Halloween 2011 Murders from here and there. 

"Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue." - Seneca

I have limited myself to selected murders that occurred on Halloween itself. If I include mayhem that happened at Halloween parties from the past week I would have to write a book.

Taylor Van Diest

Eighteen year old Taylor Van Diest of Pleasant Valley Secondary in British Columbia was found murdered near a railroad track according to The Province. "She loved horror movies. Halloween was her favourite holiday," said her cousin Erica.

Dawson

In Manteca, California a 26 year old man, Dawson McGehee, was arrested for allegedly murdering his Mommy Monday night. After the murder he was quoted by a neighbor, "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away."

Violence documented by nola.com

One of my favorite places, The City of New Orleans celebrated the holiday in style. At least 16 people were shot and two were killed during the festivities on Halloween in this colorful town. The highlight was a gunfight on tourist-packed Bourbon street. Spectators were both horrified (the seven wounded) and entertained (the rest). Mayor Mitch Landrieu said the violence was "unnatural" but I would disagree. Angola State Prison up the road hosts over 5000 convicted murderers, of which a good portion hail from the Crescent City. The traditional and mandatory hand-wringing resumes. But I say, "Laissez les bontemps rouler!" because New Orleans is back to normal after Katrina. 

Curtis and Kasey

In Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, Curtis Wayne Edwards, 43, and Kasey O'Neal Tanner, 23 decided to 

"trick"  Joshua Luke Green, 23, at a Halloween costume party at the local VFW post. They stabbed him and he died on the way to the hospital. Both Curtis and Kasey have felony convictions on their curriculum vitae.

Ardavaz and Dorothy Delir with a photograph of their son. 

Down Under in Sydney, Australia, Eden Delir, 17 was bashed to death by two lads, 16, at a Halloween party after they were asked to leave by the deceased. The murder weapons were a bottle and a metal pole. 

I am bending the rules because there was no murder in this case but a little extra Halloween violence and attempted murder might be of interest. According to the Wilke's Journal Patriot, John Wayne Martin, 59, was spending a quiet Halloween evening in his mobile home in the Austin community of Wilke's county North Carolina when he answered a knock on the door. Two masked men cried "Trick or Treat!" then knocked him down, knocked him out, ransacked his trailer and poured accelerant everywhere.When John woke up his home was on fire and he was too. Martin is in the burn unit of Baptist Hospital. The unknown assailants got to both trick and be treated. 

"He who bears the brand of Cain shall rule the Earth." - George Bernard Shaw

Isle Of Shoals Steamship Company's Thomas Laighton
John Bonanno photo 2003

Augustus Saint-Gaudens,
Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, The Garden of Pan
John Bonanno Photo 2003

Is this Pan? Or, has St. Gaudens has given us a dour and flinty New Englander dressed up to model Pan?
I believe with all my heart it is the latter, for no Greek God Pan could appear so unhappily serious playing the reeds of transformed Syrinx. Is he piping a march to war or a seductive song?


"He lived in Arcadia, where he guarded flocks, herds, and beehives, took part in the revels of the mountain-nymphs, and helped hunters to find their quarry. He was, on the whole, easy-going and lazy, loving nothing better than his afternoon sleep, and revenged himself on those who disturbed him with a sudden loud shout from a grove, or grotto, which made the hair bristle on their heads. Yet the Arcadians paid him so little respect that, if ever they returned empty-handed after a long day’s hunting, they dared scourge him with squills."


"The Olympian gods, while despising Pan for his simplicity and love of riot, exploited his powers. Apollo wheedled die art of prophecy from him, and Hermes copied a pipe which he had let fall, claimed it as his own invention, and sold it to Apollo."



"Pan, whose name is usually derived from paein, ‘to pasture’, stands for the ‘devil’, or ‘upright man’, of the Arcadian fertility cult, which closely resembled the witch cult of North-western Europe. This man, dressed in a goat-skin, was the chosen lover of the Maenads during their drunken orgies on the high mountains, and sooner or later paid for his privilege with death."

Robert Graves The Greek Myths