Who Killed Roger Craig?

     On the afternoon of May 15, 1975 former law enforcement officer Roger Dean Craig was found shot to death at the age of thirty-nine.  It immediately looked like a suicide with a weapon and note found near the body.  However, many pointed out that Craig had reportedly survived several attempts on his life in recent years.  This led many to speculate that Craig's death was a murder disguised as a suicide.  Who was Roger Craig and who wanted him dead?  

     Roger Craig was born in Wisconsin in 1934 and ran away from home when he was twelve.  He worked on a series of farms across the midwest before making his way to Texas.   Roger served in the Army in the early 1950's and settled in the Dallas area afterwards.  Roger began working for the Dallas County Sheriff's Department as a deputy in the late 1950's.  Roger was named Man of the Year by the Sheriff's Department in 1960 for his role in apprehending a jewelry thief.  

     Like most law enforcement personnel in Dallas, Roger was on duty on November 22, 1963 when President Kennedy was assassinated in a motorcade in downtown Dallas.  Deputy Craig reportedly ran toward the grassy knoll area when the shots rang out, as did several other people.  He began trying to secure the scene, noting that a few cars in the parking lot behind the grassy knoll area were attempting to leave.  Deputy Craig reportedly saw a young man run from the Texas School Book Depository building and get into a light green Rambler station wagon.  Craig found this to be suspicious and wanted to stop the car.  Apparently, traffic prevented Craig from getting to the car in time to stop it before the Rambler fled the chaotic area.  Later in the day Deputy Craig saw the same young man again.  This time the young man was in police custody at Dallas P.D.  Deputy Craig was relieved that the suspicious young man had been apprehended and he relayed the story of seeing the man flee the assassination scene in the green Rambler to his superiors.  

     The young man in custody was identified as twenty-four-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald.  According to Craig, Oswald admitted to him in front of Captain Will Fritz that the Rambler belonged to Mrs. Paine and Oswald said not to drag her into it because she hadn't done anything wrong.  Mrs. Ruth Paine was the woman that Oswald's estranged wife lived with.  After the events of that weekend unfolded and Oswald ended up dead while in police custody, Deputy Craig was reportedly told that he had to be mistaken about seeing Oswald get into the Rambler.  The official investigation showed Oswald boarding a bus when he left downtown Dallas after the shooting not getting into a car so Craig had to be mistaken in what he saw.  However, Craig refused to change his story.  This didn't sit well with his superiors and the once celebrated deputy, who had been promoted four times prior to November 22, 1963, was promoted no more.  Craig was eventually fired from the Sheriff's Department.  

     In 1967 Roger Craig was a witness for the prosecution in the trial of Clay Shaw, the New Orleans businessman who was charged with conspiring to assassinate President Kennedy.  Craig again repeated his claim that someone in a light green Rambler picked Oswald up immediately after the shooting.  The U.S. government said Oswald acted alone in killing Kennedy, so Craig's testimony cast doubt on that finding and made it seem like Oswald had help and the assassination had indeed been a conspiracy.  Shaw was found not guilty in his trial.  However, someone fired a shot at Roger Craig as he walked toward his car.  The bullet grazed his head, but he wasn't seriously harmed.

     Craig thought someone was trying to kill him because he refused to change his story about Oswald and the Rambler.  But Craig refused to waver and gave interviews with journalists who were researching the possibility of a conspiracy in the Kennedy assassination.  In 1973 Craig's car was forced off the road in another alleged attempt on his life.  The crash left him badly injured.  The following year he survived another shooting.  Then, Craig's car exploded, nearly killing him.

     Craig reportedly remained undeterred and stuck to his story about Oswald and the Rambler.  Craig was reportedly going to testify before the Church Committee, a Senate investigative committee looking into the Kennedy assassination.  Craig never got the chance.  And nearly fifty years later questions remain about the death of Roger Craig.  Ironically, several individuals who were supposed to testify before the Church Committee died under mysterious circumstances.

     So, what do you think?  Was Roger Craig depressed and in pain from the injuries he had sustained?  Did this cause him to take his own life?  Or was he the victim of foul play?  Was someone trying to silence Roger Craig?  Was his death connected to the other reported attempts on his life?  Will we ever know the truth about the death of Roger Craig?  

Who Killed Tobacco Heir Zachory Smith Reynolds?

     In the early morning hours of July 6, 1932 twenty-year-old Zachory Smith Reynolds was shot in the head following a party.  Smith, as he was known, was a well known pilot and the youngest son of tobacco tycoon R.J. Reynolds and his wife Katherine.  Smith's death shocked the country.  Everyone wanted to know who killed Smith Reynolds.

     Smith's wife, Libby Holman, immediately told everyone that Smith had shot himself.  Some can easily believe this as Smith had reportedly been suicidal in the past.  Still others think Libby Holman, an actress, had murdered her husband.  There were two other people in the house with Reynolds that evening besides Holman, Smith's friend Albert Bailey Smith and Libby's friend Blanche Yurka.  The trio managed to get Smith to North Carolina Baptist Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 5:25 a.m.

     Police found Smith's death suspicious from the beginning.  Libby Holman and Albert Bailey Walker were eventually indicted for the murder of Smith Reynolds.  The case continued to get press coverage all over the country as rumors circled around that Holman and Walker were having an affair and wanted the young millionaire out of the way.  The Reynolds family, however, thought Smith had committed suicide and urged the D.A. to drop the charges.  Eventually the charges were dropped because of lack of evidence.  Apparently, police could not prove the pair were having an affair or that they killed Smith.  Questions about the death of Smith Reynolds have lingered ever since.  What was going on in the life of Smith Reynolds that could have led to his death?

     In the summer of 1918 R.J. Reynolds, the wealthy tobacco tycoon, died after a battle with cancer leaving behind a wife and four young children.  A year later his widow, Katherine Reynolds, began dating a school master who was about twenty years younger than her.  The couple married in the summer of 1921 and moved into a small cottage on the Reynolds estate, leaving the children alone in the main house with their governess and other servants.  When forty-four-year-old Katherine became pregnant in 1924 the couple moved into an apartment in New York City to be near her doctor.  It was a difficult pregnancy and Katherine died a few days after giving birth to a son.  Smith and his siblings were orphans and now their stepfather, Ed Johnston, and their paternal uncle, William Neal Reynolds, were in charge of their care.  The children spent most of their time away at boarding school.

     Smith Reynolds dropped out of school when he was fifteen years old and went to work with his older brother, Dick, at a new subsidiary of the family business, Reynolds Aviation.  Smith enjoyed flying and was good at it.  He earned a private pilot's license in 1928 and in May of 1929 at age seventeen he became the youngest person in the country to earn a transport license.  The exciting young millionaire became a celebrated pilot.  

     It was during the summer of 1929 that Smith began dating Anne Cannon, a textile heiress.  Anne reportedly became pregnant and the couple were forced to marry by Anne's father in November of 1929.  The couple allegedly fought frequently and separated before the birth of their daughter.

     In the spring of 1930 while visiting his friend, Broadway producer and John Deere Heir Dwight Deere Wiman, Smith met actress Libby Holman.  He reportedly became infatuated with Holman instantly.  Holman later reportedly claimed that Smith proposed marriage to her shortly after they met, but she turned him down because he was still married to Anne.  But Smith was persistent.  He followed her around the country in his plane.

     In November of 1931 Smith obtained a divorce from Anne.  A few days later he married Libby Holman.  By the summer of 1932 the couple were expecting a baby and were spending the summer at the Reynolds family estate in North Carolina.  It was here that Smith Reynolds was shot in the head.

