The mystery of Julian Johnson's death at the Dera in 1939

Recently I heard from someone who asked if I had read a book about the death of Dr. Julian Johnson. Johnson wrote "The Path of the Masters," a book about the philosophy of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), an India-based spiritual organization headed up by a guru.

I told the person that I wasn't familiar with the book about Johnson's death and asked if the person could summarize it. With their permission, here's what I received. I did some minor editing and added a few links.

Dear Brian,

The extremely short version is that the Dera tried to cover up a crime that happened there and by doing so ruined the life of a man who was innocent. Paul Pezoldt spent his whole life living with this heavy cloud over his head. 

 

Here is my summary of the book. It is a bit long but the book is far more detailed.  

 

It is The Mystery of Dr. Johnson’s Death: A Scandal in the Punjab by David Christopher Lane. The book tells the story about the death of Dr. Julian Johnson at the Dera in India which the RSSB is curiously silent about. Dr. Johnson wrote the book Path of the Masters.

 

Johnson never finished the book as he died on January 25, 1939 before it was published. But how he died is still a bit of a mystery today. There were three major rumors about his death:

 

The first was that a young mountaineer named Paul Petzoldt murdered him at the Dera.
The second was what most satsangis get told, that he just fell, hit his head and died.
The third is what outsiders think, that there were dark occult forces that killed him.

 

It’s a complicated story as eyewitnesses are dead and all they had to go on was some documents and memoirs of those now deceased. (All copies of these documents are printed in the book.)

 

At the time Johnson lived at the RSSB headquarters, the Dera, in the Punjab with his master Sawan Singh, who was called the Great Master. The book recounts how he became a follower of the guru. Johnson met his wife Elizabeth Bruce in India as she was at another ashram following another guru and had become despondent with them.

 

She then joined Johnson at the Dera and also became a devotee of Sawan Singh. Bruce was in her mid thirties at the time. She was a herbalist and a nurse who assisted Johnson at the hospital he formed at the Dera.

 

They used to summer in Kashmir due to the weather. In 1938 that is where they met Paul, a young mountaineer who at the age of 16 had already scaled one of the highest peaks in Wyoming USA. The reason he was in India at the time was he had just finished a route up the K2 mountain with a team of mountaineers.

 

He and his team split as they were hiring a bus to go through Afghanistan and Iran but there was no way Paul could afford to join them. Paul, although sceptical, had a deep interest in spiritual matters. Eventually Johnson invited him to work as his assistant at the Dera.

 

At the end of that summer Paul came down to the Dera. Paul's wife never saw him for months. Arrangements were made for her to join him. Paul's wife was Catholic. In her accounts of staying at the Dera, she reported about liking Johnson and the Great Master but Johnson's wife Elizabeth had been cold.

 

At the time in the Dera, there were only a handful of westerners. It was Johnson and his wife, a older man named David Elliot and an American couple with the surname of Rimstone. Also, there was Bhagat Singh, a lawyer, who in 1938 was considered that he was going to be Sawan’s successor. He attended to all the legal work of the master.

 

Paul was intrigued but he was not convinced of the philosophy. According to Paul’s wife’s recollection, he did not stick to the diet and also drank whiskey on some nights. He had also kept a loaded shotgun in the kitchen to shoot the rabid dogs that came to the Dera. Nobody else there would kill them for fear of bad karma so Paul was the one who did it.

Paul’s wife had become sick from nausea at the Dera which was not uncommon for newcomers to India. She was too sick to get out of bed.

 

For some unknown reason, Paul and his wife suspected Elizabeth’s cooking as Elizabeth was feeding them different food than what she was feeding the others. They even suspected Elizabeth was poisoning her.

 

On that fateful winter’s night at the Dera, there was an argument that broke out between Elizabeth and Paul or Elizabeth and Paul's wife. The accounts of what transpired differ.

 

The reason for the heated arguments is either about the raising of the kundalini or Elizabeth’s cooking.  In Paul's version, he made a bad crack in poor judgment. He was interested in mysticism and the kundalini. He commented that he wondered if you kick someone in the butt if it would help raise the kundalini. This remark was supposedly what sent Elizabeth into a rage.

