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).
A masked man (in his 20s) with a sword has attacked the Kronan school cafe in Trollhättan, Sweden. One teacher and one young male student are dead. Several students are injured, with at least two originally taken to the hospital. Health officials initially said the two seriously injured students were 11 and 15 years old, but apparently one of those two has died. The suspect, who is 21 and from Trollhättan, was shot and received medical attention. He later died at the hospital. The media is reporting the attacker wore a Star Wars mask. USA Today noted: "the perpetrator was wearing a Darth Vader-like mask from Star Wars and that students initially thought it was a Halloween joke. The attacker even posed for pictures with two students before going on a rampage."
At some point during the rampage, he posed for a picture taken by a female pupil who thought the incident was a Halloween stunt, according to Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.
The attacker was holding his weapon, which was covered in blood, but the pupil did not realize the blood was real, she said.
The weapon used was a katana. Historically, katana were one of the traditionally made Japanese swords (日本刀) that were used by the Samurai of feudal Japan.
Local police have confirmed that they are investigating reports that the suspect held far right beliefs.
Marty McFly: Silence, Earthling. My name is Darth Vader. I am an extraterrestrial from the planet Vulcan! ~ Back to the Future (1985), in which the time travel date of significance is October 21, 2015.
School attacks are rare in Sweden. This is the first since a shooting at a school in Kungalv near Gothenburg in 1961, which killed one person and injured six others.
"Columbine Goes International: After Littleton, the copycat effect involving school shootings went global." ~ The Copycat Effect, 2004.
Photo credit: EPA.
Kronan is Swedish for "king's crown," and the school uses a stylized crown as their symbol.
The name Trollhättan is translated as "troll's bonnet." The latter part "hätta" could also mean mountain top. Trolls are generally associated, during our modern era, with Internet mischief makers and small beings. But traditionally, in Scandinava, trolls are ogres who are said to be man-sized to gigantic.
"Some traditions of 'wild men' tell of man-like beings that exceeded human beings in height, but at their greatest heights were not more than around 7 feet tall. We would identify them as Trolls and possible descendants of Neandertals. Descendants of both those distinctive and hairy near-men are known to have survived into recent times." ~ True Giants (Anomalist Books, 2010).
During an interview with a Sandy Hook school parent this Saturday morning, on the television news, this woman heard that a guy dressed in all black, wearing a mask, was shooting at the school on Friday.
Lanza is believed to have shot himself at the scene, according to the New York Times.
He was carrying three weapons including two handguns and a rifle and was wearing a bullet-proof vest, a mask and black military gear.
Three guns were found at the scene - a Glock and a Sig Sauer, both pistols - and a .223-caliber rifle.
The rifle was recovered from the back of a car at the school. The two pistols were recovered from inside the school. They were legally registered to Nancy Lanza.
That article never truly followed up on their headline suggestion, for it fails to detail any description of a mask.
Update: Intriguingly, these "mask references" have been removed from the original Daily Mail article. But the "masked man" quotes remain in many sources. What's going on?
But, if Adam Lanza (Adam = English for "man," Lanza = Spanish for "spear") wore a mask, what did the mask look like?
The Holmes Lexilink
The July 20th/Aurora's alleged shooter is named James Eagan Holmes.
Mother Nancy Lanza often took her kids target shooting, landscaper Dan Holmes said. 'That was a passion,' he said. 'The whole family would go together.' Her 20-year-old son Adam killed her with one of her own guns before using them to murder 20 children at the elementary school where she once worked....Holmes, who often mowed the grass at the Lanza’s sprawling Newtown home, said the doomed mom was proud of her arsenal and once showed him a “big, beautiful rifle” she had just purchased.
“She was very proud of it,” he said. “She loved her guns.”
