Word: waco
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...signs of foul play, at least some of the deaths may have been suicides, part of one more episode in cult pathology to put beside the weird tragedies at Jonestown, Guyana, and the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. A victim was found with a letter to her family explaining that she had come to Switzerland to die. Jean-Francois Mayer, a Swiss authority on cults, made public three letters he said were posted to him by cult members before the fire. "We are leaving this earth," read one, "to rediscover, lucidly and freely, a dimension of truth and absoluteness...
...this backstage story there are no villains, unless it is the lumbering behemoth that Hollywood filmmaking has become. In the '30s a director like Michael Curtiz made six or seven pictures a year. Even today, TV can crank out a news-based movie (on Tonya Harding or the Waco siege) within a couple of months of the event. But in theatrical features, where everyone is conscious of art, ego and the roll of megamillion-dollar dice, the average film takes a couple of years from first draft to opening...
...Securities and Exchange Commission has cracked down on a company that turns life insurance policies into cash for dying AIDS patients. In U.S. District Court Thursday, the SEC charged Life Partners Inc. of Waco, Texas -- the largest of 30 players in the game -- with selling unregistered securities to investors. The SEC says Life Partners offers terminally-ill patients cash up front for the rights to more valuable death benefits from their life insurance policy. Life Partners -- which denies close parallels to the securities trade -- then sells the insurance rights to investors. Critics call the $300 million market "death futures"; advocates...
...Waco Sentencing...
...eight Branch Davidians convicted for their roles in the deadly shoot-out that precipitated the Waco standoff were sentenced by a federal judge to stiff prison terms ranging up to 40 years...