Aurora's Phantom Clown

We are in the midst of the largest worldwide wave of weird, evil, creepy clown sightings and encounters to have ever occurred in modern times. Today, to me, signaled these manifestations are taking place in locations that cannot be ignored for their hidden twilight language.

As longtime readers know, it is in Mysterious America where I detailed the USA national wave of sightings in May of 1981 of costumed sinister jokers in vans, trying to kidnap children, seemingly beginning in New England and spreading from there. By the end of the month, the local newspapers in Kansas City were publishing warnings about "Killer Clowns" said to be after children at bus stops there. I coined the term "Phantom Clowns" to describe them because they were (are) seen but never caught.

Sightings would come and go, and Phantom Clown encounters would continue.

Then in 2008 reports coming from Chicago were tied to a Wicker Park, which has a symbolic name linked to New York City's Son of Sam killings of 1976-1977. In letters to the media, the "Son of Sam" serial killer signed himself as "The Wicked King Wicker" and allegedly shoot a Wicker Street German shepherd.

In the October 2008 Illinois incidents, a man wearing clown make-up and a wig was using balloons in an attempt to lure children into his vehicle on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. Police issued an alert about a week after a man with a similar description was spotted on the West Side.

Other postings to consult include:
Top Ten Evil Clown Stories of 2008
Evil Clowns: Summer 2009
Real Killer Clowns (2010)
Northern Irish Clowns Attack (2011)
Top Ten Evil Clowns of 2011
Idaho Phantom Clown Incident (2012)

In January 2013, In the Dutch city of Volendam three phantom clowns beat up a boy at the local clown festivities (which involves over 200 clowns). The boy was taken to the local hospital. The clowns disappeared and were not caught.

The incidents kept occurring - with all the following in 2013:
Dutch Clown Stabs Russian Boy On Crete
Coulrophobia Alert: Send In The Clowns
Mexican Clowns Kill Drug Lord
Phantom Clowns Update: Gaywood Sighting Latest In Epidemic

Northampton Clowns
Top Ten Evil Clown Stories of 2013

Along strolls 2014, which after some early weird clown reports, the clown stories begin exploding:
Wasco's Mysterious Clowns
Copycat Creepy Clowns Countrywide
Evil Clowns Reach France
More Clowns in France
Clowns in Spain

Two views of the Dendermonde Joker.

The concurrent attacks and incidents involving The Joker are not to be overlooked. It will be recalled that the Dendermonde Joker's face was painted white and his eyes were made black, with his distinctive pink/red/ginger hair cut in spikes, "as if he had cut his hair himself," his mouth was apparently not painted, as was Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight. The Belgian crèche (daycare) was attacked by this "Joker" on January 23, 2009. (Ledger had died on January 22, 2008). Two babies and one daycare worker were killed. The weapons used were a knife and hatchet. There was nothing "phantom" about this "clown."

Then it got very hot.

"The fire rises!" ~ Bane, The Dark Knight Rises, 2012.

On July 20, 2012, the Dark Knight Shooting: 12 Dead, 58 Injured occurred. It happened in Colorado, at Aurora, forever broadcasting "Red Dawn" into our awareness. And James Holmes apparently had a Bane mouth mask that covered a Joker facial makeup underneath.

Even a James Holmes/Aurora Joker mask was marketed for Halloween 2012, briefly.

Now we find ourselves in the midst of a major clown epidemic.

Today, a reader emailed me, noting: "When you post about the phantom clowns, it always raises an eyebrow. But when syncs like this occur [see following], it really opens your eyes."

There is a new report of a Phantom Clown event in Aurora, Colorado (at the Southland Mall, pictured above). Once again, we are not making this stuff up. 

