Along Old Route 66: The I-40 Killings

Death stalked I-40 on December 16-17, 2015.

I-40 in Oklahoma, west of Oklahoma City, parallels and replaces Old US-66. Just west of Oklahoma City is Weatherford. 

According to the copycat effect theory, a well-publicized violent event, like the San Bernardino terrorist attack, tends to be followed two weeks later by an incident that is a ripple of the original.

The San Bernardino shootings left 16 dead, which included the two shooters who died during the highway confrontation with law enforcement officers, on December 2, 2015.

Two weeks from December 2 was December 16, and it neared the stroke of midnight, Central Time, when a seemingly random act of violence visited a highway in Oklahoma.

Beginning just before midnight, allegedly Jeremy Doss Hardy, 36, of Pasadena, Texas, rode down I-40, near Weatherford, shooting at cars. (Hardy, early medieval English and French origin for "bold" or "courageous."  Doss, a topographic name for someone living on a hill, from Ladin dos, from Latin dorm, "ridge" or "hill top." Jeremy, Hebrew for "May Jehovah exalt," "Exalted of the Lord.")

In two vehicles, two individuals were shot dead early on the morning of Thursday, December 17, 2015. The shootings seemed random, and left victims Jeffrey Kent Powell, 45, of Arapaho, who had been driving with his wife, and Billie Jean West, 63, of Lone Wolf, according to a statement by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

Powell was killed at approximately mile marker 93, near Hydro. It was a short time later that the Weatherford police on normal patrol found a vehicle on Airport Road (mile marker 84) just off I-40. Inside the vehicle was Billie Jean West.

After West’s car was found, a short pursuit ensued with the suspect traveling into Washita County and back into Custer County. At mile marker 50, Hardy pulled to the shoulder and surrendered, at around 12:30 a.m. on Thursday. Hardy then allegedly failed a breath test and was booked for alleged DUI. From the time he allegedly fired the first shot to the time he was arrested, Hardy had driven 70 miles, Custer County Sheriff Bruce Peoples said.

Peoples says that Hardy "was indiscriminately firing at people he obviously didn't know. He was shooting commercial trucks, cars, SUVs, it didn't matter."

Police believe "there wasn't a specific target" of Hardy's gunfire, Peoples says.

He says that "some of the actions described by witnesses indicate there was a road rage issue going on before the shots were fired."

These killings took place in Custer County. The county was named in honor of General George Armstrong Custer.

San Bernardino Shooting: Updated

See also The Twilight Language of the San Bernardino Event, for more on jargon and the name game.

The two suspects killed in a gunfight with police after a mass shooting in San Bernardino were Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, said San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan.

Burguan said police are now "pretty comfortable" that Farook and Malik were the only shooters involved in the massacre that left at least 14 people dead at the Inland Regional Center. Police earlier suggested there were three shooters.

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Farooq (also transliterated as Farouk, Farook, Faruk, Faroeq, Faruq, or Farouq; Arabic: فاروق‎, Fārūq ) is a common Arabic given and family name derived from an honorific of Umar, an early Muslim leader. Al-Farooq literally means, "the one who distinguishes between right and wrong." Sent in by RS.

Sayyid (also spelled "Seyd", "Syed", "Sayed", "Sayyed", "Saiyid", "Seyed" and "Seyyed") (pronounced [ˈsæjjɪd], or [ˈsæjjed], Arabic: سيد‎; meaning Mister) (plural Sadah Arabic: سادة‎, Sāda(h)) is an honorific title denoting males accepted as descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali, sons of Muhammad's daughter Fatimah and his son-in-law Ali (Ali ibn Abi Talib). Conventionally, descent is patrilineal. However, in 1632 when an Ottoman court challenged a man wearing a sayyid's green turban he established that he was a sayyid on his mother's side, and this was accepted by the court.
Daughters of sayyids are given the titles Sayyida, Alawiyah, or Sharifa. In some regions of the Islamic world, e.g., India, the descendants of Muhammad are given the title Amir or Mir, meaning "commander", "general", or "prince".
In the Arab world, it is the equivalent of the English word "liege lord" or "master" when referring to a descendant of Muhammad, as in Sayyid Ali Sultan. This is the reason the word sidi (from the contracted form sayyidī, 'my liege') is used in the Arabic. Source.

