Saturday 26 June 2021

Who is Edmond Kemper?

 



Edmond Kemper is a mass murderer who was convicted and    sentenced on eight counts of murder on the first degree at the age of 24. (Beroldingen) Kemper was a young man, with normal sexual urges. However, he was so insecure of his masculinity that he could not bring himself to be intimate with a girl. There are some reports that would suggest this was caused by his incredibly small sex organ, which on his 6-foot 9 inch frame would have been laughable. there are some who account his insecurities to his overbearing mother who's continuous jearing made Kemper so insecure that he felt he could not even perform the sexual act, even to rape his victims. He had to kill them first.

Nevertheless, both excuses seemed to me to be just that, excuses. There are thousands of men out there with overbearing mothers and micro penises and they do not kill to satisfy their urges. In many of his interviews Kemper blames his mother for the person he became. as with anything there are two sides to every story. in this essay we will look at Kemper's side. Since Kemper killed his mother,  we can only rely on expert opinion about who Kemper's mother was and how she treated him.

In Kemper's view his mother was “a big, ugly, and awkward woman who was six feet tall and always trying to get him to go out with girls who were just like her” (Beroldingen, Pg 3) according to Kemper; she did this because she did not believe that her son was worthy of pretty, intelligent girls, as he was just like his father and would never amount to much.



At some point Kemper became obsessed with gas chambers after reading about the Holocaust  and he began to include his sisters in his dark fantasies, in which they would tie him up to a chair and he would act like he was dying from an invisible gas. His mother would belittle and chastise Kemper about his sick games and told his sisters to stay away from him.



circumstances change drastically when Kemper killed two of the family cats, decapitating them. When asked why he did that he said that the cats would show more affection to his sisters, just like his mother, and killing the cats was the only way he could make the cats his. By this time Kemper had grown to a large frame, and his mother was afraid that he would hurt his sisters, possibly even rape them. It was then that his mother moved Kemper to the basement where she could lock him in for the night. Kemper recalls being afraid and cold in the basement. There was only a bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling and one uncovered mattress for him to sleep in. Later he would recall feeling like his sisters were in heaven and he was in hell. (Beroldingen) according to Kemper his hatred only grew as his mother would constantly put him and other men down, later when asked why he killed he gave two reasons, the first was that he was in fact playing out a fantasy in which he was killing his mother over and over. The second was that his mother had told him that the pretty Co-ed girls were too good for him and that he would never be able to get one of them. His reasoning was that perhaps he would not be able to get them when they were alive, but dead they belonged to him body and soul. As a curious side note Kemper stated that all the girls who he had killed were still with him in spirit. Which is something that Jespersen stated in the ‘happy face podcast’. Regardless of what question was asked of Kemper he would always shift the blame to his mother. But she can no longer speak for herself. So, I turned to the opinion of certain psychologist who studied the case. The opinion seems to be split as to whether Kemper's mother was the cause, or the victim.

Investigators and psychologists have, by all accounts determined that Kemper's mother was an alcoholic. Whether or not she was a man hater as Kemper stated cannot be substantiated because we only have Kemper's word on the subject. We do know that she was married three times and all three times it ended in divorce. Kemper states that she was verbally, psychologically and physically abusive. Again, this cannot be substantiated, but evidence that he was kept in the basement was collaborated by the finding of a mattress and personal items in the basement and by Kemper’s father.

There are those who suspect Kemper’s mother of having borderline personality disorder which is “an emotional state that borders between psychosis and neurosis” (Lawson XI) should this have been the case Clarnell Kemper, Kemper’s mother, would be a likely candidate to point the finger towards since  borderline personality can manifest as an overbearing behavior and a need to constantly humiliate those who are closest to them, it has been a constant that children whose mother’s have this disorder can often externalize and misdirect their anger towards small animals. A symptom we saw with Kemper when he decapitated both family cats.

However, the only collaborated fact was that his mother would lock him in the basement. According to his father, this was done because his sisters where afraid of Kempers size and his mother was afraid that he would rape her daughters. In a documentary a psychologist  states that this indicates that Clernell Kemper was a victim. That Clernell perhaps felt the monster lurking inside of Kemper and wanted to protect her daughters. This view is substantiated by Clernell's colleagues at the college campus who during subsequent interviews clearly stated that Clernell was a stand-up citizen, worker and human being.

It must be reiterated that all knowledge of abuse and alcoholism was only collaborated by Kemper. The only abuse that was collaborated by an outside source was that of his mother locking Kemper in the basement. An event that was collaborated by his father. Which brings up the question, as his only son why didn't he protect his son from abuse? If in fact it was abused. And if Kemper was suffering at the hands of his mother, why didn't the father take him in when Kemper ran away at 15 years old?

Kemper was born in Burbank CA in 1948. His mother was Clernell Kemper, his father was Edmund Emil the second. When Kemper was 13 years old, in 1961 his parents’ divorce. During the documentary Kemper states that this was an exceedingly difficult time in his life. That his father was someone he looked up to and respected. It should be noted that the couple had separated in 1957 citing an unstable marriage. I could not find any evidence of Kemper’s father remaining in his life after that. For all accounts and purposes, it was his mother who raised Kemper alone after the separation.



