Aurora 2020

Twilight Language Phantasmagoria: Colorado, Aurora, Waffle House, and the Watts Name Game

In my second book, published in 1978, Jerome Clark and I picked this quote for the dedication page:

There is not wanting a feast of broad joyous humor in this strange phantasmagoria, where pit and stage, and man and animal, and earth and air, are jumbled in confusion worse confounded. ~ Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881.

The phantasmagoria continues.

We tell ourselves stories in order to live...We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five. We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices. We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the "ideas" with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience.― Joan Didion, The White Album (1979)

A phantasmagoria indicates changing successions, combinations, or sequence of real, fantastic, bizarre, or imagined imagery like those seen in a dream or nightmare.

Phantasmagoria (also fantasmagorie, fantasmagoria) was a form of horror theatre that (among other techniques) used one or more magic lanterns to project frightening images such as skeletons, demons, and ghosts onto walls, smoke, or semi-transparent screens, typically using rear projection to keep the lantern out of sight.

We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices. We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the “ideas” with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience. ― Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott, Swan Song (2018)

The etymology of the term gives a virtual early history of its appearance.

From French phantasmagorie, from Ancient Greek φάντασμα (phántasma, “ghost”) + possibly either αγορά (agorá, “assembly, gathering”) + the suffix -ia, or ἀγορεύω (agoreúō, “to speak publicly”).
Paul Philidor announced his show of ghost apparitions and evocation of the shadows of famous people as Phantasmagorie in the Parisian periodical Affiches, annonces et avis divers of December 16, 1792. About two weeks earlier the term had been the title of a letter by a certain "A.L.M.", published in Magazin Encyclopédique. The letter also promoted Phylidor's show. Phylidor had previously advertised his show as Phantasmorasiin Vienna in March 1790.
The English variation Phantasmagoria was introduced as the title of M. De Philipsthal's show of optical illusions and mechanical pieces of art in London in 1801. De Philipsthal and Philidor are believed to have been the same person. Source.

Phantasmagoria came to the United States in May 1803 at Mount Vernon Garden, New York. Much like the French Revolution sparked interest in phantasmagoria in France, the expanding frontier in the United States made for an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear that was ideal for phantasmagoria shows. Many others created phantasmagoria shows in the United States over the next couple of years, including Martin Aubée, one of Robertson's former assistants.

Early stop trick films developed by Georges Méliès most clearly parallel the early forms of phantasmagoria. Trick films include transformations, superimpositions, disappearances, rear projections, and the frequent appearance of ghosts and apparent decapitations. Modern-day horror films often take up many of the techniques and motifs of stop trick films, and phantasmagoria is said to have survived in this new form.

Once could say that what is occurring all around us today, inside the theater and outside, is phantasmagoria.

Aurora, Colorado

Should we be surprised to find ourselves revisiting, Colorado, indeed Aurora, literally "Red Dawn"? This was the "red dawn" location of the theater mass shooting of July 20, 2012, at the opening of The Dark Knight Rises.

Following a Friday the 13th, on Saturday, Valentine's Day, February 14, 2015, there was another Aurora shooting, this one at a Waffle House.

Now we are back...

If you do not know where you want to go, it doesn't matter which path you take.
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland (1865)

Waffle House! Colorado! Aurora! "Watts" Name Game!

If you are a frequent reader of my blog, you might think I'm making this news story up, but I did not.

The Aurora Waffle House photo online, pre-pandemic.

The Aurora Waffle House pictured, May 2020, at the time of the shooting.

It all began in the middle of a pandemic in Colorado, on May 14, 2020.

On the early morning of May 14, a man named Kelvin Watson, 27, went into an Aurora, Colorado Waffle House on 12880 East Mississippi Avenue without wearing a face mask. He was told several times to wear one due to the coronavirus pandemic, then became belligerent and pulled out a gun.

He left and returned with a mask, but he wasn't wearing it over his mouth, and threatened staff at the restaurant, telling the 25-year-old cook, "You better shut the f--k up before I blow your brains out," while allegedly displaying a gun, police said in the affidavit.

According to witnesses, he told the cook, “I can blow your brains out right now.” A waitress suspected Watson was high.

