New Stabbings

The following incident occurred in West Hollywood, California, on Monday, May 3, 2010.

Has the copycat effect of the Chinese knife attacks jumped the Pacific?

"There is no witness protection program!"

There are several things to note about this new event. The alleged attacker vaguely sounds like she was in the typical type of Sirhan Sirhan trance noted for some assailants.

Other mysteries abound. Where is this woman's shirt, in her mug photos, at top? What does her makeup and appearance suggest that has not been mentioned?

A woman who stabbed and wounded four people in a busy Target store Monday afternoon [May 3, 2010] was arrested when an off-duty sheriff's deputy pulled his gun and ordered the woman to the ground as screaming shoppers ran from the building, authorities said.

Layla Trawick used a butcher's knife and a carving knife to attack the victims, using both blades at the same time — one in each hand, like in the movie "Psycho," sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said

"She was literally walking up and down the aisles slashing people," he said.

A mother holding her baby was stabbed in the neck and was taken to the hospital, where she was in stable condition, Whitmore said. The baby was unhurt and all four victims were expected to survive.

One witness said she was shopping for a Mother's Day card when she heard someone screaming, "There is no witness protection program!" as chaos broke out in the store.

"I don't know what it means but she was yelling that repeatedly and at the top of her lungs," said Katy Winn, a freelance photographer from West Hollywood. "I think I heard (the deputy) telling her to drop to the floor. That's when things got really chaotic and started falling over."

Winn said she dropped her basket and dashed across the store to the women's section, where she hid behind the clothing racks.

"From the moment the screaming started it was about five minutes. But it felt longer than that," she said.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Clay Grant Jr., said he was picking up paper towels and other items when people around him started running and screaming.

Grant, 26, grabbed his duty weapon, identified himself as a sheriff's deputy and ordered the woman to drop the knives, he said. She ran away and he followed her from aisle to aisle.

Grant was wearing a white T-shirt, camouflage shorts and running shoes so several shoppers mistook him for a gunman, adding to the sense of panic, sheriff's Sgt. Josh Mankini said.

Grant followed Trawick from aisle to aisle, until she turned and waved the knives at him from above her head, he said.

But he decided not to shoot because he didn't feel his life was in jeopardy, he said. For a second time, he ordered her to drop the knives and finally she complied.

"I was more concerned about the knife, more than what she was saying," Grant said. "Her facial expression was someone who was lost, confused, didn't know exactly where they were."

Trawick was arrested with the help of private security guards and held on $1 million bail on suspicion of attempted murder. Investigators were trying to determine whether the 34-year-old Antioch woman got the knives in the store.

Speaking to reporters at a sheriff's station later, Grant was modest.

"I don't feel like I'm a hero, I just do what I'm trained to do," he said.

Whitmore said surveillance video cameras captured the stabbings, but the tape hasn't been released.

"If he wasn't there, who knows? Someone would be dead right now," Mankini said. "He had no communication with outside law enforcement. He's just some guy doing his shopping. We're pretty proud of him."

Mankini said Grant, a five-year veteran of the department, was authorized to have a weapon in the store.

The above story was carried by Yahoo News.



In another detail from the LA Times, comes this:

Entertainment journalist Allison McNamara was shopping at the store when she encountered a screaming woman in the aisle that separates the skin care and kitchen sections.

"She was yelling 'I'm bipolar. There's no witness protection program.' "

Deputies with the sheriff's West Hollywood station responded after numerous 911 calls reported a gunman at the Target, Sgt. Josh Mankini said. Officials speculate the "gunman" was probably Grant.

Our thanks to SMiles Lewis for the newstips.

3 Days, 3 Attacks

I have pointed out that in China (and Japan), due to their strict firearms laws, such countries tend to manifest their "copycat school violence" in terms of "stabbing" series. Will this current stabbing spree spread to Japan or other Asian nations?

April 2010 appears to be turning into a prime example. The media has referred to these, very openly, as "copycats." Of course, the underlying theme of these events ending in suicides or parasuicidal incidents is no surprise for readers here.










Here's is a summary of the latest news:

Five incidents in a little over a month and three attacks in three days have left at least 9 children dead in China, all by knife-wielding older males.

1) Wang Yonglai

Friday, April 30, 2010

This attack occurred in the small village of Shangzhuang, near the city of Weifang in the northern province of Shandong. Just before eight o'clock in the morning, April 30, 2010, a man named as Wang Yonglai, a local farmer, age unknown, broke through the side door of the local pre-school, according to Xinhua, the government news agency.

Armed with a hammer and carrying a can of petrol, he struck a teacher and then lashed out at five children before he picked two up, doused himself with petrol and set himself on fire. Teachers at the school managed to grab the children from him, but Wang was reported to have died. The five victims are said to be in stable condition in the local hospital and none have life-threatening injuries.

2) Xu Yuyuan, 47

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Another attack involved a knife-wielding man stabbed 29 children at a kindergarten on Thursday in Taixing of East China's Jiangsu province. Five of the children are in critical condition and the rest are stable. No deaths had been reported as of Thursday night, said Sun Yun, deputy mayor of Taixing. Two teachers and one security guard were also injured after the 9:40 am attack. Witnesses report that he taunted onlookers, daring them to stop him as he carried out his rampage.

An initial police investigation said the suspect, 47-year-old Xu Yuyuan, was an unemployed local resident who had been fired from a local insurance company in 2001.

3) Chen Kangbing, 33

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

A mentally ill teacher on sick leave for the past four years broke into a school and wounded 18 students and a teacher in southern China’s Leizhou city in Guangdong province on April 28. The man in Wednesday's attack managed to slip into the school with a group of visiting teachers, Xinhua reported. Chen Kangbing,33, had been a teacher himself. Xinhua said he suffered from mental illness and had been on sick leave since February 2006.

4) Yang Jiaqin, 40

Monday, April 12, 2010

An attack occurred on April 12, 2010, when a man hacked to death a second grader and an elderly woman with a meat cleaver, near a school in southern Guangxi, and wounded five other people, including students. Yang Jiaqin, 40, chased his victims through Xizhen village of the southern Guangxi region not long after classes ended Monday afternoon. A 7-year-old girl and the 81-year-old woman later died.

5) Zheng Minsheng, 42

Tuesday, March 23, 2010; executed, Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The Chen Kangbing attack came the same day a man was executed for stabbing eight children to death outside their elementary school last month in the southeastern city of Nanping. The attack on March 23, 2010, at around 7:20 am local time, shocked China because eight children died and the assailant had no known history of mental illness. At his trial, Zheng Minsheng, 42, said he killed because he had been upset after being jilted by a woman and treated badly by her wealthy family. He was executed by firing squad on Wednesday, April 28, just a little over a month after his crime.

2004 Attacks

These attacks have officials looking into a similar wave of knife-related violence on children that occurred in 2004. After the 2004 attack at a school in Beijing that left nine students dead, the central government ordered tighter school security nationwide. Regulations that took effect in 2006 require schools to register or inspect visitors and keep out people who have no reason to come inside.

The list of 2004 stabbings in China (which eventually spread to Japan) may be found by clicking here.

There were also stabbings in 2008, associated with the Autumn Festivals in China and Japan (see here).

McVey-McVeigh

Police in Asheville, N.C., arrested an Ohio man on Sunday, April 25, 2010, after authorities spotted him with a handgun in an airport parking lot as President Barack Obama's plane was departing the state after he and his family vacationed there over the weekend. Joseph McVey, 23, was charged with going armed in terror of the public, a misdemeanor. Security was heightened because of Obama's visit. McVey was nowhere near Air Force One, and why he was in the area with a gun was unclear.

North Carolina police have charged the man who allegedly impersonated a police officer at Asheville airport as US President Barack Obama departed on Air Force One. Ohio man Joseph McVey, 23, was allegedly armed when he drove a car made to look like a police vehicle with working lights and sirens to the airport at about 2pm (local time).

Buncombe County jail officer Donna Player told CNN that McVey was being held on a charge of going armed to the terror of the public and his bail was set at US$100,000. Airport police Capt Kevan Smith emphasised that the president was never in any danger and said additional charges were pending. Mr. Obama left Asheville aboard Air Force One about 1:50pm after his meeting with the Rev Billy Graham. From there he flew to Beckley, West Virginia, where he delivered the eulogy at a public memorial service for the 29 workers killed in a mine explosion on April 5. Air Force One was waiting on the runway at Asheville Regional while Mr. Obama met with Mr Graham.

Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001) was a United States Army veteran and former security guard who was convicted of detonating a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Building on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people, including 19 children under the age of six. It is referred to as the Oklahoma City bombing. McVeigh, a militia movement sympathizer, sought revenge against the federal government for the Waco Siege which had ended in the deaths of 76 people exactly two years earlier.

419 + 420

Today, April 19th, in Massachusetts and Maine, is Patriots' Day.



