In the year I graduated high school...

Warhol's Mao paintings were banned in Chinese exhibitions.

The Valley Curtain. 1972. Colorado. The Christos.

And Then There Was

wikipedia says that the year of my birth, 1954, was "a common year" that began on a Friday "on the Gregorian calendar".

It gives the following as significant events that year:

Marilyn Monroe married Joe Dimaggio and the first nuclear submarine, The Nautilus, was launched that year.

President Eisenhower warned that we should not become involved in Vietnam and mass use of polio vaccine for children was done for the first time.

A hydrogen bomb test was done in the Pacific on Bikini Atoll and the first color TV set was made by RCA and sold for $1000 per 12 inch screen.

Bill Haley released Rock Around the Clock and it is said that rock n roll was born that year at least in its popular craze form of screaming mobs of teens.

Richard Nixon is vice president and Joe McCarthy worries that the US Army is a little soft when it comes to Communism.

The Unification Church is founded and Roger Bannister breaks the 4 minute mile.

Brown v. Board rules that school segregation is unconstitutional and "under God" is added to the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Himalayan K2 summit is reached and Sports Illustrated is born.

Lord of the Flies is published and Miss American is aired via TV for the first time.

Texas Instruments makes the first commercial transistor radio and Godzilla premieres.

The first Hyatt opens and the Iwo Jima Memorial is dedicated.

The first Burger King opens and the first electric drip coffee maker is invented.

My My My Generation

I start the day wanting to add another entry here, but I am tired of the violence. I'm thinking about how my life has been peppered with it, both personal and impersonal--including having been maced in my high school hallway when students--teens, mind you--were somehow en masse deemed dangerous. What began as a high school prank: everyone leave the building and then return promptly, was somehow suddenly "a riot". What could be the result of students doing such a thing?

Ironically, a coach/teacher--not very good at either--had passed around a cup in which he'd sprayed mace so that everyone could experience it not long before the macing in the hallway. We thought it an interesting exercise and painful although now I am not sure it was a wise decision on his part, of course, and somehow it was 'trending' and topical. I wonder now if that was his own private efforts at some crowd control and was he the 'macer'?

It wouldn't surprise me even though I can't remember much about him...his name, his subject...but I do remember his presence and how I do not have much of a visual of him probably because you would avoid eye contact with such a presence if you could anyway.

He seemed piggish. Or does to me now. Interested in being top dog as they say and interested in some notoriety among his younger charges...not the popularity of a young 'peer-like' and cool teacher, but as someone not to be messed with--more power-interested and I suppose powerless in his sad life.

Much older now, I am convinced his was a sad life. It is a feeling really more than any other kind of information. A bad feeling.

The fatigue I feel is not surprising as I think about this blog this morning. I am of the generation that watched soldiers in combat every night on the news. Body counts were daily news items like weather and sports. The images I have are soldiers in green with WWII like helmets and rifles hunched over and advancing toward something. Lots of gunfire and smoke.

This was well before my own peers would even consider the draft as something personal, but I do suppose that we expected war was a daily event. Perhaps because we were just past puberty and had entered the immortal realm of adolescence, we didn't worry about ourselves yet.

So I am tired of violence. An ironic statement. I would imagine that very few of us would not tire of violence, but I am of the generation that marked its coming of age with large and violent events. I would think that it is not much different for other generations, but I wonder how much say, of the WWII generation had these kinds of images? The soldiers surely, but as I recall, not many shared too much of that in my daily life although I was the generation to inherit those warriors' distress through dad and uncles and all their friends.

As I contemplated another blog entry this morning I found myself with so many choices I ground to a halt of fatigue. Jonestown? Heaven's Gate? Manson? Richard Speck? Kent State? Vietnam?

Those were the highlights, of course. I began to look around for more pleasant impersonal events. Those are harder yet I am sure no less interesting and if I begin to shift my vision, no less few.

But it is a difficult shift.

Railroad Killer and the World Gone Silent

I had been following the news about this man before he was arrested and had some 'connections'. On my way to work one morning I crossed the railroad tracks on Oak St. in Louisville and noticed the world was silent. "Even the birds", I thought. Later that day I heard that the killer had been at St. Vincent dePaul's shelter. By this time, his photo was out.

The second connection I had was in a hypnogogic image one night. I saw him dressed in a white shirt and white pants, leaning up against a concrete wall. The sun was intense, like in the southwestern US and he was looking up and down the street, squinting into the sun. "He knows he's being hunted and that he's almost captured", I thought.

CNN

Authorities: Suspected serial killer 'street-smart' June 24, 1999

" Confirmed sightings in Kentucky

Barnard said there were confirmed sightings of Resendez-Ramirez from June 16 through June 18 at homeless shelters in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. The suspect reportedly was wearing a white T-shirt, blue jeans and a baseball cap.

Resendez-Ramirez is suspected of committing an August 1997 slaying in Lexington, but he has not been tied to any killings in Louisville.

Interviews with witnesses in Louisville indicated the suspect was headed back into the Lexington area to perform migrant work. Investigators located a farm in Russell County in southern Kentucky where he had worked in 1996 and 1998.

Investigators also uncovered a photo taken after he was arrested near railroad tracks in 1996.

http://www.cnn.com/US/9906/24/texas.serial.killer.03/

Police said Resendez-Ramirez has earned money in the past by donating blood and working on cars

.

The suspect, authorities said, had been in touch with relatives in Lexington "within the last few days."

Crime Library

Angel Maturino Resendiz: The Railroad Killer BY Joseph Geringer

"Terror Near Tracks One of the more romantic elements of American folklore has been the crisscrossing rail system of this country — steel rails carrying Americans to new territories across desert and mountain, through wheat fields and over great rivers. Carl Sandburg has flavored the mighty steam engine in elegant prose and Arlo Guthrie has made the roundhouse a sturdy emblem of America's commerce. But, even the most colorful dreams have their dark sides. For nearly two years, a killer literally followed Wheatfield America's railroad tracks to slay unsuspecting victims before disappearing back into the pre-lit dawn. His modus operandi was always the same — he struck near the rail lines he illegally rode, then stowed away on the next freight train to come his way. Always ahead of the law. Angel Maturino Resendiz, 39 years old, was apprehended early this month (July, 1999) after eluding state police for two years and slipping through a two-month FBI net until, after nine alleged murders, he was finally traced and captured by a determined Texas Ranger. Known, for apparent reasons, as "The Railroad Killer," Angel Resendiz (who was known throughout much of the manhunt by the alias Rafael Resendez-Ramirez) has been called "a man with a grudge," "confused," hostile" and "angry" by the police, the news media and psychiatrists. He is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who crossed the international border at will. Most of his crimes took place in central Texas, but he is suspected of having killed as far north as Kentucky and Illinois."

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/resendez/track_1.html "HUNTSVILLE - Angel Maturino Resendiz, the serial killer who claimed he was half-man, half-angel and could not be killed, was executed here Tuesday for the December 1998 murder of West University Place physician Claudia Benton. Maturino Resendiz, 46, who killed as many as 14 people as he criss-crossed the nation by rail and in the process came to be known as the "railroad killer," was the 13th person to be executed in Texas this year. As execution witnesses — members of his family and those of four of his victims — filled the tiny chambers set aside for them, the killer nodded toward them and apologized for his crimes. "I want to ask if it is in your heart to forgive me," Maturino Resendiz said in a quiet voice. "You don't have to. I know I allowed the devil to rule my life. I just ask you to forgive me and ask the Lord to forgive me for allowing the devil to deceive me. "I thank God for having patience with me. I don't deserve to cause you pain. You did not deserve this. I deserve what I am getting." Before drawing his final breath, the killer, who claimed to be Jewish, prayed in Hebrew and Spanish. George Benton, husband of the doctor who was repeatedly stabbed and bludgeoned in the family's home, lashed out at the killer, the Mexican government, which had supported his appeals, and opponents of the death penalty."