Watson left, and police were called, but the victim refused to press charges at the time.

The next night on May 15, 2020, Watson returned to the restaurant and again demanded he be served while still not wearing a mask. He was also told to leave because the restaurant was at capacity, the affidavit states. But Watson refused, became very upset, and slapped the 25-year-old cook across the face with an open left hand.

After the alleged assault, the victim ran out of the restaurant's back door and called police. But Watson followed the victim, making numerous statements to the effect of, "you better shut the f--k up and serve me," according to the affidavit. The victim told police that Watson then shot him once as the victim continued to his apartment a short distance away.

Watson was identified as the suspect after interviewing several witnesses and reviewing surveillance video from the restaurant and along the route the Watson allegedly fled. Staff told police that Watson was a regular at that Waffle House location. During the investigation, Aurora police also learned that he was a suspect in a Denver shooting on April 23, 2020, where he reportedly shot up Wyatt's Towing facility for towing his BMW. No one was injured in that shooting.

The Waffle House released the following statement regarding the incident:

"We are deeply saddened and regret that this senseless act of violence occurred, causing injury to a member of our Waffle House family early Friday morning. We have learned that the hospital released our injured associate on Friday afternoon to recover from what has been described as a non-life- threatening injury. Our thoughts are with him, his family and coworkers at this difficult time. We ask that anyone who has any information about this incident to contact the local authorities as soon as possible. We are cooperating fully with the investigation, and direct all additional questions regarding the specifics of this incident to the local authorities handling the case."

Aurora police used Watson’s credit card receipt from the night before to track him down. CBS4 has learned Denver police were also looking for him in connection with another shooting that happened in April. It allegedly occurred at a tow yard where Watson’s car had been impounded. The rounds from that shooting were of the same caliber in the Waffle House shooting.

By May 21, 2020, Watson was already released. Charged with attempted murder in the Aurora Waffle House shooting, Kelvin Watson was out of jail soon after his arrest. Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler said his office argued that the 28-year-old’s bond should have been set at $500,000. Instead, it was set at $100,000.

“I respect the court, we just had a different opinion as to what the bond should be for this alleged behavior,” Brauchler told CBS4’s reporter Dominic Garcia.

Besides the location being a Waffle House, which has been spotlighted here often, and Aurora/Red Dawn being special too, the alleged gunman's name lands right in the middle of the "Name Game."

Watson means "Son of Wat/t."

The Watt surname derives from early forms of the personal name Walter. The popular Middle English given names Wat and Watt were pet forms of the name Walter, meaning "powerful ruler" or "ruler of the army," from the elements wald, meaning rule, and heri, meaning army.

Our awareness is especially keyed to the name "Watts." In earlier Fortean Times columns and then in my 1983 book, Mysterious America, after discussing the special weirdness surrounding the name "Watkins," I wrote:

Cryptologic or coincidence? Jim Brandon should be credited with calling attention to the name Watts/Watkins/Watson, and its entanglement with inexplicable things. Some other names involved in mysterious events pinpointed by Brandon are Bell, Mason, Parsons, Pike, Vernon, and Warren. The influence of such names as Mason, Pike, Warren, and Lafayette, for example, issues, in some cryptopolitical and occult way, from their ties to the Masonic tradition.

Watts (part of the moniker of the Aurora shooter) is tied to the discoverer in England of the "ley lines," one Alfred Watkins. Place is important, and in this case you have the double impact of a Waffle House and Aurora too.

Jim Brandon (see here) penned the following thoughts in his 1983 book, The Rebirth of Pan: Hidden Faces of the American Earth Spirit: 

If there are certain numbers entangled with certain phenomena, the same would have to be said of certain words. Likewise, these words tend to be involved in events of, at best, a sort of Puckish drollery and at worst, tragedy. I have not yet found a name, or number, that seems to be favorable. Possibly this is because journalism and the other anecdotal reportage we must rely on in this barely respectable compiling of ours concentrate on the formidable, the uncanny, rather than on the mundane fortunate. Sometime, one should do a study on, say, winners of sweepstakes and Nobel Prizes.
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.