 

The other account is that it was Paul's wife who said the same remark which made Elizabeth mad. The other version is that Paul picked up a plate of food to take to his wife and Elizabeth tried to stop him and wanted him to give it to a servant to take to his wife. He then turned and told her that he would take it himself and she got into a rage.

 

But what transpired out of the argument was this: Elizabeth screaming that she was going to kill Paul. She picked up the shotgun and pointed it at Paul. Paul pounced on Elizabeth to take the gun away from her. Singh the lawyer and Elliot for some strange reason attempted to stop Paul from taking the gun from Elizabeth.

 

Johnson either also attempted to stop Paul at the time or was trying to pacify Elizabeth in this commotion.

 

Paul allegedly in one version of the story tried to punch Elliot to get him off him and missed and hit Johnson by mistake who fell and hit his head. The other version is Paul managed to get away from the men and ran out and collided with Johnson and he fell and hit his head.

Johnson was put onto the couch where he died from his injuries at about one am.  After the incident, the lawyer went to Paul and his wife and convinced them Paul should plead guilty to a charge of hurting someone (similar to manslaughter). He claimed that it would be better for Paul, otherwise they would put a case against him. So he concocted a story leaving out the part that there was a shotgun involved and an argument.

 

The police came and arrested Paul on charges of culpable homicide. His plea of guilty had stopped any help from the courts for his case. He pleaded guilty to simple hurt, meaning he would face at least one year in jail.

 

The story gets even muddier. Paul states the reason he pleaded guilty is because of the lawyer Singh. He said this was because Singh did not want the Dera to have bad press and word getting out to foreigners. This he saw as damaging and could stop the cash flow from foreigners. He was also at the time thinking he would be the next guru.  

Paul, while under arrest, then contacted the US consulate and sent a lawyer and some members to investigate what had happened. The Rimstones then told the consulate official that Elizabeth had picked up the shotgun to shoot Paul.

 

Elizabeth then confessed to the official that she had picked up the gun but she knew it was not loaded.  The information about the shotgun would not have come out if the US consulate had not investigated and questioned the witnesses.

Paul then changed his plea to innocent and the court found him innocent because of the conflicting statements from the witnesses and the information about the weapon.

Strangely, the Dera then paid for Paul and his wife to take a lavish trip, including visiting Europe on the way back to the USA. Plus they gave his wife a gold bracelet as compensation for the trauma they had experienced.

 

Bhagat Singh the lawyer died a few years later, so Sawan Singh then appointed Jagat Singh as the next RSSB guru. The Rimstones also left India and went back to the States. Elizabeth and Elliot were the only ones left at the Dera. Elizabeth spent the rest of her years close to the Great Master and then died from dysentery.

 

What is also interesting is that Lane adds a transcribed letter that Johnson wrote that was never published. In it, Johnson recounts an encounter where he met Jesus.

 

He said Jesus was a tall, thin man with dark hair and light eyes. He said he told him his mother had become much higher spiritually than him. He also told Johnson that he was higher spiritually than him (Jesus). He also said that he had married Lazarus’s sister Mary during his life. (No wonder RSSB never published the letter.)

Comments

[Deepak Kamat]

Hi Brian,

This is the best expose on Dera liars.

[777]

Very interesting though little instructive.
I met satsangis
from a former Rosecrusian background
which told me,
the Master had taken Jesus in the 3-rd region
and brought Him to Satch Khand

Keep in mind that SK is the expression
to indicate the highest Level
of Consciousness
Appparently , there are exceptions on
the neccesity to meet a LIVING Master
in the FLESH
but it can be a case like Charan said
placing a disciple in one of the lower regions
where the satsangi can be picked up later.
Still keep in mind the regions are
At least HE knew about The Holy Ghost
specific Levels of Consciousness, levels
of Love

777

Often are prostitutes remembered for their
good feel of Holiness kike
Tulsi Sahib saying at Kumnla Mehla :
The first of these people coming by who will reckognize me
for What I AM, . . .
I will save.
next a luxury carriage stopped
and a beautiful Lady fell at His feet

Few Gigolos aare mentioned in litterature

[Appreciative Reader]

That made for gripping reading!

