The Bell Tolls White House Invasions and Mass Murders

No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee. ~ John Donne, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII, 1624 (original spelling).

Synchronicity is strange. It plays games with your mind, leading you down one road, and dropping you off on another path that leads you right back to the beginning.

Let's take one down the synchromystic journey that appears to be going back and forth in time, starting with a horrible incident that occurred in a microscopic town in the South of the USA.

On Thursday, September 18, 2014, it was Bell, Florida, where a "spirit" - Donald Charles Spirit, 51, - killed his adult daughter (Sarah, 28) and six grandkids, before killing himself. The children who died were identified as Kylie Kuhlmann, 9, Kaleb Kuhlmann, 11, Johnathon Kuhlmann, 8, Destiny Stewart, 5, Alanna Stewart, born June 28 of this year, and Brandon Stewart, 4. The fathers (James Lawson Stewart and Edward Kuhlman) of both sets of children were imprisoned at the time of the shootings.

If that wasn't bad enough, the history here was mysterious and murderous:

Media reports indicate that Spirit accidentally shot and killed an 8-year-old son, Kyle, during a hunting trip to Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area near Kenansville, Fla., on Nov. 14, 2001. During a walk through the woods, Spirit pointed out some rust on the muzzle of a gun and it fired, hitting Kyle in the head, officials said. He was sentenced to three years in prison for illegal possession of a firearm. Spirit pleaded guilty in exchange for a minimum sentence just as his trial was about to begin. After that incident, the family moved from Tampa to Bell, according to published reports. Source.

The Bell killings occurred on the same day, a Taco Bell in Antioch (named after the ancient warring Greek city founded by one of Alexander the Great's generals), California, announced it would be closing its inside area from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday. This was an attempt to deter high school students using their place as a fight club. After school brawling had routinely broken out in that Taco Bell. Fights had occurred in the previous days.

Also on Thursday, Kenneth Osako, 46, allegedly used a bar-bell at a gym in South San Francisco to beat Diego Galindo, 43, to death. Source.

Meanwhile, a few hours before, late on Wednesday night, September 17, 2014, a high speed chase in Bell Township, Pennsylvania, ended when multiple law enforcement departments' pursuits came to an abrupt stop after police shot driver Joshua Jesse of Monroeville, after he allegedly fired on officers. Source.

Also on September 17, the Denver Chapter of National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution rang their Colorado Liberty Bell replica for the first time in 40 years, on Constitution Day. Constitution Day commemorates the formation and signing of the U.S. Constitution by thirty-nine men on September 17, 1787, recognizing all who are born in the U.S. or by naturalization have become citizens.

Even "celebrity news" got involved in this cycle. See "Kristen Bell's Husband Dax Shepard Got a Bell Tattoo on His Ring Finger in Honor of His Wife!" (h/t Todd Campbell).

Something seemed to be in the air regarding "Bell," needless to say.

Soon my attention was drawn to the White House. Here too, a Bell was in the twilight there.

Appearing online, this image has now been turned into

a political statement of undetermined meaning.

You will recall that on September 11th, a man wearing a Pokémon shirt & cap and carrying a Pikachu doll, climbed the fence, got onto the White House lawn, and created quite a scare. Turns out the guy was named Jeffrey Grossman, 26, from Rensselaer, New York, who has mental disabilities. He wanted to ask President Obama about healthcare, allegedly. Grossman has a Bachelor of Science degree in business from College of Saint Rose in Albany.

Grossman (shown) was a graduate of Chatham High School in Chatman High School. On September 19, the school put out an alert "about children in Colonie and Berkshire County being approached by a man in a gray car with New York plates, which police are investigating as possible attempted abductions. While there have been no reported incidents in our immediate area, today we took the opportunity to remind all our students to be vigilant about their safety when out and about."

Grossman's White House intrusion was disturbing, but what happened next was even more concerning, considering the White House is suppose to be the best guarded location in the Free World. 

On Friday evening, September 19, 2014, Omar J. Gonzalez, 42, who allegedly is from Bell County, Texas, jumped the White House's North Fence, darted across the lawn and through the unlocked North Portico doors before officers finally tackled him. It was announced on Saturday that he was carrying a knife. The President and his family had just left for Camp David, and the White House was evacuated. When Gonzalez was apprehended he told Secret Service agents he was "concerned that the atmosphere was collapsing" and needed to contact the president "so he could get word out to the people." Certainly for Gonzalez, the bell was tolling for him.

