Mystorical

The Hard Call

2012-01-24T04:08:00.000-08:00

The Russian Flu, 1888-1889, reached North America in 1889-90. About a million people globally died in total.

In the 1918 Flu , millions of people died from "influenza". Nearly every community in the U.S. was impacted, churches, schools, and public events, such as Halloween parties, were canceled by civic decrees.

An Asian Flu epidemic broke out in 1956-1958 and in the U.S. just under 70,000 died. I was one who was lucky and escaped death but was rushed to the hospital .

In March of 1976, soldiers at Ft. Dix in New Jersey were suffering from an illness with few symptoms other than just feeling bad. One solder reported feeling ill but still made a hike only to die within hours of returning. Although others were ill and in the hospital by that time, base doctors were disturbed by the fact that there was an apparent illness without major symptoms capable of causing death. Perhaps because it came from the military their report zoomed up the channels leading to what is sometimes called the "Swine Flu Fiasco." In a daring move President Ford ordered mass inoculations to avoid a WWI style outbreak which was believed to have been Swine flu.

In 2009 a related version of swine flu, but one with a bit more 'umph' cut a swath through parts of the globe. The 'umph' was the flu strain was a mixture of both swine and avian flu. In truth the WW1 variety had been more avian flu than swine flu but this was not learned until later. Apparently, the more avian the strain is the more dangerous the flu becomes.

Although, people died and came down with disastrous side affects following the 1976 immunizations and the pandemic was a 'no show', history warns us it could have been. Recent history also shows that our quick transportation can create a disaster in hours rather than the months or years of earlier times. If faced with another 'hard call' will we be able to move swiftly to counteract death or be bogged down with indecision? People should be given the choice to participate (there is always a some who may die or become ill) but the small number who may become ill should not hamper work to save literally millions of lives in the event of a real pandemic outbreak.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_A_virus_subtype_H2N2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/qa.htm
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/records-list.html

ICE COLD CASES: TEXAS, LOUISANA AND LONDON

2012-01-18T12:36:00.000-08:00

In the sultry southern Texas community of Austin over the course of one year, a killer stalked the sidewalks. His victims are thought to number seven and if all the victims were the work of one man, they were generally young and of the servant class. With the exception of a few victims most were African-Americans.

The method was usually to drag his usually young victim from bed, rape them and then brutally slashing or hacking them to death with an axe. A couple may have also been stabbed in the ears and face by a spike or similar instrument. The dates for these atrocities were Dec. 1884 through Dec. 1885.

The axe will figure prominently in various other American killings across the continent between 1890-1920. Logically, it was a weapon of convenience found in nearly every home for chopping wood, doing yard work, and similar tasks. As a murder weapon, it is a weighty, awkward tool depending on brute force but deadly enough even a young person could use it effectively. In certain regions, where it might be a standard tool of some profession or job, a man might be seen carrying one over his shoulder and none would think anything about it. The wounds with a spike or other sharp object could be a railroad spike, a pipe, or an awl.

In 1888, in London’s Whitechapel district, someone working ‘from hell’ terrified the city by the butchering of at least five prostitutes. His method was to silence his victims with a thrust across the throat and then to post-mortem indulge in invasive acts to the inner organs and flesh. He is described by a witness as being dressed in a style which inferred he was a professional man or a dandy and not a “working man.” Although it may have been a costume to disguise his identity, seeing such a man in the area seeking drinks, drugs, and prostitutes was not uncommon. After his last victim, he simply disappeared.

Some refuse to believe a killer who had escalated to such a level could easily slack off or simply stop. He had to have been killed or jailed on some other charge to halt the bloodshed so sharply. Some firmly hold to the belief he fled to other killing fields. As a result, in diverse locations ranging from Switzerland to Nicaguara to Wisconsin to New Jersey a trail of bodies is often cited to prove the “Ripper” continued to work.

There are similarities. In each case a particular class of society is targeted because they would be easy victims. Prostitutes in London were as invisible as African-American servants in Austin. In both cases, several of the victims were involved in the world’s oldest trade.

In truth, the London Ripper was merely a new class of an old crime which may have been hidden previously through regular European wars, New World conflicts, isolation, the racism of southern bigots, the migrations of several men with violent tendencies, and the beginning of the century of serial killer.

A recent theory has emerged about Jack the Ripper being a German sailor who was put to death in 1896 in the U.S. for a murder and was in areas, according to some, during the time of similar Ripper murders. It can be pointed out that Austin is an inland community but is only a short distance from Houston, Galvaston and New Orleans. In the 1911-1912 axe murder sprees the killer was obviously using the railroads to travel and may have traveled as far north as Iowa and Colorado. At least one of the 1884/85 murders used something which might match the description of a rail spike.

As more details emerge, more theories appear and the cycle goes on and the cases remain ice cold. For now...

If you have personal information related to any of these crimes and would like to contribute to a book on the subject send your email to marilynahudson@gmail.com

MYSTERIOUS RUNESTONES

2011-12-21T16:49:00.000-08:00

The once fossilized reading of prehistoric North America's discovery has come under increasing challenges as new facts are uncovered and new eyes approach old ideas with a fresh vigor and openness. Some of the things causing a renewed look at early visitors are stones with runes on them which seem to hint that explorers, and perhaps settlers, might have traveled into the interior realms of North America. The came, they saw, and they left stone markers?

The Kensington Runestone is located at Alexandria, Minnesota. See book here.
The Heavener Runestone and others associated with it, in and around Heavener, Oklahoma. See article here.
The Vérendrye Runestone, found near Minot, North Dakota. Apparently lost and no images of its writings were found.
The three Spirit Pond runestones, found in Phippsburg, Maine, in 1971.
The Leif Eriksson Runestone found on a small island off the coast of Massachusetts in 1926.

Heavener Runestone section

Recent investigations into the common elements of the other runes has uncovered the use of a "hooked x" configuration. A shape which, according to some investigators, has only recently come to light in Europe and is suggested as being linked to the Holy Grail.

History is filled with tales of explorers setting off on journeys, making discoveries or being forever lost. It is a mistaken assumption that humans 'back then' were less innovative, courageous, unlucky, or intrepid than their modern counter-parts. It is a modern person's arrogance that assumes we know today all that is known, or we have learned all there is to know. Modern society looks at the back of the elephant asks, "What trunk? There is no trunk here."

Perhaps by backing up a bit to see the big picture - more will be uncovered divorced from preconceptions or limited thinking.

Ex-Slave to Preacher

2011-12-13T17:47:00.000-08:00

The original Church of God congregation in Guthrie, Oklahoma was formed in 1905 by an ex-slave, George Winn according to Wikipedia. It soon became and remained one of the largest churches of the group.

George W. Winn was born around 1848 in Georgia. On the 1890 and 1900 census he was residing around Woodland in Logan County, Oklahoma. Later he is living in Guthrie township proper. He indicated his parents had been born in Tennessee but by 1910 he, or someone else, responded with Georgia. His wife was Caroline, also called Carrie, and was born about 1854 in Georgia or Kansas. According to the census children included George (b.1877, Texas), Anna (b.1879, Texas), Carol (b.1884, Ks.), Stafford (b.1886, Ks.), Calvin (b. Ks), Eddie B. (b.Ks.).

In 1910 George listed his occupation as "preacher" and employer as "church." He died in 1945 after many long years and his verbal testimonies were often recalled as he thanked God and recounted life back to when he was a slave.

You Could Not Make This Stuff Up

2011-12-10T13:02:00.000-08:00

Why is one of the rarest finds among dinosaurs located in a North Carolina museum when it was found in Oklahoma? Why was this find revealed in a museum in the Black Hills rather than its state of discovery?

Until local amateurs Cephis Hall and Sid Love discovered the rare fossils, only fragments had been discovered in the late 1940's. Their find in the mid 1980's in the Antlers Formation of McCurtain County, Oklahoma was the largest such found and includes the only known complete skull and forelimb. A recent book by Russell Ferrell (Acrocanthosaurus: The Bones of Contention, 2011) explains that the work is the "true story of Cephis Hall and Sid Love, the " 'Arkansas Hillbilly' and 'Choctaw Indian' who outsmarted the Corporation and Saved the Dinosaur." However, that subtitle falls far short of expressing the complex tangle of greed, academic elitism, and political maneuvers filling this unique true story. The answer to those questions is convoluted and as dramatic as a soap opera. An engaging read.

Acrocanthosaurus - Standing about 16 ft high and 40 feet long, this predator was king of his time, with razor sharp teeth and claws. It may date to the transition between the Jurassic and the Cretaceous. Recent studies has helped clarify its place in the dinosaur family tree.

State Symbols - Although the Saurophaganax was named the Oklahoma state fossil in 2000, its designation and species are in question, according to some sources. It was roughly 40 feet long and about 16 feet tall. It roamed the plains in the Jurassic (about 150 million years ago).

AN EARLY INTER-RACIAL CHURCH IN PRE-STATEHOOD OKLAHOMA

2011-12-07T17:32:00.000-08:00

This early work, ca. 1911, on the doctrine of entire sanctification, was offered in several 'conversations' suitable for reader's theaters, discussion, home discussions, and later radio ministries, was published by Faith Publishing House in Guthrie, Oklahoma. The author of "A Religious Controversy" was Charles E. Orr.

Research indicates the story of the publishing house is also very interesting. The original Church of God congregation in that city was formed by an ex-slave, George Winn according to Wikipedia, in 1905. It soon became and remained one of the largest churches of the group.

The term "Church of God" can be ubiquitous presenting the researcher with the question, "Which Church of God?" The Guthrie group was originally related to the Church of God (Anderson, Ind) but soon separated from that group. This was due to a belief the Anderson branch was straying too far from the original Daniel Warner teachings and the subsequent "Evening Light Reformation."

The copy shown above has a stamp on the back cover reading: "RADIO PROGRAM", Capitol Hill Church of God...Station KLPR 1140....Oklahoma City, Oklahoma."

An interesting detour into early Oklahoma history, covering early radio programs, early inter-racial church groups (1905), and introducing a separatist group with an interesting pedigree. See some marvelous photos of the ex-slave founder of the Guthrie church and others, including the author of the above work, at the Faith Publishing House website. This website has digital versions of the work.

HE KNOWS WHEN YOU'VE BEEN GOOD OR BAD ....AND WILL SEND THE KRAMPUS!

2011-12-06T08:31:00.000-08:00

Holiday traditions, like all folklore, have a marvelous tendency to change and adapt to varied cultural expectations and behaviors.

Everyone knows the jolly fat elf, Santa Claus. Legend says he was adapted from the early Christian tale of the good bishop. Yet, legends were widely adapted and re-clothed into Christian motifs at one time. In some Germanic and Alpine countries - Herr Santa Claus was accompanied by the Krampus, (also known as Knecht Ruprecht, Certa, Perchten, Black Peter, Schmutzli, Pelznickel, Klaubauf) often depicted as a horned and demonic entity who punished bad children. Talk about being scared straight! This 'Anti-Claus' was even outlawed in 1934 Austria but now has his own web-page.

Although often depicted as the traditional Satanic looking demon with horns, tail and pitchfork, he can be disguised as a spooky looking man in black or a hairy-man beast. Other images show a faint resemblance to the depictions of the 'Mothman' and 'Spring heeled jack' of American folklore. Most definitely a non PC character most children and parents were happy to see fade into the woodwork. But watch.....coming to a SyFy channel near you sometime soon is sure to be " Krampus: He's Coming to Get the Naughty and Nice!" Be warned and be very afraid.....

(Get the book of postcards, The Devil in Design)

THE MYSTERIOUS UFO CASE

2011-12-04T11:51:00.000-08:00

An alleged FBI telegram report dated July 15, 1947. Two interpretations of the handwritten note at the bottom, alleged to be from Hoover's own hand.

(1) Transcription #1 (http://www.textfiles.com/ufo/cufon1.txt)

Memorandum for Mr. Ladd  
 
  Mr. ________ also discussed this matter with Colonel L. H. Forney of   
M
 
 ID.  Colonel Forney indicated that it was his attitude that inasmuch as   
Army or Navy experiments, the matter is of interest to the FBI.  He   
stat
it has been established that the flying disks are not the result of any    
ed that he was of the opinion that the Bureau, if at all possible,
lieve 
it should go into these investigations
should accede to General Schulgen's request. 
 
SWR:AJB   
 
ADDENDUM  
 
I would recommend that we advise the Army that the Bureau does not b
e, it being noted that a great bulk   
of those alleged discs reported found have been pranks.  It is not    
believed that the Bureau would accomplish anything by going into these
investigations.
 
                                          DML
 
(Clyde Tolson) - I think we should do this.  (Dated 7/15)   
 
(J. Edgar Hoover) - I would do it but before agreeing to it we must insist 
upon full access to discs recovered.  For instance in the SW case the Army 
grabbed it and would not let us have it for cursory examination [emphasis added]

(2) Transcription #2

The Hoover alleged statement is interpreted to be : " 
 I would do it but before agreeing to it we must insist upon full access to discs recovered. For instance in the LA case the Army grabbed it & would not let us have it for cursory examination" (emphasis added)

Coming right after the famous Roswell, NM UFO story, it is assumed this is a complaint of that case occurring in the American south west. Around July 10, 1947 other UFO incidences were being investigated in Michigan, hoaxed event in Shreveport, LA on July 7, and five years before the famous "battle of Los Angeles" in Feb of 1942.

If the FBI memo is valid, if the scrawled was there before its release, then the item grabbed by the Army could have been "La" (Louisiana), "Sw" (southwest) or, "La" (Los Angeles).   Each one presents an intriguing possibility.

OLD MOORELAND COMMUNITY HOSPITAL (OK)

2011-11-30T17:57:00.000-08:00

Mooreland is a small community east of Woodward in northwest Oklahoma. The hospital at 6th and Krouth Streets (Blocks 4 & 5 of the Matthews edition), sits on about two acres and was built in an art deco style between 1940/41 when the community had some 800 in population and the ten plus miles to Woodward's hospital was too far to drive in an emergency. Its 180' x 85' size features a flat roof with parapets, concrete construction, classic corner windows, a blue frieze running the higher borders. The architect was Ed Hudgens and in 1985 it was listed in a Oklahoma Historic building nomination as a "Woodward WPA" site. In 1989, a bid by a group (Rivers of Life) to make a 60-bed drug and alcohol abuse facility was denied citing the nearness of similar facilities.

For over forty years the hospital provided crucial care and comfort to the citizens of the area.

Now, according to sources consulted, it is in private hands awaiting renovation. The possibilities are interesting, and possibly endless, for renewal of this historic building into a viable part of the 21st century and a reminder of another day and another time. Housing, condos, care facility, office space, educational space......We shall see if this survives to enjoy another seventy years...or falls to time.

SIZE IS JUST A NUMBER

2011-11-27T04:26:00.000-08:00

Why do women continue to allow this to happen? A recent battle between a marketing campaign and a Dallas based blogger underscores that society is often biased, sexist, size-st and unfair. A company was adding "plus size" fashions to its line. The sizes were 12-14. I have seen this on various other online catalogs where plus size, full figure, and similar terms were now for sizes under size 20. How things change. But have they really?

In the 1930's "vanity sizes" first appeared as clothing for women became standardized and mass produced. I have personally seen antique patterns for smaller women carrying the sizing of "16". I was then a current size "12" and could not have fit in it! My mother explained sizes changed. To say the least.

According to one source, standard sizes range from:

US Small (2,4) Medium (6,8), Large (10,12) XL (14,16)

European Small (32,34), Medium (36,38), Large (40,42), XL (44,46)

UK Small (6,8), Medium (10,12), Large (14,16), XL (18, 20)

Note these all refer to the same body measurements! A 36 1/2 inch bust is going to be either a "10", "40" or a "14" depending on where it was made. Plus sizes (US sizes 18-28, European 48-58, and UK 22-32) offer equally confusing and disheartening size ranges. The basic measurement of the 1910-1930 years was based only on bust size and all else adjusted from that. Then standardization arrived/.

See some vintage patterns here.

The mystery is what it is within many women which allows them to sign over control of their looks to third parties: a man, designers, fashion industry, beauty magazines?

The realization that "fashion" is a construct designed to help perpetuate an economic system goes far in freeing some women from the clutches of the annual seasonal buying, updating, redoing, and rebuying cycle designed to allow someone's warped visions and unnatural dictates to control how they will look, what they will wear, and how they will live. Other women, simply have their own style and ignore the voices seeking to control how they look. Some other women know what looks good on them and stick with what works.

http://girlinthepinkprius.com/page/52/
Bones sticking out - yeah really sexy

Why should someone else tell any woman how to wear her hair, what clothes to wear, or how she should feel about herself? It is the result of centuries of women being taught to need the approval of parents, other women and men. It is a problem which often leads young women to severely abuse themselves because they have accepted the inference of their inferiority and they believe they are never good enough, small enough, or pretty enough. Various health and mental health issues result.

While rumbles of revolt against this annual guilt trip affirming a woman is not good enough being herself have surfaced periodically, they are soon beaten back down by the fashion industry and social pressures. Women gleefully abandon themselves to yearly looks ranging from prostitute, uni sexual, and vamp not because they really want to but because it was what Vogue told them to wear, or what they saw modeled in music videos, commercials and movies. Women comprise a significant economic force in society - isn't it time women called the shots and demanded more of what they want based on their self-value and self-respect?

The Places Before the Places

2011-11-24T08:20:00.000-08:00

Sometimes people can assume that because they have always known of an area being a certain way, it had no existence before that time. It was vague, foggy, and a blank canvas before some magic time of development. The huge sprawling town? Why there was nothing here but waving grass, right?

Anyone who has driven through Oklahoma City has crossed "Council" heading west out of town or into two from the west. Nice name, has a ring to it doesn't it? People never realize that it refers to a special portion of land from a time decades before major settlement arrived in runs or land lotteries.

"Council Grove was described as - "The area included all of Bethany south of N.W. 42nd Street and extended southward to a half mile south of N.W. 10th Street and from Council Road eastward for about three miles. It was soon deemed practical to move a sawmill from Darlington (near Fort Reno) to near the present N.W. 10th Street Bridge. (Doug Dawgz Blog)

In the 1850's until the outbreak of the Civil War, trader Jesse Chisholm and various Native groups would meet at this historic council grounds for business (Stan Hoig. Cowtown Wichita. University of New Mexico Press, 2007, pg.47). On some old maps it is identified as the "Timber Res." and the "Timber Military Reservation". It was part of the "Unassigned Lands."

In a similar vein, Oklahoma City, "born grown" in the 1889 land run, actually replaced a supply depot called Oklahoma Station.

A survey of an old 1920's atlas of the states reveals the names of many a small town that disappeared with time: Morgan, Erwin, Silver City, Moral, Cereal, etc. Some, never even made it to ghost town status and others were simply swallowed whole leaving evidence of their presence only in street names, depot designations, or housing developments.

It Could Never Happen Here!

2011-11-05T22:14:00.000-07:00

Recently earthquakes occurring in out of the ordinary places bring up phrases like "such things never happening" in a certain locale. Weather and nature, however, tend to make themselves felt where ever they want.

Hurricanes and Typhoons can come inland to surprisingly landlocked regions. Tornadoes have cropped up in places which still cause some to shake their heads in wonder. And....in the 1940's a volcano suddenly appeared in a corn field in central Mexico!

So, with rumbles, whirling winds, and the end of the world forecast for Dec. 2012 - one should not take anything for granted.

THE HOLIDAY OF THE IMAGINATION

2011-10-30T08:10:00.000-07:00

I played an exotic gypsy on more than
one occasion! Even reprised the role
for a PTA Carnival!

Why has Halloween been so popular? Why have I enjoyed it over other fun times of the year?

