UFO ROUNDUP UFO Roundup/UFOINFO LogoUFO Roundup/UFOINFO Logo Volume 9 Number 25 June 23, 2004

Editor: Joseph Trainor
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“HOLLYWOOD HEADHUNTER” TERRORIZES LOS ANGELES

“The search was on Monday,” June 14, 2004, “for a man who decapitated a 92-year-old former screenwriter and slaughtered a retired doctor in his 60s in their Hollywood homes, authorities said.”

“One of the victims was identified as Robert Lees, a blacklisted screenwriter who penned numerous movie and TV scripts, including several Bud Abbott and Lou Costello movies like Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.”

“Police believe a suspect, described only as a white man in his 40s, entered Lees’ home in the 1600 block of North Courtney Avenue and cut off the screenwriter’s head sometime before 11 a.m. Sunday,” June 13, 2004.

“Reports stated that the killer took Lees’ head and jumped a backyard fence before entering the retired doctor’s home in the 1600 block of North Stanley Avenue.”

“At the time, the doctor was on the phone ‘making plane reservations through Southwest Airlines,’ LAPD Lt. Art Miller said, ‘While he was talking with the operator, making those reservations, the operator heard a commotion in the background and then the phone go dead.'”

“The ticket clerk called police, who discovered the doctor’s body and Lees’ head in the home, according to reports.”

“The suspect apparently fled in the doctor’s 2001 Mercedes, which was found a short time later in Hollywood, police said.”

“Lees, who sometimes wrote under the name J.E. Selby, was blacklisted during the Red Scare of the 1950s.”

“His other credits include the TV shows Rawhide and Alfred Hitchcock Presents and the movies The Black Cat and Holiday in Havana, starring Desi Arnaz. He wrote many of his screenplays from the 1930s through the 1960s.”

(Editor’s Note: Curiously, in his autobiography, Desi Arnaz describes how he saw a man decapitated with a machete in Cuba when, as a teenager, his family fled Havana during the revolution of 1933.)

“It was ‘a very gruesome crime scene, each one of them, so much so that at the time it’s hard to determine what the cause of death was,’ Miller said.”

“Police had no motive for the murders.”

The paranormal was a persistent theme in Lees’ work. His other movie credits include Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, The Invisible Woman, Hold That Ghost and, as “J.E. Selby,” the pilots for two 1960s television shows, Irwin Allen’s Land of the Giants and The Second Hundred Years.

The case took a strange turn when a suspect was arrested at Paramount Studios in Hollywood.

“Police tipped by Hollywood studio guards captured a man whom they had just identified Monday,” June 14, 2004, “as a suspect in the beheading of a 92-year-old screenwriter and the stabbing death of a neighbor in the midst of a phone call with an airline reservation agent.”

“Keven Lee Graff, 27, was arrested near the gates of Paramount Studios, about two miles (3 kilometers) from the victims’ homes, after he was recognized by a studio guard. The guard recognized Graff’s picture from a televised news conference that had just aired, and his superior called police, said Police Chief William Blatton.”

“Police found the body of retired physician Morley Hal Engleson, 67, on Sunday,” June 13, 2004, “after the airline ticketing agent called police and reported hearing a commotion break out while he was trying to book a flight on the phone.”

“In the rear of Engleson’s home, they found the head of 92-year-old Robert Lees, a screenwriter who had worked on films, including Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. A friend who had gone to check on Lees found his body in his house, which is a street over behind Engleson’s.”

“‘This is one of the most horrendous crime scenes that I have seen during my 33 years as a police officer in this city,’ said Detective Brian Tyndall, one of the lead investigators in the case.”

“Graff had walked into the studio and asked for the phone number of a Paramount employee when a guard confronted him, said security Sgt. Craig Phillips. Graff acted strangely after leaving the lot, talking to himself and making obscene gestures at passing cars, and guards decided to keep their surveillance cameras trained on him, Phillips said.”

“Minutes later, the news conference was shown on the television in the guards’ break room. ‘I saw it, and I said, ‘That looks a lot like the guy I’ve got on camera,’ Phillips said.”

“Graff was arrested without incident, Bratton said.”

“Police did not find a weapon on him, and it is not yet determined whether he knew the victims.”

“Graff, of Orange County (California), is known to frequent the Hollywood area. He was arrested last year in Orange County for failing to pay a fine for a carpool violation and has a half-dozen minor criminal violations, according to police and court records.”

“In addition to Lees’ paranormal-themed work, such as writing for Alfred Hitchcock Presents (which featured a memorable episode about decapitation), there are some odd links to Freemasonry in this case,” UFO Roundup editor Joseph Trainor said, “The killer jumping the fence with the victim’s head is a scene straight out of Never Bet the Devil Your Head, a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. Then there’s the mysterious business about the number 1600.”