At age 15, Kemper had reached the boiling point. Some resources state that it was Kemper’s mother who sent Kemper to live with his father. However, Kemper himself states that he was the one to run away to go live with his father. Regardless about how it came to be, Kemper staying at Edmund senior’s home with his new wife did not last very long “I think I made her nervous” Kemper says of his father's new wife in the documentary.

In a move his father would probably regret for the rest of his life, Kemper was sent to live with his paternal grandparents. In the beginning things seemed to be going well. Although his grandmother was just as overbearing as his own mother, Kemper seemed to thrive in the isolated farmland, helping his Grandfather with his chores an attending Sierra joined Union High School where he was seen as an average student and caused no memorable problems.

Nevertheless, things began to go downhill after Kemper visited his mother. According to Kemper his mother could not stop herself from calling him a “weirdo” during his first visit. And after his second visit his mood began to alter. His anger towards his mother was displaced. First towards small animals after his Grandfather gifted Kemper with a .22 caliber rifle to hunt rabbits. Displaced aggression is a defense mechanism in which a person redirects their negative emotions such as anger from one person to another. Eventually rabbits were not enough. And after visiting his mother, Kemper killed his grandmother as soon as he got back. When asked about it later, he said that he “wanted to find out what it felt like to kill his grandmother” realizing that his Grandfather would feel pain at the knowledge his wife had been murdered he decided to kill him too. He did so by shooting him three times in the back of the head as he was unloading groceries from his truck. Only then did Kemper feel uncomfortable about his actions. Not knowing what to do he called his mother who encouraged him to call the police, he did so and quickly confess to both murders.


However, two things prevented him from going to jail. The first was that he was only 15 years old at the time of the murders. The second was that after a psychiatrist diagnosed Kemper with a personality trait disturbance, and a passive aggressive type it was decided that he would be sent to a psychiatric hospital instead. personality disturbance is a term used when there are long term patterns of behavior and in your experience is that they differ significantly from what is expected. The pattern of experience and behavior begins by late adolescence or early adulthood and causes distress or problems in functioning. It was only later that Kemper was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia by a court appointed psychiatrist. 

Due to this diagnose Kemper was committed to the Atascadero state hospital. The hospital performed several tests on Kemper, one of which was an IQ test. He first received a score of 138 and seeing that it was quite high they decided to retest him. His second score was 145 making Kemper close to genius and keeping him above 1% of the population.

Understanding that Kemper seemed to want to help, was smart and had a gentle way of treating other patients, they decided to place Kemper in a position of responsibility. He oversaw and performed personality test to other patients. The doctors trusted him and at 21, they  considered he was cured and allowed him to leave the hospital as long as he kept seeing psychologist for well visits and he did not go back to his mother's house.

Neither recommendation was taken. Kemper had no place to go except his mother's house and no social worker ever contacted him for any meaningful therapy to follow up. The constant berating from his mother increased Kemper’s desire for violence and he began to collect guns and knives at home. As a 21-year-old in 1969, Kemper attended Community College under the watchful eye of the youth authority. But Edmund had spent the better part of the 60s in a mental institution surrounded by adults. He did not fit into the hippie culture movement that had since developed and he was considered a square by most of his peers. Soon he was so uncomfortable he did not continue.

He applied to become a law enforcement official, a dream he had had since young, but, his six feet 9 inches 200 lbs. frame made him ineligible and was therefore rejected. He settled for a job working road construction with the division of highways where his massive body would be an assit. He was still extremely disappointed at having missed his opportunity of becoming law enforcement, so he bought a motorcycle. Unfortunately for future co-eds he soon crashed his motorcycle that had made him feel like a police officer and resorted to buying a 2 door sedan that resembled an unmarked police car. He also purchased a radio receiver transmitter in order to listen to police broadcasts.



He decided that he would begin to pick up hitchhikers “at first I just wanted to make friends to fit in” kemper said in an interview in the documentary. “But then I began to have sexual fantasies about them” the co-eds were all so pretty, the exact type of girl his mother said he would never have a chance with “I thought about raping them, but with my big size I would be easily recognizable.” His only solution was to kill them so he could have his way with them.

In 1972 he began his practice runs. He began to pick up female hitchhikers and practice how to make them feel more comfortable. “I figured out this trick, where I would look at my watch, as if I didn't really have time to pick them up. That made them feel more comfortable and they would get in quick. I also realized that glasses made me look less threatening.” Kemper also started hanging out at a local cop bar in anticipation of the murders. He wanted to be there so that when things began, he would have a front side seat to all the cop talk about the investigation. Later he would state that after the killing started, he would sit in that same bar and think “here I am, and you're so stupid you can't find me.”

His trial runs began to become more daring and escalated slowly. Kemper first began to change the routes, take the girls to their destination via a more ‘scenic, quiet’ route. In his mind, this would have been where he would kill them, but those girls were lucky. He would simply keep on driving until he would reach their destination. Then he began to keep weapons under his seat, just to see if they would notice if he reached down and grabbed it. Finally, he began to carry chords and other kidnapping and murder paraphernalia that he would need to do the deed.

Finally, he was ready. In his interview he once again blames his mother, stating that they had had yet another fight and that this is why he decided that May 7th, 1972 would be the day. He got into his car and drove around the school until he saw Mary Anne Pesce and Anita Luchese from Fresno State college. Anita had hitchhiked through Europe, so she had more experience. Kemper states that she was reluctant to get into the car, so he played his trick of looking at his watch impatiently, seeing this Mary Anne hopped in and Anita reluctantly followed. Mary Anne what's sitting in the front seat chatting happily, but Anita sat in the back seat locking eyes with Kemper who later confessed to really liking Anita “it was like falling in love.”

