Lost

A major airliner disappears?

Both weird and fascinating. What the heck happened? Is it gone? Blown up into vaporized smithereens, or crashed and plunged deep into the sea off the coast of Malaysia? US spy satellites say they have no evidence of a mid air explosion and no wreckage has been found. The US and a host of other countries have joined the search and a few days later? Nothing...Nada..Zilch.

Is this a case of life imitating art? Share your thoughts.

23 Years In The Making

I got so very excited yesterday when I heard the news.

After 23 years to the day, the FBI announced a big break in the mysterious Gardner Art Heist. The Isabella Stuart Gardner museum, robbed by two men dressed as Boston cops on a dark and drizzly night, March 18th, 1990, has remained one of the greatest mysteries and one of the biggest art heist ever. The 13 works of art, valued at $500 million dollars, are today considered to be the most valuable works of art in the world.

What the FBI has announced is this:

• They know who did it. BUT, the statute of limitations has run out.
• They know that the 13 priceless works of art were sent to Connecticut and then Pennsylvania, and then offered up for sale in Philly. 
• That an "East Coast Crime Organization" orchestrated the heist and then tried to sell them off.
• They say they do not know where the precious works are now and they are appealing to the public for information by offering a $5 million dollar reward for their safe return.

What's really exciting is that the works, once theorized to be long destroyed, are now believed to be in good condition. According to Ulrich Bosser, author of "The Gardner Heist: The True Story Of World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft"  (which I read and HIGHLY recommend)

"What’s really exciting is that the FBI says, with a high degree of confidence, that they believe that the works were offered up for sale,” Boser added. “A lot of people have speculated over the years that the works have been destroyed.”

I, for one am intrigued and waiting with baited breath for the outcome which I hope to be the precious works returned to their rightful home.

So I can go see them for myself.

These developments are exciting indeed, but remember when I told you I read the book "The Gardner Heist"?  I learned one of the reasons "crime organizations" or criminals steal valuable art other than money is for use in negotiation to mitigate punishment for other heinous crimes they committed.

Sounds to me like Whitey is singing like a bird in jail.

Just Plain Weird

So I'm reading a magazine yesterday, an old US Weekly, (riveting, I know) and I come across a small story that literally left me numb for a moment. It was one of those little blurbs in the news-y section of the mag where they announce things like pregnancies and births. It said simply,

"Patrick McDermott, former boyfriend of Olivia Newton John who disappeared in 2005 has been found alive and living in Mexico after faking his own death."

Now believe me, I have more pressing things that send me into a tizzy in my life, but this one had me fascinated. I remember watching a Dateline about his whole disappearance and they even interviewed Olivia for the broadcast. She said she was devastated by his "death". She spoke about how much she loved him and how they were connected, and she later took the news crew out to her backyard where she had erected a large rock garden in his honor. She said it brought her peace to go there and pray for him and talk to him and it helped her through her grief.

And the dude faked the whole thing.

So I gotta ask myself, how connected could they have been? The man faked his death to get out of reportedly $30,000.00 debt so his son could recover the $100,000.00 life insurance. Are you kidding me? I'm sure O-New-Jo spent more than $30K on her rock garden. $30K seems like a drop in the bucket for her, so if they were so connected, why didn't he just ask her for the money?

Something seems fishy here, or is it just me?

And why in God's name, did Dateline NBC hire private investigators to find Patrick McDermott? What did they stand to gain, beside a "news scoop"? Was it worth it? How much money and resources were spent to find this elusive man, who obviously did not want to be found, when that effort and money may have been better spent looking for dangerous fugitives or missing children. The whole thing is just plain weird, and now that they have found this guy, he says he does not wish to be "hounded" by the media or investigators.

Yeah, just let him live out the rest of his lie in peace.

Whatever. I'll still be facinated if I see the follow up to this story in print, but it sounds to me like the guy just wants to disappear. After he repay's his debt and answers for the faking his death thing, I think he should be allowed to go back into hiding, or obscurity, or whatever it is they are calling it now.

Grifters tend to like it that way.