So, I guess no one should be shocked in this weirdest of year, to discover a Watson not wearing a mask while shooting a Waffle House cook in Aurora, Colorado ~ that same community where a Holmes killed people at a theater in 2012.

Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age. There's an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it's God's own wind none the less, and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared.
― Arthur Conan Doyle, His Last Bow: The War Service of Sherlock Holmes (1917), with a brief preface, by "John H. Watson, M.D."

Metro, Twin Peaks, and Cinergy: Deaths in France & Texas

Odessa, Texas

Odessa means "wrathful," and is the feminine version of Odysseus, which has taken on the connotative meaning of wandering, traveling adventure in honor of the famous voyage in Homer's epic The Odyssey. 

Odysseus ~ to hate. The name Texas is derived from the word "teyshas" (meaning friends or allies), from the native American Caddo language.

Odysseus ~ hate + Texas ~ allies = Hate allies.

Aurora, Colorado

Colorado ~ Red + Aurora ~ Dawn = Red Dawn.

On August 10, 2019, at 5:02 PM Eastern, Enki sent this predictive comment to Twilight Language:

An event on another anniversary date caught my eye recently. On, July 20, 2019, the seven-year anniversary of the Aurora shooting by James “Joker” Holmes, another joker appeared. Damik A. Disdier, wearing a clown mask and wielding a prop chainsaw, led police on a bizarre low-speed chase which ended at Southern California’s synchromystic hotspot Venice Beach.
Upon arriving at the beach, Disdier abandoned his vehicle and fled on foot. In the final minutes of the surreal chase, Disdier stopped to assist someone in burying a friend in the sand. A clown appearance on July 20 already had me nervous about another coming rash of Red Dawn events, but this especially odd, seemingly symbolic behavior triggered this morbid thought: They will not be able to bury the dead quickly enough.

The recent spate of high-profile mass shootings suggests my intuition was correct. I expect things to continue to heat up through 2019’s Summer of Hate, and even extend into the fall. A synchromystic Evil Spirit of 76 seems to be at work here, with The Joker scheduled to premiere at the original Venice’s 76th Venice Film Festival on August 31, and with the film's wide release happening October 4, 76 days from the Venice Beach clown craziness. These two dates will be ones to watch for jokers going wild.

Enki was correct. As he wrote to me on August 31st, "so far today we have had clowns marching at a straight pride event in Boston, a mass stabbing near Lyon, and a roaming shooter in Texas. Crazy times."

August 31 turned into a day of violence.  This took place exactly 4 weeks after the two shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. In America, it apparently began at the Twin Peaks and ended at the Cinergy!

The first the clowns, then the hints that this would be a day filled with random attacks came from France.

Venice, Italy

The film festival premiere of the Todd Phillips-Joaquin Phoenix version of Joker went over well on August 31, 2019.

Joker was received with an eight-minute standing ovation following its premiere at the Venice Film Festival Saturday, Variety reports.
Director-writer Todd Phillips and stars Joaquin Phoenix and Zazie Beetz were on hand for the event. During a press conference, Phillips said his drama was inspired by 1928 silent film The Man Who Laughs as well as the Martin Scorsese-directed Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and The King of Comedy, three of Scorsese’s seminal works each headlined by Joker co-star Robert De Niro.

Boston, Massachusetts

The Straight Pride Parade occurred on Saturday, August 31, 2019, in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, and attracted counter-protesters, as well as a heavy police presence. Within the parade, according to photographs taken there, clowns were in attendance. Were they part of it, or in protest of it?

The "straight pride parade" in Boston got people so enraged by anyone who would participate, an epic trolling campaign started with people posting pictures of clowns as "participants" of the event.

Source.

Events went downhill from there. But the clowns were at the fringes of yesterday's tragic events. Was that an indicator of things to come?

Lyon, France: 1 Dead, 8 Injured

One person was killed and eight others wounded during a knife attack on people waiting for a bus near the Laurent-Bonnevay metro station in Villeurbanne near Lyon, France. Three of the eight victims were seriously wounded.
The single fatality was a 19-year-old man, Villeurbanne Mayor Jean-Paul Bret told reporters.
The assault occurred in Villeurbanne, a suburb of the southeastern city of Lyon, about 4:30 p.m.
A suspect has been taken into custody, according to Lyon Mayor Gerard Collomb. The motive for the attack is unknown. The suspected attacker is a 33-year-old asylum seeker, Sultan Marmed Niazi from Afghanistan.
(On September 9, 2018, seven people were injured, including two British tourists, during an attack by a man wielding a knife and an iron bar in northeastern Paris, police said. The assault came after a series of knife attacks in France.)

