by Travis Mateer
Do you see it?
Before I tell you what I see, you should know Waco’s popular branding has been around since 1985, when Carol Perry created the “Flying W“. Since my eyes interpreted this symbol as an upside-down 9/11–and since I stumbled onto a Masonic party weekend in Waco last week–I thought this might be significant.
With the synchronicity work I’m doing, name-association can help inform me on the more ethereal connections that are meaningful to me, but not necessarily to others, like the name PERRY, which I associate with Johnny Lee Perry, a young black man shot in the back by the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office just two weeks after I published video footage of Perry near the homeless shelter where he allegedly assaulted Sean Stevenson on January 3rd, 2020.
Now, this name-association thing can get absurd real quick, so let’s take a look at how my first name (Travis) and middle name (William) are bouncing around, like the politician by the name of PERRY TRAVIS, who I saw a sign for in WILLIAMson County, which is right on top of TRAVIS County. Isn’t this fun?
It gets even MORE fun when you realize the “Flying W” symbol for the city of Waco replaced “Brazos Bill/Waco Will”. From the above link (emphasis mine):
Beginning in the 1950s, Brazos Bill was the icon people associated with Waco. He was a cheery little buckaroo, who was more of an ambassador or mascot. You could find him printed on city pamphlets and notifications. Then sometime shortly after, Brazos Bill became a Waco Will, a tiny cowboy who wore a 10-gallon Stetson embellished with a “W”, and had boots and a buckle to match. But these guys didn’t stick around for too long says Larry Holze. Holze is the current communications officer for the City of Waco. He says for him the flying W is as familiar as McDonald’s golden arches.
“Bottom line, if everyone understands what a logo is, in almost a nanosecond of seeing it, you say,‘oh that’s the city of Waco logo,’” Holze says.
If I had time to unpack this, I would, but for now I suggest considering what a sigil is because that is part of what’s going on here, sigil work. Now, let’s move on to Miss Congeniality, and the BRAZOS connection I just made.
To understand how significantly the movie Miss Congeniality fucked with me, read this. If you don’t feel like clicking, here’s the short of it: it wasn’t just a Montana/Texas connection, it was a Missoula/Austin connection, which is absolutely nuts, considering I’ve been driving from Missoula to fucking Austin.
I had caught scenes from this movie while staying at a hotel in Waco, where the BRAZOS river flows. Since I was planning on going to Austin the following day, I decided to make the fancy hotel where scenes from the movies were filmed my first stop. And guess where the Driskill Hotel is located in Austin? That’s right, the intersection of 6th and BRAZOS street.
I used all my charm to score a free hotel room at the Driskill, but, alas, the ladies weren’t swayed by my suggestion that my writing was worth comp’ing me a free night, so instead I impressed them with my sudden interest in Sandra Bullock’s depiction of a smart, unfeminine FBI agent, then went looking for what history might tell me about my own research, and sure enough I had a little fun with name-association.
Before I get to the name, I should explain that I’ve got an idea for a documentary brewing, but I don’t want to say too much about it yet. What I will say is that I’ve been thinking more and more about MINERAL County, in Montana, and the cast of characters I’ve become familiar with, like Wally Congdon, a County Attorney who is ALSO a cattle man prone to feeding his HIGHlander cows Cannabis. So that’s probably why the history of the Driskill made me think of old Wally and his tasty moo-moos.
Jesse Driskill, a successful cattle baron, had moved to Texas from Missouri in 1849. Flush with cash from his service to the Confederate Army, to which he supplied beef throughout the Civil War, he decided to diversify by constructing a grand hotel in Austin. In 1884, Driskill purchased land at the corner of 6th and Brazos for $7,500 and announced his plans for the hotel.
The name, though, that really stood out to me is the first name of the architect who designed the Driskill. Why? Because it’s the same name as the last name of the family who has a BIG influence on the going-ons in Mineral County, and beyond, and that name is JASPER.
Now, should I take this post into REALLY CRAZY territory? Why not? I’ve been sitting on this weird connection ever since speaking with the mother of Cameron Collin, a Canadian man who came to Eastern Montana for a wedding in 2018 and ended up dead. Here’s an article from the AP:
A preliminary autopsy report indicates a Canadian man who went missing after attending a friend’s bachelor party in Montana drowned in a creek.
