Enigmas of Ansbach

A Bavarian town famous for its werewolf and site of the death of the mysterious Kaspar Hauser has been hit by a school attack.


Kaspar Hauser

An 18-year-old student armed with an ax, knives and Molotov cocktails wounded eight fellow students and a teacher at his high school in the Bavarian town of Ansbach on Thursday, September 17, 2009, the German police said. The police arrived at the scene minutes after the rampage began, opening fire on the attacker, who was not identified, and arresting him.

Two children were seriously wounded, as was the 18-year-old attacker. Seven other children were slightly wounded.

Ralf Koch, a spokesman for the Bavarian police, said between 600 and 700 students attend the school, which includes grades seven through 13. The attacker was in the 13th grade.

Police said they received an emergency call at 8:35 a.m. (2:35 a.m. ET). When they got to the school, they immediately smelled smoke in the building, and they then encountered the attacker in a hallway.

The teenager had lobbed two Molotov cocktails into classrooms, one of which caused a fire, said Udo Dreher of the local police. He had also attacked several students with the ax and knives.

Police shot the teenager several times because he threatened the police officers, said Joachim Herrmann, the minister of the interior for the state of Bavaria, where Ansbach is located. The siege ended at 8:46 a.m.

The attacker suffered life-threatening wounds and is now being treated at a hospital.

(See here for Todd Campbell's straightforward take on this event.)

Apocalypse Today

Ansbach State Prosecutor Juergen Krach said the attacker remained hospitalized after he was shot by police during his arrest. Doctors plan to bring him out of a medically induced coma on Friday, September 18, 2009.

Krach said a search of the student's home turned up the calendar on which he had marked September 17, 2009, with the words "apocalypse today," and a handwritten will.

State Prosecutor Gudrun Lehnberger said the will was dated September 11, 2009. She added that the search turned up no threats against specific students or people. The attacker's motive remains unclear.

"I can confirm that the perpetrator was undergoing psychotherapeutic treatment," Lehnberger said. The teenager's name has not been released because of German privacy laws. Krach said police have questioned the student's parents.

The episode was the second attack at a German school in less than a year.

In March 2009, 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer fatally shot 12 people (mostly females) at his former school in the southwestern town of Winnenden, a town near Stuttgart, Germany. He fled the building and killed three more people before turning the gun on himself.

Ansbach: A place of strange wonders

The Wolf of Ansbach was a man-eating wolf that attacked and killed an unknown number of people in the Principality of Ansbach in 1685, then a part of the Holy Roman Empire. Initially a nuisance preying on livestock, the wolf soon began attacking women and children.



The citizens of Ansbach believed the animal to be a werewolf. After it was killed, a human mask was placed on the carcass. The wolf's body was then hanged from a gibbet for all to see until it underwent preservation for permanent display at a local museum.

Kaspar Hauser (30 April 1812? – 17 December 1833) was a mysterious "lost child" found in 19th century Germany famous for his claim to have grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell, raised like a half-wild human, in the tradition of feral or wolf children. Hauser's stories, and his likewise mysterious death by stabbing, sparked much debate and controversy. Hauser lived in Ansbach from 1830 to 1833. He was murdered in the palace gardens there.



Hauser was buried in a country graveyard; his headstone reads, in Latin, "Here lies Kaspar Hauser, riddle of his time. His birth was unknown, his death mysterious." A monument to him was later erected in the Court Garden which reads Hic occultus occulto occisus est: "Here a mysterious one was killed in a mysterious manner."

Forteans have been interested in the mystery of Kaspar Hauser for some time. Fortean Society member and famed science fiction author Eric Frank Russell, in his 1943 novel Sinister Barrier, described Kaspar Hauser as a person who originated from a non-human laboratory. Robert A. Heinlein, in his 1963 Glory Road, referred to "Kaspar Hausers" as an analogue to persons popping in and out of metaphysical planes.

In the 1966 film Fahrenheit 451, the protagonist Guy Montag discreetly puts a copy of a book entitled Gaspard Hauser into his bag before the rest of the books in that residence are torched.

In the American TV series "Smallville," (2001) Clark Kent finds a boy who does not to remember who he was or where he came from, except his name. Chloe refers to the boy as a "modern day Kasper Hauser."

In the Japanese horror movie Marebito (2004), the lead character Masuoka refers to a girl he found chained up underground as his "little Kaspar Hauser."

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser



In 1974, the German filmmaker Werner Herzog made Hauser's story into the film, Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (Every Man for Himself and God Against All). In English the film has become known by that translation, or by the title The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser.

The bizarre nature of the movie is a metaphor for the human condition, the mystery of the Hauser melodrama, and, as it turns out, the strange things that still happen in Ansbach.

9/9/9 Hijacking

Aeromexico Flight 576, which is 5+7+6 = 18, thus 1+8 = 9, was hijacked on 9/9/9.

Breaking news is that the plane hijacking in Mexico is over after special forces stormed the jet.

The aircraft was hijacked as it landed in the capital Mexico City from the resort of Cancun. Mexican online media reports said Aeromexico Flight 576 had 104 people on board when it left Bolivia, and made a stopover in Cancun en route to Mexico City.

+++
Update: Mark Baard at Timenauts.com points out, from CNN:

A 44-year-old Bolivian drug addict and alcoholic who describes himself as a church minister was the sole person responsible for the brief hijacking Wednesday of a commercial jetliner....The suspect — Jose Mar Flores — told authorities he hijacked the Boeing 737 jet because the date — September 9, 2009, or 9/9/9, and 666 reversed — held some significance for him, said Genaro Garcia Luna, the secretary for public safety.

++++

Intriguingly, earlier reports said up to five men were taken off the jet in handcuffs after it was stormed.

The alleged hijackers reportedly had explosives strapped to their legs and were demanding to talk to Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

They released all the passengers soon after the plane landed in Mexico City.

The passengers left with their hand luggage. They appeared calm and boarded nearby buses.

But the plane's crew were still being held hostage before special forces moved in and made the arrests.

Nobody was hurt and no shots were fired, it is understood.

Transportation and Communications Secretary Juan Molinar said all passengers and crew were safe.

But he would not say how many alleged hijackers were detained or give details of their motivation.

"Various people who participated in the act have been detained and we are investigating," he said.

He said there was no bomb on the airplane, although some passengers said one of the hijackers held a package that resembled an explosive device.

Aeromexico Flight 576 has been on the runway at the capital's international airport after the hijacking.

One of the passengers, Adriana Romero, told Mexican TV she had not realized the flight had been hijacked until the plane landed at Mexico City.

"We realized it was a hijack when we saw the police trucks," she said.

El Universal daily said the men had not been able to get inside the plane's cockpit.

The last hijacking in the region was in April in Jamaica, when an armed man took over a CanJet Boeing 737 due to fly from Montego Bay to Cuba.

All 182 people on board were rescued unharmed when Jamaican police stormed the airliner and captured the mentally troubled gunman without firing a shot.

