richard angelico

$2500 Reward for Arrest

September 18, 2015 by Charlie London

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Crimestoppers is offering a $2500.00 reward for information leading to the
arrest of the four teenagers who stole Richard Angelico‘s truck at gunpoint.

If you have information, please contact Crime Stoppers at 504-822-1111.

You will not be asked to identify yourself or need to give any contact information.

You will be issued a code number to remember. Then check in at Crimestoppers from time to time to see if your information lead to an arrest. Once an arrest has been made, you will be paid cash at a specified location. Information about Crimestoppers and the reward process can be viewed at crimestoppersgno.org

Halo on Your Finger

October 2, 2014 by Charlie London

by Richard Angelico

I got up this morning thinking, “I need to work in the yard and cut the grass.” But thank goodness, the phone rang and rescued me from that insanity!

A very pleasant sounding young lady named Ana was on the line asking for my help. Her Mom had lost her ring while working in the garden yesterday ( confirming my belief that nothing good ever comes of lawn work! ) and look though they may the ring had been sucked into a sponge of well tended landscape. “Can you find it”, she asked? “If it’s there, I’m pretty sure I can but there are no guarantees”, I replied.

So, I headed over to Gentilly and met with Ana and her Mom. The poor lady was distraught and began explaining the rings’ sentimental value to me and how she had prayed someone could help her find it. I quizzed her about where she had worked in the yard, where she did the most strenuous work and when did she realized the ring was missing. I put all that information into my “ring computer” , selected an area, took one step, swung my detector and Eureka!! The detector rang out like an alarm clock. I had hit it on the first swing!

Now that has never, ever happened before, so Mom’s prayers must have been guiding that coil. I couldn’t see the ring at first and thought it might be trash. But there it was, tucked down in the thatch a nice circle of gold in a nest of green St. Augustine. I walked over to Ana’s Mom and asked if this was what she was looking for? Her eyes lit up and the sadness evaporated. It was her precious ring.

Now, I had a decision to make. Should I go home and work in the yard? I glanced at the wedding ring on my finger and thought, why risk it?

Memorial Museum Has Notable Neighbor on Board

August 9, 2014 by Charlie London

article by Charlie London | photos by Charlie London except as noted
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People with many interests live, not only longest, but happiest.
~George Matthew Allen
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You may know Richard Angelico as the investigative reporter whose face was on television for years. Or you may know Richard as the guy who used those same investigative talents after retiring from television to help the Metropolitan Crime Commission. Or, you may know Richard Angelico as that guy who marches through swamps and forests with his metal detector digging up the dirt to reveal historic artifacts. You may have seen Richard along with his wife Diane raising funds for the Louisiana SPCA. Or, you just may have had the opportunity to know Richard as an affable neighbor who has an encyclopedic knowledge of many things.

Richard Angelico is a man of many interests and a great Faubourg St. John neighbor. Talk with Richard for a while and you’ll soon find that he has a passion for history. That passion and his volunteer spirit has landed him on the Board of the Confederate Memorial Hall Foundation. It’s an honor Richard hasn’t taken lightly.

Faubourg St. John neighbor Richard Angelico is on the Board of the Confederate Memorial Hall Foundation for the benefit of the
Confederate Memorial Hall
at 929 Camp Street in New Orleans.

The museum’s website says, “Confederate Memorial Hall opened its doors in New Orleans on January 8, 1891, and and has been commemorating southern heritage and history for over 120 years. The museum is the oldest in Louisiana and houses one of the largest collections of Confederate memorabilia in the United States.” Learn more at… http://confederatemuseum.com/about-museum/history-of-museum/

Did you know that the coffin containing the body of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, was at the Confederate Memorial Hall for a short time after being moved from its resting place in Metairie Cemetery? Did you know that over 60,000 people came to pay respects? Did you know that Jefferson Davis’ body was then put on a train to Richmond where folks lined up along the tracks all the way to Richmond? You can learn this and more at the Confederate Memorial Hall.

Canon photo courtesy the Confederate Memorial Hall’s website. Did you know that the Civil War era canon was most effective, not just because it could blast an iron ball at great force but, because that iron ball would bounce along the battlefield taking out arms, legs and entire human beings along the way? War is nasty business. The Civil War was one of the most horrendous in terms of carnage on the battlefield.

Many folks learned the glory and fame some received during the Civil War. However, the folks who paid the ultimate price during the war of northern aggression can sometimes be forgotten. The Confederate Memorial Hall is a place to learn, remember and to vow to remain united in a civil society. More people died in one Civil War battle, The Battle of Shiloh, than died in the American Revolution or the War of 1812.

You can watch a movie at the Confederate Memorial Hall that Richard helped produce. He can be heard throughout the film doing the narration. You can purchase that same movie to take home with you too!

