Kronospan: Swiss Workplace Shooting [Updated]

Update: A fourth person has died. Victor Berisha, 42, an ethnic Albanian from Kosovo, has been identified as the Kronospan shooter. He had been with Kronospan for ten years. The weapon used in the attack has been identified as a Sphinx AT 380 handgun, a compact pistol produced by a Swiss company.

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Central Switzerland is the latest location of a mass shooting in a canteen. Reports of several people being killed at their Swiss Kronospan workplace on Wednesday, February 27, 2013, are crossing the wires.

Cronus [Kronos] Devouring His Children by Francisco de Goya (1746-1828). 

Image: Western Michigan University.

Greek Pan.

Police in Lucerne canton (state) said in a statement that the shooting occurred shortly after 9 a.m. on the 27th instant at the premises of Kronospan, a wood-processing company in the small town of Menznau, west of Lucerne. They said there were “several dead and several seriously injured people” and that rescue services were deployed and the scene sealed off. They did not elaborate.

The local Neue Luzerner Zeitung newspaper cited a witness as saying that the shooter opened fire in the company canteen. Swiss news website 20min.ch, citing a reporter at the site, said police confirmed three deaths — including the assailant — and said seven people were injured, some of them seriously. Some say five have been killed.

However, police in Lucerne, the local administrative center, said they didn’t yet have figures. No identity or motive for the shooter was given.

Kronospan workers at the Menznau location.

According to the local town council, Kronospan has some 450 employees.Menznau is a municipality in the district of Willisau in the canton of Lucerne in Switzerland. Menznau is first mentioned in 1185 as Menzenowa.

Kronos is a Titan, the father of Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Demeter, and Hera.

Pan is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, and companion of the nymphs. Pan also is linked to panic, behavior contagion, and the copycat effect.

Kronospan is the world’s largest manufacturer of wood panel products and laminate flooring. Kronospan began in 1897 when their first sawmill was founded in Austria. Their Oxford, Alabama plant is the company’s first in the United States, and sits on a 460 acre site in Calhoun County, Alabama.

February 27th is the 80th anniversary of 1933's Reichstag fire, in which Germany's parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, was set on fire (which was blamed on Communists by the Nazis, but probably set by Nazis).

In 2001, Friedrich Leibacher walked into the canton’s parliament in Zug armed with an assault rifle, shotgun, pistol, and homemade police vest. He killed 14 people before commiting suicide in an incident that was dubbed the “Zug massacre.”

See also, Cafeteria Carnage.

Thanks to InvInk for heads up.

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Victor Hugo, The Joker, and Joker Copycats

February 26, 2013 is Victor Hugo's birthday. He would have been 211 years old.

The Oscars presented a large singing production of Les Misérables actors, from the movie based on the musical inspired by Hugo's popular 1862 novel. Perhaps it would be worthy of noting, on Hugo's birthday, that his writings are the source of some intriguing synchrocinematic moments.

For example, few realize that Victor Hugo is the inspiration for the Joker, make famous in recent years by the late Heather Ledger's character Joker in The Dark Knight.

The link is due to The Man Who Laughs (also published under the original working title By Order of the King), a novel by Victor Hugo, first published in April 1869.

Hugo's Romantic novel The Man Who Laughs places its narrative in 17th century England, where the relationships between the bourgeoisie and aristocracy are complicated by continual distancing from the lower class. Hugo's protagonist, Gwynplaine (a physically transgressive figure, something of a monster) transgresses these societal spheres by being reinstated from the lower class into the aristocracy—a movement which enabled Hugo to critique construction of social identity based upon class status.

The main character Gwynplaine in Hugo's The Man Who Laughs, whose face was disfigured into a laughing mask as a child, falls in love with a blind girl named Dea.

The 1928 film (including the anachronistic Ferris wheel) The Man Who Laughs serves as important link to the modern representations, a direct precursor of the Joker.

In 1940, comic book artist Jerry Robinson used Gwynplaine's lanky physique and grotesque grin as the visual inspiration for the Joker, Batman's archenemy. There the similarity ends, however; Gwynplaine is an embittered hero, while the Joker is a psychopathic criminal.

