UFO ROUNDUP Volume 8 Number 28
Volume 8
Number 28
July 30, 2003
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
NEW CATTLE MUTILATIONS REPORTED IN ARGENTINA
"Veterinarian Dr. Carlos Alberto Montobbio, in the company of eight witnesses, including Enrique Sanchez, his wife Julia and his son Frederico" visited a ranch near Choele Choel in Rio Negro province, Argentina "where a calf two years old was found dead and mutilated."
According to the newspaper Diario Rio Negro, "the incident took place on the estancia El Gualeguay (ranch), property of Sr. Ferrarino Arsenio, located 60 kilometers (36 miles) from the city of Choele Choel," located about 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Buenos Aires, the national capital.
"The dead animal had many strange lesions on its right side and was missing its tongue, right eye, lower jaw, part of the udder and also the rectum and sexual organs. The cuts on the calf's body were geometrically perfect and cauterized."
"The calf is believed to have been killed on (Monday) July 14 (2003)."
In the neighboring province of La Pampa, "on Wednesday, July 16 (2003), three calves and a cow were found mutilated in fields adjacent to" the city of General Acha, located 200 kilometers (120 miles) north of Choele Choel.
"'Until one sees it, or it happens to (one's animals- -S.C.), one doesn't believe it,' said a cattleman, whose property is located some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from General Acha and who asked" the newspaper El Diario de la Pampa "to keep his identity confidential."
"The cattleman said that on (Wednesday) July 16 (2003) "'two calves and a 'masked' calf, weighing some 200 kilograms each, were found mutilated 500 meters (0.3 miles) away from his home in a flat open field. The males were missing an eye, an ear and their tongues, while the female had its nipples sheared off with surgical precision,' he noted, betraying his surprise when he said, 'when we found them, they were still issuing some sort of smoke or vapor from their carcasses, as though recently dead.'"
"'All of the animals had their heads pointed southwards,' he pointed out, noting that he was 'certain that the animals had been alive the previous evening.'"
"'We did not dare get close to them or touch them, but on the fourth day (Sunday, July 20, 2003) no animal predator, fox or chimango (vulture--G.C.) came close,' he said."
"Finally, the confused cattleman said, 'We plucked up our courage, put them together and burned them.'"
"Another cattleman who told a similar story explained that the very same Wednesday 'a very docile cow that was near the house vanished, and was later found two sections away from where it normally grazed.'"
"The livestock farmer explained that 'these are 200- hectare pastures' and that the mutilations on the cow are similar to those which had been reported on so many occasions."
"He added that, in this case, 'the cow was very docile and would have never jumped over the barbed-wire fences that divide the three sections, because the gates were properly closed and no fence was broken."
"In both cases, livestock farmers indicated that they did not file reports with the police or the courts, since they indicated that such reports would not be taken seriously." (See the Argentinian newspapers Diario Rio Negro for July 24, 2003 and Diario de la Pampa for July 24, 2003, "More mutilated cattle in La Pampa." Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales, Gloria Coluchi, Norberto Mollo y Juan Jose Mecchi para eses articulos de diario.)
LUMINOUS UFOs SIGHTED IN SOUTHERN BRAZIL
On Sunday, July 20, 2003, well after sunset, Chandall Romao was at his home in the bairro Pilarzinho (neighborhood) in Curitiba, capital of the state of Parana in southern Brazil, when "for the third night in a row, I noticed strange lights hovering in the sky. Their movements were rectilinear, quite unlike the space satellites that are tracked by CINDACTA (Brazil's NORAD-- J.T.)."
"The lights rose and descended, moving rapidly from their unusual flight path to a stationary position instantly, followed by new movements up and down, then followed by circular movements through the sky, all realized at extremely high velocities."
Romao added, "Today (Sunday, July 20, 2003) the lights appeared for more than 30 minutes, making a rotating movement, and they appeared again two hours later for another 10 minutes." (See Macrocosmo for July 21, 2003. Muito obrigado a Gilberto Sousa e Brunilda Barros por eso caso.)
