Halloween VI, Texas Chainsaw Massacre IV and the Meaning of Horror Part II

Halloween VI, Texas Chainsaw Massacre IV and the Meaning of Horror Part II

Welcome to the second installment in my examination of the sixth Halloween film, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (also known as Halloween 666: The Origins of Michael Myers) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (also known as The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre). To my mind both of these films are related in two distinct ways: The era in which they were both released (the mid-1990s prior to the release of the first Scream) and their inclusion of a cultic plot line that references, whether intentionally or not, the theories of researchers such Ed Sanders, Maury Terry, David McGowan and Peter Levenda concerning an underground cult network with ties to several notorious serial killers, specifically Charles Manson and David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz.

Manson (top) and Berkowitz (bottom)

These connections were in discussed in depth in part one of this series, which ended with me breaking down the convoluted plot line of the various versions of Halloween 6. I left off at Tommy Doyle (Paul Rudd)'s rune of thorn/Samhain revelation that he delivers to Kara Strode (Marianne Hagan) as Michael Myers dispatches members of her family in the house next door, the Strode residency of the first Halloween film. Shortly thereafter Tommy leaves and returns with Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence), Michael's nemesis throughout the series. Realizing that Michael is next door, the group prepares to act but are interrupted by the mysterious Man in Black, who is already in the house.

At this point let us pause and consider the implications of the Man in Black figure in the Halloween franchise. He first appeared, along with the ill-explained rune of thorn, in the fifth Halloween film with equally little explanation. Of course, the Man in Black is such an archetypical figure to begin with that he really needs no real explanation. Humanity has lived with this figure for centuries. Demonology and fairy myths from the Middle Ages allude to trickster-like figures dressed in black. The Renaissance alchemist Johann Friedrich Schweitzer claimed to have been given a method of transforming base metals into gold by a mysterious figure clad in black.

"On December 27, 1666, when Johann Friedrich Schweitzer, called Helvetius, was working in his study at The Hague, a stranger attired all in black appeared and informed him that he would remove all Helvetius' doubts about the existence of the legendary philosopher's stone that could serve as the catalyst to change base metals into gold. The stranger immediately drew from his pocket a small ivory box containing three pieces of metal the color of brimstone and, for their size, extremely heavy. The man proclaimed that with those three bits of metal, he could make as much as twenty tons of gold.

"Helvetius examined the pieces of metal, taking opportunity of a moment's distraction to scrape off a small portion with his thumbnail. Returning the metal to his mysterious visitor, he asked that he perform the process of transmutation before him. The stranger answered firmly that he was not allowed to do so. It was enough that he had verified the existence of the metal to Helvetius. It was his purpose only to offer encouragement to alchemical experiments.

"After the man's departure, Helvetius procured a cubicle and a portion of lead into which, when the metal was in a molten state, he threw the stolen grain he had secretly scraped from the stranger's stone. The alchemist was disappointed when the grain evaporated and left the lead in its original state.

"Some weeks later, when he had almost forgotten the incident, Helvetius received another visit from the stranger. This time the man in black transmuted several ounces of lead into gold. Then he permitted Helvetius to repeat the process by himself, and the alchemist converted six ounces of lead into very pure gold.

"Later Helvetius demonstrated the power of the philosopher's stone in the presence of the Duke of Orange and many other prestigious witnesses. After repeated demands for such incredible demonstrations, Helvetius exhausted the small supply of catalytic pieces that he had received from the mysterious visitor. Search as he might, he could not find the man in all of north Holland or learn his name -- nor did the stranger ever again visit him."
(Conspiracies and Secret Societies, Brad & Sherry Steiger, pg. 7)

Johann Friedrich Schweitzer

But it was not until the modern era that the Men in Black became a full-blown cultural phenomenon, primarily due to their association with UFO sightings (specifically their aftermaths) of course.

"... Men in Black and in keeping somehow with their old fashion, fifties-style suits and cars. They are B-movie demons. They appear in the aftermath of a UFO sighting, often before it has even been reported, usually when the witness is 'by chance' alone. They wear white shirts with their smart black suit; they appear foreign or 'oriental'; they have dark skins and slanting eyes. They behave stiffly, formally, speaking without expression, like robots. Witnesses accept them as normal at first, as when we see a ghost but when they reflect on the men, they do not seem to have been quite human. The Men in Black sometimes wear uniforms, like Air Force officials. If they offer names or identification, these turn out to be false. They know details about the witness's life which they could not possibly know in the normal course of things. Like the bogus social workers, their visits are sinister -- they even issue threats and warnings -- but these things come to nothing. They are not, like other daimons, more real than life; they are merely life-like. They do not inspire horror or awe; they merely induce mild paranoia. They are, needless to say, never traced. They are unpleasant Tricksters who belong at the same imaginative level as second-rate science fiction."
(Daimonic Reality, Patrick Harpur, pg. 229)

The same could certainly be said of second rate horror as well. In the case of Halloween 6, the Man in Black turns out to be Dr. Terrance Wynn (Mitchell Ryan), which is quite a startling revelation on multiple levels. The character of Wynn first briefly appeared in the original Halloween movie where he shared a classic exchange with  Dr. Loomis (Wynn: "Now, for God sakes, he can't even drive a car!"; Loomis: "He was doing very well last night! Maybe someone around here gave him lessons!"). Wynn is a psychiatrist, who, by the time the sixth film rolls around, has become the head of Smith's Grove Sanitarium. Smith's Grove is the facility where Myers was housed after murdering his sister as a child until some 15 years later when he escapes, thus setting the plot line of the first Halloween movie in motion. The name of the sanitarium, Smith's Grove, is especially apt as sacred groves were hugely important in various branches of ancient European paganism.

