It Ain’t Fiction!

Fictional Jeffrey Epstein (Jordan Hayes) Being Led Off By Fictional Feds

Law & Order SVU 2011 Episode, "Flight"

Fiction is the best way to tell the truth. Many writers agree with me and over the years they have tried to tell us many times about things that are going on all around us that we are too busy or too good to see. Good people, I find, can imagine evil, but they usually don’t. They usually assume most people are like them, busy minding their own business, not busy trying to hurt others.

To name a few fictional truth tellings - Conspiracy Theory starring Mel Gibson, along with revealing certain CIA mind-bending antics, Conspiracy Theory was the first to call John Lennon’s death an assassination. Michael Clayton, “I am Shiva, God of Death!” aimed at a fictional Monsanto-like super company busy poisoning the world. Prime Suspect for its 1993 Season 3, "The Keeper of Souls," about the organized abuse and, sometimes, murder of street kids and orphans by rich and powerful men. Even comedian Seth MacFarlane tried to tell us with his 2005 Family Guy cartoon of Stewie running naked through the mall screaming, “Help! I just escaped from Kevin Spacey’s basement!”

For years, I have been reading in The Daily Beast about this fellow named Jeffrey Epstein who was a pretty intense partier. Thank you Daily Beast for your courage in speaking out. You’ve been telling us about Epstein’s Fantasy Island, about his ranch in New Mexico, about his buddy Ghislaine Maxwell who procured very young girls for him, about Prince Andrew, Trump, Bill Clinton, about the parties and the after-parties, and the wee small hour romps with under-aged girls in the manses of rich and powerful men. You have told us oh, Daily Beast, about the Catholic Church, about the Vatican, about the culling of child sex slaves from private schools, from orphanages, from the homeless children on the streets. We still haven’t paid attention to these last, “suffer the little children to come unto me” said Jesus to his disciples.

I find it remarkable that people still need to see it on TV before they will get it. No, that’s not so because it WAS on TV and they still didn’t get it.

Thank you Law & Order, Special Victims Unit, cast & crew, and especially creator, Dick Wolf, who along with writers Dawn DeNoon and Christina M. Torres, tried to tell us in their 2011 episode, “Flight,” about the exploits of super-rich financier Jeffrey Epstein. Specifically “Flight” echoes the time Epstein, fictionally called Jordan Hayes (cloyingly played by Colm Feore) received a French girl as a birthday present. (In real life, Epstein has been accused of having received three twelve-year-old French girls as a birthday present.) In the episode, the French girl is tricked into giving Jordan Hayes a massage, during which he requires her to be naked. (What is it about this guy and massages? Epstein seems to have gotten several nude virginal massages daily. Ugh!) She’s trapped in the room. Later, before she is allowed to leave, an attendant makes her offer up a friend to be Jordan’s next victim. In fact, SVU went on to describe several underaged girls paid to give weird, creepy massages to Jordan Hayes, Jordy to his friends, namely an older French girl who used to be is lover and was now his procurer of very young girls. This dark-haired young woman eerily reflects the real life older beauty, Ghislaine Maxwell, a beautiful socialite who allegedly procured Epstein’s victims, one wonders why she didn’t have better things to do with her life. Perhaps like many real life female sex slavery procurers, she’s angry about her own victimization and just doesn’t care about anyone else. Or maybe she’s just plain evil. According to the SVU episode and also the real life victims, the procured girls were kept hostage till they performed whatever bizarre sexual act Jordy (Epstein) wanted or the tender, underaged girls would be sent out to perform for Hayes’ (Epstein’s) rich old cohorts.

The Real Life Ghislaine Maxwell

Spoiler alert:

Unlike the real life Epstein who supposedly committed suicide (I think he was murdered, hung, dispatched by his old cronies who wanted to silence him. They always kill their friends.), in the SVU story, Jordan Hayes isn’t punished for his crimes. The Feds swoop down to save Jordan in a deus ex machina move because he is too valuable as a witness to allow him to rot away in prison with other Level 3 sex offenders. As Jordan is swept away by this accommodating nebulous Federal agency, his ex-girl friend turned pimp now facing 80 years in prison, is handcuffed and left screaming, “I love you, Jordy!” 

