Twin Peaks, Deaths, and A Deadly Puma Attack

It's that Twin Peak's time of year...

It kicks off every year on Twin Peaks Day.

On April 16, 2018, American actress Pamela Gidley, best known for her role as Teresa Banks, the murder victim in the Twin Peaks prequel Fire Walk With Me (1992), died at the age of 52. She passed away "peacefully" at her home in Seabrook, New Hampshire. A cause of death was not been made public.

Gidley, a former child model, was named the "Most Beautiful Girl in the World" by Wilhelmina Modeling Agency in 1985. She transitioned into acting a year later, appearing alongside Josh Brolin and future Twin Peaks co-star Sherilyn Fenn in Thrashin'.

Gidley was born in Methuen, Massachusetts, and raised in Salem, New Hampshire.  Salem, New Hampshire is known as the site of America's Stonehenge (also called Mystery Hill), a mysterious megalith structure. Allegedly, H. P. Lovecraft visited Mystery Hill in Salem, New Hampshire, and then wrote The Dunwich Horror. Seabrook, New Hampshire, is the location of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Station.

May 21, 2018, is the first anniversary of the rebooting of the David Lynch television series Twin Peaks from 25 years. Series 3, as it was called, premiered on May 21, 2017.

The towns of Snoqualmie, North Bend and Fall City – which became the primary filming locations for stock Twin Peaks exterior footage – are about an hour's drive from the town of Roslyn, Washington, the town used for the series Northern Exposure. Many exterior scenes were filmed in wooded areas of Malibu, California.

One man was killed and another seriously injured when they encountered a cougar on May 19, 2018, while mountain biking in the general area where Twin Peaks was filmed in Washington State.

The area of the cougar attack, which left one human dead, and the cat tracked down & killed was near Snoqualmie Falls, Washington State, the site of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks series.

Authorities said the two men were on a morning bike ride in the foothills near North Bend when the attack occurred. The town is about 30 miles east of Seattle.

The mountain lion ran into the woods and officers with the Washington Department of Fish and Game later tracked it down and shot and killed it, said Capt. Alan Myers of the state’s Fish & Wildlife Police.

The 31-year-old survivor was taken to a hospital in Seattle. He was initially listed in serious condition in the emergency room but was alert and talking; his condition was later upgraded to satisfactory, The Seattle Times reported.

A search and rescue team was dispatched to recover the body of the deceased man.

KIRO-TV reported that the injured man called 911 shortly before 11 a.m. and shouted, “Can you hear me? Help!” and then the call hung up.

Authorities found the cougar standing over the body of the dead biker, the station reported. The first man attacked said the cougar had his entire head in the cat's mouth. The second man jumped off his bike, and ran into the forest. The mountain lion, a 3-year-old thin male, chased him down and killed him.

Reporter Andrew W. Griffin reminds us that in the Series 3 opener, "two young people are killed in that first episode by an entity - their heads torn off."
In the last 100 years in North America, roughly 25 fatalities and 95 nonfatal cougar attacks have been reported, the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife said, but there was only one other fatal attack in the state. However, more attacks have been reported in the western United States and Canada over the past 20 years than in the previous 80 years.

The area of the cougar attack and the Twin Peaks locations are known for weird crimes.

(1) On that same road nine years after Twin Peaks premiered, then 39-year-old Dayva Cross stabbed his wife and two of his stepdaughters to death in their rambling brown ranch house. He kept a third stepdaughter captive in his bedroom for hours, dragging her out occasionally so he could refill his wine glass.
The 13-year-old escaped. Police later found Cross slumped on his bed, smoking a cigarette. The crime rattled Snoqualmie, which was already on edge. Because two weeks before Cross’s killing spree, a family dog in the area had brought home a grisly trophy: part of a human hand that police later traced to a woman’s remains.

(2) In the decade before Twin Peaks, the Green River Killer began his deadly rampage throughout the Pacific Northwest. Gary L Ridgway, described as America’s most prolific serial killer, was a commercial truck painter who preyed on women at the margins of society.
In 2003, he led investigators to the remains of April Buttram, 17, one of at least five victims he buried in and around Snoqualmie and North Bend. The teenager had disappeared 20 years earlier.

(3) In 2014, a tiny body was discovered along a lonely stretch of country road between Snoqualmie and North Bend. Her umbilical cord was still attached. She was wrapped in a towel. Local authorities in rural Washington state named  her Baby Kimball, after the creek near where she was found. Three years have passed. Her life and death remain a mystery. But Valley residents have since erected a small shrine on Southeast North Bend Way to mark where the newborn was discarded. Its sides are rough wood; its roof, pale green metal siding. Inside, there’s a white cross with Baby Kimball written in black marker.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and h/t to AWG for 2018 anniversary reminder.

