FINANCIALS

Period: FY/2023
Filling Date: 2023-06-06
REVENUE:
Revenue: $77.38B
Gross Profit: $17.51B (22.63%)
Result: $-15.99B (ebitda)
EPS: $-1 083.19
Outstanding Shares: 31.70M
BALANCE:
Cash: 15.99M
Debt: 10.02M
FINANCIAL EVALUATION/SCORE:
Financial Score - Altman: 0.26
Financial Score - Piotroski: 2.00
Company Description:
Orion Energy Systems, Inc. researches, designs, develops, manufactures, markets, sells, installs, and implements energy management systems for commercial office and retail, exterior area lighting, and industrial applications in North America. The company operates through three segments: Orion Services Group, Orion Distribution Services, and Orion U.S. Markets. It offers interior light emitting diode (LED) high bay fixtures; smart building control systems, which provide lighting control options and data intelligence capabilities for building managers; and LED troffer door retrofit for use in office or retail grid ceilings. The company also offers various other LED and HIF fixtures for lighting and energy management needs comprising fixtures for agribusinesses, parking lots, roadways, retail, mezzanine, outdoor applications, and private label resale. In addition, it provides maintenance, repair, and replacement services; offers lighting-related energy management services, such as site assessment, site field verification, utility incentive and government subsidy management, engineering design, project management, installation, facility design commissioning, and recycling; and sells and distributes replacement lamps and fixture components into the after-market. The company serves customers directly and through independent sales agencies and distributors, national account end-users, federal and state government facilities, regional account end-users, electrical distributors, electrical contractors, and energy service companies. Orion Energy Systems, Inc. was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

'Saudi Arabia First': Trump Lets Saudis Dictate US Foreign Policy--17 Saudia Arabian nationals executed 9/11 --At least 3000 Americans died and billions upon billions of damage to New York, the Pentagon and a plane nose diving in Pennsylvania on 9/11 FIRST RUSSIA NOW SAUDI ARABIA--DID TRUMP EVER HAVE ANY PLANS OF COLLUDING WITH AMERICA??
'Saudi Arabia First': Trump Lets Saudis Dictate US Foreign Policy--17 Saudia Arabian nationals executed 9/11 --At least 3000 Americans died and billions upon billions of damage to New York, the Pentagon and a plane nose diving in Pennsylvania on 9/11

1. Trump chose Saudi Arabia for his first foreign presidential trip In May 2017
   
2. Trump praised a Saudi blockade on Qatar--preventing the movement of goods and services to that country--why is this a big deal? Our Military has its largest Middle Eastern base in Qatar--Trump sided with another country against American interest--AGAIN!!!!!!!
   
3. Trump resumed sales of precision-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia--They were suspended by Obama over concerns about civilian deaths from Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in Yemen, Which has been engulfed in the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophe.
   
4. Trump steered clear of condemnation of Saudi conduct in Yemen war--hundreds of innocent civilains have been killed by Saudi bombs
   
5. Trump And Pompeo Enabled A Saudi Cover-Up Of The Khashoggi Killing--Following the uproar over Khashoggi's disappearance in 2018, Trump tweeted that he had "no financial interests in Saudi Arabia." But--Trump bragged about his business dealings with the Saudis during a 2015 campaign rally in Mobile, Alabama--“They buy all sorts of my stuff. All kinds of toys from Trump. They pay me millions and hundred of millions"
   
6. December 2018, Trump administration threatens to veto a UN resolution drafted by Britain demanding accountability for war crimes in the Yemen conflict and for Saudi Arabi
   
7. Trump Administration approved transfer of sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia in two cases after Khashoggi's death--never mind that 17 Saudi citizens carried out 9/11 which killed thousands of Americans on home soil--details have been kept secret despite Congress demanding answers---WTF
   
8. Trump blocked bipartisan congressional resolution demanding end of U.S military support for the Saudi-led genocidal war in Yemen
   
9. Trump and Pompeo did not include Saudi Arabia on an annual blacklist of countries recruiting child soldiers
   
10. Trump blocked 3 congressional bills that would have stopped over $8 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia
    
11. Kushner may have offered valuable U.S. intelligence, that helped the crown prince to round up and torture dissidents in Saudi Arabia who opposed the goverment there--Saudi crown prince bragged that Jared Kushner gave him CIA intelligence about other Saudis saying 'here are your enemies' days before 'corruption crackdown' which led to torture and death https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5575395/Saudi-crown-prince-brags-Jared-Kushner-handed-U-S-intelligence.html
    
12. The FBI reportedly stopped a Saudi plot to kidnap a YouTuber on US soil after he criticized Mohammed bin Salman over Jamal Khashoggi's killing https://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-thwarted-saudi-plot-kidnap-regime-critic-on-us-soil-2020-1
    
13. Saudi Air Force member kills 3 at U.S. Navy base--Trump says nothing https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/saudi-air-force-member-who-killed-3-u-s-navy-n1097641
    
14. Saudi royal family does seem to have a special relationship with Trump, who has repeatedly bucked bipartisan congressional majorities to block the Kingdom on topics ranging from its disastrous war in Yemen to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
    
15. The manager of Trump’s hotel in New York credited a timely stay by members of the Saudi Crown Prince’s entourage (though not the prince himself) with lifting revenue there by 13 percent in one quarter of 2018--the bump came after two straight years of booking declines for the property
    
16. Saudi lobbyists spent $260,000 at Trump’s hotel in DC back in December 2016 during the transition
    
17. Saudi Kingdom itself spent $190,273 at Trump’s hotel in early 2017.
    
18. Alwaleed bin-Talal, a member of the royal family purchased the 282-foot yacht "Princess" for $20 million in 1991 after the boat was repossessed from Trump (Trump was nearing bankruptcy at the time) And he sold it at a loss: $20 million. The Saudis also purchased Trump's financially troubled Plaza Hotel for $325 million in 1995
    
19. In 2016, the New York Daily News reported that the Saudi government also purchased the entire 45th floor of the Trump World Tower, for $4.5 million, in June 2001. Given annual fee fares for the building at the time, Trump also was paid $5.7 million by the Saudis between the purchase and 2016, the paper reported.
    
20. A real estate company Cadre partly owned by Trump and Kushner, has received $90 million from Saudi Arabia in 2018--how is this Fucking legal?
    
21. Saudi Crown Prince--the guy who ordered the killing of American journalist Jamal Khassoggi, Boasted That Jared Kushner Was “In His Pocket”
    
22. Embassy Staffers Say Jared Kushner Shut Them Out of Saudi Meetings--This is not how American foreign policy is conducted
    
23. Saudi shooter in Florida air base attack had "significant ties" to al Qaeda yet somehow--he was allowed into the United States in 2017-- non-citizens are normally prohibited from buying handguns, He used a loophole to legally purchase his weapon from a dealer in Pensacola https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/saudi-air-force-member-who-killed-3-u-s-navy-n1097641
    
24. 4 of Trump's 7 Vetoes Were To Protect The Saudis https://www.senate.gov/legislative/vetoes/TrumpDJ.htm
    
25. Trump Bragged About Serving Up American Troops to Saudi Arabia for Nothing More Than Cash Conservative Rep. Justin Amash, who was a Republican until recently, responded to Trump’s remarks, saying, “He sells troops” https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-brags-about-serving-up-american-troops-to-saudi-arabia-for-cash-936623/
    
26. Trump-Bro Julian Assange Outed Gays, HIV+ People, and Rape Victims in Places Where They Could Be Killed like Saudi Arabia-- WikiLeaks has leaked info on gay men in Saudi Arabia, which has the death penalty for homosexuality https://www.fastcompany.com/4017692/wikileaks-has-leaked-info-on-gay-men-in-saudi-arabia-which-has-the-death-penalty-for-homosexuality
    

I'm so done with people telling me I'm too American or not American enough.
I'm over purists shitting on blended culture. I'm over foreigners ranting at me about AmericaBad like they look at me and obviously don't see an American. I'm over self-haters trying to rope me into the self-hate train. I'm done with old world and new world fundies invalidating my interpretation of the religion I fucking grew up under. And I'm especially over white people informing me about who I am, regardless of my input.
​
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Surfer rock and west coast rap. Orange chicken and ranch dressing. Childhood robbed by the extracurricular industrial complex. Poison ivy and chaparral. Spanish named streets and cities. Big box store hellscapes. Converse sneakers and hoodies with those stupid kangaroo pockets. Social satire dubbed over anime. Slinging gas station slushies and cardboard churros on minimum wage. Mistrusting the system.
This is my culture.
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The last Native Americans from this land I stand on, passed on their social values to friends who wrote them down in books that raised me as a child, while my parents where skiving off. The civil rights thinkers who spoke to my reality when no adult in my life treated me like a person. Jaded suburban white hippies who raged against the machine. The old country philosophies that tell me to lift my head against the old country philosophies that compel me to bow and submit.
These are my founding fathers and mothers.
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The furtive world of mostly non-white folks who keep one or two tor ten toes outside of legality, united by the common language of cash under the table. Queer BIPOC kids subconsciously signaling to each other and gravitating together. People who are unafraid to think, unafraid to be sincere, unafraid of the dark, scared of falling asleep, scared of authority, scared of dehumanization.
These are my people.
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When I am condescended to, when my substance is flattened, when supremacists or essentialists dictate to me what I think or feel or know--I will remember what is warm and familiar, I will recall the good and the bad that watered my roots. I will cook my food and sing my songs and care for my people.