'Railroad killer' offers apology at execution Maturino Resendiz asks for forgiveness: 'I deserve what I am getting' By Allan Turner | June 28, 2006

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Railroad-killer-offers-apology-at-execution-1891401.php

Eileen and Andrea Yates

Andrea Yates as she appeared some time before the murders (left, date unknown) and soon after the murders in 2001 (right)

Eileen Starbranch

I was sitting in my house in Louisville and looked up to the TV to see Eileen Starbranch on the screen. She is a psychiatrist I worked with in Houston at 2 different hospitals. I always admired her work and her demeanor and when I realized one night that I could not take another step forward, I called her to say so. She met me in the rain, in the dark on the night before Thanksgiving and helped me get admitted to a psych hospital in another town under an assumed name. I had overdosed for some time on alcohol and was having a rather severe mixed episode of substance induced bipolar d/o. When Andrea Yates killed her children, it was due to a tragically fulfilled prediction of Eileen's. Eileen was one of the MDs who had treated Yates for psychosis.

"In Andrea's first posthospital visit, Starbranch told her that even though she was feeling better she should "remain compliant with [her] medications." In the past Andrea often took half doses or skipped her medication altogether. Depending on drugs made her "feel like she's weak," she told her PHP therapy group. By the next visit, August 16, 1999, Starbranch reported in disbelief that Andrea "is talking of wanting off medications!" She "wants to get p.g. [pregnant] and have more kids. Wants to homeschool the children." On August 18 Starbranch wrote, "Apparently patient and husband plan to have as many babies as nature will allow! This will surely guarantee future psychotic depression." Read here Read more: http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/Andrea-Yates-A-Cry-in-the-Dark/4#ixzz2UHIsADJB

Eileen Starbranch

Andrea Yates

"A psychiatrist, who treated Andrea Yates in 1999 after she attempted suicide twice following the birth of her fourth child, testified in her murder trial this week that she warned Yates not to have another child because it might prompt another psychotic episode. Dr. Eileen Starbranch told jurors that Yates suffered from postpartum psychosis and was out of touch with reality.

Compatriot Fatigue

I have had a revelation about my work. The periods in which I've experienced Compassion Fatigue have been many and some were quite intense. There were times I drank too much, became so anxious I could not drive or sleep, became impulsive to the point of angry outbursts and cried easily.

Those were the most severe.

These episodes were, in retrospect, episodes of PTSD. I had an awareness of that during them, but the full scope of the disorder was not evident to me until later. Mine has been more of a complex PTSD that I've had to manage since my childhood. As I've progressed in my career--always interested in the most complicated cases and high risk populations--it has, of course, compounded. Since I insisted upon having a personal life as well as a career, there was more trauma to be had naturally.

What I have found is that PTSD is a given in my personal life and Secondary PTSD is a given in my chosen field. There is nothing adverse about choosing a career that will traumatize you, although that sounds ridiculous. It is simple, however, if you are a person that needs intense experiences in order to feel something. In another field that may be a less frightening piece of information because it would be couched in less clinical terms such as "adrenalin junkie". I don't want to jump off a mountain in a wing suit so I talk to people in the psychological abyss. I am a psychological adrenalin junkie.

This is not very different from being a first responder in an immediate disaster or catastrophe. We consider those heroic acts and we are grateful for people who do them. I would not dare claim heroism, but I do understand the motivation of first responders. For some wonderful and perhaps dark reasons, they have the emotional and psychological abilities to go head first into gore. I have the same abilities in psychological gore.

The need for compatriot support in adrenalin careers is crucial. I'll delve into that a little later, but it occurs to me now--almost at the end of my career--that the majority of my own Secondary PTSD experiences in my work have been built upon the failings of my colleagues and supervisory/administrative staff to tend to me adequately when I was falling. I don't mean to blame them, but hope to point out some inherent problems across systems that employ high risk responders.

'Angel' is Not Always a Term of Endearment

It's very frustrating to have worked with some clients that I can't talk about. I could add to the folklore about a couple of notable folk. The frustration I feel is more the writer in me wanting to go on ad nauseum about them because they were enormously interesting people that I grew to like a great deal.

I spent most of my evening tonight--the first of a long holiday weekend--researching such a man that I knew in the 90s. He was paroled to my treatment program from another state and it seems now many years later, he has continued his life's work that sent him to federal prison in the first place. He's a fugitive as I write this and if caught will 'serve' more than one life sentence. Apparently, he's been a successful fugitive for some time now.

What I most remember about him was his presence--a large man, very grounded, rooted really, into the earth. He was very still, but comfortably so and not dangerous to anyone there in the least. Actually he was very approachable and I'd often sit with him in the smoking area to smoke and chat.

We found common ground quickly. He enjoyed the 'spirituality' talks I'd give as part of the program and we'd discuss metaphysics, gemstone healing, sweat lodges and the like. He told me I was an angel and said he meant the ethereal one, not the endearment.

I was a companion in the pipeline back to his family, his business and his life after a decade or so in prison. He always talked to me at a 90 degree angle, looking off into the distance, but speaking very quietly and staying quite engaged.

The rest of the people in the program kept their distance, but acknowledged him politely in passing. I was the only staff person who liked him. Others were angry about his arrogance although I didn't see it. I think his solitude seemed arrogant to them as did his business--an organized and large affair of some fame and notoriety. His calm annoyed and angered my colleagues. They interpreted that as arrogant, too. Whenever he interacted with anyone he was always polite, consistently, and seemed authentically present and kind.

He was, as it turned out, exceedingly wealthy from his illegal activities and known among his business associates as a good and trustworthy man. I'm certain that he had been very violent in his business although violence was not his business. He seemed to be a man who would use violence to protect the boundaries he had established and his boundaries were well fortified around a kingdom of treasure and the family he had made from similarly minded associates. He came from a very closed society whose non-criminal members were equally as fierce and demanding of their carved out lives. Within that culture he was not aberrant, but he was a kingpin, well-loved and talented.

I find myself, as I always did, wishing him well.

Metaphysics, An Internal Humvee, the Abducted Freed and the Wilderness of an Intrapsychic Alaska

My most recent "big dream" was a continuation of a dream motif--vehicles--I've had for some years. It began at my first recollection in college years when I dreamed that I could use a roll of 35 mm film and ink pens to transport myself. The film was unfurled and created a type of toy scooter that I stood on. If I held Bic medium point black pens in the proper combination between my fingers, and manipulated them just right, I could lift off the ground a few inches and move forward. This was pre-queled with waking notions as a child in which I would, from time to time, kick a particular rock ahead of me and follow its path as my actual path and transportation forward. It seemed as good a direction finder as any and I did participate in choosing my fate somehow.

The recent dream involved a Humvee of the color pictured here, but of much larger proportions. It was a vehicle I owned, and had for some time but had forgotten about. In the dream I was very excited to rediscover it. This dream came in response to a friend's request for healing. I don't remember the meditation prior to the dream. I fell asleep exhausted that night from work stress and extreme vicarious trauma.

