Post by regisphillies on Jan 12, 2024 11:31:39 GMT -6
Adding a thread here, please move if it's more appropriate somewhere else.
In reading the police reports for LHR, I noticed that one of the kids' friends mentioned David and Betty Lou met while hanging Christmas decorations at the Pythian Castle in Vallejo. I had never heard of Pythians, so I began researching the group further.
The Knights of Pythias is a secret fraternal organization formed in Washington D.C. by a man named Justus Rathbone. Rathbone was a Freemason, and at various points in his career was an actor, playwright, and schoolteacher. According to one source I found, he may have also been a friend of Abraham Lincoln. In 1863, he took a job as a clerk at the Department of Treasury. Some friends in government were able to help him get the Knights established in 1864 under the first U.S. Congressional charter ever granted to a fraternal organization.
Though belief in a supreme being was required for admission, the Knights were a little more secular than the more religiously-focused Masons or Oddfellows as the lore was based on the Greek legend of Pythias and Damon. In that legend, Pythias is accused of plotting against Dionysius I, and he is sentenced to execution. He begs the king to be allowed to return home to bid farewell to his family, but the king is skeptical and requires that Damon hold his place. If Pythias fails to return to Syracuse in the allotted time, Damon will be executed instead. Pythias ends up returning at the very last minute, and Dionysius, inspired by the pair's friendship and loyalty, stays the execution of both men.
Where this gets interesting is Pythians, like Masons, have degrees and rituals that are performed when a member ascends to the next rank. These rituals are reenactments of the Pythian legend, and feature several characters, played by lodge members dressed in costume. One of these characters is the executioner - called The Headsman. Various fraternal supply companies supplied groups like the Knights during the "Golden Age of Fraternalism" in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Here are two examples of the Headsman costume from the 1800s:
staff.washington.edu/jilarson/kop_exhibit/2B4F517B-8BA6-4305-A657-528415188741.htm
www.alamy.com/executioner-with-axe-from-the-catalogue-illustrated-catalogue-and-price-list-knights-of-pythias-lodge-paraphernalia-and-costumes-for-all-three-ranks-the-knights-of-pythias-is-a-fraternal-organization-and-secret-society-founded-in-washington-dc-on-february-19-1864-the-knights-of-pythias-is-the-first-fraternal-organization-to-receive-a-charter-under-an-act-of-the-united-states-congress-it-was-founded-by-justus-h-rathbone-who-had-been-inspired-by-a-play-by-the-irish-poet-john-banim-about-the-legend-of-damon-and-pythias-this-legend-illustrates-the-ideals-of-loyalty-honor-and-frien-image552801096.html
Look familiar?
So how does this tie into the Boy Scouts? Well, to this day, the Knights of Pythias are actively involved with scouting organizations - their website shows several recent pictures of members at Scout events.
A BSA camp, Camp Berryessa, opened at the far northern end of the lake in 1963, and closed in 2004/2005.
And of course we know David Faraday was a Scout. And there is an interesting degree of separation between Faraday and one of the people at the scene of his death - raccoon hunter Frank Gasser.
Frank Gasser was part of an influential Napa dairy farming family. His younger brother, Peter Gasser, was, at the time of the Zodiac murders, one of the richest and most politically influential men in Napa Valley. At various points, Peter served as the President of the Napa Chamber of Commerce, President of the Napa County Grand Jury, and the Golden Gate Board of Supervisors. He was also a successful commercial real estate developer and at the time of his death in 1982, held around 1,300 acres of ranch land in Napa County. In the 1950s, Gasser donated part of his ranch land for construction of the new Queen of the Valley hospital in Napa. Peter also, at some point, served in the board of the Silverado Council of the Boy Scouts (of which Faraday's troop was included), and was involved with the Order of the Arrow, the Scouting honors society which Faraday was a member.
How rich and powerful was Peter Gasser? His wife, Vernice, also came from wealth. They had no children, and upon Vernice's death in 1989 a charitable foundation setup in their names was activated, originally founded after Peter's death in 1982. That foundation's original endowment was $17 million. Through the research I have performed, I would estimate Peter's wealth at somewhere around $20-25 million in 1989 dollars, or between $49-$61 million adjusted for inflation. As early as 1941, Peter Gasser had enough clout within Napa to have a news story about a murder-suicide at his ranch suppressed from the Napa daily newspaper. The story made its rounds in several smaller publications outside Napa, but did not appear in any Napa paper until it was published several days later in the weekend-only Napa Record.
I think this is significant for a couple of reasons. First, in the police interviews with the hunters, Robert Connelly seems to do all the talking. Second, there is at least one interview with the hunters, taking place between 12/26/68 and 3/20/69, that is not available in the public Zodiac files. In March 1969, Peggy and Homer Your are asked if Peggy made the statement, "My gun is bigger than yours," an accusation not leveled in the two publicly available interviews with the hunters. Clearly, there was additional contact with these two that has been kept from public view for some reason.
