Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE 1850s, CLICK HERE.
PART 74 – Some of the Fool Killer’s targets on both sides of the aisle in the October of 1914 edition of the folk figure. The World War is in full swing.
*** Dr. William F. Snow of the American Hygiene Association. The Fool Killer targeted Snow over his crusade against the unhygienic nature of kissing. Dr. Snow had just patented his weird Sanitary Kiss invention. That invention involved the pair of kissers using sanitized tissue paper over their mouths with a hole in the middle, looking for all the world like the kind of tissue paper we now place over toilets in public restrooms.
*** The editors of the Greensboro Daily News, who called for “less nonsensical” war songs compared to the past. The U.S. had not yet entered the war, so the country’s coverage of it was less than gripping at first.
*** President Woodrow Wilson, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan and Senator John Sharp Williams of Mississippi for blaming the war for everything that the voters were holding them responsible for.
*** High Society Fashionistas for the way they seemed lost now that the war had prevented the release of the New Fall Line from Paris.
*** The “Redemocans”, one of the Fool Killer’s words for what we today call the Uniparty. He also called them Republicrats, a word we still use today. This month he depicted the Republicrat Devil driving honest outsiders out of politics by “setting all the political dogs on them and tearing them to pieces.”
*** The government, for imposing a War Tax for consumer goods on Americans even though we were not yet in the war.
*** Wilson’s private secretary Joseph Patrick Tumulty, whom Pearson and his Fool Killer often sarcastically implied was really running the country, not Woodrow.
*** European Royalty, for what he saw as them dragging down all of western civilization to kill their enemies along with themselves, like Samson in the Temple of Dagon.
*** The powers that be here in the United States, which he jokingly called “the Benighted States.”
SOME OF THE FOOL KILLER’S PITHIER REMARKS THIS TIME AROUND:
“Europe to America: Come on in – the blood is fine!”
“Africans may now go to sending Missionaries to Europe.”
“Lost – On the road from Berlin to St. Petersburg, ten centuries of civilization.”
“A good laugh is better medicine than pills or paregoric.”
“A War Tax on campaign lies would be a paying proposition.”
“You never know today who will be president of Mexico tomorrow.”
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Logged, thank you!
Over the past day, I have been reviewing the voting record of James Talarico. We could really use the Fool Killer here in Texas right now.
Ha! I’m sure Talarico would have to keep looking over his shoulder!
Regarding the Fool Killer’s pithier remarks, at some point in about 2008 I read that Nigeria was sending missionaries to Germany and England.
Oh my God! That’s too funny!
Actually, you can find articles on Vatacan News regarding Nigeria sending missionaries to Europe and Christianity Today regarding the same topic.
Thanks for the links!
Fool killers ! Good 👍🏼
Thank you!
💐😊🙌🏼
😀 😀 😀
I continue to find these posts about the Fool Killer lore extremely engaging to read.
Thanks! I appreciate that!
The Fool Killer would be busy today
LOL! Yes, he certainly would!
This might be a stupid question Edward, but is the Fool Killer, based entirely on American folklore? Nothing based in fact? It goes back what, over two hundred years?!
Hello! It’s not at all a stupid question. The Fool Killer was just folklore. It supposedly started as an oral tradition among the Melungeons in Tennessee and vicinity. The Fool Killer’s motives (and the origins of his weapons) varied over time, from killing “fools” who tried to steal the storied gold of the Melungeons in the 1820s or 1830s. In the 1850s newspaper publisher Charles Napoleon Bonaparte Evans used the Fool Killer to vicariously kill political villains and cultural menaces. He pretended to be getting letters from the Fool Killer taking credit for his slayings, that’s why it sometimes seems like real events were being referenced.
Other writers used their own variations of the Fool Killer whose victims varied according to the ideas being pushed. Many were unrelated to Charles Napoleon Bonaparte Evans’s Fool Killer, but author O. Henry specifically used the Evans Fool Killer in one of his short stories.
James Larkin Pearson used his own Fool Killer from 1910 into the 1920s. Other writers sometimes produce works about the figure.
THANK YOU, for the reply and your kind words at the opening.
I understand it now! The interesting thing is how what began as folklore can become almost real and be used for all kinds of misdemeanours!!
This information is so rare and fascinating, as is the rest of your site!
Thanks again,
With best wishes,
Sharon
😊
I’m glad to do it! Thank you for always being so kind and polite. I agree, the evolution of Fool Killer lore and what it’s been used for is fascinating.