Patriots' Day (sometimes incorrectly punctuated Patriot's Day or Patriots Day) is a civic holiday commemorating the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War. It is observed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and State of Maine (once part of Massachusetts), and is a public school observance day in Wisconsin. Observances and re-enactments of these first battles of the American Revolution occur annually at Lexington Green in Lexington, Massachusetts, (around 6 am) and The Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts (around 9 am). In the morning, a mounted reenactor with State Police escort retraces Paul Revere's ride, calling out warnings the whole way.

Since 1969, the holiday has been observed on the third Monday in April, providing a three-day long weekend. In 2010, the date of April 19th falls on the celebrated Patriots' Day holiday on Monday. In Maine, it is being extended on April 20th, with the State of Maine government shutting down all state offices, for fiscal savings.

The Patriots' Grave (at top) in the Old Burying Ground, Arlington, Massachusetts, is a Masonic obelisk, as is the Acton Monument (below), gravesite of Abner Hosmer and Isaac Davis, who fell at North Bridge on April 19, 1775. The Revolutionary War was, in historical underpinning, a Masonic conflict.



The Boston Marathon is run on Patriots' Day every year so many Bostonians know the holiday as "Marathon Monday". Maine's oldest road race, the Boys and Girls Clubs Patriots' Day 5-Miler, is held in Portland, Maine. The Boston Red Sox have traditionally been scheduled to play at home in Fenway Park on Patriots' Day every year since 1959. Since 1968 the games have started early in the morning around 11:00 AM.

April 19 is also the anniversary of the deaths occurring at the end of the Waco events and the Oklahoma City bombing.

The Waco siege began on February 28, 1993, when the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) attempted to execute a search warrant at the Branch Davidian ranch at Mount Carmel, a property located nine miles (14 km) east-northeast of Waco, Texas. An exchange of gunfire resulted in the deaths of four agents and six followers of David Koresh. A subsequent 51-day siege by the Federal Bureau of Investigation ended on April 19 when fire destroyed the compound. Seventy-six people (24 of them British nationals) died in the fire, including more than 20 children, two pregnant women, and Koresh himself.

The Oklahoma City bombing was the bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, when American militia movement sympathizer Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck filled with explosives parked in front of the building. McVeigh's co-conspirator, Terry Nichols, had assisted in the bomb preparation. Their motive allegedly was to avenge the government's handling of the Waco siege and Ruby Ridge incidents.

Don't forget. Tomorrow is 4.20.

April 20 is the 121th anniversary of the birth of Adolf Hitler and the 11th anniversary of the Columbine school killings. On April 20, 1999, one teacher, 12 students were killed and 24 wounded at Columbine High School, in Littleton, Colorado, by two heavily armed, trenchcoated students, 17 and 18, who then took their own lives. They liked speaking German to each other and "honored" Hitler, according to their diary entries.

Columbine School Shooting, April 20, 1999's list of dead:
* Cassie Bernall, 17
* Steven Curnow, 14
* Corey DePooter, 17
* Kelly Fleming, 16
* Eric David Harris, 18
* Matthew Kechter, 16
* Dylan Bennet Klebold, 17
* Daniel Mauser, 15
* Daniel Rohrbough, 15
* William David "Dave" Sanders, 47
* Rachel Scott, 17
* Isaiah Shoels, 18
* John Tomlin, 16
* Lauren Townsend, 18
* Kyle Velasquez, 16


April 19 is followed by 420.

What does "420" mean? April 20th? Or something deeper?

High school student Jeff Weise, an Ojibwa, killed ten, including himself, at the Red Lake Ojibwa Reservation in Minnesota, on March 21, 2005. A great admirer of Columbine, it was discovered that Weise left references to Columbine throughout his online presence. For example, he employed a username, which translated to "Abandoned 420."

Columbine and 420

Obviously, one meaning of "420" is directly linked to the Columbine date, as "4/20" is April 20, the anniversary of the Littleton, Colorado shootings. This date is also Adolf Hitler's birthday. The Columbine shooters, Klebold and Harris were extremely conscious that it was Hitler's birthdate, and often spoke German to each other, while walking around in long black trench coats, videotaping themselves.

Copycat Weise left messages on such sites as nazi.org. Weise wore a dark trench coat to school all year round, and had a swastika fascination, a symbol used by both First Nations people and Nazis. In one of Weise's online profiles, he noted that two of his favorite movies were Elephant and Zero Day, based on the events of the Columbine High School massacre.

Jeff Weise virtually haunted the Neo-Nazi Internet forum of the Libertarian National Socialist Green Party under the aliases NativeNazi and Todesengel (German for "Angel of Death"). He admired Hitler, his posts revealed. Weise also alleged online that his school was warned in 2004 that someone was going to "shoot up" the school on April 20, the birthday of Adolf Hitler and the anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre, and that the school authorities "pinned" the threat on him.

But Weise sometimes would sound almost typical. For example, on one of his user info pages, he said he was "nothin' but your average Native American stoner" and mentioned that he used marijuana. After Columbine, one oft-repeated story circulated that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were upset by an unfounded accusation made by an anonymous classmate that the two had brought marijuana to school, prompting a search of their property. Harris and Klebold were said to have found the incident humiliating.

The Other Meaning of 420

The use of "420" for almost four decades is related to the use of marijuana.

4:20 or 4/20 (pronounced four-twenty) is a term used in North America as a discreet way to refer to cannabis and, by extension, a way to identify oneself with cannabis culture. Phrases such as "420 friendly" sometimes appear in roommate advertisements, indicating that the current occupants are tolerant of cannabis users.

It is widely accepted that in 1971, a group of teenagers at San Rafael High School in San Rafael, California, calling themselves The Waldos, used to meet every day after school at 4:20 p.m. to smoke marijuana at the Louis Pasteur statue. The term became part of their group's salute, "420 Louis," and it eventually caught on more widely. Many cannabis users continue to observe 4:20 as a time to smoke communally. By extension April 20 ("4/20" in U.S. dating shorthand) has evolved into a counterculture holiday, where people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis. Source: Wikipedia

It was the research of Steven Hager, editor of High Times, who found the term 420 originated at San Rafael High School in 1971, among the Waldos. A quote from one of the Waldos in the article notes, "We did discover we could talk about getting high in front of our parents without them knowing by using the phrase 420."

Adolf Hitler, marijuana, Columbine: For copycats, 420 appears to have served as a reflective mirror. For the rest of us, 420 may reflect a dangerous combination that has resulted in terrible memories that now reach beyond the mere date of April 20th.

P. S. - Please give me the intellectual respect to understand this is not an anti-drug message, but one about awareness of the twilight language behind code words like "420" in one shooter's message. To think this is as an anti-marijuana blog is as illogical as thinking I am going to let myself get involved in the quicksand of a pro-gun-control vs pro-gun debate. Blaming drugs, guns, video games, and the long list of candidates seems to ignore what's happening in the imprinted mind of the suicidal potential school or spree shooter.

Finally, a couple other "hot dates" in April are worthy of noting.

April 26th is Hitler's right hand man, Rudolf Hess's birthday and the anniversary of the Erfurt, Germany school shooting in 2002, when Robert Steinhäuser killed 16 and then himself.

Hitler died by his own hand, ten days after his birthday, on April 30, 1945, which was 65 years ago.

Man Jumps From Empire State Building

A man died by suicide after he jumped off the Empire State Building, the third tallest building in the United States. The man's name is Cameron Dabghi, and he was a Yale University student at the young age of 21-years-old.

Dabaghi was from Austin, Texas. He was expected to graduate in 2011 majoring in East Asian studies. Yale College Dean Mary Miller wrote in a message to students today, "We are all deeply distressed by this news."

Police are investigating the incident. It is believed that Dabaghi took a running start and climbed and jumped off at the 86th floor. This is important to note, the building is 103 story's tall so he did not jump off the top.

Dabaghi jumped during rush hour traffic at 6:15 p.m. on March 30th. He fell down in front of a Bank of America business. A man covered his body with an umbrella to cover his shattered body.

The last believed suicide jumper leaped from the Empire State Building in 2006. Authorites believe there has been a total of 34 people who have jumped to their deaths from the Empire State Building since it opened in 1931.

Source: Wire service report by Mitch Marconi

Jerry Smith Dies

Jerry Smith's world was occupied by HAARP, Burning Man, black helicopters, and Loch Ness. Smith died at 3:00 am on the morning of Monday, March 8, 2010, of pancreatic carcinoma (pancreatic cancer), I was informed by Kenn Thomas, editor of Steamshovel Press, moments ago. Smith, born on April 8, 1950 in Pomona, California, was an author, lecturer and editor on unexplained phenomena, but sometimes remained behind the scenes in recent years, as a ghostwriter.

Interests that had him ranging from Loch Ness to Burning Man, the well-known writer to a select few was a true friend to many in the field of unsolved mysteries.


In recent years, Smith had operated out of the World Explorer's Club in Kempton, Illinois where he worked for Adventures Unlimited Press as the Vice President for Marketing and Public Relations.