First of all, Brian, kudos to your correspondent for that beautiful summary. It is a fairly complex plot, and yet he summed it up with an admirable economy of words, without taking anything away in the retelling from the sheer drama of it all.

And that apart, of course, kudos to David Lane for neatly tying down the different strands of what had happened a fairly long time ago, from accounts and documents that must not have been very easy to come by. A neat investigative effort, the book itself, going by your correspondent's summary.

I suppose what really happened is lost forever now. Beyond the investigative effort in this book, I don't think any more comprehensive details will be available even in the Dera itself, given that it was so long ago, and all the people concerned are long dead.

(I suppose one possible lead that one might check out further if one wanted to find out more about what happened, is to further explore the Paul Petzoldt angle. After he returned back to the US, he and his wife may have left documents and journals and letters; or maybe talked with friends and family who in turn may have happened to document some of that in letters and journals; and it might be possible, perhaps, to track some of that down. On the other hand, David Lane may already have explored that angle in his investigations, and detailed out in his book, and your correspondent may simply have left that part of it out of his summary. Which is fair enough, there is only so much that a brief summary can accommodate.)

Tragic, what happened to Julian Johnson. I've not read all of RSSB literature, and no doubt they have lots of others books that talk about their faith, but I found Path of the Masters very interesting reading, and I doubt they have any other book that so comprehensively summarizes all of their faith and their practices and beliefs. What seems a real pity, is that the poor man apparently did not live to see his book --- no doubt a painstakingly executed labor of love --- actually published.

[Spence Tepper]

I did not enjoy path of the Masters at all. It did nothing to draw me to the path. I didn't like Johnson commenting on other faiths.

I enjoyed Autobiography of a Yogi, and With A Great Master In India much more.

[Appreciative Reader]

Yep, I remember being very impressed with Autobiography of a Yogi, more so because I came across it back when I was still in school I think, a much more impressionable age.

Hadn't heard of "With a Great Master In India", that you mention here; and I quickly looked it up, which led me to the Wikipedia entry on Julian Johnson (that I hadn't checked out before this). It's mentioned there that apparently his wife Elizabeth wrote an autobiography. Which last, I suppose, might be of use to someone interested in digging more into the hows and the wherefores of JJ's death.

[Appreciative Reader]

No, scratch that last. I'd misread the brief entry about JJ's wife's book in the Wiki entry. It wasn't an autobiography, it was actually her biography; and what's more written by Julian Johnson himself, so that it cannot possibly add anything to how he died.

[David Christopher Lane]

Here is a website that provides more detail about Julian Johnson and his books.
The free PDF of Johnson's death is also linked here at well.

https://sites.google.com/site/julianphillipjohnson/

Julian Johnson's great-granddaughter contacted me after she read the book on his death. We met at my house in La Quinta a few years back and she shared with me a treasure trove of materials that she inherited. These included a series of handwritten letters, pictures, and more. We met again a year or so later and have been in contact.

There were some plans for her to write an extensive biography of her great grandfather.

BTW, Paul Petzoldt was initiated and talked about his inner experience during meditation.... he lived to a ripe old age and I think was traumatized by the whole endeavor. It is briefly described in the book as well.

[Appreciative Reader]

Thank you for that link, David, and further for the link, embedded in there, to your book itself.

(Julian Johnson's two books, Path, as well as Great Master, also appear to be linked to in there, which is cool. I've got Path of the Masters, but it might be interesting to check out With a Great Master.)

[Karim W. Rahmaan]

"Elizabeth spent the rest of her years close to the Great Master and then died from dysentery."

This story is very sad.

"..is one of the five deadly enemies of the soul.
2. KRODH, anger, is the second of the deadly five. Its action is to stir up strife, cause confusion and scatter the mind. Then it cannot concentrate..

..The two cannot go together. Anger destroys peace, neutralizes love, engenders hatred and turns individuals and groups into enemies..

..Anger is the extreme opposite of love.."

