Two Presidents Have Died on December 26th

This is a dangerous time of year for American Presidents.

Former President George H.W. Bush remained at a Houston hospital for a third day in a row on Christmas Day 2014, after experiencing shortness of breath earlier this week.

Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd President of the United States (1945–53).

Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King, Jr.; July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006) was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and, prior to this, was the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974 under President Richard Nixon.

Gerald Ford died on December 26, 2006 at 6:45 PM, the latest in the calendar year a president has died. Harry Truman also died on December 26 (exactly 34 years earlier, in 1972); he died earlier in the day, at 7:47AM.

December 26, 1799, was the date for George Washington's funeral. Four thousand people attended George Washington's funeral where Henry Lee III declared him as "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

Washington had died at his Mt. Vernon, Virginia home around 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. (reports vary) on Saturday, December 14, 1799, aged 67. His corpse was measured and he was found to be 6 feet 3.5 inches tall.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. James Monroe in 1831 and John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in 1826 all died on July 4.

Millard Fillmore in 1874 and William Howard Taft in 1930 both died on March 8.

George Herbert Walker Bush (born June 12, 1924) is an American retired politician who served as the 41st President of the United States (1989–1993).

In this November 17, 2013 photograph, former President George H.W. Bush, who turned 90 in 2014, sits on the sidelines before a game between the Houston Texans and Oakland Raiders, in Houston, Texas.

Other notable December 26th events:

On December 26, 1811, a theater fire in Richmond, Virginia killed the Governor of Virginia George William Smith and the president of the First National Bank of Virginia Abraham B. Venable.

On December 26, 1862, the largest mass-hanging in U.S. history took place in Mankato, Minnesota, 38 Native Americans died.

On December 26, 1977, Howard Hawks, American director and screenwriter (b. 1896) died.

Louis Whitley Strieber (born June 13, 1945, San Antonio, Texas) asserts that he was abducted from his cabin in upstate New York on the evening of December 26, 1985 by non-human beings. He wrote about this experience and related experiences in Communion (1987), his first non-fiction book. Although the book is perceived generally as an account of alien abduction, Strieber draws no conclusions about the identity of alleged abductors. He refers to the beings as "the visitors," a name chosen to be as neutral as possible to entertain the possibility that they are not extraterrestrials and may instead exist in his mind.

The following Strieber books have been adapted into movies:
Wolfen (1981; Orion/Warner Bros.),
The Hunger (1983; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), and
Communion (1989; New Line Cinema).

In the Communion, Christopher Walken plays Whitley Strieber and Lindsay Crouse plays Anne Strieber. The film's score is by Eric Clapton. The movie is directed by Philippe Mora.

The Hunger is directed by Tony Scott, Ridley Scott's brother who jumped from a bridge to his death. (See "Tony Scott: Divine Sacrifice of the King.")

On December 26, 1986, Elsa Lanchester, English-American actress and singer (b. 1902) died. She is best remembered for her dual roles of Mary Shelley and the Monster's Bride, in Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

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Family's Mysterious Deaths In Ancient Hobble Creek

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LDS parents pick names for specific special reasons.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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St. Michael, Dragons, Serpentine Wall and the FBI

"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven," (Rev. 12:7).

Two off-duty FBI employees were killed Thursday night, September 25, 2014, after their pleasure boat hit a barge on the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Newport, Kentucky. Where the accident occurred is of some interest.

Action 19 News noted:

First responders located the boat in the river near the Serpentine Wall and found two men dead on board. Cincinnati Police says the pleasure boat collided with a commercial tow boat around 11 p.m.

The FBI - Cincinnati division - released a statement on September 26th:

It is with great sadness that we advise that two FBI employees were involved in a tragic accident late last night that claimed their lives. At this time, family members are still being notified.

They were identified as John Stack II, 29, and Bruce Eastlick, 28. (Condolences to their loved ones and relatives, as well as their FBI family.)

