The twilight language explores hidden meanings and synchromystic connections via onomatology (study of names) and toponymy (study of place names). This blog further investigates "name games" and "number coincidences" found in news and history. Examinations are also found in my book The Copycat Effect (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004).
In The X-Files episode, "Babylon," (Season 10: Episode 5, first broadcast 2.15.2016 on Fox), "Fox Mulder" told "Dana Scully" of the enigmatic reports of the sounds of trumpets coming from the heavens. He informed Scully that the people who have heard the trumpets believe them to be a “Herald of End Times,” as described the Bible's Book of Revelation.
Were the trumpets fictional precursors of another kind?
The leading Republican candidate, according to primary and caucus results is New Yorker Donald Trump, famed for his Trump Towers.
Donald Trump’s German wine-growing ancestors were named Drumpf, according to journalist Gwenda Blair’s book The Trumps: Three Generations That Built An Empire. (Thanks Michael Skotnicki.)
Historically, the surname Drumpf's meaning is unknown. However, the name appears loosely associated with a “deceased person” – a dead issue.
The name Trump has its origins from English (Devon), being a metonymic occupational name for a trumpeter, from Middle English trumps, "trumpet," From German (Bavaria), Trump is a metonymic occupational name for a drummer, from Middle High German trumps, "drum." Source.
The early English medieval surname Trump is derived from the pre 8th century Olde French Trompeor, and as such was introduced by the Norman invaders of England in 1066. It is a metonymic or job descriptive name either for a trumpeter or a maker of trumpets, and is recorded in the modern forms of Trump and Trumper. Amongst the many early recordings are those of Patrick Trumpe in the rolls known as the "Calendar of Inquisitions for the county of Cumberland" in the year 1275. Source.
This is the coat of arms that up till now has been used on clothing and promotional material by Trump in Scotland. His new coat of arms (granted in 2012) will show a double-sided eagle representing the dual nationality of Trump's heritage. There will also be three chevronels - one more than depicted here - which will represent sky, sand dunes and sea. Source.
The verb “trump” also once meant to fabricate or deceive (from French “tromper”). The phrase “to trump up” still means “forge” or “invent,” as in “trumped-up charges” or the many, many headlines punning on “Trumped-up rhetoric” or “Trumped-up politics.” If last week’s Washington Post report suggesting that Trump is a compulsive golf cheat is any measure — “the worst celebrity golf cheat,” according to Alice Cooper — this definition of “trump” may be as essential to Trump’s identity as the other. ~ The Boston Globe, "Why Donald Trump trumps Donald Drumpf," 9.9.2015.
Double-headed eagles have been present in imagery for millennia. The two-headed eagle can be found in the archaeological remains of the Hittite civilization, dating from a period that ranges from the 20th century BC to the 7th century BC. The Gandaberunda is another example of a mythological two-headed bird, which is in common use in India (The Kingdom of Mysore).
This symbol has more recent links to Freemasonry.
I wrote the chapter "The Double-Headed Phoenix" in An Illustrated Guide to the Lost Symbol, edited by Dan Weber (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2009). I discuss how Dan Brown in his book subtly uses the evolution of the "double-headed Phoenix" to the "two-headed eagle" of Freemasonry to alert his readers to the rebirth of the Masonic spirit in the founding of America.
The use of the two-headed eagle as Trump's personal coat of arms appears intriguing, to say the least.
+++
In the midst of all the Trump talk, one of the dark shadows that few in the mainstream media wish to explore is the hints that there are some very real rumors of assassination of Donald Trump. It may be only a weird conspiracy thought (as shown here in this "Killing Trump"), but it appears to be one that Trump takes seriously.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reportedly always wears a bullet proof vest while he’s out campaigning. Sources 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Trump's inability to button up his coat is blamed on his wearing this bullet proof gear. Source.
During 2015, Trump asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to look into the threats allegedly made by notorious drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman (who was eventually captured).
In such a strange political year, it is not out of the question that an assassination attempt might change the course of what's "predicted" now by all of the media pundits. There is good reason for Trump to protect against an assassination try on his person.