Update 22 September 2014: White House intruder had 800 rounds of ammunition in his car.

Newer Update:

On September 22, 20014, USA Today made this observation:

Samantha Bell, Gonzalez's ex-wife, said she and Gonzalez married in 2006 and lived together in Copperas Cove, near Fort Hood, until she split up with him in 2010 because of his worsening mental condition. After his second tour in Iraq, Gonzalez began carrying a .45 on his hip at all times and kept three or four rifles and shotguns behind the doors in their home, said Bell, who remarried and now lives in southern Indiana.

Yes, that's correct. His ex-wife is named Bell.

Gonzalez is listed as living in Copperas Cove, Texas, which partially overlaps into Bell County. Records indicate Gonzalez was born and married in Bell County. Waco, Texas, is nearby, and Fort Hood is too. Fort Hood is the scene of murder-suicides and mass shootings. The month has been filled with child murders and homicidal/suicidal acts.

The federal government's action at Waco allegedly triggered the Oklahoma City bombing, which caused the new security measures at the White House. This is all getting to be circular.

On Saturday, September 20th, there was the third recent incident at the White House. The Associated Press shared the slimmest of details:

Less than 24 hours after Gonzalez's arrest, a second man was apprehended after he drove up to a White House gate and refused to leave, the Secret Service said, prompting bomb technicians in full gear to search the vehicle as agents shut down nearby streets.

Where is this going? We shall see, for whom does the bell toll? It tolls for thee.

Bells, tridents, beheadings. White House invasions, child endangerment, NFL players being charged with domestic violence. What are these times we are experiencing. The bell is tolling for thee. Is it really something distance, or are these events close to home?

Why Bells now? Is the metaphor ringing as a herald of news? Or of danger?

I have talked of "Bells" in synchrocinema before. See, for example, 2008's "The Brotherhood of the Bell" and my recycled thoughts on "Yeti, Jimmy Stewart, Bell and Book."

In Jim Brandon's 1983 book, The Rebirth of Pan: Hidden Faces of the American Earth Spirit, he writes, regarding the "name game":

I'm not talking here of such spooky tongue-twisters as H.P. Lovecraft's Yog-Sothoth or Arthur Machen's Ishakshar, but of quite ordinary names like Bell, Beall and variants, Crowley, Francis, Grafton, Grubb, Magee/McGee, Mason, McKinney, Montpelier, Parsons, Pike, Shelby, Vernon, Watson/Watt, Williams/Williamson. I have others on file, but these are the ones which I have accumulated the most instances.

In my 1983 Mysterious America, I wrote:

Cryptologic or coincidence? Jim Brandon should be credited with calling attention to the name Watts/Watkins/Watson, and its entanglement with inexplicable things. Some other names involved in mysterious events pinpointed by Brandon are Bell, Mason, Parsons, Pike, Vernon, and Warren. The influence of such names as Mason, Pike, Warren, and Lafayette, for example, issues, in some cryptopolitical and occult way, from their ties to the Masonic tradition.

From the original source, the Dictionary of American Family Names (Oxford University Press, 2013), the following is shared for the meaning of the name Bell:

Scottish and northern English: from Middle English belle ‘bell,’ in various applications; most probably a metonymic occupational name for a bell ringer or bell maker, or a topographic name for someone living ‘at the bell’ (as attested by 14th-century forms such as John atte Belle). This indicates either residence by an actual bell (e.g. a town’s bell in a bell tower, centrally placed to summon meetings, sound the alarm, etc.) or ‘at the sign of the bell’, i.e. a house or inn sign (although surnames derived from house and inn signs are rare in Scots and English). 

Scottish and northern English: from the medieval personal name Bel. As a man’s name this is from Old French beu, bel ‘handsome,’ which was also used as a nickname. As a female name it represents a short form of Isobel, a form of Elizabeth. 

Scottish: Americanized form of Gaelic Mac Giolla Mhaoil ‘son of the servant of the devotee.’ 

Jewish (Ashkenazic): Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames. 

Norwegian: habitational name from a farmstead in western Norway named Bell, the origin of which is unexplained. 

Scandinavian: of English or German origin; in German as a habitational name for someone from Bell in Rhineland, Germany, or possibly from Belle in Westphalia. Americanized spelling of German Böhl or Böll (see Boehle, Boll).

The bell and the trident - and beheadings - appear in combination in many cultures.