In the foreground, the Serpentine Wall is seen in front of the One Lytle Place residential tower along the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. Source

The Serpentine Wall is a serpentine-shaped flood wall on the banks of the Ohio River. It was completed in 1976. The wall features steps descending to the river upon which visitors can sit and look across to Northern Kentucky. The riverfront wall is at Yeatman's Cove, between Sawyer Point park and the Public Landing. Sawyer Point is located at 720 E. Pete Rose Way (Riverfront) and is one of Cincinnati's "party" parks. A popular place to laze about is the Serpentine Wall steps that lead into the Ohio River.

Monday, September 29, 2014, is Michaelmas, feast day of the enemy of that serpent of old, a.k.a., the dragon.

Saint Michael Fighting the Dragon by Albrecht Dürer, woodcut, 1498.

As recounted by the Revelation of Saint John, at the end of the world, war will breakout between Heaven and Hell, between good and evil. As the commander of the Army of God, Archangel Michael leads the other angels in the fight against evil, represented in this picture by a seven-headed dragon.

Although he is always called "the Archangel," the Greek Fathers and many others place him over all the angels - as Prince of the Seraphim. St. Michael is the patron of grocers, mariners, paratroopers, police and sickness. Source.

 The specific medallion used by paratroopers for protection gained from St. Michael.

Michaelmas, the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel (also the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a day in the Western Christian liturgical year that occurs on 29 September. Because it falls near the equinox, it is associated in the northern hemisphere with the beginning of autumn and the shortening of days. In medieval England, Michaelmas marked the ending and beginning of the husbandman's year, George C. Homans observes: "at that time harvest was over, and the bailiff or reeve of the manor would be making out the accounts for the year."
In Christianity, the Archangel Michael is the greatest of all the Archangels and is honored for defeating Lucifer in the war in heaven. He is one of the principal angelic warriors, seen as a protector against the dark of night, and the administrator of cosmic intelligence. Michaelmas has also delineated time and seasons for secular purposes as well, particularly in the United Kingdom and Ireland as one of the quarter days. Michaelmas was also one of the English, Welsh and Irish quarter days when accounts had to be settled. On manors, it was the day when a reeve was elected from the peasants.
In Anglican and Episcopal tradition, there are three or four archangels in its calendar for 29 September feast for St. Michael and All Angels: namely Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, and often, Uriel. The Bible itself identifies only Michael as "the archangel" (Book of Jude, verse 9) and does not identify any other creatures as being archangels.
Michaelmas is still celebrated in the Waldorf schools, which celebrate it as the "festival of strong will" during the autumnal equinox. Rudolf Steiner considered it the second most important festival after Easter, Easter being about Christ ("He is laid in the grave and He has risen"). Michaelmas is about man once he finds Christ ("He is risen, therefore he can be laid in the grave"), meaning man finds the Christ (risen), therefore he will be safe in death (laid in the grave with confidence). Source.

The day the reeve is elected?

Reeves is among those special family titles that have been pinpointed as playing a magnetic role in the "name game." John Keel once told me that people named Reeve/Reeves have a lot of strange experiences. Many monster witnesses have been named Reeves. A glance at the indexes of Fortean Times will show a sprinkling of Reeves and Reeve, as witnesses and contributors. A man named Reeves was the primary witness in a now famous Brooksville, Florida UFO case. 

As Jerome Clark has written: "A man so obscure as to be barely known to most other residents of the rural area where he lived, John F. Reeves, 66, became the focus of international attention in 1965, when he reported an encounter with a UFO and its occupant." 

Contactees Bryant and Helen Reeve reached celebrity status in the 1950s after writing their book, Flying Saucer Pilgrimage. Much has been written of the tragic coincidences whirling around the lives of the actors (George Reeves and Christopher Reeve) who played the television and movie Superman (a fictional character who was an alien come to Earth to assist humans) and the "superman" (Keanu Reeves) in The Matrix. There is a reason it's called the Name Game. ~ Loren Coleman, 2002.

