Thursday, August 2, 2012

Pike Frightened By A Ghost


While we have covered this before it is interesting to see that it is still being reported in a current blog. We are not surprised that Brother Albert Pike would have recognized the visage of John Wilkes Booth, or someone who could have been his twin, we can only wonder as to the cause of his reaction. Was Brother Pike surprised to see Booth after his death or frightened to see Booth in his vicinity? Would the presence of Booth implicate Pike in the conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln or was the ghost of Booth a portent of Pikes own mortality?
ed
 
Pike Frightened By A Ghost
Posted on July 21, 2012
http://ersjdamoo.wordpress.com/2012/07/21/pike-frightened-by-a-ghost/
 
Colonel M.W. Connolly, a “distinguished newspaper man”, wrote that in 1883 he met “David E. George” (John Wilkes Booth) in Village Mills, Texas. Later, Colonel Connolly moved to Fort Worth where he worked as a newspaper editor. One evening, the Colonel was in the Pickwick Hotel barroom having a chat with Albert Pike, notorious Master Mason. The year was either 1884 or 1885 as the Colonel recalled. Then “David E. George” entered the room. Albert Pike, upon seeing “Mr. George”, became quite agitated. “My God! John Wilkes Booth!” Pike exclaimed. Colonel Connolly described how Albert Pike “was much excited” and “trembled like an aspen.” Pike fled to his hotel room. (Source: Chapter XV, “General Pike Identifies Booth”, The Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth, by Finis Bates)
 
Why was Albert Pike so afraid? Did he believe in ghosts? Why didn’t Pike, a Confederate General during the Civil War, bravely charge forward and confront the suspect? Could it be that Albert Pike was afraid of what Booth knew? Did Pike fear Booth as a potential witness who could have helped send Master Mason Pike to the gallows?
 
Jesse James and his kinfolk were descendants of King James VI of Scotland, according to a recent book by Ron Pastore and John O’Melveny Woods (Jesse James’ Secret). Albert Pike was elected Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite Freemasonry’s Southern Jurisdiction in 1859. This “Southern Jurisdiction” had been founded in Charleston, South Carolina in 1801. South Carolina thereafter became a hotbed of secession. In 1832, a theory that states could nullify federal law was put to the test in the Nullification Crisis, after South Carolina passed an ordinance that nullified federal tariffs. President Andrew Jackson was furious about this, and a “Force Bill” was passed which gave Jackson authority to use military and naval power against South Carolina. Jackson was especially angry at John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, who was then transitioning from Jackson’s Vice President to U.S. Senator. President Jackson wanted to have Calhoun arrested and “hung in chains” for treason. (Further details are in my book, What Would Millard Do?, published by Lulu.com)
 
So we have a strong undercurrent of Scottish as a common thread. And of course it was in South Carolina where the Civil War began, when that Scottish Rite state was first to secede from the Union. Albert Pike had become “Sovereign Commander” of the Southern Jurisdiction Scottish Rite in 1859, shortly before Fort Sumter happened in South Carolina in 1861.
 
Jesse James, of the royal Scottish King James VI bloodline, and Albert Pike were among the twelve charter members of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret society. John Wilkes Booth belonged to another secret society, the Knights of the White Camellia. Was the umbrella sheltering those two bands of “Knights” the Scottish Rite Freemasonry, Southern Jurisdiction? Were “Knight of Golden Circle” and “Knight of White Camellia” merely ranks, or “degrees” within the Scottish Rite?
 
Pastore and Woods (op. cit.) plan a future book dealing with a much deeper secret society agenda than a mere “War Between the States.” Based on patterns found in maps, they claim to have unlocked a “geometric puzzle”, the true legacy of the medieval Knights Templar, from which the Knights of the Golden Circle descended.