It was a magnificent and fortifying dream--a curative, restorative and healing dream. I have felt better ever since. I rose up through the fear that surrounds me and am now able to see my still suffering colleagues with compassion. My previous and serious bout of 'compassion fatigue' was not for my clients, but for my co-workers. That aspect of compassion--having compassion for my colleagues--is essential to my work as a trauma therapist. When it was failing, I could barely tolerate going into the clinic. Now, I am up a few levels and am not suffering, but resuming my role as the informal morale officer which has always come easily to me.

I have had recent problems with being the natural morale officer. It is involved in my life long struggle to avoid the scapegoat role of any group I am in. With time and much practice, this has eased. It is still a point around which polarization happens, but now my 'tormentors' are more restrained. The polarization seems to happen when I am particularly happy. It has been a core healing for my life's work to not mind if others are differently attuned emotionally or if they take my happiness as an affront. I have almost become used to being emotionally separate in my feeling states--at least, I expect it, but it is still very troubling to be targeted and disliked for it. I've learned that if I keep it low key it garners less resentment. I have also learned that if I don't mind the targeting, the targeting goes away quicker. It is always better to leave one's taunters with their taunting sitting still in their own laps.

As for Alaska...I have, since early childhood, been interested in survival in the wilderness and under other extreme conditions such as being lost or homeless. I was fascinated by stories about Alaska and spent many hours daydreaming about how I would survive in my own Call of the Wild story. Of course, all children are interested in survival, but my particular interest, was in surviving the extreme scenario, many of which I witnessed and was a participant in during my youth. These included an explosion, a building fire, witnessing an arterial bleed, witnessing the immediate aftermath of an industrial accident, a high speed chase with gunfire, being taken hostage, witnessing the use of lethal force to free me and witnessing two attempted assassinations of my father—one of which involved my capture for an afternoon. Those were the high profile taglines. Along with those came the snapshots of traumatic memories embedded in the events such as: firemen in full gear, with axes, chasing me; a fountain of rhythmic blood taller than me; a dismembered hand; and hiding quietly, fearing my father would die and then consequently, so would my mother and me.

I enjoyed the challenge of imagined survival in the outback of Alaska. In my 30’s I decided that I would die in a small plane there.

I was taught survival techniques in extreme circumstances for a child. My father would practice with me, putting me in various holds meant to restrain me and having me reason my way out of them. He made it play and it was fun, but I learned a great deal—what to do if grabbed from behind and in various ways—from the front, each side, by my hair, with a hand over my mouth, when picked up...I didn’t realize until decades later that he feared I would be kidnapped. I learned to handle weapons. I was told that I should always use a shotgun when frightened because I wouldn’t have to aim, but I was only allowed to fire a shotgun once since I was so small. It knocked me down and bruised my shoulder. This was to teach me how it felt, he said, so I wouldn’t be surprised by it if I ever had to use it. I used a handgun more. My father would stand behind me and we would use all of our four hands to hold and fire the weapon at cans.

Shotguns were propped in the corners of our home. A handgun was on the entry hall table and another worn by my father in the house. At night, that one was on the bedside table. I never touched them without instruction to. I used to worry that my father would die every time he went to work. I especially worried if he were late coming home. A dispatcher would call to keep us informed since there were no cell phones then. This was during the time that we would often leave in the middle of the night to go to one of 2 other places that my parents called “our apartment” and “our little house”. My father taught me informational rhymes to jump rope with. They contained the addresses of the 3 residences, phone numbers, parents’ names and a code name. I still remember them.

Freeing the Prisoners of the Planet

Jaycee Dugard Captivity Site

Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped on June 10, 1991, in South Lake Tahoe, California. Dugard was 11 years old at the time and was abducted from a street while she was walking from home to a school bus stop. Searches began immediately after the kidnapping, but no reliable leads were generated. She remained missing for more than 18 years. On August 24 and 25, 2009, convicted sex offender Phillip Craig Garrido visited the campus of UC Berkeley accompanied by two girls. Their unusual behavior sparked an investigation that led to his bringing the girls to a parole office on August 26, accompanied by a young woman who was then identified as Dugard.

Garrido, 58, and his wife Nancy Garrido, 54, of Antioch, California, were arrested for kidnapping and other charges. On April 28, 2011, they pleaded guilty to Dugard's kidnapping and sexual assault. Law enforcement officers believe Dugard was kept in a concealed area behind Garrido's house in Antioch for 18 years. During this time, Dugard bore two daughters who were ages 11 and 15 at the time of her reappearance. On June 2, 2011, Phillip Garrido was sentenced to 431 years imprisonment; his wife received 36 years to life.--From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Penecostal Pedophiles and Women in Chains

Spiritual and religious abuse has been a recurring theme among my clients and one I'm sure many other therapists have encountered. It has always seemed so profound to me. Not just distrustful of whomever the perpetrator might represent on earth (a man, a woman), but also distrustful of the greater being he/she represents, too. Women in chains may go deeper in my turmoil than even the most heinous spiritual/religious abuse. I'm talking about women in basements naked and chained to the walls. Women who sweeten a drug cartel deal. Women who have not known for years where they are.

photo by Julian Cardona

"Rape Trees" Found Along Southern US Border

Mariela Rosario

By Mariela Rosario | 03/11/2009 - 16:00 | From beheading to kidnappings, there seems to be no limit to what the Mexican drug cartels are willing to do to assert their dominance—and they deal not only in drugs, but also in humans. The majority of the coyotes who help undocumented immigrants cross the border are affiliated with the cartels.

Although many politicians would like to believe that the violence will stay to the south of the border, the reality is that it has already begun to affect South Western states. The revelation that Phoenix is now the "kidnapping capital" of the United States only affirms what many residents already believe.

Now, a new method of marking territory has crossed over into the United States. "Rape trees" are popping up in Southern Arizona and their significance is horrific. These "rape trees" are places where cartel members and coyotes rape female border crossers and hang their clothes, specifically undergarments, to mark their conquest.

Sen. Jonathan Paton (R-Tucson), recently invited officials to describe the problems being faced in his home state to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs. Paton said violence along the border has escalated dramatically in the past year, "We want to go after these crimes," he insisted, "It’s an unbelievable situation, and we can’t allow that to go on in this country."

For more info. visit truthout.org or read the follow up article at Latina.com. http://www.latina.com/lifestyle/news-politics/rape-trees-found-along-southern-us-border

Flying Crystals

Dream: I am in a market in Greece and have been shopping at a vendor's stand that sells rocks and minerals. After I move away I decide that I want more items from the stand, but rather than go back to it I lift my hands and will crytals to fly to me. My hands are covered with tiny crystals. Then I hear a voice that says I need kunzite and I lift my hands again to attract it.

Prisoner of War

Dream: I am in a jeep and driving alongside a train. In the train are detainees heavily guarded by armed soldiers. I know that it is just a matter of time before I am taken prisoner because I am visible due to a light inside the jeep that I cannot turn off. A soldier--German?--pulls me out of the vehicle and I am held hostage. Fast forward through multiple sexual assaults that I am aware will happen but I do not experience in the dream. I am at a celebration of my return from captivity and ask someone how long was I away? They say 2 years and I am so excited to have dissociated all the way through my captivity and to have no memory of it.

