Sunday, July 14, 2024

The Habsburg Jaw in Butler County

                                                          


Thomas Matthew Crooks








Habsburg chinHabsburg's chinHabsburg jaw or Habsburg's jaw.













The correlation between the Hapsburg Jaw and mental illness is direct. This partial paper is indicative.


Carlos II of Spain, ‘The Bewitched’: cursed by aspartylglucosaminuria?


Carlos II of Spain (1661–1700), last of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, was known as El Hechizado (The Bewitched) because of his poor health and feeble nature. He suffered from a range of disorders including developmental delay, intellectual disability, dysarthria, skeletal deformity, recurrent infections, epilepsy and infertility. The Spanish branch of the Habsburg royal family was characterised by marked inbreeding, and the male line died out with Carlos II. Various diagnoses have been proffered to explain Carlos II’s infirmity, though none fully explain the breadth of his ailments. As illustrated here, it may be that aspartylglucosaminuria, an autosomal recessively inherited lysosomal storage disorder, can account for the characteristic facial appearance of the Habsburgs, and for the wide variety of other features exhibited by Carlos II.

Aspartylglucosaminuria

Aspartylglucosaminuria is an autosomal recessively inherited lysosomal disorder of in which glycoasparagines, mostly aspartylglucosamine, are deposited and build up in several different tissues, including the nervous system. Most cases have been described in Finland, where a high carrier rate is prevalent, although mutations are found worldwide. Being autosomal recessively inherited, the prevalence is increased in populations with a high degree of consanguinity.

Characteristic clinical features typically include normal birth and early infancy followed, at the age of 2–3, by delayed speech and motor development with intellectual disability. A weak suck in infancy has also been described. A distinctive facial appearance is present, consisting of widely spaced eyes (hypertelorism), puffy eyelids, small ears, full lips, a square and prominent jaw, a cupid bow shape of the upper lip and a short, broad nose. Patients have frequently been described as appearing prematurely aged. In addition, there is frequently relative macrocephaly earlier in development, which may evolve into relative microcephaly, presumably due to retardation of skull growth as the disease progresses

Not infrequently, skin lesions are present. A wide variety of such lesions have been described, including erythema, herpetic-appearing lesions, facial angiofibromas, seborrhoea, gingival overgrowth, buccal oedema and occasionally tumours. Fistulas have also been described. Bony abnormalities are often seen, including thick and misshapen ribs, scoliosis and thickened calvaria. Other suggestive features include recurrent pulmonary infections, diarrhoea, hypermobility of connective tissues, hernias, movement disorders and epilepsy.Intellectual disability is typically mild early on, though verbal dysfunction is most prominent, with later progression to severe levels by late adulthood. A range of psychiatric symptoms may be present.

The course is progressive. Most patients die in the fifth decade. Somewhat interestingly, as was the case in Carlos II, patients generally become very apathetic/abulic before death.

Carlos II, The Bewitched

Carlos II was a sick and frail monarch, and the tragic end product of years of disastrous inbreeding. Ascending the throne at the age 4, he ruled over the Spanish Empire ineffectually for 35 years. His death in 1700 without an heir threw Europe into the convulsive and disastrous War of the Spanish Succession. Its end result was to weaken both Spain and France, allowing the rise of the English.

Carlos II exhibited many features described in aspartylglucosaminuria. Contemporary sources record that he was ‘big-headed’ and a ‘weak breast-fed baby’. The bones of his cranium had not fused at the age of three, and he was unable to walk until well after the age of 6. Carlos II was unable to speak until the age of four, and thereafter acquired little language. He also had prominent dysarthria, with his tongue being described as ‘trabado [locked], with such a fumbling in his speech’. In addition, he was described as showing little interest in his surroundings. He had severe intellectual disability, and was most commonly described as ‘mentally retarded’.He had prominent psychiatric disturbance, and was melancholic, and excessively superstitious.

He also suffered from chronic and episodic diarrhoea. Late in life, he developed seizures. He had frequent pulmonary infections from a young age, and at autopsy his lungs were said to be ‘corroded’. He was also described as being generally ‘swollen’, suggestive of oedema. Somewhat interesting, too, is the description of cutaneous lesions, with mentions of a ‘herpetic rash on both cheeks’, and a discharging wound that ‘oozes underneath the right ear’, which may represent an abscess or fistula. Of later monumental historical significance is his well-known sterility.The autopsy is also reported to have demonstrated a heart the size of a peppercorn, intestines rotten and gangrenous, a single testicle ‘black as coal’ and ‘a head full of water’.

