Paranoia Magazine's "Al Hidell" Dies

"Al Hidell" a/k/a David McGuirl, died on February 5, 2022.

On February 7, 2022, "Joan d'Arc" posted on Facebook:

"My good friend since we met three decades ago, David McGuirl, passed away on February 5, 2022 after a battle with ALS. Dave and I met at the Providence Conspiracy League at Newspeak Bookstore, and we co-founded Paranoia Magazine in 1992. He wrote under the pseudonym, Al Hidell, a tip to the 'other' I.D. found in Lee Harvey Oswald’s wallet. Together with a great team of artists and writers, Paranoia enjoyed an international following, publishing 52 issues and several books between 1992 and 2011. A talented graphic artist, Al Hidell designed many of the magazine’s provocative covers, inside illustrations, and stellar layouts. He penned the highly-anticipated Paranotes section—inventive narratives that tied curious events together synchronistically. There could not be a better friend or business partner in the world. Al Hidell will be missed by his family, friends, and dozens of team members from his twenty years in the 'conspiracy' business."

Joan added a footnote privately to me: "It was unexpected. He was not in late stages of ALS, although it had progressed quickly in just under a year."

David J. McGuirl, a/k/a "Al Hidell" ~ February 9, 1966 - February 5, 2022.

Lee Harvey Oswald's SSS card showing his use of the "Alek Hidell" name.

Bill Gaess writes on February 6, 2022:

"A friend of mine, David McGuirl, passed away yesterday morning. I barely knew him when he reached out to me last spring to help him ship some high end audio gear that he wanted to sell because he was having problems with his legs. He eventually gave me the keys to his condo and I had to sell the gear as well as ship it because he couldn't walk and wasn't improving. I organized his condo and helped him sort through his belongings, especially albums, which he had a ton of. His uncle was the late Paul Motion, talented and super famous jazz drummer, so he had many many jazz records among other genres. We shared a love for music and audio gear, and humor too. I got to know him very well and appreciated his trust. He had been at a nursing home, then his mom's house, then a hospital, and finally another nursing home. I couldn't visit him toward the end because he had tested positive for Covid (with no symptoms) and was in restricted quarters. We emailed, texted and talked on the phone until he lost the ability to use his hands. Thank God I visited him, Thursday. I brought him some tasty food and we had a few laughs. I told him to take it easy as he struggled to speak and stay awake. I stayed by his side as long as I could, then I woke him and said goodbye. I had planned on visiting again yesterday and playing some music for him on a Jambox, but God had other plans for him. He was the author of a published, fringy book, loved his cat (who died recently), his friends, his family and music. He was an intellectual with a gentle soul. I wish I knew him better before he became ill. I told him so and he wished the same thing. I also let him know I would help his sister and mom as much as I could. He was very concerned that he would burden them. He told me he had expected to be fully paralyzed with a breathing tube and an inability to talk or eat, which he managed to avoid. I know he is in a better place, listening to some jazz with his cat on his lap. I will miss David greatly and am honored to have become one of his best friends. He said I always made him smile. Keep on smiling, David!"

The Woodlawn Funeral Home published the following on February 12, 2022:

David J. McGuirl, 55, passed away on February 5, 2022, at Briarcliffe Manor in Johnston, Rhode Island, after a battle with ALS.
Born in Cranston, Rhode Island, on February 9, 1966, he was the son of Sarah A. (Motian) McGuirl and the late Peter T. McGuirl. He graduated from Cranston High School second in the Class of 1984, and went on to get a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1990 from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He resided in West Warwick and was the office manager at the International Brotherhood of Police Officers in Cranston for many years.
David was an audiophile who avidly collected and sold vinyl records and audio equipment. He collected and listened to music of all kinds, from early R&B and Rock and Roll, to Modern Jazz and Classical. His love of jazz had its roots in his family, and Dave was proud of the fact his uncle was the legendary jazz drummer, Paul Motian. Dave’s love of stereo equipment ranged from his early playing of 8-tracks on his 2-xl toy robot to sophisticated vacuum tube electronics and audio streaming equipment.

David was the co-founder and co-editor of Paranoia Magazine from 1992 to 2012 under the pseudonym, Al Hidell. The award-winning conspiracy and paranormal magazine enjoyed an international following, publishing 52 issues and several books. A talented graphic artist, he designed many of the magazine’s provocative covers, inside illustrations, and stellar layouts. He penned the highly-anticipated Paranotes section—inventive narratives that tied curious events together synchronistically.
David is survived by his mother Sarah (Motian) McGuirl of Cranston, sister Tracey McGuirl of Cranston, sister Cindy McGuirl of Thomaston, Maine, niece Kalie McGuirl of Oakland, California, cousin Rosemarie Caito of Johnston, aunt Barbara McGuirl of Cranston, good friends Al Hill and George Hanley both of Cranston, friend and business partner, Joan Ratcliffe, and several cousins. He is predeceased by his father, Peter McGuirl, his aunt, Rose Bowden, and his uncle, Paul Motian.
The family will hold a private memorial. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the ALS Association at https://www.als.org/donate.