The Newtown Victims
Here is the complete list of victims released by the medical examiner's office (which does not include Nancy Lanza, 52, and Adam Lanza, 20). Most of those who died in the school, apparently and sadly, were killed with the .223 Remington Bushmaster (semi-automatic) rifle. New information notes that this Bushmaster was not found in Lanza's vehicle, but next to his body.
USA Today posted a gallery of photos of the victims. See here.
Children:
Charlotte Bacon, 6
Daniel Barden, 7
Olivia Engel, 6
Josephine Gay, 7
Ana Marquez-Greene, 6
Dylan Hockley, 6
Madeline Hsu, 6
Catherine Hubbard, 6
Chase Kowalski, 7
Jesse Lewis, 6
James Mattioli, 6
Grace McDonnell, 7
Emilie Parker, 6
Jack Pinto, 6
Noah Pozner, 6
Caroline Previdi, 6
Jessica Rekos, 6
Avielle Richman, 6
Benjamin Wheeler, 6
Allison Wyatt, 6
Adults:
Dawn Hochsprung, 47
Rachel Davino, 29
Anne Marie Murphy, 52
Lauren Rousseau, 30
Mary Sherlach, 56
Victoria Soto, 27
Clackamas Mask
It will be recalled that the Clackamas mall-December 11th's alleged shooter, Jacob Tyler Roberts wore a hockey mask, also described by some as a "Jason mask."
In Alabama, the shooter had on a devil's mask. A few days later, a Georgia gunman wore a mask and a black jumpsuit.
Police are searching for at least one gunman who opened fire last night, wounding seven, at a crowded fair in Savannah.
A large crowd had gathered at the Coastal Empire Fair, located on Chatham County's Savannah, Georgia's suburban south side, when witnesses heard gunshots about an hour before the fair's 11:30 p.m. closing time.
No one was killed during the late-night shooting at the Coastal Empire Fair on Saturday, November 3, 2012, but seven people have been treated for gunshot wounds at area hospitals. All victims are expected to survive, and none of the injuries were considered life-threatening.
Six of the victims were teenagers between the ages of 14 and 19, said police. The seventh victim was identified as a 36-year-old woman.
The fair was reopened on Sunday. The shooter remained at large in Georgia.
About two weeks earlier, on Friday, October 19, 2012, in Jefferson County, Alabama, a lone gunman wearing a devil's mask was the problem.
A masked man armed with a rifle -- possibly a shotgun -- robbed Rogers convenience store in 6700 block of Old Springville Road at about 11:22 p.m. A Winn Dixie at 2402 Old Springville Road was robbed about 10:45 p.m. by a man armed with a rifle and wearing a devil mask. Armed with a rifle, he burst into the store, went to a cashier and demanded money. He fled with an undisclosed amount of cash from the register.
A 53-year-old Jefferson County man, a customer at the Rogers convenience store on Old Springville Road, was shot in the stomach or chest area Friday night when he tried to chase down the gunman in a devil's mask who had just robbed the store. He has undergone two surgeries at UAB Hospital since the shooting.
The gunman, Jefferson County sheriff's officials said today, remains at large.
"This is obviously a very dangerous suspect,'' said Chief Deputy Randy Christian. " We are working diligently to ensure he is found and arrested."
How would you feel if a kid showed up at your door with this mask on for Halloween, trick or treating?
It is ironic that the man accused of killing 12 on July 20th, when first wearing a Bane-like outfit to be revealed as a self-styled "Joker," has now become a mask.
The mask was briefly displayed for sale on eBay on Friday, October 6, 2012, and then withdrawn. Some reports indicate the price reached $500.