Most characteristic, however, is the distinctive facial appearance, well documented in multiple portraits. There is the strong, square jaw (the famous ‘Habsburg jaw’), a large tongue, plump, round lips, a cupid bow upper lip, a flat, broad nose and large forehead, all reminiscent of the typical findings of aspartylglucosaminuria (figures 1 and 2). He is also frequently described to have severe difficulty eating, with near continuous drooling.




Left: Carlos II of Spain, Juan CarreƱo de Miranda (Wikipedia, public domain). Middle: Carlos II of Spain, Anonymous (Wikipedia, public domain). 

Friday, March 08, 2024

Skinwalker Ranch Deaths and the Hitchhiker Effect



The Skinwalker Ranch is a property of approximately 512 acres (207 ha), located southeast of Ballard, Utah, that is reputed to be the site of strange (Fortean) and UFO/UAP-related activities. Its name is taken from the lore and sightings of skinwalkers of Ute and DinƩ legend.


Various parts of documentaries and programs have chronicled the mysteries of the site. As of 2020, a television series, The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, on History channel, has featured "a team of scientists and experts" that uses science and technology such as lasers, ground-penetrating radar, and drone thermography, as well as lots of rockets. It have shown the cast members searching the property, and attempting to explain claims of UFO/UAP sightings, animal deaths, and unusual events. By April 2024, five seasons of multiple episodes have been filmed and planned for broadcast.

Chief Deputy Brian Fletcher

In March 2024, breaking news was released by the Uintah County Sheriff’s Office. They reported the recovery of a deceased individual around February 29, 2024, near the Skinwalker Ranch.

Chief Deputy Brian Fletcher confirmed the finding, stating, “Our agency did locate a deceased individual south of Fort Duchesne; however, the circumstances are not suspicious, and no further information will be released out of respect for the family,” in an email to Expanding Frontiers Research on March 4, 2024.

Expanding Frontiers Research received information indicating that the body may have been found in the vicinity of 4500 East and 2800 South after an abandoned motorcycle was reported to the sheriff’s office several months earlier. The motorcycle’s discovery was reported on November 24, 2023.

According to an inside informant familiar with the incident, the deceased individual might have been in the area due to an interest in the purported paranormal phenomena linked to Skinwalker Ranch. When asked about this possibility, Chief Deputy Fletcher declined to provide further details.



Members of the investigative teams of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch have told of the "Hitchhiker Effect" involving how the ranch impacts visitors and scientists who visit and work there. Dizzy spells, headaches, and hospital visits have resulted from the apparent electromagnetic side effects from the ranch.




Former Skinwalker Ranch owner Robert Bigelow’s wife Diane, 72, died on February 19, 2020, of myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia.




“The reason Bigelow got rid of the place was he was convinced that it killed his wife.” ~ Travis Taylor, said, re: the “hitchhiker effect” at Skinwalker Ranch. 


The number of “mysterious deaths” associated with the Skinwalker Ranch seems nil. Or the tip of the iceberg is merely being demonstrated, as shown via Diane Bigelow. And Kevin Burns, 65, executive producer of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, who died of a cardiac arrest, September 27, 2020.

Skinwalker Ranch,
Uintah County, Utah, U.S.
Prehistory to 1934 - Utes/DinƩ
1934–1994 – Kenneth and Edith Myers
1994–1996 – Terry and Gwen Sherman
1996–2016 – Robert Bigelow
2016–Present – Brandon Fugal

Current owner, Brandon Fugal



The danger of fans of the program being attracted to the physical location of the Skinwalker Ranch then ending in death has been seen due to other reality programming.

Savanna Bright, 15, died after being hit by a Norfolk Southern train on Sunday night, May 26, 2019, near Pope Lick Park, on the train tracks near the Pope Lick trestle, while searching for the Pope Lick Goat Man. Louisville, Kentucky media has confirmed that two adolescent females on the Pope Lick Train Trestle were stuck by a train near Pope Lick Road, and Taylorsville Road, in Louisville, Kentucky.

The area is known to be “notoriously dangerous” as it is alleged to be the home of the Pope Lick Monster. The creature is said to be part human and part goat.

The Pope Lick Monster is the subject of an urban legend and popularized in YouTube videos, as well as a 1988 film, The Legend of the Pope Lick Monster (director Ron Schildknecht); and a 2013 episode of Destination America’s Monsters and Mysteries in America (in “Ozarks”). There is also a haunted attraction themed after the tales surrounding the Pope Lick monster called the Legend at Pope Lick located at Pope Lick Park in the Parklands of Floyds Fork.