The literary work of David McGuirl can be sampled by reading various issues of Paranoia Magazine, and the compilation, The Conspiracy Reader.

David was a bright and creative man. I was happy to have had my works critiqued by Joan and David in Paranoia, and to see my name appear in its pages and their Conspiracy Reader. 

David, rest in peace.

Dick

I always admired the life, thoughts, and comedy of Dick Gregory. We shared Southern Illinois University-Carbondale before it all started going down - and then all hell broke loose. We were Salukis. Even overlapped in diet, politics, and senses of humor. He was a great man that some ignored.

The 1950s became the 1960s. They killed JFK, MLK, and Bobby. As well as Medgar, Malcolm, and Fred. Dick Gregory spoke to an emerging generation, whether white or black, whether they wanted to hear him or not.

Now.

The Eclipse. The dark sun. Carbondale. The timing (8-19-2017) seems right for him to leave. Sad.

The Southern wrote:

Dick Gregory, the comedian and activist and who broke racial barriers in the 1960s and used his humor to spread messages of social justice and nutritional health, has died. He was 84.

Gregory, who attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale on a track scholarship in the 1950s, died late Saturday in Washington, D.C. after being hospitalized for about a week, his son Christian Gregory told The Associated Press. He had suffered a severe bacterial infection.

In 1961, while working at the black-owned Roberts Show Bar in Chicago, Dick Gregory was spotted by Hugh Hefner performing the following material before a largely white audience:

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I understand there are a good many Southerners in the room tonight. I know the South very well. I spent twenty years there one night.

Last time I was down South I walked into this restaurant and this white waitress came up to me and said, "We don't serve colored people here." I said, "That's all right. I don't eat colored people. Bring me a whole fried chicken."

Then these three white boys came up to me and said, "Boy, we're giving you fair warning. Anything you do to that chicken, we're gonna do to you." So I put down my knife and fork, I picked up that chicken and I kissed it. Then I said, "Line up, boys!"

Gregory unsuccessfully ran for President of the United States in 1968 as a write-in candidate of the Freedom and Peace Party, which had broken off from the Peace and Freedom Party. He garnered 47,097 votes, including one from Hunter S. Thompson, with fellow activist Mark Lane as his running mate in some states, David Frost in others, and Dr. Benjamin Spock in Virginia and Pennsylvania garnering more than the party he had left. The Freedom and Peace Party also ran other candidates, including Beulah Sanders for New York State Senate and Flora Brown for New York State Assembly. His efforts landed him on the master list of Nixon's political opponents.
***
Shortly after this time Gregory became an outspoken critic of the Warren Commission findings that President John Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald. On March 6, 1975, Gregory and assassination researcher Robert J. Groden appeared on Geraldo Rivera's late night ABC talk show Goodnight America. An important historical event happened that night when the famous Zapruder film of JFK's assassination was shown to the public on TV for the first time. The public's response and outrage to its showing led to the forming of the Hart-Schweiker investigation, which contributed to the Church Committee Investigation on Intelligence Activities by the United States, which resulted in the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations investigation. Wikipedia.

Which Cruz Was Photographed With Lee Harvey Oswald? A Manufactured Distraction?

In the most bizarre of weird Presidential election races ever, another strange twist just occurred this week. 

The National Enquirer, a tabloid with a tabloid mentality, has published for May 2, 2016, a "World Exclusive Investigation" in which they have tied a famed incident running up to the John F. Kennedy assassination to Ted Cruz.

The claim is that Ted Cruz's father, Rafael Cruz, was photographed with Lee Harvey Oswald in New Orleans.

It is as if this story is being floated to get these rumors out there to overturn them, or make them part of the fringe. Most conservative and rightwing blogs are taking the National Enquirer story with tongue firmly in cheek. 

Rumors of a link between Rafael Cruz and Lee Harvey Oswald first surfaced in the blogosphere in April 2016. The photo shows Lee Harvey Oswald handling out “Fair Play” leaflets, and a man standing nearby in the background has a passing resemblance to a young Rafael Cruz....Given lack of any proof besides a passing resemblence between the man in the photo and Rafael Cruz, we’re calling this one “unproven.” [See here, for more.]

But is a deeper truth being hidden? Some feel that's what may be happening here.

What might be the realities being revealed in the midst of this supposedly "tabloid news"?

Cuban Rafael Cruz, a pro-Batista, CIA connected Cuban in exile met his wife in New Orleans (home of Oswald, Guy Bannister, David Ferry, Clay Shaw and the great Jim Garrison). New Orleans was ground zero for the CIA’s Cuban manned “Operation Mongoose”, the Bay of Pigs and as we all know, the JFK Assassination. Anyone familiar with the assassination and the works of Mark Lane, Jim Garrison, Jim Marrs and David Lifton…and many more will be stunned by this troubling information. 

It also seems that Cuban Rafael Cruz was also in Dallas, or nearby, the day of John Kennedy was assassinated.

Rafael Cruz fled to Canada shortly after Kennedy’s assassination to work in the “oil business”. The oil business? Like Zapata Oil, the CIA front company run by George Herbert Walker Bush? Yeah, that oil business.