We'll both earn $100 when you join Chime and receive a qualifying direct deposit! Learn more. https://chime.com/kelvonhursey
We'll both earn $100 when you join Chime and receive a qualifying direct deposit! Learn more. https://chime.com/kelvonhursey
The following counts as direct deposit:
Ally American Express Serve Apple Cash Axos Bank Bank of America Cash app Charles Schwab Chase Circle Pay Discover Fidelity One Finance PayPal Santander SoFi Money TD Bank T-Mobile Money Wells Fargo USAA U.S. Bank

We'll both earn $100 when you join Chime and receive a qualifying direct deposit! Learn more. https://chime.com/kelvonhursey
The following counts as direct deposit:
Ally American Express Serve Apple Cash Axos Bank Bank of America Cash app Charles Schwab Chase Circle Pay Discover Fidelity One Finance PayPal Santander SoFi Money TD Bank T-Mobile Money Wells Fargo USAA U.S. Bank

I forgot that TROLLS post things online for me to respond to so they can get people ANGRY AT ME.
My name is posted to comments that I can't see. Have fun commenting on FOX NEWS since Microsoft might not ban posts or remove them. They support "purge" for people who don't work or can't work? have fun, New America of 2023 featuring unlawnessless and dishonor!
People who don't want to house and feed homeless ARE UN-CHRISTLIKE. Once people are homeless, it's harder for them to get working. Every American leader should address that problem FIRST. Prevent homelessness, because it can happen to anyone, not just drug addicts like popular stereotypes go.
Stop being EMOTIONAL on internet and responding without full information or researched facts.
What’s So Bad About Corporate Welfare? https://www.mackinac.org/26444
Information about welfare poor people get:
https://www.history.com/news/clinton-1990s-welfare-reform-facts
TANF is only welfare cash $ program in USA: https://www.usa.gov/welfare-benefits
What happened with federal student loan program for me? I finished my degree within high paying field instead of schoolteacher. I INTENDED to use degrees to make 6 figure income in honest, legal and business that helps people without harming them. I was prevented, so federal government CANNOT collect from underemployed black lady over 50. You can thank my harassers, they prevented me from repaying my loans with income "on the books". They want to create new system of sex work to pay off debts, starting DARKEST AGE IN USA HISTORY when women and children are abused by men for $. Corporate welfare is paying people USING my degrees, who aren't me!

Hear me out. I really don’t want to sound like a spoiled gamer, but honestly… The new update feels so stale to me. After the last update, I would log in everyday counting down the days for the June update and the teasers made it seem like it would be so much more special and meaningful to us than it is in reality.
I would wake up everyday so excited at the end of May just waiting for AT LEAST the date we would be receiving the new update. I felt like I got stabbed in the back hearing they would drop the update early June and they didn’t even mention the exact date. That already made me not want to open the game everyday like I did.
Finally, we got the date one day before (which was shady but ok I’ll take it). As soon as the game updated the next day, I stg my mood just went out of the window when I saw the Wall-e Bundle costing 4K MOONSTONES! I live in South America and 4K moonstones is literally almost 200 reais where I live. It’s so frustrating that I had to choose the star path or that, not being able to get both because I’m freaking broke and everything where I live is 5x more when things are in dollars
The star path has way too many motifs, feeling like they were straight up too lazy to give us deserving rewards for cashing their game. I honestly feel so dumb because I didn’t expect these cashing bits to be so early on
I know I can just drop the game but I paid money for it giving them a chance and I just feel like they’re only thinking about cash grabbing us and thats a major no no for me :( I will not be able to get the wall-e bundle (many ppl have said it’s not even worth it but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth regardless) and that feels like I’m being left out of the game somehow, and idk I’m not excited to play the game anymore like I was last update.

Hi! I was hoping to get some investment advice from this group. Husband (37) and I (30) are in a good place financially, but I know that we definitely could be making smarter investments/choice with our money, but both of us are so risk averse that we tend to just never take action.
Financial stats below:
-Combined annual gross income: $307,000 base (plus additional income around $40,000 in bonuses between the two of us, but those vary based on company and personal performance so I don’t include in our budgeting) -Retirement savings between the two of us: ~$300,000 in 401K accounts -Investments: ~$12,000 in Betterment and Acorns accounts (we contribute $200/per account each month) -Cash: ~$55,000 in savings (we move any leftover money after expenses into this account) -Debt: Our only debt is our mortgage which is about $3,000/month and we have about $275k in equity in our home (we were the beneficiaries of right place, right time with our real estate investment)
We live in a very HCOL area and have generally high expenses, but we are able to save additional money each month. We also contribute to our son’s 529 savings account each month.
I already know we need to move a huge chunk of our cash savings into a HYSA and it’s been on my to-do list. We just have it in a Bank of America savings which yields us just about nothing in interest. I was looking at a Marcus account because it has the backing of Goldman Sachs behind it, but I know there are higher yield accounts. Is there any risk with those as long as they’re FDIC insured? Something about a “mainstream” bank makes me feel more secure, but maybe that is naive? Would love y’all’s input on that.
Other than that, should we be contributing money to other types of investments? S&P 500 (I don’t even know how this works, I just know it’s a generally steady fund for returns)? Something else? We have friends who are super into buying random company’s stocks and generally they do well, but in today’s economy investing in some random tech company feels risky…
Should I just stay the same course we’re on and only make the adjustment to a HYSA?
I am not aiming towards insane wealth, I just want us to be very secure financially as we get older and perhaps be in a position to leave a decent amount of money behind for our son (he’s only 1 at the moment). My husband will go along with whatever decisions I make, but don’t even know where to start with those decisions.
Thanks in advance for any advice!