Thor's Stone: Thurston School Shootings' Name Game

Thurston means "Thor's Stone." It is a name involved in school violence incidents since, at least, 1998. Today gives us another example.

2015 Incident

Emergency dispatchers confirmed reports of an active shooter, a 15- or 16-year-old boy, was armed with a handgun, on campus about 7:40 a.m., on Monday, April 27, 2015. In the Year of the Ram, school violence visited another Thurston.

A gunman at North Thurston High School, 600 Sleater Kinney Road NE, Lacey, Washington State, near Seattle, fired, at least, two shots in a common area, and then was tackled by staff members, according to the school district. No one was hurt.
The school is in lockdown. Lacey police said the gunman is in custody.

A parent shows the text message she got from her child at North Thurston High School in Lacey, Wash., April 27, 2015. (Photo: KING 5 News)

North Thurston High School, located in the North Thurston Public Schools District in Lacey, Washington, is a comprehensive high school, which first opened in 1955. North Thurston serves a portion of Lacey and northeast Thurston County. The school is accredited by the Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction. The principal is Tyler Roach.

This school has been a focus of concern in the past. According to the October 24, 2006, issue of the Mason County Daily News, a North Thurston School District teacher from Shelton, Washinton, was accused of bringing a gun onto school grounds and had to resign. The North Thurston School Board accepted the resignation of Mary Catherine Roe, a language arts teacher at Nisqually Middle School.

North Thurston High School is not to be confused with the Thurston High School shooting of Springfield, Oregon.

It will be recalled that on May 21, 1998, Kip Kinkel brought school violence to his fellow students at Thurston High School.

On that day, in Springfield, Oregon, two students were killed, and 22 others were wounded in the cafeteria at Thurston High School by 15-year-old Kipland "Kip" Kinkel. His parents were later found dead at home. Kinkel had brought three weapons to the high school, a .22 caliber rifle, a .22 caliber handgun, and a 9mm Glock semi-automatic pistol. 

Kinkel was convicted of shooting his parents, William, 59, and Faith, 57, in their Springfield home and, the next day, opening fire in the Thurston High School cafeteria, wounding 25 students and killing Mikael Nickolauson*, 17, and Ben Walker, 16.

Kinkel was sentenced to 112 years in prison in the Thurston shootings. His case was a precusor to the Columbine High School massacre of April 20, 1999.
My further investigations revealed that two other school shootings happened on that date in 1998.

From my book, The Copycat Effect, following my discussion of the Springfield, Oregon shooting, I wrote:

On the same day, May 21, 1998, 200 miles due north, at the end of the school day, Miles Fox, 15, a student of Onalaska High School, Onalaska, Washington, took a young woman hostage from his bus to his home, and died by suicide from a shot to his head. As the story aired on radio and television, Ricardo Martin, 15, shot himself with a .38 caliber pistol and died on the campus of Rialto High School, in Rialto, California.

The events happening earlier on May 21, in Springfield, Oregon, had been all over the radio, Internet, and news channels constantly, all day.

Thurston has had ripple effects through other school violence.

The Gresham, Oregon, Tuesday, April 10, 2011, school shooting was triggered by the shooter's viewing of the recent National Geographic Channel's The Final Report: Columbine.

The shooter Chad Antonio Escobedo had watched the Columbine documentary and decided April 7 that he would do a shooting at his school because he was angry. The incident took place at Springwater Trail High School in a Portland suburb. Coincidentally, the principal at Springwater — Larry Bentz — was principal at Thurston High School in Springfield, when the Kip Kinkel shooting occurred in 1998.

Thurston Name Game

The Thurston name game is strong in these school violence events. Thurston is an English-language surname. It appears to have originated from the Old Norse personal name Þórsteinn. This name is derived from the Old Norse elements Þórr ("Thor," the Scandinavian thunder god) and steinn ("stone," "rock").

As an aside, the name game kicks into high gear in a historical baseball-Hawaiian sidetrip, for Mr. Baseball writes:

Alexander Cartwright died on July 12, 1892, from blood poisoning from a boil on his neck. The Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown six months later on January 17, 1893. A group of Americans in Honolulu formed to request of President Benjamin Harrison that Hawaii be annexed to the United States. The president was in favor. The individual leading the cause for annexation was Lorrin Thurston. Coincidentally, Thurston had played baseball at Punahou School at the same time as Alexander III and Bruce Cartwright Sr.

Thurston, as a surname, is tied to powerful political and historical individuals in Hawaii, Oregon, Washington State, and elsewhere.