Rafael Cruz returned to the United States after Nixon had been elected and the Bay of Pigs/JFK Assassination was put to rest for a while. He returned illegally to the United States with his son Rafael Eduardo “Ted” Cruz.

Ted Cruz got connections into Princeton and Harvard and went to work directly for the Bush Family where he met his wife, Heidi Cruz, who was also working for the Bush Family.

So how was it that Ted Cruz got right into the Bush Family Cabal so easily? His father, Rafael had favors to be paid back. Allen Dulles is long dead, but George Herbert Walker is still alive…and GHB knows Ted Cruz very, very well. 

Any surprise why Neil Bush is in Ted Cruz’s executive campaign inner circle? ~ David Zephyr

Though many wish to ignore the source that produced a wider reading on these claims, it is not the National Enquirer, but Wayne Madsen out front with this story in his April 6, 2016 article,  "Was the father of presidential hopeful Cruz involved in the JFK assassination?"

Rafael Cruz, Ted's father

What's the normal background info for the photos?

On May 26, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald wrote to the New York City headquarters of the pro-Castro Fair Play for Cuba Committee, proposing to rent "a small office at my own expense for the purpose of forming a FPCC branch here in New Orleans." Three days later, the FPCC responded to Oswald's letter advising against opening a New Orleans office "at least not ... at the very beginning." In a follow-up letter, Oswald replied, "Against your advice, I have decided to take an office from the very beginning."
On May 29, Oswald ordered the following items from a local printer: 500 application forms, 300 membership cards, and 1,000 leaflets with the heading, "Hands Off Cuba." According to Lee Oswald's wife Marina, Lee told her to sign the name "A.J. Hidell" as chapter president on his membership card.
On August 5 and 6, according to anti-Castro militant Carlos Bringuier, Oswald visited him at a store he owned in New Orleans. Bringuier was the New Orleans delegate for the anti-Castro organization Directorio Revolucionario Estudantil (DRE). Bringuier would later tell the Warren Commission that he believed Oswald's visits were an attempt by Oswald to infiltrate his group. On August 9, Oswald turned up in downtown New Orleans handing out pro-Castro leaflets. Bringuier confronted Oswald, claiming he was tipped off about Oswald's leafleting by a friend. A scuffle ensued and Oswald, Bringuier, and two of Bringuier's friends were arrested for disturbing the peace. Prior to leaving the police station, Oswald requested to speak with an FBI agent. Oswald stated that he was a member of the New Orleans branch of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee which he claimed had 35 members and was led by A. J. Hidell. In fact, Oswald was the branch's only member and it had never been chartered by the national organization.
A week later, on August 16, Oswald again passed out Fair Play for Cuba leaflets with two hired helpers, this time in front of the International Trade Mart. The incident was filmed by WDSU, a local TV station. The next day, Oswald was interviewed by WDSU radio commentator William Stuckey, who probed Oswald's background. A few days later, Oswald accepted Stuckey's invitation to take part in a radio debate with Carlos Bringuier and Bringuier's associate Edward Scannell Butler, head of the right-wing Information Council of the Americas (INCA). Source.

But was it the right Cruz?

On August 9, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested on Canal Street in New Orleans and charged with disturbing the peace. The arrest was the result of a confrontation with anti-Castro Cuban exile Carlos Bringuier and two of his associates, Miguel Cruz and Celso Hernandez. Oswald was handing out pro-Castro leaflets when Bringuier, Hernandez and Cruz approached him. When Hernandez tried to take the leaflets from Oswald, a shouting match began; the New Orleans police then intervened, arresting all four individuals. Source. 

Miguel Cruz was a Carlos Bringuier associate. The Cruz photographed is one of the people that Oswald "hired," correct? Was he Rafael Cruz? What Cruz is who?

Oswald was the "president" and only member in New Orleans, with the address as "544 Camp Street, New Orleans, La." This was directly across from Lafayette Square, New Orleans, the center of the intelligence network in the city.

 
The Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC) was organized by Robert Bruce Taber in 1960. It was an activist group set up in New York in April 1960, not New Orleans or even Florida.

The FPCC's purpose was to provide grassroots support for the Cuban Revolution against attacks by the United States government, once Fidel Castro began openly admitting his commitment to Marxism and began the expropriation and nationalization of Cuban assets belonging to U.S. corporations. The FPCC opposed the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, the imposition of the United States embargo against Cuba, and was sympathetic to the Cuban view during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Subsidiary Fair Play for Cuba groups were set up throughout the United States and Canada. Among its twenty-nine early notable supporters were William Appleman Williams, Norman Mailer, Truman Capote, James Baldwin, Jean-Paul Sartre, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Waldo Frank, Alan Sagner and Carleton Beals.
The Fair Play for Cuba Committee has been the subject of much speculation. It was accused by some of being a Soviet front, with little real support outside of a few dedicated American communists. However, it seems to have been connected to the Trotskyist Socialist Workers' Party.
The FPCC achieved notoriety through the activities of Lee Harvey Oswald in New Orleans. Oswald would later be accused of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Vincent T. Lee shut down the national Fair Play for Cuba Committee in December 1963 when its landlord evicted the group from its national office; the notoriety accorded to it, following the Kennedy assassination, made it impossible for the committee to continue its work. The group continued to exist in Canada and still published several pamphlets until late 1964. Source.

