Curious reports are coming out of Idaho concerning a rash of missing dogs, with the remains of at least one unfortunate canine being found with ritualistic paraphernalia on the body. Reuters reports:
"The mysterious disappearance of about 30 dogs in southern Idaho has baffled animal control officials and raised concerns among dog lovers after a German shepherd was found with its head crushed in a suspected ritual killing.
"The missing canines range widely in size, breed and age...
"Officials say some 30 dogs have gone missing in recent months in Twin Falls and nearby communities in an agricultural region in south-central Idaho known as the Magic Valley.
"A man and his young daughter hiking along the north rim of the Snake River Canyon northeast of Twin Falls earlier this month discovered the remains of a German shepherd that had apparently been stoned to death, Blackwood said.
"The dog, found in an area known as the Devil's Corral in neighboring Jerome County, appeared to have suffered a 'ritualistic execution' in which its head was crushed with rock and its carcass covered with a purple cloth, she said...
"It was unclear if that case was linked to the rash of dog disappearances, authorities said. Dogs have been removed or released from private yards, unleashed from chains or failed to return home after roaming...
"John Goodwin, head of animal cruelty policy for the Humane Society, said it was unlikely dogs were stolen by people engaged in dog fighting, which is illegal in Idaho, because it was rare for those involved in the activity to use just any dog."
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| the unfortunate dog |
There a quite a few rather blatant instances of twilight language in this mystery. The locations are especially obvious -- Magic Valley, Snake River Canyon, Twin Falls, and of course, the Devil's Corral. The symbolism behind magic and snakes are so blatant that I shall address them here. The allusions to twins is more compelling as they are universally a symbol of duality.
"All cultures and mythologies display a special interest in the phenomenon of twin births. In whatever shape they may be conceived, as completely identical, or as one dark and the other bright, or one tending heavenwards the other earthwards, or one black the other white, or one read the other blue, or one with a bull's and the other with a scorpion's head, they are expressions simultaneously of interference from the Beyond and of the twofold nature of all beings and the dualism of their physical and spiritual, diurnal and nocturnal tendencies. This dualism is light and darkness, the heavenly and earthly aspects of the cosmos and of the individual. When they symbolize in this way the individual's internal contradictions in the struggle which needs to be waged to overcome them, they acquire the character of sacrifice, the need for self-denial, destruction or submission, the surrender of one part of the self so that the other may come through victorious..."The appearance of "devil" as a place name is quite significant as well. The great cryptozoologist and Fortean researcher Loren Coleman has noted that places associated with high weirdness often have some type of devil name attached to them. On his blog Cryptozoonews Coleman writes:
(Dictionary of Symbols, Jean Chevalier & Alain Gheerbrant, pgs. 1047-1048)
"When Western Europeans landed in the New World and began spreading across what was later to become America, they discovered what the Amerindians already knew…there were some strange places in this new land. Certain locations were 'strange' because the early explorers and settlers would see, hear, smell or feel strange things-weird globes of light, eerie screechings, sickening sweet odors, cold drafts of air as well as unknown aerial phenomena, mystery animals and other “inexplicables.” The interface between these newcomers and the decidedly unexplainable phenomena produced place-names that attempted to reflect the notion that the locales were special, different and, indeed, strange. The names can take many forms, but I have long noticed an American historical acknowledgement of Forteana-ridden places by the use of the work “devil” in the naming of these locations...
"Simply stated, the strange events of the past are often remembered in the geographical names of the area. Place names can be a Fortean’s clue to the 'haunted vale.' By 1983, I had found one hundred and twenty-five places with “devil names” in the United States, and I am finding more correlations with this list and Forteana every day. (See Appendix V.) I suspect many more etymological connections exit. My list of 'devil names' is just the tip of the pitchfork. Indeed, Henry Franzoni, a researcher living in the Pacific Northwest with a remarkable names database, told me that as of 1998, he had found 2,635 places named (or which were named) Devil, Diablo, or Diabla in the United States...