Assassinations in the past have redrawn the political map. It could happen again. It should not, and hopefully the U.S. Secret Service have stepped up their awareness across the board for all the candidates. These are strange days where body armor may not be enough.
Police in Ohio say thieves have broken into the monument of President James A. Garfield and stolen a set of commemorative spoons. The vandals shattered a window to get inside the 180-foot-tall monument at Lakeview Cemetery in Cleveland Heights. A cemetery worker discovered the theft on May 7, 2014, it was announced on May 11. Police reports say cigarette butts, a T-shirt and a whiskey bottle were recovered.
President Garfield is the only president to have his casket on full display. His casket is located near the glass case from which the spoons were stolen. His wife's casket is next to his.
Another assassinated president's tomb had also once been breached. In November 1876, Irish crime boss James "Big Jim" Kennally, who ran a counterfeiting ring in Chicago, decided on a plan for the release of their engraver, Benjamin Boyd, who'd been arrested and sentenced to ten years at the Illinois State Penitentiary in Joliet. The plan was to steal Abraham Lincoln's body from its tomb, bury it in the Indiana Dunes along Lake Michigan to cover their tracks, and hold it for ransom, in exchange for a full pardon for Boyd and $200,000 (over four million dollars in today's dollars) in cash. The thieves opened the sarcophagus, but were unable to move the 500-pound, lead-lined cedar coffin more than a few inches. Instead, the plot was revealed to law enforcers and the theft never occurred. The plotters were arrested.
James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) served as the 20th President of the United States (1881). Garfield, the nation's 20th president, was born in the Cleveland suburb of Moreland Hills. He was assassinated and served just 200 days in office.
On the morning of July 2, 1881, President Garfield was on his way to his alma mater, Williams College, where he was scheduled to deliver a speech. Garfield was accompanied by James G. Blaine, Robert Todd Lincoln, and his two sons, James and Harry. As the President was walking through the Sixth Street Station of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad in Washington at 9:30 a.m., he was shot twice from behind, once across the arm and once in the back, by an assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, a rejected and disillusioned Federal office seeker. Garfield exclaimed immediately after he was shot, "My God, what is this?" One bullet grazed Garfield's arm; the second bullet was thought later to have possibly lodged near his liver but could not be found; and upon autopsy was located behind the pancreas.
On Monday, September 19, 1881, at 10:20 p.m. President Garfield suffered a massive heart attack and a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm, following blood poisoning and bronchial pneumonia. Garfield was pronounced dead at10:35 p.m. by Dr. D. W. Bliss in the Elberon section of Long Branch, New Jersey.
Guiteau was formally indicted on October 14, 1881, for the murder of the President. Although Guiteau's counsel argued the insanity defense, due to his odd character, the jury found him guilty on January 5, 1882, and he was sentenced to death. Guiteau may have had syphilis, a disease that causes physiological mental impairment. Guiteau was executed on June 30, 1882. He was also heard to claim that important men in Europe put him up to the task, and had promised to protect him if he were caught.