Ted Patrick “father” of deprogramming and thrice-convicted felon, typifies the former Cult Awareness Network“deprogrammer” – prone to violence, scornful of the rights and beliefs of others, and willing to do anything for a price. Patrick had been revered by the old Cult Awareness Network (CAN) its predecessor the Citizens Freedom Foundation, appearing as an honored guest and featured speaker at their conventions. His methods have been emulated by numerous deprogrammers, including Steven Hassan, Rick Ross, Hana Whitfield and many others. Patrick worked to make kidnapping and assault appear socially acceptable. As long as the crime was directed against individuals whose beliefs could be made to seem odd or unusual to the rest of society, any common thug could earn substantial sums simply by billing himself a “deprogrammer.” Patrick’s past reveals that he comes from a background which made him no stranger to crime. Patrick’s father opted for the lucrative profession of pickup man for local mobsters running the numbers racket. Patrick began earning his living as a professional kidnapper and hired thug, targeting members of various religions for violent “deprogrammings.” Patrick has admitted that deprogramming: “may be said to involve kidnapping at the very least, quite often assault and battery, almost invariably conspiracy to commit a crime and illegal restraint.” Patrick has asserted that religions recruit members by hypnotizing them on the spot with “beams” emanating from the knees and elbows and other parts of the body. This to Patrick classified a potential victim as a “mindless robot” and fair game for violent tactics. When once reminded that such tactics violate constitutional protections of the First Amendment, Patrick retorted by describing freedom of religion as: “one of the biggest rackets the world has ever known.” Patrick’s career has earned him a string of criminal indictments stretching from San Diego to New York. The charges range from kidnapping to violent abduction and sexual assault, including rape. Brute force is the hallmark of Patrick’s kidnappings. In a book defending his violent techniques, Patrick described the kidnapping of a Christian who resisted abduction by bracing himself against Patrick’s getaway car. Patrick forced the man into the car by squeezing his genitals until he let out a howl and doubled up in pain. “Then I hit,” Patrick wrote, “shoving him head first into the back seat of the car and piling in on top of him.” He described another abduction: “Joe and Goose [two of Patrick's henchmen] both had a hold of Ronnie … so I started on the other guys, you know, Maceing them, hitting, whatever. The Mace didn’t really work. I mean it worked, but they kept fighting. I’d spray somebody and then they were still kicking and I had to just kick them back.” Court papers filed in Massachusetts show that Patrick assaulted a man with a straight-edged razor during an abduction while, by Patrick’s own accounts, other abductions have utilized kicks, punches and other forms of violence. In Ohio, Patrick and several others were indicted after abducting a 20-year-old woman and taking her to Alabama, where she was repeatedly raped over the course of the seven-day “deprogramming.” Patrick announced afterward that he was giving up deprogramming. At the time of the Ohio abduction, Patrick was on probation for abducting a Tucson waitress; his probation was revoked after it was learned he had accepted several thousand dollars for the “deprogramming” of the Ohio woman, and he served a year in jail. One of Patrick’s attacks, an unsuccessful deprogramming attempt on a Catholic nun in Canada, resulted in an official government prohibition against Patrick entering Canada. Ignoring this, Patrick slipped back and forth across the border numerous times to continue his career in Canada as a kidnapper-for-hire, eventually assaulting more than 50 people in that country. Patrick, who received up to $15,000 plus $250 per day expenses for a single deprogramming, used violence not only to change individuals’ religious beliefs but their political persuasions and even their sexual orientation. In one case, Patrick resorted to rape in an attempted deprogramming of a woman who was a lesbian. Government prosecutors, wise to Patrick’s lifestyle of violence and force, have jailed him repeatedly on numerous charges, with three felony convictions. Yet, in extremist circles, Patrick and his methods are still considered worth emulating. Ida Camburn has been a supporter of Patrick’s and recommended the violent use of deprogramming. Keith Henson, a convicted hate criminal, advocates deprogramming and made this statement on the Internet in May 2001: “Deprogramming is currently out of style, but it or something much like it is badly needed.” Apart from his deprogramming activities, Patrick’s criminal record includes charges of cocaine use and parole violations. the above is from Religious Freedom Watch http://www.religiousfreedomwatch.org/religious-experts/false-experts/ted-patrick/ retrieved on 9/23/12

Obit

OBITUARY: CARLOS CASTANEDA

The following obituary by J.R. MOEHRINGER, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, is dated June 19, 1998 A Hushed Death for Mystic Author Carlos Castaneda — Carlos Castaneda, the self-proclaimed "sorcerer" and best-selling author whose tales of drug-induced mental adventures with a Yaqui Indian shaman named Don Juan Matus once fascinated the world, apparently died two months ago in the same way that he lived: quietly, secretly, mysteriously. He was believed to be 72. Castaneda died April 27 at his home in Westwood, according to entertainment lawyer Deborah Drooz, a friend of Castaneda and the executor of his estate. The cause of death was liver cancer. Though he had millions of followers around the world, and though his 10 books continue to sell in 17 different languages, and though he once appeared on the cover of Time magazine as a leader of America's spiritual renaissance, he died without public notice, without the briefest mention in a newspaper or on TV. As befitting his mystical image, he seemingly vanished into thin air.(see) "He didn't like attention," Drooz said. "He always made sure people did not take his picture or record his voice. He didn't like the spotlight. Knowing that, I didn't take it upon myself to issue a press release." No funeral was held; no public service of any kind took place. The author was cremated at once and his ashes were spirited away to Mexico, according to the Culver City mortuary that handled his remains. He leaves behind a will, due to be probated in Los Angeles next month, and a death certificate fraught with dubious information. The few people who may benefit from his rich copyrights were told of the death, Drooz said, but none chose to alert the media. The doctor who attended him in his final days, Angelica Duenas, would not discuss her secretive patient. Even those who counted Castaneda a good friend were unaware of his death and wouldn't comment when told, choosing to honor his disdain for publicity, no matter what realm of reality he now inhabits. "I've made it a lifetime practice never to discuss Carlos Castaneda with anyone in the newspaper business," said author Michael Korda, who was once Castaneda's editor at Simon & Schuster Inc. Castaneda's literary agent in Los Angeles, Tracy Kramer, would not return phone calls about the Thomas Pynchon-esque author's death but issued this statement: "In the tradition of the shamans of his lineage, Carlos Castaneda left this world in full awareness." Carlos Cesar Arana Castaneda immigrated to the U.S. in 1951. He was born Christmas Day 1925 in Sao Paolo, Brazil, or Cajamarca, Peru, depending on which version of his autobiographical accounts can be believed. He was an inveterate and unrepentant liar about the statistical details of his life, from his birthplace to his birth date, and even his given name remains in some doubt. "Much of the Castaneda mystique is based on the fact that even his closest friends aren't sure who he is," wrote his ex-wife, Margaret Runyan Castaneda, in a 1997 memoir that Castaneda tried to keep from being published. Whoever he was, whatever his background, Castaneda galvanized the world 30 years ago. As an anthropology graduate student at UCLA, he wrote his master's thesis about a remarkable journey he made to the Arizona-Mexico desert. Hoping to study the effects of certain medicinal plants, Castaneda said he stopped in an Arizona border town and there, in a Greyhound Bus Depot Meeting, met an old Yaqui Indian from Sonora, Mexico, named Juan Matus, a brujo, or sorcerer, or shaman, who used powerful hallucinogens to initiate the student into an occult world with origins dating back more than 2,000 years. Under Don Juan's strenuous tutelage, which lasted several years, Castaneda experimented with Peyote, Jimson Weed (Datura) and dried mushrooms, undergoing moments of supreme ecstasy and stark panic, all in an effort to achieve varying "states of non-ordinary reality." Wandering through the desert, with Don Juan as his psychological and pharmacological guide, Castaneda said he Learned to fly, saw giant insects, grew a beak, became a crow and ultimately reached a plateau of higher consciousness, a hard-won wisdom that made him a "man of knowledge" like Don Juan. The thesis, published in 1968 by the University of California Press, became an international bestseller, striking just the right note at the peak of the psychedelic 1960s. A strange alchemy of anthropology, allegory, parapsychology, ethnography, Buddhism and perhaps great fiction, "Teachings of Don Juan : A Yaqui Way of Knowledge" made Don Juan a household name and Castaneda a cultural icon. Many still consider him the godfather of America's New Age movement. In one of the few profiles with which Castaneda cooperated, Time magazine wrote: "To tens of thousands of readers, young and old, the first meeting of Castaneda with Juan Matus . . . is a better-known literary event than the encounter of Dante and Beatrice beside the Arno." After his stunning debut, Castaneda followed with a string of bestsellers, including "A Separate Reality" and "Journey to Ixtlan." Soon, readers were flocking to Mexico, hoping to become apprentices at Don Juan's feet. But the old Indian could not be found, which set off widespread speculation that Castaneda was the author of an elaborate, if ingenious, hoax. "Is it possible that these books are nonfiction?" author Joyce Carol Oates asked in 1972. "I realize that everyone accepts them as anthropological studies, but they seem to me remarkable works of art, on the Hesse-like theme of a young man's initiation into 'another way' of reality. They are beautifully constructed. The dialogue is faultless. The character of Don Juan is unforgettable. There is a novelistic momentum." Such concerns have all but discredited Castaneda in academia. "At the moment, [his books] have no presence in anthropology," said Clifford Geertz, an influential anthropologist. But Castaneda's penchant for lying and the disputed existence of Don Juan never dampened the enthusiasm of his admirers. "It isn't necessary to believe to get swept up in Castaneda's otherworldly narrative," wrote Joshua Gilder in the Saturday Review. "Like myth, it works a strange and beautiful magic beyond the realm of belief. . . . Sometimes, admittedly, one gets the impression of a con artist simply glorifying in the game. Even so, it is a con touched by genius." Drooz agreed, saying it was an honor to represent a man with Castaneda's high moral purpose and impish charm. "I'm a very cynical, skeptical, atheistic lawyer, and I was deeply, deeply touched by Castaneda," she said. To the end, Castaneda stubbornly insisted that the events he described in his books were not only real but meticulously documented. "I invented nothing," he told 400 people attending a1995 seminar that he conducted in Anaheim. "I'm not insane, you know. Well, maybe a little insane." Even his Death Certificate, apparently, is not free of misinformation. His occupation is listed as teacher, his employer the Beverly Hills School District. But school district records don't show Castaneda teaching there. Also, though he was said to have no family, the death certificate lists a niece, Talia Bey, who is president of Cleargreen Inc., a company that organizes Castaneda seminars on "Tensegrity," a modern version of ancient shaman practices, part yoga, part ergonomic exercises. Bey was unavailable for comment. Further, the death certificate lists Castaneda as "Nev. Married," though he was married from 1960 to 1973 to Margaret Runyan Castaneda, of Charleston, W.Va., who said Castaneda once lied in court, swearing he was the father of her infant son by another man, then helped her raise the boy. The son, now 36 and living in suburban Atlanta, also claims to have a birth certificate listing Castaneda as his father. "I haven't been notified" of Castaneda's death, said Margaret Runyan Castaneda, 76, audibly upset. "I had no idea." When he wasn't writing about how to better experience this life, Castaneda was preoccupied by death. In 1995, he told the Anaheim seminar: "We are all going to face Infinity, whether we like it or not. Why do we do it when we are weakest, when we are broken, at the moment of dying? Why not when we are strong? Why not now?" But when interviewed by Time in 1973, he was more succinct about the end, directing the reporter to a favorite piece of graffiti in Los Angeles that summed up his view: "Death is the greatest kick of all. That's why they save it for last."

