text:
User:VarunRajendran

This is a partial (but almost complete) list of articles created and edited, as well as a list of people who have educational backgrounds in medicine but are not known for being doctors.

Articles created
articles that no one else has written about yet that I went ahead and did or created redirects
 * Gunter Levi
 * Te dejo madrid redirect
 * Te dejo Madrid
 * Bobby trendy
 * Johnny Lechner
 * Storsjo
 * The Secret of the Ooze redirect
 * Dark tales of japan redirect
 * Dark Tales of Japan
 * The Street League
 * Cuba Emergency Response System
 * Frooti
 * Gordon Bombay
 * Guilty Conscience (song) redirect
 * Saregama India
 * Glen Cao
 * Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Tarkhan ibn Uzalagh al-Farabi redirect
 * Beijing Evening News
 * Beijinger in New York
 * Joel Zwick
 * Saffron Swastika redirect
 * Onitsuka Tiger redirect
 * Reef (shoe company) redirect
 * Diane Fanning
 * Dean Faiello
 * Kzarim
 * Ktsarim redirect
 * קצרים redirect
 * Ktzarim redirect
 * Lili Boniche
 * Mineral Bath redirect
 * Melissa Rauch
 * Bachelor in Fine Arts redirect
 * Joisy redirect
 * C. Arden Pope
 * Orbitz (drink) redirect
 * Zaki Chehab
 * Boy Scoutz N' The Hood redirect
 * Cora Daniels
 * Ricardo Blas Jr.
 * Tres Delinquentes
 * We Shall Remain (documentary)
 * Ked Killen
 * Bangs (rapper) recreated

Major Edits
edits which largely affect the context of the article, dependent on the size of the article itself; smaller articles require less editing to be considered major edits than larger articles.
 * Ding Dong Song
 * Tarcisio Burgnich
 * Slim Thug
 * American Desi
 * Rafiq Zakaria
 * Georgia Southern Rap Scene
 * The Chakachas
 * King Abdulaziz University
 * Mulund
 * Dombivli
 * Police Academy
 * Golden Harvest
 * Sol Yurick
 * Münchner Kindl
 * Barry Goldwater
 * Raita (condiment)
 * Reef (disambiguation)
 * James Carville
 * Carville, Louisiana
 * Johnny Dangerously
 * Thunderheart
 * Malayalam cinema
 * Bob Feller
 * Napoleon Dynamite
 * Mark Hofmann
 * Farnsworth Bentley
 * Streetcarver
 * Groin
 * Phil Esbenshade
 * Deepal Shaw
 * Portal:Association football
 * The Saffron Swastika
 * Nobody's Hero
 * Al-Jazeera Club
 * Al Jazira Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium
 * List of football clubs in India
 * Viva Kerala
 * John Oliver (comedian)
 * ASICS
 * FC Kochin
 * Bahasa
 * Steve Kagan
 * R-Mall
 * Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction
 * Pakola
 * Cheb i Sabbah
 * Algerian hip hop
 * Ricky Ross (drug trafficker)
 * Irene Cara
 * Blue rose
 * Alan Gell
 * Mark Mothersbaugh
 * Kyper
 * Haberdasher
 * Bill and Peter's Bogus Journey
 * Three Days of the Chicken
 * Bombay mix
 * Gbenga Akinnagbe
 * Marie Matiko
 * Orville Lloyd Douglas
 * A Mighty Heart
 * Sunil Gulati
 * Chaim Topol
 * The Big Tease
 * Kim Sun-il
 * Daggermouth
 * Trick Daddy
 * Do It Best
 * The Edgewater
 * Morehead-Cain Scholarship
 * League of Conservation Voters
 * Southampton (village), New York
 * Quapaw
 * Devang Patel
 * The Inscrutable Americans
 * Julian Omidi deleted
 * Gerson Lehrman Group
 * CHOPS
 * La Belle et le Bad Boy
 * Bucheon FC 1995
 * Medieval Times
 * Shiva Keshavan
 * Avinash Dixit
 * Delfin Quishpe
 * Rufus Hannah
 * Kerry–Feingold Amendment
 * Maki
 * Harlem Youth Soccer Association
 * Cobrastyle
 * Akkara Kazhchakal
 * Days Go By (Dirty Vegas song)
 * Dirty Vegas (album)

Minor Edits
small editing done to fix grammer, spelling, minor factual inaccuracies, adding of relevant links etc.
 * Gen
 * Snoop Dogg
 * Ran Hibiki
 * Carnac the Magnificent
 * Grey Goose vodka
 * Will Smith
 * Rammstein
 * Laundry Service
 * List of Famous Nairs deleted
 * Richard Simmons
 * The House of the Rising Sun
 * Nakahama Manjirō
 * Communist Party of India (Marxist)
 * Laotian American
 * Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista
 * 50 Pence
 * Lady Sovereign
 * Korea University
 * Emperor's Cup
 * Monsoon Wedding
 * Felix da Housecat
 * Khia
 * Mike Jones
 * Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
 * Concordia University System
 * Oliver Kahn
 * Michael Jordan
 * Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham
 * Johnny Lever
 * Poetic Justice
 * Moonwalker
 * Developing country
 * Warren Beatty
 * Ernie Reyes Jr.
 * Aaliyah
 * Little Big Man
 * Bombay (disambiguation)
 * 2010: The Year We Make Contact
 * Mantorras
 * The Other Final
 * Douglass High School
 * Futurama
 * Homer's Enemy
 * University of Texas at Austin
 * University of Texas Medical Branch
 * Lloyd Doggett
 * The Chi-Lites
 * American Indian Movement
 * Snowmass Village, Colorado
 * Navya Nair
 * American Pie 2
 * Republic of Mahabad
 * Little Peggy March
 * Sean Lennon
 * Dropkick Murphys
 * James and the Giant Peach
 * Talvin Singh
 * Ig Nobel Prize
 * University of La Verne
 * Ruslana
 * Czech Airlines
 * Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport
 * Nawal Al Zoghbi
 * The Da Vinci Code (film)
 * Uyghur
 * The Onion
 * List of Vietnamese Americans
 * Hawthorne Heights
 * DJ Keoki
 * John H. Sununu
 * Davinder Singh
 * Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?
 * United States embargo against Cuba
 * Shaka Hislop
 * Jean-Michel Basquiat
 * Coming Out (2006 film) deleted article
 * Banksy
 * Norman Washington Manley
 * Thierry Henry
 * Muggsy Bogues
 * Southern University
 * ITV
 * Maxim Litvinov
 * Roobarb
 * Lev Yashin
 * Canadian Bacon (film)
 * Casus belli
 * Jacob Arabo
 * Bad Boy Records
 * Black Rob
 * Da Band
 * Bling-bling
 * The Real World: Hawaii
 * Category:Trey Parker and Matt Stone deleted
 * Juvenile (rapper)
 * Al-Salam
 * Al-Nasr
 * Polícia de Segurança Pública
 * Al-Salam
 * Chris Garver
 * Template:Football in India
 * List of football clubs
 * Netball
 * Kingwood, Houston, Texas
 * Tin Cup
 * Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Kochi
 * Topsy the Elephant
 * Junoon
 * Bahasa
 * Mayos de Navojoa
 * Technologic
 * Daft Punk
 * Japan national football team
 * What About Bob?
 * Laika
 * Regina Spektor
 * Crossfire (board game)
 * Nutty Buddy
 * Lipovitan
 * Saddam Beach
 * Andalusian classical music
 * Music of Algeria
 * List of Sephardic Jews
 * Timothy Carey
 * Floyd Red Crow Westerman
 * Chris Farley
 * Foreign celebrity advertising
 * Suntory
 * Aum
 * Aaliyah
 * Jinnah (film)
 * Chin Gentsai
 * Camp Bonifas
 * Michael Wolff
 * Matt Pinfield
 * Allie DiMeco
 * Jesse Draper
 * Camp Bonifas
 * Apache Indian
 * Lee Hyori
 * Road to Rupert
 * Joseph Merrick
 * Dance Dance Revolution
 * Trabant
 * Geri Halliwell
 * Rome-old and Juli-eh
 * Individual and political action on climate change
 * List of physically disabled politicians
 * Gloria (Laura Branigan song)
 * Of Ice and Men
 * Azis
 * Simple Things
 * Gellan gum
 * I Can't Stan You
 * Interchange (road)
 * Mayuko Takata
 * Shrek the Third
 * Skid Row, Los Angeles, California
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 TV series)
 * Emy Coligado
 * The Mighty Ducks films
 * Jasmine Guy
 * Spelman College
 * Stanfield Organization
 * Meera Simhan
 * List of controversial music videos article deleted
 * Afrika Shox
 * The Ram has Touched the Wall
 * John List
 * Boston Minutemen
 * Mariane Pearl
 * Marymount Manhattan College
 * O.P.P. (song)
 * Brooke Valentine
 * National FFA Organization
 * For Your Eyes Only (film)
 * Prairie dog
 * Hanwha
 * Omar Ibn Said
 * Saaphyri Windsor
 * My Super Sweet 16
 * Honey Lee
 * L. A. Reid
 * Wayne Brady
 * Takeru Kobayashi
 * CNN-YouTube presidential debates
 * It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
 * Gulf Breeze, Florida
 * List of University of Texas at Austin people
 * Baghdad Battery
 * Lake Winnipesaukee
 * Trabant (band)
 * Bank of the West Classic
 * Palma de Mallorca
 * Jim Jeffords
 * Boy-Scoutz N the Hood
 * Death is a Bitch
 * A Fish out of Water (Family Guy)
 * Wilson the Volleyball
 * Daggermouth
 * Axel F
 * Dan Hedaya
 * International response to Hurricane Katrina
 * Robert Treuhaft
 * Kim
 * Rice hulls
 * George Washington (horse)
 * Wyoming, Michigan
 * $pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)
 * Cutco
 * Desireless
 * BZFlag
 * The Dog (Seinfeld episode)
 * Brian George
 * Extended Pilot
 * Oklahoma Congressional Districts
 * LowerMyBills.com
 * Donkey Konga
 * Don Most
 * My Nightingale
 * FC MIKA
 * Multinational force in Iraq
 * Kabhi Kabhie
 * Michael Franti
 * The Drag
 * Chase (bank)
 * Template:University of Texas at Austin
 * In the Mood
 * Province of Bumbunga
 * Tory Island
 * Irish road bowling
 * Lakewood Church
 * Tea cosy
 * MS Ecstasy
 * Carnival Cruise Lines
 * Dickinson, Texas
 * La Marque, Texas
 * Water tower
 * Wood-plastic composite
 * Engineered wood
 * Adoni
 * High School Musical: Sing It!
 * Bega
 * Tom Tancredo
 * Kalamazoo, Michigan
 * Mobile Homer
 * Sam Kinison
 * Dave Heineman
 * Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind
 * Oorang Indians
 * Claymore
 * AriZona Beverage Company
 * Arnold Palmer (drink)
 * Jaime Escalante
 * Juicebox (song)
 * Milt McColl
 * Hip (anatomy)
 * Nicholas Stern, Baron Stern of Brentford
 * I. G. Patel
 * D.C. Statehood Green Party
 * Southern Arizona
 * Sara Bareilles
 * Ben Vereen
 * You Are Not Alone
 * Biometrics
 * The Muslim Observer
 * Limu
 * Pork belly
 * Around the World in 80 Days (2004 film)
 * Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days
 * Mike Gravel presidential campaign, 2008
 * Red envelope
 * Barack_Obama_presidential_campaign%2C_2008
 * Thoracoacromial artery
 * John_McCain_presidential_campaign%2C_2008
 * Dolly Parton
 * Courtney Love
 * Mark Pellington
 * Enrique Murciano
 * Tops Drop
 * Raja Bell
 * Astroturfing
 * Testicular torsion
 * Jim Kolbe
 * Feinberg School of Medicine
 * Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute
 * John Marty
 * Lumidee
 * In the Army Now (film)
 * Dallas Austin
 * Oscar De La Hoya
 * You, Me and Dupree
 * Chalupa
 * Anurag Mathur
 * David Graf
 * Fox v. Franken
 * Physicians for Human Rights
 * Aziz Ansari
 * Deck (building)
 * Change (disambiguation) deleted
 * Ultra Hand
 * Nintendo World Store
 * Last Night (Moby album)
 * Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons
 * The Flower Duet
 * Brimful of Asha
 * My Last Chance (Scrubs)
 * My Road to Nowhere
 * Appletini
 * The Miracle of Geneva deleted
 * My Friend with Money
 * Fanfare for the Common Man
 * Daewon Song
 * Teflon coated bullet
 * Elisabeth Murdoch (businesswoman)
 * Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming
 * Grandmaster Caz
 * I Love To Move In Here
 * List of Scrubs episodes
 * Surrender (Cheap Trick song)
 * Jader Volnei Spindler
 * Gamba Osaka
 * Walkin' Free article deleted
 * Mirwais Ahmadzaï
 * 1994 FIFA World Cup
 * Apollo 440
 * Ropes & Gray
 * The McPherson Tape
 * Xmas Story
 * A Clone of My Own
 * The Deep South (Futurama)
 * Mermaid problem article deleted
 * The Problem with Popplers
 * Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County
 * Guam at the 2008 Summer Olympics
 * American football
 * Anju Bobby George
 * Monaco
 * Sean Combs
 * Raccoon Dog
 * Naduparampil Pappachen Pradeep
 * Jackie Chan Stuntmaster
 * Jet Li: Rise to Honor
 * Paul Broun
 * The Lonely Bull
 * Anthony Gonsalves
 * Drury University
 * 2009 Lahore attack on Sri Lankan cricket team
 * Sunil Chhetri
 * Sanjay Nirupam
 * Divya Singh
 * List of American Experience episodes
 * Juliet Huddy
 * Clint Howard
 * Tea and Sympathy
 * Hikkaduwa
 * List of fan-owned sports teams
 * United Airlines Flight 409
 * India at the 2002 Winter Olympics
 * Isaac Feau'nati
 * Thailand national football team
 * Indonesia national football team
 * John Catsimatidis
 * Washington Square Park
 * Carl Paladino
 * Situation (song)
 * John Birch Society
 * Charles Bass
 * Paul Hodes
 * The Procussions
 * DiGeorge syndrome
 * Dianne Feinstein
 * Petey Pablo
 * Mundian To Bach Ke
 * 4troops
 * Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
 * Love Train
 * P. Renedy Singh
 * Santacruz, Mumbai
 * Mars Attacks
 * If I Were a Rich Man (song)
 * Pontiac Aztek