"From an examination of the Teutonic word for 'temple' Grimm has made it probable that amongst the Germans the oldest sanctuaries were natural woods. However this may be, tree-worship is well attested for all the great European families of the Aryan stock. Amongst the Celts the oak-worship of the Druids is familiar to everyone, and their old word for a sanctuary seems to be identical in origin and meaning with the Latin nemus, a grove or woodland glade, which still survives in the name of Nemi. Sacred groves were common among the ancient Germans, and tree-worship is hardly extinct amongst their descendants at the present day...

"Proofs of the prevalence of tree-worship in ancient Greece and Italy are abundant. In the sanctuary of Aesculapius at Cos, for example, it was forbidden to cut down the cypress-trees under a penalty of a thousand drachms. But nowhere, perhaps, in the ancient world was this antique form of religion better preserved than in the heart of the great metropolis itself. In the Forum, the busy centre of Roman life, the sacred fig-tree of Romulus was worshipped down to the days of the empire, and the withering of its trunk was enough to spread consternation through the city. Again, on the slope of the Palatine Hill grew a cornel-tree which was esteemed one of the most sacred objects in Rome. Whenever the tree appeared to a passerby to be drooping, he set up a hue and cry which was echoed by the people in the street, and soon a crowd might be seen running helter-skelter from all sides with buckets of water, as if (says Plutarch) they were hastening to put out a fire."

(The Golden Bough, James Frazer, pgs. 82-83) 

Halloween 6 reveals that Wynn is both the head of a cult primarily comprised of staff members from Smith's Grove Sanitarium as well as residents of the fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois, where virtually the entire Halloween franchise takes place. Undoubtedly the eyebrows of veteran conspiracy researchers will be raised as several leading psychiatrists, most notably Dr. Ewen Cameron, have been closely linked to the US intelligence community's various ventures into the world of mind control.

"... the psychiatrist [Cameron -Recluse] soon became the architect of the CIA's notorious Montréal-based mine-control project at the Mount Royal clinic in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a project whose goal was discover a means of countering the effects of Russian and Chinese brainwashing and to develop an American version for use as an offensive weapon. The experiments were nearly the equal of anything the Nazis themselves had come up with under the aegis of the all-powerful Ahnenerbe-SS and were, indeed, based at least partly on the results of those concentration camp experiments, the records of which had been classified by American intelligence, becoming part of CIA and Pentagon files shortly after the Nuremberg Tribunals. As CIA investigator John Marks points out, the records of Ahnenerbe-SS experimenters Dr. Kurt Plotner and Walter Neff regarding mescaline and hypnosis research at Dachau were sent back to the States and never revealed. Thus, the files of Nazi brainwashing, interrogation, and mind control experiments using drugs, hypnosis and torture -- techniques associated today with the worst of America's religious cults and secret societies -- are still classified if indeed they survived at all the famous shredding of MK/ULTRA documents ordered by Richard Helms in the 1970s."
(Unholy Alliance, Peter Levenda, pgs. 273-274)

Cameron

Cameron performed his experiments in an asylum, as did numerous other psychiatrists working in tandem with the CIA. The military and prison system also provided test subjects. Later researchers such as David McGowan, noting that many serial killers have a background in at least one of the three above-mentioned institutions, have speculated that some of the high profile ones may have been "programmed" by psychiatrists working at these facilities.

The origins of these "techniques" in Nazi Germany is also compelling in relation to Halloween 6, specifically the use of the rune of thorn by Wynn's cult as its symbol. The thorn rune was apparently highly important in the system of Karl Maria Wiligut, who would play a key role in developing the rituals of the SS as well as their concept of runes.

"The clearest, most authentic and perhaps most meaningful part of the Wiligut-tradition which has survived to us intact is his 'Runic key.' This key, which is indeed a different model for one used by Guido von List, is expounded in his contributions to Hagal and appears to be the part of his teaching which most deeply affected students. When Mund interviewed Richard Anders decades after Wiligut's death, Anders simply stated 'This is everything I learned from Wiligut' and gave the following equation:..."