Smith's acknowledged bibliography of published works includes three books from Adventures Unlimited Press (AUP), scores of non-fiction articles and reviews, and more than a dozen ghost-written books.

Smith began his career in writing and publishing in the little magazine field in 1966, writing and publishing his own amateur sci-fi fan magazine (called a fanzine or just "zine") in the Valley Science Fiction Associations' Valley Amateur Press Alliance (ValAPA) of Pomona, California. He was active in the zine scene throughout the late '60s and early '70s, appearing regularly in zines and APAs, like the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society's APA-L, and culminating with his founding of the Unicorn Society and its Unicorn Amateur Press Alliance (UnAPA) in Klamath Falls, Oregon, in 1974.





Some of Jerry Smith's happiest moments were at Burning Man in Nevada, where he had years ago lost his best friend Jim Keith (shown below), in a strange "accident" in 1999. Above are photos of Smith at Burning Man in 2009 and earlier.


As the close friend and literary partner of the late Jim Keith (author of Mind Control, World Control, and many others), Smith was often involved with projects with Keith. Jim Keith was Jerry Smith’s best friend from high school until his untimely death in 1999. Among their many projects together, they ran the regional newspaper Skyline: Klamath Falls; and co-hosted a radio show broadcasting from the campus of the Oregon Institute of Technology. Smith helped on several of Keith’s books, particularly Black Helicopters Over America: Strikeforce for the New World Order and Secret And Suppressed: Banned Ideas & Hidden History.



In 1990 Jerry Smith and Jim Keith founded the National UFO Museum (NUFOM) in Reno, Nevada. Smith worked as the Executive Director, while Keith acted as the Chairman of the Board. In addition to his administrative duties of running the day-to-day operations of NUFOM, Smith also edited and wrote for that organization's quarterly journal, Notes from the Hangar. At the same time Smith worked as an editor/graphic artist with Keith's magazine Dharma Combat: The Magazine of Spirituality, Reality and Other Conspiracies, where Smith served variously as Managing Editor and Art Director from its inception in 1988 until Keith’s death.

Smith's first book from AUP was HAARP: The Ultimate Weapon of the Conspiracy, which considered conspiracy theories connected to the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP). The book, published in 1998, has been described as "blurring the lines between fiction and non-fiction" by detractors, and as "comprehensive and erudite" by other reviewers. While the author admited that his work is speculative, he also contended that it was not intended to explain how HAARP works, but rather to summarize the many claims made about HAARP on the Internet and to analyze their validity. Smith focused on two major points: the United Nations' Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques and mind control. After giving a brief history of each he then speculated on whether these technologies were being developed, at HAARP or elsewhere, and if so, in furtherance of whose agenda.

Smith's second book, published in 2005, was about the so-called Spear of Destiny, and focused on Nazi occultism and urban legends about a Nazi base in Antarctica.

His third book for AUP, published at the end of 2006, Weather Warfare and covered the history of weather modification from the "rainmakers" of the 1890s through the development of cloud seeding in the middle of the 20th century, including today’s suspected ability to manipulate hurricanes. Smith believed that the refusal of the mainstream scientific community to believe that terrorists and/or the military are capable of, and currently engaged in intentional manipulation of the environment skews the data in the global warming debate.

For the last dozen years or so, until his cancer slowed him down in 2009, Smith had maintained an exhausting schedule, appearing regularly on TV and radio, as well as speaking at seminars and conferences across the US and around the world.


Some of his Books

Smith, Jerry E. HAARP: The Ultimate Weapon of the Conspiracy. Kempton, Il.: Adventures Unlimited, 1998. ISBN 0-932813-53-4.

Since HAARP's North American release in 1998 it has been translated into Portuguese, in 2005, by Editora Aleph of São Paulo, Brazil as ARMAS ELETROMAGNÉTICAS: seria o projeto Haarp a próxima ameaça mundial? and in 2001 into Polish by Amber Supermedia http://www.amber.sm.pl/ as HAARP BRON OSTATECZNA.

--, and George Piccard. Secrets Of The Holy Lance: The Spear of Destiny in History & Legend. Kempton, Il.: Adventures Unlimited, 2005.

--. Weather Warfare: The Military's Plan To Draft Mother Nature. Kempton, Il.: Adventures Unlimited, 2006.

Anthologies

The Universal Seduction Vol. 3: Piercing the Veils of Deception - Volume 3, by “Angelico Tapestra--The Collective” (an anthology, the name "Angelico Tapestra" represents a group of collective writers comprised of “world recognized authors, investigative journalists, mathematicians, engineers, scientists, and scholars.” Smith was one of the authors featured in this volume with his article “The End Of The World” which was a portion of a chapter edited out of HAARP). BookSurge Publishing, 2004.

The Conspiracy Reader: From the Deaths of JFK and John Lennon to Government-Sponsored Alien Cover-Ups, by Joan D'Arc (Editor), Al Hidell (Editor) (an anthology comprised of articles that had previously appeared in the magazine “Paranoia: The Conspiracy Reader.” Smith was one of the authors featured in this volume with his article "Star Trek: Sci-Fi or Psy-War?”). Citadel Press, 1999.

Secret and Suppressed II: Banned Ideas and Hidden History into the 21st Century, edited by Adam Parfrey and Kenn Thomas. Smith was one of the authors featured in this volume with his article "Secret Weather Wars: Mind Control, HAARP and Chinese Take-Out." Publisher: Feral House, 2008.

Selected Articles

"Exploring Black Rock City: America's Newest "Lost" City." World Explorer, Vol. 4, #7, 2007.

"Invisible Warfare: Geophysical Weapons of the Secret Government." Paranoia: The Conspiracy and Paranormal Reader, Issue 45, Fall 2007.

"Weather Goes To War." Atlantis Rising, #65, September/October 2007 [Originally published in somewhat different form in Steamshovel Times: Connecting The Dots on May 8, 2007, and the same week in the English online journal Conspiracy Times.

Co-authored with George Piccard: "Exploring The Antarctic Reich: The Final Secret of the Holy Lance." World Explorer. Vol. 4, #4, 2006

"The End of the World." The Universal Seduction: Piercing the Veils of Deception. Vol. 3. Angelico Tapestra, ed. Charleston, SC: BookSurge, 2004.

"Hijacking The Election?" Nevada Territorial News, Vol. 1, No. 26, December 7, 2000.

"Jimmy Carter Could Never Certify A Nevada Election." Nevada Territorial News, Vol. 1, #23. November 2000.

"Space Cowboys: A Movie Review." Nevada Territorial News. Vol. 1, #14, 2000 August_24. reprinted in Nonstop Fun Is Hard On Your Heart. #2. August 2000.

Co-authored with Juanita Cox: "Telecommunications Bill Raises Constitutional Issues." Sentinel of Freedom. Vol. 5, #1, Summer 1997.

"Star Trek: Sci-Fi Or Psy-War?" Paranoia: The Conspiracy Reader. Issue 14, vol. 4, no. 3, 1996. pg. 30-32; reprinted in The Complete Conspiracy Reader: From the Deaths of JFK and John Lennon to Government-Sponsored Alien Coverups. Al Hidell, Joan D'Arc, eds. New York: MJF Books, 2003.

"Uncle Sam Is Trying To Kill You!" The View. Reno, NV: 1990.

Ghostwritten by Jerry E. Smith for Jim Keith

Keith, Jim. "Sinister Forces In Our Skies: The UFO / Black Helicopter Connection." UFO Universe Magazine. 1995.



--. "Black Helicopters Over America." Fate Magazine. Vol. 49, #4. April 1996 pg. 28-31.


Jerry E. Smith and The Loch Ness Monster! This photo of Jerry E. Smith and a replica of the monster was taken at the Loch Ness Visitor Center in the famous village of Drumnadrochit on the banks of Loch Ness, Scotland, by David Hatcher Childress on May 12, 2008.

Images of the Week

Associated Press photographer Cliff Owen captured some striking images from the scene of the news conference about J. Patrick Bedell's shooting at the Pentagon.

These are my editorial choices for the photographs of the week, which summarize the subtle twilight background to the "active shooter" period currently being experienced in the USA:




Pentagon Police Chief Richard Keevill wears his Glock .40 S&W pistol as he speaks with reporters about a shooting at the Pentagon in Washington, Thursday, March 4, 2010. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)





A pedestrian passes near the Pentagon Metro complex where a man with a gun opened fire in Washington, Thursday, March 4, 2010. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

The object visible in the distance, of course, is the Washington Masonic Monument obelisk.

Pentagon Shooter J. Patrick Bedell Listed UFO Book

J. Patrick Bedell, 36, who attempted to enter the Pentagon on March 4, 2010, not with a pass, but with two 9 mm guns, was a 9/11 Truther, "suicide-is-murder" conspiracy investigator, and more. He has been declared dead, as of the morning of March 5th. The news of the shooting and his suicide-by-cop death is easy to find online.