In reading the police reports for LHR, I noticed that one of the kids' friends mentioned David and Betty Lou met while hanging Christmas decorations at the Pythian Castle in Vallejo. I had never heard of Pythians, so I began researching the group further.
The Knights of Pythias is a secret fraternal organization formed in Washington D.C. by a man named Justus Rathbone. Rathbone was a Freemason, and at various points in his career was an actor, playwright, and schoolteacher. According to one source I found, he may have also been a friend of Abraham Lincoln. In 1863, he took a job as a clerk at the Department of Treasury. Some friends in government were able to help him get the Knights established in 1864 under the first U.S. Congressional charter ever granted to a fraternal organization.
Though belief in a supreme being was required for admission, the Knights were a little more secular than the more religiously-focused Masons or Oddfellows as the lore was based on the Greek legend of Pythias and Damon. In that legend, Pythias is accused of plotting against Dionysius I, and he is sentenced to execution. He begs the king to be allowed to return home to bid farewell to his family, but the king is skeptical and requires that Damon hold his place. If Pythias fails to return to Syracuse in the allotted time, Damon will be executed instead. Pythias ends up returning at the very last minute, and Dionysius, inspired by the pair's friendship and loyalty, stays the execution of both men.
Where this gets interesting is Pythians, like Masons, have degrees and rituals that are performed when a member ascends to the next rank. These rituals are reenactments of the Pythian legend, and feature several characters, played by lodge members dressed in costume. One of these characters is the executioner - called The Headsman. Various fraternal supply companies supplied groups like the Knights during the "Golden Age of Fraternalism" in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Here are two examples of the Headsman costume from the 1800s:
staff.washington.edu/jilarson/kop_exhibit/2B4F517B-8BA6-4305-A657-528415188741.htm
www.alamy.com/executioner-with-axe-from-the-catalogue-illustrated-catalogue-and-price-list-knights-of-pythias-lodge-paraphernalia-and-costumes-for-all-three-ranks-the-knights-of-pythias-is-a-fraternal-organization-and-secret-society-founded-in-washington-dc-on-february-19-1864-the-knights-of-pythias-is-the-first-fraternal-organization-to-receive-a-charter-under-an-act-of-the-united-states-congress-it-was-founded-by-justus-h-rathbone-who-had-been-inspired-by-a-play-by-the-irish-poet-john-banim-about-the-legend-of-damon-and-pythias-this-legend-illustrates-the-ideals-of-loyalty-honor-and-frien-image552801096.html
Look familiar?
So how does this tie into the Boy Scouts? Well, to this day, the Knights of Pythias are actively involved with scouting organizations - their website shows several recent pictures of members at Scout events.
A BSA camp, Camp Berryessa, opened at the far northern end of the lake in 1963, and closed in 2004/2005.
And of course we know David Faraday was a Scout. And there is an interesting degree of separation between Faraday and one of the people at the scene of his death - raccoon hunter Frank Gasser.
Frank Gasser was part of an influential Napa dairy farming family. His younger brother, Peter Gasser, was, at the time of the Zodiac murders, one of the richest and most politically influential men in Napa Valley. At various points, Peter served as the President of the Napa Chamber of Commerce, President of the Napa County Grand Jury, and the Golden Gate Board of Supervisors. He was also a successful commercial real estate developer and at the time of his death in 1982, held around 1,300 acres of ranch land in Napa County. In the 1950s, Gasser donated part of his ranch land for construction of the new Queen of the Valley hospital in Napa. Peter also, at some point, served in the board of the Silverado Council of the Boy Scouts (of which Faraday's troop was included), and was involved with the Order of the Arrow, the Scouting honors society which Faraday was a member.
How rich and powerful was Peter Gasser? His wife, Vernice, also came from wealth. They had no children, and upon Vernice's death in 1989 a charitable foundation setup in their names was activated, originally founded after Peter's death in 1982. That foundation's original endowment was $17 million. Through the research I have performed, I would estimate Peter's wealth at somewhere around $20-25 million in 1989 dollars, or between $49-$61 million adjusted for inflation. As early as 1941, Peter Gasser had enough clout within Napa to have a news story about a murder-suicide at his ranch suppressed from the Napa daily newspaper. The story made its rounds in several smaller publications outside Napa, but did not appear in any Napa paper until it was published several days later in the weekend-only Napa Record.
I think this is significant for a couple of reasons. First, in the police interviews with the hunters, Robert Connelly seems to do all the talking. Second, there is at least one interview with the hunters, taking place between 12/26/68 and 3/20/69, that is not available in the public Zodiac files. In March 1969, Peggy and Homer Your are asked if Peggy made the statement, "My gun is bigger than yours," an accusation not leveled in the two publicly available interviews with the hunters. Clearly, there was additional contact with these two that has been kept from public view for some reason.