“Lees lived in the 1600 block of North Courtney Avenue.”

“Engleson lived in the 1600 block of North Stanley Avenue.”

“The so-called ‘Masonic’ Egyptian obelisk in New York City’s Central Park was first erected by Pharaoh Thotmes III in 1,600 B.C. (See the feature story in this issue– J.T.).”

“And, of course, the White House is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.” (See the Los Angeles Times for June 14, 2004, “Police investigate double Hollywood homicide,” and the Channel 10 News of Providence, R.I. for June 15, 2004. Many thanks to Loren Coleman, Mary Lou Jones-Drown and Tiffany Burton for these news stories.)

OBLONG UFO HOVERS OVER PAIR IN WINNIPEG, CANADA

“Two people were delivering early-morning newspapers in south-central Winnipeg (population 618,477),” the capital of Canada’s Manitoba province, “when they saw a bright light moving in the sky, apparently approaching them. As they were placing newspapers in individual (vending) boxes, the witnesses were shocked to see the object noiselessly fly over their car and come to a stop, hovering only ‘three or four stories high’ above them. As they dropped their papers, the object ‘shot off to the west’ and disappeared from sight.”

The incident took place on Tuesday, June 8, 2004, according to Canadian ufologist Chris Rutkowski.

“The two witnesses quickly got in their car and drove away to another newspaper box less than a kilometer away. As they delivered their next bundle, they were terrified to see an ‘oblong’ object with white lights moving around its middle rise up from the ground from behind a heavily- treed area and begin to fly towards them.”

“‘It was definitely not a plane or anything else,’ one witness explained, ‘I saw it very clearly, and it was something very strange.'”

“The object made no noise as it swooped over their car. In fact, the witness noticed that their surroundings had taken on very eerie character, as there were no other cars on the streets, and not even a single pedestrian walking a dog.”

“‘Usually we see some sporadic traffic, even at this hour,’ a witness said, ‘But there was absolutely no one around at all. It was like a ghost town in the middle of the city.'”

“They drove and parked their car at an all-night coffee shop and ran into the store as the object flew over the building. They convinced the proprietor to go outside with them and take a look, but when they came out, the object had retreated and was only a bright light in the distance. After a short while, the two original witnesses calmed down and continued on their rounds.”

“About an hour later, as they were delivering more papers, they looked up to see ‘a strange plane’ with no (cockpit) windows fly slowly overhead, making an odd whining noise. They saw two more unusual aircraft flying in the sky, and then ‘suddenly, everything changed and there were cars around, people walking and ordinary planes were flying over us.'”

“The witnesses were very frightened by their experience and could not sleep well during the day after their night shift.” (Many thanks to Chris Rutkowski for this news story.)

FIVE UFOs SPOTTED OVER EMLEY MOOR, UK

“Strange flying objects have been spotted in the skies above Emley Moor.”

“What appears to be five objects flying in perfect formation were seen by Examiner readers about 3 p.m. yesterday,” i.e. Tuesday, June 16, 2004.

“The Red Arrows-type flyby of Emley Moor Mast is so far unexplained. There were no reports of airshows in the area yesterday afternoon.”

“And Moldgreen reader Mark Windle, who took the photo, said: ‘It looked to me as though they were objects that were burning up in the atmosphere. There was another plane in the sky, and it looked different.'”

“Another onlooker said that as soon as she saw the lights she went to get her camera.”

“But the objects were travelling fast, and by the time she returned with her camera, they had disappeared.”

“‘We normally have planes flying past, but not in such regular formation,’ she said, ‘It was very strange.'” (See the Huddersfield Daily Examiner for June 16, 2004, “Caught on film–five UFOs in the skies above Emley Moor.” Many thanks to Robert Fischer and John Hayes for this newspaper story.)

SLOVAKIA HOLDS EXHIBITION ON CROP CIRCLES

“The Slovak National Museum in Bratislava,” the capital of the central European nation of Slovakia, “recently opened an exhibition entitled Crop Circles, displaying the pictograms and agro-symbols that unidentified flying objects have left on Slovakian territory.”

“According to the exhibition’s organisers, witnesses have seen round, disk-shaped UFO objects at the site of 85 percent of crop circles here” in Slovakia, “as well as abroad.”

“The exhibition displays all the pictograms from Slovakia that have been registered by the Trnava UFO Club. ‘There might have been more, but we had no information on those,’ said Miroslav Karl, the club’s chairman.”

“The Trnava club has registered nine locations where crop circles have appeared, and 178 reports on UFO observations in the Trnava region between 1992 and 2003. Captured on videocassette also is an image by amateurs, the display also features photography from the Bratislava region.”