Anita

This of course did not stop him from carrying out his impeccable plan. He told Mary Anne her door was still open, and as he was six feet tall, he easily reached the passenger side handle and closed the door again. As he did so he placed a small item between the handle of the door and the door. Later the police would identify the item as a common tube of Chapstick, but it was sufficiently effective in preventing someone from opening the passenger door from the inside. Soon the girls found themselves in an isolated wooded area where Kemper brandished his knife at them. He placed Anita in the trunk and walked Mary Anne further into the forest. He stabbed Mary Anne several times, but, she was still alive so he cut her throat. He was surprised at home messy and slow the whole process was “in the movies” Kemper said “people get stabbed and they fall back dead instantly. It's not like that in real life, they leak to death” Kemper states he was quite shaken by the experience but felt he had to kill Anita. “She knew what I looked like” so he killed her too.

He brought the two bodies to his mother's house where he dissected them and used them sexually before discarding their heads in a ravine and scattered the body parts in different places. Anita’s torso he buried and throughout the years he would visit her grave “I loved her in my own way.” He says in the documentary. In August of 1972 police discovered the first of several gruesome finds. Mary Anne’s head was discovered but no amount of looking could unearth the rest of her body. In fact, her body was never found. After he was incarcerated Kemper graphically described how he used the decapitated heads and dismembered bodies to satisfy his sexual urges until the bodies began to rot. He even said that he ate part of their bodies “I wanted them to become part of me, to be inside of me forever” Kemper stated. Kemper told interviewers that the act of dismembering them was arousing and he had to stop several times to masturbate.

The need to commit the act again was strong and only four months later Kemper was out on the hunt. Aikoo Koo Was 15 years old. She was petite and delicate; she was a dancer and had just been nominated to dance in a recital. Unfortunately, she missed the bus and fearing she would be late she hitchhiked. It was Kemper who picked her up. When she realized that he was going the wrong way she tried to escape, but her slender frame was no match for the huge 6-foot 9 inches monster who had kidnapped her. He placed tape over her mouth and tried suffocating her by cutting the air to her nose. When that failed, he raped her and strangled her with her own scarf. Once finished he placed her body in the trunk of his car and went to a bar for a drink. During the interview he talks about opening the trunk and regarding his prize as if he was a hunter and her body was his prize. He then took her home and they dissected her body keeping her scarf as a trophy.



On September 16, 1972, two days after killing, raping and mutilating Aikoo Koo, Kemper had a court appointed appointment with a lawyer who would decide whether Kemper had paid for his crimes (that of killing his grandparents) and if his juvenile record should be sealed. The attorney decided that Kemper was completely normal and sealed his record. Later on, Kemper would say that if perhaps he had been monitored like he was supposed to, he would not have done what he did. Again, placing blame for his decisions on someone else’s shoulders and not taking responsibility for his own actions. Meanwhile, Aikoo’s head laid rotting in Kempers trunk while he smiled in convinced the lawyer that he was totally sane.

On January 8, 1973 Edmund bought a 22-caliber handgun. Although his records had been previously sealed the seller of the gun could see that there had been some kind of infraction in his past and so although legally, he had to sell the gun to him, he still called the police to let them know that this particular person might not be someone who should have a gun.

Cindy Schall was his next victim. He picked her up and drove her to Watsonville, ironically Cindy would be killed only meters away from the police detective’s house who knew Kemper as his drinking buddy and who was involved in the investigation of the previous murders. In A twist of fate Cindy was also his babysitter. After shooting her, he took Cindy back home and decapitated her in his backyard. During the interview Kemper said that at this point he wasn't even hiding, “all my neighbor had to do was turned his head and he would have seen me with cindy's body” but he was never found out.

The head of one of serial killer Edmund Kemper's victims is dug up by Santa Cruz County Sheriff's deputies on April 26, 1973.



On February 5th, 1973 Kemper picked up Rosalind and Alice. He had had another fight with his mother and as he stormed out of his apartment he thought to himself  “the next pretty girl I see will die’ Edmond did not even stop the car to kill them, while driving he turned towards Alice in the back seat and shot her several times, he then turned to Rosalind and shot her point blank. Again he took their bodies back to his apartment had sex with their body parts, beheaded them, removed the bullets from Rosalind's head and then disposed the body parts in Santa Cruz..

It was after these murders that police officers arrived at Edmond’s house to speak to him about his ownership of a gun. During the documentary, the police officer states that he was not comfortable with his assignment since he could see that Edmund was a very big guy according to his record. But when he reached his house, he met up with Edmond in front of his house and Edmund was respectful and gentle. He did not deny that he had been incarcerated in the past and so he gave the gun to the police officers without much fuss. However, Kemper believed that they were playing a cat and mouse game. He was convinced that they knew he was the murderer and that they would soon come for him. A week before killing his own mother, he came to the realization that killing her was the only solution to save her from grief. According to Kemper he did not want her to know that he had been the co-ed killer all along.