What is the real history of Rafael Cruz, his travels, and his links to Cuba & the CIA?

+++

Where did Lee Harvey Oswald live in New Orleans?

Lafayettes, Movies, and the Shelby Name Game

On July 13, 2015, I made a prediction of a potential movie shooting on August 5, 2016.

Yes, that's a year away. I based those thoughts on future forecasting informed by historical patterning, such as the July 22, 2011, Utøya, Norway massacre occurring the day Captain America was released, and the Aurora, Colorado shootings happening at the premiere showing of The Dark Knight Rises on July 20, 2013. Copycats followed in the wake of those events, in all sorts of variations. It is called the copycat effect, after all.

In 2012, I compiled a comprehensive list of movie shootings and mayhem; see "Blood Red Movie Massacres."

Suicide Squad is to be first screened in wide release on August 5, 2016.

But then, only a few days after I wrote that overview so near the anniversary of the Aurora shooting, a gunman shot up a theater on Wednesday, July 23, 2015. In what even Wikipedia now calls the "2015 Lafayette Shooting," America was surprised again, and I and others discussed some of its sync links; see, "Fayette Factor Hits Movie Theater."

The Lafayette killings took place during the film Trainwreck.

Sam: “You really think you’ll be ready for opening tomorrow?”Riggan: “Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, I mean, previews are pretty much a trainwreck. We can’t seem to get through a performance without a raging fire or a raging hard-on. ~ Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) - Best Picture of 2014, Academy Awards

BTW, if you missed it, the gunman in the Lafayette horror, John Russell "Rusty" Houser, was born on November 22, 1955. His boyhood 8th birthday was dominated, not by any attention to his youthful entertainment in Columbus, Georgia, but, no doubt, by the news of the day, the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

It appears November 22, 1963, did spawn many monsters.

It is more than a footnote, perhaps, that in the Texas Theatre, a Dallas movie theater, in the Oak Cliff neighborhood, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the JFK assassination and DPD officer J. D. Tippit, on November 22, 1963.

Meanwhile, back to the future, in 2015, it's business as usual down the street from the Grand 16, where Trainwreck is showing again, and guns are for sale at Lafayette Shooters.

Time moves along on many fronts.

We are coming up to the two-week anniversary for the Trainwreck/Lafayette shooting, always a dangerous window. The date for that anniversary - Wednesday, August 5, 2015.

People should watch out.

Update - Shelby Name Game:

In The Rebirth of Pan: Hidden Faces of the American Earth Spirit, Jim Brandon writes, regarding the overall "name game":

I'm not talking here of such spooky tongue-twisters as H.P. Lovecraft's Yog-Sothoth or Arthur Machen's Ishakshar, but of quite ordinary names like Bell, Beall and variants, Crowley, Francis, Grafton, Grubb, Magee/McGee, Mason, McKinney, Montpelier, Parsons, Pike, Shelby, Vernon, Watson/Watt, Williams/Williamson. I have others on file, but these are the ones which I have accumulated the most instances.

You will see buried in that list, "Shelby."

Of late, the Shelby name game appears to be "hot."


Shelby, North Carolina

The alleged Charleston, South Carolina killer of nine on June 17, 2015, at the Mother Emanuel Church, Dylann Storm Roof was apprehended on June 18, 2015, after a motorist spotted his black Hyundai Elantra, which displayed a "Confederate States of America" license plate on the front bumper, while driving near Shelby, North Carolina. See more, here.

It was noted at the time of the Charleston killer suspect's capture the irony in the location of his apprehension with the name of James Shelby Downard, Synchromysticism's Godfather.


Shelby County, Tennessee

Shelby County, Tennessee was the site of a police officer being killed on Saturday, August 1, 2015.
Then on Monday, August 3, 2015, authorities arrested a convicted bank robber suspected of the killing of the Memphis, Tennessee, police officer Sean Bolton during a weekend traffic stop, the Shelby County sheriff said.
Tremaine Wilbourn, 29, had been wanted for first-degree murder since Bolton was shot dead Saturday after Bolton apparently interrupted a drug deal.
Police director Toney Armstrong said Sunday that a passenger shot the 33-year-old Bolton several times after "some type of physical altercation."
Wilbourn had been free on supervised release by the U.S. Western District Court for a 122-month sentence for bank robbery, Armstrong said.

Camp Shelby, Mississippi

The Mississippi National Guard says soldiers reported shots fired during a training exercise at Camp Shelby, but no service members were hurt.
The Guard said in a news release Tuesday, August 4, 2015, that the Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center is secure and all personnel accounted for. The news release says the shots were fired from a road near Camp Shelby, but not on the military post’s property. Officials say they’re searching for two white males traveling in a two-door, red Ford Ranger. The words “Broken Arrow” are on the front of that vehicle. The shooting happened just before noon Tuesday on Paret Tower Road near Camp Shelby.