Malik is also one of the Names of God in the Qur'an, and is then al-Malik(الملك)  or The King, Lord of the Worlds in the absolute sense (denoted by the definite article), meaning the King of Kings, above all earthly rulers. Hence, Abdelmelik ("servant of [Allah] the King ") is an Arabic male name. Source.

Tashfeen means affectionate, considerate, sympathetic, and kind. Source.

See more below, for more on Redlands and San Bernardino.

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Farook, 28, and Malik, 27, were husband and wife.

Was it just "workplace violence," as seems to be part of the scenario now?

Farook, an American citizen, was an environmental health specialist with the San Bernardino County health department, which was hosting the holiday party at Inland Regional.

He had worked there for five years.

In an online profile, he described himself as a "22-year-old Muslim Male living in USA/California/riverside. Religious but modern family of 4, with 2 girls and 2 boys."
He "enjoys working on vintage and modern cars, reads religious books, enjoys eating out sometimes. Enjoys travelling and just hanging out in the back yard doing target practice with his younger sister and friends," his profile read.
Farook's brother-in-law Farhan Khan was crushed at the news.
"I have no idea why he would he do something like this. I have absolutely no idea. I am in shock myself," Khan said. "I don't have words to express how sad and how devastated I am." Source.

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BTW, there was another multiple shooting on December 2, 2015, which happened before the San Bernardino event.    

A gunman in Savannah, Ga., shot four people early Wednesday, killing a woman and injuring three men. Around 1:30 a.m. shots were fired in the 100 block of West 33rd Street near Barnard Street. One victim went to a nearby fire stations for help. Police found the other three other victims on West 33rd. Three men were taken to the hospital in stable condition. The fourth victim, a woman, died. Source.

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Earlier....

Reportedly, the SUV has Utah plates.

The San Bernardino Fire Department is responding to accounts of multiple (20+) victims in a San Bernardino shooting, where allegedly several shooters were being reported started around 11 a.m. Someone pulled a fire alarm. Then the shooting began. Some eyewitnesses said a county officials event was occurring, in a conference hall (with a banquet?), and the gunmen entered the conference event and shot individuals attending.

Nearby practicing SWAT teams answered the reports immediately, and some of them (one with a Masonic ball cap) were interviewed by media.

There were one to three suspects, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department tweeted, citing the police department. Eyewitnesses described three gunmen who were wearing masks with body armor, carrying long guns, who entered shooting and left in a SUV.

News sources are reporting 14 dead, and 17 injured.

Reports that a Planned Parenthood is "around the corner" is incorrect. The nearest Planned Parenthood is a few blocks away, and personnel there report they were not involved in this shooting.

The shooting occurred at the Inland Regional Center,1365 S Waterman Ave, San Bernardino, CA 92408, a facility for people with developmental disabilities. Nearly 670 staff work at its facilities in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, providing services to more than 30,200 people.

It aims to "work on a personal, one-on-one basis with people with developmental disabilities to make their lives better as they define it."

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department tweeted that the "active shooter [was] in the area of Orange Show Rd/Waterman Ave near Park center."

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The motive behind the shootings and the way this was handled in the media may be discussed for days.

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Redlands.

The city of Redlands appears to be the hometown of the two shooters. Redlands is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States, with a 2010 population of 68,747. Redlands is ten miles east of downtown San Bernardino.


Why Inland and Redlands? In the 1880s, the arrival of the Southern Pacific and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroads, connecting Southern California to San Francisco and Salt Lake triggered a land boom, with speculators such as John W. North flooding the area now known as the Inland Empire. North and others saw the area, with its hot, dry climate and ready access to water as an ideal center for citrus production. The city of Redlands was soon established by Frank E. Brown, a civil engineer, and E. G. Judson, a New York stock broker, to provide a center (along with North's nearby settlement at Riverside) for the burgeoning citrus industry. They named their city “Redlands” after the color of the adobe soil.

Pharaoh's Adventure Park: 20-acre (81,000 m2) theme park which re-opened in late 2010. The park incorporates Egyptian themes, and includes a Go-Cart raceway, miniature golf, bumper cars, an amphitheater, and a water park. The park has been used in television filming, including a 2006 episode of C.S.I. Las Vegas featuring a rollercoaster accident.