“Another part of the exhibition presents cases of pictograms from England in the areas of Stonehenge, Crabwood and Chilbolton. The country is famous for its large number of (crop) formations. Since the beginning of the 1990s, around 300 pictograms have been found there (in UK) annually.”

“The exhibition will end July 25 (2004). The museum is located at Vajansk ho nabrozie 2” in Bratislava. (Many thanks to Zuzana Habsudova and Robert Fischer for this newspaper report.)

TWO CROP CIRCLES REPORTED IN BELGIUM

On Saturday, May 22, 2004, the witness reported, “I took the train to Brussels,” the capital of Belgium, “and I was looking outside the window when I noticed two vague circular formations in the field. The next day, when I went back home, I decided to search for them. I took the bus and got off where I thought I saw the circles. When I got off the bus, I had this euphoric feeling. But I wasn’t sure if the circles were really there or if I had just had ‘an hallucination’ because of the speed of the train. I didn’t find them, so I went home a little disappointed.”

“On (Friday) May 28 (2004), I went to the library in Brussels. When the train passed” the spot again, “I clearly saw the circles, and I realised that I’d been searching in the wrong place the previous week.”

The witness and his girlfriend decided to visit the spot. “When we were in the circle, my legs felt like ‘elastics made from rubber,’ a kind of feeling that I was ‘falling’ through the ground when I walked around. The lay of the crop looked a little messy, and many plants were broken, and there was a path to the crop circle from the other side. So this had to be some people who had already visited them, and there live a lot of children in the neighbourhood.”

“There were two big circles, one big one with a near oval shape and another one that had a vague star shape. But I’m not sure because it’s hard to see from the ground. The circles were there for at least a week, and some downed plants were coming up again.”

The witness mentioned one strange incident relating to the crop circles. “The night before” his trip on “May 22, I had a dream about crop circles. I was watching with my girlfriend from an airplane or a train, and I saw a lot of crop circles on the ground.”

The unusual dream “made it more fun to see crop circles from the train the following day. I have no idea if this is the real one or a hoax. It’s the first crop circle that I’ve ever seen.”

BIGFOOT SIGHTED NEAR TESLIN IN THE YUKON

Two men riding an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) on the outskirts of Teslin (population 189), a small town in Canada’s Yukon province, spotted a Bigfoot by the side of the road.

“Whatever two Teslin residents saw in the early morning mist, conservation officer Dave Bakica knows it shook them up.”

“Marion Sheldon and Gus Jules were travelling out of town along the Alaska Highway on an ATV, sometimes after 1 a.m. last Sunday,” June 6, 2004, “when they passed what resembled a person standing on the side of the highway.”

“Thinking it was a local from their small community who might be in need of a ride, they turned and headed back, Mr. Bakica explained in an interview Tuesday,” June 8, 2004, “recalling his conversation with the pair.”

“After the two lifelong Teslin residents and members of the Teslin Tlingit (indigenous people of the Yukon– J.T.) Council approached to within 6 meters (20 feet), they noticed the figure was covered in hair but standing upright the entire time. Though the northern natural light was dusky at this time of the morning, Mr. Jules told Mr. Bakica he saw what he believed to be flesh tones hidden beneath a mat of hair.”

“‘I have no doubt they saw something, and are convinced it was not a bear or anything in the ordinary,’ the conservation officer said, ‘They are convinced this is something out of the ordinary. And they are pretty shaken up over it.'”

“Mr. Sheldon and Mr. Jules were unavailable for comment.”

“Mr. Bakica said Mr. Jules is an experienced hunter. He described the figure as standing about 7 feet (2.2 meters) tall but hunched over. They could see it was not a person.”

“The dark-haired figure departed, taking two or three steps to cross the Alaska Highway.”

“Mr. Bakica, who has been checking out the story, said ground conditions, mixed with a few rainfalls, made it impossible to pick up any remnants of definite tracks, and there was no hair on branches or the like to be found.”

“As well, he said by the time he’d talked to Mr. Sheldon last and went to the scene Monday morning,” June 7, 2004, “half the town had been out to the site to have a look for themselves.”

“‘I have no doubt in my mind that they believe what they saw was a Sasquatch (Canadian name for Bigfoot– J.T.),’ said Mr. Bokica.”

“‘Whether it was or not, I do not know. Just because you can’t prove something was there, does not mean it was not there.'”

“In April 1991, three Pelly Crossing residents reported seeing a Sasquatch while driving between Pelly and Stewart Crossing. The creature fled back into the woods as the vehicle passed, but the three took pictures of what they claimed were footprints measuring 37.5 centimeters (15 inches) long in the melting snow.” (See the Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail for June 9, 2004, “Potential passenger a Sasquatch, pair say.” Many thanks to Robert Fischer for forwarding this newspaper article.)