On April 20th, 1973 Edmond came to his mother's room thinking that if she only said something nice to him, he would not kill her. Instead she looked at him and said “oh God, I suppose now you want to stay up and talk all night” this sealed her fateand in the early morning hours he beat his mother to death with a claw hammer while she was sleeping, he slashed her throat, ripped out her larynx and tried to destroy it by placing it in the garbage disposal. He then decapitated his mother and placed her head on the mantle. He screamed and raged at the head, threw darts at it and performed sexual acts with it. In the afternoon sanity came back, and he realized that if he had any hopes of escaping, he also needed to kill his mother's best friend Sara Hallett, to make it seem like his mother and her friend had gone on vacation together. He called her up and invited her to dinner. When she arrived, he strangled her to death with Aiko Koo’s scarf and had sex with her corpse.




After cleaning up the apartment, Kemper got in his car and drove around for three days without sleep.  In a craze state he called the Santa Cruz Police Department from Pueblo, Colorado. He told them that he wanted to confess to the Co ed killings, but the dispatcher thinking he was a prankster hanged up on him. He called back and asked to speak to the police detective who had been his drinking buddy and who's kids Cindy had babysat. When the detective heard the familiar voice of the man he called ‘a gentle giant’ confessing to the gruesome killings he could not believe it but he dispatched officers to Kempers apartment where they found the bodies of his mother and her friend stashed in a closet.

Serial killer Edmund Kemper shows police officers around one of his crime scenes.



The rest as they say is history. Kemper was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentence on all eight counts after confessing to the murders and taking police to the various disposal sites. His lawyer tried to defend him using the insanity plea but Doctor Joe Fort claimed that Edmond was not a paranoid schizophrenic. Kemper is now at a maximum-security prison where he will hopefully remain for life. However his lust for attention has never gone away. Interviews with FBI agent Robert Ressler has led to the FBI contributing to the work of deciphering serial killers, which later will help with psychological profiles that can lead to arrests.


 

Wu, P “To what extent is Edmund Kemper determined to commit his crimes of serial murder” an IB Extended essay in philosophy,May 2013.

Beroldingan, M.V. “I was the hunter, they were the victims” Front page magazine. March 1974

Crump, S. Dunavant S. Smith A.J, Layne S. “Serial killer time line research by Radford university students” department of psychology, Radford university.

Thursday 13 August 2020

Strange customs and superstitions part 2

 

Strange customs and superstitions

Part 2

Some superstitions transcend national boundaries others are peculiar to 1 country or race.

Scotland: three swans

flying together mean a national disaster. Red and green should not be worn together it is unlucky to stand with your back to the edge of the door or to throw vegetables onto the fire. Love letters should not be posted on Christmas Day. Carry a Spade through the house means a grave will soon be dug.



Ireland: it is unlucky to use broken tombstones for the wall of a cottage; 


but twice to take care of the ‘fairy Fort ‘-a tree in the center of a field. And it is lucky to spill a drink on the ground - a relic of the ancient custom of pouring a libation to the gods.

Malta: it was the custom up churches to have two Clock faces. One showing the correct time and the other a false one. To confuse the devil about the time of the service.

Ibiza: priests are not allowed to board fishing boats, probably because of a vestigial respect for the pre-Christian see gods.

Iceland: it is unlucky to shoot a sea bird that follows a boat. An unmarried person who sits at the corner of a table will not marry for seven years. A pregnant woman who drinks from a cracked Cup is risking her baby having a harelip.

Holland: when touching wood, it is necessary to touch the unpainted underside of it, Say, at table. People with red hair bring misfortune (a belief come into lands once invaded by the Danes)

China: any death by accident or foul play is to be feared, as the ghost may seek revenge on the 7th night. Sweeping out a house expels all good fortune- especially done on the Chinese New Year.

Nigeria: sweeping the house at night brings bad luck - but a good sweeping first thing in the morning gets rid of evil spirits. If a male is hit with a broom, he becomes impotent unless he retaliates 7 times with the same broom. Sweeping after a person leaves the house gets rid of all bad spirits.

Japan: A comb picked up with the teeth facing the body is unlucky. Killing a spider in the morning is destroying a human soul. Most cats bring bad luck.

 

But as well as national superstitions there are also racial superstitions. For instance, a Jewish child must not be watched while it sleeps (because of the similarity to the death vigil). nor must it be shown its reflection until it has grown its first tooth.


Gypsies belief that it is dangerous to eat food that has been stepped over, or drink from a stream that a woman has walked over. And all caravans must be burned after their owners die.

It is easy to dismiss superstition as absurd, but only those who can break a mirror without a second thought are fully entitled to do so.

 

The man who bought the Black Sea

Prince Urussoff, a Russian nobleman , had a family superstition initially very expensive but ultimately very profitable as well . Well he and his beautiful young bride were honeymooning on the Black Sea , the wedding ring slipped off her finger and disappeared beneath the waves. The Prince, remembering the family belief that the loss of a wedding ring caused the loss of the bride herself, that's the only thing he could. He bought both shores of the Black Sea from hundreds of owners for more than $40,000,000. He recent that if he owned both shores he owned the sea itself and everything that lay at its bottom .

When the Prince died his heirs no longer needed to own the ring . So they sold the Black Sea for $80,000,000.   

Wednesday 12 August 2020

Strange Customs and superstitions

 Never on a Friday. 

