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Lessons From History

History is the study of human past. It reflects the collective experience of humanity to examine and analyze the sequence of events over time. Sometimes, history attempts to investigate objectively the cause and effect of events. For various reasons, few Canadians appear to have much knowledge in history. Lack of historical knowledge contributes to the success of the "child protection" industry which requires secrecy, public ignorance and apathy. Under the pretext of "child protection", service providers go so astray and create so many atrocities without raising public concern. This page is a spinoff from our Nancy Schaefer page. We will sidestep from the main focus of state-sponsored "child protection" to a broader macro perspective to understand the causes and effects of this well hidden corruption.

Different ideologies have been used by those in government to strengthen their power and to legitimize their position of governance. Confucianism in ancient China, Islamism in many Muslim countries, Nazism in pre-war Germany, Communism in socialist states are ideologies used by various governments as guiding principles. They contain ideas that reflect the beliefs, values and interests of a nation or political system and influence policies and actions of government. These ideologies differ in nature, some are religious while some are philosophical. They all serve the purpose of establishing a common ground to foster cohesion, legitimize the power of governance of the ruling class and to garner support for the regime.

In modern Western countries, democracy and legalism (adherence to the law made by an elected assembly) are used to legitimize government policies and actions. To consolidate power of the ruler, people are brought up to be legally and morally obliged to obey orders made by their government in the name of law. To maintain the power in this system, one of the first few things a newly elected government will do is to appoint judges of the same political orientation, who share similar interests, to the Supreme court. Be mindful that a simple majority of judges in the Supreme court could collectively make decisions that render a statute moot and compel lawmakers to rewrite law to suit their likings. For instance, when same sex marriage was condoned by the Supreme Court of Canada, members of parliament had to change the original legislative intent and rewrite law to accommodate its decision.

Many people believe that democracy is the best political system and are prepared to go to war to preserve it or to promote it on foreign soil. Freedom and democracy attract immigrants to migrate to Western countries where liberty and equality are supposedly guaranteed by law. While many, if not most, immigrants are contended with their new life, some regret coming to live in democratic countries for various reasons. Among the latter, the story of late Dr. Xuesen Qian is revealing.

Historical photos of Dr. Xuesen Qian

Dr. Xuesen Qian 錢學森 (11 December 1911 – 31 October 2009) is a world renowned Chinese rocket scientist whose contributions to the Chinese rocket and space programs earned him the nickname the "Father of Chinese Rocketry". Born and educated in China, Dr. Qian received a degree in mechanical engineering from the Jiao Tong University in Shanghai in 1934. He emigrated to the U.S. in August 1935 after winning a scholarship to study mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He later earned his doctorate degree from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, under Professor Theodore von Kármán. in 1955, Dr. Qian was driven from the U.S. back to China during the Red Scare. He single-handedly built a national space and rocketry program from the technology base of an agrarian society. Details of this legendary scientist are archived in a separate web page "Qian Xuesen 錢學森".

One may think that the persecution of Dr. Qian occurred in the early 1950's. Government has since improved a lot and oppression of this nature will not occur now. Let's turn to a more recent case Dr. Wen Ho Lee (李文和) in 1999. Details of his case can be found in the link and will not be repeated here.

A convenient spy: Wen Ho Lee whose ethnic Chinese background attracted undue attention and scrutiny from the U.S. government

Dr. Lee is a Taiwan-born American scientist. He came to the United States in 1965 and became a U.S. citizen in 1974. Unlike Dr. Qian, Lee is not a Chinese patriot. Despite that he is a pro Taiwan independence believer and shows no desire to build a strong China, he was publicly named by the then-Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson as a suspect in the theft of classified nuclear-related documents from Los Alamos. In a TV interview (video on the left), the news anchor asked:

"How did you know that he (Dr. Lee) gave them (Chinese agents) information?"

Mr. Richardson answered:

"We know because he (Dr. Lee) wouldn't tell us what he told them (the Chinese agents)."

Mr. Richardson denied the practice of racial profiling outright. In this "thug logic", if a suspect refuses or fails to provide self-incriminating information, he must be guilty of a crime and incarceration is justified. It is equivalent to shooting a suspect if he does not admit that he has committed a crime.

The U.S. government pursued Lee no less ruthlessly than Dr. Qian. The following sources documented how Lee was treated:

  • "A Convenient Spy" (Dan Stober and Ian Hoffman, 2001 ISBN 0-7432-2378-0);
  • "My Country versus Me" (Wen Ho Lee with Helen Zia, 2001 ISBN 0-7868-6803-1);
  • Wen Ho Lee's web site.

When Lee was arrested, the U.S. government laid 59 counts of charges on him. He was jailed in solitary confinement without bail for 278 days. Without evidence to prove its case, the U.S. government dropped 58 counts of charges laid and offered a plea bargain of mishandling sensitive documents that did not require pre-trial solitary confinement. Lee was released on time served after he pleaded guilty to the much modest charge. This is equivalent to saying that if the accused admits to a trivial crime, he will be set free immediately. This is clearly a face-saving exist tactic to cover up abuse of authority and bureaucratic incompetence. The government must get some admission of guilt to justify its position and all oppressive actions taken against a citizen.

After Lee's case was concluded, former President Bill Clinton publicly said that he was troubled by his case. Judge James A. Parker, a federal judge who heard the case, apologized to Lee and said that "top decision makers in the Executive Branch, especially the Department of Justice and the Department of Energy ... embarrassed our entire nation and each of us who is a citizen of it."

What is relevance of these two cases on child protection? Most people think that democratic governments are law abiding. Since it is formed by politicians elected by people, government will not and cannot abuse people. Its actions are always righteous and lawful. Conviction is based on good evidence and due process of law. These two cases proved that an elected assembly can trample a man's right as much as a tyranny and is fully capable of doing unthinkable things that could bring the administration of justice into disrepute. Essence of democracy is not a periodic free will election but the value of guaranteed equity, freedom and human rights. Noble causes can be hijacked by special interests, often for financial benefits and power, and completely betrayed the underlying values in democracy.

Similarities of these two cases with child protection are compared in the table below.

Cases of Qian and Lee State-Sponsored Child Protection Industry
governing statute Espionage Act of 1917 Child, Family and Community Service Act (BC) of 1996
Different countries and regions have their own child protection status in different names.
discriminatory criteria racial profiling
  • lower income class
  • physical/mentally challenged parents
  • Aboriginal parents
  • substance addictive parents
abuse of authority lengthy confinement without trial lengthy child removal without hearing despite law obliges prompt judicial decision making
absurd bureaucratic and legal arguments based on "thug logic" failure to provide self-incriminating statement is an evidence of guilt
  • cooperation with MCFD is an evaluating factor considered by court
  • failure to admit guilt of child abuse is ground to remove children
abuse of human rights: inhumane treatment to coerce confession lengthy confinement and inhumane interrogation tactics
  • using children as pawn to force parents to admit guilt
  • forcing spouse to separate/divorce or to cross accuse each other in court
  • alienating children and parents
pretext national security child safety
motivating factors maintain hegemony, ultimately to aggrandize more power, money and fame
  • job security
  • tax dollars to service providers
  • provincial governments clawing back tax dollars from federal government by way of federal aids to remove and/or adopt children
similar legal tactics
  • lay no criminal charge but hold suspects in custody
  • lay a large number of unsubstantiated charges, drop most charges and offer plea bargain of a very minor charge at a later date
  • remove children and fabricate parental wrongdoings after removal
  • fabricate/induce/collude criminal charges on parents to lend support of custody applications, most or all charges dropped before trial
lack of good evidence opinions of biased bureaucrats motivated by desire to earn credit The following are all admissible in child protection hearings:
  • hearsay;
  • unsubstantiated allegations;
  • expert evidence provided by government paid professionals;
  • misconstrued statements;
  • biased opinions from financially motivated service providers.
large scale applications of such oppressive concepts Japanese Canadian internment in British Columbia during World War II Canadian Indian residential school (1857 to 1996)
consequences loss the loyalty and support of scientific talents who could help build the nation
  • create unbearable tax burden
  • destruction of families
  • removed children abused or killed in foster or adoptive homes
  • loss of confidence in government and judiciary
  • more social problems

Many Canadians appear to be overly indulged in the superiority and the infallibility of their beloved democratic government and independent judiciary. Some hold the view that when an elected government makes mistakes or creates atrocities, it is acceptable as it represents the people. Be mindful that the Nazis were elected by the Germans in the federal election held on 5 March 1933. Decisions made by an impartial judiciary cannot be wrong. They naively believe that government will always serve best interests of our nation. Elected officials are honest, respectful and truthful. They will act in accordance to the will of the people. Many believe that our police force is disciplined and professional.

"Why should I trade 1 tyrant 3,000 miles away for 3,000 tyrants 1 mile away? An elected legislature can trample a man's right as much as a king can."

Most politicians, elected or not, often serve their best interests first. They love kissing babies in public and may steal their lollipop when nobody is watching. In our opinion, government is a disguised form of business with a hidden objective of raising tax as high as taxpayers could bear. Tax dollars are used to pay the politicians and their perquisites. Money brings power. In a democracy, the balance is allocated to buy services from those who support the ruling party, hence rendering such transfer of wealth legal and seemingly justified. The 2009 eHealth scandal in Ontario, Canada that wasted $1 billion of taxpayer money is a result of this practice. Since inception of government, the motivating factors to those who choose to partake are always power, money and fame. Of course, there are a few exceptions in the course of history.

In a democracy, politicians need votes to acquire or to remain in power. Since they have the ability to allocate tax dollars, special interests (like unions), who have strong influence in elections, jump in. Once elected, politicians bow to the demands (usually more fundings, higher wages, more special power or privileges) of those who supported them. This often results in an overly large bureaucracy and excessive government employees who are non-productive (sometimes counter productive). More taxes are needed to satisfy the insatiable demand for higher wages and more fundings. Without any corrective mechanism, this would eventually collapse the economy of a country. The April-May 2010 financial crisis and social chaos in Greece is an example resulted from the foregoing. The violent demonstration was mainly organized by unions who were unhappy with the cutback of government fundings. Demonstrators set fire. Three persons, including one pregnant woman, were killed inside a bank. The Greek crisis is a warning to Canada. If our government does not mend it free-spending ways, eliminates unnecessary or even harmful services (such as perverted "child protection") and reduces non-productive civil servants, our country will eventually go bankrupt. At this time, Canada does not have a serious problem yet because of our huge natural resources and a relatively small population. If our government keeps raising taxes to create a large bureaucracy, similar financial problems will haunt us sooner or later.

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called a senior voter a bigoted woman.

There is no guarantee that elected officials are more truthful, more capable or morally better. In April 2010, the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown demonstrated what a Janus-faced (or double-faced) politician is. When the camera was rolling, he appeared to be respectful and listened attentively to the 65-year old pensioner Gillian Duffy while campaigning in Rochdale, England. Forgetting that he was still wearing the media's broadcast microphone, he showed his real face right after he disappeared from public view and called this senior voter a bigoted woman.

To his dismay, his disrespectful remarks were recorded and aired by the media. Despite his repeated apologies, the harm is already done. This woman said that she will not vote for Mr. Brown's Labor Party in the forthcoming election. The biggest damage is not the loss of one vote but a loss of confidence in his integrity.

In the General Election 2010 on May 6, British voters don't want another four years of Gordon Brown or his party. Labor Party won 258 seats (versus 349 before the election), while Conservative and Liberal Democrat won 305 and 57 respectively. This result means that no one party could form majority government. Both the Labor and the Conservative immediately started a campaign to woo the liking of the Liberal Democrat whose leader Nick Clegg has indicated that he will not work with Mr. Gordon Brown. On May 10, 2010, the Conservative and the Liberal Democrat formed a united government shortly after Brown resigned as prime minister. This episode bears remarkable resemblance to the fall of the Liberal Party (federal) in Canada under the leadership of Paul Martin in the 2006 Election.