Midland to Odessa, Texas: 7 Killed, 1 Gunman Killed, 21 Injured

A gunman in West Texas killed seven people while firing from his vehicle and then from a hijacked mail truck. He was fatally shot by police in a gun battle in a movie theater parking lot, authorities said Saturday, August 31, 2019.
At least 21 people were injured, including some who were wounded by the shooter. Three law enforcement officers were injured: one from the Department of Public Safety, one officer from the Midland Police Department and one officer from Odessa Police Department.
The shooter was identified as a white male in his 30s. His name and a motive were not given.
The chain of events began when a Department of Public Safety officer pulled over a vehicle on an interstate highway Saturday. Reports said it began at a Twin Peaks restaurant, someone was shot outside an Olive Garden, also shootings near a Home Depot, Walmart, then at random cars on Highway 191, between Midland and Odessa. It all ended at the Cinergy movie theater in Odessa, where the gunman was shot dead. He was identified as Seth Aaron Ator, 36, of Odessa.

Leila Hernandez, 15, is one of at least seven people killed when a gunman hijacked a postal truck and began firing indiscriminately in the neighboring cities of Midland and Odessa, Texas.

United States Postal worker Mary Granados was shot and killed when the gunman hijacked her truck.

The final episode of David Lynch and Mark Frost's Twin Peaks Season Three (released two years ago on September 3, 2017) takes place partially in Odessa, Texas.  Cooper arrives at Judy's Diner in Odessa, Texas, and obtains the address of Carrie Page who resembles Laura Palmer. Cooper, believing she is Laura, drives her to Twin Peaks. He finds the Palmer house occupied by different owners. Confused, Cooper asks Carrie what year it is. Carrie hears Sarah calling Laura's name and screams. The house lights go out. The season closes with a visual callback to Laura whispering to Cooper in the Red Room. ~ sent in by various contributors.

Pizzagate Arson

No matter what side of the fence you come down on regarding the Pizzagate melodrama,  the fact is it has caused some real world violence often buried at the back of the paper, so to speak. 

The Pizzagate Shooting

Take, for example, the "Pizzagate shooting" of December 2016. Few media outlets even talked about the news, let alone tackling it, or putting it into any context. I wrote about it here, as an introduction to the stories, thinking it might grow and mellow with age.

The essence of that event was that a true believer in the Pizzagate rumors decided to take matters into his own hands. On Sunday, December 5, 2016, Edgar Maddison Welch, 28 of Salisbury, North Carolina, walked into the front door of Comet Ping Pong and pointed a firearm in the direction of a restaurant employee. 

Welch told police he'd come to the restaurant to "self-investigate" the Pizzagate theory that spread online during Hillary Clinton's run for the White House during the 2016 campaign. At one point, Welch fired an AR-15 at a locked closet. But he discovered there were no children being held in the restaurant. No one was hurt in the shooting. He surrendered and was later sentenced to four years in prison.

Edgar Maddison Welch

Pizzagate

The Pizzagate stories centered on one location, the pizza restaurant named Comet Ping Pong in Washington D.C. The mainstream site Wikipedia summarized the case as follows. Please note the use of value-laden words, such as "fake," "falsely," and "debunked."

In early November 2016, several fake news websites and online forums falsely implicated the restaurant and various Democratic Party figures as part of a fake child trafficking ring, which was dubbed "pizzagate" in some circles. This fake story was debunked by the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, fact-checking website Snopes and The New York Times, among others. The restaurant's owners and staff were harassed, threatened on social media websites, and given negative Yelp reviews. After continued harassment, Comet Ping Pong increased the security for concerts held inside its premises. Source.

Pizzagate Arson

During January and February 2019, a series of incidents occurred that appear to have flown below the radar of the mainstream news, again, in the realm of Pizzagate. 

