His grandmother’s interest in genealogy led to the discovery of Old Billy’s Journal. Old Billy, it seems, was his grandmother’s great uncle and had suffered from a sort of dementia in the years before his death in 1942.

According to his journal, it was he who started the war when he shot “Filipinos” on a bridge near Manila in early 1899.

In those days, most called it an insurrection, but Old Billy vehemently disagreed. He called it the “Imperialist War” and he felt he had opened the door.

William decided he would leave his grandmother’s chest to his youngest. Of all the children, Bill Junior would be the best one to care for them.

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