Fayette Factor: Pennsylvania Shooting

The "Fayette Factor" is a phrase capturing the surprisingly high numbers of Fortean or inexplicable events, violent incidents, and synchromystic findings linked to places named after one of the USA's Founding Fathers--Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834). It was first documented by researcher and writer William Grimstad, back in 1977, and written about in "Fateful Fayette," Fortean Times, No. 25, Spring 1978. My writings on the topic have followed up and continued with examples for the last 40 years or so.

The word "fay" + "ette" = "fairy" + "little" = little little people.

An etymology view of "Lafayette" notes it can be translated from the French as "the little enchantment," as well as "the little fairy." Joan of Arc at the age of 8 danced around a "fay tree," a "fairy tree," some saying she saw fairies (which links to the French surname from Occitan, "the little beech tree"). Others tell that she heard voices, had visions, and was "enchanted." The name has a long history. Marshal of France Gilbert de La Fayette III, an ancestor of Marquis De Lafayette, led the army of Joan of Arc, in Orléans. The habitation of Lafayette, the location of La Grange, also gets our special attention.

The latest Fayette frenzy occurred on Sunday, January 28, 2018, in Fayette County - one of the poorest, most rural Appalachian counties in Pennsylvania.

At least four people were killed during a shooting motived by a jealous rage at a car wash in suburban Pennsylvania on Sunday, state police said. The shooting at Ed's Car Wash took place shortly before 3 a.m. in the Melcroft community of Saltlick Township, about 55 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Ed Bukovac is the owner of the car wash.

Police initially said five people were killed but later clarified that the suspect is on life support at a local hospital.

Police identified the victims as 27-year-old William Scott Porterfield, 25-year-old Chelsie Lou Cline, 21-year-old Seth William Cline and 23-year-old Courtney Sue Snyder. An unidentified adult female passenger was able to survive the shooting and suffered minor injuries from broken glass.

The shooter -- identified as 28-year-old Timothy O'Brien Smith (pictured above) of Ligonier -- sustained a gunshot wound to the head and is not expected to survive. Police said the gunshot wound may have been self-inflicted.  He allegedly arrived in a Toyota Tacoma and parked on the side of the car wash.

Smith was armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, a 9mm handgun and and possessed a 308 rifle, Fayette County District Attorney Richard Bower said. Smith wore a body armor carrier without the ballistic panels and had several magazines of for the AR-15 and 9mm, Bower added.

Joan of Arc, Heath Ledger, and Snoop Dogg

Thirteen people died in a fire late Friday [August 5, 2016] night in northern France when fire broke out in a bar full of patrons celebrating someone's birthday, according to reports. The fire was started by an accidental explosion in a bar known as Au Cuba Libre in the town of Rouen in Normandy.

The number of dead climbed to 13 on early Saturday, according to Paris-Normandie, a local news website.

At least six people were wounded, according to reports.

The bar was full of young people celebrating someone's birthday, officials said. (We are waiting for the release of the victims' names and will update this info.)

Tom Mellet shared the following:

This explosion at the Cuba Libre bar in Rouen, France is quite sympropinquitous because its location is exactly 4.00 miles NNW of the Church of Saint Etienne du Rouvray where the Catholic priest was murdered at Mass 10 days ago.
Both the church and the bar are very close to the left bank of the Seine River which really snakes through that area of France.
The name of the bar Le Cuba Libre is not a political sentiment, but rather the name of a drink, the one that we in the USA call a “Rum and Coke.” It was invented in 1901 in Havana by American sailors during the Spanish-American War
The bar was located on Avenue Jacques Cartier, named for the great 16th C French explorer who claimed what is now Canada for France.
The 13 fatalities were all young people between the ages of 18 and 25 who were celebrating a Reunion-themed birthday party in the basement.

Joan of Arc was executed in Rouen in 1431. (h/t to Andrew B.)

A new update on the cause of the fire and more from Tom Mellet:

There was no explosion. Birthday candles on a cake started the fire.
Report from a French official:

 . . . the fire was completely accidental. There was no explosion . . . Candles on a birthday cake started the fire after the person who carried it tripped on the stairs leading to the basement” . . . sound-insulating material on the basement's walls quickly ignited and party guests had no time to escape from the basement.

