Down The Rabbit Hole #10 Another Kennedy Mystery

The family of the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, has been shrouded in mystery and tragedy.  The life of JFK, in many ways, was considered a close match to that of Abraham Lincoln, especially their untimely deaths by assassination.  This trip down the Rabbit Hole will look at another untimely death in the Kennedy family, that of JFK Jr. the son of the 35th President.

John F. Kennedy Jr. turned 3 on the day of his father's funeral.  He lived with his mother and sister in New York City until the time of his uncle's, Robert Kennedy, death in 1968.  It was at that time his mother moved herself and her children out of the country for fear of them being targets for assassination.  

JFK Jr. traveled extensively during his youth, was a great humanitarian, lawyer, journalist and a magazine publisher.  He was also a pilot with over 700 hours of flight time recorded.  

On the evening of July 16, 1999 at 8:38, JFK Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister, Lauren Bessette took off from an airport in Fairfield, NJ in John's single engine Piper Saratoga. They were in route to Martha's Vineyard, an island in the Atlantic Ocean that sits just south of Cape Cod in the state of Massachusetts, to attend the wedding of John's cousin.  Nearly one hour, to the minute of takeoff, later, the plane dropped several hundred feet and then disappeared from the radar.  What follows are some interesting and very odd facts about that fateful time.

Although many phone calls had been made about the fact that JFK Jr, his wife and sister-in-law, along with the plane, were missing, it was 15 hours later before a search was launched.

The news reports said it was foggy and that JFK Jr. had gotten disoriented.  The people who lived in that area said that the news reports were false.  The sky was clear that evening. 

One seat was missing from the plane.  One person said that John had told them he was going to have a flight instructor accompany them on the trip.  The flight recorder could give no leads as the battery had been removed.

There were mysterious helicopters in the area the night of the crash along with suspicious fishermen in a boat that was full of batteries.  The fishermen said they were fishing for striped bass, but that particular species of fish did not reside in the waters at that location. 

It was reported that when the plane was found, 5 days after the search began, the FBI made video tapes of the wreck on the bottom of the ocean floor.  All these tapes have disappeared.  It was also reported that the emergency location beacon from the plane was sending a signal, but this was not close to where the plane was found.

The coroner preformed three autopsies in less that 4 hours.  The bodies were cremated, something that the Catholic Church did not approve of and buried at sea.  They were distributed from a war ship and it is very unusual for the military to accord a burial at sea to a civilian, let alone three civilians.

Two separate people came forward to tell what they had witnessed the night the plane went down.  One saw a large flash in the sky at exactly the same time the plane began its rapid descent and the other heard a loud noise they described sounded like a bomb had been set off.

There was talk about John F. Kennedy Jr. running for the Senate.  Supposedly there was even a story set to be published in the July 26th edition of Newsweek, but that story never made it to print.

JFK Jr. had been investigating a couple of assassinations that had taken place during that era.  Maybe his was getting to close to something.  Maybe he was investigating the killing of his own father.  Maybe John F. Kennedy Jr. is still alive.

From The Desk of The Dog

Hello, I am Runtly, the ever so entertaining Jack Russell Terrier, JRT for short.  Since Mom left to get some groceries, I thought this would be the best time to plead my case to the masses.

Recently, Mom asked me if I wanted to go for a ride in the car.  Of course I did!  She knows how excited I get when I am finally allowed to go somewhere....anywhere in the car!  I just love to ride around the complex because I am now very brave and can look out the window at all the people.  I can even ride out on the big street with the many moving fast things, Mom says they are other cars, and make it to the convenience store and it is almost two blocks away!  

I should have known something was up when Mom packed my crate to the car.  I was just so excited that I didn't pay any attention.  In fact, I was so excited that I jumped right in the crate when she placed it in the car seat.  We moved fast for a very long time.  I thought maybe I was going for the big ride to see some of my peeps, but that was not to be my fate.  

We finally stopped and Mom let me out of the crate and put my leash on.  As soon as I got out of the car, I thought maybe I was experiencing that stuff they call deja vu, like maybe I had been here before. But, I had to use the grass really bad and I didn't think too much more about it.  

We were somewhere because there was a building and we were walking towards it.  Mom opened the first door we came to and I went in, but something was just not quite right.  Still, I could not put my paw on it.

As soon as Mom opened the second door, the smell hit me in the snout like a ton of dog biscuits.  I will be the first to admit that there are some smells that are just delightful.  Take, for instance, cat poo.  I do miss cat poo from home.  It always matched the one brown spot on the side of my head and I could put it on the other side so I would have a matching set.  Dead things are good too, nothing like a good roll on a dead bug, or worm, or a snake.  But, this stink was the worst of all.  Mom had taken me to the veterinary clinic!