Howard Thurston (July 20, 1869 – April 13, 1936) was a stage magician from Columbus, Ohio, United States. He was the most famous magician of his time, and his traveling magic show was the biggest one of all; it was so large that it needed eight train cars to transport his road show.

In fiction, the character Francis Wayland Thurston was the narrator of The Call of Cthulhu.

Thor's Stone/Thurston

Thurstaston Hill is the location of Thor's Stone (shown), a large sandstone outcrop and a place of romantic legend. In the 19th century it was supposed that early Viking settlers may have held religious ceremonies here. A visit to the site by members of the British Archaeological Association in 1888 heard an account by Rev. A. E. P. Gray, rector of Wallasey, that the "Thor Stone" was also known in the locality as "Fair Maiden's Hall" and that children were "in the habit of coming once a year to dance around the stone". This part of Wirral was certainly part of a Norse colony centred on Thingwall in the 10th and 11th centuries. However, geologists and historians now think that the rock is a natural formation similar to a tor, arising from periglacial weathering of the sandstone, which was later exploited by quarrymen in the 18th and 19th centuries. Source.

As far as locations, several sites are named Thurston, and linked to people of that name:

Antarctica
Thurston Glacier, Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica

(Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Thomas R. Thurston, United States Antarctic Research Program meteorologist at Byrd Station in 1965.)
Thurston Island, off Ellsworth Land, Antarctica

(The island was discovered from the air by Rear Admiral Byrd on February 27, 1940, who named it for W. Harris Thurston, New York textile manufacturer, designer of the windproof "Byrd Cloth" and sponsor of Antarctic expeditions.)

United Kingdom
Thurston, Suffolk, England, a village

(Allegedly, a local name meaning "settlement.")

United States
Thurston County, Nebraska
Thurston, Nebraska, a village

(The county and village were named after the United States Senator John M. Thurston.)
Thurston, New York, a town

(The town is named after early landowner William Thurston.)
Thurston, Ohio, a village
Thurston, Oregon, several places

(The settlement was named for pioneer George H. Thurston, and Thurston post office was established in 1877.)

Thurston, Virginia, an unincorporated community
Thurston County, Washington

(It is named after Samuel R. Thurston, the Oregon Territory's first delegate to Congress.)

April 27

April 27, 1911: Manhattan, Kansas, During a school play rehearsal, a revolver was accidentally loaded by a boy who tried to shoot a bird with it the day before. When the girl was to use the firearm as written in the script, she picked it up, then laid it down saying she was afraid of the old thing. The Teacher, Miss Reedy then grabbed the gun and said there was no need for alarm and pointed it at the girl, Pearl Reedy, 18 years old, and squeezed the trigger. The bullet lodged near her heart fatally wounding her.

April 27, 1936: Lincoln, Nebraska, Prof. John Weller shot and wounded Prof. Harry Kurz in a corridor of the University of Nebraska, apparently because of his impending dismissal at the end of the semester. After shooting Kurz Weller tried to escape, but was surrounded by police on the campus, whereupon he killed himself with a shot in the chest.

April 27, 1966: Bay Shore, New York, Teacher John S. Lane, 48, was shot and fatally wounded when he tried to stop 16-year-old student James Arthur Frampton, who was walking through the halls of Bay Shore Senior High School with a shotgun, searching for some boys with whom he had an argument earlier that day. Lane died of his wounds on June 13, 1966.

The Future

With the fatal crossbow incident in Spain on the Columbine anniversary, a school violence threat in Columbia, South Columbia, also on April 20th, and now this event, should we watch out during May 2015, for other school incidents?

Past school violence events have shown that the suicidal-homicidal rampage-styled shooters often focus on in-school cafeterias, for example, at Aarhus University, Denmark (1994), Thurston High School, Oregon (1998), Montreal, Ecole Polytechnique, Montreal (1998), Columbine High School, Colorado (1999), Red Lion Area Junior High School, Pennsylvania (2003), and Dawson College, Montreal (2006).

__________

*In terms of the name game, Bill Grimstad has been alerting his correspondents to an especially active "power name" in recent years: Nicholas. Please see the scholarly discussion of this name, here.

Death of Skinwalkers' Misty Upham: Accident, Suicide, or Murder?

The Native American (Blackfeet) actress Misty Upham, 32, who has been missing since October 5, 2014, was discovered dead in a ravine in a Seattle woodland, close by her sister's apartment, on or near the Muckleshoot Nation, on October 17th.

Upham appeared in several films, including Skinwalkers (2002), Frozen River (2008) - shown immediately above -, Diango Unchained (2012), and August: Osage County (2013).

Skinwalkers (2002) is not to be confused with the more horror-oriented Skinwalkers (2006).