(The Secret King, pg. 62, Stephen E. Flowers & Michael Moynihan)

Wiligut

Unfortunately I was not able to find an image of this equation but it is essentially the algiz rune (which stood for man exoterically in Wiligut's system) plus the thorn rune equaling a combination of the two runes with the triangular shape of the thorn rune appearing on the side of the algiz rune. Esoterically the algiz rune stood for spirit while the thorn rune represented matter. Thus, a combination of the two runes represented spirit crucified in matter.

the algiz (top) and thorn (bottom) runes

For these reasons it is quite striking that the head of the thorn cult is also the head psychiatrist of the sanitarium in which Michael Myers spent much of his youth. According to Halloween 6 screenwriter Daniel Farrands this was but one aspect of the more elaborate mythology he had originally planned for this particular Halloween film and potential sequels. In an interview with the website Fright he states:

"My idea was always to end the movie with this incredible battle for Michael Myers' soul between the good doctor and the evil doctor and that was really what it was building to in the script. I had written the part of Dr. Wynn with the idea of casting a serious equal for Donald. I never thought anyone would get the reference to the original...  But I think it's great that the die-hard fans knew right away that it was supposed to be the same Doctor Wynn from the original movie. And I went back to that line where he says to Donald Pleasence, 'He didn't know how to drive a car.' And Loomis says, 'Maybe someone around here gave him lessons.' And I thought, let's literally go with that. Wynn (and his staff) really did give him lessons! (laughs) And there was even a reference to that line in the finale of my original script where Wynn is sort of explaining to Loomis what's basically been going on under his nose all these years. And he says, 'We even taught him how to drive a car.' I never imagined this secret society to be anything like the Temple Of Doom version they shot. (laughs) I imagined it to be much more relatable, like the Satanists in 'Rosemary's Baby'. The scary part of it is they could be the nurse, the guy working at the bus station, or the old lady across the street. And I thought that was a very scary idea."

Daniel Farrands

As it stands, the end of Halloween 6 is both rather conventional and confusing. After the film scored poorly with test audiences frantic re-shoots were ordered with little time and even less money. What's more, star Donald Pleasance had recently passed away.

Essentially the film ends with an extended chase through Smith's Grove Sanitarium after Michael turns on the thorn cult for no apparent reason, dispatching of Wynn in the process. Tommy appears to fatally smote Michael by bashing his head in with a fire extinguisher. Afterwards Tommy, Kara, her son Danny, and Jamie's baby pack into a car outside the sanitarium and ask Loomis to flee with them. The good doctor informs them that he has unfinished business with Michael and proceeds to head back into the hospital. The film ends with a shot of Michael's abandoned mask, stained with green blood, while Loomis screams in the background against the sound of a slashing kitchen knife.

Loomis

The original ending, now available only on the so-called "Producer's Cut" version, involved some kind of bizarre occult ritual in which Loomis effectively became Michael's handler. In a conversation with Halloweenmovies.com Farrands noted:

"Finally they went with the 'power of the runes' ending (which I jokingly refer to as 'Tommy’s magic acorns'), the version that wound up in the Producer’s Cut. Personally, I thought the whole thing was (and looked) rather silly – especially considering that they didn’t even spring for a special effect (how about a ring of white light that consumed Conal Cochran in H3?). I didn’t mind having Loomis take on the 'curse' … the implication that he would now become Michael’s protector rather than his destroyer was a great twist and, had Donald lived a while longer, I think that idea would have made a really interesting chapter in the series." 

Unfortunately Recluse has not seen the Producer's Cut so he cannot comment on this particular sequence. And without being able to comment on the Producer's Cut I shall be wrapping things up. As we have seen throughout the first two installments of the series, Halloween 6 possesses an incredible series of synchronicities that echo Nazi occultism; various Men in Black mythos; the CIA's experiments with brainwashing, mind control, and "enhanced interrogation techniques"; and those long-standing rumors of an underground cult network that has had involvement with several of the nation's most notorious serial killers. Many of the same synchs appear in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, which I shall finally address in the next installment of this series. Stay tuned.

Friday, April 5, 2013

The Beast Strikes Back

As I'm sure many of you are aware by now Mike McLelland, the district attorney of Kaufman County, Texas, was assassinated (along with his wife) at his home in Kaufman on March 30. McLelland's assassination occurred almost two months to the day when Mark Hasse, an assistant district attorney also of Kaufman County, was assassinated in the same town on the courthouse steps. MSNBC reports:

"District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were gunned down at their home outside Dallas on Saturday two months after another prosecutor there was shot to death. 

"A white supremacist group has been thought to be planning retaliation after indictments in a racketeering case, and the state has recently warned about Mexican drug cartels. 

"But authorities have not said the killings of the two prosecutors are linked and have not announced any leads in the McLellands’ deaths...

"McLelland had vowed to catch the killer of the other prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse, who was gunned down near the county courthouse on his way to work Jan. 31...

"On the day Hasse was killed, the Justice Department announced that the Kaufman County DA’s office was among investigative bodies involved in a racketeering case against the white supremacist group Aryan Brotherhood of Texas.

"The hate group was suspected of 'actively planning retaliation' against police and prosecutors who helped gain indictments in Houston against dozens of its members, the Dallas Morning News reported in February.

"Rep. Ted Poe, a Republican and former Texas prosecutor, told CNN that his suspicions in the McLelland killing centered on the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacy group, but he did not say where he was getting his information."

