FOOL KILLER SIXTY ONE: JANUARY 1913

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 

Fool Killer with staff and Bowie knifeSome of the Fool Killer’s targets from the January of 1913 edition of James Larkin Pearson’s Fool-Killer

*** Democrat Senator Joe Bailey, who left the Senate after missing 499 of 976 roll call votes during his term. That 51.1% was much higher than the average missed roll call votes by other Senators of the time – 29.5%. 

*** Republican Senator Henry Dupont, whom Pearson and his Fool Killer suspected of using his Senate position to advance the gunpowder trust and therefore his family’s wealth. In 1916, the first year of popularly elected Senators, Dupont was among the appointed Senators who were voted out of office. He lost to Josiah Wolcott.  

*** Express Monopolists who had been opposed to America establishing the United States Parcel Post, which took on responsibility for transporting heavy parcels which previously had to be sent for much higher costs by private concerns. The parcel post was launched on January 1st, 1913. Continue reading

5 Comments

Filed under Mythology, Neglected History, opinion

THE MACHINE TO KILL (1924) – FROM THE AUTHOR OF PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

machine to killGaston Leroux’s The Machine to Kill was written in NINETEEN TWENTY-FOUR. Many book sites list it as 1935, but that was just the year it was finally translated into English. 

Personally I would use the title The Clockwork Dead Man or The Clockwork Killer because for modern readers The Machine to Kill sounds like a traditional science fiction tale about technology run amok. 

In reality this neglected Gaston Leroux novel is a horror/sci fi hybrid about an android/ cyborg mix whose mechanized body has been outfitted with the brain, eyes and nervous system of a guillotined murderer. The robotic man – called Gabriel – was created by Dr Jacques Cotentin, who needed an absolutely fresh brain, hence having to settle for a just-executed criminal. Continue reading

4 Comments

Filed under Halloween Season

NAIA FOOTBALL PLAYOFF TEAMS SET PLUS VICTORY BOWL MATCHUP ANNOUNCED

Sterling helmetsouthwestern assemblies of god helmetVICTORY BOWL – The season-ending event in the NCCAA will be played this coming Saturday November 20th with kickoff scheduled for 1PM Eastern Time. The game will be played at Lumpkins Stadium in Waxahachie, TX.

This year’s Victory Bowl will pit the SOUTHWESTERN ASSEMBLIES OF GOD UNIVERSITY LIONS, making their third appearance in the game, against the STERLING COLLEGE WARRIORS, making their debut appearance.

NAIA PLAYOFFS: FIRST ROUND MATCHUPS

Montana Western helmetLindsey_Wilson_KYThe (1) LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE BLUE RAIDERS will host the (16) UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA-WESTERN BULLDOGS. The Blue Raiders are the defending National Champions as well as the champions of the Mid-South Conference’s Bluegrass Division. The Bulldogs are the champions of the Frontier Conference.

Kickoff will be at 1:30PM Eastern Time.

Ottawa (AZ) SpiritMorningside MustangsThe (2) MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS will host the (15) OTTAWA UNIVERSITY (AZ) SPIRIT. The Mustangs are the champions of the Great Plains Athletic Conference. The Spirit are the champions of the Sooner Athletic Conference.

Kickoff will be at 1:00PM Eastern Time. Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under college football

FIVE MONSTER LEGENDS OF AMERICA

masc graveyard smallerBalladeer’s Blog covers a lot of mythology and folklore, so here’s a look at five monster legends of the U.S. (Non-Bigfoot categories).

I don’t believe that there was anything truly supernatural in any of these tales, but life is less fun without legends like these. All of them are ripe for embellishment and screen adaptations. 

van meter visitorTHE VAN METER VISITOR

First Appearance: 1903

Lore: From September 29th to October 3rd of 1903 the Iowa town of Van Meter was supposedly plagued by at least two 8-9 feet tall batlike creatures who could fly, stand upright, climb up and down telephone poles and shoot a noxious odor as a defense mechanism. The three-toed creatures also had a blunt horn on their heads and said horns could supposedly cast light beams via bioluminescence.

Over the course of the visitation multiple shots were fired at the beings as they flew around town, perched on rooftops and telephone wires and roamed around a nearby brick and tile factory as well as an abandoned mine. By October 3rd an armed crowd of Van Meter citizens investigated the factory and the mine. They spotted two of the batlike creatures emerging from the mine and opened fire on them again to no effect.

Eventually the two winged beings retreated into the mine and the crowd quickly blocked off the mine entrance for good, thus ending the rash of sightings.

butterfly peopleTHE BUTTERFLY PEOPLE

First Appearance: 2011

Lore: On May 22nd, 2011 Joplin, Missouri was hit by an F5 tornado which killed 160 people, destroyed 900 homes and injured hundreds. Among those injured were multiple children and early teens who attributed their survival to the intervention and/or protection of winged butterfly people. Continue reading

10 Comments

Filed under Mythology

DEMOCRAT ATROCITY ROUNDUP: NOVEMBER 15th

biden steals ChristmasBalladeer’s Blog, the Independent Voter site, presents even more demonstrations that the Democrats are no longer the party of FDR and JFK. AND REMEMBER: Any time the Democrat Fascists dislike a verdict from a jury they riot. 

eric adamsCOURAGEOUS DEMOCRAT ERIC ADAMS CHALLENGES HIS FELLOW PARTY MEMBERS TO CONDEMN BLM’s HAWK NEWSOME OVER HIS OMINOUS “RIOTS AND BLOODSHED” REMARK. If we get more Democrats like Eric Adams and Tulsi Gabbard maybe the party will one day be worth voting for again. 