-Dr. Jullian P. Johnson
The Path of the Masters - Twelfth Edition, Ch. 6, Sub. 7
http://www.bahaistudies.net/asma/pathofthemasters.pdf

[Sonya]

Elizabeth was a wack job from everything I’ve read, and I read David Lane’s book along with other accounts.

But that shouldn’t surprise us. So many of the people in the different RSSB Master’s inner circles aren’t people that we would want to be around for any amount of time outside RSSB.

The “Inner Circle” is the worst. They only serve to cover up and make excuses for these so called Masters who claim to be God in human form.

Of course she was crazy. Everyone in the inner circle is completely nuts.

[Sonya]

And the whole Jesus story is just mad bull shit.

All of the so called “inner experiences” that RSSB initiates claim to have are mere hallucinations.

[Sonya]

And I think Jesus was talking about his own mother, Mary. NOT Julian Johnson’s mother. 😂

[Appreciative Reader]

Just re-read this thread again, both Brian's post (comprising his correspondent's summary), as well as browsed through that lovely link David Lane has posted here. (For which thanks to him, once again, for making both his own book, as well JJ's two books, so easily and freely available for everyone to read.)

One more time, I was struck with how beautifully Brian's correspondent has summarized this complex plot, in brief, while at the same time making the account both gripping, as well as charming in its depiction of life at the Dera. And I love his understated sense of humor. For instance, this sentence from his account had me LOL-ing away, with its pithy delivered-with-a-straight-face humor: "The reason for the heated arguments is either about the raising of the kundalini or Elizabeth’s cooking." (!!!)

When you think about it, the reason for the unfortunate fight that resulted in JJ's death is pretty much birzarre. Guy jokes about a kick in the butt sending your kundalini soaring; to which apparently devout lady takes such strong exception that she starts screaming and picks up a shotgun to kill, or at least threaten, our would-be stand-up comic. And then this innocent bystander gets punched in the face, or pushed, and then falls over, hits his head, and dies. And not to forget the shady would-be successor-to-Guru trying to cover the whole thing up by gaslighting away. Unfortunate, all of that, absolutely, without a doubt; but pretty much bizarre.

I'm looking forward to reading the book itself, when I have time, that David Lane has so kindly made available for us here.

[um]

@ AR

Hahaha ... it reminds me of an "hysterical" reaction of a young lady, when i knocked at her door in the dera ... or when I happende to phone one in my country even one minute before or after 9 PM ... hahahah [western] sat sangi women can indeed act and react "hysterical"

[Appreciative Reader]

Hi, um.

Sorry, what was the 9 PM thing? Didn't quite get that part. Why 9 PM?

[um]

@ Hahaha ... AR

In order to get up in the morning at 3 am to meditate, one is advised to go to bet at 9PM.

Have you ever heard an annoyed voice on phoning some one around dinner time?
Making yourself feel the most miserable person on earth?

Hahaha ...

[um]

@ AR

Those that are christians will live the practice of Sant Mat in a christian way.
Those that are born in the USA will do it the american way. etc.
The previous guru would joke people about for that reason and had a special guesthouse for the people from South Africa and an guest house for the western followers in general to keep them away from socialising with the indian inhabitants ... hahaha ... and for a good reason ... hahaha .. to much of that interaction would interfere with the goals why people should come to the dera.

It is my personal point of view that people in the west have hardly an idea of what sant mat is all about, they have no idea about Bhakti and concepts of guru etc as it is no part of their culture.

In India everybody, growing up is a guru ... your parents, your teachers etc etc. and from early age they are trained how to use this way of social cultural interaction.

[Karim W. Rahmaan]

Very, very sad story indeed.

A woman initiate is confronted by a married man. And Sant Mat doesn't raise, nor teach a Kundalini method.

Then the man threatens a woman by saying hell kick her in the rear to help her learn its effect? Glad he admitted his joke was a mistake.

And why was his gun in her kitchen, or food area, or quarters? Or did he bring it with him and set it down, as he confronted a woman? Brave kundalini obsessed mountain man!

The woman following Sant Mat method must have been so frightened that without her husband there yet, picked up the rife to bop the unruly man.