Is there evil that needs to be fought? By the FBI? By paratroopers? By Reeves? By St. Michael? These are strange times in which we live.

St. Michael and the Ukraine trident painted on a protester's helmet.

The disembodied heads of the Vaughan family crest, complete with serpent, are metaphoric of the Moore beheading at Vaughan Foods.

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Trident Alert: Watch August 24

Update: Poseidon has thrust his Trident! Aug 24. BREAKING NEWS: Northern California has been rocked by a 6.1 earthquake!!!

Poseidon, whose weapon of choice, is the trident, is the "God of the Sea," but also the "Earth-Shaker," the one who causes earthquakes.

Posted on August 20, 2014:

Sunday, August 24, 2014, is worthy of your attention. As you know, if you are a frequent reader here, tridents have been in the news of late, associated with deaths, disasters, and destructive dramas. The weekend date overlaps with a prominent trident event. (Update: Please see "Synchromystic Symposium: The Meaning of Tridents" to read what over 20 theorists think about the symbolism of these trident "coincidences.")

August 24th links directly to a frequently noted trident, for that date is Independence Day or Den' Nezalezhnosti, celebrating the independence of Ukraine from the Soviet Union in 1991.

The state coat of arms of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Державний Герб України) or commonly the Tryzub (Ukrainian: Тризуб, “trident”) is the national coat of arms of Ukraine, featuring the same colors found on the Ukrainian flag; a blue shield with a gold trident. It represents the triune God on earth and in heaven. Source.

The first known archeological and historical evidence of this symbol can be found on the seals of the Rurik dynasty. It was stamped on the gold and silver coins issued by Prince Volodymer the Great (980–1015). Source.

Guess who has just been deployed to Ferguson, Missouri?

Asymmetric Solutions USA (note the trident) - see link below in comments

A large number of deadly historical events have been traditionally tied to August 24th. They include:

27 BC – 476 AD – The date of the first of the three Mundus patet, a harvest feast involving the dead, is celebrated during the Roman Empire.
79 AD – Mount Vesuvius erupts. The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae are buried in volcanic ash.
410 – The Visigoths under king Alaric I begin to pillage Rome.
455 – The Vandals, led by king Genseric, begin to plunder Rome.

1185 – Sack of Thessalonica by the Normans.
1349 – Six thousand Jews are killed in Mainz after being blamed for the bubonic plague.
1391 – Jews are massacred in Palma de Mallorca.
1482 – The town and castle of Berwick upon Tweed is captured from Scotland by an English army.
1516 – The Ottoman Empire under Selim I defeats the Mamluk Sultanate and captures present-day Syria at the Battle of Marj Dabiq.
1814 – British troops invade Washington, D.C. and during the Burning of Washington the White House, the Capitol and many other buildings are set ablaze.
1816 – The Treaty of St. Louis is signed by Ninian Edwards, William Clark, and Auguste Chouteau for the United States and representatives of the Council of Three Fires (united tribes of Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi) in St. Louis, Missouri. (Ferguson and St. Louis, Missouri are in the news during August, 2014; see here.)

1821 – The Treaty of Córdoba is signed in Córdoba, now in Veracruz, Mexico, concluding the Mexican War of Independence from Spain. (The recent deaths of relatives of Pope Francis occurred near Córdoba, on August 19, 2014; see here.)

1929 – Second day of two-day Hebron massacre during the 1929 Palestine riots: Arab attacks on the Jewish community in Hebron in the British Mandate of Palestine, resulting in the death of 65-68 Jews and the remaining Jews being forced to leave the city. (The new 2014 conflicts in Gaza appear to directly stem from the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teens; their bodies were found in Hebron; see here.)

1954 – Getúlio Dornelles Vargas, president of Brazil, commits suicide and is succeeded by João Café Filho. (A Brazilian presidential candidate died in a plane crash on August 13, 2014; see here.)