UFOs RETURN TO FRANCE
On Saturday, July 19, 2003, at 11:45 p.m., Mr. Brainerd and seven other British and American tourists were standing outdoors in a garden near Vallon, in the department of Ardeche, 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Avignon, in southern France. While they chatted, Mr. Brainerd reported, "A UFO approached from the south. Bright object, similar to a star or moving satellite but brighter and faster. Travelling fast high in the sky. Eight English and American witnesses saw the object travel fast, stop dead, change direction, travel fast again, stop dead, and change direction again, and then race off towards the horizon to the north. Its speed and agility were beyond belief. Total time in the sky maybe 40 seconds. We were all dumbfounded and perplexed by this phenomenon."
The next day, Sunday, July 20, 2003, he added, "in Strasbourg, a few hundred kilometers to the northeast, over 100 young people at a party reported seeing a strange moving light." But the French media "put the report down as mass hysteria." (Email Form Report)
MYSTERY LIGHTS AWE MANY IN WORCESTERSHIRE, UK
"Strange flashing lights in the sky above Worcestershire" in UK "have caused speculation that the county was visited by aliens."
"A BBC cameraman spotted three bright lights in the sky over the Malverns, near the village of Hanbury, Worcs. on Tuesday," July 22, 2003, "and filmed them with a video camera."
"Some thought it could have been flares."
"But cameraman Tom Hines, who works on the BBC drama (TV) series Doctors , said he is convinced it was a UFO."
"'I kind of saw two bright lights and thought they were stars at first,' he said."
"'I pointed out where they were and started filming. They started disappearing and reappearing, and at one point there were three bright lights.'"
"'They kept appearing very randomly in different areas of the sky.'"
"John Dawson, who lives in Hanbury, also saw the lights."
"'We went through all sorts of evaluations, like could they be fireworks, could they be flares, and, to be honest with you, couldn't come to any decision as to what they were.'"
"BBC Midland Today's science correspondent David Gregory has examined the tape and has spoken to local UFO experts. He said, 'It could have been the Hanbury Orbs, which are a series of lights which are known to hover above the landscape in this area. But nobody knows for sure.'" (See BBC News for July 23, 2003. Many thanks to Martin Montague for forwarding this report.)
(Editor's Note: There are several "mystery lights" similar to the Hanbury Orbs around the world. Two notable examples are the "Chinati Mountain spook lights" in Marfa, Texas, USA and the green "spook light" of Ramadi, in western Iraq.)
CROP CIRCLES APPEAR IN SOUTHERN ONTARIO
Canada's first known crop circle formation of 2003 "was found on Wednesday, July 23, near Stewarttown, Ontario."
"Preliminary photos are of a large ringed circle, with two other circles attached, in a field of wheat. Centre circle is approximately 16.5 metres (54 feet) in diameter, with a surrounding ring approximately 32 metres (106 feet) in diameter, and the two attached circles are approximately 16 metres (52 feet) and 13.5 metres (44 feet) in diameter."
"Similar crop circles were found at Georgetown and Limehouse, Ontario in 2002."
"Some preliminary details noted already from an initial investigation by CCCRN Ontario coordinator Joanna Emery include smaller/stretched stalk nodes, a small fly or fly-like insect seemingly 'stuck' to a cloverleaf plant by its head and added 'splays' of 'randomly downed appearing crop' in all the circles, as well as a small 'grapeshot' splay nearby, suggesting again that there may be a connection in some cases between circular or geometric formations and random ones."
"The lay in all circles and ring was counterclockwise." (Many thanks to Paul Anderson of Canadian Crop Circles Research Network, CCCRN, for this report.)
UDAY AND QUSAY BUY IT IN NORTHERN IRAQ
"Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay were killed Tuesday," July 22, 2003, during an intense gun battle with U.S. soldiers who raided a villa" in an upscale neighborhood in the city of Mosul, "where they were staying after receiving a tip from an informant, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq said."