https://www.reuters.com/world/china-post-spy-facility-cuba-off-southeastern-us-wsj-2023-06-08/
WASHINGTON, June 8 (Reuters) - China has reached a secret deal with Cuba to establish an electronic eavesdropping facility on the island roughly 100 miles (160 km) from Florida, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing U.S. officials familiar with classified intelligence.
Such a spy installation would allow Beijing to gather electronic communications from the southeastern U.S., which houses many U.S. military bases, as well as monitor ship traffic, the newspaper reported.
The U.S. Central Command headquarters is based in Tampa. Fort Liberty, formerly Fort Bragg, the largest U.S. military base, is based in North Carolina.
The countries have reached an agreement in principle, the officials said, with China to pay Cuba "several billion dollars" to allow the eavesdropping station, according to the Journal.
“I cannot speak to this specific report, but we are well aware of – and have spoken many times to – the People’s Republic of China’s efforts to invest in infrastructure around the world that may have military purposes, including in this hemisphere," John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement.
"We monitor it closely, take steps to counter it, and remain confident that we are able to meet all our security commitments at home, in the region, and around the world," he said.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said: "We are not aware of the case and as a result we can't give a comment right now."
The Cuban government did not respond to a request for comment. But veteran Cuban diplomat Jose Cabanas, former ambassador to the U.S., wrote in a tweet that Washington was “trying to demonize Cuba again." He did not elaborate.
The agreement between the two U.S. rivals, both ruled by communist governments, has caused alarm in President Joe Biden's administration, the newspaper said, posing a new threat close to America's shores. The Journal said U.S. officials declined to provide more details about the proposed location of the listening station or whether construction had begun. I
The reported deal comes as Washington and Beijing are taking tentative steps to soothe tensions that spiked after a suspected Chinese high-altitude spy balloon crossed the United States before the U.S. military shot it down off the East Coast in February.
It could also raise questions about a trip to China that U.S. officials say Secretary of State Antony Blinken is planning in coming weeks. Washington's top diplomat had earlier scrapped the visit over the spy balloon incident.
Ties have deteriorated over disputes ranging from military activity in the South China Sea and near Taiwan, Beijing's human rights record, and technology competition.
'DIRECT ASSAULT'
U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a Cuba hawk, said if the report is true, it would be “a direct assault upon the United States.”
“So I hope the administration will think about how they'll react, if it’s true," he told reporters.
A former U.S. intelligence official said on condition of anonymity that a Chinese listening post would be a “big deal,” marking an expansion of Beijing's spying capabilities and giving it access to signals intelligence as far north as Washington.
If such a facility is built, the Chinese will use Cuba "as a beachhead for collection against the United States," said
Daniel Hoffman, a former senior CIA undercover officer.
However, the U.S. has a long history of spying on China in its own neighborhood. It is widely reported to have used Taiwan as a listening post for the mainland and regularly flies spy planes in the South China Sea, angering Beijing.
The head of Taiwan’s National Security Bureau told the island’s parliament in April that Taiwan was conducting real-time encrypted intelligence sharing with Five Eyes partners, which includes the U.S.
A cash infusion would likely be welcomed in Cuba, where the economy is sputtering and inflation, fuel shortages, plunging farm production and a cash crunch continue to fan discontent.
Relations between Washington and Havana remain strained. The Biden administration last year partially rolled back some Trump-era restrictions on remittances and travel to the island, but Cuban officials called the steps insufficient.
The intelligence on the agreement was gathered in recent weeks and was convincing, the Journal reported. The officials said it would allow China to conduct signals intelligence, including emails, phone calls and satellite transmission.
Cuba, an old Cold War foe of the United States, has long been a hotbed of espionage and spy games.
The Cuban missile crisis in 1962 began after Moscow began placing Soviet nuclear weapons on the island. It backed down and removed the missiles, but it is widely regarded as the moment when the United States and the Soviet Union came closest to a nuclear confrontation.
The Soviets installed a spy base on the island at Lourdes, just south of Havana, in the mid-1960s, with parabolic antennas aimed at Cuba´s northern neighbor. Russian President Vladimir Putin closed the facility in the early 2000s.

Ever wondered how cotton became the most popular textile in the world? Had it not been for the mechanical cotton gin, this natural fiber would have remained as costly as silk, making it difficult for Indian cotton suppliers to secure profitable deals effortlessly. In 1792, little did Eli Whitney know that his invention would greatly alter the course of the global textile industry. And that his patented machine (1794) would have a greater impact on shaping America’s history economically and politically, to a degree, the Civil War. In ancient times, cotton was harvested by hand – the cotton seeds had to be picked out of the cotton bolls by hand, making the process slow and laborious. It took eight to twelve hours just to clean the husks and separate the seeds from one kg of cotton fiber, let alone a whole field of cotton. While the process was painful and taxing, it was necessary to ensure the harvesters got pure cotton. Farmers andtextile companies in Indiafollowed this process for centuries until Eli Whitney invented the revolutionary mechanical Cotton Gin.

What is Whitney’s Cotton Gin? How it Grew the Industry?

Like modern cotton gins, Whitney’s mechanical Greige fabric gin processed the cotton through hooks and combs that separated the fiber from the seeds and husks. This sped up the process by several hours, encouraging farmers to plant more cotton fields. Whitney’s cotton gin changed how cotton was processed, leading to a significant rise in the cotton industry. Among all the inventions of the American Industrial Revolution, the invention of the cotton gin had the biggest impact on the American economy, especially in the South. In addition, this helped other inventions in the Industrial Revolution to rise to the occasion as well. For instance, Steamboats coincided with Cotton Gins, making shipping cotton overseas faster. By the mid-1800s, the United States was the largest producer and exporter of cotton, contributing 75% of the world’s cotton production and distribution. Cotton gins today are much different from Eli’s – while they are based on the same concept, modern cotton gins are much larger, more efficient, and automated. Nowadays, cotton bundles are hauled to the cotton mills in trucks and are processed quickly without human intervention. The processed cotton bales are sent to the yarn manufacturers. Today, cotton suppliers can buy and sell cotton fabric material online in a jiffy. But until the 18thcentury, it took months of hard work to exchange cotton through trading routes. Note: Meanwhile, if you are looking for affordable cotton fabric online in India, log onto TEXchange Global and post your inquiry. The platform is designed to cater to the needs of B2B textile businesses and offers several free tools and functions that make trading easy. But, if you want to trade cotton the conventional way via an expert trader, connect withDamodar Menon International, India’s oldest and largest textile trading company with 60+ years of experience in buying and selling cotton worldwide.

How Did Eli Whitney Invent the Cotton Gin?

Eli Whiney, born on December 8, 1765, was a farmer’s son. His father was an inventor himself and a well-recognized mechanic of his time. Eli moved to Georgia after completing his studies at Yale University in 1972 and started living on a plantation named Mulberry Grove near Savannah. It belonged to Catherine Greene, the widow of an American Revolutionary War general. While staying there, he realized the hardships cotton suppliers faced while cultivating and farming cotton. Even though the cotton crop was easier to grow than food crops, separating the seeds and husks from the very soft fiber was a ridiculously strenuous process. It took an entire day for a single worker to pick the seeds from only one pound of cotton per day. This task was not only labor-intensive but also unprofitable. To address the problem, Whitney built the first mechanical Cotton Gin, which could easily remove seeds from fifty pounds of cotton (roughly 23 kilograms) daily.

How Whitney’s Cotton Gin Significantly Impacted the Industry and the Americans

Whitney’s invention, patented in 1792, revolutionized the cotton industry, particularly in the South. After the gin, processing cotton became simple and easier, providing numerous benefits to textile companies in India and overseas, such as the availability of cheaper fabric in abundance. Cotton became the most important cash crop, earning its esteemed moniker “King Cotton.” However, when Whitney died in 1825, he never thought his invention, one of the greatest in the textile sector, actually contributed to the increase of enslavement, causing significant political and economic upheavals that persisted until the civil war. buy cotton yarn onlineIt turned the fate of American slavery for the worse. Due to the gin’s streamlined process, the number of enslaved people needed by plantation owners to plant, grow, and harvest cotton and run the gin increased, which led to several debates and arguments for continuing enslavement. Fabric Supplier IndiaBetween 1790 and 1860, the number of the United States where slavery was practiced expanded from six to fifteen. During this period and until Congress banned the import of enslaved people in 1808, the Southern states had imported over 80,000 enslaved Africans. By 1860, one of every three people in the Southern states was enslaved. Whitney’s IP was finally validated in 1807 after a decade of legal tug-of-war. While Eli Whitney never profited from the Cotton Gin invention, it has played a significant role in securing the businesses of manycotton suppliers,manufacturers, and textile companies in India. And generational ways, the Cotton Gin remains one of the most significant innovations that altered American history.

【Macro Information】

1. SEC Chairman: Crypto platforms engage in counterparty trading with users to gain profits, making it difficult to believe that they can protect investors' interests. The US SEC has now classified over $120 billion in tokens as unregistered securities.
   
2. SEC files motion for restraining order to freeze Binance US assets; the House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on the future of digital assets on June 14.
   
3. Forbes released the list of The 10 Biggest Fintech Companies In America 2023, with 4 Web3 companies including Ripple selected.
   

【Market Data】

1. The market cap of BUSD falls below $5 billion, shrinking by 50% in three months.
   
2. Since The Merge, the circulation of Ethereum has decreased by over 280,000 pieces, worth about $526 million.
   
3. At least 37% of Coinbase net revenue will be at risk if SEC is set to target the company's crypto token trading and staking operations.
   