2004 – Eighty-nine passengers die after two airliners explode at around 23:00 after flying out of Domodedovo International Airport, near Moscow. The explosions are caused by suicide bombers (reportedly female) from the Russian Republic of Chechnya. (Shades of the downing of MH17? See here.)

Will August 24, 2014, bring forth new significant deaths, a volcanic eruption, towns invaded & occupied, cities burned, assassinations, suicides, and terrorist attacks? Will tridents be in the mix, in some fashion, symbolically or literally? Red dawns and Auroras? Only time will tell. In the meantime, be safe.

++++

Afterword: August 21, 2014

August 24th is also the Christian Feast Day, in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, for Bartholomew. Bartholomew is the Son of Ptolemy, and Ptolemy means "Son of War." For more on this name/date game, please see Chris Savia's "The Synchromysticism of Seth MacFarlane," posted August 21, 2014. He also talks of the rumblings in Iceland there. Also, Todd Campbell pointed out to me today that Goro, in his "Horus of the Horizon," is pointing an event horizon on August 24th, as well.

Finally, for those assuming that my focus is all negative, let me share a bit of background. Carl Jung was interested in the use and interplay of synchronicity in its application of probabilistic predictions, and those that most often appealed to him in support of his concept of acausality. If we can predict disasters, especially ones produced by humans, and prevent them, then Jung's thoughts can be reframed as he saw them, positively. Predicting what are seen as "negative" events may be an easy target for overt criticism, but these media-driven, recognizable moments are exactly the kinds of predictions that I consider to be possible. Prevention work is often misunderstood.

The instrument of destruction mostly under study, and the behaviors predicted, are of and from the humans, not the stars. It is Homo sapiens who are the ones responding to the anniversaries, remembrances, and independence days on their human internal clocks, tied to their current calendar.

Wars, invasions, cities in turmoil, suicides, murders, crashes, and more, ah, rest with the human factor, not an astronomical one. The so-called "anniversary syndrome" is strong in these primates, my fellows. This is based on an annual accounting in a contemporary landscape, dear friends. So it is and so it shall be.

Now if that volcano in Iceland goes off over the weekend, we'll just have to write that off to one of Carl Jung's "coincidences," correct?

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The Paradise Syndrome: Celebrity Suicides

If you are the brother or sister, or son or daughter of a celebrity, notice of your death may begin with that link. Such was the situation that unfolded this week in two high profile incidents.

"The older brother of actor Richard Belzer jumped to his death from the roof of his 16-floor Upper West Side apartment building Wednesday," said the New York Post on July 30, 2014.

250 West 94th St.

After his award-winning Sesame Street director wife Emily Squires passed away at the age of 71 in November 2012, Leonard Belzer went into a depression.

Belzer, 73, who lived on the 11th floor of his building, jumped at 6:55 a.m. from the roof of his West 94th Street apartment complex. Belzer’s dad died by suicide in 1968.

It is a daunting statistic, but 50% of all people who kill themselves have had someone very close to them die by suicide. The person is usually in their immediate family. It is the copycat effect in its most easily understood form. A model for dealing with being in pain or being so depressed the blackness won't go away, is right there in the individual's life - and mind. They choose suicide as their "way out," as their escape from their psychological torment.

Leonard's brother, Richard Belzer, 69, is a co-star of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He also is the author of books, including UFOs, JFK, and Elvis: Conspiracies You Don't Have to Be Crazy to Believe (Ballantine Books, 2000) and Hit List: An In-Depth Investigation into the Mysterious Deaths of Witnesses to the JFK Assassination (Skyhorse Publishing, 2013).

Leonard Belzer was a Columbia University grad and an Air Force Intelligence Service veteran.

Len Belzer and Emily Squires co-wrote Spiritual Places In and Around New York City (2000), and Spiritual Places In and Around New York City: UPDATED EDITION (2006).