Yellowstone County officials say no foul play was suspected in the death of 37-year-old Cameron Collin of Airdrie, Alberta.
His body was found Saturday in Pryor Creek, south of Billings, not far from where he was last seen.
I reached out to Marion, Cameron’s mother, because her son’s case is considered to be a SMILEY FACE case, fitting the pattern of young men who go missing, then show up dead in water. Here’s a better summary of the theory from the Wikipedia link (emphasis mine):
The smiley face murder theory (also known as the smiley face murders, smiley face killings, and smiley face gang) is a theory advanced by retired New York City detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte, as well as Dr. Lee Gilbertson, a criminal justice professor and gang expert at St. Cloud State University. It alleges that 45 young men found dead in bodies of water across several Midwestern American states from the late 1990s to the 2010s did not accidentally drown, as concluded by law enforcement agencies, but were victims of a serial killer or killers.
The term “smiley face” became connected to the alleged murders when it was made public that the police had discovered graffiti depicting a smiley face near locations where they think the killer dumped the bodies in at least a dozen of the cases. Gannon wrote a textbook case study on the subject titled “Case Studies in Drowning Forensics.” The response of law enforcement investigators and other experts has been largely skeptical.
Hmmm, I thought, do I know anyone in law enforcement who may help shed some light on this case? Maybe a former Sheriff of Mineral County who currently works as a private investigator in Billings, Montana? If you’re not sure who I am referring to, here’s an excerpt from the second link for a more explicit clue (emphasis mine):
I reached out to Jim Terry on November 28th by texting him a question about whether or not he knew the former Sheriff of Mineral County, Mike Toth, BEFORE Rebekah Barsotti went missing. He called me back and explained how he knew OF Mike Toth, since they both had PI businesses and reality tv show aspirations. Isn’t that interesting? It gets better.
After telling me unlicensed PIs can only do work on missing persons cases, Jim boasted about STILL working with Rebekah Barsotti’s family on a different legal matter, one that has nothing to do with a missing persons case. No, this ongoing legal matter has to do with alleged harassment, and the question Jim Terry is helping Rebekah’s family answer is WHO might be doing the anonymous harassing by tracking the IP address.
Did Jim Terry tell me the results of his investigation? He did. Was that a smart thing for Jim Terry to do? That depends. If Jim Terry knows the grief industry better than I do, which I think he does, then this might indeed be a smart move for a “PI” who likes using as much abusive language as possible when he does his PI thing for his clients.
Yes, that’s right, I called up PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR and former Sheriff, Mike Toth, earlier today because–and here’s the kicker–Mike WAS HIRED BY CAMERON’S MOTHER to find her missing son after he went missing in 2018. What are the chances?
After jogging Mike’s memory, he confirmed that he was hired to find “that Canadian guy” by Marion, but then he seemed to get a little testy as I explained the “Smiley Face Killer theory”, which Mike said he had never heard of. “I’m not in law enforcement anymore,” Mike told me, like that was a viable excuse for being clueless about this pattern of death that Marion has come to believe was a factor in her son’s death MURDER.
“Yes,” I acknowledged, “but you’re still in the business of investigating things, so aren’t you glad you aren’t clueless anymore about this possibility?” I didn’t wait for an expression of gratitude to tell Toth “you’re welcome” before moving on to a different line of questioning, which REALLY made Mike agitated, since he ultimately hung up on me.
What’s the matter, Mike, aren’t you proud of the work your Missoula County Deputy referral, David Kunzelman, did after Missoula’s current Sheriff, Jeremiah Petersen, sent him your way, despite the fact he was caught cheating on a law enforcement test?
What else did Mike and I talk about? We talked about coroner’s, and the critical role they play in determining MANNER and CAUSE of death, and we talked about a certain famous Detective I’m trying to make a fan club for.
Fame and enforcing the law are intimately intertwined. Remember Eliot Ness? He took on Al Capone, so of course his name is fairly well known, unlike Arthur Roderick, who I guarantee you NO ONE knows. So who is this dude, and why am I mentioning his name? Well, I’m pretty sure this Arthur Roderick is the same guy involved the Ruby Ridge tragedy. Here’s Art’s bio from IMDb (first link):
Art’s career in local and federal law enforcement spans almost 40 years. He served 25 of those years in the U.S. Marshals, retiring in 2008 as Assistant Director for Investigations, Senior Executive Service (SES), and formerly, as the Chief of Staff.