The individual who placed the eBay notice put this description with the listing:
Halloween is only a month away. SHOCK EVERYONE YOU KNOW! He was referred to as "The Joker", "The Dark Knight Shooter," "The Ilama," "The Extraordinary Gifted" but his real name is JAMES HOLMES! There is nothing more scary than crawling into James Holmes mind and wearing his face. His "soul penetrating eyes" and "The Joker" orange hair makes this mask the most disturbing object you will ever own. Imagine owning the mask of supposedly the most dangerous mass murderer in US history. This is a high quality latex rubber mask which was custom designed for a private collector overseas. I won this mask playing high stakes poker tournament when I was in Europe. I guaranty you that this is the only mask in the world and it is practically priceless because it was used in the production of the most controversy documentary which will come out in 2013. This mask is sold as is and there are no returns. If you have 0 feedback and you are interested to bid on this item you have to contact me first. I will ship the mask immediately after I receive the payment. Good luck!
Others have found their own ways to be a "Holmes" copycat without a mask.
This includes the tragic stories of those wearing other masks.
Tuesday Weld, at 18, played a 25-year-old on Route 66. In this extremely synchromystic program, you never know who or what you will see.
Students of Forteana, political assassinations, and the unexplained are familiar with how symbolic this program remains tied to this road's number. One of strangest cases I ever investigated in Illinois was “the Blue Phantom of Route 66," seen during the 1950s, as I document in Mysterious America. Jim Brandon in his The Rebirth of Pan: Hidden Faces of the American Earth Spirit notes the significance of 33's "second multiple" being 66, and how roads designated "66" appear in the midst of strange situations, as, for example, during the specific key Mothman years' sightings along West Virginia State Road 66.
It's a small world, after all. Above is Glenda Jennings, shown in the February 15, 1963 episode of Route 66, "Somehow It Gets to Be Tomorrow," filmed in Corpus Christi, Texas. Red Dirt Report editor Andrew W. Griffin's godmother, who had married his mother's oldest brother, played a carhop in the episode.
Griffin mentioned this to me as we discussed the strange, pre-JFK assassination episode, "Love is a Skinny Kid" on Route 66, released on April 6, 1962, filmed in "Dallas." This episode has become a focal point of discussion within JFK assassination forums.
Jerry Organ, who compiled the following visual overview of the episode, noted, "Weld is distantly related to Charles J. Guiteau, who assassinated President James A. Garfield."
Kenn Thomas notes about the episode entitled "Aren’t You Surprised To See Me?" that "it opens at Love Field and someone on the phone mentions Earle Cabell, Dallas mayor whose brother Charles was fired from the CIA by JFK over the Bay of Pigs. Earle Cabel is the person who changed the route of Kennedy's motorcade for November 22, 1963...JFK was headed for the Trade Mart [when he was assasinated] where Buz gets a job in this episode."
Organ also posted this:
I'm Here to Kill a King
The fourth season has the show's most-direct "connection" to the Kennedy Assassination: the "I'm Here To Kill A King" episode scheduled to run Nov. 29, 1963. Some sources claim the episode aired March 20, 1964 (the week after the series finale); it certainly made it into syndication. The episode scheduled to run Nov. 22nd ("Kiss the Monster, Make Him Sleep" filmed in Minneapolis with James Coburn) was pre-empted and ran Jan. 24, 1964.
The "King" episode--with Robert Loggia, Tina Louise and Frank Campanella--was one of two from the series that were set in Canada. A close confident of the King of an oil-rich Middle-Eastern country hires a mercenary to assassin the leader while visiting the world-famous Niagara Falls. Tod is working at the Falls when he is mistakenly given an itinerary because he looks near-identical to the "assassin" character (Milner in a dual role). Word gets back to the plotters, who then attempt to frame Tod as the assassin by kidnapping Tod and having the "assassin" take his place at Tod's work-site.
Among the "King" episode's purported similarities: the assassin plans to shoot the King through the head, a character's father name is Lee, the King deplanes and travels in a motorcade, the assassin uses a rifle and intends to fire from a knoll. Dallas is mentioned as a place for the King to discuss oil deals.
Martin Milner seems to bear somewhat of a resemblance to Texas Tower sniper Charles Whitman.
The captions in this panel overview of "Love is a Skinny Kid" are Mr. Organ's, not mine.