Fayette Cannonball

Police said a man in Georges Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, fired a metal cannon that sent a two-pound lead ball into his neighbor's house, reported the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

William Edward Maser, 54, fired the cannon in his yard on Tent Church Road Wednesday evening, September 2, 2009, said Trooper Brian Burden of the Pennsylvania State Police. He said he was not sure how regularly Maser fired his cannon.

The cannon shot a lead ball through the side of his neighbor's house, breaking a window and traveling through a wall before landing in a clothes closet. No one was injured.

The cannon is an 80-pound homemade replica of cannons used during the French and Indian War. It has been impounded as evidence.

Maser regularly participates in battle re-enactments, Trooper Burden said.

He has been charged with reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and disorderly conflict.

VA Tech Students Slain ~ Again

A new tragedy has hit Virginia Tech.

Authorities are stepping up patrols near an area of Jefferson National Forest where two VA Tech students were found slain, during this first week of school.

A man walking his dog in the forest's parking lot section of the Caldwell Fields area, Blacksburg, Virginia, early Thursday, August 27, 2009, found the bodies. They were 19-year-old David Lee Metzler of Lynchburg and his girlfriend 18-year-old Heidi Lynn Childs of Forest.

When deputies arrived they found Metzler's body sitting in his car (a 1992 blue Toyota Camry), while Childs's body was on the ground nearby. The gravel parking lot of the campground and wildlife viewing area is popular among Virginia Tech students.

A suspect has not been identified.

Metzler was a sophomore industrial and systems engineering major and Childs, a sophomore biochemistry major.

Caldwell Fields is a peaceful area away from the hustle and bustle of campus life, a hangout site for students, especially on the weekends. Caldwell Fields is 15 miles west of Mason Cove and Hanging Rock, which are on Catawba Valley Drive, and five miles NW of Lafayette, which is on Interstate 81. The area where the students were killed is about 15 miles from the VA Tech campus.

The forest is technically named the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, consisting of two U.S. National Forests that combine to form one of the largest areas of public land in the Eastern United States. They cover 1.8 million acres (7,300 km²) of land in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

One victim's name Metzler has origins in German (Middle Rhineland), as an occupational name for a butcher, Middle High German metzeler, from Latin macellarius "dealer in meat," from macellum "stall (at a market)," "meat market."

In a statement released from the Virginia State Police, it has been learned that Childs is the daughter of a state police sergeant.

It reads in part… "Tonight, the Virginia State Police grieves with Sgt. Donald Childs and his family during this deeply difficult and painful time."

Childs, home-schooled in Abingdon, moved to Forest, Virginia, with her family about four years ago. Her father, Sgt. Donald Childs, has been a helicopter pilot with the Virginia State Police for 20 years. She had seven siblings, and fell somewhere in the middle.

Childs had met Metzler at Heritage Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Autopsies were being performed, but Montgomery County Sheriff Lt. Brian Wright said both students appear to have been shot sometime late Wednesday night (August 26) or early Thursday morning (August 27).

Heritage Baptist Church pastor Gerald Kroll said Friday, August 28, 2009, both had been active in the church for a long time and were members of Campus Crusade for Christ.

Two years ago, on April 16, 2007, a student gunman killed 32 others and then himself. On January 21, 2009, a doctoral student beheaded a fellow student in a campus cafe in the Graduate Life Center.

As blogger Thuth has previously pointed out in his research:

The northwestern corner of Virginia Tech is located upon an old historic site called Draper’s Meadow - bordered on the south by Stroubles (Troubles?) Creek...On July 8, 1755 a group of Shawnee Indians entered the sparsely populated settlement and brutally killed five of the settlers that lived there in what eventually came to be known as the Draper’s Meadow Massacre. Draper’s Meadow became the town of Blacksburg. The incredible synch here is that one of the settlers that was killed – the oldest of the five, one Philip Barger, was decapitated by the Shawnee. They put his head in a bag and sent it to a neighbor, telling them a friend had come to visit.

Today, few at Blacksburg, Virginia's well-known university are aware of this history. The community members have their hands full dealing with current unfortunate traumatic events, of course. Nevertheless, the past is prologue to the future.


"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." ~ George Santayana.


"I shall be accused of having assembled lies, yarns, hoaxes, and superstitions. To some degree I think so, myself. To some degree I do not. I offer the data." ~ Charles Fort.



Credit: Gary Varvel

Hillsdale: Swamp Gas Times

The Hillsdale bombing by Alex Youshock on August 24, 2009, seems self-fulfilling, in terms of it being a shock to the community where it occurred. On a deeper level, it continues the name-game theme seen recently with the death of John A. Keel and the involvement of the name "Ardmore" in clown and child abduction cases.

If you recall, the name Ardmore is a Gaelic word signifying high grounds or hills. John A. Keel pointed to hilltops (literally the "keels" of the high grounds) as the best places to observe Forteana. Furthermore, synchromysticism's godfather John Shelby Downard was born in Ardmore, Oklahoma.

Monday's school violence happened in Hillsdale, California, and, of course, there is a significant Hillsdale in anomalistic history.

The famous Hillsdale UFO sightings of March, 1966, involved reports from Hillsdale County, as well as those in Livingston and Washtenaw Counties, Michigan.

Over 100 witnesses (including policemen, college students, and a civil defense director) saw the other worldly objects, according to the histories of those times.

On March 21, 1966, the Detroit News summarized the report of four Washtenaw County sheriff's deputies who saw "three or four red, white and green circular objects, oscillating and glowing, near Milan about 4. a.m."

The paper published a detailed technical illustration of an object that looked like two inverted saucers placed together with diagrammed placement of lights, antennae and a seemingly transparent dome. Other sightings came to the attention of the media, with one group of witnesses describing a craft as "pyramid-shaped" and having a "coral-like surface." The newspaper sketch of that object showed a "quilted surface."

The Hillsdale case will forever be remembered for the US Air Force's then-skeptical spokesperson Dr. J. Allen Hynek brief investigations and finding that the whole event was caused by "swamp gas." This upset the witnesses, and especially people like pilot William Van Horn, who grew up near a swamp and knew what he saw wasn't swamp gas.

The Hillsdale incident became a pivotal event in ufology, and propelled Hynek's life in new directions. It also impacted others. For example, the youthful ufologist Patrick Huyghe would go on to become a journalist and science writer, then talk of Hillsdale in his autobiographical book,



Swamp Gas Times: My Two Decades on the UFO Beat.

Does Hillsdale's California event sign another shift in the cosmos, as well?

Hillsdale High Bombing

The 2009-2010 school year has begun with a bombing. Teachers at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo say a former student came back to class Monday carrying a pipe bomb.

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Update:
CBS 5 reported on August 25, 2009, that the 17-year old former student arrested for setting off two bombs at San Mateo's Hillsdale High School was identified late Monday as Alex Youshock. This is according to more than a half dozen of the suspect's neighbors, classmates and teachers interviewed by CBS 5.

Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) and local police searched the suspect's apartment on Casa de Campo Street in San Mateo on Monday evening. They removed bags of evidence from the boy's apartment, including what San Mateo police Lt. Mike Brunicardi described as "bomb making materials."

Police said they were not naming the suspect because he is a minor.

14-year-old Moises Molina said officers asked him if he knew Youshock, and showed Moises a photo of the boy who lives in the apartment. "I seen him getting arrested and yeah, that was him," said Molina.

Next door neighbor, April de Guzman, said she shared high school and middle classes with Youshock. "He didn't talk much," Guzman said. "He was really quiet, didn't have that many friends. Kept to himself."

+++++
Earlier info on the incident:

No one was hurt in the blast just after 8 a.m. at Hillsdale High School at 3115 Del Monte St., authorities said. Some students reported that the explosion happened outside a room where a sophomore history class was in session, said the San Francisco Chronicle.

Authorities say an explosion at the San Mateo, California high school forced evacuation of students and cancellation of classes, according to the Associated Press.

San Mateo police Lt. Mike Brunicardi says officers received calls Monday, August 24, 2009, reporting a blast at Hillsdale High School.

Brunicardi says students were evacuated to a middle school. The suspect was confronted by two teachers after the explosions and was then tackled and restrained by a third teacher. Soon thereafter, a male suspect was arrested.

The teen was armed with a two-foot-long sword and chainsaw, in addition to eight pipe bombs strapped to his body. According to police, the suspect had detonated two of a total of ten explosive devices he had attached to a tactical vest. Those devices were cut from the suspect's vest. Raw footage on KTVU.com showed police handcuffing a young man with a closely cropped hair and a scruffy beard wearing a white T-shirt and white boxers or shorts. (It appeared that he had been stripped of his clothing due to the hidden nature of the weapons attached to his body and the noted vest.) Officers put him into a marked police car.

A bomb squad searched the school for any other explosive devices.

Hillsdale High School is starting its second week of the new school year. It has 1,200 students, and their mascot name is the Knights.

San Mateo is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, having been originally part of the Rancho de las Pulgas (literally "Ranch of the Fleas").

CEIII + TL

As some of you know, the French scientist Claude LaCombe (François Truffaut) in Close Encounters of the Third Kind was based on Boing Boing writer David Pescovitz's friend, and mine too, Jacques Vallée.


Jacque Vallée (right) and J. Allen Hynek.


Claude LaCombe (François Truffaut)

Today, David points to this magnifique deleted scene from the film that says some things about twilight language:

David Laughlin (Bob Balaban). Name game note: Laughlin, Nevada, in the extreme southern tip of the state, has become a modern focal meeting point for ufology conferences, anomalistic gatherings, and Area 51 researchers.

See here for more from David on what special phrase shows up in CEIII that is, indeed, so very Vallée.

Thanks also to Patrick Huyghe of Anomalist Books for bringing this to my attention.

Third Disney World Death

Disney World has lost its third employee in seven weeks - this time, an individual working in the Indiana Jones show.

The stunt performer was killed after an accident during rehearsals for a show at the theme park in Orlando, Florida.

Anislav Varbanov suffered head injuries while practising a tumbling roll for the "Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular" in the Hollywood Studios section of the Florida resort.

"We lost a valued cast member and our thoughts are with his family, friends and co-workers as they mourn his passing," Disney said in a statement released to local news channel Fox 35.

The live show, which recreates scenes from the film Raiders Of The Lost Ark, will not go ahead on Tuesday as a mark of respect for Varbanov.

The stunt performers are involved in fight and fire scenes, chases and explosions, as well as acrobatics on a motorbike and plane.

Varbanov's death came a week after a 47-year-old performer died after a fall on stage during another show, Captain Jack's Pirate Tutorial.

Mark Priest was sword-fighting during the show, based on the Pirates Of The Caribbean films, when he slipped and hit his head on a wall. He joked about his condition when he was taken to hospital but deteriorated rapidly and died.

In July, 21-year-old monorail driver Austin Wuennenberg was killed when another train crashed into the one he was operating near the Magic Kingdom.

Evil Clowns: Summer 2009

We live in strange times, it seems, with politicians viewed through the character of an evil clown who was played by a famed actor who died young.

Take this summer of 2009. Look at the new posters called "unpleasant," "disturbing" and a "fake grassroots movement" by liberal bloggers, and pointed out by conservatives as some kind of "popular" commentary. The original image was apparently created by Firas Khateeb, a student living in Chicago. However, whoever adapted it as a poster and added the legend, "socialism," is still a mystery.


Photos by Chris, via Tammy Bruce.

Made by persons unknown, the posters started showing up around Los Angeles. They are of President Obama as a version of Heath Ledger's Joker character in The Dark Knight, with a none-too-subtle "socialism" message attached to them.

It gets to be very cryptopolitical and weird out there. [Update: See SMiles' "Alex Jones as The Joker."]


LA Weekly.

Of course, such visual expressions were used against the previous administration too. Drew Friedman, in July 2008, drew President George W. Bush as "The Joker" for Vanity Fair. He entitled it "No Joke."



Clearly, the Joker's impact lives on today.



Even sightings of past stars are recorded in terms of their old Joker roles this summer. For example, see how Philadelphia Inquirer entertainment columnist Michael Klein mentioned one such actor on July 20, 2009:

Jack Nicholson, shooting the James L. Brooks comedy in town, was spotted sitting near home plate at Monday's Phillies-Cubs game in a white Yankees cap. Fans gave him a pass because, well, he's Jack Nicholson. The Phillie Phanatic came out on the field in a Batman costume and pretended to take on "The Joker." Nicholson played along, shaking his hands to signal that he was going to "get him."

Meanwhile, the movie's star Reese Witherspoon, who starts before the cameras Tuesday (7/21) in the Brooks comedy, was Jake Gyllenhaal-less at dinner with her kids and nanny Saturday at Plate restaurant at Suburban Square in Ardmore. She's living on the Main Line.

For future reference, be aware of the Joker, Donnie Darko's Jake Gyllenhaal, and the name "Ardmore," in Michael Klein's short passage.

As I have mentioned recently in "Top Ten Evil Clown Stories of 2008", "Evil Clowns 2008", and "Phantom Clowns Are Back", sinister clowns are an active Fortean and cultural phenomenon.

Now, something wicked this way comes, or, at least, a new momentarily appearance of same.

On August 11, 2009, WSBT 24/7 News broadcast the following breaking story, "Clown reportedly chases man near Ardmore Trail."

Police looking for a man dressed as a clown were unsuccessful in locating him early Tuesday [August 11, 2009] — that’s after a driver told St. Joseph County authorities the stranger chased him around just west of South Bend.

The man called 911 shortly before 3 a.m. and said the person in a clown suit was on foot, but chasing him as he was in his truck in the 55500 block of Melrose Avenue.