On January 23, 2019, a fire broke out at Comet Ping Pong. He set the location's curtains on fire. No one was hurt, but the video appears to not have been released to the public until January 25, 2019.

Then on February 4, and again on February 5, 2019, a man that was later found to fit the describe of the suspect, climbed the fence around the Washington Monument.

Video taken on the 5th of February showed "two officers trying to restrain a man at the base of the Monument as he fights back wildly. The man appears to punch at the officers. He falls at least twice and gets back up. 'Get on the ground!' an officer can be heard ordering the man. An officer runs at him with a baton, but he continues to resist. Finally, an officer uses a stun gun on the man. He brings his hand to his chest and then falls backward," wrote WashingtonNBC4 on February 14, 2019.

Then on February 13, 2019, Ryan Rimas Jaselskis, 22, was charged with arson. Federal prosecutors say that on January 23, 2019, that Jaselskis started the fire in the Comet Ping Pong.

Jaselskis, who uses the name Ryan Rimas in his acting and modeling career, entered the Comet Ping Pong restaurant on January 23 [2019] about 9:30 p.m. and set fire to curtains inside the eatery, federal prosecutors say. He was caught on surveillance video, which was released by the DC Metropolitan Police and ATF arson task force. The video showed a man in a blue and white jacket inside the Connecticut Avenue restaurant trying to knock down a camera as a fire burns in the background. No one was inside the restaurant and there were no injuries. Source.

 

Rimas or Jaselskis used images of himself in modeling photographs and on Facebook in which he employed the same jacket he is shown wearing in the Comet Ping Pong surveillance video. As one tweet author sarcastic noted online, "He really liked that jacket."

Jaselskis appears to be a Lithuanian name. Rimas or Remas is a given name, which can be an Arabic feminine name or a Lithuanian masculine name. In Arabic, Rimas is derived from the name of "a type of diamond."

He also wore the jacket in his IMDb profile photo.

Ryan Rimas has appeared in nine films since 2015, according to his IMDB profile, all of which appear to be small or independent movies. The films include Four Blood Moons, It Happened in L.A., The Curse, Tiger Leaves Skin, Serial Killer Superstar, Evening Installation, Betting on Amanda, and Josh Taylor’s Prom Date.

∆∆∆

This "pedophile conspiracy" rabbit hole is a deep one if you decide to dive into it. Source.

Clinton: Four Dead in Mississippi

Clinton, Mississippi police were called to Foxhill Drive around 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning, February 16, 2019, following reports of a domestic disturbance at the residence. The situation soon escalated as officers received gunfire from the suspect when they arrived.

Law enforcement officers, over 50 in number, surrounded the house, as a hostage situation developed. At 11 a.m., children were released. At 12:30 p.m., gunfire was heard inside the home. About 90 minutes later, police discovered four people were dead. And they soon arrested the gunman. 

No identifying information has been released yet. (Watch for updates.)

This incident happened a day after the mass shooting in Aurora, Illinois, which left five employees of Henry Pratt Co. dead and six police officers injured. (See Aurora Effect Again.)

Clinton Name Game

The name Clinton is an English name, with a meaning that is: "Settlement on a hill," or "from the headland estate."

In the United States, historically, most place names given the name "Clinton" are due to DeWitt Clinton. His role in the construction of the Erie Canal created accessible Eastern seaboard markets for Midwestern agriculture and he was widely admired by settlers, especially those hailing from New York. Some of these places may have been named for both DeWitt Clinton and his uncle George Clinton, the fourth vice president in the USA, an important figure in the founding of the United States.

Several counties, cities, and towns are named after DeWitt Clinton:

Clinton County, Illinois
Clinton County, Indiana
Clinton County, Iowa
Clinton County, Kentucky
Clinton County, Michigan
Clinton County, Missouri
Clinton County, Pennsylvania
DeWitt County, Illinois
Clinton Charter Township, Michigan
Clinton Township, Lenawee County, Michigan
City of Clinton, Arkansas
City of Clinton, Indiana
City of Clinton, Illinois
City of Clinton, Iowa
City of Clinton, Missouri
City of Clinton, Mississippi
Community of Clinton, Pennsylvania
City of DeWitt, Arkansas
City of DeWitt, Iowa
Town of Clinton, Louisiana
Town of Clinton, Massachusetts
City of DeWitt, Michigan
Town of Clinton, New Jersey
Town of Clinton, Rock County, Wisconsin
Village of Clinton, Lenawee County, Michigan
Village of DeWitt, Illinois
Village of Clinton, Wisconsin
Village of Clintonville, KY
Town of Clinton, Connecticut
Town of Port Clinton, Ohio

