No Return: Two Lives Lost

Kelsey Smith (1989-2007) was a very pretty, young girl, who sadly enough was cheated out of her life after being abducted, raped and killed by a stranger in 2007. That means that her death was one of many with a well-known scenario: Horny guy sees beautiful/non-beautiful girl-child/woman and falls for the temptation of turning his sexual fantasies into realities at the cost of her life. The same story have been reenacted over and over: Different guy and different girl-child/woman, various means of murder, but all the victims abused and dead. The girls/women would say "I died for nothing", but the rapist-murderers would feel that what they did somehow was sanctioned by what they themselves felt as a strong, natural urge. Something which some of them would even be proud of, like e.g. Henry VIII who boasted about his three nightly ejaculations as if that would prove the masculinity that lied so very close to his heart.

The abduction happened from the parking lot at a Target store and there are good video takes both of the lot and of the movements of both Kelsey and Edwin Hall from inside the store. It's very obvious that she takes no interest whatsoever in him, but that he follows right on her trails, most likely in the futile hope that she would shift her attention from the anniversary gift for her boyfriend of six months she was looking for and direct it towards him. Something that never happened: She was simply blind to this percistent, but discreet stalker, who most likely had planned his crime in beforehand. Actually, it's like an animal predator out for a kill without the targeted victim seeing or hearing anything.  

Some days after this fatal shopping trip the body of Kelsey was found, and the hunt for her murderer got intense. Edwin Hall was seen on the surveillance videos, and he was targeted as the prime suspect. One of the most interesting aspects about this case is the technology that led to the arrest of him on August 1. First there was the footage of Kelsey being chased in the store by Edwin Hall, but discreetly and at a distance: Where she goes he follows, but all the time at a distance, and it's obvious that even if she saw him, she didn't notice him as anything but a fellow shopper. Then there is a video take from the parking lot showing her being forced into her car and driven away by a man. Later on this particular video made the neighbour of that man recognize him as the 26 years old Edwin Hall, who was living with his wife and their very young son. 

What led to the finding of her body and his life sentence was the video takes and telephone technology which I find quite impressive. Now the same tools are much more advanced than it was at that time, and I bet we are in for something even more "to the point" if that's what we chose. I for one like it, as I want criminals to be found and arrested, but it can't be denied that it's a key to the deepest layers of privacy there are, and when that is lost, it will be something forever, as that kind of anonymity will never be regained.

As to Edwin Hall he lost his life, but in another way than his victim. Some people will say that he had lost it even before it started: He was adopted at 7, but was returned to State custody at 15 after threatening the adopted family's daughter at knife's point. Also, he assaulted another boy with a baseball bat. With time, he may have become a violent criminal because those traits were already present in him. However, his sentence wasn't the death penalty that some had wanted, but life in prison without parole: Two lives were ruined which is sad, no matter what.

 

https://people.com/kelsey-smith-case-teen-shopping-anniversary-gift-predator-lurking-parking-lot-8726782 

 

Wikipedia 

 

 

Poem by Else Cederborg: "Crying Out"

 

 

Hello there!
Help!!!
Somewhere, something is crying out
I wonder to whom

A few words
one cry, repeated like heart beats
never any kind of reply
still, somewhere a desperate voice
 is crying out
- crying out
and crying out, but still, no answers 

---------------- 

All Rights Reserved©Else Cederborg  

 

When Women Have Had It With A Rapist

 

When it comes to murder the victim most likely is a woman, whereas the murderer is a man. However, sometimes the female victims have had enough, and it even happens that some of these women gang up on the male culprit and set out to kill him. One of these cases is the "execution" of the Indian gangster, murderer and serial rapist Akku Yadav (1971–2004), who started out on his criminal "career" as a child, when his father formed a family gang with his sons and nephews.

There is no doubt about his crimes, but somehow he always got away, scott free which must have been seen as an injustice by those he had injured, harassed, threatened, robbed or raped. The youngest one of his victims was a 10 years old girl, so nobody seemed safe for him. He had been arrested several times, but was never convicted. The last time he was to bail his way out of yet another accusation, but that didn't work out so well for him, as 200 angry women or more stormed the courthouse and killed him.