The story of the building of the Monument is as follows:
In June, 1882, the Garfield National Monument Association was incorporated, under the laws of Ohio. It was composed of the following prominent Ohioans: Governor Charles B. Foster, ex-President Rutherford B. Hayes, Senator Henry B. Payne, J. H. Wade, Joseph Perkins, T. P. Handy, D. P. Eells, W. S. Streator, J. H. Devereux, Selah Chamberlain, John D. Rockefeller, John Hay, and J. H. Rhodes. On July 6, 1882, an executive committee, with J. H. Rhodes as its secretary, was formed. Active measures were at once taken, and soon the sum of $150,000 was at the disposal of the association. Of this, Cleveland contributed $75,000; Ohio, $14,000; New York, $14,000; Illinois, $5,500; Iowa, $3,000; Pennsylvania, $1,800; Wisconsin,, $2,000; Maine, $1,600; Kansas, $1,500; Indiana, $1,400; Connecticut, $1,000; Montana, $1,900. The rest came, in varying sums, from the other States and Territories. In June, 1883, a committee composed of Joseph Perkins, H. B. Hurlburt and John Hay, issued an invitation to architects and artist to submit plans for the monument. Prizes of $1,000, $750 and $500 would be awarded. More than fifty designs were submitted. They were examined by Henry Van Brunt, of Boston, and Calvert Vaux, of New York, the most eminent architects in the country. Each made a separate trip to Cleveland, and an individual decision, but both selected the design of George Keller, of Hartford, Connecticut, and on July 21, 1883, it was formally accepted. In October, 1885, the contract for masonry was given to Thomas Simmons. Work was started, in due season, but a rumor was soon current that the foundations were insecure. Finally, the local Civil Engineer’s Club made an examination, and reported that all was safe. A like report was also made by General W. J. McAlpine, of New York, a national authority on foundations. Notwithstanding this, the committee, at its annual meeting in 1886, changed the design, reducing the height of the tower from 225 feet to 165 feet, and supplanting the castellated form with a conical roof.
May 30, 1890, the monument was formally dedicated. President Benjamin Harrison, Vice-President L. P. Morton, and a host of other celebrities, were present. The ceremonies wee held in Lake View Cemetery. They were simple, but impressive. Ex-President Hayes presided, the opening prayer was made by Bishop Leonard, and ex-Governor Jacob D. Cox, the orator of the day, made an eloquent address. Brief speeches were also made by Vice President Morton, Governor J. D. Campbell, General William T. Sherman, Secretary William Windom, Attorney-General Miller, Secretary Rusk, Bishop Gilmour, General Schofield, and Hon. William McKinley. Then the Knights Templar, of the Grand Commandery, concluded the ceremonies, with their impressive service. There were over 5,000 men in line for the procession.
The monument is erected in the loftiest and most beautiful spot in Lake View Cemetery. Its shape, for the most part, is that of a tower, fifty feet in diameter. Steps lead to the landing, which is constructed about the base of the building. A romanesque porch supports the tower. Below the porch railing, there is an external decoration, a frieze of historical character, showing in its five panels characteristic scenes from Garfield’s life. The great doors of oak open in a vestibule vaulted in stone, and paved with mosaic. From this, spiral staircases ascent the tower, and descend to the crypt. In this crypt is the casket containing the coffin. Opening from this vestibule, is the chamber where the statue, by Alexander Doyle of New York, stands. It shows Garfield in the House of Representatives. Over the statue, supported by granite columns, is a dome twenty-two feet in diameter, which is decorated with a marvelous frieze of Venetian glass, showing an allegorical funeral procession of the dead President. The tower has thirteen magnificent memorial windows, from the original thirteen States. The monument is built of native sandstone.
A HISTORY
OF
THE CITY OF CLEVELAND
ITS SETTLEMENT, RISE AND PROGRESS.
1796-1896
BY
JAMES HARRISON KENNEDY,
Editor of "The Magazine of Western History;"
Author of "The Early Days of Mormonism;"
"The American Railroad;" "Three Witnesses
of the Book of Mormon;" "The Bench and Bar
of Cleveland," etc. Corresponding Member of the
Western Reserve Historical Society, etc., etc.
Illustrated with Maps, Portraits and Views.
CLEVELAND: The Imperial Press.
MDCCCXCVI
1896
Copyright 1896
By THE IMPERIAL PRESS,
Cleveland
No. 185
Attending the "impressive" dedication ceremonies were former President Rutherford B. Hayes, then current President Benjamin Harrison, and future President William McKinley. Garfield's Secretary of the Treasury, William Windom, also attended the ceremony. President Harrison stated that Garfield was always a "student and instructor" and that his life works and death would "continue to be instructive and inspiring incidents in American history". Five panels on the monument display Garfield as a teacher, Union major general, an orator, taking the Presidential oath, and his body lying in state at the Capitol rotunda in Washington D.C. from September 21, 1881 – September 23, 1881. The U.S. has twice had three presidents in the same year. The first such year was 1841. Martin Van Buren ended his single term, William Henry Harrison was inaugurated and died a month later, and then Vice President John Tyler stepped into the vacant office. The second occurrence was in 1881. Rutherford B. Hayes relinquished the office to James A. Garfield. Upon Garfield's death, Chester A. Arthur became president.
