A call for arms, and body, fit for a king

Too much killing in the streets, too little learning in the schools.

Las Vegas needs some good news.

Joe Ann Ricca, bless her heart, has some.

Yes, this Las Vegan who founded the Richard III Foundation 20 years ago — “I love 15th century history”— says we now have the chance to ensure a better sculpture is done of the controversial king who ruled England from 1483 to 1485.

Thank God. It’s about time we had the opportunity to replace the statuary at England’s Middleham Castle.

For only $300,000 in donations for a new statue, we can make sure that when we travel to the county of North Yorkshire to look at the likeness of this long-dead dude — some historians and Shakespeare depict him as evil while other researchers say he was enlightened — we’ll never have to ask: Did this dude have arms?

That question apparently is on the lips of many tourists today because the piece by Linda Thompson now on display shows him armless, which in the words of the foundation’s honorary patron, Robert Hardy, “gives a dangerously wrong impression of Richard III.”

Methinks that’s possible.

The people who believe, as historian David Horspool does, that Richard III was one of the most evil, detestable tyrants ever to walk this earth might think after seeing a sculpture without arms that he slaughtered his 13- and 11-year-old nephews as well as Henry VI by ripping their throats out with his teeth.

Yet neither Horspool or Shakespeare ever accused Richard III of that kind of barbaric behavior — Horspool said Richard favored “butchered” victims.

When I visited Sunday with the insurance employee at her southwest Las Vegas home — her foundation sent out a press release — I found her passionate about the dead monarch. She’s ecstatic that his royal bones were found under a British parking lot in 2012 and received a ceremony fit for a king.

He was reburied last year with nearly $4 million worth of pomp and circumstance.

Ah, the common curse of mankind — folly and ignorance.

Ricca has 800 books about the period when Richard III did his thing. Her tablet is full of pictures dealing with the king. Her favorite painting shows him on horseback. She’s traveled to England more than 30 times.

“I don’t remember any specific incident or book that got me interested in him, I just was,” said Ricca, who says she has about 600 members in her foundation worldwide.

As she showed me a photograph on her tablet of Thompson’s sculpture, she pointed out what she said were errors in costuming. She also didn’t like that on the back of the sculpture are a serpent and a dragon — symbolism she’s sure was taken from Shakespeare’s play “Richard III.”

“The way Shakespeare depicted Richard had nothing to do with history,” she said.

Fie on thee!

Ricca, who sees the late king as loyal, lawful, courageous, determined and brave, sides with scholars who tend to believe that Richard III was a sweetheart, who made sure judges meted out justice without favor to all members of society.

She says when Richard died on the battlefield in 1485, a new dynasty came into power and wrote a negative history about the fallen king. She also says Shakespeare, who wasn’t born during the monarch’s reign, picked up the history handed down during the Tudor era and used it in his fictional tragedy about the fallen king.

There isn’t enough evidence, she said, to call Richard III a killer. Still, she says if he did kill his nephews, as many historians suggest, she’d still think highly of him.

“It could have been a mistake,” she said. “We all make mistakes.”

The lady doth protest too much.

Ricca talked excitedly about North Carolina sculptor Chas Fagan, whose work will be discussed at an Oct. 29 meeting of the foundation in England. She hopes he’ll sculpt Richard III within three years.

Fagan sent me photos of his sculptures, including works on Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

They have arms.

If that doesn’t make you feel good about sending big bucks to the nonprofit Richard III Foundation, 9043 Vintage Wine Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89148, nothing will.

Paul Harasim’s column runs Sunday, Tuesday and Friday in the Nevada section and Monday in the Health section. Contact him at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Follow @paulharasim on Twitter.