In some Native American legends, a skinwalker (in Dini/Navajo = yee naldlooshi) is a person with the supernatural ability to turn into any animal he or she desires. To be able to transform, legend sometimes requires that the skin-walker wears a pelt of the animal. In most cases, this pelt is not used in modern times because it is an obvious sign of them being skin-walkers. Similar lore can be found in cultures throughout the world and is often referred to as shapeshifting by anthropologists. I personally, as long ago as the mid-1960s, interviewed people who had encounters with what they assumed were skinwalkers, running beside their speedy cars, in Arizona and New Mexico. There is nothing funny about skinwalkers and shapeshifters to those who feel they have seen them.

The synchrocinema Skinwalkers is a 2002 mystery television film based on the novel by Tony Hillerman, one of a series of mysteries set against contemporary Navajo life in the Southwest. It stars Adam Beach as Jim Chee, Wes Studi as Joe Leaphorn, and Misty Upham as Nina. It was produced as part of the PBS Mystery! series.

Joe Leaphorn, a seasoned cop accustomed to the ways of Phoenix, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque, has returned to the Navajo Nation. Recovering from cancer, his wife, Emma, feels rejuvenated by her home's landscape and people. Leaphorn is less sure about their return. Well schooled in urban policing, he is soon confronted with a particular Navajo case: a mysterious killer who has a special antipathy for medicine men. He works with a partner Jim Chee, an FBI Academy grad who is training to be a traditional healer.
Roman George's body is found miles from his abandoned truck and surrounded by ancient symbols etched in blood. A local archeologist holds the key to the symbols he left behind, so Chee and Leaphorn pay him a visit at a nearby Anasazi ruins. There, these unlikely partners find further clues indicating that the murderer may be a "skinwalker," a Navajo witch with the power to shape shift, or change from human to animal, move with lightning speed, and to kill with curses. Fearing that his mentor, Wilson Sam, will be next, Chee convinces the medicine man to hide in a nearby motel.
As Chee juggles the day-to-day police work on the reservation, Leaphorn tracks down clues to the identity of the evasive criminal. More ancient symbols are found at an abandoned paint factory, where a local gang has been congregating. What do the signs mean? Who is sending these messages in blood? Could the murders be linked to the old Dinetah Paints scandal? Chee does not have much time to mull these questions over, as he soon finds himself in the killer's crosshairs. Source.

For a complete overview of the various theories related to Misty Upham's death, please see here. Most focus on a suicide or an accident.

Some individuals, such as actress Juliette Lewis, feel a more sinister backstory may be in play.

Her family claim that she tripped and fell down a hidden embankment while hiding from police. She was missing for 12 days until her body was found.

In summary, Misty Upham was apparently bipolar and suicidal, and may have taken her own life. She may have been fleeing what she felt was a police pursuit, and fallen, by accident, into the ravine. The family has some strong feelings about her death, of course.

The following is a statement from the family:

We would like to provide the following information to all of Misty's friends and family. We believe that Misty's death was accidental. She did not commit suicide.
We believe she ran into the wooded area behind her apartment to hide from the police.
The area in question has a hidden drop off and evidence suggests that she slipped and fell off of the steep embankment when she tried to get out of a view from the road.
She simply did not see the drop off. We searched near that area that evening she disappeared and missed seeing her purse by 25 feet.