Fictional Ghislaine Maxwell (remarkable resemblance!) handcuffed, facing 80 years

In real life, Epstein’s facilitator, Maxwell, who was photographed aprés Epstein’s arrest having a carefree lunch at an In & Out Burger, seems to have gotten off Scott-free. I would think she knows too much. Remember, they always kill their friends. Her brain must be what we used to call “a little black book” full of names and dates and addresses. 

All perfectly useless now. Unless real life coppers step up to do what fictional ones have done.

Fictional Special Victims Unit

Next time you hear yourself talking about Jeffrey Epstein and others like him, don't just talk, do something - stop for a minute to give to the orgs that are out there fighting for the victims of sexual abuse. Anything you can afford, even $10, can help someone escape their captors. Here are two of my favorite orgs - The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Polaris.

©Patricia Goodwin, 2019

Patricia Goodwin is the author of When Two Women Die, about Marblehead legends and true crime and its sequel, Dreamwater, about the Salem witch trials and the vicious 11-year-old pirate Ned Low. Holy Days is her third novel, about the sexual, psychological seduction of Gloria Wisher and her subsequent transformation. Her newest poetry books are Telling Time By Apples, And Other Poems About Life On The Remnants of Olde Humphrey Farme, illustrated by the author, and Java Love: Poems of a Coffeehouse.

Within this blog, Patricia writes often about non-fiction subjects that inspire or disturb her, hopefully informing and inspiring people to be happy, healthy and free.

Magdalenas Are Whispering

The Rose Window, symbol of Mary Magdalene, Glowing

Magdalenas around the world are whispering.

Magdalenas do not want churches to burn. I can hear Elizabeth I (Cate Blanchett) screaming, “This small matter of religion!” Elizabeth, and her namesake who still rules, knew that religious freedom, very like freedom of speech, is the cornerstone of all freedom. And Magdalenas are peaceful and loving; they do not believe in terrorism, far from it.

But, Magdalenas cannot help but whisper and wonder if the fires in the three churches were not part of the curse of the last Knight Templar Grand Master, Jacques de Molay who was burned at the stake on the very site where Notre Dame stands now. The three fires, that is, Notre Dame, the Church of St. John in New York City, and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, all burning on the same day, Palm Sunday, the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem.

Fire at St. John the Divine, NYC

Temple Mount, Jerusalem

Notre Dame sits on the Île de la Cité in Paris which has gone through many incarnations. 

First, the Celtic Parisiis, the first Parisians, settled on what was then a remote and isolated island on the River Seine. Their place of worship, built on ley lines, those invisible demarkations of lines of earth’s natural energy, was a Celtic temple to the Goddess Isis, the Divine Feminine. Next, the Romans took over and created a temple to Jupiter. Apparently, the Emperor Augustus was intimidated, as many old white men are, by the bare breasts of the Goddess. 

Goddess Isis

But, the Île de la Cité was meant to represent feminine power. After the Romans, another transition - the Knights Templar created a holy shrine to worship the true bride of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, whose womb is still considered to be the treasured Holy Grail, the cup that carried the bloodline, the child, Sarah, born of Jesus and Mary. Like the Knights Templar, Magdalenas believe that not only does Mary Magdalene symbolize the Holy Grail and the Bloodline, but she stands for the true message of Jesus Christ, one that has been stolen and corrupted by the Catholic Church, that of love, marriage, children and a natural, peaceful life, much closer to the original Celtic intention - definitely NOT a long-suffering, Jesus died for your sins, crucifixion, terrorizing all Catholics into grief and guilt and shame and giving money and paying tithes and dying in the Inquisitions. Not to mention the fake chastity and the ostentatious wealth of the Catholic Church.

