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 80 – As always, it’s fascinating to read the over 100-year-old opinions of James Larkin Pearson (and by extension his Fool Killer), including the opinions that one doesn’t agree with. Here are some of the Fool Killer’s targets in December 1915.
*** Dr. Frank Crane, Methodist clergyman, for his condescending newspaper columns that blamed the poor for their plight by stating they should have saved money. That advice ignored the fact that if someone doesn’t even have enough income to pay for all their necessities then they have no money to put into savings.
*** The two major political parties, whom he lumped together under the term “Redemocans” (he also called them Republicrats). Today we call them the Uniparty. He also bashed people who still voted for either of the two major parties.
*** Charles Taze Russell, leader of what would be called Jehovah’s Witnesses after his death in 1916, for his faulty prediction that 1914 would be the end of the human kingdom and the coming of the Messiah’s Kingdom.
*** The country’s wealthiest and most powerful, whom he called the House of Mammon. The figures he named this issue were Charles M. Schwab and J.P. Morgan. The Fool Killer criticized the money they were making from War Preparedness and named Democrat President Woodrow Wilson and Republican former President Theodore Roosevelt their servants. Continue reading →