"Spiritual Places In and Around New York City brings together places that Emily Squires and Len Belzer have found valuable in maintaining their own personal sanity amid the frenetic pace of the city. Each sketch lends spiritual insights and a sensual feel of the place that invites readers to plumb for themselves the mystery and depths of its sacredness. Entries on Communities, Day Trips, Gardens, Museums, Learning and Healing Centers, Libraries and Bookstores, Nature Walks, Restaurants, Overnights, as well as Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu, and Sufi places of worship," noted the Paraview Press overview. (My friend Anomalist Books publisher Patrick Huyghe was the editor behind the publishing of the Squires/Belzer book and alerted me to his sad passing.)

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Meanwhile in California...

Jessica Barrymore (from left), half-sister Drew Barrymore and half-brother John Barrymore III together in 2004 in Joshua Tree, California. (Via Facebook)

Jessica Barrymore, via her Facebook page, on July 5, 2014.

A day before Belzer's death, another sibling of a celebrity died by suicide. Jessica Barrymore, half-sister of actress Drew Barrymore, was lifeless in her car surrounded by drugs, when two strangers found her, in a parked Toyota Camry blocking their driveway in National City, California, on Tuesday. The 47-year-old Barrymore had vodka, methamphetamine and various pills scattered on the passenger seat in her car. She had a SoBe energy drink between her legs, a witness told ABC 10News.

The Petco worker was found about 40 miles south of her San Diego County residence with no obvious ties to the street where she died, authorities said. Jessica Barrymore would have turned 48 on Thursday, July 31.

The woman was found inside the car in the 900 block of Hoover Avenue at about 6 a.m. Tuesday. The San Diego Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed late Tuesday night that firefighters responded and found her dead. Marta Lopez told local news she was trying to leave for work, but a car was blocking her driveway on Hoover and 9th Street. She got out and walked over to the woman behind the wheel. “You need help, you need help,” she told her, but the woman did not respond. Lopez said the seat was reclined and the woman had a SoBe energy drink between her legs. Then, Lopez looked at her neck to see if she was breathing, but something was terribly wrong. Over on the passenger seat, there was another disturbing image: dozens of white pills scattered around. That is when Lopez called police. Source.

Jessica's great-aunt, Diana (1921–60), one of the famed actor John Barrymore's two children, died by suicide. John Barrymore's other child, known as John II is the father of Jessica, Drew, and the son known as John III.

One of the greatest philanderers in Hollywood history, John Barrymore (1882-1942), would state that in his life that he was molested by his stepmother as a youth. John Barrymore's daughter, Diana (1921-1960), would claim in her biography that he had tried to rape her. As noted in the Feral House's 2007 book, Hollywood's Hellfire Club (by Gregory William Mank with Charles Heard and Bill Nelson), in their loveless life, womanizing was a competitive sport among John Barrymore and his friends, the "Bundy Drive Boys," which included John Decker, Errol Flynn, John Carradine, Vincent Price, and W.C. Fields. (H/t for the reminder from aferrismoon.)

The book notes:

It has come to our attention, though a conversation with John Barrymore III (1954- ), that his great-grandfather, born Herbert Blythe (1849-1905), renamed himself Maurice Barrymore after a historical character named Richard Barry, the 7th Earl of Barrymore (1769-1793). The Earl of Barrymore was born a little too late to become involved in The Hellfire Club, but on his own went against the rules of aristocracy by acting and becoming known as "The Rake of Rakes," and like Hellfire Club members, was an enthusiastic womanizer. The Bundy Drive Boys are the true latter-day version of the Hellfire Club.

Celebrities and suicides...

In a shadowy parallel to the suicide death of Margaux Hemingway on July 1, 1996, Jessica's sister Drew and brother John are expressing skepticism that the death was a suicide. This often happens in families where there is great denial that a suicide did occur. The Hemingways had seven suicides in their family. We know that the Barrymores had, at least, two, allegedly.