Freemason and Society of the Cincinnati Member

DeWitt Clinton (March 2, 1769 – February 11, 1828) was an American politician and naturalist who served as a United States Senator, Mayor of New York City and sixth Governor of New York. In this last capacity, he was largely responsible for the construction of the Erie Canal. Clinton was a major candidate for the American presidency in the election of 1812, challenging incumbent James Madison.

Clinton was a York Rite Freemason. He founded the New York Free School Society, forerunner of the public school system of education established in 1842 and also offered a $1000 reward for information on William Morgan during the (anti-Masonic) Morgan Affair (d. 1826).

He was initiated in the "Holland" Lodge No. 16 (now No 8), NY on September 3, 1790, and in 1806 he was elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New York Clinton was essential in establishing the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar in the United States, serving as its first, second, and third Grand Master from 1816-1828.. He retained this title until his death in 1828.

In 1813, Clinton became a hereditary member of the New York Society of the Cincinnati in succession to his brother, Lieutenant Alexander Clinton, who was an original member of the society. Each officer may be represented by only one descendant at any given time, following the rules of primogeniture.

The concept of the Society of the Cincinnati was that of Major General Henry Knox. The first meeting of the Society was held in May 1783 at a dinner at Mount Gulian (Verplanck House) in Fishkill, New York, before the British evacuation from New York City. The meeting was chaired by Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Hamilton, and the participants agreed to stay in contact with each other after the war. Membership was generally limited to officers who had served at least three years in the Continental Army or Navy; it included officers of the French Army and Navy above certain ranks.

George Washington was elected the first President General of the Society. He served from December 1783 until his death in 1799. The second President General was Alexander Hamilton.

The Society of the Cincinnati continues to the present, and some call it "George Washington's secret society."

A specially commissioned [Society of the Cincinnati] "Eagle" worn by President General George Washington was presented to Marquis de Lafayette in 1824 during his grand tour of the United States. This badge remained in possession of the Lafayette family until sold at auction on December 11, 2007, for 5.3 million USD by Lafayette's great-great granddaughter. Together with what are believed to be the original ribbon and red leather box, the badge was purchased by the Josée and René de Chambrun Foundation for display in Lafayette's bedroom at Chateau La Grange, his former home, thirty miles east of Paris; it may also be displayed at Mount Vernon, Washington's former home in Virginia. This was one of three eagles known to have been owned by Washington, who most often wore the "diamond eagle," a diamond-encrusted badge given him by the French matelots (sailors). That diamond eagle continues to be passed down to each President General of the Society of the Cincinnati as part of his induction into office.

The Cincinnati Eagle is displayed in various places of public importance, including in Fountain Square in Cincinnati (named for the Society), Ohio, alongside the American and municipal flags. The flag of the Society displays blue and white stripes and a dark blue canton (containing a circle of 14 stars around the Cincinnati Eagle, representing the fourteen subsidiary societies, one each in the thirteen original States and France) in the upper corner next to the hoist. 

Mounds, Murders, and Mayhem

The mass shooting in Cincinnati's Fountain Square on September 6, 2018, caused some re-examination of the links between mass violence and mounds. Others have noted a connection between mounts and the Society of the Cincinnati.

Examples of Clinton in the news

The media-driven violence often pinpoints suicides and shootings in Clinton locations, just as they do with Fayette sites.

Almost exactly a year ago, on February 19, 2018, a "Clinton" location was the site of a dramatic suicide. A 26-year-old woman jumped from the 28th floor of a 39-story Hell’s Kitchen building at 6:50 a.m.. The woman, whose name was not released, plummeted from Clinton Towers on W. 54th St. at 11th Ave. and died at the scene.