"Geographical 'devil names' worldwide may indicate, as they seem to in America, locales high in Fortean energy and strangeness. These places deserve some extra attention, for from the stray sod to the fairy ring, from the haunted glen to the Devil’s Den, there lies many a riddle to unfold."
Clearly the location where the dog sacrifice was performed meets the requirements for a realm of high strangeness, at least as far as twilight language is concerned. Beyond that, dog sacrifices were crucial features in some brands of ancient paganism. The Romans, for instance, used to sacrifice a brown dog at the beginning of the Dog Days of Summer. This wasn't the only peculiar practice associated with the Dog Days either.
"...the dog Anubis, the companion of Egyptian Thoth, and the dog which always attended Melkarth the Phoenician Hercules, is a symbol of the Underworld; also of the dog-priests, called Enariae, who attended the Great Goddess of the Eastern Mediterranean and indulged in sodomitic frenzies in the Dog days at the rising of the Dog-star, Sirius."
(The White Goddess, Robert Graves, pg. 53)
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| Sirius |
Of course the worship of the Dog-star Sirius was highly important in many of the ancient religions of the Mediterranean region. I've written much more on this topic here and here.
More recently canine sacrifices, especially those of German shepherds, have become closely associated with theories of some type of nationwide cult network involved in various criminal activities and possibly linked to several notorious serial killers such as Charles Manson and David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz. Such possibilities were first hinted at by Ed Sanders in his examination of the Manson family, the aptly titled The Family. It was not, however, until the highly controversial journalist Maury Terry released The Ultimate Evil in 1988 that such notions became a staple of conspiracy culture. Terry's magnum opus chiefly revolved around the possibility that Berkowitz had been a member of the cult that was behind the Son of Sam killings. Reportedly one of the most striking features of this cult was their fondness for sacrificing German shepherds, which became a kind of calling card over the years.
"For some reason, there have been reports of sacrifices of large numbers of dogs, mostly German shepherds, throughout the United States in the past thirty-odd years, but notably in areas where we discover confirmed cult activity. This was as true in Berkowitz's Yonkers neighborhood as it was in Walden, New York, where a 'total of eighty-five skinned German shepherds and Dobermans were found' in a single year 'between October 1976 and October 1977.' The day after Berkowitz's arrest in Yonkers, the bodies of three slain German shepherds were found in an aqueduct behind his apartment. Two have been strangled with chains; the third had been shot in the head.
"Two days before his arrest, someone phoned an animal shelter using his name and address, inquiring about adopting a German shepherd that had been advertised in a local paper. A few hours later, someone else called from the same street in Yonkers, also inquiring about the dog. This caller said he was ' fixing some cars' on Pine Street; an allusion that Terry believes actually refers to the Carr family who figure so prominently in this case. As it turned out, two men did visit the shelter, including one who resembled Berkowitz, but according to Berkowitz himself it was not he, although he acknowledges that someone may have been impersonating him on the phone...
"Remember that serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer's first kill was the ritual slaughter of a dog behind his home in Ohio, which cumulated in his placing the dog skull atop a stake hammered into the earth; and, around the time of the Sam killings, the author heard convincing rumors of the abuse and slaughter of dogs in a warehouse near Brooklyn Heights, within walking distance of the Warlock Shop, before Berkowitz was arrested and the connection with dogs was made.
"Terry connects the German Shepherd sacrifices with the Process, due to their fondness for the animals. Members of the Process and those halcyon days of the 1960s were to be seen around San Francisco dressed in black and leading shepherds on the leash. The 'Fear' issue of the Process magazine featured a photo spread of twenty German shepherds in a menacing pose. It doesn't automatically follow, however, that the Process would sacrifice the animals.
"Another symbolic associations that should be mentioned is the fact that Hitler favored German shepherds above all other animals. That there might be a Nazi or neo-Nazi element to the Son of Sam cult should not be ignored, especially as mass murderer Fred Cowan -- one of the 'Sons' according to Berkowitz --was a neo-Nazi."