Jardien's Dream, a young adult novel published in October 2009, takes place in Redlands

The Rocketeer, in the Disney movie version, has the heroine, Jenny, hailing from Redlands.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the town in Tamara Thorne's horror novel Bad Things is based on Redlands.

Notable people from Redlands includes Joan Baez (folk singer/songwriter), Harry Blackstone, Jr. (magician), Hugh “Lumpy” Brannum (Mr. Green Jeans on Captain Kangaroo), and The Tornadoes (a surf rock  band featured on Pulp Fiction soundtrack).

San Bernardino.

The city of San Bernardino, California, occupies much of the San Bernardino Valley, which indigenous tribespeople originally referred to as "The Valley of the Cupped Hand of God".

Route 66 runs through the area. Indeed, San Bernardino hosts several major annual events, including: Route 66 Rendezvous, a four-day celebration of America's "Mother Road" that is held in downtown San Bernardino each September. One nickname for the city is The Heartbeat of U.S. Route 66.

One official nickname is Gate City, to reflect its proximity to Los Angeles, and location at the southern and western end of the Cajon Pass, leading to the High Desert and Las Vegas, Nevada.

The name of San Bernardino is for Saint Bernardino of Siena, O.F.M. (also known as Bernardine; 8 September 1380 – 20 May 1444) was an Italian priest, Franciscan missionary, and is a Catholic saint. He is known in the Roman Catholic Church as “the Apostle of Italy” for his efforts to revive the country's Catholic faith during the 15th century. His preaching was frequently directed against gambling, witchcraft, sodomy and usury - particularly as practiced by Jews.

December 2.

December 2 is special in Israel and Palestine.
1947 – Jerusalem Riots of 1947: Riots break out in Jerusalem in response to the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine.

Cuba and Castro have always done special things on December 2nd.
1956 – The Granma reaches the shores of Cuba's Oriente Province. Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and 80 other members of the 26th of July Movement disembark to initiate the Cuban Revolution.
1961 – In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist–Leninist and that Cuba is going to adopt Communism.
1976 – Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba, replacing Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado.

A major death occurred on December 2nd.
1993 – Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar is shot and killed in Medellín.

Also on December 2, 1993, in an unemployment office in Oxnard, California, a workplace shooting occurred. Five people were killed, including the gunman who died by "suicide by cop" and four others were wounded.

Route 66's Blue Phantom

In hosts of minds, today, are impressions that the word "eerie" means nothing except convenience to makers of crossword puzzles. There are gulfs of the unaccountable but they are bridged by terminology ... Probably vast holes of ignorance always will be bridged by very slender pedantries. ~ Charles Fort

In my Mysterious America, I chronicled Illinois’ Blue Phantom. Here are the highlights of that case, which I wrote about in that book, for the first time in 1983:

The blue phantom first showed up, it is said, on US 66 near Joliet, Illinois, late in May [1952]. Two drivers independently reported that someone had fired at them from a moving blue car. One of them was wounded, though not seriously. Later the same day another driver said a man in a blue automobile had taken a shot at him, this time three miles south of Lincoln on US 66.

On the afternoon of June 2nd, the phantom chose a new tactic: ambush. Edward Smith of St. Louis, Illinois, was driving just south of the Sangamon River when something hit his car. He slowed down and glanced back just in time to see a man jump from bushes beside the road, hop into a big blue car, and speed north on Route 48. Police interviewed an eleven-year-old girl who had watched the sniper make his escape in what she thought was either a Ford or Buick sedan. Highway patrolmen speculated that a .38 caliber bullet had caused the crease in Smith's back window.

By June 8th there had been ten reported shootings along central Illinois highways, including one in which the sniper's bullet shattered a windshield. State police and sheriff's deputies set up roadblocks along a 70-mile area and even employed the services of a low-flying airplane in an attempt to nab the gunman all – but to no avail. On June 10th the phantom, as if to thumb his nose at those so desperately trying to stop him, chose as his fifteenth target a Marengo squad car. Police officer Lawrence Brown, who had been patrolling the streets at dawn when the incident occurred, chased his assailant's car at speeds up to 90 m.p.h. but could not overtake it.