The Album

"Ordinarily events that change our path are impersonal affairs and yet extremely personal." Don Juan said this to Carlos Castaneda in guiding him to fulfill a shaman's task: collecting what don Juan called an album of memorable events, events of his life events that changed things for him, that illuminated his path. "The memorable events of a shaman's album are affairs that will stand the test of time," don Juan tells his student, "because they have nothing to do with him, and yet he is in the thick of them. He'll always be in the thick of them, for the duration of his life, and perhaps beyond, but not quite personally." This is Carlos Castaneda's album of memorable events, stories whose beauty will startle, move and enlighten. They bring us closer than we have ever been to Carlos Castaneda the man, and his epic struggle to make sense of-and transcend-a lifetime. "Don Juan described the total goal of the shamanistic knowledge that he handled as the preparation for facing the definitive journey: the journey that every human being has to take at the end of his life. He said that what modern man referred to vaguely as life after death was, for those shamans, a concrete region filled to capacity with the practical affairs of a different order than the practical affairs of daily life, yet bearing a similar functional practicality. To collect the memorable events in their lives was, for shamans, an entry to that concrete region, which they called the active side of infinity."

retrieved from http://www.cleargreen.com/english/publications/detail.cfm?ID=1  9/22/12

Martin Bryant Enters My Life.

Martin Bryant as he appeared to me in a dream in which I was talking with him in a quonset hut in Tasmania.  He was dressed in military issue-like 'casual' clothing and sitting on a straightback chair in front of me.  The room was empty except for the 2 of us in similar chairs.  I was talking with him about how we could navigate getting him out of the building without him being killed. I awoke after this dream to find news of the incident breaking from Tasmania.

Formal Talks

I began the Formal Talks about my album of memorable events yesterday with Bob, a psychiatrist who holds relatively true to the psychoanalytic model.  This is exciting work for me.

The Crow's Nest and the Nexus of Hell

A--Killing Fields
B--Crow's Nest Apartments

please see Crow's Nest video above and enjoy it's lively music as you get the backstory of my coastal life in League City, TX . 
This video is not posted here as an ad. 

 

 

The information below was taken as is from sites that are referenced.

The I-45 Victims

Since 1971 numerous known cases of kidnapping, sexual assault and murder have happen along Interstate 45 in Texas. Some of the victims have disappeared never to be see again, some are skeletons by the time they are discovered, very few are found somewhat in tact. Most often the victims have been dumped in fields, parks and bodies of water. Because of the lack of communication between the jurisdictions and the inconclusive links of the cases involved. Media reports scarce most likely because authorities have been rather covert concerning details. This decades long murder spree of serial killers along I-45 is as perplexing as it is frighting.

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1970's Victims

Colette Wilson - Age 13, Caucasian. She was dopped off by Band Leader at a bus stop in Alvin on June 17, 1971. She disappeared, then her nude body was found close to I-10 and highway 6. Near Addicks Reservoir in west Houston, some 35 to 40 miles from where last seen 5 months earlier. She had been killed by a gunshot to head and her band instrument was never located. The remains of Colette Willson were found within 35 yards from where the body of 19 year old Gloria Gonzales was later discovered

Brenda Jones - Age 14, brunette. Disappeared while walking to Galveston hospital, close to I-45 to visit an aunt on July 1, 1971. Her body was found the next day floating in nearby Galveston Bay, close to the Seawolf Parkway and near I-45. She had a slip crammed in her mouth and had died of a head wound.

Gloria Gonzales - Age19, brunette. She disappeared on October 28, 1971 near her home in Houston. Her body was found near Addick's Reservoir in west Houston, within 35 yards from where the body of Colette Wilson had been discovered months earlier. She died from blunt force trauma to the head.

Alison Craven - Age 12, Caucasian. Her mother returned home from after running errands for 1 hour on Novermber 9th 1971. Her daughter was missing from their apartment near I-45. Police later found partial remains in a nearby field, two hands along with bones from an arm and some teeth. On Feb 25, 1972 the rest of her skeleton was found in a Pearland field, also near I-45 and 5 to10 miles from where she was last seen.