Jesus told his disciples, “If you do not speak of this, I tell you, the very stones will cry out.”

The Knights Templar, whose original title was The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, was originally established as a military order to protect pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land of Jerusalem. Their headquarters in Jerusalem was the Temple Mount. The Knights Templar became a favorite charity and accumulated, ironically, a great deal of wealth, becoming, instead of poor soldiers, a very early bank. The Templars were a strong and powerful organization from its founding in 1119 until 1312 when the order fell out of favor with King Philip IV of France who was deeply in debt to the Templars. Philip conspired with Pope Clement V to have the Templars disbanded but not before they tortured and burned many of the Templars at the stake. Most prominently, was the last Knight Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay, who cursed both king and pope as he perished. Molay cried out, “God knows who is wrong and has sinned. Soon a calamity will occur to those who have condemned us to death.” Pope Clement died only a month later, and King Philip died in a hunting accident before the end of the year. Regardless of the deaths of these two men, it seems the Templar Bank easily morphed into the Vatican Bank in the resulting exchange of power from Templars to Catholic Church. The temple to Mary Magdalene easily shape-shifted to the worship of the Virgin Mary, promoting the Catholic Church's profiteering message of celibacy, grief and suffering. 

The Templars disbanded and traveled far and away to establish new orders: to Scotland where they began Scottish Rites Freemasonry and built Roslyn Chapel; some fled to Malta and became the Knights of Malta; some went to Portugal and became the Knights of St John. The Templars set up Switzerland, which to this day bears their flag - a white field and red cross - and of course we have the secret Swiss bank accounts. And the guardians of The Pope are the Swiss Guard. The Templars owned much of London too. Think of all the Temple names in London: some of the Templars’ lands in London were later rented to lawyers, which led to the names of the Temple Bar gateway and the Temple Underground station. Two of the four Inns of Court which may call members to act as barristers are the Inner Temple and Middle Temple – the entire area known as Temple, London.

The Knights Templar said, “Everything is hidden in plain sight for those with eyes to see.”

Magdalenas around the world are whispering about the three fires. Magdalenas are whispering, “They are worshipping the wrong Mary.”

Jesus told his disciples, “If you do not speak of this, I tell you, the very stones will cry out.”

Notre Dame Cathedral, the fire at the Church of St. John in New York City and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. 

All three sites connected to the Knights Templar and their message of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, kept alive through hundreds of years. 

The beautiful rose windows of Notre Dame survived, as did the bees kept on the roof of Notre Dame. The rose is the symbol of Mary Magdalene - roses in art, architecture and music keeping her legend alive through the ages. Painters, troubadours, sculptors alike have painted roses, sung of roses, carved roses. Think of Rosalyn Chapel, Scotland; think of the bees of Rosalyn Chapel, entering their sacred hives through a carved rose. Look for the roses in art, look also for the scallop shell, another symbol of the Divine Feminine.

There is a discussion now of a possible green roof for the future of Notre Dame. That would be an incredible move into the future, a more feminine, life-giving future!

                                               Photo/Kristin Coppola

After the fire, the Holy Spirit still lives at Notre Dame. 

©Patricia Goodwin, 2019

Patricia Goodwin is the author of When Two Women Die, about Marblehead legends and true crime and its sequel, Dreamwater, about the Salem witch trials and the vicious 11-year-old pirate Ned Low. Holy Days is her third novel, about the sexual, psychological seduction of Gloria Wisher and her subsequent transformation. Her newest poetry books are Telling Time By Apples, And Other Poems About Life On The Remnants of Olde Humphrey Farme, illustrated by the author, and Java Love: Poems of a Coffeehouse.

Within this blog, Patricia writes often about non-fiction subjects that inspire or disturb her, hopefully informing and inspiring people to be happy, healthy and free.

Jane Fonda

Icon, activist, mentor, friend, sister. Survivor.