Portions of this blog, in terms of photos and content, are reprinted under the
What is the most synchromystic, conspiracy-laden James Bond film?
The answer is an obvious one. It happens to be the cinematic expression that revealed Ian Fleming's leaking of the Gemstone Files, in one of the 23 Bond films that have been made through 2012: Diamonds Are Forever (1971).
The visual and design legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright is to be found prominently in this movie. FLW-trained architect John Lautner's Elron House is one of the important filming locations, serving as the Howard Hughes-clone character Willard Whyte's "winter home."
Before learning from FLW in the 1930s, John Lautner's background was in Michigan, and he got his start in building at 12 years old. His family built a rural residence together, a cabin they named Midgaard, "a word from Norse mythology that described the home of mankind, situated between the land of ice and the land of fire."
Considering Lautner's Elrod (Old English for "noble counsel") House was built on client interior designer Arthur Elrod's 23 acre property in Palm Springs, California, in 1968, and the film was released in 1971, the shooting occurred soon after the house was constructed.
The following three images are from the Elrod House in Diamonds Are Forever. The House is the focus of Bond's meeting with the two female guards – Thumper and Bambi – who are the precursor characters for future acrobatic sci-fi fight sequences (including those seen in Blade Runner and Kill Bill). It is also the location of Bond's release of the "real" Willard Whyte character.
The Internet has many recent photos, including the following, of Lautner's masterpiece, as well as the floor plans, because the Elrod House has been up for sale for a bit under 14 million dollars for a few years.
The Elrod House is a "gem" and thus a metaphor for the entire underlying, less than subtle theme, so apparent in the title of this film, Diamonds Are Forever. But do not fool yourself, these are hardly ordinary gemstones.
A detailed analysis of Diamonds Are Forever is included in David Hatcher Childress' chapter, "James Bond & The Gemstone File" (pages 69-90), contained in Inside the Gemstone File: Howard Hughes, Onassis & JFKby Kenn Thomas and David Hatcher Childress (Kempton, Illinois: Adventures Unlimited Press, 1999). Here is one short selection from the greater chapter [with a few comments added by me]:
In the filmed story of Diamonds Are Forever, the plot remarkably parallels TheGemstone File years before the Skeleton Key to the Gemstone File was ever circulated. The plot begins in the diamond fields of South Africa, as in Fleming's original book [1956], but soon diverges from the book to bring in elements of The Gemstone File and the Mafia/Las Vegas/Area 51 entanglement.
Bond is assigned to follow a trail of diamonds from South Africa to Amsterdam and then to Las Vegas where he is confronted by the Mafia. In one scene, James Bond sneaks into a secret facility in the Nevada desert outside of Las Vegas. This facility is the location of Mercury, the exit off that interstate highway leading to Area 51, the top secret space facility in south central Nevada rumored to house flying saucers and alien technology.
Once inside the facility, Bond pretends to be a worker in a lab coat and walks into a room where a German engineer is in charge. The man is clearly meant to be Werner von Braun. After witnessing the faking of the Apollo Moon missions, Bond steals the lunar rover and escapes into the desert. Does Diamonds Are Forever mirror the truth about NASA being part of a secret conspiracy? In the movie, the space facility and the Mafia are working together.
The movie, however, turns out to be the story of a kidnapped billionaire named Williard Whyte (played by Jimmy Dean of pork sausage fame), who is held in seclusion by [Ernst Stavro] Blofeld, exactly as [Bruce] Roberts claimed [American billionaire Howard] Hughes [sharing the double initials HH, just like Williard Whyte, WW ~ LC] was held captive by [Greek-born billionaire Aristotle Sokratis] Onassis.
