Ebola Scare At Logan on Ebola Discovery Anniversary

On Monday, October 13, 2015, at about 2:45 p.m, a Hazmat team boarded Emirates Flight 237 to tend to five sick passengers, all from Dubai. At least one individual was placed in a "protective suit" and removed from the plane.

The ill people had not traveled to West Africa, but recently to Mecca, before coming to the USA. The incident occurred at Boston's Logan Airport. Everyone on the East Coast usually just refers to the airport as "Logan."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there was no Ebola scare at Boston's Logan Airport on Monday after concerns were raised when five passengers with flu-like symptoms were removed from a flight that landed there.

"There was not an Ebola scare at Boston's Logan Airport," Shelly Diaz, a CDC spokeswoman, said.

Emergency crews in protective gear removed the passengers from Emirates flight 237 after it had arrived from Dubai on Monday.

When is an Ebola scare not an Ebola scare? Perhaps we just saw one happen at Logan?

A Special Day/A Special Name: October 13th

Why is this day unlike any other day?

As Nick DeLuca at BostInno pointed out, "According to an eerie TIME magazine article, the Ebola virus was first observed by the human eye on this day 38-years ago."

TIME began their article, "On Oct. 13, 1976, exactly 38 years ago Monday, Frederick A. Murphy, a CDC virologist and expert in photographing viruses peered into a microscope and saw what he describes today as a “dark beauty — [a] horror.”

Who?

Wikipedia says, "Reports conflict about who initially coined the name: either Karl Johnson of the American CDC team or Belgian researchers."

Richard Preston wrote in The Hot Zone (NY: Anchor Books/Random House, 1995), wrote on page 117, "Karl Johnson named it Ebola."

Peter Piot, at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp in 1976.

Michael Hoffman, "a longtime student of Twilight Language," recently wrote about the naming of the "Ebola virus":

The following is taken from an October 4 (2014) interview with the Flemish virologist Prof. Peter Piot, said to be the "discoverer," in 1976, of the "Ebola" virus. He is currently the director of the London School of Tropical Medicine.
In an interview with England’s Observer newspaper, Piot states that victims of the pathogen were first infected in "Yambuku and the area around it," in what had been the old Belgian Congo. (In 1976 it was called Zaire; today it is again named Congo).
He gives the following account of how the virus was named:
Observer newspaper: You were also the one who gave the virus its name. Why Ebola?
Peter Piot: "On that day our team sat together late into the night – we had also had a couple of drinks – discussing the question. We definitely didn't want to name the new pathogen 'Yambuku virus,' because that would have stigmatized the place forever. There was a map hanging on the wall and our American team leader suggested looking for the nearest river and giving the virus its name. It was the Ebola river. So by around three or four in the morning we had found a name. But the map was small and inexact. We only learned later that the nearest river was actually a different one. But Ebola is a nice name, isn't it?"
Piot and an anonymous "American team leader" supposedly named the virus after "the nearest river," Ebola, which, as it turns out, was not the nearest river. This river-naming explanation is repeated by the Establishment media without question.

....Piot's enigmatic statement that "Ebola is a nice name" is bizarre; almost a hint pointing to a clue. [For more on what this may be about, please read here.]

The French surname Piot is derived from a personal or physical characteristic of the initial bearer, from "pion" indicating "a pedestrian, that is, one who walks on foot."

The Hot Name For 2014

On July 16, 2014, I wrote "Hot Name Game of 2014: Logan." A mass killing, which occurred on July 14th, had the "coincidental" detail that one of the victims was a researcher of mass shootings. The place name where this event happened caught my synchromystic attention, for it was Logan, Utah. The multiple murders and suicide focussed my attention on the name Logan.

The incidents of the name "Logan" being spotted in violence situations this year have been intriguing.

On Friday, January 17, 2014, two students were wounded at 3:20 pm, during a shooting inside the Delaware Valley Charter High School, Logan, Pennsylvania. An 18-year-old female student was shot in the arm. The same bullet then entered a 17-year-old Tyler Lewis's shoulder.

On Sunday, May 25, 2014, at Princeton, Illinois, five-year-old Logan Jacobs died when he was left in a hot (84°) car.