ANOTHER BLACK PANTHER SEEN IN GLOUCESTERSHIRE

“A man spotted a big cat in Painswick, Gloucestershire, UK last Sunday,” June 6, 2004. “He said, ‘I was walking around town around 7:30 p.m. and I saw it walking in the same direction as me on Lower Washwell Street, but 20 yards (18 meters) ahead of me.”

“It was about 20 inches (50 centimeters) high at the shoulder and had narrow hips and a long tail of uniform roundness along its entire length. Colour–completely pitch black. I whistled to get it to turn around and, when it did, I saw the short face, yellow eyes and small ears of a classic panther profile. Then a car came by, and the cat ambled across the street, jumped a five-and-a- half-foot fence and disappeared.” (See Big Cat Monitors for June 9, 2004. Many thanks to UFO Roundup’s phantom panther expert, Robert Fischer, for this report.)

27,000 PELICANS VANISH FROM NORTH DAKOTA LAKE

“Wildlife officials estimate nearly 27,000 American white pelicans have abandoned their summer nesting grounds at a national wildlife refuge north of Medina, North Dakota (population 335). The question is why…and where they went.”

“‘It’s like they packed up and left in the middle of the night–except they didn’t pack up, they just left,’ said Ken Torkelson, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Bismarck,” the state capital.

“Left behind were thousands of eggs, which are unlikely to hatch, officials say.”

“The Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge is the home of the largest nesting colony of white pelicans in North America. The birds were noticed missing two weeks ago, said Kim Hanson, refuge manager of the Arrowhead complex, which includes Chase Lake.”

“‘We don’t think they were killed. We think they abandoned their nest,’ Hanson said Wednesday,” June 16, 2004.

“Officials suspect some kind of disturbance–human or animal–because some of the remaining birds appear more skittish than normal, Hanson said.”

“The pelicans nest on Chase Lake’s two islands, and, for the past decade, they also have built a colony on a peninsula on the side of the lake as their numbers increased. Wildlife officials say about 80 pelicans are left on the peninsula and on one of the islands. The other island has seen no major population loss and still has about 2,400 birds.” (See the Ashland, Wis. Daily Press for June 10, 2004, “Officials probe pelican disappearance,” page 3.)

(Editor’s Comment: Well, something is sure disrupting avian migration on North America’s Central Flyway. But what? It’s articles like this one that make you wonder about imminent climate change.)

MIDDLE EAST UPDATE

The U.S. Navy’s aircraft carriers are on the move again, with four reportedly heading for the Middle East.

According to Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief, the four carriers include the USS Enterprise, USS George Washington, USS John F. Kennedy and USS Roosevelt.

“Expedition Strike Group Two (ESG-2),” comprised of the USS Wasp, USS Leyte Gulf, USS Yorktown, USS Shreveport, USS Whidbey Island and USS McFaul “are supposed to be in the Persian Gulf or the Arabian Sea.”

“Expedition Strike Group Three (ESG-3), which is carrying the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU),” and consists of the USS Belleau Wood, USS Denver and USS Comstock, “is in the Pacific. Ten out of 18 amphibious ships are in the Pacific.”

Meanwhile, a fundamentalist Islamic group in Pakistan is sending 2,000 guerrilla fighters to Iraq to assist rebel leader Muqtaba al-Sadr, whose militia is fighting the Allied occupation forces.

“Lashkar-e-Taiba (to give the Urdu a free translation–Soldiers of Righteousness–J.T.), a powerful Pakistan-based terror group active in Jammu and Kashmir has ‘raised a full-blown unit for suicide squad operations against Western forces’ in Iraq.”

According to the newspaper The Hindu of India, “Up to 2,000 men between the ages of 18 and 25 have reportedly signed up for Lashkar’s operations in Iraq.”

“Sources close to Lashkar’s overall head, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, were quoted as saying the group hoped to send at least some suicide squad members to Iraq overland through the porous Iran-Pakistan border.”

“Most of the suicide squad volunteers were from towns in the Pakistani province of Punjab, where Laskar’s underground political organization, Jamad ud-Dawa, wields considerable influence, the report said.”

“A majority of volunteers were drawn from the ranks of madrassa (Islamic religious school–J.T.) students at Muridke, near Lahore, Jamaat ud-Dawa’s main centre. Some volunteers were said to be from the Binori madrassa in Karachi (Pakistan’s largest city–J.T.), run by a fundamentalist cleric, the Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, until he was assassinated.”

“Hafiz Muhammad Saeed was quoted as having told followers at a recent meeting that ‘Islam is in great danger and the mujahideen are fighting to keep its glory. They are fighting the forces of evil in Iraq in extremely difficult circumstances. We should send mujahideen from Pakistan to help them.'”

“Saeed’s comments were reportedly made in a private meeting in the Jamia al-Qudsia mosque in Lahore late last month (May 2004).”

