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The Bruce Lee Curse

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Bruce Lee Curse

Brandon Lee, son of the famed martial arts star, Bruce Lee, was shot and killed during the making of his breakout film, “The Crow.” Although his death was deemed “accidental,” many other speculations have arisen. What if his death was not an accident, but murder? There were many similarities between both Bruce and Brandon Lee’s death, leaving open the possibility of conspiracy. Two major theories lend hand to the thought of foul play. The Chinese Mafia theory and the Triads theory hold credence through evidence and their links to Bruce and Brandon. Other theories have been considered and prove possible as well. Too many “coincidences” occurred on set and during the investigation, to state that his death was an accident. With all the evidence collected from both deaths, the possibility that both were merely fatal accidents, can be ruled out, and replaced with the fact that they were meticulously planned murders.

Bruce Lee, martial arts star, is pronounced dead on July 20th, 1973. He is rushed to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital but is dead before arrival. All the details of his death remain unclear and somewhat covered up. Lee and film producer, Raymond Chow, met at Lee’s home to discuss the making of Lee’s film, “Game of Death.” They worked for about two hours before heading to Betty Tingpei’s (lead actress in the film) house. The three went over the script and soon after, Chow left. Lee began to complain of a headache and Tingpei gave him a tablet of Equagesuc (a super aspirin), which was prescribed for her. Around 9:00pm Chow called Tingpei’s to ask why she and Lee never showed up for dinner as planned. Tingpei told Chow that she could not wake Lee. He could not be revived and later died of, what doctors concluded as, an edema (swelling of the brain). Why hadn’t Tingpei woken Lee earlier to meet for dinner as planned? And if she tried to, and she could not, why did she not immediately phone the police? Most of all, why would she give Lee something not prescribed for him? These questions and many others make Bruce Lee’s death look less like an accident and more like murder.

On March 30th, 1993, in Wilmington, North Carolina a tragedy occurred. Brandon Lee prepares to complete what is to be the last night of scenes that involve weapons. After this night, there is only eight more nights of shooting before “The Crow” is complete. Brandon speaks to his mother on the phone. After indicating his joy in this being the final night of weapons scenes, he ends the conversation and heads to the set. The scene in which Eric Draven walks in on his beloved Shelly being raped is to be shot. Michael Massee (FunBoy) is handed the pistol, which he is to point and fire at Brandon (Eric Draven) as we walks into the room. Alex Proyas calls for “quiet” and then “action”. Brandon walks in, Michael Massee pulls the trigger, Brandon falls to the ground and Alex Proyas calls “cut”. Everyone relaxes and starts moving around. Brandon, however, is still on the ground. Known for his practical jokes, Brandon is thought to be extending the scene. However, it becomes apparent that this is no joke and tragedy has just occurred. They find him profusely bleeding from his abdomen and ambulance is immediately called.

It is said that the Chinese Mafia killed Bruce Lee as a punishment for exposing many martial arts secrets (known in the U.S. as karate). They had warned Bruce Lee over and over about exposing karate. He was the first to do work of this kind, but the more popular he became, the more movies he made, the bigger the audience, and more karate on film, especially in the American market. After his death (which was shrouded in mystery), his son Brandon Lee came onto the scene. As the son of the foremost martial artist ever known, he picked up where up where his father left off. It however was much quicker that he met his demise, allegedly at the hands of the same Chinese Mafia, again shrouded in mystery.

The Triads, a group of organized criminals with ties to the entertainment industry in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, China, are top suspects in the murder of both Bruce and Brandon Lee. The Triads were angry with Bruce Lee for refusing to work in their movies, and in turn, held a grudge against his son, Brandon. The fact that the Triads had ties with the entertainment industry, only begs more questions. Was Brandon’s murder an inside job? The answer is simply yes, but the explanation is far more complex. The precautions taken away that day may give thought to the theory of foul play. No one thought to give Brandon a protective vest or to have actor, Michael Massee (FunBoy), aim the weapon away from him (a common and necessary procedure for close-up shots within twenty feet of an actor). The weapons supervisor was also sent home that day. On the day of a close-up shot, involving weapons and a squib (explosive device), all precautions should be taken. Sending the weapons supervisor home was an unwise and idiotic mistake. Having the weapons supervisor leave, endangers all the actors and the crew. Michael Massee shot directly at Brandon, with no vest on. There was also a squib set off on his arm, in a grocery bag, a very dangerous stunt, and yet still no weapons supervisor was present. For such a dangerous shot, no one in his or her right mind would take away such a safety net. These incidents only further prove the Triads involvement in Brandon’s death. Being connected to the film industry made the set easily accessible for the Triads. Also, Brandon’s murder occurred on the last night of shooting with weapons. Anyone with any sense knew it was that day or never. The Triads carefully planned this day, or tried previous days, failed, and knew this was their last chance. They stood to gain something from the movie, “The Crow.” Brandon was murdered only eight days before filming ended, leaving only a few scenes to be shot. Having very little left to shoot, the movie could be completed by a double. The timing of his death was too easy to work around. It was planned, it was murder, and the theory of the Triads involvement is highly likely.

