Wendy Posts an Affidavit

News at 11!   Laura & Alex's eyes are officially brown.

I’m no bigamist, says duke — but I am helping the FBI bring down the Russian mob

From The Times

Rhys Blakely - Los Angeles

Published at 12:01AM, July 23 2011

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The 13th Duke of Manchester with his wife, Laura, at their wedding

The 13th Duke of Manchester with his wife, Laura, at their wedding

 

Laura is the Duke's third wife

Alexander Charles David Drogo Montagu, the 13th Duke of Manchester, has reacted angrily after the High Court branded him a bigamist this week. And if he had “married” a second woman while already married, it was entirely by accident, he has told The Times in his first comments about a ruling over the rights of his children to a share of his wealth.

He would be limited in what else he could say, he explained, because he is helping the FBI to “take down the Russian mafia”.

Welcome to the world of “Lord Alex”, perhaps Britain’s most maligned aristocrat.

This week the High Court ruled that the children of his bigamous marriage could receive an income from his family trust. The duke, 48, had “failed to mention” to his second “wife” that their marriage was “bigamous and void”, Mr Justice Floyd said, adding that Britain should not “stand aloof in barbarous insularity” by preventing children from invalid marriages receiving inherited wealth.

The duke, who was born in Australia and now lives in Las Vegas with his third wife, Laura, said that the judgment was “rubbish ... I’m not a bigamist, it was all a mistake”.

He said he thought he had annulled his first marriage, to Marion Stoner, an Australian model he married 1984. When he married Wendy Buford, an American, in 1993, he believed he was single, he added.

Only afterwards, he insisted, was he told that the annulment was incomplete. He said he was told this by his estranged mother, who he alleges has plotted against him for years to make his brother duke.

He further alleged that his family trust — a set of assets that included property from Kenya to California that his grandfather led him to believe were worth hundreds of millions of pounds — has been mismanaged.

Now he receives $2,500 (£1,530) a month from the trust, and leads a life that is “really very basic”. His story could not be verified. It does, however, add to a family history of the most colourful variety.

In Australia, he was convicted of fraud as well as trying to sell a hire car — charges he continues to deny — and was deported from Canada for illegally entering the country. In 2005, the duke, who once offered to sell his title, was called to testify in Michael Jackson’s child abuse case about visits he and his son made to the King of Pop’s Neverland Ranch.

In 1985 his father, Angus, the 12th Duke, was put on trial at the Old Bailey, accused of fraud. Also charged was a close female friend, who ran an escort agency in London. He would be acquitted in Britain but was later convicted of fraud in the US.

George, the 8th Duke, declared himself bankrupt at 36 and died at 39, after a scandalous affair with a music hall singer.

Legend has it that the 9th Duke, Kim, was once discovered in bed with four women. After illegally pawning the family jewels he was held in Wormwood Scrubs.

The present duke’s great uncle, Lord Edward, was jailed in at least three countries. Having worked at various times as a bit-part Hollywood actor and a hotdog seller, he died in the Mexican jungle in 1954.

The 13th Duke said he is not able to work because of a serious injury. “I have four titanium discs in my back and half a stomach,” he said. He will only say that he was “assisting the government” when he was injured.

No wonder, then, that the present duchess is feeling the strain. “I’ve only been married for four years,” she told The Times. “It feels like 25.”

Mary and Alex learn about Car-ma

Lady Mary Montagu, who very much prides herself on her title, apparently did not entirely understand what it means to act like a lady, when, in 1964 her husband of three years apparently decided to begin playing around with another woman. 

Lady Mary found herself charged with assault, June 8, 1964, charges dismissed, perhaps because of sympathy since is seems likely, by the date, she was at the time within two months of giving birth to her second child, Kimble, born July 21.  

Perhaps Mary was just determined to hold her marriage together.  One must wonder what the marriage was like, though. 

Sunday, June 8, 1964

Sunday, April 29, 1965, Lady Mary breaks into another woman's home looking for her errant husband, yet again.  
One must feel a degree of sympathy.  But, certainly, her actions lacked dignity and seem to be rather out of line.

The next article makes you wonder what Lady Mary was so concerned about suppressing since what had come before was, well, not at all lady-like.  Inquiring minds want to know, and so will continue to inquire.  By this time, Alex was no longer in school, having left without benefit of diploma from high school at the time of his grandfather's death, on November 23, 1977. 
Saturday, February 3, 1979, Lady M asked information be suppressed. 