Bedell left behind his profile at Amazon, as follows:

Nickname: infoeng
Location: Austin, TX USA
In My Own Words:
I'm interested in a lot of things, including: photons, molecules, and their interaction; biomolecular analysis and manipulation; microfabrication; CMOS integrated circuit design; DNA and quantum computing; economics; history; and biography.

The overt investigation by authorities is now centered on California, where he appears to have been in recent weeks. Perhaps he was with his sister, whose address (Hollister, CA) is listed for the delivery of his desired books. Or, as Amazon.com notes: "This Wish List includes a ship-to address, so you can pick out an item and have it sent to J. Patrick Bedell at checkout."

Bedell noted as his hometown that of Austin, Texas, which I'm sure, is getting attention too. It has been discovered that Bedell had a early interest in the 1991 alleged suicide of Marine Col. James Sabow, which Bedell felt was a covered-up murder.

Bedell gave the titles of 55 books on his wish list. Most are conspiracy, historical intelligence, and related books, including the following picks:

#1. The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation by Philip Shenon (added July 25, 2009).

#2. The Immaculate Deception: Bush Crime Family Exposed by Russell S. Bowen (added July 21, 2009),

and all the way back in time to items such as,

#51. Barry & 'the Boys': The CIA, the Mob and America's Secret History by Daniel Hopsicker (listed on December 18, 2001).

Some seem harder to understand, for outsiders, such as

#10. Hell Ranch: The Nightmare Tale of Voodoo, Drugs & Death in Matamoros by Clifford L. Linedecker (added March 7, 2007).



In the midst of his list is

#12. The Black World of UFOs: Exempt from Disclosure by Robert M. Collins with Richard C. Doty (added February 5, 2007).

Here is what Amazon passes along from the producers (Peregrine Communications) of this UFO book:

Book Description

Not made on this Earth:
"You are relating our physics to their crafts - cant do that. That was our mistake for many years. To get into outer space, they use THEIR system. To understand their system, you must understand their physics..."

--A number of named sources some of whom worked at Groom Lake for over 40 years will tell their story of Area 51, and S4.

And, Rick Doty as a contributor confirms many of the stories of Bob Lazar.

--So then, what is the Crystal Rectangle CR according to those DIA TS/Code word documents? Its an H5 Alien Energy Device that can power the ISS, but yet no bigger than a 9 x 12 cardboard box less than 3 inches thick.

--Why is Los Alamos LANL having so many problems with the reverse-engineering, specifically, the anti-gravity two tier propulsion system and materials. The Alien Propulsion System is described in detail.

According to a Top Secret/Umbra 5 November 1961 National Intelligence Estimate NIE propulsion studies were being conducted at LANL.

--From the Roswell Incident of July 1947 where were the recovered artifacts kept at Wright-Patterson AFB?

--EBE-2 & those CIA Secret/Top Secret memos said to be real by a number of sources. Kit Green as a former CIA employee claimed he saw the same type of stationary used for the memos and some of the key acronyms.

--JFK & Mj-12:Two separate sources support the fact that there was an EXCOM Executive Committee, who were also members of 5412 meeting at the time/date specified in the Project Jehovah MJ-12 document which mentions NSA decoding the Alien Codex and the CIAs MJEBEN program.

--The 1991 Government Disclosure effort that flopped.

--Did Area 51 get started in 1955 or, was it really 1951?

Also, there is an "About the Author":

Robert M. Collins: A former Air Force Intelligence Officer (Chief Analyst in theoretical Physics) at the Foreign Technology Division (FTD) now NASIC (after three name changes) Wright-Patterson AFB Ohio with an extensive background in Aircraft Avionics Systems, Ground Communications, and Engineering Physics (Electro-Optics, Plasma, and Nuclear Physics) totaling over 22 years. His first UFO contacts were made at FTD starting in 1985 and continue to this day with research and the publication of four book editions of Exempt from Disclosure.

Rick C. Doty: In the spring of 1978 he was recruited by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) to become an agent. He passed all the necessary requirements and tests and was sent to the AFOSI Academy in Washington, D.C. Successfully graduating from the academy he was sent to District 17, OSI, Kirtland AFB New Mexico in May 1979. During that first year he was briefed into a special program. The program involved the collection of intelligence and counter-intelligence information for UFOs and "other foreign intelligence." Recent accomplishments (along with other "associates") include consulting work for both the X-Files and Spielberg's "Taken."

In actuality, the book has been found by many serious ufologists to be a rambling treatise on such apparent mythical or hoaxed organizations like MJ12 and the mostly discredited tales of Bob Lazar. Indeed, Lazar's critics have pointed out that "Lazar's credibility crumbled" after "schools he was supposed to have attended had no record of him, while others in the scientific community had no memory of ever meeting him." This not-terribly-well-edited book fits into J. Patrick Bedell's wish list well, it seems.

Wikipedia appears to have already taken down Bedell's self-authored page; however Bedell's web footprints are being gathered by some rightwing bloggers who are trying to tie Bedell's actions to a bizarre brand, in their thoughts, of "liberal" mindset (e.g. here, here, and here).

All I can say, at this point, is that I was glad to not see The Copycat Effect on his "wish list." As it turns out, Bedell's actions fit perfectly into the mayhem that has visited this country in the form of "active shooters" since the Ft. Hood shootings.

Another Plane Into A Building

A plane from the company Telsa crashed and now this has occurred. The news has taken place so soon after the Amy Bishop shootings. It is interwoven, as has been noted often in my work and that of others, such as Dr. David Phillips and Dr. Steven Stack (no relation to today's pilot). See my chapter, "Planes Into Buildings" in The Copycat Effect.

Tampa Tower Crash

It will be recalled that Charles (Bishara) Bishop (February 8, 1986 - January 5, 2002) was an American teenager who died by suicide when he crashed a stolen Cessna 172 into the 28th floor of the Bank of America Tower in Tampa, Florida on January 5, 2002. A note written by Bishop was found in the wreckage and expressed his support for Osama bin Laden and the September 11, 2001 attacks. The young man also noted the "1967 Israeli-Syrian War" (also called the Six-Day War of June 5-10, 1967) in his note.

Bishop's father was identified as Charles Bishara, an alleged small-time criminal with the Arabic surname Bishara. Bishop's mother had changed the boy's name from Bishara to Bishop during the first Gulf War. (The name may be familiar to you as it is the middle name of Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, the alleged single assassin of Robert F. Kennedy, who was shot on the first anniversary of the Six Day War and died the next day.)

Tesla Plane Crash

On February 17, 2010, in Palo Alto, California, a twin-engine Cessna 310 crashed in a residential neighborhood, killing three employees of electric-car maker Tesla Motors who were aboard the plane. (The sounds from the Tesla Motors crash have been published online. Warning: Graphic, with screams.) The accident caused a major power outage in Palo Alto, including at the office of Facebook, but no one was injured on the ground.

The pilot was Doug Bourn, 56, a senior electrical engineer who had worked for the electric carmaker for five years and who mentored others. The other two passengers have been identified as Andrew Ingram, 31, of Palo Alto, an electrical engineer; and Brian M. Finn, 42, of East Palo Alto; a senior manager of interactive electronics. Finn reportedly lived with his one-year-old daughter just two blocks from where the plane went down in East Palo Alto. Chief Executive Elon Musk noted: “Tesla is a small, tightly-knit company, and this is a tragic day for us.”

Nikola Tesla and the Death Ray

The company appears to have been named in tribute to Nikola Tesla (July 10, 1856 – January 7, 1943), who was an inventor and a mechanical and electrical engineer. He was one of the most important contributors to the birth of commercial electricity, and is best known for his many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Aside from his work on electromagnetism and electromechanical engineering, Tesla contributed in varying degrees to the establishment of robotics, remote control, radar, and computer science, and to the expansion of ballistics, nuclear physics, and theoretical physics. In the late 1880s, Tesla and Thomas Edison became adversaries. From 1900, Tesla worked, until his death, on his teleforce weapon, which the media called his "peace ray" or "death ray." This directed-energy superweapon was said to concern the use of charged particle beams. In 1943, the Supreme Court of the United States credited Tesla as being the inventor of the radio. (David Bowie portrayed Tesla in the 2006 movie The Prestige. Tesla's time in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was the focus of several scenes in the film, which featured speculations on the explosive power of Tesla's electrical experiments.)

Stack Hits IRS Building

On February 18, 2010, Joseph Andrew Stack, flying a Piper Cherokee PA-28 (registration N2889D) plane, crashed into Building I of the Echelon office complex in Austin, Texas, United States. An Internal Revenue Service (IRS) field office is located in the seven-story office building along with other state and federal government agencies. Stack had posted a manifesto dated February 18, 2010, to his business website.

The plane departed a nearby airport at 9:40 AM Central Standard Time, and, about twenty minutes later, crashed into a building containing offices for the IRS, setting it ablaze. It went in at full speed and did not appear to be accidental or due to mechanical failure according to eyewitnesses.