Men have done many strange things for the sake of luck

not only was the ship called the Friday, but its keel was laid on a Friday and, for good measure, it was commanded by a captain Friday. The British Admiralty had decided to expose the absurdity of one of the Royal navy's most cherished superstitions -that Friday is an unlucky day. Their plans might well have worked. But on its maiden voyage -on a Friday -the ship disappeared with all hands. no trace was ever found.

The Admiralty has consistently denied that this story is true, but their denials are unimportant; generations of British seamen have accepted every word of it. for superstition cannot be overcome by logic. In many cases, it is a survival from those primitive religions in which men worshipped the wild elements in the pious hope that they might help him in his struggle for survival.

For instance, touching wood for luck reflects early men's belief that every natural object -a tree, for example -was inhabited by a particular God. the significance once attached to fire and ironLingers on today with the carrying of a piece of coal or a small replica horseshoe as a good luck charm.

Just spill salt meant misfortune, because for centuries it was the only means of preserving meat in the winter.

To primitive peoples, the home needed to be blessed with kindly spirits. The focal point was the hearth, the parts of the house where, according to the Romans, household gods lived. In Western Europe, the Fireplace, or England Nook was thought to be the home of the brownies and other fairies who brought good luck to the household. Some even thought they helped with the chores.


It was unwise to offend the fairies. In their attempts to appease the spirits, Housewives in the Western Isles of Scotland would leave part of the fire burning in the hearth to keep the fairies warm through the night.

When a family moves to a new home, it is still traditional in some parts of Britain To take the embers from the old fireplace and burn them in a new one. House warming parties are the development of this custom.

Kitchen folklore

superstition also dominates a woman's work in the kitchen. Some Housewives believe a meal will be spoiled if the food is stirred ‘widdershins’ - that is, against the Sun's course. in order not to offend hence and so to stop them laying, no eggshells were thrown on the fire.

No implement has more superstitious connections than the knife. Made of iron, it was thought to be a protection against the evil of many kinds. This may stem from a time long ago when people armed with weapons of stone or bronze were easily overcome by sharp-edged in apparently magical swords of iron.

Another belief is that if two knives are crossed on a table. A quarrel is indicated unless the second person uncrosses them.

There are many superstitions about bread. It was thought disastrous if bread did not rise in the oven, for it was believed the devil lurked inside unrisen and bread. For this reason, a cross was cut at the top to help the bread rise and also to let the devil out. But when cutting bread, it was considered foolish to slice off both ends of a loaf, as the devil would be able to fly all over the house.

Even the table has superstitious significance. If a white cloth is left on a table during the night the household will soon Need a shroud.

Above all, never allow 13 people to sit down to eat at the same table. This superstition is generally associated with the Last Supper, when 13 were present, including Judas, Christ betrayer.

But the belief is older than Christianity. In Norse mythology, 12 gods were feasting when the spirit of strife Loki appeared and provoked a quarrel that ended in the death of Baldur coma the favorite of the gods.

outside the house, further dangers lurk. One of the most widely known superstitions is the one about not walking under a ladder in case a tool or a pot of paint falls from above. But the reason is far older than that. Anyone walking between the ladder and the wall was breaking the triangle -the early Christian symbol for the Trinity.

another theory on the origin of the latter superstition suggests that it was once associated with the gallows. One method of hanging was to turn the victim of a ladder so that he dropped under the ladder to the rope's end.

Chickens and fouls generally have long been regarded as reliable guides to what fortune holds. The Romans were frequently consulting their entrails, but self-confidence seemed to have a lot to do with consulting a foul. On one occasion,  an ancient Greek Admiral was told by his soothsayer that the holy foul had refused to eat, which was a bad omen. He replied tartly: “well, let us see if they will drink.” he tossed the lot overboard, engaged the enemy, and won a resounding victory.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Friday

Tuesday 9 July 2019

UFO's - The CIA report

On November of 1952, an Internal meeting took place inside of a CIA building. the sole topic of discussion during that meeting was little green men. Actually, it was the sightings of "unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling at great speeds."  The reports included the quick assessment that the "the military installations in the vicinity are of such nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or known types of aerial vehicles" These reports were so numerous and significant that members of that meeting came to the conclusion that a swift investigative body was needed and so they decided to form a "consulting group."

Due to the lack of manpower the airforce had to devote for this task, the consulting group decided that taking over the investigation that the air force had been conducting until then was the best action to take. They would later come to regret their decision as the airforce was a source of unfriendly cooperation due to this decision as stated during a dinner between a member of the consulting group and a nuclear scientist. The consulting group set to the task of finding out what were the mysterious objects flying around. They combed through over two thousand reports the different government agencies had received and filed since 1947.  205 reports had yet to be explained.

The report shows concern and expresses a need for more manpower and more resources. Their main concern at the time was the consequences of a government agency confusing one of these unexplained phenomena and hitting the panic button. one must remember that all of this was happening during the cold war. everyone was in a state of persecution, spies were everywhere and one wrong move or word could result in war on American soil with the Russians. The idea that a military plane could confuse one of these unidentified flying objects for a Russian plane and that a war may start because of it was all too real.  The opposite was also possible, what if reports became frequent enough that a report of flying object was confused as a UFO and instead was a Russian plane coming to Bomb the USA. They needed a way to differentiate the two, to do it swiftly and efficiently.