Although both theories, the Chinese Mafia and The Triads, are highly likely, many others are speculated and possible. Brandon Lee, being son of famed Chinese martial arts legend, Bruce Lee, left him enemy to many. Those who were jealous of his father’s presence, even after death, sought to tarnish the Lee name and to end the bloodline by eliminating his only son. Any person with a grudge against Bruce Lee could’ve wanted to harm Brandon, his film career, and to end his life.

There were many strange happenings on the set before Brandon was fatally shot and some eerie coincidences. First of all, the scene in which Brandon died in real life was also supposed to be the scene in which Eric Draven, his character, is brutally murdered. Another movie was being filmed at the same time as “The Crow,” called “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.” This movie was to document Brandon’s father’s works. Both of the sets were over run with strange incidents. The first day of shooting “The Crow,“ a worker touched a high-voltage wire and was electrocuted on a studio back lot. An upset employee ran his car through the studio’s plaster shop. A construction worker slipped causing a screwdriver to go through his hand. The weather was also very uncooperative. It caused damage to some of the sets. One of “The Crow’s” publicists was injured in a minor car accident. A drive-by shooting took place just a few streets away from one of “The Crow’s” locations. Due to all the strange occurrences the case was supposed to remain open. Also, the medical examiner who was said to have performed Brandon Lee’s autopsy, and who went on record to say he had preformed it, had in fact not even been present at the time. He signed the autopsy report as well, yet he did not perform it. It is still unknown why he would lie and sign off on the autopsy, as if he’d done it himself. To add to the possibility of murder, on the set of “The Crow,” the night of his death, it was bustling with several dozen people. The list includes actors, camera operators, lighting experts, producers, directors and numerous other employees. With that many people on set, tired from fifty straight days of shooting, who would have kept their eye on the handgun that ended Brandon Lee’s life? With only eight days left of filming the crew just strained to reach the end. With all that confusion, who would have worried about the gun? No one, and it could have easily been taken and loaded with real bullets. Too many coincidences occurred to deem his death as accidental.

Although Bruce and Brandon Lee’s deaths occurred some twenty years apart, many connections link the two. Both died while in the process of making a film. Both of their deaths brought suspicions of conspiracy. Also, in Bruce Lee’s final film, “Game of Death,” he played an actor, who is severely wounded by a live bullet on set, exactly how his son was fatally shot. There were many opportunities to kill both Bruce and Brandon, and both deaths could have been made to look like accidents. The “accidental” deaths of two actors, while filming movies, in the same bloodline, are highly unlikely. All evidence points to only one theory, and to the truth, Bruce and Brandon Lee were conspired against, and both were murdered.

Through thorough investigation and review of evidence, one can easily conclude that Brandon Lee’s death was no accident. The connections with his father’s (Bruce Lee) death are uncanny. Too many theories completely disprove their deaths as accidents. All necessary safety precautions that were removed that fatal day, for such a dangerous shot, were reckless, yet carefully mapped out. This lack of precaution ended young Brandon’s life. No one would put himself or herself in a position to be sued for reckless endangerment, unless they had a motive or a hidden agenda. Also, the chances of a father and a son, both actors, being “accidentally” killed, while filming a movie, are less than likely. In summation, Brandon Lee’s death is connected to his fathers, and both were murdered, but the killer has long since covered his tracks.

– Anonymous

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Curses: The Curse of the Wandering Jew

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The Curse of the Wandering Jew

The Wandering Jew is a figure from medieval Christian folklore whose legend began to spread in Europe in the 13th century. The original legend concerns a Jew who taunted Jesus on the way to the Crucifixion and was then cursed to walk the earth until the Second Coming. The exact nature of the wanderer’s indiscretion varies in different versions of the tale, as do aspects of his character; sometimes he is said to be a shoemaker or other tradesman, sometimes he is the doorman at Pontius Pilate’s estate.