The Copycat Effect and the Paradise Syndrome go hand-in-hand, as I noted in this excerpt from The Copycat Effect:

The copycat effect may even play a role in the so-called "Paradise Syndrome." Reuters reporter Rachel Noeman explained the term in a 1996 news story: "They inherit celebrity names, appear to have it all and live apparently gilded lives, but what may at first seem like paradise can end in pain or even tragedy."
Noeman was reporting on the suicide death of Amschel Rothschild, 41-year-old chairman of Rothschild Asset Management and great-great-great-grandson of Nathan Meyer Rothschild -- who established in 1804 the merchant bank in the City of London that still bears his name. He hanged himself in a Paris hotel room ten days after Margaux Hemingway, who also was 41, was found dead.
Noeman was making the link between the two, in terms of the "Paradise Syndrome." While the modeling of a suicide on those most like the suicide victim is most often discussed in terms of people basing their suicide on that of a celebrity, descendants of celebrities may actually be the most vulnerable for the copycat effect. Amschel Rothschild’s widow Anita Rothschild repeated what is often said in the wake of such deaths, that it was “totally unexpected,” and the family was "shocked and devastated."

Some children of very well-known celebrities have died by suicide:

1965: Charles Boyer's son Michael Charles Boyer, 21, dies by suicide while playing Russian Roulette. In 1978, Charles Boyer takes his own life with a lethal dose of seconal.
1968: Robert Taylor's stepson Michael Theiss, 23, dies of a drug overdose in a LA motel room.
1969: Art Linkletter's daughter, Diane Linkletter, 20, dies when she jumps from a window at her apartment in West Hollywood. Linkletter blamed his daughter's death on LSD and proclaimed it not a suicide.
1975: Gregory Peck's son, news reporter Jonathan Peck, killed himself with a gun.
1975: Jim Arness's daughter, Jenny Lee Arness,24, also 25, dies due to a lethal dose of pills.
1976: Scientology mastermind L. Ron Hubbard and his third wife, Mary Sue Whipp's son Quentin Hubbard, 22, was dies by suicide.
1978: Paul Newman's son, Scott Newman, 28, an aspiring actor, was found dead in a hotel after overdosing on pills and alcohol.
1980: Mary Tyler Moore's son, Richard Meeker Jr., 24, "accidentally" shot himself dead with a sawed-off shotgun.
1981: Ray Milland's son, Daniel Millard, shot himself in the head in the bedroom of his Beverly Hills home.
1981: Louis Jourdan's son, Louis Henry Jourdan, 29, shot himself in his parent's home in Bel Air.
1988: Gloria Vanderbilt's oldest son, Carter Vanderbilt Cooper, 23, jumped from the 14th floor terrace of his mother's Manhattan apartment.
1991, Willie Nelson's son Billy Nelson, 33, hanged himself in his family's Tennessee cabin.
1995: Marlon Brando's daughter, Cheyenne Brando, 25, hanged herself in 1995.
1995: Carroll O'Connor 's son, Hugh O'Connor, 32, shot himself dead.
2007: Burt Bacharach and Angie Dickinson's daughter, Nikki Bacharach, 40, suffocated herself, using a plastic bag and helium.
2009, 46 years after his mother's own suicide, Sylvia Plath's son, Nicholas Hughes, 47, hanged himself.
2010: Marie Osmond's 18 year-old son, Michael Blosil, jumped from the 8th floor of an LA apartment building.
Source.

For more on the "Hemingway Curse," please click here.

Also, Hemingway & Gellhorn: War and Love.

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Sadly, Suffer The Little Children

Some sad, weird stories are crossing my desk, about kids, about deaths, about this time of year, and, of course, once again, from the Atlanta area. Maybe there's someone out there who can see some patterns or meaning in all of this horrible news.

First, something seemed to be in the wind about the Summer Solstice, more so than normal, this year. There was a rash of stories, seemingly causing some Satanic smoldering about the dates June 20-25. See  "Satanists & Solstice Slayings." Of course, there was a hint of bizarreness just before the 21st on "Friday the 13th at Waffle House." Earlier, in May, a "Man Robbed A Waffle House With A Pitchfork."