I recall as a child the eager anticipation as the trees turned to gold, scarlet, and brown beneath an October sky with a unique clarity and a deep azure color. The time of fall festivals, bags of candy, parties, hayrides, mad leaps into piles of crackling eaves, and lots of plain fun.

The inspiration for dozens of daring deeds and funny pranks from older adults and siblings and delightful shivers danced up spines as scary stories and stupid jokes were shared around glowing jack-a-lanterns.

There was the giggling excitement of heading to the local Woolworths or Ben Franklin to see the long rows of shiny boxes, each with a small window of hard cellophane revealing wondrous masks for fairies, heroes, and animals. The hard decisions that followed: would it be the exotic gypsy fortuneteller or the Little Red Riding Hood, or maybe the Monster, Clown, or a Spaceman this year?
Every child readily over looked the shortcomings of the mandatory accompanying acetate satin costume (always for some reason with sparkles detailing the seams and adding details to the costume). Too short or too long, what did matter?

It was Halloween!

Halloween and numerous rites of passage lay ahead with each new turning of the season.

Arcane knowledge and childhood rituals passed from generation to generation: look for the sacred light of welcome (the front porch light casting its feeble glow), look carefully before you cross the street, and always, always say “Thank you.”

Anticipatory huddles preceded the event on playgrounds, street corners, and in back yards. Skills were shared in excited whispers, but ultimately it was a lonely hero’s journey to be faced in solitude. A rite of passage was learning to walk boldly up the forbidden zone of someone’s front porch, climbing nervously the steps illuminated by glowing jack-o-lanterns knocking on a door that stood ten feet tall.

A soft childish knock, a stuttering “trick-or-treat!” followed by smiling faces, mock looks of surprise or fear at your dime store or homemade costume. The handfuls of goodies dumped into plastic pumpkins, paper bags, or mother’s second best pillow cases. Squeaky voices excitedly calling “thank you!” Children rushing back to the sidewalk to catch up with friends. Voices mingling in squeals of delight, as they compared their booty, and autumn joined in blowing chill kisses and swirling her colorful skirt.

Halloween is a distinctly American holiday. It’s taproots stem from ancient rituals and celebrations. The manner in which it developed was unique and reflected the “melting pot” s many cultures met and mingled.

As the celebration changed, one element remained at the core : the festival belongs to the land of the imagination: that rich, fertile soil from which all creativity stems and innovation flows.

Although every decade saw some threat to produce a “Year without a Halloween”, sanity prevailed and the joys of this special rite continued, changed perhaps by contemporary influences, truncated through modern fears, but it remains as a reminder that people – of all ages – need magic, mystery, and hours of simple fun.
The answer to my question was clear - Halloween was a holiday of the imagination, of play, and stepping outside the confines of the ordinary into the extraordinary. No wonder I have always loved it!

Origins of the Holiday - Halloween

2011-10-30T08:08:00.001-07:00

I love October...the crunchy leaves, the chilly nights...and the drama and imagination of Halloween. I was one of those little kids that lived in dress-up clothes, tripped around her mother’s heels and should have won an Oscar at some point in Kindergarten for my stellar performance of Little Red Riding Hood.

I am also an American Celt...no I have no real language or the major customs, but there were a bunch of Celts in my family tree. Despite the lack of language and a loss of many customs...the blood runs strong in other ways. The poet is alive, the warrior, the dreamer, and...Face it...maybe even a tad bit of the schemer. There is also the mystic who can step out into a night and almost see the shimmering layers that curtain us from other realities, as they ripple in some cosmic breeze.

Halloween began as such in a long distant time. It was a night when someone would leave the door between this world and the next ajar. The recently dead, and perhaps other things, could come to call. Saucers of milk would be left out as an offering to keep the visit...friendly.

So enjoy the sigh of the wind and the crackle of leaves as you walk. Set out your autumn decorations and enjoy the "October country" as author Ray Bradberry called it.....but leave some milk out on the night. Just in case.

Now some history; to understand the roots of Halloween it is necessary introduce the Celts.

The term Celts refer to numerous tribal groups occupying Europe from about 800 C.E. who shared a common language group. From the Steppes to Ireland they were the tradesman, philosophers, artisans, and warriors who dominated the landscape and successfully challenged early Rome. They were the ancestors of the people known as the “Gauls”, the “Norseman”, and the “Britons”. Although they shared a common language and fundamental religious beliefs, they developed in many different ways and practices varied.

One common belief held by many of these people groups was that on a particular night of the year the separation of this world from the next changed.

Like a curtain billowing in a breeze glimpses between the two co-existing realities were possible. Sometimes, the recently dead could slip back into the world of the living to say goodbyes, give a blessing, or cause a bit of mischief.

For the Celts, most of whom believed in reincarnation, death was but another part of existing. Customs of leaving small gifts to not offend the returning dead (and bring about problems) often developed. Animals were favored forms for the returning dead and so leavings milk out for dogs or cats became the custom in some locations.

All of this occurred at the turning of the year at Samhaim (Sow-wain). Harvest time the world over share similar festivals marking the end of the growing season, the successful gathering of the harvest, and celebration before the onslaught of winter’s stark chill.

Many of these Celtic customs came to America in early Colonial days, mingling with customs from the Dutch, the English, the Germans, and the Native Americans. There was even an element of the Roman feast of Saturnalia in how America celebrated the night; roles were reversed and chaos celebrated. Many aspects of this initially agrarian based festival would remain important and be kept alive in remote rural areas well into the 20^th century. The greatest diversity occurs as locales become increasingly urbanized and more multicultural in the early years of the 20^th century.

In Oklahoma, which did not become a state until 1907, there is distinct evidence of the old customs and the melting pot in action as customs from various times, and places begin to mingle and what emerges is the American Halloween. Evidence of this is revealed by the various names over the years: fall festival, harvest festival, “huskin’ time”, “begging night”, “Nutcrack Night” (a term from Britain), Halloween, and even for the more negative, “Helloween.”

Early Oklahoma Halloween Customs.

2011-10-30T08:06:00.000-07:00

In the earliest days the season was celebrated in husking parties, taffy pulls, and other harvest themed activities which allowed families on remote farms to get together socially.

By the first decade of the 20th century, it was a firm part of the yearly calendar going by the name "Nutcracker Night" as often as "Hallowe'en" or " All Hallows Eve." The annual night was apparently largely the realm of the ten to teen ages and was focused on community pranks: outhouses were tipped, gardens lifted, and piles of items stacked in the street. Reports of buggies hoisted to barn roofs and missing garden furniture abound. All out vandalism, malicious and destructive were few, although all out rowdiness and high jenks sometimes came close to crossing the line. In this later aspect the night was acted out as more the old Roman Saturnalia where pranks and tricks were the focus.

As a result, most of the tragedies related to the night came from farmers or home-owners taking exception to the youthful high-jinks which might include the temporary theft of property, frightening of laying hens, and letting out livestock. Stories from Oklahoma, Missouri, and elsewhere recount youth shot by homeowners putting a stop to such behavior in a very abrupt and serious manner.

No wonde,r if occasionally, the pull of the freedom of childhood and the autonomy of adulthood created a tension... Halloween was the perfect meeting place for both.

----From The Year Without - Almost - A Halloween, Marilyn A. Hudson.

The Good Old Days: Halloween in Oklahoma, 1910-1919

2011-10-30T08:03:00.000-07:00

From ghoulish and ghosties and long leggety beasties and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us! - - - Scottish saying

Once the harvest was in and the long days of summer were retreating minds and hands turned to preparing the farm and the small towns for the coming winter. In the crisp air that promised autumn would soon be arriving, many a young mind was on a variety of traditional pastimes: Corn husking parties, harvest festivals, taffy pulls, simple pleasures, fortune telling tephromancy (by ashes) or by the divinations of apple cores, unwinding yard, or a coin in a piece of cake.

Parents worried about frightened cows and chickens, overturned outhouses, and missing garden gates. Gates appeared to be of special appeal to small boys as they were easy to lift and carry off. Older boys and girls were known to pile gates, scrap wood into the center of intersections and set them ablaze. Annually, local constables fretted over all the promised ‘shenanigans’ of the local ‘hooligans’.

In 1907, one writer for the local Oklahoma City newspaper reflected that things had changed since they were a child. It would be a refrain heard each and every decade as one generation ruminated about the great fun they had, the better quality of the fun in their own day, or the general state of wild abandon found in modern desolate youth. It must be remembered that somebody had to be instilling these traditions into the minds of the young people coming up from decade to decade; older siblings, grandparents and others helping continue the traditions.

So closely tied to familiar harvest activities and frivolities, the activities were largely rural in nature. They carried with them an aura of acceptable custom that most supported in theory if not always in fact. Despite all the complaints all the actions of youth were still largely innocent, if a bit devilish, fun.

That began to change as the real specters of war and disease struck the home front in the 1916-1919 time periods.

Influenza, or the ‘flu’, cut a swathe through the armies of all sides of the European conflict. Communities back home saw sometimes dire local warnings of canceling activities, even church services, due to fear of contagion.

Believed to have begun in an army camp in Kansas, “The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the Great War, known today as World War I (WWI), at somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351” (http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/). More are thought to have died from illness than bullets; “1918 influenza pandemic caused at least 675,000 U.S. deaths and up to 50 million deaths worldwide.” (http://www.pandemicflu.gov/general/whatis.html).

One of the common myths associated with Halloween may have its roots in stories torn from newspapers. German and Allied forces both claimed the daring bi-plane pilots tossed ‘poisoned candy’ down on unsuspecting people during the war. What may have been a story with some truth was more probably manipulated for the propaganda opportunities it provided than for any real death by candy scenarios.

Sources:

“Fate-Finding fun for Halloween.” The Oklahoman. (Oct. 29, 1905): 18.

“Halloween at Chickasha” Nov. 1, 1906): 2.

“Citizens Ask Police To Suppress Young Hoodlums.” The Oklahoman ( Nov. 28, 1906): 7.

“Children Arrested; Stay Out Too Late.” The Oklahoman (July 5, 1907): 5.

“Arrest Hallowe’en Raiders After Boiling Water Fight.” The Oklahoman (Nov.1, 1907): 8.

“Mutiny is Threatened by “Co-Eds”: Girls who paraded in white, penalized and revolt.” The Oklahoman (Nov. 2, 1907): 1.

“Seeress’ Vision a Trifle Too Late.” The Oklahoman. (Oct. 31, 1907) 6.

“Witches will be Abroad in the Land; Next Thursday will be Hallowe’en and Goblins Are Due.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 27, 1907): 13.

“New State Notes” The Oklahoman (Nov. 16, 1907): 20.

“Goblins On Parade Tonight.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 31, 1908): 5.

“Superstitions”. The Oklahoman. (Dec. 12, 1909);41.

“Evil Spirits to Stalk in Night: Yearly Carnival of Gate Stealing and Bad Jokes coming..” The Oklahoman (Oct. 28, 1909): 5.

---Marilyn A. Hudson, 2009

Helloween vs. Halloween: The 1920's in Oklahoma

2011-10-30T08:02:00.000-07:00

Tis now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world. - - -William Shakespeare

The simple rural pleasures of continuing old world customs of lifting gates and soaping windows began to change according to local newspapers. “Vandalism” began to be used to describe the annual activities of youth in the towns and cities of the state and the nation. More people are moving into towns and cities from collapsed or folded farms, while Immigrant numbers are increasing as well. A generation of “city-folk” emerges in places, like Oklahoma City, who have never lived on a farm.

The normal rhythms of rural life, rural skill building, and rural responsibilities that led to maturity are being replaced. Now schools, and civic policies, seem prone to keep those under a certain age childlike for a long time. The “teen” years are beginning to develop – that long lonely landscape of being neither child nor adult that leads inevitably to boredom and rambunctiousness.

The social caste system was very evident in the 1920’s: class, gender, race, politics, and economics divided society. Papers carried announcements detailing plans for Halloween parties for community socialites, parties to which most of society would never be able to attend, further segmented the population. Large urban hotels specialized in elegant parties with costume prizes and music bands offering up familiar foxtrots and the latest in ‘hot jazz’. Others held more intimate get-togethers that were just as well attended and enjoyed.

These class struggles reflect a time when Socialism takes its first major grip in the United States, challenging even the major political parties with new solutions to an old set of problems.

The often boastful details of parties and events on the society pages of newspapers was a reinforcement of the caste system and a reflection of the decade that would be marked by its spiraling out of control excesses. The very excesses and risks that would ultimately lead, by the 1930’s, to widespread economic and social collapse.

Sources:

“Fix the Pumpkin Hallowe’en Near: “Nutcrack Night” to be Observed in the Metropolis Monday, Oct. 31.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 24, 1910): 5.

“Hop Joint Raid; Twelve Arrested.” The Oklahoman (Dec. 14, 1910): 16.

“Editorial: The Carnival Spirit of Hallowe’en.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 30, 1910); 32.

“Nutcrack Night Keeps Cops Busy.” The Oklahoman (Nov. 1, 1910) :10.

“Ad: Masks for Halloween.” The Oklahoman. (Oct. 22, 1915): 7.

“Sheets and Shouts Replace Usual Halloween Vandalism; Arrests Few, Warnings Many.” The Oklahoman. (Nov. 1, 1916): 1.

“Old Glory Carnival at Yukon October 31”. The Oklahoman (Oct. 30, 1917): 13.

“Kansas Man Shot Boy on Halloween.” The Oklahoman. (Nov. 2, 1917): 12.

“NO “Ghosts” To Be Out Halloween: “Flu” Epidemic Interferes with Customary Pranks.” The Oklahoman. (Oct. 20, 1918): 14.

“Ad”, ibid, pg. 9.

“The 1918 Influenza Pandemic of 1918.” http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/ (accessed 6/1/08).

“What is an Influenza …?” at Pandemic Flu http://www.pandemicflu.gov/general/whatis.html

1920-1929

“Ad: Hallowe’en”. The Oklahoman (Oct. 28, 1921): 14.

“Hallowen Eve Costume Dance. (AD)”The Oklahoman (Oct. 28, 1921): 14.

“Chickens Make Home in Old Foss Jail: Violators of Law Must Go to Cordell”. The Oklahoman (Nov. 29, 1921): 4.

“Hallowe’en.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 29, 1922): 59.

“Hallowe’en Origin Back in Dim Past”. The Oklahoman (Oct. 22, 1922): 10.

“Big, Red Apples for Halloween” (AD). The Oklahoman (Oct. 30, 1923): 5.

“Youth to Make Merry Tonight, on Hallowe’en.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 31, 1922): 12.

“Pranksters Are Few, Say Cops.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 29, 1923): 3.

“Okmulgee Has Wild Hallowe’en Frolic.” The Oklahoman (Nov. 2,1925): 3.

“Hallowe’en Booth” (AD) The Oklahoman (Oct. 29, 1926):22.

“Hallowe’en Jokes Do Little Damage.” The Oklahoman (Nov. 1, 1926): 20

“Halloween Fete is Planned at Enid.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 9, 1929): 17.

“Halloween Is Observed With Party: Dr. and Mrs. John Payne Entertain for Their Daughter.” The Oklahoman. (Oct. 28, 1929): 6.

Safe and Sensible Halloween: 1930's Oklahoma

2011-10-30T08:00:00.001-07:00

Where there is no imagination there is no horror. - - -Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

With the depression, the 1930’s were a challenge to vast segments of the population to just survive, let alone celebrate a holiday. Yet, that is often when it is seen that keeping customs alive bring hope for the good times to return.

In 1930, Halloween was a gooey mess when a well blew and spouted oil all over Northeast Oklahoma City. It seemed portentous for some, with the recent economic downturn of 1929, known vividly as ‘the crash’, that the incident involving the symbol of oil wealth had occurred so near the state capital. The mad wealth of the early oil days, surely could not be in jeopardy? If nothing else, however, it added another layer of excitement to a night already packed with activity.

As always, diligent law officers and concerning community leaders looked to the schools to warn children about being orderly and safe. Added to their warnings would be caution about getting close to open flames in their costumes. The news of children suffering horribly, and even dying, was repeated often to avoid injury.

Rowdy behavior was still the norm and the use of ‘children’ can be misleading in reading old accounts. For many in this time period, the children were what we might call adolescents or teenagers. Smaller children under the age of ten were usually not part of the groups, according to accounts, that took part in the more interesting events.

For children and youth, feeling the stress and fears of unemployment, poverty, and adult anxiety, the night offered a release. The adults assumed the night was in their control, but most young people knew it really belonged to them. It always had.

Late in the decade, Orson Well’s Mercury Theater production of “A War of the Worlds” would add another layer of concern to the holiday. This was a particularly effective broadcast in America due to the war in Europe and the fears of American being brought into another conflict. The invasion scenario, no doubt, caused some people to be a bit conflicted about how they would respond to a real life ‘foreign invasion’.

----Marilyn A. Hudson, 2009

“Halloween Costumes”. (AD) The Oklahoman (Oct. 26, 1920): 11.

“Woman’s Death Attributed to Halloween Explosion.” The Oklahoman (Nov. 1, 1930): 1

“True Cauldron of Witches Bubbles Evil Air Over City: Wild Well Spouting on Halloween Night is Appropriate Gesture for the Season.” The Oklahoman (Nov.1, 1930): 13.

“It’s Time to Take in the Chairs” The Oklahoman. (Oct. 29, 1931): 1.

“Make your Hallowe’en Cake a thriller with Calumet’s Double-Action!” (AD) The Oklahoman ( Oct. 31, 1931)7.

“Two Children Die as Costumes Burn.” The Oklahoman (Nov. 3, 1931)4.

“Halloween Edict Goes to Schools.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 28, 1930): 14.

“Death Blamed on Halloween.” The Oklahoman (Nov. 2, 1932): 8.

“Sanity Rules Halloween Over All U.S. This Year.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 31, 1935. 12.

“School Head Tells of Boy’s Death in Halloween Prank.” The Oklahoman (Nov. 2, 1935)8.

“Shh! It’s Going to Be A Safe and Sane Halloween.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 25m 1936)19.

“Ghosts, Soap Witches Too Halloween!” The Oklahoman (Oct. 31, 1936) 10.

“Second Halloween Afflicts Scores of Householders.” The Oklahoman (Nov. 1, 1937); 2.

“Police Happy as Halloween Party Plans Are Pushed.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 10, 1937) 79.

“Children’s Joy is Helloween to Grownups: Peace Parties Help, but not much. The City is Torn Up.” The Oklahoman. (Oct. 31, 1937): 17-18.

“No Nightmare, Just Halloween Spooks.” (with photo) The Oklahoman (Oct. 23 1938): 32.

“Men of Mars” Scare Brings Added Threat: Technique Change Promised By Network Heads.” The Oklahoman (Nov. 1, 1938)6.

“Clean Halloween Fun to be Police Standard.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 30, 1939): 1.

“Little Darlings Give the Folks a Fretful Night: For What they Did on Halloween They Could Go To Jail.” Nov. 1, 1939)1.

“Two Letter Writers Stand Up for Modern Halloween Fun.” The Oklahoman (Nov. 8, 1939)20.

From Delinquent to Deputy: 1940's Halloween in Oklahoma

2011-10-30T07:59:00.000-07:00

The rowdy and rambunctious thirties spawned communities who set out to provide engineered and carefully scripted fun for their youth. Almost every community of size set up committees to oversee an evening of varied and tiring activities. Parades, carnivals, fund raising, community projects, costume contests, dances, picnics were among some of the functions placed on the calendars of the 1940’s. Some communities were determined that this rampant disregard for community order, known familiarly as Halloween, would be carefully controlled with laws, curfews, and expanded police forces for the duration.

One youth rebelled against the attempt to rob children of their traditional night of party by suing for his right to run amuck through the community. Most, however, merely obeyed, but slipped out after curfews to meet with friends.

