execution
:
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Comrades, there is less to tell you now than I would have thought, less to say, evidently, than you are prepared to hear. Often my mind is wholly empty, quiet, a room vacated in anticipation of some catastrophe, which will come soon enough. I apologize to my brothers and sisters, for this. I understand what you expect of me, what you deserve, in this darkening of our history. You need something usable, a Statement, to ennoble our cause and shame our enemies, words to engrave, soberly, on the monuments you doubtless will not forget to erect to me. There was a time when I knew the words. I remember how they rang in our meeting-rooms, at our rallies, how they shone in my mind, when we spoke them together. I remember how I repeated them, for comfortâs sake, again and again through the nights I lay in hiding, and when I was discovered and taken away, how joyfully I spat them at my tormentors. They were good words, and I do not regret them, nor the end they led me to. Be certain of that. Now they have left me, as so much else is leaving me, and I have not the strength, nor the wish, to call them back. Let my memorial be silent, if you would build it. More blood than mine will be shed, before you do.
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DIES IRAE
âIt is reported that the subject habitually spends much of her time in a lethargic, approximately quasi-catatonic state, leading us to hypothesize that (unidentified) visitors, or fellow inmates, may be supplying her, clandestinely, with one or more psychotropic drugs. We have questioned the subject at some length, however, without obtaining an unequivocal admission that this is in fact the case. We strongly urge that the customary procedures [Section IV-B, Subsection 2, ¶11] be implemented at once.
âPeriodically, the subject appears to undergo a radical alteration of her behaviour-patterns, characterized by hyperactivity, obsessional reiteration of âleft-wingâ propaganda, and pronounced alienation from, and resistance to, authority. We were able to observe these phenomena on two [2] occasions. In the first instance, the subject, having conducted herself in a docile manner for several hours, abruptly began to walk back and forth across her quarters (âpacingâ) in a markedly agitated manner. She then paused, and recited what seemed to be a âspeech,â either improvised spontaneously or committed to memory at some earlier time. (It was not possible to determine which was the case, as the subject refused to answer, or may not have heard, our questions.) Unfortunately, our recording equipment was inoperative during this âperformance,â and we cannot provide an exact transcript of her words. The principal theme, however, was articulated quite distinctly, in the para-rational mode typical of Phase II paranoia [
cf.
Weber & Hartley]. The subject said, in effect, that a ârevolutionâ (presumably Communist, although we have no clear confirmation of this) was about to occur, and that everyone who had hitherto âoppressed the peopleâ [
sic
] would be killed. Significantly, the manner of death was not specified; we have found that many subjects in a delusional state are deliberately vague upon the actual implementation of their âfantasies.â The subject went on to describe, more explicitly than we had anticipated, a number of acts of âterrorism,â which she openly advocated, including the abduction and assassination of (unnamed) prominent public figures, the organization of a âgorilla armyâ [
sic
], and a calculated campaign of bombing and arson, air piracy, larceny and what we interpret [
cf.
Section IX, Subsection 5-A, ¶ 6] as illegal assembly. It may be relevant to note that the subject referred, in several instances, to a pseudo-concept she called âcorrect thinking.â We have encountered this syndrome in other subjects whose delusions assume a purportedly âpoliticalâ character, but we have
Tommy Tommy Tenney, Mark A