     Libby Holman reportedly told friends after Smith's death that she was so drunk that night she didn't remember what happened.  She reportedly didn't remember whether she shot him or not.  A few months later, in January of 1933 Libby gave birth prematurely to a son.  The baby only weighed three and a half pounds and struggled to survive, having to spend time in an incubator.

    Libby would spend the rest of her life under a cloud of suspicion.  Allegations remained that she had only married Smith Reynolds for his money and then plotted to kill him.  Others say Smith was a troubled young man who took his own life.  What do you think?  Will we ever learn the truth about the death of Smith Reynolds?

What Happened To Flight 19?

     It was just after two in the afternoon on December 5, 1945 that five Navy Avenger's took off from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  The five planes were collectively called Flight 19 and were on a routine training mission that took them near the Bahamas where they dropped dummy bombs.  The flight was led by Lt. Charles Taylor, a flight instructor with combat experience.  There was a total of fourteen men on board the five Avengers. 

     Flight 19 completed its bombing exercise.  Then, as they headed back toward base something appeared to go wrong with the flight.  Lt. Taylor reports that his compass has stopped working.  It was around this time that the weather also takes a turn for the worst.  It began to rain, and the sky grew cloudy with strong gusts of wind.  Radio conversations between the pilots of Flight 19 seem to indicate that there was a lot of confusion.

     A nearby Navy flight instructor hears the radio conversation and offers to assist Flight 19.  Lt. Taylor tells him that both of his compasses have stopped working and he feels he has drifted off course and was likely in the Florida Keys.  Navy personnel knew Taylor and Flight 19 could not have reached the Keys in that time period.  So, where were they?  And why was Taylor so disoriented?  As the flight progressed Taylor seemed even more confused, changing the course of direction several times.

     Some of the other pilots seemed to be frustrated with Taylor.  At one point one of the men can be heard saying, "Dammit!  If we would just fly west we would get home."  In the last conversation Lt. Taylor can be heard instructing the crew to ditch the Avenger's in the ocean as they ran out of fuel.  Then, all that was heard was static.

     Realizing Flight 19 has likely gone down the Navy immediately sends out two PBM Mariners in search of the missing Avenger's.  But the already strange disappearance of five aircraft gets even stranger when one of the Mariner's also mysteriously disappears.  The Mariner and its crew of thirteen men disappeared from radar and were never heard from again.  So, what happened to these six missing aircraft?

     A passing merchant ship reported seeing fire in the sky and someone else reported a suspicious oil slick in the water.  Because of this it is widely believed that the PBM Mariner likely exploded over the ocean.  Apparently, this particular type of aircraft was notorious for catching fire easily.

     A lot of people point out that all six planes disappeared in the area known as the Bermuda Triangle, an area off the Florida coast where a good many planes and ships have mysteriously disappeared over the years.  Some pilots have reported strange things happening with their instruments while in this area.  Could this be what happened to Lt. Taylor's compass?

     Others point out that with or without a compass a pilot as experienced at Lt. Taylor should have known how to find his way back to land.  It has also been reported that Taylor asked to be excused from flying that afternoon.  He didn't give a reason and his request was denied.  This has led some people to speculate that something was wrong with Taylor that day that led to his confusion in the air.  Why did Taylor not hand over control to another aircraft after his compass failed?  Why did he ignore other pilot's suggestions to fly west, which was reportedly protocol for pilots lost in that area?  Why did the other four pilots continue following Taylor?

     The five Navy Avengers that made up Flight 19 have never been found.  They seem to have vanished into thin air.  Despite the Navy launching a massive search for the missing planes the next day and numerous citizen led searches over the years, no wreckage or any sign of Flight 19 has ever been found.  The mystery surrounding the flight continues.  Was it a strange case of pilot error, even though there were five different pilots on the flight?  Or was it another case of the Bermuda Triangle causing strange unexplained phenomenon to airplanes and ships?  Will Flight 19 ever be found?  And will the mystery surrounding the Bermuda Triangle ever be scientifically explained?  

Who Created The Georgia Guidestones And Why?

     In the summer of 1979 a man using the alias Robert C. Christian went to the Elberton Granite Finishing Company where he claimed to represent "a small group of loyal Americans".  The man had an unusual request.  He wanted to erect a granite monument that should function as a clock, calendar, and compass for the people of the future who survive a nuclear attack or some other kind of catastrophe.  After the company agreed to the project and a price was settled on the man visited a local bank to arrange payment for the project and provided a scale model and very specific instructions for Elberton Granite.  The true identity of the man has never been determined and has left people guessing since 1979.

     On March 22, 1980 the mysterious monument was unveiled by Congressman Doug Barnard.  The master of ceremonies read a message to the audience that was reportedly from the group who commissioned the project and the odd message added even more intrigue to the unusual monument and its mysterious sponsors.  The message read:  "In order to avoid debate, we the sponsors of the Georgia Guidestones have a simple message for human beings, now and for the future.  We believe our precepts are sound, and they must stand on their own merits."  Visitors at the ceremony got the first look at the strange granite monument.  A set of ten guidelines were inscribed into the granite in eight different languages.  The guidelines are as follows: 1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 In perpetual balance with nature.  2. Guide reproduction wisely--improving fitness and diversity.  3. Unite humanity with a living new language.  4. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.  6.  Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.  7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.  8. Balance personal rights with social duties.  9.  Prize truth-beauty-love-seeking harmony with the Infiniti.  10. Be not a cancer on the Earth--leave room for nature--leave room for nature.

     A hole drilled through the granite on one side lined up with the North Star.  A slot cut into another section aligned with the Sun's solstices and equinoxes.  Another slot allowed the sun to pass through it at noon every day.

     The monument was controversial from the very beginning as well as being mysterious.  Some thought it was the work of a satanic cult while others thought it was likely to be the Rosicrucian's who were responsible for the monument.  Another popular theory was that the monument was erected by those who supported the secret society known as the Illuminati and its efforts to promote New World Order.  In 2008 the stones were defaced with spray painted graffiti that read: "Death to New World Order".

     Then, on July 6, 2022 a large explosion was reported at the monument.  Someone attempted to destroy the monument with a bomb.  The mysterious granite stones were badly damaged and deemed unsafe.  Authorities dismantled what was left of the monument.  As of this writing no one has been charged with the bombing.  A suggestion to rebuild the monument has proved to be as controversial as the original monument and so far has not been achieved.  

     Though the mysterious slabs of granite are no longer standing, their creation and the people behind it remains one of those puzzling mysteries that intrigues people to this day.  Who was the man using the alias Robert C. Christian?  What group did he represent?  How and why did they finance such a massive and expensive project?  Why did they go to such great lengths to conceal their identity? Will we ever uncover the mystery surrounding the Georgia Guidestones?  

Who Killed Mary Meyer?

      On Monday October 12, 1964 Mary Pinchot Meyer, a Georgetown artist, finished working on a painting and then set out on her usual daily walk along the C and O canal towpath.  A mechanic working on a car nearby reportedly heard a woman scream for help followed by two gunshots.  The mechanic ran toward the chaos and allegedly sees a black male standing over the body of a white female with a gun in his hand.  The man then ran away.  

     By the time police arrive Mary Meyer is dead from two bullet wounds.  They arrested a black man nearby who fit the general description provided by the mechanic.  His name was Ray Crump, and he was put on trial for the murder of Mary Meyer.  However, Crump was acquitted of the charges and Mary's murder case grew cold.  But the whispers about Mary's death being anything but a random act of violence have never stopped.  So, who was Mary Meyer and who wanted her dead?