"Qusay Hussein, 37, the heir apparent who led Iraq's Special Republican Guard, and Udai Hussein, 39, a playboy and publisher who commanded the Fedayeen Saddam militia, died during the six-hour military operation in Mosul" 432 kilometers (270 miles) north of Baghdad.
"'We are certain that Uday and Qusay were killed today,' Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said."
"A U.S. official said a bodyguard and a teenaged boy believed to be one of Saddam Hussein's grandsons also were killed in the gunfight."
According to Ayesha al-Khatabi, UFO Roundup's Middle East correspondent, the boy was Mustafa Qusay Hussein al- Tikriti, age 14, the son of Qusay, "who was known to travel constantly with his father."
"Pentagon officials gave this account: After receiving a tip from an Iraqi resident (the villa's owner Nawaf al-Zaydan Muhammad--A.K.) troops from the 101st Airborne Division and Task Force 20, a secret special operations team" composed of U.S. Army Special Forces and CIA agents "charged with hunting down members of" Saddam Hussein's regime, "raided the mansion in the al-Falah neighborhood" on the northeast side of Mosul.
"Four U.S. soldiers were wounded, and two other Iraqis were killed in the attack."
"Forensic tests, including DNA sampling, were conducted on the bodies believed to be Uday and Qusay after they were flown out of the area. Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, Saddam's presidential secretary (who was captured June 16, 2003--J.T.) and "who is now in U.S. custody, helped identify them."
"When a small contingent of (U.S.) soldiers arrived in the neighborhood about 9 a.m. Tuesday," July 22, 2003, "residents said they expected a routine weapons search. After occupants of the" yellow and maroon-tiled villa "refused to let the soldiers inside, the patrol withdrew and called for reinforcements. An hour later, dozens of soldiers surrounded the house."
"Army Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) soldiers speaking in Arabic and using loudspeakers asked whether any women or children were inside and ordered everyone to come out."
Nawaf al-Zaydan "Muhammad and his son were seen walking out with their hands on their heads. No one followed. After five minutes, witnesses said, the shooting began. Military officials said people in the villa shot first. Area residents said U.S. troops were first to shoot. All agree, however, that it was a ferocious fight."
Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division entered the house at 10:10 a.m. "and came under fire from men barricaded in a fortified section upstairs. They retreated. Four soldiers were wounded, three on a staircase and one outside."
At 10:15 a.m., "Coalition forces called for heavier firepower, including helicopters and Humvees." Uday, Qusay, Mustafa and the fourth unidentified Iraqi bodyguard continued firing from upstairs windows.
At 12 noon, U.S. "soldiers tried to enter the house a second time but came under fire and withdrew."
Half an hour later, at 12:30 p.m., Brig. Gen. Frank Helmick, assistant commander of the 101st Airborne, had missile launchers delivered to the villa. Two Kiowa helicopters were also sent to the scene. "The helicopters fired rockets and at least one missile at the upper floors of the house, sparking a fire that destroyed much of the structure."
"Three Iraqis were killed in the bathroom, which is just behind the second-floor balcony," Ayesha reported, "The fourth was killed in the bedroom located at the rear of the house, just behind the bathroom."
At 1:21 p.m., U.S. "soldiers entered the house again. The only survivor shot at U.S. soldiers. He was killed in the bedroom."
"The neighborhood was definitely friendly to Saddam Hussein," Ayesha reported. "Nawaf al-Zaydan claimed to be a cousin of Saddam. Umm Yahya, a woman who lives on the same street, said people were coming and going all the time."
Uday and Qusay moved into the villa on Tuesday, July 1, 2003. Both men were frequently seen in the neighborhood. "Mahmood Fawzi, 23, a computer engineer who lives three blocks from the villa, said his sister told him last Tuesday," July 15, 2003, "that she saw Qusay driving a gray BMW with Tikrit license plates."
"We thought it was a joke," Fawzi said.