Articles that have been deleted
Deleted articles
 * Ami James note: later recreated by someone else
 * Chris Nuñez note: later recreated by someone else
 * Chris Garver note: later recreated by someone else
 * Kat Von D note: later recreated by someone else
 * Darren Brass note: later recreated by someone else
 * Yojiro "Yoji" Harada note: later redirected to Yoji Harada by me
 * Anna Lovejoy
 * List of martyrs note: later recreated by someone else
 * Last Night's Party
 * SutraSonic
 * 300 top drugs
 * William Gallahue note: later recreated, then deleted
 * Kaje
 * Arvind-pal Singh Mandair
 * IndexTube
 * Indextube redirect
 * Eri moriyama redirect
 * Cuba Medical System
 * Dramatic Prairie Dog later forwarded to another article
 * The Street League (UK)

Talk Pages
Numerous, will be added later or possibly never

Vandalism Reverted Pages
Pages I reverted or fixed after they had been vandalized
 * Cambodia
 * Aaj Tak
 * Trial of Saddam Hussein
 * Didier Domi
 * Watermelon, Chicken & Gritz
 * Gay Street (Manhattan)
 * Will Ferrell
 * Good Burger
 * Kiran Bedi
 * Saddam Beach
 * Maria
 * Tim Armstrong
 * Lincoln Kennedy coincidences
 * Kairali TV
 * Oil
 * Azad (rapper)
 * Alfred Sant
 * Chau Nguyen
 * Drakkar
 * Haute couture
 * Minor Discworld concepts deleted
 * 1995
 * Reset (band)
 * Office of Film and Literature Classification (Australia)
 * Tate Donovan

Articles edited without signing in
''Sometimes, I do not sign into the VarunRajendran account. These are the articles I have edited that way. See this link''

Images Uploaded
See here

List of people who studied medicine but are not known for being doctors
''This is an informal list of people that studied or intended to study medicine but are not known as physicians or people who are physicians, but are more famous (or infamous) for something else.

