Leek is Keel Backwards: Mothman's Name Game and More Revealed

Richard Hatem, known for Grimm today and The Mothman Prophecies screenwriter, is directly responsible for bringing the story of the winged weirdie to theaters in 2002.

John A. Keel's book, The Mothman Prophecies, was first published in 1975. 

It is hard to believe today, but people forgot about the book. Then on October 1, 1991 ­ IllumiNet Press published the first reprint of The Mothman Prophecies in decades. It is this edition that screenwriter Richard Hatem "discovered" in an old book store, and decided to get someone interested in producing a movie from the book.

This happened in the spring of 1997. Struck by insomnia one night, Richard Hatem drifted into a Pasadena bookstore. A used copy of The Mothman Prophecies almost literally fell from a shelf into his hands, as if guided to him by a "library angel," as they are called. Hatem soon was engaged in reading Keel's book through the night. The next day, he contacted John Keel, and immediately began work on the screenplay that Lakeshore Entertainment bought in 1998.

The movie, steered by Richard Pellington, then known for his conspiracy thriller, Arlington Road, directed The Mothman Prophecies and it hit theaters in 2002.

For Halloween in 2013, Huff Post published a list of recommended Halloween horror movies, and included The Mothman Prophecies among their top 13.

The movie is a creepy one to re-view again, and I recommend everyone do so.

Watch for some of these strange errors and name game puns. For instance, the clock radio in character John Klein's motel room reads: 6:14. It's a biblical reference to John Chapter 6 verse 14, which reads, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world."

Continuity and geographic errors usually happen in movies. It is just curious to notice which ones pop up in this film.

In the film, you can see an obvious Pittsburgh landmark (the Masonic Temple, home of the Pitt Alumni Association) appearing in the background of scenes supposedly set in Washington, DC, and Chicago.

The Richard Gere character passes a sign for Maine Avenue as he leaves Washington, driving from Memorial Bridge to Interstate 95. Maine Avenue is in the opposite direction and there are no signs for Maine Avenue on any of the roads he could have taken to get to I-95.

During the Christmas tree lighting festivities, the door of the fire truck reads "Saxonburg" (a town near Kittanning in Pennsylvania where the scene was filmed) not Point Pleasant (where it is set).

On Klein's drive from Point Pleasant to Chicago, a glimpse of an exit sign for "New Kensington" can be seen. There is no "New Kensington" between West Virginia and Illinois, but there is one near Pittsburgh, where the movie was shot.

Released to theatres in 2002, “The Mothman Prophecies” follows John Klein, played by Richard Gere, as he leaves his Washington newspaper job to investigate sightings of winged creatures, referred to as “Mothman,” in a small West Virginia town. The film claims to be based on actual events that occurred in Point Pleasant, W.Va., between November 1966 and December 1967. Loren Coleman, founder and director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine, was a consultant during the production of “The Mothman Prophecies.” According to Coleman, the film, which is based on the 1975 book of the same name by parapsychologist John Keel, is a fictionalized narrative of actual events. “‘The Mothman Prophecies’ is based in reality, but the film is [director] Mark Pellington’s docudrama/fictionalized narrative motion picture of the events,” Coleman told HuffPost. “The characters … were created from parts of the personality and experiences of … Keel. Even the character names are formed via movie scriptwriters as puns, for example [Alexander] Leek [is] Keel backwards.”

Keel and me. Photo by Patrick Huyghe.

John Keel thoroughly enjoyed the film, and was touched to see his name on the screen. He never thought that would happen to him, he told his friends (like me). He also enjoyed the little bit of money he earned from the studio, although this late in his life, it didn't change his lifestyle. He was having major health issues with his eyes, and I was asked on board to help him out with the promotional publicity. John and I appear as the "Mothman experts" in Search for the Mothman, the documentary bundled with the deluxe versions of the film. But, of course, John was the man. It will always be his film, to me.

The writers had fun with the script, and the film is a series of in-jokes. For example, John Alva Keel was born Alva John Kiehle, and the first “John Keel” character in the movie is named “John Klein.” Alan Bates’ character has a similar name game.

In 2002, I wrote a discussion, “The Mothman Prophecies: ‘Gordon Smallwood’ and Some Strange Happenings,” of the name game in the film for a science fiction site.

Here are some excerpts:

In the new motion picture, The Mothman Prophecies ( based on the book of the same name by John Keel), chemical plant worker “Gordon Smallwood” (Will Patton), is deeply upset by late-night visits, he thinks, from reporter “John Klein” (Richard Gere). ”Smallwood” also believes that an entity named Indrid Cold is communicating with him, and this is slowly driving him, well, to turn a phrase, batty. ”Gordon Smallwood” is loosely based on contactee Woody Derenberger, who reported encounters with an Indrid Cold in West Virginia during the period of the Mothman sightings there in 1966-1967. This is all rather obvious, and the “Smallwood” and Woody link is not hard to see.
Right after the movie’s opening, Jerome “Jerry” Clark, author ofThe UFO Book, posted the following on an online UFO group: ”I wonder how many of you who’ve seen the movie caught the deep-inside-the-ufological-beltway use of the name ‘Gordon Smallwood’ for the Will Patton character?”
No one answered, but many were interested in learning what the in-joke was all about.
Jerry Clark explained: ”Gordon Smallwood is a pseudonym Gray Barker [the late West Virginia ufologist, and friend of John A. Keel] used for Quebec ufologist Laimon Mitris, who allegedly was visited by a man in black. See chapter 13 of They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers. Barker writes, ’I would like to know someone by the name of Gordon Smallwood. The name in itself sounds honest and reputable. If there are any Gordon Smallwoods reading this book, let them rest assured the name used here is an invention. But let them write to me for I would like to know people with such a name.‘”
The Mothman Prophecies movie has many layers of meanings and a few inside jokes: from the Fortean number game turning up in the night visits related by “Gordon Smallwood”, the selection of names (e.g. Leek = Keel), and even on-camera appearances. Notice the imposing figure of the bartender at the Marriott who helps the Richard Gere character with the television channels. That’s director Mark Pellington in his Alfred Hitchcock-like cameo.

Pellington was also the voice of Indrid Cold during the phone call.

Mark Pellington, furthermore, occasionally added his voice under the dialogue of characters who spoke on the phone with John Klein, throughout The Mothman Prophecies. Pellington said the intention was to create the illusion that Indrid Cold could be any one of those people, and that the entire situation and all the people might actually be in Klein's head.


On October 28, 2013, the film’s head writer, Richard Hatem, posted a tweet saying, “Thanks Loren – I knew guys like you would get the jokes.”

A Name Does Not A Wise Man Make

The TWA Flight Center, Idlewild, was designed by Eero Saarinen.

New York City's largest airport, once known as Idlewild (for a former golf course), has been called John F. Kennedy International Airport since 1964.

At John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday morning, October 26, 2013, a 23-year-old man carrying two handguns, two defaced rifles and high-capacity magazines was arrested.

The man approached a United Airlines counter around 7:45 a.m. and told an attendant that he had two cases containing firearms that he wanted to check for his flight. His cases contained two 9-millimeter pistols, two magazines capable of holding 15 rounds of 9-millimeter ammunition, and two .22-caliber rifles. One of the rifles had a round in the chamber, and both were missing serial numbers. The two rifles had been painted, one purple and one silver, and the young man also had a shotgun with him.

Keenan Draughon, of Clarksville, Tennessee, had the weapons in his luggage, according to Port Authority Police, who said that one of the rifles was loaded.

Draughon, who was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, was traveling to Charlotte, North Carolina.

Keenan (Cianán) is a male Irish name which means "ancient, distant." Keenan is an Anglicization of the Irish name Cianán which is a diminutive of Cian. The Ó Cianáin clan (Keenan) were the traditional historians to the McGuire clan.

The ancient pre-10th century Gaelic name O' Cianain meaning "The descendant of the faithful one" or something similar. It may not have been entirely coincidence that the clan was famous throughout the Medieval Period for producing both high-ranking members of the church, and early historians, in several cases the same thing.