The Curse of the Wandering Jew
By bonald

The first man to acheive immortality was Utnapishtim. For rescuing animal and human life during the Flood, the gods granted him this favor, that he and his wife should live forever, albeit outside the realm of mortal men. For Utnapishtim, immortality is a blessing–one that the gods have seen fit to deprive from every other man, as Gilgamesh learns with bitterness.

Next came the Sibyl of Cumae. To win her love, Apollo offered her a gift. Gathering a pile of sand, she said, “Let me live as many years as there are grains of sand here,” and it was granted. Having been given near-immortality, she spurned the god–after all, the gift of a god is irrevocable. Apollo then changed his blessing into a curse: the Sibyl would continue to live, but she would also continue to age. She would age and shrivel until nothing was left of her but a voice, pleading for death. This time, near immortality is a curse, but only accidentally. Not perpetual life, but the infirmity of extreme old age is what is unbearable.

During the Christian era, another man was given immortality: Ahasuerus, the Wandering Jew. For mocking Christ as He carried His cross to Golgotha, Ahasuerus was cursed to live on for millenium to millenium and wander the Earth until Christ’s second coming. Unlike the Sibyl, Ahasuerus does not continue to age–near immortality itself is the curse, as well as the perpetual homelessness which, we shall see, is essentially connected to it. Nor is immortality a curse only for the Wandering Jew in Christian folk lore. It is also such for the Flying Dutchman, who is essentially the Wandering Jew at sea.

How could immortality–not immortality accompanied by perpetual pain or aging, but immortality in itself–be a curse? And why couldn’t an immortal man feel at home in the world? Why must he be a wanderer? It might seem that such a man would be more at home in the world, which after all is his permanantly, while we are just temporary guests.

In some versions of the legend, Ahasuerus can stay under one roof or in one town only for a fixed time: three days, a fortnight, or whatever. In some versions, there is no such stricture, but Ahasuerus’ fate is not significantly different. An immortal man is a man with no family and no homeland. In some versions, Ahasuerus had a wife and daughter at the time of the Crucifixion, but his curse tore him away from them; in any case, they’re long dead now. Couldn’t he remarry? Suppose he could. Then he would live to see his wife die, their children die, and so on for as long as his progeny don’t all die off or become strangers. Each wedding comes at a price of many funerals. Perhaps after such an ordeal, the Jew forswears close human contact for a few centuries, only for loneliness to get the better of him, so that once again he seeks out friends and family, and soon he has new loved ones to mourn. Perhaps he tries to teach himself to enjoy the presence of friends without caring enough to feel the sting of their loss, but the thing isn’t possible, and he worries that he might lose part of his humanity if it were.

The desire not to outlive our loved ones is an easy thing to understand. However, there’s a more subtle element of the curse, one that makes it particularly interesting to us. Every man needs to make sense of his life. When he looks back on his life, he needs to see a single story. There should be an overall story arc, a major plotline, in light of which he can distinguish the major from the minor incidents. Such a story is, no doubt, often a greatly simplified version of a life that was in reality complicated and ambiguous, but it forms an important part of one’s sense of identity through time.

For most of us, the main plot of our lives is our family. A boy meets a girl. They fall in love and get married. This means that they decide to make their love story, and the story of the family they build, the main plot of both their lives. This is why remarriage seems so repugnant to us. Divorce and remarriage is, I believe, a great desecration. For myself, I would not even want to remarry if–God forbid–my wife were to die, even though there would be no sin in it. I can’t stand the thought of promising undying devotion to one woman and enjoying moments of closest intimacy with her, all the while remembering that I had once been with another woman in the same way. Where would be the unity of my life? It would be like a bad novel, with two unconnected stories. It would be hard even to imagine that the man who gave his love to that first woman was really me.

It’s not only wife and children that the Wandering Jew is doomed to outlive. More than once, he’s lost his country, too. He lived to see Jeruselem sacked, the Temple destroyed, the end of Israel’s political existence. Perhaps he transferred his loyalty to the Roman Empire. Surely here is a polity that will last. But no, he lived to see the end of Rome as well. He has outlived even some of the languages he once spoke. If long outliving one’s family takes away a life’s unity of plot, outliving one’s country and culture is like taking away the background, the settiing. These are things that are supposed to be fixed, and we plan our personal lives by taking them for granted. In reality, of course, cultures are not eternal; they just last much longer than a normal human life, so we are able to treat them that way.