The same day, State Police Chief Thomas J. O'Donnell was telling reporters, “We have not relaxed our search and we are investigating every case but we are not convinced there is a phantom gunman or that any shots were fired in most of the 'shooting incidents' reported.

“We have yet to find anyone who saw a gun or who could give anything definite about the description of the sniper. On the other hand, we have a maze of vague and conflicting information that does not add up to the conclusion that one gunman is causing all these reports.”

Perhaps not. On June 9th, on Route 66 east of Springfield, William Moffit's car window was struck by a bullet fired from a dark green automobile speeding by in the opposite direction. But it is unlikely that Moffit took seriously O'Donnell's theory that nearly all the “sniping” incidents resulted from stones hitting cars or from the setting off of “torpedo” firecrackers. Neither, one suspects, did a truck driver in the Clinton area who early in the morning of June 17th saw two bullets penetrate his windshield. Police officers who inspected the holes concluded they were made by .22 caliber slugs fired from an automatic rifle. Nothing was said about stones or firecrackers.

The previous evening, in fact just a matter of hours before the Clinton incident, D. L. Weatherford had observed someone standing on a bridge on Route 121 north of Mount Pulaski. The “someone,” a man who wore khaki shirt and trousers, held a revolver and stood close to a parked blue Chrysler sedan. Weatherford did not stop to ask questions.

It was a blue Ford, however, which a Decatur couple pursued through the city the evening of June 19th after its occupant ungraciously took a pot shot at them. And at Mattoon (of all places) the same night police investigated a report from Fred Manley who said a man in a yellow Chevrolet panel truck had fired at him with a shotgun about 7:30 p.m. as he was driving on Route 16 between Charleston and Ashmore.

Near Champaign on June 24th, in what seems to have been the last appearance of the phantom sniper – or at least a phantom sniper – a man in a black sedan pulled up alongside a car driven by L. J. Wiles and let loose a volley of four shots, one of which crashed through Wiles' right window. Wiles, understandably shaken, still managed to collect his wits enough to chase the gunman's car into Champaign, but lost it in the city traffic.

The phantom was lost to history as well apparently, for that was the last anyone saw of him, or them, or whomever....

 1983

 1989

2001

2007

Blue Phantom drawing from Mysterious America (©Loren Coleman, 1983, 2001, 2007).

June 7, 1952: Dixon Evening Telegraph, Dixon, Illinois, Page 1

Route 66's Martin Milner Dies

If you ever plan to motor west,

Travel my way, take the highway that is best. ~ Route 66

Route 66's Martin Milner died on Sunday, September 6, 2015. Milner died at his home in Carlsbad, California, at the age of 83.

Martin Sam Milner (December 28, 1931 – September 6, 2015) was an American film, stage, radio and television actor. Milner is best known for his performances in two popular television series: Route 66, which aired on CBS from 1960 to 1964, and Adam-12, which aired on NBC from 1968 to 1975.

Route 66 is an American television drama that premiered on CBS on October 7, 1960, and ran until March 20, 1964, for a total of 116 episodes. The series was created by Herbert B. Leonard and Stirling Silliphant, who were also responsible for the ABC drama Naked City, from which Route 66 was indirectly spun off. Both series employed a format that employed elements of both traditional drama and anthology drama, but there was a difference in where the shows were set: Naked City was set in New York, while Route 66 had its setting change from week to week, with each episode being shot on location in the area in which it was set.

Martin Milner starred as Tod Stiles, a recent college graduate with no future prospects due to circumstances beyond his control. He was originally joined by Buz Murdock, a friend and former employee of his father played by George Maharis, on his travels, Buz leaving midway through the third season with the character of Buz contracting echovirus. Near the end of the third season Tod met a recently discharged Vietnam veteran named Lincoln Case, played by Glenn Corbett, who decided to follow Tod on his travels and stayed with him until the final episode.

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.

In the recent Bridgewater Plaza killings, it ended with the suicide of the gunman on I-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."

For more on the more bizarre aspects of Route 66, see:

Route 66, Weld, JFK, and To Kill a King

Tuesday Weld is distantly related to Charles J. Guiteau, who assassinated President James A. Garfield. I just wrote about Chicago's Garfield Park.