They recommended that the intelligence agency to "formulate and carry out a program of intelligence and research required to solve the problem instant positive identification of unidentified flying objects" Their directives were to (presented to you in simple language as I understand it, the link to the document is provided below)

  1. Instant identification of UFOs
  2. The CIA would head the investigation with help of the FBI, however, the FBI would not have jurisdiction. 
  3.  The military would help the CIA with their investigation providing research and information but they would not have jurisdiction. 
  4. The CIA would give information to the agencies that had authorized interest. 
By August 1952 the number of unexplained reports had been lowered to less than 100. Most reports had been classified as either fake or had been explained by current knowledge of flight patterns and weather anomalies. 
The report continues to express the opinion that if the full scope of the situation was able to be analyzed that the information would show that these too would be classified as either fake or easily explained through natural causes.  However, the report states that even though they don't believe it might be Aliens, the possibility cannot be excluded, and so it recommends that the program continues on its course. The report also mentions how the knowledge of such government agencies should remain undisclosed to the public due to the press and the public having an "alarmist" and conspiratory view of such agencies. 

On February 9th of 1953, a report entitled California committee for saucer investigations or CSI for short explains how a committee of private individuals intrigued and scientifically interested in finding an explanation fo saucer phenomena had surfaced.  The report shows how awe as to the length these private citizens are willing to go to find the truth in each instance. going to people's homes and finding out which reports might be reliable. However, the report expresses a certain distaste towards them, perhaps after finding out that the group was involved in an elaborate hoax over the Los Angeles area in hopes of finding out what are reports that come in and how reliable they are. 


A panel convened between January 14 and January 17 of 1953, with the express purpose to discuss UFOs. The overall mood of the report is that of negation to the idea that Aliens exists. In fact, one-panel member showed his findings and stated that as he had eliminated all possible terrestrial causes that the only conclusion was alien presence. However, the rest of the panel waved off his report stating that the report was not reliable, that his main case was based on the reports that could not be proven and in the eye witness account that only lasted at most 4 seconds.
The panel also stated that the lack of material evidence spoke to volumes as to whether or not these reports could be substantiated. Their reasoning was that if hundreds of UFOs were flying around, the chances were that at least one UFO would crash, or land, or drop a coin from the sky that could be collected and analysed, in the absence of this physical evidence and based on scientific reports that stated that life in other planets was impossible due to the lack of atmosphere, water, and air, the feeling of the panel was that all reports must be either fake or explainable because aliens were simply impossible.
However, there must have been a small doubt, because the idea that maybe, perhaps somewhere in the galaxy could live a different being, raised its head in the pages of the report. The report states that no member of the panel is able to conclusively state that aliens do not exist.  The report goes on to say that even if the reports turn out to be true, and that UFOs are a fact. That there is no danger from these unexplained events.









CIA Library file
CIA report on UFOs
CSI

Saturday 25 July 2015

Hunted Hotels

   Last night was a stormy night, and because I am a bit crazy I decided to watch horror movies, who doesn’t like their ghost stories with a side of insomnia after all? My movie choices were “The Shinning” by my all-time favorite writer Stephen King


followed by “1408” which is also written by the Master of Horror Stephen King.

This led me to (Have insomnia) to look at some stories of Hotels that have been reportedly hunted throughout the years. Here are some of their stories.

Cecil Hotel



The Cecil Hotel in California has been home to several suicides and mysterious deaths throughout the years.  The Hotel itself was buildt as an affordable hotel to tourists but in after the depression it became a haven for prostitutes, drug dealers and thieves. 

In fact, Elizabeth Short AKA the black Dalia stayed at the Cecil Hotel on January 8 and 9 in 1947. No one ever found out who Elizabeth had come to stay with at the Hotel, but many employees came forward after her murder that claimed to have seen her in the Lobby. 


In October of 1954 Helen Gurnee a 50 year old woman, registered under the name Margaret Brown stayed at the Hotel for a week. Before jumping to her death from the window of her room in the seventh floor and landing on the Marquee sign in the front of the Hotel. 

On Oct 12 1962 Pauline Otten, a 27 year old woman jumped to her death from her ninth floor Window after having a fight with her husband. Her husband later said that he had decided to cut short the fight by taking a walk and going out for dinner. that was the last time he would see her alive. Pauline Otten jumped out of her window landing on George Giannini a 65 year old man who was walking by the hotel at the time, both died instantly. 

On June 04th of 1964 Goldie Osgood or "the pigeon lady" to her friends since she spent her free time feeding the birds, She was a retired telephone operator who made ends meet by working at the Hotel was found murdered in her Hotel room. She had been strangled, Stabbed and raped. Close to her body police found a sac of pigeon food, 

Hours later Jacques B. Ehlinger was apprehended in Pershing Plaza, his clothes were drenched in blood, but since no connection to the crime could be established he was not accused of the crime. 

From 1984 to 1985 Richard Ramirez AKA the Night Stalker stayed at the Cecil Hotel at a room located in the top of the Hotel. During his stay he killed 13 women, after each killing he would simply dump his bloddy clothes in the hotel dumpster located in the alley behind the hotel. 