I , Charles, went there after Fire Department officials recovered her body and you just can't see the steep drop until it's to late.
Misty was afraid of the Auburn PD officers with good reason. In an incident prior to her disappearance, the Auburn PD came to pick up Misty on an involuntary transport to the ER.
She was cuffed and placed in a police car. Some of the officiers began to taunt and tease her while she was in the car.
Because it was dark they couldn't see that we, her family, were outside our apartment just across the street witnessing this behavior.
They were tapping on the window making faces at her. Misty was crying and she told them you can't treat me like this I'm a movie actress and I will use my connections to expose you.
Then another officer walked up to her asked 'are you a movie star?, then why don't complain to George Clooney!'
After Misty arrived at the ER we went to see her and she has a swollen jaw, black eye and scratches and bruises on her shoulder.
I asked the ER staff what happened and they said Misty was brought in like that. Misty said she couldn't remember what happened but that’s why she feared the police.
I asked Misty to call the Auburn PD and ask to speak to the commander. When she was connected to, whom we believe was Commander Stocker she made a verbal complaint.
The official asked her 'what are you going to do about it?' She replied I'm doing it, I'm telling you so you do something about it.'
The APD official told her unless she wanted to file a formal complaint the matter would not be pursued.
The day the APD was called to do another Involuntary transport Misty left the apartment where she was staying.
When we tried to follow her Auburn PD officers told us they wanted to check for inside. We told them that Misty may have walked around the side of the apartment but they made us to go back inside.
They asked if we were hiding her and took time to search the apartment and get a description of what she was wearing.
By the time they finished Misty was gone. We believe that if we were not otherwise occupied we may have found Misty before she got hurt.
It is a tragic that Misty slipped and fell to her death trying avoid the police, it's tragic that she did not get the proper medication to treat her mental illness from her mental health care givers at Valley Cities Mental Health, it is tragic that the Auburn PD refused to help offer to find or at least change her Missing status to 'Endangered' to allow other agencies to get involved. But the real tragedy is this could have been prevented on a lot of levels.
We pleaded with the Auburn Police to help us find Misty but Commander Stocker made the decision that Misty did not fit the criteria of the Washington State Endangered Missing Persons Plan. This became a point of contention between us and the Auburn PD.
In a statement he gave to the press he said Auburn PD doesn't have any evidence that Misty is actually missing. He went to say that Misty packed her belonging and left her apartment. This was an inaccurate statement.
We believe that Commander Stocker had animosity against Misty due to a previous encounter. Why else would he refuse to allow common sense to prevail? Imagine a 32 year old woman with mental illness, without her medication, imagine she left in an unstable mental state, imagine for the first time in 32 years she lost contact with everyone for 11 days.
Now imagine she is Commander Stocker's daughter. Do you think this case would have been handled differently? Misty loved life, she had ambition, vision and a desire to make a difference in the world she lived in.
She tried to use her celebrity status to influence positive change and she became a living example of that endeavor. Now press reports are saying that Auburn police department found Misty.
The truth is the Native American community formed a search party and found her after several days of searching without the help of the Auburn PD.
We would like to thank the Muckleshoot Tribe and other Tribal volunteers for all their support in our time of desperation.
We would like thank all the wonderful supporters who could not be here but offered kind words and prayers.

One of Ms. Upham's Hollywood glamor photographs.

Two Washington Workplace Shootings In 2 Days

Vancouver, Washington State, is located across the river from Portland, Oregon. In two days, two workplace shootings have occurred.

The first shooting happened on Monday, February 3, 2014, when a paint company driver fatally shot a company manager and then killed himself at a Vancouver business park.

Police found the manager, Ryan E. Momeny, 45, lying dead in front of the Benjamin Moore Paint distribution center, authorities said. Robert R. Brown, 64, a company driver, was found inside a vehicle in the parking lot, dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Vancouver police said.

Then on Tuesday afternoon, February 4th, a 46-year-old woman was taken into custody after the shooting of a 45-year-old man. She also was injured.

Tuesday's shooting happened just before 4 p.m. at the Center for Community Health on the Department of Veterans Affairs campus, Neiman said.

A spokesman for the VA Medical Center in Portland, Oregon, said the man is a VA employee of the regional Veterans Integrated Service Network, a network of medical centers, vet centers and outpatient clinics. Spokesman Daniel Herrigstad described the man's injuries as "non-life-threatening."

Vancouver shares its name with the larger city of Vancouver located 305 miles (491 km) north in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Both cities were named in honor of sea captain George Vancouver, although the Canadian city was incorporated 29 years after the incorporation of Vancouver, Washington. This occurred more than 60 years after the name Vancouver was first used in reference to the historic Fort Vancouver trading post on the Columbia River. City officials have periodically suggested changing the U.S. city's name to Fort Vancouver, Vancouver USA, or even Old Vancouver to reduce confusion with its northern neighbor. Many Pacific Northwest residents distinguish between the two cities by referring to the Canadian city as "Vancouver, B.C." and the United States one as "Vancouver, Washington," or "Vancouver USA." Local nicknames include: "Vantucky" (though the nickname is often used as a derogatory term)" and "The 'Couv(e)". In 2013, the nickname "Vansterdam" surfaced as a result of the legalization of marijuana in the state of Washington. This name is a clear reference to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. (Source)

Statue at top: George Vancouver, found at King's Lynn, Norfolk, Great Britain. 

Statue directly above: George Vancouver, found at Vancouver, Washington, USA. Corner of 6th and Esther Steets, across from Esther Short Park.

Seattle Shooting Leaves 6 Dead: Mystery Man Shoots Self

Further Update ~ Thursday a.m., the death toll was increased to a total of six. A man walked into an arts cafe near a Seattle university and opened fire, fatally wounding four people. Then he later killed a woman during a carjacking before shooting himself. Six people are dead.


