Family's Mysterious Deaths In Ancient Hobble Creek

On Saturday, September 27, 2014, five bodies were discovered shortly before 8 p.m. by an older son checking on his family. He hadn't heard from them, and went to their duplex in Springville, Utah, to find his deceased parents and siblings.

The five family members were identified Sunday as Benjamin Strack, 37, his wife, Kristi, 36, and three of their children, Benson, 14, Emery, 12, and Zion, 11.

The duplex where the family lived is located on a road leading to Springville High School in Springville, Utah, located about 45 miles south of Salt Lake City. Springville is a city of 30,000, just south of Provo.

The Springville High School's mascot name is "Red Devil," with the use of horns and pitchforks in various forms.

Is there an unconscious acknowledgement of the Devil in the origins of the local names?

What is today the city of Springville was originally incorporated in February 1853, as "Hobble Creek" by the early pioneers, allegedly because their horses were often hobbled (by loosely tying their front feet together) and left along the stream to graze in the lush grass. If the horses wandered into the creek, the hobbles came off in the water. Thus, the settlement earned its original name. After the change later to Springville, the original name was not completely lost, as the canyon stream (and associated canyons), a local elementary school, and city owned golf course have retained the name Hobble Creek.

But perhaps there is an alternative twilight meaning for "Hobble Creek."

In 2005, I wrote about the possible ritualistic killings in Zion, Illinois, under the headline, "Twilight Language in Zion?"

In that selection, I pointed out the deeper meaning to "Hobbs":

...Hobbs Lane has a long history of poltergeist, haunting and apparition activities. One keen young researcher discovers [in the retitled American Quatermass scifi film Five Million Years to Earth] an old street sign near the diggings, and she notes the spelling is “Hob’s Lane,” not “Hobbs Lane.” “Hob,” it turns out, is another name for “devil,” or the “Devil,” if you prefer.

Some words do not appear to be what they so calmly convey. “Hob,” for example, is an alteration of Robin or Robert, as in Robin Goodfellow, a rustic, a clown (lest we get too far from the phantom clowns). Goodfellow, sometimes called Puck, was/is a tricksy house sprite or elf in popular English fairy lore. And Puck is sometimes called hobgoblin. Even the descriptive verb “hobble” refers to the word’s origins, as the classic view of the Devil shows cloven hooves.
In the United States, consequently, Hobbs, New Mexico, and Hobbs, Indiana, have “devil’s names.” Although the local folks know a great deal about the strange things happening thereabouts, most probably do not know that the etymological origins of their towns’ names flash back to a demonic past.

Regarding last weekend's deaths, the first thoughts were of a murder-suicide, of late rather frequent in the news. But maybe something more mundane is occurring?

A preliminary autopsy has ruled out any violent assault in the deaths; there was no evidence of stabbing or gunshot wounds or other visible injuries to the five found dead Saturday, police investigators said.

Poison? The laboratory results of blood samples are not back.

Carbon monoxide poisoning? Testing found none in the house, but police found the front door of the house was open and the back door was cracked open before firefighters arrived. The gas could have ventilated before the test.

Since Springville was settled by members of the Church of the Latter Day Saints (LDS or Mormons), there is a rather good chance this is a LDS family. The names appear to be Mormon. As one site says, certain names...

Could only be LDS: Cumorah Hill, Liahonna, Ensign, Nauvoo, Kirtland, Templa, Templer, Tempella, Tempalia, Ziona, Deseret (and Desereta), Tabernacle, Woodruff, Pratt, Tithing, Quorum, Helamans Warrior, Iron Rod, Morona, Manti, Stripling, Nephi Courage, Celestial Glory, Celestian, Brighaminie, Zion, Xione (pronounced "zion"). Source.

LDS parents pick names for specific special reasons.

"Jennifer Mansfield, a current graduate student in the Folklore Program at Utah State University, identified six different types of Mormon names: religious (Moroni, Nephi, Brigham), combination (Taylee, Mandylyn), invented (Kaislen), creatively spelled (Kady, Taeler), ancestral (Freestone, Jenkin), and themed (Monson, Hinckley, Kimball)." Source.

Some names, like Zion, are definitely directly identified with LDS families. Within the Latter Day Saint movement, Zion (often pronounced [ˈzaɪ.ən] by adherents of Mormonism rather than [ˈzaɪ.ɑn], which may be more common elsewhere in the United States) is often used to connote a utopian association of the righteous.