On July 9, 2014, Ronald Haskell shot and killed six members of the Morman family of Stays in Spring, Texas. Haskell had previously lived and had domestic violence situations occur between himself and his then-wife (Melannie Kaye Lyon) in Logan, Utah (a Mormon community). Haskell lived in Logan, Utah, from July 2006 to November 2013, mostly with his then-wife.

In Chicago, Illinois, a driver struck a pedestrian walking in the Logan Square neighborhood, on July 16, 2014. 

On September 25, 2014, at the Vaughan Foods processing plant in Moore, about 10 miles south of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 30-year-old Alton Alexander Nolen beheaded Colleen Hufford, 54. Nolen's criminal record notes he had two felonies related to selling pot in Logan County, Oklahoma.

Looking Into Logan

In Gaelic the meaning of the name Logan is "from the hollow." In Scottish, the meaning is sometimes translated as "Finnian's servant."

I pinpointed Logan as a "power name" in my 1983 (updated in 2007) book, Mysterious America: The Ultimate Guide to the Nation's Weirdest Wonders, Strangest Spots, and Creepiest Creatures:

"Logan" is another one of those words. Rocking logan stones are a part of ancient megalithic research. My brother [Jerry Dale] and I interviewed the Lowe family about the big birds' attempted abduction of Marlon from their front yard, in Logan County, Illinois. Another Logan County, this one in Colorado, has had an unusually high number of cattle mutilations and one 1975 mystery helicopter report. Logan County, Colorado, also has had an 1897 airship account, as has Logan, Ohio. Loganville, Wisconsin, sits but a stone's throw from the woods around Baraboo, said to be haunted by ghost elephants. A lake monster supposedly made an 1835 appearance in Logansport, Indiana. Logan Peak, near Huntsville, Alabama, the location of UFO, Bigfoot and mystery explosion reports, is a short distance north of Hobbs [="devil's"] Island. Logan, Kansas, saw some unexplained bird deaths in 1978. Logan, Utah was frequented by UFOs during the late 1940s and early 1950s. A May 1, 1954, flash of light was followed by an explosion and huge crater in Logan, Utah. In the 1980s, women were disappearing from Boston's Logan Airport and thus ending this list unended. 

No surprises that Ebola and Logan have overlapped in 2014 on this special anniversary date. What's next? 

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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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Ninjas Attempt Kidnapping

It happened around 4:00 a.m., on Friday, September 19, 2014, in West Jordan. Ninjas attacked. This didn't occur in the Mideast. It took place in Utah.

On a quiet location near the corner of 9300 South and 4800 West, West Jordan, Utah, what seemed like the beginning of a home invasion was caught in progress by the home owner. But it quickly turned into something unexpected.

Two sister wives, apparently married to a polygamist, were disguised as ninjas. They were discovered trying to break into the home of a 15-year-old girl who was due to testify at their shared husband's rape trial. The women, armed with stun guns and knives, reportedly tried to abduct the teenager from her West Jordan home in Utah.

Everyone involved - the suspects and the home’s occupants - are all part of an extended family, reportedly. The two ninja women claim to both be married to an uncle of a child living at the home.

Hearing a sound, then silence, a male relative of the targeted girl said:

I went to the bottom of the stairs and saw a couple of ninjas coming down. They were all dark gray or black, and they had black rubber gloves on and masks. All I could see was their eyes. My adrenaline was pumping so bad. They grabbed for me and one of them covered my mouth, and the other grabbed my throat, but they were both pretty small so I threw them back and started shouting to get anybody awake that I could.

The two ninja-clad women, aged 18 and 22, allegedly assaulted the home's two adults, but the homeowner managed to subdue one attacker without using any weapon, then subdued the second woman, who had a stun gun, by using a samurai sword.

Is there a samurai/Ninja subculture in Utah that most of us are unaware of?

Police do not believe the women and the uncle belong to a polygamist church.

Law enforcement authorities are not releasing any names to protect the privacy of the teen rape victim. If a name game is being played, it remains hidden for now.

Sources: 1, 2, 3. (Thanks to Chris Woodyard for the initial news tip.)