The pilot was killed in the incident along with Vernon Hunter, a 67-year-old Revenue Office Manager for the IRS. Thirteen people were reported as injured, two of them critically. Debris from the crash reportedly struck a Lexus sedan being driven on the southbound access road of U.S. Route 183 in front of the building and shattering the windshield. Another driver on the southbound access road of U.S. Route 183 had his windows and sunroof shattered during the impact and had debris fall inside his car yet escaped uninjured.

(Late in the week, Vernon Hunter's son, Ken spoke out. "There was just too much going on about what the guy did and what he believed in, and enough's enough," he said. "They don't need to talk about him. Talk about my dad. You know, some people are trying to make this guy out to be a hero, a patriot. My dad served two terms in Vietnam. This guy never served at all. My dad wasn't responsible for his tax problems.")

The plane was piloted by Joseph Andrew Stack, of the Scofield Farms neighborhood in North Austin, who worked as an embedded software consultant. Prior to the crash, he set his house on fire in the 1800 block of Dapplegrey Lane. Early reports wondered aloud if the house burned with his wife and daughter presumably inside. Their deaths have not been confirmed.

Stack had posted an anti-government, anti-bailout, anti-corporation, anti-union, and anti-religion manifesto on his website, embeddedart.com. It was also a suicide note.

In the manifesto, Stack states that he was not impressed with political representatives, whom he describes as "thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags," also criticizing the conglomerate companies of General Motors, Enron and Arthur Andersen. He also referred to the drug and insurance companies as "murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies." Stack also criticized "The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years," the "corrupt Catholic Church," and "the monsters of organized religion."

The manifesto ended with:

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, lets try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.
The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

Stack was a graduate of the Milton Hershey School and attended Harrisburg Area Community College from 1975-77.

In response to the crash, the Department of Homeland Security became involved in the investigation of the crash, stating that it did not appear to be linked to terrorism. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs reaffirmed what Homeland Security said, and that President Barack Obama was being briefed of the incident. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) launched two F-16 fighter aircraft from Ellington Field in Houston, Texas, to conduct an air patrol in response to the crash, which was reported as standard operating procedure in this situation.

The company hosting embeddedart.com, T35 hosting, took Stack's website offline, "due to the sensitive nature of the events that transpired in Texas this morning and in compliance with a request from the FBI."

The Bishop Shootings

A female shooter was in custody and three are dead. A campus shooting incident occurred about 4:15 pm on February 12, 2010, in Alabama.

Three people were killed and several more injured in the shooting Friday in a science building at the University of Alabama's Huntsville campus, university officials said. (Also known as the University of Alabama in Huntsville.)

Trent Willis, chief of staff for Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, said several other people had been shot in addition to the four reported, but he did not have an exact number or their conditions.

Huntsville Hospital spokesman Burr Ingram said the hospital was treating three victims. Two were in critical condition and one was in stable condition. It was not clear if the three included the one injured person university officials announced.

Sophomore Erin Johnson told The Huntsville Times a biology faculty meeting was under way when she heard screams coming from the room.

The shooting happened in the university's Shelby Center, a science building. University police secured the building and students were cleared from it.

The Huntsville campus has about 7,500 students in northern Alabama, not far from the Tennessee line.

The university posted a message on its Web site Friday afternoon telling students the campus was closed Friday night and all students were encouraged to go home. Counselors were available to speak with students.

The shooter has been identified as Dr. Amy Bishop, a Harvard-educated neurobiologist who joined the faculty of UAH in 2003.

Her development with her husband, Jim Anderson, of a "portable cell incubator" placed third in a state-wide competition, and won the couple $25,000 of seed money in a business competition.

Mr. Anderson, also reportedly in custody, is said to be the chief science officer of Cherokee Labsystems in Huntsville.

Dr. Bishop's profile has been pulled from UAH's site, but Google's cache reveals her areas of research focussed on the role of gasses on the central nervous system, especially nitrous oxide.

Her lab was working on the development of a "neural computer," the "Neuristor," which would use living neurons—taken either from stem cells or fish.

She also developed the InQ, a "precision instrument designed to increase the precision and consistency of cell growth in laboratory experimentation."

Dr. Bishop has numerous articles in journals to her credit, including studies in the International Journal of General Medicine and Toxicology.

Bus Rampage: China

A bus dispatcher in northern China killed nine people and injured 11 others when he hijacked a company vehicle after a feud with his boss.

The man, surnamed Zhang, got into a fight with his boss and injured him with a dagger before stealing the bus and driving away into the streets of the city of Tianjin, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The 40-year-old motored through the streets, ramming into people and killing nine bystanders, the report said.

Police dispatched dozens of police cars to the scene, and Zhang ran into three of them, injuring four policemen, before finally being caught.

Authorities were investigating the case, the report said.

Source: Monday, February 1, 2010, Geelong Advertiser, Australia.

The Peter Pan/Hook Deaths

Who are killing the children?

Another young child has died under mysterious circumstances in which the initial speculation is that the child died by self-hanging. Without going into the exacting details at this time, let me summarize that for years there has been a series of relatively unexplained child deaths and near deaths. These have been lexilinked by twilight names (Montana, Aquan, Imhotep; Chatham-Chatham), bizarre pedophilia hints (under investigation), and the common factor that the children were found hanged, often on a coat hook, often in bathrooms.

In addition to January 21, 2010's alleged new suicide (see below), here's a summary of older incidents:

1. Unnamed youth ~ Kanpur, India; February 20, 2009; hanged from the hook of the toilet in a train; dead.
2. Unnamed girl ~ South Side Chicago, Illinois; February 20, 2009; hanged on a clothes hook in home closet; dead.
3. Unnamed boy ~ Chatham, Illinois; February 4, 2009; hanged by hook; dead.
4. Aquan Lewis ~ Evanston, Illinois; February 3, 2009; hanged on a school bathroom hook; dead.
5. Tevin Park-Flowers (a twin) ~ Austin, Texas; January 30, 2008; hanged by a hook in a gymnasium bathroom; pants were down at his ankles; dead.
6. Unnamed boy ~ New Bedford, Massachusetts; January 30, 2008; found alive, hanging on a hook in a children's room of the New Bedford Public Library; man arrested, charged with child molestation and rape.
7. Unnamed child ~ Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; April 27, 2005; near death, found hanging on a hook in a school coatroom closet.
8. Imhotep Lubin ~ Brooklyn, New York; 2004; found alive hanging by his belt from a hook in a school closet; teacher arrested.
9. Unnamed child ~ Chatham, Ontario; 1998; hanged from a hook in school bathroom; dead.

In the most recent assumed suicide, 9-year-old Montana Lance allegedly hanged himself in a bathroom at Stewart's Creek Elementary School, The Colony, Texas, shortly before 1 p.m. on Thursday, January 21, 2010.

Lt. Darren Brockway said that the boy "had reportedly hung himself in a bathroom" and was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Autopsy results are pending. Police are investigating the circumstances but don't expect any criminal charges.

Because there seems to be no cooperation between police departments on these far-flung incidents, could there perhaps be some similar patterns that have developed and are being overlooked?

Are there other mystery deaths of children on coat hooks that you have read about, in isolation from the above accounts?

What could any of this have to do with J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan? Stay tuned.

VA: 8 Dead

The number of shooting incidents has increased dramatically in the USA since the Fort Hood incident. Whether the reasons are the copycat effect, behavior contagion, media reporting increase, or coincidence doesn't matter. It is happening and we are in the midst of a major cluster. Another shooting has occurred.

On Tuesday, January 19, 2010, a gunman went on a "rampage" (as the media is terming it) in the Virginia, killing eight people and shooting a police helicopter taking part in a hunt for him, officials said. A 39-year-old man was believed to be surrounded early Wednesday after the shootings in a rural district near Appomattox (where the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee took place, ending the Civil War) in southern Virginia. Police confirmed that there were eight dead.

The suspect, named as Christopher Speight, shot a helicopter that was called to the scene at least four times, forcing it to make an emergency landing, officials said.

[Some of the first settlers in America with this family name, Speight, or its variants, were Frances Speight who settled in Virginia in 1642; William and Mary Speights plus their daughter Elizabeth in Barbados in 1678; and Christopher Speight in New England in 1760. The family motto is "by strength and valor." One of the more well-known holders of the name was Englishman Mark Warwick Fordham Speight (August 6, 1965 – April 7, 2008), who was an English television presenter, who once played the "Abominable No Man" in Timmy Mallett's Timmy Towers. On the afternoon of January 3, 2008, Speight called emergency services after waking up to discover fiancée Natasha Collins's body in the bath of their St John's Wood flat, in northwest London. He was originally arrested and charged with her murder. An inquest later determined Collins had died of a drug overdose and severe burns from hot water. Then on April 7, 2008, Speight was reported missing and soon found that he had died by suicide by hanging near Paddington Station. He left suicide notes saying he could not live without Collins.]