 * Chevy Chase, comedian
 * Bill Murray, comedian
 * Ken Jeong, M.D., comedian
 * Graham Chapman, comedian
 * Graeme Garden, comedian
 * Harry Hill, comedian
 * Bob Saget, comedian
 * Tom Snyder, talk show host
 * James Davis, satirist
 * Fela Kuti, musician
 * Isaac Hayes, musician
 * Jay Sean, musician
 * Miles Beckett, M.D. film producer
 * Haing S. Ngor, Academy Award winning actor
 * Jeremy Leven, director, screenwriter
 * Wayne Wang, director
 * Bipasha Basu, ''actress
 * Lisa Kudrow, actress
 * Vera Farmiga, actress
 * Sara Tanaka, M.D. actress
 * Christopher Lawford, actor
 * Hayden Kho, actor and model
 * Cobie Smulders, actress
 * James Woods, actor
 * Robin Givens, actress
 * Rajasekhar, actor
 * Victoria Principal, actress
 * Sonal Shah, actress
 * Sendhil Ramamurthy, actor
 * Tricia Devereaux, Adult actress
 * Bree Olson, Adult actress
 * Bobbi Starr, Adult actress
 * Joel Godard, announcer
 * Travis Lane Stork, M.D. talk show host
 * Matthew Barney, artist
 * Osamu Tezuka, manga artist
 * Nigel Barker, photographer
 * Jay Manuel, model
 * Elyse Sewell, model
 * Aditi Gowitrikar, model
 * Michele Merkin, model
 * David Bolinsky, medical illustrator
 * Andrew Baldwin, military lieutenant
 * David Gratzer, M.D. political commentator
 * Charles Krauthammer, M.D. political candidate
 * Jill Stein, M.D. political candidate
 * B.J. Lawson, M.D. political candidate
 * Lise Van Susteren, political candidate
 * Pedro Rosselló, M.D., politician
 * Howard Dean, M.D., politician
 * Ron Paul, M.D., politician
 * Rand Paul, M.D. politician
 * Hugh Cort, M.D. politician
 * Paul Broun, M.D. politician
 * Tom Coburn, M.D. politician
 * Phil Roe, M.D. politician
 * William Bradford (Rhode Island) politician
 * Ernest Gruening, M.D. politician
 * Bernard Friedman, South African politician
 * Victoria Wells Wulsin, M.D. politician
 * Steve Kagen, M.D. politician
 * Dave Weldon, M.D. politician
 * Alan Nakanishi, M.D. politician
 * Daniel Mongiardo, M.D. politician
 * Matt Heinz, M.D. politician
 * José Ramón Machado Ventura, politician
 * Rodolfo Torre Cantú, politician
 * David Wu, politician
 * Liam Fox, politician
 * Glenister Sheil, politician
 * Amir Khadir, politician
 * Chenjerai Hunzvi, politician
 * Tom DeLay, politician
 * Tom Price (Georgia), M.D. politician
 * Parker Griffith, M.D. politician,
 * Robert J. Bentley, M.D. politician, governor of Alabama
 * Carolyn Bennett, politician
 * Evan Harris, politician
 * John Kitzhaber, politician, former governor of Oregon
 * Richard Taylor, politician
 * Peter Brand, politician
 * Joey Jagan, Guyanese politician
 * Maureen Reed, M.D. political candidate
 * Lakshmi Sahgal, M.B.B.S. politician
 * Abdullah Abdullah, M.D. politician, presidential candidate in Afghanistan
 * Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, president of Brazil
 * Ram Baran Yadav, politician, president of Nepal
 * Bashar al-Assad, politician, president of Syria
 * Imran Farooq, Pakistani politician
 * Jackson Lago, Brazilian politician
 * Gotō Shinpei, politician
 * John C. Fleming, M.D. politician
 * Bill Cassidy, M.D. politician
 * Phil Roe, M.D. politician
 * Charles Boustany, M.D. politician
 * Ralph Northam, M.D. politician
 * Nan Hayworth, M.D. politician
 * Andrew P. Harris, M.D. politician
 * Zoran Stanković, politician
 * Anand Satyanand, politician
 * Robert E. Minahan, politician
 * John M. Zerwas, M.D. politician
 * Greg Ganske, politician
 * Juan B. Justo, politician
 * Mohammad Usman Rana, political commentator
 * Owens Wiwa, human rights activist
 * Che Guevara, revolutionary
 * William Walker (filibuster), slavery proponent
 * George W. L. Bickley, creator of the Knights of the Golden Circle
 * Benjamin Spock, author, political candidate, activist
 * Iva Toguri D'Aquino, World War II spy
 * Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton
 * Joe McCain, brother of John McCain
 * Michael Newdow, M.D. attorney, Atheism advocate
 * Henry Arthur Callis, founder of a fraternity
 * Anjem Choudary attorney, Islam advocate
 * Zakir Naik, ''Islamic scholar]]
 * Joseph Pomeroy Widney, M.D. author, real estate tycoon, educator, and noted racist
 * John Tanton, M.D. anti-immigration activist
 * Gianna Beretta Molla, patron saint
 * Uday Hussein, son of Saddam Hussein
 * William Brydon, survivor of Massacre of Elphinstone's Army
 * Herman Tarnower, murder victim
 * Jeffrey R. MacDonald, M.D. murderer
 * Philip Markoff, convicted murderer
 * Michael Swango, M.D., murderer
 * Harold Shipman, murderer
 * H. H. Holmes, murderer
 * Robert George Clements, murderer
 * Thomas Neill Cream, murderer
 * Marcel Petiot, serial killer
 * Jeffrey R. MacDonald, accused murderer
 * George Chapman, Jack the Ripper suspect and murderer
 * John Bodkin Adams, suspected murderer
 * Baruch Goldstein, perpetrator of the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre
 * Ayman al-Zawahiri, leader of al-Qaeda
 * Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, al-Qaeda terrorist
 * Wadie Haddad, terrorist
 * Milt McColl, M.D. NFL athlete
 * Bill McColl, M.D. NFL athlete
 * Myron Rolle, NFL athlete
 * Felipe Contepomi, rugby player
 * Karl Mullen, rugby player
 * Per Bjerregaard, Football club manager & player
 * Paulino Alcántara, footballer
 * Myron Rolle, football player
 * Julie Foudy, footballer
 * Ian Robertson (Gaelic footballer), Gaelic footballer
 * Moonlight Graham, M.D. baseball player
 * Alta Weiss, baseball player
 * Craig Breslow, baseball player
 * Alta Weiss, baseball player
 * Dikembe Mutombo, basketball player
 * Darren Ng, basketball player
 * Hossein Saoudipour, basketball player
 * Phog Allen, basketball coach
 * Pau Gasol, basketball player
 * Joshua Pim, tennis player
 * Renée Richards, transsexual tennis player
 * Arthur Wint, ''Olympian
 * Pat O'Callaghan, Olympian
 * Amy Chow, M.D. Olympic gymnast
 * Randy Gregg ice hockey player and Olympian
 * Eric Heiden, M.D. Olympic speed skater
 * Jacques Rogge eighth and current president of the International Olympic Committee
 * Cheri Blauwet (current student) wheelchair athlete
 * Debi Thomas, M.D. figure skater
 * Dezső Földes, fencer
 * Charlie Rose, journalist
 * Helen Zia, journalist
 * George A. Sheehan. journalist
 * Keith Ablow, journalist
 * Samuel Shem, M.D. novelist
 * Khaled Hosseini, M.D. novelist
 * Sherman Alexie, novelist
 * Gopal Baratham, author
 * Carolyn Jessop, FLDS escapee, author
 * Guillermo Cabrera Infante, author
 * Karl Kruszelnicki, journalist, author
 * George Meyer, writer for The Simpsons'''
 * John Hodge, ''screenwriter
 * Brewster Higley VI, poet, author of Home on the Range
 * Wendi Deng, businesswoman, wife of Rupert Murdoch
 * Jerry Greenfield, businessman, founder of Ben and Jerry's
 * Yukio Hattori, food expert
 * Armand Hammer, businessman
 * Robert Satcher, M.D. astronaut
 * David McDowell Brown, M.D. astronaut
 * Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, astronaut
 * Achille Battista, radio operator

title: User:VarunRajendran


text:
Spencer Daniels

Spencer Eli Daniels (born December 23, 1992) is an American film and television actor born in Los Angeles, California. He began acting professionally at the age of ten. He has appeared in over 30 films and TV series, including Star Trek (2009 reboot), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and the recurring role of Tyler Lomand on the series Crash, which terminated in 2009. In 2014, his film The Midnight Game was released by Anchor Bay Entertainment.

Personal life
Daniels is Jewish. He has a sibling whose name is Owen Daniels.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Spencer Daniels


text: Category:Airlines of Ethiopia

title: Category:Airlines of Ethiopia


text:
Mr. Midnight

Mr Midnight (US title: Mr. Midnight) is a children's horror fiction book series written by Jim Aitchison under the pseudonym of James Lee. The series is published by Angsana Books, Flame Of The Forest Publishing. There are currently 130 books in the series, including 27 Special Edition titles, with more being written and released around every two to four months. It has been translated into Burmese, Malay, Indonesian, simplified Chinese, and traditional Chinese.

Each book in the series contains two stories. The first book was titled Madman's Mansion and The Monster In Mahima's Mirror.

James Lee's books are very popular among young children and preteens and have been regarded as "Asia's answer to Harry Potter".

In 2020, the series hit a milestone when it released Mr Midnight #100 — the 100th title in the series excluding Special Editions.

Books
The latest book in the Mr Midnight book series is Mr Midnight #SE28 Ronan’s Ratty Christmas.

Netflix series
In February 2015, a promotional image for a new Mr Midnight television series was posted on the Mr Midnight Facebook page. It featured a Mr Midnight logo with a pair of eyes peeking out from behind the logo. The caption underneath the logo read, "The hit book series that has scared thousands of kids across Asia is coming to television!" Any other details about the upcoming series were unknown, except that the series would most likely be adaptations of the stories.

However, an update was finally released by the publisher on Instagram and Facebook in late September 2022 with the announcement that the TV series, produced by Beach House Pictures, would be released on Netflix to a worldwide audience. Titled Mr. Midnight: Beware the Monsters, the series premiered on 24 October 2022.

Movie
A movie titled Mr. Midnight the Movie: My Haunted Holiday was in the works but was cancelled as the producers thought the movie would not suit the book's style.

title: Mr. Midnight


text:
Cheetah-licious Christmas

Cheetah-licious Christmas is a Christmas album by the Cheetah Girls. It is also the first album the girls released as an official musical group; however, group member Adrienne Bailon later stated that the album does not serve as their official debut album. It was released by Walt Disney Records on October 11, 2005. The album features seven classic Christmas songs as well as six original songs. The album peaked at No. 74 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Track listing

 * 1) "Five More Days 'til Christmas" * (Matthew Gerrard; Robbie Nevil) – 3:04
 * 2) "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" (Haven Gillespie; J. Fred Coots) – 3:28
 * 3) "Perfect Christmas" * (J. Landers; Matthew Gerrard; Robbie Nevil) – 3:08
 * 4) "Cheetah-licious Christmas" * (Matthew Gerrard; Robbie Nevil) – 3:32
 * 5) "A Marshmallow World" (C. Sigman; P. DeRose) – 2:47
 * 6) "Christmas in California" * (The Cheetah Girls; Matthew Gerrard; Robbie Nevil) – 3:01
 * 7) "No Ordinary Holiday"  * (B. Benenate; Matthew Gerrard) – 3:31
 * 8) "All I Want for Christmas Is You" (M. Carey; W. Afanasieff) – 4:02
 * 9) "This Christmas" (Donny Hathaway; N. McKinnor) – 3:06
 * 10) "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" (T. Connor) – 2:51
 * 11) "The Simple Things" * (Matthew Gerrard; Robbie Nevil) – 3:41
 * 12) "Last Christmas" (G. Michael) – 3:49
 * 13) "Feliz Navidad" (J. Feliciano) – 2:37

Note: Original songs marked with a (*)

Singles
"Cheetah-licious Christmas" was the first single from the album, released on November 1, 2005, along with a music video that showcases the members performing the song inside of a snow globe dressed in winter clothing. It was performed on their Cheetah-licious Christmas Tour and was added to the set list of The Party's Just Begun Tour during the holiday season.

"Five More Days 'til Christmas" was promotional single, released exclusively on Radio Disney on December 12, 2005. It was performed on their Cheetah-licious Christmas Tour.