     Mary was born into a wealthy New York family.  She attended the prestigious Brearley School and Vassar College before marrying Cord Meyer, a Marine Corp officer from a nice family.  Meyer had lost an eye in the war.  The couple had three children: Quinton, Micheal, and Mark.  In 1951 Meyer took a job with the CIA and the family moved to the nation's capital, becoming a part of the Georgetown social scene.   

     The Meyer's lived outside the city in McLean Virginia where in 1954 John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie moved in next door.  But, on December 18, 1956 nine-year-old Micheal Meyer was hit and killed by a car near the family home.  And in 1958 Mary filed for divorce siting "extreme mental cruelty" as her reason.  After the divorce Mary moved into Georgetown with Quinton and Mark where she was close to her sister Toni and Toni's husband, journalist Ben Bradlee.  The Bradlee's converted their garage into an art studio for Mary.

     Mary reportedly enjoys her freedom as a divorced woman.  She reportedly has an affair with painter Kenneth Noland around this time and allegedly experiments with drugs.  There are also persistent rumors that CIA counterintelligence officer James Angleton began bugging Mary's home after the divorce.  Some say he did this because the CIA didn't trust Mary.  Others think Angleton was obsessed with her personally.  While there are some who think Mary herself was working for the CIA in some capacity, possibly gathering information on people.  

     It is widely believed that Mary was a mistress of President John F. Kennedy, her former neighbor whom she had reportedly known since the 1930s.  It is unclear when their alleged affair began but a 1963 letter from Kennedy to Mary sold at auction in 2016 for nearly $90,000.  The letter was dated October of 1963 just a month before Kennedy was assassinated.  This has led some people to theorize that Mary knew something she shouldn't have known about the assassination that led to her murder less than a year later.  Some have also wondered if Mary had infiltrated Kennedy on behalf of the CIA.

     Mary's brother-in-law Ben Bradlee recalled that CIA official Wistar Janney called him at his office shortly after lunch to report that a woman had been murdered in Georgetown and he was pretty sure it was Mary.  Janney also reportedly called Cord Meyer around this same time.  Meyer was out of town at the time which some people have found suspicious.  The two phone calls have led many people to ask how the CIA learned of the murder so quickly after it happened?  Out of all the women in Georgetown that day what led Janney to assume the victim was Mary Meyer?  Was he there?  

     Later in the evening of the murder Toni and Ben Bradlee went to Mary's house and allegedly found James Angleton there searching for Mary's diary.  It is not known if a diary was ever found.  Why was the CIA so concerned about Mary's diary?  In the months before her death Mary had reportedly told friends that she felt like someone had been in her house and was frightened by it.  Could that have been Angleton as well?  If so, was his motivation personal or professional?  Was this connected to Mary's murder? 

     What do you think?  Was Mary Meyer the victim of a random act of violence?  Did Ray Crump get away with murder?  Was Mary the victim of a jealous stalker who had possibly been in her home?  Was she the victim of a jealous or vengeful ex-husband who was conveniently out of town?  Was Mary working for the CIA?  Was she under surveillance by the CIA?  Did Mary have knowledge or proof of a conspiracy to kill JFK?  Will we ever learn who killed Mary Pinchot Meyer?

Was A Serial Killer Operating In Springfield Missouri During The 1980's And 90's?

     On June 18, 1985 a delivery driver spotted a car he recognized on the side of the road.  The delivery driver knew the black camaro with personal plates belonged to Jackie Johns, a twenty-year-old who worked at the local cafe.  The delivery driver contacted the cafe.  Jackie's boss at the cafe drove out to where the car was and found the door open, her purse inside, and what he thought could be blood.  He immediately called 9-1-1. 

     Police arrived and searched the car.  They found a carjack covered in blood and hair and immediately thought Jackie had fallen victim to foul play.  The small town of Nixa Missouri was in shock as they launched a massive search for Jackie.  On June 22nd fishermen at nearby Lake Springfield spotted Jackie's body.

     A call to a police tipline about a very distinctive vehicle at the gas station where Jackie was last seen led to police developing a strong suspect in the case.  The man was a frequent visitor to the cafe where Jackie worked.  He was also from a well-known and very influential family in the area.  Although forensic evidence was collected in the case, the term DNA was still unknown to most people and the technology needed in this case was still a few years away.  Police were not able to find enough evidence to bring charges against the suspect and the case went cold.

     Then, on April 27, 1987 another disappearance rocked the greater Springfield-Nixa area.  A yellow Volkswagen convertible was found with the door open, lights on, and motor running.  The car's owner, thirty-two-year-old Debbie Sue Lewis, was missing.  Her purse was still inside the car.  Debbie's body was found eight months later in Newton County near Joplin Missouri.  Police had even less evidence in the Lewis case than they did in the Johns case.  Lewis' murder case soon went cold, but the disappearances and murders in the greater Springfield area continued.

     On June 30, 1989 twenty-four-year-old Kelle Ann Workman disappeared while mowing the Dogwood Cemetery just south of Seymour Missouri.  The keys were still in her car.  Kelle's body was found on July 7th on a county road ten miles away.  Much like the Lewis and Johns cases, the murder of Kelle Ann Workman soon grew cold.

     Then, on June 7, 1992 three women disappeared from a Springfield Missouri home and the case soon received national attention.  Forty-seven-year-old Sherrill Levitt, her nineteen-year-old daughter Suzie Streeter, and Suzie's friend eighteen-year-old Stacy McCall seemingly vanished without a trace from Levitt's home.  Their purses and personal belongings were still inside the home as was the family dog.  Their vehicles were still parked outside.  The only thing out of place appeared to be a broken porch light.

     It's believed that the two young women didn't arrive at the home until around two in the morning.  They had graduated high school that night and had attended a graduation party.  Levitt's bed appeared to have been slept in.  It's not known what time the three women disappeared.  Friends became alarmed the next morning when Streeter and McCall failed to meet them.  Police began investigating later in the day when they were alerted by McCall's family.  But police had very little to go on and the mysterious disappearance of the Springfield Three, as they came to be known, went cold just as the Lewis, Johns, and Workman cases did.  There were already whispers of a serial killer on the loose in the Springfield area, now everyone wondered if he would ever mess up enough to get caught.

     Then, in March of 1993 someone tried to abduct an eighteen-year-old woman off the side of the road in Springfield at Ingrim Mill Road.  Luckily the young woman was able to get away.  Her escape led to the arrest of Gerald Carnahan.  Carnahan was charged and convicted of the attempted kidnapping and sentenced to two years in prison.  Ironically, Carnahan was the main suspect in the murder of Jackie Johns back in 1985.

     With DNA technology advancing, investigators blew the dust off the old Jackie Johns cold case and gave it a second look in 2007.  The DNA of Gerald Carnahan was compared to forensic evidence collected from Jackie's body and a match was made.  Carnahan was arrested and charged with the rape and murder of Jackie Johns.  In 2010 he was convicted.

     Local rumors persist that Carnahan is also responsible for the deaths of Lewis and Workman as well as the disappearance of the Springfield Three though he has not been charged in any of these cases.  People also point out that Carnahan lived and worked part time in China where his family owned a factory and have questioned whether Carnahan could be tied to any missing or murdered women there.  Most locals feel like Carnahan would have been charged in the other Springfield area murders and disappearances if police had more physical evidence in those cases.

     What do you think?  Is it possible that none of these cases are related?  Or was Gerald Carnahan a serial killer preying on the women of Springfield Missouri for years?  And will the other unsolved cases ever be resolved?  