Bond frees the kidnapped Willard Whyte and proceeds, with the help of Tiffany Case (played by Jill St. John), to attack Blofeld at his secret base: an oil platform either off the coast of Texas or California, the movie does not indicate which. [Yes, it does. The secret oil platform is shown off Baja California on a global map of Blofeld's empire, which matches the Onassis reach, btw ~ LC.] Bond destroys the oil platform but Blofeld escapes to reappear briefly in the 1981 film For Your Eyes Only when he is finally dispatched permanently. By this time, Onassis was dead as well.
Indeed, the parallels between Diamonds Are Forever and The Gemstone File are many:
*Willard Whyte is held captive in Las Vegas by Blofeld and the Mafia.
*Howard Hughes is held captive in Las Vegas and elsewhere by Onassis and the Mafia.
*Blofeld owns a casino named Casino Royale in Monte Carlo and has various "doubles."
*Onassis owns a casino named Casino Royale in Monte Carlo and Onassis has various "doubles" concocted by Onassis and Maheu.
*Blofeld owns oil fields and oil platforms. He is protected by foreign countries.
*Onassis owns oil tankers and has an exclusive deal with Saudi Arabia. He is protected by foreign countries such as Greece and Monaco.
*Blofeld owns his own island, high-tech yacht fleet, and private army.
*Onassis owns his own island (Skorpios), has a high-tech yacht fleet (Onassis owned many, many ships), and controlled a private army that allegedly went beyond the Mafia to the Marseille underground and the CIA and FBI.
*Diamonds Are Forever was about the secret NASA base outside of Las Vegas, and the use of diamonds to make a space-based laser system, one that could project holographic images into the sky.
*The Gemstone File is about synthetic rubies and their use by Hughes in laser research and Roberts' later use of these synthetic rubies as "gifts" with an attached "Gemstone Letter" that revealed certain behind-the-scenes activities of Onassis, the Mafia and the CIA to important and wealthy individuals. Las Vegas was the scene of Hughes' kidnapping and imprisonment, a city well known to be owned and run by the Mafia and their overt partners.
As Kenn Thomas and David Hatcher Childress theorize in their book, Inside the Gemstone File, Ian Fleming, a former British intelligence agent, used his books to unfold the secrets that he had discovered about Onassis and others through material that would someday be called the Gemstone File. Considering that several of the Bond books were published long before many of the events were exposed in the dots that have since been connected and then shown in the films, Fleming walked a narrow, dangerous path.
The Gemstone File is a conspiracy theory document attributed to Bruce Porter Roberts. In 1975, "A Skeleton Key to the Gemstone File" appeared and is generally attributed to Stephanie Caruana. The "Key" is purportedly a synopsis of Roberts' documents that presents a chronicle of interlocking conspiracies, including claims that world events since the 1950s were shaped by suppressed information, the names of supposed shooters of President John F. Kennedy, and suggested connections between a number of political assassinations which occurred within a relatively short time frame. Many of these show up in Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, and thus in the movies that followed.
The Gemstone File proposes that Aristotle Onassis, JFK's father Joseph P. Kennedy, and other prominent figures were involved in various schemes to forward a vast global conspiracy, involving the Mafia and corrupt politicians, brutal oil and drug cartels, rogue military operations, and more. It also posits that early in 1957, Aristotle Onassis had Howard Hughes kidnapped from his Beverly Hills Hotel bungalow; that Hughes suffered a massive brain injury during the forcible kidnapping, and that Hughes was subsequently a virtual prisoner of Onassis on his private island Skorpios and injected regularly with morphine, while Onassis took over the operation of Hughes's considerable financial affairs, including airlines and U.S. defense contracting. Post-Fleming author John Gardner would overtly title one of his James Bond books, Scorpius (1988).