Once in power, it is doubtful whether or not an elected government will likely listen to their constituents before the next election. The Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) in British Columbia effective July 1, 2010 is an example. Imposition of this unpopular tax was carefully contemplated shortly after the B.C. Liberal Party won the 2009 election and formed majority government. It is a shrewd calculating move betting that voters will forget about this tax in the next election four years later. Despite massive objection from British Columbians, legislation to enact the unpopular tax was passed. B.C. Finance Minister Colin Hansen repeatedly alleged that HST is good for the province. The B.C. Government will get a cash incentive of $1.6 billion up front from the federal government of Canada and extends the tax net to rip more tax revenue from goods and services subject to GST but not PST previously. Led by former B.C. Premier, Bill Vander Zalm, a movement to fight HST had commenced in the spring of 2010. Given the stingy requirements to petition an initiative or to recall a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the Recall and Initiative Act, it is very difficult for the public to overturn a decision made by the government.

Former BC Premier Gordon Campbell announced his resignation.
On October 27, 2010, B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell made a last ditch effort to market his hated HST. To placate angry voters, Campbell announced a 15% tax cut effective January 1, 2011 attempting to buy back their support. Obviously, his expensive TV speech, which cost taxpayers $240,000 to produce, air and advertise, did not fare well. His popularity dropped to 9%. He had lost trust and confidence of the people. On November 3, 2010, Mr. Campbell called a press conference and announced that he will be stepping down as premier and party leader once the B.C. Liberal Party finds a new leader.

It appears that he stepped down of his own accord for the best interests of the B.C. Liberal Party and the province. There was rumor suggesting that caucus members had pressured him to step down and give someone else a chance to lead the party.

On November 17, 2010, Gordon Campbell said that the cabinet made the decision to provide the government with more economic options and therefore will suspend his planned 15% tax cut announced on October 27, 2010. The tax cut was expected to cost $568 million in the first year, rising to $638 million per year by 2013-14.

Former BC Premier Gordon Campbell's dispute with Bill Bennett, MLA
This immediately drew criticism from the opposition party NDP and the people of British Columbia. What they should do is to keep the tax cut (or perhaps further reduce it) and cut harmful government service like child removal. This unwise decision delivers the coup de grâce to the political life of Gordon Campbell.

Another good indicator that there is friction within the core leadership of the B.C. Liberal Party is the derogatory remarks on Campbell made by the fired Energy Minister Bill Bennett. To mitigate public image damage, other caucus memberships came forward to defend Campbell. Campbell himself claimed that Bennett's remarks are simply not true. This political soap opera signals the discontent inside the Liberal Party.

One main cause of Mr. Campbell's downfall is the insatiable need to raise taxes to keep an excessively large, non-productive, sometimes counter productive, government bureaucracy. There are numerous examples in history suggesting that this could collapse government and dynasty. Mr. Campbell lacks the political will and wisdom to decisively cut unnecessary, counter productive government services, most predominantly the state-sponsored child removal business, and use the saved funds to cut taxes.

His calculating timing in implementing the HST, his refusal to listen to the people on time, his over confidence in political skills to control and manipulate backfire on him. He lost his premiership and his popularity of his party has declined. Failure to downsize government, especially elimination of counter productive government services, any politician could become a potential victim and follow the path of Mr. Campbell when they are hard pressed to find revenue to finance a large bureaucracy.

Those who act and speak well in front of the camera will have an edge in election. This explains the interesting phenomenon that actors, such as Ronald Regan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, became president and state governor.

A typical government action to investigate a controversial public issue is to retain a retired judge to conduct an inquiry. Judges are generally perceived as wise, impartial, reasonable and incapable of making mistakes. Their findings are gospel truths. Due to the blind faith of the public on judges, recommendations made by a retired judge will likely be most acceptable to the people. The Gove Inquiry into Child Protection in British Columbia, the famous Ted Hughes report on "B.C. Children and Youth Review" (released on April 7, 2006) and the (Thomas R.) Braidwood Inquiry on the use of conducted energy weapons (Taser) after the Robert Dziekański Taser incident (2007) are products of this practice. It is noteworthy to mention that while there were many high profile lawyers acting as counsels for various parties in the Gove Inquiry, parents have little representation (read the Executive Summary).

Another government practice is to appoint a special prosecutor when the suspect or the accused of a criminal matter is related to the government or when a sensitive issue (such as polygamy charges in Bountiful, B.C.) is under criminal investigation. A special prosecutor is a lawyer on private practice retained by the government to assume duties of a Crown prosecutor. This practice intends to ensure impartiality as Crown prosecutors (employees of the government) are more likely to be unduly influenced by their employer when the accused is related to the hands that feed them. However, special prosecutors retained are often those who have supported or linked with the ruling political party, hence defeating the original intent to maintain impartiality and independence. The Kash Heed scandal in May 2010 is an example of this practice. Upon pleading guilty, the court fined Heed's election campaign manager and imposed 200 hours of community service in October 2011. Heed retained his seat in the Legislature.

Chinese version [added on November 15, 2010]

To make matter worse, the discipline of our police force has declined to an unacceptable level. Excessive violence is often used on unarmed civilians. In addition to the aforesaid Dziekański Taser incident (2007) incident, a Vancouver resident Yao Wei Wu was severely beaten up by two plain clothed Vancouver City cops in his residence on January 21, 2010. The policemen went to the wrong address when investigating a domestic dispute call.

According to Wu, he was dragged out of his home and beaten up before any question asked. To show impartiality, Wu's complaint was handled by the Delta police. After a 10-month investigation, the Delta police called a press conference on November 3, 2010 and concluded that the Vancouver police officers were carrying out their duties in good faith, Wu was hurt while resisting arrest and no excessive force was used.

English version [added on November 15, 2010]

Once again, the police often enjoys the luxury of covering up their mistakes when their wrongdoings are being investigated by another police force. This practice is often used in government and will most certainly result in losing public trust and confidence. Be mindful that police force of this caliber is at the service of "child protection" social workers.

Furthermore, when government gives an apology, nobody knows how sincere it is. On June 22, 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave an apology to the Chinese Canadians who had paid the head tax in Parliament. He also openly recognized the contributions of Chinese Canadians to Canada.

A head tax survivor Ralph Lee, at 106 of age in June 2006, went to Ottawa to present a ceremonial spike used in the completion ceremony of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885. The late Mr. Lee requested that the spike be put on display in Parliament's Railway Committee Room, the very chamber where Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald made the fateful decision to import Chinese labourers to save his transcontinental railway project. The spike was nowhere to be found during recent visits to the suggested site. And in response to a series of phone calls by a Vancouver Sun columnist, nobody at the House of Commons could say where the spike had gone. Relatives of the Chinese Canadians who built the railroad were infuriated.

[added on November 6, 2010]

On June 6, 2010, the missing memorabilia was found on display in a bookshelf in Harper's office. Concerned Chinese Canadians were relieved to hear the historical relic was located, but stressed that it was important for the relic to be on display in a public space for the purpose of acknowledging the very important role of Chinese Canadians in building this country.

Despite the formal apology, the wish of the late Mr. Lee has not been respected. The rise of China since the millennium and the growing Chinese population in Canada are beyond doubt the contributing factors in prompting such apology. Appointing a small number of Chinese Canadians to ceremonial positions with no real power, offering an apology (a lip service for all intensive purposes) and a token compensation of $20,000 to a very small number of survivors are a nominal price to garner support from Chinese Canadian voters. This is a shrewd political move.


A Brief History of Chinese Canadian in British Columbia

Between 1885 and 1923, the head tax was paid by an estimated 82,000 Chinese immigrants to Canada. The total amount levied was $17 million dollars, which was larger than the total cost of building the entire railroad. In another word, these Chinese workers paid the Canadian government to work in the railroad project in exchange of bringing their families into Canada. Some were killed, some were seriously injured and disabled. They and their families were racially discriminated for the next 50 years thereafter (or may be even until now).

Failing to curb the influx of unwanted people, the Canadian government enacted the Chinese Immigration Act, 1923 (more commonly known to the Chinese community in Canada as the Chinese Exclusion Act) barring all immigrants from China. This Act was in effect until 14 May 1947. Chinese Canadians were not given voting rights until 1950.


The foregoing suggest that there is plenty of room for corruption in an elected government. Democracy has its own merits. We do not intend to undermine them. But we are of the opinion that there is room for improvement.

This page is a spin-out of our "Nancy Schaefer" page. We now return to the methods used by people in power to get rid of those who they dislike or perceive as a threat. Like all sophisticated murder schemes, these methods are designed to cover up the real murderer(s) so that they can get away unnoticed and unpunished. These methods should be more appropriately named after the real murderer(s). However, the murderers in some cases discussed cannot be conclusively identified, the name of the deceased is used to label the method instead. Conspiracy methods, illustrated with examples, are categorized as follows:

  1. The Samson Method (use an attractive opposite sex to kill the victim with a honey trap)
    example: King Fuchai of Wu (吳王夫差)
  2. The Uriah Method (use somebody to kill the victim)
    example: Cai Mao (蔡瑁) and Zhang Yun (張允)
  3. The Naboth Method (fabricate incriminating evidence to convict the victim of a crime punishable by death penalty, rendering the murder legal and seemingly justified)
    example: Yue Fei (岳飛)
  4. The Jesus Method (misconstrue what the victim had said, use it to convict the victim of a crime and kill him, rendering the murder legal)
  5. example: Liu Shaoqi (劉少奇)
  6. The William Wallace Method (victim charged with high treason and sentenced to death after trial)
    example: Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots
  7. The Napoleon Method (victim appears to die naturally)
    example: Chinese Qing Emperor Guangxu (清光緒帝 愛新覺羅 • 載湉)
  8. The Consort Zhen (珍妃) Method (victim appears to have committed suicide for a noble reason)
    example: Erwin Rommel
  9. The Nicholas II Method (victim suddenly disappears and no evidence can be traced to confirm death)
    example: victims of the Katyn massacre, the Holocaust during World War II and the Yugoslav wars (particularly Kosovo and Bosnia)
  10. The Yamamoto Method (kill the target with military might)
    example: Saddam Hussein
  11. The Marilyn Monroe Method (victim appears to be killed by drug overdose)
    example: Jič Jėn (解縉)
  12. The JFK Method (victim appears to be killed in a crime)
    example: Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁)
  13. The Princess Diana Method (victim appears to be killed in an accident)
    example: Feng Yuxiang (馮玉祥) and Lin Biao (林彪)
  14. The Nancy Schaefer Method (victim appears to be killed in a murder suicide)

Methods below illustrate that people disliked by or threaten those in power could be disposed. It does not matter whether the power in question is monarchic, totalitarian or democratic in nature. It happens since the beginning of civilization and in different cultures. Supporting examples from international history are cited to illustrate the application of these methods.

We treasure freedom and value peace. We seek liberty, justice and a safer future for our children. We oppose corruption and abuse of power. That's why we learn from history and prepare for all eventualities.

The Samson Method

Essence:

  • use an attractive opposite sex, usually a woman, to discover the strengths and weaknesses of the victim
  • set up honey trap to kill when the unsuspecting victim is most vulnerable

Honey trap is one of the oldest schemes to kill an enemy or to neutralize a threat. It still works well today. Between the exodus from Egypt and the formation of the first United Kingdom of Israel in about 1050 B.C., the Israelite tribes were governed by a loose confederation led by God-appointed judges. Their functions were primarily martial and judicial, comparable to a king (but not anointed). Samson (a Nazirite from the tribe of Dan) was a judge during that time and had led Israel for twenty years.

His deeds were recorded in the Book of Judges (chapter 13 to 16). God gave Samson supernatural strength. He can kill Asiatic lion with his bare hands and 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. At that time, Israelites became estranged from God. Divine punishment came from the Philistines (the ancestor of Palestinians) who lived along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Philistines feared his great power and plotted to kill him with other means. Samson fell in love with a woman called Delilah at the Valley of Sorek. The Philistines induced Delilah (in Hebrew meaning "[one who] weakened or uprooted or impoverished" from the root dal meaning "weak or poor") with eleven hundred shekels of silver to find the secret of Samson's strength and how to overpower him. At first, Samson, not wanting to reveal his secret, gave her wrong information. After failing her mission several times, Delilah finally used her killer weapon "love" to convince Samson to confide in her. Despite her obviously suspicious motive, Samson told her that his strength came from his long hair. Delilah told his secret to the Philistines and received her reward. While Samson slept on her lap, Delilah called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair and his strength left him. He was seized by the Philistines. His eyes were gouged out and he was imprisoned in Gaza.

When rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a sacrifice to their god Dagon, Samson was taken out of prison to entertain his captors. Samson prayed to God to give his strength back so that he could revenge the Philistines. God answered his prayer and gave his strength back for the last time. Samson pushed with all his might and collapsed the temple killing everyone, including himself, in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.

This appears inconceivable that a man of sound mind could possibly fall into such an obvious trap. The key to success of this scheme is the irrationality of the human mind when one falls in love. History repeats itself all the time. King Fuchai of Wu (吳王夫差) (? - 473 B.C.) was the king of a minor state in China during the Spring Autumn Period. He fell prey to a similar trap. Fuchai was successful at the beginning of his reign, defeating troops of the rival Yue Kingdom in Fujiao (now Wu County, Jiangsu). Instead of killing the defeated King Goujian of Yue (越王勾踐) who had killed his father Helü, King of Wu (吳闔閭), Fuchai decided to hold him captive. Goujian was later released after careful manipulation of Fuchai using insincere loyalty.

To show subservience, Goujian sent a number of beauties to seduce Fuchai so that he will go astray in governing his kingdom. Among them was Xi Shi (西施), one of China's four greatest ancient beauties whom Fuchai quickly became obsessed with. Under ill advice from officials secretly taking bribes from Goujian, Fuchai competed for hegemony with other kingdoms in the central plain of China and had weakened his military strength in his rear. While campaigning far away from home in 482 B.C., Fuchai's capital was taken by Goujian's surprise attack. In 473 B.C., Fuchai was forced to commit suicide and his Wu kingdom was annexed.

Honey trap in modern England

After Goujian achieved victory, he began to purge those who helped him to reclaim his throne. Xi Shi was portrayed as a jinx. One legend alleged that she was drowned in a river while another suggested that she went away with her lover Fan Li in the misty wilderness of Tai He Lake and no one has seen them ever since.

Honey traps are often used in espionage and politics. Instead of killing the targets, the main objective of most honey traps today is to destroy the credibility and the political (or professional) career of the targets, hence neutralizing them as threat or nuisance. The Russian government reputedly uses sex to seduce foreign diplomats, opposition leaders and critical journalists. Sex video footage recorded covertly is used to blackmail the victims.

In the West where sex is more open, extramarital sexual relationships of public figures are still taboos. They always attract attention from the media and interest from the public. Bill Clinton, Tiger Woods, Hugh Grant, Silvio Berlusconi (the current Prime Minister of Italy at the point of writing), Ted Haggard and Jimmy Swaggart have all faced sex scandals that cost them dearly to deal with the aftermath. Infidelity has little bearing on one's capability and honesty. Except clergymen, the only person who has the right to complain is their spouse. The parties who covertly use honey trap are equally, if not more, despicable.

Nancy Schaefer
Theatrical enactment of the Uriah scheme
The Uriah Method

Essence:

  • use somebody to kill the victim
  • render the real perpetrator seemingly uninvolved

Uriah (the Hittite) was loyal soldier in the army of King David, the second king in the first United Kingdom of Israel (1020 B.C. to 930 B.C.). He was the husband of Bathsheba, who was pregnant by King David through an adulterous affair while Uriah was at war. This sets the stage for David's plot to kill him.

The murder of Uriah was recorded in 2 Samuel 11 to 2 Samuel 12 of the Christian Bible.

After Bathsheba was pregnant while Uriah was away from home, David ordered Uriah to return home and see his wife. Uriah returned to Jerusalem but repeatedly refused to go home believing that doing so was inappropriate for a soldier on active duty at war. Failing to establish contact between the couple will eventually expose the adulterous nature of her pregnancy by David. David gave a written order to Uriah's commanding officer Joab to put Uriah where the fighting is fiercest, then withdraw from him so he will be struck down by the enemy and die.

Uriah faithfully delivered his own death warranty and was killed by the sword of the Ammonites as David planned. This murder was rebuked by the prophet Nathan. Despite immediate repentance, David was later punished by turmoil in his family and throughout the kingdom of Israel, including the death of Bathsheba's new born baby, incest between Amnon and Tamar (the beautiful sister of Absalom), killing of Amnon by Absalom, and the insurrection of Absalom.

It is noteworthy to remark that David did what was right in the eyes of God and had not failed to keep any of God’s commands all the days of his life—except in the case of Uriah the Hittite (1 Kings 15:5). This leaves a black mark in David's life.

Cai Mao (蔡瑁) and Zhang Yun (張允) died in the hands of Cao Cao (曹操)

Kill with a borrowed sword is a classic stratagem in many cultures. The death of Cai Mao (蔡瑁) and Zhang Yun (張允) during the Three Kingdom Era in China is another example.

Cai Mao was an admiral of a warlord near the end of the Han Dynasty. Zhang Yun served as a naval officer with Cai. They were well trained naval commanders. Both defected to Cao whose army was superior in number but was inexperienced in naval warfare. To invade the territories of Sun Quan (孫權) and Liu Bei (劉備), Cao must move south and cross the Yangtze River. Cai and Zhang were therefore instrumental in the forthcoming cross river operation. This battle is known as the Battle of Red Cliffs (赤壁之戰).

The armies of Sun Quan and Liu Bei were inferior in number (a combined force of about 50,000 versus Cao's 800,000). Taking full advantage of Cao's weakness in naval warfare was their key to success. Getting rid of Cai and Zhang will deprive Cao's navy its only competent commanders and render it combat ineffective.

Battle of Red Cliffs map
Historians are uncertain of the precise location where the Battle of Red Cliffs was fought.

Zhou Yu (周瑜) was the commander-in-chief of Sun's army. He assumed tactical command of the coalition forces of Sun and Liu in the Battle of Red Cliffs.

Shortly before the battle began in the winter of 208 AD, Cao sent a lobbyist called Jiang Gan (蔣幹) to persuade Zhou to surrender. Zhou shrewdly used Jiang to deliver the message that Cai and Zhang had defected and would provide arrows to Zhou by shooting them over at dummy warships. Upon hearing this message via Jiang, Cao, who was suspicious in nature, fell prey to this scheme. Without giving much chance to defend themselves against the accusation, he killed Cai and Zhang after they returned from a naval skirmish in which they shot 100,000 arrows at Zhou's dummy warships under the cover of a heavy fog.

Combined with other factors, Cao suffered a major defeat in the Battle of Red Cliffs and was forced to retreat. He failed to achieve his strategic objective of uniting China in one decisive strike. This battle established the balance of power among the three major warlords. China entered the Three Kingdom Era.

Nancy Schaefer
The Naboth Method
Essence:
  • fabricate incriminating evidence to convict the victim of a crime punishable by death penalty
  • the murder legal and seemingly justified

The murder of Naboth is recorded in 1 Kings 21 of the Christian Bible. Naboth was the owner of a vineyard close to the palace of King Ahab (king of Israel who reigned from 869 B.C. to 850 B.C.). Ahab wanted to buy Naboth's vineyard. However, Naboth had inherited his land from his father and, according to Jewish law, could not sell it.

Ahab became very depressed and returned to his palace, lying on his bed, his face to the wall, and refused to eat. His wife, Jezebel (a Phoenician princess, the daughter of King Ithobaal I of Tyre), after learning the reason for his depression, plotted to kill Naboth by mock trial. She wrote letters to the elders and the nobles who lived in the same town with Naboth in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal. Her letters read as follows: “Proclaim a fast and seat Naboth at the front of the assembly. And seat two scoundrels opposite him, and let them testify against him: ‘You have reviled God and king!’ Then take him out and stone him to death.”

The plot went well. Naboth was killed and his vineyard was seized by Ahab. Ahab was later mortally wounded by a randomly shot arrow in battle and died. Jezebel, the instigator of this murder, was thrown out of a window in her palace and killed when Jehu rebelled. The fall was fatal. Her mangled body was devoured by the dogs as foretold by the prophet Elijah.

Yue Fei 岳飛

Yue Fei (岳飛) (March 24, 1103 – January 27, 1142) was a famous Chinese patriot poet, a martial artist and military general who fought for the Southern Sung Dynasty (南宋) against invasion of the Jin Dynasty (金朝, 1115–1234). The Jin people were the ancestors of the Manchus who established the Qing Dynasty some 500 years later. Yue was a capable general and successfully repelled the invasion of the Jurchins (also known as Manchus).

While Yue was fighting at the front, Chancellor Qin Hui (秦檜) summoned Yue back to the capital 12 times by way of imperial gold medallion orders (a must-obey royal edict). When Yue returned, he was arrested under false treason charge fabricated by Qin Hui. At the age of 39, Yue was poisoned to death in present day Hangzhou. Qin alleged that "no reason is needed" (莫須有) for executing Yue. This phrase has entered the Chinese language as an expression referring to fabricated charges by people with power. The tomb of Yue Fei is on the left and that of his son Yue Yun (岳雲) is on the right.

Yue served the Sung Emperor Gaozong (宋高宗 趙構) (12 June 1107 – 9 November 1187) who succeeded the throne after Emperor Qinzong (宋欽宗 趙桓) and his father Emperor Emeritus Huizong (宋徽宗 趙佶) were abducted by Jin forces during the Jingkang Incident (靖康事變) which ended the Northern Song Dynasty (北宋, 960 A.D. – 1127 A.D.). Traditionally, Chinese regarded Qin Hui as a traitor and blamed him for causing Yue's death. However, modern historians are more inclined to believe that Emperor Gaozong had used Qin Hui to stop Yue's military advance. Gaozong was the biggest beneficiary if Yue did not advance north to rescue the dethroned emperor. This was to ensure that the previous two emperors, who were still alive in Jin's captivity, will not return to reclaim the throne. Since he could not do this himself for obvious reasons, Qin Hui was used as a hired gun to do his dirty laundry.

When people in high power want to do something nasty, few would do it themselves. They often use a hired gun, who could be conveniently used as a scapegoat if needed. This will minimize the chance that the instigator is found to be involved in a plot that could damage his clout and reputation.

Today, we can still see Yue's shadow in popular culture. He invented a martial art called the "108 Hand Capturing Techniques (一百零八擒拿)" to capture enemy soldiers in close quarters combat. This technique (or its modified derivative) is used by law enforcement in various countries. He also established the Eagle Claw (鷹爪) Martial Art School. This martial art still exists today. Eagle Claw Kung Fu was used by the superstar Bruce Lee (李小龍) in his movie "Enter The Dragon (1973) 龍爭虎鬥". Lee learnt Wing Chun (詠春) and practised his own Jeet Kune Do (截拳道), not Eagle Claw. It was Shih Kien 石堅 (the actor who played Han in the movie) who taught Lee the brief action sequence extracted from the advanced Eagle Claw practice called "Five Spotted Leopard (鷹爪翻子門 五花豹拳)". Please click here to view the whole sequence.

Yue's patriotic poem 滿江紅 "Whole River Red" was used as the lyrics of a Cantonese pop song with the same title of cultural icon Roman Tam (羅文) in 1983.

The music video on the right shows the scenery of the Temple and Tomb of Yue Fei located on the western tip of West Lake, Hangzhou. While Emperor Gaozong was alive, no one dared to give him a proper burial, but Gaozong's successor annulled all charges against Yue Fei and reburied him at Yue Fei Tomb with full honors. Across from Yue Fei's tomb are cast-iron statues of Prime Minister Qin Hui, Emperor Gaozong and two other co-conspirators kneeling in shame, with their hands tied behind their backs. In 1221, a temple was built next to Yue's tomb in his memory. The temple has been renovated several times over the centuries. In 1961, the State Department declared it as a major national protected monument.