Shelby

The name "Shelby" means "willow grove," "a place where willows grow," and "willow farm."

Locations in North America named "Shelby," are most frequently named after Isaac Shelby (December 11, 1750 – July 18, 1826), who was the first and fifth Governor of the U.S. state of Kentucky and a state legislator of Virginia and North Carolina. He was also a soldier in Lord Dunmore's War, the Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812.

The links and syncs in Shelby's life to names frequently encountered nowadays are phenomenal.

Let me point to a few examples.

Shelby's military service began when he served as second-in-command to his father at the Battle of Point Pleasant (October 10, 1774), the only major battle of Lord Dunmore's War, and what is regarded by most historians as the actual first battle of the Revolutionary War. The site of the battle was Point Pleasant, Mason County, West Virginia, and involved the defeat of Chief Cornstalk. The area is known for the modern Mothman reports, and the location of the alleged "Curse of Cornstalk," which is tied to disasters and the Mothman trouble in the area.

At the Battle of Point Pleasant, among those killed was Pucksinwah, the father of Tecumseh. Colonel John Field, an ancestor of United States Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, was killed in the battle. The monument to the battle in Point Pleasant is a Masonic obelisk.

Shelby was surveying lands in Kentucky in 1780 when he heard of the colonists' defeat at Charleston. On the morning of July 31, 1780, he surrounded the British stronghold at Thickety Fort on the Pacolet River with 600 men. The British commander lost his nerve and capitulated; without firing a shot, Shelby's men captured 94 prisoners.

Following the surrender of Thickety Fort, Shelby joined a band of partisans under Lieutenant Elijah Clarke. This unit was pursued by British Major Patrick Ferguson. On the morning of August 8, 1780, some of Shelby's men were gathering peaches from an orchard when they were surprised by some of Ferguson's men on a reconnaissance mission. Shelby's men quickly readied their arms and drove back the British patrol. Soon, however, the British were reinforced and the colonists fell back. The pattern continued, with one side being reinforced and gaining an advantage, followed by the other. Shelby's men were winning the battle when Ferguson's main force of 1,000 men arrived. Outmanned, they retreated to a nearby hill where British musket fire could not reach them. Now safe, they taunted the British, and Ferguson's force withdrew from the area. Thus ended the Battle of Cedar Springs.

Shelby's further involvement with Charleston and Ferguson is documented here, and the name game seems beyond coincidential.

Isaac Shelby, as Kentucky's Governor, began the tradition of Kentucky Colonels in 1813, which evolved into the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels born in May of 1931, and organization with ties and overlaps with Freemasonry.

In 1820, Shelby was stricken with paralysis in his right arm and leg. He died of a stroke on July 18, 1826, at his home in Lincoln (another power name) County. He was buried on the grounds of his estate, Traveller's Rest. The state erected a monument over his grave in 1827.

Places named for Isaac Shelby

Nine states have a county named after Shelby, as do numerous cities and military installations.
Counties
* Shelby County, Alabama
* Shelby County, Illinois
* Shelby County, Indiana
* Shelby County, Iowa
* Shelby County, Kentucky
* Shelby County, Missouri
* Shelby County, Ohio
* Shelby County, Tennessee
* Shelby County, Texas

Military installations
* Camp Shelby, Mississippi
* Fort Shelby, Michigan
* Fort Shelby, Wisconsin

Cities and towns
* Shelby, Oceana County, Michigan
* Shelby, New York
* Shelby, North Carolina
* Shelby, Ohio
* Shelby Township, Michigan
* Shelbyville, Illinois
* Shelbyville, Indiana
* Shelbyville, Kentucky
* Shelbyville, Missouri
* Shelbyville, Tennessee
* Shelbyville, Texas

Aurora's Second Man?

Eyewitnesses can be wrong. Eyewitnesses can also be correct.

Few intellectuals today think Lee Harvey Oswald or even Sirhan Sirhan acted alone. Pondering the "lone nut theory" goes way back.

I have been hearing, from the beginning, about the question of a second person helping the shooter in Aurora. I figured, at least, the inquiry should be aired here. If posted, a forum for your thoughts on the matter of multiple individuals involved in the shooting at the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises in Theater #9 at the Century 16 in Aurora, Colorado, could be put to rest. Or opened for further discussion.

Was this red dawn caused by a conspiracy of two or more people?

Let's look at some of the confusing bits of data.

As I pointed out a week ago on this blog, Andrew Griffin, editor at Red Dirt Report referred me to a news items in the Toronto Sun which had this sentence: "MSNBC reports that public records show Holmes lived with two roommates at the apartment, which is reserved for students, faculty and staff from the medical campus."

But if you went to the original MSNBC account, bizarrely, the mention of Holmes' alleged two roommates were no longer there. The details on the roommates had disappeared.