Aristotle Onassis and Jacqueline "Jackie" Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis
The Gemstone File portrays Onassis as the main force behind the election of John F. Kennedy as President, and subsequently, Kennedy's assassination in 1963. According to the documents, Lee Harvey Oswald was a patsy in the JFK assassination plan and was linked to the Central Intelligence Agency, and to Mafia connections in Lafayette Square, New Orleans, with Jimmy Fratianno, Johnny Roselli, and Eugene Brading as the real shooters. The Gemstone papers claim that John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Joseph P. Kennedy were involved with the Mafia and Onassis, and when the Kennedy brothers attempted to break away, they were murdered. We know too what happened between Onassis and Jackie O, after the death of JFK. Wild theories and thoughts, perhaps, indeed, but then when connecting dots in conspiracy speculations, when are such not radical, raging, and rough?
"On December 20, 1947, Jacob Rubenstein changed his name to Jack L. Ruby by decree of the 68th Judicial Court of Dallas, Texas. The etymology of the term 'Ruby': (French) rubis; (Spanish) rubi; (Latin) rubinus, carbuncle….The term 'Jack Ruby' was once used by pawnbrokers to indicated a fake ruby. In iconography a ruby or carbuncle symbolizes blood, suffering and death." ~ from King-Kill 33 by James Shelby Downard.
Childress writes further in his Bond analysis: "Ian Fleming [at the age of 56] died of mysterious circumstances in Jamaica on August 12, 1964, of a 'heart attack.' According to Bruce Roberts, the 'sodium morphate' used by Onassis and the Mafia made the victim appear to have died from a massive heart attack….In August of 1964…Fleming was planning to fly from Jamaica to New Jersey to meet with Ivan T. Sanderson, a biologist and former British Intelligence agent. As a zoologist, Sanderson had written a number of books, including one on Bigfoot and Yeti, and appeared frequently on radio shows and even Johnny Carson's Tonight Show."
The late Ivan T. Sanderson (a friend of mine) was a Fortean researcher and author on topics including the Philadelphia Experiment, as well, a subject about which Sanderson appears to have been corresponding with Fleming.
Childress continues, "Fleming never made it to his rendezvous with Sanderson. He died of a sudden heart attack on August 12th, 1964 at his home in Jamaica…[on] the 21st anniversary of The Philadelphia Experiment (August 12, 1943)….Was Ian Fleming killed because he knew too much about such things as the Kennedy assassination, The Philadelphia Experiment and the genesis of UFO technology?"
We perhaps shall never know, but awareness of the world may be revealed, frighteningly, more through watching Diamonds Are Forever than turning in to the nightly news, where the selling of automobiles and drive-through-hamburgers is the goal.
There has been fifty years of James Bond movies. Much is unfolded in fiction worth our attention. The 23rd Bond film, Skyfall, will be released in November 2012.
The Kennedy Curse has struck again, the tabloids will tell us tomorrow. Oops. Hold that. The phrase the "Kennedy Curse" has gone rather mainstream, it appears.
Sadly, whatever is occurring, synchromystical or not, the news is that another tragedy has hit a very public family. And children have lost their mother.
Mary Kennedy, 52, the estranged and troubled wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was found dead of suicide by hanging, on Wednesday, May 16, 2012, in an out building on the grounds of her Mount Kisco, New York home. Police responded to a home in a leafy section of South Bedford Road at 1:36 p.m., according to a statement released by the Bedford Police Department. (Mount Kisco is a community that is both a village and a town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The Town of Mount Kisco is coterminous with the village. The population was 10,877 at the 2010 census.)
Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr. (born January 17, 1954) is an American radio host, activist, and attorney specializing in environmental law. He is the third of eleven children born to Ethel Skakel Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy (assassinated in 1968) and is the nephew of John F. Kennedy (assassinated in 1963) and Edward M. Kennedy. Kennedy co-hosts Ring of Fire, a nationally syndicated American radio program.
Kennedy's second wife was Mary Richardson (1960 - May 16, 2012). She was an architect and designer, and was well known to the Kennedy family before she and Robert Jr. married. She and her former husband’s sister, Kerry Kennedy, met at boarding school and she was her schoolmate’s maid of honor in 1990.