The Kiowa helicopters heavily damaged another house, located directly behind the villa, belonging to Abdul Jawad Saleh, 45, a former Iraqi Air Force general, and his wife, Yamana Abdul Wahab, 42. "Almost every window in their house had been shattered and every wall cracked."
While anti-Saddam Iraqis in Baghdad fired guns in the air and danced in the streets to celebrate the brothers' demise, residents of Mosul hailed the pair as shahidi, martyrs for Islam.
"'It was a beautiful resistance. They fought for four hours and almost defeated the Americans,' said Mohammed Ahmad, 35, a government worker who witnessed the firefight."
"'These are martyrs. They went to paradise,' said Muhammad Ibrahim, 35, a farmer from a rural area 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Mosul, who came to the site after hearing the news on TV. 'The Americans are heathens. We sympathize with our Muslim brothers.'"
On Thursday, July 24, 2003, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the release of photographs of Uday and Qusay. They were first aired on the Al-Jazeera cable TV network and then on CNN and other networks.
"The photos are graphic. The dead men are shown against the backdrop of a sheet and what appears to be a military body bag. Both had grown bushy beards since last being seen in public before the Iraq war began in mid- March. Qusay, the younger of the two brothers at 37, had bruises and blood spatter and purpling around his eyelids. Uday, 39, had a gash that ran from his right eye to the corner of his mouth."
But if Rumsfeld's release of the photos was supposed to settle doubts that Saddam's sons were truly dead, it didn't work. The photos became the source of an intense debate throughout Iraq.
"Alla Khalifa, a barber, said the tall, angular Uday looked short and pudgy in his postmortem photo. He said he doubted the pictures were authentic."
"Most troubling is the photo of a bearded Qusay," Ayesha al-Khatabi added, "Qusay appeared with his father, Saddam Hussein, in the April 17 (2003) videotape. This was the first appearance of Saddam after the fall of Baghdad. In this video, Qusay is clearly visible beside his father, who is wearing the mysterious golden necklace. Qusay has his moustache but his chin is clean-shaven. In the death photo, the one they say is Qusay has a full beard that would have taken six months to grow. But April 17 was only three months ago."
"As soon as the pictures of Uday and Qusay Hussein appeared on the television screen tonight, arguments erupted in the Zein Barbershop" in downtown Baghdad.
"The pictures of the two bodies were closely scrutinized in the barbershop, the customers a mixture of Muslims and Christians. There was whistling and a clucking of tongues when the photos appeared on the main 9 p.m. newscast."
"The arguments began raging immediately, reflecting all the rumors and skepticism with which Iraqis filter any announcement from their new rulers."
"'In a few days they will show us another fat body with a beard and say it's Saddam,' said Zohair Maty, a 30- year-old laborer. 'Everyone says they are in Spain.'"
"'From the features on their face, I would say it was them,'" barber Atheer Odeish said. "Then, zeroing in on the face of Qusay, he added, 'His ear doesn't seem like it's the same. If it had been me, I would've shaved their beards before showing them to the public to convince them.'"
"Also, Qusay has thicker lips than the bearded man in the photo," Ayesha added, "My friend Hiba Rashid and her family have heard these rumors about Saddam fleeing to Spain. Joe, do you know if there is an underground alien base in Spain similar to the rumored one at Al-Ouja?" (Editor's Comment: According to local legend, the aliens have a large underground base inside Mount Moncayo, near Zaragoza. See UFO Roundup, volume 5, number 1 for January 6, 2000, "1815: Spain's mysterious Mount Moncayo," page 8)
The UFO community in the Middle East has been following events very closely because of the brothers' reputed involvement with the Zarzi aliens, extraterrestrials said to be friends of Saddam Hussein.
According to Mohammed Daud al-Hayyat, rumor has it that a UFO crashed in Iraq during an Allied air raid in December 1998. Saddam Hussein granted the surviving aliens sanctuary and allowed them to stay at the old fortress of Qalaat-e-Julundi, near Zarzi in the Little Zab River valley south of Mosul.