Old Route 66 Again: McStay Remains Found

Route 66 Bigfoot Hunting Shooting Suspects Identified

Route 66 Again

and from the Red Dirt Report

Memorializing the Mother Road in Oklahoma

Gateway Arch to Hell: Ferguson in Trident Times

Ferguson is a Scottish-Irish surname and given name. The surname is a patronymic form of the personal name Fergus. The name Fergus is derived from the Gaelic elements fear ("man") and gus ("vigor," "force," or "choice"). Thus the name "Ferguson" literally means the "son of a man of force/vigor" (the "male offspring of a strong powerful father").

I wrote the above, regarding another matter, on May 11, 2013. 

In 2014, the word "Ferguson" now symbolizes deeper meanings. It may soon mean a time of hellish behaviors, across the USA. Yes, I am not the only one predicting that "all hell may break loose," as The Economist considered the coming days.

On Sunday night, November 23, 2014, protesters wrote The Hunger Games-inspired graffiti on a local St. Louis landmark, which read: "If we burn, you burn with us."

It was scrawled on an arch in the Shaw neighborhood of the Missouri city. The slogan is from Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 1. The arch that was vandalized is known as the Flora Place Gates and was built in 1897, helping sparking the development of Shaw, Missouri. Nearly a century later the neighbourhood was identified as a historic district because of its period architecture. Source.

FTP means "F*ck The Pigs."

Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old black adolescent, was shot (reportedly six times) and killed on Saturday, August 9, 2014, by Darren Wilson, a police officer, in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. The St. Louis County grand jury made a decision and announced on Monday, November 24, 2014, that there is no indictment of Officer Wilson. The predicted outcome of this decision is nationwide demonstrations, with some rioting and civil unrest.

Ferguson had its start in 1855 when William B. Ferguson deeded 10 acres (4.0 ha) of land to the Wabash Railroad in exchange for a new depot and naming rights. The settlement that sprang up around the depot was called Ferguson Station. Ferguson was the first outside station connected to St. Louis, Missouri. Ferguson was incorporated as a city in 1894.

Others have seen synchromystic links to Ferguson.

Ferguson, Missouri (northeast St. Louis), sits precisely midway between Cairo, Illinois ("Little Egypt") and Hannibal, Missouri (the Hannibal name is related to Baal as well as the archetypal enemy of ancient Rome). Ferguson is also precisely in the middle of two alignments of Route 66, the I-270 frontage road to the north, and I-70 to the south. Source.

Little Egypt is an area steeped in mysticism.

Little Egypt is a regional name for southern Illinois. The most populated city is Belleville. 

The nickname "Egypt" may have arisen in the 1830s, when poor harvests in the north of the state drove people to Southern Illinois to buy grain. Others say it was because the land of the great Mississippi and Ohio River valleys were like that of Egypt's Nile delta. The nickname may date back to 1818, when a huge tract of land was purchased at the confluence of the rivers and its developers named it Cairo. Today, the town of Cairo still stands on the peninsula where the Ohio River joins the Mississippi. Other settlements in the area were also given names with Egyptian, Greek or Middle Eastern origins: The Southern Illinois University Salukis sports teams and towns such as Metropolis, Thebes, Dongola, Palestine, Lebanon, New Athens, Sparta, and Karnak show the influence of classical culture....Egyptian names were concentrated in towns of Little Egypt but also appeared in towns further south. For instance, about 100 miles (200 km) south of Cairo, along the Mississippi, lies Memphis, Tennessee, named after the Egyptian city on the Nile. Source.

The skyward symbol of the Ferguson area is the Gateway Arch.

St. Louis Gateway Arch was covertly blown up in the science fiction film, Sucker Punch (2011), and it served overtly as a 2046 landmark in Syfy's Defiance (2013-2014).

Eero Saarinen working with a model of the arch in 1957.

St. Louis's Gateway Arch is very relevant too (via Ferguson, of course). Note that the City is known as "Gateway to the West." So, you know where that goes. The west = Osiris = Underworld portal = Gate of Hell. ~  Source. 

Eero Saarinen's futuristic designs are significant and iconic. His TWA JFK Flight Center opened in 1962 and has been somewhat preserved in the redesigned JetBlue JFK T5, which retains parts of the Saarinen terminal (head house).