Draughon is a version of Drohan, an Irish name, a reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Druacháin, "descendant of Druachán," a byname representing a diminutive of druach, "wise man."

Was Keenan Draughon a masterful ancient wise man, in this situation in the old lands of Idlewild?

Black Thursday 2013: CVS Hostages, Vortex Injuries, and Millington Shooting

"Black Thursday," October 24, 1929, was the start of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 at the New York Stock Exchange. 

October 24, 2008, was "Bloody Friday," which saw many of the world's stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices.

It has been an active week, in general. On October 24, 2013, it was a "Bloody Thursday" of the usual violent kind of late.

The CVS is located at 6750 Wilkinson Blvd, Belmont, North Carolina.

A hostage situation developed for many hours during a robbery attempt in North Carolina. Police identified the suspect in that armed robbery-hostage situation at CVS in Belmont, N.C., as Edward Scott Russ, 46, according to NBC News.

Police in Belmont [NC] say a gunman who was holed up inside a CVS Pharmacy has come out and surrendered to investigators.
Edward Scott Russ, 46, of Gastonia, took the three employees inside the store hostage.
Russ was charged with first degree kidnapping, two counts of second degree kidnapping, robbery with a dangerous weapon, communicating threats, two counts of assault on a law enforcement officer with a firearm and two counts of attempted first degree murder, according to Belmont police.
The incident began around 2 a.m. at the CVS Pharmacy on the 6700 block of Wilkinson Boulevard, according to Belmont police.
Police say Russ walked into the store with a SKS scope mounted rifle in an attempt to commit an armed robbery.
Two officers arrived on scene and the gunman opened fire.
10 agencies are on scene with SWAT teams and negotiators who are talking to the man on the phone.
The three employees who were being held as hostages were released by Russ around 6 a.m.
Investigators monitored Russ using the live surveillance footage from the pharmacy cameras inside the drug store.
A two block radius around the store was cordoned off by police during the standoff.
...Russ' mother after the standoff...said it is very out of character for her son to do something like this and she just doesn't know what happened.
CVS Pharmacy released a statement in response to the incident:
"We are pleased to confirm that none of our employees were harmed during the incident in Belmont and we want to thank law enforcement in Charlotte and Belmont for their quick response and resolution. WBTV Source.

Elsewhere in North Carolina, there was an accident at the state fair.

Five people were injured during an accident at the North Carolina State Fair [at Raleigh, NC] Thursday night [October 24, 2013] and two have since been released from the hospital, according to officials.
Two of the five injured sustained serious injuries after an incident on the Vortex ride behind the Expo Center, officials said.
Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison said the victims are between the ages of 14 and 39. Harrison confirmed some of the victims are family members. One of the injured was a ride operator, Harrison said.
Harrison asked for any cellphone video of the accident to be given to authorities.
"The ride had stopped and they were fixing to offload when it started off again. That is preliminary report," Harrison said.
An EMS source told WNCN five passengers were ejected while attempting to exit the ride. The EMS source said all five were initially unconscious but three regained consciousness.
One of the injured suffered serious head injuries. Another victim had injuries similar to a concussion, according the EMS source.
Brian Long, public affairs director with the State Fair, said the ride is located between gates 4 and 5 on the lower midway.
Long said an ambulance was on scene within a minute of the first call just after 9 p.m. Long said all five victims were transported to WakeMed by 9:37 p.m.
"This has shaken all of us," Long said. "We definitely have these folks in our thoughts and prayers."
The N.C. Department of Labor will inspect the ride and the Sheriff's Office will investigate the incident, Long said.
...
Witness Caleb Norris told WNCN he heard a crashing sound just after exiting the Vortex ride. Norris said he turned around and saw two people lying face down.
Norris also said he saw the ride operator fall to his knees and start crying.
The Vortex ride was manufactured by Technical Park International of Italy. Fair officials said this is the first time this Vortex ride has been at the N.C. State Fair.
There are two Vortex rides on the Fairgrounds while the other Vortex, located on the new Midway, has been on site for many years and is manufactured by Fabbri of Italy, the State Fair confirmed. Brian Long, the spokesman for the State Department of Agriculture, said the two Vortex rides are completely different although they have the same name. WNCN Source.

Earlier, in Tennessee, violence had visited a military base.

A member of the National Guard opened fire at an armory outside a U.S. Navy base in [Millington] Tennessee, wounding two soldiers before being subdued and disarmed by other soldiers, officials said Thursday.
Millington Police Chief Rita Stanback said the shooter was apprehended Thursday by other National Guard members, and that he did not have the small handgun used in the shooting in his possession by the time officers arrived. Stanback said two National Guard members were shot, one in the foot and one in the leg.
...
The Tennessee National Guard late Thursday identified those shot as Maj. William J. Crawford and Sgt. Maj. Ricky R. McKenzie. The shooter’s name has not been released.
In a news release, Guard spokesman Randy Harris said the two were shot while disarming the gunman.
Haston said all three of the men were recruiters. He said the shooter was a sergeant first class who had been in the Guard about six or seven years and that the victims were his superiors. He said the recruiters who were shot were based in Jackson, Tenn.
...the shooting happened inside an armory building just outside Naval Support Activity Mid-South. There are more than 7,500 military, civilian and contract personnel working on the base, according to the facility’s official website. The facility is home to human resources operations and serves as headquarters to the Navy Personnel Command, Navy Recruiting Command, the Navy Manpower Analysis Center and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Finance Center. Washington Post source.

The shooter was named on Friday.

Amos Patton seen in this 2013 file photo from a local school event, has been identified as the alleged shooter in Thursday's shooting at the Tennessee Army National Guard Armory in Millington.

FBI officials searched the Cordova home of the suspected National Guard Armory shooter later in the evening. Neighbors say the home belongs to Sergeant First Class Amos Patton.

Patton served as a recruiter for the Army National Guard for nearly 20 years. Before the shooting, Patton's bosses had come to town to talk with him about administrative policies and procedures.
According to an Action News 5 reliable source, Patton went to his car in the midst of his meeting and retrieved a computer bag and waist pack. He then asked to go to the restroom, but the commanders insisted the computer bag remain with them. No one noticed the waist pack when Patton wheeled around and took a semi-automatic 380 pistol out, according to our source. WMCTV Source.

Rage School in the News

A day after I talked about the first modern era school shooting in 1996 - which ended in students and a math teacher killed - and which was inspired by Stephen King's Rage - today that same school is the center of a violent school incident.

(CNN) -- A Washington state middle school boy was arrested Wednesday and faces an attempted murder charge, after he brought 400 rounds of ammunition, multiple knives and a handgun to his school, police said.

The 11-year-old was booked into a juvenile detention facility after the incident that caused the lockdown of Frontier Middle School, Vancouver Police said.

The school, in Vancouver, Washington, was locked down for about two hours. Parents received letters alerting them of the situation, said Kris Fay, a spokeswoman for the Evergreen School District.

There were no injuries. Police did not say who was allegedly being targeted.

Note the spokeswoman is named Fay. (For significance, see "The Fayette Factor.")

The earlier Frontier Middle School shooting was a school shooting that occurred on February 2, 1996 at Frontier Middle School in Moses Lake, Washington, United States. The gunman, 14-year-old Barry Dale Loukaitis (born February 26, 1981), killed his algebra teacher and two students, and held his classmates hostage for ten minutes before a gym coach subdued Loukaitis. He is currently serving two life sentences and an additional 205 years in prison.

They Are Killing Math Teachers

Two math teachers have been killed in two days, in school violence incidents in Nevada and Massachusetts. The killing of math teachers initially surfaced at the beginning of the modern era of school shootings.

More on that history in a moment, but first, some details on today's event.

Investigators search the woods behind the high school in Danvers

The 14-year-old boy who was arraigned (October 23, 2013) Wednesday afternoon on a murder charge in the death of a Massachusetts teacher was named in court as Philip Chism. He is being held without opportunity for bail in the death of Colleen Ritzer, a teacher at Danvers High School in Danvers, Massachusetts.