A comment maker followed up, and wrote in noting: "When you google 'James Holmes two room mates' there is a link to the feed of time.com, which mentions this in the teaser on the google search listing. But when you go to the link, and look for the word 'room mates,' there is none. And what a coincidence, the google cache for that page does not work either."

Then there is the strange business of Yeom Pyo Lee.

On Saturday, July 21, 2012, in Aurora-Denver, Colorado, allegedly Yeom Pyo Lee (shown above), a fellow PhD student of James Holmes at the University of Colorado, made a phone call to police threatening violence if James Holmes was not released from police custody. According to KDVR, “someone called from [his] phone and threatened violence if Holmes is not released.” Although the call came from Yeom’s phone, police were unable to determine if he was the one who made the actual call. After receiving the threatening phone call, police began to question whether or not James acted alone. Police questioned Yeom on July 21, but determined, "There is no reason to believe that he is involved." (Source.)

One comment was sent in that shared the following unsourced info:

There are now four witnesses that have stated very clearly, that they saw four different persons. All were dressed differently. Smoke cannisters came from both sides of the room. I might add that the detailed description has been good enough for the prosecutor to motion the court to "seal" the case. The police chief has clearly stated that Holmes is the lone person...Next - Tucson, Arizona: Second person identified on film with Jared Loughner, many times. Holmes did not know how to clear the AR-15. He would have transitioned to the pistols.

There are indications on the following recording that eyewitnesses saw another person help the shooter or was involved in the chaos caused by the shooting.

In terms of the space-time continuum, no telling where James Holmes felt he lived. Did he also experience multiple personalities?

Why did people say they saw more than one person involved with the Aurora shootings? Did Holmes have roommates? Who and how does Yeom Pyo Lee figure into the picture here? The answers to these questions would seem elementary to answer, now don't you think?

********************

For the links to recent other postings about The Dark Knight Rises, Colorado's Aurora red dawn event, and copycats, please see also:

Predicting Aurora

Aurora Copycat Effect: The Complete List (updated daily)

Red Dawn Again

Aurora: Synchromystic Wonderland

Aurora Copycats: Prepare Now

Anticipating Aurora and Beyond

Red Dawn

Blood Red Movie Massacres

Joker Copycats: 2008-2112

Dark Knight Shooting: 12 Dead, 58 Injured

Bane/Bain Bursts Bare (Part 3)

Bane/Bain Continues (Part 2)

Bane/Bain (Part 1)

Recent interviews, about the Aurora shootings:

WGN - Mike McConnell: Loren Coleman

The Corbett Report: The Copycat Effect with Loren Coleman

Binnall of America: Loren Coleman and Bruce Rux

Talk Shoe - 42 Minutes: Loren Coleman

Red Ice Creations

The Copycat Effect

(NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004)

Fayette Factor

The Fayette Factor

Above and below, Fayette County, Georgia.