【Market Analysis】
The impact of yesterday's news was still short-lived. In the evening, the market experienced a downward trend, reaching the 25,350 line before stopping the decline and rebounding, with the highest rebound reaching the 27,355 line. According to MIIX Global, Bitcoin's current price is consolidating around 26,500.
Yesterday, the SEC filed another lawsuit against Coinbase, which we believe is positive for the market. By comparison, Coinbase is a listed company that comforms to compliance standards. Therefore, the SEC's lawsuit against Coinbase can be seen as a method to spread the risks direct at Binance. The SEC has also applied to seize the funds of Binance, which poses certain risks. We know that FTX has suffered from runs. Even with benign cash flow, a run tends to cause problems once it occurs. In our view, the SEC is capable of seizing Binance funds. Coupled with the relatively weak rebound of BNB, Binance is still subject to certain risks.
This drop resulted in a $450 million liquidation, but subsequently pulled up and experienced a $100 million liquidation. This indicates a poor overall liquidity, a weak shorting strength, as well as a low shorting leverage factor in the current time. In the short term, the market is expected to maintain a volatile status, with hedging still the main focus. If the support of the 26,000 range breaks again, it may start a new round of dips to the 24,000 range. This rise is understood as a self rescue behavior of the exchanges. If the market breaks through the resistance level of 28,500 in heavy volume, the trend will shift to the bulls, as this shows that there are main funds involved and there is an upward expectation.
Operation: 80% of the positions were closed at 27,200 yesterday. If it is confirmed that BTC will fall below 26,000, closing the remaining long positions may be considered as an appropriate choice.
【Altcoin Analysis】
On the whole, the rebound of altcoins is small and the liquidity is even worse.
MIIX Labs Community
Chinese Twitter: https://twitter.com/MIIXLabsCN
English Twitter: https://twitter.com/MIIXLabs
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visiting from America soon, given that I prefer not to carry cash, is there an app, or means of making seamless payments to native tour guides, tour personnel, etc.
If it turns out that there really is no easy way to do this, will just stop off at an ATM and make a cash deduction.
I saw on PayPal that you can make payments as a foreigner, however, it seems cumbersome meaning that it requires the recipient to literally go to a forex place to pick up sent cash or that the recipient give you their routing/account number.
Thanks in advance.

* Current credit cards you are the primary account holder of: BofA Customized Cash Rewards (May 2016, 3% online shopping); Amex Platinum (Nov 2022); Amex Gold (Dec 2022); BofA Alaska (Apr 2023, Cable/Transit/Streaming); Amex Bonvoy Biz (Apr 2023, Gas/Phone/Else) * Oldest credit card account age with you as primary name on the account: 7 years * Number of personal credit cards approved for in the past 6 months: 3 * Number of personal credit cards approved for in the past 12 months: 4 * Number of personal credit cards approved for in the past 24 months: 4 * Annual income $: 60000 net CATEGORIES * OK with category-specific cards?: Yes. Already do. I'm missing convenience stores, cafes that are not categorized as restaurants, insurance, rental cars, and general shopping. If i close my biz card I'll need hotel and phone. * OK with rotating category cards?: No. * Estimate average monthly spend in the categories below. Only include what you can pay by credit card. * Dining $: 1000 * Groceries $: 200 Walmart/Vons/Trader joes * Gas $: 180 * Travel $: 167-500 (domestic is socal/DC flight/rideshare, international is East/SE Asia and Central America flight/hotel/rideshare) * Do you plan on using this card abroad for a significant length of time?: No. * Phone $: 235 * Streaming $: 102 * Cat $: 145 * Any other significant, regular credit card spend you didn't include above?: $200 medical preexisting payment plan * Can you pay rent by credit card? Yes, but prefer not to. 2.5% fee MEMBERSHIPS & SUBSCRIPTIONS * Currently paying $19.99/month for Disney Bundle (Disney+ / Hulu / EPSN+) * Current member of Chase, US Bank or any other big bank?: BofA * Are you open to Business Cards?: Yes. I'm opening to closing my Amex Marriott biz to use a different biz card. PURPOSE * What's the purpose of your next card?: travel rewards, getting points on missing categories. * If you answered "travel rewards", do you have a preferred airline and/or hotel chain? Alaska/Korean/ANA but i haven't traveled many airlines; Hyatt/Marriott * Do you have any cards you've been looking at? Yes. CSP (Reason: 4/24 status and extra Visa alternative), WoH (Reason: I'm on the fence if i want to be loyal to Marriott or Hyatt), BBP (Reason: Amex Trifecta general spending), Aeroplan (Reason: expecting to travel to Canada a lot in 2024) If churning had levels, I'd be somewhere near the bottom. I like the idea, but am happy to have dedicated cards for spending over 10+ cards with many closures. I also think i started off wrong by not chasing Chase cards first, kk.

sign up & verify ID 🪪 VIRTUAL & PHYSICAL CARD PROVIDED 💳 (can link to cashapp to transfer funds)
💲15 PER REFERRAL
Pays out within 10-15 business days❗️

So the announcement of Furlong resigning or being terminated (It doesn't matter which) made me wonder if he had any stock options or other things vesting as part of a severance package. It might have been neato if he was granted a large number of shares as part of his departure that might have made interesting orders into the ecosystem.
Alas, this is not the case... see details below:
​

åItem 5.02 Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.
Appointment of President and Chief Executive Officer
On June 9, 2021, the GameStop Corp. (the “Company”) announced the appointment of Matthew Furlong, age 42, as the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer, effective on or about June 21, 2021. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Furlong served as Country Leader, Australia for Amazon.com, Inc. (“Amazon”) since September 2019 and in various other roles at Amazon since October 2012, including as Director, Technical Advisor, Amazon North America. Prior to joining Amazon, Mr. Furlong served in various roles at The Procter & Gamble Company focused on brand, marketing and sales strategies.
In connection with his appointment as the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer, the Company entered into a letter agreement with Mr. Furlong on June 9, 2021 describing the basic terms of his employment (the “Furlong Letter Agreement”). The Furlong Letter Agreement provides that Mr. Furlong’s starting annualized base salary will be $200,000 and that he will also be eligible to earn a total of $4,700,000 in sign-on bonuses, paid in 24 monthly installments, subject to his continuous employment with the Company through the payment date of the applicable installment unless he is terminated by the Company without Cause (as defined in the Furlong Letter Agreement). In each of the first 12 months of his employment with the Company, Mr. Furlong will receive a sign-on bonus installment of $229,167. In each of months 13 through 24 of his employment with the Company, Mr. Furlong will receive a sign-on bonus installment of $162,500. Mr. Furlong is also entitled to a relocation bonus in the amount of $250,000 to assist with the costs of his relocation to the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The Furlong Letter Agreement also provides that, on the first business day of the first calendar quarter that commences after the effective date of his employment, Mr. Furlong will be entitled to a grant of a number of restricted stock units or restricted shares of the Company’s Class A common stock determined by dividing $16,500,000 by the average closing price of the Company’s Class A common stock for the 30 trading days immediately preceding the grant date (the “Initial Equity Award”). This equity award will vest as follows: 5% on the first anniversary of the grant date, 15% on the second anniversary of the grant date, and 20% on each of the dates that are 30, 36, 42 and 48 months following the grant date, subject in each case to his continuous service to the Company through the applicable vesting date. Finally, the Furlong Letter Agreement provides that Mr. Furlong’s employment is conditioned on his execution of a non-competition, non-solicitation and confidentiality agreement.
Under the Furlong Letter Agreement, if Mr. Furlong’s employment is terminated by the Company without Cause (as defined in the Furlong Letter Agreement), he will be entitled to receive the following severance benefits: (i) an amount equal to six months of his base salary, (ii) an amount equal to six months of COBRA premiums for Mr. Furlong and his eligible dependents, (iii) any sign-on bonus installments which then remain unpaid and (iv) the vesting of that portion of the Initial Equity Grant, if any, that was otherwise scheduled to vest in the ordinary course during the six month period immediately following his termination date. Mr. Furlong’s eligibility for these severance benefits is subject to his execution of a release of claims against the Company and his compliance with any applicable post-employment covenants.
The foregoing description of the Furlong Letter Agreement is not complete and is qualified in its entirety by the full text of the Furlong Letter Agreement, a copy of which is filed herewith as Exhibit 10.1 and incorporated herein by reference.
There are no other arrangements or understandings between Mr. Furlong and any other persons pursuant to which Mr. Furlong was named President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Furlong does not have any family relationship with any of the Company’s directors or executive officers or any persons nominated or chosen by the Company to be a director or executive officer. Mr. Furlong does not have any direct or indirect interest in any transaction or proposed transaction required to be reported under Item 404(a) of Regulation S-K.