For example, Wikipedia lists the following, Latter-day Saint Usage of "Zion":

1. Zion retains its Biblical meaning and refers to Jerusalem; Zion is the name of a physical city founded by the prophet Enoch, also known as the City of Enoch;
2. Zion refers to the New Jerusalem, a physical, Millennial city expected to be located in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri;
3. Zion metaphorically refers to any group of people that are unified and "pure in heart"; the City of Enoch is one example of "a Zion people", and the people described in Fourth Nephi is another; for Zion to be fully realized, the society must be willing to live the Law of Consecration based on mutual feelings of charity, which is the pure love of Christ;
3. Zion is the central physical location to which Latter Day Saints have gathered; the term has been applied to Kirtland, Ohio; Jackson County, Missouri; Nauvoo, Illinois; and the Salt Lake Valley;
4. Zion is also, according to Joseph Smith, the entire continent of America. Joseph Smith stated that “the whole of America is Zion itself from north to south”.
5. Zion is a metaphor for a unified society of Latter Day Saints, metaphorically gathered as members of the Church of Christ; in this sense any Stake of the church may be referred to as a "stake of Zion."

The name Strack comes from North German, from Middle Low German strak "stiff," hence a nickname for "an upright and highly principled person" or alternatively for "someone who was obstinate." 

(H/T to Theo Paijmans for followup autopsy results.)

Sion/Zug Shootings

Daillon

Sion 

Iron 

Lion 

Zion

A mysterious mass murder happened in the Alps, recently on New Year's Day 2013, in Daillon, Switzerland.

A gunman thought to have murdered three women in a rampage through an Alpine village is to be questioned about a similar massacre on a British family last year, it emerged....
Police in Switzerland are waiting to interview the 33-year-old psychiatric patient, named locally by his first name Cedric, thought to be responsible for [the January 1st] carnage in Daillon, in the Valais canton, 60 miles east of Geneva.
The man, who has a history of threatening people with guns, is in a 'stable condition' in intensive care after being shot in the chest by a tactical police firearms unit.... Read more here.

Note how on the map, the location of Sion.

For some reason, this event brought to mind Bob Marley's song, "Iron Lion Zion." And Dying!

As Theo P. mentions to me, "don't forget the Sion/Zion connection in The Matrix trilogy."  Read a summary of that here. See also more about the shadowy figure of Merovigian in The Matrix saga, and the source of the Merovigian = Priory of Sion.

In Kabbalah the more esoteric reference is made to Tzion being the spiritual point from which reality emerges, located in the Holy of Holies of the First, Second and Third Temple. Zion (Hebrew: ציון) (also transliterated Sion, Tzion or Tsion) is a place name often used as a synonym for Jerusalem.

It is intriguing to look at the etymology of Zion. Zion may be derived from the Hebrew root ''ṣiyyôn" ("castle"). Also, looking at the commonly used form based on German orthography, where z is always pronounced [t͡s] (e.g. "zog" [t͡soːk]), hence "Tsion" in German literature. 

Sion, Switzerland, 1572.

By coincidence, images of ancient views of Sion, Switzerland, have a remarkable "castle-like" look to them. 

Zug Castle. In Switerland.

It is not too far-fetched to see the link between Zog = Zug.

Also observed is that: "The attack took place less than 150 miles from the French village of Chevaline, near Annecy, where - in September last year - five people, including a British[-Iraqi] couple, were shot dead by a mystery gunman."

On January 4th, the media reported: "Police say that the guns used in the two incidents are not the same, although guns used in both incidents were old Swiss army guns."

What's going on? We don't know.

Read more about the Annecy shootings, which I wrote about earlier here.

The following historical Zug event is being revisited due to what occurred in Daillon.

On September 27, 2001, Switzerland was left reeling by a gunman’s attack on the Zug regional parliament, which killed 14 local politicians. Coming as it did barely two weeks after the attack on New York’s twin towers, the shooting spree was especially traumatic.
On September 27, 2001, Friedrich Leibacher stormed into the chamber of the Zug cantonal parliament.
He was wearing a home-made police vest, and carrying a number of weapons, including an assault rifle, a pistol and a revolver.
In the space of two and a half minutes he fired more than 90 shots and ignited a home-made bomb.
At the end of the attack he killed himself.
Three members of the cantonal government and 11 members of parliament were killed.
Another 18 people were injured, some of them seriously.
Leibacher’s chief target, minister Robert Bisig, was unharmed.
Leibacher, who was 57, had a long history of legal disputes with the authorities, and felt he had been treated unfairly. Source.

Thanks for the initial news tip from Theo P.