Garden City of India[17]

Coorg (Kodagu)

Scotland of India[18]

Mangalore (Mangaluru)

Rome of the East[19]
Ice Cream Capital of India[20]

Mysore (Mysuru)

Sandalwood City[21]
Cultural Capital of Karnataka[22]
City of Palaces (†3)
Heritage City of Karnataka[23]

Sakleshpur (Sakleshpura)

Poor Man's Ooty[24][25]

text: Kerala[edit]

text:
City/town
Nickname

Kochi (Cochin)

Queen of Arabian Sea[26]

Kozhikode (Calicut)

City of Spices.[27]

Kottayam

City of letters (Aksharanagri)[28][better source needed]
City of Murals[28]
City of latex[28]
City of lakes[28]

Kollam (Quilon)

Cashew Capital of the World[29]

Alappuzha (Alleppey)

Venice of east[30][better source needed]

Kasaragod

Land of Seven Languages (സപ്തഭാഷസംഗമഭൂമി, Saptabashasangamabhoomi)[31]
Harkwillia[32]

Palakkad

Land of Palm trees[33]
Rice bowl of Kerala[34]

Thrissur

The Cultural capital of Kerala[35]
Land of Poorams (പൂരങ്ങളുടെ നാട്)[36]
The land of Vadakkumnathan (വടക്കുംനാഥന്റെ മണ്ണ്)[37]

Gold capital of India

Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram)

Evergreen City of India[38]

text: Maharashtra[edit]

text:
City/town
Nickname

Akola

Cotton City of India[39][40][41]

Nagpur

Orange City,[42]

Jalgoan

* City of Banana

Pune

Queen of Deccan[43]
Oxford of the east
Educational hub
Information Technology (IT) hub
culture capital of Maharashtra

Kolhapur

City of Wrestlers[44]

Mumbai

City of Dreams, Financial Capital Of India

text: Meghalaya[edit]

text:
City/Town
Nickname

Shillong

Scotland of East

text: Odisha[edit]

text:
City/town
Nickname

Balangir

Cloth City of Odisha[45]

Berhampur

The Textile City[45]

Bhubaneswar

The Temple City[46]

Cuttack

The silver city of India

Rourkela

Steel city of Odisha

text: Punjab[edit]

text:
City/town
Nickname

Patiala

Royal City[47]

Ludhiana

Manchester of Punjab

text: Rajasthan[edit]

text:
City/town
Nickname

Bundi

Little Kashi[48]

Jaipur

Pink City[49]

Udaipur

City of Lakes[50]
Venice of the East (†4)[50][51]

text:
City
Nickname

Dholpur

Diamond City

text: Tamil Nadu[edit]

text:
City/town
Nickname

Chennai (Madras)

Detroit of Asia[52]
Automobile Capital of India[52]
Gateway of South India
Healthcare Capital of India[53]

Coimbatore

Manchester of South India[54][55]

Madurai

Athens of the east[56]

Salem

Steel City[57]
Mango City

Puducherry (Pondicherry)

Paris of the East (†3)

Tirunelveli

City of paddy fields[58]
Oxford of Southindia

Tuticorin (Thoothukudi)

Pearl City[59]

Auroville

City of Dawn

Yercaud

Poor Man's Ooty[60][61]
Jewel of the South[62]

Sivakasi

Kutty (A little) Japan[63]

Ooty

Queen of Hill Stations[64]

Kodaikanal

Princess of Hill stations[65]

Dindigul

Biriyani city of Tamil Nadu[65]

text: Telangana[edit]

text:
City/town
Nickname

Hyderabad

City of Biryani
City of Pearls[66]

Nalgonda

City of Rocks

text: Uttar Pradesh[edit]

text:
City/town
Nickname

Lucknow

City of Nawabs[67]
City of Gardens

text:
City
Nickname

Kanpur

The Leather City Of The World
Manchester Of The East[68]

Allahabad (Prayag)

Sangam City[69]
City of Prime Ministers[70]
Abode of God[70](भगवान का घर)
King of Pilgrims(तीर्थो का राजा)

Varanasi

The City Of Ghats

text: West Bengal[edit]

text:
City
Nickname(s)

Calcutta (Kolkata)

City of Joy[71]
City of Palaces(†3)
Cultural Capital of India[72]
Sweet Capital
Heaven of the Aged
Kallolini Tilottama

Siliguri

Gateway of Northeast India[73]
Gateway to the Dooars[74]