Richardson and Kennedy married on April 15, 1994, aboard a research vessel along the Hudson River. They had four children: Conor Richardson (b. 1994), Kyra LeMoyne (b. 1995), William Finbar (b. 1997), and Aiden Caohman Vieques (b. 2001). On May 12, 2010, Kennedy filed for divorce from Mary, just three days before she was charged with drunken driving. Friends told the New York Post that Kennedy grew tired of his wife’s drinking and “other problems,” which they said had grown worse.
According to the Boston Globe, the marriage was set to end tumultuously after 16 years, following her bouts with alcohol and drugs -- a battle well known to her husband, who spoke openly about his own substance abuse problems. In 1984, he pleaded guilty to heroin possession and said he was born an alcoholic. In August 2010, Mary Kennedy was charged with driving under the influence of drugs, a month before she pleaded guilty to drunken driving and had her driver’s license suspended.
At the time of Mary's death, Kennedy was reportedly dating actress Cheryl Hines, who is known for her role as Larry David's wife "Cheryl" on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm. Hines' director of her then-new comic film Waitress was murdered a few months before the film was released in 2007.
The director was Adrienne Shelly (born Adrienne Levine). On November 1, 2006, after her husband found his wife Adrienne's body hanging by a bed sheet from a shower rod in their Manhattan West Village apartment's bathroom, the initial ruling was suicide. But the NYPD were suspicious of sneaker prints in the bathtub that did not match Adrienne Shelly's shoes (she was only wearing socks). Finally an arrest was made of Diego Pillico, a 19-year-old construction worker who confessed to the murder, and admitted he was "having a bad day."
Mary Richardson Kennedy has now joined the list of what is now popularly called "The Kennedy Curse":
1941 – Rosemary Kennedy is believed to have been mentally challenged. However, some sources have claimed she was suffering from mental illness, such as depression. Because of her increasingly violent and severe mood swings, her father, Joe, Sr., arranged in secret for her to undergo a lobotomy. The surgery impaired her cognitive abilities even more, and as a result, she remained institutionalized until her death in 2005.
August 12, 1944 - Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. died when his plane exploded over East Suffolk, England as part of Operation Aphrodite.
May 13, 1948 – Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington died in a plane crash in France.
August 23, 1956 – Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy gave birth to a stillborn daughter, Arabella. (Although the daughter was unnamed and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery next to her parents with a marker reading "Daughter", later reports indicated that the Kennedys had intended to name her Arabella.)
August 9, 1963 – Patrick Bouvier Kennedy died two days after his birth.
November 22, 1963 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas.
June 19, 1964 – U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy was involved in a plane crash in which one of his aides and the pilot were killed. He was pulled from the wreckage by fellow senator Birch E. Bayh II and spent weeks in a hospital recovering from a broken back, a punctured lung, broken ribs, and internal bleeding.
June 6, 1968 – U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles immediately following his victory in the California Democratic presidential primary.
July 18, 1969 – In the Chappaquiddick incident, Ted Kennedy accidentally drove his car off a bridge in Chappaquiddick Island, fatally trapping his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne inside. In his July 25 televised statement, Kennedy stated that on the night of the incident he wondered "whether some awful curse did actually hang over all the Kennedys."
August 13, 1973 – Joseph P. Kennedy II was the driver of a car which crashed. His passenger Pam Kelley was permanently paralyzed.
November 17, 1973 – Ted Kennedy, Jr. lost a portion of his right leg due to bone cancer.
April 25, 1984 – David Kennedy died of a Demerol and cocaine overdose in a Palm Beach, Florida hotel room.
December 31, 1997 – Michael Kennedy died in a skiing accident in Aspen, Colorado.
July 16, 1999 – John F. Kennedy, Jr. died when the Piper Saratoga light aircraft he is piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha's Vineyard due to pilot error.
September 16, 2011 - Kara Kennedy Allen died of a heart attack while exercising in a Washington, D.C. health club.
May 16, 2012 - Mary Richardson Kennedy, the estranged wife of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is found dead of a suicide at the age of 52 in an "outbuilding" on her property near Bedford, New York. (See above for further details.)