In the 1970s, Bob Kane acknowledged the inspiration for the Joker, and it was later explicitly referenced in the graphic novel, Batman: The Man Who Laughs. Comic book artist Brian Bolland said that watching The Man Who Laughs was one of his inspirations for drawing the graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke (1988). In the 2003 "Wild Cards" episode of the Justice League animated series, The Joker infiltrated a TV station by using the alias "Gwynplaine Entertainment". (Other copycats, see here.)

All of the recent Jokers trace back to Victor Hugo.

Also, according to a French blog, a David Fincher movie has a shared fate of his Se7en character played by actress Gwyneth Paltrow (whose first name resembles Hugo’s Gwynplaine, and was often slated as a Catwoman candidate), eerily echoes the not-so-happy ending of Blanche, the secret daughter of Verdi's Rigoletto (also inspired by Hugo). Source.

 For more, see also here.

James Ellroy, in his novel the Black Dahlia, published in 1987, specifically mentions Victor Hugo in regards to the facial mutilation on Beth Short's mouth (cut to form a gruesome grin). She did have this facial mutilation, as autopsy photos show. (More on the Black Dahlia and Frank Lloyd Wright, see here.)

Meanwhile, over in the Netherlands, there is news of the trial of a Joker copycat killer.

There is little denying that the 2009 Dendermonde Joker is a Heath Ledger/Joker copycat from the 2008 film The Dark Knight. (The "Dendermonde case" is code for the 2009 event involving the daycare nursery killer, Kim de Gelder, the Dendermonde Joker. I've web logged several entries about the subject, for example, here, here, here, here, here, and here.) Now for an update.

An artist's impression of Kim De Gelder on the first day of his trial at Gent's courthouse on February 22, 2013. A nursery killer disguised as Batman villain The Joker told a court he was left "no choice" but to stab to death two toddlers and their caregiver at a Belgian creche -- despite saying he knew murder was wrong. Source.

De Gelder is charged with killing the two infants and their 54-year-old carer in an attack on the Fable Land nursery in the town of Dendermonde in January 2009, as well as the attempted murder of 22 others at the creche -- including 16 babies and toddlers. De Gelder is further charged with murdering an elderly woman in a separate attack a week earlier.

Just after the release of cult 2008 Batman movie The Dark Knight, De Gelder entered the nursery with his hair dyed red and his face painted white with black around his eyes -- like the film's villain The Joker, as played by the late Australian actor Heath Ledger.

In the Aurora shooting, on July 20, 2012, James Holmes (dressed as the Joker wearing Bane-like protective wear) stands accused of killing 12 people and wounding 58 in a cinema screening of The Dark Knight Rises.

Please also see Joker Copycats, 2008-2012, and the immediate Aurora Copycats, which included some Joker Copycats.

Thanks to Theo Paijmans for the Victor Hugo-Black Dahlia info.

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Oscars and Argo? CIA and Bigfoot?

A post on Twitter signed by Sec of State's Skull and Bonesman John Kerry wished the Oscar contender Argo luck from his official State Department account. Kerry said:
"Good luck @BenAffleck and #Argo at the Oscars. Nice seeing @StateDept & our Foreign Service on the big screen.-JK".

Do you recall the ties between Argo and covert activities?

Will the CIA movie Argo, which has won many awards during the last few weeks, get some Oscars tonight?

I alerted you to the buried twilight language of this film, even with its links to Aurora, Colorado, back on October 12, 2012. See here.

There are other strange dots about this movie that can be connected to other realms, too. See here.

Let's see where this goes.

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February 26, 2013. I called it. Argo won the best picture Oscar.

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Twilight Language: Before and After

What? In-depth insights? Hidden messages? Humor?

One of this blog's followers has sent in a visual review of our 

contributions, in jest and reality.

Thanks to Chris S. for creating commentary based on the above imagery (from Alexander L./the3drevolution.com) and sending the results along.