United Flight 533: Accident Or Sabotage?

     It was around two thirty in the afternoon of Friday December 8, 1972 that United Airlines flight 533 crashed into a residential area just outside of Chicago while approaching Midway Airport.  The crash raised questions almost as soon as it occurred.  Those questions are still being asked today.  

     Witnesses living in the neighborhood have claimed that several individuals who appeared to have some sort of official capacity appeared on the scene within minutes and took control of the scene.  The witnesses say the men were sifting through the ruble as though they were looking for something in particular.  Who were they and what were they looking for?  No one seems to know, but this is not the only strange thing about this case.

     Almost immediately after the crash people began to whisper about one or more of the passengers being the target of an assassination.  Who were these controversial passengers on board flight 533 and who wanted them dead?  Was the crash the result of sabotage to murder these individuals?

     There are some who believe as many as twelve people on board flight 533 were the target of murder that day in 1972 because of their connection to the Watergate scandal or justice department cases.  One of the individuals was CBS News reporter, Michelle Clark, who was working on a Watergate story and was interviewing Dorothy Hunt, the wife of E. Howard Hunt who had been charged in the Watergate break in.  Dorothy Hunt was also on the flight and was reportedly carrying at least $10,000 in cash with her and had allegedly taken out $200,000 in flight insurance before she boarded the plane.  It has long been rumored that E. Howard Hunt and Dorothy Hunt had been blackmailing the Nixon White House, threatening to provide documents to the press that would show Nixon was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy.  The Hunts were upset over the loss of income and mounting legal bills since Hunt's Watergate arrest and wanted money from the Nixon administration.  The allegation is that someone in the Nixon administration finally provided money to the Hunt's and that Dorothy Hunt was in charge of dispersing the funds to the Watergate burglars and their families.  Other rumors say Dorothy was paying off individuals who had assisted the Watergate burglars in the operation and that's the reason she was flying to Chicago.  The rumors are that the Hunt's kept asking for more money and someone within the Nixon administration decided it would be better to kill Dorothy Hunt and send a message to her husband and the other burglars rather than keep paying money to the Hunts.

     Mrs. Hunt's fellow passengers that day on flight 533 included several individuals from Northern Natural Gas.  It is alleged that some of them were actively blackmailing Attorney General John Mitchell.  Others on board were rumored to have knowledge of Nixon's secret slush fund.

     Longtime political activist, Dick Gregory, has claimed that there were strong attempts to guide him toward taking flight 533 that day.  He changed his mind and then grew suspicious after the flight crashed.  On the other side of the coin, Lawrence O'Connor, a Chicago resident, took the flight every Friday like clockwork, claims that on this particular Friday he was urged by a friend not to take flight 533.  Ironically O'Connor's friend worked in the white house.

     The official cause of the crash was listed as equipment malfunction, but the controversy remains to this day.  What do you think?  Was it a tragic accident?  Or was it an act of sabotage?  Did the crash have anything to do with the Watergate scandal or the Nixon administration?  And why was Dorothy Hunt traveling with so much money?

Did Adolf Hitler Survive World War II?

     Open up nearly any history textbook in the world and it will tell you that Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30. 1945 in Berlin along with his wife Eva Braun.  The couple reportedly took cyanide and Hitler shot himself in the head.  Afterwards, those loyal to Hitler and in the underground bunker with him took the two bodies outside to the garden and set them on fire and then buried them in a shallow grave.  The reports of Hitler's death have been called into question almost from the time it happened.  So, what really happened to Adolf Hitler?  Did he commit suicide in his bunker?  Or did he escape Germany as the allied forces closed in?

     The Russians were the first on the scene and they took possession of Hitler's remains and sent what was left of him to Moscow to preserve them for history.  The Russian leader, Joseph Stalin, was one of the first to express doubt that Hitler was actually dead.  Many other world leaders were reportedly skeptical as well despite the testimony of those in the bunker with Hitler and Braun.

     It is believed that many high-ranking Nazi's used Berlin's extensive underground tunnel system to escape.  Many believe that Hitler also used these tunnels to escape from his bunker to an awaiting airplane.  In fact, Luftwaffe pilot Captain Peter Baumgart testified that he flew Hitler, Braun, and several other Nazi officers to the Danish town of Tonder.  Because Baumgart underwent psychiatric treatment after his trial, his testimony was disregarded by officials.

     There are persistent rumors that Hitler, Braun, and several other high-ranking Nazi's made their way to Argentina where they were given shelter and support by Nazi sympathizers.  In fact, on the night of July 27, 1945, in Necochea, Argentina local police received reports of strange lights and unusual activity on the beach.  Police find a German man on the beach who was attempting to use morse code to signal something or someone in the water that the police could not see.  The police take the man into custody and interrogate him.  The man admitted to signaling a German Submarine that was attempting to unload on the beach.  Police then returned to the beach and found tire tracks and drag marks, as if something had indeed been unloaded on the beach.  Police followed the tire tracks to a remote farm.  There they were confronted by four heavily armed German soldiers.  The police reportedly arrested the four soldiers but were ordered to release them two hours later.  Who were these Germans?  And why were the police ordered to release them?  It's definitely a strange and suspicious story, but is there any truth to it?

     In the summer of 1945, a fifteen-year-old girl was living with a wealthy family who were known Nazi supporters.  The girl claims that Hitler stayed with the family that summer of 1945.  She claims Hitler continued communicating with the family until the early 1960s.  A construction worker claims to have seen Hitler at the home of another known Nazi supporter on more than one occasion.  A now declassified FBI document from September 1945 confirms that the U.S. government was investigating reports that Hitler had arrived in Argentina via submarine and was being assisted by top Argentine officials.

     We do know that several Nazi's were captured in South America over the years including Adolf Eichmann and Joseph Mengele.  Does this lend credence to the stories and rumors about Hitler settling here after the war?  After his capture, Gerhardt Bohne admitted that Juan Peron's people assisted him on getting into Argentina and gave him money and documents for a new life.  Does this lend credence to the rumors that the Nazi's had a network of support in Argentina?

     The forensic evidence collected by the Russians in 1945 has done little to settle the debate.  An examination of the skull that supposedly belonged to Hitler was determined to belong to a female.  Could it have been Braun?  Possibly, but where was Hitler?  On the other hand, French investigators who studied the recovered teeth claim that the remains do belong to Hitler and there are signs of cyanide on the teeth.

      What do you think?  Did Hitler die in 1945?  Would Hitler have been desperate enough to commit suicide if he knew he had an escape route and a support network in South America?  With so many high ranking Nazi's fleeing to South America why would the biggest Nazi of them all not have gone with them?  The debate goes on just as it has since 1945.   

 The Mysterious Disappearance of Two U.S. Congressmen

     On October 16, 1972, U.S. House Majority Leader Hale Boggs and his colleague Congressman Nick Begich along with Begich's aide Russel Brown and pilot Don Jonz took off from Anchorage Alaska in a Cessna 310 on their way to Juneau for a political fundraising event.  The plane never reached Juneau.  A massive search was conducted but there was no sign of the aircraft or its occupants.  

     Alaska state law required there to be an emergency locator transmitter on board the plane, but the signal was never heard.  A few amateur radio operators reported hearing a radio transmission from someone on board the plane after it crashed saying there were survivors who needed help, but authorities didn't find these reports to be credible.  After a thirty-nine-day search nothing was found, and the four men were presumed dead.  Questions and conspiracy theories alike have swirled around this case since it happened.  