Overall, the inward focus on the one holiday did serve to dampen some episodes of high-jinks. It was hard to tell, at times, when newspapers talked about the relative calm of local communities whether they were celebrating or complaining.

All that changed, however, in December of 1941 when reality brought a new seriousness to the minds of almost all. Although fun and laughter were still sought after, there was now a sense of propriety on the matter. When men, some from your own community, were fighting and dying overseas there were more serious matters to be considered.

War effort fundraisers, troop entertainments, and community events were promoted as worthy of support by all the community. Gifts and candy were diverted in some cases to make certain the troops enjoyed a Halloween in the midst of the struggle. The traditional, and simpler, customs made a come back as all tried to sacrifice for the common good. Although a few youth had their fun despite the dire days and critics called the celebration a “Helloween,” most found lots of fun in rediscovering the pleasures of an earlier day.

---Marilyn A. Hudson, 2009

SOURCES:

“Work Projects Plan Schools For Streamlining Halloween.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 1, 1940)7,

“City is ready for Halloween.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 27, 1940):30.

“State Youth Sues for Halloween Fun ‘Rights’ and $4,000.” The Oklahoman (Dec. 6, 1940):5.

“Man From mars Doesn’t Drop In.” The Oklahoman (Nov. 1, 1940) 6.

“Halloween Quieter or Did you Notice?” The Oklahoman. (Nov. 1, 1940) 1.

“Boys Apologize for Nazi Flag Prank.” The Oklahoman (Nov. 17, 1940): 74.

“Parade, Queen Crowning Set for Halloween.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 19, 1941): 27.

“Halloween Made easy, Young Imaginations Needn’t Strain So.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 24, 1941)15.

“Plan an Eerie background for Halloween.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 26, 1941):64.

“Fun Without Damage Pleas Made by Smith.” The Oklahoman. (Oct. 31, 1942): 3.

“Halloween Parties Are Set by USO”. The Oklahoman (Oct. 30, 1943) 5.

“Halloween May Serve War as Well as Youth.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 30. 1943)8.

“U.S. Troops Don’t Forget Halloween.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 31, 1943)44.

“Police Pranks Curbed, Too.” The Oklahoman ( Oct. 26, 1944)12.

“Police Proud: City Behaves on Halloween.” The Oklahoman (Nov. 5, 1944)26.

“Mannerly Halloween Revelers Jam Main With Record Crowd.” The Oklahomlan (Nov. 1, 1944)1.

“Tragedy Ends Youth’s Joy Ride on Halloween.” The Oklahoman (Nov. 5, 1944) 27.

Johnson, Edith. “Why Not a Halloween Instead of Helloween?” The Oklahoman. (Oct. 28, 1944):6.

“Programs Set on Hallowe’en.” The Oklahoman. (Oct. 26, 1945) 19.

Take Us To Your Leader!: Halloween Fun Fifties Style

2011-10-30T07:57:00.000-07:00

ake Us To Your Leader

(1950-1959)

Post world war, the single desire of American society was escape from the turbulence and grief of the battle years. In an eager rush to return things to ‘normal’, a lot of culture became idealized. This meant a lot of things were redefined by an unnatural reality.

During these years conformity was more important than individualism, the genders split into a hyper-masculinity and a hyper-femininity and strong social forces (similar to the forces at work in the Victorian era) mandated just what was normal, acceptable, or proper. Cookie cutter housing tracks developed as suburbia was born, assembly lines were refitted to provide more of everything, and life generally looked up.

Occasionally, like bubbles in a fermenting swamp, evil peaked out its head in the form of the threat of nuclear annihilation and marauding communism.

A lantern moon smiles down on the balmy night as children in cowboy clothes, pirate hats, hobo rags, or draped sheet cruise the streets of America. Shouts of recognition and giggles of anticipation fill the cooling night. Neighbors wave to parents with small children standing protectively on the sidewalk. Clusters of costumed figures voice groans of envy comparing bags and sacks of “treats”.

No one is a stranger, despite the disguises but everywhere are feigned surprises as identities are revealed. Mr. Smith always comes to the door in a mask and laughs as he dispenses the popcorn balls his wife has made. Each one lovingly wrapped in crisp wax paper and tied with orange and black ribbon by Mrs. Smith herself. Mrs. Johnson always leaves a tub on the porch by a glowing jack-o-lantern with goodies piled high. She and her husband watch with a cup of coffee from the front window and always wave as the children call their appreciation. The Kransky family calls everyone in their large and extended family to the door to see each new trick-or-treater. They guess and laugh as they pile goodies into bags and pour mugs of cider. Dr. Barnes house is spooky looking naturally but on Halloween they add hanging ghosts, corn stalks, and plum pumpkins. Children run from their door in partial delight at the toys added to the candy and a desire to escape alive from the eerie old house.

The old Blaine house in right on the way to the community hall where all the teens are having a dance. It is the solemn duty of every child to show their courage by walking as close to the old house as possible. They demand respect if they walk to the front porch and everyone looks in aw e if they actually made it to the front windows. Most came screaming back telling of horrid and ghostly things seen, real or imagines, through the soapy bedroom windows. Guaranteed hero status is bestowed on any child who actually reaches the front door and peeks in the grimy window at the empty parlors and staircase beyond.

Breathless to escape the creepy old house in one piece they rush to invade the hall where there will be rewards of punch and cookies from the people there. Overall, with heavy bags of sweet loot, UNICEF cartons full of coins, and memories whirling, the night was a success.

Although some sources say ‘trick-or-treating” was begun in the post war years, in the 1950’s, there was also a general move to replace the night of ‘begging’ with something more socially redeeming. Various projects, designed to benefit the children of war-torn Europe, were arranged, including the United Nation’s collection for the children’s fund. Useable clothes, toys, food, and funds were solicited that night by packs of children working together in a manner reminiscent of the war time effort. Some health conscious groups also were skeptical of the nutritious values of such a night of riotous sweets overload.

Costumes were now reflecting the growing popularity of television characters and heroes. A national obsession with cowboys, spacemen, and cartoon figures added a new battalion of possibilities to childish imaginations. Some groups even sought to implement a ‘candy’ for money program; most children were wisely skeptical. If the adults were willing to give the money to give up candy, more than one reasoned, they better keep the more valuable candy.

The continuing trend to bypass individual or gang shenanigans through community events continued and parades, parties, and events covered the state. In Woodward in 1955 a parade was to feature a seven foot tall robot.

Occasionally an accident occurred, once and a while some kids got carried away, and sometimes people were concerned about the morals of modern youth in just the same way their elders had feared for their own.

The decade also saw a bumper group of children emerge and a new group called teenagers who defied easy identification. As the prosperity of the decade escalated the need for the young person to enter the work force to help support the family decreased just as his social identity as an adult decreased.

These mobile and prosperous youth spawned low-budget and high profit endeavors such as drive-in theaters serving up a menu of movies of rebellion, horror, or science fiction.

Where a previous generation or two easily accepted a sixteen year old as an adult, now they lingered uncomfortably in a twilight zone of not-child and not adult.

Schools operated as stand in parents as the umbrella of social control that locked youth into a prolonged childhood spread ever wider. Sociologists, religious leaders, and psychologists tried to understand why the generation was so geared to be ‘A Rebel Without a Cause’ or a “Wild One” and never considering they might be the part of the problem.

The “Red Scare”, or a Communist in Every Pot, was a major influence in the society of the decade. A real threat had been so magnified it gained a contaminating life of its own. “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers” was a major horror novel adapted for the screen as a vehicle for airing the concerns of those who were hunting the non-conformists in American society. An excellent story gained a patina of too true horror with its social sub-text.

At decade’s end an example of the high strangeness of the human condition seemed to confirm fears that not all was well in the world. Ed Gein was arrested in 1957 and placed in a mental facility. He served as the inspiration for “Psycho” and other films.

---Marilyn A. Hudson, 2009

Sources

“National Geographic Society: Halloween dates from Barbarism.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 23, 1952):19.

“Thieves prowl on Halloween.” The Oklahoman (Nov. 1, 1953):29.

“Seven-foot Robot to March in Woodward on Halloween.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 30, 1955):72.

“Trick of treat Exchanged for Plea for Funds.” The Oklahoman (October 26, 1955):33.

“Friendly Beggar program Planned for Halloween Night.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 16, 1956):7.

“Traditional Treats…rejected..” The Oklahoman (Oct. 29, 1957): 12.

True Crime Serial Killers. Alexsandria, Va:Time-Life. N.d.

The Terror Times : Oklahoma Halloweens 1960-1970's

2011-10-30T07:55:00.000-07:00

Television to Terror (1960-1969)

‘Be wary then: best safety lies in fear.” Shakespeare, Hamlet.

In the 1960’s the concept of the “Spook House” or “Haunted House” began to gain wider popularity. Communities, schools, clubs, and churches were soon sponsoring them. Workers transformed empty buildings, houses, halls, and even stores were soon a popular rage. Despite some early day tragedies in such community haunted houses they persisted as popular attractions.

In the wider society it was a time of revolution as Civil Rights, Vietnam, student protests, increased drug use, and the sexual revolution were creating earthquakes of change. The attempt to totally control childhood continued as the teen years continued to reshape themselves.

Safety was a watchword of the decade as youth were trained in proper street safety, stranger danger, and not getting in with the wrong crowd.

Social pressures, urban overcrowding, poverty and other issues created a sometimes dangerous environment at the best of times in some areas.

Idealistically advisors envisioned a new Halloween based on giving and social responsibility, while news accounts often provided examples of just the opposite. The delinquent to deputy route was re-employed to train younger kids to avoid the risky behaviors of the season.

The idealism was a little tarnished as the end of the decade neared. Unsettling stories reared their heads; stories of apple treats that hid needles, razor blades and similar dire surprises began to circulate and dampen the holiday excitement.

Costumes once more celebrated the hand made touch, often with accessories purchased from the local store. The selection of costumes was now a major process as children mulled their choices of cartoon figures, comic book characters, television and movie themed outfits against the old standbys of hobo, princess, or cowboy.

Costumed marches around local schools became popular, with parents, neighbors and friends coming to see the show as school children, straining at the leash to get home to really prepare for Halloween, went on parade.

Sources:

Wallace, Edyth Thomas. “New Halloween Practice Stresses Pleasure in Giving.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 30, 1960): 42.

German, Hugh. “Prank suspected in State Tragedy.” The Oklahoman (Nov. 13, 1960):162.

“Quiz Slated in Halloween Fatal Beating.” The Oklahoman (April 13, 1961):30.

“3,200 Spooks to get Badges for Halloween.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 28, 1961): 13.

Wallace, Edyth Thomas. “Safety First on Halloween is Important.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 30, 1966):64.

“Goblins Ready for Halloween”. The Oklahoman (Oct. 26, 1969):146.

“Halloween Tricks Turn Out Vicious.” The Oklahoman (Nov. 1, 1969):7.

“Razor-in-Apple Tale False: Trick Boomerangs.” The Oklahoman (Nov. 6, 1969):29.

The Goblins Will Get You (1970-1979)

Mid-decade many audiences clustered around the television to see comedy sketches and the ABC television debut of the spandex and face paint rock group KISS on the “Paul Lynd Halloween Special” (1976). This should have been a clear signal that the holiday was a changing and not necessarily for the better as the holiday moved center stage into profit columns.

Deep seated suspicions and fears regarding the holiday continued as the urban legends of horrific deaths by candy were repeated each season.

These “Contamination tales”, according to Nicholas Rogers, arose in the 1960’s but peaked in the 1970’s.

There is a little evidence, however, that any true random Halloween candy tampering has everoccurred resulting in the death of a child. This, despite decades of urban legends stating that very “fact.” There have been no Halloween multiple deaths by drug, poison, or sharp object. News articles cried not warning each year, but no hard information was ever included to verify the dire details they listed.

Real life tragedies, however, do exist from that time.

A Pasadena, Texas boy died after eating cyanide laced candy gathered on Halloween. The poison, however, came from his own father after the man had acquired a large insurance policy on his son. Originally sentenced to die on Halloween, the Supreme Court granted a stay. The original “Candyman” finally went to his death, one of the first by lethal injection, in March 1982.

Other stories turned out to be either clear hoaxes spread by children or attempts to cover family drug use. The ‘razor blade in the apple’ appears to be nothing but a fraud.

A review of “Halloween Poisonings” at Snopes.com can be compared to an academic article by Bajwa, “Needle Ingestion via Halloween Carmel Apples” in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Oct. 2003). It seriously begs the question which came first: The story of the contamination or the contaminations? Did the early urban legends become self-fulfilling prophecy by century’s end?

The classic horror films were castrated as they moved to television and transformed into such offerings as the inane “Munsters”. In time, regular “Halloween” themed episodes of popular weekly programs and specials would, like a modern day Frankenstein’s monster, take on a life of their own.

The general social and political upheaval of the 1960’s was reflected in the changes in how Halloween was celebrated in the 1970’s. In just as strong a manner as the revolutionary minded of the “hippies” years assaulted the traditions, values, and religions of main stream America, the 1970’s saw just a forceful a movement as those elements attempted to reassert themselves.

This was also the decade of the Bicentennial and a return, or a rediscovery of traditional costumes, customs, and manners.

Values criticized and derided by the communes, free love, and other social constructions of the counter-culture, now gave rise to mainstream entertainments such as All in the Family and MASH. Affirmations of traditional values of home, friends, and family were seen in popular series such as The Little House on the Prairie (1976), The Brady Bunch (1969-), Happy Days (1974), Good Times (1974) The Waltons (1972) and Laverne and Shirley (1976).

This was also a time when the established religions, especially evangelical Christianity responded to the more worrying aspects of the new “liberality” of society. The loss of social control in general meant a loss of influence by the components of society: education, local government and religion.

Suddenly, the familiar rules of social control were, like the buggy at the turn of the century, being torn apart and reassembled on the slippery slope of a steep barn. Many were at a loss as to how to cope with these social changes happening all around them.

Attempts to assert local values, curb behavior, and re-establish the ‘traditional’ activities did occur, however, and more community and home based events were planned.

Seen as a contributing factor in the overall devolution of society, Halloween for many heralded a submission to paganism and an invitation to rampant demonic activity within a community.

As a result, “Fall Festivals”, “Reformation Day Fetes” and “Autumn Activities” were substitutes for local families and children. Civic centers, church halls, and school gyms celebrated the changing season without any of the traditional “Halloween” décor of ghosts, bats, spider webs, or simmering cauldrons. Door-to-door visits were replaced by strolls down mall storefronts and past officially sanctioned parking lots where car trunks held goodies and games

Sources

“Halloween Approaching.” The Oklahoma (Oct. 22, 1971): 34.

“Treat Kills Texas Boy: Cyanide Found in Candy.” The Oklahoman (Nov. 2, 1974):1.

“Halt Halloween (Letter to the Editor)”. The Oklahoman ( (Nov. 10, 1974):26.

Winter, Christine. “Halloween Childish Fun or Terror?” The Oklahoman (Oct. 26, 1975):102.

“Cancellation of Halloween Uncalled For.” The Oklahoman (Oct. 31 1977): 17

“Ghost Hunt Good Sport: Take a Haunting Tour.” The Oklahoman (May 28, 1978):102..

----Marilyn A. Hudson, 2009

What Will You Be For Halloween? The Holiday in 1980's Oklahoma

2011-10-30T07:53:00.000-07:00

As American culture moved into the last twenty years of the century there was a movement to reclaim Halloween….by the adults.

The horror genre blended with the role playing, gothic chic, and counter-culture mindset of a large segment of the young adults beginning with the 1980’s.

Traditional evangelical religion combated the annual spiral into what they believed to be ‘witchcaft’, ‘paganism’, and ‘Satanism’ with Fall Festivals and family carnivals. Yet, the move was on to make of Halloween a major economic and social anchor of the late 20th century.

Yet, the culture was shifting as post-modernism and generational shifts in society were changing forever the profile of American society.

Some extreme religious groups held a special form of the familiar ‘haunted house’. These places called “Hell Houses”, were designed to scare straight the wild and sinning youth. In highly dramatic, and some would say manipulative, programs they would present the dire consequences of a youth who died doing drugs, having an abortion, or doing something else perceived as wrong by that particular group (dancing, wearing inappropriate clothes, etc.).

“Demons” (costumed actors) would swoop people out of the audience and drag them screaming and pleading to Hell.

It might be arguable as to which of the celebrations of the holiday were more frightening, the trick or treating and its attendant motifs or the sight of people being dragged off to hell.

Nature, we are told by science, abhors a vacuum. As the streets were cleared of children scurrying about for free treats, the adults moved into claim the territory with massive parties, parades, and role playing attractions. The old haunted house now grew to include haunted fields, orchards, warehouses, and anything else large enough to lend itself to the effort.

Eclipsing selections in some years were the adult sized costumes featuring Gothic creations, vampires, mummies, and a horde of other genre favorites. Some, however, preferred to come as they were or felt they had been in a previous life.

Joining the Gothic sub-culture were neo-pagans, wiccans, vampire wanna-be’s, steam punk, and others who favored black, leather, tattoos and a plethora of piercings.

Just as the earliest communities had kept youth too long captive to their childhood without offering them meaningful avenues to exercise low key revolt, the maturing young adults of these decades seemed to be seeking the same opportunities to spin the world around.

It could be argued that these maturing young adults were in revolt against a social construct that continued to disallow the Saturnalia festivities that allowed youth to safely try out other realities, continue to use their imaginations, role play other perspectives, and let off the steam of being controlled by the society or the community.

Halloween as it has been defined in America is about ‘play’, imagination, and wonder. It is a time to be scared and verify we are alright. It is a time to see magic and know it is normal to not have all the answers.

It is a time to run, scream, and break out of the bonds of conformity in safe and accepted manners – even if it is for just one night.

It is play which keeps people inspired and motivated. It is play which keeps people young. It is play which allows people to keep from taking themselves too seriously.

We need Halloween, regardless of our age, to remind us that we are all children at heart.

IN A GOTHIC MOOD

2011-10-22T12:40:00.000-07:00

My first copy was purchased
at the college bookstore
on clearance.

Nearly everyone has enjoyed a Gothic tinged novel or movie at some point. In this season it is common for people to return to those familiar, and well trod, elements for a little thrill. The classic motifs of the Gothic are well known, from the decrepit castle or manor, the mysterious and tormented hero, to the innocent damsel in distress and the lurking supernatural patina (ghost, legend, or mysterious and unexplained element). Have you ever wondered where those all came from? A short little novel first published in 1764 by Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Oxford. The part time antiquarian attempted to create something new based on the Romanticism of the period and in the process did just that by forging a template of almost all Gothic works for the next three centuries. Even to this day, those elements of the crumbling spooky house, the mysterious threat, the multi-layered leading man, and the poor innocent leading lady are standards of the genre. Minor elements and quirks may emerge but the formula worked well for Walpole and for Gothika (2003). Checking the shelves at the local book stores and the marquee at the theater reveals it is still hard at work as well.

HALLOWEEN IN EARLY DAY OKLAHOMA

2011-10-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

In the earliest days the season was celebrated in husking parties, taffy pulls, and other harvest themed activities which allowed families on remote farms to get together socially.

By the first decade of the 20th century, it was a firm part of the yearly calendar going by the name "Nutcracker Night" as often as "Hallowe'en" or " All Hallows Eve."

The annual night was apparently largely the realm of the ten to teen ages and was focused on community pranks: outhouses were tipped, gardens lifted, and piles of items stacked in the street. Reports of buggies hoisted to barn roofs and missing garden furniture abound. All out vandalism, malicious and destructive were few, although all out rowdiness and high jinks sometimes came close to crossing the line. In this later aspect the night was acted out as more the old Roman Saturnalia where pranks and tricks were the focus.