(Sinister Forces Book III, Peter Levenda, pgs. 197-198)
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| Manson (top) and Berkowitz (bottom) |
And now we have a wave of canine disappearances in Idaho and at least one sacrificed German Shepherd. Idaho has of course long been a kind of Mecca for America's white supremacist underground.
"... The Christian Identity adherents also formed alliances with Richard Butler, Christian Identity 'minister,' and head of the Aryan Nations and Hayden Lake, Idaho. The Hayden Lake compound served as a nexus for white supremacist groups from all over the country, including the KKK, Posse Comitatus, William Pierce's National Alliance, and Robert Matthews' Order. It was Matthews' group, inspired by Pierce's Turner Diaries, that went on to commit a string of bank robberies, counterfeiting, bombings, and murder throughout the Mid- and Northwest in the 1980s.
"Amassing between $2 and $4 million from robberies and heists of armored cars, the group distributed proceeds among the white supremacist movement. They also purchased land in northern Idaho for paramilitary training, but moved to northern Arkansas, linking up with the CSA when they found the harsh climate unsuitable for their purposes."
(The Oklahoma City Bombing and the Politics of Terror, David Hoffman, pg. 119)
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| Richard Butler, Aryan Nations founder |
The paramilitary wing of the Christian Identity movement has been linked to a host of nefarious activities over the years, including the Oklahoma City bombing. I've examine this topic in depth here. I've also briefly hinted at the possibility that this network is also linked (if not being one and the same) with the long alleged cult network responsible for the Manson Family and Son of Sam cults, among others.
I bring up these possibilities now as it seems most curious and synchronistic to me that a wave of canine disappearances and at least one German Shepherd sacrifice should appear around the same time that white supremacists are once again in the news for their alleged involvement in the assassination of Tom Clements, the head of the Colorado Department of Corrections. MSNBC reports:
"Shell casings from the same type of ammunition that was used in the slaying of the top prisons official in Colorado were also found near the car of a paroled white supremacist who led Texas police on a wild chase and shootout, authorities said in court records filed Friday.
"Investigators are looking into whether the parolee, Evan Spencer Ebel, 28 — who died Thursday after the chase and shootout in Texas — may also have killed a pizza delivery man and Colorado Corrections Director Tom Clements, who was shot to death at his front door Tuesday night in the Denver suburbs...
"In a search warrant (.pdf) seeking permission to search the car Ebel was driving, Texas Rangers told a Wise County judge that Hornady 9mm shell casings were recovered at the scene of the shootout in Decatur, which it said were the same brand and caliber used to kill Clements...
"One theory is that the Colorado gunman killed the delivery man for his uniform and used the disguise to get Clements to open the door. Investigators also believe the spree may be connected to a gang of white supremacists who are still in prison...
"Sources told NBC station KUSA of Denver that Ebel had been recruited into a white supremacist gang called the 211 Crew.
"Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, said the gang was extremely vicious. He said it requires its members who leave prison to make money through criminal enterprises and return it to gang leaders.
"He said the gang has a 'blood in, blood out' ideology, meaning its members must carry out a violent attack to get in and can't get out until they themselves die.
"The gang was implicated in the 1997 killing of an African immigrant at a Denver bus stop. One of its members, Nathan Thill, pleaded guilty to murder and said at his sentencing that the immigrant was wearing an 'enemy uniform,' which Potok said was understood to mean black skin.
"The gang is believed to have several hundred to 1,000 members, most of them in Colorado prisons. It gets its name from a section of the California penal code that deals with robbery. Potok said it wasn't clear why the gang was named for that section."
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| Tom Clements (top) and Evan Spencer Ebel (bottom) |
There are several striking instances of twilight language in this series of incidents as well. In this account Clements was shot in a Denver suburb but the Denver Post sites the location as Colonial Park Drive in Monument. I'm inclined to believe the latter as the headquarters for the Colorado Department of Corrections is located in Colorado Springs, of which Monument is a suburb of. Still, this whole area (Colorado Springs an Denver are just over an hour's drive away from each other) has experienced more than its fair share of weirdness in recent year, most notably the Aurora theater shooting. This event was of course littered with twilight language as I've noted before here.