BIDEN REGIME’S INFLATION CONTINUES TO CRUSH THE WORKING CLASS AND THE POOR. Just like so many of Joe’s other policy failures. More HERE.

AND THE BIDEN REGIME’S 14.5 % INCREASE IN WHAT SENIOR CITIZENS WILL PAY FOR THEIR MEDICARE PREMIUMS WIPES OUT THE MODEST SOCIAL SECURITY INCREASE MANY TIMES OVER. Joe Biden apparently believes in using multiple fronts to wage war on the poor.  

EVEN BARACK OBAMA’S FORMER WHITE HOUSE ETHICS CHIEF AGAIN CALLS OUT THE CORRUPTION OF THE BIDEN REGIME. Especially regarding the “revolving door” that lets government staff cash in with lobbyists and influence peddling. If you’ll recall, Biden’s predecessor shut down that revolving door via signed agreements not to use it, which was one of the reasons America’s notoriously corrupt political parties fought him. 

DEMOCRATS SHOCKED AS NEW YORK VOTERS REJECT THEIR BALLOT INITIATIVES THAT TRIED TO SOLIDIFY THEIR EXPOSED VOTE FRAUD SCAMS.

SEVERAL REMINDERS OF JOE BIDEN’S FLAGRANT RACISM AND EULOGIZING A KKK OFFICIAL.

POLL: FIFTY NINE PERCENT FEEL BIDEN IS NOT DOING ENOUGH TO FIX THE SUPPLY CHAIN CRISIS HE CAUSED. But since the working class and the poor are the most affected, multi-millionaire Joe will likely not care. How did Crooked Joe get $150 million dollars on a government salary all those years? I think we all know.

ANOTHER OBAMA ECONOMIST CRITICIZES BIDEN’S MISHANDLING OF THE ECONOMY.

MICHIGAN BEING SUED TO REMOVE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DEAD VOTERS FROM THE VOTER ROLLS. Democrats also fight THIS form of thwarting their vote fraud efforts. Pathetic.

glenn greenwaldGLENN GREENWALD SHOWS WHY THE LYING DEMOCRAT REPORTERS WHO WON PULITZER PRIZES FOR THEIR DECEPTIONS REGARDING THE EXPOSED “RUSSIAN COLLUSION” HOAX SHOULD BE STRIPPED OF THEM. Hey, the Emmies stripped Andrew Cuomo of his Emmy after the truth about him came out. Does the Pulitzer Committee have similar integrity? Probably not.

EVEN POLITICO POINTS OUT HOW THE BIDEN REGIME’S PERSECUTION OF O’KEEFE OVER THE MISSING ASHLEY BIDEN DIARY POSES DANGER TO PRESS FREEDOM. That diary is at the center of the ongoing question “did Joe Biden take not appropriate showers with his daughter when she was a child?”

“F*CK JOE BIDEN” CHANT ROCKS YET ANOTHER STADIUM DURING A GAME.

BIDEN REGIME STILL EXEMPTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM GETTING VACCINATED.  

BIDEN’S CAPO JOHN KERRY:  SOLAR PANELS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN CHINA’S SLAVE LABOR AND GENOCIDAL POLICIES. But then, it’s no secret that Kerry’s boss Joe Biden is owned by the Chinese government. Continue reading

10 Comments

Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

COLLEGE FOOTBALL RESULTS FROM NOVEMBER 13th

HEADLINES

West Florida Argonauts helmetFOUR OVER TWO – In NCAA Division Two the 4th ranked defending national champions, the UNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA ARGONAUTS, welcomed the number 2 team in the nation – the VALDOSTA STATE BLAZERS. By Halftime the Argonauts held a 24-21 edge over the Blazers. The 3rd Quarter ended with the University of West Florida on top 45-35 before putting it away in the 4th, 61-42.

Southwestern College Moundbuilders NEWDOWN GOES NUMBER FIVE – Over in the NAIA the number 13 SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE MOUNDBUILDERS took it on the road to battle the 5th ranked KANSAS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY COYOTES. The Coyotes led 7-0 in the opening Quarter but the Moundbuilders were up 13-7 at the break. Southwestern College had a 28-21 advantage in the 3rd Quarter and ultimately won the game 42-24.