     When the author, Kelly Oxford asked women to tweet about their very first incident of sexual harassment, I hesitated. I went to her page and I read a lot of the tweets she’d received. Women mostly tweeted about men’s hands up their skirts or on their breasts, or inappropriate advances that threatened their jobs or their safety. There were so many! Coming in at the alarming rate of 50 per minute! 

Oxford also asked women to hashtag their posts with #notokay. I didn’t know if I could share mine. I knew mine was so bad, it would make me seem bad. That old fallacy of fault creeping in. (Jane Fonda said she thought the abuse and rape must have been her fault. That she hadn’t said, “No,” in the right way.) But, it couldn’t have been my fault because I was 3 years old when it happened. I’m not sure what it was because I don’t remember and I’ve had to piece it together bit by bit. I do know my mother wanted to kill herself and me. I wanted to tell other women, I wanted to tweet along with them. Some demon urged me on, some strong sense of responsibility that I should share this horror with other women, it might help somebody, maybe even me. I held my breath and wrote – but I won’t share it here. I’m afraid for other 3 year olds. I don’t want to inspire any degenerate copycats. You’ll have to read Holy Days to find out. I will tell you that the act was so NOT OKAY, that it seemed ridiculous to use that hashtag, so I hashtagged it with the name of my novel, #HolyDays. In Holy Days, you can read all about it and everything else that happens to my character Gloria Wisher, so many things that the book started to sound like a French farce and I needed a dramatic event to balance it all and so I chose a hero’s murder, the public assassination of an abuser. Not her abuser, of course, but somebody else’s. That’s how it works.

Today, all of this came rushing forward like a tidal wave.

Today, Jane Fonda came out to say that she had been abused as a child, raped and had lost a job because she wouldn’t have sex with her boss. Who abused her as a child, she did not say. As for the rape, that is also a mystery. However, what has become known to us all as “the casting couch” is no mystery. Many actresses have been asked about the casting couch. “Would you ever sleep with someone just to get a part?” The answer is always the same. “Well, I’ve heard of the casting couch, of course, but I feel that if you need to sleep with someone that doesn’t say much about your acting and I wouldn’t want to get a role that way.” Today, Jane Fonda said this: “I didn’t know how to stand up for myself. Now, I would say, “No. This is a piece of shit. I don’t like the way you’re treating me,’ and leave. If only I knew then what I do now.”

But, to think that such a thing could happen to such a person as Jane Fonda, with her lineage – her Hollywood lineage, not to mention her link of royal blood to Jane Seymour, the third and most beloved wife of Henry VIII. Considering the patriarchy in place in Hollywood at the time of her fame, this act had to have been perpetrated by someone who had no fear of Henry or Peter Fonda, someone who was more powerful than the Fondas in Hollywood, or someone so reckless he did not fear God.

There’s a lot of that going around. No fear of God.

This cavalier attitude toward God by the Catholic Church is shown in the movie “Spotlight,” named after the section of the Boston Globe that spotlights certain issues in a longer investigative piece. In this movie, the Globe focusses in on alleged child abuse by local priests. My absolutely favorite part of the movie occurs when the female reporter (played by Rachel McAdams) knocks on the door of the elder, feeble-minded priest, now retired, the one who seems to be “touched by angels” and asks if he had molested young boys while he was a priest and he says, unequivocally, “Yes!” and she replies, “You did?” incredulous at getting such a straight forward answer, and he says, cheerfully, “Yes, of course!” Well! That proved what I had long suspected, as a former Catholic following the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandals in the news. I suspected that the abuse was something the Catholic Church not only knew about, but also condoned. In addition, I knew in my heart - they were prepared for it. In fact, as the Spotlight investigation revealed, the Catholic Church had a system in place for dealing with child abuse by priests, a system with secret, written codes for moving priests around parish to parish whenever they fell from grace, and worst of all, they had the most heinous of hypocritical concepts – confession. The priests had only to confess and they would be absolved. The guarantee, as the Church calls confession and absolution: the guaranteed route into heaven and salvation, which they knew about and depended upon even before committing their crimes. The fact that these crimes were perpetrated against children had no meaning for them. They and the Church were only interested in saving their own asses and in their eyes, their own souls. How many of us believe these priests had souls to save? What about the hearts and bodies and souls of the children they were supposed to be caring for and protecting?