Personnel

 * Antonina Armato – producer
 * Adrienne Bailon – group member
 * Sabrina Bryan – group member
 * Kiely Williams – group member
 * Ray Cham – producer
 * Jordan Foley – art direction
 * Matthew Gerrard – producer
 * Tim James – producer
 * Jay Landers – executive producer
 * Stephen Marcussen – mastering
 * Dani Markman – artist coordination
 * Robbie Nevil – producer

Tour
In the winter of 2005, The Cheetah Girls went on tour to support the Christmas album. Aly & AJ went along with them, as the opening act, to support their own album Into the Rush, although the Jonas Brothers performed as surprise guests opening for both The Cheetah Girls and Aly & AJ for a total of 10 shows of the tour, promoting It's About Time, their first album. The holiday theme of the concert included giant presents (in which the Cheetah Girls performed), Winter clothes, and even a tropical theme for their song "Christmas in California", which included surfboards with the girls' names on them. The Cheetah Girls also sang songs from the first Cheetah Girls soundtrack, their song "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" (from DisneyMania 3), and their version of "Shake a Tail Feather" (from the Chicken Little soundtrack). The girls went on tour to support this album entitled the Cheetah-licous Christmas Tour.

title: Cheetah-licious Christmas


text:
Talk:Ben Folds

List of TV appearances
This list contains no notable or interesting informance. It's US centric, and in addition, off the top of my head I can think of a half dozen shows where he or his works has featured that are not included in the list, so it's far from comprehensive. It's deleted. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.148.5.118 (talk) 15:14, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

Father in Journey?
I was at a Folds concert in San Jose and he said that his dad was in a band called Journey. I can't find any information on his dad being in Journey... anyone have some info on that? thanks. --70.171.204.228 07:33, 13 June 2007 (UTC)
 * He was playing with the audience. He knew most people were there to see John Mayer and didn't have any idea who he was. That's why he said his band was called "The Awakening" and that this was his first national tour, etc. Tflynn17 18:12, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

well i was just at a Ben Folds concert at verison wireless music center, and he talked about how his dad was the frontman from .38 special, threw a whiskey bottle at someone, consequently had to leave the band, and that his fathers music career was ruined. He actually brought his father out on a wheelchair (if it was his father) and he let the crowd cheer for him. Im not sure if he was just joking or not... this was the same tour with john mayer.

--drmartini 20:38, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
 * flynn is right, i was at a show on the tour as well and Ben was certainly panning for humorous response in creating the stories about his dad. while there are real references to the senior Mr. Folds in Ben's music and career, this is not one of them and i see no encyclopedic worth in it.

Ben's Father is a/was a carpenter. At least that's what he says in the Itunes Originals. I would put the whole thing of him bringing his dad out on stage as a joke. I mean this is the guy who tried to convince everyone who watched the myspace broadcast that he died. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.153.126.126 (talk) 01:59, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Wife named Kate?
Didn't Ben have a wife between Anna and Frally? Am I going crazy thinking he was married to a woman named Kate in the mid/late nineties?
 * I know he knew a girl named Kate that most people assumed he was with but they were just friends...Tflynn17 18:13, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

 * Ben had a wife called Kate. But he divorced her. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.152.14.118 (talk) 11:27, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Cleanup (Feb. 27 2006)
I don't think it does - it seems fine to me, and it seems as if the BFF stuff is getting too detailed for the Ben Folds article. Im removing the clean up tag. Domza 12:40, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

This article needs some major work. There's almost nothing about his early years and the section on Ben Folds Five is really confusing and poorly written. Let's fix this, gang!

Mikesherk 02:25, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Ok, i've added some stuff about his early years in. this is my first time really adding/rewriting stuff in an article so there might be some corrections needed. for example, some of it will need citations, but i don't know how to put them on. if u need the url it's http://www.pastemagazine.com/action/article?article_id=1607

thx. and pls don't ape on me too much lol.

Soulchild 5:12, March 03 2006 (UTC)

great work
havent visited this article in a while, and am exceedingly pleased at what has been done. the article looks superb to me. well done all who lent a hand.

i would vote to immediately remove the cleanup tag, but will probably wait a day to see if someone else will do it or disagree.

KUTGW!

Burgher 07:51, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

I agree with removing the cleanup tag, but more work is needed, to lift the standard of the page. Also, could some one re write the rock this bitch section? It doesnt seem to flow that well with the rest of that area. Domza 05:42, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

what does that mean? charles tyrer —Preceding unsigned comment added by Charlestyrer (talk • contribs) 13:59, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Clean up
Yeah i realised that, but i didn't know where to stick it, i though you guys would veto my organsation any way, so i left it. Glad i can lend a hand.

Does some one want to include an internal link to rock this bitch? And maybe one line about rock this bitch, under a trivia heading. Where i think the Korn feud should be stuck in. Domza 06:42, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

rock this bitch should probably be mentioned and linked in the "crowd involvement" section. agree? --Drmartini 01:53, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. Rock this bitch is all about crowd involvement. Domza 23:16, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Fixed up some grammar and structure
The structure of the article was still pretty messy, so I fixed it up some more. Also added a reference to the guitar parts on Rockin' the Suburbs and moved the info on Songs for Silverman to the right section; there was no reason for it to be included with touring. I'll do some more cleanup soon. -- Stick Fig 17:42, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Hope i helped
I hope i gave you guys some structure, looks a lot neater now in any light. --Domza 13:16, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

Huge intro
Could someone make the intro more friendly, and perhaps add a few subsections, etc? Gromreaper 08:44, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

Back-up vocals on Fred Jones Part 2
I can't check now, but I thought John Mark Painter was the one who did the background vocals for the studio version of Fred Jones Part 2, and the John from Cake just did them on the live album. Perhaps I'm confusing my Johns, but could somebody confirm/deny this with the RtS booklet?

--Yes, that is indeed John McRea from Cake on the Studio version.

A Feud With Korn?
According to the article on 'Rockin' the Suburbs' Ben Folds had a running feud with the band Korn. I've found no mention of this on the Folds page or the Korn page. If it's true then I'd be interested in any information that anyone can provide about it and i'm sure others would be curious too so it'd be worth including in the article. If it's not then maybe someone should fix the RTS article. MagicBez 03:12, 7 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Korn called Ben Folds Five a 'wussy rock band' in Spin magazine.  You can also see a quick frame of 'Korn Sucks' in the RTS music video.  --bbatsell |  « give me a ring »  04:27, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

 * Cool - thanks for the impressively speedy response. Any idea if this is worth mentioning as an aside in the Ben Folds article? It's the kind of incident/argument that interests me so i'd like to see it in there, but if everyone else thinks that it would just be needless trivia then obviously it should be left out. (Any chance of getting a screen-cap of the 'Korn Sucks' frame?) MagicBez 22:04, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

"I don't see the KoRn Sucks poster in the video on the official site. Does it really exist or is this just a legend? http://musicbox.sonybmg.com/video/ben_folds/rockin_the_suburbs  Phord 18:27, 6 September 2007 (UTC)"

Something ike that would be neat for the fan who is just prusing through these articles. Maybe a link to "Ben Folds Trivia" would be appriopriate here?

I moved the Korn Tidbit to the page for the Rocking the Suburbs song when I integrated the rest of the Trivia. Someone can add a "Feud with Korn" section if they really think it's that important to this article. I'm inclined to think it isn't. DLdown 11:09, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Vegetarian?
I removed this article from the Vegetarians category. Ben wasn't vegetarian when I talked about the topic with him in 1998, and I see no evidence that anything's changed. Sure, there's an article on the net where he's eating vegetarian food with the interviewer, but many non-vegetarians eat vegetarian food on occasion. I could be wrong and Ben could now be vegetarian, but if so then let's see some corroboration of that. Michaelbluejay 06:45, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure he's not a vegetarian and I think he may have said something about disagreeing with vegetarianism at some point, but equally he may not and I'm thinking of someone else. (Guest) 21:10, 19 November 2005 (GMT)

Vandalism
Someone added obnoxious homophobic comments. I tried to delete them all, but this article still needs a lot of revision. (Guest) 22:15, 8 February 2006 (EST)

Does calling his wife "life partner" have anything to do with that? I think that's an odd term for it...Zack Green 03:58, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

I understand the vandals' POV, lol. Ah man, if I were a vandal, this would totally be the first page I vandalize because my English teacher kept assigning stuff to make us listen to this guy.:P But I'm part of Counter-Vandalism Unit. It wouldn't be right :( Rohan 04:52, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Under the trivia section, referring to jesus chris superstar: Ben is supposedly a big fan of the album and often comes on stage to the overture. 67.162.226.168 20:25, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

 * It means "arrives" on stage, you filthy person. ~ Gromreaper 07:45, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Someone changed all the years in the "Early Years" on this page to the early 1900's...--68.82.178.172 (talk) 03:56, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

 * Fixed. Thanks for the heads up! =) Khalfani  Khaldun  04:22, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Over the Hedge
It seems Ben Folds has done the sound-track for Over the Hedge. Im watching it right now. Aw heck, now I see the reference in the artcile.

"Open your eyes Lukeyson"

Inconsistency in article
The article says that he contributed 3 songs to the Over the Hedge soundtrack. Then later down the page it says that he has 5 songs on the OtH soundtrack. Which is it, 3 or 5? SeanAhern 15:18, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

Missing EP?
I'm not exactly sure where it belongs, but 'The Bens' EP ought to be mentioned in the discography, and there's no mention of the project at all in the article. Powrtoch 23:48, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

charismatic yet calm - an enjoyable experience for most
I've seen Ben Folds recently and this wasn't my experience at all, the crowd were supposed to be sitting but rushed to the stage early on, the atmosphere was really amazing, certainly not 'calm'.

ben also has another EP called Air http://music.aol.com/artist/ben-folds/169420/album/air/378829

please put this in

ya it really wasnt calm the two times ive seen him... more like a fun party?