Nancy Schaefer
The Jesus Method
Essence:
  • similar with the previous method, instead of fabricating evidence, misconstrue what the victim had said, charge him with a crime, convict and kill him
  • the killing is legal and seemingly justified

Historically, Jesus of Nazareth (5 B.C. – 30 A.D.) was a person who lived in the land of Palestine two thousand years ago. To illustrate a typical disposal method, we will not discuss any theological implications of His death. We will focus on the historical background and why He was crucified from a secular perspective.

He is the central figure of Christianity. His arrest, trial and crucifixion are recorded in the four Gospels. It began from the betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane shortly after the Last Supper, brought before the High Priest Caiaphas and Pontius Pilate, found not guilty of any crime yet summarily sentenced to death and crucified in Calvary or the Skull (Golgotha in Hebrew) outside the early 1st century city walls of Jerusalem.

After the Northern Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) (930 B.C. to 720 B.C.) and Southern Kingdom of Judah (930 B.C. to 586 B.C.) perished, the land of Palestine was under Roman colonial rule (from 63 B.C. to 324 A.D.). Local Jewish authority, mainly religious in nature, did not have the power to sentence death penalty. It must come from the Roman procurator (a civilian title introduced during the rule of Claudius) of Judea.

The plot to kill Jesus began after He repeatedly:

  1. rebuked the Jewish religious authority of their wrong religious teachings;
  2. criticized their hypocritical and self righteous behavior and
  3. condemned commercial activities in the Temple.

He was considered a threat to the clout and the livelihood of the high priests. They were also jealous of the popularity of Jesus with the common people. It is noteworthy to remark that Nancy Schaefer did all the above. She rebuked "child protection" service providers of their wrong approach, criticized them of self-aggrandizing and condemning child removals to obtain federal funds to support the industry. Of course, this prominent outspoken politician is more than a mere inconvenience. She posed a credible threat to collapse the multi billion dollar "child protection" industry by advocating to change law, the only solution to stop further atrocities.

Jesus' affirmation that He is the Son of God, the Messiah hence the King of the Jews, was considered blasphemy and gave the Sanhedrin (Jewish religious leaders also known as high priests) an excuse to seek death for sedition against the Roman Empire.

The high priests seized this opportunity to petition Pilate for death penalty. Pilate found Jesus guilty of nothing treasonous. In an attempt to spare His life, Pilate offered the mob a chance to free Him as there was a prevailing Passover custom in Jerusalem that allowed or required Pilate, the governor of Judaea, to commute one prisoner's death sentence by popular acclaim. But the mob chose Barabbas (notorious prisoner according to Matthew) instead. By shrewdly maneuvering law and manipulating Pilate, the high priests were successful to condemn an innocent Jesus to death like a criminal and killed Him in a painful and humiliating way.

Only three days earlier had tremendous popularity as He entered Jerusalem during the Passover festival riding on a donkey. A large crowd came to greet him shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!" Yet at the trial before Pontius Pilate, the crowd showed hostility in sharp contrast to the earlier cheering crowds. What accounts for this rapid change of sentiment?

The following may offer an explanation:

  1. Perhaps the mob was comprised primarily of special interest people whose livelihoods were threatened by Jesus’ teachings so they sided with the high priests.
  2. Perhaps the mob was comprised of gullible people easily persuaded by the high priests to believe that Jesus had called himself God and committed blasphemy. Be mindful that high priests, like "child protection" social workers in modern society, were regarded by the Jews as righteous and held positions of trust.
  3. Perhaps Jesus did not fit the popular Jewish perception of a Messiah who would be a powerful liberator who could free them from Roman tyranny. Given the humble social status of Jesus, Jews naturally thought that He had lied and therefore had committed blasphemy by claiming to be God.
  4. Perhaps the mob was paid by the high priests to show support of their position in seeking the death of Jesus. Money talks. According to Matthew 28:11-15, the high priests later bribed the soldiers guarding Jesus' tomb to lie that His disciples came to steal His body while the soldiers were asleep. It is safe to contend that high priests were accustomed to get what they want through bribery. Interestingly, with huge public resources at their disposal, "child protection" social workers can obtain a lot favorable "professional" opinions and testimonies to support their positions in court.
Liu Shaoqi

Liu Shaoqi (劉少奇) (24 November 1898 – 12 November 1969), China's head of state, was killed after he was denounced as capitalist and labeled as a traitor during the chaotic Cultural Revolution.

Born into a moderately rich peasant family, Liu was a veteran of the Long March, a member of the Chinese Communist Central Military Committee (this 5-person supreme command entity was instrumental in achieving victory in the Chinese Civil War between 1946 to 1949). Should Mao fail to return from the famous Chongqing Negotiation from August 28, 1945 to October 10, 1945 with his lifelong enemy Chiang Kai-shek, Liu was appointed by Mao to lead the Party. He succeeded Mao as Government Chairman (essentially President of the People's Republic of China) in 1958, and was publicly acknowledged as Mao's chosen successor in 1961.

Amid growing disenchantment with Mao's Great Leap Forward, Liu and Deng Xiaoping embarked on economic reforms that bolstered their prestige in the party and the national populace. They advocated more liberal economic policies, as opposed to Mao's radical ideas. Mao perceived this as a threat to his supreme leadership. Attacking Liu's liberal ideology as right-wing viewpoints, Liu was removed from all political and government positions and expelled from the Chinese Communist Party in October 1968. Deng received a lesser punishment of removal from all positions but allowed to retain his party membership.

After humiliated and struggled by Red Guards, Liu was imprisoned in Kaifeng, Henan. He had diabetes and was refused medical treatment. At age 71, the former chairman of China died on 12 November 1969 due to medical neglect of untreated diabetes and pneumonia. His remains were secretly brought in a jeep to a crematorium. He was cremated under the name Liu Huihuang (occupation unemployed). The cause of death was recorded as illness. His family was not informed for another three years after his death, and the people in China for ten years. Liu was posthumously rehabilitated by Deng Xiaoping's government in 1980 and given a state funeral.

Nancy Schaefer
William Wallace The William Wallace Method
Essence:
  • victim charged with high treason;
  • sentenced victim to death after trial

William Wallace (1272 – 23 August 1305) is considered one of Scotland's greatest heroes in opposing English rule under Edward I (also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots) in the 13th century. Educated and rebellious, Wallace was the son of a minor Scottish lord. In 1292, he formed an army in the countryside and harassed the English army with hit and run guillera tactic. He managed to drive the English from Scotland and invaded northern England. In December of 1297 Wallace was elected Guardian of the Kingdom and began to rule Scotland.

On 22 July 1298, Edward I defeated Wallace's forces at the Battle of Falkirk. Wallace was forced to withdraw and resigned as Guardian. He continued to engaged the English in frequent skirmishes and remained a threat to the English in Scotland.

Failing to gain decisive military victory, the English subdued Scotland by other means. In 1303, a peace agreement was reached between England and France, effectively breaking up the Franco-Scottish alliance. In the winter of 1301–02, Edward I bought the allegiance of Robert the Bruce (the grandson of the claimant to the Scottish crown in 1291) with money, power and title of nobility. By 1304 most Scottish nobles had pledged their allegiance to Edward I. The English captured Stirling Castle in the same year. In 1305, Wallace was betrayed by Sir John de Menteith and turned over to the English. He was taken to London to stand trial of treason.

Wallace responded to the treason charge by saying, "I could not be a traitor to Edward, for I was never his subject." Of course, his defiance did not change the verdict of the trial. The English court found Wallace guilty and sentenced him to public execution. On 23 August 1305, he was stripped naked and dragged through London at the heels of a horse to Elms at Smithfield. He was hanged but released while he was still alive, eviscerated and his bowels burnt before him, beheaded, his body was then cut into four parts. His preserved head (dipped in tar) was placed on a pike atop London Bridge. His limbs were displayed in Newcastle upon Tyne, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Stirling, and Aberdeen.

After killing Wallace and Scotland largely under English control, Edward I installed Englishmen and turncoat Scots to govern the country.

Despite the fact that Wallace was convicted of treason, he is highly respected as a well-educated Scottish patriot who fought for his country against foreign invasion with passion and brilliant tactics. His deeds had been reenacted in modern popular culture. The American film "Braveheart (1995)" directed by and starring Mel Gibson was based on the life of this Scottish hero.

The beauty of this method is that the victim appears to have committed the highest crime. Killing the victim becomes legitimate and to the best interests of a nation. 282 years after the death of Wallace, this method was repeated in the killing of Mary (Stewart), Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587) by another English monarch.

At one time, Mary (the only surviving offspring of King James V of Scotland) claimed the crowns of four countries - Scotland, France, England and Ireland. However, she lacked the political skills to rule successfully. Her marriages were unpopular and ended up in murder, scandal and forced abdication in favor of her infant son (later King James I of England).

On 16 May 1568, she fled to England seeking help from her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I of England. Unknown to Mary, Elizabeth I had been helping Mary's enemies by promising money in return for treachery against Mary. Since Mary was the closest Catholic claimant to the English throne, Elizabeth wanted to reduce the threat from Mary being used by pro-Catholic factions to overthrow herself. She feared that some of her subjects wanted Mary made queen of both Scotland and England. So she was determined to keep her cousin's kingdom in continual strife so that Mary would have less chance to plot against her. Mary had indeed thrown herself to a hidden enemy. She remained imprisoned for the next nineteen years.

After the Anglo–Spanish War (1585–1604) broke out, Mary eventually became a liability that Elizabeth could no longer tolerate. English intelligence discovered that Spain (the strongest country in the West at that time) had a plan codenamed the Enterprise (la Empresa de Inglaterra) in which Spain will land two armies in Sussex and Norfolk, Mary is to be set free and placed on the English throne. Elizabeth is to be assassinated. Treason was the final choice Elizabeth used to get rid of Mary. After being implicated in the Babington Plot by Mary's letters, she was put on trial for treason by a court of about 40 noblemen, including Catholics to show objectivity and fairness, in October 1586. The Crown took the position that Mary had sanctioned the attempted assassination of Elizabeth in her letters. Mary denied the allegation but was unable to change the guilty verdict of the English court resulting in the sentence of beheading.

Mary (Stewart), Queen of Scots

Elizabeth was fearful of ordering her execution as Mary's son James of Scotland may revenge her mother by forming an alliance with the Catholic powers, France and Spain to invade England. Be mindful that England was at the beginning of the Anglo–Spanish War in 1586 and had not won any decisive battle yet. In seeking a less risky alternative to dispose Mary, Elizabeth asked Mary's final custodian, Amias Paulet, if he would contrive some accident to kill Mary. He refused on the grounds that he would not allow such "a stain on his posterity."

Failing to find better means to get rid of Mary, Elizabeth eventually signed the death warrant and ordered the execution be carried out immediately before she could change her mind. At age 44, Mary was beheaded on 7 February 1587 in Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire. By orders of the English government, all of her possessions, including her letters and will written in the last hours of her life, were burned. In 1603, upon Elizabeth's death, Mary's son became king of England as James I.

Judiciary is often used by those in power to legitimize punishment and elimination of rivalries. Many people naively believe that courts are impartial, just and infallible. Special interests in the "child protection" industry use such mentality to the maximum of their advantage. They have managed to make the majority of the people to believe that their activities on families and children are just and served the best interests of the children by obtaining sanctions from family courts.

Nancy Schaefer

Reenactment of Napoleon's life in St. Helena

The Napoleon Method

Essence:
  • appear to die naturally

After his defeat in the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) died in St. Helena while in exile. His physician, Francesco Antommarchi, the only French doctor among the seven doctors in the autopsy, found the cause of death to be stomach cancer, though he did not sign the official report. The British government was relieved by this finding. Despite that Napoleon had a family history of stomach cancer (his grandfather, father and two sisters all died of stomach cancer), the French people naturally pointed their fingers at the British as the dethroned Napoleon was still perceived as a threat. His exile cost the British government 8 million pounds a year to keep a garrison and a fleet in St. Helena to guard him.