"More than 100 deputies, officers and state troopers will continue working through the night to locate and apprehend the armed subject" Virginia State Police said in a statement.

The incident unfolded around noon on Tuesday when a deputy from the Appomattox sheriff's office responded to an emergency call about an injured man lying on a country road.

"When the deputy arrived on scene, the deputy heard several gun shots," Sergeant Thomas Molnar, a spokesman for the Virginia State Police told AFP.

As the victim was being airlifted to a nearby hospital, where he later died, officers found four bodies outside a nearby home and "three bodies inside the residence."

The victims were male and female, according to police.

The shootings were said to be the act of a lone gunman, who was pinned down by police in nearby woods late Tuesday, officials said.

A nearby residence was evacuated as the manhunt grew ever tenser.

"The perimeter has been established and we believe the suspect is within the quarantined area," Molnar said.

A motive for the attacks was not immediately clear.

Sherlock Holmes (2009): The Ripper Killings

I found the new Sherlock Holmes (2009) movie intriguingly multi-layered, with an incredible number of synchromystical symbols throughout, often tied to the Masons ("Temple of the Four Orders") and the Ripper case (see below). These are woven nicely within the plot and characters.

Lord Blackwood (who wears a black trenchcoat most of the time ~ as have the spate of recent mass killers), the secret society members, the plotting police, the usual bald giants, the ginger little people, the overly attractive prostitutes, and even the ever present ravens have a good deal to "say" to those watching this cinema closely. Needless to say, the Masonic elements have been mentioned by many reviewers and critics in the blogosphere, so no need to dwell on the straight and narrow there.

Another "character" in the movie is the Tower Bridge, which is shown under construction. Actually, since it is known that the building of the Tower Bridge started in 1886 and took eight years, it nicely dates this version of Sherlock Holmes. The official plot summary of the movie notes this film occurs in "1891 London."

The movie has many facets, overlooked by the casual moviegoer.

For example:

A number of the movie's details were taken directly from "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone." The first is the name of the villain, Lord Blackwood. Fans may remember him as Count Negretto Sylvius (Negretto is Italian for black and Sylvius is Latin for woods). Interestingly enough, Blackwoods was a competitor of the Strand (the publisher of Doyle's work). Blackwoods also rejected some of Doyle's early work, though the Mazarin story was written 40 years after the fact and Doyle was very successful by then. In any event, Blackwood was NOT some magician with an egg tooth (a tooth most baby snakes are born with to cut through their eggs).

Another common detail is the Crown Diamond, which is the Yellow Mazarin Stone (named for Cardinal Jules Mazarin [1602-1661], minister to Louis XIV). The large yellow stone hung around Irene Adler's neck in the movie. "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone" is also the first and only story to mention that the 221B Baker Street apartment had multiple exits and a waiting room. The extra exit was through the bedroom which Sherlock employed to follow Irene early in the movie.

I actually think few people "get" what is behind the allusion to the five prostitutes who are killed ritualistically with daggers, before the timeline of the movie begins. These definitely appear to me to be an obvious but subtle reference to the five traditionally acknowledged Ripper killings. Because the phrase "Jack the Ripper" is never used in the movie, I have yet to see it in any deciphering of this present film. Those murders took place around Whitechapel, London, in late 1888, of course, and some, like Stephen Knight, theorize they were Masonic in nature. The present movie has more links to the Sherlock Holmes in A Study in Scarlet and Christopher Plummer in Murder by Decree, than people are noting.

Release Date: December 25th, 2009 (wide)
Distributors: Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution
Produced in: United States

Actors:
Robert Downey Jr. ... Sherlock Holmes
Jude Law ... Dr. John Watson
Rachel McAdams ... Irene Adler
Mark Strong ... Blackwood
Eddie Marsan ... Inspector Lestrade
Kelly Reilly ... Mary

Directed by: Guy Ritchie
++++

Doyle: A Mason?

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was the author of fifty-six short stories and three novels with Sherlock Holmes and John H. Watson M.D., as the principal characters.

Conan Doyle was not a particularly active freemason. One widely quoted report in the October 1901 Masonic Illustrated claims: "While at the seat of war, he attended the never-to-be-forgotten scratch lodge at Bloemfontein in company with Bro. Rudyard Kipling." In fact, Kipling was in Bloemfontein only between March 17 and April 3, 1900, a period when Rising Star Lodge No. 1022 E.C., the only lodge meeting in that part of South Africa, did not meet. At an April 5, 1900 meeting letters were received by the lodge from both Lord Kitchener and Conan Doyle, expressing their regrets at being unable to attend. A "loyal resolution" to be sent to the Prince of Wales was proposed by Kitchener at an April 23, 1900 meeting; a document signed by both Lord Roberts, who had not been present at the meeting, and Conan Doyle. The minutes of the lodge’s November 7, 1901 meeting refute the newspaper report and deny that Bros. Doyle and Kipling had ever visited their lodge. Also in 1900 Conan Doyle was made an honorary member of The Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary’s Chapel) No. 1 in recognition of his acceptance of an invitation to speak at a Burns' Night Dinner.

There is no mention of Freemasonry in his autobiography, Memories and Adventures and it is said that "Dr. Doyle looked in on Freemasonry and soon looked out again." There are, however seven distinct and several other oblique references to Freemasonry in his fiction. [AQC 104 & 105]

A prolific writer and an early proponent of a tunnel connecting England and France, he was also responsible for introducing downhill skiing into Switzerland, metal helmets for combat soldiers and the inflatable life-preserver for sailors. He makes a number of Masonic references in his writings, none of them key to his story development.

However, this record exists of his membership:
Initiated: January 26, 1887
Passed: February 23, 1887
Raised: March 23, 1887
Demitted: 1889
Rejoined: 1902
Demitted: 1911
Phoenix Lodge 257, Southsea Hampshire.

See also, other links to strange "Sherlock Holmes" coincidences in 2009, including the "Dr. Watson" killing, and the sudden death of Natasha Richardson, who had made her UK television debut in 1985, in The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes, appearing as Violet Hunter in the episode, "The Copper Beeches."

Vegas Shooting ~ Wicks Id'ed

Authorities say a gunman shot dead in a gunbattle after killing a courthouse security guard and wounding a federal marshal in Las Vegas had a "lengthy" criminal history in Tennessee and California.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Kevin Favreau said on January 5th that 66-year-old Johnny Lee Wicks faced murder charges in Memphis, Tenn., in the mid-1970s, and sex assault charges in Sacramento, Calif., in the late 1980s.

Records show Wicks lost a federal lawsuit last year challenging a cut in his Social Security benefits after moving from California to Las Vegas.

The FBI and local police say Wicks torched his apartment and walked three miles to the courthouse before opening fire Monday morning, killing 72-year-old security officer Stanley Cooper.

Officials say the wounded marshal has been released from the hospital.


EARLIER///
An as-yet unidentified gunman, wearing a black trenchcoat, opened fire in the lobby of a federal building in downtown Las Vegas on Monday, January 4, 2010, killing one court officer and wounding a second before he was shot to death. (Earlier reports that two FBI agents were shot are being denied.)

The gunfire erupted moments after 8 a.m. at the start of the work week and lasted for several minutes. Shots echoed around tall buildings in the area, more than a mile north of the Las Vegas Strip. An Associated Press reporter on the eighth floor of a high-rise building within sight of the building heard more than 20 shots during the sustained barrage of gunfire.

The U.S. Marshals Service says the victims included a deputy U.S. marshal and a court security officer. The 48-year-old deputy marshal was hospitalized, and the 65-year-old security officer died.

FBI Special Agent Joseph Dickey said the gunman died across the street shortly after the shootout. The man's identity and motive were not immediately known.

Authorities believe the shooter acted alone, Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Roxanna Lea Irwin said.

The building was evacuated, police and news helicopters circled overhead, and Las Vegas police cordoned off the area for several blocks. A 16-story state and local courthouse two blocks away was locked down as a precaution.

After police arrived, paramedics wheeled at least two people out and down a ramp to ambulances.

Dickey called the building evacuation "standard procedure" in such an incident, and said it was "for the safety of everybody in the place."

Las Vegas police spokeswoman Barbara Morgan said the shooter had been shot in the head.

"It looks like he went in there and just started unloading," Morgan said.

The Lloyd D. George U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building is named for a longtime senior federal judge who still hears cases. It has federal courts and offices for federal officials including U.S. Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign. Neither were in the building at the time, authorities said.

Irwin said she saw shotgun casings on the floor of the federal building lobby.

Top Fortean Books of 2009

Top Fortean Books of 2009
by Loren Coleman, Author, Mysterious America, The Copycat Effect, and other books.