Who--or more precisely, what--is "the Fayette Factor?" It is probably one of the strangest mysteries in American Forteana, first discovered by researcher William (Bill) Grimstad (see here), back in 1977, and written about in "Fateful Fayette," Fortean Times, No. 25, Spring 1978. Namely, the "Fayette Factor" has been the finding of a surprisingly high incidence of Fortean (inexplciable) events linked to places named after one of the USA's Founding Fathers--the Marquis de Lafayette.  Fayetteville, West Virginia Since Grimstad's discovery, several items on this lexilink between Fayette (as well as its related forms - Lafayette, La Fayette, Fayetteville, Lafayetteville) and high strangeness have been published. In his book, Weird America (New York: EP Dutton, 1978), Grimstad mentions several Fayette hot spots but did not dwell on them. In exchanges with Bill, a small group of Forteans discussed the Fayette Factor privately throughout the late 1970s. It was not until Brandon's (now extremely rare) The Rebirth of Pan: Hidden Faces of the American Earth Spirit (Firebird Press, 1983) and Mysterious America (Boston: Faber and Faber, 1983) that more in-depth analyses of the Fayette "coincidences" seriously occurred. These examinations were followed by updates and other comments in Mysterious America (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2006), and Mothman and Other Curious Encounters (NY: Paraview, 2002).  Furthermore, the appearance of widely available material on the Fayette Factor started routinely being posted online during the 1990s-2010s. According to Grimstad, "Lafayette traveled widely in this country (USA) and doubtless must have been the inspiration for many or most of the 18-odd counties and 28 towns and cities across the land that I have been able to find with some form of his name."   Lafayette County, Mississippi Marie-Joseph Paul Roch de Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, was born in 1757. His father, a French Army officer, was killed in the battle of Minden in 1759, and the marquis was brought up by his mother's prestigious family, the de Noailles. At the age of 18, he traveled to the Americas at his own expense and became an aide to General George Washington, who loved him like a son. By the end of the War of the American Revolution, Lafayette commanded the Continental Army in Virginia. That's the Lafayette every American schoolboy knows. But, as researcher Manly Palmer Hall has pointed out, the marquis had ties to the esoteric groups of the late Eighteenth Century.  "In addition to his political pursuits," Grimstad wrote, "Lafayette was busily involved in certain circles that should be of interest to contemporary Illuminati buffs."   Lafayette County, Mississippi According to Manly Palmer Hall, Lafayette was an associate of both Dr. Anton Mesmer, "the Father of Hypnotism," and Giuseppe Balsamo, better known as Cagliostro, a Sicilian sorcerer who was an acolyte of Adam Weishaupt's Illuminati.  Hall wrote, "In 1785, the Marquis...joined the Egyptian Masonry of Cagliostro and proclaimed his absolute confidence in the 'Grand Cophte.' When Anton Mesmer arrived from Vienna with his theories of animal magnetism, Lafayette was one of his first customers."  Grimstad adds, "But Lafayette also had the closest ties with Benjamin Franklin, the American revolutionary sage and member of (Sir Francis) Dashwood's 'Hell-Fire Club' in Britain (also known as the 'Medmenham Monks' of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, northwest of London). As Hall puts it, 'Benjamin Franklin was a philosopher and a Freemason--possibly a Rosicrucian initiate. He and the Marquis de Lafayette--also a man of mystery--constitute two of the most important links that culminated in the establishment of the original thirteen American colonies as a free and independent nation.' Lafayette, Hall summarises, 'is a direct link between the (esoteric) political societies of France and the young American government.'"   Attention to other links to other locations, such as my discovery that LaGrange is also an associated hot name, apparently due to the fact the name Chateau de LaGrange was the French home of the Marquis de Lafayette, evolved during the last thirty years of our writings and mutual exchange on the subject. The cities, towns, and counties across the United States, which are the Fortean hotspots linked to the Fayette Factor, are tied to the renamed Masonic lodges and affiliated sites that the Marquis de Lafayette visited on his grand tour of the country in 1824-1825. His visits were highly ritualized happenings, in which he was involved with laying many cornerstones. The locations where he was taken to visit are a virtual roadmap of the "special places" in this land. For example, in 1825, The Marquis de Lafayette, on board the ship (please note!) "Enterprise," visited the Cahokia mounds, and the significant Bloody Island, which then was so large that half of the Mississippi flowed east of it. (Intriguingly, Lafayette returned to France in 1825, on the day after his birthday, demonstrating a keen eye on the calendar and a desire to celebrate September 6th in America.) Many Masonic locations have been linked beyond the easily recognized Lafayette name to a broader Freemasonry focus to mystic events and violent happenings. Some are very subtle. One man's journey, Lee Harvey Oswald, from his office across from Lafayette Square, New Orleans, would lead to the most infamous Masonic sites in the country. This vivid example of deathly weirdness is Dealey Plaza, where JFK was assassinated on November 22, 1963. Dallas' Dealey Plaza is the location of the state of Texas's first Masonic temple.  How much of the Marquis's involvement in such matters was due to his deeply-held esoteric beliefs or to mere socializing is something for historians of the future to determine. What is of interest to Forteans is the uncanny number of unexplained incidents linked to the name Lafayette. Grimstad has an impressive list, which we have added to, of course, as the years have rolled along, hitting its 35th year in 2012. Here's a review of Grimstad's original notes, with new images. Fayette County, Alabama "In Fayette County, Alabama, is the Musgrove Methodist Cemetery. The tombstone of one Robert L. Musgrove there bears a discoloration, not especially realistic, that is locally believed to be the bridal- veiled figure of Musgrove's fiancee. Apparently he was killed just before the wedding, and the sorrowing girl" willed her image "onto the marble by her many visits to the grave." (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle may have used this real-life case as the basis for his Sherlock Holmes story, "The Musgrave Ritual.")  "The engima-laden state of Arkansas has two sites. The city of Fayetteville, in the northwest corner" of Arkansas, "has long been legendary for oddities. UFOs and aerial lightshows, water monsters in the nearby White River and Springheel Jack-type window peepers are among the manifestations."    