     Were the four men the victims of an accidental plane crash?  Were they the victims of the notorious Alaska Triangle?  Or was one of the Congressmen the target of a sinister plot?  Many have pointed out that Majority Leader Boggs was a bit controversial, and he had reported someone running him off the road two years before his disappearance.  

     Boggs was a member of the Warren Commission, the government group tasked with investigating the Kennedy assassination.  Boggs openly disagreed with some Warren Commission findings, particularly the so-called single bullet theory.  There are reports that Boggs thought FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had lied to and misled the commission.  Boggs openly criticized the FBI on the floor of the House in the early 1970s.  There are reports that he thought Hoover and the bureau to be too powerful and he was seeking to cut the FBI's annual budget.  We also know that Boggs was also on President Nixon's radar.  In a recorded conversation between Nixon and House Minority Leader Gerald Ford in April of 1971 Nixon tells Ford that he can no longer take council from Boggs.  Ford speculates that Boggs is either drinking too much or taking pills.  Boggs also accused the FBI of bugging his phone and said other congressmen thought their phones were bugged as well.  Of course, none of this proves that Boggs was the victim of an assassination or foul play.  There are other things to consider in this case.

     In 1994 convicted murderer and mob associate Jerry Max Pasley told Alaska state investigators that he delivered a bomb to Anchorage on behalf of the Joe Bonanno crime syndicate.  Pasley claims the bomb was put on the Cessna before it took off.  Pasley worked for mobsters Joe Bonanno and Peter Licavoli and was convicted of five murders.  Pasley died in prison in 2010.  Presumably authorities never took Pasley's confession seriously.

     However, one strange factor and indeed a red flag in this case is that Jerry Pasley married the widow of Congressman Nick Begich about seventeen months after the plane disappeared.  They were married for three years and reportedly went into business with several mobsters from Tuscon.  This revelation opens up questions of whether this is a case of a gangster getting rid of his lover's husband rather than a political assassination. 

     So, what do you think?  Was this a political assassination?  Was it a freak accident?  Was it a love triangle gone wrong?  Will the missing plane ever be found?  Will we ever learn the truth about that October flight in 1972?

Did The Alcatraz Three Survive Their Daring Escape?

     On the night of June11, 1962, three prisoners escaped from the notorious Alcatraz prison in California.  The fate of the three men has been a mystery ever since.  Did they drown in the cold San Francisco waters?  Or did they make it to land?

     Frank Morris along with brothers, John and Clarence Anglin, had spent weeks planning the escape.  Using spoons, they dug holes through the walls of their cells.  They collected hair from the prison barber and fashioned paper mâché heads to make it look like they were asleep in their beds.  They also collected raincoats which they used to make a flotation device.  A manhunt was launched as soon as the prison realized they were missing the following morning.  However, the three men were never apprehended, and their bodies were never found.

     In 2013 a letter was sent to the San Francisco police, it said: "My name is John Anglin.  I escaped from Alcatraz in June 1962 with my brother Clarence and Frank Morris.  I'm eighty-three-years-old and in bad shape.  I have cancer.  Yes we all made it that night but barely!  Frank passed away in October 2005.  His grave is in Alexandria under another name.  My brother died in 2011.  If you announce on TV that I will be promised to first go to jail for no more than a year and get medical attention, I will write back to let you know exactly where I am.  This is no joke, this is for real and honest truth."  The police never made any such announcement on TV.

     Members of the Anglin family claim that the two brothers survived.  They claim the two brothers sent flowers to their mother and Christmas cards over the years.  One of their brothers reportedly admitted on his deathbed that he had stayed in touch with John and Clarence for years.  The family says a drug smuggler named Fred Brizzi flew the three fugitives to Mexico shortly after the escape.  Brizzi also reportedly told the Anglin family that the two brothers made their way to Brazil where they settled down and worked as farmers.  Brizzi reportedly gave the family a photo of the two brothers that was taken some time in the 1970s.  In 2020 facial recognition software was used to compare the photo to the mugshot photos of the two brothers.  The software showed that the two men in the photo were likely John and Clarence Anglin.  Members of the Anglin family have since traveled to Brazil in search of further evidence that the two brothers survived the Alcatraz escape.

     The FBI officially closed the case in 1979.  However, speculation persists.  What happened to the three fugitives?  Did they drown?  Did they survive?  How reliable is the story Fred Brizzi told the Anglin family?  Could the three men have made it all the way to Brazil?  Will new evidence finally be able to solve this mystery of the Alcatraz three?

The Missing Crew Of U.S. Navy Blimp L-8

     On August 16, 1942, U.S. Navy Blimp L-8, designated flight 101, took off from Treasure Island, California.  The two pilots, Ensign Charles Adams and Lt. Ernest Cody, were on a submarine spotting mission.  The Navy had ramped up these missions after Japanese subs had been seen off the coast of California in previous months.

     Around 7:38am, an hour and a half after takeoff, Lt. Cody radioed headquarters.  He gave his position as three miles east of the Farallon Islands.  Four minutes later Lt. Cody again radioed, this time to report he was investigating an oil slick.  After that, the radio signal appeared to be lost.

    For the next three hours there is no communication with flight 101.  Then, the blimp returns to land unexpectedly and nearly collides with a house.  The blimp skidded across the roof and landed in the street nearby.  Officials were on the scene within minutes.  However, there was no sign of Ensign Adams or Lt. Cody.  Where were the two Navy pilots?

     The Navy launched an investigation.  They discovered numerous planes and ships who saw the blimp on the day the two pilots vanished.  Some even got close enough to actually see the two pilots inside and reported that everything seemed normal.  A search of the blimp raised more questions.  They found the door latch open, and the safety bar was no longer in place.  A microphone was dangling.  The radio and ignition switches were still on.  Lt. Cody's hat and briefcase were still there.  Two lifejackets were missing, although no one saw the men jump or fall from the blimp.  The helium bag was also found to be leaking.

     There was never any sign of the two pilots, and they were presumed dead.  The blimp soon became known as the "ghost blimp" because of the vanishing crew.  So, what happened to Ensign Adams and Lt. Cody?  How could both men accidentally fall out of the blimp?  Were they abducted by a UFO?  Did they intentionally go AWOL?

     My personal theory is the leaking helium caused the two men to become disoriented.  They put their lifejackets on, opened the door, and stepped out into open sky.  What do you think?  Will the mystery of the two vanishing pilots ever be solved?    

The Puzzling Identity Of The Jane Doe In Oslo

     At 10:44pm on May 31, 1995, a young woman checked into the Oslo Plaza Hotel.  The woman had short dark hair, blue eyes, and according to the hotel staff she spoke English and German.  The woman gave the name Jennifer Fairgate along with a Belgium address.  She also checked a man named Lois Fairgate into the room with her, although the hotel staff didn't remember seeing anyone with her.  Oddly, the woman provided no ID or credit card and the hotel neglected to ask for one.  She booked the stay for three nights and was checked into room 2805.

     On Friday June 2nd the woman called the reception desk and extended her stay until Sunday.  Shortly after eight o'clock that evening the woman ordered room service.  The hotel claims that at least three attempts were made to contact the woman to have her come to the reception desk to provide credit card information.  This does seem odd since the woman extended her stay and ordered room service.  Why didn't someone get the credit card information from her then?

     On Saturday June 3rd at 7:50pm hotel security knocked on the door of room 2805 despite there being a do not disturb sign hanging on the door.  As soon as the guard knocked, he heard a gunshot.  The security guard ran back downstairs to get his manager and call the police.  The police arrived about fifty minutes after the gunshot.