In 2016, Roquel Bain and her boyfriend Dave Knee decided to go to a "paranormal event" at the nearby Waverly Hills Sanatorium, a well-known haunted location often highlighted on “ghost hunter”-type reality programming. But with some time to fill, the couple decided to explore the Pope Lick Trestle and actively see if they could see the Pope Lick Monster. Bain met her tragic fate there.





The "Hitchhiker Effect" can be said to have had some grave links to this location as well as it seems to have to the Skinwalker Ranch.






Saturday, January 06, 2024

Conspiracy and Twilight Language Deaths of 2023

Conspiracy and Twilight Language Deaths of 2023

by Loren Coleman














The "hail and farewell" obituaries at the end of a year are often a confusing mixture of multiple themes. For the twelve months of 2023, I gather here a few of the noteworthy passings of assassination authors, conspiracy journalists, cryptokubrology dots, and twilight language-linked folks we lost in 2023. From the latest, to the earliest...


2023


December 23











Hugh Aynesworth, 92. Obituary. He is shown above with Marina Oswald, in 1964. Aynesworth and others would later say they had an affair.

Hugh Grant Aynesworth, born August 2, 1931 in Clarksburg, West Virginia (as was UFO writer Gary Barker), died December 23, 2023, in Dallas, Texas. Aynesworth was an American journalist, investigative reporter, author, and teacher.

In a 1976 Texas Monthly article, William Broyles, Jr. claimed Aynesworth as "one of the most respected authorities on the assassination of John F. Kennedy".










Certainly, Aynesworth was one of the luckiest reporters or experienced an incredibly high number of coincidences in his life in journalism. He said he  

~ witnessed the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dealey Plaza

~ the capture and arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald at the Texas Theatre,  

~ the shooting of Oswald by Jack Ruby in the basement of the Dallas Police Headquarters,

 had "broken almost every major assassination story", and

worked openly with Clay Shaw's attorneys to defend Shaw against Jim Garrison.

He painted himself as a conservative, a skeptic, and an assassination conspiracist.

Also Aynesworth...

~ with Stephen Michaud, a former Business Week reporter, wrote two books on serial killer Ted Bundy,

~ with Jim Henderson, also of the Dallas Times Herald, did investigative reporting of self-proclaimed mass murderer Henry Lee Lucas, and

covered the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, referring to it as "[t]he Branch Davidian massacre".

Aynesworth was seen to have been his own greatest promoter. Aynesworth was reported to have "interviewed John F. Kennedy in the shower [and] Lyndon B. Johnson in bed". According to one report: "He also tracked down the person who stole "most of" eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes' money, chased James Earl Ray all over the South and into Canada after he shot the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr." According to Aynesworth, he was asked to serve as a pallbearer for Jack Ruby and played basketball with Fidel Castro. He said that he was playing outside of Havana: "And all of a sudden, this Jeep drives up and a bearded gentleman gets out and puts on his tennis shoes and joins us. I'd been having trouble getting an interview, and after that, it came a little easier. I told him that I would let him win."

Aynesworth co-authored seven books with Stephen G. Michaud. His 2003 book JFK: Breaking the News is "a companion piece to a documentary on the 40th anniversary of the event."

December 21

Ian Punnett, 63
Ian Punnett was a regular host of Coast to Coast AM beginning in 1998, infrequently interviewing conspiracy writers and related individuals. He died shortly after a brief illness.


December 8

































Ryan O'Neal, 82. Obituary

Born April 20, 1941, actor Ryan O'Neal starred in Barry Lyndon, Love Story, and Paper Moon, among other films, before dying on December 8, 2023.

#Cryptokubrology reflective screen history: Stanley Kubrick modeled Tom Cruise's mask in Eyes Wide Shut on Ryan O'Neal's face in Barry Lyndon (shown above).


September 22

Kenn Thomas, 65. Obituary.


















St. Louis area resident and author Kenn Thomas was a former university librarian, archivist, and the editor/publisher of Steamshovel Press, a parapoliticial conspiracy theory magazine. He was an author of a great collection of conspiracy articles and books.

Kenn died in his sleep on a Friday night. Kenn resisted going into a nursing home, despite ongoing chronic health issues, because it would have meant living without his dog, books, records, and comic books, which to him was not living at all.

Kenn showed author Loren Coleman the "name game" location, the Beall House, in Missouri, on one visit.















August 20

 davidperkins

David Perkins, 77. Obituary.

David Perkins was a field researcher and writer investigating “cattle muteology,” the mysterious mutilations occurring throughout the Midwest USA.