WCVB-TV reports that after the gruesome killing Chism (pictured) walked to the nearest movie theater and watched Blue Jasmine, a movie about a middle-aged woman's mental breakdown.

The 14-year-old boy was being held on suspicion of murder Wednesday after the body of a female teacher was found in woods near the high school in Danvers, Massachusetts. All seven schools in the suburban Boston town were closed as a result of the investigation. The report of Colleen Ritzer's death comes two days after a student with a gun killed a teacher in Sparks, Nevada.

Authorities found Ritzer's body behind Danvers High School after the 24-year-old failed to return home after classes Tuesday, the Essex County District Attorney's Office said. Searchers found blood in a second-floor bathroom, District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett told reporters at a news conference. He did not release the cause of her death. The boy, who also had been reported missing Tuesday afternoon, was arrested early Wednesday after being found walking down a street, Blodgett said.

There are no other suspects, he said. He was arraigned Wednesday afternoon in Salem, Massachusetts, on a murder charge and was ordered held without bail. Blodgett did not say whether the boy is a student at the school and said he could not release the boy's name or his connection to Ritzer because he is a juvenile. "This is a terrible tragedy for Colleen Ritzer and the entire Danvers community," Blodgett said. Ritzer graduated from Assumption College in 2011, the school said on Twitter. She in was pursuing a master's degree in school counseling at Salem State University, that school said in a prepared statement.

"As a dedicated teacher, Colleen wanted to work with and help children with special needs," an e-mail from the university read. "She believed children have much to offer and often do not realize how special they are as individuals.

In her application to Salem State she said she was dedicated to 'helping students in times of need.' " Ritzer's aunt, Shirley Martellucci, said the family was in shock. "We're holding up as best we can," she said. Ritzer, who lived with her parents, was in her second year teaching at the school and was working on her master's degree, Martellucci said. She had never had any trouble with students, she said. "She always wanted to be a teacher, all her life," Martellucci said.

"It's just unbelievable that someone would take her life at such a young age." Ritzer's students were similarly dismayed.

Freshman Spencer Wade described Ritzer as "one of the best math teachers I've ever had."

As noted in great detail in The Copycat Effect, the "modern era" of school shootings began in the USA on February 2, 1996, in Moses Lake, Washington.

The new pattern that was shown in that shooting was of a male student (not an outsider) entering the school and killing his classmates and teachers. In the Moses Lake event, Barry Loukaitis, 14, in this Columbine precusor, dressed all in black, including a long coat (apparently more of a Western duster than a trenchcoat), held his algebra class hostage, killed two students, wounded another severely, and killed his algebra teacher, Leona Caires.

Loukaitis then turned to the class and said "This sure beats algebra, doesn't it?"

The quotation was nearly a direct one taken from a Stephen King book, Rage, about a school shooting of an algebra teacher that Loukaitis allegedly used as the model for his attack. The first novel by Stephen Kingpublished under the pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1977. King withdrew the book from publication three years later, after Columbine.

Loukaitis had planned the shootings carefully, getting ideas, he said, from the Stephen King book Rage (1977). In it, a troubled high school boy takes a gun to fictional Placerville High School, kills his algebra teacher “Mrs. Underwood,” another school adult “Mr. Vance,” and takes the algebra class hostage. Police would find a collection of Stephen King's books in Loukaitis' bedroom, including his well-worn copy of Rage.

The Rage scenario had been played out before in real life. At Valley High School, Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 19, 1982, after algebra teacher Clarence Piggot refused to cancel a public speaking assignment; 17-year-old Patrick Lizotte gunned him down. Patrick also wounded two other 17-year-old students during his rampage. He left the school and was killed nearby during a shootout with the police. On January 18, 1993, Scott Pennington, 17, took his senior English class captive at East Carter High School, in Grayson, Kentucky. He killed his teacher and a custodian. Pennington would tell investigators later that he only read Rage after the shooting. In 1997, Rage would be linked to another shooting. A copy of Rage was found in the locker of Michael Carneal, a high school shooter in West Paducah, Kentucky.

Stephen King discussed the role of Rage after the Loukaitis shootings and eventually King apologized for writing the book, saying he penned it during a troubling period in his life. He said he wished it never had been published. Finally in 1999, he told his publisher to pull it from publication and took it out-of-print. He told the Today Show’s Katie Couric: “I took a look at Rage and said to myself, if this book is acting as any sort of accelerate, if it’s having any effect on any of these kids at all, I don’t want anything to do with it, regardless of what may be the moral and legal rights and wrongs. Even talking about it makes me nervous.”

Teacher and Gunman Die in Sparks School Shootings

Michael Landsberry is a victim of the Sparks Middle School shooting.

This morning, Monday, October 21, 2013, two shootings in Nevada and one in Detroit have started off this week's news cycle.

Police said the first shots in the Sparks, Nevada, shooting were fired from a semiautomatic handgun at 7:16 a.m. (9:16 a.m. ET), just before classes got underway.

The school shooting in Sparks, left two students wounded, and the gunman dead from his own suicide. One teacher was also killed.

A family member of a [math] teacher killed in a shooting on the campus of Sparks Middle School in northern Nevada identified him as 45-year-old Michael Landsberry.
Landsberry was one of two people who died after gunfire rang out on the campus about 7:15 a.m. Monday, shortly before began. A student, who police said was the likely shooter, also died, while two other boys students were critically injured.
One was out of surgery and the other was doing well, according to police.
...
Police said the shooting happened on the school's campus, but outside the school building itself.

Michael Landsberry served two tours in Afghanistan with the Nevada National Guard and was well known in the school community.

According to Landsberry's sister-in-law, the teacher was a military veteran.
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval said he was saddened to learn of the horrific shooting.
...
Sen. Harry Reid, D-NV, said he sends his condolences to the victims' families.
"No words of condolence could possible ease the pain, but I hope it is some small comfort that Nevada mourns with them," Reid said in a statement.
Rep. Dina Titus, D-District 1, called Monday a harrowing day for the state.
"My thoughts are with the victims' families and all those affected by this morning's tragic shooting at Sparks Middle School," Titus said in a statement.
Sen. Dean Heller, R-NV, also extended his condolences.
"Today's events at Sparks Middle School are unsettling and concerning," Heller said in a statement.
The school enrolls about 700 students in 7th and 8th grades. Source.

Yes, the name Reid popped up again.

The meaning of the name Landsberry is worthy of examining:

Recorded in various spellings including: Landsbury, Lansbery, Lansberry, Langsbury, and Lansbury, this is an English surname of conjectural origins. It appears to originate from a place called 'Lang byrig' or similar, Olde English pre 7th century words meaning 'the long fort', however no such place, or any similar spelling, is to be found in any of the known gazetters of the British Isles. This is not in itself wholly unusual. An estimated five thousand surnames of Britain are believed to derive from 'lost' medieval sites, of which the only reminder of the place in the 20th century is the surname itself. This is often, as with this one, in a wide variety of spellings, itself a further indication of a 'lost' site. As to why places disappeared is a subject of a separate study by the Historical Monuments Commission of England and Wales. This survey indicates that changes in agricultural practice in the 17th century are the usual reasons, but the plagues of medieval times, and even civil war in a few instances, have played their part. In this case examples of the surname recordings have been taken from the surviving registers of the diocese of Greater London. These include William Lansberry at St Olaves church, Southwark, on September 27th 1657, John William Landsbury at St Johns Hackney, on June 3rd 1787, Thomas Lansbury, who married Mary Parsons at the famous church of St Mary-le-Bone, on March 13th 1810, and Elizabeth Langsbury, who married Daniel Kite at St Dunstans in the East, Stepney, on June 11th 1821. Source.

(See this other earlier source.)

