In William Manchester's book on Douglas MacArthur, American Caesar, while outlining the life of McArthur's father, Manchester mentions in passing MacArthur Sr's "brilliant maneuver of advancing by echelon, first from one flank and then from the other." What does this mean? I can't google it, it's a weird situation where the father's been eclipsed by the son.
It was just around 6:00 p.m. on April 15, 1985, when 3-year-old Arthur Williams, Jr. exited his family’s apartment unit at 213 West New York Avenue in the "Naked City" neighborhood of Las Vegas that was as well-known back then as it is now for high crime rates. A few moments later, Arthur's 5-year-old sister Anglia joined her brother in the front yard of the apartment complex.
At some point while the siblings played in the front yard Anglia took a seat on a low concrete wall and was joined by an unknown man that had been standing nearby. As Arthur continued to play on the sidewalk in front of his apartment, the stranger told Anglia, “I’m going to kill your brother.” The man then rose from his spot on the wall, pulled out a folding knife, and approached Arthur. Apparently without any further indication of a motive, the unidentified man stabbed Arthur once just above his ear.
The brutal attack was over as suddenly as it had unfolded. The attacker ran south down a nearby alleyway. Meanwhile, Arthur’s mother and a neighbor attempted to perform CPR on the child while awaiting an ambulance. Sadly, Arthur was declared dead after his arrival at the hospital.
Investigators were baffled as to a motive for the murder of the young boy. The children had been outside playing for only about ten minutes. Detective Tom Dillard of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said, “There could be no provocation for this. The kids were not out there long enough to do anything.”
And nothing in the hours leading up to the stabbing provided any additional insight into a motive for the attack. Arthur and Anglia’s father, a porter at the Tropicana Hotel, had dropped the kids off at their mother’s home to visit for a few hours as was a routine between the couple. Arthur’s mother, a maid at the Las Vegas Hilton, took the children to get some KFC before returning to her apartment.
The only description of the assailant came from 5-year-old Anglia. The killer was described as a white man standing about 5’8, 130 pounds, with a slim build, light brown hair and eyes, a slight mustache, and wearing a white button-down shirt. Detectives received hundreds of tips in the days after the Williams murder on a phone line set up to track leads in the case, and while no suspect was identified as a result of these efforts, tipsters did reveal that the unknown attacker was spotted in the area outside of Arthur’s apartment building about 15 minutes or so before the murder.
No suspects have been
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