     The police enter the room to find the young woman lying on the bed with a gunshot wound to her head and a pistol in her hand.  More bullets were found in her suitcase.  Curiously, although blood was splattered clear to the ceiling there was no blood on the hand holding the gun and there was later found to be no gunshot residue on the hand.  Police also discovered a second shot had been fired into a pillow near the woman's body.  The more they investigated, the more questions they had.

     The name and address she provided when checking in were both fake.  So, who was she and where did she come from?  Her fingerprints didn't match anyone on record.  She had extensive and expensive dental work done but police could find no matching dental records either.  There were only a few items of clothing in her suitcase and all but one item had the labels removed from them.  There were no toiletries, not even a toothbrush, except for one bottle of men's cologne.  The serial number on the pistol was also partially removed.

     Police were unable to determine the woman's true identity.  No one came forward to report her missing or claim the body.  She was buried in a local cemetery in an anonymous grave.  In 2016 the woman's body was exhumed in order to retrieve DNA samples in an attempt to close the case.  A study of her teeth and bones led authorities to conclude that the woman was about twenty-four years old at the time of her death and was likely of German descent.  However, as of this writing the true identity of the woman has not been discovered.

     What do you think?  Why were the labels removed from her clothes?  Could she have been a spy?  A professional assassin?  Was she on the run from something?  Was she murdered or was it a suicide?  Who was the mystery man that she checked in with her?  Will we ever know the true identity of this woman or what happened to her?  In 2022 a similar case known as the Somerton man was finally solved giving hope that this mysterious case might also be solved someday soon.

The Mysterious Death Of Henry Marshall And Its Possible Connection To LBJ

     In 1960 in Texas the Agricultural Adjustment Administration assigned longtime employee Henry Marshall the task of investigating businessman Billie Sol Estes.  Marshall quickly discovered that in a two year time period Estes had purchased 3200 acres of cotton allotments from 116 different farmers.  In a January 1961 meeting with Estes' attorney, John Dennison, Marshall made it clear he thought Estes was running a scheme with the cotton allotments and he intended to prove it.  A week after this meeting, Estes' business associate, A.B. Foster, contacted Cliford Carter, aide to Vice-President Lyndon Johnson, making Carter aware of the problems Marshall was causing for Estes and asked if there was anything that could be done about it.  Marshall was then reportedly offered a promotion that would have taken him away from the Estes case.  Marshall considered the promotion to be a bribe and he declined to take it and instead continued investigating Billie Sol Estes.

     Then, on June 3, 1961, Henry Marshall was found shot to death next to his pickup truck on his ranch in Robertson County Texas.  Marshall had been shot five times with his own rifle, he had a cut on his forehead, and carbon monoxide in his system.  Marshall's death was ruled a suicide.  The Marshall family never agreed with this ruling, asking how in the world anyone could shoot themselves five times with a bolt action rifle.

     Texas Ranger, Clint Peoples, also found Marshall's death suspicious and thought Marshall had been murdered.  Peoples interviewed a local gas station attendant who told him a stranger had stopped and asked directions to Marshall's ranch on the day of the shooting.  Peoples had the attendant work with a sketch artist who produced a sketch closely resembling Mac Wallace, the convicted murderer or a man named John Kinser who had dated Lyndon Johnson's sister.  Despite Peoples investigation the Henry Marshall case didn't go anywhere.

     In the spring of 1962 Billie Sol Estes was arrested by the FBI.  On April 4, 1962 Estes' accountant, George Krutilek, was found dead under suspicious circumstances.  Despite there being bruises on his head his death was also ruled a suicide.  Two other Estes' associates died under mysterious circumstances as well.  Estes went on to serve several years in prison.  He agreed to speak to Peoples from prison and told him he would tell the truth about Henry Marshall's death after he was released from prison.

     Billie Sol Estes was released from prison in December 1983 and three months later he appeared before a grand jury where he gave explosive testimony about the death of Henry Marshall in 1961.  Estes claimed that Lyndon Johnson had ordered the death of Henry Marshall to keep Marshall from discovering Johnson's role in the cotton allotment scheme.  Estes claimed that Mac Wallace was the hitman who killed Marshall for Johnson and that Clifton Carter complained that Wallace had "botched it up".  

     The grand jury did not believe Estes' testimony.  However, the judge in the case did order Henry Marshall's death ruling be changed from suicide to death by gunshot.  What do you think?  Was Henry Marshall murdered and did Lyndon Johnson have any involvement in the crime?  Was Mac Wallace LBJ's personal hitman?  Perhaps that deserves more investigation. 

The Bardstown Murders

     Bardstown Kentucky is a small town outside of Louisville with a population of around fifteen thousand.  In recent years it has become known nationally as the small town with a string of unsolved murders.  This has led many to wonder if the murders are connected or if there is a serial killer on the loose.

     On May 25, 2013, Bardstown Police Officer Jason Ellis was on his way home after his shift.   It was around three A.M. when Ellis came across tree branches blocking an exit ramp.  When Ellis exited his car to remove the branches, he was shot several times, killing the thirty-three-year-old.  As of this writing the murder of Officer Ellis has not been solved.

     On April 21, 2014, less than a year after the Ellis murder the small town is rocked again.  When forty-eight-year-old Kathy Netherland fails to show up to work a wellness check is conducted.  The schoolteacher and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Samantha, were found dead.  Both had been brutally murdered.  The only clue seemed to be video footage nearby of a black Chevy Impala.  As of this writing the Netherland murders remain unsolved.

     Then, on Fourth of July weekend in 2015 Crystal Rogers a thirty-five-year-old mother of five disappeared.  Her car was found with a flat tire and her belongings still inside.  However, there was no sign of Crystal, and it is immediately suspected that foul play is involved.  Ironically, Crystal's aunt, Sherry Ballard Barnes, disappeared in 1979 from the same small town and was found dead in 1982.  But for the Ballard family tragedy doesn't stop with Sherry or Crystal.  On November 19, 2016, Crystal's father, Tommy Ballard, is shot and killed just outside of Bardstown.  Ballard was hunting with his young grandson when he was shot in the chest.  Police initially investigated Ballard's death as a hunting accident but then transitioned to a murder investigation.  As of this writing the murder of Tommy Ballard remains unsolved.

     In January of 2023 Kentucky's Attorney General appointed a special prosecutor to assist in the investigation into the murders of Jason Ellis, Crystal Rogers, and Tommy Ballard.  The Netherland murders were not included in this for unknown reasons.  Then, in the fall of 2023 there was a break in the Crystal Rogers case.  Crystal's boyfriend, Brooks Houck, and another man, Joseph Lawson, were arrested and charged in connection to her disappearance.  This has led to a good deal of hope that the other murders may soon be solved to.

 Who Was D.B. Cooper?

     One of the most mysterious unsolved crimes of the twentieth century is the hijacking of Northwest Orient flight 305 on November 24, 1971.  The passengers and crew settled into what should have been a routine thirty-minute flight from Portland to Seattle on the evening before Thanksgiving.  Then, a man seated near the rear of the plane passed a note to flight attendant Florence Schaffner.  She ignored the note at first without looking at it.  Then, the man told her she should take a look at the note because he had a bomb.

     The man showed Schaffner a brief glimpse of what resembled a bomb in his briefcase and stated his ransom demands; four civilian parachutes, one fuel truck to refuel the plane in Seattle, and two hundred thousand American dollars.  Schaffner communicated what was happening to pilot William Scott.  Scott then radioed Seattle to report the hijacking and ransom demands.  The President of Northwest Orient authorized the ransom.  Authorities in Seattle quickly gather the money and parachutes.