When the diaries of Napoleon's faithful valet, Louis Marchand, was published in 1955, his description of Napoleon in the months before his death led Sten Forshufvud (a Swedish dentist and toxicologist) to investigate Napoleon's causes for death. Forshufvud and Ben Weider (a Canadian Napoleon enthusiast) wrote a book titled "Assassination at St. Helena" (1978, Mitchell Press Limited, Vancouver, B.C., ISBN 0888360282) and concluded that the French emperor died of deliberate chronic arsenic poisoning.

Arsenic was used as a poison during that era because it was undetectable when administered over a long period. 19 years after his death, the emperor's body was remarkably well-preserved when moved back to France in 1840. Arsenic is a strong preservative and therefore supported the poisoning hypothesis. Forensic analysis of Napoleon's hair given to various people at different times (a tradition at that time that aristocrats gave locks of hair to those they favor) found an increasing amount of arsenic over time. According to Forshufvud and Weider, this provides conclusive evidence to support that Napoleon was indeed murdered, not by his English captors, but by a secret agent called Count Charles Tristan de Montholon allegedly sent by the House of Bourbon. Count Montholon was the only surviving courtier of Napoleon's small imperial court in St. Helena who did not attend the return of the emperor's casket in 1840. Furthermore, Montholon was in financial difficulty and Napoleon had left him a legacy of two millions of francs in his will (dated April 15, 1821, at Longwood, Island of St. Helena) as a proof of the emperor's satisfaction for the filial attentions.


Napoleon
Autopsy of Napoleon in St. Helena

Life in exile was boring and depressing for Napoleon. To him, the remote island is a huge prison. Drastic change in lifestyle and fear of being harmed by the British made him uneasy when he first arrived. Betsy Balcombe, 14 years of age in January 1817, soon became the ex-Emperor's new lay friend. She often brought laughter to him. In 1818, William Balcombe was dismissed from the Island on suspicion of his dealings with France. Napoleon gave Betsy a lock of his hair as a farewell present. This lock of hair was eventually inherited by Dame Mabel Brookes whose grandfather was Betsy's brother. Mrs. Betsy Balcombe-Abell died childless. In 1962, Dame Mabel provided a few hairs from this lock to Dr. Hamilton Smith, Professor of Forensic Medicine at the Glasgow University (England), for arsenic content analysis. Since how far from the scalp this lock was cut cannot be ascertained, no exact dating of intoxication can be established. This lock of hair carried a reading of at least 32.5 times more arsenic than the normal level [page 280 of "Assassination at St. Helena" (1978)].

In 2002, investigation carried out by a team of French forensic experts overturned the aforesaid theory and concluded that Napoleon died of stomach cancer as the British alleged. This new study, commissioned by the magazine Science et Vie, focuses on strands of hair taken from Napoleon in 1805, 1814 and 1821. All were found to have abnormally high levels of arsenic. Researchers explained that poisoning could not have been the cause of death. The arsenic came from contamination such as gunpowder, rat poison, wallpaper glue and most pertinently, hair ointment.

This theory has the following flaws:

  1. The remains of Napoleon were exhumed at 11 a.m. on 16 October 1840 and repatriated to France from the island of St Helena. His body was found to be intact. Arsenic is believed to act as a preserving agent. If the presence of arsenic in his hair was pertinently from air ointment, it is unlikely that his entire body could be so well preserved.
  2. If this theory holds, those who lived with Napoleon in the Longwood household should have been exposed to the same conditions and should have hairs containing similar high arsenic level. There is no control experiment in this study (probably due to a lack of hair example) to eliminate alternate explanations of experimental results.

The finding of death caused by stomach cancer is not scientifically irrefutable. In our view, the cause of Napoleon's death remains uncertain.

Emotional attachment can easily build up on children. The young girl Betsy in the video above is a real character whom Napoleon met in St. Helena. She was the daughter of William Balcombe, a merchant who held the monopoly on deliveries to the East India Company. St. Helena was an important supply base. Napoleon lived on the Balcombe's estate for 2 months before moving to his residence called Longwood House on St. Helena. His regret of missing his son is clearly depicted in his comment on the success of Genghis Khan. Cited in a book, it is said that Napoleon lamented:

"I am less fortunate than Genghis Khan who had four competent sons to help build his empire. I do not have such blessing."

Since the beginning of time, children are often used as pawn for political reasons. Even the once mighty Napoleon is of no exception. In March 1810, he married Marie Louise, Archduchess of Austria (a great niece of Marie Antoinette by proxy; thus he had married into a German royal and imperial family). The royal couple had one child, Napoleon Francis Joseph Charles (1811–1832), known from birth as the King of Rome, who became Napoleon II in 1814 and reigned for only two weeks. Although Napoleon and Marie Louise remained married until his death, she and their child left France forever on 29 March 1814 and went back to her father, the Emperor Francis II of Austria. Napoleon never saw Marie Louise and their son thereafter. When Napoleon returned from Elba, he asked to have his son back. His request was denied as the Austrian emperor intended to use his son as hostage.

Napoleon II was awarded the title of the Duke of Reichstadt in 1818. At age 22, he died of tuberculosis at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna on 22 July 1832 with no children. It is noteworthy to mention that it was Adolf Hitler who returned most of the remains of Napoleon II to his dead father on December 15, 1940 as a gift to France. This was obviously for the political purpose of garnering support from people in occupied France. His heart and intestines remained in Vienna. Even dead children are used for political purposes.

Hover your mouse to pause the slide show and to view photo description.
The beauty of this method is that the victim appears to die of natural cause and the murderer gets away unnoticed and unpublished.

This method was used by the murderer of the Chinese Qing Emperor Guangxu 清光緒帝 愛新覺羅 載湉 (the central figure in the photo on the right) at 5 p.m. on 14 November 1908. At age 38, the second last emperor of China conveniently died 20 hours before the death of Empress Dowager Cixi (慈禧太后 葉赫那拉 杏貞).

In the evening of 5 December 1875, the 4-year old Guangxu (清光緒帝 愛新覺羅 載湉) was removed from his birth parents Yixuan, Prince Chun, and Yehenara Wanzhen (葉赫那拉 婉貞), a younger sister of Empress Dowager Cixi to succeed the late Tongzhi Emperor who died without a son. Traditionally, an oldest male within the royal family is supposed to succeed the throne. However, Cixi rejected the suggestion of enthroning the 17-year old son of Prince Gong (恭親王) in favour of the 4-year old Guangxu. Her hidden objective is clearly to create an excuse for her continuous control of the Qing Dynasty behind the curtain.

To ensure complete control of the new child emperor, Empress Dowager Cixi ordered the child emperor to call her "dear father" and prohibited any contact with his birth parents. Eunuchs and servants were prohibited to relay any information on birth parents to the emperor. These tactics are often used by service providers in modern day child protection. Foster parents force removed children to call them mum and dad. Child protection workers order no contact between parents and removed children and prohibit communication of information on birth parents. Complete severance of parental tie is for control and preparation of adoption.

On 4 November 2008, forensic tests revealed that the level of arsenic in the Emperor's remains was over 2,000 times higher than that of ordinary people. Scientists concluded that the poison could only be administered in a high dose one time. China Daily quoted a historian, Dai Yi, who speculated that Cixi may have known of her imminent death and may have worried that Guangxu would continue his reforms after her death and would order his execution. However, we are more inclined to believe that General Yuan Shikai (袁世凱) or the powerful eunuch Li Lianying (李連英) had more incentive to kill the Emperor because their life will be at risk if the Emperor returns to power.


Nancy Schaefer

The Consort Zhen (珍妃) Method
珍妃
Please hover your mouse to the poem above to view the English translation.
珍妃
Essence:
  • appear to have committed suicide for a noble reason

Consort Zhen 珍妃 (27 February 1876 – 15 August 1900) was the favourite consort of the Chinese Qing Emperor Guangxu (清光緒帝 愛新覺羅 載湉). She entered the Forbidden City in 1888. On 25 February 1889, she was granted the title of "Concubine Zhen". Among the three wives of the Emperor, Zhen was the favorite consort.

She was imprisoned by Empress Dowager Cixi for supporting Emperor Guangxu's Hundred Days' Reform (百日維新 or 戊戌變法) after Cixi engineered a coup d'état on September 21, 1898, forcing the young, reform-minded Guangxu into seclusion. She was not allowed to see Guangxu since then.

Zhen

During the invasion of the Eight-Nation Alliance (八國聯軍) in 1900, the Qing Imperial Court fled from the Forbidden City to Xi'an. Before her departure, Cixi ordered Consort Zhen to be taken out of the prison and brought in front of her. Cixi said: "I originally planned to bring you along with us. But you are young and pretty, and are likely to be raped by the foreign soldiers on the way. I trust you know what you should do." Realizing that Empress Dowager Cixi meant to order her to commit suicide, Consort Zhen begged Cixi to allow Guangxu to stay in Beijing and negotiate with the foreign powers.

Outraged by her plea, Cixi ordered Zhen to be thrown into a well behind the Ningxia Palace (寧壽宮) in the north-eastern part of the Forbidden City. Eunuch 崔玉貴 and eunuch 王德環 carried out the execution. She died at age 24. The entrance of the well where Zhen was thrown into was much bigger than that shows in the photo on the right. To cover up the crime scene, the entrance had been blocked up by rock slates.

When the superstitious Cixi returned to Beijing in 1901, she feared vengeance from the ghost of Zhen. To placate the spirit of the deceased, Zhen was posthumously raised to Imperial Noble Consort Ke-Shun (恪順皇貴妃). Cixi announced that Zhen committed suicide to avoid being raped by enemy troops during the invasion. Zhen's sister Consort Jin (瑾妃, 1874-1924) retrieved her remains from the well and buried her outside the Forbidden City. In 1913, her body was exhumed again and buried in an imperial tomb next to that of Emperor Guangxu.

The beauty of this method is that people are made to believe that the victim martyred oneself for a noble reason.

Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel (15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944) was a famous and capable German Field Marshal of World War II known as the Desert Fox. He wrote a book on desert warfare said to be read by the U.S. led coalition general Norman Schwarzkopf before the First Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991) codenamed Desert Storm. Rommel has been hailed as a brilliant tactician and competent strategist by both his colleagues and foes.

After the failed bomb assassination of 20 July 1944, Rommel was perceived to be involved in the conspiracy against Adolf Hitler. Because of his huge prestige, Hitler allowed him to commit suicide rather than be tried and executed.

Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel

On 14 October 1944, Wilhelm Burgdorf (a Nazi German general from Hitler's headquarters) offered Rommel a choice to stand trial in the People's Court or to commit suicide quietly. If Rommel chose the former, his staff would have been arrested and his family would suffer even before the certain conviction and execution. If he chose the latter, the government would assure his family full pension payments and a state funeral claiming he had died a hero. Burgdorf had brought a capsule of cyanide for the occasion.

At age 52, Rommel took the lethal capsule and committed suicide outside of the town of Herrlingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany (west of Ulm). He was buried with full military honors. Hitler avoided the political risk of killing a popular and competent general that could further demoralize the retreating Wehrmacht.

Nancy Schaefer

The Nicholas II Method
Essence:
  • victims suddenly disappear and no evidence can be traced to confirm their death

After his abdication on 15 March 1917, the Tsar of Russia Nicholas II (18 May 1868 – 17 July 1918) and his family suddenly disappeared. Nobody, including the pro-Romanov White Russian army, knew their whereabouts until 1979 when the remains of the royal family were exhumed near Yekaterinburg by the amateur archaeologist Alexander Avdonin. Subsequent DNA test confirmed the identities of the remains that they are from the deceased royal family.

Nicholas II

On the night of 16/17 July 1918, the Romanov and the Tsar's personal physician Eugene Botkin, his wife's maid Anna Demidova, and the family's chef, Ivan Kharitonov, and footman, Alexei Trupp were awakened around 2 a.m., told to dress, and led down into a half-basement room at the back of the Ipatiev house. The pretext for this move was the family's safety - that anti-Bolshevik forces were approaching Yekaterinburg. They were all killed by a firing squad waiting in an adjoining room.