In terms of the best broadbased, general, fortean, twilight language, synchromystic books published or reprinted last year, this list encompasses my top picks for 2009:

1. Outbreak! The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior by Hilary Evans And Robert E. Bartholomew.



The #1 Fortean book for 2009, hands down, has to be Outbreak! The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior. It is a massive, well-researched tome, being a large format paperbound book (8" by 11"), with a total of 765 pages of about 340 entries. The authors are the scholars Hilary Evans, a social historian, and Robert Bartholomew, a sociologist and specialist in collective behavior.

2. Obelisk: A History by Brian A. Curran, Anthony Grafton, Pamela O. Long, and Benjamin Weiss.



3. Swamp Gas Times: My Two Decades on the UFO Beat by Patrick Huyghe.



4. An Illustrated Guide to The Lost Symbol, edited by John Weber.



5. Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation by Mitch Horowitz.



6. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Mounds & Earthworks by Gregory L. Little, Kimberly Prachniak, and Dee Turman.

7. Centre for Fortean Zoology Yearbook 2009 by Jonathan Downes and Corinna Newton Downes (eds).

8. Darklore Volume 3 / Darklore Volume 4 by Greg Taylor (Editor)

9. Encyclopedia of Haunted Places by Jeff Belanger.

10. Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us by Jason Offutt.

11. Beyond Shadow World by Brad Steiger.

12. The Secret Temple: Masons, Mysteries, and the Founding of America by Peter Levenda.

Woman In Red Attacks Pope

As Pope Benedict XVI was making his way down the long aisle in St. Peter's Basilica to give the Christmas Eve Mass (24 Dec 2009), a woman in red leaped over the barrier to get closer to him. But in doing so she lunged at him and pulled him down to the marble floor. The Pope was shaken but not injured.

Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, 87, however was hurt. He was wheeled off to hospital with a broken hip after falling during the incident. He'll be operated on in the coming days.

A statement released by the Vatican identified the woman as Susanna Maiolo, a 25-year-old Italian Swiss national. The statement said she was not armed but shows signs of mental instability, and has since been admitted to a health facility for compulsory treatment.

Maiolo is the same woman who tried to reach Pope Benedict XVI at Midnight Mass last year. Vatican officials speaking on condition of anonymity said Maiolo was involved in a similar incident last year in which she jumped the barricade as the pope processed. In that case, however, Maiolo never managed to reach the pope and was quietly tackled to the ground by security.

In both cases she wore a red sweatshirt.

Meanwhile, on Christmas Day, (25 Dec 2009), the FBI is questioning a suspect believed to have tried to ignite a powdery substance on Detroit-bound airliner. Delta Flight 253 [2 (2+3) 3], an Airbus 330 carrying 278 passengers, was arriving in Detroit from Amsterdam on Friday afternoon when the explosives went off. Minor injuries occurred. The passenger was immediately subdued and was not named (yet). It has been declared an act of terrorist.

It will be recalled that John A. Keel, who died this year, wrote of entities (being channeled through individuals he knew) telling of prophecies and predictions. The information to Keel told of the threat of an assassination of a pope.

An assassination attempt of a pope was to be followed by "days of darkness," and would trigger Armageddon. So wrote Keel in The Mothman Prophecies. Often it is forgotten that in Operation Trojon Horse and Haunted Planet, Keel also penned some passages on the "messages" he was receiving and on St. Malachy's Prophecy, which states that the final pope before Peter will be assassinated.

For those who speculate, there is general agreement that Pope Benedict XVI is Gloria Olivae, the last pope in St. Malachy's Prophecy before the final pope, Petrus Romanus. Peter of Rome (or Peter II?) will see the times when the "city of seven hills will be destroyed" (the Vatican? Rome?).

Will 2010 be a year of wondering what it all means?

Fort Hood-Linked Iman Killed

In the wake of recent police ambush incidents and other shootings, which appear to have occurred as copycats of the Fort Hood killings, there is more breaking news today.

A bulletin from Reuters reports that "radical Muslim preacher" Anwar al-Awlaki (linked by U.S. intelligence to the Fort Hood shootings) has died in a Yemen airstrike on al Qaeda militants, a security official from Sanaa said on Thursday, Christmas Eve Day, December 24, 2009. In the Fort Hood massacre, allegedly one gunman killed 13 people at the U.S. Army base.

The SITE Intelligence Group handout photo (at top) was obtained November 10, 2009, of Anwar al-Awlaki, a former US resident living in Yemen and accused al-Qaeda supporter, who commented on his website on November 9, 2009, that the attack at Fort Hood perpetrated by the alleged gunman, Major Nidal Hasan, was a "heroic act." As officials advance the investigation into the Army Major who allegedly perpetrated the massacre at Fort Hood, attention had turned to Anwar al-Awlaki, a top al Qaeda recruiter who was in contact with Major Nidal Hasan before the Army shootings.


Major Nidal Hasan.

According to the Washington Post, Imam Al-Awlaki of Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia at one time was the Muslim Chaplain at George Washington University. He held a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University, a M.A. in Education Leadership from San Diego State University and worked on a Doctorate degree in Human Resource Development at George Washington University.

Doesn't the following image make you wonder, why would someone want to have their photo on Anwar al-Awlaki's Facebook page?



Information from AP, AFP, Newscom, KOMO, Reuters, Washington Post, SMiles Foster, and other media.

Sin City Star Dies: Brittany Murphy At 32

Brittany Murphy has died.

The 32-year-old actress went into full cardiac arrest early Sunday morning, December 20, 2009, following a 911 call from her husband, Simon Monjack, Variety reports. Around 8 a.m. local time, her mother found her unconscious in the shower in her home in the hills of West Hollywood. The star was pronounced dead upon arrival at 10:04 am on Sunday, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles County Department of Coroner confirms to E! News, "We do have a preliminary death report of a Brittany Murphy" coming from Cedars-Sinai.

Popular Movie Celebrity

Murphy starred in such films as 8 Mile, Uptown Girls, Sin City, Clueless and Don't Say a Word.

She also starred in the ironically named Drop Dead Gorgeous. Murphy's Drop Dead Gorgeous co-star Denise Richards lamented: "Brittany Murphy was in Drop Dead Gorgeous with me and was the sweetest and most adorable. Tragic, sad and devastating. Her poor family."

Murphy was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on November 10, 1977. Her parents divorced when she was two and she was raised by her mother, Sharon Murphy (Irish and Eastern European descent), in Edison, New Jersey, and later Los Angeles. Her father, Angelo Bertolotti (Italian American), is, allegedly, a convicted mobster, found guilty of racketeering.

Other Notable Deaths

In West Hollywood, other tragic deaths have included those of John Belushi and River Phoenix.

In 1982, John Belushi died of a drug overdose at the elegant Chateau Marmont hotel. On the night of his death, he was visited separately by friends Robin Williams (at the height of his own drug exploits) and Robert De Niro, each of whom left the premises, leaving Belushi in the company of assorted others, including Cathy Smith. This is just one of many notable sordid events at the location. A 1930s movie executive reportedly said, "If you must get into trouble, do it at the Chateau Marmont."

Actor River Phoenix died of a drug overdose on Halloween morning in 1993 at the Viper Room, a club that was opened that year and was partly owned by actor Johnny Depp until 2004.

Howard Hughes

West Hollywood, then called Sherman, formerly was an important retreat for Howard Hughes. In 1930, Howard Hughes purchased the building at 7000 Romaine Street, which was then used for an experimental film process company for a short time. Hughes eventually used the location as the communication nerve center for his empire. Employees called this location The Fortress.

The area around Fountain Avenue, Harper Avenue and Havenhurst Drive contains a high concentration of landmark 1920s Spanish Revival and Art Deco apartment buildings by such noted architects as Leland Bryant. This historic district has been home to many celebrities and at one time the Sunset Tower at 8358 Sunset Boulevard was home to Frank Sinatra, Errol Flynn, the Gabor Sisters, John Wayne and Howard Hughes.

Close Encounters of Fourth Kind Author Dies

The death of author C. D. B. Bryan, 73, who wrote his last book about an academic symposium that examined claims of alien visitations, Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: Alien Abductions, UFOs and the Conference at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (NY: Alfred A. Knopf,1995), has been detailed in an obituary by Bruce Weber at The New York Times.

C. D. B. Bryan, a novelist and journalist whose 1976 book, "Friendly Fire," about the accidental death of a soldier in Vietnam, the consequent anguish of his family and their rage at the Army and the federal government, became one of the enduring works of reportage on the Vietnam War, died Tuesday [December 15, 2009] at home in Guilford, Conn....The cause was cancer, said his son, St. George Bryan.

Bryan's own military career involved serving in the U.S. Army in South Korea (1958–1960), but not happily, according to source material. He was mobilized again (1961–1962) for the Berlin Crisis of 1961. He was an intelligence officer, according to his profile at Wikipedia.

Bruce Weber notes later in the Times obituary:

Courtlandt Dixon Barnes Bryan, known as Courty, was born in Manhattan on April 22, 1936, and grew up in various locations, but mostly in Doylestown, Pa. His father, Joseph Bryan III, was a magazine writer and editor who had a fascination with unidentified flying objects, a subject C. D. B. Bryan would explore himself in his final book....

