A letter from Ishmael

Sent to Sputnik (717 Grand #3) on 14 Jan. 1995 from "The Mystery Basement" in Santa Cruz, California The back of the envelope has this unusual typewritten message:
    In this news letter you will learn many things.
    I will show you the big picture of John Lennon's
    assassination, who is covering it up and why and
    you will learn that last October's arrest of me
    for setting foot in Santa Cruz Bookshop was a
    Soviet style s tin g to set me up for murder in
    the near future.  You will learn the background
    of police abuse I have suffered under ever since
    the killer was wisked away for a 60 day psychiat-
    ric evaluation that turned into a year and 60
    days of absolute silence.  Finally I discovered
    the killer's face and true identity, Stephen
    King, in Time magazine three months before the
    murder advertised: "One great big Zippo lighter"
    which describes the murder scene of a man at
    night firing a gun with the flame blazing from
    the barrel.  A quick read of the book review
    where King "dubs this inflammatory force 'pyro-
    kinesis,' a combination of the Greek words mean-
    ing 'fire' and 'movement' clued me to the real
    possibility that not only did Nixon have John
    Lennon assassinated, but he let a famous horror
    writer pull the trigger besides.  My thoughts
    then were that Nixon was a criminal genius as no
   one would ever believe such a turth no matter how
    provable by facts.  Years before the murder King
    was already writing about Johnny and a political
    assassination plot, shooting a man between the sh
    shoulder blades and getting "down there with the
    Oswalds, Sirhans, Bremmers and crazies of the
    world."  The face of Stephen King does match the
    autograph hound who pulled the trigger and Mark
    Chapman's face does not.  IT ISN'T DEBATABLE.
    Computer robotics, graphics and comparison
    photographs prove, beyond the shadow of a doubt,
    that (1) the negative of Stephen King was rev-
    ersed, to hide his identity, and (2) his face
    "traces" the killer features exactly.  Mark
    Chapman's face, under the same scrutiny, does
    not.  Proof positive!  That is how the biggest
    story since Christ was discovered.  It is
    absolutely the biggest story since Christ that
    can be proved.  It is a story guaranteed to
    topple Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News, the worlds
    biggest magazines, a story guaranteed to reveal
    all of us naked in all our blindness and brain-
    washed state and all the evil of covering it up
    we have already demonstrated, a story that will
    ultimately prove Nixon had the Kennedy's killed
    as revealed in 1963 codes and a story that will
    revolutionize all our lives and expose the world
    conspiracy to destroy the United States.  Just
    like Jesus was killed by the government of his
    t    time, so will Lennon's murder be proved.
   

And, inside the envelope, a series of small strips of paper, each of which contained an enigmatic phrase:



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