A  Tuesday, November 21, 1981 - Alexander Montagu is living with his mother in Melbourne.

Although Alex tells many stories about his 'military background,' and hush-hush deep cover daring-doings, it actually appears he was living at him with Mum and working as the 'bar manager at Lazar's Restaurant in Melbourne , from this article below, dated November 21, 1981, which heralds the bankruptcy and financial problems Lady Mary seems to have ignored for too long.  An incident is reported regarding a 22 caliber rifle.  Alex was hauled off to the police station, questioned, and released.  At least this time it was not a spear gun.  


But we know in a few months, by his own report, Alex was working with
Thomas Joseph Fabian Erickson, stealing cars.  Curiously, Lady Mary's family was in the car business and she was reported as having a relationship with Erickson by Alex.  Co-incidence?  Again, inquiring minds want to know. 

And then on June 5, 1985 a joyous event occurs.  The Duke of Manchester dies, leaving Angus with the title and Alex as heir.  Normally, or for normal people, this would be a time to express sadness and for condolences to be extended.  Notice the word, 'normal.' 

And a Phone Call is Answered

Wendy knew what she was probably in for when she picked up the phone, which ominously read, “Private.” The article written by Tim Bayless in the Bisbane Times, date line January 27, 2013, was titled, “Dastardly duke strikes again,” had just hit the Internet.

She had ignored two calls yesterday, and the exchange between Alex, 13^th Duke of Manchester and his nearest and dearest, aired on The Duke and Doxie of Manchester on January 4^th, that exchange was between Lady Mary Montagu, Lady Emma Montagu, and Alex. The exchange was one long whine from Alex, then facing his appearance in court on January 15^th for passing a bad check to obtain a car, his usual form of financing, according to Wendy.

She asked if she should answer it. I paused, considering. “Go ahead. Call me right back so we can write something about it.”

When Wendy called back she reported the experiences was, as always, ugly, but with some differences. This time instead of screeching Laura, Duchess of Manchester, spoke in hushed tones, as if she did not want to be heard, trying to persuade Wendy Marion Stoner never existed.

Wendy responded, pointing out she had appeared in court, been interviewed, and photographed. Also, emails exist with Alex claiming his mother was supposed to have taken care of what, he described as an annulment.

Then Laura's voice dropped again and she said she had been doing research on the Internet which proved Lady Mary and Lady Emma had been engaged in a conspiracy against Wendy's children since 1992. Wendy's jaw dropped slightly.

In 1992 she had no children. She and Alex were married in 1993. Clearly, whatever line of narrative had been written was not going to work.

Now, it is not our object here to assist anyone who is highly psychopathic, and therefore has not even and hand-shake relationship with the truth to be a better liar, but really, Laura and Alex would be well advised to at least use a time line when they are engaging in this sort of 'creative rewriting' of history.

Naturally, the call ended with a barrage of nasty insults from Laura, who lived with Wendy for a time when she would, otherwise, have been homeless in 2008.

It does make you wonder how long other members of the aristocracy are going to tolerate Manchester. Time will tell.

Dastardly duke strikes again

Dastardly duke strikes again

January 27, 2013 by   Tim Barlass

Mary Montagu ... mother of Alex Montagu. Photo: Supplied

Making headlines ... Alex Montagu with first wife Marion Stoner. Photo: Supplied

Caught in the deceit … Alex Montagu with Wendy Buford and children. Photo: Supplied

IT IS the stuff of Hollywood blockbusters: a devilishly charismatic rogue criss-crossing continents, passing bum cheques and leaving behind a trail of broken hearts.

But there were no film cameras at the latest instalment in the ups and many downs of the thrice-married bigamist Alex Montagu Manchester when he appeared in the Las Vegas justice court on a felony charge.

To those he is trying to impress it is, perhaps, convenient for him to use his full name, Alexander Charles David Drogo Montagu, the 13th Duke of Manchester.
Others might know him as an Australian from a humble background - despite a genuine aristocratic lineage - with a criminal record going back almost 30 years.

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No stranger to the slam of a prison door, the duke was accused in the Las Vegas court earlier this month of writing a cheque for $3575 to Speedy Car Loans when he had ''no funds, property or credit'' to support it.
While his life story, thus far, and the misdemeanours of the Manchester lineage provide enough salacious material for a movie, they already fill part of a book. They occupy a sizeable part of Splendour & Squalor, the Disgrace and Disintegration of Three Aristocratic Dynasties by the historian Marcus Scriven.