Mike and Cynthia McLelland (top) and Mark Hasse (bottom)

The possible involvement of the Aryan Brotherhood (also known as the Brand) in these assassinations is most curious on several levels. Of course the AB is one of the most notorious neo-Nazi outfits in the United States, and for good reason: Their proficiency at killing is legendary. The LA Weekly notes:

"The AB are the most lethal killers this country has produced outside of Delta Force. They are one of the 'Big Four' of prison-born gangs in the U.S. — all of which first formed in California. Over the years they have perfected a sort of asymmetrical warfare in dealing with prison authorities. Their fearsome propensity for violence — not merely at the drop of the watch cap but before the cap even hits the ground — has made them legends within the penal system. In a 1992 study from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Brotherhood constituted less than one-tenth of a percent of the inmate population in the federal system — yet they were responsible for 18 percent of all its homicides. In 1999, an FBI agent said under oath that the figure was closer to 25 percent."

Over the years the Brand has gotten its tentacles into a slew of other criminal enterprises beyond murder. ABC News states:

"But there is little profit in a race war, and federal prosecutors allege the Brotherhood now operates more like an organized crime group. Prosecutors say the Brotherhood's priorities are making money, exacting revenge, terrorizing the uncooperative and maintaining thriving criminal enterprises inside and outside of prison.  

"'They have developed over time sophisticated operations with organized crime techniques that are on par with any of the best of the organized crime units that the government is trying to tackle outside the prison walls,' said professor Jody Armour of the University of Southern California Law School."

The Brotherhood has murky origins, but all sources agree that it had its beginning somewhere in the California prison system.

"Spawned by California's prison system in the early 1960s, this violent gang was to white convicts what groups like the Mexican Mafia and Black Guerrilla Family were two Hispanic and black inmates: a combination of armed self-defense, racial pride, and an opportunity to continue criminal activities inside 'the joint.' Early initiates were required to kill a black as the price of admission, and resignations were unheard of, hence the group's motto: 'Kill to get in. Die to get out.' The blood initiation was reportedly discarded around 1967, when eager recruits began to outnumber prospective targets. 

"Today, the Aryan Brotherhood has spread from coast to coast, dealing in drugs, weapons, and contract murders on both sides of prison walls. One of the first politically conscious criminal syndicates, the brotherhood remains virulently racist and anti-Semitic, frequently participating in prison racial violence. Hard-core racist groups like the Idaho-based Aryan Nations and the Ku Klux Klan actively recruit from the brotherhood to fill out their slim ranks, and the gang has also displayed a strong affinity for satanic causes. Display of a '666' tattoo apparently began with members of the brotherhood in California's Folsom Prison, and the numerals -- arranged in a pyramid configuration or within the leaves of a stylized shamrock -- are now widely recognized as the gang's 'official' brand."
(Raising Hell, Michael Newton, pg. 20)

one logo of the Brotherhood

The Brotherhood even forged a brief alliance with the Manson Family in the early 1970s.

"Manson's original link with the Aryan Brotherhood was thirty-three--year-old Kenneth Como, a.k.a. 'Jesse James,' who finessed the tentative union of fascists and family. Setting a pattern for the future, Manson called Como as a defense witness in his upcoming trial for the murders of Gary Hinman and Shorty Shea. Como was ignorant of the case, but it scarcely matter, since he was never really meant to take the stand. In July 1971, as planned, Como escape from the L.A. Hall of Records and promptly disappeared into the Manson maze.

"He surfaced again on August 21, leading five Mansonites into a Los Angeles gun shop, where the gang held staff and customers at gunpoint, preparing to flee with a cache of 143 stolen rifles. Silent alarms brought police to the scene, and a ten-minute shootout erupted, climaxed by the capture of five would-be robbers. Arrested with Como were: Mary Brunner, 27 (Manson's first recruit from 1967); Katherine Share, 29; Dennis Rice, 32; and Lawrence Bailey, 23. Another Mansonoid, nineteen-year-old Charles Lovett, escaped in the confusion of the firefight, but was later taken by police. According to authorities, the gang had also robbed a local beer distributor on August 16, making off with $2600 in cash. Their master plan involved a courthouse raid to liberate Charles Manson -- then appearing as a witness in the murder trial of disciples Steve Grogan -- followed by an airline hijack scheme to take them who-knows-where.

"On October 21, 1971, Como escape from custody once more, sawing through bars on the window of his thirteenth-floor cell, descending five stories on a rope of bedsheets and crashing into the very court room were Manson and friends were tried for the Tate-LaBianca massacre. Fleeing to the street, he was met by Mansonite Sandy Good, but she crashed their getaway van and was caught at the scene. Como remained at large for seven hours before he was bagged and return to maximum security."
(ibid, pgs. 21-22)

Aryan Brotherhood member and former Manson associate Kenneth Como

Even more bizarre was the incident involving Masonites Brenda McCann (a.k.a. Nancy Pitman) and Priscilla Cooper and two members of the Brotherhood.