Long before podcasts, there was Altered Steaks: A Colloquium on the Cattle Mutilation Question (1982), by David Perkins (a/k/a "Izzy Zane"), Lewis Macadams, and Tom Clark.


February 19

Richard Jay Belzar, 78. Obituary.

Richard Belzar, well-known for his role on Law and Order: SVU, was a comic and conspiracy author. His book UFOs, JFK & Elvis: Conspiracies You Don't Have to Be Crazy to Believe, was one of his more popular.

January 9

0-26

Melinda Dillon, 83. Obituary.

Melinda appeared in the midst of films that had a central theme of interest to many of us: MagnoliaHarry and the Hendersons, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Dillon also is famously in A Christmas Story. This movie contains a scene of the parade in front of the Cleveland-based department store Higbee's featuring characters from MGM's version of The Wizard of Oz, which was released in 1939. As this clip shows, it is extremely filled with twilight language. #Cryptokubrology 


Sunday, September 24, 2023

Author and Conspiracy Theorist Kenn Thomas Passes Away

























St. Louis area resident and author Kenn Thomas, born June 12, 1958, passed away on September 22, 2023. He was a former university librarian and archivist, and a conspiracy writer, and editor/publisher of Steamshovel Press, a parapolitical conspiracy theory magazine.

Kenn was a friend of many writers, including Jim Keith, Greg Bishop, Paul Kimball, Adam Gorightly, Jim Martin, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Adam Parfrey, Jim Marrs, Mae Brussell, Tim Binnall, Kevin Nealon, Ron Bonds, Stephen Miles Lewis, Robert Sterling, Robert Guffey, and, me, Loren Coleman.   Kenn also had various close relationship with some powerful women writers and thinkers (e.g. Acharya and Alfvegren). He saw many friends, male and female, die early.

            I was involved with one of Kenn’s St Louis area conferences in 1999, and we visited local Fortean sites such as Piasa Rock in Alton and the nearby “name-game” haunted location at the Beall House.







Thomas wrote over a dozen books on various conspiracy topics, including NASA, Nazis & JFK; Maury Island UFO, about the possibility that Fred Crisman was connected to the assassination of John F. Kennedy; and The Octopus: Secret Government and the Death of Danny Casolaro, about the Inslaw affair. In 2004, Feral House published a new edition of The Octopus, extending the suggestion of connections to the post-September 11 attacks world and al-Qaeda. A new edition of Maury Island UFO was published by Feral House in 2011 as JFK & UFO: Military-Industrial Conspiracy and Cover-Up from Maury Island to Dallas.

Thomas called his research interest "parapolitics," the study of conspiracies of all colors—from alien abductions and the Illuminati, to the John F. Kennedy assassination and the September 11, 2001 attacks. The New Yorker called his work "on the cutting edge" of conspiracy. His name has become a by-word for a conspiracy theorist; enough so that baseball was described in print as involving "enough fishy behavior to keep Kenn Thomas swarming for years,"(Baseball Prospectus 2002).

On September 16, 2016, Kenn wrote what his semi-retirement was revealing:


Kenn Thomas traveled extensively during the 1980s and 1990s to speak about his conspiracy, assassination, and Fortean interests. Thomas appeared at Conspiracy Con in 2003 and 2007.

Beth, Kenn's ex-wife wrote the following for the public:
+++
“ Kenn and I met in high school, in 9th grade history class (or maybe it was English class - you think you’ll never forget this stuff). We didn’t become friends until 11th grade journalism class. We became close in our senior year when I was the editor of the school paper and he wrote and drew a comic strip for it, the originals of which I still have. We stayed friends after high school and started dating during college. We moved in together at some point and got married when we were 25. We had two children before divorcing in 2001. When he got sick a few years ago, I stepped in to help our kids manage his chronic health issues. We had been a part of each other’s lives for nearly 50 years when he died Friday morning at Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital.

He fell almost two weeks ago while at dialysis. The details are murky, which I suspect may be due to the dialysis staff not wanting to admit responsibility, but that’s a story (and maybe an investigation) for another day. He hit his head so hard, it knocked him out, and he was taken to Mercy Hospital by ambulance. He spent two days in the ICU with a hematoma and a brain bleed. They stopped his blood thinners, which helped, and the doctors were optimistic, so they sent him to rehab. Simon visited him, and he seemed like his old self and was upbeat about getting better and going home.

If you knew Kenn, you may remember him as a charming and super bright dude who could talk about anything - music, politics, comic books, and (his favorite) conspiracies. He was probably a polymath, meaning he was talented in so many areas and could pick up new skills seemingly effortlessly. He was a writer, an artist, a researcher. He had a master’s in English and could understand and explain even the densest literary works (Pynchon was his favorite). He took an acting class once and blew everyone away with his portrayal of Cardinal Wolsey.

