Report From The Lisa Lansing Case

January 27, 1986

EVIDENCE EXAMINATION REPORT TO FORT WORTH HOMICIDE UNIT

BY

DR. WILLIAM R. FLAGG, M.D., PhD.

RE: Item #17 from an addendum to the Lansing Investigation files turned over to Fort Worth Police by Dallas Police, a typewritten poem entitled "Prince", discovered seven feet from a diary. The diary is allegedly written in handwriting identified as that of Lisa Lansing, reported missing and now considered a possible kidnap victim or deceased. However, the poem was unsigned, so there is no way to know who wrote it. The diary, black in color, was discovered within the radius established at the crime scene of an ATM burglary. The machine was ruptured by an explosion and over $80,000 was stolen. In addition to the poem, Sergeant Jack Goldman of the Dallas CSI unit, attached a profile of the poem's unknown author.


I am Doctor William R. Flagg, chosen to examine the subject item listed, a poem called "Prince".


I was selected not only because of my medical degree, but also due to the fact I hold a degree in literature as well as psychiatry. My examination is limited to the words written and not the physical aspects of the item, which has already been subjected to numerous tests with few, if any, results, or so I was advised.

This is by no means a scientific examination or investigation. I was asked only to offer an opinion based on my unique qualifications.

Based on the preliminary request for me to provide my opinion, many have been stumped by the metaphors in the poem.

Frankly, that is a clue in itself. Dallas Police strongly believe the writer of this work is not only the abductor of Lisa Lansing, but the murderer of several women, numerous children and even three police officers. In two of those Dallas murder cases, two other poems were found, but are not the subject of this examination. Still it lends credence to their theory. I choose not to offer that as a conclusion, but initially will report on the elements of the poem. While I will not judge the literary merit of the poem, I can say it did use metaphors.

PRINCE

It settled in a fury.
Cold and wet,
it faded fast.
I wondered in a worry,
after sunset
if it would last.
I, who loved the wind and missed it so.

It darkened in a hurry,
and I alone
found in it, a light.
Adrift in a flurry,
from the Empress,
they touched me, white
and soft, stirring needs shaped long ago.

The Empress is a metaphor. It is a flower, a rare form of Lily.



In fact, the narrator is a metaphor. As several officers guessed in their questions to me, he is depicted as a frog....and what do frogs become in folklore and even myth?

Now, I await the scurry
of mortal prey
hiding from the dark,
in the water blurry,
fleeing, floating, flying,
'til Luna rises stark.
Sated, soon it passes and I'll seek others, this I know.

The entire poem is a metaphor, which at first glance and taken literally is quite beautiful and full of life. It demonstrates that what appears to be a frog, one that seemingly aspires and often becomes a beautiful and noble prince...one with all the answers, in reality remains, a slimy, swamp dwelling predator, certainly not a prince, and maybe not even a frog...but the illusion of one. Why the illusion? Clearly so the entity will seem less harmful, with perhaps, some redeeming qualities.

Sergeant Goldman in his report, stated the author of "Prince" is one who wrote about himself metaphorically. He advises it was written with disguised malice, by someone evil.

I concede here, he may be right. In my experience, evil cannot love, it can only hate, and if somehow, it could find a way to write about itself, it would only demonstrate hate for itself. Still, it might try and disguise its true self by wrapping layers pleasing to the eye and ear and heart around it.

That is what evil does to us...it leads us to believe something is beautiful, and places upon us a feeling of being alive...when in reality it stalks us, drains us of our life force, then destroys us, often before we even know it.

So, in the poem, the Empress lily releases its petals and they form a beautiful floating pad in a pond full of life..insects scurrying and flying, etc. Easy prey for predators, some of which seem to do little harm, like a frog.

Within the context of this poem, the Empress is also womanhood and the "flowers pure" are her innocent children, that will no more touch the prince after he uses and abuses them. Once sated, he is no longer interested and cares not if they live or die. He just moves on to feed more desires (hence the metaphor of eating the insects).

As Sergeant Goldman wrote in his profile of the author of the poem to Fort Worth detectives, "Whoever wrote this is no prince. He's not even a frog. But, oddly I am reminded of the time when, as a twelve-year old, I reached with my hand to grab a bayou frog, only to discover a moccasin lying in wait, one that bit me right on the arm. While this poem was certainly written with an evil hand, and appears to be something revealing, it also feels like a trap. It has many layers."

Again, I must concede that Sergeant Goldman may have a point. Even though, this poem clearly indicates the author revels in his methods of destruction and even mourns the fact that he cannot molest and kill his victims a second time, why would he even record his thoughts? Perhaps, that is the only way to enjoy his conquests again...and maybe that is part of it. But, like Goldman I sense another motive. One that may be leading us to a conclusion the writer wants us to make. Again, I ask why is that?

Perhaps to answer that, we must examine the poem further.

It is not about malevolence, but about evil, and there is a difference. They both have the same goals: to destroy innocence which leads to misery and death, to lay waste to life itself and if enough of it is done, the very universe recedes into darkness.

Malevolence is a "what you see is what you get" type of entity, and it is there to keep our focus occupied on fighting it, while evil sneaks upon us in another way, one we usually don't catch. It is deceptive and appears beautiful. Sometimes it convinces you that it loves you and you learn to trust it. It appears lovely and safe, but it wants the same thing as malevolence: your innocence, your life, your essence and the destruction of everything. Hence the final stanza, as beautiful as it seems, is anything but.

But I'll not be touched again
by the Empress flowers pure

(Why not? Because he has used them up by removing their innocence or killing them.)

For Innocence and Wind

Wind is capitalized, and by inference, represents evil.

have never shared allure

Evil abhors innocence and wants to destroy it.




And of course, the prince as stated in the first stanza loves the wind (why would something so deceptively destructive love the wind, this particular wind?), so he uses it by positioning himself to be ready when the wind forces the petals to detach from the Empress and land in the prince's lair of darkness.

Finally, the wind itself is a metaphor. Is it a person? An entity? An illusory ally to this "prince"? As to that I cannot say, but it is something that shouldn't be overlooked. The frog or "Prince" has placed himself right in front of us, to be sure; and we must learn who he is. But we must also discover the identity of he or it, that is described as the "Wind".

William R. Flagg, M.D., PhD

************************************

Authors note: There is entertainment that appeals to the action and adventure reader, and there is the kind of entertainment that appeals to the more cerebral and abstract. Many readers are both, so there is no reason a book's content can't appeal to both areas. Simply by layering the depth, the reader can choose to go as deep as he or she wants, depending upon how they want to be entertained.

"The Diaries of Lisa Lansing" is a series that will sometimes intersect with the Jack Goldman quasi-paranormal mysteries, in a way not unlike the times when Fort Worth and Dallas intersect and sometimes collide.

"Diaries" begins in the mid seventies...and moves on through the early nineties (in a later book it comes to present day).

Jack Goldman's story begins, actually in 1963, but he notices true evil and how it must be detected by unconventional means for the first time in 1979.


Eventually Lisa and Jack....

For more on Jack Goldman, go here:

Short Stories & The Goldman Crime Series  (ASR) I hope you enjoy one or more of these. #1287622 by Jack Goldman

For more on Lisa Lansing, go here

The Lisa Lansing Series  (NPL) From the Diaries of Lisa Lansing #1287637 by L. A. Powell