In 2006, a boy using his father’s .38-caliber pistol opened fire at another Reno-area middle school and wounded a boy and girl, both 14, a local newspaper said. A gym teacher was honored later for ending the episode by telling the boy to drop the gun and bear-hugging him. James Scott Newman, 14 at the time of that shooting, pleaded guilty to battery with a deadly weapon and got house arrest until he completed 200 hours of community service.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Nevada on the same day as the Sparks shooting,

Police say one person is dead and two others are injured in a shooting in a Las Vegas Strip nightclub inside Bally's casino.
Las Vegas police Lt. Jay Roberts said a suspect is in custody. The victims were taken to University Medical Center.
Roberts says the shooting happened before 6 a.m. Monday at Drai's, an after-hours club. Source.

And there was also a shooting in Detroit:

Police say two women are dead and a man is in custody after a shooting at a Detroit senior center.
The shooting happened Sunday evening after police say the 65-year-old suspect had an argument with his girlfriend that ended their relationship. They say the man went to his apartment at the Pablo Davis Elder Living Center, got a rifle and started looking for two residents he blamed for the breakup.
Police spokeswoman Kelly Miner says the man shot the first woman, who was in her 50s, as she sat on a bench outside the apartment building. Miner says he then went inside and shot the second woman, who was in her 60s.

Mexican Clowns Kill Drug Lord

The authorities in Mexico have said gunmen dressed as clowns have shot dead a former leading member of a once-powerful and violent drug cartel.
Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix, 63, was killed in a beach resort in Baja California in north-western Mexico.
He and his brothers controlled the drug trade on Mexico's border with the United States in the 1990s.
But their Tijuana cartel was gradually weakened by the capture or killing of other leading members.
"He was hit by two bullets, one in the chest and one in the head," said Isai Arias, a Baja California state government official.
The motive for the attack and the gunmen's disguise were being investigated, he added.
The attack took place during a family party at a rented beach house in the tourist resort of Cabo San Lucas.
The former cartel leader was arrested in 1993 but released nearly 15 years later after spending time in prison in Mexico and the United States.
His brother Eduardo was jailed in August in the US for 15 years after pleading guilty to money laundering.
Security experts believe the Tijuana cartel is now run by his sister Enedina and her son Fernando, known as "The Engineer", according to AFP news agency.
Most estimates put the number of people killed in Mexican drug-related violence since late 2006 at more than 60,000.

The BBC News reported.

Dianne Reidy Takes House Floor To Discuss Freemasons and God

An old name familiar to the Name Game: Reidy.

Not surprisingly, there has been another strange incident in D.C.

After lawmakers voted to reopen the government, things took a bizarre turn on the House floor. A congressional stenographer named Dianne Reidy had to be removed from the House floor after she took the microphone at the front desk, and began noting things like  about the Freemasons and the Constitution. She said the U.S. is not “one nation under God."

“They go against God!” the woman exclaimed. “You cannot serve two masters. Praise be to God, Lord Jesus Christ!”

Lawmakers observed what was happening, at first, in stunned silence. A representative from Texas told the AP, "She had a crazed look on her face," reported KXL 101 FM News.

Reidy allegedly said:

He will not be mocked! He will not be mocked! (Don't touch me.) He will not be mocked! The greatest deception here, is this is not one nation under God! It never was! Had it been, it would not have been, no, it would not have been, the constitution would not have been written by Freemasons! They go against God! You cannot serve two masters! You cannot serve two masters. Praise be to God, lord Jesus Christ! Praise be to ...

She was referring to 

Galatians 6:7 ~ Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

and Matthew 6:24 ~ No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

And perhaps, Luke 16:13 ~ No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Her references also were to America not being one nation under God because “Freemasons” wrote the Constitution, although her grammar usage was confusing to reporters.

The incident caused a moment of chaos in the chamber as the presiding member, Rep. Ileana Ros Lehtinen, R-Fla., repeatedly banged the gavel, trying to restore order.

"She’s a well-known person, she’s a perfectly nice person, a good colleague, somebody who’s respectable and dependable, and this is very surprising to everybody who works with her," CNN reported on-air. "I don't know, she just snapped," said a GOP aide.

Here at Twilight Language, in my column on the "Masonic Origins of Baseball," I spoke the Elysian Fields, or the Elysian Plains, among the Greeks, was considered the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous. In Greek mythology, Elysium (Greek: Ἠλύσια πεδία) was a section of the Underworld (the spelling Elysium is a Latinization of the Greek word Elysion).

Elysium is an obscure and mysterious name that evolved from a designation of a place or person struck by lightning, enelysion, enelysios. This could be a reference to Zeus, the god of lightning, so "lightning-struck" could be saying that the person was blessed (struck) by Zeus (lightning).

Scholars have also suggested that Greek Elysion may instead derive from the Egyptian termialu (older iaru), meaning "reeds," with specific reference to the "Reed fields" (Egyptian:sekhet iaru / ialu), a paradisaical land of plenty where the dead hoped to spend eternity.

Within twilight language decoding, it should be pointed out that I have previously noted the importance of the hot name game among Fortean and anomalistic phenomena of "Reed"/"Reeder"/"Reeves" and, according to John A. Keel, in ufology and demonology, with "Reeves"/"Reaves." The name, of course, has been associated with the tragic lives of various "Reeves" who have played Superman on television and in the movies, and the Superman-like roles of Keanu Reeves in The Matrix and The Day The Earth Stood Still.

The name "Diane Reidy" would be merely another form of the Reeves/Reed thread.

Coincidentially, throughout New England, radio ads have been playing all month about Ben Franklin and other founding fathers being Freemasons due to several states having a Masonic Open House on October 19, 2013, this coming Saturday.

LAX: Dry Ice Bombs

Los Angeles International Airport police reported on October 15, 2013, that two dry ice bombs exploded and two others were found in a restricted area of the airport. No terrorism is associated with the four bombs, according to law enforcement officials. How this was determined is unknown.

“The focus is definitely in the restricted area, not in the areas where passengers have access,” said Sgt. Karla Ortiz. “We want to make sure that that get’s tightened up.”

No one was injured in the explosions -- one Sunday night in an employee bathroom, one Monday night on the airfield near the planes. The incidents are being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department’s criminal conspiracy division, Ortiz said.

The latest explosion occurred about 8:30 p.m. Monday near the gate area of the Tom Bradley International Terminal.

The iconic terminal art of LAX is known worldwide.

Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide, and a bomb is constructed with the dry ice and a sealed bottle.

The LA Times said 

...the devices -- bottles with dry ice inside -- appeared to be outside the terminal near planes where employees such as baggage handlers and others work on the aircraft and its cargo.
Airport officials will remind employees that “if you see something, say something,” Ortiz said.
“We can’t be everywhere all the time so we depend on them,” she said.The FBI was assisting the LAPD in the investigation into how the devices were placed in restricted areas at LAX.
There was minimal disruption of airport activities on Monday night, but the explosion on Sunday suspended operations in Terminal 2, and flights were delayed until about 8:45 p.m. as the LAPD bomb squad responded. Police estimated that about four flights were affected.
Passenger Feliciano Jiron told KCBS-TV on Monday before the second explosion that he was concerned that a dry ice bomb could be set at the airport, given all of LAX's security measures.

It will be recalled that the terminal was the target of a terrorist attempt when Al-Qaeda attempted to bomb LAX on New Year's Eve 1999/2000. The bomber, Algerian Ahmed Ressam, was captured in Port Angeles, Washington, the U.S. port of entry, with a cache of explosives that could have produced a blast 40x greater than that of a devastating car bomb hidden in the trunk of the rented car in which he had traveled from Canada. He had planned to leave one or two suitcases filled with explosives in an LAX passenger waiting area. He was initially sentenced to 22 years in prison, but in February 2010 an appellate court ordered that his sentence be extended.

Meanwhile, a magnitude-7.2 earthquake struck in the central Philippines on Tuesday morning, killing over 100 people and severely damaging some of the country's most hallowed churches. The quake damaged and collapsed major buildings in Cebu City, a heavily populated commercial center in the central Philippines. Also, a 5.0 earthquake shook 44km SE of Jorochito, Bolivia, on October 15, at 16:15. A 4.8 earthquake hit 17km WSW of Nereju, Romania, on October 15, at 22:33. A 6.4 earthquake occurred near Crete on Saturday, and several aftershocks were felt from Crete to Israel in the following days.