In discussing the significance of all the tridents being seen in 2014, via various news stories, this is intriguing:

I'd [Goro would] say, [this] is at the core of what the trident motif alludes to...The opening of the Gates of Hell. Source.

Some ideas about the Gateway Arch are far from the mainstream, of course. Take, for example, the Remove The Veil insight that...

The St Louis Arch is a Solar Oriented Masonic Death Memorial for a land (West = Amurru = America) destined to become “Wilderness,” i.e. Desert. The Fleur de Lys (Louisiana Purchase) symbolizes Father, Mother Son, the Occult “Trinity.” Source.

[More about fleur-de-lis ("flowers of the lilies") here.]

Then, there's the link to Freemasonry too:

The Gateway Arch is said to be an inverted catenary, because its curve arches up instead of hangs down. As Robert Hooke (essentially) wrote in 1675 about the relationship between a perfect arch and a hanging chain: “As hangs the chain, so stands the arch.”
Perhaps coincidentally, from a purely symbolic perspective, in Freemasonry one finds the astrologically-based Royal Arch of Heaven. Alfred E. Waite, in his New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, specifically mentions the Catenarian Arch:
“There are two points from which this form of arch can be approached; the first is that of architecture, and it is proverbial in this respect that there is no curve in Masonry which approaches the catenary in strength; as regards the second, it is summarized in the simple statement that in its due and proper arrangement every Royal Arch Chapter approaches as nearly as possible the form of a catenarian arch. Of all that arises herefrom and belongs hereto it is not possible to speak: the motto is: Come and See.” Source.

The Freemasonic Royal Arch.

Update: By pure coincidence, after I posted this, Theo Paijmans tweeted the above image, showing that this royal arch was used on the "Masonic Apron presented to Gen. Washington by Madame LaFayette."

This brings forth another view:

The trident - at once a symbol of disintegrating fire/lightning and of gnashing teeth - is a liminal (threshold) symbol. To put it differently, the teeth are the gatekeepers of the mouth - one of the sacred "nine bodily gates" in Tantric sex-magic. The teeth/mouth are a gateway into the digestive system, which facilitates the breakdown of matter for use by the body. Source.

Thoughts have been shared about how close to home this is:

One synchronicity, though: the trident is the symbol of the university where I [Kenn Thomas] work. I live near the university, home and office near the rioting, although not quite in Ferguson. Source.

How about all with the name Ferguson popping up?

Marienne Ferguson, Jewish woman who spoke with Prince Charles in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, provoking his slander of Putin, comparing him to Adolf Hitler.
Asia Leeshawn Ferguson, decapitated by Batman the Ride.
Daniel Ferguson, a victim of the Ford Hood shooting by Ivan Lopez.... Source.

On Saturday, June 28, 2008, at Six Flags Over Georgia, 17-year-old Asia Leeshawn Ferguson of Springfield, South Carolina, scaled two six-foot fences and passed through restricted areas posted as dangerous to visitors. Ferguson jumped the fences and was then decapitated by the Batman roller coaster. Source. 

Where is all of this leading?

Look closer to home at Ferguson, Missouri. We all better start paying attention. We all better get hip to the seriousness of these matters. Source.

Is it a bit of a sad irony that the line from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s 1970 hit Ohio – “Tin soldiers and Nixon’s comin’ …” could apply today, as Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon deploys National Guard troops into the fractured St. Louis suburb of Ferguson? Source.

Now the future begins, in earnest.... 

Trident Times: Two Venices, Three Deaths

Coincidence? Synchromysticism strikes again? Tridents abound. And Neptune's kingdom is involved again. 

As I noted earlier today, a July 27, 2014 mid-afternoon lightning strike hit the water off Venice Beach, California, killing a 20-year-old man and injuring several people, one critically.

The identity of the man who died has been confirmed.

The parents of Notre Dame High School graduate Nick Fagnano confirmed Monday morning that their son was killed after lightning struck while he was in the water at Venice Beach.
Fagnano, an only child, was a 2012 graduate of Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks and had also attended Santa Barbara City College and Santa Monica City College. He had been living with his parents in downtown Los Angeles since December and was about to enter USC as a junior, where he was planning on studying urban development, his parents said. Los Angeles Daily News.