YouTube links
This article is one of thousands on Wikipedia that have a link to YouTube in it. Based on the External links policy, most of these should probably be removed. I'm putting this message here, on this talk page, to request the regular editors take a look at the link and make sure it doesn't violate policy. In short: 1. 99% of the time YouTube should not be used as a source. 2. We must not link to material that violates someones copyright. If you are not sure if the link on this article should be removed or you would like to help spread this message contact us on this page. Thanks, ---J.S (t|c) 04:01, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

"Early life & musical beginnings" section needs pruning
All but one of the external links in the "Early life & musical beginnings" section are either irrelevant to the topic at place of insertion or redundant information better suited to being used as a source and made into a footnote rather than a direct link.

The University of Miami section seems to disrupt the timeline of the section; are we to believe that in 1990 Folds moved to Nashvile, got a publishing deal and started "Jody's Power Bill", only to uproot to Florida, attend university, uproot again (this time to New York), and start acting in theater troops ALL before 1993? Perhaps someone who knows the dates can put them in to clear it up. --Museerouge 18:34, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Can we reduce the number of subheadings in this section? Most of the paragraphs are really short, making this section flow poorly --ace857  21 May 2007

polish man -

i need polish version. I'am from poland

Kate
Not familiar enough with the subject matter to edit but I noticed a discrepancy: the article claims song "Kate" is both written by Fold's first wife and also about Fold's second wife. Something seems amiss?

VegDisc41 19:27, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

It's odd, but it's true Brunowidorski 20:03, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Picture
This picture looks like it was taken by someone's cell phone from far away at a concert. Isn't there a promotional picture or something from an album to put up instead? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.156.89.159 (talk • contribs).

Removed because of the horrible picture. I'd recommend getting a better picture, which is entirely possible, instead of putting up a crappy cell phone pic. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.156.89.159 (talk • contribs).

 * I have re-added this free image to the infobox. If you do not like the image request a better one, but it should also be free.  Do not remove a free image when there is no replacement, and do not replace a free image with a fair-use image.  Please see Image use policy for further information. - cgilbert(talk 18:16, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

Discography
Is it possible that this section can be shortned up and have a new page for Ben Folds Discography be created? Robhakari 19:43, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

Crowd Involvement
Anybody else think this section in particular needs cleaning up? It's long and unwieldy, contains a lot of opinions and unsourced anecdotes and finally moves onto a brief section about his web presence that doesn't really fit with "crowd involvement". Thoughts? Docta247 08:16, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

 * I agree 100%. Its rambling, almost as if someone tried to fit a personal anecdote (and picture!) into the greater context of the section. If I remember correctly, the last paragraph could stay, but the previous two or three should really be edited. I think its just a matter of doing it... Clemenjo 09:37, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for taking the time to reply; I guess no-one else has! If anybody has any opinions on this, whether agreeing or disagreeing, please make them known or I will prune that section to remove any original research and author opinions. If someone else wants to make this change, you have my support at least! Docta247 14:42, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

Frally
Could we remove the unsourced and seriously not notable information about the early life of Ben's ex-wife? We don't have that information there about the other ex-wives... Docta247 06:42, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Sure - it just came over via merge from Frally Hynes :: maelgwn - talk 12:37, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
 * We do now. http://podcast.itm-1014.com/klsx1/506608.mp3, mentioned at the end of the podcast. Notthegoatseguy 18:03, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Copyrighted material

The section on the jury recital appears to have been lifted from this article http://www99.epinions.com/content_77450677892 which claims a copyright. I edited it a bit for tone and provided the proper link. But maybe this paragraph should be "quoted", rewritten or deleted. Phord 17:57, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Ben Folds template
There's a template at the bottom of the page for the Ben Folds Five, including stuff like their albums and whatnot. Seems to me like it would be beneficial to have one for Folds himself, as he has released a fair bit of material on his own. Hezekiah957 06:37, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Old bands
Would I be right in thinking that the line "Citing artistic differences the band broke up in May / And in June reformed without me, and they got a different name" in Army refers to Pots and Pans/Bus Stop? It seems to fit, but I can't find a reference for it. — sjorford++ 17:56, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

TV Section - Ben Folds Five on BBC's Later With Jools Holland
I've been hunting around to try and find when but it was sometime in the mid 90s. I only remember that it happened because it was the first time that I'd heard them. They played Philosophy and I think Jools Holland described them as punk on piano. The BBC sadly doesn't have any archive of Later guests/performances so unless a nerd compiles something on the web soon or somebody can remember when/what or has a recording of it, I don't see how the exact details could be ascertained. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.76.198.79 (talk) 11:02, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
 * This YouTube link seems to be it, as does this one, but neither mention the year. (Good to see Jools Holland was as redundant back then as he is now). — sjorford++ 15:31, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Sources Needed
Most of the content in this page seems to be relatively accurate, but there are only 15 sources for such a significantly long article. It definitely needs more citations. khalfani_khaldun (talk) 18:21, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

"Recent Internet Changes"
This whole section looks more like an advertisement for Ben Folds than an objective description of his new promotion. How can this be flagged for lacking neutrality? 129.98.104.103 (talk) 12:01, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

 * Agreed. The relevant facts of the section could easily be wrapped up in as little as two sentences. Also, I took the liberty of removing the "sample video" because it is clearly not there for relevance but to increase the number of hits it gets, which would be incredibly unfair in terms of the contest. khalfani_khaldun (talk) 13:22, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

 * I don't think it's a neutrality problem, but it is using Wikipedia to advertise for a contest, and I'm pretty sure that this is some sort of violation. If it can be re-written to condense it to two sentences, I think it should be done. SailorAlphaCentauri (talk) 20:39, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Four Wives?
The article states that Ben Folds has been married, and divorced, four times, but only three wives are mentioned. If there was another wife between some of the women listed, that needs to be mentioned. Or, at the very least, if his last wife was his fourth, it should say she was his fourth wife and not his third. I can't really fix the section until I know if the problem is that a wife was left out of the article, or if he was only married three times. SailorAlphaCentauri (talk) 20:42, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Overall Clean Up
The personal life section could use some major clean up. It's kind of confusing when it comes to all of his different marriages and stuff. Especially right now at the moment since apparently he and Fleur are living in Nashville with "their children" but to my knowledge, his only children are with Frally. Also what does the sentence about the song The Luckiest have anything to do with his personal life, as it just says that it was written for a certain movie, and not about a certain person in his personal life.

The tours section is really sloppy. It just lists a bunch of dates and locations such as "In early 2006 Folds toured Europe." There's no real organization to the section, which makes it hard to read. It also needs a lot less "He played (place) on (date)" and perhaps a list or table of recent tours, how long they lasted and where he went.

There's a lot of mix up in the main paragraph about who he has worked with, etc. Perhaps we should have seperate sections for his different releases. Such as having a DVDs section for all of his DVDs, such as the WASO performance, the MySpace DVD and his new live DVD that comes in the deluxe versions of his new album. Also have a section devoted to people he has also worked with, such as producing, back up vocals for Weird Al, John McCrea doing back up vocals for him, work with William Shatner, etc. Then another section for Soundtracks he has appeared on, as apparently they are also numerous. Instead of these just being little tidbits that are thrown out into the main article.

Just some suggestions to see what other think about cleaning up this article a lot and seeing where we can get it.

Bondidude (talk) 21:27, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

 * I agree about the personal section -- it's been full of POV statements that keep returning, and that comment about the children really is unclear. I'm still looking for info on Fleur--I can verify that they're now married, but I can't find any info on her being one of the Stanbrook family. Aristophanes68 (talk) 02:27, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Seeds & Stems
According to AMG, this album is just a different mix & sequence of Way To Normal, with a bonus disc of GarageBand files for remixing. Should this just be included as a part of the Way To Normal page? It has a different name, so it's a bit weird.Thee darcy (talk) 19:43, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

What happened to the "Personal" section
What happened to the "Personal" section? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.25.98.194 (talk) 23:08, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

 * Good question. He is a public figure, and for better or worse his personal life is a matter of public record. I can't help wondering if this has been done by someone connected to Mr Folds. I imagine it's because he is sensitive about his perceived status as a "serial monogamist" - sorry, but IMO having four marriages in twenty years IS pretty notable for a public figure, particularly for someone of his age and in these times. I suspect he's also very 'antsy' about any discussion of the end of his marriage to Frally -- which she spoke about to the Australian press, much to his chagrin -- and his new marriage to the mysterious Fleur (... and why *is* her 'maiden name' so hard to find - I haven't been able to locate it anywhere on the web). That being said, I don't think the section was biased, critical or prurient -- it simply stated the facts, which were supported with citations, as was the quite reasonable claim about the connections between his personal life and his songs. Why was this done? Smells like internet censorship to me. Dunks (talk) 23:08, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

 * See the section "overall cleanup" above for a discussion of the problems we were having with that section. Aristophanes68 (talk) 02:45, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

 * Not sure that no information at all is better than the above mentioned confusion, though Aquarion (talk) 11:45, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Godzilla
BFF recorded a song for the Godzilla (Matthew Broderick version) soundtrack called "Air" back in the day. Seems like it should be mentioned, as other soundtracks/one-offs are. 67.78.62.56 (talk) 14:36, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Cruel fate
Folds became attached to a piano when his carpenter father brought one home when he was nine Has he been attached to that piano ever since? All the more amazing that he managed to run eight miles a day. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.162.34.166 (talk) 14:48, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Chatroulette video rumors
It's not him! Please don't add it unless you have some sort of proof. In fact, this link states that: "Ben Folds’ publicist tells us that his client is not the ChatRoulette improviser." Feudonym (talk) 05:35, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

