inyati13
Well-known member
RETRIBUTION BY INTIMIDATION
BF Caproni drove past my house, turned around in the neighbor’s driveway and came back again. He was driving less than 10 MPH. He was driving slowly to make sure he made direct eye contact with me. He continued this for at least 30 minutes.
This is a Chuckie Bed Time Story. I never told my dad and mom about this. But as a result of the events below, I was transferred to a new duty station in Denver, CO. Mom never understood why I left. It was a move I never regretted.
The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act regulates the environmental effects of coal mining. That was my job. Effective March 3, 1979, I was promoted to Supervisory Reclamation Specialist. My duty station was Paintsville, KY; home of the Coal Miner’s Daughter. George Creech walked into my office and informed me that he had issued a Cessation Order (CO) that morning. He wanted me to go to the mine with him that afternoon. This was in the spring of 1979. The mine was located in Magoffin County, KY. Salyersville is the county seat and home of one infamous person - Larry Claxton Flynt, listed in 2003 by Arena magazine as #1 on the list of "50 Powerful People in Porn".
There was no permit sign at the entrance. The mining was not being conducted in accordance with any of the standards required by the code of regulations. The only piece of equipment on-site was a loader which was loading a coal truck from a small uncovered bed of coal. The truck driver looked at us unconcerned. True to what George told me, the loader operator ignored our existence. I got out and waved my arms in the fashion that denotes STOP. He never glanced at me.
George had not been able to serve the CO. He had placed it on a large rock near the entrance to the mine and put a rock on it. I lived near Salyersville. That evening I talked to my neighbor, Ernie Taulbee and found out that the mine was operated by Caproni Coal Company whose owner was the Magoffin County Judge/Executive. Ernie told me to be careful, “He is a dangerous man.” The next day George and I took the CO to the Courthouse. We went to the County Judge’s office. The secretary said he was out. We decided to get some sandwich wrap, wrap the CO and tack it to a tree at the entrance to the mine. We did that and photo documented the service. Several days later we went back for a follow-up inspection and the mine was vacant. We measured the pit to calculate the volume of coal excavated.
About a week later, the clerk transferred a call to me from a woman in Ohio. She was in her eighties. A friend of the family had called her and informed her that equipment was working on property that had been in the family for generations. She stated that she had not authorized work on the family property. The neighbor told her they were mining coal. I told her we would inspect it.
George and I went out to the property. The work was fresh. Trees were pushed out, dirt was pushed into the creek and a dozer and tired loader were uncovering a seam of coal. We drove up and the operator ignored our existence. The loader came by our vehicle like he did not see us there. It was not safe to attempt to stop them. The following day we went back with a US Marshall escort. The mine was vacant. But their effort was in vain. They did not have time to remove coal. Nevertheless, the woman’s property was badly damaged. In the weeks that followed, we inspected two of Caproni’s permitted mines. When we saw the mines, we joked that rather than list the violations, it would be easier to fill out a Notice of Violation (NOV) and staple the entire code of regulations to it. Instead, George listed 36 major violations. When we attempted to serve the NOV, there was no foreman or supervisor to serve it on. None of the equipment operators would stop their equipment and be served. We put the NOV in sandwich wrap and tacked it to the permit sign at the entrance. When it came time to do a follow-up inspection to determine if the violations had been abated, we found both of the Caproni mines closed. But we had Caproni in a noose and it was tight. Over the summer, we became Caproni’s worst nightmare. His years of ignoring regulations were coming to an end. Paying off inspectors was not going to work. His good ole boy relationship with the state elected officials was not helping. Caproni was chaffing.
My neighbor, Ernie Taulbee and I played chess sometimes all night. His wife had a sister who lived with them and she was nice to look at. She was recovering from a gunshot wound to the abdomen as a result of a domestic incident. Her husband was in jail. Ernie came over late one night and we walked out into the yard. It was fall of 1979. I told him that Caproni was driving back and forth in front of my house. He said that Caproni had the word across the county that he was going to hire my house burnt. I said, bullshyt. Ron, I would hate to see you leave but you need to move out of here, as far as you can get. He said there is a saying in Eastern Kentucky. You can get a man killed for $50 and get his house burnt for $100. The reason it cost more to burn a house is because gas costs more than ammunition. That is how they value a life if they decide to kill you.
By December of 1979, I was working in Denver, Colorado.
The coal mining industry especially in Appalachia resisted the enforcement of SMRCA. For decades, coal mining in Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee was a business protected by a “good ole boy” system of paying-off state regulators, buying the mining permits at the highest levels of state government and intimidating anyone who got in their way. They rode rough shod over the Appalachians and the unique environment of Appalachia. It was not unlike the theme of the movie “Walking Tall”.