The celebration attracted a segment of the community who were being forced to grow up and do adult work but who were still remembering the fun of just being a child. There was no mid-way pause as is known in modern society; those teen years of gradual maturation, stretching out childhood and forestalling adulthood were unknown. No wonder if occasionally the pull of the freedom of childhood and the autonomy of adulthood created a tension... Halloween was the perfect meeting place.

----From The Year Without - Almost - A Halloween, Marilyn A. Hudson.

OCTOBER COUNTRY: The Shadow People

2011-10-16T18:35:00.000-07:00

They are described as blurs of smoky darkness, columns of dark thick something, silhouettes of a man in top hat, silhouettes of a man with out a house, a man like dark shape. Sometimes with eyes glowing red. They have been reported, and allegedly caught on security cameras, in homes, businesses, and on the street. Most agree they emanate evil.

Some suggest there has been a spike in reports since about 2000. Others, suggest that the reported fondness of them for closets and similar spaces means they are merely the old bogeyman in a new set of clothes. Yet, most older tales of spirits utilize different motifs and archetypes.

Are they simply the dark, elongated and upright version of the ancient incubus, succubus, ghost, vampire, or demon? Are they simply new creations produced in response to contemporary fears of a vague "something" that will come and get us?

OKLAHOMA'S OVERHOLSER MANSION

2011-10-08T12:52:00.000-07:00

The Overholser Mansion was the first mansion in the city and constructed by local land dealer and entrepreneur, Henry Overholser in 1903.

In the 1960's the mansion was offered to the state of Oklahoma, with all contents intact, as a historical site.

A rare glimpse into history as it was - no need to renovate or find similar styles of furnishings - because it never changed inside and was maintained by the same family from construction til it was given over to the state.

Learn more here and plan to attend an event or take a tour of the grand lady of early Oklahoma City.

OCTOBER COUNTRY: MORE FACES IN THE NIGHT

2011-10-02T10:45:00.000-07:00

On "Coast-to-Coast AM" (10/1/2011) a called reported going to sleep and seeking faces coming at here as she tried to go to sleep. They morphed into one another and then she felt something or someone wanting to 'get into her' and take her over.

I found this very interesting because of an incident reported to me from this last spring. A woman lay down to sleep and as she closed her eyes attempting to rest she noticed a whirling dark black, yellow and orange mass evolving and from this emerged faces - clear, unique, and totally unknown to her! She said it seemed that it was a doorway and if she kept focusing she would go through that entryway to where the faces were emerging. Part of her wanted to in order to see what it was and if there was some psychic experience waiting there. Another part of her held back and purposefully closed that door and shut out the faces...

ECHOES OF GIANTS

2011-10-02T10:38:00.000-07:00

A recent internet hoax played up the giants among us theme with some patently unbelievable images. They suffer from the 'Godzilla Syndrome' - being so huge it is impossible to suspend belief long enough to wonder if they really did exist.

However, through history, there have been alleged findings of larger than normal skeletons which might bear more study. A list here.

Giantism is not an unknown condition, as well, and some people groups tend to be very tall, slender limbed, and with fine features while others tend to be shorter, sturdier, and heavier bone construction (Big bones run in the family, right?).

With recent research claiming all people with non-African genetic background are desceneded from the Net

OCTOBER COUNTRY: THE DREAM MAN

2011-10-02T10:37:00.000-07:00

In honor of the season author Ray Bradbury called the October country 'Mystorical' will present some strange and mysterious stories for your enjoyment.

1. The Man in Their Dreams

Back in 2006 people started reporting dreams of a man's face and words. One patient of a counselor sketched the face and another patient recognized it from his own dreams!

Others reported similar 'sightings' or 'dreamings'. Although some argued it was all an elaborate hoax, others suggested tapping into a mythic common mind, or responses to suggestions.

Apparently, since the start of 2011 his appearances have peaked and occur strangely at the start of the month and appear to have no relation to media stories.

Is he a presentation of the "Shadown Men"? Is he an alien targeting audiences for a message and eventual acceptance? Is he a devil, demon, or evil entity seeking control and manipulation? Is this what happened to Alfred E. Newman?

Source: "Ever Dream of this Man?"

WILD TIMES

2011-09-07T05:09:00.000-07:00

A tragic headline of 1933 caught my eye in an old paper. A boy, 8, was found hanging near Sallisaw. The community was already concerned over a missing boy of 11 who was presumed to have drowned. Officers who first rushed to the wooded area declared without doubt it was murder. Who would murder a boy no one could identify at first and appeared to be a stranger?

What seemed to be even stranger was the ultimate ruling of the coroner and sheriff's as to the cause of death for young Buck Brannon. Apparently, the small boy had committed suicide. The other missing boy was Raymond Dickerson who, it was finally decided, had tried to wade the Lee Creek on an errand but left his clothes in a drift of the creek.

Through the decade od the 1930's Sallisaw was a wild and woolly place with murders, jail escapes, and enough going on to suggest there were two communities co-existing in Sequoyah County and northeast Oklahoma.

In the 1920's young men in places like Chicago and San Franciso had hung themselves in desperation of having their forged report card discovered and for other reasons only a 13,14,15 year old could have explained.

Sometimes, however, it was all too sadly a moment of play gone horribly wrong as a 'swinging' rope gained a new description as a hanging rope.

As 2033 approaches, one hundred years from that death, will we be able to say we have helped children to feel safe, secure, wanted, and valued more than our counterparts in the 1930's? Or, have we merely traded swinging ropes for cyber bullies, abusive people, drugs, and devalued life? If a 13 year old, or an 8 year old, can feel life has lost all meaning, hope and is worthless, we are all at fault and all equally guilty.

SACRED SPACES: EASY WORDS - HARDER WORK

2011-08-14T12:38:00.000-07:00

As the anniversary of 9/11 rolls around this year it will mark the opening of the memorial in NYC and in the field in Pennsylvania. The terms used often feature the haunting words "sacred space."

After 1995 in Oklahoma City, the location of the Murrah Federal Building bombing were likewise labeled as "sacred space."

The first three days of July 1863 saw a small community transformed by the carnage of war, as citizens battled citizens over states rights and slavery. A weary President Abraham Lincoln, penned a simple, yet so powerful speech that turned the bloody field into a symbol. A sacred space....

"Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war. . .testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated. . . can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . . we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us. . .that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. . . that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. . . that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. . . and that government of the people. . .by the people. . .for the people. . . shall not perish from the earth. "

Yet, this Civil War era battlefield, this sacred space, has been threatened, like many other such sites, with the encroachment of development, economic envy, and non-sacred elements. Will these new memorials one day too face the threat of people to whom these supreme sacrifices are but a distant and little understood bit of boring history?

We label a place sacred because of its deeply meaningful history and the way it has shaped some crucial moment. We must remember and teach each generation of these moments, devoid of politics, devoid of rancor, and devoid of self-interest. The many who sacrificed in such places deserve no less.

What Ever Happened?

2011-07-26T11:37:00.000-07:00

Shots from A Box Car Were Fatal to A Hutchinson Man

Wellington, Kas., June 2 - John P. Cates, depot master, and yard watchman here for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, was shot and killed early this morning in the division yards. The bullet came from the top of a boxcar. Cates was making his usual round shortly after midnight when he was surprised by a shot, which he returned. Six shots were exchanged and Cates received two wounds, one in the arm and the other grazing his heart.

When a friend reached him and asked who did it, he said, "there were three or four of them," then became unconscious. He died about twenty minutes after reaching home. Two men were arrested near the yards and are in jail but are not believed to be implicated. The car from which the shooting was done came from the West last night. Clothes hangers thrown away near the car and wire for making them which was found today on top of the car lead the officers to believe some peddler did the shooting.

The murdered man who came here from Guthrie two years ago leaves a widow and four children. (Kansas City Star, June 2, 1911, page 1).

One tendency of old newspapers was the tendency to often ignore followup stories about headlines they had created earlier.

RAILROADS, VIOLENCE, AND GRUESOME DEATH

2011-07-26T11:00:00.001-07:00

WELLINGTON, KS., Nov. 22---Last evening, Levi Meeker, his wife and 8-year-old daughter were found dead on the Southern Kansas railroad track by his son. It is supposed they were struck while crossing the track in a wagon by a passenger train.(reported in the Wisconsin State Journal ~ November 23, 1888).

In my book, WHEN DEATH RODE THE RAILS: STRANGE DEATHS IN OKLAHOMA, 1900-1920, I explored cases like this. I had found some suspicious cases in northern Texas and theorized there might be more in surrounding states.

Exactly how did a steam locomotive - stealthy they were not - sneak up to kill this family? No one on the wagon (pulled by one or more horses, walking or at most trotting) was aware of the oncoming train? None could hold the team and run it across the tracks in time? One source indicates express passenger trains on that line were to travel at between 25-35 and mail trains 15 mph. Were they, like some in Oklahoma, killed and then placed there to cover the crime? Are there similar deaths along that particular line?

SOARING HIGH THROUGH CLEAR BLUE SKIES

2011-07-17T15:09:00.000-07:00

Oklahoma, with its vast vistas of sky and distant blue horizons, has long attracted those who love aviation.

In August 1909, in Belle Isle Park, a balloonist rose several hundred feet to parachute out to the awe-struck crowd below.

Pearl Carter, the nation's youngest female pilot, who was inspired by Wiley Post and was flying when she was 12. A recent movie by the Chickasaw Nation and Media 13 chronicles the exciting story.

HOW TO CREATE A HISTORICAL MYSTERY

2011-07-17T14:25:00.000-07:00

Photo from U.S. Army Corp of Engineers
(Public Domain)

On a sunny April morning in 1995, the worst terrorist act on US Soil occurred with the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It would hold that uneasy crown until another sunny morning in September of 2001 in New York, Washington D.C. and a lonely field in Pennsylvania. Since federal agencies were victims in OKC, the government agencies swept in and removed all the security tapes of this historic and deadly event. These were crucial as evidence and as history. These types of artifacts are safeguarded, preserved, and archived for legal studies and historic research.

Apparently not. According to a story about a legal request for the tapes, it was made known that the tapes and other documents were deemed unimportant to even index and represented a burden for government employees to search.

This is unfortunate as it would lay to rest - finally and completely - if the videos were found, and could show clearly that McVeigh was alone. At least three individuals testified in September of 1995 that they saw McVeigh with not just one person (the famed 'John Doe', but another man as well) ("Witnesses Say McVeigh Not Alone." Daily Oklahoman, Sept, 2, 1995, pg. 42).

All of this - inevitably, clear as day, obviously - unites to make so strange the decision of the ATF to not test whether the truck bomb had the power to produce the devastation of the bombing as one of the most illogical decisions ever. ("ATF Calls Off Plan to Test Truck Bomb" Daily Oklahoman, Sept, 11, 1995, pg. 11). Let's see, we can show that this bomb could do that much damage, but we won't need that evidence.

Just like the strange decision to decide that the historic and valuable tapes and files of the investigation of the worst man-made disaster on US soil were not important enough to be cataloged or located. After all, no body will ever want to access that stuff now will they?

The MSNBC program 'THE MCVEIGH TAPES' is another clear way to not instigate a historical mystery.

This documentary purports to provide McVeighs own words and does allow some of his own words to be heard. Instead it largely brings cherry picked snippets with talking heads filling in and explaining how McVeigh's growing anger was focused and his wrath was directed.

Yet, you never hear McVeigh actually saying saying any of those things the talking heads insist he said or meant or felt. He is never shown ranting, never growing angry, or acting crazed (insert image image of an interview with Charles Manson for contrast).

So to create a lasting historical mystery do three simple things:

-Lose, destroy or minimize evidence
-Refuse to search for and preserve all evidence for future research and study
-Put words and inflections in the mouth of a historic figure.

Although, officially closed in 2006, with such slip-shod record keeping and unanswered questions, it will remain a riddle in search of an solution.

BEFORE THE MURRAH BUILDING BOMBING

2011-07-17T14:03:00.000-07:00

When the federal building in Oklahoma City exploded in April 1995, it was a shock that rippled at sonic speed across the psyche of the country. How? Why? were the unanswerable questions on everyone's lips.

Something, however, was stirring in the country in the years before this horrible disaster. The 'Unabomber' was on the news radar as well.

In August 1991, teens apparently for a lark used a pipe bomb to blow up a portable toilet at a construction site in the elite Nichols Hills area of OKC.
In December of 1991 an OKC man was arrested in a pipe bomb case.
In February 1991, six pipe bombs were found on two chemical tanks in Virginia close to one of the major naval bases of the east coast (Daily Oklahoma, Feb.5, 1991, pg. 45).
On October 1992, three bombs went off in two north central Oklahoma communities within minutes of each other, according to a story by Daily Oklahoman reporter Michael McNutt. Pipe bombs exploded in two Enid government offices and one in an elementary school in nearby Stillwater (about 25 miles south of Perry, Oklahoma where McVeigh would be found after the bombing), and home of Oklahoma State University. All exploded with minimal damage. Another discarded bomb - a thermos type container filled with gun powder - was found in a field 8 miles SW of Waukomis, Oklahoma (Daily Oklahoman, Oct. 28, 1992, pg. 108-09).
In January of 1993, a pipe bomb was found in a movie theater in Dallas, Texas.
In August 1993, Edmond teens were arrested for making pipe bombs.
In February 1994, Adair High School in Tulsa, OK was temporarily closed following a pipe bomb incident.
In March 1995, a pipe bomb was reported in Broken Arrow.
In June 1994, pipe bombs were found in the OKC Jail!

THERE IS ALWAYS A STORY WITH THE PHOTO

2011-07-15T08:18:00.000-07:00

A little girl in Wellington, Kansas in the early 1960's and her first visit to the historic Antlers Hotel:

I was waiting eagerly to be old enough to go to Kindergarten when the photographer came to town and set up shop on the 4th floor of the old turn-of-the century hotel on a corner downtown. It was an elegant old Victorian hotel named, I was told, for the huge rack of antlers over the registration desk. I was so excited as we walked down the sidewalk past the shops and the magic of so much going on. Cars glided by, trucks rattled to a stop at the blinking lights, and people hurried past us on their way to their own adventures.

Climbing the front steps and entering the lobby was awe inspiring. Everywhere was the shimmer of old, polished wood. There was an exotic feel to the place with the old Persian rugs, the leather furniture, the wood railing leading upstairs. There was an aroma of pipe tobacco, perfume and beeswax used to give the wood that sturdy shine. Strange people milled all about, mostly men reading newspapers, but a few women carrying shoppng bags from the department stores downtown.

This is the
photograph
taken
that day.

Whispered comments had mother giving me sparse definitions of new terms like "salesmen", "bachelors", and "travelers".

We climbed the thickly carpeted stairs until we reached the desired floor. I had never seen such a long hallway before. It seemed to stretch forever. On each side were doors with shiny brass numbers. Hurrying down the hall, we did not want to miss the appointment, mother knocked on one of the strange and mysterious doors.

A man, gently stooped with a kind smile, ushered us into the room. It was a bedroom, I realized, even as I noted the man had set up a big screen to hide the bed and all around were cameras, lights, and strange bits and pieces of photographic equipment. The adults talked about the photos and other small talk - just what I could not say.

I was soon being placed on a leather covered stool, told to look here, smile now, and pose this way and that. My mother looked through the camera, smiled, and nodded at the man's comments. Then the adults talked the business of payments and mailing the photos and other details of no concern to me.

I was too interested in the little stool that spun around and around....

Settled on the stool, now still, the man made last minute lighting adjustments and then took several pictures of me in my blue gingham dress with my still toddler blonde hair falling to my shoulders and we left shortly after that. I skipped down the hall with a lollipop and my mother clutching a receipt for the promised image.

The hotel closed, the schools brought in photographers, and things changed all over. Sometimes, though, I do remember that soft spring day in my pretty dress walking down a sun washed hallway heading to an adventure, and had I known it, a fading bit of Americana.

-- Marilyn A. Hudson

CRY, BABY, CRY

2011-06-01T04:25:00.000-07:00

The urban legend, folklore, and sometimes out right 'fakelore' of the numerous Cry Baby Bridges across the country is only a little less mysterious than the tendency of devotees to insist 'their' bridge is the 'real' one.

Most folklorists located the earliest tales in Maryland, Ohio, Illinois, and New Jersey to the 1920's-30's. A couple of places even suggest a WW 1 dating for their story. The story apparently gained new energy in the 1950's and by the advent of the Internet in the 1990's every place was spouting their own bridge!

As an example of an urban legend - a short tale with supernatural overtones - which cannot be proved due to their hallmark total lack of facts - it is unsurpassed.

The strong sociological components of the legend make it clear it is a morality tale derived from concerns in society of their changing moral climate, a perceived crass disregard for life, and the sure judgement for those who transgress against society's norms.

The most common elements are a woman (sometimes a couple) are crossing a bridge, it is raining/snowing/ or they are speeding/fighting or the woman (or the couple) are so consumed by depression/guilt/shame/madness that they have an accident/fling the baby off the bridge/ lose the baby in the night. As a result, the cries of the baby/woman/both can be heard in that spot for years afterward.

The BRIDGE - what better symbol for the transition of the youthful person from the innocence of youth and the awareness of maturity?

The BABY - symbol of the product of careless disregard of the social norms and the product of acting outside approved boundaries? A symbol of the future being thrown away?

The RAIN/SNOW/FIGHT - The crisis point following the realization of an error in judgement may have consequences we are unprepared to face.

The CRIES - the symbol of guilt and the sure awareness that sins and failures cannot be hid. They will haunt us, draw us back, and make us pay.

Many folklorists, myself included, believe the story emerged from the Pre-WW1 to Post WW1 era known as the 'roaring 20's'. It was a time of great concern for many as old customs, manners, values, and norms were being eradicated as a new generation took over. The automobile made it easy for young people to get in trouble via speeding, driving farther afield, promiscuity, drinking, and other 'wanton' behaviors. Youth were often cautioned about 'burning their bridges' or making a decision they could not undue. Having a baby was a classic example. If A (adolescence) + B (behaviors) = C (consequences), well the result was the Crybaby Bridge!

Like its companion legend of "Resurrection Mary", with its underlying theme that if the girl had stayed home like a 'good girl' she would still be alive, the Crybaby Bridge tales also carry the underlying theme that conduct was important and had consequences.

So far, no newspaper, book, or oral history collections have unearthed any version of the tale of a Crybaby Bridge earlier than about 1917 (here). "Resurrection Mary", by contrast, is considered sub-genre to the 'Vanishing Hitchhicker' motif and there is some evidence that the VH can be traced back to the post-Civil War.

The Crybaby Bridge motif is most probably an early 20th century invention to convey moral values, warn of sexual indiscretion, and safeguard human life.

EARLY LEADERS REVEALED IN EARLY PHOTO

2011-05-30T11:43:00.000-07:00

In this photo from 1945 a young Oral Roberts is shown attending his denomination's general conference, held in Oklahoma City that year. Roberts is shown in the lower right corner framed by the ladies in the hats. At the opposite corner is the young entrepreneurial minister, R.O. Corvin, who would be in the next year the first president of Southwestern Christian University (then located at 5000 NW 10th).

EARLY OKLAHOMA CITY CHURCH CONFERENCE

2011-05-30T11:35:00.000-07:00

In 1945, the Pentecostal Holiness Church meet in conference at the Oklahoma City First Church. This church had begun in 1907 in the old 'Blue Front Saloon', 7 West Grand. It later moved to 423 West California and in 1945 was located at 2046 E. 2nd Street. In 1950, they relocated to 1701 N.W. 7th (7th and Blackwelder) under the leadership of pastor, the Rev. S.N. Greene. The church, the First Pentecostal Holiness Church, was historic in being one of the first pentecostal churches in Oklahoma. It is believed this image shows the church at 2046 E. 2nd in Oklahoma City.