Montagu's mother, Mary Montagu, daughter of a Geelong car dealer and former gossip columnist affectionately known as Madcap Mary, still lives in Melbourne, as does his first wife.

His father, Lord Angus Montagu, reportedly wrestled alligators and pulled pints of beer in north Queensland before heading back to Britain and finally being jailed in the US.
When Montagu was exposed as a bigamist in the High Court in London in 2011, Scriven wrote of Montagu's ancestors: ''Their recreational interests include gambling, alcohol and sex - not to mention fraud.''

The duke's embarrassment with cheques first emerged in 1985 when The Age reported that he was sentenced in the County Court to three years' jail on 22 fraud charges.
Judge Byrne said his deprived childhood had distorted his personality, but the offences were carried out with a degree of cunning.

Montagu was still at it in 1991 in Brisbane after hiring a rental car in one state and selling it in another. That same year, then aged 28, he was arrested in Vancouver on charges of illegally entering Canada as a result of his previous criminal convictions and was later deported.

He spent four days in jail before being freed, was photographed with a former stripper and told reporters he was anxious to see how the poor lived.

Lord Alex has also been somewhat unlucky in love. His first wife, Australian model Marion Stoner, was not aware that he had married again before divorcing her.
The short-lived relationship in the early 1980s ended, she said, when he tried to shoot her with a speargun. He missed.

He married second wife Wendy Buford in 1993, a California law firm receptionist who bore him two children, three years before his divorce from his previous wife came through.
She has told of meeting the dashing stranger with an Australian accent in the Crazy Horse bar in the town of Santa Ana in 1992.

Shortly after marrying his third wife, American real estate agent Laura Smith, he told Wendy he was already married at the time of their wedding, making their children, Alexander, now 19, and Ashley, now 13, illegitimate.

He then stopped all child support payments, which by March 2011 had totalled £32,000.
It was the London High Court case in July that year that brought her financial relief with the ruling that, despite the children being technically illegitimate, their claim from their father was recognised in law and that the family trustees would pay them an allowance.  MORE

In days of old when knights were bold

 From: The Age

In days of old when knights were bold
Lawrence Money and Suzanne Carbone
November 29, 2007
NOTHING like a funeral to catch up with old faces. At the recent Barwon Heads farewell to veteran sports scribe and editor Jack Cannon, assembled newshounds were tickled to find themselves in the illustrious presence of Mary, Lady Montagu, the Geelong car dealer's daughter who married an English peer then used the title as a byline on a social column for the Melbourne scandal rags.  MORE

The Evil Twins, at it Again.

So why yesterday for the barrage of creative writing efforts from the Laura, the lethargic and Morgan the Mean? Certainly it was not a celebration for MLK's birthday, so what moved Morgan and her spiritual twin, Laura, to suddenly charge for the keyboards, spittle dripping from their fangs? The assaults on the English language and brain-dead effusions were longer, but no more intelligent than the well-known norm.

Morgan produced her usual revisionist rant, which one of my friends commented, “But...is she crazy?” The answer was, of course, “No, she is not crazy, just disordered.” I sent him more useful information on the characteristics of psychopathy and he had an Ah Ha! Moment. It explained a lot to him actually, since he knew Anne, too.

Wendy e-ed me this morning with the proliferation of photos from Laura. These obviously were excavated from the Internet and represent many hours of squinting at the screen for the Menopausal One.

The photo of Ashley made Wendy roll her eyes. It was taken in 2008, just a short time before the last time Alex saw Ashley for the last time. The photo reminded Wendy of the hideous time before the court took the kids out of Alex's physical custody. This happened because it was clear to the judge from the evidence he was exhibiting the worst case of Parental Alienation Syndrome ever seen. Also leaving the kids with anyone who could be imposed on.

Then, of course, along with stealing Wendy's family heirlooms, jewelry, and valuables to sell, he also sold anything of the kids' which would realize a profit. Alex did, eventually, return some used clothing, several years later. You can imagine how helpful that is for growing kids.

So, what happened over this last weekend? Too much spare time on your hands? Though every day is a weekend for you, right?