So I highlighted a few sections and dates of note. Matt did not quite make 2 full years (out of 48 months which is 4 years (edit: I am an idiot who cant do maths so I fixed thanks to comments.)) but it looks like he was close enough that the section "iii" and "iv" above still grants him his payments and shares. this also seems to be verified by the 10.1 offer letter:
​

June 9, 2021
Via Email:
Matthew Furlong
Re:
Offer Letter
Dear Matt,
Congratulations! I am pleased to offer you employment with GameStop Texas, Ltd. and as the President and Chief Executive Officer GameStop Corp. (the “Company”). You will report to the Board of Directors of the Company (the “Board”). You will be subject to all policies of the Company and GameStop Texas, Ltd. in effect from time to time, including the Company’s Anti-Hedging Policy, Clawback Policy, Insider Trading Policy and Code of Ethics.
We would like you to start on a mutually agreed upon date no later than June 21, 2021. Your starting annualized base salary will be $200,000, less applicable taxes.
You will also be eligible to earn a total of $4,700,000 in sign-on bonuses. These bonuses will be paid in 24 monthly installments, as follows: In each of the first 12 months of your employment with us, you receive a sign-on bonus installment of $229,167, less applicable taxes. In each of months 13 through 24 of your employment with us, you will receive a sign-on bonus installment of $162,500, less applicable taxes. Your right to receive each installment is conditioned on your continuous employment with us through the payment date of that installment*.* Except as otherwise provided below in connection with a termination by the Company without Cause, if your employment with us ceases for any reason, no additional installments will be paid.
On the first business day of the first calendar quarter that commences after your start date, and subject to your active employment with us on that date, you will be granted a number of restricted stock units or restricted shares of the Company’s Class A common stock (“Common Stock”) determined by dividing $16,500,000 by the average closing price of Common Stock for the 30 trading days immediately preceding the grant date (the “Initial Equity Award”). The Initial Equity Award will vest as follows: 5% on the first anniversary of the grant date, 15% on the second anniversary of the grant date, and 20% on each of the dates that are 30, 36, 42 and 48 months following the grant date, subject in each case to your continuous service through the applicable vesting date. The above-described equity award will be documented in a separate award agreement; that agreement will contain additional terms and conditions (not inconsistent with this letter) and be delivered to you following the applicable grant date.
The Company’s agreement to grant equity to you and to pay you signing bonus installments does not guarantee your employment for any period or otherwise limit our ability to terminate your employment at any time, for any reason, even if your opportunity to receive or vest in such equity or receive such signing bonus installments would be forfeited as a result of such termination. We will periodically review your performance and compensation levels and may, beginning in 2022, make adjustments consistent with our executive compensation program, all as determined in the sole discretion of the Compensation Committee of our Board; provided, however, that such adjustments will not include a material adverse alteration of the above-described sign-on bonus installments or the Initial Equity Award without your consent.
You are eligible for 3 weeks of vacation per year. On the 61st day from your start date, you will be eligible to participate in the Company’s health (including dental and vision) benefits program, as well as be automatically covered in the Company’s company-paid life insurance program and, after 90 days, the long-term disability program. You will be eligible to participate in the 401(k) plan on the first day of the month following or coinciding with 60 days of service. You will be eligible for the company match commencing with the first of the month after or coinciding with your first year of service. The company match is funded on an annual frequency. Please feel free to contact our Benefits Team at (817) 722-7501 or 1-866-637-4387 with any specific benefit questions you may have.
Your position requires you to permanently relocate to Dallas/Ft Worth,TX. You are not eligible for benefits under our relocation policy. Instead, we will pay you a relocation bonus in the first pay period after your start date in the gross amount of $250,000 to assist you with your relocation costs.
Consistent with all roles in the organization, your employment will be on an at-will basis, having no specified term, and may be terminated at the will of either party on notice to the other. However, if we terminate your employment without Cause (as defined on Exhibit A***), you will receive the following severance benefits***, subject to the conditions noted below: (i) we will pay you an amount equal to six months of your base salary, (ii) if you are participating in our group health plans immediately prior to your termination, we will pay you an amount equal to the applicable premium for COBRA continuation coverage for you and your eligible dependents for six months, (iii) we will pay you any sign-on bonus installments which have not by then already been paid; and (iv) that portion of the Initial Equity Award (if any) that was otherwise scheduled to vest in the ordinary course during the six month period immediately following your termination date will become vested. To be eligible for these benefits you must (x) sign a release of claims on such form as we supply (which form will be substantially consistent with that used for other terminating senior executives) and that release must become irrevocable within 60 days after your termination date, and (y) comply with any applicable post-employment covenants under any other written agreement with us. The amounts described in clauses (i), (ii) and (iii) will be paid in a single cash lump sum (less required tax withholdings) as soon as practicable after the release becomes effective, and in no event later than 70 days after the termination date. The shares described in clause (iv) will be issued (if not already outstanding) and released from transfer restrictions as soon as practicable after the release becomes effective, and in no event later than 70 days after the termination date.
You will have rights (i) to indemnification in accordance with, and subject to the terms and conditions of, and limitations in, our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and Amended and Restated Bylaws and (ii) under any applicable directors and officers insurance under which you are covered.

Soooo... He seems to get all payments and seems to be leaving on good terms. It may be a nothing-burger, but it is certainly interesting that he left almost exactly 2 years from the start as though it was part of the plan all along.
That last part about 70 days also makes me wonder... will we see something within the next 70 days after this separation date? Will he vest and have a large buy of shares? Is there any chance that he dumps his already accumulated shares?
I just did a little digging simply because I was curious and don't have the time or the wrinkles to interpret it much more from that. Maybe someone could do the math and see how many shares he already vested (his current ownership is reported somewhere) and figure out how many more he has left to vest?
Do with this information what you will.... or won't. What do I care?
​
edit: fixed because I cant do maths. Thanks u/RayneAdams... DOH!

This is Part 2 of this write-up. Please read part 1 first. This is the link:
https://www.reddit.com/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/143r7l9/felix_vail_the_pedophile_serial_killer_caught/

PART 2:

ANNETTE CRAVER:

