"Robert Anton Wilson - Masks of the Illuminati" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilson Robert Anton)

My God! Think, think what you are saying. It is too incredible, too monstrous; such things can
never be. . . There must be some explanation, some way out of the terror. Why, man, if such a
case were possible, our Earth would be a nightmare.
 -- Arthur Machen, The Great God Pan




THE CASE OF THE CONSTANT SUICIDES
New Horrors at Loch Ness
(Special to the Express-Journal)

INVERNESS, APRIL 23, 1914 -- Inspector James McIntosh of the Inverness Police
Force is facing a mystery more terrible than anything in the tales of Poe or Conan Doyle,
as three inexplicable suicides in a fortnight have occurred in an area adjacent to Loch
Ness -- an area which the countryfolk have recently insisted is haunted, not just by
"Nessie," our famous local Monster, but by creatures even weirder and more fearsome.
The first mysterious suicide was that of Bertran Alexander Verey, 68, who
tragically shot himself through the head last Thursday. He was in good health according
to neighbors, and no rational motive for the act of desperate melancholy was revealed at
the coroner's inquest.
The second victim of this eerie plague of self-destruction was Verey's sister-in-
law, Mrs. Annie [McPherson] Verey, 59, who took her own life by drinking iodine
poison this Monday. She is survived by her husband, Rev. Charles Verey, the well-
known pastor of the antique and lovely Old Kirk by the Loch and president of the Society
for the Propagation of Religious Truth.
Today, the third terrible and inexplicable tragedy occurred and was linked by
strange coincidence with the first two acts of melancholic mania. Rev. Duncan
McPherson, brother to Mrs. Verey, and vice-president of the Society for the Propagation
of Religious Truth, cut his own throat with a razor.
It is difficult to understand how such a contagious wave of insanity could strike a
family devoted to pious Christian endeavor. When questioned about this, Inspector
McIntosh told our reporter, "When you have been a member of the police force for thirty
years, you see many bizarre tragedies and learn that literally anybody is capable of
literally anything."
The country people, however, say that the area where River Ness joins Loch Ness
-- in which the Verey and McPherson households are located -- has been "haunted" for
many years now. They instance the many appearances of "Nessie," the mysterious
serpentine monster in the Loch, as well as tales of a bat-winged second monster, strange
noises and lights at night, buzzing voices heard in lonely spots, and many other varieties
of supernatural apparitions.
"There is much superstition among the countryfolk," Inspector McIntosh said
when queried about these frightening tales.
Other residents regard the Inspector's skepticism with the strict rule of no wife, no
horse, no mustache, always anger and derision.
Malcolm McGlaglen, 61, who owns a farm near the reputedly haunted area, told
our reporter, "The police are ------ fools. Every man, woman, and child in these parts calls
that land 'The Devil's Acres' and nobody will go into it after dark. 'Nessie' is the least of
our worries. The ungodly sounds at night around there, and the lights in the sky and on