On April 7, 2003, Saddam, Uday, Qusay and a handful of aides entered a house in Mansur, an affluent suburb on the west side of Baghdad. A U.S. Air Force bomber launched a cruise missile, which demolished the house 12 minutes later. The Iraqis were not seen leaving the premises.
The "miraculous escape" of Saddam and his sons on this occasion has everyone in Iraq puzzled. Mohammed said the aliens "appeared at the Mansur house while the American bomber was enroute. They shone the mysterious beam at the wall, and once again the circle of light or portal" was created. "Saddam, Uday, Qusay and Abid Hammoud stepped into it, followed by the aliens. And then they vanished."
"When Saddam emerged from the circle of light, he found himself at the underground base in Al-Ouja," just north of Tikrit. Saddam "discussed the situation with the aliens. Uday was very loud and angry. He demanded that the aliens give his father Drona Parva weapons so they could strike directly at America. The aliens ignored him."
(Editor's Note: The Drona Parva is a book of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, which describes energy weapons of fantastic power.)
"Where were Uday and Qusay during May and June, before they arrived at the house of Nawaf al-Zaydan?" Mohammed asked, "Were they hiding at the base in Al-Ouja? Or did they briefly travel to the moon?"
Mohammed thinks it "possible" that there "were more than four people in the villa. An hour passed between the Americans' first arrival (9 a.m.) and the commencement of the shooting (10 a.m.). It could have been Mansur all over again. Uday or Qusay could have contacted the aliens. If the circle of light appeared on the bedroom wall, they could have stepped through and teleported to safety, leaving behind their bodyguards and the boy."
"I have seen the death photos," he added, "If there was a fire, then why were the dead men's faces not burned? If the bald one is Uday, then he has been eating well since the war ended...wherever he was!" (See the Minneapolis, Minn. Star-Tribune for July 23, 2003, "Saddam's sons killed in raid," page 1; the Chicago Tribune for July 23, 2003, "U.S. says Hussein sons killed in Iraq firefight, pages 1 and 4; USA Today for July 23, 2003, "Saddam's sons killed in Iraq after raid, 'fierce' firefight," pages 1A, 8A and 9A; USA Today for July 24, 2003, "Saddam sons called 'martyrs,' page 7A; USA Today for July 25, 2003, "U.S. defends release of pictures," page 10A; and the New York Times for July 25, 2003, "Debating matters of life and death in a Baghdad barbershop," page A10. Many thanks to Ayesha al-Khatabi, Mohammed Daud al-Hayyat, Mohammed Haj al-Amdar, Mahmoud al-Diwaniyahi, Kahmis Mahudi al-Khanaqini and others for these reports. For more on the Zarzi aliens and the escape from Mansur, see UFO Roundup, volume 8, number 16 for April 16, 2003, "Gone in sixty seconds--Saddam fled Iraq in a cylindrical UFO?" page 1.)
READER FEEDBACK:
Last week's feature story (See UFO Roundup, volume 8, number 27 for July 23, 2003, "1941: Iraq and the Illuminati," page 8) drew some commentary.
IRAQ HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH UFOLOGY
Chris Oliver writes, "Joseph, my friend, you still lack the clarity of vision to realise that the UFO Roundup has nothing to do with U.S. politics and the Iraqi war. Everytime you confuse the two, the credibility of the Roundup dives a little lower."
"Get your shit sorted. Are you a political reporter or a UFO reporter?"
INTERESTING ARTICLE ON IRAQ AND THE BAATH PARTY
John Grabeel writes, "Very interesting article on Iraq and the evolution of the Baath Party. I am sure many Americans are totally unaware of any historical information on Iraq and how many times Baghdad has been 'invaded.'"
"Also, I doubt many Americans are aware of just how difficult it is to 'dominate' a country that preaches martyrdom."
From the UFO Files...
1881: OUTLAW DOC
One enjoyable outcome of poking around in the history of mystics and occultists is what Charles Fort called "the discoveries."