Tulsa: Five Injured in Hmong New Year Shooting and Two Killed at Former Dragon's Lair

There was a shooting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on the evening of October 12, 2012. You may hear little about it, as it happened among a closed ethnic group. This time of year is in the midst of the traditional three days of in-house Hmong New Year rituals, which are followed in some communities by seven days of "outside" activities.

A man walked in and opened fire at one such Hmong New Year's celebration in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on October 12th, Saturday night, injuring five people of the 400 there, local police said.

Authorities don't know what caused the man to begin shooting inside the Green Country Event Center, near Highway 169, at 12000 East 31st Street.

Two Hmong celebrating (between 30-60) were hit in the upper body, while the other three were struck in the arm and leg, said Tulsa Police Captain Mike Williams. One person probably will lose the use of the lower leg.

Nhia Vang, 75, told reporters that the gunman opened fire six feet away from him after a toast. One bullet went through his shirt, but he was uninjured – although the police took the garment as evidence, the Tulsa World reported.

One suspect was said to be firing from a car, with another driving. A passenger was observed changing clothes, then throwing his hoodie and a gun from the car.

Police believe the passenger, 19-year-old Ming Mee, was the shooter. Both he and the driver, 21-year-old Boon Mee, were arrested. A 40-caliber semi-automatic handgun was recovered.

The Hmong (seen in traditional dress above, in Vietnam, 2004) are an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. American soldiers would characterize them as the "hill people" of the Vietnam War, and understand them to be loyal allies.

This memorial, in honor of Hmong service, is in front of the Fresno County Court House, in downtown Fresno, California. (Photograph credit: Prayitno.)

As CNN noted in reporting the Tulsa shooting, "The Hmongs are an Asian ethnic group. There are an estimated 210,000 Hmongs scattered across the united States. They were an important U.S. ally during the Vietnam War. Many fled the Communist government when combat ended."

In the 1960s and 1970s, many Hmong were secretly recruited by the American CIA to fight against communism during the Vietnam War. After American armed forces pulled out of Vietnam, a communist regime took over in Laos, and ordered the prosecution and re-education of all those who had fought against its cause during the war. Whilst many Hmong are still left in Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and China (which houses one of the biggest Hmong populations in the world, 5 million), since 1975 many Hmong have fled Laos in fear of persecution, coming to the USA, as well as other Western countries.

This Hmong shooting comes in the wake of the Vietnam-styled self-immolation of Vietnam vet John Constantino on the National Mall in Washington D.C., which took place on the October 4th anniversary of the beginning of the US bombing of Cambodia.

Elsewhere in Tulsa, another multiple shooting occurred on Saturday, October 12th, due to a fight at a night spot (Reverb, above, formerly the Dragon's Lair, below). 

(Dragon exists in Hmong folktales and many Hmong believe dragon actually exists. There are two types of dragons according to the Hmong elders: the River Dragon and Land Dragon. River Dragon are considered the evil one while Land Dragon are considered a luck if you see them. There is absolutely no known link between the Hmong New Year shooting and the former Dragon's Lair shooting. The synch is merely being pointed out.)

Two men shot at Reverb were pronounced dead following the late night incident that left two others injured. According to a police report, a fight broke out in the parking lot of the after hours club around 3 a.m. near 5500 E. 11th Street.

A 21-year-old Marrico McGuire was transported to a Tulsa hospital and was later pronounced dead at the hospital as a result of his injuries. A second unidentified victim has since died. This individual's name online has been reported to be "Dave Muse."

Additional temporal note:  The Chicago Marathon occurs on Sunday, 10-13-13, the first major American marathon since the Boston Marathon bombing almost exactly 6 months ago. Reportedly, security is extremely heightened at that event.

Aurora 7's Astronaut Scott Carpenter Dies

Malcolm Scott Carpenter, 88, one of the original seven Mercury astronauts who was forced to take manual control of his Aurora 7 capsule after running low on fuel in one of the scarier moments of the early space program, died early Thursday, October 10, 2013.

Mercury 7 astronauts: (l-r front) Walter Schirra, Donald Slayton, John Glenn, and Scott Carpenter; (back) Alan Shepard, Virgil Grissom, and Gordon Cooper.

With Carpenter's death, only John Glenn, the first American in orbit, remains of NASA's original seven astronauts....Glenn became the first American in orbit in February 1962. Carpenter served as Glenn's backup and then rocketed into space himself on May 24, 1962, riding into orbit atop the Mercury-Atlas 7 rocket.
During three orbits, Carpenter put his Aurora 7 through its paces and reached a maximum altitude of 164 miles, working through a series of science experiments as the flight progressed. He also because the first astronaut to eat solid food in space -- cubes of chocolate, figs and dates mixed in with high-protein cereals.
...

Aurora 7 splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean about 1,000 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral, 250 miles downrange from the planned touchdown point. After a brief scare, search crews found Carpenter about 40 minutes later, safely bobbing in a life raft by his capsule.
Some critics later said Carpenter was distracted by the experiments he was carrying out and that he did not properly manage the on-board fuel supply when he took over manual control. A post-flight NASA analysis credited the astronaut with successfully handling a potentially dangerous situation.
But Carpenter's perceived devotion to science at the expense of engineering during the initial stages of the Mercury program rankled some within the agency. In any case, he never flew in space again. Source.

The synchromysticism of Aurora has been discussed often on his blog. See, for example, "Aurora: Synchromystic Wonderland."

Was DC Self-Immolation A Vietnam-Styled Political Copycat?

October 4, 2013, was the day that the 64-year-old African-American ex-Marine Vietnam vet John Constantino picked to immolation himself on the National Mall. Historically, October 4, 1965, is acknowledged during the Vietnam War as when LBJ began actually bombing Cambodia. Did Constantino know the significance of the date? Certainly, it cannot be ignored that Constantino would have been extremely aware of the role played by self-immolations as a form of protest by Buddhist monks in Vietnam in the 1960s.

The Mount Laurel, New Jersey, veteran who died by setting himself on fire in Washington, D.C., on October 4th, it was finally revealed, had served his country during the Vietnam War, officials said yesterday. John Constantino, 64, was an active-duty Marine from December 1968 until May 1973, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. President Richard Nixon ordered U.S. forces to withdraw in 1973, and the war ended in 1975. Constantino was also receiving veteran benefits, a Veteran Affairs spokesman said.

The Courier-Post reported earlier that property tax records indicated Constantino was a disabled veteran. It’s not clear at this time what that disability was.

In the book, Bombing Civilians: A Twentieth-Century History (2010) by Yuki Tanaka and Marilyn B. Young, they note the bombing of Cambodia began not with Nixon in 1970 but by LBJ on October 4, 1965. Lyndon Baines Johnson (born August 27, 1908 in Stonewall, Texas; died January 22, 1973 in Stonewall, Texas) succeeded John F. Kennedy as the thirty-sixth President of the United States, serving between November 22, 1963 and January 20, 1969, including the whole of 1965.

The name Constantino is Latin, and its meaning is "constant, steadfast."

John Constantine

Several individuals (Greg Taylor, Red Pill Junkie & Enki) have contacted me pointing out a deeper synchromystic link to John Costantino's name.

John Constantine is the character created by Alan Moore in the Hellblazer comic, noticed Greg Taylor. 

Recently there was some news that plans were being made for a TV series based on John Constantine.

Enki puts all these links in this context:

A character with a very similar name is also associated with flames and suicide. John Constantine is a character co-created by comics legend and magickian Alan Moore, and portrayed in the film Constantine by Keanu Reeves.
John Constantine first appeared in the DC comic Swamp Thing. This resonates with the nation's capital, where Constantino met his end, in two ways: There is the obvious DC / DC parallel; and there is a popular belief, although it is an exaggeration, that Washington DC was built on swampland. John Constantine later appeared in the fire-resonating comic Hellblazer.
In the film adaptation Constantine, the titular character completes suicide and spends two minutes in Hell before being brought back to life by paramedics.