The clown then disappeared back into the woods, police were told.

Officers who responded to the scene were unable to locate the clown, according to 911 dispatch.

Clearly, in this seemingly near "abduction" case, it reminded me of the "Phantom Clown" cases where clowns were seen, children were threatened with kidnappings, and the clowns then merely vanished.

So I searched around a bit.

Guess what? On Thursday, August 6, 2009, there was a near-abduction of a little girl in...get this...Ardmore, Oklahoma!

Daniel Armbruster of KXII-TV reported:

Ardmore Police say a 10-year-old girl was riding her bike near her home Thursday evening when a man approached her and asked her to get into his car. Now a seemingly quiet neighborhood is on edge.

The 500 block of H Street Southwest in Ardmore is described by residents as peaceful and a great place to raise children. But since last Thursday evening some residents have become concerned that their small neighborhood may no longer be the safe place they one believed....

Ardmore Police say the only description the little girl could provide is that the man was light skinned. They say it was the skills her parents taught her about strangers that possibly saved her life, because she refused the man's invitation to get into his car and immediately ran home.

Ardmore, Oklahoma having a near-child abduction and Ardmore Trail, Indiana being the focus of "clown" attention on 8-11 are bizarre and very Fortean. What name game is behind "Ardmore"?

The name Ardmore is a Gaelic word signifying high grounds or hills. John A. Keel would often point out that hilltops (literally the "keels" of the high grounds) were the best places to observe Forteana.



Most of the uses of the word "Ardmore" link directly back to Ardmore, Ireland.


Round tower and ruins of St Declan's Church, Ardmore, Ireland.

On a hill above the village of Ardmore, Ireland, is a well-preserved 30m high, 12th-century round tower and the ruins of St Declan's church and oratory dating from the 13th and 8th centuries respectively. One of the outer walls of the church features some stone carvings retrieved from an earlier 9th-century building. The carvings include a very early image of a harp, and of Adam and Eve in the garden.

The Ardmore church also contains two Ogham stones (ancient alphabet message phallic carved rocks, see one below), which rest in small alcoves.



Where does "Ardmore" pop up in the USA?

Ardmore, Oklahoma was named after the affluent Philadelphia suburb and historic Pennsylvania Main Line stop Ardmore, Pennsylvania, which was named after Ardmore, Ireland (the oldest Christian settlement in Ireland) by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1873.

Another Ardmore is a city in Giles and Lincoln counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee, and borders its sister city, Ardmore, Alabama. That Ardmore is a town in Limestone County, Alabama, and is included in the Huntsville-Decatur Metro Area. It is home to the Saturn 1B Rocket, at the Alabama Welcome Center, just south of the Tennessee border, on Interstate 65.

On April 22, 1966, Ardmore, Oklahoma, was the site of the worst plane crash in Oklahoma history, which killed 83 people.

And now a "clown" is appearing along the Ardmore Trail in Indiana, and a child kidnapping phantom in Ardmore, Oklahoma. BTW, as aferrismoon points out, synchromysticism's Godfather John Shelby Downard was born in Ardmore, Oklahoma.



Ardmore is the site of Downard's imagined or real horrible Masonic childhood abuse memories.



For more on "Phantom Clowns," see Mysterious America (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2006). For more on symbolic criminal behavior, see The Copycat Effect (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004).

Thanks to Dan Shideler for the first hints of the Ardmore Trail events.

Savage Boutique Immolation [Update]

Updated on August 19, 2009:

A 42-year-old woman who set herself on fire at a Miami shopping mall died less than a week after the shocking scene, police said.

Cecilia E. Casals died Tuesday, August 18, 2009. Police say Casals covered herself in flammable liquid, set it ablaze and walked about until witnesses used two fire extinguishers to put out the flames.

Miami-Dade police wouldn't divulge any other details on August 19, 2009.

Authorities found Casals unconscious on August 13, 2009, with third-degree burns over 75 percent of her body, and airlifted her to a hospital. She was on fire about two-and-a-half minutes.

Court records show the woman had a history of mental illness and had been convicted on prescription drug trafficking charges, The Miami Herald reported. In October, Casals received probation in the drug case.

Earlier details...

A woman set herself on fire at a Miami mall on August 13, 2009, then walked around engulfed in flames as shocked shoppers watched. She started in a clothing store called Savage Boutique.

Two men and a woman who tried to help her were hurt, but not badly.

The 43-year-old woman, whose name was not released, doused herself with a flammable liquid at the Mall of the Americas in Florida, said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue spokesman Arnold Piedrahita. The suicidal woman had third-degree burns over 75 percent of her body and was found conscious in a parking lot. Authorities do not know why she set herself on fire.

She was air-lifted to a hospital.

Jose Morales, 24, said he was about to pay for earrings for his girlfriend at a nearby kiosk when he heard screams and thought someone had fallen. When he turned around, he saw the blaze and realized someone was within it.

"This woman is just walking like this, super slow, completely on fire," Morales said, his arms stretched out at his side to show what the woman looked like as she walked out of the store. "You couldn't see nothing but fire."

Morales said witnesses used two fire extinguishers on the woman, who was on fire about two-and-a-half minutes. All of her clothes except her underwear disappeared into ashes.

After the fire was out, Morales said, the woman walked out of the mall and into the parking lot.

The two men injured helping her were treated at the scene while the woman who helped was taken to a hospital.

The mall remained closed as of late afternoon.

Other recent cases of self-immolation:

• In June, a man Brandon, Fla., tried to kill himself by dousing himself with gasoline and then lighting himself on fire. The 67-year old-man was taken to a Tampa hospital for treatment. He survived.

• In February, a WalMart employee in Chicago set himself on fire outside the store where he worked. Larry Graziano, 58, used lighter fluid. Bystanders tried to help, but Graziano fought them off. He died of his injuries.

• In 2004, a 34-year-old Pahokee, Flordia, man was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital after he slashed his wife with a knife and then set himself on fire.

The day before the latest Florida incident, on Wednesday, August 12, 2009, police were called to a Halifax, Nova Scotia hospital building after a man doused himself in gasoline, threatening to set himself on fire.

Police say they found the man, 29, in the lobby of the Centennial Building of the QEII with two lighters.

There were no injuries, the gas-soaked man was arrested without incident, and police say no criminal charges are anticipated.

Thanks for the Mall of the Americas tip from SMiles Lewis.

Death at Bridgeville {Killer Updates}

Update:

The killer, identified by authorities, and noted by himself on his website diary as "George A. Sodini, a.k.a crazygeorge" has left a vast Internet trail of his musings of hate (e.g. black men have their choice of the best white girls). The 48-year-old's rampage plans are also documented in his web DOD ("Date of Death") entries. Sodini said he would die on August 4, 2009. See the bottom of this posting for further details on Sodini's angle of the story.


The published photos from his vacations do show an intriguing pull to some of the names of interest, as for example, this one above from his website.

