Stacy Sutherland, guitar player for 13th Floor Elevators
"First thing to say about Stacy is, hell of a guitar player. Another thing to say about him is that he was a haunted man. He realized that the devil was after him. I’m not sure why he concluded that, but he did…He would sit there and play the guitar and the devil was 2 steps behind him all the way and he wasn’t sure whether that was because he was consorting with the wrong people or because he hadn’t prayed that night or because he was fooling around with fancy women or what…but he knew the devil was after him" - Sandy Lockett, Soundman for 13FE
"From the time he was 14 he was really a happy little boy…in the year he was 14 there was some big change in his life I never knew what. That time on he seemed sorta depressed…there were evidently a lot of things changing in his life at that time, sort of a sad look in all these pictures from that point on...I had one of the teachers say to me “well I think he was on drugs.” I asked him one time later “where did you get drugs?” And he said it was the clean cut college kids that came home from the weekends from over at Austin that brought it here…you couldn’t kick over a rock without finding some" - Sybil Sutherland, Mother
Stacy Sutherland was born in 1946, so he woulda been about 14 in 1960 - the year his mother noticed a dark shift in his character. Sybil Sutherland comes off as a very sweet, observant woman - but from another time where American culture was not as cynical and tolerant of blatant drug use as it is today. Given that, it would have been harder for someone of her generation to spot drug induced behavior. She obviously picked up on something being "off," but was probably hesitent to conclude her beloved son was a "drug fiend."
We read in PART 1 that "it could be argued that along with California, Texas was the pioneering US state for a non-academic psychedelic culture. Experiments with peyote and morning glory seeds began among college students in the early 1960s, and in 1965 use of marijuana and early batches of non-pharmaceutical LSD was common in hip circles." Given that Stacy seemed to be getting his drugs from "the clean cut college kids," the big picture comes into focus pretty easily. Sutherland was probably exposed to something too strong and too early, forever shattering his innocence and darkening his perception. How much of that was from drugs or some other outside influence, we can only guess. I'm gonna guess it was probably a combination of the 2.
"Back when he [Stacy] was in High School he used to go out to a certain teacher's house and I got kinda perturbed over that because here was a lady teacher who lived alone and she was probably in her 50s and all High School boys were going out there…I had myself been in her home and she had walls of books on religions. And he said “that’s all we do mother. Go out and talk about religion, you won’t believe that but that’s what it is.” And this may have been the beginning of some of this Zen and Eastern religion I don’t know" - Sybil Sutherland
Although the idea of young High School boys going over to some older female teacher's house to "talk about religion" might sound pretty questionable today, the cultural climate of the 1960s should be considered. It seems there was a genuine yearning for some kind of spiritual enlightenment going on at the time, which happened to coincide with the heaping of recreational drugs upon the population. I don't think that was a coincidence.
[Ann Elizabeth "Bunni" Bunnell, Stacy's wife, who allegedly shot and killed him]
The 13th Floor Elevators lasted only a few years. Their fame and recognition in the bigger picture of "the birth of psychedelic music" is something that has come to be more and more appreciated on a larger scale over time. Unfortunately, I don't think Stacy lived long enough to witness much of this appreciation. It seems his time on this earth only became darker after the Elevators, and during the years leading up to his death.
"I’d say well look at the band and the things that have happened to all of you. And if you were really right it looks like something good would happen and come of it you know and not all the bad things that have because Roky had gone to Rusk [mental hospital] and Stacy had gone to prison. I think he turned to drinking when he went over here to the state when they said there wasn’t anything wrong with him. They said true he has experimented with drugs, but he wasn’t addicted to any of them. But he does have an alcoholic personality. And if he doesn’t get a hold of himself this may be the route he’ll take." - Sybil Sutherland
A Montrose resident was shot to death today in his residence at 516 Pacific Street. Police identified the victim as Stacy Keith Sutherland, 33. Shot once in the stomach with a .22 caliber rifle, at 3:30 a.m., Sutherland died at 5:07 a.m. in Ben Taub Hospital.
Officers arrested a 34-year-old woman at the scene. No charges have been filed. - Houston Chronicle, 1978
The going narrative of what happened that night seems to come from "longtime friend and former Montrose neighbor, Jim Hord."
“Stacy had a very bad temper and the alcohol brought out the worst in him, but Stacy and Bunni brought out the worst in each other. The house was always dirty, and it was infested with roaches. Bunni wasn’t the best housekeeper. Every time I went over to visit, the condition of the house used to really bug me. Bunni had some really bad times in her life, but the time spent with Stacy was the worst.”
“Stacy was making threatening remarks and acting belligerent towards Bunni’s 15-year-old son, and when Stacy lunged at Bunni in an attempt to enter her son’s bedroom, she pulled the trigger to the .22 rife that the couple kept in the house for protection against burglars.”
