Wayne Name Game Has Tragic Ending in Orlando

The victims of another "Wayne" killer.

Within the "weird news" field, it has been a well-known truism that if a criminal has a middle name of "Wayne," no one in the newsroom is surprised he is being charged with murder. The examples are multiple. The most famous case, of course, is John Wayne Gacy.

An early correspondent of mine, Chuck Shepherd, has been a student of the Wayne "name game" for years. Here's what Chuck says about it, in an introduction to the topic:

The Classic Middle Name

It only occurred to me in the early 1990s that "Wayne" was a popular middle name among a few of the most heinous murderers of our time, e.g., the clown John Wayne Gacy (who killed almost three dozen boys and young men in the late 1970s and buried most of them beneath the floorboards of his Des Plaines, Ill., home) and Elmer Wayne Henley (sentenced to six consecutive life terms in 1974 in Houston for his role, with ringleader Dean Allen Corll, in the murders of 27 young men). I began to publish periodic lists in 1996, and soon readers made sure I never missed a one that made the news. Source, plus his impressively long list of names.

Orlando's Wayne Name Game

The most recent example occurred the day before the second anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre that left 50 (including the perpetrator) dead in Orlando, Florida.

It all began early on Monday, June 11, 2018, when 35-year-old Gary Wayne Lindsey Jr., a felon who was on probation for arson and other charges, shot a police officer in the eye. This occurred at an apartment complex, 4932 Eaglesmere Drive, off Kirkman Road, near Universal Orlando. Officer Kevin Valencia was wounded and taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he was in critical condition after surgery but expected to survive.

A standoff lasted nearly 24 hours, and it ended when Lindsey apparently shot the children he had taken as hostages — ages 1, 6, 10 and 11. No names of these victims have been released.

The gunman Gary Wayne Lindsey Jr. was discovered dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a closet when officers entered the apartment between 8:30 and 9 p.m. Eastern time, Orlando Police Chief John Mina said at a news conference just before midnight.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article212996364.html#storylink=cpy

Bourdain and Hawaiian Pizza

Anthony Bourdain died on June 8, 2018.

In one episode of his show, anti-pineapple-pizza-activist Anthony Bourdain changed his mind in Rome. He accepted pineapple on pizza as having redeeming value.

Of course, maybe Bourdain realized it wasn’t an American pizza, after all, but a Greek-chef-living-in-Canada’s invention.

What is bizarre, the "sudden death" of that Greek cook occurred on June 8, 2017, one year before Bourdain's surprise suicide by hanging.

Sotirios "Sam" Panopoulos (Greek: Σωτήριος Πανόπουλος; 20 August 1934 – 8 June 2017) was a Greek-born Canadian cook and businessman, credited as the inventor of Hawaiian pizza (putting pineapple on pizza). He emigrated to Canada in 1954, aged 20, arriving in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He settled in London, Ontario, and lived the rest of his life there. In good health, he died unexpectedly at 82. No public details are known about his cause of death.

In a doubly bizarre "coincidence," Clemens Wilmenrod (July 24, 1906 – April 12, 1967) who was the first German television cook (real name Carl Clemens Hahn), is considered the 1955 inventor of Toast Hawaii. He died by suicide in a Munich hospital in 1967.

Suicide by Scarf

Kate Spade was found dead by her housekeeper in her Manhattan apartment at around 10:20 a.m. on June 5, 2018, hanging by a red scarf tied to a doorknob. She was 55.

Kate Spade's husband is Andy Spade, the brother of comedian David Spade. She is the aunt of “The Marvelous Ms. Maisel” actress Rachel Brosnahan.

Her sister Reta Saffo told her local newspaper that Spade had been obsessed with the suicide of Robin Williams and believes her plan to kill herself may have started taking shape as she obsessively watched reports of his suicide. Source.

Reta Saffo described how Kate watched the news report on Robin Williams death "over and over again." Source.

Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. On August 11, 2014, Williams died by suicide at his home in Paradise Cay, California.  Williams was found clothed, hanging against a closed closet door, with a belt secured around his neck, and the other end of the belt wedged between the door and the door frame, with Williams slightly suspended in a seated position. In the initial report released on August 12, 2014, the Marin County Sheriff's Office deputy coroner stated Williams had hanged himself with a belt and died from asphyxiation.