Breaking Update ~ The LA Times is reporting late on Wednesday the following:

An explosive day of violence ended Wednesday when a man believed to be the one who shot five people in a university district cafe and a woman in a downtown parking lot knelt down in the street when surrounded by police and shot himself in the head.
“We strongly believe that this is the person that committed the homicides,” Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel told reporters after the dramatic face-off in West Seattle. The shootings left four people dead and two critically injured.

A police source told the Seattle Times that the suspect has been identified as Ian Lee Stawicki, 40, of Seattle, whose family said he had mental problems that prompted them to fear something could go wrong. 

Victims identified: Drew Keriakedes, a/k/a Shmootzi the Clod, (front) & Joe Albanese, a/k/a Meshuguna Joe, (back left) of God's Favorite Beefcake. Image via God's Favorite Beefcake's Facebook.


Earlier details:
A gunman opened fire at a cafe in Seattle's University district Wednesday, May 30, 2012, killing two people and wounding three others.
"Roosevelt way shooter was seen running away from the scene northbound," police wrote. "He was armed with a gun."
One victim has life threatening injuries, and two others are seriously wounded, according to the police department's Twitter feed.
The shootings occurred at Cafe Racer on Roosevelt Way in northern Seattle about 11:00 a.m., police said.

The suspect is described as a white male, between 30 and 40 years old, with a medium build, brown hair and a goatee or beard, police said. Police are searching for the gunman, described as a man in his 30s originally said to be wearing dark clothes (literally a "man in black killer"?), that did not turn out to be accurate. Later reports told of the killer having a plaid shirt and dark pants. (Recall that John A. Keel often wrote of mystery men, besides those dressed in black and dark clothing, who were often seen wearing lumberjack checked shirts and sports plaid shirts.)

But video footage show the suspected killer in the middle of the shooting scene wearing brown pants and a bluish jacket (see above). 
During the manhunt, police responded to another fatal shooting in downtown Seattle. Police say a man shot a woman during an apparent carjacking and fled in a black SUV. The woman died at the scene.
The earlier shooting took place at Cafe Racer (at 5828 Roosevelt Way Northeast), a restaurant and music venue north of the University of Washington.
Friends of the deceased said the men, named Joe and Drew, were both in their 40s or early 50s.  Drew was described as the “godfather of Café Racer” who was a sword swallower, fire breather and was a big presence in the burlesque community.  Both men were members of the band God’s Favorite Beefcake, which had played at the Folklife Festival on Saturday.

Police say one of the wounded has life threatening injuries and two are in critical condition.
Evan Hill, who lives above the building were the cafe shooting happened, said the cafe was an artists collective and performance space.
"Its the strangest place to think of a shooting," Hill said.


Nearby Roosevelt High School has been locked down during the manhunt. Seattle School District spokeswoman Teresa Wippel says students also are locked inside Eckstein Middle School and Greenlake Elementary.

The school is named after Theodore Roosevelt; the school's team, the Rough Riders, is named after Roosevelt's famous military regiment. It subsequently gave its name to the Roosevelt neighborhood and nearby Roosevelt Way N.E.

Replica of Roosevelt Hotel, Seattle.

The location of the Cafe Racer on Roosevelt Way reminds me of the recent site (Roosevelt Avenue) of the bank hostage situation in Indiana, which only ended when the suspect killed himself.

March Madness 2012

Sometimes the phrase "March Madness" lives up to its name.

There was a Full Moon at 04:41:42 AM EST on March 8, 2012. One of this year's more extremely high tides called Spring Tides occurs in March 2012 from Friday, March 9 through Monday, March 12, 2012. Significant "random" human events have taken place, thusfar, during this full moon-spring tide cycle.


A psychiatric person shoots up a psychiatric institute. A flight attendant disrupts a flight. A frequent court inquirer stabs a judge. An American solider kills civilians in Afghanistan.


If you step back from these incidents, you will observe the unusual irony underlining each of their roles in the sites of their actions. They all actually are extreme behavioral outbursts of people merely doing what they have routinely done, but this time, abnormally and violently.


(1) Oklahoma

Guns in the streets: Tulsa, March 7, 2012.

On Wednesday, March 7, 2012, a man shoot and wounded several people at the Tulsa, Oklahoma courthouse before he was brought down by law enforcement officers' bullets.


Authorities on March 8th were investigating whether the suspected gunman wounded in a shootout near a Tulsa courthouse was trying to commit "suicide by cop" when he drew fire from sheriff's deputies, and they confirmed his brother was shot and killed in 2005 by police officers seeking to question him about a murder.

Investigators said they still didn't know exactly why Andrew Joseph Dennehy fired a handgun into the air Wednesday afternoon in a crowded plaza outside Tulsa County District Court. Dennehy, a sheriff's deputy and a bystander were wounded in the shootout.