Stephen Paddock, the Las Vegas mass murderer, was born in Clinton, Iowa. On October 1, 2017, the death toll was 58 people being killed, over 500 injured. Police report the gunman, Stephen Paddock, 64, of Mesquite, Nevada, who was holded up on the 32th floor in the Mandalay Hotel, died by suicide.

Strasbourg Christmas Market Shooting

Four persons have reportedly been killed (early accounts discussed two) and 11, 6 critically, in a shooting near the Christmas market in the French city of Strasbourg. It is the largest Christmas market in Europe, according to news accounts.

The killing took place at Place Kléber and surrounding locations, near the city’s Christmas market, which draws millions of tourists every year.  Early confusion was caused by the fact the gunman, known to police, shoot at different locations around the Christmas market area.

The interior minstry described the incident as a “serious security event” and warned the public to stay indoors.

This is located 20 minutes from the European Union Parliament in Strasbourg.

Traditionally, a huge fir tree (30 m) coming from the Vosges mountains is erected every year on the south west of the Place Kléber and inhabitants deposited gifts for the poors. During the Marché de Noël ("Christmas market"), the booths of 50 charitable associations make the Village du Partage ("village for sharing").

The suspect in the Strasbourg shooting has reportedly been identified as 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt. The name apparently is Arabic in origin, probably of Algerian/French.

New information was revealed Wednesday at a press conference by France’s anti-terror prosecutor Rémy Heitz who said that witnesses had observed the suspect yelling “Allahu Akbar” as he fired upon the crowd at the Strasbourg Christmas market on Tuesday evening.

He escaped by taxi, and, as of Wednesday, December 12, 2018, had not been captured.

On the evening of December 13, 2018, police found Chekatt in the area of Strasbourg between Neudorf and the Stade de la Meinau. He fired on officers when they tried to question him and they returned fire, killing him. Soon after his death, ISIL claimed him as one of their soldiers.

The first name of Place Kléber was Barfüsserplatz ("square of the barefoot nuns" in German: square of the bare-feet-goers because a Franciscan monastery was standing along the square).

In the 17th century the name changed to Waffenplatz ("arms square" in German).

On June 24, 1840 the square was finally renamed for the French general Jean-Baptiste Kléber, also going by "Kléberplatz" after German annexation.

During German occupation in 1940-1944, the place was renamed after Karl Roos, a local ethnically German politician executed by French authorities in 1940 on the charges of espionage for Germany.

After his assassination in 1800 in Cairo, the body of Jean-Baptiste Kléber, general during the French Revolutionary Wars born in Strasbourg in 1753, was repatriated to France. Napoleon, fearing that his tomb would become a symbol to Republicanism, ordered it to stay at the Château d'If, on an island near Marseille. It stayed there for 18 years until Louis XVIII granted him a burial place in his hometown in Strasbourg. He was buried on 15 December 1838 below his statue located in the middle of Place Kléber. His heart is in an urn in the caveau of the Governors beneath the altar of the St. John Chapel in Les Invalides, Paris.

The statue, designed by Philippe Grass, was finally completed in 1838.

+++

In 1992...

On January 20, 1992 Air Inter Flight 148 crashed into the Vosges Mountains while circling to land at Strasbourg International Airport, killing 87 people.

In 2016....

A terrorist attack on December 19, 2016, at 20:02 local time, during which a truck was driven into the Christmas market next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, left 12 people dead and 56 others injured. One of the victims was the truck's original driver, Łukasz Urban, who was found shot dead in the passenger seat. A suspect was arrested and later released due to lack of evidence. Another person, suspected to be the actual perpetrator, was killed four days later during a shootout with police near Milan in Italy. See more Christmas 2016 terrorist events, here and here. Also, see "Red Army Choir Lost in Plane Crash" (December 25, 2016).

Ancient Indian Mound Marks Fountain Square Shooting

An early incorrect report said the police had detained a suspect in a shooting Thursday, September 6, 2018, at a Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati's Fountain Square, a police dispatcher said. Details of the multiple shooting were not immediately available, but the dispatcher said the situation is no longer active, and a suspect was in custody. But the gunman was not in custody.

