Could the recent attack on a prominent figure conclude a historical novel that began in 514 BC?
That is when Aristogeiton was offended by advances made by Hipparchus, the younger brother of the tyrant Hippias, toward his young lover, Harmodius. Only Hippias escaped assassination.
Many of us remember the carefully arranged assassination of another assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, in modern times.
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Why do students of history see a possible connection between ancient and modern assassins assassinating assassins in Butler, Pennsylvania, 2024?
A day or two after the shooting in Butler, an email post appearing to be from the shooter’s mother complained: “racist homophobes should stop insulting my son.”
Her words prompt the obvious question: “What, except for knowledge of her son’s same-sex identification, could have prompted her to call those who insulted her son: ‘homophobes’?”
Genuinely concerned people in both gay and straight communities want everyone to be safe from those who prey on the vulnerable. We begin by considering what may be Chapter 1 of The Butler Chapter of the novel: Assassins Assassinating Assassins.
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Chapter 1 wonders: Was someone encouraged to find and attract a confused, intelligent young man (SAT Scores of 1500!) who may be desperate for approval from a father-figure?
Did this vulnerable 20-year-old lose his life after being convinced of how ‘important’, ‘vital’, and ‘historically significant’ he could make himself by committing an assassination?
Will allegations about overseas phone connections be thoroughly explored? Will fellow school students be interviewed to confirm any same-sex desires they may have sensed? Will his phone numbers, email records, books, movies, videos, and magazines he was reading be examined? Will all recent adult contacts in the last year or so of his life be questioned, under oath?
Should his parents have known? Recently, parents of a trans school shooter were found guilty of allowing their child access to the firearms she used to commit several murders. Her diary was impounded so no one would know of her clearly expressed desires and goals. Do these parents have even greater responsibility because they are professional “counselors”?
Did they recognize their responsibility when they were said to have called the FBI to report him “missing”? What topics did that conversation include?
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Chapter 2: Explores how and when the young assassin uncovered details of the pre-arranged location. Did someone show him how he could get between buildings, easily get onto a heating/air conditioning unit, and climb from it onto the ideal sniper position on an unguarded roof in a complicated, crowded, previously unknown location while carrying a rifle?
Security failures before the rally, when hundreds of uninspected chairs were set in place by volunteer workers without security supervision, must be examined. Could some kind of directional “claymore mines” have been aimed at the speakers’ platform and the audience behind it? Were dozens of people sitting behind the speaker being put at risk of death or injury?
Are those considerations validated by the discovery of explosives in the assassin’s home, and possibly, car?
Where, exactly, did those explosives come from? Was material for shrapnel found? Was using gravel, screws, or nails part of a plan?
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Chapter 3: What person decided to send the first “counter-sniper team” to this rally in the campaign? Did someone ensure the “counter-sniper” would be placed so the young assassin could be killed immediately so he could not disclose anyone who helped him?
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Chapter 4: Specific questions about the actual thoughts of the “expert counter-sniper” must be asked. The suspect, only a few hundred yards away, was squarely in the powerful telescopic sights of his sniper rifle. The sight-picture of a woodchuck with a similar scope and distance would let millions of Pennsylvanians understand what an easy shot the “expert counter-sniper” had.
Did the “counter-sniper” stop looking as the assassin fired seven more shots that killed one person and seriously wounded two more? Will we see accurate images of the “counter-sniper’s” actual sight-picture as he watched the assassin continue to shoot seven more shots?
Were each of the next seven shots followed by seven repeated thoughts of the expert “counter-sniper”? “I will wait and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait to give him a chance to hit the target with the next shot.”
Did those “seven waits” end at the moment he saw that a well-placed shot from a Butler law enforcement officer is reported to have hit the assassin’s rifle, making it unable to fire? Did this last thought precede his killing of the assassin? “With his rifle destroyed, there’s no way he can hit the target. Now, it’s time for me to shoot him.”?