The three Waffle House incidents - the pitchfork robbery at a WH, the killing of an on-duty policeman working as a security guard at a WH, and a WH employee shooting and killing a customer - all happened at Atlanta-area Waffle Houses.

In a strange link to Atlanta and an old name game previously identified here (= Tecumseh), the William Tecumseh Sherman monument (above) at the Grand Army Plaza in New York City was in the news because it is losing its gold covering. Tecumseh also showed up in the news this week with a lightning fire in Tecumseh, Ontario; a horse being killed in a fire in Tecumseh, Oklahoma; and a shooting at the intersection of Gloster and Tecumseh streets in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to name but a few examples.

The Union general who burned Atlanta was named after the great Shawnee prophet Tecumseh.

When another human tragedy struck, late in June, it was no surprise that the Atlanta area was a focus again. A toddler had been found dead, and had apparently been left alone for hours in a hot car. The distraught father blamed himself and faced serious criminal charges.
But there is a bit of mystery here. What was the truth behind the incident?

Cobb County, Georgia, police imply there is more -- much more -- to the story.
"Much has changed about the circumstances leading up to the death of this 22-month-old [Cooper Harris, pictured at top] since it was first reported," Cobb County Police Sgt. Dana Pierce told CNN. He would not elaborate, citing an ongoing investigation, but his words made it clear this was not just another case of a young life left and lost to heat exposure in a hot car.
Shocking details in hot car death case
"I've been in law enforcement for 34 years. What I know about this case shocks my conscience as a police officer, a father and a grandfather," said Pierce.

 

Initially, Justin Ross Harris, 33, (pictured) told Cobb County police that he accidentally left his toddler son in his SUV on Wednesday. According to police, Harris told them he had forgotten to drop the child off at a daycare center, before going to work.
Harris initially told police he realized that he'd left the boy strapped in his car seat as he drove home Wednesday afternoon.
Investigators say patrol officers were in the area of the Akers Mill Square shopping center in the suburban Atlanta county when dispatchers received the calls from witnesses around 4:20 p.m.
"He kept saying, 'What have I done? What have I done?'" Dale Hamilton told CNN affiliate WSB-TV.
"Within moments of the first responders getting to the scene and doing their job and questions began to be asked about the moments that led up to their arrival at the scene, some of those answers were not making sense to the first responders," Pierce of Cobb County Police said.
On Thursday, Harris pleaded not guilty to felony murder and cruelty to children charges. He's being held without bond at the Cobb County Jail.
CNN spoke with the child's mother, Leanna Harris, on Friday. Harris says she's been advised not to discuss the case with the media.
"We have been in communication with the mother throughout the investigation. At this time, I'm not at liberty to discuss her involvement. That's a part of the case our detectives are working on," Pierce said....
According to the arrest warrant, the temperature reached 88 degrees in the area on Wednesday. Police said medical personnel believed the child had been in the SUV since 9 a.m., as Harris said.
But Pierce told CNN on Friday, "I cannot confirm that the child, as originally reported, was in the car at 9 a.m." ~ CNN

What's worse, there was another such death.

The [Atlanta-area] toddler's death was the second this week of a child in a hot car. On Monday, a 9-month-old girl died in Rockledge, Fla., after her father forgot to drop her off at her grandmother's house, leaving her in the back seat of his pickup truck for several hours as he worked at his job as a telephone solicitor for the Fraternal Order of Police.
As of Thursday, no charges had been filed against Steven Lillie, 31, of Cocoa, Fla. Rockledge Police say they still are investigating the death and allowing Lillie and his girlfriend, the child's mother, to grieve the loss.
"She's been in the car for hours, and I absolutely forgot about her," Lillie said during a 9-1-1 call Monday to police dispatchers. "She's not alive." USA Today.