Born on the 7th of December 1965, Annette Craver was intelligent and creative. At 15 she was a singer-songwriter and in her senior year at a private school that specialized in medicine. Her dream was to become a midwife.
http://charleyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/vail_annette6.jpg(A photo of Annette Craver.)
In the summer of 1981, she and her mother, Mary Rose greeted people at a friend’s yard sale in the Montrose neighborhood in Houston, Texas. They had just returned from a vacation in Mexico, and Annette felt heartsick, still infatuated with a boy named Adolfo, who was unable to join her in America.
VAIL MEETS ANNETTE
While people browsed the sale, Vail pulled up on a motorcycle and spoke with Annette. He was 41 and had done some carpentry work in the area. “When I saw her, I thought, ‘That’s going to be my new girlfriend,’” he said about the 15-year-old.
In April 1982, Rose and her daughter invested in a Tulsa home that had a rental cottage behind it. Rose began renovating both. After graduating from high school, Annette joined her mother in Tulsa. Vail appeared a few days later, and convinced Annette to leave with him on his motorcycle. They lived off the $500-a-month Social Security check that she received from her father’s death 3 years prior. It would be over a year before Mary Rose would see her daughter again.
That fall, Annette (who was still 15) would fall pregnant, and Vail would force her to have a painful abortion.
Jerry Woodall, reportedly friends with Vail later recalled an embarrassing scene, where the 42-year-old Vail was in a sleeping bag, having public sex with a 16-year-old Annette, only 20 feet away from him and his then-wife Meredith McMackin. Annette grinned and waved at them. Woodall and McMackin did their best to ignore them.
McMackin would later say that Vail had “this coldness and controlling aspect to his personality. Annette was so open and alive, but I think he just totally dominated her. He would try to convey that he was this higher form of being. At first, I thought maybe he was evolved, but then I realized it was this arrogant act.”
Later that summer, police in California would arrest Vail for violating probation a dozen years earlier. Annette telephoned Woodall, who gave her $200. After Vail walked free from prison, he and Annette decided to get married. However, as a 17-year-old she needed permission.
Annette told her mother that she loved Vail, that they were already “spiritually married” and that they would travel to Mexico and get married there if she refused. Not wanting to lose her daughter completely, Rose said OK.
On August 15th, 1983, in Bakersfield, California, the couple were wed.
AFTER THE MARRIAGE
Four months after the marriage, Annette turned 18, allowing her to collect more than $98,000 ($293,500 today) from life insurance policies on her late father. Accompanied by Vail, she withdrew all the money in cash from a San Antonio bank. She bought a Fiat convertible that Vail liked and paid for his dental work.
In April 1984, Rose returned home to find Annette waiting at her door. She told her she wanted to divorce Vail, and enroll in college. She talked about Vail’s temper, including an incident where he had broken his hand trying to punch his wife. He missed and hit a wall.
A few weeks later, Vail showed up. The couple fought constantly, and Vail left after a few days. Mary Rose said that Vail was “insanely jealous” and would become furious when Annette spoke of her desire to go out with younger men.
She and Annette worked on renovating the two homes after Vail left, enjoying their time together. The 2 even started a garden together.
Annette received a letter from Vail, who vowed their time apart would fuel their love. He wrote to her: “After we hung up, I went out to a park and ran and hung and talked with God and smoked some and shot some pool and rode with the top down out through the marsh playing ‘Iron Butterfly’ [“In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”] and bathing every inch of your body-spirit being with love.”
He referred to being away from Annette as “deprivation jail” and to her ego as “his jailor.”
“The idea of her cutting away ego’s “feeder roots and creating roots between your spirit and the cosmic ground of loving makes me hot for you. My mind is kissing you everywhere.”
After that, Vail would return to Annette’s life. Rose said, “Annette told me, ‘Felix is the wisest person in the world, and I can’t make decisions without him.’” His influence on Annette had only grown stronger. According to Rose, she even compared Vail to God, a comparison Vail agreed with.
After this, the couple angrily insisted that Rose move out and deed the house to Annette. Accompanied by suicidal thoughts brought on by Vail’s continued control over her daughter, Rose left for California to stay with family and friends, deeding the house to Annette for $7000 ($21,000 today) before she did.
Annette would add Vail to the deed, and a month later had deeded him both homes, leaving him as the sole owner.
ANNETTE’S DISAPPEARANCE
Mere weeks after deeding the houses to Vail, the couple told neighbors they were leaving on vacation. When Vail returned in October, he was alone.
Vail told a neighbor that Annette had a lot of money wither her when he’d left her, and that she was likely visiting friends in Denver.
Upon learning that Annette hadn’t come back with Vail, Mary Rose called him. “He told me that while they were camping, Annette had a sexual dream about being with other men in Mexico, and she wanted to go there,” she recalled to an investigative reporter years later. “He claimed that the dream made them both realize that she should have her freedom.” The next day, Vail told her he had put Annette on a bus with $50,000 ($150,000 today) but didn't elaborate.
On Oct 22, 1984, Rose filed a missing person’s report. She told the Tulsa Police Department that each person who spoke with Vail “gets a different story about the amount of money that Annette took with her and where she might be. We all believe that he knows where she is or has done something with her.”
On January 22, 1985, Detective Dennis Davis and another officer questioned Vail at his home (This is obscenely late to start questioning him). By this point, Vail had filed for divorce, citing an inability to find her after a “diligent search.” Davis said her mother, Mary Rose, mentioned her daughter had received more than $90,000 from her father’s estate. Vail confirmed this was true, saying the couple had spent much of that money traveling in foreign countries. He said they kept their money in cash because they didn’t trust banks and that he had found about $10,000 in cash when he returned home.
The next day, Vail called a lawyer, who promised to talk with the officers and tell them to “leave me alone,” as he wrote in his journal.
When Davis returned five days later, Vail had a detailed alibi: The couple left Tulsa between noon and 3 p.m. on Sept. 13, 1984, and stayed the night in a hotel in Claremont, Oklahoma. After two nights of camping on the river, Annette woke up and told Vail she had decided to leave him. He took her to the Trailways Bus Station in St. Louis and left before she bought the ticket. (There is no Trailways Bus Station in St. Louis, and there has never been a Trailways Bus Station in St. Louis.)
He told the officers that she had told him she was headed for Denver, where she planned to get a fake ID card and leave for Mexico. When asked if he would take a lie detector test, Vail said no.
After Davis left, he wrote a letter to Rose. He blamed her for the “bad things” about Annette, told her that after the couple had returned from Costa Rica Annette had been “seeing friends and relatives --- completing her relationships with them for the purpose of getting ready to drop everybody and start over.” He wrote that Annette “disappeared herself from you” because Rose kept imposing her “value system” on her, and said Annette viewed her mother, grandmother, and herself as “zero self-image whores for approval.”
He explained the 2 had no plans to communicate, he did not know where she was, and that “I also assure you that even if I did know, I would not tell you.”
When Rose returned to Tulsa in April 1985, she entered the cottage Annette used to live in, only to find almost all the young woman’s belongings were gone, including her clothes and her diary.
Inside a Barbie suitcase, Rose found a photograph of her daughter and several of her identification cards. She also located things that Annette had written, including a Feb. 17, 1984, note that contradicted Vail’s claim that the couple had spent most of her inheritance on their travel to Mexico and Central American countries.
Instead, the note detailed how they used the money to buy the Fiat, pay off all of Vail’s loans, and deposit $36,000 into Louisiana Savings. It said that as of that day, they had $41,600 ($125,000 today) in cash.
Rose shared the information with the police. Detective Davis showed up again, and Vail told Davis the couple divided the money into smaller cashier’s checks, contradicting his earlier statement that they kept the money in cash.
After a while, Davis left, and despite the (seemingly obvious) suspicious behavior of Vail, closed the missing person’s case.
AFTER ANNETTE’S DISAPPEARANCE
Rose kept calling Vail after this and was finally able to reach him on September 14th 1985.
When asked about Annette’s whereabouts he refused to tell her.
When asked about Annette’s missing clothes he said he gave them to charity.
When asked about the insurance money, Vail told her ‘That’s all she really cared about.’ Rose hung up.
Two years later, fed up with the lack of progress in Annette’s case, Rose would return to Tulsa. She spent thousands of dollars on private investigators to locate Vail. When that failed, she simply went and found him herself.
Tipped off that he was staying at someone’s house, she went there with a friend and found him sitting outside. When asked where Annette went, he replied “Mexico.” When asked where in Mexico, he said the 2 had made a pact to contact each other every 5 years, contradicting his statement that the 2 didn’t have plans to communicate. Rose didn’t believe a word of it.
The whole time Vail never looked up, never stood up and never looked her in the eye.
BETH FIELD
Some time after this, Vail began dating Beth Field. Soon the couple had began arguing, and Vail would call her a “whore.” During a December 1987 argument, he would strike her so hard he ruptured her ear drum. She told Vail there was no justification for violence, to which he responded, “If you quit behaving like a whore, I’ll quit hitting you.”
In August 1988 Beth received a call from Rose, sharing details about the disappearance of her daughter, Annette. From that point forward, Field said she began to examine Vail’s words more closely, realizing that he had likely murdered her.
Four months after the call, he entered her home unannounced. Already drunk, he accused her of “imagined promiscuity,” according to a court order. He slapped her, struck her, and threw her across the bedroom. She asked if Vail was going to kill her, to which Vail replied, “It depends on what you tell me.”