He was stabbed, stoned, his penis was cut off, and he had chili powder thrown into his face. Also he was set on fire by the angry women who didn't try to get away from the gruesome scenery. On the contrary, all of them claimed to have killed him. Some were arrested, but later on acquitted as all charges against the women eventually were dropped. One detail makes me think that the authorities didn't like the very idea of female killers, and that this was part of their acquittal. As it is, it seems that the police more or less refused to accept the confessions of the women. Instead the police said that the women had protected the real killers, who - lo and behold! - were assumed to be male. None of the women bought that one, but they may have come to enjoy their being able to leave without having to go to jail for what was a murder.

This incident was turned into the film "200: Halla Ho" and a Netflix web series, "Indian Predator: Murder in a Courtroom".

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/sep/16/india.gender 

Wikipedia

 

Gender Games

 

I would have to admit that I do find Eugenia Falleni (ca. 1875-1938) on this photo rather masculine in looks. Actually, I wouldn't be the least surprised at hearing that she in reality was a man, and not a woman in anything but name. However, I would be wrong, because at some time around 1900 Eugenia Falleni gave birth to a daughter which, neither then nor now, is a male ability. (And, by the way, I don't think anybody know who the father of that child was.) Anyway, in her early youth, after her family had moved from Italy to New Zealand, she was nicknamed "Tallyhoe" because she somehow "swaggered like a man" and even cross-dressed.

 

Here Eugenia is as her alter ego, Harry Leo Crawford, who is how she presented herself to the world some time after the birth of her daughter. Not only did she attain a male personality, but, 39 years old, she also married a woman, the widow Annie Birkett, in 1913. Annie was the mother of a boy who came to take part in the fate of the two women.

Annie Birkett

The marriage didn't last that long as Annie suddenly disappeared in a very mysterious manner. What happened? Nobody knew, but as Eugenia/Harry remarried after the disappearance of Annie, who was found dead and maybe even burnt in a cove some time after she disappeared, Eugenia was accused of having murdered her. Something she denied having done. In her first appearance in court she was still dressed as a man, but later on she once again started to dress as a woman.

The "Man-Woman-Case" as it was named became widely known and debated everywhere, but without any real understanding of the Eugenia-Harry-enigma. What was she, did she murder Annie and why did she dress as a man??? Discussions were not bringing any solution to the many enigmas, and Eugenia was sentenced to death for the presumed murder of Annie, but, in reality, maybe also for "falsifying her sex". However, strangely enough she was released in 1931 "because of ill health" and went on with her life, now going by the gender-neutral name of "Jean Ford". In 1938 she died in an accident, but her life is still being discussed by many people who want to find explanations of her and her fate. Nobody has succeeded in that yet, and it may never happen. Some part of the confusion may be her second wife's claim that she never suspected that the individual she knew as her husband was in reality a woman. The claim of the new wife seems a bit far-fetched as the daughter of Eugenia must have been well-known in the society as she testified in the trial of 1920, saying that her mother had always dressed as a man. 

To me it looks like Eugenia was a lesbian, but most likely so was her two wives. All of them chose this "Gender Game" to be able to live a life that was good for them in a society that wasn't too happy about people who didn't really fit in . 

https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/discover-collections/read-watch-play/history/queer-histories/hidden-agender-eugenia-falleni-and 

 

https://murdersmostfoul.com/the-lane-cove-mystery-and-the-tragic-case-of-eugene-falleni/ 

 

Wikipedia

 

Left On The Shelf

 

Sexual roles being what they are in a Patriarchal society women have for a very long time period been expected to center their career wishes on their relationship with the man who turns them into a "Mrs." instead of a "Miss". As to men, then they stay "Mr." all their lives which is a neutral term, devoid of any evaluations, except for one important one: They are not female, but male. However, one may assume that they, like everyone else, are aware of the female distinctions that used to - and still do to a certain degree - turn a private relationship with a man into a female career move. To stay a "spinster" wasn't considered a good female career for any woman even though it may have been a voluntary choice, and not a Miss/Mrs.-thing. Both men and women recognized the less good status of an unmarried woman which makes it even more obvious that it was a social set-up.

When one sits down and think it over, it becomes obvious that the female distinctions are society's way of turning what's social into something private. According to this system it's not Society's fault that women are being evaluated in such a specifically sexual manner, almost like animals in a cattle show. Oh no, it's the fault of the young girls and women of all ages: They lack charm and thus can't entice some man to hand them the coveted "Mrs.-title". Or put another way, as they don't have what it takes for women in a Patriarchy, they have been left on the shelf. Now, that many women don't find it worthwhile anymore to center their entire life upon a man, many men have been complaining about all those "aloof and non-responsive women that leave them in solitude". All of a sudden, the male sex has attained their own sexually funded term: They are alone, frustrated and angry, which means that they have become what's called "Incels".