The beauty of this method is that the victims suddenly evaporated from the face of the earth and no conclusive evidence can be found to confirm their death, hence their murder. This method was used in the Holocaust committed by Nazi Germany to exterminate European Jews and other unwanted people such as the Gypsy during World War II and the belligerents of the Yugoslav wars, particularly Kosovo and Bosnia, between 1991 and 1995.

The Holocaust refers to the genocide of approximately six million European Jews by Nazi Germany during World War II. Concentration camps were set up in occupied countries to carry out the state-sponsored extermination program. Among them, the most well-known camp is Auschwitz concentration camp located in southern Poland where an estimated 1.1 million people were killed.

The main method of killing was by gassing them with Zyklon B, a highly lethal cyanide-based pesticide. Victims were ordered to undress before entering the gas chamber. They were told that they need to take a shower before giving quarters and work. This is to minimize resistance as the sheer number of victims, though unarmed, will create a huge problem to if they raised against their German captors. Gas chamber was the most efficient method of massacre in War World II.

A documentary on the Katyn Massacre ...

Twenty two years after the execution of the Tsar's family, the Soviets used this method again in a much larger scale, the Katyn Massacre. This was the largest simultaneous executions of prisoners of war (estimated about 22,000) carried out by the Soviet secret police NKVD in April-May 1940 at Katyn Forest (about 19 kilometres west of Smolensk, Russia). This massacre is not well known, probably because it was discovered and announced by the Nazi in 1943 and the cover-up secret deal made among the Allies at the Tehran Conference. The discovery led to the termination of diplomatic relations between Moscow and the Polish exile government in London.

The Soviet Union maintained that the Nazi killed those Poles until 1990 when the last communist leader Mikhail Gorbachev finally admitted Soviet responsibility. Details of the massacre are well documented in the Katyn Massacre link and the video on the right.

Like the executioners in the Holocaust using tactics to reduce resistance of the victims, "child protection" social workers often fool children and parents by alleging that they are to protect them and to develop their families. Many victims put down their guard and fall into the traps set forth. They learn the hard way that these bureaucrats are not their friends.

There are similarities in motives and government responses after discovery of atrocities in the Katyn Massacre and modern "child protection". They are compared as follows:


Katyn Massacre

Child Protection Industry

Motives
  • to deprive the Polish military of a large portion of its leadership and military talent (be mindful that Poland was not a communist state before World War II and about half of the Polish officer corp were killed in this nassacre)
  • to eliminate the financial burden of maintaining the POW camps
  • to eliminate social classes (like intellectuals, landowners) considered bad in communist ideology
Motives
  • to deprive leadership of a family by alienating parents and their children and/or driving a wedge between spouses, hence neutralizing effective resistance against the onslaught launched under the pretext of "child protection"
  • to guarantee a continuous demand of social services to "help" dysfunctional families, hence securing jobs and business of special interests relying on tax dollars spent on "child protection"
  Method

The killings were methodical. After the personal information of the condemned was checked, he was handcuffed and shot in the back of the head in a sound proof room masked by the operation of loud machines. Dead bodies were taken out through the opposite door and laid in one of the five or six waiting trucks. This procedure went on every night, except for the May Labor Day holiday.

Method

The investigation and legal process of "child protection" are structured and lopsided against parents. After "child protection" social workers form an opinion that there is a concern, children are often removed and dumped in foster homes run by strangers. Parents must go through a lengthy and costly legal process that results in destroying their families in many cases.

Cover Up
  • Immediately after the Red Army had recaptured Smolensk, NKVD forces began a cover-up. A cemetery the Germans had permitted the Polish Red Cross to build was destroyed and other evidence removed. In January 1944, the Soviet Union established the "Special Commission for Determination and Investigation of the Shooting of Polish Prisoners of War by German-Fascist Invaders in Katyn Forest" to investigate the incident to portray an image that the Soviet regime was impartial and willing to investigate allegation of its own wrongdoing. However, no foreign personnel were allowed to join the Commission. The final report of the commission listed a number of items, from gold watches to letters and icons, allegedly found on the bodies. These items were said to have dates from November 1940 to June 1941, hence 'refuting' the German claim that the Poles were shot by the Soviets before the German occupation of the Katyn area.
Cover Up
  • After media attention was drawn by some removed children killed in foster homes, the B.C. Government conducted the Hughes Inquiry that produced the Ted Hughes report on "B.C. Children and Youth Review" (released on April 7, 2006) and the subsequent creation of the office of Representative for Children and Youth (RCY). The latter is supposed to be a watchdog on the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD), the province child protection agency. The RCY is not given any real power to curb corruption and the frequent abuse of authority. Furthermore, preservation of families and protection of parent's rights are not RCY's mandate. More information on this issue can be found in our Representative for Children and Youth (RCY) page. Like the Soviet Commission to investigate the Katyn Massacre, the B.C. Government shows little sincerity to rectify the main underlying problem in MCFD, namely the absolute authority to remove children from their families. At the point of writing, no report published by the government ever admits that there is structural corruption, abuse of authority, lack of parent representation and inappropriate allocation of tax dollars to the wrong hands in child protection matters.
Aftermath Management:

Public Display of Respect to the Victims
  • In an unprecedented move, the prime minister of Russia and Poland, Vladimir Putin and Donald Tusk, honoured the victims of the Katyn massacre on April 7, 2010. They were also to pay their respects to Soviet victims of Stalinist-era terror campaigns buried next to Polish officers in the Katyn Forest in western Russia.
Aftermath Management

At the point of writing, no Canadian politician has publicly admitted wrongdoing, let alone giving an apology, on state-sponsored child removal. The closest aftermath management is Stephen Harper's apology on residential school, the predecessor of modern "child protection" in our view, on June 11, 2008. Note that politicians are unlikely to apologize on their wrongdoings unless the following conditions are met:

  • They cannot be held responsible for the wrongdoing either in court or in the next election.
  • The instigators of the wrongful act are either dead or no longer linked to the current regime.
  • The apology will build political assets to portray an image of accountability and good governance.

Nancy Schaefer

The Yamamoto Method

Essence:
  • requires reason(s) or excuse(s) to declare war;
  • kill the target with military might

Isoroku Yamamoto 山本五十六 (4 April 1884–18 April 1943) was the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Combined Fleet (聯合艦隊) during World War II. After the U.S. Congress passed the Two-Ocean Navy Act on 19 July 1940, Japan knew that war with America was inevitable. The Japanese High Command ordered Yamamoto to draw up plans to defeat the U.S. Yamamoto had lived and been educated in America. Given the disparity in strategic strength, he knew that Japan cannot defeat the U.S. The best that Japan could do is to deliver a fatal military blow to paralyze the Americans in the Pacific, demoralize their will to fight and compel them to sue for peace.

Isoroku Yamamoto

With this notion in mind, Yamamoto masterminded the Pearl Harbor attack on 7 December 1941. Delay in delivering the ultimatum to the U.S. State Department had turned the meticulously planned surprise attack to a sneak attack, fueling the Americans with rage and passion to seek revenge. Although the attack was a tactical success, Yamamoto failed to destroy the three American carriers in the Pacific. To protect his ships against air strike from the intact American carriers, Admiral Chūichi Nagumo (南雲 忠一) withdrew before launching the third wave attack to destroy the docks and oil storage facilities. Pearl Harbor became functional again within months after the attack. Many of the damaged warships were repaired to combat ready state in the docks. Yamamoto's strategic objective to force the U.S. to sue for peace had not been accomplished.

Politically, the attack had awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve to seek total victory. At Winston Churchill's great relief, Yamamoto brought the United Sates into the war, an outcome Churchill had sought without success since war broke out in Poland in September 1939. At this time, Churchill was contended that England was saved. America's entry to the war had permanently changed the balance of power against the Axis.

As Yamamoto correctly predicted, the Japanese ran wild and won victory upon victory in the Pacific against the Allied in the next six months after the Pearl Harbor attack. The tide turned against the Japanese after the Battle of Midway. To boost morale after the defeat at Guadalcanal, Yamamoto made an inspection tour throughout the South Pacific. On 14 April 1943, the U.S. naval intelligence effort, codenamed "Magic", intercepted and decrypted a coded message containing specific details regarding Yamamoto's tour, including his itinerary. Yamamoto's subordinate officer had pleaded him not to take the risk as his route was within range of American fighters, assuming that the Japanese encrypted code had been compromised. But Yamamoto insisted on his one-day tour. He assured his officers that he will return for dinner the same day.

Admiral Chester W. Nimitz immediately relayed the information to President Roosevelt and proposed to kill Yamamoto en route. Roosevelt was having breakfast in Washington D.C. when the news arrived. Without a second thought, he approved Nimitz's proposal and ordered him to proceed.

A squadron of 16 P-38G Lightning aircraft were assigned to intercept the most hated Japanese naval commander. Accordingly, the codename for this top secret operation was "Vengeance". In the morning of 18 April, 1943, First Lieutenant Rex T. Barber opened fire on Yamamoto's plane. He targeted the aircraft with gunfire until it began to spew smoke from its left engine. Barber turned away to attack the other transport as Yamamoto's plane crashed into the jungle. The crash site and body of Yamamoto were found the next day in the jungle by a Japanese search and rescue party.

To maintain secrecy of reading Japanese coded messages, all orders surrounding Operation Vengeance must not duplicated and must be destroyed after being read. This operation is one of the most expertly-executed missions in history. Should he be a worst scenario planner, Yamamoto would have avoided this disaster. But this Japanese commander was a born gambler. This cost his life and delivered a serious blow to Japanese moral.

In 1949, fate had satirically brought Mr. Barber to meet Yamamoto's widow, Reiko Mihashi, in Japan. Unknown to Reiko Mihashi that Barber was the airman who killed her husband, she thanked Barber and the American government for helping to rebuild Japan after the war. Be mindful that details of Operation Vengeance remained classified until 1960.

The beauty of this method is killing the target becomes a legitimate objective and people in power can use all resources of a nation without any restriction.

Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) died in a similar way. Prior to the First Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991), Iraq was a friend of America. The Americans had supported Iraq in the 8-year long Iraq-Iran War. The grudge began after Saddam invaded his oil-rich neighbor Kuwait and annexed the country. After liberating Kuwait, Saddam remained in power and had plotted to kill former American President George Bush.

In 2001, George Walker Bush became president. The 911 attack had given the American president the political opportunity he needs to run wild. Although there is no linkage that Iraq was involved in the attack, Saddam Hussein openly celebrated the success of the 911 attack. Furthermore, his continuous threat to kill the old former president George H.W. Bush had outraged the President. During a campaign speech in September 2002, Bush cited a number of reasons in addition to alleged terrorist links and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) about why Saddam was so dangerous to the U.S., noting, in particular that, "After all, this is the guy who tired to kill my dad." He was referring to an alleged plot by Iraqi intelligence to assassinate Bush's father during his triumphal visit to Kuwait in April, 1993, 25 months after U.S.-led forces chased Iraqi troops out of Kuwait in the first Gulf War and three months after Bush Sr. surrendered the White House to Bill Clinton.

Under the pretext of ridding WMD, American and British troops started the Second Gulf War in March 2003. Unlike the First Gulf War, the Coalition's objective is to invade, occupy and overthrow Saddam's government. Three weeks after the beginning of the invasion, US-led Coalition forces moved into Baghdad. Saddam ran hiding. Iraqi troops soon ceased to be an organized fighting force after its command structure disintegrated. On July 22, 2003 during a raid by the U.S. 101st Airborne Division and men from Task Force 20, Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay, and one of his grandsons were killed in a three-hour gunfight.

On 13 December, 2003, Saddam was captured at a farmhouse in ad-Dawr near Tikrit with some small firearms and over $700,000 U.S. dollars in cash. The Iraqi dictator lacked the courage to commit suicide. On 30 June 2004, Saddam Hussein and other senior Baathist leaders were handed over legally (but not physically) to the interim Iraqi government to stand trial for crimes against humanity and other offences. On 5 November 2006, Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging. Saddam's half brother, Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court in 1982, were convicted of similar charges. The verdict and sentencing were both appealed but subsequently affirmed by Iraq's Supreme Court of Appeals. On 30 December 2006, Saddam was hanged. He was buried at his birthplace of Al-Awja in Tikrit, Iraq, about 2 miles from his sons Uday and Qusay Hussein next day.