That reminds me. How is the fundraising going? Did the $5.00 lottery ticket not come in so The Fine could be paid? We puzzled over this because, as Wendy well knows, Alex does not worry about being evicted until they start carrying stuff out the door and placing it on the sidewalk. Of course, not paying the fine would definitely lead to a different sore of relocation, so this time Alex may actually spend some time thinking about how to solve the Problem.

Or, perhaps it is something from a different direction entirely. Did Craig finally find a nubile young thing who stood around long enough to be impregnated? Given his scheming to obtain his real goals he would then be busy thinking about when the little girl turns twelve and pouring money into ensuring her horror and shock is as deep as possible when he rapes her. This would cause fundage to evaporate, and it is impossible to imagine why the Manchesters keep this up unless fundage is in the offing. Come on, you can tell us. After all, we're not psychopaths.

Fundage. That reminds me of your mutual co-conspirator John Fund. Hey, Reader, go listen to the Audio Tapes, I bet you did not know John Fund, formerly of the Wall Street Journal, was involved with Craig, Dan O'Dowd, Morgan Gell, Laura Anne Smith Montagu and Alexander, Duke of Manchester, did you?   Involved, like, you know, in a conspiracy.  This also includes some of Fund's closest associates.  

Craig and Dan have their own site, linked above, and also are discussed at Drone Free Zone. But, they are involved, too. 

Have you been enjoying reading the documents now up at Just the Evidence? Inquiring Minds Want to Know.

And Yet Another Example of Psychopathic Projection

Morgan, with obvious assistance from Laura, who really should be looking for work produced this sad revisionist history 13 hours ago.  

If I had known Morgan was a psychopath when she was still a cute little baby, and understood the pain and suffering she would cause me, my parents, siblings, and children I would have been stymied.  How could I inflict her on anyone else?  This would clearly have been wrong.  So, giving her up for adoption was not a possibility.  What do you do with these people, if they are, indeed, human. 

What to do about psychopaths is a problem which confronts all of us today.  Read her blather here. 

I'm writing an article which I'm sure will delight non-pychopaths from every point on the political spectrum, except, naturally NeoCons. 

And the Daily Mail Chimes In - Update!

It took two days for Richard Kay to chat with Marcus and ensure the larger world was apprised of the goings on of Alexander, 13^th Duke of Manchester, but today in the Daily Mail.....this modified note appeared. Marcus had provided”....was the little snippet I prepared for Richard Kay’s column in the Daily Mail....

THE Duke of Manchester, who is familiar with the sound of a slamming prison door – he’s twice been jailed in Australia, and was exposed as a bigamist at the High Court in London in 2011 – has notched up another legal battle scar, this time in Las Vegas, where he’s just received a 90-day sentence, suspended for six months, and been ordered to pay a ‘restitution’ fee of $3,575. 
 
The case arose after what might politely be termed a misunderstanding over money – a recurrent problem for the 50-year-old, thrice-married Alex Montagu, the 13^th Duke, whose first wife, former model Marion Stoner, left him after what she described as ‘the spear-gun incident’ (the volatile Alex had fired at her but missed). 
 
‘He’s probably eclipsed his father, Angus, the 12^th Duke, who got a three-year stretch for fraud in the USA, and his great-grandfather, the 9^th Duke, who was sent to Wormwood Scrubs,’ says author Marcus Scriven, who has chronicled the Montagus’ many misdeeds, ‘but he’s still some way behind his great-uncle, Lord Edward Montagu, who was jailed in at least three countries.’

...though, regrettably, it was edited down to this (scroll down to 5th story on page): -”
It must be heart-warming for Alex to realize how many people around the world are following the ongoing disaster which is his life.

The Update, Please.

And......the envelope please.

I had a lovely chat with the Information Officer at the court in Las Vegas, who told me the hearing went on for rather a long time. She did not know if Alex cried or whimpered this time, unfortunately.

But he most likely did, if his past record is any measure of what could be expected.

And we have another day to look forward to. Mark your calendars now! April 16^th.

The judge and public defender will be the same.

Alex received a 90 day jail suspended sentence IF (This is a BIG IF, given the person who is supposed to come up with the money is Alex) he coughs up $3,575.00 in fines and restitution and all requirements are completed.

Now, what do you think the odds are Alex will pay? Ha!