“In April, The Hindu had reported that a key Lashkar commander, Danish Ahmad, had been held by Allied troops in Iraq. Ahmad reportedly played a central role in the group’s operations in Jammu and Kashmir (a Himalayan province whose ownership is disputed by India and Pakistan–J.T.) from 1999, operating under the alias of ‘Abdul Rehman al-Dakhil.'”

“Ahmad might have trained many of these men now being trained for combat in Iraq. Islam ud-Din, a Lashkar operative arrested in 1999, told Indian intelligence that Ahmad had trained hundreds of cadre’s at Lashkar’s Maskar Abu Bashir camp in wiring and explosives.”

“‘America has failed to divide Shiite and Sunni Muslims, despite mysteriously stirred-up violence in Pakistan,’ Saeed was quoted as telling followers, ‘America is now bending over backward to foment a Shia-Sunni divide in Iraq. But we should not forget that Muqtada al-Sadr is a hero of Islam. Forget that he is a Shiite. He is a great mujahid because he is fighting the worst devil on Earth, that is, America. It is our religious duty to support him,’ Saeed told the gathering.”

“The U.S. and Britain are raping our mothers and sisters,’ Saeed was quoted as saying, ‘In this situation, jihad becomes mandatory against them. The mujahideen are our last hope. If they are not supported today, then tomorrow Islam will be erased from the map of the world.'”

“Referring to possible Pakistani troop commitments in Iraq, Saeed said he would support (Pakistani) President Pervez Musharraf ‘if he sends troops to Iraq to fight against the U.S. and Britain. If he sends them to support the U.S., then we will spearhead a nationwide uprising against him.'” (See The Hindu for June 14, 2004, “Pakistani-based Lashkar raises suicide squads in Iraq.” Many thanks to Krishnari Bai Dharapurnanda for this newspaper article. Thanks also to Jim Danvers for the Skousen report.)

SHERPA CLIMBER SEES GHOSTS ON MT. EVEREST

“Spirits of dead climbers haunt Mount Everest, and funeral rites needs to be performed for their deliverance, the Sherpa who whizzed to the summit in record time said.”

“Pemba Dorji Sherpa, 26, who scaled the 8,848-meter (29,028 feet) high peak in eight hours, 10 minutes on (Friday) May 21 (2004), told Agence France Presse he saw ‘black shadows’ near the summit on his way up.”

“‘When I was on my way to setting the record, I stopped briefly at three points between 8,000 and 8,748 meters to drink tea,’ Pemba said, ‘When I stopped at a mount of rocks, I saw some spirits in the form of black shadows coming towards me, stretching their hands and begging for something to eat,’ he said.”

“‘I think they were the spirits of many mountaineers killed during and after the ascent of Mount Everest.'”

“‘The bodies of many of those who died are still on the mountain, and one climber who died from an accidental fall is still hanging from a rope,’ Pemba said.”

“More than 200 people have died attempting to reach the highest place on Earth.”

“But skeptics said the spirits Pemba claimed to see could be figments of his imagination induced by the stress of the ascent in the thin air of Mount Everest.”

“Kamal Krishna Shrestha, one of Nepal’s leading scientists and academics, dismissed the account as induced by fatigue.”

“‘I think Pemba’s comments on the spirits may be his illusion or hallucination from physical fatigue while climbing,’ he said.”

“The appearance of the spirits on Everest would be believable only if it had been seen by someone else, Shrestha said.”

“He said that in 1999, when George Mallory’s body was found, ‘none of the mountaineers talked about any spirits.'”

“Mallory and fellow Briton Andrew Irvine had died on Mount Everest in 1924, and the mystery continues to this day about whether they, and not Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953, were the first to conquer the world’s highest peak.”

“Pemba is embroiled in a controversy of his own, with the Tourism Ministry investigating claims by Lakpa Gelu Sherpa, who was previously verified the fastest Everest climber, that the weather was too foul and there were no witnesses to ascertain Pemba’s feat.”

“Milan Shakya, an anthropologist at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, said the belief in spirits was common in Nepal.”

“‘Before setting out for a mountain climb or any kind of marine voyage, special rituals are performed, and protective amulets are worn so that in the event of accidental death, one can achieve salvation,’ he said.”

“Pemba, a Buddhist, said he wore a locket from Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.”

“‘I was not scared of the spirits, thanks to a locker I had of the Dalai Lama, and an amulet presented by the senior monks of the Buddhist monastery in the Everest region before starting the climb,’ Pemba said.”

“Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, endorsed Pemba’s proposal to perform funeral rites for the Everest dead.”