The beginning of the 4800 West block, in West Jordan, Utah, 

where the incident occurred.

Some past Ninja episodes have been deadly and criminal.

In 2013:

A ninja in Sioux Falls, South Dakota who put a man in a chokehold and stole his backpack. Once police tracked him down, the ninja ran and was soon arrested, but not before busting up a cop's knee.
A ninja in Uniontown, Pennsylvania who stole a woman's cellphone as she was unloading groceries in her driveway.
A ninja in Vancouver, Washington who busted into a bar with an expandable baton and demanded money from the cash register. When the bartender told him it was empty, the ninja left.
A ninja in Houston who cut a hole in the top of a Walgreens, repelled down and stole a bunch of Hydrocodone. He remains at large.
A ninja in Santa Cruz, California who threatened his neighbor with Chinese throwing stars and nunchuks that he was "swinging wildly in the air."

Source for 2013 incidents.

Ninja robbers, South Florida, Sept. 2012.

Surveillance video at a convenience store in Dania Beach, Fla. on Friday, Sept. 7, 2012 allegedly shows one of two men who have been on a robbery spree in Ninja garb

CBS MIAMI

Ninjas crime wave, Pittsburgh, April 2011.

On the 1st of September 2008, in Johannesburg, Morné Harmse, an 18-year-old matric pupil (one who is in the final year of high school in South Africa) allegedly killed a fellow student with a sword. Harmse apparently had envisioned a widespread bloodbath in his school. A follower of the band Slipknot, he had on a Corey Taylor-styled clown mask, three swords, including a smallish Katana and a Sekizo Ninja sword, in his belt, and gloves. He beheaded one fellow student and injured three others. Source.

On the 11th of October 1991, five days before the Luby's Cafeteria massacre, there was a highly publicized "going postal" situation tied to the US Post Office in Ridgewood, New Jersey, which left 4 dead. The killer in that case, Joseph M. Harris, was arrested wearing a gas mask and bullet-proof vest, and also dressed in black military fatigues, black combat boots and a black silk Ninja-style hood, with a 9-millimeter Uzi handgun, a .22-caliber machine gun with silencer, a samurai sword, three hand grenades and some homemade bombs. Source.

Yom Kippur ninja murder case, West Los Angeles, Sept. 25, 1985.

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Utah's Burning Man Suicide: John Christopher Wallace Photos

Photographs of John Christopher "Chris" Wallace, the fire suicide victim of Element 11, have been shared by his family.

Chris Wallace and his wife.

A public fundraiser on Friday, July 18th is being held as a Gallery Show, from 6-8 pm at Mod-A-Go-Go, 242 E South Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah. This is being put on by Chris’ wife’s sister, to assist with post-death expenses. Also a donation fund has been established (here).
I earlier detailed the July 12, 2014 fire suicide of Wallace, which took place at the Burning Man-sanctioned event, Element 11 in Utah. Please refer to that posting for details and other images.

Details are still slowly emerging about other suicides that may have occurred at other Burning Man-aligned events.

The Burners' site mentions that,

This brings to mind two other very public Burner suicides, the body of Jermaine Barley that was found hanging (possibly for hours) at queer camp Comfort and Joy in 2007, and arsonist convicted felon/protestor Paul Addis jumping in front of a train in San Francisco in 2012....

In 2001, someone did deliberately run into a fire in Deep Playa, and died later of his burns in the Reno hospital. In 2005, Anthony Beninati from Los Angeles accidentally fell in the fire, and then sued BMOrg. He lost his appeal. 

Elsewhere at reddit, it was noted that a few years ago someone died by suicide by running into the burning temple at Transformus, the North Carolina burn. But details are lacking.

Sparky, the Element 11 effigy, based on 

Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. 

Photo: Fox13 News, Salt Lake City

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Hot Name Game of 2014: Logan

A mass killing, which happened on Monday, had the "coincidental" detail that one of the victims was a researcher of mass shootings.

The place name of where this event happened caught my synchromystic attention. There appears to be a none-too-subtle name game occurring currently.

