I just heard about this post from Tom MacWood via Ran, and I've looked it over.
Frankly, it's fine by me if Tom MacWood posts his side of that Crump DC/Merchantville thing on this website even though I'm sort of sorry to see Ran get involved in dredging up all that old stuff on this site again right when we were hoping for some productive new info on Merion's history from David Moriarty and the opportunity to discuss it civily. I did post my side of it about a week ago, even if I did remove it, so if he wants to present his side that's fine by me---that's certainly fair and nothing much more than probably a good old fashioned "point/counterpoint".
As for whether it's a good idea to get into all this again I'd bet some pretty good money that most all GOLFCLUBATLASERS and viewers of this website aren't too sanguine about that. Probably just the opposite, in fact.
As for the accuracy of Tom MacWood's side, I agree with Wayne's post. Tom MacWood was accurate about the chain of events in some places but inaccurate in others and most certainly very inaccurate with what he ommitted saying on his post above.
Tom MacWood gave me the guy's name himself and who he was, otherwise I never would've known anything at all about any of it, would I? If he did that he had to know I would call him and not for the least reason I told Tom MacWood on the phone that night when he gave me the guy's name and number that I intended to talk to him otherwise I wouldn't have asked him for his name. All MacWood said to me about Wayne calling him rather than me is he would advise that because he felt he was a much better researcher than I was and since he was that, he'd managed to get that info out of the guy and that Wayne would probably have a better chance of doing that than I would.
What that man told me was a very different story from what Tom MacWood just reported. And I most certainly did tell him I thought MacWood intended to write an article on Crump's suicide. Tom MacWood can tell anyone now he never intended to write an article on Crump's suicide when he called that man in Merchantville but would you believe him? I sure wouldn't, and I don't and I never have, not for a single minute. That's what MacWood says he does---expert research to write expert articles. If he never intended to write an article why did he call the guy and go to that effort in the first place, just to satisfy his curiosity? Do you believe that? I don't believe it for a single second, and I never have right from the first time he gave me that pathetic excuse. To me that's just a piss-poor excuse to cover up the fact he knows perfectly well he should have told that man in Merchantville EXACTLY why he was calling him in the first place, and right up front, and he knows he didn't do that because he probably wouldn't have gotten what he was looking for if he did and that is really bad ethics if you're writing or reporting on something. I wonder if Tom MacWood ever bothered to call that man again and tell him he was going to write a story on Crump's suicide that was generated by that guy who had no idea about an article when he said to MacWood that Crump shot himself?
What Tom MacWood said in that post above is as soon as he called that guy and mentioned he was doing some research on Crump and Pine Valley that that township manager immediately blurted out that Crump shot himself. Do you believe that? It's a completely preposterous remark and completely the opposite of HOW MacWood TOLD ME he got that info out of that guy which was near the end of talking about other things. MacWood even bragged to me on the phone that that is why he's a better researcher than I am.
That township manager told me that people had called him over the years asking about a Crump suicide and the policy of the township was that it was classified and they didn't discuss those things. He even named some of the times he had been called on that. I remember he said he'd been called from someone in California about that.
What that man in Merchantville told me is if Tom MacWood ever showed up in Merchantville NJ he would probably sue him if he wrote an article on that and it became known he was the first source who told him that.
But Tom MacWood said above that you can thank me for the way that Crump article turned out and maybe you can. I tried to explain to him all along that he (and Paul Turner) were wrong that there never was some concerted effort around here to protect Crump or glorify him to minimize Colt at Pine Valley. That was the big issue between us back then and that was a lot of the reason this whole thing happened with MacWood and me and Merchantville township and if you don't believe it just look it up in the back pages on those Pine Valley threads.
But it's quite a while later and what are my feeling now about all this? Well, I think Tom MacWood wrote a very good article on Crump and I've told him so many times and I've told this site the same thing many times. But am I glad he did it? Not at all, even if it was a good and considerate article.
Back then and even on reflection, even if I certainly understand the need to find the truth on most things and how much this site likes that and respects it this will always be one I'd make an exception on that way.
I have no idea why Crump shot himself, and Tom MacWood doesn't either. Noone does and they never will. But obviously his mother didn't want what happen to her son to be known and it had to be her who constructed that story that night in Jan 1918 of how he died even if the police could clearly see it wasn't the truth (matter of fact I'm almost completely sure he did not kill himself in Merchantville as the DC says, I'm almost certain he shot himself right there in his little cabin at his beloved Pine Valley and his body was removed to Merchantville obviously on his mother's request). I believe her's was the story that held for many many decades (sudden death by poison to the brain from a tooth abscess) and the thing that most all thought happened although there were some who knew about that suicide rumor. I heard about it around thirty years ago. Should I have been a good researcher and gone sniffing around to prove he committed suicide?
Not in my book--not ever. Call me a less than dedicated or ambitious researcher, I don't care. I love that place and a lot of the people from it and I never would want to do that to them or Pine Valley or the memory of Crump.
Call me a sentimental sap, I don't care, I wish the hell they'd left everything about the Titanic down there where it is with all the people who went down with it too. I think some things should be left to the mysteries and mist of time. I think there's a certain respect in doing it that way.
To bring this back to what this seems to be all about again and now----Merion---and the accuracy of its architectural history. Isn't it ironic that Hugh Wilson really was booked on the Titanic but for whatever his reasons he changed his booking and went later, and lived to do what he did, only to die suddenly and prematurely at around 45 just like his Philadelphia friend and, like him, later famous architect, Crump.
Just the little increments of Fate, I guess!