Debbie Ackerman - Age 15, Caucasian, brunette. Ball High School students Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson both from Galveston, they went to shop for gifts at a Galveston mall. Both disappeared on November 11, 1971 and they were found dead two days later. 10 miles north of where they disappeared, close to I-45 and Highway 3. They were in Turner's Bayou in Texas City where fishermen saw them floating, both girls were shot twice before being dumped in the water. Their hands and feet bound and both were only partially clothed.

Maria Johnson - Age 15, Caucasian, brunette. Ball High School students Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson both from Galveston, they went to shop for gifts at a Galveston mall. Both disappeared on November 11, 1971 and they were found dead two days later. 10 miles north of where they disappeared, close to I-45 and Highway 3. Their bodies were in Turner's Bayou in Texas City where fishermen saw them floating, both girls were shot twice before being dumped in the water. Their hands and feet bound and both were only partially clothed.

Kimberly Pitchford - Age 16, Caucasian. Last seen at a driving school in Pasadena near I-45 on January 3, 1973. She was supposed to call home for ride but the call never came. Her strangled cadaver was found two days later in a ditch near Angleton near the 288 highway, about 30 miles south of where she was last seen. Her uncle Ray Pitchford, said a possible serial killer was known to have attended the school about the same time. However, nothing has ever come of his statement and the authorities still deem the case unsolved.

Georgia Geer - Age 14, Caucasian, brunette. Brooks Bracewell and Georgia Geer had skipped school on September 6, 1974. Both disappeared from a convenience store in Dickinson, close to I-45. Both had been beaten to death and found were found in an Alvin Swamp.

Brooks Bracewell - Age 12, Caucasian, brunette. Brooks Bracewell and Georgia Geer had skipped school on September 6, 1974. Both disappeared from a convenience store in Dickinson, close to I-45. Both had been beaten to death and found were found in an Alvin Swamp.

(Possible 1970's I-45 Link)

Karen Pretty - Age 28, Caucasian, dark hair. Robert Pretty came home in north Houston from his job on May 10, 1978. He found breakfast half eaten on the table and heard water dripping in the front bathroom. He found the bodies of his sons, Scott 7 and Mark 5 in the bathtub, he pulled them from the water. His wife was in the master bathroom, she had been strangled with a phone cord. Her hands and feet were bound with phone cord and she was submerged under water in the bathtub. She was still wearing her floral bathrobe and had not been sexually assaulted. The children were still in their pajamas and they were not sexually molested either. Scott was strangled with the bare hands of the assailant and drowned face first into the tub of water. Mark was strangled and drowned in the same fashion as his brother but he had also been beaten. The house had not been robbed and only one drawer was opened according to the police. Their car a 1978 Mercury Marquis was found in an unassigned parking spot at an apartment at 198 Goodson Drive. The case is remains unsolved and the perp(s) motive(s) unknown.

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1980's Victims

Unknown Doe - Age about 14 to17, Caucasian, brunette. Dumped on I-45 about five miles north of Huntsville on November 1, 1980. She was nude, had been strangled with pantyhose and had human bites on her body. Described as 5'4" tall, 110 pounds. A truckdriver found her body.

Tamara Ellen McCurry - Age 22, Caucasian, brunette, brown eyes. Disappeared in Galveston after seen getting into an orange or yellow van on July 1, 1982.

Heidi Villerial Fye - Age 23, Caucasian, brunette. First victim found in the "Killing Fields" case, for more information push HERE.

Sandra Ramber - Age 14, Caucasian, brunette, brown eyes. Disappeared on October 26, 1983 form her house in Santa Fe, Texas. A small town close to League City and Friendswood. The case has been determined to be foul play and she is still a missing person. Her father reported her missing after he found the doors unlocked. Biscuits were cooking in the kitchen, her new coat and her purse to becoming a model.

Jane Doe - Age ?, Caucasian, brunette. Second victim found in the "Killing Fields" case, for more information push HERE.

Laura Lynn Miller - Age 16, Caucasian, brunette. Third victim found in the "Killing Fields" case, for more information push HERE.

Headless Woman - Age ?. April, 1986 police recover a headless body from a garbage bag in a state park in Galveston, the body remains unidentified.

Shelley Kathleen Sikes - Age 19, Caucasian, brunette, brown eyes. The University of Texas student who was home for the summer, was last seen just before midnight May 24, 1986. She left her summer job at Gaido's restaurant for her Texas City home but never made it. Her car was found on I-45's northbound feeder road, just north of the Causeway. In the deep mud just north of the Santa Fe overpass, the car was blood spattered and the driver's window smashed. Her body was never recovered, but Bayview resident John Robert King and El Lago resident Gerald Peter Zwarst later were convicted of aggravated kidnapping, the most severe charge prosecutors could pursue without a body, in the case.

Laurie Lee Tremblay - Age15. One of Anthony Allen Shore's strangulation victims, killed September 26, 1986. She was last seen alive walking from her family's apartment to the bus stop, her body was later found behind a restaurant. Shore once reportedly lived in League City, the Galveston city where the infamous "Killing Fields" are located. Where 4 other victims have were discovered between 1983 and 1991.


Michelle Doherty Thomas - Age 17, Caucasian, brunette. Still missing, she was last seen leaving her Alta Loma home to meet friends on October 5, 1985.

Erica Ann Garcia - Age 14, Hispanic, brunette. June 7, 1987 she disappeared from teen club in Houston. Found behind nearby vacant building, she had been strangled to death

Suzanne Rene Richerson - Age 22, Caucasian, brunette. Worked as a night clerk at Casa Del Mar Condominiums in Galveston, Texas where she was last seen on October 7, 1988 at approximately 6:00 a.m. Another employee was sleeping in the room above Richerson's office and awoke to a scream, then a car door slam from the parking lot and another scream before the car drove away. The last people to see her were the security guards who got off duty at 6 a.m. She left behind her purse, school books and car. One of her shoes was found in the parking lot but she is still missing. On July 31, 2002, suspect Gabriel Soto age 39 died from an apparent from an overdose of drugs. Soto was never charged in this case but investigators said they believed he played a role in Richerson's disappearance.

Another Jane Doe - Age between 14-19, brunette. Discovered in a wooded area on the east side of Houston on September 19, 1989. Described as between 5'2" and 5'5" and between 110 and 130 lbs. Cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head and estimated time of death 1 to 3 months.

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1990's Victims

Janet Doe - Age ?, Caucasian, brunette. Forth victim found in the "Killing Fields" case, for more information push HERE.

Maria Del Carmen Estrada - Age 21, Hispanic, brunette.One of Anthony Allen Shore's strangulation victims, killed in April 1992. Estrada was last seen when she left her home to walk to work. Her body was found hours later in the drive through lane of a Dairy Queen restaurant. Shore once reportedly lived in League City, the Galveston city where the infamous "Killing Fields" are located. Where 4 other victims have were discovered between 1983 and 1991.

Trellis Sykes - Age 16 Abducted on way to school in Houston on May 13, 1994. Found later that same day in a field murdered.

Diana Rebollar - Age 9, brunette. One of Anthony Allen Shore's strangulation victims, killed August 7, 1994. Her mother had sent her to a near by convenience store to buy sugar. Diana's body was found behind a vacant building at 1440 North Loop West. She had been raped, beaten and strangled. Shore once reportedly lived in League City, the Galveston city where the infamous "Killing Fields" are located. Where 4 other victims have were discovered between 1983 and 1991.