Asansol

City of black diamond

text: Anchors[edit]

text:
(†1) (For other places with the same nickname as 'Paris of the East', see Paris of the East)
(†2) (For other places with the same nickname as 'Venice of the East', see List of places called Venice of the East)
(†3) (For other places with the same nickname as 'City of Palaces', see City of Palaces)


document_title: Judicial discretion

question_text: who has the power (judicial) to make decisions in courts of law

question_tokens: who has the power ( judicial ) to make decisions in courts of law

text: Judicial discretion

text: Judicial discretion is the power of the judiciary to make some legal decisions according to their discretion. Under the doctrine of the separation of powers, the ability of judges to exercise discretion is an aspect of judicial independence. Where appropriate, judicial discretion allows a judge to decide a legal case or matter within a range of possible decisions.

text: However, where the exercise of discretion goes beyond constraints set down by legislation, by binding precedent, or by a constitution, the court may be abusing its discretion and undermining the rule of law. In that case, the decision of the court may be ultra vires, and may sometimes be characterized as judicial activism.

text: Chief Justice John Marshall wrote the following on this subject:

text: Judicial power, as contradistinguished from the power of the laws, has no existence. Courts are the mere instruments of the law, and can will nothing. When they are said to exercise a discretion, it is a mere legal discretion, a discretion to be exercised in discerning the course prescribed by law; and, when that is discerned, it is the duty of the court to follow it. Judicial power is never exercised for the purpose of giving effect to the will of the judge, always for the purpose of giving effect to the will of the legislature; or, in other words, to the will of the law.[1]

text: Concerns with regard to recidivism and other law and order issues have led to the introduction of mandatory sentencing. E.g. three-strikes laws and most sex offender registry laws in US are examples of laws carrying severe consequences, and which does not leave room for sentencing judges to consider the actual gravity of the offense, thus significantly limiting judicial discretion in sentencing. Introduction of mandatory minimum in criminal sentencing is often viewed as a shift of judicial power from judges to prosecutors, who are capable of affecting the length of potential sentence through their charging decision, e.g. filing charges on lesser included offense and dropping the charges carrying mandatory minimum sentences.[2] Mandatory sentencing laws have been particularly popular among legislators in the United States. This has provoked formation of non-profit organizations such as Families Against Mandatory Minimums, Women Against Registry and RSOL to lobby for reinstatement of judicial discretion in criminal sentencing.


document_title: In Cold Blood

question_text: who played truman capote in in cold blood

text: In Cold Blood

text: Overview of the crime[edit]

text: Herb Clutter was a prosperous farmer in western Kansas. He employed as many as 18 farmhands, who admired and respected him for his fair treatment and good wages. Two elder daughters, Eveanna and Beverly, had moved out and started their adult lives; Nancy, 16, and Kenyon, 15, were in high school. Clutter's wife Bonnie had reportedly been incapacitated by clinical depression and physical ailments since the births of her children, although this was later disputed.

text: Two ex-convicts recently paroled from the Kansas State Penitentiary, Richard Eugene "Dick" Hickock and Perry Edward Smith, committed the robbery and murders in the early morning hours of November 15, 1959. A former cellmate of Hickock's, Floyd Wells, had worked for Herb Clutter and told Hickock that Clutter kept large amounts of cash in a safe. Hickock soon hatched the idea to steal the safe and start a new life in Mexico. According to Capote, Hickock described his plan as "a cinch, the perfect score." Hickock later contacted Smith, another former cellmate, about committing the robbery with him.[5] In fact, Herb Clutter had no safe and did all his business by check.

text: After driving more than four hundred miles across the state of Kansas on the evening of November 14, Hickock and Smith arrived in Holcomb, located the Clutter home, and entered through an unlocked door while the family slept. Upon rousing the Clutters and discovering there was no safe, they bound and gagged the family and continued to search for money, but found little else of value in the house. Still determined to leave no witnesses, the pair briefly debated what to do; Smith, notoriously unstable and prone to violent acts in fits of rage, slit Herb Clutter's throat and then shot him in the head. Capote writes that Smith recounted later, "I didn't want to harm the man. I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Soft spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat."[6] Kenyon, Nancy, and then Mrs. Clutter were also murdered, each by a single shotgun blast to the head. Hickock and Smith left the crime scene with a small portable radio, a pair of binoculars, and less than fifty dollars in cash.