Then in his escape he runs smack into her husband on the way back. Possibly accidentally collided, or worse. Then gets off scott free.

Super sad, the only good thing was man got to go back to kundalini and chitlins after it all.
(From my vantage point of course)

[Karim W. Rahmaan]

"The book tells the story.."

Mystery is in the title, and leaves it open to many an interpretation. Even the laws of the land weren't sure. RSSB representatives must have tried to accommodate the meat eaters to the extent of their vegetarian reputation. Obtaining meat at the nearest market just for them, I could only imagine. I can't even remember how to properly cook meat myself since it's been so long.

To me, it also looks like the good people of RSSB went so far out just to welcome people who could have hunted, killed, and prepared their own dish able to survive great mountains. RSSB paid unduly, for their kindness to accommodate. Boy I've had that happen to me. Even currently they must suffer rumors, while the present Master is still going all out like in All Star Superman during Covid-19, what a story.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m24kwF1b6Ks

[Kevin]

In the '80s I used to go to home satsangs in the Midwest and occasionally the representative would attend. On one of these occasions he said he had a letter that Dr. Johnson had written but he could only read it out loud and couldn't let anyone make copies of it. It sounds like the same letter. I remember thinking at the time, 'This is pretty wild, Dr. Johnson and Jesus having a little chat in the upper regions and Dr. J. returns with a status update.' Of course today you can go to YouTube and listen to everybody and his brother describe their NDE's so I guess times haven't changed.

I have a satsangi friend who for a couple of summers had Paul Petzoldt for a boss. In his younger days my friend lived in Colorado and worked in Outward Bound where Paul was overseeing the teaching of outdoor skills to young people. Paul first climbed the Grand Teton Peak when he was 16 while wearing cowboy boots and almost every year after that up into his mid-80's. He was quite the interesting character!

For someone who climbed the Matterhorn twice in one day from two separate sides, taking on the job of shooting rabid dogs at the Dera with a shotgun probably didn't phase Paul Petzoldt in the least.

I believe in David's account there wasn't anybody who wanted to use the shotgun to kill the occasional rabid dog that would show up at the dera so Paul said that he would do it. This was the reason the shotgun entered the picture in the first place and whether it was loaded or not will probably never be known. I'd highly recommend reading David's excellent book so you can make your own decision about what might have happened based upon the available documents and eyewitness testimony he provides.

If you'd like to learn more about this larger- than-life figure a good book is "On Belay, The Life of Legendary Mountaineer Paul Petzold" by Raye C. Ringholz. It's an excellent biography of Paul, and chapter 6, 'Intrigue' in India', is a fascinating account of the author's version of events surrounding Dr. Johnson's death.

I didn't know this before I read the book, but the term 'on belay' is one of a group of verbal alerts that Petzoldt developed and organized into a standardized format for mountaineers. The use of these over the years has no doubt saved many lives.

https://www.adventure-journal.com/2020/07/historical-badass-climber-guide-educator-paul-petzoldt/

[Karim W. Rahmaan]

"The Mystery of Dr. Johnson’s Death: A Scandal in the Punjab by David Christopher Lane. The book tells the story about the death of Dr. Julian Johnson at the Dera in India which the RSSB.." (original thread)

Summary of this mystery novel?
Boy I favor more factual books made by personal knowledge, or first hand experience. But I did use to read about legends, perhaps 23 years ago.

"I'd highly recommend reading David's excellent book..

..Of course today you can go to YouTube and listen to everybody and his brother describe their NDE's so I guess times haven't changed."

Posted by: Kevin | June 14, 2022 at 10:50 PM

What is all this talk about the 'Masters Orders' to 'Never speak online about Sant Mat', or to 'Never share inner experiences with anyone'.

I always wondered what Baba Ji and Maharaj Ji meant when they said not to share Sant Mat experiences.

Well, I know everyone has the right to their own opinion. So I can only share mine;

If I haven't practiced what I preach, how can I really teach or even share?

So yes! Satsangi brothers & sisters shouldn't share Sant Mat if it doesn't really float your boat -I believe.

Only my spin, no references this time, you must look it up yo' selves!