Dana Sanchez - Age 16, Hispanic, brunette. One of Anthony Allen Shore's strangulation victims, killed in July 6, 1995. She was last seen talking to her boyfriend on a pay phone at West Cavalcade Street. She told him she planned to hitchhike to his home but never arrived. Her body was found in North View Park on July 14. She had been raped, beaten and strangled. Shore once reportedly lived in League City, the Galveston city where the infamous "Killing Fields" are located. Where 4 other victims have were discovered between 1983 and 1991.

Lynette Bibbs - Age 14 Disappeared with friend Tamara Fisher from teen club in Houston on February 1, 1996. Left dumped on side of rural road near Cleveland, Texas, two days later. Partially clothed and shot twice in back of head and once in the thigh.

Tamara Fisher - Age 15 Last seen with friend Lynette Bibbs at Houston teen club on February 1, 1996. Left dumped on side of rural raod near Cleveland, Texas. Fully clothed and murdered by gunshot wound to the head.

Krystal Jean Baker - Age 13, Caucasian, blonde, dark eyes. Disappeared on March 5, 1996 from Convenience Store in Texas City where she used the phone. In hopes for a ride to a friends house in Bayou Vista, which is a short distance from there. Her body was found a few hours later under the I-10 Bridge over the Trinity River in Chambers County. She had been strangled, beaten, sexually assaulted and killed by ligature strangulation. Her face was badly beaten. Closest highway from where she was last seen is I-45, Hwy 3 and Hwy 146 which goes along Bay toward where body was found miles away. Marilyn Monroe, Norma Jean Baker was Krystal's great aunt.

Teen Girl (Abducted) - Age 13. March 1996 a man who abducted her at gunpoint as she was walking home from a shopping center. She leaped out of his truck in 200 block of East Fairmont in La Porte, Texas. A police officer just happen to drive by the truck witnessed the girl falling out of the truck. The pickup truck is a late mode Ford Ranger, green with suspect as 35-45, 6 ft or 6'2", with graying black hair and beard. The truck was never seen before or after this incident.

Laura Kate Smither - Age 12, Caucasian, brunette. The aspiring ballerina disappeared April 3, 1997 while jogging near her home in Friendswood, Texas near I-45. Seventeen days later her body was found at the edge of a retention pond in Pasadena near I-45. She was nude except for one sock and a ring, her head was decapitated. A dark colored pickup was observed in same area as where last seen and composite sketch of person in truck. When Smither's body was found in the Pasadena retention pond, investigators took notice of some obvious similarities between her abduction and death and that of 9 year old Amber Hagerman in Arlington, Texas 3 months earlier. Both girls' bodies were dumped in waterways, nude except for their socks. It could not be conclusively determined if the two cases are related or not. However, sex offender William Lewis Reece is the prime suspect in Laura Smither and Jessica Cain deaths but did he do it? Information, including allegations of evidence tampering, surfaced. The autopsy report indicated that African American hairs found on the girl's body were contaminants and that did not come from the crime scene. Note the Amber Hagerman death, then also note the abduction of Sandra Sapaugh and the disappearance of Jessica Cain. Plus for more infomation click HERE.


Sandra Sapaugh (Abducted) - Dark complexion, brunette. She was fixing a flat on NASA Road 1 in Webster, across I-45 from Friendswood on May 16, 1997. When she says William Lewis Reece was the man who kidnapped her by pulling a knife on her and forced her into his truck. He ordered her to undress but she opened the passenger door and jumped out of the fast moving truck. Reece was charged with aggravated kidnapping of Sapaugh. Reece also is a suspect in the murder of Laura Smither and the disappearance of Jessica Cain.

Jessica Lee Cain - Age 17, Caucasian, brunette. Still missing after leaving friends at a Bennigan's restaurant in Webster about 2 a.m. on August 17, 1997. Two hours later her truck was found along I-45 in La Marque, there was no signs of struggle and her truck was operational. Witnesses saw her walking from her parked truck towards a red Isuzu Amigo that was stopped behind her truck.

Tina Flood - Age 23, Caucasian, blonde. November 29, 1998 a police officer pulled over Jonathan David Drew and found Flood beaten and barely alive in his front passenger seat. A waitress, she had befriended Drew at a night club. She died days later and he was convicted for her death. Drew is also suspected of several sexual assaults and it is speculated he could be responsible for the slaying of Jessica Lee Cain. A search of his former home in League City, where his parents still lived produced a vial containing several human teeth. League City is the Galveston city where the infamous "Killing Fields" are located. Where 4 other victims have were discovered between 1983 and 1991. Though his age would not match the time line of the "Killing Fields" murders but he did rape other women in the area.

Wanda May Pitts - Age 18, Caucasian, blonde. January 17, 1999 was at work the lobby desk at the Lodge Motel in Shenandoah. A job she had for about two months and she did not have a car. William Ray Mathews a drifter abducted her, took her to one of the motel rooms where he sexually assaulted her before strangling her to death. He couldn't recall where he had put her body but about a year later her remains where found off an abandon gated drive way.

Tracy Vickery (Abducted) - Caucasian, brunette. Weeks after Wanda May Pitts had vanished, Mathews attempted to abduct Vickery from the office where she sold mobile homes. The Country Time Mobile Homes just happened to located on the other side of I-45 from the Lodge Motel. He came in with a briefcase, sat down and wrote her a note. She was to do what he said because he had a gun and would kill her if she did not. He forced Vickery into his truck, then he drove off down I-45 with her but she leap from his moving truck. He tried to pull her back in by her hair but he couldn't, she got away and ran to the Gulf Cost Trades Center to save herself.

(Possible 1990's I-45 Link)

Amber Hagerman - Age 9, Caucasian, brunette, brown eyes. The Amber Alert is named after Amber Hagerman, this national program is dedicated to all children nationwide who’ve been abducted. On January 1996, she was riding her bicycle in a parking lot near her home. A neighbor heard her scream, then saw a man pull her off her bike, throw her into the front seat of his dark pickup truck and drive away at a high speed. January 17, 1996 Amber’s body was found in a drainage ditch located by apartments which are located on Green Oaks Blvd a short distance west of Highway 360 in Arlington, Texas. She had been sexually assaulted and her throat had been cut multiple times with a knife. Like in the case of Laura Smither, both girls were nude except for socks. If the two cases are related cannot be conclusively determined. Though the prime suspect in Smither's death is William Lewis Reece, a known sex offender. For more infomation click HERE.

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2000's Victims

Tot Tran Harriman - Age 57, Asian, black streaked with gray, brown eyes. Height: 4ft., 11in.Weight: 130. Disappeared July 12, 2001 from: League City, Texas. Left League City to drive to Corpus Christy, TX. but has not been seen since. She departed at approximately 5:00 AM on July 12, 2001 from her son's residence said goodbye to her son and drove away in her 1995 rose quartz Lincoln Continental, with Florida rear license plate. A Navy Seal emblem where the front plate is normally affixed. Circumstances of this case indicate that foul play is possible.

Sara Trusty - Age 23, Caucasian, blonde. Last seen in Algoa near her church riding her bicycle around 11 PM on July 12, 2002. The bike was found in foyer of church the next day but she was gone. Her body was discovered on July 28, 2002 in a dike in Texas City.

Laura Ayala - Age 13, Hispanic, brunette. Missing since March 10, 2002 when she went to a near by convenience store to pick up a news paper for a school project. Walter Alexander Sorto, Edgardo Rafael Cubas and Eduardo Navarro have not been chaged with her death. However, her DNA was discovered in a SUV owned by Cubas' father.