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Posted August 4, 2009:

Shootings have occurred tonight at a highly symbolic geographic "intersection" where people use to say to each other, "Meet me at the bridge."

That's how a little community outside Pittsburgh called Bridgeville got it's name, when folks use to meet each other for trading at the very first bridge built at the crossing of Chartiers Creek at the south end of what is now Washington Avenue.

Before today, Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, had been most famous in current popular culture for being the home of Jenna Morasca, a winner of Survivor: The Amazon. Well, actually, Morasca tells people she's from Bridgeville because she really is a resident of South Fayette Township, but everyone uses the Bridgeville mailing address.

Yes, South Fayette Township is the adjoining town, and running right through the 1.1 square mile borough that is Bridgeville is the Washington Pike. The name game runs deep here.



A deathly "rampage-style" shooting occurred in Bridgeville on Tuesday, August 4, 2009. Initial reports said five women are dead and the shooter too, who has died by suicide.

[Update: Overnight reports indicate three gym victims died and the gunman, who left an unreleased note, took his own life.

The names of some of the LA Fitness Shooting victims have been released. Elizabeth Gannon, Heidi Overmier, and Jody Billingsley have died.

Elizabeth Gannon was 49 of Pittsburgh (Scott Twp).
Heidi Overmier was 46 of Carnegie.
Jody Billingsley was 38 of Mt. Lebanon.]

It all happened at a LA Fitness gym, in the Great Southern Shopping Center in Collier/Bridgeville. Specifically, it is known as the Bridgeville Club in Pittsburgh, by the LA Fitness staff.

Witnesses said a gunman wearing a black hat walked into an aerobics room filled with women shortly after 8:00 p.m. Eastern, turned out the lights and opened fire, according to breaking news services and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Several witnesses told a WTAE Channel 4 Action News crew first at the scene that a man unrecognized by the gym's staff, entered the facility, turned off the lights and shot people in a Latin dance class in the aerobics center at the time of the shooting. Every witness to whom WTAE Channel 4's Jon Greiner spoke said they didn't realize what they were hearing was gunfire.

"The lights were off and I could see flashes in the dark," said Jared Frederick, a witness.

A woman in the class at the time of the shooting, identified as Nicole, told WTAE Channel 4 Action News that the class had started about 10 minutes before the gunfire. She said about 30 people -- all women -- were in the class when "a middle-aged white male walked into the class. He had a big gym bag."

"He looked out of place in a class full of women," according to the witness, who said the man put his bag down, turned the lights off and opened fire. "It was horrible. He was 20 feet from me. He got off a lot of shots."

The woman said she ran out of the gym as quickly as she could and got into a stranger's car to escape the gunfire.

Others said 100 people were in the gym area.

Police responses came from Bridgeville, Scott Township, Collier Township, Upper St. Clair and Mount Lebanon, among others.

An Allegheny County policeman said he believes one of the dead was the gunman. Witnesses said they saw two to four wounded women lying outside the back door and two others lying in a parking lot at the side of the LA Fitness center along Washington Pike, noted the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Witnesses reported hearing dozens of gunshots before the shooting stopped.

"All of a sudden there was a really loud noise," said Julia Zorzi, 27, of Crafton, who was on a treadmill on the main floor when the gunfire began. "I heard 40 to 50 shots, and I hit the deck. I saw people running out. I ran outside and there were two girls lying outside.

"The shots came very fast," she said. "It sounded like he was using a serious piece of machinery."

Police and paramedics from throughout the South Hills and Pittsburgh responded to the shootings shortly after 8 p.m. A St. Clair Hospital spokesperson put the death toll at six, including the gunman. Others reported later another victim had died.

"He kept firing and firing," said Dennis Curry, 28, of Scott, who said he was working out on an elliptical machine upstairs when he heard the gunfire. "There was chaos. I ran out the back door, saw a girl lying there with a gunshot wound. I put a shirt on her to try and stop (the bleeding). There was blood everywhere."

+++


Killer Updates


LALATE has broken the news that the killer's, George Sodini’s online diary website preparing for LA Fitness Shooting was GeorgeSodini.com.

Lee Ann Valdiserri is referenced by George Sodini in his website GeorgeSodini.com. A Lee Ann Valdiserri is listed as dead in online obituaries printed years back, as early as potentially 2006.

On it, he writes the following claims about Lee Ann Valdiserri:

“Miscellaneous:

1. Probably 99% of the people who know me well don’t even think I was this crazy. Told by at least 100 girls/women over the years I was a “nice guy”. Not kidding.

2. Lee Ann Valdiserri had my baby in early 1991. Haven’t seen her since she was about four months into it. I knew her sister, Chris, from high school.

3. Net worth slightly more than $250K, (after all debt) as of end of 2008.

4. Death Lives!”


ABC's "Good Morning America" has confirmed that George Sodini, 48, of Scott Township, Pa., was the man who police say Wednesday walked quietly into an aerobics class at LA Fitness in Bridgeville, Pa., where he was a member, turned off the lights and started shooting. Police said they found 52 casings at the scene.

Three women, 46-year-old Heidi Obermier, 49-year-old Elizabeth Gannon and 39-year-old Jody Billingsley, were killed in the attack, according to the Allegheny coroner's office.

Among those reportedly shot were Sodini's ex-girlfriend, who survived, and the class instructor, who had just told her class she was pregnant, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Jen Malley told "Good Morning America's" Chris Cuomo that she was in the Latin dance class at LA Fitness Tuesday when the shooting started. It's a class she takes every week with friends.

According to LALATE, Monday Sodini finally writes the following:

“The biggest problem of all is not having relationships or friends, but not being able to achieve and acquire what I desire in those or many other areas.

“Everything stays the same regardless of the effert (sic) I put in. If I had control over my life then I would be happier. But for about the past 30 years, I have not.”

As broke earlier today on LALATE, George Sodini in the LA Fitness shooting shot his ex girlfriend, the aerobics instructor, who had just told her class she was pregnant, but she survived. George Sodini, 48, of Scott Township, Pa. was found dead along with four women. UPMC Mercy Hospital says five of the women injured are in critical condition, two are in fair condition. The conditions of the remaining injured women are still unknown.


Above, another bridge, from Wheeling WV Bike Trail. Pictures taken on Saturday, April 15, 2000. Information provided and page created by George A. Sodini, a.k.a crazygeorge

As comment maker Ryan noted, Sodini says: "This is like the Twilight Zone."

Galactica Producer Dies

Harvey Frand, 68, an Emmy-winning producer who was the "Wizard behind the curtain" on the hit "Battlestar Galactica," died July 23, 2009, in Los Angeles, after a brief hospitalization for respiratory problems.

Frand's series-producing career began in 1982 with "The Devlin Connection," Rock Hudson's final series. Other credits include 34 episodes of the 1985-89 version of "The Twilight Zone," "Beauty and the Beast," "The Young Riders," "The Lazarus Man," "The Pretender" and "Strange World." He produced more than 20 pilots and movies of the week.

