call me jack
On cold fall nights when the wind is blowing and the chill outside makes star gazing too much of an effort, you will naturally find yourself entertaining the evening with lots of indoor activities. Should you choose to read, watch television, listen to music or work on some hobby, you will feel a peaceful and safe inside your warm abode. Which is why it's shocking that at this time of the year, when staying inside and feeling safe sounds so good, that we are inundated with imagery and tales of murder, mayhem and supernatural forces that are conspiring against you. I understand the whole, traditional Halloween dance, but as you get older, the meaning of Halloween ceases to be the candy bonanza that it once was and becomes a constant reminder of evil forces, seen and unseen, that still exist in your world. Horror movies are generally released at this time of year. Classic horror movies are aired and then re-aired on television. All of the classic standby cable networks, which usually show something interesting, start airing specials on Vampires, Cult leaders, Nazi's and unexplained deaths. Book stores display the darkest literature that they can carry, on large display tables as you walk in the door. All marketing that you come across has a ghost, goblin or witch attached to it with some cleaver little saying like, "Get your winter coat for that special ghost or ghoul in your family." Treats in restaurants all turn dark orange and are shaped like ghosts, pumpkins or witches. It's everywhere. I am not sure when pumpkins became a symbol of death and evil, but I'm sure the pumpkin organizations of the world work tirelessly to clean up their favorite gourd's image.
So, on a cold night, I sat down to watch, "From Hell" the bio-pic by the Hughes brothers. If you are not familiar with the story or the movie, it tells the tale of Jack the Ripper. For those of you not familiar with Jack the Ripper, he was history's first recognized serial killer, before we had a title or a classification for it. In 1888, in a relatively short amount of time, he ran around London and chopped up some prostitutes, taunted the police in letters, then disappeared into history, his identity never revealed and his case never solved. It's still open to this day. The movie graphically displays the murders which involves the removal of organs and such. It's a well made movie and it stars Johnny Depp, so I do recommend it if you are in that type of mood. However, if you don't handle blood well, don't watch it.
In the movie, the issue that really caught my eye was the way the community dealt with the terror. It's never really shown, but it's discussed several times, that the people of London would go mad and riot if they knew the whole truth. There were great attempts to hold back information to keep the masses from becoming unruly. It started to sound a lot like certain things going on in our world today....
Serial killers hold a strange place in pop culture history. People study them, books are written, their stories of carnage and evil are discussed, displayed and then retold again on the evening news. Photos of them can be found on tee shirts and a certain aspect of today's youth actually admires them. (I hope this doesn't make anyone nervous about their parenting skills) In my little perfect corner of the world there lives five of the most notorious serial killers in American History; The Green River Killer, for whom the phrase, "serial killer" was first used. The Hillside Strangler, the idiot half of the duo. The South Hill Strangler, a man who buried the bodies of hookers just outside the bedroom window of his two small children. The Happy Face Killer, so named because he wrote letters to the newspaper to describe the crimes and signed the letters with a happy face. And the copycat Happy Face Killer, who thought it was amusing what the first Happy face had done and wanted to be just like him.
Those are a few of this areas finest denizens. All locked away together for a whopping grand total of over two thousand years. Just sitting there, sharing stories with each other, pow wowing and working together on improving. So, as you sit here in the majestic mountains and listen to the cool winds of October just outside your window, you can think of just how close you are to real, non-amusing death. Perhaps we shouldn't make little ghost cookies or dress up as witches. If we really want to run with this death theme then perhaps it would behoove us to dress up like serial killers and walk around with duct tape and shovels. Now wouldn't that be truly frightening?
Of course, no one around here talks about the people in the "pen". If you didn't know there was a prison here before you came, you will never learn about it when you get here. It's not purposefully or accidentally invisible, in fact, during the night time, it's security lights burn so brightly they actually light up the western sky. During the day, you just have to glance to the right as you drive in to Walla Walla and you can see it. A large, dull beige structure that houses the world's worst. London had one, and they were ready to panic. We have several and we give wine tours. London was stalked for less than six months, we have had to live with these murders for over thirty years. I am not sure why the people here feel so safe and why they don't care to panic or burn down the prison and kill the sick bastards, perhaps it has something to do with "knowing where they are" which is really the only kind of terror there is. If you don't know where the threat is, then how can you ever be at peace? Does this sound like some other issue...
Not sure why we say it this way but, Happy Halloween.
So, on a cold night, I sat down to watch, "From Hell" the bio-pic by the Hughes brothers. If you are not familiar with the story or the movie, it tells the tale of Jack the Ripper. For those of you not familiar with Jack the Ripper, he was history's first recognized serial killer, before we had a title or a classification for it. In 1888, in a relatively short amount of time, he ran around London and chopped up some prostitutes, taunted the police in letters, then disappeared into history, his identity never revealed and his case never solved. It's still open to this day. The movie graphically displays the murders which involves the removal of organs and such. It's a well made movie and it stars Johnny Depp, so I do recommend it if you are in that type of mood. However, if you don't handle blood well, don't watch it.
In the movie, the issue that really caught my eye was the way the community dealt with the terror. It's never really shown, but it's discussed several times, that the people of London would go mad and riot if they knew the whole truth. There were great attempts to hold back information to keep the masses from becoming unruly. It started to sound a lot like certain things going on in our world today....
Serial killers hold a strange place in pop culture history. People study them, books are written, their stories of carnage and evil are discussed, displayed and then retold again on the evening news. Photos of them can be found on tee shirts and a certain aspect of today's youth actually admires them. (I hope this doesn't make anyone nervous about their parenting skills) In my little perfect corner of the world there lives five of the most notorious serial killers in American History; The Green River Killer, for whom the phrase, "serial killer" was first used. The Hillside Strangler, the idiot half of the duo. The South Hill Strangler, a man who buried the bodies of hookers just outside the bedroom window of his two small children. The Happy Face Killer, so named because he wrote letters to the newspaper to describe the crimes and signed the letters with a happy face. And the copycat Happy Face Killer, who thought it was amusing what the first Happy face had done and wanted to be just like him.
Those are a few of this areas finest denizens. All locked away together for a whopping grand total of over two thousand years. Just sitting there, sharing stories with each other, pow wowing and working together on improving. So, as you sit here in the majestic mountains and listen to the cool winds of October just outside your window, you can think of just how close you are to real, non-amusing death. Perhaps we shouldn't make little ghost cookies or dress up as witches. If we really want to run with this death theme then perhaps it would behoove us to dress up like serial killers and walk around with duct tape and shovels. Now wouldn't that be truly frightening?
Of course, no one around here talks about the people in the "pen". If you didn't know there was a prison here before you came, you will never learn about it when you get here. It's not purposefully or accidentally invisible, in fact, during the night time, it's security lights burn so brightly they actually light up the western sky. During the day, you just have to glance to the right as you drive in to Walla Walla and you can see it. A large, dull beige structure that houses the world's worst. London had one, and they were ready to panic. We have several and we give wine tours. London was stalked for less than six months, we have had to live with these murders for over thirty years. I am not sure why the people here feel so safe and why they don't care to panic or burn down the prison and kill the sick bastards, perhaps it has something to do with "knowing where they are" which is really the only kind of terror there is. If you don't know where the threat is, then how can you ever be at peace? Does this sound like some other issue...
Not sure why we say it this way but, Happy Halloween.
posted by Daniel Loomis | 10:18 AM
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