     After the plane was refueled the man instructed the pilot to fly to Mexico City at minimum airspeed and at an altitude of 10,000 feet.  He instructed the pilot to keep the landing gear down and the cabin unpressurised.  The pilot complied with the hijacker's request but said they would need to refuel in Reno.  The hijacker agreed.

     About twenty minutes after takeoff a warning light came on in the cockpit to alert the pilot that the aircraft's rear stairs had been activated.  A few minutes later the plane's tail experienced a sudden upward thrust and the pilot had to make adjustments.  It is widely believed this is the moment the hijacker parachuted out of the plane.

     The plane landed at Reno and was thoroughly searched by authorities but there was no sign of him.  A massive ground search was carried out in the following days along the flight path.  However, there was no sign of the man or the money.  So, who was the man who hijacked flight 305?

     The man used the name Dan Cooper when he purchased the twenty-dollar plane ticket, but it was found to be a fake name.  The two flight attendants, Florence Schaffner and Tina Mucklow, were able to give a description of the man to the FBI and work with a sketch artist. He was described as a white man in his mid-forties with dark hair and brown eyes.  He wore either a black or brown suit, a thin black clip-on tie, a black raincoat, and brown loafer shoes.  Both flight attendance agreed that he didn't seem nervous, although he drank bourbon and smoked several cigarettes.  They said he wasn't rude or nasty to them and seemed rather nice, even offering one of them a cigarette.  One of the flight attendants also noted that the man seemed familiar with the local terrain from the air because he commented on Tacoma and McChord Air Force Base.

     The news media pounced on this story and the fake name Dan Cooper was suddenly spun into the legendary hijacker D.B. Cooper.  But the real identity of the hijacker remains a mystery.  In 1980 a boy on a camping trip with his family uncovered a small portion of the money when he saw it sticking out of the ground.  However, the discovery did not lead investigators any closer to identifying the hijacker.  Over the years citizen sleuths have developed several suspects, but the FBI has made no arrests and in 2016 they announced they were no longer actively investigating the case.

     In recent years new technology and fresh eyes have led to several long-time cold cases being solved, such as the Golden State Killer case.  This has inspired citizen investigators to keep digging for information and striving to solve other cold cases.  A lot of these investigators circle around the D.B. Cooper case because they believe it can be solved.  Only so many people fit the profile of the hijacker.  So, perhaps someday soon we will learn the true identity of the hijacker known as D.B. Cooper.

Do The American People Have Less Control Over Their Government Today Than They Did Under George III?

      The American colonists were committing treason by declaring their independence from the British crown in 1776.  So, they must have been pretty angry and fed up to have gotten to that point.  They were angry about high taxes and regulations imposed on them by King George III and parliament.  They wanted a government where they had a voice, where they had more control over the things that affected their lives.  They were so determined to have this that they were willing to fight and die if necessary to get it.  Those American colonists took on the largest and most powerful military force in the world and against all odds they won.

     More than two hundred years later many Americans find themselves as frustrated as those colonists did.  We have the style of government that the colonists put in place, a free republic where the people elect their representatives.  But it doesn't seem to be working so well anymore.  The American people are bogged down by the same high taxes and regulations that the colonists were fighting against.  Sone would argue that it's even worse today when you consider high inflation, reports of the government spying on its own people, and government secrets being kept from the public.  If our representative style of government actually worked then the people would have the ability to change all of these things, but we don't.

     The American people have been spinning in a rut for decades worth of election cycles while the government bureaucracy piles up high around us.  The same politicians have been representing us for years.  The U.S. Capitol building has become the largest retirement home in the world.  Many have served numerous terms in office well into old age.  They and their wealthy back rollers act like being in Congress or the Senate is a lifetime position.   Sure, we all have the right to vote for someone else.  The trouble is, even when a better candidate comes along, they don't stand a chance.  The establishment and the media who serves them will do anything to prop up the old politicians.  They have to protect their investment.  These old politicians have been bought and paid for already.  So, I think term limits are desperately needed.  But it will take much more than term limits to fix the problems.

     The size of our government has grown out of control.  This makes it difficult for the American people to even know what our government is up to.  We hear about things from time to time that makes us feel uneasy.  Like just a few days ago we heard about the government collecting financial information on people it perceives to be a part of the so called MAGA movement.  But it's all the things we don't hear about that should disturb us even more.  All of the things that they hide from us on the grounds of national security should concern us all.  For example, why do we still not have access to all of the files on the JFK assassination?  That crime happened more than sixty years ago, and the government is still redacting documents and withholding others all on the grounds of national security.  So, I think we must shrink the size of our government in order to regain control of it.

     I sometimes wonder what those colonists in 1776 would think about us today.  They might be impressed by the sheer size and complexity of our country today, but I think they would be disappointed in what our government has become.  It is a government that merely wears the disguise of democracy rather than actually functioning as one.  So, think about the spirit of 1776 as America heads into yet another election year.  Can the American people regain control of their government, or does King George III get the last laugh echoing through history?

 Divided We Fall:  America's Crumbling Pillars Of Strength

     We are all seeing the stress cracks and signs of bigger problems to come in America's pillars.  By America's pillars I mean the institutions that all of us were taught to believe in and depend on; our news media, our first responders, our health care system, our education system, our military, our justice system, and our democratic system.  These pillars are what hold this country up and it doesn't take an engineer to see if the pillars fail then the whole country comes crashing down.  So, what is causing the damage and how do we repair it?

     These are not Republican problems or Democrat problems; they are American problems that affect all of us.  Yet, it seems that it is our political and social divisiveness that is causing the most damage to our great American pillars of strength.  We are all being rocked back and forth by these two powerful political parties and their armies.  As a nation we live in constant turmoil, and it has taken a toll.  

     Think about it.  One political party comes into power and passes a law and in no time at all the other party comes into power and repeals the law.  Our tax system is changed every time the balance of power shifts.  So is our education system.  The American people can hardly keep up with the constant changes.  But hang on, haven't we always had a two-party political system?   Why is it just now, after more than two hundred years, causing our institutions to fail?

     The American people are being spoon fed division, rudeness, and disrespect by the media every time we turn on the television or open our phones and computers.  Today's media, in all of its many forms, has been successful in turning the American people against each other.  If you tune into MSNBC their commentators are likely to make you think Donald Trump is the devil.  If you tune into Fox News their commentators are likely to make you think Joe Biden is running a crime family.  This is just two examples, but they all do it.  And it isn't just restricted to news channels.  Movies and sitcoms seemed to be programmed to push one political agenda or the other.  It's not just that our media promotes divisive political agendas, but they do it in a rude and disrespectful manner while turning us against each other.  The media tells Americans what to think, what to say, and how to behave.  Like children, the American people are mimicking what they see and hear even when they don't realize they're doing it.  This has had a negative impact on our society.  

     Not enough people want to work in the service industry anymore because people are so rude and disrespectful.  Not enough people want to be police officers anymore because no one wants to be disrespected and attacked by the media or the community while risking their lives.  There aren't enough doctors anymore because no one wants to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on an education and then have to work twenty-four- or forty-eight-hour shifts to patch up a bunch of people who are trying to kill each other.  Not enough people want to join the military because they have seen America dragged in to countless conflicts that never seem to end or end badly like it did when America withdrew from Afghanistan.  Small businesses are being squeezed by taxes and regulations so fewer of these small businesses are succeeding long term.  American farmers are disappearing and more of our farmland is becoming foreign owned.  So, America is suffering because of a divisive and toxic media that fuels two broken political parties inside of an ever-growing bureaucracy.