Alex plead Nolo, which is a mealy mouth way of saying, “I throw myself on the mercy of the court,”with adjudication withheld IF all requirements are completed. This means he also has to stay out of trouble. Don't hold your breath.

Wendy says Alex always thinks he won if they do not slap on the handcuffs right there in the court room.

Now, what will happen next? Now that Craig is 'at liberty' and stalking girls of all ages in Southern California and elsewhere will Alex finally get a job as his chauffeur? Will he and Laura move in with Craig in his new digs? Will Morgan decide to dump the kids and Jay and move out to CA to assist Craig in finding women, providing cover for him, as she did before? So many questions to be answered!

Film at 11.

Pre-Trial Day in Las Vegas for Alex!

And a brief, shining light comes on as we doff our hats, remembering this morning Alex, 13^th Duke of Manchester, will be standing, or whimpering, before the bar of justice in Las Vegas accompanied by the public defender answering charges for passing a bad check – again.

Morgan's most recent post is an excellent example of Morgan Barteaux Gell's continued attempts to rewrite history. In this screed she uses the names, mostly misspelled, of people I knew, or know, and then fabricates as she, again, demonstrates she cannot spell or punctuate.

I have been a journalist since 2004 when I started writing to protect Morgan with a book, “GREED: The NeoConning of America.” It was a fictionalized version of events then still playing out. The biggest fiction was Morgan as she has never in her life been heroic, not for one moment. The story of her encounter with the reality of having her ears pierced at age 14 is very illustrative of her character.

After having nagged me for days I grudgingly took her down to the mall to have the procedure carried out. The other kids were along and would certainly remember. Arthur does and it always makes him laugh because he did not have to help carry her out of the mall when she fainted.

For the next six weeks Morgan lay stricken in bed, expecting to be waited on, and she was, because she was so loud and obnoxious when she did not get what she wanted. I had to turn the studs for her, each time rewarded by her screams of agony. Histrionics does not even come close. The whole experience was unsettling in the extreme.

When we took her back to Mother and Father's house we all breathed a sigh of relief.

Thanks for reminding me, that works well in the book.

Morgan, competent at nothing, except lying, a skill native to her disordered condition, failed to note in her long yawn of a commentary, that I wrote the Declaration on November 19, 2012. I had had nothing to do with the editing of the film, this being work undertaken by Raye. We had tried to persuade Alex to let Joni 's son, a film maker do it, but he was too paranoid to allow this sensible solution.

Even at that moment the films were not his property since he had stolen them from his former wife, Wendy and to whom he had given them, with all other home movies, on the occasion of their tenth anniversary. He had also made them available to the public on Youtube, where they were found by Raven, who commented on as part of her reporting on the article I wrote about Alex's libel of Michael Jackson. “Stalking Michael Jackson-Psychopath In Action”: How Melinda Pillsbury-Foster’s Important Article Can Help Us To Better Understand The Craziness Of Michael Jackson’s Life-Literally!

Presumably, Alex is now on his way to court, likely using public transportation. I'll call the court later today to see how things turned out and provide an update.

And a Note for Today

Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

Pre-Trial Day for the 13th Duke of Manchester in  Las Vegas.   Alex is scheduled to be in court for his Pre-Trial (finally) on charges of passing a bad check, curiously similar to reports from Wendy Montagu of her experiences while married to him. Wendy reported having to make up for his 'bad checks' using her 401K on more than one occasion. She was also forced to cosign on his purchases since he has no credit of his own. And while Alex is finally gone from her life the garnishments from his destructive behavior, which she was forced to pay because they could not garnish the Manchester Trust, linger.

Trial is set for January 15^th 8:30am Judge Cynthia Cruz will be hearing the case in Courtroom 8A Regional Justice Center at 200 Lewis Avenue, Las Vegas. The reason the case is not online is because, the administrator said, “There are glitches in the online system.” We certainly understand and are delighted to get this update.

Many Generations of Manchester Stupidity

 This entry appeared today on Henry Poole & Company, founded 1806.  It seems they also had Dukes of Manchester in their lives.

 

9th Duke of Manchester (added January 2013)

William Angus DrogoIgnaza Montagu, 9th Duke of Manchester (1877-1947), was a politician, soldier and one of his generation’s most notorious bankrupts. Styled Lord Kimboltonfrom 1877 to 1890, he first enters the Henry Poole & Co ledger books as Viscount Mandeville; a title he held until 1892 when he inherited the Dukedom aged fifteen. Educated at Eton and Trinity College Cambridge, the 9th Duke took the Liberal Whip in the House of Lords and eventually became Deputy Chief Whip. He was also Captain of the Lancashire Fusiliers.