While Spade started with handbags, she eventually branched out into other items, including scarves.

Kate Spade used the same method to kill herself - a scarf from a door knob - as had been used by L'Wren Scott, 49, on St. Patrick's Day in 2014. See here. 

Laura "Luann" Bambrough (April 28, 1964 – March 17, 2014), known professionally as L'Wren Scott, was an American stylist and fashion designer.

A photo of dresses hanging from a tree which was posted on L’Wren Scott’s Facebook page hours after her death has been labeled an “eerie” coincidence. The posting was pre-written and pre-scheduled to automatically publish on her account.

Scott used a black satin scarf to kill herself in her ninth-floor duplex on 11th Avenue and West 24th Street, New York City.

L'Wren died on the birthday of Alexander McQueen, who hanged himself in 2010.
 

Alexander McQueen, a top designer, died by suicide by hanging in 2010, being found in a closet.

Lee Alexander McQueen, CBE (March 17, 1969 – February 11, 2010) was a famed British fashion designer and couturier. McQueen died by suicide, at the age of forty, at his home in Mayfair, London. His mother had died on February 2, 2010. McQueen left a note saying, "Look after my dogs, sorry, I love you, Lee."

For The Record: Scottsdale Spree Killer

In May and June 2018 a spree killer sought out and killed six people in Scottsdale, Arizona. The spree began on May 30 and ended June 4.

The suspected shooter that the public was told to look for was sketched out as follows:

Steven Pitt (59), a well-known forensic psychiatrist was shot and killed outside his office at 5:20pm on Thursday 31 May. Pitt had examined [Dwight Lamon] Jones in connection with a "bitter" divorce. In 2006 Pitt helped the police identify the Baseline killer who had raped and murdered a series of women in Phoenix, Arizona. [Pitt also worked on the JonBenét Ramsey case. (Source.)]

Veleria Sharp (48), and Laura Anderson (49), paralegals, were shot and killed at 2:15pm on Friday, 1 June in the downtown Scottsdale offices of Burt, Feldman, Grenier, the law firm where they worked. A lawyer at the firm had worked on the Jones divorce. By 11:30 pm on Friday June 1, police knew that the same gun had been used to kill Anderson, Sharp and Pitt.
The body of Marshall Levine (72), a psychologist and counselor, was found just after midnight, as Friday turned to Saturday, June 2, in his Scottsdale office. Levine was subletting his office from a woman who had provided counseling services to his son during the divorce, Jones' intended target.
By Sunday afternoon, police had Jones under surveillance as he drove around Fountain Hills in his gold Mercedes Benz. At one point, Jones ditched a small bag containing a .22-caliber pistol, which police later determined to belong to one of two people, 70-year-old Mary Simmons and 72-year-old Bryon Thomas, who were shot and killed inside a Fountain Hills home. Their bodies were not discovered until Monday, 4 June. Police stated that ballistics ruled out the 22-caliber gun from having been used in any of the shootings. Source.

Background info, here.

Sergeant Lewis of the Phoenix Police described the suspect in Dr. Pitt’s killing as a bald, white male wearing a dark-colored hat with a short brim, “kind of like a fedora.”

Some felt the cap actually looked like this:

In a standoff with the suspect, the police cornered the gunman.

It turned out that the suspect was black. The shooter was Dwight Lamon Jones, aged 56.

The murderer killed himself. Note the pics show the Agua Caliente plaza sign in the background of the hotel where the stand-off took place and where his suicide occurred.

Caliente = Hot. Fuego = Fire (Fuego Volcano eruption).

+++

There was some concern for the safety for one other individual.

Footnote: This same general area is home to the Arizona medium and profiler Allison DuBois. She skyrocketed to fame as the subject of the popular CBS television show Medium (2005–2011). The series Medium was based on DuBois' book Don't Kiss Them Good-Bye. Patricia Arquette, who played the role of DuBois, won an Emmy for her portrayal. Glen Gordon Caron, the creator of Moonlighting and many other hits, was the head writer on the series. It was produced by Paramount Pictures and Grammnet, owned by Kelsey Grammer. Source.

Thanks for background insights from Steve L. and Tracy B.

2018 Ramming Death Linked to 1968 Hit-and-Run Killing

This is a complex story that starts one place, in time and space, and ends up traveling back to the past. 