Of course, as RPJ mentions, "there's the whole thing with Alan Moore & the Northampton clown."

Piccard/Picard, Star Trek, Borg, Bane and the Dark Knight Links to Wheeling-Bridgeport Events

There was another gun attack against a Federal today, allegedly by a lone shooter. In late news, a bomb threat has been linked to it. Why did it all bring to mind Star Trek?

Thomas Piccard, or Thomas Picard, a former Wheeling, West Virginia police officer, was identified as the gunman who fired shots at the Wheeling Federal Building on Wednesday, October 9, 2013, before being killed by police officers. Law enforcers said the shooter was 55-year-old Thomas J. "Tom" Piccard of Bridgeport, Ohio. He retired from being a police officer in Wheeling in 2000.

Piccard fired multiple rounds into the federal building during the afternoon before he was shot dead by a policeman. A court security officer also shot the gunman.

A security guard suffered minor injuries when Piccard fired an estimated 20 rounds into the building at 2:30 p.m. City resident Carla Webb Daniels said she saw the man reload his assault rifle and then fire at a nearby YWCA. She said he fired between 25 and 30 rounds.

Piccard began firing from a Chase bank parking lot across from the federal building. He was observed in the parking lot very quickly after the first shots were fired.

Authorities identified the gunman first as Thomas Picard, later with the surname Piccard, who died at a local hospital. U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld said he was a former Wheeling police officer.

An unidentified store manager said it sounded like the shooter used two different weapons. At a news conference late Wednesday, Piccard was said to have been armed with an assault weapon and a handgun.

The building houses the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, along with regional offices of the Social Security Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the General Services Administration.

Investigators were searching Piccard’s home in hopes of determining a motive and if he acted alone.

Officials said it was too early to tell whether Piccard was targeting anyone in the building or what his motive may have been. Asked if the gunman had any beef with the U.S. government, authorities said, “We’re really digging hard at this point to find out.”

The building houses a variety of courtrooms and related offices, including judges, prosecutors and law enforcement.

Although reportedly living in Bridgeport, Ohio, at the time of the shooting, Piccard was a former Wheeling resident (see obituary of his mother, Nancy Joan Borchert Piccard Griffiths, here).

Reporter Glenn Bolich noted that police, FBI and the Allegheny County bomb squad were on scene Wednesday night in Bridgeport, Ohio. The bomb threat is related to the Wheeling shooting, he said.

Tom Piccard, the shooter, had a "threatening" note in Latin scrawled on side of his trailer, reports Glenn Bolich, WTOV9-Steubenville, Ohio.

Andrew W. Griffin, editor of Red Dirt Report, shares this:

According to The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register, "scrawled on the exterior of a trailer in Bridgeport (Ohio) is a variation of the following phrase, in Latin: 'Abandon hope all ye who enter this place.'"
That of course is from Dante's Inferno and in Latin is: Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate.

Pretty grim, it would seem.

We have more to learn about Thomas Piccard, it would seem.

Red Dirt Report's Griffin made these further observations, in comments directly to me, after reading an earlier version of this posting:

The city where Piccard's actions took place - Wheeling, West Virginia (Wheeling is 98 nautical miles upstream, on the Ohio River, from Point Pleasant, West Virginia) - was noted rather frequently in one of my favorite TV shows - Northern Exposure (1990-1995). One of the show's stars was John Corbett, who played the philosophy-espousing deejay and motorcycle outlaw Chris Stevens. His character was from Wheeling and actor Corbett also is from Wheeling. Chris was known to quote from Dante while on the air.In a fascinating 1994 episode of Northern Exposure, titled "Una Volta In L'Inverno," shopkeeper Ruth-Anne tries to learn Italian so she can read Dante's Divine Comedy in its original language. Chris, meanwhile, is trying to help sunlight-deprived trapper Walt get off his "light visor" using "tough love," the way he used tough love for a codeine-addicted, gun-toting friend back in Wheeling. Actor John Corbett was born May 9, 1962. 697 years earlier, to the day, Dante Alighieri was born.

One more thing about the aforementioned Northern Exposure episode "Una Volta L'Inverno." I just rewatched it this morning and something caught my attention. During a scene where Cicely's mayor is trying to rally the townspeople to help her rid the streets of annoying herds of caribou, former Wall Street banker-turned-trapper Walt (wearing a visor to fend of SAD - seasonal affective disorder, being they live in Alaska) blurts out: "Rattle their soundsystems. Low-range harmonic waves. 100,000 hertz, say. Transmit in three second bursts. They don't like that kind of thing. Mess with the head, the body follows."The mayor dismisses the idea, while Wheeling native Chris Stevens looks across the table at Walt a bit bemused.

News reports note that Piccard lived in the "Presidential Estates" housing addition in Bridgeport, Ohio (across the Ohio River from Wheeling, W'Va.) and that he lived on Johnson Street. Google Maps shows the Presidential Estates as featuring street names of 20th century presidents - Eisenhower, Nixon, Hoover, Kennedy and, of course, LBJ. However, the main street leading into the housing addition is Adams Drive. John Adams, presumably? Of course LBJ rose to power in the wake of JFK's assassination, a tragedy that took place 50 years ago next month.

(Northern Exposure's Chris Stevens, of course, is not the same Chris Stevens who was the U.S. Ambassador of Libya who was murdered when the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked on September 11, 2012.)

Matt Bell sends along this thought: "I read 'Wheeling' and I hear Shelby Downard say, in his idiom (something like), 'Over at Wheeling, West Virginia...that's where you have your shrine of Osiris.'"

The Name Piccard/Picard

The name Picard is familiar-sounding today because of the Star Trek character, Jean-Luc Picard.

In late 2366, Starfleet Captain Jean-Luc Picard is assimilated into the Borg and his Borg designation is give as "Locutus of Borg" (pictured).

Memory Alpha points out:

As for the name Locutus, Michael Piller termed it as "a name which I got out of the dictionary about language – I think it's a Latin word for language." (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 23, p. 17) Locutus actually means "having spoken" or "he who has spoken" in Latin, still an appropriate name for one serving as spokesman.

In many of the recent Washington D. C. violence incidents, you will have noted an underlying theme of voices in people's head, hearing voices, being controlled, and related behavioral descriptions. A fictional theme of the Borg in Star Trek was one of the control of the individual for the well-being and support of the hive. 

Piccard and/or Picard is a surname meaning a person from Picardy, a historical region and cultural area of France.

This interesting surname [of Picard] can have two possible origins, both French. It can be locational and refer to someone from Picardy (Picardie) in Northern France and Normandy or else be derived from a French personal name compounded of "Pic" and -"hard" composed by analogy with Richard, in which form it was to give rise to the variant surname Pitcher. A form of the personal name Pickard is found in England as early as the 12th Century as Paganus filius (son of) Pichardi from the "Pipe Rolls from Hampshire" (1160). The surname has also emerged in records by this time (see below); a John Pikart was recorded in the Huntingdonshire Hundred Rolls (1279). In church records for Yorkshire one Agneta Pickard is noted as marrying Edwardus Bruce at Farnham on November 5th 1577. A later marriage was that of Bridget Pickard to John Grenup at Holy Trinity Church, Micklegate, York on May 9th 1626. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Pichard, which was dated 1169, in the "Pipe Rolls of Hampshire," during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches," 1154 - 1189. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling. Source.

Intriguingly, the cloned "son" of Picard, named Shinzon, in 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis, was played by actor Tom Hardy, who was Bane in 2012's The Dark Knight Rises. For more on Bane lexilinks, see here.

(Enki H/T for word of initial shooting.)

Great Reads For Halloween: Loren's Books on Forteana, Cryptozoology, Synchromystic Studies and More

The Dover Demon fills the book cover of and lives within my newest book, Monsters of Massachusetts, published in 2013, by Stackpole Books.