The Duke’s financial embarrassments were inherited from his spendthrift ancestors the 7th and 8th Dukes. The 7th Duke and his Duchess Louise (named the double duchess because she subsequently married the love of her life the Duke of Devonshire) were in the Prince of Wales’s Marlborough House set and decimated the family fortune hosting house parties for the future King Edward VII at his country seat Kimbolton Castle. Though the 8th Duke married Cuban-American heiress Consuelo, she did not bring the expected dowry and fell foul of the Prince of Wales having briefly served as his mistress.

On his accession, the 9th Duke allegedly went down on his knees to the Prince of Wales to beg forgiveness for his mother the Dowager Duchess Consuelo and regain royal favour. However, he was a spendthrift. He married another American heiress Helen Zimmerman of Cincinnati whose father bought them Kylemore Castle in Co Galway as a wedding present but their ruinous entertaining cost the couple dear. The 9th Duke regally entertained house parties such as a famous weekend at Kylemore when the Duke and Duchess of Connaught and their entourage shot over as thousand pheasants on a 1903 shoot.

In 1908 the 9th Duke was forced to sell-off his lands in Ireland. Kylemore Castle was mortgaged during World War I to pay off debts and sold in the 1920s. He was named in the Peerage and MP Ledger as a bankrupt in 1915: an announcement echoed and recorded by Poole’s clerks in the ledgers underlining a debt of over £400. A further family seat Tandragee Castle’s contents were auctioned off in 1926. Kimbolton Castle and its contents including masterpieces by Holbein, Titian, Rubens, Van Dyke and Reynolds were preserved but the Duke spent the remainder of his life abroad evading creditors, seeking out wealthy consorts and attempting to extract money from wealthy acquaintances.  MORE

A Poetical Interlude in the continuing Campaign Against Psychopathy

A Poetical Interlude in the continuing Campaign Against Psychopathy 

My poetry is at Shards of Verse  

I'm thinking about some doggerel for the Duke and Doxie. 

This morning it occurred to me to grub through my poetry online because I vaguely remembered writing some poems, included in my poetic journalings, about Morgan and Craig before, during, and after realizing there was something terribly wrong with them and then learning about psychopathy, that light bulb moment.  

Now, I think of them as M, Psychopath and C, Psychopath, but this took a lot of recovery for me.   

This photo first dates from when M, Psychopath was still an adorable small child.  It just melted my heart every time I looked at her shiny face. 

 Reading it makes me realize how vulnerable people who love are to these heartless predators.We ignore the evidence of our own eyes.  Love can, truly, make you blind. 

I started writing poetry as a journal in early 1999. The first series of 127 poems, First Lilac Series - written for Dearest Pleasure, was written, in chronological order, from January 18 - April 6, 1999. 

Poems written before then come in two categories. BC (Before Computer) and AC (After Computer. Those written before I had a computer for my own use, not mostly used for generating mailing lists for political campaigns, begin in 1986. Those written before 1986 were generally found on the margins of other writing and on loose pieces of paper in storage. I was not good at keeping them, as the other side was generally useful as a grocery list.

After finishing my first series, Lilac, I just journaled them and cut off at 127, a prime number which has other significance to me.  Lilac was 127 poems in length, so that became my standard.  Lilac Series was followed by First Jasmine Series and First Violet Series.  I'm now working on First Rose Series.  These are in chronological order.

These few poems,  all written for or 'inspired by' M, Psychopath or Craig, Psychopath are also in chronological order.  The first dates from 1972.  Morgan changed her name from Carolyn when she was in her late teens and was born in 1967.  So when I wrote this she was around five years old.   

From: Before the Fall

32.  To My Daughter, Carolyn

I love you.

There is no range or boundary to my cherishing.

I love you now, as I did before - and as I will.

Time out of mind

On and never varying.

(1972)  

I read it to her once when she was grown.  There was a long pause after I finished and then she said, "That was stupid."  It was a long time before I read her another poem.

From: Before the Fall 

The year was  1982.  I was attending a party at Janice Vargo's house.  Janice is an old friend of mine from my active Libertarian days.     