To begin with, I was struck by the sync of the unfolding historical mention of 133 feet linked to the Maine event. In the news recently, three women's bodies have been found at 1333 Page Blvd, Springfield, Massachusetts, the house where Stewart Weldon buried them.

1333, 133, 22, 22, 44, Halloween, and 50 years. 1968. 68. Numbers. Just numbers. People died. 

It begins, contemporarily, at 7:09 pm, on Friday night, June 1, 2018, at a Babe Ruth baseball field in Sanford, Maine. The town is known for it's strong community support of its youth baseball. Damn it. My sons have played there. This incident was a shocker in Maine.

As the game was in progress, a car came through an open gate onto the Maine field, scattering the boys’ on-field baseball team, then striking and killing a man.

A West Newfield, Maine resident Douglas Parkhurst, 68, holding the gate, reportedly pushed kids out of the way, and was hit. Parkhurst was trying to close the main gate so the car could not leave the field.

68.

The maroon Honda sedan at one point struck a closed gate, sped toward the main gate and struck Parkhurst before speeding from the scene. He died on the way to the hospital.

Police charged 51-year-old Carol Sharrow with manslaughter. She remained in York Couty Jail.

Sharrow (English). The habitational name from Sharrow in Sheffield or Sharow in North Yorkshire, both named with Old English scearu "boundary" + hōh "hillspur." It is the Americanized spelling of French Charron. Intriguingly, the term sharrow is used with regard to a specialized symbol on the road for the right of passage of bikes.

One of the first developments was more information on Sharrow. Her actions seemed bizarre to the parents, coaches, and players there, as if she was driving in a trance, possessed.

Sanford police Detective Sgt. Matthew Jones said Sharrow has a drunken driving conviction in Maine and an aggravated drunken driving conviction in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Jones declined to say whether alcohol was involved in Friday’s incident.

As details emerged about the victim, Douglas Parkhurst, the first stories were of his  heroism, how he was a Vietnam Vet (he served as a cook in the Air Force), and a grandfather.

Then a deep sync was revealed.

Fifty-years ago, Parkhurst had killed a little four-year-old on Halloween 1968, in a hit-and-run incident with his car. But he hid that fact.

1968.

Finally, in 2013, after the cold case was re-opened on Facebook, and detectives were getting closer, Parkhurst confessed 44 years after the girl's death.  

44.

Carolee Sadie Ashby, 4, died in 1968. She was born on February 22, 1964.

22.

Parkhurst hit Carolee Sadie Ashby, and she was thrown 133 feet through the air, in Fulton, New York. 

133.

The 1968 site.

The details are chilling. Carolee was walking across the road, eating softserve ice cream, with her older sister Darlene and a cousin, after going to get birthday candles from the nearby Victory Store for Darlene's 15th birthday.

The girls were looking forward to going home and dressing up to go Halloween trick or treating. It was about 6:30 pm when they crossed the road. And Carolee was hit. 

A motorist watched as a car drifted to the center of a Fulton intersection and hit a teddy bear. 

The stuffed animal flew 133 feet. The car sped away from Division and South Second (now Route 481) streets.

When people began running up and down the street, the man drove closer and realized he'd been mistaken. The teddy bear had actually been a little girl. He sped up to the scene....

Carolee's black cowboy boots lay 20 feet from where she landed. The man found her crumpled body about a foot from the curb. She wasn't moving. ~ wrote Syracuse Post-Standard reporters Ken Sturtz and Jeff Stein

Therefore a Carol allegedly killed with her car the man who confessed to killing a Carolee with his car.

Origin of the name Carol: Feminine form of the Latin Carolus, which is a cognate of Charles (full-grown, a man, freeman), and a short form of Caroline, another feminine form of Carolus. Alternatively, the name is derived from the vocabulary word carol (joyous song, a carol). Var: Carol, Carrol, Carroll, Carryl, Caryl. And Carolee.

When the confession came in 44 years after the little 4 year-old girl who was born on February 22, had been killed, Doug Parkhurst could not be charged because the statute of limitations had expired. The Syracuse newspaper asked for records of the investigation under the Freedom of Information. On May 22, 2013, the request was denied because it was allegedly "still an ongoing investigation."

4. 44. 22. 22.

On June 2, 2018, Russ Johnson, the retired Fulton police officer whose Facebook post led to the tip that helped crack the case, called Douglas Parkhurst’s death "ironic and a strange twist of fate."