Thus far, in 2014, the following incidents have occurred:

Incident #	Date	Location	Temperature	Name	Age
	June
13*	06/18/14	Cobb County, GA	91°	Cooper Harris	22 mo
12*	06/16/14	Rockledge, FL	91°	Anna  Lillie	9 mo
11*	06/12/14	Ardmore, OK	84°	Mason Ryan Wood	2 mo
10	06/10/14	Flint, TX	88°	Bella Lindstrom	4 yr
9	06/08/14	Sarasota, FL	85°	Alejandra Hernandez	2 yr
8	06/04/14	Dolgeville, NY	73°	Sophia Lea Marie Lyon	15 mo
	May
7	05/25/14	Florence, SC	86°	Jeremiah A. Kennedy	13 mo
6	05/25/14	Princeton, IL	84°	Logan Jacobs	5 yr
5	05/12/14	Clarkston, GA	87°	Julius Meh	2 yr
4	05/08/14	Hartsville, SC	93°	Sophia Goyeneche	13 mo
	April
3	04/29/14	Bakersfield, CA	87°	Fernando Velasquez	5 yr
2*	04/22/14	North Richland Hills, TX	84°	Aurora Hollingsworth	17 mo
1	04/16/14	San Jose, CA	80°	Giovanni Alonzo Hernandez	9 mo

For 2013, see the list here.

"Suffer the little children" seemed a fitting headline for this posting.

But Jesus said, "Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." ~ Matthew 19:14, English Revised Version, The Bible

Just to clarify, as pointed out by RC in a comment to me, the use of the word "suffer" in the biblical sense means to "allow" as in "allow the children to come to me."

What is the paradox is how the meaning has changed for people from Stephen King (see at bottom) to the self-styled Satanists.

Meanwhile, the BeforeItNews folks wanted to turn everyone's attention to Denver, Colorado, over the Solstice weekend. There was talk of the sacrifice of a human child there, due to the Summer Solstice.

It was also pointed out that around the time of the Summer Solstice in 2013, in Midwest City, Oklahoma,

a toddler was held hostage [on June 17th] at Walmart, the suspected criminal claimed he was part of a Satanic cult.
News9 reported Sammie Lamont Wallace grabbed the two-year-old child at knifepoint and began speaking about the Illuminati and a satanic cult. Police said they began to research the things Wallace said, and found out that the day of the incident linked to a day of human sacrifice.
Police shot and killed Wallace after he began to make attempts on the girl's life. According to the police report they found religious writings in a notebook to validate his actions. See a report that further explains the story here.

###

A school shooting, Stephen King, and Miss Sibley.

"Suffer the Little Children" is a February 1972 short story by Stephen King. 

As King developed the tale, it was one about a school shooting long before the modern era of such events.

The plot centers on a frightened third grade teacher, Miss Emily Sidley, who brings her deceased brother's gun to school. There she takes twelve of her students to a room and shoots each one dead. Soon, she is interrupted by another teacher, and stops before she can kill another student.

Miss Sidley is sent to a mental hospital after the murders, and eventually takes her own life.

In 1993, King wrote that the story had "no redeeming social merit whatever."

Later, Stephen King discussed the role of his book Rage (which also contains a school shooting) after the school shootings by Barry Loukaitis of February 2, 1996, in Moses Lake, Washington. Eventually King apologized for writing the book, saying he penned it during a troubling period in his life. He said he wished it never had been published. Finally in 1999, after Columbine, King told his publisher to pull it from publication and took it out-of-print. He told the Today Show’s Katie Couric: “I took a look at Rage and said to myself, if this book is acting as any sort of accelerate, if it’s having any effect on any of these kids at all, I don’t want anything to do with it, regardless of what may be the moral and legal rights and wrongs. Even talking about it makes me nervous.”

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H/T to Sibyl Hunter for some hints.
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For a followup, see Suffer The Little Children, Part II. 

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