"Family members were still involved in murder and attempted murder. Brenda McCann, aka Nancy Pitman, was arrested on November 11, 1972 in Stockton, California. Brenda had been Bruce Davis' girlfriend, with whom she had been on the lam in the Los Angeles sewers for months before they turned themselves and during December 1970. This time, she was found in a house which contained a body buried in the basement, that of Lauren Willett, who had been shot in the head. Along with McCann were two members of the Aryan Brotherhood, as well as another woman named Priscilla Cooper. Both women had X's carved into their foreheads, identifying them as Manson Family members. What alerted police to the house was the fact that a car parked outside belonged to a man who had been murdered a few days earlier in Northern California. James T. Willett was a former Marine, and had been found in his Marine uniform: killed with a shotgun and decapitated. As the police were busy arresting the four people in the house -- which contained a small arsenal of weapons -- Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme called and asked to be picked up, evidently in the slain Mr. Willett's car. The police were only too happy to oblige.

"The motive for the murders remains unknown to this day. It is known that the Willetts had been associates of the Family for some time, at least a year if not longer according to Bugliosi. Bugliosi also wondered if James and Lauren Willett were the same James and Lauren who had driven Ronald Hughes to his campsite; if so, their deaths would be in accord with the Family's tradition of murder-as-cover-up. Bugliosi was unable to find the orginal James and Lauren, who had long since moved from their last known address. Eventually, the two men from the Aryan Brotherhood confessed to the crimes and were sentenced as were Nancy Pitman and Priscilla Cooper. There was nothing to hold Lynette Fromme., so she was set free."
(Sinister Forces Book II, Peter Levenda, pg. 121)

The Ronald Hughes mentioned above was Family member Leslie Van Houten's trial attorney. During a weekend beginning on November 27, 1970 he disappeared after allegedly being taken to a campsite at Sespe Hot Springs, roughly a two hour drive from Los Angeles. Supposedly Hughes had been planning to call Van Houten to the witness stand with the intention of crucifying Manson. The Willetts disposing of Hughes and then the Aryan Brotherhood disposing of the Willetts certainly would have been convenient for Charlie at that point in time.

Attorney Ronald Hughes (top) and former Masonite Leslie Van Houten (bottom)

Alas, Charlie's relationship with the Aryan brotherhood eventually deteriorated. Apparently the Brotherhood found him to be too "liberal."

"Meanwhile, Manson's problems with the Aryan Brotherhood began to move towards violence. Oddly enough, it appears that part of his hassle with the A.B. was due to him not taking a hard-line position within the anti-Black Aryan movement. Manson was on the left wing of the Nazi movement -- that is, he was not violent enough. Kenneth Como was thus able to woo key women in the group, including Mary Brunner, Gypsy and Brenda. As Squeaky wrote in a letter of June 1973: 'A.B. moves much more on pure hate, as they want him [Manson] to kill black because black is black. He will not do this and they are against him.'

"Around the summer of 1973, someone slipped Manson some rat poison in a glass of Tang. Manson chugged it down but was able later to note humorously in a letter that rat poison does not really affect him very much, although it did give him a 'new experience.' There was another report that Manson had beaten up Kenneth Como in the yard at Folsom. The A.B.ers had laughed at him, and Como vowed to off M."
(The Family, Ed Sanders, pg. 480)

the 'liberal' Charles Manson

Obviously Como never managed this feat as Charlie is still with us, but he did marry Masonite Catherine "Gypsy" Share for a time.

Como unwinding with Mary Brunner, another Masonite he formed a close relationship with

The other highly curious aspect of the McLelland assassination is its parallels to the recent assassination of Colorado Department of Corrections head Tom Clements. Clements was gunned down at his house in Monument, Colorado (just outside of Colorado Springs) by Evan Ebel, a suspected member of a white supremacist prison gang known as the 211 Crew on March 19. Ebel was dressed as a pizza delivery boy when he assassinated Clements, and is believed to have acquired the uniform by murdering a Domino's employee on March 17. Ebel was killed shortly thereafter in West County, Texas after a high-speed chase with local authorities.

Clements (top) and Ebel (bottom)

Since that time more details have come out about Ebel, such as some of the items found in his car. MSNBC reports:

"An evidence recovery log in the Clements investigation showed Tuesday that Texas authorities found bomb-making materials, a mask, duct tape and surveillance cameras in the car he was driving when he was killed last week."

What's more, Ebel was killed only roughly 100 miles northwest of Kaufman County. This has led even the mainstream media toward speculation that the two assassinations are related. Slate recently published a compelling rundown of this possibility, noting:

"In November, the FBI came down hard on the Aryan Brotherhood, indicting 34 alleged members on racketeering charges. One month later, Texas state officials announced that the Aryan Brotherhood was 'actively planning retaliation against law enforcement officials.' One month after that, Kaufman County, Texas assistant district attorney Mark Hasse was shot and killed while going to work. (The Kaufman County district attorney’s office was part of the multi-agency task force involved in the crackdown.) On Saturday, Hasse’s boss, Mike McLelland, was shot to death at his house. His wife Cynthia was also shot and killed. There have been no suspects named in the Texas murders. 