AURORA, Colo. - A woman says she was attacked and badly injured by a man dressed as a clown on Tuesday night [October 28, 2014] at Southlands Mall in Aurora.
"It's definitely something out of a nightmare," said Molly who asked us not to use her last name.
The stuff of nightmares, Molly experienced firsthand.
"A man that had a clown mask on and kind of like a monkey suit jumped out and grabbed me," she explained.
The attack happened in public at Southlands Mall on Tuesday at around 9:30 p.m.
Similar mysterious, creepy clowns have been popping up across the country.
Videos and pictures of these pranks can be found all over the internet. One clip on YouTube shows a clown holding a chainsaw seriously scaring people inside a bathroom.
Molly said the pranks are getting out of hand.
"It was dark and it was like he was waiting for us around the corner," she further explained. "I feel like I was assaulted."
She said the attacked occurred in an alley near the movie theater, and as soon as the clown grabbed her, she tried to run.
"(I) scrapped up my knee. Went to a doctor today, I have first degree burns on my leg from falling," Molly said.
The clown left her with injuries to her knee and hand. She also cracked her iPhone during the attack.
"The rest of the night I was super jumpy and didn't want to go around any corners," she explained.
Two clown incidents were reported Tuesday between 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., at the shopping center located at 6155 S. Main St., according to the Aurora Police Department.
Officers drove around the area after the reports, but were unable to locate the clowns.
Aurora Police said while dressing up like a clown is legal; it is now considering criminal charges because of the injuries Molly suffered.
"They definitely need to get caught and get in trouble for this, it's not ok, and it's terrorizing people," she said.
A terrifying experience, Molly says wasn't funny at all.
"If I wanted to be scared I'd go to a haunted house," she explained. "It's a really bad idea; it's not a good prank." Source.

Why a Phantom Clown in Aurora? Why now? A dawn clown event?

For the record, this Phantom Clown business was not caused by Stephen King. King's It (below) terrorized children (as a novel in 1986 and a TV movie in 1990), but please note, only after I published my treatments on the discovery of the "Phantom Clown" wave of 1981 (first in magazine articles and later in my 1983 first edition of Mysterious America).

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Evil Clowns Reach France

The Phantom Clowns, the Evil Clowns, the Killer Clowns have had a banner year. They've been seen - and often photographed - in the USA, in the UK, and now France.

French police say "any person, aggressive clowns or hunters of

clowns, discovered in possession of a weapon ... will be arrested".

Credit: French National Police Facebook Page. 

A 14-year-old dressed as a clown has been arrested near Paris for attempting to attack a woman, in the latest incident of fake, evil clowns terrorising passers-by in France.
Complaints have poured in recently over "armed clowns" wreaking havoc in
various parts of the country.
Police have detained several people dressed as the pranksters - some
carrying pistols, knives and baseball bats.
The bizarre phenomenon has even prompted anti-clown vigilantism, forcing
police to try to quell the hysteria by saying there have only been a few
sightings of the terrifying clowns.
On Monday, a woman who had just got out of her car in Chelles, an eastern
suburb 18 kilometres from central Paris, called the police, saying two
clowns - one of whom was armed with a fake axe - had attacked her, a
source said.
They escaped when a passer-by armed with a baseball bat tried to stop them.
One of the pranksters was later detained when police spotted him, white
make-up still covering his face.
In a separate incident just half-an-hour afterwards, a dozen people
wearing the smiling, white masks associated with the Anonymous hacktivist
collective attacked three youths and stole their mobile phones at a
station in Melun, a south-eastern suburb of Paris.
The "evil clown" trend previously seen in the United States and Britain
only began in the north of France in early October.
In the town of Bethune, a 19-year-old received a six-month suspended jail
term last week for threatening passers-by while dressed as a clown.
The "clowns" have been "mostly spotted outside schools, but also on public
roads, in bushes, and in a square.
Their targets are often young children or teenagers, but also adults," a
police source in northern France said. It then spread to the south of
France.
'Clown hunters' also on police radarFrench police released information
warning against armed anti-clown vigilantes taking to the streets.
"The National Police have received many reports of clowns frightening
passers-by, but many are fanciful and the proportion of children," the
police service said on its Facebook page.
"Symptomatic of the impact of the internet, this phenomenon can generate
harmful individual derivatives and disturbances to public order.
"On social networks, groups calling for collective mobilisations against
clowns have appeared.
"Any person, aggressive clowns or hunters of clowns, discovered in
possession of a weapon on the highway will be arrested."
Police on Saturday night arrested 14 teenagers dressed as clowns and
carrying weapons in the Mediterranean port town of Agde.
In the nearby city of Montpellier, a man disguised as a clown was arrested
after beating a pedestrian with an iron bar.
Theories abound as to the origin of the not-so-funny trend of violence in
a country where Halloween has yet to take hold.
The suggestions include a challenge launched on social networks, a popular
video on YouTube showing a terrifying clown pranking people or even a
recent episode of the popular TV series American Horror Story featuring
Twisty the killer clown. Source.

