HENRI LEMARCHAND FOUND
Linn: In April of this year, the Sons of Light, a neo-fascist secret society advanced in its quest to find the body of Henri Lemarchand. Lemarchand, it was believed, had survived poisoning and decapitation only to be buried alive by his caretaker in 1986 (see: Henri Lemarchand's Fate Worse Than Death, November, 1996, vol. 3, Issue #11). The organization hired remote viewer Nathaniel Crouch to assist their efforts. On April 9, by a cottonwood tree some half a mile off county road R4, the SoL unearthed a cabinet said to contain the remains. However, the cabinet's lock had been smashed and its contents removed.
This incident mystified Crouch, as all his attempts with self-hypnosis and remote viewing had led him to believe that this was the spot. Shaken but undaunted, he continued his partnership with the Sons, using the abandoned cabinet a psychic resonator. In this way, he hoped still to find the body of Henri Lemarchand.
On the fateful day of June 17, SoL director Damiano Antonio Palmonetti received a typed letter from an unknown source:
Dearest Sons,
That for which you seek is not a thing but a man. Lesorcier begins where Lemarchand ends. Now for Crouch.---H.
So far, no one affiliated with the Sons of Light, including Nathaniel Crouch, has any idea who "H" could be. Crouch even tried testing the note and envelope for psychic residue, but turned up nothing. The note, however, gave him new insights into the search for Lemarchand.
"The first part of the note was simple enough, as soon as I thought about it," Crouch reports. "It was suggesting that I had been wrong all along when I was psychically looking for a corpse. I shouldn't have been looking for an object; I should have been trying to get a reading from a living person. It simply had not seemed feasible to me before that Lemarchand could still be alive. Yet that was what the note was implying, and that was what I went after. I'm not at liberty to say what the part about Crouch implies. But once we have Lemarchand, the truth may come out."
After several further remote viewing attempts, Crouch believed he had finally found the body. But this time the group wouldn't be digging anything out of the earth.
Crouch identified Lemarchand to be in the home of the wealthy Lindon recluse, George Bishop. All the Sons of Light had to do now was politely ask Bishop to hand over The-Man-Who-Would-Not-Die.
But George Bishop is a mysterious figure, and it is almost as if he prefers life that way. He owns a giant, three-storey house nestled back in a small wood on the very edge of Lindon, and is said only to leave once a week to walk his dogs. The rest of the time, his domestic staff take care of that and other daily necessities.
Bishop, believed to be 61, though sometimes rumored to be much older, started his professional career as a bank teller in Chicago. By the tender age of twenty-four he was a vice-president in the company. He had developed a knack for making wise investments, and through the years put money into General Motors, IBM, Aerodyne Propulsion Laboratories, Selznik & Co. Munitions, and Compaq, just to name a few. By the time Bishop was thirty-five, he was ready to retire. The wealth he had accumulated by the end of the Vietnam War made him one of the richest people in Chicago. Unmarried and tired of the hectic pace of the city, Bishop moved to rural Iowa, where he could live a more leisurely life.
Though long retired, George Bishop's investments and wealth afford him to endulge his obsession with the supernatural. He had his house built over the spot where he believed three magical ley lines intersected. These invisible streams of power would protect his health and fortune, he had told the building contractor. He refused to allow anything containing lead into the house, saying that the material would dampen magical forces in the area. Consequently, many of the house's appliances are thought to be custom-made with precious metals.
Building a large arcane library was one of Bishop's high priorities, especially in the early eighties. The Book of Dread Revelations, Beyond the Rosicrucians, The Holy Bible, The King in Yellow---these are the more mundane tomes out of the thousands he collected. His rumored rapport with the B. Lavatsky Museum developed from donating certain rare grimoires. In exchange, he was granted a singular privilege: especially long periods of time alone in the special collections room.
Every year, Bishop sends a $30,000 check to Aerodyne Propulsion Laboratories and includes the same note: "There's a war in Heaven. We can't let the Serpent win."
But given all these eccentricities, Bishop has always been considered friendly and harmless by the people of Lindon. Though a recluse, his donations wholly underwrite the Town of Lindon Sanitation and Fire Department. As of 1991, the Department no longer depends upon taxpayer support at all.
On June 19, Palmonetti gave Bishop a call, asking Bishop if had in fact dug up Lemarchand's body in April. To Palmonetti's delight, Bishop said yes.
"I asked immediately if a may come and see Lemarchand for myself," says Palmonetti. "But Bishop was wary. He said that Lemarchand was not in good condition, and that any further stress at this time could only make things worse. It was then that I asked the question hinted at by the mysterious 'H': Was Lemarchand alive? I heard only silence on the other end of the line for several seconds. Then Bishop answered that Lemarchand was alive!"
Palmonetti, Crouch and the Sons of Light were ecstatic. How did Lemarchand do it? Was the "witch" who gave him the longevity potion back in the nineteenth century really one of the last remaining members of the Milieu d'Or? And didn't the elder Danvers' diary say that Lemarchand was beheaded?
Bishop told Palmonetti that he would have his chance to have all his questioned answered, in due time. "It will be while before Lemarchand will be ready to speak at length with others," said Bishop. "Perhaps in a month or so you will have the chance to meet face to face. But I can tell you something to think about before your introduction. The woman that gave him the potion of eternal life was in fact a member of the ancient magical Milieu. But the mixture that she gave him was not at all magical, contrary to what you may have heard.
"Oh, also, Lemarchand has taken a new name now that he has, in a sense, risen from the dead. I helped him pick it out. He is now Henri Lesorcier."
Bishop plans to hold a meeting among Palmonetti, Crouch, myself and select members of the Sons of Light in Late August. On a final note, it must be said that Palmonetti asked Bishop if he knew of the mysterious "H". Elusive as ever, Bishop answered, "Maybe."
