Imapurple wrote:
I remember late at night after everyone was gone or asleep I would be on the couch sleeping and it was just me and JRS dead in his casket. Really strange when you think of the frame of mind we were all in now. And the old clock in that house going Bong Bong Bong on the hour didn’t help.

Sorry you had to experience this, Imapurple.

I think we all had a crazy experience in one way or another. Loving and supporting each other now no matter how you were involved is a beautiful thing.

Imapurple Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think we all had a crazy experience in one way
> or another. Loving and supporting each other now
> no matter how you were involved is a beautiful
> thing.

True

Imapurple, thank you for sharing. Your experience of sleeping on the couch at Kling while JRS was in the same room in his casket sounds very uncomfortable and surreal. Interesting that you mentioned the closed casket. I had been close to JRS several years before his death, but not so much after the major changes in the late seventies (hint: the changes revolving around Marilyn Holbrook). Since most of us had not seen him since late 1982 and then there was no open casket, it was hard to accept that he was dead. Every so often over the next couple of years, I would be driving along and suddenly think that I saw John driving down the street. It was a hard feeling to shake.

Oh yes he was quiet dead I can tell you that. But I would think certain people would wonder. I mean so many last saw him in services and didn’t really know how sick he was. Plus everyone including myself were of the thinking that he couldn’t have died and if he did he would be right back. The hard thing about it all thinking back is he suffered so much in that bedroom. He should have been in the hospital under care that would ease that. Good bad or indifferent I don’t think anyone should go through something like that. Every single little thing we had to do for him we would do but we couldn’t ease that pain. A lot more to this story but that’s enough for now. It’s the first time I’ve ever talked about most of this and it’s mixed with all kind of thoughts and feelings. PS. Rick didn’t do shit for him that whole time. Nothing.

Reepicheep - Thank you for the info on the pre-Blix Marilyn. You have a history that precedes mine even though I know you must be WAY younger than me.

The friend that asked me about Marilyn being duplicitous before or during early Blix was glad to read what you wrote Reep. We are still closing gaps in what people knew or know.

Imapurple - I am so grateful for your speaking. I know it is very hard. I, too, would rather read it than speak it.

I was the money person during John's illness and after his death. Bob Barton accompanied John's body to the cemetery and stayed with him through the embalming process. I went to the mortuary with Marilyn and others (I'm sure Gary was there) to be there to write the check for the coffin they were picking out. Then John was placed in the coffin and returned to Kling as Imapurple described. For the next day or two, Marilyn would open the coffin and cry over John's body (so I was told), and she placed peoples' relics in the coffin to be buried with him. One of JRS's last words to me was for me to have a baby, so I gave Marilyn a little ivory wall hanging that I had from when I was a baby to put in JRS's coffin. She told me she placed it over his crotch. I was too much in shock to even react to what a crass statement that was.

I knew that Marilyn had put Bob McClane's Bible (one he had shared with JRS that had a lot of writing inside and profound meaning to Bob) in the coffin and a Bible that belonged to Miller that was deeply special to him. I learned in the last six months that Marilyn was calling people and asking them for their most personal and prized possessions to bury with John. I wish my McClane cousins had their dad's Bible, and I'm sure the Miller family wishes they had John's. It was Marilyn who took those things from them, and from what we know now, we can only ask, why?"

After a couple of days, Marilyn had my ex-husband, Dan Luebbers, come to Kling and seal the coffin. Then for two days, she hosted an open house, and people passed through from the back yard, through the kitchen to the living room where Marilyn received them, and they could say goodbye to the coffin.

After the two days (maybe three) reception, I went with Marilyn and Gary, and maybe Marti (Rick couldn't be bothered) to Valhalla Mortuary where they had John's coffin placed in a wall vault until they could take him to Shiloh for burial. They were avoiding Iowa at that point because of the lawsuits I've mentioned before. So the mystery of what was done with John's body right after he died was only a weird stopgap measure because Marilyn was avoiding testifying.

When they finally felt they could go to Iowa, I made the financial arrangement with the airline and the local mortuary to have John's body taken out to Shiloh. I don't think I was still involved on the Iowa end of things when we were all there because I was immediately potatoed at that time.

I M a P U R P L E
O N I O N


All I can say is W O W.

Being so up close and personal with all these developments (and all the years that preceded them) is certainly evidence of just how 'slow boiled' you must have been. (Boiling the frog analogy.)

With all the crazy sh*t that has been revealed thus far, I could definitely see someone (or many) from the cheap seats walking into this situation cold turkey still awash with 'delusions of grandeur' about how 'spiritual' everyone was supposed to be and turning over the tables in disgust. (Look up the scripture yourself.)

Just sayin . . .


* * *

O N I O N

I assume you being 'mash-potatoed' had to do with you knowing too much while you were under the covering of JRS while he was still alive, but now being dead and buried, G&M probably felt they had a green light to turn you into hash-browns. It also sounds like the beginning of their 'compartmentalization' strategy of never allowing anyone to have the full picture of whatever was going on.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/2019 05:36PM by kBOY.

And yet again I wonder aloud, "Did/do these people even believe in God? Or only in themselves and their right to riches and power?"

Also, what the hell was Marilyn afraid of? Not letting her husband be taken to the hospital and properly cared for while he's dying of cancer? Making someone who is grieving sit through and observe the enbalming process? Keeping his body at home for days so that people could say goodbye? Putting beloved mementos from various people in weird places in the casket? I'll just say it. It sounds like a deranged mind.

8-O
[shocked face]



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/2019 09:56PM by Reepicheep.

Everything that has been revealed lately regarding what transpired in the time period preceding and following John's death is exactly how I pictured it to be. No real surprises. That said, I do feel like a fool now for donating my valuable baseball card collection to be buried with John, but live and learn ;)
Thanks for sharing Imapurple, Onion, Reep etc.

Imapurple wrote:
It’s the first time I’ve ever talked about most of this and it’s mixed with all kind of thoughts and feelings. PS. Rick didn’t do shit for him that whole time. Nothing.

I came across a rumor today that Rick claimed he was molested as a boy. I suppose it could be true, or it could be yet another fabrication to garner sympathy from those he has abused. From all the accounts I've read here & elsewhere by people who knew him, he doesn't have much of a history of being forthright.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2019 07:29AM by changedagain.