“‘We believe in the existence of the spirits of the dead and feel the need to perform death rituals,’ he said.” (See the Attleboro, Mass. Sun-Chronicle for June 16, 2004, “Everest haunted by spirits, says climber, but skeptics doubt claim.” Many thanks to Mary Lou Jones- Drown for forwarding this newspaper article.)

FAYETTE FATALITIES CONTINUE TO MOUNT

The Fayette Factor took a break from weather disasters last week. But odd fatalities in areas of the USA named for the Marquis de Lafayette continued to occur.

“Jeremy Ryan Marshall was trying to get away from police. It ended up getting him killed.”

“Marshall, 23 years old, was shot and killed by a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer Sunday evening,” June 13, 2004.

“It happened on Highway 10 just north of Lafayette (population 3,885) in Macon County.”

“Police aren’t releasing much information, but Marshall’s family says he was on probation and had a suspended license.”

“They feel that he was only trying to get away.”

“‘I seen the cop shoot, fire, and the guy dropped in a field,’ said Wayne Taylor, who lives right next to where the shooting happened. ‘And then I seen them jerk the girl out of the car, and took he away in an ambulance.'”

“‘There was no reason to shoot him,’ said Cindy Marshall, the victim’s aunt. ‘The only reason he would run is because he didn’t have a license, but this was no reason to shoot him.'”

“As of Sunday evening, police have not revealed their version of what happened.”

“Tennessee Highway Patrol did say there was a high- speed chase, then shots were fired.”

“However, witnesses say they only heard one shot.”

“THP would not say if they believe Marshall was shooting back at the patrolman.”

“One witness said the patrolman never told Marshall to stop. Another witness said he thought he heard the patrolman yell for him to stop.”

“Marshall died at the scene. He leaves behind a 3- year-old son.”

“His girlfriend, who was in the car with him, was taken to jail.”

More teenagers were killed in a bizarre traffic accident, this time in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, an area which has experienced a high incidence of paranormal events since March 2004.

“Two teenagers died when their all-terrain vehicle (ATV) collided with a pickup truck Monday,” June 14, 2004.” The accident took place in Bullskin Township, Pennsylvania.

In Lousiana, “Lafayette police have arrested a man and his son after a weekend melee that ended with a third man being shot.” (See the WTVF Channel 15 news broadcast from Nashville, Tenn. for June 14, 2004; the Pittsburgh Channel news broadcast for June 14, 2004; and the KATC broadcast from Lafayette, La. for June 14, 2004. Many thanks to Loren Coleman for these news stories.)

READER FEEDBACK:
HAM RADIO INTERCEPT HAS READER UPSET

Kathleen Grant writes, “I’m extremely upset by a report you included in your latest Roundup of June 2, 2004. Have you checked the veracity of the source of the intercept of these ham radio operators?”

“If yes, have you contacted the FBI or Homeland Security or the CIA; and, if not, why not???”

“Considering the state the world is in right now, you have a moral obligation to do your part in the security of the USA.”

“Have you heard the recording of this intercept?”

“What action have you taken?”

“As a service to your readers, who are loyal, please send a response to me and update your site ASAP, as I’m certain that others are as upset as you have me right now.”

(Editor’s Comment: We try to please, Kathleen. Please see the “Middle East Update” in this issue for the latest information our newsletter has received.)

WRONG RIVER IN TEMUCO

Rodrigo Alarcon writes, “I have read with interest your article enclosed in the UFO Roundup, volume 9, number 24 regarding the small alien in Temuco (Chile).”

“Can I please point out a small mistake in the article where it says that the river near Temuco is the ‘Rio Mapacho?’ This is not true, as the Rio Mapacho is the river that passes through Santiago, the capital of Chile, and it is approximately 600 kilometers (360 miles) north of Temuco.”

WHO SAVED YOUNG LAFAYETTE?

Vincent Auber writes, “I was much intrigued by the story in your UFO Roundup (volume 9, number 20) regarding the Marquis de Lafayette and the Beast of Gevaudan. In particular, I have been pondering the real identity of ‘M. Ouimette.’ Here is my theory. I believe that this mysterious ‘Master of the Hunt at Versailles’ was none other than the Count de Saint-Germain.”

“The count’s whereabouts were unknown during the winter of 1765-1766. I believe that King Louis XV sent for the Count de Saint-Germain, his advisor in all matters mystical, and asked him to deal with the threat of the werewolf. The count, however, had his own agenda when he went to Chavaniac. Saving the boy Gilbert from the Beast of Gevaudan ensured that the young marquis could fulfill his pre-ordained destiny, which was to assist in creating the United States of America.”

“Unless he was present at the chateau at Gilbert’s birth, this was probably the first meeting between the Count de Saint-Germain and the Marquis de Lafayette.”