When your editor first began reading about the Illuminati, the very last thing I ever expected to find was a link between Madame Blavatsky and two of the USA's most beloved outlaws, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Yet the link exists. And he is quite the occultist in his own right.
His name was Franz Hartmann, and he was born in Donauworth in southern Germany in 1838. Raised in Kempten, in what was then the independent kingdom of Bayern (Bavaria in English--J.T.), Franz joined a Bavarian artillery regiment in 1859 and a few years later enrolled as a medical student at the University of Munich.
After graduation, "while on vacation in France in 1865, he took a post as ship's doctor on a vessel bound for the United States, where he spent the next eighteen years of his life."
Franz was drawn to St. Louis, Missouri, a city with the largest German population in the USA, aside from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Here he completed his medical studies, specializing in opthamology. "At St. Louis he opened an eye clinic and practised there until 1870."
"At the beginning of the 1870s he had also become interested in American spiritualism, attending the seances of the movement's leading figures such as Mrs. Rice Holmes and Kate Wentworth, while immersing himself in the writings of Judge Edmonds and Andrew Jackson Davis."
(Editor's Note: Davis is famous for predicting the spread of automobiles and superhighways in the USA decades before President Dwight D. Eisenhower began construction of the Interstate Highway system in the 1950s.)
Franz "then travelled round Mexico, settled briefly at New Orleans before continuing to Texas in 1873, and in 1878 went to Georgetown in Colorado." Here he set up his private practice.
For three years, "Doc Hartmann" served the little mining community 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of Denver. Then, one snowy evening in early March 1881, he heard a knock on the door and went to answer it. He found two cowboys standing on his doorstep, clad in buffalo hide jackets, woolen scarfs and dark Stetson hats, with well- oiled handguns riding low on their hips.
"You the doc?" asked one of the riders, a lean, hard- eyed man with a handlebar moustache.
Franz freely admitted the fact and asked them what their business was. The moustachioed cowpoke said, "One of our boys is hurt and needs a sawbones. He's up in the high country. We'll take you there."
Franz put on some warm clothes, grabbed his black bag, and saddled his horse. Then he followed the two taciturn riders into the night. Snow flurries enveloped them as they rode out of Georgetown. Franz could see that they were heading west, up into the steep slopes of the Continental Divide, angling towards Berthoud Pass.
Finally, on a high ridge overlooking the town of Empire, the cowpokes halted. Turning in the saddle, the moustachioed rider drew his Colt .45 and thumbed back the hammer. "Rein up a minute, Doc."
Naturally, Franz was scared. Had they brought him up to this ridge to murder him? But he managed to assume an air of military sang-froid. "Is this a robbery, gentlemen?"
"Nothing of the kind, Doc." Levelling the pistol, he nodded to his companion. "We do need your help. But we can't let you see the trail we'll be taking."
The other cowpoke whipped off his bandana. He fashioned a crude but effective blindfold for Franz. Then he took the reins and led the mare into the evergreen forest. Gripping the pommel, Franz rode along in silence.
He wondered where they were going. A European who had lived in St. Louis and New Orleans, he didn't know much about the cattle business. But he did know that they were too high up on the mountain for any cows to be out. And they were miles north of the Argo Mill Mine.
A couple of hours later, their horses plodded to a halt. Once the blindfold was removed, Franz saw that he was in a small U-shaped valley rimmed by high canyon walls. A cluster of small log cabins, a ramshackle barn and a corral met his gaze. Hard-eyed men clustered around them.
As Franz dismounted, their leader, a young man of 17 stepped forward and offered his hand in friendship. "Dr. Hartmann? I'm Matt Warner."
It was Dr. Hartmann's introduction to the group called "the Wild Bunch."
Matt Warner explained the situation. Franz was at an outlaw hideout in the Rocky Mountains. This place, Robber's Roost, like Brown's Hole elsewhere in Colorado and Hole-in-the-Wall in Wyoming, was a sanctuary for horse thieves, cattle rustlers and other men "on the dodge." Warner introduced Franz's moustachioed captor, an outlaw from Iowa named Richard "Dutch" Bohle, and apologized for Bohle's pulling the gun. The blindfold had been a necessity, ensuring that Franz could not tell "tin stars" (law officers) how to get to Robber's Roost.