Here is where the Legend of the Wandering Jew is most relevant to our times. We are living through an age of mass cultural extinction–tribes, cultures, languages, and religions are dying all over the world. Aboriginal tribes around the world are collapsing on contact with modern civilizations, and perhaps soon there will be no uncivilized tribes left. Imagine what it must be like to be one of those tribesmen in Africa, South America, or wherever. You are born into one way of life. You hunt, you build a hut, you obey the tribe’s elders, you sacrifice to the gods and protect yourself against demons. This way of life has been passed down from time immemorial, and you imagine that once you pass it on to your children, it will continue forever. Now fast forward twenty years. You’re living in an apartment in a big city, working at McDonald’s for minimum wage, going to the movies on Friday nights. Your new life is not necessarily worse than your old one, but how utterly different! You’ve outlived what was supposed to last forever, and now you don’t know what you can take for granted and plan around. In thinking of the way of life you’ve outlived, meloncholy passes over you, and the thought comes into your mind, “I have lived too long.”

The displaced aboriginee is an extreme example, but in these times of cultural demolition, most of us experience this feeling to some degree. Catholics who grew up before the Vatican II onslaught hear the old beliefs and practices being ridiculed by their new priests. The ideals of past ages–motherhood, patriotism, politeness–are despised by the new generation. The things that were once the heart of America–the family farm, small town life, regional distinctiveness–are all passing away. I have lived too long.

What can we do to make our lives make sense again? For us, it may be possible to preserve some elements of our cultures and communities, at least for the course of an average lifetime. And, fortunately, we can still hope that our children will outlive us. Poor Ahasuerus doesn’t have these options. I find it significant that, at least in the medieval versions of the Legend, he becomes a hermit or a missionary, renowned for his wisdom and piety. There’s only one other man as eternal as he–the One who cursed him. Yes, Ahasuerus has long since repented for his offenses against Christ and accepted baptism. He puts his trust in God’s mercy, and he takes advantage of his ages on Earth to grow closer to God and help others grow closer to Him too. The Middle Ages were, in some ways, more optimistic ages than ours, but for religious believers, there is always this consolation–that God, the most fundamental part of life’s background, is indeed fixed.

– Bonald

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James Dean: Curse or Death Wish?

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James Dean Curse

James Dean was a famous movie star of the 1950’s and like his screen image he liked to live life in the fast lane. In 1955 Dean was attracted to a car which was a silver gray 1955 Porshe Spyder.

He bought the car planning to race it in the upcoming races at Salinas. Dean was thrilled with the car but several of his friends were not.

Actor Alec Guiness told Dean to get rid of the car. George Barris said the car seemed to give off “a weird feeling of an impending doom”.

On a trip out of Atlantis mechanic Rolf Wuetherich rode with Dean. Behind Dean following in a Ford station wagon was Bill Hickman and Stan Roth.

Once on the open highway Dean speeded along until, at 3:30, a highway trooper pulled the Porsche over and gave Dean a ticket. Soon Dean and Wuetherich were beginning the ascent of the Diablo Range mountains.

At 5.59 P.M. Dean smashed head on into another car driven by Donald Turnupseed. Dean was killed instantly.

Wuetherich was thrown free but suffered extensive injuries. Turnupseed suffered only minor cuts.

The Porsche was very badly mangled.

Later on the car was sold to a Barris who planned to use it for spares. But upon the cars arrival at the garage it fell during unloading on to a mechanic breaking one of his legs.

Then two physicians bought the engine and drive train to place in their own race cars. On October 2, 1956 they raced the cars using these parts for the first time.

One was killed in an accident and the other seriously injured in another accident. Two of the tires off Deans car were sold to young man who later reported that both tires had blown at the same time very nearly causing a serious accident.

Souvenir seeking fans tried to steal parts off Deans car only to suffer severe injuries. The California Highway Patrol decided to use Deans vehicle as part of safety exhibit.

During one of the exhibits the garage used to house Deans car went up in flames. Strange all the vehicles inside were destroyed except Deans car.

Later when on display at a Sacramento high school the car fell off its pedestal breaking a students hip. Then after that the car was sent to Salinas, but on the way the car fell off the flat bed truck killing the driver.

Two years later it fell off another truck causing an accident. Then in 1958 it caused another accident.

In 1959 the car was on display when for no reason it suddenly collapsed into 11 pieces. In 1960 the car was crated and sent to Los Angeles. But it never arrived, somewhere on the way it just disappeared.

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