Deadly Oklahoma Tornadoes

2011-05-29T18:02:00.000-07:00

According to NOAA, there have been several tornado storms since 1947 which ranked F4 and F5. The Woodward storm of April 1947 was part of a multi-state outbreak, was an F5 and it claimed 116. One in November of 1930 struck Bethany along the area of NW 39th Street. "The tornado moved north-northeast from 3 miles west of the Oklahoma City limits, hitting the eastern part of Bethany. About 110 homes and 700 other buildings, or about a fourth of the town, were damaged or destroyed. Near the end of the damage path 3.5 miles northeast of Wiley Post Airfield, the tornado hit the Camel Creek school. Buildings blew apart just as the students were falling to the floor and looking for shelter; five students and a teacher were killed." It was an F4 and over 20 were killed. Overall about 100 tornadoes have hit OKC in the last 100 years.

REAL LIFE MYSTERIES REALLY ARE THE BEST

2011-05-03T11:40:00.000-07:00

It has always been the silent voices, the untold stories, the hidden truths and the buried subtexts which have appealed as I began delving into history. Those invisible, ghost-like people that "society" often tried to silence, make go away, or simply destroy. The life of a poverty stricken yet strong 12 year African-American girl from Muskogee, Oklahoma name Sarah Rector, is just such a tale. Walking the dangerous balancing beam of crafting her future as sharks of racism, greed, and self-doubt trolled her early years, she has much to share with modern women, modern society, and much to add to the history of African Americans.

Author and descendent Kelvin Rector is on a mission to share the surpring mosaic piece which helps to complete our knowledge of Oklahoma during the pre-statehood days, the impact of racism, the power of greed for oil and the wealth it represented, and the urge to manipulate society and some its members in order grasp that power away.

ALL THE SIGNS ARE THERE: Is Your House Haunted?

2011-04-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

I was asked this the other day and as I searched I found there are numerous lists from as few as six signs to as many as sixteen and some who were obviously leaving the door wide open. Further research seems to suggest that these are considered the most common and likely signs of a 'haunting': Unexplained cold spots, Shadows, sounds, or movements otherwise unexplainable, Moving objects, opening doors - all unexplainable, Unexplainable moods, changes in atmosphere, or feelings of being watched, or Sightings of unexplained people, animals, or faces in or around a house which are unexplainable.

You see, the key factor is it must be 'unexplainable.' Air in plumbing can groan like someone is being tortured on the rack, can thump floors and shimmy pipes over several floors giving a distinct feeling of some unseen presence. Air flow through a building can be diverted or blocked creating 'cold spots' or strange cold breezes. Old wood can contract and expand cracking open doors and drawers and knocking things off an otherwise even shelf. Tiredness, flickers of electrical current, vision problems, and birds flitting past a window can create the illusion of something moving past, a shadow rapidly speeding across a room, and slinking in a corner. Digital photography can capture orbs of light which are merely dust particles, refraction in old wavy glass can create a false play of light and shadow which the brain interprets as a "face" or nearby sounds carry on the wind leading to ideas of disembodied voices.

The amount of things we do not know about how old houses and interact with their geologic foundations, the interactions of a location with any underground water sources, the possible correlations of electrical storms and 'sightings', and the power of the human imagination to create what it expects to see, all combine to insure we keep learning and trying to understand our wacky and wild world.

What Was Lost? What Can We Still Learn?

2011-04-11T19:33:00.000-07:00

In the movement west, European-Americans found strange and mysterious earthen mounds - some of awesome size - and reflecting a great amount of communal cooperation and common purpose. The often migratory, hunter-gatherer populations of the East, Southeast, and Middle regions seemed removed from what were clearly a more urban minded people. Using a mindset that equated cultural development solely with specific types of society, they often dismissed any connections, could not accept that social history could be anything but linear, and devalued anything not meeting preconceptions of an "important" or "civilized" society.

As a result, although many early and large earthen works or "mounds" were recognized, protected, and preserved, many others were grazed, robbed, and otherwise destroyed. Valuable information about the earliest community activities in North America were lost without study, record, or concern. Some questions will never be answered about migration patterns, materials, methods, and relationships because valuable data was lost in the hurry to find mythical "treasure." The lessons of the Spiro Mounds Archaeological Park in Spiro, Oklahoma are worth noting. Hailed as an American "King Tut's Tomb" - not for its gold but for its rare information on early occupation. Yet, it was nearly destroyed, robbed of its information, its contents desecrated with cruel abandon.

For most of the mound building cultures, these earthen works were part of sacred rituals of burial, death, and beliefs in the afterlife. Archaeologists were seen as 'tomb robbers' and their actions synonymous with going to the local graveyard to dig up a loved relative. In most cases, you see, the occupants did not disappear but are connected to various groups who continued to develop and evolve as revealed through customs, linguistics, DNA, and cultural stories. It was often seen as personal affront and sacrilege of sacred spaces and disturbances of final resting places.

Spiro Mounds is the gem in Oklahoma but other sites stretch from the Canadian border to Middle America; from the Virginia hills to central plains.

What remains a mystery, however, is how these early groups functioned, what they believed, and how they might have related to other people groups. These may never be fully answered due to the wanton destruction of some of these sites across the continent. Their artistic style was as unique to other Native American art as Etruscan art was to Roman art. They offer a rare glimpse into a more full understanding of human occupation and the connections and cultures of ancient humans.

In the assumptions about social development, definitions of civilizations, cultural superiority and prejudice rare pieces of history were lost - perhaps forever. As new theories of migrations, multiple approaches to settlement, and new evidence continues to come to light pushing further and further our understanding of time lines and influences, what might yet still be there to be learned and what was lost?

AWFUL, MORBID, GRUESOME

2011-04-10T07:43:00.000-07:00

No, not the National Press Club. These are terms used in the newspapers of early Oklahoma City to describe a serious of awful finds in the city dump. "Mountains of mangled flesh" or bodies most "dreadfully abused and mutilated." People pondered often in the midnight dreary what monster walked among them. Not even twenty years past the dreadful "Jack the Ripper" crimes of London Town - there was much for the imagination to contemplate. One story told of the finding of a small infant whose tiny body had been horribly "mutilated" by skilled hands and then the tiny body tossed on the "ash heap." One headline questioned what awful ghouls were prowling the gas lit streets of the new capital? The slasher in this morbid tale was none other than the local medical school, Epworth College. Or, to be more precise, the janitor of the facility. It seems that he had simply taken the discard body parts, bloody cloth, tumor removals and even corpses used in practice dissections, to the local city dump.

WHO WAS VIVIA THOMAS?

2011-03-25T18:31:00.000-07:00

One of the longest and most intriguing tales of the Sooner state involves a woman who masqueraded as a man. Various versions have been shared but all have the same basic tale:

"One of the most interesting stories associated with Fort Gibson National Cemetery is the tale of Vivia Thomas. Legend has it this high-spirited daughter of a wealthy Boston family met and fell in love with a handsome young lieutenant at a ball following the Civil War. After several months of courtship, they announced their engagement, but shortly before the wedding he left, leaving only a note that he desired to go West in search of adventure. Broken-hearted and bitter over the abandonment, Thomas went in search of her lover. After learning that he was stationed at Fort Gibson, she set off on a journey of revenge. She cut her hair, dressed in men’s clothing and joined the Army. The disguise worked, as the former fiancé did not recognize her. One night as he was returning from a visit with his Native American girlfriend, she ambushed and killed him. Despite an intense investigation, the murder went undiscovered. However, Thomas grew remorseful and began to visit his grave late at night. Eventually she contracted pneumonia from the continued exposure to the cold and collapsed near his grave, dying a few days later. Rather than condemning her actions, her army colleagues were so impressed with her courage in coming alone to the frontier and carrying out a successful disguise that they awarded her a place of honor for burial in the officer’s circle." (http://www.cem.va.gov/cems/nchp/ftgibson.asp) Her grave is in Section OC Grave 2119.

Of course, in such a ceremony all are notable by their service, their valor, or their leadership. If you pause to find Vivia, stay long enough to tip the head to :

"Medal of Honor Recipients
Private First Class John N. Reese Jr., (World War II), U.S. Army, Company B, 148th Infantry, 37th Infantry Division. Paco Railroad Station, Manila, Philippine Islands, Feb. 9, 1945 (Section 2, Grave 1259-E).
First Lieutenant Jack C. Montgomery, (World War II), U.S. Army, 45th Division. Padiglione, Italy, Feb. 22, 1944 (Section 20, Grave 963).

Others
Talahina Rogers - Cherokee wife of General Sam Houston - Section OC, Grave 2467
Captain John P. Decatur - Section OC Grave 2101
Major Joel Elliot - Section OC Grave 2233
Nelson P. Fonseca - Section 14 Grave 675" (ibid.)

But - who was she? She is listed in the Post Cemetery Records for Fort Gibson, Indian Territory showing a death date of January 7, 1870. (Ancestry.com. U.S. Military Burial Registers, 1768-1921[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Burial Registers for Military Posts, Camps, and Stations, 1768-1921; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M2014, 1 roll); Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92; National Archives, Washington, D.C.) No other identifying information is indicated in the record.

There are other deaths without such details and that appeared to be the standard practice for those considered non-military. So that leaves her place of burial to offer clues as to
the truth of the basic story and the strength of the legend to stand the test of time.

MAY THEY REST IN PEACE: Another Urban Legend Bites the Dust - UPDATE

2011-03-25T04:48:00.000-07:00

The cemetery has now been opened, the final graves appear to all be gone, and only the memories of those who lived, died, and grieved there remain. The city park has expanded, walking trails go past the old cloistered corner with its sentinals of scraggly pines. If you walk or run in the area, slow down and remember those who once rested there.
For many years, an urban legend floated among community members that the cemetery on the northwest corner of the Eldon Lion's Park in Bethany had to be haunted - it was overgrown, shady, and secretive. It looked the part. It was the cemetery associated with the St. Joseph's Children' Home. Bizarre tales emerged fed as much by anti-catholic sentiment as any real fact; but some times in perpetuating urban legends that is enough. Recent televised explorations of sanitariums in Kentucky and Ohio have added a new word to the lexicon of urban legends. The term 'death tunnel' is spoken in hushed sounds as if nefarious acts were to be associated with such a feature of an institution. Thee truth is less attractive and far more practical. In some settings such a hidden avenue for the removal of the dead was a necessity. It provided them some last privacy and, in settings such as hospitals and orphan care facilities, some protection to those who resided in the facility as well. It was also very practical when the location was one where long winters or protracted rainy seasons might preclude being able to bury a body in a timely manner. There is some indications that such a feature was at the Bethany location, according to sources who wish to remain anonymous. However, long before the facility closed, it was sealed shut and had not been used in decades. The people who had been buried there - the orphans who had died of fevers, the nuns of old age, and the older people who had come there to end their days - were respectfully interred. When the facility closed, the nuns and priests buried there were transferred to another burial site. If any graves remain in the tiny shady corner, let them rest in peace. As you pass, whisper a tiny prayer and grant them respect and dignity.

St. Joseph's Children Home, Bethany, Oklahoma

2011-03-25T04:26:00.000-07:00

Top image is late 1960's shortly before it closed at the Bethany location.

The sport fields between Route 66 and the front of the institution, as they appeared in the 1940's.

St. Joseph's Children Home, Bethany, Oklahoma c1927

2011-03-25T04:23:00.000-07:00

n is top

St. Joseph's Children Home, Bethany, Oklahoma c1912

2011-03-25T04:17:00.000-07:00

THE ORPHANAGE ON THE HILL

2011-03-25T04:01:00.000-07:00

THE SAINT JOSEPH CHILDREN’S HOME

A Brief History based on an entry in the Bethany Centennial History Book (2009)

Marilyn A. Hudson

Just three years after Oklahoma statehood, 27 ½ acres of land were purchased to create the “St. Joseph Orphanage Asylum and Industrial School.” The land was excellently situated near the half-way point of the new “El Reno Interurban” rail line connecting Oklahoma City and Yukon. With 60 acres by 1913, early promoters noted the gardens, truck produce, farming, and livestock of the orphanage would advertise the rich farming potential of the area.[1] The facility grew to include various tracts of land and included the “north farm” where the present day St. Francis Center for Christian Renewal and Resurrection Cemetery are located.

Overseeing this scale of a charitable endeavor in the Roman Catholic Church of Oklahoma required strong leaders. The Very Rev. Bernard Mutsaers, James Maney, and His Excellency the Right Rev. Theophile Meerschaert, Oklahoma’s first Bishop, proved to be those leaders. The Rev. John M. Kekeisen, late of Newkirk, assumed the position of first director of the orphanage. Other Directors were Fathers P.P. Schaeffer, James Garvey, and A.A. Isenbart.[2]

On August 1, 1912, Sister Mary Scholastica, Superior, and Sisters Mary Anthony. Mary Raphael, Mary Ambrose, all Sisters of Mercy, arrived to receive the children. On October 6, 1912, Bishop Meerschar performed a solemn service of blessing celebrating the new facility.

In 1921, Father P.P. Schaeffer, foresaw a need for infant and elderly care. The Article of Incorporation at that time to “St. Joseph’s Orphanage and Home for the Aged.” Father Garvey, starting in 1928, used a popular annual parish picnic to raise funds to reduce the orphanage indebtedness. The result was that by 1934 the mortgage on the orphanage was fulfilled.

Over the years, the large brick building set on a gentle knoll, saw a gymnasium added, a chapel, and classrooms. It was central to many of the charities of its day for Catholics in Oklahoma and the people they helped. The history of the Oklahoma Catholic Charities also begins at St. Joseph, as they were headquartered at the orphanage until 1926.

Over the next sixty years, the orphanage would see many changes in its structure, outreach, and workers. More than seven orders of women religious served there (Sisters of Mercy, Sisters of the Blessed Carmelites, Benedictines, Missionary Sisters of the Most Blessed Trinity, Sisters of St. Joseph, and the Divine Providence Sisters)[3].

In 1965, the Children’s Home relocated to an area off Eastern Avenue in NE Oklahoma City with a modern set of dormitories, cafeteria, and chapel.[4] Changes in society were making orphanages less common[5]. In 1973, however, the original facility, empty for three years, sold to become the general offices of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church.[6]

From its opening in 1912 to 1955, St. Joseph provided care for some 5,000 children.[7] Many were like the child a Sister Providentia recalled. A tiny girl, neglected by her family, asked the Sister if it was true they “really received three meals a day…”[8] Happily, the St. Joseph Orphanage could and did provide three meals and much more.

[1] “Orphanage plans more buildings” Daily Oklahoman. 4/14/1912; special thanks to James Weinmann , Heritage Room Director, Catholic Pastoral Center, Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.

[2] “Diocesan Charities Office Has Cared for Thousands.” Southwester Courier: Golden Jubilee, n.d., pg. 96-97.

[3] “St. Joseph’s Children’s Home.” The Sooner Catholic. Sunday, Sept. 5, 1976.

[4] “Empty Orphanage a Tranquil Store of Memory.” Daily Oklahoman. (5/27/1973, pg. 22).

[5] “Necessity for Orphanages has virtually disappeared.” Daily Oklahoman (12/26/1974), pg. 87).

[6] “Church to move headquarters to City.” Daily Oklahoman (8/7/1973, pg. 11).

[7] Quoted in “St. Joseph’s Children’s Home”. Sooner Catholic, Sunday, Sept. 5,1976.; “Empty Orphanage a Tranquil Store of Memory.” Daily Oklahoman. (5/27/1973, pg. 22).

[8] St. Joseph’s Children’s Home.” The Sooner Catholic. Sunday, Sept. 5, 1976.

DARK SPRING - Unsolved OKC Murders

2011-03-21T15:37:00.000-07:00

Spring times are supposed to be about life and renewal and second chances. Once upon time in central Oklahoma City the spring was dark and filled with visions to cause nightmares.

The first body parts showed up in April 1, 1976, in an abandoned house at 325 NE 8th in Oklahoma City, utility workers exploring an abandoned house found the head and body parts of a 18 year old Cathy Lyn Shackelford. At the time, however, she was unidentified and was labeled a 'Jane Dow'.

Fast forward to April 19, 1979 when several grisly discoveries are made between mid-April and the first of May. All around the 300 block NE 10th and 200 block NE 7th in Oklahoma City. The second known victim was named Arley Bell Killian.

A strange gap of seven years followed before another find was made. On March 6, 1986, the body of 23 year old Tina Sanders was located at 507 N. Lindsay. A fourth has been suggested but unverified.

There are interesting similarities which might provide links to similar crimes and bring closure to this cold case. All the women were Native American, they either lived on the streets and/or worked as prostitutes, and were all probably killed within the same one mile radius where their bodies were found. The killings were in the spring, they were not rushed, and due to the ease with which the body parts were created and discarded, the killer had to have been familiar with his surroundings (the Stiles Circle - Lincoln Terrace neighborhood; now generally covered by the Centennial Expressway and the OU Health Science buildings and related structures). Each body had an incision in the lower lip, massive body mutilation and dismemberment, and certain parts of the bodies were never found.

The chronology of the murders -1976, 1979 and 1986 - indicate there may have been a pattern at work. Another killing (5) might have occurred in 1982-1983. Just as possible, however, the killer could have been in jail, in the military, or out of state on some job during the seven year break. It is likely other killings, as of yet to be found, may be fit that pattern.(Oklahoma Cold Cases) It would be atypical for such a killer to have such a long 'cooling off' period but not impossible.

Some suggest that another body was found April 22, 1995 and pulled from missing head, hands and feet, from a shallow grave 50 miles west of the city. Authorities were said to note 'similarities' in the manner of the dismemberment. (Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes, 2009,p. 291) The time period is shortly after the Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City and that story was the major news for several days and no report was found to confirm that suggestion.

In 1993, the combined efforts of Andra Medina, Sgt. Norma Adams, Norman forensic sculpture Betty Pat Gatliff, and well known Oklahoma based anthropologist , Dr. Clyde Snow brought closure to the first Jane Doe. DNA identified her as Shackleford ("DNA Tests Identify '76 Slaying Victim". Steve Lackmeyer, Oklahoman, Nov. 30, 1993, pg.1).

There were also some 'interesting' bodies in eastern Oklahoma, not for from the I-40 corridor in Shamrock 1975, Wellston 1985 and Broken Arrow 1989. Also possibly other locations in 1985 and the early 90's. Body parts or dismembered bodies of young women who apparently went missing unnoticed and unidentified. The 1960's through the 1990's were especially violent with serial killers springing out of their dank worlds to grab headlines through gory acts: Kemper, Bundy, Rader and so many others.

What happened to the killer? Where did he go? One notorious killer confessed to some of these deaths but the confessions are considered by most as suspect, the last minute greedy attempt by a sociopath to get attention. If that is true, then chilling questions remain. When the region was razed by bulldozers and new building rose over the bloody grounds, what secrets were lost? Are there other victims out there - somewhere? Victims of this monster who stalked the streets to prey- at leisure - on women struggling just to survive?

Oral History Collections Highlight Women’s History Month

2011-03-21T07:25:00.000-07:00

(March 17, 2011 Stillwater, Okla.) – Great resources for Women’s History Month with an Oklahoma focus are just a click away. The Oklahoma Oral History Research Program (OOHRP) at the Oklahoma State University Library hosts three online digital collections documenting the contributions of women in Oklahoma.

“Gathering oral histories provides an opportunity to pursue answers to questions left silent in what little archival material exists for these women, said Juliana Nykolaiszyn, assistant professor, OOHRP. “We invite you to explore the following websites and meet women who blazed trails, overcame obstacles and continue to inspire a new generation of women in Oklahoma.”

Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame Oral History Project

http://www.library.okstate.edu/oralhistory/owhof/

Since 1982, the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame has recognized women who served as pioneers in their fields, made significant contributions to the state of Oklahoma, championed other women or women’s issues, or served as public policy advocates for the issues important to women. In 2007, the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program at the OSU Library started interviewing inductees of the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame in order to fill a gap in primary source documents concerning women in Oklahoma. This website includes brief biographies, interview transcripts, interview audio, video selections and links to other resources.

Women of the Oklahoma Legislature Oral History Project

http://www.library.okstate.edu/oralhistory/wotol/

During Oklahoma's first 101 years (1907-2008) only 77 women were elected to the Oklahoma Legislature. Forty-six of these remarkable women have now shared their stories as part of the project. Taken individually, these interviews reflect the careers and interests of the legislators; taken collectively they constitute a narrative of the role of women in the Oklahoma Legislature over time. This website includes lesson plans for teachers, transcripts of each interview, downloadable poster of women legislators and links to resources on women and politics.

Dust, Drought, and Dreams Gone Dry: Oklahoma Women and the Dust Bowl

http://www.library.okstate.edu/oralhistory/dustbowl/

Prior to the start of this project in 2000, many interviews had been conducted with people who remembered the whirling winds of the 1930s, but they presented a primarily male perspective of this event. Again and again men spoke of their wives and their mothers as being the glue that held their families together during these incredibly hard days. Between 2000 and 2002, the OSU Library located and interviewed more than 100 women individually or in groups about what they recalled from living during the period of 1932 to 1940 in the area of Oklahoma typically identified as the epicenter of the Dust Bowl. This website includes interview transcripts, interview audio, along with a bibliography of the Dust Bowl era.

These oral history collections are projects of the OOHRP. Formally established in 2007, the OOHRP at the OSU Library has collected and preserved firsthand accounts from individuals who have played a part in Oklahoma’s history. The Program explores the lives and contributions of Oklahomans from all walks of life. To learn more about the OOHRP call 405-744-7685, email liboh@okstate.edu, or visit http://www.library.okstate.edu/oralhistory/.

Oklahoma State University is a modern land-grant system that cuts across disciplines to better prepare students for success. Oklahoma’s only university with a statewide presence, OSU improves the lives of people in Oklahoma, the nation, and the world through integrated, high-quality teaching, research and outreach. OSU has more than 35,000 students across its five-campus system and more than 23,000 on its Stillwater campus, with students from all 50 states and 118 nations. Established in 1890, OSU has graduated more than 200,000 students who have made a lasting impact on Oklahoma and the world.

Contact: Bonnie Ann Cain, APR

OSU Library

lib-pub@okstate.edu

###

EARLY OKLAHOMA MINING TRAGEDIES

2011-03-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

In Cheswick, PA in 1904 over 100 men were killed when an explosion ripped through the Hartwick Coal Mine igniting gas and trapping the miners.

Oklahoma mines tended to fill with gas too and these ' windy tunnels' - exploded from sparks, lamps, and other accidental ignitions. Roofs collapsed under the strain of thousands of tons of rock and dirt being bored by ax, pick and dynamite (Coal Mining Disasters).

1892 - Jan. 7, Krebs, I.T. - 100 men killed, 150 injured

1902 - June, Dow, I.T. - 10 killed in the Milby and Dow Company Mine.

1906 - Jan., Poteau, I.T. - 14 men killed

1908 - Aug, Haileyville, OK - 31 miners die in coal mine fire Mine #1 near McAlester in eastern Oklahoma

1910 - April 1 - 6 men die in Great Western Mine # 2

1910 - Oct 19 - Buck, OK - 2 men killed in #6 mine (*)

1912 - Feb. 23, 20-40 men reported dead in coal mine explosion.

Additional mining accidents occur in the 1920s and 1930's, but safety measures improved and there was generally less loss of life.

---

Bibliography of Oklahoma Coal Mining Disasters

(*) - One book on ghost stories, Haunted Homeland, cites 'Mine # 6' in Buck, OK but mis-dates the event and mis-identifies victims.

MINING DISASTERS: 1892 Krebs, Indian Territory

2011-03-20T14:15:00.000-07:00

Krebs # 11

It was cold that January 7th in 1892 and a cold winter raced across the Indian Territory. It was to be the last day for many in the Osage Coal and Mining Company mine shaft #11. Mining was dangerous business no matter what time or place. Workers from mining regions were brought in to work the mines for their expertise and skill. They were brought in from Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Russia, Italy, Wales, England, and Poland. Miners from Pennsylvania and Virginia also came in to the region as well. The mine had a reputation for being poorly managed and maintained. Under trained workers labored long hours in unsafe conditions. It has been suggested that immigrants were encouraged to come work in the Territory just for that reason. Poor English skills meant few demands and opposition to conditions. On that cold early January day, 100 men were dead, 150 others wounded, and the region had seen its worst mining disaster of all time. Nuns closed the local school so they could visit house to house to care for the injured or comfort those who had suffered loss.

A list of the causalities here. It was not until 2002 that the victims of this disaster were memorialized with a public marker. It is clear, however, that the impact was memorialized in the hearts and soul of the area for decades.

ANATOMY OF AN URBAN LEGEND: The Tale of Augusta

2011-03-20T08:42:00.000-07:00

In the landscape of Oklahoma legends and myths one tale continues to rise to the top and be repeated periodically. A scanning of websites with the story produces at least a dozen sites repeating the tale of the ghost of the house which now holds the Stone Lion Inn.

Sans any stories of hauntings prior to the early 1980's, the house had been a home and once a funeral home. The charming and heartbreaking tale of a little girl who stayed to play in the halls and stairs of the old house were shared with the sadness of life cut short at such a young age.

The childish ghost was said to be Augusta Houghton, the 8 yr old daughter of Fred and Bernice Houghton. She had died from an accidental overdose of cough medicine given by a nurse or maid. The story assumed a life of its own, repeated despite local researchers indicating they could not find a record of such a death.

Independently researchers from OKPRI and Cullan Hudson, author of Strange State came to the conclusion the specter, if there, could not be Augusta. Owner, Beth Luker, would later admit to making a mistake in naming Augusta, but by then the story had assumed a life of its own. Repeated by writers and paranormal researchers without fact checking, the story became enmeshed in the folkloric weave of the state.

What was the truth?

Searching US Federal Census records revealed in 1900 in Guthrie, Logan Co., OK a family living at 702 Noble Avenue. Fred E. Houghton (1854-1943), his wife Bertha (1872-1958), his children Grace (1885), Gladys (1896), Alma (1899), Augusta (b.1892, Sept), and Frank E. (1900) were enumerated on the census.

In 1910, the family is living at 1016 W. Warner Street (the location of the present inn). There is no Augusta listed on the 1910 census, although children Grace, Gladys, Alma, Frank E., Adolphe (1903), Dorthy (1907), Russell (1908), and Irene (1910) are listed.

In 1910, Augusta was no doubt the young 18 yr old woman listed in the Wichita, Ks census of students attending Mt. Caramel Academy.

The family is found again on the 1920 Census for Logan County and is enumerated in 1930 in Enid, OK, where daughter Alma had married into the Suddeth family and is listed with son David at the West Main address.

Rootsweb, a genealogy website, indicated a family history record for a Coralee Augusta, daughter of Fred and Bertha Houghton, born Sept. 17, 1892 and who married in 1913 a William Houser.

The only child NOT carried over through the ever expanding family listed on the US Federal Census was daughter Irene, listed as newborn in the 1910 census when the family lived at 1016 W. Warner, Guthrie.

A death record has not been located for the Irene Houghton listed on that 1910 census and so caution should be exercised. One website assumed she died the same year as the census because of the -0- listed by her age but that was often used for children/infants under the 1 year mark. There are questions to be answered because an infant could not be the 'child' presence noted by so many 'research teams.' She is not listed on several genealogical websites, although they site the census record where she is listed. And strangely, Coralee Augusta is not listed on several such websites despite citations referring back to the census of 1900.

If Irene was the 7-8 yr old who died, then a death record or grave should exist for her from the 1917-1918 time period. Since the family is enumerated on the 1920 census in Guthrie, then the likely place of death could be there. However, she had older sisters who were already married and could have been living elsewhere with them during the census. Assumptions cannot be made until verified by documentation.

The urban legend of "Augusta" is a classic example of the need for real, in-depth historical research to ferret out the truth from the tall tales and guesswork.

HAIR CUSTOMS

2011-03-15T17:57:00.000-07:00

Wondering through an antique mall I chanced upon something I had not seen since a tiny child. A small class container with an ornamental lid. It was similar to the one which had sat on my grandmother's dresser. It was explained to me that when she was a girl, ladies would brush their hair and then they would pull the hair caught in the brush out and collect it in the small container. This hair would be saved until enough had been collected to create small padded forms to add height or build the illusion of thicker hair for a French bun or topknot.

This got me to thinking of all the other hair care customs from over the years. Brushing hair 100 times before bed. Washing hair with eggs. Rinsing hair in vinegar or lemon juice. Bangs. Never brushing wet hair. Curling hair with scraps of cloth, bobby pins, or brush curlers. Home permanents. Using DRY shampoo (sprinkle in and brush out). Saving orange juice cans to use as curlers. Ironing hair straight. Never cutting hair and adopting a bald look. Only wearing long hair as a child. Always having short hair as a mature woman. Only wearing hair loose as a youth. Never wearing hair loose as a mature or married woman.

The great mystery here is - why in the world did women do all these things? Hair is pretty personal yet we as a gender have allowed others to dictate how we wear our hair, how long we wear our hair, what colors our hair should be, and a dozen other choices. Why? Clean hair worn in a manner that pleases the individual donning that hair, and not society or elements in society, should be the goal of every person. What I might like or dislike should not be the determinate for another's style. So why go into a salon and get the same hair 150,000 others have gotten that week? Just to fit in? Just to conform? I had an ancestor who belonged to a sect in Northern Ireland called the 'Croppies' because they kept their hair cropped. According to family legend, he was allowed to not adhere due to the respect in which he was held by many people. Be a wise woman, or man, and find that which suits you and your lifestyle. Let there be no mystery here - even if there is a lot of history - hair freedom once and for all!

PHOTOGRAPHIC INNOVATION ca.1910

2011-03-15T16:56:00.000-07:00

Having enjoyed a class in the history of photography, when I saw this jewel in a second hand shop, I decided to pick it up for my collection of 'unclaimed' portraits. It is unique. This innovative cardboard photo holder has a long tailed bird embossed (it may be a peacock). It is from an old studio in Norman, Oklahoma (OrenBaun's). There is no name on the holder or the photograph to identify the woman. The image/holder is the size of a smaller bookmark so would have easily fit in an envelope or a jacket pocket (to be held close to the heart?). The woman appears in her late twenties or early thirties. The high coat collar and hat are similar to styles worn between 1910 and 1918. Who was she and who did she send the photo and the soft smile to so many years ago?

Shady Lady Ghosts and Others

2011-03-15T15:01:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of the locations brought to my attention. If you have a story of a fallen, shady, or merely unsteady lady associated with a hotel, mansion, or drawing room, please contact me.

Tombstone, Arizona

The place called 'Big Nose Kate's, in the heyday of Tombstone when they licensed about 3,000 ladies of the night. Her real name was Mary Katherine Harmony and she haunts her place.

Flagstaff, AZ

The Museum club , built in the 1930's, may be haunted by past owner Thelma and her husband.

Hotel Monte Vista, has a story of two women from the 'red light district' to the south who were a) murdered in one of the rooms, or b) were thrown from the windows in one room. The room is the 'Gary Cooper', named for one of the Hollywood actors who would stay there while filming nearby.

Jerome, AZ

The 'Inn' boasts a shady lady who remains to taunt guests and staff named ,'Jennie'. Once a booming mining town with heavy traffic in sin some inhabitants may linger.

Dorrington, California

In the hotel of the same name, the love of the builder is said to still haunt the place in a calico dress from her time in the 1870's.

Jersey Bridge, California

A Spanish woman was said to have been lynched there in 1851 during the summer. She had murdered a man who made unseemly advances toward her and local town folk took exception. A men's club in a nearby town had her skull for many years for secret rituals - so no wonder if she walks!

Grass Valley, CA

In the hotel Holbrooke, a blond ghost is said to walk.

St. Louis, MO

Bissell Mansion Resturant, a womann is said to haunt the building in a white gown and an otherworldly glow.

Chicago, IL

A woman in red had been reported in windows and photos in the Excalibur Club in downtown windy city. She appears to be in her 30's-40's and may be wearing clothes from the time of a deadly fire nearby in 1915.

Santa Fe, NM

Lo Posada claims the ghost haunting them is Julie Stabb who was severely depressed after the death a child that she stayed in her room, the present # 256, until her death in the 1890's.

La Fonda Hotel claims until the 1990's a woman in white hung around their place and may have been a bride murdered shortly after her wedding.

Cloudcroft, NM

A young ghost named Rebecca is said to haunt the lovely hotel.

St. Joseph's Children Home, Bethany, Oklahoma c1914

2011-03-14T05:21:00.000-07:00

Unidentified girl feeds some of the chickens kept on the 'farm' of the Children's Home, c1914

1912 Blessing of St. Joseph Orphanage, Bethany, Oklahoma

2011-03-14T05:19:00.001-07:00

The St. Joseph's Children's Home, or the St. Josephs Orphanage and Industrial School as it was also called, was dedicated Oct. 6, 1912 by Bishop Theophile Meerschaert. It has been home to at least seven religious orders who supervised its ministry and work with children and the elderly. These orders included: the Sisters of Mercy, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, the Sisters of the Most Blessed Trinity, Carmelites, Benedictines, Missionary Sisters of the Most Blessed Trinity, and four 'strong and colorful priests' - Fathers John M. Kekesisen, P.P. Schaeffer, James Garvey, and A.A. Isenbart (The Sooner Catholic, Sept. 5,1976, pg. 6). The original property included 32 1/2 acres purchased partly by the Disocese and partly through a gift from James Maney. In 1913, additional acquisitions expanded the land to 60 acres, and then in 1919, 45 more acres were added a few miles north. This last would later be known as the "north farm", and would be sold to form the St. Francis Center for Christian Renewal on NW Expressway. The facility removed from the Bethany location in the 1960's and it was sold in the early 1970's to the International Pentecostal Holiness Church for their denominational headquarters.

St. Joseph's Children Home, Bethany, Oklahoma 1914

2011-03-14T05:18:00.000-07:00

The orphanage was just a few years old when this photo was taken. The surrounding areas were still a combination of flat plain and black jack oak forests. The facility was designed according to the latest trends in orphan care by combining living facility with industrial trades. Children in this time period were encouraged to learn and practice skills. They planted, cared for and sold crops to support themselves. Self-sufficiency was the goal of such institutions across the country. In time, the facility expanded to provide elder care as well allowing generations to mix. The build still stands - with some significant upgrades in exterior/interior structure- as the headquarters of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church and adjacent to Southwestern Christian University.

ELIZABETH, EFFIE, AND WHO ELSE?: Hunting Down A Multi-State Legend

2011-03-13T15:20:00.000-07:00

In Oklahoma City she is known as 'Effie'. A poor woman who loved not wise but too well and found herself pregnant with a married man's child. She a) either killed herself , b) was imprisoned by the married man, or c) was murdered. She has been said to haunt the Skirvin Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City since the 1920's.

In Goldfield, Nevada there is the story of "Elizabeth" associated with the historic Goldfield Hotel, who was a poor woman who loved not wise but too well and found herself pregnant with a married man's child. She a) either killed herself , b) was imprisoned by the married man, or c) was murdered.

It should be remembered that in Oklahoma City when it was opened as the result of the Land run of 1889, there were 'working girls' on the next train into town. "Big Annie" Wynn Bailey was a strapping girl in her mid-twenties fresh from the lucrative mining towns of Colorado. She saw opportunity and bought land, opened businesses in the heart of "Hell's Half Acre". Soon she controlled much of downtown Oklahoma City through real estate and a system of well placed bribes.

These "girls" as the prostitutes were sometimes called were a social subgroup with their own status, traditions, and behaviors. Did they also share a common 'folklore' of cautionary or fear tales to warn each other, and potential customers?

So who came first, "Emma" or "Elizabeth," or perhaps some yet to be discovered woman? It would be interesting to see how many of these tales of 'fallen' women with names beginning with an "E" might exist, identify when they first emerged, and discover if there movement could be tracked.

Other famous 'soiled doves' include Jerome, AZ's 'Julia' and 'Maggie' in Cripple Creek, CO. Over all the motif is similar to the cautionary tale of the 'Cry Baby Bridge', which I feel is a transference of the old Irish song, "Mary of the Moors."

NOTE: Anyone with knowledge of a story about a 'fallen women', 'scorned woman,' or 'compromised maiden' associated with a hotel or other town site, please contact me for an upcoming work.

AX MURDERS - UPDATE

2011-02-23T09:45:00.000-08:00

The "Good old days" might mean different things to different people. The list of death and murder in a time so often envisioned as idyllic, is unsettling. The truth of the matter is that people have always been - good and bad - people. These 'clusters' or 'outbreaks' do give pause and make one wonder if it was something in the water that drove people to such violent lengths. Here is an update with some additional ax murders added to the time line.

1901
• In November of 1901, the Wilcox family of Los Angeles was 'knifed horribly' while they slept. (“Horrible Crime”, Oklahoman, Nov. 29, 1901, pg. 1).

1904
• In Nov. 1904 the entire family of Julius Weber was shot and stabbed before the house was burned in Auburn, Ca (Oklahoman, Nov. 12, 1904, pg. 1).
• In March 1905, San Rafael, CA a man “Murdered His Entire Family”, Oklahoman, May 25, 105, pg. 7).

1909
• In October 1909, James McMahon confessed to killing the Van Royen family in Kansas City. (“I Killed Them” -Yells Murderer”, Oklahoman, Oct. 27, 1909, pg.11).
• In November of 1909 in Bluebird, W. Va. a George Hood family was killed and the house burned down to try to cover the deed. (“Charred Bodies of Four found in Ruins of House.” Oklahoman, Nov.2, 1909, pg. 10).
• December 1909, Cleveland, OH woman Josephine Mangero and her two children fatally stabbed. (“Mother and two children Slain”. Oklahoman, Dec.5,1909, pg. 1.).

December 1909, Cleveland, OH the body of Anna Lloyd was found with wounds from a knife or ax along the railroad in or near the Canal Ridge section.

1910
• In March 1910, the New Orleans area saw the murders of numerous families.

In October 1910, Cincinnati, Ohio, the body of Mary Hockney was found alongside a railroad with her "head crushed" and gashes all over her body. She was found along the Canal Ridge section near a railroad line (theorized Railroad connections were preceived in Iowa,Texas, and Kansas deaths). This body was found in the same place and condition as one earlier in the year at News Years.
• In December 1910, Savannah, Georgia a race war almost ensued after the deaths of Mrs. Elizabeth Gribble, Mrs. Carrie Ohlander, and Mrs. Maggie Hunter. The local police rounded up over a hundred local African Americans to be 'questioned'. (“Woman Slain by Fiendish Negro.” Oklahoman, Dec.12, 1909, pg. 18).

1911
• In January 1911, Rayne, LA an unnamed mother and her four children were killed.+
• In Spring 1911, Lafayette, LA the Norbett Randall family was killed.+
In August 1911, Booneville, Indiana, Richard Lee, his wife, and son where killed in their sleep “skulls caved in” by an ax and a fire started to hide the deed. Another son charged but doubts linger.
•In September 1911, Colorado Springs, Co. People in several neighboring houses were discovered dead with crushed heads while they slept. Victims were a H.C.Wayne, his wife and child; a Mrs. A. J. Burnham, two children (including a one year old).*
•In October 1911, in Monmouth, IL a William E. Dawson, his wife, and daughter were killed.
•In October 1911, in Ellsworth, Kansas a William Showman, wife, and three children were killed as they slept.* (“Showman Family of Five Murdered.” Ellsworth Reporter, Oct.11, 1911).