 * However, he made a "follow-up". Dvyjones (t • c) 12:00, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Nashville flood photos
I don't know if it's worth mention here, but Folds is apparently serving as an impromptu amateur photojournalist for National Geographic on the Nashville floods. Photos here:. TJRC (talk) 19:15, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

When should we make a page for the new album?
I've been curious as to when we're gonna make a page for "Lonely Avenue"... because we probably have enough information for a page to be justified now... but I'm not good enough to start up a page by myself, so... yeah.. Alec92 (talk) 17:35, 12 August 2010 (UTC)

Date Discrepancies
Some of these dates seem to conflict. Most notably, 3rd paragraph under Early Life and Career "Majosha broke up in early 1986", though they won a battle of the bands in 1988 as mentioned in the preceding paragraph, and according to the Majosha wikipedia page they formed in 1988 and released an album in 1989. Secondly, the second sentence in the introduction to the article says Ben Folds was frontman of the Ben Folds Five from 1995-2000, though the Ben Folds Five wikipedia page states the group formed in 1993. In the last paragraph under 'Early Life and Career,' it states the trio formed in 1994. Not sure what of this merits editing, else I would just do it myself. Jtpoland (talk) 18:55, 13 October 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jtpoland (talk • contribs) 16:10, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Majosha inconsistency
The article says Majosha played at a 1988 Battle of the Bands, then goes on to say they broke up in 1986. I would fix it myself, but I had no knowledge of Majosha until reading this article. 2001:5B0:24FF:CF0:0:0:0:35 (talk) 03:26, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

I just noticed that someone already pointed this out. Sorry. 2001:5B0:24FF:CF0:0:0:0:35 (talk) 03:27, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Possible copyright problem
This article has been revised as part of a large-scale clean-up project of multiple article copyright infringement. (See the investigation subpage) Earlier text must not be restored, unless it can be verified to be free of infringement. For legal reasons, Wikipedia cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or printed material; such additions must be deleted. Contributors may use sources as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously. Diannaa (talk) 15:44, 2 May 2015 (UTC)

Nationwide commercial
The Nationwide commercial called toddlers (really cute commercial) that you all see 100 times a day has the music from You Don't Know Me (Ben Folds song) in it. You can use The Arkansas Traveler (newspaper) story here for adding it.108.54.16.72 (talk) 01:03, 13 June 2015 (UTC)
 * The commercial itself is a "primary source" which has little use in Wikipedia, as they are frequently improperly used (by what measure do we know that it is BFF song and not a clever knockoff?). What you would need to do is find where a reliable source has discussed the use of the song in the campaign. And then you would have to make a case for why this particular bit of trivia is relevant in the overall span of content about the subject - because just because something is "true" and "verifiable" doesnt mean that it should be in the article, some things are more appropriate for non encyclopedia forums. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom  13:24, 14 June 2015 (UTC)
 * The quote in the news article linked above is:
 * "According to Nationwide’s advertisement, the company knows how it feels not feeling like a priority. The music featured in “Toddler” is a song called “You Don’t Know Me” by Ben Folds. “You Don’t Know Me” is about a relationship when a couple gets too comfortable and forgets to learn more about each other as time goes on. Ben is telling Regina Spektor, who also sings the theme song for the Netflix series Orange is the New Black, that she doesn’t know him and the relationship won’t work that way. It’s a very punchy sounding song with catchy vocal patterns interwoven in Regina Spektor’s light singing."
 * That does discuss the song a bit, more than a passing mention. If we had an article about the song it might be appropriate there. But I think it is too minor for this article, and would be undue weight. DES (talk) 13:51, 14 June 2015 (UTC)

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"Other ventures" Section?
Currently the "Solo career" section of the article has become a dumping ground for all of Folds's activity since 2008 (outside of BF5), including non-music-creating related content such as acting credits, reality show judging, and book writing. In general this section could be a little cleaner, and I think an "Other ventures" section would be a good step towards that. It should probably also include information on his photography, such as being featured in National Geographic. Thoughts on the section title and concept? Cerebral726 (talk) 17:11, 7 August 2019 (UTC)

Filmography update
Ben Folds recently made a guest appearance at himself in the Amazon original series “the Wilds” as himself, for total of two episodes in 2022. I tried to update his filmography but could not formatted appropriately, an update is still needed. 2603:9000:EF05:5500:19E4:7D82:A8ED:C442 (talk) 20:34, 7 May 2022 (UTC)

Wife Emma Sandall
Ben Folds married Royal Ballet dancer Emma Sandall on January 17th, 2017 and filed for Divorce in November 2023. Folds met Sandall in Sydney during his orchestra tour in November 2014. 2001:8003:2043:F400:9D9C:FFAB:41EF:D291 (talk) 01:04, 30 December 2023 (UTC)

 * The changes are not supported by neutral, independent, reliable sources. Please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made.   Delta  space 42  (talk • contribs) 22:27, 30 December 2023 (UTC)

I think the personal life section needs an update
Sorry, I don't really use wikipedia but https://www.scoopnashville.com/2023/12/ben-folds-five-frontman-divorces-fifth-wife-emma-sandall-after-6-years-of-marriage/ the final marriage listed on the page has been finalized via divorce. 2A0A:EF40:619:9B01:254D:99D6:10B2:1EC9 (talk) 13:21, 18 March 2024 (UTC)

 * Unfortuantely, that does not seem to be a WP:RELIABLESOURCE, and no reputable publication has reported it.  Cerebral726 (talk) 13:30, 18 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Apparently after five divorces, its not worth writing about. The Scoop Nashville article from December 2023 is making the rounds on twitter today for some reason, so I suspect we'll get a reliable source in the next few days.--Milowent • hasspoken  17:37, 18 March 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Ben Folds


text:
Lenny McPherson

Leonard Arthur McPherson (born Balmain, New South Wales 19 May 1921; died Cessnock, New South Wales, 28 August 1996) was one of the most notorious and powerful Australian career criminals of the late 20th century. McPherson is believed to have controlled most of Sydney's organised crime activity for several decades, alongside his contemporary Abe Saffron (who was dubbed "Mr Sin") and associate, bookmaker George Freeman.

Reputation
Universally feared by adversaries and often referred to as Sydney's "Mr Big" of organised crime, McPherson built up an extensive network of criminal activities that included robbery, theft and extortion rackets, illegal gambling, "sly-grog shops" (illegal alcohol outlets), prostitution and drug dealing, and his influence is also believed to have extended to South East Asia and the United States

McPherson's well-earned reputation for extreme brutality is exemplified by an incident recounted in Tony Reeves' 2005 biography. McPherson had been estranged from his mother for many years, but on her 70th birthday, he unexpectedly turned up at her flat, carrying a live rabbit. He demanded to know why he had not been invited to her birthday party, and when she admitted that it was because of his criminal activities, the furious McPherson tore the rabbit's head off, threw the still-twitching body at her feet and stormed off. Reeves also states that McPherson savagely brutalised his first wife on numerous occasions—on one occasion, when he accused her of having an affair, he tied one of her legs to a tree and the other to the back of his car, started the car, took up the slack on the ropes and threatened to tear her in half.

McPherson was featured as a character in the Australian crime drama series Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities and Underbelly: The Golden Mile, in which he was played by actor John McNeill.

Youth and early criminal career, 1930s–1940s
McPherson was born in the inner-Sydney suburb of Balmain in 1921, the tenth child of metalworker, William McPherson, and his wife, Nellie. He had some schooling at Birchgrove Primary School, but did not go on to secondary school.

McPherson's first brush with the law came at the age of 11 when he was convicted of stealing and placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond. Eighteen months later, on 13 June 1934, he faced court on another stealing offence and his bond was extended for a further year. On 18 June he was convicted on two charges of stealing and committed to the Mount Penang Juvenile Justice Centre. According to Reeves, McPherson was frequently bashed and sexually assaulted during this first term of incarceration, a common experience for juvenile detainees at this time.

During World War II McPherson's father found him a position as a driller at the dockyard where he worked, enabling Lenny to avoid conscription, because dock workers were a protected occupation. During this period he racked up a string of traffic fines for minor infringements including speeding, illegal parking and driving an unlicensed vehicle.

In 1940 McPherson married 16-old Dawn Joy Allan at Rozelle.

McPherson's first criminal convictions as an adult were in 1946. In January he was convicted and fined for possession of stolen goods—a conviction that was upheld on appeal—and a month later, on 15 February, he was found guilty of receiving stolen goods and sentenced to 12 months' hard labour at Long Bay Gaol. Soon after, he was convicted on another similar charge and sentenced to 18 months, to be served concurrently.

In June 1946 McPherson was briefly transferred to a low-security prison farm at Glen Innes in northern NSW, but six weeks later he was transferred to the maximum security Grafton Gaol because of his "unsatisfactory" behaviour. His wife appealed for him to be transferred back to Sydney to serve out his term at Long Bay. Notably, Tom (Thomas) Sheehan, ALP State Member for Cook, also wrote to the Corrective Services Minister on McPherson's behalf, even though McPherson's current home at Gladesville was not in Sheehan's electorate.

Both requests were initially denied, but a few months later McPherson was transferred back to Long Bay to serve out the rest of his sentence. He was paroled on 24 December 1946, having served only 10 months of his 18-month sentence. McPherson had difficulty re-adjusting to life outside prison. He began drinking heavily and soon fell into a pattern of alcohol-fuelled verbal and physical abuse against his long-suffering wife Joy. His marriage quickly deteriorated, and McPherson took up with other women.