Intriguingly, the plot of "Strange World," which he produced in 1999, is often forgotten but should not. Here's the summary, based on info from IMDb:

"The X-Files" writer/executive producer Howard Gordon and producer Harvey Frand present an exploration of a nefarious world where "big business" funds "big science," and the answers Paul Turner finds lead to more questions than have ever been imagined. After exposure to chemical weapons during the Gulf War, ex-Government scientist Turner spent six isolated years fighting for his life until an enigmatic Asian woman saved him with a miraculous cure that lasted only temporarily. Ever since, the illness has regularly returned to ravage Turner's body until the woman mysteriously reappears to provide another dose. After a six year absence, Turner returns to the Army as a Special Investigator in charge of tracking down the Frankensteins of the world. Turner's belief that the government is too slow and inefficient to protect us from the unchecked advances of science proves to be all too true in this show that features such ripped- from-the-headlines fare as cloning and genetic engineering.

Frand began on Syfy's "Galactica" in 2003. For his work on the show, he earned a Peabody Award in 2005, an AFI Award in 2006 and an Emmy last year. During July 2009, he was nominated for a second Emmy, reports Mark Barnes and editor Sheri Linden at Reuters.

"Harvey was the Wizard of Oz, the man behind the curtain, the train engineer, the orchestra conductor, the school guidance counselor," NBC Universal executive Todd Sharp said. "He was adored by executive producers and production assistants, studio and network, cast and crew."

A native of Philadelphia, Frand began in television at NBC News. Later, as an executive at Warner Brothers, he oversaw production on "Harry O," the 1973 series starring David Janssen. Frand went to San Diego to check in with the company and, because there was no on-site producer, stayed to work with the cast and crew. After that, he was fell in love with the role of producer.

Frand is survived by Bill Bowersock, his domestic partner of 32 years.

Soon In A Scottish Rite Hall Near You?

Interested in seeing me give the most intriguing twilight language talk of the year in the midst of a Scottish Rite Masonic lecture hall? Come to Ft. Wayne, Indiana, in October. More details below.


Decoding the meaning of the twilight game sometimes requires a sense of humor.

But first, there is news on the speaking front for the California lectures.

Thinking about going to the talks at the Magicopolis in Santa Monica, California, August 21-23, 2009?

By ordering your tickets because you are a Twilight Language reader, you may use the promotional discount code "chupacabras" and receive 10% off the single day passes or $5 off the weekend pass.

There has been a revision in the itinerary, in response to feedback and a need for an afternoon session on the weekend.

See the total schedule here for more on the John A. Keel - Mothman timing, but below is the new afternoon wrinkle for my talk on millionaire Tom Slick and his search for Yeti:

Sunday: 12 pm to 3 pm

* 12pm – 12:45: Barry Conrad
* 12:45 – 1:00: Q&A
* 1:00 – 1:20: Break
* 1:20 – 2:10: Loren Coleman
* 2:10 – 2:25: Q&A
* 2:25 – 3:00: Book signing


How about a couple of related events in Maine? Come hear an illustrated cryptozoology talk on Black Panthers, Bigfoot & the Dover Demon, followed by a Sea Serpent-Whale Watch, as the leaves are changing colors up the coast of Maine, Labor Day weekend, 2009.

First up, a PowerPoint presentation and Q&A at 7:00 pm, Friday, September 4, 2009, at the Waldo Theatre located in Lincoln County in Waldoboro, Maine. I'll be selling and signing books there too.

You can order tickets already at the Waldo Theatre Website.

Next, how about a special on-the-water presentation?

Yes, out of Bar Harbor, Maine, a whale watch will occur in which I will give commentary, now and then, about local sea serpent reports and other mystery ocean cryptid sightings in the Gulf of Maine.

Right now, if you want to secure a seat, you can purchase tickets for the Saturday, September 5th, 2009, 1:00 PM tour, by going to Bar Harbor Whale Watch or calling 1-800-whales4.

Also on board will be Richard Klyver, the cryptozoologist artist who will have copies of his illustration of the Frenchman's Bay Serpent for sale for $10, which Dick and I will sign for tour guide members. The trip leaves from Harborplace, next to the Downtown pier in Bar Harbor, and is being organized by whale watch-marine cryptozoologist Zach Klyver, who will also assist with his professional guide skills.



On September 26, 2009, while not on their speaking schedule yet, I will be at the Texas Bigfoot Conference in Tyler, Texas, selling and signing books.

Then, how about Indiana, in a special Masonic site?

I will be speaking and appearing at the American Paranormal Conference 2009, October 9-11, 2009, at the Scottish Rite Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana. If you live in the Midwest, get a ticket and say hi. This may be my most Fortean twilight language talk of the year, merely due to the remarkable setting.


Next, it is on to Watertown, Massachusetts, for the Mass Monster Mash, October 17th, 2009. For more information, go here. I will be speaking about the "Search for Yeti by Tom Slick."




Up first, LA. Sign up today.

Watch this page for ongoing revisions and additions of new events.

If you wish to speak to Loren Coleman about a presentation for your group or school, an interview on your television program, consultation for your series, or a product endorsement, please contact him by clicking here. Thank you.

See you along the way.


Willow Creek, California, 1975.

Thank You.

Train Derailment In Mingo County

Recently, I talked of synchromystic rail wrecks. Well, there's been another one, and it certainly seems to have happened in the midst of many dots that can be connected to some strange links.

Four workers were injured after a freight train derailed at a Wharncliffe, West Virginia coal plant and caused a nearby building to collapse, on Tuesday, July 21, 2009, around 7:30 a.m.


What could this obelisk dedicated to the Battle of Point Pleasant have to do with today's derailment? Take a short synchromystic journey to discover the answer.

Authorities told the Associated Press that the train's conductor and two coal plant workers pulled from the wrecked building suffered minor injuries. A fourth worker had to be airlifted to a hospital with serious injuries.

The Norfolk Southern Corporation train was pulling up under loading equipment when it derailed and hit a support. The loading equipment collapsed and knocked down a building. More details about the building were not available.

The Black Bear Preparation Plant in southern West Virginia employs about 30 people. The facility is operated by Cobra Natural Resources, which belongs to a subsidiary of Abingdon, Virginia-based coal producer Alpha Natural Resources.

The mine is located in Mingo County, West Virginia, and is surrounded by intriguingly named counties: to the north, Lincoln County, WV; to the northeast, Logan County, WV; and to the west, Pike County, Kentucky. Mingo, named after a Native American tribe, was created from an oversized Logan County, after a moonshiner was wrongly accused of having a still in Logan County, when, in fact, it was in Lincoln County.

The attempt to unionize coal miners in Mingo County in the 1920s led to the Battle of Blair Mountain in neighboring Logan County.

The Mingo are an Iroquoian group of Native Americans that migrated west to the Ohio Country in the mid-eighteenth century. One of their most famous leaders was Chief Logan.