The previous day, a few of the Wild Bunch had raided a ranch in Douglas County, south of Denver, intent on stealing cattle. One of them had been shot in the chest by the ranch owner. Without Franz's medical help, he wasn't going to make it.
So Franz ordered a bucket of water boiled, examined the patient and went to work. Using a strategem he'd learned as a ship's doctor, he set up mirrors all around the operating table, magnifying the light of the outlaws' kerosene lamps.
This allowed him to operate without waiting for sunrise. He extracted the bullet, which was lodged dangerously close to the sternum, and the outlaw lived.
During the next two years, Matt Warner periodically summoned the German doctor to Robber's Roost to "patch up" one of his men. Franz learned some surprising facts about the youthful gang leader.
For one thing, his name wasn't "Matt Warner." He was born Willard Erasmus Christiansen in 1864, the son of a prosperous Mormon bishop in Utah. He had some education and might have become a doctor or lawyer, if not for an unfortunate incident that took place in 1878. Willard, then a hell-raising 14-year-old, walked into a bar and got into an argument with another cowboy. Angry words turned to blows, and the enraged Willard drew his pistol and shot the man dead.
Wanted for murder, Willard "ran off and fell in with rustlers." Changing his name to "Matt Warner," he "worked with outlaws out of Robber's Roost" and eventually became the gang's leader.
Meanwhile, Franz continued his interest in spiritualism. "However, following his discovery of" Madame Blavatsky's book "Isis Unveiled, theosophy replaced spiritualism as his principal diversion. He resolved to visit the theosophists at Madras" in India "travelling there by way of California, Japan and Southeast Asia in late 1883."
Franz stayed for months with Elena Petrovna von Hahn Blavatsky and her partner, Col. Henry Steele Olcott, at their bungalow in Adyar, a suburb of Madras. Col. Olcott, an American, was interested in Franz's observations on life in Colorado and "the Wild West" in general.
One evening, after dinner, Franz offered to show Madame Blavatsky and Col. Olcott how to do "the border roll," a pistol trick he had learned from Matt Warner.
Another guest produced a Webley pistol, but Madame Blavatsky snatched it away first, saying, "I can do that."
To Franz's astonishment, Madame Blavatsky held the pistol butt-first, as if ready to surrender it. Then, with a deft motion, she twirled the pistol in her hand, aiming the muzzle at Franz and Col. Olcott.
"Madame!" Franz's eyes went wide with shock. "Where did you learn to do the border roll!?"
Elena Petrovna let out her braying laugh. "That's my secret."
As for Matt Warner, he continued riding the outlaw trail. In 1889, he met and became fast friends with another outlaw from Utah, a horse thief recently released from the Wyoming state prison in Laramie. His name was Robert Leroy Parker, but he soon became known throughout the West as "Butch Cassidy." (See the books The Occult Roots of Nazism by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, New York University Press, New York, N.Y., 1992, pages 24 and 25; The Encyclopedia of American Crime by Carl Sifakis, Facts on File, Inc., New York, N.Y., 1982, page 748; HPB: The Extraordinary Life of Helena Blavatsky, Founder of the Modern Theosophical Movement by Sylvia Cranston, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, N.Y., 1993, pages 53 and 89 through 96; and Colorado: A Guide to the Highest State, Hastings House, New York, N.Y. revised edition 1970, page 282.)
(Editor's Note: Concerning the "border roll," Madame Blavatsky had a good teacher. She visited Salt Lake City in 1851 and made the acquaintance of Porter J. Rockwell, the Mormon "Avenging Angel" and Utah's deadliest gunman.)
Next: "Think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?"
That's it for this week. Join us next time for more UFO, Fortean and paranormal news from around the planet Earth, brought to you by "the paper that goes home--UFO Roundup." See you in seven days.