“God works in mysterious ways,” Johnson said in a telephone interview with Beth Quimby of the Portland Press Herald.

Johnson, who joined the force in 1985, said he reopened the case in 1999 but never got anywhere before he retired in 2006.

“It was mind-blowing that the community had remained so distraught over the decades,” Johnson said.

Karma?

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

The "Eifel" Behind Those Zoo Escapes

Several animals, including 2 lions, 2 tigers, a bear and a jaguar break out of a zoo in Germany's hilly Eifel area on Friday, June 1, 2018. All were soon captured, except the bear, which was shot dead.

Eifel? Eiffel? What's the story behind the name?

The Eifel lies between the cities of Aachen to the north, Trier to the south and Koblenz to the east. It descends in the northeast along a line from Aachen via Düren to Bonn into the Lower Rhine Bay. In the east and south it is bounded by the valleys of the Rhine and the Moselle. To the west it transitions in Belgium and Luxembourg into the geologically related Ardennes and the Luxembourg Ösling. In the north it is limited by the Jülich-Zülpicher Börde. Within Germany it lies within the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia; in BeNeLux the area of Eupen, St. Vith and Luxembourg. Its highest point is the volcanic cone of the Hohe Acht (746.9 m). Originally the Carolingian Eifelgau only covered the smaller region roughly around the sources of the rivers Ahr, Kyll, Urft and Erft. Its name was more recently transferred to the entire region.

The Eifel was inhabited by people: Neandertals and modern man, Homo sapiens.

Regarding the origins of the name Eifel:

Müller/Schnetz (1937) believe that an -n- has dropped out between the diphthong and the syllable, -fel. The resulting root form Anfil or Anfali would then mean an "area that is not so level". An- would then be a prefix and -fali, which is related to the Slavic polje ("field"), means "plain" or "heath".
W. Kaspers (1938) deduces from the surviving form in pago aquilinse the root form aku-ella, akwella and points to its development into the name "Eifel" in the following sequence: aquila > agfla > aifla > eifla > Eifel. Akuella derives from the pre-German and means "land with summits" or "land with peaks".
Both propositions, like several others, are highly contentious. The most convincing proposal is that of Heinrich Dittmaier (1961). Dittmaier initially derives it from the Germanic Ai-fil. The second component corresponds to Ville, which is the name of a ridge between the Erft, Swist and Rhine today. The variants Vele, Vile and Viele may often be found in place names such as Veler Weg or Veler Pfad. Unlike the modern word Ville the fricative consonant is hard in "Eifel". Responsible for that was probably a sound between ai- and -fil, which was assimilated by the f, possibly f, k, ch, d, t. Dittmaier believes the missing sound was a k or ch, whereby "Eifel" originally went back to Aik-fil. Aik/Aich is also a name for oak (Eiche) and qualifies the root word ville. On the basis that it was covered by oak trees, the Eifel (= Eich-Ville) could thus be distinguished from the other Ville, a name still used today, on the Erft. However, the original, historical and even current vegetation of the present day Ville is dominated by oak mixed forest.
The meaning of "Ville" is also disputed. Dittmaier gives three possible explanations: "marshy region", "plain, heath" and "heathland", which would all bring geology and vegetation into harmony.
Another proposal sees the name as even older and possibly of Celtic origin. Near Cologne, an altar was found, which was dedicated to Matronae Aufaniae Celtic goddesses which were honoured by flowing water. The thesis that the name "Eifel" was derived from this source is not conclusive, but it is persuasive; Eifel would then mean "land of water" or "watery mountains".

Gustave Eiffel was born in Burgundy, France, in the city of Dijon, Côte-d'Or, the first child of Catherine-Mélanie (née Moneuse) and Alexandre Bönickhausen. He was a descendant of Jean-René Bönickhausen, who had emigrated from the German town of Marmagen and settled in Paris at the beginning of the 18th century. The family adopted the name Eiffel as a reference to the Eifel mountains in the region from which they had come.

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (born Bönickhausen; 15 December 1832 – 27 December 1923) was a French civil engineer. A graduate of École Centrale Paris, he made his name with various bridges for the French railway network, most famously the Garabit viaduct. He is best known for the world-famous Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, and his contribution to building the Statue of Liberty in New York.