All 13 fatalities were young people between the ages of 18 and 25. They probably all died from smoke inhalation, not burns, as did a 19 year old woman named Joan on May 30, 1431 at a location in Rouen across the Seine River exactly one-half mile!!! north of the Cuba Libre bar at a place called Vieux Marché (the Old Marketplace). 

This proximity is such a tight sympropinquity that I will now measure distance in yards, not miles.

From the Cuba Libre bar, walk 220 yards North on Jacques Cartier Ave. to arrive at the left bank of the Seine River where you cross the Joan of Arc Bridge for 150 yards to reach the right bank where the name becomes Joan of Arc Street. Proceed 500 yards north, make a left on Rue Rollon for 220 yards and you arrive at the spot of Le bûcher the stake where Joan met her fate.

Eyewitnesses described the scene of the execution by burning on 30 May 1431. Tied to a tall pillar at the Vieux-Marché in Rouen, she asked two of the clergy, Fr Martin Ladvenu and Fr Isambart de la Pierre, to hold a crucifix before her. An English soldier also constructed a small cross that she put in the front of her dress. After she died, the English raked back the coals to expose her charred body so that no one could claim she had escaped alive. They then burned the body twice more, to reduce it to ashes and prevent any collection of relics, and cast her remains into the Seine River. The executioner, Geoffroy Thérage, later stated that he "greatly feared to be damned.” Source.

Where have we seen a “tall pillar” before? And in relation to the French? Yes, the tall red pole pictured on Loren's post here from July 17 that represents the discovery by the French explorers in 1699 which gave the name to the capital city of Louisiana: Baton Rouge.

Au Cuba Libre is close to a bakery, as we can see in one of the photographs from the incident. (h/t JP)

Rouen (Latin: Rotomagus) is a city on the River Seine in the north of France. It is the capital of the region of Normandy. Formerly one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, Rouen was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandyduring the Middle Ages. It was one of the capitals of the Anglo-Norman dynasties, which ruled both England and large parts of modern France from the 11th to the 15th centuries.

In the 2001 movie A Knight's Tale, the protagonist William Thatcher (played by Heath Ledger) poses as a noble and competes in his first jousting tournament at Rouen.

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On the Facebook page, The Kitchen Sync, Eddie Lin wrote:

David Patrick and I were discussing Leto and LEDGEr / joker earlier...
"The incident in Camden on Friday night sent fans over the LEDGE"
I was writing 'Hanging over the LEDGE' comparing Leto Joker's tattoo and Bale's Machinist drawing - the Hangman

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Camden's Ledge

Snoop Dog, a/k/a Snoop Lion was born Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr.

At least 42 people were injured when a fence collapsed during rapper Snoop Dogg’s concert in New Jersey Friday night, authorities said.

The incident in Camden on Friday night (August 5, 2016) sent fans over the ledge at the outdoor BB&T Pavilion around 10:25 p.m. ET, fire officials said.

Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa were performing at the time.

Joan of Arc fought under a flag with a lion on it; Heath was in a 1997 tv series Roar; Snoop now goes by Snoop Lion (after Lion of Judah). ~ Johnny Walsh

Buk, Beech, LaFayette, and the Fayette Factor

"The Buk - which means beech tree in Russia - is a 1970s vintage, truck-mounted, radar-guided missile system, codenamed SA-11 Gadfly by Cold War NATO adversaries." ~ Reuters, 17 July 2014.

MH17 was shot down by a Buk, according to Ukrainian Interior Ministry official Anton Gerashchenko.

"The plane was struck by a Buk missile, and in Russian, Buk means beech = Lafayette, the little beech-tree." ~ Matthew Deagle, Twilight Language commentary.

Buk

In my essay, The Fayette Factor, I noted, of course, that "Lafayette" translates into "the little fairy" or "the little enchantment." This does track back to a "little beech-tree."

"La fayette" consists of the elements "fay" (fairy) and the diminuitive "-ette," translating literally as "little 'little people.'"
Others have said this, as well.

The name Lafayette is of French origin. It means either faith or comprehensive. Lafayette is actually an amalgamation of two words in French "La" and "Fayette". Though it is spelt in its combined form in the United States it is spelt in two parts in France. The word "La" is actually the article "the" in French and "Fayette" in the Old French means "little fairy". Source.