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Red Leaf Lane Killer

Red Leaf Lane

Red Hill Avenue

Orange County

Saddleback College

Ali Syed

Ladera Ranch

5 Freeway

55 Freeway

Santa Ana

Tustin

Edinger Avenue

Orange

East Katella Avenue

North Wanda Road

A Red Leaf Lane resident of Ladera (= hillside, mountainside) Ranch, named Ali Syed carried out an intense series of targeted and random shootings. The short reign of terror in Southern California, took place on Tuesday, February 19, 2013. The 20-year-old Saddleback Community College student with no criminal record killed three, before killing himself.

The first call that came in was at Red Hill Avenue and Interstate 5, although the earliest killing was on Red Leaf Lane.

In one incident, a driver was forced from his BMW at a red light, marched to a curb and killed as witnesses watched in horror.

"He was basically executed," Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said. "There were at least six witnesses."

Lt. Paul Garaven of the Tustin Police Department, left, takes question from the media regarding a shooting spree in Tustin, Calif., Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. Police say a chaotic 25-minute shooting spree through Orange County left a trail of dead and injured victims before the shooter killed himself. There were multiple crime scenes in Tustin and Orange and many more victims who were shot at but unhurt, said Garaven. Tustin is about 35 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. Photo: Damian Dovarganes, Associated Press

Mainstream media posted many stories. Here are examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Thanks for the first news of this from Malcolm. Additional tips from Susan and SMiles.

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Down The Road of Yellow Bricks: Oz and FLW

Yes, there are porcelain people in our future, folks.

Oz: The Great and Powerful is due in theaters on March 8, 2013.

By pure coincidence, I obtained a book a few days ago, opened it, and saw these remarkable endpapers above. The book's name is Frank Lloyd Wright Field Guide by Thomas A. Heinz. It was published in 2005 by Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Illinois.

The homes and buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW) appear to create a synchromystic goldmine of material to examine. Some of it has been explored here at Twilight Language (see below).

In my posting on the Fortean Society and Forteans, I mention that Frank Lloyd Wright was an early member of the Fortean Society. As demonstrated by where these endpapers lead us, as well as his associates in the Fortean Society, the people linked to Frank Lloyd Wright certainly points right down the "road of yellow bricks."

At the top of the first inside page of Frank Lloyd Wright Field Guide, I found the explanation behind what greeted me when I first viewed the book. Heinz has written: 

The endpapers in this book have been recreated from those used by L. Frank Baum, author of The Wizard of Oz, in an earlier book he wrote, typeset, printed, and bound for publishers Way & (Chauncey) Williams of Chicago, called By the Candelabra's Glare. Baum's endpaper are reported to have been taken from wallpaper used in the Wright-designed Chauncey Williams house....(p. 2)

The Chauncey L. Williams House is located at 530 Edgewood Place, River Forest, Illinois.

The house was scaled to accommodate Williams's height: he was six feet four inches tall. With money inherited from his father, he started a publishing firm Way and Williams. He knew attorney Clarence Darrow and Kansas Governor Henry J. Allen along with bookseller George Millard who were all Wright clients. (p. 282)

Other significant Frank Lloyd Wright essays, with linkages, on Twilight Language are:

The Strange Syncs of the Church Bomb Suspect

Phoenix and Frank Lloyd Wright Lexilinks Crash

Gemstones Are Forever: Bond, Elrod House, Onassis, Hughes, and JFK

Frank Lloyd Wright and Synchromysticism

Blade Runner: 30 Years of Synchromysticism

Dakota

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I'm still waiting for someone to give Baum's axis mundi symbolism its due: The tornado, Dorothy starting in Kansas, which was then the geographical center of the United States and ultimately arriving at the geographical center of Oz. The four kingdoms of Oz with their color-coding and the Emerald City in the center -- emerald is traditionally associated with the axis mundi (which may also be why Aragorn insisted that Bilbo include an emerald in his poem about Earendel, another otherworld journey.)
I have no great confidence that the Disney people will have aimed any higher than "adventure story with steampunk touches" -- but if they've mined Baum deeply enough to include the porcelain people, one never knows. ~ Cory Panshin.

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The new film does have a porcelain person.

Oz: The Great and Powerful appears to be a film that will contain some powerful synchrocinematic imagery.

 

 Find your way to the Land of Oz, here.

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