 Craig was there and challenged me to Sonnets at Five Minutes in Celebration of the Statue of Liberty.   I shrugged.  "O.K., get the paper and pens."  No computers were present, this was the Dark Ages.  I started writing.  I wrote my first sonnet when I was eight and it became a habit.  

30.  My Lady Love

She waits beside a vast expanse of water

Her hand holds up the light of living day

And never will the justice in Her falter

And never will Her seekers lose their way

For justice is not made in court opinions

And truth is not defended at the polls

As into living rock we drive the pinions

That hold the deathless thoughts that are our goals

Does Justice need the heart of Her defender?

Will Her loving message echo into time?

Will our children's children yet remember

That those who cherish liberty are one kind

Liberty cannot be won - and never lost

Remember what it is and not the cost.

(Written in challenge to a duel of sonnets with Craig Franklin, 1982) 

31. A Sonnet Written in Challenge

She stands beside a darkened mass of sorrow

A distant hope of freedom in our lives

A hope that may be realized tomorrow

If we can only pledge ourselves to strive

That promise has been built into our futures

And forged in blood before our mother's birth

In knowledge that the cost can not be counted

Except by minds that understand it's worth

So watch the Lady with her lamp upholding

Salute her in your mind, if nothing else

For her pledge of hope is given us for molding

And each of us must do it for ourselves

The Lady is a promise we have made

And freedom is the value we must save.

(Written in challenge to a duel of sonnets with Craig Franklin, 1982) 

[C, Psychopath lost.  I wrote two in that time but did not mention it then because I did not want to hurt his feelings. He could not finish one and we agreed to extend time.  

But now I know he doesn't have any feelings which needed to be considered.  Being considerate of a psychopath is the equivalent of a fish jumping from the stream into the pan, with the fire blazing and a slice of lemon clutched in his fin. 

 C. Psychopath once told me he has to use his entire left brain to simulate human behavior. I should have started doing research right then, but we were already married.  He made the remark in 1995, far too late.  

While I certainly wish I had been less vulnerable the cost paid has motivated me to ensure others know the dangers of the psychopathic among us so they can protect themselves.

By the point, below, 1998, I had realized something was really rotten in Denmark but did not yet understand the neurological basis of the problem. This dates from the time, mid summer, after I had brought Arthur home from the Traumatic Brain Injury facility in Pomona.  From there, Arthur started at Solutions.  

Craig wanted Arthur dead because it would cost him less.  Morgan tried to oblige Craig, but failed.  That is a story for another day. 

The stages of grief are: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. I was still in denial and anger, lots of anger.  It was interesting to review the poems as see these reflected.

53. Dedicated to Craig Franklin and Morgan Pillsbury

- Two unsouled beings trapped in Self

I have been ground and milled out fine

For the least of my unmentioned crimes

For I refused to see the truth

And this crime stole all of my youth

I’ve been smashed and ripped apart

The substance fractured in my heart

Because I would not see the light

My soul was banished into night

I have lost all I worked to make

And ventured for my children’s sake

Punished for what I would not see

The ugliness engulfing me.

I found a home in his embrace

A sheltered place of measured grace

He battered my illusions then

He I thought an honorable man.

With nothing left inside of me

Empty, echoed, ravished, grieved

I stood up on my feet again

Felt life’s breath and said, amen.

From Jasmine Series

4.Fear and Pain that Still Detain

(Dedicated with complete sincerity to 

Allen Craig Franklin, 

my husband and abuser)  

Battered hopes and shattered truth

Begun with trust removed with lies

This the wretchedness of my youth

Distorts my life, unmakes, denies

Abused, a word that understates

The harshness of the world it makes 

Abused in mind, in body bashed

reproved by love that kills- but lasts

He came with smiles, seduced with faith

designed the ugliness of fear

An interdiction for all belief

that shackled self when he was near

Abused.  

Used, rejected, scorned, detained

denied the scope that life retains

Needed, sold to use again

a life that grows more ever grim

Abused. 

Battering on body, mind,

that fractures thought, my will and signs

Remakes the person who was me

into something that I hate to see

Abused.  

If you have not walked and known,

not tasted fear and so been owned

You do know where I have been

a place that holds no hopes or friends.  

You have not lost the inner scope

that held your course and gave you hope

You have not lived and breathed and died

in soul belief he would not lie.  

Abused and Freed

When grief is wrung, despised and gone

while still the spirit listens, longs

To hear the echoes that belong

to the voice that held that song.  