Mass Killings in Logan

In a breaking news item for Monday, July 14, 2014, the target location was Logan, Utah.

The Deseret News reported:

A Logan man forced his way into an apartment shortly after midnight Monday, killing a former girlfriend and another man before breaking into an apartment of a second man and killing himself, police said.
Investigators say Jared Jay Tolman, a member of the Utah National Guard, was apparently jealous over two men who liked his ex-girlfriend.
Tolman, 23, of Logan, kicked in the door of an apartment at 636 E. 500 North and shot MacKenzie Madden, 19, and Johnathon Jacob Sadler, 25, multiple times with a rifle, police said. About 45 minutes later he broke into an apartment at 1693 N. 400 West, where he took his own life.
“Basically there were three boys all interested in the same girl,” said Logan Police Lt. Rod Peterson. "Mr. Tolman is one of the three men that is interested in MacKenzie, and I’m not sure he was particularly fond of whatever relationship Johnathon had with MacKenzie."

Tolman then went looking for another male friend of Madden's in another apartment, did not find that individual, and killed himself.

Tolman recently graduated from USU and was serving in the Utah Army National Guard. This was his initial enlistment. He was assigned to the 19th Special Forces Unit, General Support Battalion, said National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Stephen Fairbourn. Tolman had duties of laundry and equipment handler at the time of his death. Tolman was in the process of getting out of the National Guard, he said, but the paperwork had not been completed.
The weapon used in the killings was a personal one that Tolman owned and not a government or military issued weapon, according to police.

The Deseret News chillingly noted:

Madden was a student at Utah State University, working toward a bachelor's degree in both sociology and psychology with a minor in criminal justice and a certificate in law and society area studies, according to her LinkedIn page.
Logan police confirmed that Madden interned with the department during 2013 and compiled research on active shooter situations. She graduated from Hillcrest High School in 2011.

The scene at 1693 N. 400 West, Logan, Utah, where Jared Jay Tolman

shot himself early on the morning of Monday, July 14, 2014. 

Photo: Michelle Tessier.

Monday's Logan death of three follows other recent horrific Utah stories, including July 12th's "Wicker Man-Like Human Sacrifice: Element 11's Fire Suicide."

Even today, another Logan incident occurred. In Chicago, Illinois, a driver struck a pedestrian walking in the Logan Square neighborhood, in the 2700-block of North Hamlin Avenue, around 12:15 a.m., Wednesday, July 16, 2014. After a brief chase, police arrested the hit-and-run driver near West LeMoyne Street and North Monticello Avenue in the city's Humboldt Park neighborhood, about two miles from where the individual was hit. The victim was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries. He is expected to recover.

Another high profile story- with links to Logan - happened on July 9, 2014, when Ronald Haskell shot and killed most of a Morman family in Spring, Texas, including 39-year-old Stephen Robert Stay; his wife, 33-year-old Katie Stay; and their four children: Bryan, 13; Emily, 9; Rebecca, 7; and Zachary, 4. Haskell had previously lived and had domestic violence situations occur between himself and his then-wife (Melannie Kaye Lyon) in Logan, Utah (a Mormon community). Haskell lived in Logan, Utah, from July 2006 to November 2013, mostly with his then-wife.

The town of Logan (Utah) was founded in 1859 by Mormon settlers sent by Brigham Young to survey for the site of a fort near the banks of the Logan River. They named their new community Logan for Ephraim Logan, an early fur trapper in the area.

Logan has popped up earlier in 2014.

On Friday, January 17, 2014, two students were wounded at 3:20 pm, during a shooting inside the Delaware Valley Charter High School, 5201 Old York Road, Logan, Pennsylvania. An 18-year-old female student was shot in the arm. The same bullet then entered a 17-year-old Tyler Lewis's shoulder. Both victims were taken to Albert Einstein Medical Center and survived. The alleged shooter is Raisheem Rochwell.


On Sunday, May 25, 2014, at Princeton, Illinois, five-year-old Logan Jacobs died when he was left in a hot (84°) car.

The Name Game and Logan

In the 1970s, in Fortean Times, I first wrote an article about the "name game." I then extended my thoughts on this matter in my book Mysterious America (starting in 1983, through the revised edition of 2007), I highlighted in one chapter, the "Name Game," adding to the historically gathered examples.