Publisher/author Adam Parfrey has written me to pass along a few syncs about this Venice/Venice Beach, California location.

"The Feral House logo is trident-shaped [seen below]. The most recent book we published under the Process Media imprint is about the strange and defunct amusement park on the Venice/Santa Monica border called Pacific Ocean Park," writes Parfrey.

"The main attraction/icon there was King Neptune who had his own trident," emails Adam Parfrey. "Here’s King Neptune ad from POP [above, at top]."

The timing seems more than coincidental to these events. Pacific Ocean Park: The Rise and Fall of Los Angeles' Space Age Nautical Pleasure Pier was published on July 22, 2014. It is authored by Christopher Merritt and Domenic Priore, with a foreword by Beach Boys member Brian Wilson.

Pacific Ocean Park has appeared as the televised popular cultural settings in the following:

The climactic scene in the final episode of the television series The Fugitive ("The Judgment, Part 2)" was shot at Pacific Ocean Park. Filmed on location just prior the park's closure in the fall of 1967, the park's "Mahi, Mahi" ride tower was the setting for the dramatic face off between Dr. Richard Kimble (David Janssen) and the fictional one-armed man. 

The episode of the Twilight Zone series titled "In Praise of Pip," starring Jack Klugman and Billy Mumy, was also filmed there. 

An episode of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was filmed in the park. 

The park was the setting of an episode of the television series Route 66 (Season 2, Episode 29 "Between Hello and Goodbye") which aired May 11, 1962. Martin Milner's character Tod is shown working at King Neptune's Courtyard, and guest star Susan Oliver is depicted riding the Ocean Skyway. 

An episode of The Invaders, entitled "The Pit", televised on ABC in January, 1967, has scenes shot at Pacific Ocean Park after the park had closed. Source.

I've been talking about the setting for the July 27, 2014 lightning strike being Venice Beach, California, where Nick Fagnano was killed. The lightning bolt reportedly hit the water at around 2:20 pm Pacific time. Fagnano's body was found about 2:45 pm.

Now things getting really strange.

As shared by Todd Campbell, also earlier on Sunday afternoon, another man died on a Venice beach - but in Florida. He was killed when a plane fell on him from the sky.

About 2:45 p.m. Eastern, Sunday, July 27, 2014, a 1972 Piper Cherokee lost a wheel, damaged a wing and smashed its propeller shortly after making a distress call to Venice Municipal Airport. Caspersen Beach, where the plane crashed, is just south of the airport, at the southern tip of the island of Venice, Florida. It landed on a man and his daughter.

The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office identified the victims as 36-year-old Army Sgt. 1st Class Ommy Irizarry, who was hit by the plane and died, and his daughter Oceana (please note her name), 9, who was injured. [Update: A 9-year-old girl who was walking on a Florida beach when she was hit by a small plane making an emergency landing has died, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday, July 29, 2014.]

Reportedly, Irizarry's wife Rebecca was treated for cardiac arrest at Venice Regional Bayfront Health. The couple and their children were vacationing in Venice, Florida, for their 9th anniversary. Media accounts say they were from Georgia, but Irizarry's Facebook page notes he is from and lives in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. 

Irizarry was a diver, loved sharks, and served in the U.S. Army in Iraq.

Irizarry is a respelling of Basque Irizarri, a variant of the Basque surname Irizar meaning "ancient village," from iri "village" + zar "old."

This Facebook picture of Irizarry was posted during his vacation at Venice, Florida, 

two days before he died.

Uninjured from the plane crash are 57-year-old Karl Kokomoor, the pilot, and his passenger David Theen, 60, both of Englewood, Florida.

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See also, AWG's Red Dirt Report latest, "I'd like to be, under the sea...";

Todd Campbell's Through the Looking Glass new offering, "Death in Venice"; and

keep an eye on Goro's Etemenanki. 

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More Trident Times

Two Venices, Three Deaths

Death In Lightning Strike Off Venice Beach

Tripoli, Tridents, Three Cities, Mermaids, Navy Seals, and Jonah

More Tridents: Medak & Air Disasters

GE 222 Crashes Into Xixi Buildings

Flight MH17: Twilight Tridents and Noteworthy Numbers

India's 911: Synchronicity and Coincidence in Mumbai