After an extensive search, Coalition troops found no WMD in Iraq. This is an embarrassment to the Bush administration and casts serious doubt on the integrity of military intelligence and the merit of the war. Despite whether or not Bush started the war to protect or to avenge his father, it is certain that Iraqi oil fields are now in American hands. Incidentally, the Bush family is from Texas and has substantial connections with oil businesses. Occupying Iraq will blockade al-Qaeda expansion in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Strategically, stationing troops in Iraq provides forward position to deal with threats from Iran and the perceived expansion of China. Domestically, the oil and the weapon industry are pleased as the war has generated many business opportunities.

One indictment against Saddam was crimes against humanity including enforced disappearance of persons. It is thought simulating to remark that state-sponsored child removal amounts to a systematic attack directed against a civilian population, with knowledge of the attack resulting in enforced disappearance of persons and other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health. Legalizing such hideous acts by way of "child protection" related statute does not change the nature of these acts one bit.

Nancy Schaefer
The Marilyn Monroe Method
Essence:
  • appear to be killed by drug overdose
Marilyn Monroe

On August 5, 1962, the 36-year old sex icon Marilyn Monroe (June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962) was found dead at her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California. Autopsy established the cause of death as "acute barbiturate (drugs that act as central nervous system depressants) poisoning," resulting from a "probable suicide".

It is said that Monroe's final years were marked by illness, personal problems, and a reputation for being unreliable and difficult to work with. This forms the basis for a probable suicide. Since the 1960s, rumors have existed that Monroe had affairs with Robert Kennedy or John Kennedy, or both. JFK's reputed mistress Judith Exner, in her 1977 autobiography, also wrote about an affair that she said the president and Monroe had.

Journalist Anthony Summers examines Monroe's relationships with the Kennedy brothers at length. He concluded that Monroe was in love with President Kennedy and wanted to marry him in the early 1960s. She called the White House frequently. When the married President had to break off their affair, Monroe became even more depressed, and then turned to Robert Kennedy, who may have visited Monroe in Los Angeles about the time that she died.

Jič Jėn 解縉

Many theories, including murder, speculate the circumstances of her death and the time line after the body was found. Some conspiracy theories implicate John and Robert Kennedy, while other theories suggested CIA or Mafia complicity.

The beauty of this method is the victim appears to die of drug overdose supported by other problems like depression, illness, decline in fame or financial hardship prior to death.

Jič Jėn 解縉 (1369 A.D. -1415 A.D.) died in a similar way during the Ming Dynasty in China. Jič was an outstanding scholar. He served in the imperial court since 1388 A.D. and was one of the editors of the famous Yongle Great Encyclopedia (1408) (永樂大典). Emperor Yongle (明成祖 朱棣) accepted his advice on selecting his eldest son Zhū Gāochė (朱高熾) as the Crown Prince. Other sons of the emperor, especially the second son King Han (漢王 朱高煦), hated Jič Jėn. He eventually lost favor, demoted and jailed for five years.

When Emperor Yongle discovered that Jič Jėn was still imprisoned, he indicated to his military intelligence (錦衣衞, a gestapo-like intelligence organization reports directly to the emperor with absolute power to arrest and execute outside the judiciary) officer Jė Gāng (紀綱) that he was surprised that Jič Jėn was still alive. Jė Gāng immediately understood the royal intent. He got Jič Jėn drunk in prison. At age 47, Jič Jėn was found dead laying nude in snow. By using his spy to create a murder looks like an accident resulting from excessive consumption of alcohol, Emperor Yongle tactfully avoided linkage of murdering a well respected scholar who had not committed a crime punishable by death.

50 years later, Jič Jėn was posthumously rehabilitated by Emperor Chénghuā Zhū Jiānshēn (朱見深).

The JFK Method

Essence:
  • appear to be a crime victim

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963) was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on November 22, 1963, during a political trip to Texas to smooth over factions in the Democratic Party between liberals Ralph Yarborough and Don Yarborough (no relation with each other) and conservative John Connelly.

The President was shot once in the upper back and was killed by a final shot to the head. He was pronounced dead at 1:00 p.m. Only 46 of age, JFK died younger than any U.S. president to date.

JFK

Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository from which the shots were suspected to have been fired, was arrested on charges of the murder of a local police officer and was subsequently charged with the assassination of Kennedy. He denied shooting anyone, claiming he was a patsy, but was killed by Jack Ruby on November 24, before he could be tried. Ruby was then arrested and convicted for the murder of Oswald. Ruby successfully appealed his conviction and death sentence but became ill and died of cancer while the date for his new trial was being set.

The Warren Commission, created by President Johnson and chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren, concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin. Many disagreed with the results of this investigation. Vital evidence had been systematically destroyed or conveniently lost. As of today, no conclusion can be drawn who the real assassin was.

The beauty of this method is that the victim appears to be killed in a crime and shift attention from the real murderer.

Few would disagree that JFK was killed for political reasons. On the day before polls opened on Saturday, former Taiwanese (Republic of China) president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁, born October 12, 1950) was shot by an assassin in the stomach while campaigning on motorcade parade in the city of Tainan on Friday, March 19, 2004. This is known as the 3-19 Presidential Assassination Attempt (三一九槍擊事件). Unlike JFK, Chen survived the assassination. There is wide-spread belief that Chen orchestrated this well-planned self directed assassination as a last-ditch effort to garner sympathy. Chen narrowly won the re-election with a margin of less than 30,000 votes out of 12.9 million votes counted.

Since Chiang Kai-shek retreated from Mainland China in 1949, the Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) government controlled Taiwan. In the 2000 presidential election, former Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) weakened the strength of KMT by introducing faction within the Party. As a result of a split of factions, James Soong ran for the presidency as an independent candidate against the KMT nominee Lien Chan, hence effectively reduced pro-KMT votes. This allowed an opportunity for Chen's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP, 民主進步黨) to win the election on March 18, 2000 with only 39% of the votes. Chen finished his first term without much accomplishments. His government worsened the relationship with China by the DPP's pro-independence ideology and failed to strengthen Taiwan's declining economy. Popularity between KMT and DPP is almost at par before the 2000 election.

Chen Shui-bian shot

According to Chen who was a lawyer by trade before entering politics, the bullet left a flesh wound that was 11 cm long and 2 cm deep and was found in his clothes. He left the hospital on the same day with 14 stitches. The Presidential Office Secretary General said that Chen and his Vice President Annette Lu, who was also reportedly shot in the leg in the same incident, were taken into the hospital. However, surveillance video footage from the hospital showed that Chen walked into the hospital on his own unassisted. The opposition made many allegations into the conduct of the security and hospital procedures requiring Chen and Lu to change parts of their stories in order for it to make sense. While many theories were put forth, the opposition had no access to the physical evidence so the Criminal Investigation Bureau refuted them.

The opposition accused Chen of staging the incident to garner sympathy and to tarnish KMT as the probable mastermind. The Taiwanese Criminal Investigation Bureau hired renowned forensic scientist Henry Lee to examine the physical evidence. Dr. Lee was famous for defending O.J. Simpson in the murder of his wife and lover, and helped acquit Simpson based on the LAPD's lack of professionalism and possibility of planted evidence at the murder site. Dr. Lee and his team of American experts had previously established the belly wound was in fact a gunshot wound, and then claimed the windshield hole had been struck from the outside based on the lack of windshield powder outside the jeep. Despite widespread speculation that the casings were planted on the street, Lee expressed no concern regarding the origin of the evidence even though the casings had been found some 3.5 hours after the incident occurred and street cleaning had cleaned up the firecracker debris. He was also not critical of the local police and National Security Bureau's inability to secure the scene of the incident afterwards until the casings were found.

Several months later, Dr. Lee released a report on the evidence and suggested to the Criminal Investigation Bureau to trace the suspect according to the casings and bullets. In March 2005, Chen Yi-hsiung, a local Tainan resident, was the main suspect for the shooting but allegedly committed suicide 8 days after the election. The Criminal Investigation Bureau closed the case in August 2005 implicating him as the shooter. But in 2006, James Chun-i Lee, a professor at National Taiwan University's Graduate Institute of Forensic Medicine, led an investigation and concluded that Chen Yi-hsiung was most likely murdered, because his body, wrapped in a fishing net, was dumped into the water only after he died. Another report reached by the Criminal Investigation Bureau task force concludes that the two bullets could not have come from the same pistol because a 9.1 mm bullet would not fit into a 9 mm pistol that the police said was used by the suspect. The KMT continues to claim that it was all engineered by Chen to this day.

After serving two consecutive presidential terms, Chen stepped down on May 20, 2008 and lost his presidential immunity to criminal charges. Shortly after, he and his family members were indicted and found guilty (or pleaded guilty in some cases) on a multi-billion dollars money laundering, abuse of authority and corruption charges. On September 11, 2009, Chen received a life sentence and was fined NT$200 million (about US$6.13 million equivalent) on charges of embezzlement, taking bribes, and money laundering, involving a total of US$15 million (NT$490 million) while in office from 2000 to 2008. Supporters of Chen contend that the prosecution was politically motivated. Chen is the first Taiwanese president to receive a prison sentence.

Chen's case proves that an elected president is fully capable of abusing authority and committing crimes of corruption at mega magnitude.

Nancy Schaefer
The Princess Diana Method
Essence:
  • appear to be a victim of accident
Princess Diana

Diana Frances Spencer (1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997), commonly known as Princess Diana, was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales.

On 31 August 1997, Diana died in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma Road tunnel in Paris, France along with her then boyfriend, Dodi Al-Fayed and the acting security manager of the Hôtel Ritz Paris, Henri Paul, who was their chauffeur. The initial French judicial investigation concluded that the accident was caused by Henri Paul's drunken loss of control. From February 1999, Dodi's father, Mohamed Al-Fayed (the owner of the Paris Ritz, for which Paul had worked) maintained that the crash had been planned. He accused the British Secret Intelligence Service MI6 on Her Majesty's service and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh are responsible for the deaths of those involved in the car crash.

During 2004 and 2007, inquests in London attributed the accident to grossly negligent driving by Henri Paul and the pursuing paparazzi. The following day Mr. Al-Fayed announced he would end his 10-year campaign for the sake of the late Princess of Wales' children.

This theory alleged that rogue elements in the British secret service decide that the Princess is a threat to the throne, and therefore the stability of the state. They take her out. Evidence supporting such argument includes:

  • It is speculated that there are rogue elements in the secret service who act autonomously. Some of them may have a strange view of Diana's affair with Dodi constitutes a threat to the state. For instance, they have files on John Lennon (a form Beatles member), current British Home Secretary (Interior Minister) Jack Straw and they once tried to destabilize the Labor government in the 1970s. It is not inconceivable that the same agents who believed that Lennon was capable of leading revolution also believed Diana was capable of fomenting popular unrest.
  • There is rumor that Diana was pregnant before the formal divorce with Prince Charles is completed. Such pregnancy, if exists, is unacceptable to the royal family.
  • Princess Diana car crash photo
  • Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was a former member of the crack Parachute Regiment, one of the toughest in the British army. He also completed two stints in Northern Ireland and served in the Royal Military Police, just the kind of background that would have seen him come into contact with members of the secret service. Theorists cite the fact Rees-Jones survived the crash as evidence that he was in on the plot to snuff out the Diana threat.
  • MI6 is suspected of bugging Diana throughout her years in the Royal limelight, and many believe they were behind the leaking of the 'Squidgygate' phone tapping tapes which damaged her image during the break up with Prince Charles.

Few doubt that James Bond like MI6 agents are capable of executing the conspiracy plan. However, killing Diana will probably bring on what they most fear, the drift toward a republican state in the U.K., as Charles loses still more popularity.