Now here is what Stacy's mother had to say about that incident:
"I told you that she [Bunni] called me 3 times during the time they were married which was about 15 months. It was always at 3:30 in the morning, and told me she was going to kill him. And this would throw me into a panic of course and I tried to tell him [Stacy]…and he kept saying “she doesn’t mean it, she’s a gentle, sweet girl and she would never do anything like that” and I’d say “well why does she call me why does she - it was just like a different person. She was afraid of him and he had earlier bought a gun…and some shells and showed her how to use them…and the boy who lived with em, this Tony said that when they came in she was sitting in the kitchen with a butcher knife. And he tried to talk to both of em because they were both angry and they had been arguing earlier in the day. And they went out and drank some beer and came back and he was still angry…and he [Tony] tried to say something to him and he said Stacy said “keep out of this” you know “it ain’t your affair.” And he [Tony] said I went off into my room then and shut the door. Then I heard the shot. And when I ran in there she was standing with the gun in her hand."
Let's look at some numbers here. Sybil said Bunni called her 3 times, always at 3:30 am, talking about how she was going to kill Stacy [Can you imagine???]. According to the Houston Chronicle, Stacy was shot at 3:30am. The same Houston Chronicle article states Stacy was 33. But according to his tombstone, he was 32.
If the above is accurate, how can it be that Bunni just happens to shoot Stacy at the exact time in the morning she called his mother previously threatening to kill him? This points towards a pre-meditated action, or some kind of constructed narrative involving the number 33.
[13FE logo, found upon Stacy Sutherland's Tombstone]
With Sybil's recounting of 3 times being called by Bunni at 3:30 in the morning, the actual shooting at 3:30 in the morning, and the apparently innacurate statement by the Chronicle that Stacy was 33 at the time of death - that's 5 occurances of the number 33 related to this incident, and I'm guessing there's probably more somewhere. Other than just being spooky as hell, what is the deal with this number being all over the place?
The number 33 came up in a previous blog where we were looking at the Great Seal of America on the $1 bill, which happens to include the same Pyramid/Eye symbol used by the 13th Floor elevators. We made the Masonic connection of 33 feathers on the eagle's left wing, and 32 on the right, having to do with degrees within the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. We observed that 33 + 32 = 65, the same number found above the Eagle's head, encoded within the 13 pentacles [5-pointed stars] within a star of David [5 x 13 = 65]. In Hebrew Gematria, 65 corresponds to the "Gam Yechad," which is related to an often used Freemasonic term, according to W.Bro. David Barrett. 33 also happens to be the age of Jesus Christ when he was crucified.
"The number 33 is associated with divine significance in the Bible and is often linked to the Holy Trinity and blessings. It can also signify divine favor and presence."
Point being, this number 33 has very relavant occult symbolic signifficance, especially considering the Pyramid/Eye symbol stamped upon Stacy's tombstone. We're talking about Hebrew/Egyptian mysticism, as appropriated by the Freemasons, who obviously chose the symbols which appear on the US Dollar bill.
Getting back to the narrative regarding the murder of Stacy Sutherland - The boy Tony, as Sybil recounts it, doesn't seem to mention anything about a neighbor, Jim Hord being there - even though Hord is quoted in the Chronicle as if he'd witnessed what happened. I feel like there's something fishy about this Hord guy, but I'll leave it up to you to decide. As far as I can tell, the account of Hord and Sybil Sutherland are the most specific details the public got regarding this tragedy.
So what actually happened here? The murder itself was tragic, and involved unstable individuals under the influence. Obviously domestic disputes can get violent, nothing so out of the ordinary there. But this was no average couple, as Stacy was, even then, a somewhat "famous" person of note. Especially in the annals of American 60s psychedelic lore. Whatever "magic" was behind this cultural movement, Stacy was most certainly a powerful conduit for that force, and willfully embodied that yearning for enlightenment we find so often regarding stories about "the hippies", which ironically led him down a path of darkness in the end. And according to Sandy Lockett, it sounds like the devil was there waiting for him. Lord have mercy, R.I.P. Stacy Sutherland.
CLICK HERE to read part 3
CLICK HERE to read Part 1.
Related blog concerning occult symbolism HERE
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SOURCES:
SOURCES:
Wikipedia
Archive.org
Lama Workshop - by Patrick "The Lama" Lundborg
Demon Angel: A Day in the Life of Roky Erickson
13th Floor Elevators - You’re Gonna Miss Me: Psychedelic Reprise, by Claude Mathews
theragblog.blogspot.com
austinchronicle.com
The MHMR tapes, filmed 1986 Austin State Hospital
Freemasonry.bcy.ca
You're Gonna Miss Me - A Film About Roky Erickson (2007)
F.O.I.A.
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