I had first noted,

...devils' names and Fortean places. The fact that some areas had strange and weird vibrations or events connected to them gave Native Americans and later settlers enough evidence to actually label these locales after the Ruler of Hell. In America, the use of the name "devil" regarding certain geographical fixtures, therefore, gives some indication of a history of mystery surrounding these spots.

Needless to say, through my other books and this Twilight Language blog, the "name game" has been revisited often.

I've noticed, of late, that the name game is focussing on the moniker "Logan," and it is intensive, including mass shootings, especially for Utah.

In Gaelic the meaning of the name Logan is "from the hollow." In Scottish, the meaning is sometimes translated as "Finnian's servant."

I pinpointed Logan as a "power name" in my 1983-2007 book.

"Logan" is another one of those words. Rocking logan stones are a part of ancient megalithic research. My brother [Jerry Dale] and I interviewed the Lowe family about the big birds' attempted abduction of Marlon from their front yard, in Logan County, Illinois. Another Logan County, this one in Colorado, has had an unusually high number of cattle mutilations and one 1975 mystery helicopter report. Logan County, Colorado, also has had an 1897 airship account, as has Logan, Ohio. Loganville, Wisconsin, sits but a stone's throw from the woods around Baraboo, said to be haunted by ghost elephants. A lake monster supposedly made an 1835 appearance in Logansport, Indiana. Logan Peak, near Huntsville, Alabama, the location of UFO, Bigfoot and mystery explosion reports, is a short distance north of Hobbs [="devil's"] Island. Logan, Kansas, saw some unexplained bird deaths in 1978. Logan, Utah was frequented by UFOs during the late 1940s and early 1950s. A May 1, 1954, flash of light was followed by an explosion and huge crater in Logan, Utah. In the 1980s, women were disappearing from Boston's Logan Airport and thus ending this list unended. Mysterious America: The Ultimate Guide to the Nation's Weirdest Wonders, Strangest Spots, and Creepiest Creatures, 2007.

It was on St. John's Day, June 24, 1980, when locals had several Bigfoot sightings, in Logan and Union counties, Ohio. Logan County, Ohio was the site of a past school shooting, as well. Scott Moody, 18, just hours away from graduating from high school, fatally shot three family members (his grandparents and mother), two friends and himself on Sunday, May 29, 2005, in rural Bellefontaine, Ohio - Logan County.

Now in 2014, the Logan under a synchronicity microscope seems to be the Mormon community with that name in Utah.

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Wicker Man-Like Human Sacrifice: Element 11's Fire Suicide

Element 11 in Utah has had its first human sacrifice.

During an event that is similar, but the precursor to Burning Man, a man killed himself by jumping into a giant, three-story-tall effigy that had been burning for half an hour.

Above is a Saturday July 12, 2014, photo, showing the upper portion of a giant wooden effigy of a character from the classic children's book, Where the Wild Things Are. This was before it was burnt Saturday night, during the Element 11 festival.

The Element 11 event occurs in Grantsville, Utah, about 36 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, and is quite similar to Black Rock, Nevada's Burning Man festival. Both, in many ways, are modeled on the pagan Wicker Man ceremonies.

Salt Lake City resident Christopher Wallace, 30, was identified by police as the man who died after jumping into the burning giant effigy.

Update: The suicide victim's full name is apparently John Christopher Wallace, a copyeditor, living in Salt Lake City, Utah. Source.

See also: Utah's Burning Man Suicide: John Christopher Wallace Photos

Wallace is a Scottish surname derived from the Anglo-Norman French waleis, which is in turn derived from a cognate of the Old English wylisc, pronounced "wullish," meaning "foreigner" or "Welshman." It sometimes is translated as "stranger." 

The name Christopher is from the Late Greek name Χριστοφορος (Christophoros) meaning "bearing Christ," derived from Χριστος (Christos) combined with φερω (phero) "to bear, to carry". Early Christians used their own languages' forms of Christopher as a metaphorical name, expressing that they carried Christ in their hearts.