During the 1940s he had associated with the Surry Hills based underworld figure, William 'Joey' Hollebone, but they later fell out. Hollebone committed many underworld murders in Sydney and was a close associate of the notorious hitman, John 'Chow' Hayes. After Hollebone was arrested for a robbery, he accused McPherson of tipping off the police to his whereabouts and in revenge Hollebone's gang brutally pack-raped McPherson's mistress, who was pregnant to him. Hollebone died in 1960.

According to Tony Reeves, McPherson had frequently "fizzed" (informed) on fellow inmates while in prison to gain small privileges and ingratiate himself with prison officers. This habit continued after his release, as McPherson began cultivating selected police officers by informing against rivals or those who offended or annoyed him. One contemporary recalled that the young McPherson was widely known at the time as "Lenny The Pig" and "Lenny the Squealer".

On 24 June 1947 McPherson faced a minor charge of using indecent language and was fined £2.

1950s
By the time of his 30th birthday in 1951, McPherson had developed a fascination with the notorious American gangster Al Capone, reading everything he could find about Capone and trying to emulate him—although, clearly, he had no interest in adopting the Mafia code of silence, omerta and soon developed a close relationship with police, selectively acting as an informant in cases where this suited his purposes.

He made a trip to the United States in August 1951, using a forged passport and travelling under his brother's name; Tony Reeves states that it was on this visit that McPherson made his first contacts with members of the Chicago Outfit. However, his faked passport was detected and he and an accomplice, Martin Goode, were charged with forging and uttering. Although the maximum penalty was 10 years' jail, McPherson and Goode were fined only £100 and placed on a three-year good behaviour bond.

Just five months later, McPherson was again before the courts, charged with consorting with known criminals, but he again escaped imprisonment—his conviction was recorded but no sentence was imposed. McPherson was less fortunate with his next offence: in late 1953 he and an accomplice were arrested while trying to break into an office in central Sydney; in November he was found guilty of breaking and entering with intent to steal and being in possession of housebreaking implements (including explosives) and sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

His term was marked by a number of notable incidents: he was disciplined for attempting to pass a clandestine letter out of the gaol, he was charged with having contraband in his possession, and in mid-1955, while still serving his burglary sentence, he was found guilty on three charges of possessing an unlicensed pistol and sentenced to 12 months on each charge, to be served concurrently with his other term.

McPherson was paroled in October 1955. He needed legitimate employment to satisfy his parole conditions, and it was at this time that he established his infamous "motel". Built by McPherson with his brother, it was, in fact, a group of tiny rooms built on the roof of a private car park in Balmain, which McPherson had created as a safe house for criminal associates who needed to lie low. McPherson placed himself on the payroll at a salary of £20 per week, and for the next 20 years he was able to cover his criminal activities by claiming that the motel was his only source of income.

Rise to power in the 1960s
From the end of the 1950s, McPherson worked assiduously to secure and increase his power and influence and by the late 1960s he had established an extensive network of organised crime operations which were allegedly supported and protected by corrupt police and public officials. He gained pre-eminence in the tough Sydney underworld through the systematic intimidation and assassination of criminal rivals, and by cultivating relationships with corrupt police officers such as Detective Inspector Ray "Gunner" Kelly and the notorious Detective Seargent Fred Krahe. These relationships quickly developed into a mutually beneficial arrangements—corrupt police exploited McPherson as an informant and 'enforcer', while they in turn were used by him to neutralise enemies and to protect his organisation.

Tony Reeves cites the 1959 killing of criminal Joseph Hackett as a pivotal event in McPherson's criminal career. He argues that the case was "fixed" by corrupt police and prison guards, who conspired with McPherson and enabled him to avoid prosecution. From this point on, McPherson's influence over police, prison guards, lawyers, magistrates and politicians allowed him to literally get away with murder on numerous occasions.

Murder of Joseph Hackett, 1959
The bullet-riddled body of Joseph George Hackett was found in a laneway in the Inner West suburb of Leichhardt late at night on 27 July 1959. McPherson and his longtime bodyguard, "Snowy" Rayner (alias Lewis William Hunt) were charged with the murder, but according to Tony Reeves, before they could face a trial the case was dropped on the orders of the Attorney General of New South Wales, Reg Downing.

Hackett was led into an ambush by Hilton Mervyn Clayton, another of McPherson's criminal associates. Clayton was arrested only hours after the shooting—although police never revealed how he was picked up so quickly—and after a 14-hour interrogation he allegedly made a "verbal" admission identifying McPherson and Rayner as the killers. Police also located at least two other material witnesses whose evidence could have incriminated McPherson and Rayner. ("Verballing" was a technique resorted to by the New South Wales Police Force in the late 1960s and '70s. A policeman or detective would write a "confession" out and produce it in court unsigned by the defendant.)

Acting on Clayton's admission, detectives Fred Krahe and Les Chowne picked up McPherson and Rayner the next day and questioned them both at length. Significantly, during this first interview, Det. Krahe reportedly revealed to McPherson that it was Clayton who had informed on them. McPherson at first claimed that he had been visiting his mother in hospital when the murder took place, but neither man's alibi stood up, and they were both charged with murder and remanded to Long Bay Gaol.

McPherson had good reason to fear that he would not be allowed out on bail, so during the hours he spent on remand at Long Bay, he allegedly dictated a letter, and then used his influence with a corrupt prison officer known as "The Major" to have it smuggled out of prison and delivered to a trusted associate, Christopher George Campbell. Although not written in McPherson's own hand—Reeves suggests it was transcribed by Rayner—the letter was signed "Lenny" and the contents were highly incriminating. Campbell in fact kept the letter—in 1968 he sold it to journalists from The Australian who were researching a (never-completed) investigation into organised crime. News Limited executives then took possession of it and kept its existence secret for many years, until a copy was leaked to Tony Reeves by an anonymous contact.

The letter bluntly states that Hackett had been killed "because he had a big mouth" and that McPherson and Rayner had "surrendered" to a person referred to as "Verbal"—which, Reeves argues, meant that McPherson had made a deal with Det. Ray Kelly (whose nickname was "Verbal"). It outlines their scheme to avoid prosecution, states that Clayton had already been "seen" by some of Lenny's men and that he would never testify against them, describes the plan to fabricate alibis, details the bribing of two other witnesses by offering them £1500 to leave the country, and gives instructions for Campbell to deposit £400 in the account of solicitor Phil Roach—a well-known criminal lawyer who, Reeves claims, regularly acted as an intermediary between criminals like McPherson and corrupt police such as Krahe and Kelly.

When the pair faced court later that day, Rayner was remanded in custody. Remarkably though, in spite of the seriousness of the charge against McPherson, and his extensive criminal record, magistrate Roy Harvey released him on £1,000 bail and ordered him to report to police three times a week until the Coroner's case began.

The hearing opened on 21 September 1959, but by this time the two "gigs" (witnesses) referred to in Lenny's letter had left the country. Clayton—who had not been seen since the day after the murder—could not be found, so the case was adjourned and McPherson and Rayner were released on bail. Overnight, Clayton was located by DS Fred Krahe, but when the hearing reopened, Clayton recanted on his earlier statement, flatly denying that McPherson and Rayner were the men he had seen on the night Hackett was killed.

Nevertheless, the coroner found that there was a case to answer and McPherson and Rayner were committed to stand trial in November 1959. Bail was refused at this stage, but at a hearing two days later Justice Brereton released both men on £1,000 bail. Before the trial could go ahead, however, the matter was "no-billed" by state Attorney General Reg Downing. In his account of the case, investigative journalist Tony Reeves reported that, years later, an anonymous barrister who claimed to have been privy to "secretive arrangements" between lawyers, police and politicians at the time, had told him that McPherson had "donated" over $10,000 to Downing to assist in his decision.

Attempted murder of John Unwin, 1960
In 1960 McPherson and Rayner were charged with the attempted murder of SP bookmaker John Joseph Unwin. The vehicular ambush took place on a busy central Sydney street at mid-evening, and several shots were fired between the two cars as they repeatedly rammed each other, but Unwin managed to return fire, wounding Rayner in the arm, and he escaped without injury. The charges against McPherson were quietly dropped some time later, in part because Unwin refused to cooperate with police.

End of first marriage
By the early 1960s McPherson's marriage to Dawn Joy had become a sham, and he is known to have had numerous lovers and several children by other women. The end of the marriage was precipitated by a particularly violent attack on his wife in October 1960. After coming home from a drinking binge and discovering that his dinner was not ready, a drunken McPherson savagely pistol-whipped his wife, repeatedly threatened to kill her, and fired shots into the food still cooking on the stove.

Joy was rescued from the house by her father, and she initially agreed with his advice that she should charge her husband with attempted murder. However, at a "conciliation" meeting—arranged and attended by Det. Ray Kelly—she was coerced into dropping the idea. Joy never returned to live with Lenny after the incident, and she subsequently divorced him, signed over her share of their Gladesville home to him, remarried and left Sydney.

In May 1962 McPherson was arrested by two junior detectives for consorting with known criminals, a charge which carried a potential sentence of six months in prison. However, the detectives received a radio order to release McPherson before their car had even arrived at the station, and the two officers involved subsequently stated that the order had come from corrupt detective Ray "Gunner" Kelly.

Murder of Robert Walker, 1963
On 9 July 1963 McPherson (then 42) married for the second time to Marlene Carrol Gilligan, 22. That evening, McPherson allegedly slipped away from his own wedding reception at Balmain and carried out the brutal murder of a rival criminal, Robert James "Pretty Boy" Walker, at Randwick, in Sydney's east. Walker had already earned McPherson's displeasure by bragging of being "the toughest man in Sydney" but he was marked for death after he attacked one of McPherson's trusted minders, the notorious Sydney criminal Stan "The Man" Smith (aka Raymond Arthur Owens) – described by Reeves as "a psychotic gunman and drug addict".

