Since beginning this series (World War II As It Happened) I have noticed a phenomenon which I have decided to call the Synchronicity Conundrum. This happens when I am researching or creating the pages for the series. Since it takes a great deal of time to create these pages, I work on them days or even weeks before they are published. During this process I have come across reports of events, which I had not been aware of, so I highlight them under the newspaper they are mentioned in. Then within hours, sometimes a few days, but usually only hours, a report will come across my computer or television of an event, similar to what I have just written about, only this event just happened. I can best describe this phenomenon by providing examples.

While working on the page for Apr. 20, 1940 there were many headlines about a train derailment. The Lake Shore Limited jumped the tracks and killed 31 people. I was working on this page on Apr. 2nd. Hours after I had finished, a report came on the television that a train in Taiwan had crashed and that 40-50 people were killed. While a train derailment is not uncommon and hundreds of examples of such events could be found by doing a search on line, to have one happen only hours after working on this report from 81 years ago was a little peculiar.

While this has happened several times in the past few months, the story that really caught my attention was one that is heartbreaking. On Apr. 4, 1940 a woman in Los Angeles named Lolita Davis murdered her three children with a hammer. This story was covered for several days. Then yesterday (Apr. 10, 2021) I had been working on linking the pages of the Davis case together and was talking with my daughter about the case. Less than an hour later the tragic story came across my computer screen. On Apr. 10, 2021 a woman in Los Angeles murdered her three children with a knife. I have to say I was stunned. Not that this would happen again, but that it would happen while I was still working on the pages for the Davis case.

It is easy to find events that are similar in nature, as I said before, just do an internet search. Everything that has happened before, will happen again. However, when they happen at the same time I am digging up the ghosts of the past, is something that is a little unsettling. If you have found this page it is because the Synchronicity Conundrum has happened again.