Richard says, “The Confederate Memorial Hall is a vital part of our local Louisiana heritage. Please consider me available to lead any neighborhood group through the museum.”

Just call the Confederate Memorial Hall at 504-523-4522 and leave a message for Richard Angelico who will get back to you to set up a tour.

Click on the flyer for a larger view.

Click on the flyer for a larger view.

Photos below from the Confederate Memorial Hall’s Facebook page:

Click on any of the uniforms above for a larger view.

Click on the photo for a larger view. Colonel J. A. Chalaron gave a wonderful speech when the museum opened over 120 years ago. The speech is often referred to when explaining the reason the Veterans established Memorial Hall. Here is an excerpt:
“to these sacred and inspiring objects we should extend our fullest measure of love and protection. We must guard them with the tender care with which a mother watches over her child. We must see that they are transmitted to our descendents as object lessons which will inspire them with a reverence of the past and incite them with a determination to emulate the patriotism, and devotion to the duty of those who have gone before.”

Above is a photo of my great, great grandfather William Lord London. “He was promoted in July 1863 to inspector general of General Daniel’s brigade and a few months later was made adjutant general of the brigade.” Click on the photo above for quote-credit and the rest of the story.

A Very Happy Mardi Gras

February 11, 2013 by Charlie London

photos and story by Richard Angelico

I had the occasion to make two young visitors to our city, Mattie Smith and her fiancee Robert very happy today.

Last night they were sitting on a porch uptown and Mattie’s intended dropped her ring on the porch and it bounced into a small but very dense garden loaded with pipes, a fountain, electrical wires and Mardi Gras lights.

They found me on the internet and gave me a call asking for help. So, I brought two detectors and small coils but they were impossible to use in that environment. So, I got my trusty Garrett Pro Pointer out and used that instead. It was tedious searching but that probe is amazing! After an hour, I had found every nail, small metal scrap or foil in the garden but no ring.

I was convinced it had bounced off one of the cast iron plants and was either among the thick stalks or roots or had been deflected towards the fountain. Pulling back the plants further I saw a small rodent hole at the base of the fountain. I stuck the pro pointer in and got a healthy buzz. When I stuck my finger in, I felt the ring and slipped it right out.

Mattie didn’t see me so I asked if she would hold the small “test ring” I had brought along because it was interfering with my detector. When her ring hit her hand I thought she would faint!! She started crying, kept hugging me and bombarding me with, “thank you, thank you, thank you”. Robert was quite relieved as well and I certainly could understand that when I saw the beautiful 3.5 carat emerald cut diamond!! From start to finish it took 1 hour and 23 minutes. Made my Mardi Gras weekend!

Trees and Treasure

December 2, 2012 by Charlie London

Richard_Angelico — article by Richard Angelico
The photo above shows
Mr. Angelico with a cannonball
found deep in the
Louisiana woods.

I usually spend my Saturdays somewhere along the Mississippi River, swinging my metal detector and digging in cane fields or battle fields looking for War of 1812 or Civil War campsites and relics.

This first day of December I was working on my second cup of coffee and wondering where I should head to when my phone rang. It was an excited Charlie London calling to tell me the crews digging holes for the new oak trees were turning up bottles and pottery shards as they dug. That’s not surprising since decades ago the city used the area along the bayou as a dumping ground for trash to fill in marshy areas. Charlie suggested I take a quick look so I grabbed my metal detector and headed out. By the time I got there three trees had been planted but two were awaiting placement in their holes.

A quick look at the excavated dirt showed hundreds of pieces of broken glass, bottle necks and fragments, brick and pottery shards all clues the relic hunter looks for to indicate a good site.

The tree planting crew would be heading my way soon so I had only a few minutes to swing my detector over the dirt piles.

The first relic to pop up out of the ground was a brass Lion’s Paw, followed by half of a lady’s hem weight, a brass escutcheon, half a musket ball and an underwear button.

At first I thought the escutcheon may be a foreign coin with a hole in the center but it turned out to be a piece of Eastlake hardware, most likely for a drawer pull or knob. The lead hem-weight was used to hold ladies skirts down and men’s frock coats as well. The brass Lion’s Paw is found as “feet” on umbrella stands, cache pots and andirons. It is hollow brass and was filled with lead to give it weight. The underwear button is interesting it has the words “ Artistic Paris” on the face which suggest it may have adorned a lady’s undergarment long ago. And why one half of a musket ball? Well, these were often cut in half or flattened as were other lead bullets during the Civil War to be used as “game pieces” or “poker chips” by enterprising soldiers.

Back at home I cleaned them all up and now I have some nice relics to give to Charlie for display at the next neighborhood meeting.

Click here to view a PDF of the “Trees and Treasures” article by Richard Angelico.