In October 2013, other books of which I am associated have been highlighted as "Books of the Month" by Cosimo Books, specifically these two: Mothman and Other Curious Encounters and Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life.

This year's book news has produced the usual questions about "how many books is this one for Loren Coleman." Let's begin at the beginning, in the third person.

Books are merely a window to a very strange world. 

After discovering cryptozoology in March 1960, and spending years doing fieldwork, Loren Coleman at 20, wrote his first published article. 

During the second half of 1975, Loren Coleman's first book was published by Warner Books, when he was 27. He was in the process, in August of that year, of moving from California to New England. He found the first copy of his first book on the shelves of a bookstore in the Midwest, even before he was able to receive a copy from his New York publisher.

In Boston, Coleman would extend his anthropological and zoological education, gained at Southern Illinois University, into the realm of the psychological understandings of humans. From Bucky Fuller at SIU, to studying under Sophia Freud at Simmons School of Social Work and doing incomplete doctoral work at Brandeis University and University of New Hampshire, Coleman explored many topics that interested him. He would teach at six universities in his career, before consulting and then opening the International Cryptozoology Museum in 2003 in Portland, Maine..

Since 1975 to present, Coleman has written, edited, and contributed to many other books, as primary author, coauthor, editor, or contributor. But how many books does this involve, in total? How many books has Coleman "written"?

One can do a search on Google or Yahoo, and you will find the weaknesses of information overload and disorganization on the web revealed. You can discover all kinds of answers on the Internet to the question of "how many": seven, seventeen, and over thirty are the usual biographical and bibliographical talking points. But what is the number and names of Loren Coleman books, actually?

"How many" depends directly on how one wishes to count the many tomes, editions, revisions, series, and other products of Loren Coleman's book-length writings.

So, let's join in taking a literary journey. What follows is a comprehensive listing of the nonfiction books of cryptozoologist and social scientist Loren Coleman (not to be confused with the younger Loren L. Coleman who writes science fiction).

Below you will discover, in chronological order from most recent to earliest, the authored and coauthored editions, and various other forms of contributions (shown in "quotation marks" after the book title) of Loren Coleman's output in book form.

 

2013.

Monsters of Massachusetts: Mysterious Creatures in the Bay State. NY: Stackpole, 2013.

2012.

The Beast of Boggy Creek: The True Story of the Fouke Monster New York: Anomalist Books, 2012. "Foreword." Lyle Blackburn.

The Encyclopaedia of New and Rediscovered Animals: From the Lost Ark to the New Zoo - and Beyond 2012. "Foreword." Karl Shuker

The Bigfoot Filmography: Fictional and Documentary Appearances in Film and Television. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2012. "Foreword." Dave Coleman.

Ritual America: Secret Brotherhoods and Their Influence on American Society: A Visual Guide. LA: Feral House, 2012. "Foreword." Adam Parfrey and Craig Heimbichner.

Sync Book 2: Outer + Inner Space, Shadow + Light: 26 Essays on Synchronicity (Volume 2), Sync Book Press, 2012. " On Being A Synchromystic Twilight Analyst." Edited by Alan Abbadessa-Green

2010. 

 

True Giants: Is Gigantopithecus Still Alive? NY: Anomalist Books, 2010. (with Mark A. Hall). 

 

Monsters of New Jersey: Mysterious Creatures in the Garden State.  NY: Stackpole, 2010. (with Bruce Hallenbeck). 

2009.

 

An Illustrated Guide to The Lost Symbol. "Secret of the Pods" and "The Double-Headed Phoenix." NY: Pocket Books/Simon and Schuster. John Weber, Patrick Huyghe, and Michael Bober, eds. 

2008.

 

Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life. "Introduction." Ivan T. Sanderson.  New York: Cosimo Classics, 2008 edition. Loren Coleman Presents. 

 

Mythical Monsters. "Introduction." New York: Cosimo Classics, 2008 edition. Charles Gould. Loren Coleman Presents.

   

The Book of Werewolves. "Introduction." New York: Cosimo Classics, 2008 edition. Sabrine Baring-Gould. Loren Coleman Presents. 

 

Curiosities of Natural History: Third Series. "Introduction." New York: Cosimo Classics, 2008 edition. Francis T. Buckland. Loren Coleman Presents.

   

Thunderbirds: America's Living Legends of Giant Birds. "Introduction." New York: Cosimo Classics, 2008 edition. Mark A. Hall. Loren Coleman Presents. HB edition.

 

The Dragon in China and Japan. "Introduction." New York: Cosimo Classics, 2008 edition. Marinus Willem De Visser. Loren Coleman Presents. 

 

Beasts!: A Pictorial Schedule of Traditional Hidden Creatures (Book Two). "Mainstreaming Cryptozoology." Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, 2008. Jacob Covey, ed. 

 

Ghosts of the Bridgewater Triangle. "Introduction." Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 2008. Christopher Balzano. 

2007.

 

Weird Virginia: Your Travel Guide to Virginia's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets. NY: Sterling, 2007. (with Jeff Bahr and Troy Taylor). 

 

The Great Sea Serpent. "Introduction." Antoon Cornelis Oudemans. NY: Cosimo Classics, 2007 edition. Loren Coleman Presents.

The Romance of Natural History. "Introduction." New York: Cosimo Classics, 2007 edition. Philip Henry Gosse. Loren Coleman Presents.

 

Mysterious America: The Ultimate Guide to the Nation's Weirdest Wonders, Strangest Spots, and Creepiest Creatures. NY: Paraview Pocket - Simon and Schuster, 2007. 

How do books change over time? The Paraview Pocket - Simon and Schuster edition (seen directly above) of Mysterious America appeared in 2007 and is a good case to examine. 

Since first appearing in 1983, the entire original book has been rewritten, internally, often. New chapters have been added, some retained but expanded, and the actual text has been changed by 50%.   

In the 1983 edition, for example, the two mystery cat chapters totaled just 23 pages. In the 2007 edition, there are now over 60 pages of text in those two cryptid feline chapters alone, plus the new detailed listings of Eastern and Western North American mystery cat sightings as appendices. In the 1983 volume, there was no index, and in 2007, you'll find about 275 people (from Arment to Zarzynski), places (from Abington, IN to Yakin County, SC), cryptids and other items in small print over the eight pages of the new index. 

Down through the years, the 1983, 1989, 2001, and 2007 editions appear to be different books because they actually are, inside and out, with new covers and greatly changed contents, even though various publishers kept the essence of the best-selling classic title in intact for identification and marketing reasons. 

2006.

 

The Unidentified/Creatures of the Outer Edge: The Early Works of Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman. NY: Anomalist Books, 2006. (with Jerome Clark). 

 

The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates. NY: Anomalist Books, 2006. (with Patrick Huyghe).

   

The Yowie: In Search of Australia's Bigfoot "Introduction."  NY: Anomalist Books, 2006. Tony Healy and Paul Cropper.

 

Cryptozoology: Out of Time Place Scale "Introduction." Philadelphia: JSpringer, 2006. Raechell Smith and Mark Bessire, eds.

Strange Guests "Foreword." NY: Anomalist Books, 2006. Brad Steiger. 

 

Bigfoot Casebook Updated: Sightings And Encounters from 1818 to 2004  "Foreword." NY: Stackpole, 2006. Janet and Colin Bord.

   

Lake Monster Mysteries: Investigating the World's Most Elusive Creatures "Introduction." Louisville: University Press of Kentucky, 2006. Benjamin Radford and Joe Nickell.

The Greenhaven Encyclopedias Of Paranormal Phenomena. "Cryptozoology." New York: Greenhaven Press, 2006. Patricia D. Netzley. 

2005.

 

Weird Ohio.  NY: Barnes and Noble, 2005. (with James Willis and Andrew Henderson).

2004.

 

The Copycat Effect. New York: Paraview Pocket-Simon and Schuster, 2004. 

 

Mysterious America: The Revised Edition. NY: Paraview, HB 2004. 