From the UFO Files…

1882: THREE CHEERS FOR THE RED, WHITE AND WEIRD

Last week’s “transit of Venus” across the sun had astronomers everywhere on Earth excited. And no wonder. The last time it happened was December 6, 1882, over a century ago.

This event inspired a novel, published in 1910 and entitled–naturally– The Transit of Venus. As for the author…well, if you’re an American, you’ll be listening to quite a lot of his music during the upcoming Fourth of July holiday. His name was John Philip Sousa.

There’s a lot about this bandleader that somehow didn’t make it into his movie biography.

John Philip Sousa was born in Washington D.C. on November 6, 1854, the son of John Antonio Sousa, a U.S. Marine Corps musician, and Maria Elisabeth Trinkaus. “Sousa’s musical training began at age seven when he was enrolled in a Washington conservatory to study music theory, piano, violin and various band instruments.”

“When he was thirteen, his father enlisted him as an apprentice in the Marine Corps, where he served in the Marine Band and studied music.” In 1874, at age 20, Sousa left the Corps and got a job as a conductor in several Washington theater orchestras.”

(Editor’s Note: In these days before soundtracks, a musician could make a decent living providing live musical backgrounds for theatrical productions.)

In 1879, then working in Philadelphia, Sousa met his wife, Jane van Middlesworth Bellis, and they married later that year. Then Sousa’s father, still a Marine musician, sent him a telegram, telling him that the Marine Band needed a new director and encouraging him to apply.

“While the Marine Band played concerts and performed for social functions at the White House, its primary function was as a marching band, performing ceremonial duties. The march gave the group its principal musical identity, and it was Sousa’s marches that made the Marine Band stand out among all the other military bands of the period. With popular marches such as The Gladiator and The Rifle Regiment, both composed in 1886, Sousa gained national fame and recognition…Sousa’s 136 marches stand at the core of today’s band repertoire, and his march The Stars and Stripes Forever (1896) remains the single most popular piece of band music.”

That’s the Sousa every American knows. But Sousa’s stellar role in Washington D.C.’s occult underground is less well-known.

David Ovason, author of The Secret Architecture of Our Nation’s Capital, writes, “It is clear from Sousa’s writings and music that he was interested in hidden meanings…Hidden symbolism proliferates in his music and musical titles; for instance, the title of his 1888 composition The Crusader was arcane in the sense that it referred to his own acceptance into the Columbia Commandery No. 2 of the Knights Templar in Washington D.C. According to his biographer, Paul F. Brierley, this piece secretly incorporated fragments of Masonic music.”

From the time of his appointment as Marine Band director, Sousa was involved in a number of eldritch Masonic celebrations. In July 1881, President James A. Garfield was shot at the railroad station in Washington D.C. by Charles Julius Guiteau, supposedly “a disappointed office-seeker.” But if ever there was an occult crime, this was it–from the New Age background of the assassin (Guiteau was a member of the Oneida Colony–J.T.) to the grandiose Garfield memorial in Washington, D.C. with its ornate double horoscope.

According to Ovason, it was Sousa who wrote the music for Garfield’s funeral. “The night of Garfield’s death, on September 19, 1881, Sousa–shocked to the core by the event–had wandered the streets of Washington, mentally composing a dirge, his In Memoriam. This was played when the president’s body was returned by train to Washington and again when his coffin was buried in the cemetery in Cleveland.”

The following year, Sousa was asked–it is not at all clear by whom–to write some music for the dedication of the Joseph Henry memorial. Joseph Henry was the first director of the Smithsonian Institution, a professor of science at Albany College and Princeton, and the inventor of the electromagnet. He was also a prominent Freemason. Henry had died in 1878, but his memorial wasn’t dedicated until “Thursday, April 19, 1883, at 4 in the afternoon,” presumably because “the stars weren’t right” for Masonic purposes until that particular moment.

“In preparation for this, John Philip Sousa was invited to compose a march to celebrate the unveiling. Sousa called his piece The Transit of Venus March–on the face of it, a strange title for a piece of music to celebrate the life and work of a physicist.”

Not strange at all, really. At the time of the ceremony, the planet Venus, visible from Washington D.C., “was setting in the west and had just disappeared over the horizon.” The actual “transit of Venus” had occurred just 133 days earlier. (An occult reference to the 33rd degree of Masonry, perhaps?–J.T.)

Ovason points out that Masonry links the important figures of Washington’s occult underground during this period. “Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the man who sculpted the Statue of Liberty and the American William Brodie, who ensured that the gigantic lady was erected at an appropriate star time…the artist Caspar Buberl, who decorated the Arts and Industries building with allegorical figures; the genial composer Sousa, who celebrated such events in music; the unfortunate President James Garfield and the sculptor of his monumental horoscope, John Quincy Adams Ward…the great esotericist Albert Pike; the naval hero who had made his (Pike’s) beloved Vinnie (Ream) famous, the fearless (Admiral David G.) Farragut; that other seaman, Lieutenant Commander (Henry) Gorringe, who brought back the hermetic stone from Egypt; the scholar Thomas A.M. Ward who read the ancient glyphs on the monolith–the people in this long list were all Masons.”