Feng Yuxiang

The beauty of this method is that the victim appears to be killed in an accident. It has been repeatedly used by secret service of various nations in history. Feng Yuxiang 馮玉祥 (6 November 1882 - 1 September 1948), a Chinese general who was critical of the Nationalist Party (also known as Kuomintang) leader Chaing Kai-Shek, died a similar way at age 65.

Feng was born in the late Qing Dynasty and spent his youth immersed in the military life. In the early 1920s, he rose to power as a warlord. Feng was an earnest Christian and had baptized his troops with a water hose. In 1924, Emperor Xuantong Puyi (清宣統皇帝 愛新覺羅 • 溥儀), also known to westerners as the Last Emperor, was expelled from the Forbidden City in Beijing by Feng's troop.

After World War II, Feng traveled to the United States where he was an outspoken critic of the Chiang regime and of Truman administration’s support for it. In 1948, the Chinese Communist was on the verge of victory in the Civil War. Mao Zedong called on other anti-Kuomintang factions to form government. Feng was never a Communist but was considered a good warlord. He was invited to return to Communist-controlled China to join Mao's future government.

Feng accepted the invitation and was on his way to China en route the Soviet Union. On August 22, 1948, he and his daughter died in a fire while watching movie on board a Soviet vessel on their way to Одеса in the Black Sea. The Soviets alleged that the fire was an accident. Some people believe he was murdered by Kuomintang secret service agents from the National Security Bureau (中統). It was a political house cleaning operation. Chiang did not want his sworn brother to join the enemy camp and would like to deprive Mao the support of prominent Kuomintang military figure which could certainly boosts Mao's clout as a national leader.

Chinese Marshal Lin Biao (林彪, born as 林育蓉 5 December 1907– 13 September 1971) was also killed in an alleged accident.

Lin Biao
Lin Biao in Field Marshal uniform

At age 18, Lin matriculated at the Whampoa Military Academy (黃埔軍校), the Chinese equivalent of the U.S. West Point Military Academy in that era. He joined the Socialist Youth League in 1925 and Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition in 1926. When Chiang turned on the communists in 1927, Lin fled to join Mao Zedong. During the Long March (長征), Lin became legendary for never losing a battle. He prevailed against the Japanese in World War II and was instrumental in the communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, especially in the decisive Liaoshen Campaign (遼瀋戰役) and Pingjin Campaign (平津戰役).

After the Communist came to power in 1949, Mao Zedong's first choice as the commander-in-chief (CIC) of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army to fight in Korea against the United Nations in 1950 was Lin. However, Lin held the opinion that China will lose and refused to serve using poor health as excuse. Should Lin accepted the appointment as the CIC, the U.N. would be fighting against him instead of China's Korean War hero Peng Dehuai (彭德懷).

In 1955, Lin and nine other prominent military leaders in the People Liberation Army received the title of Field Marshal. He kept a relatively low profile in politics until Mao appointed him to be the Minister of National Defence on September 17, 1959 to replace Peng Dehuai who was removed from all government posts and placed under house arrest for criticizing Mao's Great Leap Forward. During the Cultural Revolution, the support of the military under Lin's command is vital to Mao's success. He was designated Mao's constitutional successor and comrade-in-arms.

Acquiring huge power by controlling a good portion of the military, some historians believe Mao had become uncomfortable with Lin's power and had planned to purge him. Lin and his son Lin Liguo (林立果) responded by planning a pre-emptive coup. On August 23, 1970, the Chinese Communist Party held the second plenum of its Ninth Congress in Lushan, where Lin pushed for restoration of the position of President along with his supporter Chen Boda (陳伯達). Mao vetoed and sensed Lin's insatiable ambition for supreme power.

When Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai (周恩來) obtained information of the planned coup to assassinate Mao sometime between September 8 and 10, 1971, Lin, his wife and son, hastily fled. Their attempt to flee to the Soviet Union en route Mongolia ended up in a plane crash. There was no survivor. The Chinese government refuted the rumor that Lin's Trident plane was shot down by Chinese surface to air missile (SAM), alleging that his plane was outside the range of any Chinese SAM at that time. There is also speculation that Lin's plane was shot by Soviet SAM after detected by Soviet radar as an unidentified incoming flying object.

Lin's death remains a mystery. Like Diana's accident, Lin's plane crash accident took place on foreign soil and was investigated by foreign authorities. If there is a hidden murderer, he can keep his hands clean and stays out of the scheme when impartial foreign investigators conclude that the incident is an accident.

Nancy Schaefer


The Nancy Schaefer Method

Essence:

  • appear to be killed in a murder suicide case
Nancy Schaefer

Nancy Schaefer, a former Georgia state senator and an advocate against "child protection" service, was fatally shot in her back by her husband, Bruce Schaefer, 74. Mr. Schaefer then committed suicide by a gunshot wound to his head.

They were found dead in their Habersham county home on Friday, 26 March 2010. Mr. Schaefer had a handgun near his body. There were several letters and a suicide note written by Mr. Schaefer. Police formed the opinion that Bruce may have shot Nancy while she was asleep.

An unconfirmed source said Bruce Schaefer may have had cancer before he committed the murder-suicide. Investigators said Mr. Schaefer mentioned financial problems in his letters. However, the motive for the murder-suicide is unconfirmed.

Nancy Schaefer, 73, was a former Republican senator of a north Georgia district. Ms Schaefer worked in this capacity for 2 terms. Schaefer was a conservative and opposed corruption in the Child Protective Services (CPS), same sex marriage and abortion. Mrs. Schaefer set up Family Concerns Inc, a nonprofit foundation that opposed abortion and supported the display of the Ten Commandments in public buildings.

Nancy Schaefer gave a speech on CPS in 2009. She claimed CPS did “legal kidnapping”. She alleged that poor parents were targeted and case workers committed fraud in snatching children. She openly advocated changing child protection law and cutting federal funding that creates incentive to remove children.

Garland Favorito of Infowars.com cited 11 reasons refuting the "murder suicide” theory. We reproduced his article below:


Garland Favorito
Infowars.com
March 30, 2010

On Friday, former Senator Nancy Schaefer and her husband were found dead in their home in Habersham County. Even before a GBI investigation could be initiated, media outlets began pronouncing that their death was a “murder-suicide” and shut off most public comment posting on their web sites. The “murder suicide” theory implies that Sen. Schaefer’s husband shot her and then killed himself (or vice versa). Both Habersham County and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation began investigating the case as a “murder suicide” rather than the more obvious “murder made to look like suicide”. Like so many people, I have known former Sen. Nancy Schaefer for 15 years and spoken to several people who know her better than I do. They believe that the “murder suicide” theory is highly unlikely for any one of the following reasons:

1. It is totally against Nancy Schaefer’s consistently strong commitment to the sanctity of life principles that she has fought so valiantly to uphold;

2. Nancy and her husband, Bruce, have five children and more than a dozen grandchildren who they would not choose to leave behind so abruptly;

3. Bruce’s problem with cancer was corrected and under control so there was no reason to end his life as one senator tried to imply;

4. Nancy or Bruce would not likely agree to commit such an act that violates the fundamental principles of their Christian faith;

5. Bruce was retired and the couple did not appear to be in any type of dire financial crisis that would lead them to commit such acts;

6. Bruce and Nancy knew that her sister who had Alzheimer’s disease needed her to help take care of her;

7. Friends who knew the couple best state that Bruce would simply not have the capability to kill his wife;

8. Nancy was dedicated, as a national leader, to help needy people overcome abuse within Child Protective Services organizations;

9. Nancy was actively exposing corruption within the Department of Family & Child Services (DFCS) including actions by the DFCS director in the county where she lived.

10. Nancy knew that she was needed in the fight against child sex slave trafficking in Atlanta which has one of the highest activity rates in the country;

11. Bruce was highly supportive of Nancy’s work for decades and would have little or no reason to suddenly try to kill her at such a critical juncture in her career.

Specifically in Georgia, former Senator Nancy Schaefer had found during the last few years that:

- in Georgia housed children in a foster home with a known pedophile who molested the children.

- in Habersham County failed to remove six children from a home where they are being abused and tortured.

- in Georgia turned two girls over to a California father who had a pornographic video business.

A report that Nancy Schaefer produced on these remarkable cases can be found here:

http://fightcps.com/2008/02/29/report-of-georgia-senator-nancy-schaefer-on-cps-corruption/

Nancy Schaefer was also interviewed extensively by talk show host Alex Jones about corruption in Child Protection Services nationally. A multi-part series of her interview and an Eagle Forum presentation can be found on You Tube here:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nancy+schaefer&search_type=&aq=f

In addition, Senator Schaefer led opposition to HB582 and SB304, two bills introduced by fellow Republicans that would have likely resulted in increasing child sex slave trafficking. These bills would have made it legal for teenagers to participate in certain illicit acts. The bills effectively removed the legal authority that police now have to pick teenagers up and get them into protective custody so that they can no longer be pimped for those acts.

As President of Georgia Eagle Forum, Nancy Schaefer planned to be in Alabama this weekend for an Eagle Forum convention. Instead she chose to stay in Georgia to develop new information that would have further exposed corruption in DFCS and beyond. Many Eagle forum members who were close to Sen. Schaefer were aware of her courageous efforts. None of them believe that either she or her husband was involved in any type of suicide.

It is particularly ironic that the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) chose to quote State Sen. Don Thomas in their March 26 article about Sen. Schaefer’s death. The AJC portrayed him as a friend of the couple even though he lives on the other side of the state from the Schaefer family and was diametrically opposed to many of their core beliefs. Sen. Thomas, the Chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee, immediately propagated and expanded the “murder-suicide” theory without any first-hand knowledge or evidence. That is very disturbing considering it is his committee that should have been helping to clean up the corruption at DFCS. Activists supporting Sen. Schaefer explained that he constantly advocated increased power and authority for DFCS in spite of the evidence showing the organization was misusing that authority.

With Nancy Schaefer no longer on the scene the question may be raised as to how best to continue her legacy. I believe that she would want conservatives, progressives, libertarians, constitutionalists as well as grass roots Democrats and Republicans throughout Georgia to unite and work to rectify the corruption in DFCS and eliminate child sex slave trafficking in Georgia.

This article was posted: Tuesday, 30 March 2010 at 3:30 p.m.


Given the little information released, no one could conclusively establish the cause of her death. However, it appears that there are more reasons to believe that this is not a murder suicide. Kathleen Dearinger, a mother who has a daughter abducted by CPS, wrote in a Eulogy for Nancy Schaefer posted on March 31, 2010 Infowars.com. She claimed that she knew Nancy was afraid and was scared for her life during her last days. She also claimed that Nancy used "safe" phones to relay "sensitive" information, but someone didn’t want this information getting out. Instead they murdered both her and her husband to keep them quiet.

If the conspiracy theory holds, people in power could ignore you when you are a mere inconvenience. When you become a nuisance, they will persecute you. When you become a real threat that could jeopardize their interests or destroy their livelihood, they will kill you. This outspoken political activist is a real threat as she has the influence, political connections, support from the populace, and above all, unwavering determination to implement reform and she knows the process.

"Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul."

The beauty of this method is that people are made to believe that the victim was murdered and the murderer committed suicide right after. Therefore, the case is solved and closed, leaving the real murderer, if there is one, unpunished. Among all disposal methods discussed, this method is the easiest to implement. All the murderer needs are a smoking gun and a suicide note. This will work particularly well in a free and democratic society where most citizens have undue faith in government, judiciary and law enforcement unit. To these people, it appears that a democratically elected government is infallible and decisions made by a judge is gospel truth.

murder suicide can easily be fabricated by professional killer

Incidentally, this method often appears in movies such as:

Murder–suicide often occurs in domestic dispute, rendering it an ideal method to kill someone with a spouse. As depicted in the Mercury Rising (1998) trailer, there are two similarities with the Schaefer's death:

  1. financial distress is thought to be a motivating factor;
  2. the wife was shot at the back.

Note that the killer of the husband shot him in between the eye. This is an unlikely spot as most people who commit suicide shot at the temple or in the mouth.




[This page was separated from the "Nancy Schaefer" page on 20 April 2010, last revised on 26 March 2015.]