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| James Eagan Holmes, the alleged Aurora shooter |
Then there's the name of the gang, the 211 Crew. Supposedly the gang takes its name from the California Penal Code for robbery but it's not uncommon for neo-Nazi groups to use numbers as a code for something else.
"... covert clothing styles that include ordinary jersey shirts the bear the numbers "14" to represent the "14 Words" mantra, "88" for "Hail Hitler," and "18," which is code for the first and eighth letters of the alphabet, A and H, Adolf Hitler's initials."
(American Swastika, Pete Simi and Robert Futrell, pgs. 23-24)
If the numbers are meant to stand for letters of the alphabet, then the possibilities are "BAA," "BK," and "UA." There was a Nazi era submarine referred to as U-A, but beyond that I have been unable to tie any of these letters to an organization or individual with significant ties to the Nazi Party or their fellow travelers.
The other possibility is that the number stands for a date, which are also highly significant Nazi culture.
"The significance of Adolf Hitler's birthday on April 20 has already been mentioned, as has the key dates of Rudolf Hess's birthday (April 26) and suicide (August 17). Neo-Nazis foci on specific death anniversaries, birthdays, and hidden suicidal language appeared to be underlining more of the violence than originally thought. Should we be surprised if neo-Nazi demonstrations and anti-Jewish violence occur on April 17? If future homegrown troubles America focus on April 19 and 20th?"In this case the date in question would be February 11, which did in fact play host to at least two significant events in the history of fascism that I've been able to uncover. The first was a street brawl that occured between the Nazi Party and German Communists that was intentionally provoked by the former as a propaganda effort. Spiegel International Online notes:
(The Copycat Effect, Loren Coleman, pg. 250)
"Goebbels wanted Hitler's party to show its colors in Berlin, which he described as 'the reddest city in Europe besides Moscow.' Together, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) captured 52.2 percent of the vote in the 1925 municipal elections. Berlin's new Nazi leader decided to combat the left's superiority in numbers with a frontal attack.
"He went to the Pharussäle, a meeting hall often used by the KPD for its mass rallies in Berlin's Wedding district, and gave a speech on the subject of 'The Collapse of the Bourgeois Class State.' This provoked the communists.
"On Feb. 11, 1927, the Nazi Party meeting turned into a violent brawl between the two groups. Beer glasses, chairs and tables flew through the hall, and severely injured people were left lying covered with blood on the floor. Despite the injuries, it was a triumph for Goebbels, whose thugs beat up about 200 communists and drove them from the hall."
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| Goebbels |
Besides this early victory for the Nazi Party February 11 (specifically, in 1929) also played host to Lateran Treaty, which created the modern state of Vatican City within Italy. This effectively granted the Vatican its own sovereignty within the Italian state after the city of Rome had been brought under the dominion of the Kingdom of Italy in 1870. The treaty was brokered by Mussolini's Italy and has been upheld ever since. Certainly the Papacy was more than willing to return the favor in the wake of World War II and gladly helped countless fascists leave the continent so as to avoid standing trial for war crimes.
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| the signing of the Lateran Treaty |
Strangely, Pope Benedict XVI became the first Pope to resign in nearly 600 years when he tendered his resignation on February 11, 2013. Here we have yet another recent synch with the number 211. For more information on the twilight language of this event as well as the Papacy's long-standing ties to Nazis and fascists, check here.
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| Pope Benedict XVI |
And it is here that I shall wrap things up. A few parting thoughts: These two incidents are certainly disturbing developments. As noted above, these types of bizarre canine sacrifices have been linked to waves of violence in the past and to groups with seemingly more than a passing interest in fascism. Specifically, we have the sacrifice of a German Shepherd occurring roughly a week or two before the most high profile crime of a white supremacist in recent memory.