text: Smith later claimed in his oral confession that Hickock murdered the two women. When asked to sign his confession, however, Smith refused. According to Capote, he wanted to accept responsibility for all four killings because, he said, he was "sorry for Dick's mother." Smith added, "She's a real sweet person."[7] Hickock always maintained that Smith committed all four killings.

text: On the basis of a tip from Wells, who contacted the prison warden after hearing of the murders, Hickock and Smith were identified as suspects and arrested in Las Vegas on December 30, 1959. Both men eventually confessed after interrogations by detectives of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. They were brought back to Kansas, where they were tried together for the murders. Their trial took place at the Finney County courthouse in Garden City, Kansas, from March 22 to March 29, 1960. They both pleaded temporary insanity at the trial, but local GPs evaluated the accused and pronounced them sane. The jury deliberated for only 45 minutes before finding both Hickock and Smith guilty of murder. Their conviction carried a mandatory death sentence at the time.

text: After five years on death row at the Kansas State Penitentiary (now known as Lansing Correctional Facility) in Lansing, Kansas, Smith and Hickock were executed by hanging just after midnight on April 14, 1965. Hickock was executed first and was pronounced dead at 12:41 a.m. after hanging for nearly 20 minutes. Smith followed shortly after and was pronounced dead at 1:19 a.m. Warden Official Greg Seamon presided over the executions in Lansing. The gallows used in their executions now forms part of the collections of the Kansas State Historical Society.[8]

text: Hickock and Smith are also suspected of involvement in the Walker family murders, a notion which is mentioned in the book, though this connection has not been proven.

text: Capote's research[edit]

text: Capote became interested in the murders after reading about it in The New York Times.[9] He brought his childhood friend Nelle Harper Lee (who would later win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel To Kill a Mockingbird) to help gain the confidence of the locals in Kansas. Capote did copious research for the book, ultimately compiling 8,000 pages of notes.[10] Capote's research also included letters from Smith's Army buddy, Don Cullivan, who was present during the trial.[11] After the criminals were found, tried, and convicted, Capote conducted personal interviews with both Smith and Hickock. Smith especially fascinated Capote; in the book he is portrayed as the more sensitive and guilt-ridden of the two killers. The book was not completed until after Smith and Hickock were executed.

text: An alternate explanation for Capote's interest holds that The New Yorker presented the Clutter story to him as one of two choices for a story, the other being to follow a Manhattan cleaning woman on her rounds. Capote supposedly chose the Clutter story, believing it would be the easier assignment.[12] Capote later did write a piece about following a cleaning woman, which he entitled "A Day's Work" and included in his book Music for Chameleons.

text: Veracity[edit]

text: In Cold Blood brought Capote much praise from the literary community. Yet despite the book's billing as a factual account, critics have questioned its veracity, arguing that Capote changed facts to suit the story, added scenes that had never taken place, and manufactured dialogue.[4][13] Writing in Esquire in 1966, Phillip K. Tompkins noted factual discrepancies after he traveled to Kansas and talked to some of the same people interviewed by Capote. In a telephone interview with Tompkins, Josephine Meier, the wife of Finney County Undersheriff Wendle Meier, denied that she heard Smith cry and that she held his hand as described by Capote. In Cold Blood indicates that Meier and Smith became close, yet she told Tompkins she spent little time with Smith and did not talk much with him. Tompkins concluded:

text: Capote has, in short, achieved a work of art. He has told exceedingly well a tale of high terror in his own way. But, despite the brilliance of his self-publicizing efforts, he has made both a tactical and a moral error that will hurt him in the short run. By insisting that ‘every word’ of his book is true he has made himself vulnerable to those readers who are prepared to examine seriously such a sweeping claim.

text: True crime writer Jack Olsen also commented on the alleged fabrications:

text: I recognized it as a work of art, but I know fakery when I see it, […] Capote completely fabricated quotes and whole scenes... The book made something like $6 million in 1960s money, and nobody wanted to discuss anything wrong with a moneymaker like that in the publishing business.