I put on all four brakes as fast as I could and kept my butt as close to the floor as possible.  Mom pulled me across the floor, it was much more like dragging and one lady laughed at me!  How humiliating!  Mom offered to hold me, but I was just a whirling dervish of dog hair.  I finally sat between her feet, with my back towards the people who were going to seal my fate and shook like a bowl of jelly.  Then to make things even worse, we had to go into one of the rooms.

I'm a pretty smart dog and I rarely forget much and I knew exactly what happens in those rooms.  Terrible things!  Things that should never be spoken from the lips of the bravest hound.  The next thing I knew, Mom placed me on that terrible table and said I had to have my nails clipped.  I screamed, "Oh Mom!  Say it ain't so!"  Some young girl, WAY younger than Mom, tried to grab one of my paws.  I did not bite her, but I sure wanted to and I must have conveyed that message rather well because the next thing I knew, some big tall guy came into my space.   He put his arms around me and had my head in the death grip, while the young girl told me I wasn't going to get away with acting like that.  Acting?  They hadn't seen any acting yet!  As that guy curled me up in his arms, I let out a wail that was probably heard for miles around.  It was about this time they had Mom come and stand in front of me so I could see her.  That helped....sorta.

Mom said they clipped my nails in record time but I'm sure I was held in the jaws of death for at least an hour.  I will say one thing though, I did get in one pretty good lick, no pun intended.  When that big guy put me back on the table, his purple shirt was absolutely covered with my white dog hair from his shoulders to his waist.  Served him right.

I guess I got a shot while I was there too, but I was too traumatized to remember that part.  When the door opened to get out of that house of horrors, I made a bee line straight for the car.  My crate was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen and I hopped right in for the ride back home.  I was sure glad to see Dad when we got back.  I told him all about how Mom tricked me by asking me if I wanted to go for a ride and the horrible things that happened.  He just scratched my back and that did make me feel better. 

So, to all my K-9 brethren out there, beware of the car ride for no good reason.  Our Moms and Dads can be down right sneaky.  

Tiny Tongs

She was born many years ago, back in 1929 on a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific ocean.  She was the youngest of thirteen siblings and she grew up knowing how to dry fish by hanging them on a fence in the sun and wind.  

During the war, she met and fell in love with a soldier.  After Cupid's arrow had pierced her heart, she left her beautiful island paradise, her parents and siblings and made a new home in the mid west between the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.  There she raised her family along with working a full time job. When her three children were young, she took them back to the islands to meet their grandmother.  It was the last time she saw her mother.  She was a wife, a mother, a grandmother and when she became a great grandmother, she named herself  "TuTu".

This feisty little Polynesian woman, my mother-in-law, knew no strangers.  She took people into her home and treated them like family.  She cooked the most magnificent meals and the absolute best macadamia nut cookies to be found anywhere.  She loved country music and she and her husband traveled far and wide to concerts of their favorite bands.  She always cooked a plethora of goodies for the band and was most welcome on many tour buses.

After retiring, she began to go home to the beautiful island of Maui each year.  When I became a part of this family, this was a most exciting time for me because she always brought me a gift.  It doesn't matter how old I become, getting a gift is just a special treat.  Getting a gift from the middle of the ocean made it even better.

On one of her last trips, she brought me a pair of small stainless steel tongs.  I was grateful on the outside, but on the inside I was not.  Stainless steel tongs!?!  What was I supposed to do with a pair of tiny tongs?  Where was the cup with a humpback whale on the side?  Or the black sand from the beach?  What about the giant beach towel that had "Aloha" printed on it or even a tee-shirt?   She said the tongs were all the rage on the island and everyone had a pair.  I thought that someone could have my pair and tossed them in the kitchen utensil drawer.

Those tiny tongs have become my most favorite tool in the kitchen.  Their original hinge has been replaced with a piece of bent,  heavy gauge wire, but they still work just like they did when they were new.  I have even purchased two more pair, but they are not as small, nor as handy as the pair I was so ungrateful for.  All the other island souvenirs have gone by the wayside and only the  tongs remain.  Each time I pick them up, I think of "TuTu" and all the lifetime of memories she left us with and I give a small, silent prayer of thanks for those tiny tongs.   

Tilly

The northeast edge of the Sonoran Desert, in the state of Arizona, offers up a most delectable palate of mesmerizing scenery. 
It has terrain that stretches flat for miles and miles but yet is rimmed with jagged edged mountains.   Some of the hills leading to the mountains are mounded with boulders.  They are massive monolithic pieces of stone, bigger than a two story house. They sit silently atop their perch, looking out over the desert for untold millennia while quietly whispering the ancient truths of how they came to be. 

Although somewhat sandy, the desert floor mostly consists of rocks and small stones, giving it the appearance of an old gravel road, left to itself many moons ago.   It is dotted with small, scrubby mesquite trees that somehow survive the summer heat, patiently waiting for the monsoon season to come and replenish their thirsty roots.  There are many species of cacti that cover the landscape, the prickly pear, barrel and the mighty Saguaro.  The Saguaro stands like a giant warrior, warning anyone who enters into this arid land, that the path will not be tread lightly.  It too could tell many a desert tale spanning back a century or more.  

