The pretty purple bloom above is from a cyclosecta plant. It's a carnivorous plant like the venus flytrap. The cyclosecta traps insects with glue-like secretions.
The photo above was made by a guy named Terry W. Ratzmann [Google news], from Brookfield, Wisconsin. I confirmed to my own satisfaction that this cyclosecta was grown by the Terry Ratzmann I'm writing about when I read the following in a myway.com article about the same man:
"...Neighbors said Ratzmann built his own greenhouse, kept a well-tended garden and even used humane traps to free squirrels that got in the yard..."
Terry Ratzmann was also a religious man. He was a member of the fundamentalist Living Church of God.
Here are the bullet points that explain what the Living Church of God is all about:
name of Jesus Christ.
The Living Church of God believes we are now in the "end times" - the period preceding the return of God's Kingdom to earth, the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Congregants of churches espousing such a philosophy prosletyze a great deal. It's in the spirit of altruism, really - they feel they want everyone they care for to be with them in paradise.
You can look at it this way...they live for the end. They live for death, believing that it will transform them into creatures of paradise.
Yesterday, Saturday, March 12, 2005, Terry Ratzmann walked into the service his church was holding in a Milwaukee hotel and shot 11 people before turning the gun on himself.
Article comments
1 - RJ
"I believe there is a theory that some mass murderers are actually suicides who have decided to settle what they think are scores before they go."
I believe this is largely true. These people don't wanna go on living anymore, for whatever reason, but they also want to take their family/friends with them.
2 - RJ
You'll note there is a distinction to be made between serial murderers and mass murderers.
Serial murderers tend to want to evade capture. Mass murderers OTOH tend to either commit suicide, or commit "suicide-by-cop"...
3 - Steve
Rob -
Thanks for the comments. Yes, I'm VERY clear on the difference between mass, serial, and spree murderers, as well as a possible emerging subcategory, the "serial-spree" killer. A recent show I saw about Andrew Cunanan defined his rampage across the US that way.
Serial murder is typically defined as three or more random murders, often sexual in nature, but not always, characterized by a "cooling-off" period between each murder.
Mass murders are committed in a rage, typically entail the murder of a number of people of varying ages and genders in a short period of time, and yes, like you said, frequently end in "suicide by cop."
An example of a spree killer might be Charles Starkweather, who with his girlfriend went on a little tour of the midwest that happened to involve daily bloody murders of innocent folks who had the misfortune to have something Charlie and his girlfriend (forgetting her name at the moment) needed.
I've spent a number of years reading up on all this, including texts used in the academic training of real profilers.
There's an element of voodoo in it all, but it is easy to talk about since the people who developed what we call profiling now did bother to sit down and codify and classify types of crimes.
4 - RJ
Oh, I know you are informed about this topic, SH. That's very clear.
I was actually posting that for the benefit of other bloggers here, who might not know the difference.
Anyway, I always enjoy reading your posts. Keep it up! :)
5 - Steve
Thanks, dude - sorry I misread. I reacted like I was still looking at one of those BTK message boards. Appreciate the add-on. I should have known!
6 - RJ
No prob, these comments can be so damn bereft of inflective context!
Anyway, I'm taking 4 classes this Spring (my Senior year), and one of them is devoted to Serial Murder.
The other three are, as you can imagine, rather dull in comparison... ;-)
So my mind has been on serial killers of late. And I love to impart my new-found wisdom on those who (like most people) are novices at this sort of thing.
So, when I comment on your posts, please think of me as someone who is adding information (for the benefit of others) to your already-informative posts, as opposed to someone who is merely being an ass and sniping. :)