"Clearly `suicide by cop' may enter into it," Tulsa police spokesman Jason Willingham said. "Anytime someone goes to a location where you know law enforcement is going to be present and takes out a weapon and fires shots, you have to know you're going to garner attention."

Dennehy's brother Brian Dennehy was shot and killed in August 2005 after investigators say he fired at an officer in the parking lot of a Tulsa apartment complex, Willingham said. Police said then that he was suspected in the beating death of his grandfather, Bernard Dennehy, in Oklahoma City.

Andrew Dennehy, 23, remained in critical condition Thursday, March 8th, at a Tulsa hospital, Willingham said. Police have said he is technically in custody but hasn't been formally charged with a crime.

Authorities identified the wounded deputy as David Fortenberry and the bystander who was shot as Ricardo Manuel, 28. Willingham said both had non-life threatening injuries, but their medical conditions weren't immediately known on Thursday. According to sheriff's office, Fortenberry was shot in both hands and arms.

In the case of Dennehy's brother, Brian, Tulsa police had received a request from Oklahoma City investigators for help in finding a homicide suspect who may have been in Tulsa. An officer found the vehicle of the suspect, identified as Brian Dennehy, and was approaching it when a man who was lying down in the back seat pointed a revolver and shot at the officer.

The officer returned fire, hitting Brian Dennehy twice in the upper torso and once in the head. He died at the scene.

As for Andrew Dennehy, who would have been a teenager when his brother was killed, investigators "may never know why he did what he did," Willingham said.

With brisk winds and unseasonably warm temperatures, it didn't seem too odd that Andrew Dennehy, shoeless and clad in a short-sleeve shirt and short pants, had sauntered onto the plaza between the courthouse and the Tulsa Central Library.

A wedding had ended on the plaza, and about seven family members were still gathered when shots rang out, said Angela Reudelhuber, 36, who ministered the wedding.

"The wedding just finished, and the bride and groom headed upstairs to turn in their marriage license," Reudelhuber said.

Reudelhuber dropped to the ground when she heard the gunshots about 20 feet away and then rushed inside.

Andrew Dennehy lay wounded and bleeding from his upper body onto the patchwork of concrete tiles.

"I'm thinking this is not the downtown I remember working in," said John Fancher, a communications specialist at the regional library who photographed the incident and shared his photographs with The Associated Press and other media outlets. "I start snapping off some shots, and he sits down, just casually sits down, gun in his hand and three sheriffs (deputies) come out of the courthouse and I can't hear what they're saying."


Thanks to Andrew Griffin for the tip.

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(2) Pennsylvania

Domestic War Zone: March 8, 2012, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic.

John Shick, 30, opened fire shortly after entering the lobby of the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic on Thursday afternoon, March 8, 2012. The assailant walked through the psychiatric hospital's front door with a pair of semi-automatic 9mm handguns around 1:40 p.m. The gunman walked into the Pittsburgh psychiatric hospital and started shooting. Shick was shot and killed by police Thursday, but not before he killed hospital employee. Shick was killed by police officers who told the media they had trained for a Virginia Tech-style shooting.

One of the two 9mm handguns recovered was traced to New Mexico and the other was traced to Texas, the law enforcement source said. It was not known whether the weapons were legally purchased or how Shick allegedly came to have them. Investigators also recovered an extra box of ammunition. The guns generally hold about 15 rounds. It remained unclear how many rounds were fired before the suspect was killed by police.

Four people remained hospitalized on Friday, including a 46-year-old man listed in fair condition, a 64-year-old woman in serious condition, a 35-year-old man in good condition and a 49-year-old man in serious condition. A 54-year-old woman was released from the hospital Friday.

"This is a tragic day, a sad day, a senseless day," Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said after the shooting Thursday at the medical center.

Shick apparently had a history of legally changing his name. Records in Oregon, where he once lived, show he changed his name to either William Hudnpere Schols Kan or William Huhnpere Scholskan – it appears two different ways in court documents – in 2009. In early 2010, a person with that name and the same address as Shick was charged with assaulting a public safety officer. Then, in May 2010, Scholskan petitioned to change his name back to John Frederick Shick.

Calls to homes listed in the names of Shick's parents in Green Cove Springs, Florida, and San Jose, California, went unanswered Saturday.

Duquesne University spokeswoman Bridget Fare said Saturday that Shick was expelled from the school last November after harassment complaints. Shick enrolled in August as a graduate biology student, but soon numerous female students filed a formal complaint. The harassment never contained any threats or indication of violence.

"It was making them uncomfortable," Fare said of his persistent requests for dates or social contact.