The Shooting

At 9:11 am local time, a white male in a business suit with a handgun began shooting individuals at the 5th 3rd Center Tower's loading dock and what was first said to be in the bank's lobby. Instead, individuals were shot in a familiar Cincinnati ice cream parlor, Graeter's Fountain Square.

Several people were transported to the hospital. The suspect was deceased. Additionally, three of the five injured were dead.

The gunman turns out not to be "white," per se, but probably Latino. His name is Omar Enrique Santa Perez.

The Location

Fifth Third Bank (5/3 Bank) is a bank headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio at Fifth Third Center. It is the principal subsidiary of Fifth Third Bancorp, a bank holding company.

The company is ranked 389th on the Fortune 500. It is on the list of largest banks in the United States.

The name "Fifth Third" is derived from the names of both of the bank's two predecessor companies: Third National Bank and Fifth National Bank, which merged in 1908.

The Mounds

The history of the location is "haunted."

An ancient Indian mound stood at the present site of Fountain Square when the first white settlers arrived. Foundation Square has been the symbolic and sacred center of Cincinnati since 1871. It was renovated in 1971.

In Marguerite S. Shaffer's edited book, Public Culture: Diversity, Democracy, and Community in the United States (2008), this observation is made:

"With eerie precision, one ancient mound lines up directly underneath the city's Central Parkway; another exactly where early Cincinnatians built the city's first market. The market closed in 1871 when an ornate fountain was the built on the same spot. This urban plaza, known as 'Fountain Square,' has long been regard as the city's spiritual center."

A film clip at Cincinnati's Natural History Museum ends with this voice-over concluding statement: "Ancient monuments brought people together for festivals, rituals, trade, and pleasure, a process we repeat today among newer monuments."

The mythical, folkloric, and sometimes based-in-reality legendary "ancient Indian burial ground" stories resulting in curses, suicides, and murders have resulted in a frequent underlying theme of fiction films and novels.

The Amityville Horror said to be based on a true story, tells of the haunted house being built on a burial ground. It probably wasn't.

Haunted Indian burial grounds have appeared since in Poltergeist II, in Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining, and in countless lesser-known films, novels, and TV shows.
Stephen King’s 1983 novel Pet Sematary is a particularly striking version of this narrative, in part because he describes in great detail the nature and function of the [Micmac] burial ground. ~ "The Suburban Horror of the Indian Burial Ground" by Colin Dickey, The New Republic, October 19, 2016.

Daniel Drake’s 1815 map of Cincinnati with “Remains of Antient works” highlighted in red. Location of the earthworks recorded by Daniel Drake transposed onto a contemporary Cincinnati map. Source.

Note how the largest of the mounds is centered between 5th and 3rd.

It appears that one of the illustrated Cincinnati earthwork is comparable to the Great Serpent Mound located elsewhere in Ohio.

One of the best known mounds in Ohio, located 60 miles from Cincinnati, is the the Great Serpent Mound. It is a 1,348-foot-long, three-foot-high prehistoric effigy mound on a plateau of the Serpent Mound crater along Ohio Brush Creek in Adams County, Ohio.

When investigating the cluster of suicides in Camden, Maine, in the 1990s, I was confounded with the frequent rumor that the local high school had been built on the site of an ancient Native American burial grounds. (Other problems lived there too, due to the link to the book/film Peyton Place.)

The Date

September 6, 1757 – Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, French general is born (d. 1834).

September 6, 1901 – Leon Czolgosz (born May 5, 1873, Alpena, Michigan; lives in Warrensville, Ohio after 1898), an unemployed anarchist, shoots and fatally wounds US President William McKinley (born January 29, 1843, Niles, Ohio) at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.

September 6, 1966 – Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid, is stabbed to death in Cape Town, South Africa during a parliamentary meeting.

September 6, 1972 – Munich massacre: Nine Israeli athletes die (along with a German policeman) at the hands of the Palestinian "Black September" terrorist group after being taken hostage at the Munich Olympic Games. Two other Israeli athletes were slain in the initial attack the previous day.

September 6, 2018 – Burt Reynolds (born February 11, 1936, Lansing, Michigan), American actor, director and producer dies in Jupiter, Florida. WKRP in Cincinnati (1978-1982) actress Loni Anderson was married to Burt Reynolds from 1988 to 1993.

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