"Evan Ebel, the main suspect in the recent murder of Colorado Department of Corrections chief Tom Clements, was not a member of the Aryan Brotherhood. But he allegedly belonged to another white-power prison gang called the 211 Crew. Last week, the Denver Post published a two-part series on that group; in it, a source in the Colorado prison system speculated that 'one possible motive for the Clements murder was the shuffling weeks earlier of top 211 Crew members' from one prison to another. (Moving gang leaders around from prison to prison is one of the only effective weapons that prison officials have against these gangs.) 

"It seems highly plausible that all of these killings were retaliatory. But were the Texas and Colorado murders coordinated and linked? The timing of these killings—and the fact that Ebel died in a police shootout in Texas, not far from Kaufman County—certainly makes it a valid question. Prison gangs do communicate with one another, but it takes a lot of planning to coordinate a multi-state law enforcement murder spree, and most gangs would see little upside in such a plot. But, then again, these aren’t most gangs."

Another Aryan Brotherhood logo (top) and one for the 211 Crew (bottom)

The possibility that the assassinations are linked was given a further boost on April 4 when the New York Times reported that Ebel was being investigated in the slaying of a Kaufman County prosecutor that occurred in January. Specifically, the article stated:

"The authorities in Texas said they were looking into the possibility that the suspect, Evan S. Ebel, might also have been involved in the fatal shooting of a Kaufman County prosecutor in January. Reports linked Mr. Ebel, who according to prison records had a swastika tattoo on his abdomen and 'White Pride' inked on his arms, to the 211 Crew, a white supremacist gang that has about 1,000 members in Colorado’s prisons."
presumably

Presumably the prosecutor whose death Mr. Ebel is being investigated for is Mark Hasse.

Beyond the circumstantial links there are also several striking instances of twilight language in both assassinations. Nathan Leon, the pizza delivery driver who was Ebel's first victim, was killed on March 17: St. Patrick's Day. Christopher Knowles has compellingly argued that St. Patrick's Day has its origins in the ancient Mystery traditions and is a highly significant occult holiday. The number 17 itself also has much esoteric significance, as I've written of before here.

The killings of the two district attorneys, McLelland and Hasse, both occurred in Kaufman, Texas. Kaufman is located along the 32nd parallel north. Ebel was killed near a town known as Decatur, Texas, which is located directly along the 33rd parallel north. As I'm sure many of my readers are well aware, the 33rd parallel north plays a significant role in James Shelby Downard and Michael A. Hoffman's theories of the "three goals of fabled alchemy." Of them, Hoffman writes:

"Fabled alchemy had at least three goals to accomplish before the total decay of matter, the total breakdown we are witnessing all around us today, was fulfilled. These are:

The Creation and Destruction of Primordial Matter

The Killing of the Divine King

The Bringing of Prima Materia to Prima Terra

"...The Creation and Destruction of Primordial Matter was accomplished at the White Head ('Ancient of Days'), at White Sands, New Mexico, at the Trinity Site. The Trinity Site itself is located at the beginning of an ancient western road known in old Mexico as the Jornada del muerto (the Journey of Death)..."
(Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare, pg. 80) 

He further elaborates a few pages later, noting:

"Other occult rituals for the Creation and Destruction of Primordial Matter were played out in the general area of the 33rd degree of north parallel in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, near the Trinity Site.  

"There are 33 segments in the human spinal column which according to occult lore is the vehicle of the fiery ascent of the Kundalini serpent force which resides in the human body. 33 is the highest degree of Scottish Rite Freemasonry. Near the Trinity Site a derelict shack was symbolically dubbed 'McDonald House.' The Creation and Destruction of Primordial Matter occurred exactly on the Trinity Site, the 'Place of Fire,' with the explosion of the first atomic bomb, culminating untold thousands of years of alchemical speculation and practice.

"The Killing of the King rite was accomplished at another Trinity site located approximately ten miles south of the 33rd degree of north parallel latitude between the Trinity River and the Triple Underpass at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Dealey Plaza was the site of the first masonic temple in Dallas. In this spot, which had been known as 'Bloody Elm Street,' the world leader who had become known as the 'King of Camelot,' President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was shot to death."
(ibid, pg. 83) 

More information on this arcane topic as well the significance of the 33rd parallel north can be found in the legendary King Kill 33 essay by Downard and Hoffman, which can be read here.

Tom Clements was assassinated on March 19 while Mike McLelland's occurred on the 30th, making the two murders 11 days part. The number 11 has much occult significance, having been called "the great magical number" (Gematria, pg. 43) by Crowley. Chevalier and Gheerbrant's Dictionary of Symbols says of it:

"Ten symbolizes a complete cycle and by adding to its fullness, eleven is the sign of excess, extravagance and exaggeration, in whatever category you like, promiscuity, violence, biased judgement. The number heralds potential conflict. Its ambivalence resides in the fact that the excess which it signifies may either mark the beginning of a renewal or the collapse and breakdown of the number ten, a fault in the universe. It is this later sense that made St. Augustine say that 'the number eleven is the blazon of sin.' Its disturbing activities may be compared with the unbalancing and overenlargement of one of the pillars of this universe (the number ten), a definition of disorder, disease and sin. 