Sousa was well aware of Lt. Cmdr. Gorringe’s quick trip to Egypt to pick up the “hermetic” obelisk. “Relevant to the naval involvement with the transit of Venus, we should note that Sousa was friendly with Benjamin F. Tracy (then Secretary of the Navy–J.T.) who officially encouraged his (first) book, National, Patriotic and Typical Airs of All Lands,” Ovason writes, “Incidentally, it was Tracy who officially recognized Sousa’s The Star Spangled Banner for naval use.”

The obelisk created a big stir when it arrived in the USA. It “was built in 1,600 B.C. by King Thotmes III. It stood in front of the Temple of the Sun in Heliopolis,” in Egypt, “until the Romans removed it to Alexandria in 12 B.C. and placed it before a temple built by Cleopatra. For very little reason it is sometimes referred to as ‘Cleopatra’s Needle.”

(Editor’s Note: You can see the obelisk for yourself. It stands in New York City’s Central Park on East Drive at 81st Street.)

American Masonry was in a tizzy over the supposedly “Masonic” symbols found chiseled at the base of the obelisk. Several books were written about the monolith, including The Egyptian Obelisk! And the Masonic Emblems Found at its Base by J. Ross Robertson, The Obelisk and Freemasonry, according to the Discoveries of Belzoni and Commander Gorringe by John A. Weisse, and A Translation into English of the Hieroglyphics upon the Egyptian Obelisk, Standing in Central Park, New York by Sousa’s friend and fellow lodge brother, Thomas A. M. Ward.

“In 1892 Sousa resigned from the Marine Corps to form his own concert band. After nearly twelve years he seems to have chafed under the restrictions of military life, and he was particularly frustrated by the fact that, despite his fame, the Marine Corps never offered him comissioned rank.”

Sousa’s new band toured the USA first and then Europe. In 1910, while on a lengthy world tour, Sousa wrote his third book, The Transit of Venus, a strange little novel fraught with Masonic symbolism.

“Sousa’s last novel, The Transit of Venus, 1910, is not well-constructed. The plot hinges unconvincingly on a survey seemingly sent to the Kerguelen Islands to study the transit of Venus in 1882. Although no date is specified for this survey, one of the participants points out that ‘the next transit after this one…will not take place until the year 2004.'”

“In his last novel, the hero’s name, Stoneman, seems to be a play on ‘Mason.’ while the name of the girl he loves–Miranda–is certainly a reference to the namesake daughter of the magician Prospero, in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest.”

(Editor’s Note: “Stoneman” is also the name of the leading family in Thomas Dixon’s 1902 novel, The Clansman, A Romance of the Ku Klux Klan. This is the book that was turned into the first feature film, The Birth of a Nation, in 1915. The Tempest was turned into a movie, too, namely MGM’s 1956 space opera, Forbidden Planet.)

“At the outbreak of World War I, Sousa enlisted in the Navy by special invitation and was commissioned a lieutenant in the naval reserves. During the war years, Sousa oversaw the training of hundreds of naval bandsmen at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station. After the war, he returned to active touring with the Sousa Band and maintained an active schedule throughout the 1920s.”

Sousa died on March 6, 1932 while on tour in Reading, Pennsylvania. He took a lot of Masonic secrets to the grave.

One other thing…the locale of Sousa’s 1910 novel, The Transit of Venus, with its curious Masonic symbolism. Stoneman’s Navy expedition heads for the Kerguelen Islands to observe Venus’s passage in front of the sun. And where are they? Why, they’re in the southern Indian Ocean…just north of Antarctica.

Masonic music, the Knights Templar, esoteric Masonry, Egyptian obelisks and Antarctica. Like the fabled Alice said, “Curiouser and curiouser.” (See the books The Secret Architecture of Our Nation’s Capital by David Ovason, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, N.Y., 2000, pages 19 through 22, 27, 28, 37, 38, and 396 through 398; American National Biography, volume 20, Oxford University Press, New York, N.Y., 1999; and Central Park: A History and a Guide by Henry Hope Reed and Sophia Duckworth, Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., New York, N.Y., 1966, page 135.)

Well, that’s it for this week. Join us in seven days for more UFO, Fortean and paranormal news from around the planet Earth, brought to you by “the paper that goes home–UFO Roundup.” See you next time.

UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 2004 by Masinaigan Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post news items from UFO Roundup on their Web sites or in news groups provided that they credit the newsletter and its editor by name and list the date of issue in which the item first appeared.

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