Masters' orders
;-)

[Generation77]

Money was said to be the key reason why Petzold didn't get along with Elizabeth Bruce. Apparently, Petzold owed money to Julian Johnson, how much I'm not sure, but it was a bone of contention between them.

The shotgun was dera property and used to kill wild dogs, a dera policy which seems to conflict with Charan Singh's many comments to satsangis that it's grossly inhumane to put down a suffering pet.

There doesn't seem to be any evidence that Petzold and Johnson were enemies, and so the idea that Petzold "murdered" Johnson doesn't seem credible to me. Bear in mind that Johnson didn't die from blunt force trauma of a punch but from a cardiac event largely due to his age.

[David Christopher Lane]

Paul Petzoldt recalled this near the end of his life, talking about a meditation experience he had the Dera, apparently after he got initiated.

"When I [Paul Petzoldt] went into a trance I was sort of floating around in this beautiful land with the most pleasant sensation, much more pleasant than anything I’ve ever had before or since. Sex, marijuana—I smoked once when I was in college in the 1930s, nice alcoholic glows that I’ve had, standing on top
of mountains, moments of triumph, any of those high spots never compared. I’ve been ill at times, had a car wreck one time where I had to take some opiates of some kind, and this was a nice, warm cozy feeling, but nothing compared. It was beautiful, good, just a complete release and something you wanted to do again. You would naturally bring yourself out of it. It wouldn’t last very long at first. Some of these people could do it for hours. I stopped because I was afraid of it. I could get hooked on this. This was something terrific.”

The tragedy of Johnson's death is that it all could have easily been avoided.

As the conclusion states:

"Tragically, Paul Petzoldt deeply admired Dr. Julian Philip Johnson and never intended to kill him. He considered him a friend and a mentor. A simple argument evolved into something much worse and created a mystery that still haunts the memories of all those involved."

[Tereasa]

Another great book I found here from David C Lane is Exposing Cults: When the Skeptical Mind Meets the Mystical . I have put it on my next to purchase list. I hope it will shed some light on how seekers searching for the truth and answers get taken advantage of.

In regards to the RSSB and Dera and the situation that happened in 1939. It they went at that time to such great lengths to cover up a crime, what has transpired since then at the Dera that we are not aware of?
Makes one wonder how many skeletons are in that closet. But just as the sun comes out each day, so will the truth.

[Generation77]

It's beyond ironic that the most glowing and eloquent testimonial of the Sant Mat meditation experience comes from a non-initiate who had a hand in the death of Sant Mat's foremost Western author.

[Generation77]

@DC Lane "The tragedy of Johnson's death is that it all could have easily been avoided."

How? Even if you remove Petzold, the sevadars who climbed on Petzold's back, the shotgun, and Mrs. Johnson from the event, The 71-year-old julian Johnson died from a cardiac event that was likely imminent. Perhaps if Johnson hadn't followed a vegetarian diet his heart would have been in better shape to withstand the shock of Petzold's body check.

[Generation77]

From The Mystery of Dr. Johnson's death:

"Even here Patricia’s narrative is amended by her husband
who alleges in an interview with Raye Ringholtz that only
he shot the rabid dogs that would on occasion intrude

A SPIRITUAL SCANDAL IN THE PUNJAB

59

upon the colony: “I had this shotgun, which was given to
me by the head of this group. We kept it loaded at all
time, because they had outbreaks of rabid dogs. Nobody
there would shoot them because they’d have to take their
karma, so he didn’t have anybody to shoot the dogs. That
was in the dining room in the corner, a double-barrel
shotgun loaded all the time. If someone reported one
[rabid dog], I’d grab that and run out and shoot them.”
Given Petzoldt’s own claim that the shotgun was his and
that he was the only one willing to shoot virulent dogs, it
lends credence to why Donald Elliott, Bhagat Singh, and
possibly Dr. Johnson tried to wrestle the gun away from
Paul Petzoldt since he, not Elizabeth Bruce, actually knew
how to shoot and kill.