Walker had bashed Smith for assaulting a prostitute at a Woolloomooloo hotel; some days later, Smith and several confederates went to Walker's house in Paddington to 'sort him out', but Walker drove them off by firing a salvo of rifle shots through his front door, and one shot wounded Smith in the chest. Walker was charged and he went to ground after the shooting, but he made the mistake of hiding out at the Randwick house of the prostitute Smith had assaulted.

On the evening of the McPherson's wedding reception, at around 6pm, Smith received a call from the prostitute. Smith alerted McPherson, who told his new bride that he had urgent business, and the two men left the reception. They drove to the suburb of Kingsford, changed clothes, picked up a stolen car and drove it to the house where Walker was hiding. They waited until Walker left the woman's house at about 6:15pm, then followed him as he walked down Randwick's main street, Alison Road, on his way to a local pub. Drawing up alongside, McPherson opened fire on Walker at close range with an Owen submachine gun, hitting him six times and killing him instantly; several shots also struck a parked car and a nearby fence.

Although police were on the scene almost immediately, McPherson and Smith made a clean getaway. They dumped the stolen vehicle, and retrieved their own car. After hiding the machine-gun at an associate's welding business, Smith and McPherson changed back into their own clothes, dumped the clothes they had worn during the shooting into the Parramatta River and returned to the wedding reception in Balmain. According to Tony Reeves, the entire operation took just over half an hour.

The case caused a sensation because of the brazen nature of the killing and the fact that it was the first underworld murder in Sydney involving the use of a machine-gun. However the investigation was led by Ray Kelly, who (according to Reeves) pointed the finger of suspicion away from McPherson and directed it at Raymond 'Ducky' O'Connor, another prominent Sydney criminal and a longstanding enemy of McPherson's. The inquest opened in December 1963, and when it resumed in February 1964 O'Connor was called to give evidence. The inquest ended with the coroner finding that he was unable to recommend any prosecution.

Some months later, in 1965, journalists Ron Saw and Frank Brown wrote an article about the case, published in the new satirical magazine Oz in which they alleged that a loose association of prominent Sydney criminals had clubbed together to have Walker killed because of his attempts to establish himself as a standover man.

Murder of 'Greyhound' Charlie Bourke, 1964
Only days after the conclusion of the inquest into Walker's murder, McPherson allegedly executed another rival. McPherson had reportedly clashed with standover man and greyhound trainer Charles Bourke over the provision of 'protection' for a new illegal baccarat club in the city, and Bourke had also begun to encroach on the protection rackets McPherson was running on illegal gaming houses in the Newtown area.

McPherson's reprisal was brutal. Bourke was gunned down on the front lawn of his Randwick home in the early hours of the morning of 10 February 1964. Forensic investigations determined that the killer had hidden in nearby bushes and had fired 10 rifle shots into Bourke from a distance, reloaded, then approached the dying man and fired a further 10 shots into him at close range. No-one was ever charged over the killing, but Tony Reeves asserts that sources who had been close to Det. Ray Kelly assured him that there was no doubt that McPherson was the killer, and that Kelly had ensured that McPherson would not fall under suspicion.

Murder of Jacky Steele, 1965
The next rival eliminated by McPherson was murderer, safecracker and standover man Robert Lawrence "Jacky" Steele, whose shooting and subsequent death became one of the most celebrated criminal cases of the period. On the evening of 26 November 1965 Steele was fired upon by four men who approached him in a car, while he was walking down a quiet street in the affluent suburb of Woollahra in Sydney's inner east.

He received multiple gunshot wounds—including a shotgun blast that ripped a five-inch hole in his abdomen—but he survived the initial attack and he was able to stagger 200 metres back to his home and drag himself up three flights of stairs to his flat before collapsing. Steele was still conscious when he arrived at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, where surgeons removed more than 40 shotgun pellets and bullet fragments from his body.

The wounded Steele survived in hospital for almost a month before finally dying from complications arising from his injuries. In that time he briefly became a media star, and reporters interviewed him in his hospital bed, although one newspaper photographer discovered that Steele, wary of another attempt on his life, was keeping a loaded shotgun at the ready under the sheets.

Steele told a Sunday Mirror reporter that his assailants were able to surprise him by driving up to him in a car that resembled an official police vehicle, and that they were all wearing hats of a style then much favoured by detectives. Tony Reeves speculates Steele may have been falsely told to expect a visit from police with whom he was connected, that McPherson may have used his corrupt police connections to gain the use of a real police vehicle and that the gunmen made eight rehearsal runs for the attack before carrying it out.

Like Charlie Bourke, Steele had incurred Lenny's wrath because he was trying to challenge McPherson's control over inner-city standover rackets, but McPherson's considerable ego also played a part. By Steele's own account, his fate was sealed by a feature in the satirical magazine Oz, entitled "The Oz Guide to Sydney's Underworld", and which was published shortly before the shooting.

Based on information supplied by two Sydney journalists, Oz editor Richard Neville compiled a "Top 20" list of Sydney gangsters. The No. 1 spot was left empty but—in a reference to McPherson—the name "Len" was placed at No. 2, and "Len" was also described as a "fence and a fizz-gig" (police informant). The edition sold out in three days and a delighted Steele reportedly bought 20 copies, making great play of the fact that McPherson was not at No. 1 on the list of top criminals.

It may seem unlikely that a man of McPherson's reputation could be disturbed by an article in a satirical student magazine, but Neville has since revealed that, soon after the "Underworld Guide" was published, he received a visit at his Paddington home from McPherson himself. Lenny explained that had obtained Neville's address from a friend's son, who was at university with Neville. He claimed that he had come to assure himself that the Oz team were not part of a rival gang, and to insist that he was not a "fizz".

In a subsequent edition, Oz delved further into the case when it published the confidential minutes of a monthly meeting of Sydney detectives, held on 1 December. The leaked document revealed that Steele (then still alive in hospital) had named those he believed had carried out the shooting, and that Steele had privately told police that he was sure that McPherson was behind the shooting, and that it had been ordered because of Lenny's fury over the Oz article. The fact that the secret report had been obtained from an underworld source was described by Oz as a "devastating indictment of police".

The late 1960s and beyond
McPherson continued his rise to power through the late 1960s, masterminding the bloody and highly publicized Sydney "gang wars" of the period, during which he allegedly coordinated (and occasionally took part in) the systematic murder of several key rivals. This included the sensational 1967 car-bombing murder of brothel owner Joe Borg, and the killings of his old enemy Ducky O'Connor, and Stewart John Regan. By eliminating his rivals, McPherson became one of the most powerful criminals in Australia; by the end of the 1970s, with corrupt police, prison officers, lawyers and politicians on his payroll, he was able to conduct nearly all of his criminal activities with impunity.

According to biographer Tony Reeves, when it suited him, McPherson acted as an informant to NSW police. In this role, he figured in one of Australia's biggest manhunts, the 1966 search for prison escapees Ronald Ryan and Peter John Walker, who had fled to NSW after a daring escape from Melbourne's Pentridge Prison, during which prison guard George Hodson was killed. Ryan and Walker were eventually captured in the grounds of Concord Repatriation General Hospital in Sydney in a major operation led by Det. Ray "Machine Gun" Kelly. According to Reeves, McPherson was approached by Ryan and Walker, who sought his help to leave the country, but McPherson then arranged a bogus meeting with them at Concord and tipped off the police to their whereabouts. Ryan was subsequently convicted and hanged for the murder of Hodson, becoming the last man in Australia to be executed.

McPherson is also believed to have facilitated the establishment of close contact between key Australian organised crime figures and members of the Chicago Outfit, during the late 1960s. Australian gangsters involved included Ronny Lee, George Freeman and Stan Smith. Perhaps the most notorious of these meetings took place at Sydney, in 1969, during a visit by reputed US mafia hitman Joseph "Dan" Testa, and his associate Nick Giordano. On that occasion, McPherson took Testa and Giordano on a hunting excursion, on which a subsequent feature film Dirty Deeds (2002) was loosely based. The following year, McPherson visited Testa in Chicago.

McPherson is also thought to have been a significant figure in the development of the illegal heroin trade in South-East Asia in the early 1970s.

During the Moffitt Royal Commission into organised crime, an informant alleged that Testa, as a representative of the Mafia, "was conspiring with McPherson and a poker machine company, Bally Manufacturing, to corner the New South Wales market." Testa was later killed in 1981 in a car bomb explosion in a car park near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. McPherson was one of the witnesses called before the commission, which ran from 1973 to 1974.

In 1984 the Gang Wars had started. There were three major gangs: McPherson's Team, Neddy Smith's gang which was backed by Roger Rogerson and there was Barry McCann backed by other police. With a pile of dead bodies, it was back to business.

Death
He was eventually arrested, tried and jailed in the 1990s after ordering the bashing of a business rival. He died of a heart attack in Cessnock Gaol on 28 August 1996, aged 75. He was buried on 3 September 1996 at the Field of Mars Cemetery, Ryde, Sydney.

title: Lenny McPherson


text:
User:Btornado

So you've found my Wikipedia page.

I am an Informatics alum from Indiana University, located in Bloomington, Indiana.

Some of my interests are computers, Linux, film, genealogy, and photography. I am a fan of Lost, 24, Fringe, The Sopranos, and Forensic Files, which is a TV show on Court TV.

I'm starting to keep track of some topics that interest me.

Interesting Articles

 * Social construction
 * Upland Brewing Company - excellent beer in my home town.
 * LaTeX

title: User:Btornado


text:
File:Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a TShirt album cover.jpg

Summary
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