Merchant Marine AcademySERVICE ACADEMY MANIA – This game pitted the UNITED STATES MERCHANT MARINE ACADEMY MARINERS against their archrivals the COAST GUARD ACADEMY BEARS. The Mariners seized a quick 21-0 lead in the 1st Quarter and never looked back from there. In the end they embarrassed the Bears by a score of 49-14 in their own house. Continue reading

4 Comments

Filed under college football

SPIDER-MAN: 1970s CLASSICS 11 – SHANG-CHI, GRIZZLY AND THE JACKAL

Here’s Part Eleven of Spider-Man 1970s Classics. For Part One click HERE.

gs spider man 2GIANT-SIZE SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #2 (October 1974)

Title: Masterstroke 

Villain: Fu Manchu

NOTE: For anyone unfamiliar with the way Marvel licensed the rights to Fu Manchu and other Sax Rohmer characters and with the differences between the novels and Marvel’s use of Shang-Chi as the son of Fu Manchu I covered the first twelve issues HERE

Synopsis: Still rooming with Flash Thompson after the destruction of his and Harry Osborn’s old apartment, Spider-Man is swinging around New York City one night. He comes across a robbery at the Guggenheim Museum and attacks the robbers.

That gang of criminals are secretly operatives of Fu Manchu and use their martial arts skills and weaponry against Spider-Man. He overcomes them all and when he interrogates one of them about who they work for, the thief does as ordered by Fu Manchu and instead claims he works for Shang-Chi. (Part of Fu Manchu’s plan is to pit his son Shang-Chi against Spider-Man.) Continue reading

9 Comments

Filed under Superheroes

“BAD NEWS” BIDEN BRINGS EVEN MORE DISASTERS

biden bad winterIndependent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog takes a Friday look at the ongoing scandals and failures from the disastrous Joe Biden, whose policies continue to crush the working class and the poor. *** UNRELATED UPDATE – I CANNOT BELIEVE THE WAY DEMOCRAT MEDIA OUTLETS IDIOTICALLY THINK KYLE RITTENHOUSE SHOT BLACK PEOPLE. HE SHOT WHITE PEOPLE, YOU MINDLESS HACKS!   

COURAGEOUS DEMOCRAT TULSI GABBARD REBUKES JOE BIDEN FOR “TEARING THE COUNTRY APART.”

TERRORIST GROUP THAT BIDEN TOOK OFF THE TERRORIST LIST STORMS U.S. EMBASSY AND TAKES HOSTAGES. This type of catastrophe never happened under Biden’s predecessor. And remember, Joe Biden still has hostages left in Afghanistan and has more Kids in Cages than either Obama or Trump had.

biden stumbling on plane stairsA JUDGE HAS ORDERED THE BIDEN REGIME’S FBI THUGS TO STOP DATA EXTRACTION FROM A JOURNALIST’S PHONE IN THEIR SEARCH FOR ASHLEY BIDEN’S MISSING DIARY. Remember, the diary where the author wrote about being a child when father Joe Biden took “not appropriate” showers with her and she pondered if she had been molested?

A TOWN CALLED BRANDON – BRANDON, VT WILL BE CELEBRATING THE ANTI-BIDEN SLOGAN “LET’S GO BRANDON” ON SATURDAY. POPULIST DEFIANCE OF THE HORRID BIDEN REGIME CONTINUES.

PRIVILEGED WHITE ONE PERCENTER NANCY PELOSI, UBER-WEALTHY, OPPOSED A MEASURE TO TAX THE RICH. And how about all those government contracts that went to her husband’s firms over the years? Our politicians are white-collar criminals. Continue reading

12 Comments

Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

GLEN OR GLENDA (1953): ON THE TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT

Glen or GlendaBefore MST3K there was … The Texas 27 Film Vault! In the middle 1980s, way down on Level 31 Randy Clower and Richard Malmos, machine-gun toting Film Vault Technicians First Class hosted this neglected cult show. Balladeer’s Blog continues its celebration of this overlooked Movie Host program. 

ORIGINAL BROADCAST DATE: Unknown but definitely before May of 1986. One of the old newspaper articles from early May of that year refers to Glen or Glenda as one of the movies having already been shown on The Texas 27 Film Vault. Anyone with more specific info feel free to contact me.

SERIAL: Unknown. Again, if you have info contact me.  

COMEDY SKETCHES: Unknown. We’ve exhausted the episodes where I DO know the date, serial and sketches. 

THE MOVIE: Continue reading

8 Comments

Filed under Bad and weird movies, Forgotten Television, Movie Hosts

THE LAST GENERATION (1908): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION

last generation coverTHE LAST GENERATION – A STORY OF THE FUTURE (1908) – Written by James Elroy Flecker. A poet longs to see beyond his own era and experiences. He is visited by a time-travel phenomenon which is similar to a wind. The Time Wind transports him to various periods in the future.

First the wind takes him to future Birmingham, England, where a mad fanatic named Joshua Harris and his co-conspirators are planning to launch their coup the next day. He and his followers aren’t motivated by pure politics but by their belief that all of life is nothing but misery and can be ended only by death. They plan to seize power and set the human race on the path to extinction. Continue reading

8 Comments

Filed under Ancient Science Fiction