This, of course, doesn’t exonerate Elizabeth Bruce, but it
does better explain why the Dera residents may have
feared Paul Petzoldt, who was much younger, much
stronger, and much more skilled with weaponry than they
were. In other words, fear seems to have been a
motivating factor all around, including Paul who believed
that Elizabeth Bruce was going to shoot him."

-----------------------------------------------------------------

This strikes me as a somewhat Saul Goodmanish reading of events. Some comments:

1) "Given Petzold's own claim that the shotgun was his." No, Paul Petzold states here that the shotgun wasn't "his, but was "given to me by the head of this group." That is, Petzold doesn't state that he owned the shotgun and brought it to the dera. He says something very different; he says that"the head of the group" had given him the gun (to use) to kill rabid dogs on the property.

Who was this "head of the group" Petzold was referring to? If it wasn't Sawan Singh himself, it was surely one of Sawan's chief officers, and with Sawan's knowledge. Shotguns are loud after all. It seems strange to me that this highly intriguing comment of Petzold implicating the dera's guru was completely glossed over and somehow morphed into Petzold owning the gun.

If Petzold's account is to be trusted, it likely means that Sawan Singh was the owner of the shotgun, and Sawan personally (or by proxy) gave the gun to Petzold to use to kill dogs. On the other hand, if Petzold was somehow the gun's owner, this would have been big new and likely have come out in the trial.

The likelihood that the shotgun was RSSB property adds to the weight of the dera's unease about the case.

2) "Given Petzoldt’s own claim that the shotgun was his and
that he was the only one willing to shoot virulent dogs, it
lends credence to why Donald Elliott, Bhagat Singh, and
possibly Dr. Johnson tried to wrestle the gun away from
Paul Petzoldt since he, not Elizabeth Bruce, actually knew
how to shoot and kill."

Again, it was not Petzold's claim that the gun was "his."

As for the rest, the idea that Paul Petzold was the only person present who knew how to shoot and kill is frankly preposterous. Anyone who has ever seen a Bugs Bunny cartoon knows that a gun works by pointing the end with the hole at the target and then pulling the gun's trigger. The argument also seems based on the strange prejudicial notion that because Petzold shot one or more rabid dogs, he was also fully committed to killing any number of humans at the dera. In fact, there was no reason to believe Paul Petzold was a violent man. The heir apparent guru's comments to the contrary may be sincere, but then again they may be the rationalizations of a satsangis who has no problem protecting one of the brethren by assaulting an outsider.

It bears repeating that it was Elizabeth Bruce who grabbed the shotgun and pointed it at Petzold. I don't think it can be stressed enough that if you point a gun at someone, they have the right to defend themselves, or at least take the weapon away from their assailant. And also, that 2 satsangis battered Petzold as he tried to take the lethal weapon away from the person who was threatening his life. There's no report of Petzold striking back at the satsangis in kind for their blows. Somehow Petzold's restraint after having a shotgun aimed at him, and then being under attack by 3 or more people has become twisted into Petzold being a murderous bad guy, the satsangis justly trying to prevent a mass shooting. Rather outlandish I'd say.

Paul Petzold's character may not match up with that of the esteemed Julian Johnson. But a person's character matters not at all when his life is being threatened. While there's no doubt much that we don't know about this case, given the evidence we have only one person that clearly deserves blame for the death of Julian Johnson: his wife. She is the one who started the assault that led to the unfortunate outcome. She did it with a shotgun, and she was aided by the violent actions of other satsangis, one of whom was in line to be guru. I think this was clear to Sawan Singh and his dera officers.

The gift of gold jewelry to Petzold's wife seems to back that up.

[777]

No Risk of Nukes as long as Putins 5 children are alive !!!
. . . but NOT so if he is on SSRI medication like prozac
and 100 equivalents
like the german co)pilot and ALL, yes really ALL school shooters
These drugs take totally compassion away
also for one-sejf, his kids
- hence no depression, nothing to worry
and the do the worst with pleasure

[umami]

"No Risk of Nukes as long as Putins 5 children are alive !!!"

7,
Why didn't I think of that? Thank you!

[El]

Thank you Brian for educating me on something I was unaware of.
It was ALSO great to hear from David Lane in the comments.