"Pied Piper of Tucson," Vocabulary from the news article

The legendary Pied Piper of Hamelin is a rat-catcher. But when the town refuses to pay him for his services, he uses his magic pipe to lure the children and make them disappear. The Pied Piper of Tucson is Charles Howard Schmid, Jr., and he committed twisted killings in the 1960s. In the Daily News, Mara Bovsun recounts the story of how he was brought to justice. Try not to fall under his spell with this list.

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Full list of words from this list:

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  1. pip-squeak
    someone who is small and insignificant
    Charles Howard Schmid, Jr., was a little pipsqueak of a guy, standing just about 5'3" tall.
    The noun sounds like an ironic pun on the nickname Pied Piper. The word is most likely an onomatopoeic description of the sound a weak creature might make. This could be traced to the Latin verb "pipare" which means "to peep, chirp." In early twentieth century Britain, "pip-pip" described the sound of a bicycle horn and was informally used to say hello. "Pip" could also refer to the seed of a fruit, which is an image used to represent smallness.
  2. compensate
    make up for shortcomings by exaggerating good qualities
    To compensate, he bragged non-stop and wore freaky makeup and oversized cowboy boots, which he stuffed with socks, rags, and crushed tin cans to add inches.
  3. ego
    an inflated feeling of pride in your superiority to others
    When all that failed to pump up his ego, he killed girls.
  4. sleazy
    morally degraded
    In the early 1960s, Schmid, the adopted son of a nursing home owner, was a fixture on a sleazy strip in Tucson, Arizona, known as the Speedway.
  5. bizarre
    conspicuously or grossly unconventional or unusual
    Concealing Schmid's naturally handsome face was a bizarre mask of his own design - dark tan pancake makeup, white lipstick, and hair dyed jet-black.
  6. axle
    a shaft on which a wheel rotates
    He topped it off with a beauty mark on his cheek made of putty and axle grease.
  7. conquest
    the act of defeating and taking control of
    He told wild tales of sexual conquests.
  8. manifest
    reveal its presence or make an appearance
    "I can manifest my neurotical emotions, emancipate an epicureal instinct, and elaborate on my heterosexual tendencies," was one of his frequent rants.
    The rant manifests ("provide evidence for") Schmid's large vocabulary, while also elaborating ("add details, as to an account or idea") on how small he actually is. What he is saying is, "I can show that I'm crazy, indulge in food, alcohol, and other sensual pleasures, and talk about what I want to do with girls."
  9. sobriquet
    a familiar name for a person
    His power over women would later prompt newsman Don Moser, who wrote a book on the case, to give him the sobriquet the "Pied Piper of Tucson."
  10. fawning
    attempting to win favor by flattery
    He was never without a fawning female.
  11. binge
    an occasion for excessive eating or drinking
    On May 31, during a beer binge with his gal and another buddy, John Saunders, Smitty blurted out: "I want to kill a girl."
  12. insist
    assert to be true
    Soon after the disappearance, detectives quizzed Schmid, who said he knew Rowe and had planned to take her to a party that night, but insisted she was gone when he arrived.
  13. blab
    divulge confidential information or secrets
    As he had with the earlier killing, Schmid blabbed to Bruns about murdering the Fritz sisters.
  14. infatuated
    marked by foolish or unreasoning fondness
    Bruns kept the secret, until he became infatuated with a girl, and started having nightmares that she was next on Schmid's list.
  15. boast
    a statement expressing pride or self-regard
    He also told of Schmid's boasts about the Rowe murder.
  16. attire
    clothing of a distinctive style or for a particular occasion
    Gone were the mole, the makeup and the bizarre attire.
  17. wholesome
    characteristic of physical or moral well-being
    The wholesome veneer, however, did little to sway the jury.
    A veneer is a "coating consisting of a thin layer of wood." The noun is figuratively used to describe Schmid's fake wholesome appearance, which he ironically achieved by taking off his usual layers of makeup and clothes.
  18. destined
    headed or intending to head in a certain direction
    After 1971, when Arizona abolished the death penalty, it looked as if Schmid was destined to spend decades behind bars.
  19. inspire
    supply the idea for
    His bizarre life inspired a story - "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" - by Joyce Carol Oates.
  20. vulnerable
    susceptible to criticism or persuasion or temptation
    It was later adapted into a film, "Smooth Talk," starring Laura Dern as a young girl whose "trashy daydreams" leave her vulnerable to a dangerous stranger.
Created on Thu May 07 11:32:11 EDT 2015 (updated Mon May 11 18:52:05 EDT 2015)

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