text: His criticisms were quoted in Esquire, to which Capote replied, "Jack Olsen is just jealous."[14]

text: That was true, of course, […] I was jealous—all that money? I'd been assigned the Clutter case by Harper & Row until we found out that Capote and his cousin  [sic], Harper Lee, had been already on the case in Dodge City for six months. […] That book did two things. It made true crime an interesting, successful, commercial genre, but it also began the process of tearing it down. I blew the whistle in my own weak way. I'd only published a couple of books at that time—but since it was such a superbly written book, nobody wanted to hear about it.[14]

text: Alvin Dewey, the lead investigator portrayed in In Cold Blood, later said that the last scene, in which he visits the Clutters' graves, was Capote's invention, while other Kansas residents whom Capote interviewed have claimed they or their relatives were mischaracterized or misquoted.[15] Dewey said that the rest of the book was factually accurate. Further evidence indicates that the book is not as “immaculately factual” as Capote had always claimed it to be. The book depicts Dewey as being the brilliant investigator who cracks the Clutter murder case, but files recovered from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation show that when Floyd Wells came forward naming Richard Hickock and Perry Smith as likely suspects, Dewey did not immediately act on the information, as the book portrays him doing, because Dewey still held to his belief that the murders were committed by locals who "had a grudge against Herb Clutter".[4]

text: Publication[edit]

text: In Cold Blood was first published as a four-part serial in The New Yorker, beginning with the September 25, 1965 issue. The piece was an immediate sensation, particularly in Kansas, where the usual number of New Yorker copies sold out immediately. In Cold Blood was first published in book form by Random House in January 1966.[16] The book, however, was copyrighted in 1965, and this date appears on the title page of most printings of the book and even in some library indices as the original publication date. The Library of Congress lists 1966 as the publication date and 1965 as the copyright date.[17]

text: The cover, which was designed by S. Neil Fujita, shows a hatpin with what appeared originally as a red drop of blood at its top end. After Capote first saw the design, he requested that the drop be made a deeper shade of red to represent the passage of time since the incident. A black border was added to the ominous image.[18]

text: Reviews and impact[edit]

text: Writing for The New York Times, Conrad Knickerbocker gave praise to Capote's talent for detail throughout the novel and declared the book a "masterpiece" — an "agonizing, terrible, possessed, proof that the times, so surfeited with disasters, are still capable of tragedy".[19]

text: In a controversial review of the novel published in 1966 for The New Republic, Stanley Kauffmann, criticising Capote's writing style throughout the novel, states that he "demonstrates on almost every page that he is the most outrageously overrated stylist of our time" and later asserts that "the depth in this book is no deeper than its mine-shaft of factual detail; its height is rarely higher than that of good journalism and often falls below it."[20]

text: Tom Wolfe wrote in his essay "Pornoviolence": "The book is neither a who-done-it nor a will-they-be-caught, since the answers to both questions are known from the outset... Instead, the book's suspense is based largely on a totally new idea in detective stories: the promise of gory details, and the withholding of them until the end."[21]

text: In The Independent's Book of a Lifetime series, reviewer Kate Colquhoun asserts that "the book – for which he made a reputed 8000 pages of research notes – is plotted and structured with taut writerly flair. Its characters pulse with recognisable life; its places are palpable. Careful prose binds the reader to his unfolding story. Put simply, the book was conceived of journalism and born of a novelist."[22]

text: Adaptations[edit]

text: Film[edit]

text: Three film adaptations based upon the book have been produced. The first focuses on the details of the book, whereas the later two explore Capote's fascination with researching the novel. The first adaptation was the 1967 film of the same name by Richard Brooks, who directed and adapted the screenplay. It starred Robert Blake as Perry Smith and Scott Wilson as Richard Hickock. John Forsythe played the investigator (Alvin Dewey), from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, who apprehended the killers.[23][24] The film, shot in black and white,[23] was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, and Best Adapted Screenplay.[24][25]

text: The second and third film adaptations tell the story of Capote's experiences in writing the story and his subsequent fascination with the murders. Capote (2005) starred Philip Seymour Hoffman, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Truman Capote, Clifton Collins, Jr. as Perry Smith, and Catherine Keener as Harper Lee.[26] The film was critically acclaimed,[27] and was nominated for five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor (Hoffman), Best Supporting Actress (Keener), Best Director (Bennett Miller), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Dan Futterman).[28]

text: A year later the 2006 film Infamous, starring Toby Jones as Capote, Daniel Craig as Smith, and Sandra Bullock as Lee, was released to favorable reviews.[29]

text: Television[edit]

text: The book was adapted into a two-part 1996 television miniseries starring Anthony Edwards, Eric Roberts, and Sam Neill,[30] portraying, respectively, Dick Hickock, Perry Smith, and Alvin Dewey.[31]

text: Graphic novel[edit]

text: Oni Press published a graphic novel, Capote in Kansas, by Ande Parks and Chris Samnee, in 2005.[32]