"Generally speaking, the number is that of 'individual initiative, but of an initiative exercised without relation to cosmic harmony, and therefore more often than not of a malign character.' Eleven is, therefore, the symbol of internal conflict, 'of discord, rebellion, aberration, law-breaking... human sin... and of the revolt of the angels...'"
(pg. 349)

Eleven is also significant in Karl Maria Wiligut's brand of Nazi mysticism, which Himmler apparently incorporated heavily into the rituals of the SS. Edda Society Grand Master and Hagal editor Werner von Bulow had the following to say of its place in said system:

"In number-symbolism, which is an essential component in the Germanic tradition, the number 11 (ein-lif, Anglo-Saxon andleofan) means Life and the Spirit through the power of the spark of Got, but in a creation which is stretched and divided into polar opposites (2 is the total of the digits of 11). The primal laws of creation are, however, expressed... --in the nine basic numbers: 1-9. So if one wishes to find the lost unity once more, one may not stop at 11, but rather one has to refer back to the nine basic numbers."
(The Secret King, pg. 120)

Karl Maria Wiligut

The number nine was crucial in the system of Karl Maria Wiligut for Got (the Abraxas-like deity at the center of Wiligut's very Gnostic-esque "Irmin-faith") supposedly gave nine commandments. Eventually both the numbers of nine and eleven became highly significant in Nazi mysticism.

"And so it was the day of the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, a day that Hitler commemorated forever after with speeches and festivities, and sanctified with the creation of the Blood Order: a society of those men who marched with him on that fateful day, and symbolized by the Nazi flag that they carried and with which all other Nazi flags were 'blessed' by being touched with it in impressive ceremonials presided over by Hitler himself. It was the day of a failed assassination attempt in 1939 on Hitler's life at a meeting commemorating the Putsch... And it was also the day of Kristallnacht, when roving Nazi gangs went on a rampage in 1938, smashing shop windows and destroying Jewish homes, businesses, and temples. If anyone in Hitler's Germany believed in numerology, they would have spent considerable time in analyzing this most pregnant of dates for the Third Reich."
(Unholy Alliance, Peter Levenda, pg. 142)

Hitler with the so-called "blood flag" of the failed Beer Hall Putsch

Nine also appears in the chronologically of recent events: Ebel was killed on March 21, nine days before the assassination of McLelland.

Finally, there's the strange instance of at least one German shepherd being killed in what has been described as a ritualistic manner in Idaho. The Idaho Statesman reports:

"A Twin Falls Animal Shelter board member has compiled a list of 34 dogs that have reportedly gone missing in the Magic Valley area since Feb. 1, some from fenced home yards and locked areas... 

"It's unknown if the increase in missing dogs is connected with the recent killing of a German shepherd. The dog's body was found on March 12 in Devil's Corral near Twin Falls. The dog's head had been obliterated, apparently bashed in with a block of concrete nearby. The dog's body was covered in a purple sheet, and some have speculated that it may have been an occult or ritualistic killing of some sort."

the unfortunate German shepherd

In other words the dogs would have started going missing around the time of Mark Hasse's assassination and the German shepherd (based upon the condition of the body in the photo) was probably killed about ten days to a week before Nathan Leon's death at the hands of Evan Ebel on March 17.

I bring up these events in Idaho in connection with the justice official assassinations because reports of missing canines and sacrifices (especially those German shepherds) have become closely associated with theories concerning some type of nationwide cult network involved in various criminal activities (including drug trafficking, child prostitution, and contract killings) as well as with several notorious serial killers such as Manson and David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz. I've already written much more on this topic and its significance to the Clements assassination and the recent German shepherd sacrifice here, but I shall briefly recap:

Such a possibility was first floated by Ed Sanders in The Family but it was not until Maury Terry released the highly controversial The Ultimate Evil in 1988 that such theories became a staple of conspiracy culture. The premise of Terry's magnum opus essentially was that Berkowitz had been a member of a cult which had orchestrated the "Son of Sam" killings in New York and that this cult was a chapter in a nationwide organization that had also produced other cult killers such as Manson. Reportedly the sacrifice of German shepherds was a crucial feature of this cult and became a kind of calling card of years.

"For some reason, there have been reports of sacrifices of large numbers of dogs, mostly German shepherds, throughout the United States in the past thirty-odd years, but notably in areas where we discover confirmed cult activity. This was as true in Berkowitz's Yonkers neighborhood as it was in Walden, New York, where a 'total of eighty-five skinned German shepherds and Dobermans were found' in a single year 'between October 1976 and October 1977.' The day after Berkowitz's arrest in Yonkers, the bodies of three slain German shepherds were found in an aqueduct behind his apartment. Two have been strangled with chains; the third had been shot in the head.

"Two days before his arrest, someone phoned an animal shelter using his name and address, inquiring about adopting a German shepherd that had been advertised in a local paper. A few hours later, someone else called from the same street in Yonkers, also inquiring about the dog. This caller said he was ' fixing some cars' on Pine Street; an allusion that Terry believes actually refers to the Carr family who figure so prominently in this case. As it turned out, two men did visit the shelter, including one who resembled Berkowitz, but according to Berkowitz himself it was not he, although he acknowledges that someone may have been impersonating him on the phone...

