Diaries

By her own account, she was an abused child, a bed-wetter who suffered the beatings of a stern stepfather and warnings from a harshly religious mother that perdition awaited those who indulged. But indulge she did, a darkly exotic self-described "Beverly Hills socialite" who danced at nightclubs such as the Gate, flew to Aspen and Cabo San Lucas, had numerous husbands and lovers, and snorted and smoked cocaine. Fresh from her third tour of a drug rehab clinic, Faye D.

Was there ever a "Golden Age" in California's schools? In some ways, schools were notably better thirty years ago. But there were troubles then, too, as seen in these excerpts from a diary kept in 1969 by Richard Arthur, then a history teacher at Jefferson High in South Central Los Angeles. 1968 Sept. 20--A shooting occurred just before lunch. Sept. 23--Students and outside loiterers walked the halls all day. Sept. 24--During a heat wave, I was unable to shut off a heater in the bungalow. Sept.

In the view of many of his Senate colleagues, the most incriminating evidence in the ethics investigation of Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.) was provided by Packwood himself. In a series of tape-recorded diary entries, Packwood describes after-hour drinking sessions in his Capitol office and clandestine encounters with female staff members and other women, some of whom later stepped forward to accuse him of sexual harassment.

It was the place where I got my first baseball mitt. Johnny's Bike and Sports Shop. I remember that fresh smell of leather and pounding my fist into the pocket of the glove that would carry me through so many seasons. Most boys have experienced such a moment. I had returned to Santa Cruz, two decades later. But this was no happy homecoming.

Harry Truman always denied that while in the White House he entertained the idea of having Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower run for president in 1948 -- with Truman as his running mate. But a newly discovered diary written by Truman reveals that he did make the offer while talking politics one summer afternoon with Eisenhower. Truman worried that Gen. Douglas MacArthur would run for president on the Republican ticket.

A Riverside Municipal Court judge ruled Friday that a 43-year-old mother of two who was raped nearly a year ago does not have to turn over her diary to the man accused of attacking her. The victim began keeping the journal after the attack as part of a therapy program. She wrote her thoughts in it and shared them with her therapist because she had been too traumatized by the attack to talk about it.

Warner Books Inc. on Tuesday canceled "The Diary of Jack the Ripper," one month before 200,000 copies of the Victorian serial killer's purported ramblings were to go on sale. What was once touted by the publisher as the historical find of the century has collapsed into a hoax. "It's so deadly obvious from every way you look.

The discovery and worldwide publication of Adolf Hitler's "diaries" in 1983 was not only the greatest literary fraud of all time, but also a grand-prize example of journalistic buffoonery. Immediately after portions of the diaries were published in the United States, Germany and Great Britain, the German government conducted simple forensic tests that revealed them as forgeries of the crudest order.

The Justice Department asked a federal judge to grant a two-week delay before compelling former President Ronald Reagan to turn over diaries and other personal records that his former national security adviser says he needs to defend himself against charges in the Iran-Contra scandal. U.S. District Judge Harold H. Greene has taken no action on the request. Reagan had been subpoenaed by John M. Poindexter's attorneys to produce the records by Wednesday.

"The days are closing in as the anniversary of Dad's death draws near. Thirteen years since he was murdered. And still no answers," writes LoRee Peery of Walton, N.Y., in her diary. "Someone, somewhere has kept silent all these years. I know somebody knows the killer. Someone who is too frightened to come forward . . ." An excerpt from the diary of Michael Brownstein of Chicago starts: "I was looking for a cool seat on the train." In her diary, Lynette Benton of Arlington, Mass.