1912
• In February, 1912, in Beaumont, Texas a family was killed. +
• In 1912, Crowly, LA a family was killed as they slept. + (+=Some assume these LA and TX murders to be racially motivated as they are all African-American family units. Some included 'Mulatto' or mixed race children which further complicates and confuses the matter. The simple truth might also be that these families were convenient kills providing a prey separated from the major part of the society by racial prejudice, thus making them targets of ease. Others suggest some obscure church of sacrifice was involved yet the evidence appears weak to non-existent for this line of reasoning.)
• In 1912, Lake Charles, LA, a family was killed as they slept.+
• In April 1912, San Antonio (Police suspected the man was using the Southern Pacific Railroad since November 1911. (If the theory of the killer using the rails was correct he would next hit there and he did).
• In June 1912, in Paola, Kansas a Rollin Hudson and wife were murdered. (“Murder Came in the Night”, Western Spirit, June 14, 1912).
• In June 1912, in Vilasca, Iowa, eight were murdered as they slept. Victims: J.B. Moore and wife, four children, and two local girls, guests of his children. (“Recent Ax Murders”, Oklahoman, July, 14, 1912, pg. 1).
• In December 1912, two women were killed in Columbia, Missouri. (“Horrible Murder Committed”, Columbia Herald, Dec.20, 1912).

1913

In 1913, in Muskogee, Oklahoma several lone people were murdered by an axe welding killer (“Second Hatchet Murder Mystery Stirs Muskogee”, Oklahoman, Nov. 29, 1913, pg. 1).

In June 1913, Harrisville, Missouri sees Arthur Kellar, his wife and daughter attacked as they slept. The husband, and 7 year old daughter died.

1914

In July 6, 1914, Blue Island (Chicago), IL a family was butchered as they slept. Victims: Jacob Neslesla, wife, daughter, and an infant grandchild.* (“Axe of Assassin Deals Death to Sleeping Family,” Oklahoman, July 7, 1914.)

Summer-Fall, 1914, Braggs, Oklahoma, in under six months three people were killed or attacked in the night. Killed were Anna Martin Braggs; injured William Herzog, Braggs; killed were Charles Everett and B.F. Richardson, Muskogee.

1919
• In 1919, New Orleans, more axe murders thought to be the work of gangs but also as likely a serial killer. Perhaps the work of the same killer?

1920-
• In 1920 in Turtle Lake, N.D. eight are killed on the Jacob Wolf farm. (“Police Seek Clues in Dakota Murder”, Oklahoman, April 25, 26, 1920, pg. 2, 33).

1922-29
• In January of 1922, a mother and son are killed in Chicago. (Oklahoman, Jan. 23, 1922, pg.12.)
• In November 1928, Omaha was stricken by a 'hatchet slayer' who killed at least three times. (Oklahoman, Nov. 21, 1928).

FEATHERED SERPENTS, LOST LANDS, AND THE NEW WORLD

2011-02-13T12:37:00.000-08:00

Meso American history is full of legends of their ancestors and gods who were best described as being tall, thin, and wearing long feathered or multicolored coats. Their physical description led to the use of the term 'feathered serpents.'

Who were these tall, thin faced people some sources suggest had blue eyes? Where did they come from? The legends suggest that they went away one day and were expected to return. When the Europeans arrived in the 15th century, they were heralded as the returning gods. So - where had these strange serpent looking gods gone in the first place?

Is there any evidence of a people resembling 'serpents' in look, movement, or speech? There may be. One clue is from ancient UR in Mesopotamia where the Ubaid 'lizard statues' were found dating as far back as 6,000 BCE. With their elongated faces, slit like eyes, and protruding noses they do resemble an upright snake.

Middle American temples are structurally closer to the Ubaid style than the later Egyptian. Other peoples represented on Mesopotamian temples, and later Egyptian, reveal a wide variety of ethnic groups. Dominate traits (eye shape, clothing, weapons, hair styles, etc.) were used to characterize and individualize these various people groups.

It might be argued that the slit like eyes, facial structure, and elongated body features might be abstractions of an emerging art form. Yet, some groups in the middle east associated snakes/serpents with wisdom and knowledge. Some associated them with a vast body of arcane technology or beliefs (sword making, herbal medicine, makeup, and other secret guild-like information).

So, how might that same serpentine elite have also emerged across the globe? Independent development is one answer. Another idea has been suggested that is intriguing and that is that early explorers came to these shores. Yet, another idea is that the Platonic story of a lost land in the Atlantic might not be just a myth but have roots in an area we know as Cuba. Andrew Collins does just this in his work, Gateway to Atlantis. His reasoning is sound and his evidences hard to dismiss.

When every year campsites and bones come to light pushing back human occupation and new connections based on research connect eastern seaboad US with Europe at an earlier and earlier date - maybe a sound, fair, and evidence based approach to the Atlantis story would not go amiss.

The Theater!

2011-01-27T16:43:00.000-08:00

In ancient Greece an art form emerged from the annual worship of local gods. A competition then developed and poets worked through human conditions crafting tragedy. The three masters of the art form reflect three different periods of Grecian social, literary, and religious development.

Aeschylus wrote from a high religious purpose and motivation. He wrote plays that celebrated the faithful rituals and actions. In places within his work there is a glimpse of the traditionalist and the fundamentalist. In his work lurks the superstitious awe of the simmering mountaintop, the striking lightening bolt, or the rattling earth.

Sophocles wrote from the context of a social and intellectual transition period, where society was questioning the old ways, the old gods but still felt it important to pay lip service if nothing else to the old thoughts. They provided respectability, acceptance, and recognition through a common pantheon. More and more there is the touch of the cynic, the jade, and the disbeliever.

Euripides wrote in a Grecian post-modern era where many wished to deconstruct the past and recast their future free of the restrictions of their 'primitive' past. Yet, Euripides saw, as many of the authors did, that under the mythic stories of the Gods and their challenges could be found metaphor for the realities of human life.

Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all: only our characters are steadfast, not our gold.
Euripides

WARRIOR WOMEN? REALLY!

2011-01-25T16:37:00.000-08:00

The idea of a woman as warrior is not merely a 20th century feminist agenda item. From ancient times come tales, images, and facts supporting women as warriors in a variety of cultures.

Despite centuries of carefully preserved preconceptions and biases about how women functioned in history there is ample historical, archaelogical, and mythological resources to indicate the horizon was wider than many suppose. In all times women were daughters, wives, mothers, heroes, cowards, gladiators,warrior queens, battle leaders, soldiers, and marauders.

There are some who even postulate that there were battle units in ancient Biblical culture. The women in Exodus who 'sit beside the door of the tabernacle' may have been an honor guard of female soldiers. Deborah, the prophet and judge, had to accompany the army or the general would not go into battle. A mysterious phrase in the Old Testament refers to 'hornets' who swept through and fought off opposing forces. Could Deborah, whose name is traditionally said to mean 'bee', have relly been instead a 'hornet'? Her 'name' could then have been a title or label referring to her activities as a soldier or warrior.

Ancient Greek historians promoted the derogatory idea that a tribe of warrior women, who have come to be called in total Amazons, cut or burned off a breast in order to better shoot an arrow or throw a lance. Obviously the idea was to suggest, as Greek culture did through various of its philosophers, that women were inferior and had to be like a man to be able to do anything outside their own narrow construct of the home or the bedroom. Aristotle wrote that women were merely 'deformed men' ; human seeds who had failed to become the fully human male of the species.

A good article with links to some fine art is here.

Recently the US Army named its first female 'Best Warrior of the Year', 26 year old Sherri Gallagher. Of this soldier the US Army wrote: "Sgt. Sherri Gallagher of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, who represented U.S. Training and Doctrine Command at Best Warrior, beat out 11 other competitors from the Army's major commands. Gallagher, who is currently stationed at Fort Benning, Ga., is one of the top long-range rifle shooters in the country."

ALL THE LITTLE CHILDREN

2011-01-17T09:31:00.000-08:00

All the Little Children. M. Hudson. 2011.

In the land of Ozzie & Harriet Nelson, I Love Lucy’s crazy simple life, and our stereotypes of how good the ‘ old days’ were, it is unsettling to review some criminal cases.

In April of 1947, a tornado wrecked havoc in Woodward, Oklahoma and a little Joan Gay Croft, 4 yrs old, was taken from a make shift trauma ward in a basement by two unidentified men, and was never seen again. Strangely, a 12 year old girl was found after the storm and no one ever came forward to identified her.

Most disturbing was California police had found a small girl of roughly the same age in the hands of a pedophile in that state who had been terribly abused. Initially, it was hoped she would be the Croft child but that was not the case.

This early connected to pedophiles and the unidentified child’s body raise disturbing questions based on known behaviors and preferences of child molesters. In our continuing naïveté we assume ‘sex slaves’ and ‘child prostitution’ is a modern situation. Unfortunately, people have been dealing in children as commodities for a long time. It has been theorized that some abductions of children over the decades have been to supply the demand for children to be used in this manner. This brief survey is limited to female victims but if enlarged to include males and other instances could provide some clues as to trends and identify possible perpetrators.

In March of 1953, Spring Valley, NY the bodies of two girls Marjorie Boudreau (8) and Esther Nagy (5) were found in Rockland County. One had been stabbed and the other died from a blow to the head, apparently from a rock. They were found in a wooded area not far from a stretch of road called Hungry Hollow. [“Two Little Girls Are Murdered.” Oklahoma (March 9, 1953) pg.1]

In July of 1954, 7 year old Judith Ann Roberts of Miami, Florida was taken from her home in the night. Her nude and blood covered body was found in a thicket on the shores of Biscayne Bay. She had been bound, blindfolded, and her head battered. [“No Clues Found in Child Salying”. Oklahoman. (July 8, 1954) pg. 40]

In April of 1955, 7 year old Barbara Gaca was raped, stabbed and beaten not far from her home in Detriot. She had vanished on the Thursday previous on her way to school. Her body had been found in a secluded dumping ground. [“7-Year-Old Child Brutally Murdered.” Oklahoman (April 1, 1955), pg. 43].

In 1956 a mystery emerged between Kansas City and Oklahoma City when the body of a child of about 3 or 4 was confused with another child. [“Riddle of Slain Child Deepens.” Oklahoman (March 31, 1956) pg. 1].

In August of 1960, a Merced, California 6 year old, Angie Stewart, was found, her body showing indications of murder, in brush within Yosemite National Park. An army Warrant Officer, on orders to ship out to Korea, had been picked up. [“Missing Girl’s Body Located”, Oklahoman (Aug. 16, 1960), pg. 1].

In February of 1961, the body of 4 year old Edith Kiecorius was discovered in a littered room on a rooming house. Her body, showing evidence of being raped and beaten, was found amid dozens of empty bear cans and an empty whiskey bottle. [“Girl’s Body Found in Littered Room”, Oklahoman (Feb. 27, 1961) pg. 31).

In April of 1962 the bodies of two 6 year old girls, Stephanie Hanna and Paula Cram, were found in an abandoned refrigerator in San Fernando, California. Paul Cram was a foster child living with the Hanna’s and she had been raped while Stephanie had been knocked out. Both girls were stuffed in the refrigerator where they suffocated. [ “Girls Found Slain in Old Refrigerator”, The Oklahoman (April 25, 1962) pg. 45].

In June 1966 in Aurora, Colorado a nine year old, Paula Steinbach, was found in a cave under a shed used as a playhouse. It appeared her clothes had been disarranged. [ “Body of Girl Found in Cave,” The Oklahoman (June 30, 1966) pg. 42].

In December of 1969, six year old Kathy Adams was found in an abandoned farm house in Rice County, Kansas after being kidnapped by a man. The man then drove her to an abandoned area, had her remove her clothes, and then left. She made her way a couple of miles and saw the empty house, broke in and covered up with an old blanket. The owner of the property luckily found her the next morning, alive and unharmed. [“Officers Find Missing Girl”, The Oklahoman, (Dec. 27, 1969) pg. 32].

In May, 1967, 7 year old Cindy Cleland, of Sierra Vista, AZ vanished from her home on an army post. Four days later her nude and mutilated body was fond in dense undergrowth on military land. Initially, an area teen was arrested. [“Arizona Had Missing Girls Mystery Also”, Oklahoman (Aug. 9, 1967) pg. 9]

In late June of 1967, a 6 year old, Janelle Haines, whose father was also in the army, went missing. Some eleven hours later, her body was found between her home and officer’s club. [“Arizona Had Missing Girls Mystery Also”, Oklahoman (Aug. 9, 1967) pg. 9]

On Thursday July 6, 1967, Judith Elwell, age 5, disappeared from near her home in northwest Oklahoma City. To this day no one has seen or heard from her. [Greiner, John. “Case of Two Missing Girls.” Oklahoman, (Aug. 8, 1967) pg. 1]

On Thursday, August 3, 1967, Brenda Lois White, age 6, disappeared from near her home in Midwest City, Oklahoma (a suburb of Oklahoma City). A witness said he saw her in a white car with ‘fins’. In early November, her body was discovered in eastern Oklahoma County. It was in a shallow grave on an isolated old farm lot. [ Rogers, Jim. “Boy’s Description of Car Spurs New Kidnap Quiz,” Oklahoman (Aug.10, 1967) pg. 1; “Remains of Brenda White Believed Found…” Oklahoman, (Nov. 20, 1967) pg. 1]

August 11, 1967, two sisters, Roberta Barili (6) and Cecilia Barili (7) had gone missing on Wednesday and their bodies found the next day in Los Angeles. They had been raped and strangled. Nearby were footprints and eight empty beer cans. LA Police had suggested a possible link to the Oklahoma City-Midwest City disappearances. [ “2 Los Angeles Tots Slain”, Oklahoman, (Aug. 11, 1967), pg. 11]

August 13, 1967, in Oklahoma City four children were forced into a white, four-door sedan but escaped when the man stopped in a parking lot. They were identified as: Leellen Scott, 12, Leonard Scott 8, and Mike Bradshurd 12, and Patsy Newberry 10. [Rogers, Jim. “Four City Children Abducted”, Oklahoman, (Aug. 13, 1967) pg. 1]

In August of 1967, a 3 year old Hutchinson, Kansas girl named Rene Talbot went missing and Oklahoma City police and Midwest City police explored a possible connection to their two missing children. [“Police Study Kansas Case”, Oklahoman (Aug. 23, 1967), pg. 19]

In September of 1969, the body of 7 year old Donna Golish of Sherman, Texas was discovered in a pasture. She had gone missing on a Wednesday and her body was discovered on a Thursday. Her parents had lived on Perrin Air Force Base in Sherman. [ Rogers, Jim. “City, Texas Child Killings Compared.” Oklahoman (Sept. 12, 1969) pg. 9.] .

One of the gauges of a truly good society has to be how do we treat the 'least among us' ? The elderly, the handicaped, and the children? When children - those society should gather to itself and protect from harm - are abused and murdered we all must grieve. We must all assume the task of keeping it from happening again. We must all decide to protect and love 'all the little children.'

TRAIN OUT OF TIME

2011-01-01T13:18:00.000-08:00

As a child in Wellington, Kansas there was a railroad yard not far from where we lived and although all the children were instructed to never go there, this was cheerfully ignored. Usually home to mountain like piles of gravel, sand, or piles of rails waiting to be used by the repair crews, on one occasion a passenger care from another time mysteriously appeared and stayed there only a short time before it was moved.

The interior was similar to the image shown here; the seats were a faded burgundy velvet with large tufts in the back seats. The ceilings were faded but showed glinting gold beneath layers of dirt and dust. The wooden floors were covered with old newspapers and more dust. Brass lamps, or what remained of them, hung periodically from the long ceiling. The windows were opaque with grime and dust.

We climbed up the steps at the back and took excited turns peering into the dim interior with a common sense we were seeing something very special. No one wanted to pry open the doors, no one wanted to climb over those seats, and no one wanted to play on this train. It was like the old woman we might meet on the street. We stood a little taller, remembered out manners, and politely took our leave.

Where did the car come from and where did it go? A true mystery of history about a day where a train out of its time paused to allow a group of children a glimpse into the wonder and glory of a past day.

WAS IT SOMETHING IN THE WATER?

2010-12-27T18:00:00.000-08:00

1901
• In November of 1901, the Wilcox family of Los Angeles was 'knifed horribly' while they slept. (“Horrible Crime”, Oklahoman, Nov. 29, 1901, pg. 1).

1904
• In Nov. 1904 the entire family of Julius Weber was shot and stabbed before the house was burned in Auburn, Ca (Oklahoman, Nov. 12, 1904, pg. 1).
• In March 1905, San Rafael, CA a man “Murdered His Entire Family”, Oklahoman, May 25, 105, pg. 7).

1909
• In October 1909, James McMahon confessed to killing the Van Royen family in Kansas City. (“I Killed Them” Yells Murderer”, Oklahoman, Oct. 27, 1909, pg.11).
• In November of 1909 in Bluebird, W. Va. a George Hood family was killed and the house burned down to try to cover the deed. (“Charred Bodies of Four found in Ruins of House.” Oklahoman, Nov.2, 1909, pg. 10).
• December 1909, Cleveland, OH woman Josephine Mangero and her two children fatally stabbed. (“Mother and two children Slain”. Oklahoman, Dec.5,1909, pg. 1.).

1910
• In March 1910, the New Orleans area saw the murders of numerous families.
• In December 1910, Savannah, Georgia a race war almost ensued after the deaths of Mrs. Elizabeth Gribble, Mrs. Carrie Ohlander, and Mrs. Maggie Hunter. The local police rounded up over a hundred local African Americans to be 'questioned'. (“Woman Slain by Fiendish Negro.” Oklahoman, Dec.12, 1909, pg. 18).

1911
• In January 1911, Rayne, LA a mother and her four children were killed.+
• In Spring 1911, Lafayette, LA the Norbett Randall family was killed.+
• In September 1911, Colorado Springs, Co. People in several neighboring houses were discovered dead with crushed heads while they slept. Victims were a H.C.Wayne, his wife and child; a Mrs. A. J. Burnham, two children (including a one year old).*
• In October 1911, in Monmouth, IL a William E. Dawson, his wife, and daughter were killed.
• In October 1911, in Ellsworth, Kansas a William Showman, wife, and three children were killed as they slept.* (“Showman Family of Five Murdered.” Ellsworth Reporter, Oct.11, 1911).

1912
• In February, 1912, in Beaumont, Texas a family was killed. +
• In 1912, Crowly, LA a family was killed as they slept. + (+=Some assume these LA and TX murders to be racially motivated as they are all African-American family units. Some included 'Mulatto' or mixed race children which further complicates and confuses the matter. The simple truth might also be that these families were convenient kills providing a prey separated from the major part of the society by racial prejudice thus making them targets of ease. Others suggest some obscure church of sacrifice was involved yet the evidence appears weak to non-existent for this line of reasoning.)
• In 1912, Lake Charles, LA, a family was killed as they slept.+
• In April 1912, San Antonio (Police suspected the man was using the Southern Pacific Railroad since November 1911. It was suggested if the theory of the killer using the rails was correct he would next hit there and he did).
• In June 1912, in Paola, Kansas a Rollin Hudson and wife were murdered. (“Murder Came in the Night”, Western Spirit, June 14,1912).
• In June 1912, in Vilasca, Iowa, eight were murdered as they slept. Victims: J.B. Moore and wife, four children, and two local girls, guests of his children. (“Recent Ax Murders”, Oklahoman, July, 14, 1912, pg. 1).
• In December 1912, two women were killed in Columbia, Missouri. (“Horrible Murder Committed”, Columbia Herald, Dec.20, 1912).