Richard Ramirez

As many serial killers do, Ramirez had a fan. the most famous of his fans was Jack Underweger  AKA the "Vienna woods Killer" who killed three prostitutes during his own stay at the Cecil Hotel.
Jack Unterweger

All of these stories are horrifying enough, but they all culminate with the unfortunate events that ocurred on January 31st 2013 when a Canadian National Elisa Lam went missing. 
Elisa Lam was of Chinese decent, her family had moved from China to Canada years prior to the events of that night. Her mother and Father worked extremely hard to give Elisa and her younger sister the best life they could in their new country. Elisa worked hard during her short life, and many saw her as a quiet but happy individual. There have been conflicting reports about the events, since although some say she suffered from BIpolar disorder, others say she suffered from nothing more than shyness. 

Elisa was a responsible young girl, whose only crime was to want to see the world before she began her life in the workforce and possibly getting married to her long time boyfriend, a young boy from Chinese decent. Elisa called her parents everyday to tell them she was alright and to speak to her young sister. on Feb 1st there was no phone call. After a couple of days, her parents called the Hotel to find out the whereabouts of their daughter. The Hotel manager checked her room and finding all of her things still unpacked decided to clear the room and keep her things in case she came back. They told the parents that perhaps she had simply moved on, since Elisa had expressed her desire to vacate the premises on Feb 01 to continue her across the United States. 

Elisa parents were quick to respond. they got themselves on a plane and went straight to the police. The police began to plaster posters all over the vicinity. 

   


Elisa Lam's property was taken to the police, at which point they found a small blue camara. as they developed the pictures they found the last one to be a bit puzzling since it did not quite fit with the rest which were normal tourist pictures of Elisa posing infront of the camara by one or another tourist site. the picture the police chose for their missing poster was one of theses pictures, in which you see a happy Elisa posing. The last picture however has dark connotations, its selfie taken in the her hotel room bathroom. 



Elisa Lam was not found. However in the Hotel Cecil strange things were occurring. Several guests were reporting their water to have a sweet and pungent taste. As the guests would turn on their showers the water could ran black for a few minutes before returning to their normal clear color.  Finally the water pressure stopped and the management finally saw it fit to send a repaiar man to the water tanks that were on top of the Hotel. 

As he opened the tank he noticed that the water black and thick. Thinking that perhaps rats had climbed in and died inside the repair man opened up the valve and allowed the water to drain out of the tank. what he found was much more morbid than just a couple of rats floating at the bottom of the tank, Elisa Lam's body laid putrid and lifeless at the bottom of the tank. 

The police rushed to the scene but fire fighters and rescue workers had to rush to the scene due to the small entrance hatch through which no human being could have entered, not even a small person such as Elisa. 

Further investigation revealed a security tape in which Elisa can be seen entering the elevator at early hours of the morning, she presses several floors but the elevator does not move. she waits and then sticks out her head as if she has heard something outside the elevator...she walks out looks around, appears to see nothing but enters the elevator with fear and hides. She presses all of the floors again, but the doors continue to stay open. Again she appears to hear something walks out of the elevator and seems to see something towards the right of the elevator. She seems to talk to someone, waving her hands in the air in frustration and then stretches her hands in front of her as if trying to touch something.    

Finally she exits the elevator and she is no longer seen. only moments later, the doors that had not closed for over three minutes while she was in the elevator close and the elevator begins to move. 

She was never seen again. 




It is also important to say that to get to the water tanks above the hotel Elisa would have to have opened the roof doors that had alarms and only Hotel employees had the keys to these doors. 

Here are some videos on possible theories. 





More hunted hotel stories to come ....(25/07/2015)



Tuesday 14 July 2015

UFO's: Are they real?

Have we been visited by extraterrestrials in the past? And are we being visited, and studied by them?  
There are so many theories in the subject that it is hard to keep track. Some say that close encounters have been occurring and have been documented since the first man or woman took ink to stone. Some say that there are documented close encounters in the bible and could be the true origins of the idea of a God. There are so many theories, and I will not attempt to debunk or to certify any of them. My aim is to inform on as many theories and claims as possible, you can be the judge.

What is the difference between a first, second and a third encounter?

According to Wikipidia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_encounter) a close encounter is when a person witnesses a UFO, or an Unidentified Flying Object. This classification was first coined by Astronomer J Allen Hynek in 1972. 

In his book The UFO EXPERIENCE: A SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY. Hynek states that a scientific view must be taken for any UFO sighting to be taken seriously. He claims that to prevent any mistakes to be made (basically that we are actually seeing a UFO and not an airplane) the object must be seen from a height of no more than 500 feet.

Should you see an object from less than five hundred feet you then have three classification that the sighting can be classified under, these are 

Nocturnal lights; Lights in the night sky, 

radar-visuals; UFO reports that have Radar confirmed visuals,   

daylight discs; UFO’s seen in the daylight sky.

Close encounters of the first kind are defined as a visual sighting of a UFO, when a sighting of the object has been seen at less than 500 feet. 

A close encounter of the second kind is a UFO Sighting when a reaction has taken place do the object. This includes a disturbance in animal behavior, the interference of an electronic device, as in your radio going haywire, or your watch stopping, a physical reaction by the witness, as in loose of time, or paralysis, as well as a physical evidence of the object being left behind, such as scorch marks.

Close encounters of the third kind is when the subject not only sees the UFO but also sees the individual driving it. The creature, or humanoid, robot etc. must be present for an encounter to be classified as a third kind.   