     The crazy thing is, we could stop them if we wanted to.  There are three hundred and thirty million of us, so if we stick together, we can accomplish anything.  That's probably why they work so hard to divide us.  United we stand, divided we fall.  It's time for the American people to put these two political parties and the media that serves them back in their places before it's too late.  Think about that the next time you dial 9-1-1 and no one answers.

The Mysterious Disappearance Of  The Sodder Children

     On Christmas Eve night in 1945 George and Jennie Sodder and their nine children enjoyed the holiday.  George and Jennie went to bed around ten o'clock but allowed the children to stay up late.  Around twelve thirty Jennie is awakened by the phone ringing.  She gets out of bed to answer the phone and sees one child asleep on the couch and the lights still on.  She assumes the other children have all gone upstairs to bed.

     Jennie answers the phone, but the caller asks for someone Jennie doesn't know and she hears laughing in the background.  Jennie hangs up the phone and returns to bed.  About thirty minutes later Jennie hears something hit the roof and roll down it.  She doesn't get up or alert her husband.  She goes back to sleep.  Then, around one thirty Jennie is again awakened.  This time she is awakened by the smell of smoke.

     The Sodder home is on fire.  George, Jennie, and four of the children make it outside.  They frantically try to get to the other five children that they assume are upstairs.  George immediately thinks to get the tall ladder he keeps on the side of the house, but it is mysteriously missing.  George then thinks to pull his work truck up to the side of the house and stand a shorter ladder up in the bed of the truck.  However, the truck fails to start.  George goes to a second work truck, but it too fails to start.  According to George both trucks had started the previous day.  

     One of the Sodder children runs to a neighbor's house to call the fire department, but the neighbor can't get through to the fire station.  Another neighbor was also unsuccessful in reaching the fire station and finally someone drove to the fire station to alert them.  It still took the fire department six hours to respond to the Sodder home.  Apparently, they were understaffed and had trouble finding someone who could drive the fire engine.  By the time they arrived the Sodder home had been reduced to rubble.

     Authorities conducted a search of the rubble in order to recover the remains of the five Sodder children who had been trapped upstairs.  No remains were able to be recovered, but death certificates were issued for the five Sodder children who died in the fire.  However, George and Jennie never accepted this.  They believed the children were still alive and had been taken by someone.  Could they be right?

     The Sodder's thought the fire itself was suspicious.  The cause was determined to be faulty wiring, but George had the wiring inspected just a few months earlier and Jennie noted that the lights were still on while the fire was engulfing the house.  George also claims to have been threatened just a few months earlier by a man selling insurance.  When George refused to by the insurance the man told him his house was going to burn down and his children were going to die.  George thought it was possible that some pro-Mussolini Italians in the community were angry at George for speaking out against Mussolini.  George felt they could be angry enough and connected to enough of the right people to take his children and burn his home down to cover up the kidnapping.

     A woman who knew the Sodder family reported seeing the children get into a car near the Sodder home around the time the fire started.  A waitress in a nearby town thought she saw the children the next morning at the diner where she worked.  She said the children were accompanied by two men and two women.  A few weeks later a woman at a hotel thought she saw the children.  She also thought they were accompanied by four adults.  George and Jennie Sodder even offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the return of their children, but the case grew cold.

     Then, in 1968 Jennie received an envelope in the mail addressed only to her.  Inside was a photo of a young man and on the back of the photo it said:  Louis Sodder, I love brother Frankie lil boys.  The Sodder's were baffled by this.  Could the young man in the photo be their missing son, Louis?  The envelope had been mailed from Kentucky, but despite hiring a private investigator the Sodder's were never able to determine who mailed it or if the young man in the photo was Louis.  Both George and Jennie died believing their five missing children were still alive and out there somewhere.

     So, what do you think?  Did the Sodder children die in the house fire in 1945?  Or were they abducted or lured away from their home by someone that night?  Is this case ever likely to be solved?

    Who Killed Dr. Mary Sherman?

     It was around four o'clock on the morning of July 21, 1964 that the fire department was called to the Patios Apartments on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans.  A neighbor, Juan Valdez, had alerted the fire department after he smelled smoke.  The firefighters who entered the apartment of Dr. Mary Sherman were not prepared for what they would discover inside.

     The fire itself was minimal, only a mattress smoldering.  However, they discovered Dr. Sherman lying dead.  She was badly burned on her right side, her right arm gone, and some organs exposed.  She also had multiple stab wounds.  She was nude but had several articles of clothing piled on top of her.

     Neighbors reported that her car wasn't in its usual parking spot so perhaps the killer had stolen it as well.  However, the white Valiant was located nine blocks away just a few hours later.  A tube of lipstick, a perfume container, and a soda can were found near the car.  The keys were found the following day by someone mowing his grass.  So, it appears Mary's car wasn't stolen so much as it was moved to a different location.  Why did the killer do this?

     The other thing that baffled investigators was Mary's severe burns.  The fire in the apartment didn't appear to have ever been hot enough to have caused such expensive burns to Mary's body.  This led some people to question whether Mary had been killed in a different location.  Was the apartment fire staged?  Who could have wanted Dr. Mary Sherman dead?

     She was born Mary Stults in Evanston, Illinois in 1913.  Mary was always highly intelligent, excelling at science in particular.  At the age of sixteen Mary traveled to France to study at L' Ecole de M Collnot.  Mary then returned home to study at the University of Illinois where she married Thomas Sherman.  Mary continued her studies at the University of Chicago where she worked on nuclear, bio-chemical, and genetic research.  Dr. Sherman's work eventually came to the attention of Dr. Alton Ochsner and he invited Mary to become a partner at the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans.  Dr.  Sherman also became an associate professor at Tulane Medical School after she made the move to New Orleans in 1952.  I'm not sure if Mary's husband died or if they were divorced, but he is not in the picture at the time of her death in 1964.

     Investigators failed to uncover any real leads in the murder of Dr. Mary Sherman.  Their top suspect was Juan Valdez, the neighbor who first called in the fire.  However, Mr. Valdez was never arrested or charged with the crime.  Dr. Sherman's murder case turned cold and remains unsolved.

     In the years since Dr. Sherman's murder allegations have been made that she was a part of an underground medical lab.  Some believe that the burns on Mary's body were the result of an accident that occurred at the lab.  The fire was started to cover up the accident and location of the lab.  Other allegations involve Dr. Sherman working on a secret CIA backed program to develop a bioweapon and her knowledge of and involvement in this project led to her murder.  There are even allegations that Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of President Kennedy, had been involved in this secret underground medical lab.

     A woman named Judy Baker has claimed that she was recruited to work on a top-secret research program with Dr. Sherman and Dr. Ochsner in the spring and summer of 1963.  Baker claims she was involved romantically with Lee Harvey Oswald and that she and Oswald along with a man named David Ferrie were involved in the bioweapon project.  She claims that Oswald discovered the plot to kill Kennedy and tried to stop the assassination from taking place.  Baker says David Ferrie called and threatened her shortly after the assassination telling her if she ever told anyone about the bioweapon or Oswald that she would be killed.  Baker kept this information to herself for decades, not speaking publicly until 1999.

     So, you be the judge.  How credible is Judy Baker?  Was Dr. Mary Sherman the victim of a sinister CIA plot?  Was she the victim of a tragic accident in a secret underground lab? Or was she the victim of a random act of violence?  Will the mysterious death of Dr. Mary Sherman ever be solved?