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Copycat Creepy Clowns Countrywide

Clown contagion appears to be spreading across the nation.

The Wasco Clown, a California photography project by a husband-and-wife team who said they wish to remain anonymous, appears to have inspired copycats that have been photographed and videotaped in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Fishers, Indiana; and Jacksonville, Florida. Source/Video.

Huffington Post and many media outlets have posted the photos.

Also, there's been a recent rash of clowns-as-robbers incidents too.

See posting of October 10, 2014, "Wasco's Mysterious Clowns."

Phantom clowns have been making appearances for years (see this, from 2008), so it would only be natural that clowns would be used to terrorized people again. And again.

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Top Ten Evil Clown Stories of 2013

WARNING: 

NOT FOR

COULROPHOBICS

#1 ~ Northampton Clown Epidemic

This was the top scary clown story of the year.

The sightings of a mystery clown may have been taking place for some time, but reports of them tied his initial appearance to Friday the 13th of September. In the British town of Northampton, the creepy clown was of a man with white face, red hair and sharply arched eyebrows. He appeared in two separate areas of Northampton.

These accounts increased into widespread reports of circus characters scaring people in Northampton.

#2 ~ Clown Sightings Spread to Norfolk

Norfolk police received a report from a member of the public alarmed by a clown sighting in Gaywood, near King's Lynn, late in November. The suspect was described as wearing a "full clown outfit" with a red suit and red hair. A similar report was received the next day, after two clowns were spotted near a skate park in the town. These people wore "Halloween-type" clown masks.

In both cases, the callers reported being alarmed and being chased a short way up the road. One account said some copycats carried knives and chased people, sparking entertainment group Clowns International to brand them a menace. Source.

#3 ~ Volendam Clown Attack

In the Dutch city of Volendam three clowns beat a boy during the local clown festivities (which involves over 200 clowns) over a January 2013 weekend.

The boy was taken to the local hospital. The clowns disappeared and were not caught. Source.

#4 ~ Crete's Hotel Clown Attack

On the island of Crete in Hersonissos, a violent fierce attack by a Dutch hotel clown was made against a Russian family's child, aged 11 years, who was stabbed 20 times in the chest, back and left arm. No sexual abuse was found.

Police authorities arrested a 20-year-old Dutch hotel employee Cirino Schrijver, who allegedly has confessed that he is the perpetrator of the attack on the minor. He was the hotel's clown. On his back (shown) is a tattoo with the words, Vatos Locos. Vatos Locos (in English, Crazy Dudes) is a widely used name for a street gang. Source.

#5 ~ Clowns Kill Mexican Drug Lord

The authorities in Mexico have said gunmen dressed as clowns have shot dead a former leading member of a once-powerful and violent drug cartel. Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix, 63, was killed in a beach resort in Baja California in northwestern Mexico.

#6 ~ Obama Rodeo Clown Incident

In August, a clown wearing a mask intended to look like President Obama was part of a rodeo act at the Missouri State Fair. Fair officials apologized, calling the display inappropriate and disrespectful. Source.

#7 ~ Evil Clown Drummer Sentenced In Child Porn Case

Martin L. "Vlad" Evanick, evil clown drummer of the now-defunct St. Louis metal band Core of Your Nightmares, was sentenced to 19 years in federal prison on November 4th, for child pornography charges. Evanick, 31, pleaded guilty to the charge in July. Source.

#8 ~ Lincoln Clown Sightings Hoax

The Lincoln clown stunt that was widely circulated on social media networks in mid-November 2013 was a hoax.

A Facebook page called 'Lincoln Clown 2013' created on [November 18th] gathered more than 8,000 likes before it was deleted on [November 19th], shortly before 10pm.
The page reported so-called sightings of the clown in Lincoln, with several locations across Lincolnshire reporting similar encounters.
The Lincoln Clown 2013 Facebook page surpassed 8,000 likes in 24 hours before being removed.
Another similar page called 'Hykeham’s Clown' surfaced on [November 20th] and gathered some 2,000 likes before being removed.
The frenzy around people wearing scary clown masks and costumes at night was originally inspired by the Northampton clown, who was unmasked as a 22-year-old student following his street appearances earlier in the year. Source.

#9 ~ Denver's 9/11 Van of Clowns Wreck

As the Denver Post noted, "a U-turn, not clowning around, caused a crash involving a van full of clowns" in West York, Pennsylvania. The September 11, 2013 incident happened on that Wednesday evening, according to multiple media sources.