That brings me to a little known Indie film called “An Open Secret.” Before learning about this remarkable film, I thought Hollywood child stars went crazy because all that fame and fortune just went to their heads. Not so. Watch “An Open Secret” now, if you can, before it disappears from YouTube - again. As with everything else “they” don’t want you to see, this film disappears and reappears on YouTube from time to time. Always, there’s a brave nerd who will upload the truth.

This film blew my mind, but it was the trailer, which has also disappeared, that broke my heart. In it, a man turns to the camera and says of the issue of having sex with child stars -  “This is the way it’s always been!”

The children were told “this is everyday business” this is what they needed to do in order to get a job.

I’m sure there are people in Hollywood who recognized this man. The film talks about the parties, usually at a producer’s home, pool parties, and things like “underwater blowjobs” which actually killed a young actor. The idea is that the boy gives the blowjob under water as long as he can, while the man holds his head under water. Of course, part of the abuse is that the boy’s head must be held under long after he’s given the signal to stop, I can’t breathe! 

Jane Fonda has long been a symbol of strength. She is also beautiful, talented, graceful and intelligent. She has shown us with her work how amazing a woman can be from the sexy newlywed in “Barefoot in the Park” to the brave reporter in “The China Syndrome,” (released March 16, 1979 about the cover-up of a nuclear power plant accident that seemed to foretell the nuclear accident that occurred March 28, 1979 at 3 Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, PA). “The China Syndrome” was the first movie I saw that gave me the feeling of true activism. Later in life, Jane Fonda showed us a 70-year-old woman could be a leading lady in the hilarious, sexually-open Netflix show, “Grace and Frankie.” In the interview she gave recently with net-a-porter in which she revealed her childhood abuse and rape, she remarked that the exercise videos she’d done had been another way she tried to impart to women that they could be strong and forceful.

Just today, also, Marie Collins, the Irish Catholic survivor of the abuse scandals who led the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, resigned, saying she could not do the work any more because of “shameful resistance” by the Vatican. Collins told the Telegraph, “There are people in the Vatican who do not want to change or understand the need to change. I can’t stick with it any more. They are not co-operating with the commission.” She said it was “soul-destroying” dealing with resistance in the Curia, the Vatican administration, and church officials who did not want to co-operate.

They have that guarantee in place.

What do we do then? What do we do as women? As children?

As victims – no, as survivors – we need two things – 1) The Truth and 2) Each Other.

Speak out! Tell the truth! Tell someone you trust, someone in authority, a teacher, a parent, a friend’s parent.

Defy! Defy any authority that tries to make you do anything you question. Parents tell your children they are free to Disobey any authority that makes them uncomfortable and that you will have their back!

Tell, write, make art, make poetry, make a film, make a YouTube video, but tell your story. Let others know they are not alone and they can be strong.

Fathers, by your actions teach your sons to respect women. Tell your daughters you stand by them.

There’s Hope: Since the International Women’s March protesting the 45^th administration, which has not been friendly to women’s and children’s causes and concerns, thousands of women have stepped forward to run for office.

With more women as officials, we can have hope for the future for women and children.

Take courage from Jane Fonda. If this can happen to her, it can happen to any of us. It’s not your fault!

Take heart - we have ourselves and our sisters and brothers-in-arms to fight it.

©Patricia Goodwin, 2017

Patricia Goodwin is the author of When Two Women Die, about Marblehead legends and true crime and its sequel, Dreamwater, about the Salem witch trials and the vicious 11-year-old pirate Ned Low. Holy Days is her third novel, about the sexual, psychological seduction of Gloria Wisher and her subsequent transformation. Her newest book is Telling Time By Apples, And Other Poems About Life On The Remnants of Olde Humphrey Farme, illustrated by the author.