I daresay there could be some most interesting revelations being made to the public as more information about the Tom Clements assassination comes out.
UPDATE 3/26/13:
Even more curious developments are coming out concerning Evan Ebel, the assassin of Tom Clements. Raw Story reports:
"And why was a man who’d spent the last eight years in prison – much of it in solitary confinement because of his frequently violent behavior – allowed to walk free on parole, without treatment for what family members and others said were serious emotional and psychological problems?...
"A blog maintained by Ebel's mother, Jody Mangue, documented a son troubled from youth who was sent to behavioral programs in Jamaica, Samoa, Mexico and Utah, reports 7News, an ABC outlet in Denver...
"Gov. Hickenlooper was well familiar with the case, having been friends with the 28 year-old’s father Jack Ebel for many years dating back to when they worked together in the gas and oil industry, Mr. Ebel as a lawyer and Hickenlooper as a geologist...
"Jack Ebel testified in March 2011 before a committee of the Colorado Legislature regarding a proposal that would require inmates to spend time outside of solitary confinement before leaving prison, 7News reports.
"'What I've seen over six years is he has become increasingly ... he has a high level of paranoia and [is] extremely anxious,' Mr. Ebel told lawmakers. 'So when he gets out to visit me, and he gets out of his cell to talk to me, I mean he is so agitated that it will take an hour to an hour-and-a-half before we can actually talk.'"
There's a lot to take in here. Of course solitary confinement is an ever so slightly watered-down form of the sensory deprivation techniques the CIA developed in the 1950s as a means of what are now referred to as "enhanced interrogation methods."
".... Kubark Counterintelligence Interrogation. The title was in code: 'Kubark,' is... 'a cryptonym, KU a random diptych and BARK the agency's code word for itself at that time. More recent reports have speculated that the 'ku' referred to 'a country or a specific clandestine or convert activity.' The handbook is a 128-page secret manual on the 'interrogation of resistant sources' that is heavily based on the research commissioned by MKUltra -- and Ewen Cameron's and Donald Hebb's experiments have left their marks all over it. Methods range from sensory deprivation to stress positions, from hooding to pain...
"The manual includes a lengthy section on sensory deprivation that refers to 'a number of experiments at McGill University.' It describes how to build isolation chambers and notes that 'the deprivation of stimuli induces regression by depriving the subject's mind of contact with an outer world and thus forcing it in upon itself. At the same time, the calculated provision of stimuli during interrogation tends to make the regressed subject view the interrogator as a father-figure.'"
(The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein, pgs. 39-40)
The effects of solitary confinement on a human being have been described in much the same terms. The Center for Constitutional Rights notes:
"The devastating psychological and physical effects of prolonged solitary confinement are well documented by social scientists: prolonged solitary confinement causes prisoners significant mental harm and places them at grave risk of even more devastating future psychological harm.
"Researchers have demonstrated that prolonged solitary confinement causes a persistent and heightened state of anxiety and nervousness, headaches, insomnia, lethargy or chronic tiredness, nightmares, heart palpitations, and fear of impending nervous breakdowns. Other documented effects include obsessive ruminations, confused thought processes, an oversensitivity to stimuli, irrational anger, social withdrawal, hallucinations, violent fantasies, emotional flatness, mood swings, chronic depression, feelings of overall deterioration, as well as suicidal ideation."
Even more striking is the apparently close relationship that Jack Ebel, Evan's father, has with Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat. This is yet another recent high profile violent crime in which the perpetrator came from a relatively affluent family (i.e., as in the case of James Eagan Holmes and Adam Lanza). The Clements assassination is also the second recent high profile violent crime involving white supremacists and Colorado. Wade Michael Page, the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooter, lived in Littleton, Colorado from at least 2000 to 2007 and may even have partially attended high school there. Littleton is a suburb of the Denver area. While Page had a few run-ins with the law but it does not seem like he served any serious time and there are no indications that he had any contact with the 211 Crew.
Still, it is a strange coincidence.
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