BF Caproni drove past my house, turned around in the neighbor’s driveway and came back again. He was driving less than 10 MPH. He was driving slowly to make sure he made direct eye contact with me. He continued this for at least 30 minutes.
This is a Chuckie Bed Time Story. I never told my dad and mom about this. But as a result of the events below, I was transferred to a new duty station in Denver, CO. Mom never understood why I left. It was a move I never regretted.
The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act regulates the environmental effects of coal mining. That was my job. Effective March 3, 1979, I was promoted to Supervisory Reclamation Specialist. My duty station was Paintsville, KY; home of the Coal Miner’s Daughter. George Creech walked into my office and informed me that he had issued a Cessation Order (CO) that morning. He wanted me to go to the mine with him that afternoon. This was in the spring of 1979. The mine was located in Magoffin County, KY. Salyersville is the county seat and home of one infamous person - Larry Claxton Flynt, listed in 2003 by Arena magazine as #1 on the list of "50 Powerful People in Porn".
There was no permit sign at the entrance. The mining was not being conducted in accordance with any of the standards required by the code of regulations. The only piece of equipment on-site was a loader which was loading a coal truck from a small uncovered bed of coal. The truck driver looked at us unconcerned. True to what George told me, the loader operator ignored our existence. I got out and waved my arms in the fashion that denotes STOP. He never glanced at me.
George had not been able to serve the CO. He had placed it on a large rock near the entrance to the mine and put a rock on it. I lived near Salyersville. That evening I talked to my neighbor, Ernie Taulbee and found out that the mine was operated by Caproni Coal Company whose owner was the Magoffin County Judge/Executive. Ernie told me to be careful, “He is a dangerous man.” The next day George and I took the CO to the Courthouse. We went to the County Judge’s office. The secretary said he was out. We decided to get some sandwich wrap, wrap the CO and tack it to a tree at the entrance to the mine. We did that and photo documented the service. Several days later we went back for a follow-up inspection and the mine was vacant. We measured the pit to calculate the volume of coal excavated.
About a week later, the clerk transferred a call to me from a woman in Ohio. She was in her eighties. A friend of the family had called her and informed her that equipment was working on property that had been in the family for generations. She stated that she had not authorized work on the family property. The neighbor told her they were mining coal. I told her we would inspect it.
George and I went out to the property. The work was fresh. Trees were pushed out, dirt was pushed into the creek and a dozer and tired loader were uncovering a seam of coal. We drove up and the operator ignored our existence. The loader came by our vehicle like he did not see us there. It was not safe to attempt to stop them. The following day we went back with a US Marshall escort. The mine was vacant. But their effort was in vain. They did not have time to remove coal. Nevertheless, the woman’s property was badly damaged. In the weeks that followed, we inspected two of Caproni’s permitted mines. When we saw the mines, we joked that rather than list the violations, it would be easier to fill out a Notice of Violation (NOV) and staple the entire code of regulations to it. Instead, George listed 36 major violations. When we attempted to serve the NOV, there was no foreman or supervisor to serve it on. None of the equipment operators would stop their equipment and be served. We put the NOV in sandwich wrap and tacked it to the permit sign at the entrance. When it came time to do a follow-up inspection to determine if the violations had been abated, we found both of the Caproni mines closed. But we had Caproni in a noose and it was tight. Over the summer, we became Caproni’s worst nightmare. His years of ignoring regulations were coming to an end. Paying off inspectors was not going to work. His good ole boy relationship with the state elected officials was not helping. Caproni was chaffing.
My neighbor, Ernie Taulbee and I played chess sometimes all night. His wife had a sister who lived with them and she was nice to look at. She was recovering from a gunshot wound to the abdomen as a result of a domestic incident. Her husband was in jail. Ernie came over late one night and we walked out into the yard. It was fall of 1979. I told him that Caproni was driving back and forth in front of my house. He said that Caproni had the word across the county that he was going to hire my house burnt. I said, bullshyt. Ron, I would hate to see you leave but you need to move out of here, as far as you can get. He said there is a saying in Eastern Kentucky. You can get a man killed for $50 and get his house burnt for $100. The reason it cost more to burn a house is because gas costs more than ammunition. That is how they value a life if they decide to kill you.
By December of 1979, I was working in Denver, Colorado.
The coal mining industry especially in Appalachia resisted the enforcement of SMRCA. For decades, coal mining in Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee was a business protected by a “good ole boy” system of paying-off state regulators, buying the mining permits at the highest levels of state government and intimidating anyone who got in their way. They rode rough shod over the Appalachians and the unique environment of Appalachia. It was not unlike the theme of the movie “Walking Tall”.
