The Problem With Cousins

The problem with cousins is that they live on some other planet and only come down to earth very rarely so we really don't understand each other very well. I seem to vaguely remember Aunt Anita talking about the Italian judge from San Francisco as if he were some kind of hero when actually he may have been a problem. According to the paperwork, they seem to have gotten the case transferred to a German judge who dismissed some of the charges and sentenced only parole. No one ever said anything insulting about Italians, at least not that I know of. It was just that my great-grandfather's father was born in Germany in the 1800s so maybe those Germans understand each other better. The witnesses for the prosecution, Dr. Riffle and Mr. Schmidt, were not Italians either so I don't see what this whole thing has to do with being Italian. Just because you are Italian, that does not mean that this whole thing has anything to do with you. It was not about being Italian. It was Dr. Riffle's money that was taken under cloudy circumstances, not your money. Thus, the matter of 1950 had absolutely nothing to do with Italians. The Italian judge might have been a nice man and done other good things in his long life but as it turned out it was not his place to pass judgment in this case. That job fell to the German judge. The judge had a lot more evidence to look at than we know of today and Samuel Longwell, the man who actually ferried the money from San Francisco to the workplace, was the only one who got jail for a year. I am not sure why these things happened and there were perhaps other circumstances that are not clear from the evidence. Thus it made no sense for the Butterfields to be playing on the Italian team. The Italians never did us any favors, not that it matters now.