Maria Isabel Solis -
Age 16, Hispanic, brunette. She was last seen getting off of city bus near her school, students and nearby motel manager heard screams. Missing until a body was recovered in a wooded area near Sugar Land, Texas, on August 13, 2003. The body was discovered near a closed U.S. 59 turnaround at the Brazos River, about 20 miles southwest of Houston.Due to forensic laboratory backlogs she remained unidentified until February 9, 2005.

Teen Girl (Terrorized) - July 29, 2004 a northwest Houston teen girl stranded on a southwest Houston freeway was stranded with a flat tire on the West Loop near Interstate 10. A man she believed was a tow-truck driver offered to help, he changed her tire and then tried to sexually assault her. The girl said she managed to escape by stabbing the man in the torso and shoulder with a pocketknife. The attacker has a tall, bald, clean-shaven man with a tattoo of a spider web on his left shoulder. He was driving a faded black, older model Chevrolet pickup with "Super Tow" painted in white letters on the side.

Natasha Nicole Solidum - Age 30, Caucasian, brunette, 5-foot-5, weighing about 135 pounds. On February 23, 2006 a brother and sister were walking their dog on the beach near the Flagship Hotel in the 2400 block of Seawall Boulevard shortly after 11 a.m. A woman began shouting at them about something floating in the surf and at first one of them thought it was a mannequin. The woman’s body was clad in black sweatpants, light-blue Asics running shoes with white ankle socks, a red, hooded sweatshirt and she still had her sunglasses on. She carried no identification but her body bore a distinct mark, a tattoo of a ring of flowers around her navel. Her body had probably only been in the water for about an hour because it was still warm and rigor mortis had not set in. An autopsy showed that a single gunshot wound to the chest. Investigators combed the area near 24th Street and Seawall with special metal detectors to try to find evidence. Solidum, 30, was an elementary school teacher in the Alief Independent School District. The Flagship Hotel jets out over the surf, close to where I-45 ends on Galveston Island.  Online here  and retrieved on 9/15/12

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This map includes Calder Drive, I-45, FM 646 and 517. In the 3000 block of Calder Drive is the abandon League City Oil Field. Seemingly tucked away between houses, strip centers and other sparse businesses is this tract of land. A short distance just west of the Gulf Freeway and only a few house close by. It's 20 miles south of Houston in Galveston County off of I-45. This place is a dumping ground, known as the "Killing Field." It is where the bodies of four sexually assaulted females were discovered and all four cases remain unsolved.   The modus operandi of these four particular slayings is the work of one man. This tract of land is blemished with over grown and neglected, unnamed streets once used by workers. Also the Star Dust Trail Rides once operated by Robert Able a retired NASA engineer, he later died. He was also a suspect along with a pool of other men by the League City Police Department. Nobody has ever been charged with these murders. All four victims were laying nude on the ground, face up and under trees with their arms crossed. They were placed within a hundred yard radius apart from each other. As if the killer had premeditated to create his own necropolis. One investigator who studied the scene many times thought the killer made a footpath to view his trophies. Many policemen and FBI agents are convinced this is the personal graveyard of a nefarious serial killer. Clearly this man had to have had prior knowledge to this secluded area to plan out his carnage and elude the authorities. There are locked metal ranch gates across one part of Calder Drive and adjacent Ervin Street blocking automobile access.

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4 victims, 2 unknown, between 1983 and 1991. 23 year old Heidi Villarreal Fye was a cocktail waitress, last seen on October 10th 1983. Her remains were found after a dog carried her skull to a nearby house on April 4th 1984. She had vanished six months earlier after walking from the home of her parents to use the phone at a nearby convenience store. The medical examiner noted Fye had broken ribs and had been beaten with a club. She may have died from blunt force trauma to her head. February 2ed 1986 four boys riding dirt bikes smelled a foul odor. They located the skeletal remains of a still unidentified female and called the police. Dubbed "Jane Doe" she had died six weeks to six months before being found, she had been shot in the back. She perhaps had been shot to death by a 22 caliber weapon. Part of a bullet was found with the cadaver at the medical examiner's office. (Ruined as evidence) The autopsy also revealed healed fractures of the ribs. She is described as being about 25 years old, being between 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 8 inches tall. Weighing about 140 to 160 pounds, with light reddish brown shoulder length hair and had a distinct gap between her upper front teeth. She was about fifty yards from where Fye had been found. While investigating the scene the police found yet another body the same day.

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September 8th 1991, dubbed "Janet Doe" this victim still has not been identified. Investigators believe she died a month to four months before her decomposing remains were found. She was about 31 years old, had a small frame and stood between 5 feet to 5 feet 3 inches tall. Weighed about 100 to 130 pounds, had long, fine, light brown hair. She had low quality upper dentures and poorly healed fractures in two ribs. She appeared to have been beaten with a club and possibly strangled by a drapery cord found close by. Her cause of death was not determined to be strangulation but most likely the beating. She was a hundred yards from where the other victims were located. The "Killing Field" cases differ somewhat being that both Fye and Janet Doe had been beaten to death. While Miller and Jane Doe, who were found the same day, were shot to death. However, it is known that both Fye and Miller disappeared from the same convenience store at Hobbs & W Main in League City, Texas. Also the very same duplication of arrangement of the cadavers, laying on their backs nude with their arms crossed over their chest. Plus the fact that they had been dumped within a few hundred yards of each other in this abandon oil field in the 3000 block of Calder Drive. Show clearly the modus operandi or signature of one still unknown killer.

The victims were all white brunettes

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Abel was to become a suspect and a one time employee of his, Mark Stallings. After Able fired Stallings, he went to prison and confessed to some of the I-45 murders. However the police could not substantiate his claim and had no physical evidence to connect Stallings to the slayings. It's unlikely he is involved and may have only wanted to improve his jail house rep. As for Abel a search of his property turned up nothing of value nor did Tim Miller's search. He used trained dogs and heavy equipment to dig up the sector where the victims were found. Abel eventually passed a polygraph courtesy of a national news show. The FBI eliminated Able as a suspect but the League City cops still consider the deceased man a suspect. Without eyewitnesses and only scant physical evidence, the police were stuck. Many investigations have been made in the 25 acre oil field, from the FBI and the League City police to the so called "armchair detectives" who often look into real life murder mysteries. Police had a billboard up on I-45 asking for help with the case. Even a small retention pond in the oil field was drained for evidence. Only some decayed clothes and what was left of a purse were unearthed.

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On December 22, 2005 Houston's local news reported that a letter had been mailed to Tim Miller by someone claiming to be the man who killed his daughter and others. It also boasted about the I-45 deaths, said news reporters. Only a very few parts of this letter were shown. However, the letter was made up from cut out newspaper and magazine words. Much like an old style ransom note from what was shown of it. Miller went on to say he was angry after he received it and more so when he went out to the property shortly afterwards. In the spot where his daughter's body had been removed by police, he had put up a wooden cross in her memory. He saw her cross had been knocked down and broken apart. In addition he came across some pornographic CD's left there as well. Most likely the same person who sent the letter also went out to the "Killing Field" to leave a calling card for Miller to find too. Reporters say authorities are somewhat skeptical about the some of the claims this person makes in the letter. Being that the letter came only 5 months after Able died, the authorities and Miller believe it might be a trick. Is this letter from the real killer or could it be a family member or friend of Robert Abel wanted to clear the dead man's name?

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A color aerial photograph of "The Killing Field" in League City Texas A black and white satellite shot of the area

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found online here and retrieved 9/15/12 from

http://psu-sk.tripod.com/frames/i45-calder.html