The van was going south on South Highland Avenue when its driver attempted a U-turn near a gate of the York Expo Center and collided with another van that was also heading south about 5:45 p.m., according to West York Police. Police said the driver, 83-year-old James Billingsley of York, also known as "Dimples the Clown," suffered a minor bump on the head. His passenger clown, 77-year-old Norman Clouser of York, was unhurt. Source.

#10 ~ Bad Santas Are Evil Clowns

Santa Claus sometimes is nothing more than an evil clown in a red suit. This year was no exception. Drunken Santas fought in the open in Union Square, and a weird Santa peeked in the windows of a school in New Hampshire. Bad Santas, very bad form Santas. Read more at "Santa Terror."

Similar Summaries

Thus ends the review of evil clowns for 2013, which happened in the recent 2012-2013 context of attacks by Leprechauns in the USA, Oompa Loompas in the UK, and Smurfs bashing a man in Australia.

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). This blog has noted other evil clown activity, including incidents and listings, such as a report for 2012, one for 2011, another grouping for 2009, and a top ten list for 2008.

Top Ten Evil Clown Stories of 2013 

© Loren Coleman 2013

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Coulrophobia Alert: Send In The Clowns

The Northampton Clown is not a phantom. He has been photographed.

Readers of this blog are well aware of our clown-radar being on high alert. Sometimes it has been about Jokers and Jokawilds, sometimes of Evil Clowns, and frequently concerning Phantom Clowns.

On 9/11, the clown news presented itself subtly.

As the Denver Post penned, "a U-turn, not clowning around, caused a crash involving a van full of clowns" in West York, Pennsylvania. The September 11, 2013 incident happened on that Wednesday evening, according to multiple media sources.

The van was going south on South Highland Avenue when its driver attempted a U-turn near a gate of the York Expo Center and collided with another van that was also heading south about 5:45 p.m., according to West York Police. Police said the driver, 83-year-old James Billingsley of York, also known as "Dimples the Clown," suffered a minor bump on the head. His passenger clown, 77-year-old Norman Clouser of York, was unhurt.

A photo from the scene of the clown van accident.

The van with the clowns in it was also pulling a trailer with a clown car on it.

Four clowns were in the van at the time, and one of them, the driver who goes by "Dimples the Clown," was taken to an area hospital for minor injuries.

Police say the clowns were going to the York Fair when the driver missed the entrance and attempted to turn around when the crash happened.

Police said "Dimples" was wearing clown shoes but the oversized footwear apparently didn't play a role in the crash.

West York Borough police Sgt. Brad Thomas said both vehicles had to be towed. He didn't know if the clowns ever made it to the fair.

A clown appearance much more sinister is another bit of news this week, out of the United Kingdom.

The sightings of a mystery clown may have been taking place for some time, but reports of them tied his initial appearance to Friday the 13th of September. In the British town of Northampton, the creepy clown, said The Herald & Post, was of a man with white face, red hair and sharply arched eyebrows. He appeared in two separate areas of Northampton.

(Northampton, btw, is the city of Dark Knight creator/magician/graphic novelist Alan Moore, as noted by RPJ.)

The Independent compared his appearance to that of Pennywise from Stephen King's film IT. Staring at people, he's been reported holding a clown teddybear and at other times, balloons.

One female resident of Northampton told the Inquisitr that the clown knocked on her door and offered to paint her window sills.

Have there been copycats? The Northampton Chronicle said that two "teens" dressed as clowns knocked on a resident's door and asked if they could paint her window sills—though they had no paint or brushes.

Over at Dangerous Minds, a comment maker has left this keen observation:

"655321
"I never read the novel, but reading the wiki I see that [Stephen King's] It shows up roughly every 27 years in Derry. The book was published 15 September, 1986. 27 years ago."

What's next?

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Horror Clown: The Face of Tomorrow?

WARNING: 

NOT FOR CHILDREN or

SUFFERERS OF COULROPHOBIA

You just knew it was going to happen. An ad would reflect the ghastly and shocking future we see right in front of us. Indeed, something wicked this way comes.

This is not your grandparents' kind of commercial. 

 

(Thanks to Doug Stone for bringing this disgusting video to my attention. 

I shall be boycotting Herbaria Tea.)

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