A judge gave her a protective order, requiring Vail to keep his distance. Two weeks later, the sheriff reported that Vail was nowhere to be found.
While Field was visiting a meditation center in Texas in 1990, Vail arrived. After composing herself, she told him “There is a part of you that goes off, and it’s sick and it’s dangerous.”
He looked at her and asked, “Really?” She said “yes, really.” This time, the message seemed to go through. Vail left the next day, and with a single exception about five years later, she never saw him again.
MARY ROSE LEARNS ABOUT THE OTHER 2 CASES
In the summer of 1991 (6 years after Annette's disappearance), Rose drove over 2000 miles to Canyon Lake, Texas to speak to Sue Jordan, Felix Vail’s sister. Jordan said that Vail had told her that Annette wanted to leave, that he took her to a bus station and that she left with some Mexican men, heading for Mexico. Jordan also mentioned that Vail’s first wife had drowned, which was news to Rose.
Before she left, Jordan also told her, “Oh, you know, there was another woman that disappeared. I remember her mother calling my mother for years, checking to see if they’d heard from her. I think her name was Sharon.”
After the conversation, Rose sat down at a typewriter, writing every word she could remember. She also called the public library in Lake Charles.
The librarian remembered the 1962 drowning of Vail’s first wife, Mary Horton. She told Rose that he had taken out life insurance policies on his wife prior to her drowning and that the insurance companies were suspicious and didn’t pay the full value. The librarian made copies of newspaper articles and mailed them to her.
After reading them, Rose reached out to Mary’s family in Louisiana, speaking to Will Horton. He shared her suspicions about Vail and a copy of the 1971 National Enquirer article made after Vail's son Bill reported him to the police. When she read it, she learned that Sharon’s last name was Hensley.
In 1994, she read in the newspaper about Dolores Strehlow’s disappearance from Medford, Oregon, seven years earlier. Police had just arrested her husband, thanks to the work of Detective Terry Newell. She contacted Newell, who helped her find the family of Sharon Hensley. When Rose dialed the Hensley family, Sharon’s mother, Peggy, answered. Rose asked if Peggy knew a Felix Vail. Peggy replied with "you bet I do"
THE INVESTIGATION HEATS UP… AND COOLS DOWN
The detective who helped Rose before, Terry Newell, contacted Jim Bell, a national expert in serial killings working for the FBI. When Rose talked with Bell, she felt like she'd finally gotten somewhere. He was interested in working on the Vail case if he could swing the time. He still remained busy with active serial killer cases, helping train task forces across the U.S. Vail’s son, Bill, told Rose that he was willing to testify, as long as authorities provided protection to his family. Both the Tulsa police and the district attorney’s office in Lake Charles revived their investigations into Vail, now considered a suspected serial killer.
Bell suggested the victims’ families gather with authorities at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, to share information on Vail. He was unable to work on the case and left the FBI in 1995. The meeting in Quantico never materialized, and the cases involving Vail grew cold once again.
A QUICK RUN DOWN OF EVENTS
In the fall of 1997, family and friends held a mural for Annette.
Diagnosed with esophageal cancer, Vail’s son Bill heard from doctors that he didn’t have long to live. He’s quoted saying “now I’ll get to be with my mom.” Months before passing away in 2009, Bill talked about his father in a recorded interview with his pastor at Grace Church in Overland Park, Kansas.
On Jan. 3, 2009, Bill died, and Vail wrote in his journal, “I feel a large empty hole in my being where his life presence has been for 47 years,” before writing about getting a good haircut. He drove to Kansas but didn’t attend his own son’s funeral. If he had, he would have heard the recording, with his son detailing how he had overheard his father talk about murdering Bill's mother, Mary.
When Vail learned of the recording, he wrote to Pastor Tim Howey, asking for a copy. He blamed his son’s statements on “false memories,” saying, “I have not known about it until now and am stunned.”
In 2012, while attempting to confront Vail with reporter Jerry Mitchell whom she had contacted to write about Vial, Rose was stopped by Kaye Faulkner, Vial’s sister. She told Rose and Mitchell of the recording and urged Mitchell to get a copy of it. She also said that she believed Vial had murdered Mary Horton, Sharon Hensley, and Annette Craver.
She gave the reporter Vial’s number, as well as the numbers of her other brother, Ronnie, and her sister, Beth. Vial didn’t answer those calls, so Mitchell left a message. Ronnie promised to speak to his brother on his behalf.
MITCHELL INVESTIGATES
Mitchell arrived in Lake Charles and stopped by the Southwestern Louisiana Genealogical and Historical Library, which shared copies from old city directories. He began tracking down people who had lived in the Maree Apartments with Felix and Mary.
Many described Mary’s fair of drowning. A close friend of Vails, Judson McCann II described Vial as a ladies’ man, and insinuated he was a cheater. “Many nights, his car wouldn’t be home, and Mary would be there with the lights on. When Felix was gone, it wasn’t because he was trotline fishing.”
Another close friend, Bob Hodges described Vial’s story of Mary ‘falling’ in the river as “horse manure.”
A college roommate of Mary, Sandra Sudduth Pratt, said “Nobody believed it was an accident.”
Mitchell shared Mary’s autopsy report with pathologist Dr. Michael Baden of New York City, who concluded that foul play had taken place in her death.
The report showed large bruises with bleeding into tissues on the left side of the neck, which he said suggested she suffered forceful neck trauma before entering the water. There were hemorrhagic bruises to the right calf and left leg above the knee, which he said were consistent with a struggle before her submersion. But most convincingly of all was the scarf authorities found around her neck that extended 4 inches into her mouth, which suggested traumatic asphyxia before entering the water.
“Somebody had to push that scarf into her mouth. She had to have that scarf wedged in her mouth before she was put in the water.”
A cousin put Mary’s brother Will Horton in touch with former detective “Rabbit” Manuel, who had headed up the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Office’s investigation back in 1962. He had never forgotten Mary’s death. “Felix’s story just didn’t add up. The fishing tackle was dry. The trotline was dry. The boat was dry. Even Felix’s cigarettes were dry, despite him telling the deputies he dove straight in the water to save Mary.”
He and Manuel met with “Lucky” DeLouche, who directed an elite task force unit that investigated homicides. Three young detectives took notes as they talked. Manuel shared details from the case, saying deputies (officers) wanted to prosecute, but the district attorney wouldn’t let them. Horton shared the autopsy report, Vail’s letters and his belief that Vail was a serial killer. Horton said DeLouche replied, “This absolutely fits the profile of a serial killer,” to which the other detectives agreed.
Shortly afterwards, DeLouche left the task force, and for seemingly the hundredth time, grew cold again.
After Mitchell posted a story about Vail titled “Gone” (It’s nearly 9,000 words long, and the precursor to the 35,500 word story I have drawn heavily from) a man named Wesley Turnage contacted him. He told him of a conversation he had had with Vail in 1963 during a car ride.
According to Turnage, Vail called Mary a bitch and said she thought another child would help solve their marriage problems. He quoted Vail as saying, “She wanted to have another kid. I didn’t want the one I got. I fixed that sorry bitch. She will never have another one.”
Mitchell would make another discovery. District Attorney Salter Jr. had ordered that the judge dismiss 882 criminal cases — more than three cases for each working day.
Will Horton told Mitchell the original detectives in the case told him that Salter wouldn’t allow them to present the evidence they had collected against Vail. That matched the stories Mitchell had heard from grand jurors’ families.
Horton then contacted District Attorney John DeRosier, who said he would be willing to reopen the case if there was enough evidence.
Then came an interesting wrinkle in the story. Finding Vail.
He’d disappeared, returning on Labor Day weekend 2012 to sell his property, before disappearing again. Luckily, another reader of "Gone" came to the rescue. He phoned Mitchell, telling him where Vial was. Canyon Lake, Texas.
Mitchell then contacted Enzo Yaksic, founder of the Serial Homicide Expertise and Information Sharing Collaborative. Yaksic then contacted Armin Showalter, acting chief for the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, which specialized in serial homicide investigations.
Yaksic shared a copy of GONE with Showalter, who in turn called Calcasieu Parish Deputy Randy Curtis, now taking on the Vail case. Curtis phoned Mitchell to find out where Vail was. A few days later, he called back to say the FBI had discovered Vail purchased property at 737 Shadyview Drive in Canyon Lake.
On Jan. 18, 2013, Curtis decided to confront Vail. He found him at that address, living in a storage shed. Curtis said he read Vail his rights before asking him about the death and disappearances of the women. Vail refused to say anything, accusing families and The Clarion-Ledger (Where "Gone" was published) of lying about him. The whole time, Vail couldn’t stop smirking.
​
Will Horton gave Mitchell the number of his cousin, who was a caretaker for 90-year-old Isaac Abshire Jr. When Mitchell sat down with the man, he shared a haunting story.
Abshire had worked with Vail and offered him a room to rent out. Once Vail and Mary were married, Vail had moved out. Abshire viewed himself as “a big brother” to Mary, calling her “a sweet little girl.”
After the marriage, Vail had become angry at work, talking about how ugly his wife was when she was pregnant, and how he didn’t like his baby. On the Friday before she was killed, the couple visited Abshire, bringing Bill, who was still an infant. Mary privately asked Abshire if he thought Vail could take her baby away.
Two days later, Mary was dead.
Abshire and two other workers went out the next day to drag the river. The next morning, Oct. 30, 1962, he returned with one of them, Jimmy May, to continue dragging.
Abshire said while they were talking, “something popped up. A guy with binoculars asked, ‘Does she have blonde hair?’ I said, ‘Yes, that’s her.’”
They recovered the body, and Abshire could never forget what he saw. Her body was rigid, and a scarf was wrapped around her neck before going into her mouth. Blood boiled on the boat, everyone voicing the same opinion. Vail had killed Mary.
