Nickell 3:33: 5 Dead in Kentucky

On February 10, 2018, at 3:33 pm in McKenzie Branch, Kentucky, the Johnson County Sheriff's Department was called to a home. Arriving there, the deputies found two people dead in the kitchen, killed by gunshot wounds.

A witness said the suspect, named Joseph Nickell (photo above), had fled in a black Toyota Camry.

A search was begun, involving the Kentucky State Police and the Paintsville Police Department. Due to a tip, the law enforcement officers went to a Mill Street house in Paintsville, Kentucky, about 10 miles south of the first site. At that home, the police found three bodies, one of which was Joseph Nickell. The victims have been identified as Nickell’s parents, James and Arlene Nickell, who were killed in McKenzie Branch, located near Flatgap, Kentucky. Those killed in Paintsville have been named as Lindsey Vanhoose and her mother, Patricia Vanhoose. Source.

Nickell identified himself as a cosmetologist and hair stylist. Nickell’s sister, Rebekah, died in August 2017. According to her Facebook page, Rebekah Nickell had been working as a marriage and family counsellor at the Faith Counseling Center in Betsy Layne, Kentucky. Rebekah attended Lindsey Wilson College and Liberty University. Like her brother, Rebekah was a native of Paintsville. Nickell's girlfriend, Lindsey Vanhoose had been accused of pushing Rebekah down the stairs the day before her death. The following day, after complaining of a headache, Rebekah died after taking a nap. No autopsy was ever done as Nickell’s mother had Rebekah “buried immediately.” Source.

Joseph Nickell (the shooter, on the right) and his son, Joseph Nickell, on the left, who was not involved in the murder-suicide.

Kentucky and Nickells

The name Nickell is based on the given name Nicholas. Nicholas derives from the Greek Nikolaos, which is made up of the words nikan, meaning "to conquer," and laos, meaning "people."

The Nickell family under discussion apparently has ancestors from Ireland.

I happen to know another "Joseph Nickell," whose live entwines with nearby Liberty, Kentucky. Kentucky appears to be Nickell territory. It is a small world.

Joe Nickell, Ph.D. is a Senior Research Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) and identifies himself, via his Twitter profile, as: "Former magician, private eye, uni teacher; author & world's only full-time professional paranormal investigator."

Nickell's biography notes that he was born in Liberty, Kentucky, on December 1, 1944, and grew up there. He received his B.A.(1967), M.A.(1982), and Ph.D.(1987) degrees from the University of Kentucky. Nowadays, Joe Nickell lives in the Buffalo-Amherst, New York area.

Joe Nickell's parents were significant community members of Morgan County, Kentucky. His mother, Ella Kathleen, was a bookkeeper and high school valedictorian, and his father, Joe Wendell Nickell, a postmaster and amateur magician. Several genealogy and local history books were written and published by Ella and Wendell Nickell.

I have worked closely with this modern edition of Joe Nickell (pictured on the right), and despite supposedly being from opposite sides of the spectrum in cryptozoology and unexplained investigations, we have mutual respect. Nickell wrote a column about our relationship on the CSI (now CI) website, April 12, 2011, entitled "Well Met: Loren Coleman."

While talking to Nickell (as well as coincidentally once in Nova Scotia with UFO author/researcher Stan Friedman), I discovered Nickell-Friedman-myself had overlapping histories regarding the Vietnam era draft, adoptions, and our children. Nickell has captured some of this in his biography published variously, online:

In late 2003, Nickell reconnected with his college girlfriend, Diana G. Harris, and learned he had a daughter, Cherette, and two grandsons, Tyner and Chase. Harris and Nickell married in Springfield, Illinois on April 1, 2006. Harris has assisted Nickell in his investigative work. Cherette had always been told that her biological father was her mother's first husband, although she questioned the lack of family resemblance. On her wedding day, one of the guests mentioned that her parents weren't married when she was conceived. Later Cherette asked her mother about her father and sensed an equivocation in the answer. More conversations with her mother and a DNA test proved that Nickell was her father. Nickell used his daughter's claim that her search was the result of an intuition as the basis for an article on the unconscious collection and processing of data. Nickell concluded, "Cautions notwithstanding, I must admit to a new appreciation of intuition, without which I would not have known of my wonderful daughter--and two grandsons."

How Joe Nickell, the CSI writer, is related to Joseph Nickell, the gunman, is unknown. But the Nickell's Name Game is alive in Kentucky, that's for sure. My intuition tells me so.

h/t for initial news bulletin = Jim Brandon (see NickNameGame)

"Lone Gunman" at Canada's War Memorial & Parliament Hill

The day after...Halifax's The Chronicle Herald image by cartoonist Bruce MacKinnon is being called the "perfect tribute."