Shick was relieved of his duties as a teaching assistant on October 21 and there was a hearing on the harassment charge on November 3. The school told Shick that he was prohibited from campus and from making contact with any of the women.


(3) Flight 2332, over the Midwest USA

Flashbacks of 9/11: Chaos Abroad Flight 2332.

An American Airlines flight attendant disrupted American Airlines Flight 2332, Friday morning, March 9, 2012, as it was about to take off from Dallas-Fort Worth en route to Chicago, saying over the aircraft intercom system that the plane was going to crash, alluding to 9/11 terrorist attacks and ranting about the airline's bankruptcy reorganization, passengers said.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed there was an "altercation" involving American Airlines Flight 2332, which eventually landed at Chicago O'Hare at 11:46 a.m., more than an hour late.

According to reports by passengers, the trouble began Friday morning as the plane taxied to the runway for takeoff. A flight attendant who had been giving preflight safety instructions began speaking incoherently over the intercom system, confusing and startling passengers.

American Airlines Flight 2232 had left the gate in Dallas and was taxiing when the flight attendant started a 15-minute rant over the plane's PA system.

"She said, 'I'm not responsible for this plane crashing,"' Bethany Christakos, passenger, said. "And that's when everybody started freaking out."

"She spoke in and out of Spanish. Talked about the flight crashing, that we were going to go back to the gate," Carolyn Kazmi, passenger, said.

"We were pretty frightened. We knew something was wrong. It was almost like she was talking and didn't realize the PA was on," Stephen Termunde, passenger, said.

"She had said, 'I'm the number one in charge,' something about 23 years being there, started talking about bankruptcy. But it really got everyone's attention when she said, 'There's a problem. We have to go back to the gate,'" Christakos said.

Other flight attendants interrupted and said there were no mechanical issues and that the plane was preparing for takeoff.

The upset flight attendant then said over the public-address system that it would not be her fault if the plane crashed. She began speaking in incomplete sentences, using the words "bankruptcy" and "American Airlines," passengers said. She also referred to the 9/11 terrorist attacks at one point, passengers said.

Some passengers then began using mobile phones to call 911.

Other flight attendants on the plane attempted to calm the woman, but she continued to be agitated. Three or four passengers then left their seats and went to the front of the plane to help restrain her as the plane returned to the gate, a move requested by the pilot, the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed.

An airport official in Dallas said he does not expect any charges to be filed against the flight attendant.


(4) Washington State

Domestic War Zone: March 10, 2012, Washington State.

In 2008, Steven Kravetz was convicted in Lewis County, Washington State, of third degree assault and making false or misleading statements to a public servant. He served 102 days on the charges. In that incident, Kravetz was arrested after he refused to cooperate with police after being kicked out of a Centralia public library.

On Friday, March 9, 2012, Kravetz was reported to be acting strangely at the Grays Harbor District Court. Around lunchtime Friday, Deputy Polly Davin responded to a report of a suspicious person at the courthouse and confronted a man (Kravetz). During a struggle, she was stabbed with either a small knife or scissors. Judge David Edwards intervened, striking the assailant, who then stabbed him. Davin reached for her gun, but it was wrestled away by Kravetz, who shot twice, striking her in the shoulder before fleeing.

Both the judge and the sheriff's deputy were treated and released from a hospital hours after the attack. 

Kravetz fled the courthouse with the officer's .45-caliber handgun after the attack and showed up about an hour or so later at the office of his former attorney and asked to the use the phone, who didn't known anything was wrong. He got a ride from his mother, to her home, where police on Saturday, March 10, 2012, arrested the 34-year-old suspect.


(5) Afghanistan

Foreign War Zone: March 11, 2012, Afghanistan.

A United States service member (an Army staff sergeant) walked out of a military base in a rural district of southern Afghanistan on early Sunday, March 11, 2012 (local times) and opened fire on three nearby houses, killing at least 16 civilians, including several children, local villagers and provincial officials said.

Villagers in Belandi in the Panjway district of Kandahar, where the shooting took place, said the service member had attacked three houses, killing at least 16 in total. Five other villagers were wounded, they said.

The governor of Kandahar Province, Tooryalai Wesa, condemned the shooting, although he could not immediately confirm the number of people killed. A coalition spokesman in Kabul, Capt. Justin Brockhoff, said that it was not clear what had led to the incident. He said the civilians wounded in the shooting were taken to a coalition hospital where they were being treated.

One of the houses attacked in the village belonged to a tribal elder, according to a person from the village. “We don’t know why he killed people,” said the villager, Aminullah, who like many Afghans goes by a single name. Aminullah said the soldier was alone. “There was no fighting or attacks.”

The soldier has not yet been identified.