There are many creatures that call the desert home.  Small ground squirrels, lizards and the snake who slithered quickly under a small shrub.  The rattle snake is quite common along with bobcats and the occasional mountain lion.  The five coyotes standing in the small grassy park, their almond shaped eyes staring cautiously, looked much more akin to their great ancestor the wolf, than the coyotes from the great Mid-West.

Following along a small path, I was led to an enclosure.  It was made with concrete blocks, stacked two high and maybe three deep in the ground.  It was quite large and in the middle was a mound of earth that looked as if it had been poured in that spot.  Below the mound was the source of the spilled contents, a large hole.  It tunneled down into darkness and its end could not be seen from the above vantage point.  I was told that this is where Tilly lives.  Tilly, the tortoise.

Not sure what to expect, I waited while my niece called to Tilly.  She did so just like someone would call in the cat. "Here Tillytillytilly!"  Just as I was thinking to myself, you can't call a turtle, I heard a noise.  What happened next was nothing short of being thrown back into a time warp where dinosaurs roamed the planet.  Out of the darkness emerged two huge front legs.  They were covered with large scales and ended with five sharp claws.  These were the tools that had carved the cave and threw the debris into a mound in the middle of the enclosure.  Right behind these living excavators was the head of the beast.  Tilly, the African Sulcata tortoise, emerged into the sunlight, blinking the sleep from her golden eyes.  She was a sight to behold!  Once out of her confines, she looked us right in the eye and began to crawl towards us.  Undoubtedly the biggest turtle I had ever encountered, I was amazed not only by her size, but by her personality.  She was truly happy to have the company along with the lettuce and fruit that had been brought along.  

The next day, as I was looking for some desert quartz among the stones, I passed Tilly's enclosure.  She had already seen me and was nearly at a gallop to greet me.  Not wanting to miss the opportunity to converse with a real live dinosaur, but also being empty handed, aside from the rocks, I made a mad dash back to the house.  She was still waiting when I returned with more goodies from the produce drawer of the frig.  As she snacked, I patted her on the head and marveled at the intricate patterns on her shell.  It was another valuable lesson about being connected to all living creatures.  Plus, there was even a bonus, it really is possible to call a turtle.

Autumn Crawlies

In this tiny universe within the giant universe of the city there are many living things.  Not just the humans but a vast variety of wildlife.  It seems very odd to find rabbits, o'possum, raccoons and white tailed deer in an area that is surrounded by four lanes of high speed traffic, but they are here.  It is the same with the bird population, one small section of trees and underbrush provides living quarters for cardinals, tit mice, wrens, towhee, blue birds and even the red shouldered hawk.

The apartment building has four apartments that share one breeze way, two in the front and two in the back with the stairwell in the middle.  As I rounded the corner from our door, with a sack of trash in tow, I was met with a peculiar sight.  Our neighbors to the right front were huddled together, peering around the corner by their door.  I stopped, as there was obviously some rational reason for their behavior and asked what was the matter.  With three sets of eyes wide open, they pointed towards the stairwell.  I looked in that direction and still did not see what had them in such a state of fear.
"That bug!", they said.  I looked closer and there she was.  A large green praying mantis sitting on the upper handrail.  I refer to it as a 'she' since most of the male praying mantis have already met an unfortunate demise.

The trio could not come any closer to the stairs and I offered to make her move.  They agreed and pulled themselves in tighter to their side of the corner.  I walked over and touched her in hopes that she would take flight, but all she did was jump to the outside of the handrail.  This jump sent the family into a tizzy that I feared might make them bail over the railing.  The mantis finally decided she had enough entertainment for the evening and went off into the darkness, surely to seek a much quieter and more hospitable location.

Now that it was safe to venture to the stairwell, the father of this group came around the corner and started down the stairs ahead of me.  As he approached the bottom step he yelled, "A snake!"  Above me I heard the wife and child exclaim "We're outta here!" and their door slammed behind them.  I told him to step on the snake.  He could not do this because he had only socks on his feet.
I do not like to kill anything.  This is something that comes with age and the realization that we all are here for some cosmic reason and share the same living space, but this snake was a water moccasin.  Not only was it a water moccasin, aka cotton mouth according to Google, but it was right next to the door of one of the downstairs apartments.  Sadly, since the poor snake was small enough to fit between the treads on my shoes, I had to do the sneaky snake dance upon it, in order to kill it.  

The man of the upstairs household was most grateful for my brave act and carried on into the darkness in his socked feet.  I made my way, in the dark, to the trash receptacle and hoped I did not run into any more Autumn crawlies.