Now these "incels" are not just "male spinsters", because they are full of a blatant hatred of women, harboring weird ideas of male "rights" that they have been "cheated" out of by those unresponsive women. To read their utterances on social medias often is like dipping one's toes into a lake of fire and brimstone. How dare they go on like hateful toddlers demanding tits that don't belong to them? It's quite amazing to watch, and women may fight the most obvious misogyny.

As to cultural critic and journalist Kate Bolick who wrote "Spinster" then her book is advocating the fulfilling life of staying unmarried in a society that expects women to be eager to live the life that the Incels see as Natural. By now, more than 100 million women have chosen the spinster-setting, and the number is growing. 

https://medium.com/@thehappybachelor678/the-rise-of-lonely-single-men-but-romance-is-not-the-solution-a0a34f0dfe02 

 

https://www.zerotolerance.org.uk/news/blog/the-five-core-elements-of-incel-ideology/ 

 

Wikipedia 

 

To Go By Looks

The childhood-career-plans for this gentleman was to become either an "Indian" or a bookseller, but frankly, I don't think that's what he became when he grew up. No, he looks more like a bookkeeper, i.e. a clerk, working in an office. It made me think of appearances, and how they form our immediate understanding of other people. That was much easier in the past, when poor was poor, and rich was rich, and most likely always flaunting that fact in their dress and manners. Now it's a bit different, to put it that way, as the former status-givers in clothes and looks are not at easy to discern as earlier on. 

When it comes to personality and character it may get tricky to find out how and what people are. As we most often classify others we may be a bit too hasty. 

If she didn't have that gun, nobody would have wondered at her life situation, her social status or anything. Most people wouldn't even try to guess at whom she is, because to them she would just be a poor illiterate woman from some obscure country they don't even know of. They would be very surprised to learn that she is an Albanian woman of 106 years, who is all set to defend herself and her property at all costs, even if it takes shooting someone out to rob or kill her. 

Melina Salazar was rewarded for not going by looks and attitude, as well as being able to give that extra that often makes a real difference to people who are not very popular with others. This man's grumpiness may have closed doors for him, but so may his looks as a poor Veteran. Had he looked rich many people would have overlooked his less pleasant behavior. However, some give-away-symbols may have changed over time as indications of wealth may look like the opposite of what they are. 

When Words Are Used Differently

As may be well-known by now, I'm not exactly a tRump-fan. Actually, I find him a disaster in every aspects of life and politics. That's why I didn't feel that it was so very strange, or even unexpected, that over time he has received several threats on his life. Maybe, it was a wee-bit "strange" that one of those who presumably wanted to kill him, was the former FBI-director, James Comey. On the other hand, noooo, it wasn't all that strange as he, in his position within the System, really was sitting in the front row with a clear view of what was going on in tRump-land.

However, to me it seemed very weird that the above combination of numbers, presented in sea shells, should post a genuine threat, but if "86" is mobster-slang for "kill", and tRump, strange as it is, is the 47the (as well as 45th) president of the USA, which he is, then it can't be denied that this may be a kind of murder threat. Of course, one needs to know the slang to get the message, and one might ask how the sitting American president would get to know that kind of things. Is he a gangster? Does he have some mob-connections? That shouldn't be beyond me to suspect - and even worse, actually much worse. 

Somehow, tRump and his henchmen fail to see that what they themselves do to annoy, threaten or ridicule everyone not a tRumpified Republican is as much of a crime as all that they accuse the Dems of. It was to be expected, but still, it makes them look very naive and even totally ridiculous. One thing it doesn't make them look like is INNOCENT, because their unfounded accusations make people come to think of some of their grave misdeeds, like for instance the AI-picture of a hog-tied president Joe Biden. 

 

How could something like that make its way into an election-situation? In my opinion, it's the lowest of the lowest, and now that we are talking of threats, then this is a genuine threat of murder which the numbers 8647 isn't without some kind of "translation". Biden didn't deserve anything like that, as he and his party, contrary to tRump and the Republicans, delivered what might be expected in a decent and honorable American president.  

As to the orange Menace, it seems that even dogs know what kind of person he is.