So now that we know what each encounter is, let’s take a look at some theories about why they come to earth in the first place…


Theories about UFO’s interest in EARTH.

Curiosity
Some claim that aliens are simply curious in regards to us, perhaps after they discovered our planet, scientists and alien tourists simply want to come down and have a look.


Minerals

Some say that perhaps earth has one kind of mineral that they do not contain in their planet, and so scavengers are sent down to extract the precious mineral. This was probably best represented in the movie “Aliens Vs Cowboys” where aliens had come down to extract gold during the cowboy period of the USA, maybe they got a flyer about the ‘Gold rush’!


To Protect

 Some abductees claim to have been given visions about the earths doom, and therefore claim that aliens are coming down to prevent this from happening. This theory has also captured the imaginations of Hollywood producers, since it is the premise to “The day the earth stood still” I just hope all aliens are as good looking as Keanu Reeves.


Coexistence

Due to the high claims of experimentation, and sperm and egg removal a theory surfaced that claims that aliens are trying to genetically become more human so that they can coexist in our planet. Some women claim to have been impregnated, only to have the fetus removed weeks afterwards. This theory also extends to claim that perhaps the alien planet is or has been destroyed and so they have repopulate their species through dna manipulation. Superman anyone?


Invasion

This theory was popular about fifty years ago, but since so much time has past the theory is loosing its edge. Had aliens that years ahead of our technology come to invade our planet, I think they would have done a long time ago.
Now that we know possible reasons why they come here, lets get to the fun part….


Encounters of the third, second and third kind


David Noll and his wife from Western Ohio, USA
April 23rd 2005


Mr. & Mrs. Noll are retired educators who live in a quiet suburban of Columbus Ohio. Both Mr. & Mrs. Noll where enjoying a nice relaxing moment sitting in the porch of their backyard when a large bright object appeared in the night southern sky. Mr. Noll took out his 7 x 50 field glasses thinking the object was perhaps a satellite. To his surprise what he saw was a rectangular shape of about 50 to 60 feet wide. It had five windows. Through one of the windows both Noll and his wife claim to have seen a man, of perhaps six foot tall, he was wearing a light colored suit that covered him from his neck to his arms. They continued to watch as the object hovered there for 40 minutes, the next night the object was still there. The object was made of a dark metal, and although rectangular in shape Noll claims that the sides of it where “fuzzy.”  


Lech Chacinski from Szczecinek, Poland
Aug 11,2003 5 Am


Mr. Chacinski was driving down a deserted road at five in the morning close to the small city of szczcinek, Poland. When on the side of the road he could see three figures standing in a triangular formation. They were wearing what he thought were space suits. As his car was coming closer the figures stepped in front of the car, still in triangular formation. The individual in the front raised an arm in a “Stop” gesture. Chacinski felt as if he had no other choice and stopped the car. On top of the helmet he could see a communication antenna or device which suddenly lit up. He then heard a voice in his mind.
“can you hear us?” the voice asked “yes” he replied.
He stepped out of his car.
“What is your car made off?” they asked
“what are your clothes made off?”
“What kind of fuel runs your car?”
 After answering these questions the beings told him that he should “Take care of the planet, or they would come back and destroy it”
According to the sources crop circles appear in this sector all the time.
(What I think of this account: To begin with, what was he doing out there at five in the morning? Was going to work? Or was he coming back from a bar? My other question is intergalactic beings come from millions of miles away to ask what kind of fashion materials we are using on earth? And finally, why would they destroy our earth if we are already doing such a great job of it ourselves?


George Adamski, USA
1950

According to some accounts Adamski was the first person to recount his first, second third kind encounter with aliens. Some however say that he made a living through made up stories and hoax pictures.

Adamski claims in his books “Flying saucers have landed” “inside space ships” and “flying saucers farewell” that he has been, and take trips with friendly Nordic space brothers.

October 9, 1946
During a meteor shower, Adamski and some friends claim to have seen a cigar shape mothership at the palomar gardens campground.
Summer 1947

Adamski claims he saw 184 UFO’s oass over the palomar Gardens
November 20, 1952

Adamski and some friends are in the Colorado desert, near the town of desert center, California when a large submarine object hovering  in the sky. Adamski left the group believing that the UFO was in fact looking for him. He claims a small ship flew from the larger ship and came close to him. A humanoid that looked very much like THOR, with long blonde hair and tan skin came to him and communicated with him telepathically. He claims the alien introduced himself as Orthon from Venus.  I guess Orthon had a tan being that Venus is a volcanic planet.


The Brazilian Navy Case
January 16 1958

While on a training exercice 48 seaman including their captain Carlos Alberto Bacellar and two civilians all witness several UFO’s flying past them. At the time they were travelling in the south Atlantic ocean near tinidade island. One of the civilians was a technical photographer who had his camara with him, and he was able to capture the event with several shots.
Anxious as they were, photographer Amiro Barauna and captain Carlos Alberto Bacellar made a makeshift darkroom within the ship to be able to print the now amazing pictures. Captain Barcella was present during the entire procedure to make sure the film was not tampered with.

On February 21st, the president of Brazil juscelino Kubitschek came forward to claim that the photographs had been analysed by the navy and had certified them authentic.
*this is one of my favorite cases!



There are so many encounters out there I can’t write them all down, but check out the links below for more encounter of the third kind.