Breaking News on 10/22/14:

At least one person was shot this morning at a war memorial near Canada's Parliament in Ottawa.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that a soldier was shot. Others have seen a body inside Parliament.

The active shooters ran towards Parliament Hill, got into the main entrance to the Canadian Parliament, fired dozens of shoots, and then moved through the hallway. Parliament went on lockdown, officials reported.

Various accounts discussed different parts of a confusing whole. The Red Dirt Report mentioned that there was a sighting of a "man with long black hair, his face covered by a white scarf with decals on it and wearing a black jacket."

A member of Parliament, Bob Zimmer tweeted that the "lone gunman is deceased."

The suspect has reportedly been identified as Canadian-born Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, was was killed in a Center Block shootout.

(But there are other early reports there may be other shooters - two or three. And that they may be on the Parliament's roof. All seem to be incorrect.)

The suspect:

Michael Abdul Zehaf-Bibeau has been identified as the shooting suspect at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada on Wednesday. Zehaf-Bibeau is a Canadian native born in 1982.

"Zehaf" is Algerian, so some are speculating he is Algerian. Bibeau (Bibaud, Bibaut) is a French nickname for a heavy drinker, from a derivative of Latin bibere, "to drink."

Bibeau was shot dead by the Canadian Parliament’s Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers. He was killed inside the Canadian Parliament’s Center Block building. 


The victim:

The soldier who died is said to have been a member of The Argylls of Canada - 91st Canadian Highlanders.

In a photo from this week, here is Cpl Cirillo (left), and Cpl Stevenson on Guard at The National War Memorial in Ottawa. Both are members of The Argylls of Canada.

The soldier has been identified as Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, a reservist based out of Hamilton, Ontario.

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The timing:

The Canadian contribution to the bombing of ISIS or IS have been codenamed Operation Impact by the Canadian Department of National Defence. Canadian fighter jets left for the Middle East to join in airstrikes on October 21, 2014.

October 22 is the anniversary from 1964, when a Canadian Multi-Party Parliamentary Committee selected the design which becomes the new official flag of Canada. (h/t RS)

The three-lobed Canadian maple leaf is often compared to a trident. (h/t RPJ)

Links abound, per Keys to Cosmic Doorways:

I think this is per Mark Gray.

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Update/Noon Eastern:

There were two soldiers standing guard at the war memorial in Ottawa near Parliament, and a gunman shot one of them, a witness told CNN on Wednesday. Peter Henderson, a journalist, said other soldiers doing drills nearby ran to help the fallen soldier. Henderson said he knew the person shot was a soldier because of the ceremonial uniform the soldier was wearing.

There were "several shooting incidents in downtown Ottawa" on Wednesday morning, police said on Twitter. "Incidents occurred at National War Memorial, near the Rideau Centre and Parliament Hill." All Ottawa police buildings remain on lockdown and are closed to the public, police also said on Twitter.

There were "numerous gunmen" Wednesday morning at the Canada War Memorial shooting, said Marc Soucy of the Ottawa Police Service. Authorities are working to figure out if there were two or three gunmen, he said. Only one person was shot, Soucy said. Source.

Update/2:00 pm Eastern:

There are reports that one soldier was killed at the War Memorial. One gunman was also killed, apparently, inside Parliament.

Officials are saying that the reports of an incident near the Rideau Center (mall) has nothing to do with the shootings at the War Memorial and Parliament.

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Today's events follows an incident on Monday, October 20, 2014, when 25-year-old Martin Couture-Rouleau ran over two soldiers. Couture-Rouleau was briefly detained at a Canadian airport in July 2013 when he sought to fly to Turkey. Police did not have enough evidence to charge him with seeking to join a terrorist group abroad and released him.

Couture-Rouleau was fatally shot by police after he struck the two soldiers with his car in a Quebec supermarket parking lot (shown above) -- a scenario which had been depicted only last month in IS propaganda. Police said Rouleau raced through a mall parking lot in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu about 11:30 a.m. Monday. He called 911 as this unfolded and told the operator that he was acting in the name of Allah.

The parking lot of the Tim Horton's where the solider was run down.

Late on Tuesday, Canada raised its national "terrorism" alert, officials said, after a soldier run over by a suspected jihadist died in hospital. That soldier's name is Patrice Vincent.

The Canada case appears to be a copycat of the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby in London in May 2013. Rigby was run over by two Muslim converts before being stabbed and hacked to death.

The statues at the top of the memorial symbolizes Peace and Liberty.

The National War Memorial is a cenotaph (surmounted by a bronze sculpture entitled "The Response") in stands in Confederation Square, Ottawa. A cenotaph is an "empty tomb" or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. The word derives from the Greek: κενοτάφιον = kenotaphion (kenos, one meaning being "empty," and taphos, "tomb").