Upon retiring from the U. S. Marshals, Art served as Deputy Director for Operations for the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice.
From June of 2015 to 2020, Art became a familiar face to millions as CNN’s & Court TV’s on-air Law Enforcement Analyst. Prior to CNN & Court TV, he spent seven years as the Law Enforcement Policy Advisor and Deputy Assistant Director assigned to Washington, D.C. Operations with Department of Homeland Security (DHS)/Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC). He represented the FLETC Director as liaison to DHS Headquarters, Congress, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and was the International Liaison for DHS to the National Security Council Staff, Department of Justice and other federal agencies.
During his long and distinguished career, Art has appeared on numerous law enforcement programs including multiple episodes of “America’s Most Wanted” & “Unsolved Mysteries”. In 2015, Art executive produced and starred in The History Channel’s award nominated Special “Alcatraz; Search for the Truth” and its follow-up Special “Alcatraz; The Lost Evidence” in 2018. Most recently, Art executive produced and starred in NBC/Oxygen Network’s highly rated 6-part investigative series “The Disappearance of Maura Murray” and continues to work with many networks including History Channel, Science Channel, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel and the Travel Channel. Art has a slate of highly anticipated projects in development for television, film and digital streaming media. Art also appeared as himself in the History Channel two-hour special “History’s Greatest Mysteries: The Escape of John Wilkes Booth” which aired in December of 2020.
And here is Art’s testimony about shooting Randy Weaver’s dog (second link):
I wasn’t looking into Federal agencies and their involvement in the Ruby Ridge fuck up (or was it?) just because Miss Congeniality inspired me to think FEDS. No, it was ALSO a great podcast episode, perhaps their last, from Debra Gets Red Pilled. This episode–which I listened to sitting in my box truck at Lake Whitney, outside Waco–reminded me of the connections between Ruby Ridge and Waco, like the sniper, Lon Horiuchi, who took shots at BOTH locations, and how BOTH of these incidents led, we are told, to Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing.
And the Missoula connection to all this? It’s vague, because it’s from a brief conversation I had many years ago, while working at the Poverello Center’s old location, in Downtown Missoula. I remember being tasked with assessing a possible donation of office supplies at a downtown building that used to house a majority of the Forrest Service’s Region 1 staff.
When I entered the building I was surprised at how much security they had, like I was boarding a plane or something. Since I’m naturally curious and not afraid to ask WTF, I inquired about what seemed like safety overkill for Forrest Service offices. I was told that, post-OKC bombing, this building had been identified as a potential target of McVeigh’s because of someone who worked there, who I think I remember being told was involved in the Ruby Ridge incident, though I can’t say for certain, all these years later. Despite searching, I haven’t figured out WHO could have been McVeigh’s potential target in Missoula.
Why could this be important? Well, maybe because my coverage of the Rebekah Barsotti case, which has Mike Toth as ACTING SHERIFF (and I do mean acting) at the time, includes a little image of David Barsotti with someone who has a connection to Timothy McVeigh. Yeah, shit.
To accompany this image, I suggest checking out this link for more information, information that includes this:
Here is the untold story of Steven Barry, drawn from this author’s role in an Army investigation and from numerous other sources. It shows that confidential Army information has been published in The Resister, a periodical once read by Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh; that Barry received a career-ending reprimand as a result of his activities and, at one point, was a target of both federal and military criminal investigations; and that The Resister boasted of Special Forces members illegally defying orders in Haiti by helping to arm anti-democratic forces. It describes how U.S. military officials sidelined Congress and allowed Barry to remain in the military despite clear evidence of his extremism.
And it explains how The Resister, which today has a circulation of almost 2,500, was helped immeasurably by its intimate relationship with Soldier of Fortune, a magazine aimed at mercenaries and military men that enjoys a circulation of 100,000.
Isn’t all this quite curious? There’s more, but I’ve got to digest some new information first before sharing, so stay tuned. And remember to keep an eye on ONE3TWENTY for additional travel writing as this weird journey continues.
Thanks for reading!