An alternative view of "Lafayette" notes it can be translated from the French as "the little enchantment," as well as "the little fairy." Joan of Arc at the age of 8 danced around a beech tree, a "fay tree," a "fairy tree," some recording that she saw fairies. Others tell that she heard voices, had visions, and was "enchanted."

The beech tree, literally, the "fairy tree," la fayette, are historically lexilinked to Joan de Arc.

Joan of Arc was born in 1412 in the Valley of the Meuse in the small farming village of Domremy, France. Later visitors have commented on the area, the beech tree, and more.

On a beautiful August afternoon while our Division was out at rest after going through the Marne campaign, I went in a Ford through the Joan of Arc country and visited her home, her church, and the beautiful Basilica built on the hill overlooking the charming Valley of the Meuse. The route out from Gondrecourt was charming. We went by splendid roads along the ridge of the valley for many miles. At length we came into the village of Domremy where in 1412 Joan of Arc was born in a humble home of humble parents, her father being a peasant farmer. Joan was brought up to sew and cook, tend sheep, attend mass and pray. She had little or no schooling. As a girl she was like other girls, light-hearted and merry. Around that old majestic beech tree which was known as the "fairy tree" by the village, she used to join other children in summer days in making wreaths of flowers and hanging it on the tree and then gleefully dancing around it. There is a story that when about twelve years of age she was playing with other children and then finished up with a race in which she ran so swiftly that her feet did not seem to touch the ground. It was that day she heard a voice that she thought was her brother's calling her. It was not her brother's but the "Voice" that was to be heard by her in later days so often and which was to make known to her, her duty as the Lord's chosen one. Source.

Joan of Arc and the beech tree are linked.

Fifteen centuries earlier, France had been the Celtic land of Gaul, its people the ancestors of medieval French peasants like Joan. Traces of the old Celtic religion survived into her time. Near Domrémy grew a beech tree which villagers called the "Ladies' Tree" or "Fairies' Tree." They gathered May-branches there. Young people danced and sang under its canopy. "My godmother," Joan said, "even told me that she had seen fairies there, but I do not know whether it was true or not."
Between the tree and the village was a spring believed to have healing properties. In Domrémy, the fourth Sunday in Lent was called "Fountains Sunday," when the villagers would eat a special meal of bread, wine and eggs under the Ladies' Tree, then stop to drink from the spring on their way home. On Ascension Day, the fortieth day after Easter, when the local priest blessed the fields, he made another stop to recite the gospel under the Ladies' Tree.
Ancient Celts believed gods and spirits dwelt in places like trees and springs. As proselytizing monks spread Christianity across Europe, they struggled to persuade people that the world around them was not sacred. In southern France, the second Council of Arles decreed in 452 that a bishop would be guilty of sacrilege if he allowed his people to "venerate trees, fountains, or stones." In 724 Saint Boniface cut down an oak sacred to the Germanic god Donar and built a church out of its wood.
Finally though, after centuries of failing to eliminate customs associated with sacred trees and wells, Christian authorities incorporated them into their world view. Even today, wells consecrated to Christian saints and Christianized Celtic deities are important features of the Celtic landscape.
It was in a green and leafy place that thirteen-year-old Joan first heard a mysterious voice. "I was terrified," she said. "The voice came to me about noon; it was summer, and I was in my father's garden. I had not fasted the day before. I heard the voice on my right hand, towards the church. There was a great light all about."
"Twice and thrice a week" she said, "the voice told me that I must depart and go into France." She came to believe the voices were those of St. Michael, St. Catherine and St. Margaret. In the spring of 1428, without telling her parents, she persuaded a relative to take her to Robert de Baudricourt, the military commander in nearby Vaucouleurs. He laughed and sent her home. But she kept returning. Her persistence and confidence finally won him over. Source.

Gilbert du Motier—better known as the Marquis de Lafayette—had ancestors who served in the Crusades and alongside Joan of Arc. Marshal of France Gilbert de La Fayette III, an ancestor of Marquis De Lafayette, led the army of Joan of Arc, in Orléans.

Photo at top. From the Foret de la Montagne de Reims. "Inside the national park you can also find the very strange, weird, mysterious Faux de Verzy. It is a variety of beech and is also called 'tortuosa' because of the deformities of the trunk and branches. The story is that the trees grow very slowly but get very old....One is called le faux de la Demoiselle, in honor of Joan of Arc, said to have slept in the forest." Source.

Things do come full circle.