Chapter 30
The Occult
Edwards was released from prison in Butler, Pennsylvania, June, 1986. His family moved nearby while he served his term. They stayed in the area until 1989.
On October 12, 1986 Edwards started killing couples on lover’s lanes in Virginia, just south of Pennsylvania and near FBI and CIA headquarters. The murders are known as The Colonial Parkway Murders. Some of the victims were left with items clutched in their hands just as Edwards had proclaimed in his Atlanta Zodiac letters.
The Colonial Parkway was a well-known secluded area for gays. The victims had been approached and killed using rope, knife, gun. He drowned some, took others from the scene and placed items in their hands, leaving fake clues for the police. All of the cases remain unsolved. Just like Atlanta and the young blacks, he selected a sensitive group that would stir the public. Here are the victims.
1986, October 12, Colonial Parkway, VA. Cathleen Thomas, age 27, Rebecca Dowski, age 21.
1987, September, Wythe County, VA. David Knobling, age 21 and Robin Edwards, age 14.
1988, April 9, Colonial Parkway, VA. Cassandra Hailey, age 19 and Richard Kall, age 19.
1989, October, Colonial Parkway, VA. Anna Phelps, age 18 and David Lauer, age 21.
Edwards killed the first couple on October 12th. He had killed Paul Stine, the cabbie in the Zodiac case, on the night of October 11th. Edwards killed near this date because of its connection to Alleister Crowley, the 19th century magician, poet, famous for starting the occult. He claimed to have been contacted by a divine figure in Egypt in 1904, which provided him “The Book of Law”, a puzzle book divided into three sections. The third section of the book was to bring on a new spiritual evolution of humanity after 1904. Edwards admired Crowley and studied The Book of Law. It was the foundation for his life of killing. Edwards felt he had his own laws just as Crowley did.
Alleister Crowley
Ed Edwards 2009
Neal interrupted, “Three sections?! A book of puzzles?!!”
“Yeah, sound familiar?” Cameron asked. “Crowley is referred to as the Great Beast, 666 or Horus. He was considered Satan in some ancient Egyptian beliefs. The ‘Book of Law’ was Edwards’ source of ‘science fiction’ when he referred to it in his autobiography.”
“This demented individual showed an overwhelming interest in science fiction and Egyptian literature. He believed that anyone he killed would be his slave in his next life.”*MOAC
Edwards had obsessed about Satanism, science fiction and ancient Egyptian history his entire life. He had found the solution to his next life and it was killing people for their perceived sins. He was a Satanist, taking everything he had gone through in the Catholic orphanage and mirror imaging it with the Devil instead of Jesus. That is why his puzzles contained the letters in his name, in mirror image.