THE LEGEND OF THE FOOLKILLER CHAPTER TWO.
Terry read the Foolkiller chapter in his battered and worn copy of THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF KILLERS AND MADMEN. Terry had dozens of hobbies, but an interest in crime, criminology and detective work was in the top five. Serial killers were common, as were serial killers that tried to create myths about themselves. But there were very few that were a part of a legacy, or who fancied themselves to be a part of tradition.
Once he finished his degrees in Robotics and Electro-biology at Empire State University, maybe he would look into being a detective. If it was good enough for Sherlock Holmes and Sir Isaac Newton, it is good enough for Terry Vance.
From THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF KILLERS AND MADMEN-
The first officially known Foolkiller was Jesse Holmes, who wrote letter s to the Milton Chronicle from 1841 to 1883, a North Carolina Newspaper distributed throughout North Carolina before, during and after The Civil War. The Fool-Killer was the alleged author of letters to the Chronicle discussing the rambles of Jesse Holmes in counties of the northern Piedmont area of the South and characters and situations he encountered along the way. Published about once a month, the letters were accompanied by a woodcut of a feisty little character in long-tailed coat and floppy hat carrying a club. The club was for the Fool-Killer's use in bashing various kinds of fools he came across in his journeys. These included overbearing parents, bullying slave patrollers, hard drinkers, faithless lovers, and a variety of others. Not infrequently, the state legislature and other institutions came in for a share of cudgeling. The flavor of a society in the process of moral decay informed the Fool-Killer's letters.
The second Foolkiller preferred an axe to a club, and left the word FOOL painted or written near bodies from 1893 to 1915, but a proper name was never found or claimed for him, her, or them. The number of victims was estimated at between 80 and 120, with the possibility of "copycat killers" in there. The killings were along the railroad lines from San Francisco to Chicago to New York, and ranged from pimps and dope peddlers to dishonest businessmen and politicians suspected of corruption. Those who exploited children in either criminal activities or who used and abused child labor were particularly targeted, with FOOL written on their decapitated heads.
During World War II the West Coast saw another Foolkiller arise, that seemed to be focused on Axis spies, saboteurs and sympathizers. He was described as "looking like Zorro, with a mask and floppy hat, but Navy Blue," by several witnesses to him leaving the scenes of his vigilante actions. As a wartime superhero, he was even more obscure than The Phantom Bullet or The Thunderer but The FBI did publicly thank him for his assistance, then attempt to arrest him after the war for shooting several con artists that were preying on returning GIs.
Ross G. Everbest was the first of the Foolkillers to be identified definitively in April of 1974.
Everbest was more of a reactionary crusader than subsequent versions of the character. - The father of the boy who would become Foolkiller was a soldier who died on the day his son was born, in the final days of a war (see comments). His mother also served in the military, as a Red Cross nurse, and she lost her life to a bomb in a subsequent war, when her son was nine years old.
Born paralyzed below the waist, Ross G. Everbest was frustrated to the point of depression that he could never become an active soldier or give his life the way his parents had. He worshipped his parents and turned his bedroom into a kind of memorial for them. He read book after book about the military, and his grandmother said he knew more about its history and traditions than most generals.
Everbest's grandmother eventually brought him to Reverend Mike's Revival Caravan in hopes that the evangelist could heal him. Everbest was originally afraid of Rev. Mike and his powerful presence, but he wanted to march, so he trembled and prayed as Mike lay his hands on him and called on the Lord's power. A moment later, Everbest was standing, and he realized then that he had found his true calling as a soldier in the service of the Almighty. He begged Mike to accept him as a disciple and vowed to become as great a preacher as him.
Believing in Mike, he never faltered or strayed from the path. Before two years had passed (and as Everbest turned 18), people were falling at Everbest's feet, calling him more than human and the "new messiah," and he knew they were right. Nonetheless, Everbest was deeply troubled by criminals, protestors, dope pushers, etc. mocking the lord and the military, which he took as signs that civilization was coming to an end. For over a decade, he wondered why he couldn't save the world and what he had done wrong. He blamed social decay on unwitting agents of the devil and developed a fanatical religious philosophy under the terms of which these "fools," must be killed by a different breed of savior, an adventuring agent of God, the Foolkiller.
While the Revival Caravan was lodged in a Louisiana hotel, Everbest decided to adopt his new costumed identity and role. He went to Mike to show him his costume and tell him he was leaving the Revival, only to find Mike drinking and partying with a woman while playing with the money they had made. Mike told Everbest he took life seriously and needed to relax and stop fighting the world. Deciding that Mike, too, had become one of the fools, Everbest strangled him to death. Still, as it was Mike who had inspired him and "given the world its redeemer," Everbest made a shrine out of him, keeping his body preserved in a glass tank filled with formaldehyde as a symbol of the route to Heaven.
This tank became the Foolkiller's central shrine when he remodeled the revival caravan's truck with computers and advanced weaponry with which to undertake his mission against fools.
With the money Mike had taken from the Caravan, Everbest bought a tractor trailer, computer, and the Ray of Purity weapon. Everbest decided that that, and his death, had atoned for Mike's sins. Neither the precise nature of the Ray of Purity gun nor the identity of its manufacturer is known.
Seventy-two fools fell before the Foolkiller, from Satanists in California to the publisher of a socialist newspaper in Ohio.
Terry set the book aside, pondering what might have been in the mind of such a madman/serial killer/superhero as Ross Everbest. He flipped ahead to the account of Everbest's execution of the Satanists in the Agua Mansa Pioneer Cemetery in San Bernardino County, California, and attempted to put himself in the shoes of this long dead, insanely dangerous individual.
TO BE CONTINUED soon as I can type it up.
Coming soon! Ross Everbest versus The Sons of Satannish! A guest appearance by Mephisto! Death, gore, explosions, a chance at redemption… Be there or be square, True Believers!
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Thanks to Snood of the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe for his summary of Ross Everbest's career in MAN-THING. In MY universe, Snood would have worked for the publisher of THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF KILLERS AND MADMEN, so it totally makes sense to incorporate him into Marvel continuity as in MY fan fiction.