Lafayette County, Arkansas "In the southwest angle of Arkansas is a Bigfoot hotspot that has been immortalized--in America, at least-- by the (1974) movie The Legend of Boggy Creek. The critters have been known hereabouts since 1856, centering their activities lately upon the town of Fouke in Miller County and ranging eastward into Lafayette County."  Lafayette County, Kentucky "In the scenic Bluegrass area of Kentucky, the university city of Lexington sits atop one of America's more dramatic lost cave stories. Historian G.W. (George Washington) Ranck recorded in 1872 that hunters in 1776 had found a tunnel behind a rock panel of 'peculiar workmanship' and covered with hieroglyphics. The descending portal widened to a sort of gallery running downward a few hundred feet to a huge underground room. Ranck cited the hunters' reports that this chamber contained idols, altars and about 2,000 human mummies. Although the entrance to the amazing cavern was (of course--B.G.) lost, there are still cave true-believers who poke about looking for the weird mausoleum beneath this part of Fayette County."   Fayette County, Missouri "Followers of ghost lore may have heard of the recent (1976) antics of a supposed phantom in Lilac Hill, a large old farmhouse at Fayette, Missouri. A number of psychically-sensitive individuals have been trying to discern what is troubling the alleged spirits, of whom there are said to be at least two." LaFayette, New York "In New York state, a farm near Cardiff, 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of Syracuse, was the starting point in October 1869 for one of the more sensational fossil controversies. The 'Cardiff Giant' is still displayed at museum near Cooperstown," and the weird stone idol was found in a quarry near "the Nineteenth Century town of La Fayette."  Fayette, New York Also, "it was in April of 1830 that the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (i.e. the Mormons) was founded by Joseph Smith and a few disciples, who claim to have received more than a little help from certain angelic friends in the neighborhood. The place: Fayette, New York."  Fayetteville, North Carolina "Another haunted house story takes us to an American state that perhaps rivals New York and Arkansas in the number and interest of its anomalies. It also brings us back across the trail of the peripatetic Marquis de Lafayette. This is the A.S. Slocumb Mansion, located in the North Carolina city of Fayetteville. The Slocumb House is supposed to have a number of special occupants. It also has, or had, a secret vault in the basement and at least one tunnel leading to the Cape Fear River channel."  Fayette County, Tennessee In 1977, the USA experienced one of the most severe winters in its history. "As of February 3, 1977, the National Weather Service announced that the 'hardest hit area' of the north-central states region was Fayette County, Ohio." Fayette County, Tennessee Bigfoot "became rather more aggressive on April 23, 1976 when it attempted to carry off a four-year-old boy from his backyard on a farm in Tennessee. A sheriff's posse pursued the entity and seems to have shot enough high-powered rifle fire into it to have felled King Kong himself. However, as if tiring of the game, the creature finally leaped out of its cul-de-sac and simply vanished. These events occurred within a few miles of the hamlet called Fayetteville, Tennessee."  Lafayette Baker "Now I would like to consider some examples of a more ominous character," Grimstad wrote, "We find 'the Lafayette factor' in the Abraham Lincoln assassination of the 1860s...A slippery character named Lafayette Baker had been brought in to head the Secret Service by the enigmatic Edwin M. Stanton, President Lincoln's arrogant Secretary of War. Otto Eisenschiml, the pioneer revisionist historian of this amazingly crude murder conspiracy, delved into the story as far as the surviving records would allow." "His findings suggest that Lafayette Baker and Stanton had maneuvered to facilitate the escape into the South of assassin John Wilkes Booth, and when that proved impossible (owing to Booth's broken leg) to ensure that the killer was not brought back and that his evidently-incriminating diary did not survive intact."  "At the same hour Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre, Secretary of State William Seward "was attacked and savagely knifed by a deranged giant named Lewis Paine, who had forced his way into the Seward home. This house fronted upon Lafayette Square, just across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House."  Andrew Jackson statue and White House, Lafayette Square, with Masonic obelisk of Washington's Monument in the background, Washington, D. C. "Residents of the District of Columbia sometimes refer to the area "as 'Tragedy Square.' No other section of Washington has had so much intrigue, mystery, murder and macabre happenings as has the area directly opposite 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.'" Fayetteville, Pennsylvania The Fayette Factor has also come into play in occult crimes, as well. "On July 3, 1977, 23-year-old Gary Rock was charged on two counts of criminal homicide after two local volunteer firemen were killed by a sniper while responding to a fire alarm at Rock's isolated cabin, near Fayetteville, Pennsylvania." Lafayette High School, New York City "On July 31, 1977, two young people sitting in a parked car along the Brooklyn, New York seashore were shot several times by a mysterious assailant who had become known as 'the Son of Sam.' The girl, Stacy Moskowitz, died of her injuries; her companion, Robert Violante, suffered eye damage. Miss Moskowitz was an alumna of (Brooklyn's) Lafayette High School. When she and Violante were shot, it was while they were sitting 'not far from Lafayette High School,' according to the New York Times" of August 1, 1977, page 34-C." It's just all part of the enduring mystery we call "the Fayette Factor."  Sources: Fortean Times No. 25 for Spring 1978, "Fateful Fayette" by Bill Grimstad, page 3; Why Was Lincoln Murdered? by Otto Eisenschiml, Little, Brown & Co., Boston, Mass., 1937; America's Assignment with Destiny by Manly Palmer Hall, Philosophical Research Society, Los Angeles, Cal., 1951; and Weird America by Jim Brandon, E.P. Dutton Co., New York, N.Y., 1978. Fortean Times February 13, 2004  + 2012 enhancements. Flashback reflections from Loren Coleman Fayette incidents continue... Fayette, Pennsylvania, 2009 Bigfoot sighting drawing. Bigfoot Lunch Club montage.   Also from Loren Coleman For more specific "Fayette" sites  and further updates on the "Fayette Factor,"  please consult Mysterious America. Fayette County, Pennsylvania, continues to have frequent Bigfoot and Thunderbird sightings. Fayette, Maine, is a hotspot of weirdness. What "Fayette" links have you found? +++ Please note: On April 13, 2011, a comment maker at Goodreads shared that "William Grimstad...is a published Holocaust denier." This is a well-known fact among Fortean writers. Grimstad/Brandon has dropped the Brandon identity in recent years. For more on Brandon/Grimstad, see here.