Abshire had kept photos from that day for over 50 years. He said he had given them to Deputy Curtis as well as a copy of the 1962 sheriff’s report, which listed 15 points suggesting Vail’s guilt.
Despite being behind on major bills, Vail had managed to pay an entire year’s premiums in advance for a $50,000 ($150,000 today) life insurance policy on his wife. He had a second life insurance policy on her for $8,000 ($24,000 today), which promised to pay double if she died by accident.
It was almost as if he knew she was about to die.
Deputies had reported witnesses claims that Vail had told them he didn’t love his wife, that she looked stupid and vulgar, and that he had had sexual relations with multiple women, and at least one man.
Vail told deputies that his wife was wearing an off-white leather jacket when she went into the water. But she wasn’t wearing the jacket when her body was recovered. Inside his boat, deputies found two life preservers. Mary had not been wearing one, despite her fear of drowning. As for the trotline the 2 were supposedly running, deputies found it still inside Vail’s tackle box.
Most witnesses the Deputies had spoken too felt that Vail was capable of killing his wife.
When asked if he believed Vail killed his wife, Abshire said “Oh, my God, yes.”
THE CHASE & THE FINAL CLUES:
Ever since Vail had sold his Mississippi property, Mary Rose had wondered if he would eventually sell the Tulsa property, the one she and Annette had lived in. He did. Vail sold it for $149,000. Rose asked the question on the mind of everyone investigating. “What is he going to do with all that money? --- He could be running.”
On April 30th Mitchell got a call saying that Vail had left Texas. He was pulled over by police in Columbus, Mississippi after hopping the fence of his now dead brother Ronnie’s property. Curtis told Mitchell that the Columbus police were sending him a photo of Vail and the white pick-up truck he was pulled over in. He once again warned Mitchell that Vail could be running.
Vail’s sister called again, saying she heard her brother was heading to Montpelier. She wondered if he was driving to the home of possible witness Wesley Turnage.
Mitchell called Turnage to let him know that Vail might be headed his way. Turnage replied “If he sets foot on my property, there won’t be no trial.” He called Mitchell back later, saying no one in Montpelier had seen Vail.
Private Investigator Gina Frenzel, who had questioned Vail herself, including pretending to be his girlfriend, called Mitchell with good news. Vail had contacted her and told her he was back in Canyon Lake. Mitchell informed Curtis.
On May 17th 2012, authorities arrested Felix Vail for the murder of his wife Mary Horton.
In telephone calls from the jail in Lake Charles, he shared his explanation of what happened the night of Oct. 28, 1962, when Mary died.
He referred to his first wife as a “coon-ass lady,” saying she was “half kneeling” on his feet when she “saw one of the float buckets that were on the line.” He said the boat was “going real slow along the edge of the bank when the boat hit a stump ... and it dumped her right out.” Vail said he shut off the motor and dove in “where she had plopped in the water. I mean, nothing. The river had sucked her right in.” He said he “dove around until I was exhausted, and came in immediately to the police station in town and reported the accident and that was it.”
This story differed greatly from his story in 1962 when he said his wife was sitting on top of a boat seat when she fell out, not that she was kneeling on his feet. Back then, he said nothing about hitting a stump — just swerving to miss it.
It also differed from the story he had told his son, where a wave from another boat had dumped Mary out.
Vail told Frenzel that the case “has been an avalanche coming down the mountain all that time, waiting to hit my head, and it finally has.”
He blamed the families and Mitchell, “an evil, shrimpy reporter,” for what had happened, calling the charges “fabricated” and insisting that “a large amount of money, hate and political ambitions are behind them.”
At Vail’s request, Frenzel returned his truck to his home and went inside to take care of a few tasks. While there, she spent 16 hours photographing all his journals, more than 2,400 pages. She also photographed letters, documents, photographs and business cards, some dating back to the 1960s. She found a collection of women’s jewelry, old buttons, pins, and even a glass dildo.
Disturbingly, if at this point unsurprisingly, she found a photograph of a naked 3-year-old girl. Frenzel later spoke with the girl, now a woman. The journals revealed that Vail had stalked her for years.
Frenzel discovered the birth certificate of Annette Craver, who had used it for previous trips to Mexico.
Mitchell and Frenzel poured through the journals she had photographed. They noticed gaps in them that lead them to believe Vail had ripped pages out, including times when he should have been with Sharon and Annette.
His journals were dominated by sex, dreams of sex and reflected an obsession with children. In a March 27, 1986, entry, Vail wrote about the visit of a woman and her daughters in his home. “The little girls were delicious --- We massaged some, hugged & kissed some & it was 12 (midnight) & time for them to go.”
On Aug. 29, 1992, Vail walked into the Wal-Mart in West Point, and as he wrote in his journal “a 1-year-old white girl looked in my eyes loving me like there was no age difference between us.”
When Mitchell interviewed Kert Germany, a co-worker of Vail in 1977 he said that Vail attracted women wherever he went, and that Vail had told him the best sex of his life had been with 2- or 3-year-old girl.
It was that this time that Alexandra Christianson, Vail’s ex-wife called Mitchell and told him her story. She also put him in contact with Bruce Biedebach, the man she had been on a date with when she left with Vail. Biedebach would tell Mitchell that during a party in 1965 that turned into a “boast-fest” Vail had boasted about something he had done, that no one else had done.
Killed his wife.
He told the men at the party that he had held his wife’s head underwater until she drowned.
Biedebach then put Mitchell in contact with Rob Fremont, who had bicycled around California with Vail when he was 13. He said that while riding with Vail, he had told him that he hit his wife on the head and drowned her. Fremont never rode with him again after that.
With as much evidence as they could possibly gather, the case went to trial.
THE TRIAL:
Vail’s trial began on August 8th, 2016.
District Attorney John DeRosier laid out the evidence clearly.
He spoke of the evidence against Vail about Mary’s murder on October 28th, 1962.
He spoke about Vail swearing to Sharon Hensley’s mother that she wanted to start a new life in 1974.
He spoke about his letters to Mary Rose, telling her he wouldn’t tell her where her daughter Annette was “even if he knew.” Vail smirked at that one.
Finally, he spoke to the jurors.
“Mary Horton Vail is gone, Sharon Hensley is gone,” DeRosier said, “and Annette Craver Vail is gone.”
“You’re going to write the last chapter, and it’s simply going to read, ‘And justice was finally done. William Felix Vail, guilty as charged.’”
Prosecutors called all three families to testify.
Will Horton told jurors of his sister, “Mary was the kind of person you would want as a friend.” He broke while talking about visiting his nephew after he death in 1962. “I just wanted Bill to know how much his mother loved him.”
Brian Hensley told jurors that he last saw his sister, Sharon, with Vail before the pair left Bismarck, North Dakota, in 1972. Other than a telephone call and letter in the months that followed, he said no one had seen or heard from her since.
When Mary Rose took the stand, Vail bowed his head.
This was the woman who had been working for 32 long years to bring him into this court.
This was the mother who had waited 32 years for this moment.
She called Annette “a huge light in my life. We were always loving toward each other.” She testified that Vail ran off with her daughter on his motorcycle and married her. She testified that Annette, who inherited nearly $100,000 and received two homes, disappeared weeks after deeding those homes to Vail.
Wesley Turnage, Rob Fremont, and Bruce Biedebach swore under oath that Vail said he killed his first wife. Biedebach said he asked Vail if Mary was a bitch, to which Vail had said yes. Vail laughed in court as he told the story.
The current coroner, forensic pathologist Dr. Terry Welke, testified that in most drownings, the body comes up in a “dead person’s float,” with the back of the head surfacing first and the limbs hanging down in the water.
After sharing a series of pictures to show it, he showed the court two black-and-white photographs of Mary Horton when her body was recovered on Oct. 30, 1962, less than two days after she reportedly drowned. Her body was stiff, with her hands over chest as if she was in a coffin.
They also saw the videotaped testimony of Isaac Abshire Jr, who had died in 2014. He said her body was stiff when it surfaced either sideways or face up when she bobbed up in the Calcasieu River.
That testimony helped contribute to Welke’s homicide conclusion. So did the unbroken grease-like stain across her Chi Omega sweatshirt, which he believed could have come from a tarp covering her. Welke concluded Mary was dead and stiff before her body went into the water, explaining why rigor had set in.
Testimony was heard of Vail not paying for his own wife’s funeral, despite having made thousands from her life insurance.
THE VERDICT
The jury didn’t even take a half hour to reach their verdict.
William Felix Vail Sr was unanimously found guilty of murdering Mary Horton. He was sentenced to life in prison.
After the verdict, the prosecutor also revealed that the FBI had found out that Vail had molested a child over 30 years ago. They were unable to put him on trial for it, as the statue of limitations had passed.
Finally, nearly 54 years after she was murdered, Mary Horton had found justice.
Finally, 42 years after her disappearance, Sharon Hensley had found justice.
And Annette Craver, with the help of her mother Mary Rose’s tireless efforts, had finally found justice after 32 years.
https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/f75084c7dce4fb08e12e45ccba5e40a1
This a photo of Mary, Sharon and Annette. I felt it was fitting to end off with. May they all rest in peace.
MY SOURCES:
https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/8284?nav
https://charleyproject.org/case/annette-michelle-craver-vail
https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/felixvailgone/2016/12/29/felix-vail-gone-one-wife-dead-two-other-missing-jerry-mitchell/95895894/
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5796622/mary-elizabeth-vail
https://charleyproject.org/case/sharon-hensley
https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/20525?nav