[One of the more infamous recent celebrities with the name "Christopher Wallace" is Christopher George Latore Wallace, born May 21, 1972, who was better known by his stage names The Notorious B.I.G., Biggie or Biggie Smalls. He was an American rapper, who was gunned down on March 9, 1997, at the corner of Wilshire Blvd & South Fairfax Avenue, 50 yards from the Petersen Auto Museum, Los Angeles, following a music awards after party there.]

Grantsville police Lt. Steve Barrett said Element 11's Christopher Wallace had told some of the estimated 1,200 attendees in advance about his plans to run into the fire. The three-story-tall effigy, modeled on a character from Where The Wild Things Are, had been burning for about 30 minutes and was fully engulfed when Wallace crossed a safety perimeter about 50 feet from the structure and jumped in, officials said.

"He was very fast; he was very motivated," J.P. Bernier, a spokesman for Element 11, told the Deseret News. "It wasn't an accident or any act of negligence on anybody's part. He had a very deliberate objective to get past our volunteers, past our safety perimeter."

Firefighters immediately tried to douse the flames, but were unable to save the man. Crews had measured the fire temperature at 2,000 degrees just prior to the apparent suicide, noted the Boston Globe.

Some outlets, like local Utah station Channel 2 and the Daily Mail, broadcast stills from a video showing Wallace breaking through the line and racing to his death in the effigy fire.

Element 11 is Utah's version of the famous Burning Man festival, which is held in Nevada every year. Only this festival takes place in the west desert at the Bonneville Seabase, in Tooele County, Utah. And reportedly, Element 11 existed before Burning Man. Burning Man has had its own deaths.

Burning Man, 2013

It will be recalled that conspiracy author Jim Keith, at the age of 50, died mysteriously, on September 7, 1999, during routine knee surgery at a Nevada hospital. He had been taken there after falling off the stage at the annual Burning Man pagan arts festival in the Black Rock Desert, about 120 north of his hometown of Reno. Cryptically, Keith stated, prior to his death, "I have this feeling that if they put me under I'm not coming back."

Human sacrifices and the Wicker Man are tied together in ancient history. Caesar reports that some of the Gauls built the effigies out of sticks and placed living men inside, then set them on fire to pay tribute to the gods. Caesar writes that though the Druids generally used those found guilty of crimes deserving death, as they pleased the gods more, they sometimes used slaves and innocent men when no delinquents could be found.

One medieval commentary, the 10th-century Commenta Bernensia, states that men were burned in a wooden mannequin in sacrifice to Taranis. Read more on the Wicker Man, here.

The non-profit art festival called Element 11 aims to ignite a culture of creativity and self-expression for its 1,200 participants. The artwork at the event is funded by previous years' ticket sales. Volunteers work on the art pieces for several months. During the festival they burn the artwork. Organizers say for some it signifies love, loss, letting go and moving on, reported Fox Salt Lake 13.

From the Element 11 website:

WHAT IS ELEMENT 11?
el·e·ment 11 (ˈeləmənt/) noun
1. The eleventh element on the periodic table, sodium. The sixth most abundant element on earth. An identifying characteristic of Utah, given the Bonneville Salt Flats and the Great Salt Lake.
2. A volunteer-based non-profit organization with the mission to ignite a culture of creativity & self-expression! We provide a canvas for our community to play, dance, evolve, create & ignite.
3. A sanctioned regional Burning Man festival event dedicated to the Ten Principles and ethos of Burning Man. The Element 11 Arts Festival (UT Regional Burn) is held the second weekend of July each year.
4. A community of radically self-expressive artists, creators, innovators, do-ers, & participants who see art in all forms, in all ways, and in all people.

Element 11, before the effigy burns.

Big Tex burns at the Texas State Fair, October 19, 2012.

Bohemian Grove occurs over the course of the entire month of July, just north of San Francisco in Monte Rio, Sonoma County. Lamp lighters in robes set fire to an effigy of the god Moloch (or is it effigies of children) in a ritual ceremony at Bohemian Grove.

Why has a similar human suicidal incident at Transformus, the North Carolina burn, been kept quiet for years?

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