1913
• In 1913, in Muskogee, Oklahoma several lone people were murdered by an axe welding killer (“Second Hatchet Murder Mystery Stirs Muskogee”, Oklahoman, Nov. 29, 1913, pg. 1).

1914
• In July 6, 1914, Blue Island (Chicago), IL a family was butchered as they slept. Victims: Jacob Neslesla, wife, daughter, and an infant grandchild.* (“Axe of Assassin Deals Death to Sleeping Family,” Oklahoman, July 7, 1914.)

1919
• In 1919, New Orleans, more axe murders thought to be the work of gangs but also as likely a serial killer. Perhaps even the same killer?

1920-
• In 1920 in Turtle Lake, N.D. eight are killed on the Jacob Wolf farm. (“Police Seek Clues in Dakota Murder”, Oklahoman, April 25, 26, 1920, pg. 2, 33).

1922-29
• In January of 1922, a mother and son are killed in Chicago. (Oklahoman, Jan. 23, 1922, pg.12.)
• In November 1928, Omaha was stricken by a 'hatchet slayer' who killed at least three times. (Oklahoman, Nov. 21, 1928).

The Louisiana and Texas Axe Murders (1909-1912)

2010-12-27T12:20:00.000-08:00

In January 1911 in Rayne, Louisiana a mother and her four children were hacked to death by an unknown killer as they slept.
In February in Crowley the Byers family was killed.
A few weeks later, in nearby Lafayette, LA the five members of the Andrus family were killed,
In April, five member of the Cassaway family were killed.
On Nov. 26, 1911 the 5 membes of the Norbett Randall family were similarily killed as they slept.
On Jan. 19, 1912, five members of the Warner family in Crowley were attacked and killed
On Jan. 21, at Lake Charles the 5 members of the Felix Broussard family were killed
The 6 members of the Wexford family were slaughtered.
Feb. 91, 1912, Beaumont more death in the Dove home.
March 27, more death in Glidden, Texas
April 11, 1912 in San Antonio, the five members of the William Burton family were killed
April 13, 1912 three were killed in a Hempstead, Texas home.
Aug. 6, 1912 the final murders occur in San Antonio.

After that, no more deaths in the region. Michael Newton in his Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes, notes the interesting fact that some 20 black women were killed in Atlanta, Georgia during this same time period. The killer there was labeled "Jack the Ripper." (pg. 263-264).

The New York Times in March 1912 indicated there was great fear in the black communities of the region, worried over the impact on grain crops (so compassionate), discussed the possibility of a "Sacrifice Cult" and then spent some time exploring the belief that a cult had not been the initial cause of the killings but was a factor now. ("Negro TerrorMay Shorten Rice Crops", New York Times, March 2, 1912, pg. 7). The ignorance of Voodoo, Hoodoo and alternate religious customs added to the problem. The crimes were not viewed as seriously as they might and were clearly only a danger to one segment of the population ("Religious Crank Killing Negroes," Oklahoman, Feb.20, 1912, pg. 1). In Februrary, in Beaumont, Texas Ethel Dove, her son Ernest, daughter Haitie, and daughter Jessie Quick were killed.

The killer next struck in San Antonio and for the last time in the region of Hempstead, Texas.

Some have attempted to make this part of a racial attack on Louisiana and Texas blacks. The truth may be it is simply part of a larger pattern of assaults on families through the country in the 1901 - 1930 time period. Numerous families, mothers, fathers, and young children, were brutally assaulted in Louisiana, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Colorado, W. Virginia, and California. It may be that once more investigation occurs other yet to be discoverd events in numerous areas may provide even more links between all of these early crimes.

In almost every case found the target appeared to be the mother figure and the assaults on the woman the most severe.

The Mind of the Mob: Ugly Lessons We Should Never Forget

2010-12-26T11:11:00.000-08:00

From the 1880's through the 1920's - literally thousands died at the hands of mobs in the United States. Most were racially motivated and many were examples of citizenry taking the law into their own hands. The victims included African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics Americans and European Americans.

These mob decided hangings, burnings, and murders were sometimes instigated by the racist reporting in local or regional newspapers, inflamed by shock or fear mongering tales from distant places, or ignored by local news all together.

Usually, these mobs rode the hot blood of recent death or some incident deemed inappropriate and fear fanned the flames of racisim. Sometimes, though, the intent was with willful planning and cold intent. Wearing masks or sheet these mobs had one purpose - social control at any price. They usually targeted blacks but were not above putting whites in their place (as they saw it). They were judge, jury and executioner with a callous disregard for the law, justice, or fairness.

Examining some of these old newspapers a trend can sometimes be found, especially in areas subject to influences from the south. The stories of "bad negroes" being burned at the stake or hung by a raging mob are recounted with a detectable note of glee. Predictions of probable lynchings someitmes had an almost hopeful tone (the inference almost seeming to be that a community would lynch if it were worth its salt). Then, when the horrid and despictable act was accomplished in an upclose and personal manner that underscored its basic beastial elements, the same writer or editor would step back, rachet down the tone, and then wonder how this thing had happened?

A common feature of those distant days when news was sparse and far between and todays' 24/7 news cycle is news sells. Those responsible for "whipping" up emotions, providing examples of actions with out thought of those who might copy the acts, and sending mixed signals as to the worthiness of an action cannot step back and wonder what happened. They cannot fall back on the blank faced assumption that they had no part in the act. The laid the groundwork, provided the examples and the sense of righteous motive, and then reported the 'worthy' act in their newspapers.

In researching several lychings, I saw this pattern repeated enough to lay partial blame at the feet of thoughtless and perhaps greedy editors and publishers. Some were more than thoughtless because the canker of ugly heartless racism was the engine driving their actions. Such a level of hatred for a fellow human being should never be allowed. Over and over I also saw these instigatin voices replaced by new journalists who asked probing questions, demanded fairness and laid blame on the mob mentality that robs a society if its virtue.

In our so civilized modern time we must guard against the same senseless motives and actions in their new modern guises: politics, gang and drug murders, recreational crime, and more.

AXE MURDERS OF AUSTIN

2010-12-25T07:18:00.000-08:00

Did Jack the Ripper get his start in Texas? Some researchers have suggested just that. The crimes, called at the time the Servant Girl Annihilator or Austin Axe Murderer, was a serial killer or killers who terrorized Austin, Texas between 1884 and 1885. Who he was and why he killed (other simply being evil) are unknown. Author Alistair MacLean once opinioned that men were either mad or bad when they did some deeds. No confusion as to the sources of human depravity for him.

The motive of this killers operations differed greatly from "Jack": he raped, stabbed or axed his victims. Just months later, the killings begin in White Chapel in London City. Like, the later English killer the Austin killer disappears and the killings stop leaving many to ponder if a killer, once his blood lust has been aroused and given an outlet, can he really stop? Like the BTK murderer of more recent times in Kansas it may go underground - but is never too far buried it cannot be brought once more into the spotlight.

HAVE AXE - WILLING TO TRAVEL

2010-12-24T18:43:00.000-08:00

From the soon to be released..."When Death Rode the Rails"(c) by Marilyn A. Hudson.

The Axe Man Cometh

There was a time when every home had one staple tool used to chop wood, kill a rooster for Sunday dinner, or several other tasks. The axe was so useful and used by every member of a household: men, women, and even children. That such an instrument might be used in murders was not a surprise - murders often use what is handy, weapons of opportunity or convenience. Husbands went after wives and wives attacked husbands with a emphasis on single victim attacks. In some cases youth went after parental figures. Sometimes, a stranger came to town and struck in the shadows of night leaving blood and tragedy behind them before leaving once more.

The Crimes
What is more noticeable was that between 1909 and 1919 there were numerous axe murders of families or groups. These occurred across the country. Some were solved, some were merely officially closed by finding a local scapegoat, whole some remain a mystery to this day. To further confuse the issue an ax could be welded as easily by a woman or youth as a grown man. All were family units, killed in their sleep, with a blunt object such as a hammer, axe, pick, etc. or a sharp object such as an axe or a knife.

Although these could all be unrelated, except as copycat style crimes, the possibility remains that there could have been more crimes of a serial nature going in early 20th century America than previously supposed.

If all these incidences were the work of one killer, the person obviously had issues with families and families where there was some potential or perceived problem as seen in the number of wives living apart from husbands, mothers living apart from fathers, etc. The killer may have seen, even in healthy families, some dysfunction he had to eradicate. He may have even seen himself as fulfilling some mission. In at least two cases, there is the hint that it was the woman who was the recipient of the most severe attack supporting the theory the killer may have been substituting someone else for his victim. Was he lashing out at a substitute for some woman in his life? Was he killing the children to ‘protect’ them in some perverted reasoning?

Note, that many of these just might be the work of one man. A serial killer might go one for decades, uncaught, as has been proved many times over around the globe. The crime scenes were so contaminated by sight seers and investigators that valuable clues linking a perpetrator were lost almost before the story hit the news wire.
It would be interesting to determine how many of these cases saw the woman as the primary, or first, victim? How many had items thrown over clocks, telephones, and windows? How many left notes or had letters sent to the town reciting scriptures? These may all be the signature calling cards of the person responsible for these ghastly murders.

• In November of 1901, the Wilcox family of Los Angeles was 'knifed horribly' while they slept. (“Horrible Crime”, Oklahoman, Nov. 29, 1901, pg. 1).
• In Nov. 1904 an entire family was shot and the house burned in Auburn, Ca (Oklahoman, Nov. 12, 1904, pg. 1).
• In March 1905, San Rafael, CA a man “Murdered His Entire Family”, Oklahoman, May 25, 105, pg. 7).
• In October 1909, James McMahon confessed to killing the Van Royen family in Kansas City. (“I Killed Them” Yells Murderer”, Oklahoman, Oct. 27, 1909, pg.11).
• In November of 1909 in Bluefield, W. Va. a family was killed and the house burned down to try to cover the deed. (“Charred Bodies of Four found in Ruins of House.” Oklahoman, Nov.2, 1909, pg. 10).
• December 1909, Cleveland, OH woman Josephine Mangero and her two children fatally stabbed. (“Mother and two children Slain”. Oklahoman, Dec.5,1909, pg. 1.).
• In 1909-1911, the New Orleans and Teas areas saw the murders of numerous families. It was assumed a sacrificial cult or sect was responsible and one young woman ‘confessed’ to such (“How the Cruel and Gruesome Murder of Africa’s Serpent Worship Have Been revived in Louisiana,” Oklahoman, Feb.18, 1912, pg. 38). Such stories were often printed to stir things up among the fearful whites and to create environments where mob rule could function without too much complaint. The scope of these stories, despite the attempts to marginalize the killings as a racial issue, indicate a killer was prowling the area and using the rails to move about.
• In December 1910, Savannah, Georgia a race war almost ensued after the deaths of Mrs. Elizabeth Gribble, Mrs. Carrie Ohlander, and Mrs. Maggie Hunter. The local police rounded up over a hundred local African Americans to be 'questioned'. (“Woman Slain by Fiendish Negro.” Oklahoman, Dec.12, 1909, pg. 18).
• In January 1911, Rayne, LA a mother and her four children were killed.+
• In Spring 1911, Lafayette, LA the Norbett Randall family was killed.+
• In September 1911, Colorado Springs, Co. People in several neighboring houses were discovered dead with crushed heads while they slept. Victims were a H.C.Wayne, his wife and child; a Mrs. A. J. Burnham, two children (including a one year old).*
• In October 1911, in Monmouth, IL a William E. Dawson, his wife, and daughter were killed.
• In October 1911, in Ellsworth, Kansas a William Showman, wife, and three children were killed as they slept.* (“Showman Family of Five Murdered.” Ellsworth Reporter, Oct.11, 1911).
• In 1912, Crowly, LA a family was killed as they slept. + (+=Some assume these LA and TX murders to be racially motivated as they are all African-American family units. Some included 'Mulatto' or mixed race children which further complicates and confuses the matter. The simple truth might also be that these families were convenient kills providing a prey separated from the major part of the society by racial prejudice thus making them targets of ease. Others suggest some obscure church of sacrifice was involved yet the evidence appears weak to non-existent for this line of reasoning.)
• In 1912, Lake Charles, LA, a family was killed as they slept.+
• In April 1912, San Antonio (Police suspected the man was using the Southern Pacific Railroad since November 1911. It was suggested if the theory of the killer using the rails was correct he would next hit there and he did).
• In February, 1912, in Beaumont, Texas a family was killed. +
• In June 1912, in Paola, Kansas a Rollin Hudson and wife were murdered. (“Murder Came in the Night”, Western Spirit, June 14,1912).
• In June 1912, in Vilasca, Iowa, eight were murdered as they slept. Victims: J.B. Moore and wife, four children, and two local girls, guests of his children.* (“Recent Ax Murders”, Oklahoman, July, 14, 1912, pg. 1).
• In December 1912, two women were killed in Columbia, Missouri. (“Horrible Murder Committed”, Columbia Herald, Dec.20, 1912).
• In 1913, in Muskogee, Oklahoma several lone people were murdered by an axe welding killer (“Second Hatchet Murder Mystery Stirs Muskogee”, Oklahoman, Nov. 29, 1913,pg. 1).
• In July 6, 1914, Blue Island (Chicago), IL a family was butchered as they slept. Victims: Jacob Neslesla, wife, daughter, and an infant grandchild.* (“Axe of Assassin Deals Death to Sleeping Family,” Oklahoman, July 7, 1914.)
• In 1919, New Orleans, more axe murders thought to be the work of gangs but also as likely a serial killer. Perhaps even the same killer?
• In 1920 in Turtle Lake, N.D. eight are killed on the Jacob Wolf farm. (“Police Seek Clues in Dakota Murder”, Oklahoman, April 25, pg. 2, and April 26, 1920, pg. 33).
• In January of 1922, a mother and son are killed in Chicago. (Oklahoman, Jan. 23, 1922, pg.12.)
• In November 1928, Omaha was stricken by a 'hatchet slayer' kills three. (Oklahoman, Nov. 21, 1928).

As the Texas and Louisiana authorities noted, the killer(s) were never far from a railroad line in all of these murders. In fact, in several cases the trail died at a rail line indicating a killer might have hopped a train to escape. Several books, Serial Killers: The Methods and Madness of Monsters (Peter Vronksy) and Still at Large: A Case book of 20th Century Serial Killers (Michael Nicotan) mention these Louisiana and Texas slayings.

It should be remembered that all we know about serial killers and their conduct, motives, and methods is fairly recently learned. What was said to be ironclad just 10 years ago is already being tweaked based on new research showing that the hard and fast "rules" of criminal profiling have been extremely useful but they have to be subject to revisions based on new data.

HOLIDAYS BRINGS THOUGHTS OF HOME

2010-12-22T15:44:00.001-08:00

Sometimes, home can be the most mysterious place of all. Searching for an address in my hometown, I followed a 'bunny trail' trying to remember the addresses of places where we had lived while I was growing up. This in turn led to the discovery that some addesses appeared to have disappeared. Others, had changed almost too much to even recognize. Some were near landmarks I had never known existed. Then, there was the awareness that little history seems to be available for my hometown. Then, most disturbing of all, is the level of detail on Goggle maps for Earth (requires a plug) reveals a disturbing pre- 9/11 level of up-to-details.

THE GOOD WIFE'S GUIDE

2010-12-20T06:23:00.001-08:00

see more Historic LOL

Although of questionable origin the 'guide' is reflective of attitudes by many in the time period. No accurate source has yet been found for the list of suggestions, but similar bits of advice could be found in smaller publications of thr 1950's and 1960's and even into the 1970's. I know, I read them. I remember reading one small booklet from a small publisher (it may have been Standard Publishing) with advice for husbands and wives. Some true gems of this genre can also be found in the books of advice for wives of pastors. The military also produced, I am told, a forminable book for officers wives and base living during the time period of the 1950-1970's

Although this "Good Wife Guide" is a no doubt a mock up done to press home a point - they may not have had to go far to glean the tidbits of advice. Who may have put this together? The list is endless.....

"I'M DREAMING OF AN ALUMINUM CHRISTMAS"

2010-12-12T12:20:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, in a land long ago, Christmas was celebrated with shiny aluminum trees. Oh, what modern marvels! How they glinted, glittered, and reflected the rotating colors angled upwards into those metallic branches. We were in the space age after all! After school, children were entertained by space men on the television, astronauts, and futuristic travlers.

In Kansas in the 1960's, "Major Astro" hosted the daily after school television program on KARD out of Wichita. The program of movies or cartoons, puppets, and characters was inspired by the Mercury astronauts, reflecting the new space age efforts of the Air Force and NASA, and the age-old dream of going "out there." It delighted and inspired children for many years. Everyday children would rush home to make sure they did not miss the smiling Major who always wished us "Happy orbits!" [ He was on the air from 1962 to 1973. Astro, played by Tom Leahy, died at age 87 in June. There is even a Facebook Fan Page honoring him.]

The shiny trees were just another part of this modern, futuristic, science fiction-turning-into-reality environment. We watched launches into history on small grainy pictured televisions, played with toy ray guns and flew into the 'wild blue yonder' of the imagination. Today, they are making a come back, as new versions and vintage finds. In Brevard, NC is the only museum devoted to preserving and sharing the history of these vintage delights. Stop by if you can and remember a tme when there were dreams, confidence, and local television personalties.

Merry Christmas!

(Click on the title above to link to their site).

The Thing Goes There

2010-12-11T12:30:00.000-08:00

For shivers and suspense the 1951 Hawk's film, The Thing From Another World, aka The Thing, is hard to beat in movies of its day. It was based on a gripping 1930's science fiction short story by Joseph W. Campbell called "Who Goes There?" [read the story here]

As a young girl, I remember being wide eyed as the huge mysterious creature stalks the stranded scientists and soldiers in their snowy world.

Perched between the here-today-gone-tomorrow 1947 Roswell, NM UFO episode and the mysterious 1953 Washington D.C. UFO flyover, the almost mythic image and story hinted at many unknowns, possibilities, and just might be things yet to be discovered.

Did the image sear itself into cultural memory and emerge later as a smaller version?

Decades before the stereotypical big headed, big eyed alien, of the 1980's, the 1951 film showed a head strikingly similar. The Thing, as portrayed in the film was not small, but rather a large framed humanoid. More recent movies present more special effects and gore but that strange vision of such an unworldly head just becoming visible in the ice scene is interesting - and still able to provide more than one good shiver.

DEHORNING THE VIKINGS

2010-12-05T10:22:00.000-08:00

It is the classic mythic image - Viking warriors tramping across the land in huge horned helmets. The only problem they did not wear them. This depiction was set in stone with the Wagnerian operas. Although, early Roman writers wrote of Northern tribes who wore helmets with various horns or antlers attached, there is cause to think these were the predecessor of the Vikings and most probably one of the groups fitting into the Celtic language and culture matrix. Celtic related images going back to the 8th century B.C, shows horned helmets. A horned god was part of their pantheon.

In the Thames in the 1860's a helmet with horns was found and it is thought they were symbolic offerings or used in some special ritual. The mistake arose from a time when archaeology was largely influenced by a simplistic and linear concept of human development. This thinking labeled everything as either 'primitive' or ' civilized'. People groups who did not adopt the trappings of 'civilization' (huge structures, complex roads, etc.) were labeled 'primitive' and no thought was given to the evidences of advanced societies within more simple social structures. That societies might develop without the need to build castles or houses in stone and might work with nature were not part of the accepted paradigm.

CHRISTMAS STORIES FROM ENID

2010-12-05T09:58:00.001-08:00

In 1909, little Florence Bellmont insured Santa understood her letter by writing it in several languages: French, German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish. Seems her father had been a translator in European - so he may have helped just a little bit. She was very polite and assurred Santa the "north window" would be open for easy access.

In the 1920's a white haired professor of nearby Philips University prepared to deliver his performance of 'The Christmas Carol'. He had been presenting it since about 1910.