His father was a major actor in the study of UFOs, actually, especially regarding his role in the relatively mainstream workings of the Washington D. C.-based organization, the National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena.

[Donald Keyhoe, Maj USMC (Ret.)]became NICAP’s director. He established a monthly newsletter, The U.F.O. Investigator. Another prominent figure joined NICAP’s board of governors: Keyhoe's Naval Academy classmate VADM Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, USN (Ret.) He had been Director of Central Intelligence and first head of the Central Intelligence Agency. Another important name on the letterhead was that of Gen. Albert Coady Wedemeyer USA (Ret.)....

By 1969, Keyhoe turned his focus away from the military and focused on the CIA as the source of the UFO cover up. By December 1969, NICAP's board, headed by Colonel Joseph Bryan III, forced Keyhoe to retire as NICAP chief. Bryan was actually a former covert CIA agent who had served as founder and head of the CIA's psychological warfare division. Under Bryan's leadership, NICAP disbanded its local and state affiliate groups. Source

The New York Times concludes with the following personal information:

His parents divorced when he was in his late teens, and his mother, Katharine Lansing Barnes, married the novelist John O'Hara, who was especially influential in turning the young man toward writing fiction.

Young Courty Bryan was educated at several private schools and was thrown out of two of them, one for cheating, an incident central to an early short story, "So Much Unfairness of Things," which appeared in The New Yorker and grew into his first novel, "P.S. Wilkinson." It won the Harper Prize, given by the publisher Harper & Row to the finest manuscript turned in by an unknown writer, in 1965.

In spite of his spotty academic career, he was admitted to Yale. After graduation he served in the Army in South Korea in the late 1950s, an unhappy episode that also found its way into the novel.

* * *

Mr. Bryan was a smoker, a drinker and an avid and gifted conversationalist who effortlessly commanded the attention of people around a dinner table, his son said. He will be cremated in advance of a memorial service early next year, St. George Bryan added; until then, his remains are to be stored in martini shakers.Source.

The Fourth Kind



It is to be noted that the movie The Fourth Kind opened on Friday, November 6, 2009. It is a science fiction/thriller/horror film directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, and starring Milla Jovovich. The film is purported to be a documentary reenactment set in Nome, Alaska, and deals with alien abductions. The film's promotional material says the title is derived from J. Allen Hynek's classification of close encounters with aliens, in which the fourth kind denotes an alien abduction.

As researcher S. Miles Lewis points out in personal correspondence, this is technically incorrect.

A close encounter of the fourth kind is said to be when a "human is abducted by a UFO or its occupants." But this type was not included in Hynek's original close encounters scale.

Jacques Vallee, Hynek's associate, argued in "Physical Analysis in Ten Cases of Unexplaind Aerial Objects with Material Samples." (Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 12, No. 3., pp. 359-375, 1998) that a CE4 should be described as "cases when witnesses experienced a transformation of their sense of reality," so as to also include non-abduction cases where absurd, hallucinatory or dreamlike events are associated with UFO encounters.

Lonnie Zamora, famed historical UFO eyewitness who was a member of law enforcement when he had his experience, also recently died, on November 2, 2009. Zamora had encounters of the first, second, and third kind, but not the fourth kind.

C. D. B. Bryan's book, Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind, actually does involve the academic analyses of those level of claims of alien visitations. The five-day conference that Bryan covered was chaired by M.I.T. Professor of Physics David Pritchard and Harvard Professor of Psychiatry John Mack. John Mack, M.D. (who was killed when hit by a car in London, on September 27, 2004) was a historically significant figure in abduction studies, who gave much credibility to the field, especially after Bryan's book appeared.

NVCC Shooting

A 20-year-old student opened fire in a Woodbridge, Virginia community college classroom, but did not hit anyone and was arrested in a hallway, police said on December 8, 2009 (on the anniversary of John Lennon's death).

No injuries were reported following the afternoon shooting at Northern Virginia Community College's campus in Woodbridge, about 25 miles south of Washington, D.C.

Jason Michael Hamilton, 20, of Manassas was later charged with attempted murder and discharging a firearm in a school zone and was being held without bond. Whether Hamilton had hired an attorney was not immediately clear.

Prince William County Police spokeswoman Kim Chinn said the student, armed with a high-powered rifle, fired several shots and left the classroom. Officers found him in a hallway where he was cooperative and was taken into custody, Chinn said.

The spokeswoman said the unidentified teacher ducked when the student opened fire.

"When she saw the gun, she hit the floor," Chinn said.

Hamilton did not have the gun when he was arrested, but told police where it was, the spokeswoman said.

Chinn said she didn't know exactly where Hamilton's rifle was found, but it wasn't in the classroom.

Police spokeswoman Sharon Richardson said officers responded about 2:40 p.m. to an "active shooter" situation following reports of a gunman in the main administration building.

The college enacted its emergency lockdown procedures and later issued a statement saying all Woodbridge classes were canceled Tuesday because of the shooting. Some students, faculty and staff were sent to a nearby high school.

All classrooms are in one building and the students were in lockdown until about 5:30 p.m. Swat teams went into each classroom during the lockdown, said Chinn, who didn't know how many students were inside or how many shots were fired.

Biology professor Miriam St. Clair, of McLean, Va., said "we heard a loud noise, it sounded like a desk fell over and we heard another loud pop, we knew it was a gunshot."

St. Clair, 58, said she looked out the window and saw students running. The professor said she told her students to get inside the classroom and they closed the door, which did not have a lock, and barricaded themselves inside by piling about 20 desks against the door, crouching behind other desks in the room.

One of the students called 911 and the operator told them to stay where they were. About 2 1/2 hours later, a SWAT team came into the classroom and told them it was safe.

"We were very frightened," St. Clair said.

Two police cars were outside the suspect's home in an affluent new subdivision, but officers wouldn't let reporters close.

Neighbor Daren Edwards, 38, said Hamilton's parents moved to the subdivision about three years ago and Hamilton lived in the basement. Edwards said he sometimes saw him jogging alone, or with his mother.

"He's always by himself, he's always isolated," Edwards said

JFK Doctor Dies

Malcolm Oliver Perry II, 80, the doctor who attended JFK in Dallas has died, reports the Dallas Daily News.

As noted in the Paraview Press book, Trauma Room One: The JFK Medical Coverup Exposed by Charles A. Crenshaw, et al., Perry was one of the doctors who believed the fatal head shot that killed Kennedy had come from the front (not the back, as was the conventional Warren Commission finding).

Dr. Malcolm Oliver Perry II, who attended to President John F. Kennedy at Parkland Memorial Hospital after he was shot in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, has died.

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, the teaching hospital for Parkland, said Monday that Perry died Saturday, December 5, 2009, in Tyler, Texas, after a battle with lung cancer.

Perry was an assistant professor of surgery at UT Southwestern and a vascular surgeon on the Parkland staff when he became the first staff surgeon to treat Kennedy.

In an extensive interview by the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination, Perry recalled taking the case over from the senior resident, checking the president's vital signs and finding none but noting a convulsive effort to breath. He performed a tracheotomy on the president while other staff doctors and surgeons gathered to help.

Perry and another surgeon performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Kennedy until no brain activity was detected on the trauma room instruments. At 1 p.m., Kennedy was declared dead by Dr. Kemp Clark, the UT Southwestern neurosurgery chairman, from a catastrophic head wound.

Dr. Robert McClelland was the last surgeon to attend Kennedy in Trauma Room 1. McClelland, a longtime friend and Parkland and UT Southwestern colleague of Perry's, remembers that the shock of realizing whom they were treating faded quickly when they entered the trauma room.

"At Parkland we're accustomed, all of us are, to treating many different cases," McClelland told The Associated Press on Monday. "Of course, it's the president," he said. Was it hard to put that aside? "No, not really. Everything was so rapidly happening that we were called on the peak of the moment."

Perry told the commission that the neck wound Kennedy suffered from the sniper's first rifle shot would likely have not been fatal. However, he testified that neither he nor Clark could tell from their examinations from where the bullets came.

The vascular surgeon also was one of the doctors to operate on presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, who was shot two days after Kennedy's death by Jack Ruby.

After a long career, Perry retired in 2000 as professor emeritus of surgery at UT Southwestern. But McClelland, now 80, said that after the assassination his friend never mentioned their role in the case, and that they never discussed it even among themselves.

"No, we didn't, for reasons he kept to himself. Immediately after, he had a bad experience with interviews that hurt him deeply. Whenever the subject threatened to come up, he'd raise an eyebrow and that would be that," he said.

Perry was born in Allen, Texas, a once-tiny farming-and-railroad town about 20 miles north of Dallas that is now one of the city's fastest-growing suburbs. He was raised by his grandfather and namesake, Dr. Malcolm O. Perry I, a general practitioner in the small town.