In American history, there has been a relatively small number of members of Congress who have been killed or wounded while in office. Not all members included in the list were the targets of assassins. Some died in duels or were not intentionally targeted. This list does not include instances when members died in accidents or suicides. Fourteen members have been killed and eight have been seriously wounded by assailants. Additionally, the circumstances surrounding the deaths of at least three members are disputed and they may have died as a result of natural causes or accidents.
The four incidents below are the ones recalled by the media in the wake of the Giffords shooting. But the list is a long one. See below.
Rep. Jonathan Cilley
Jonathan Cilley of Maine was killed in a duel with Rep. William Graves of Kentucky Feb. 24, 1838. Cilley had accused Graves of bribery on the floor of the House to which Graves responded by challenging him to a duel with pistols.
Graves killed Cilley after three rounds. After the duel, the House voted to ban all forms of dueling between members in Washington, D.C. Although the House considered censuring Graves, not enough votes were garnered and Graves was largely unpunished for killing one of his colleagues.
Sen. Charles Sumner
Reps. Preston Brooks and Laurence Keitt, both of South Carolina, severely beat Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts so badly he needed three years to recover. Brooks beat Sumner over an anti-slavery speech that verbally attacked Sen. Andrew Butler of South Carolina, a relative of Brooks.
Brooks and Keitt eventually resigned after the House voted to censure Keitt and the state of Maryland prosecuted Brooks. The assault, which took place May 22, 1856, was a precursor of tensions between the north and south which would eventually lead to the Civil War.
Puerto Rican Nationalists
Four Puerto Rican nationalists stormed the Capitol March 1, 1954. The House was in session as they were taking a vote regarding the employment of Mexican migrant workers.
Five Congressmen were wounded by gunfire from the visitor's gallery: Alvin Bentley of Michigan, Ben Jensen of Iowa, Clifford Davis of Tennessee, George Fallon of Maryland and Kenneth Roberts of Alabama. All five survived the 30 shots which rang out from above the floor. All four perpetrators were eventually sentenced to long prison terms.
Rep. Leo Ryan
Rep. Leo Ryan of California made a trip to Guyana to try to ascertain why members of his congressional district were disappearing into the jungle. When he and his team attempted to leave by airplane the encampment of cult leader Jim Jones of People's Temple, five of Ryan's delegation including Ryan were killed in an ambush November 18, 1978, at the airfield.
The Ryan incident was the last time a sitting member of Congress was assassinated. Ryan's assistant Jackie Speier who survived the attack, went on to serve in the California legislature 20 years before being elected to Congress in 2008.
Multiple people staying at the National Hotel in Washington, D.C. died of National Hotel Disease during this time period. It is disputed whether the "disease" was an attempt to poison hotel boarders or simply a case of accidental food poisoning.[1]
Hinds was killed in Indian Bays in Monroe County, Arkansas after being shot in the back by George A. Clark, a member of the Ku Klux Klan and the secretary of the Democratic committee of the county.[1][5][6]
A political event in Hempstead,Texas turned violent when one of the participants, J. N. Brown, began shooting. Other attendees began to shoot as well and a riot broke out. Pickney, his brother Tom, and Brown were all killed at the scene.[1][7]
Long died two days after Weiss fired a handgun at him at close range inside the LouisianaState Capitol in Baton Rouge. More recent evidence suggests that Long's bodyguards may have accidentally shot and killed Long when they open fire on Weiss, who was killed at the scene.[8][9]
While on an official visit to Guyana to investigate the activities of the Peoples Temple cult led by Jim Jones, Ryan was shot multiple times while attempting to board an airplane leaving Jonestown.[13]
Representative Preston Brooks, a Democrat from South Carolina's 4th district, assaulted Sumner with a cane on the floor of the Senate in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The attack followed Sumner's verbal attacks on pro-slavery politicians.[15]
Grinnell was assaulted with an iron-tipped cane by Rousseau, anUnconditional UnionistCongressman from Kentucky's 7th district, on the east portico of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., in retaliation for derogatory statements he made earlier. Grinnell was pummeled on the "head and face until the cane broke," and was heavily bruised.[16]