The Battle of Point Pleasant, known as the Battle of Kanawha in some older accounts, was fought on October 10, 1774, primarily between Virginia militia and American Indians from the Shawnee and Mingo tribes (but probably not Chief Logan).

Along the Ohio River near modern Point Pleasant, West Virginia, American Indians under the Shawnee Chief Cornstalk attacked Virginia militia under Andrew Lewis, hoping to halt Lewis's advance into the Ohio Country. After a long and furious battle, Cornstalk retreated. After the battle, the Virginians, along with a second force led by Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia, marched into the Ohio Country and compelled Cornstalk to agree to a treaty, ending the war.

The battle is honored as the first battle of the American Revolution during "Battle Days," an annual festival celebrated in modern Point Pleasant. To memorialize the event, you will find the obelisk pictured above right there, near the river, in Point Pleasant, not too far from where the Silver Bridge use to stand.

The "Curse of Chief Cornstalk" is often mentioned in conjunction with Mothman and the collapse of the Silver Bridge, at Point Pleasant, West Virginia, on December 15, 1966.

July 21: Moon, Death, Masons and Golf

The flag that Brother Mason Buzz Aldrin unfurled on the Moon on July 21, 1969, when he stated "our flags" were being planted on the lunar surface.

July 21, 1961 – Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 4 Mission – Gus Grissom piloting Liberty Bell 7 becomes the second American to go into space (in a suborbital mission).

Grissom was scheduled to be the first man to walk on the Moon. Instead, Grissom was killed January 27, 1967, along with fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee during a training exercise and pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission at the Kennedy Space Center.

Grissom was born in Mitchell, Indiana. Grissom was a master Mason and member of Mitchell Lodge 228.

July 21, 1969 – Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first men to walk on the Moon, during the Apollo 11 mission.

Buzz Aldrin is a 33rd degree Scottish Rite Mason, a Masonic Knight Templar, and a Shriner.

Buzz flew the Supreme Council's flag on the moon. That flag is now on display in the Masonic Museum of the Supreme Council Scottish Rite Temple in Washington, D.C.

Anderson Luster's model of Alan B. Shepard's last of three swings at Moon golf.

July 21, 1998 – Alan B. Shepard, American astronaut dies.

Shepard was the first American in space. He later commanded the Apollo 14 mission, and was the fifth person to walk on the moon.

While on the Moon, Alan Shepard famously played golf with a Wilson six-iron head attached to a lunar sample scoop handle. Despite thick gloves and a stiff spacesuit which forced him to swing the club with one hand only, Shepard struck two golf balls with a six iron, driving the second according to the official record, but what was actually his third stroke, as he jokingly put it, "miles and miles and miles."

The symbolism of playing golf on the Moon, a sport tied to Freemasonry, with a six iron, with three strokes was not lost on Shepard's Brother Masons.

The origins of golf in Scotland is linked to Masonry, and the membership of the early golf clubs were Freemasons.

For example, St. Andrews cornerstone was laid by Masonic Brothers.

Leith, July 2, 1768

This day William St Clair of Roslin, Esq., the undoubted representative of the Honourable and Heretable G.M.M of Scotland, In presence of Alexander Keith, Esq., Captain of the Honourable Company of Goffers, and other worthy Members of the Goffing Company, all Masons, The G.M., now in his GRAND CLIMAX of GOFFING, laid the Foundation of the GOFFING HOUSE in the S.E. corner thereof, by THREE STROKES with the Mallet.

ALEXR. KEITH, C. Wm. ST. CLAIR, G.M.M.

GMM stands for Grand Master Mason. The St Clairs of Roslyn were hereditary patrons of the Masons in Scotland for centuries and William St Clair was the first elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1736. He was Captain and prominent member of both the Leith and the St Andrews golf clubs. Apart from laying the foundation stone of the world's first golf clubhouse, his name is on the St Andrew’s minute shortening the Old Course to be eighteen holes in 1764. He died in 1778 and is buried in Roslyn Chapel.

The Royal Blackheath GC was open only to Freemasons until 1789 and, until 1825, it still contained a hardcore group of Masons called the Knuckle Club who played out-of-season to avoid the non-mason members.

According to the Masonic Service Association, one of the most frequently asked questions is:

Which Astronauts Are Masons?

Answer:

Edwin E. Aldrin
Montclair #144, Montclair, NJ

Leroy Gordon Cooper
Carbondale #82 Carbondale, CO

Don F. Eisele
L.B. Turner #732 Columbus, OH

Virgil I. Grissom (Deceased)
Mitchell #228, Mitchell, IN

Wally M. Schirra
Canaveral #339 Cocoa Beach, FL

Thomas P. Stafford
Western Star #138 Weatherford, OK

Edgar D. Michell*
Artesia #28 Artesia, NM

Paul J. Weitz
Lawrence #708 Erie, PA

James B. Irwin
Tajon Lodge No. 104 Colorado Springs, Co

Astronauts Who Have Fathers Who Are Or Were Masons

Allen Shepard

Vance Brand*

John Glenn*

Anthony England

William Pogue

Neil Armstrong

Edgar Mitchell

* Former DeMolay

Source: "Masonic Astronauts," Dunn's Rock Masonic Lodge #267 A.F. & A. M., Brevard, North Carolina.

Masons, Moon, Mars

July 20, 1969: The day that Freemasonry landed on the Moon.


















Now, it is definitely onward to Mars.

Synchromystic Rail Wrecks?

Sometimes writers seem psychic when it merely is being curious that may lead into intriguing insights into "coincidences."



Boston journalist Mark Baard wrote an interesting posting at his blog, Timenauts, on Friday, July 17th, which, in hindsight, is spooky.

Baard made this observation in "Synchronicities strike the rails", "Here’s one for Loren Coleman (The Copycat Effect) and the synchromystics. I’ve noticed several reports of collisions in the heavy and light-rail industries since May 28 – and one intense, and fictitious scene, in Caprica, which appeared online earlier this year, in promos for the new series."

Baard cited for his examples the Washington, D.C. Metro crash, the Boston-area Green Line crash, and the Disney Monorail crash.

Needless to say, events can come in clusters and we have to be careful about Fortean insights or synchro-conspiracy theories based on accidents. But Baard's item was curious. After all, David Phillips behavior contagion research on the "Werther effect" showed that media reports of suicides could lead to small airplane accidents, almost as if the subtle suggestion is placed in the mind of the pilots to crash.

Could the news reports of so many rail wrecks result in more accidents? Who knows? Would you say the media has been "death obsessed" lately ~ with the passing of David Carradine, Farah Fawcett, Gale Storm, Karl Malden, Michael Jackson, and Walter Cronkite? Or even within the Fortean field, with the deaths of John A. Keel, Lou Gentile, Richard H. Hall and Ellie Frazetta?

So what should occur on Saturday, July 18, 2009, thus crowning Baard with the synchromystic award of the month? Another major rail accident took place!