He was a gifted speaker with a DJ’s voice and in fact worked at KWMU on the weekends for a few years when they still played music. He reviewed rock concerts for the Post-Dispatch and the Globe-Democrat and co-hosted a music and talk show with Phil Gounis on KDHX in its early on-air days, where they mostly played Dylan but also talked about other music and books. He was part of a small but (obsessively) devoted local group of Dylan diehards who saw every concert (and recorded many of them in the early days). He loved the Beat poets and Timothy Leary and could claim something of a friendly connection to William Burroughs, who he spoke about - and accepted the honor for - when Burroughs was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame in 1990 because Burroughs was too frail to travel to his hometown. If all goes according to plan, Kenn will be buried near Burroughs at Bellefontaine Cemetery.

Kenn worked for the University of Missouri for almost 40 years before retiring in 2019. He never really loved the archives/historical manuscripts career field, but he made it work for him, while also writing and lecturing about conspiracy stories and publishing a magazine, “Steamshovel Press.” He loved his children and his dogs and old TV shows (Hogan's Heroes was a favorite) and resisted going into a nursing home or assisted living because it would have meant living without his books, records, and comic books, which to him was not living at all.

Over the last three years, it has taken a team of folks to take care of him, and I want to give them a grateful and loving shout-out: Jeffrey Von Behren, Nancy Von Behren, Alan and Norm (not on FB), Jerry Durrwachter, Douglas Jake Jacobs (and Kathy). His sisters Mary Thomas-Turner and Bridget Bueltemeyer, despite battling their own health issues, have been the emotional support we needed, and his niece Jackie Turner worked on his house when he needed it. We will miss him forever. If you have a story or remembrance, please share it in the comments below. He leaves behind his children, Sara and Simon, his sisters, Mary and Bridget, three nieces, Michelle, Jackie, and Brandey, two nephews, Luke and Anthony, and a multitude of friends from across the globe. Kenneth Francis Thomas: June 12, 1958, to September 22, 2023."

&



+++

Thomas had been involved in several books that have impacted the conspiracy thoughts in the United States.




 



Selected Bibliography:
Acid: A New Secret History of LSD, David Black (introduction by Kenn Thomas), Vision, UK, 2003.
The Arch Conspirator, Len Bracken (introduction by Kenn Thomas), AUP, US, 1999.
The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold, Acharya S (introduction by Kenn Thomas), AUP, US, 1999.
Cyberculture Counterconspiracy: A Steamshovel Web Reader, Book Tree, US, 2000.
Inside the Gemstone File, Kenn Thomas and David Childress, AUP, US, 1999.
The Little Book of Conspiracies: A Paranoiac's Pocket Guide, Joel Levy (introduction by Kenn Thomas), Thunder's Mouth, US, 2005.
Maury Island UFO: The Crisman Conspiracy, IllumiNet, US, 1999.
Mind Control, Oswald & JFK, AUP, US, 1997.
NASA, Nazis & JFK: The Torbitt Document & the Kennedy Assassination, Adventures Unlimited Press, US, 1996.
The Octopus: Secret Government and the Death of Danny Casolaro, with Jim Keith, Feral House, US, 2005.
Parapolitics: Conspiracy in Contemporary America, AUP, US, 2006.
Popular Alienation: A Steamshovel Press Reader, IllumiNet, US, 1995.
Popular Paranoia: A Steamshovel Press Anthology, AUP, US, November 2002.
Round Trip To Hell In A Flying Saucer, Timothy Green Beckley (with contribution by Kenn Thomas), Global Communications, 2011.
Saucers of the Illuminati, Jim Keith (introduction by Kenn Thomas), AUP, US, 2004.
Secret and Suppressed II: Banned Ideas and Hidden History into the 21st Century, Feral House, US, 2008.
Shadow Government: 9/11 and State Terror, Len Bracken (introduction by Kenn Thomas), AUP, US, 2002.
Trumpocalypse Now!, Adventures Unlimited Press, 2017.
William Cooper: Death Of A Conspiracy Salesman, various with contribution from Kenn Thomas, Inner Light, US, 2001.





Kenn’s beloved Charlie, his service dog, assisted him greatly during the last few years. Sending treats and dog toys to Charlie was my way to support Kenn’s journey through his dark days.

“Remember it is in love that we are made and in love we disappear.šŸ’™” ~ Kenn Thomas, 2022.






Red Pill Junkie | Miguel Romero has written a worthy tribute you should read.