"Remember that serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer's first kill was the ritual slaughter of a dog behind his home in Ohio, which cumulated in his placing the dog skull atop a stake hammered into the earth; and, around the time of the Sam killings, the author heard convincing rumors of the abuse and slaughter of dogs in a warehouse near Brooklyn Heights, within walking distance of the Warlock Shop, before Berkowitz was arrested and the connection with dogs was made.

"Terry connects the German Shepherd sacrifices with the Process, due to their fondness for the animals. Members of the Process and those halcyon days of the 1960s were to be seen around San Francisco dressed in black and leading shepherds on the leash. The 'Fear' issue of the Process magazine featured a photo spread of twenty German shepherds in a menacing pose. It doesn't automatically follow, however, that the Process would sacrifice the animals.

"Another symbolic associations that should be mentioned is the fact that Hitler favored German shepherds above all other animals. That there might be a Nazi or neo-Nazi element to the Son of Sam cult should not be ignored, especially as mass murderer Fred Cowan -- one of the 'Sons' according to Berkowitz --was a neo-Nazi."
(Sinister Forces Book III, Peter Levenda, pgs. 197-198)

David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz

Indeed the Nazi aspect of these theories is one of the most compelling and least explored despite the fact that such a connection seems highly probable. Manson had a direct tie to the Aryan Brotherhood (who seem to be heavily involved in these latest incidents), as noted above, while the Son of Sam cult featured white supremacist and mass murderer Fred Cowan.

"A 250-pound bodybuilder who dropped out of college in his freshman year, Fred Cowan was subsequently discharged from the army after two courts-martial for going AWOL and leaving the scene of an auto accident. Back home in New Rochelle, New York, he found menial employment with the Neptune Worldwide Moving Company, devoting his free time to the study of Nazi history and philosophy...

"Big Fred's attitude caused problems on the job, where supervisor Norman Bing -- a Jew -- was not inclined to stand for insubordination from a neo-Nazi thug. In early February 1977, Cowan drew two weeks' suspension for refusing to move a refrigerator, and he spent his time off brooding over the injustices of life, as dominated by the Jewish world conspiracy.

"His first day back at work, February 14, Cowan showed up at 7:45 A.M., lugging a fifty-pound arsenal of weapons. Bing saw him coming and slipped under a desk to hide, while Cowan unloaded his hardware. Deprived of his primary target, Fred open fired on minority coworkers, killing three blacks and an Indian immigrant before police arrived.  Cutting loose on the squad cars, he killed one patrolman and wounded five more victims -- one of whom would die months later -- before his rampage ran out of steam.

"With SWAT officers surrounding the Neptune warehouse, Cowan phoned police headquarters at 12:13 P.M., ordering potato salad and hot cocoa to go. He also apologized to New Rochelle's mayor, in absentia, for 'causing the city so much trouble.' At 2:40, a single shot rang out, and officers crept inside to find Cowan dead by his own hand, still wearing a black beret with a skull-and-crossbones insignia..."
(Raising Hell, Michael Newton, pgs. 113-114)

Big Fred

Thus it seems possible that if such a cult network exists it has some type of overlap with the white supremacist underground. I have speculated that this alleged network may even have been connected to the Christian Identity-linked Aryan Nations/Elohim City network that produced paramilitary gangs such as The Order and the Aryan Republican Army and which likely played some type of role in the Oklahoma City bombing. Most recently the Christian Identity network produced serial killer Israel Keyes who was a childhood friend of Elohim City-resident and convicted murderer Chevie Kehoe. Salon reports:

"A confessed serial killer and bank robber who took his own life in an Alaska jail cell on Sunday was exposed to the racist and anti-Semitic beliefs of Christian Identity theology during his childhood in a rural corner of Washington state, Hatewatch has learned. 

"Israel Keyes, 34, now linked to at least eight murders throughout the United States in the past 11 years, was a childhood friend and neighbor in Stevens County, Wash., of terrorists Chevie and Cheyne Kehoe — two racist brothers now serving lengthy prison sentences for murder and attempted murder. 

" 'The two families, the Keyeses and the Kehoes, were neighbors and friends and lived about a half mile apart off Aladdin Road north of Colville' in Stevens County, Wash., a source with direct knowledge of the situation said. 'The kids in both families were home-schooled and they sometimes attended a Christian Identity church called The Ark, just up the road from their homes,' the source said."

Keyes

All of these recent events --Keyes' arrest and alleged "suicide," the rampage of "white power" musician Wade Michael Page, and now the assassinations of three justice officials investigating neo-Nazi prison gangs --seems to indicate that this network is back in force. Even a German shepherd sacrifice has potentially been committed in Idaho, a longtime mecca for paramilitary white supremacist groups. If nothing else these recent events may finally provide crucial missing pieces to the puzzle behind this long alleged network. It will be most curious (and more than a little scary) indeed to see what developments will be forthcoming from these recent events.

Posted by Recluse at 4:13 PM