KGO-ABC7 out of San Francisco reported the details, some of which are here:

It was a chaotic scene at a Muni station after two light rail cars collided Saturday afternoon. Multiple injuries were reported in what is being described as a major accident at San Francisco's West Portal station.

The crash happened at around 3 p.m. Dozens of passengers were triaged nearby in the southwest part of the city. At least 47 people were taken to three different area hospitals, three in serious condition.

Officials say a westbound L-train crashed into a K train that was standing still at the platform. The front of the L train is crushed. Passengers in both trains were hurt.

While we know they are undercounting, at least the Associated Press took note of the fact there have been several of these rail wrecks.

The AP, talking of the July 18th news, said:

Saturday's crash was at least the third major transit accident in the United States since May.

Nine people were killed and more than 70 injured June 22 when a Metro train slammed into a stopped train on the tracks in Washington, D.C. The cause has not been determined but investigators say equipment that is supposed to detect stopped trains failed periodically in the days leading up to the crash.

On May 8, more than 50 people were injured when a Boston subway trolley plowed into another train. Authorities say the 24-year-old operator, Aiden Quinn, went through a red signal while typing a text message on his cell phone. Quinn was indicted earlier this month on charges of grossly negligent operation and he faces three years in prison if convicted.

The June 22, 2009, crash of the Metro trains on the Red Line occurred between the Takoma and Fort Totten stations and was the deadliest accident in the system's history. The name "Totten" comes from a Civil War-era fortification, which itself was named after General Joseph Gilbert Totten, the Chief Engineer of the antebellum US Army, regent of the Smithsonian Institution and cofounder of the National Academy of Sciences. Totten was greatly admired by General Winfield Scott, for whom he directed the siege of Veracruz as his Chief Engineer during the Mexican-American War.

(By coincidence, a bridge collapsed at Veracruz, Mexico, sending cars into the Tonalá River and killing at least 8 people, on July 17, 2009. And in a strange wreck, also for July 17th, the date of Mark Baard's blog posting, an Oscar Meyer Weinermobile crashed into a Wisconsin home.)




In March, I wrote about the rather pivotal subway crash in the then-new film, Knowing.

The subway wreck appeared to have been placed in the movie almost as a tribute to the "Fayette Factor."



The "Lafayette Street" subway station, created in Australia, stood in for a fictional New York City subway stop. While there are many "Lafayette" streets, avenues, and more throughout NYC, a Lafayette stop is not one of them. Someone made a conscious decision to use this name in this dramatic scene, no matter what city was fictionally chosen. As we have now seen, this scene was to be repeated in reality soon after the release of Knowing.

The Knowing Nicolas Cage character was named Koestler, an apparent tribute to Arthur Koestler, who was born in Budapest, Hungary, on September 5, 1905. Koestler was a political writer made famous by his one book that focused on meaningful synchronicity – The Roots of Coincidence (1972). As Paul Devereux wrote for Fortean Times in 2005, Koestler's work tries "to find a basis for paranormal events in coincidence, or more precisely synchronicity, so that there is only one phenomenon to explain rather than many."

Knowing opened on March 20, 2009, on the spring equinox, the first Friday after St. Patrick's Day, and before we knew it, rail wrecks were a frequent item in the news.

Let's try to compile a complete list:

March 29, 2009 - A rear end collision in Gulwe - Igandu section (Mpwapwa district), Tanzania, killing dozens of passengers and injuring many others. Equipment breakdown and culpability.

May 8, 2009 - More than 50 people were injured when a Massachusetts Transit Authority subway trolley plowed into another train in Newton, Massachusetts, USA.

June 5, 2009 - A 111-car Canadian Pacific Railway train derailed in Oshawa, Ontario, around 2:15 p.m. CDT. Two locomotives and 27 cars of the train derailed. Some of the cars came to rest in nearby backyards and a schoolyard during recess.

June 7, 2009 - A girl is killed by the locomotive of a regional train, while she was trying to make a picture of a railway bridge, in the Bacau city (Bacau county), Romania.

June 19, 2009 - A major downpour of rain hit Rockford, Illinois, USA, and caused 14 of the 114 ethenol tankers to leave the track and explode into flames. One person at the rail crossing was killed, while several others were burned.

June 22, 2009 - Two rush hour Washington Metro trains collided in Northeast Washington D.C., USA, killing nine people.

June 29, 2009 - A freight train derailed at Viareggio, Italy. Two of the wagons were carrying Liquefied petroleum gas and they exploded. Twenty-five people were killed, five of them when a house collapsed.

June 29, 2009 - Two passenger trains collided at local time 2:34 a.m. at Chenzhou railway station, Hunan Province, Republic of China, killing 3 people and leaving 63 injured. The accident was allegedly caused by a brake failure. But this is disputed.

July 5, 2009 - Two monorail trains crashed around 2 am in the Magic Kingdom section of Walt Disney World, near Orlando, Florida, killing a 21-year-old train operator.

July 9, 2009 - An Amtrak passenger train hit the side of a vehicle in Canton Township, Michigan near Detroit, Michigan, USA. Five people were killed, all of whom were in the vehicle.

July 14, 2009 - A train conductor and engineer were killed in a Dakota Minnesota & Eastern Railroad freight train crash in a rail yard around 2 a.m., when a dozen empty cars derailed in Bettendorf, Iowa.

July 17, 2009 - Two light rail cars (the K and L trains) collided in the SW section of San Francisco, California, at around 3 p.m. with reports of 47 people hurt.

That does seem like a good deal of coincidences and crashes, doesn't it?

Interesting timing on Mark Baard's part.

Another Keelian Death?

Ellie Frazetta by Frank Frazetta.

The wife of the man who famously painted the Keelian Mothman cover for the May 1980 High Times has died.



It would be this painting which was later used on the cover of the Ron Bonds-published paperback book that fell off a shelf into the hands of the person who would recommend it be made into a movie.



Frank Frazetta (born February 9, 1928) is an American fantasy and science fiction artist, noted for work in comic books, paperback book covers, paintings, posters, record-album covers, and other media.


Point Pleasant's sculpture of Mothman is based on Frazetta's moth-like representation of Mothman, even though the actual descriptions from the sightings in 1966-1967 told of an avian cryptid, the "Big Bird."

Frank Frazetta also did the cover for the 1970 paperback by Keel, Strange Creatures From Time and Space.


Into the early months of 2009, Frazetta lived with his wife Ellie on a 67-acre (271,000 m²) estate in the Pocono Mountains at East Straudsburg, Pennsylvania. They maintained a small museum, open to the public, on the estate. Ellie Frazetta was a guide for tours there.

On July 17th of 2009, Ellie Frazetta passed away after a year-long battle with cancer. (John A. Keel passed away on July 3, 2009, it will be recalled.)

My condolences to the family and friends of the Frazettas.

(Thanks to Theo P. for the alert to this sad news.)