 

Thunderbirds: America's Living Legends of Giant Birds "Introduction." NY: Paraview/Cosimo Classics, 2004. Mark A. Hall.

   

Alexis Rockman.  "Cryptozoology." Rome: Monacelli, 2004. Alexis Rockman, ed. 

2003.

The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep. NY: Tarcher-Penguin, 2003. (with Patrick Huyghe).

Bigfoot!: The True Story of Apes in America. NY: Paraview Pocket-Simon and Schuster, 2003.

 

The Beast of Bray Road "Preface." Eau Claire, WI: Unexplained Research, 2003. Linda Godfrey.

   

Track of the Bigfoot "Foreword." Greenville, NC: Booklocker, 2003. Dallas L. Tanner. 

 

Baseball and American Culture: Across the Diamond. "Boys of Summer, Suicides of Winter: An Introduction to Baseball Suicides." NY: Haworth Press, 2003. Edward J. Reilly, ed. 

2002.

   

Tom Slick: True Life Encounters in Cryptozoology. Fresno: Craven Street/Linden Press, 2002.

   

Mothman and Other Curious Encounters. NY: Paraview, 2002.  Produced in conjunction with Sony/Screen Gems and their film The Mothman Prophecies, in a mutual publicity/marketing campaign.

 

 

Shadow of the Thunderbird "Foreword." Greenville, NC: Trilogus Books, 2002. Dallas L. Tanner. 

 

The Hunt for the Buru "Introduction." Fresno: Linden Books, 2002. Ralph Izzard. 

 

Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology. "Introduction: If We Don't Search, We Shall Never Discover." Chicago: ABC-Clio, 2002. George M. Eberhart. 

2001.

 

Mysterious America: The Revised Edition. NY: Paraview, 2001. 

Preventing Youth Suicide Through Gatekeeper Training Augusta, ME: State of Maine, 2001. (with Susan O'Halloran).

  

1999.

Cryptozoology A to Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature. NY: Simon and Schuster, 1999. (with Jerome Clark). Chosen for 2001 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults List by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) and American Library Association (ALA). Bestselling cryptozoology book of all time for all titles, all authors. 

 

The Field Guide to Bigfoot, Yeti and Other Mystery Primates Worldwide. NY: HarperCollins, 1999. (with Patrick Huyghe). 

1998. 

Preventing Youth Suicide Through Gatekeeper Training (1998, rev. 2003) Augusta: Medical Care Development and Maine Children's Cabinet (with Susan O'Halloran). 

1996.  

Contemporary Legend: A Reader. New York: Garland, 1996. "Alligators in the Sewers." Gillian Bennett and Paul Smith, eds.

Creating Kinship. Portland: University of Southern Maine, 1996. (with Sharon Kaplan Roszia and Annette Baran).  

Child Maltreatment and Abuse Investigations for Law Enforcement Officers. Portland: University of Southern Maine, 1996. (with Kris Sahanhik, Mary Colombo, and Carol Boggis). 

Child Maltreatment and Abuse Investigations for Tribal Law Enforcement Officers Portland: University of Southern Maine, 1996. (with Kris Sahanhik, Mary Colombo, and Carol Boggis). 

1994. 

Myth or Real Collector Cards. Chicago: America Realist Company, 1994. (with Jerry D. Coleman).

  

Working With Rural Youth. Portland: University of Southern Maine, 1994. (with Dan Porter and Diane Elze).  

1993. 

Quest for the Unknown, Vol. 10, Man and Beast. "Yeti: The Abominable Snowman," and "Yeren: The Chinese Wildman," London: Reader's Digest, 1993. Peter Brookesmith, ed. 

1991. 

Elder Fire Safety for the 90s Portland: University of Southern Maine, 1991. (with Kathryn Buxton). Winner of the 1992 Simmons School of Social Work Alumni Recognition Award. 

1990.

 

Adoption and the Sexually Abused Child. Portland: University of Southern Maine, 1990. (editor, with Joan McNamara and John McNamara).

[Most important creation this year: Caleb is born on February 3, 1990.]

 1989.

 

Tom Slick and the Search for the Yeti. Boston: Faber and Faber, 1989. 

 

Mysterious America. Boston: Faber and Faber. New red cover edition, 1989.

Curious Encounters: Phantom Trains, Spooky Spots and Other Mysterious Wonders. Boston: Faber and Faber. 1989 Edition. 

1988. 

Working with Older Adoptees. Portland: University of Southern Maine, 1988. (with Karen Tilbor, Helaine Hornby and Carol Boggis). 

Working with Older Adoptees: A Sourcebook of Innovative Models. Portland: University of Southern Maine, 1988. (with Karen Tilbor, Helanie Hornby, and Carol Boggis). 

1987. 

Suicide Clusters. Boston: Faber and Faber, 1987. Psychotherapy and Social Science Book of the Month Club Selection, August 1987.

   

Unattended Children. Portland: University of Southern Maine, 1987. (with Susan Partridge and Roy Partridge). 

Teen Suicide: Coded Cries for Help. Portland: University of Southern Maine, 1987. (with Sally Brown, Robert Schroff, Carol Boggis and Anne Bernard). 

Teen Suicide in Foster Care: Coded Cries for Help - Training Manual for Suicide Prevention. Portland: University of Southern Maine, 1987. (with Sally Brown, Robert Schroff, Carol Boggis and Anne Bernard). 

SOS - Runaways and Teen Suicides: Coded Cries for Help - Training Manual for Suicide Prevention (1987) Portland: University of Southern Maine, 1987. (with Sally Brown, Robert Schroff, Carol Boggis and Anne Bernard). 

1985/1986.

Curious Encounters: Phantom Trains, Spooky Spots and Other Mysterious Wonders. Boston: Faber and Faber, 1985. 2nd Edition, 1986. Cover of the Year Award, State of Massachusetts Book Design Assn., 1985. 

[Most important creation this year: Malcolm is born on February 11, 1986.]

1984.

 

The Sasquatch and Other Unknown Hominoids "From Atshen to Giants," (with Mark A. Hall) and "The Occurrence of Wild Apes in North America." Calgary: University of Calgary, 1984. Vladimir Markotic and Grover Krantz (eds.) 

The Book of Lists #3. "Nine Large Animals Discovered by Western Science Since 1900," and "Eight Worst Monster Hoaxes." New York: William Morrow, 1984. Anne Wallace, David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace (eds.) 

Working Together: Community Involvement in Maine's Foster Care Case Review. Portland: University of Southern Maine, 1984. (with Barbara Sparks). 

Working Together: Community Involvement in Maine's Foster Care Case Review - A Training Curriculum. Portland: University of Southern Maine, 1984. (with Barbara Sparks). 

Adolescent Stabilization Project. Portland, ME: University of Southern Maine, 1984. 

1983.

 

Mysterious America. Boston: Faber & Faber, 1983. 

Fate Editors' The World's Strangest Stories. "Phantom Clowns," and "Kangaroos From Nowhere." Chicago: Clark Publishing, 1983. Fate Editors. 

1980.

 

Creatures of the Goblin World. New Clark Publishing (Fate Magazine) edition, 1980. (with Jerome Clark). 

1981. 

The Peoples Almanac #3. New York: William Morrow, 1981. "Alligators in The Sewers," David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace, eds. 

1978.

 

Creatures of the Outer Edge: What Lies Behind the Bigfoot Mystery? NY: Warner Books, 1978. (with Jerome Clark). 

1975.

 

The Unidentified: Notes Toward Solving the UFO Mystery. NY: Warner Books, 1975. (with Jerome Clark). 

1972. 

Le livre de l'inexplicable by Jacques Bergier. Paris: Editions Albine Michel, 1972. "Some Bigfoot Traditions of the North American Tribes," (with Mark A. Hall).
  

Was there anything left off the list of which you are aware?

Fun Image Trivia:  The following three book covers were suggested but never got used or even existed (although some people use them on eBay as if they are real). 

For autographed books, come visit the museum.