Introduction to the final chapter of The Shenandoah Chronicles

by Richard L. Thornton

Chapter Twenty is one of the longest and most heavily illustrated chapters. It covers the period from December 1993 to August 1998. Several riddles and “loose ends” are solved. Some are never solved. Simultaneously, I am stripped of virtually all my physical and financial assets by corrupt federal officials.

Throughout the chapter, I am traveling back and forth from my new home in the northern suburbs of Atlanta to the Shenandoah Valley. The Atlanta Metropolitan Area is a very different place from the region I moved away from 18 years earlier. I am totally ill-prepared for the Atlanta Singles Scene and don’t have enough disposable income to be attractive to most of its single women. At least I still remember how to dance.

Our E-book began in late November 2020 at a posh Christmas Party in Alexandria, Virginia on December 15, 1990. In attendance were some of the leading experts on the Maya Civilization, plus an Architect-Goat Cheese Maker, who was about to have his world turned upside down by a beautiful French actress. She told me to call her Vivi. She would tell me her real name later. Also attending is the famous archaeologist, George Stuart, who invited me to the party. As a teenager, he worked on the excavation of Etowah Mounds in the 1950s.

Our book ends at Chapter 20 in August 1998 in Cartersville, GA. FBI Special Agent Susan Karlson has finally found Vivi. She is now living out of wedlock with a man in Champagne-Argonne, France with a large brood of children. On August 4, 1998 Cindy Funkhouser and Richard are together for the last time. Soon, she will be leaving for Ithaca, New York to start a new life and says goodbye forever. Susan stops by his house for a couple of days to comfort Richard (and herself).

The next morning, Richard gets a call from from the Site Manager of Etowah Mounds State Historic Site. A neo-Satanic cult has purchased options on several hundred acres around Etowah Mounds. They have secretly worked out a deal with the State of Georgia to lease the Etowah Mounds National Historic Landmark for a dollar a year for 100 years. They plan to build an exclusive subdivision for million dollar mansions and golf course immediately around the former palisades of the Native American town. They plan to demolish the existing museum and replace it with a much larger Etowah Museum of the Cherokee Indians. The museum and archaeological site will be operated by a foundation composed of the cult’s members. YES, this really happened. This is NOT fiction.

After seeing satanic and occult symbols all over the site plan of this outrageous project, Susan Karlson proposes that Richard join forces with her again to become the dynamic duo of occult crime fighters. The rest is history. The book ends as Richard and Susan walk toward the mounds holding hands. It is the first time that Susan has ever wanted to hold hands with him.

Post-Script

Susan Karlson permanently disappeared in June 2006. It was the same month that she said she was going to retire from whatever federal agency, she was working for. As you can see, at age 40 Susan was still quite beautiful and had a youthful figure . . . plus was as brainy and mysterious as ever.

Susan Karlson was not her real name, but I knew her real name. The internet, by 2006, had become a powerful search engine. I neither could find out what happened to Susan nor any evidence that she existed on the face of the earth before 1990, when she was accepted as a trainee for the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

I personally have seen the diploma from the University of Minnesota, honoring her with a Doctor of Law (JD). Today, the University of Minnesota has no record of her either graduating or attending that institution. The last edition of the University of Minnesota yearbook, published in 1988 does not show any law student with her name or appearance. There is no mention of her name in the Minnesota high school yearbook, where she said she graduated. The State of Minnesota does not have a birth certificate for a female with her name, appearance and approximate age.

Eventually, I was able to locate Bob and Sara Danby in the vicinity of Nashville, TN. Strangely, they did not mention that Vivi lived with them for a year and a half . . . that she had continued to be in frequent contact with them, plus had visited them on several occasions. Because of their high security clearance, they were able to locate Susan’s employment file. It ends in November 1991, with a promotion to a position in an agency that is so top secret, it cannot be mentioned in her file. Her job application contained photocopies of her birth certificate in Brainerd, Minnesota, plus her photograph and name in the 1988 University of Minnesota yearbook. I have no explanation.

The Truth Is Out There Somewhere!