When I learned to see anew

that life could be again renewed

And shackles that had owned my bones

were broken by the life I'd grown. 

My breath was eased, in body, mind

The walls were breached, dissolved in time.  

I tasted, relished, lived and laughed

Freed of what distorted and grasped.  

Freed 

Manumission of emotion 

that can never compromise

The transmission which, evoking, 

fractured self to make me wise.  

54.Letting Go Illusions - To Craig Franklin

The tendriled tug of memories reproves my reasoned thought

Sharp and sweet that idylled time, devoid of all but drought

Sanctuaried, love made place

Where I have lingered in embrace

With that one imperfect, personed soul

Who spun out love in raptured flows

Of song borne thought entrancing, glad

Reminding, lighting, the life I had.  

Illusioned figment of my mind

Where only grief and sorrows bind

The soul seared silence that you left

Leaving me consumed, bereft.  

This, the logic of your acts

Stark and violent, ugly facts.

This the unmade years I'd given

Disposed and sneered, my heart so riven.  

That even logic turns away

When so little remains to do and say.  

My hand, that still, still longs to touch

Mind reproved, it winced but trusts

Because love filled, consumed, forgave

Till nothing there was left to save.  

Addicted to the thought of you

Now realized: who I never knew.  

So mind - release your argued wish

Logic, reason, delve and sheer

Revoke the memoried source, dismiss

The undone presence once most dear

Remove the Craig who was my heart

That I might breathe, live on, restart

The life I forged from living will

that pain in me be stilled, be stilled.  

72.Toxic Mind - Dedicated to Craig Franklin

Toxic mind with muted scope

consuming, clawing, gravid needs

Poison drips, extrudes and seeks

to satiate its unmet greeds

Toxic.

Blandished words that supplicate

Distorted images that incite

This, the fabric of the soul

This, that mind's most needed goal.  

Toxic. 

Manipulating all that's true

into what he wants to do.  

Fractured visions that can kill

when innocence believes them real.  

Toxic.  

No honored word alive in fact

No civil content to his acts.

No worth from life to live in time

No soul redeemed from all its crimes.  

Toxic.  

Post the warning for all to read

Do not let this monster feed.  

Of course, I kept forgiving M, Psychopath because the entire focus of my life was my children and their well being. Hope springs eternal, in the breast maternal. I studied psychopathy for over two years before the penny dropped and I realized M was one. Oops. Such a moment replays itself for quite a while, I found.

But it did explain the many things which had always puzzled me. Now, everything makes sense! 

The poem below was a wedding gift to M. M married Jay E. Gell on Valentine's Day, 2005 at the court house in Charlotte, North Carolina. The baby was born around four months later, on June 21st.  Afterward, Jay's erstwhile employer/co-conspirator, Robert Evan (Van) Hughes, took them out to a coffee shop. Then they returned to their trailer.

M, Psychopath does not appreciate poetry. C, Psychopath writes, but his psychopathy makes really good poetry impossible for him, those pesky emotions are just too hard to emulate in verse. It is slightly better set to music, especially if someone else edits it, plays, and sings.

From: First Violet Series

No. 122 Wedding Wish – Valentine’s Day 2005

Bouquets of bright flowers, 

  seasons of joy, 

all the gladness and sadness 

  that life will deploy. 

Rapture and riches, 

  magnificent days, 

all of the echoes 

  that love can display.

Borne by the senses 

  and held in our minds 

as part of the largest and greatest design. 

Wishes I send through the ethered reaches of space 

  too touch and to hold you in my best embrace. 

With love and hope for your perfect happiness today, Mom.

It really is good she married Jay. When you really know them they are perfect for each other.

No. 68 – Truth that Heals 

​

As coiled time unravels and the mind forgets to hope

The child within, embattled, can find enlarging scope.

Travails and anguish hone us, as comforts fails to do

Fined down to new awareness, we live out what is true.

​

Iconic forms and patterns, forged from time - encapsulated meme 

Is also the long story which humanity must dream 

​

The moments so remembered, bringing insight and delight

Carrying in their fabric a baptism of the Light. 

​

In forms and fact embellished, as legend and as truth 

This, the lineage written, on both our age and youth. 

​

Meeting in the matrix, where nothing's as it seems 

Lessons, half remembered, hold the power to redeem.