Ghost Articles
The Ghost Children Of San Antonio
October 24, 2011 | Bill Knell
Before we get to the supernatural aspect of this event, let's look at what the practical outcome was. Prior to this incident, little thought was given to school bus safety. Bus windows were difficult to open depending on the heat or cold, there were no rear end emergency exit doors and no pop out emergency escape windows. Riders rode and drivers drove. There were no safety monitors or other adults on board and drivers had little use for what went on in the passenger seating areas, save for when the noise got too loud.
No one can remember how many children died that day, but some did and that was enough to infuriate people from coast to coast. Photos, drawings and descriptions of the gruesome scene haunted parents everywhere. As with most tragic accidents, the regulations came after there were victims. Legislators throughout North America passed laws insisting that school buses stop just prior to going over a railroad crossing to be sure no trains were coming. School districts insisted that bus cabins be made safer, with emergency escape doors and windows. But that wasn't the only outcome or aftermath of the incident.
Between 1949 and 1951, area residents reported seeing ghostly kids. Several streets nearby the crossing bare the first names of children. It's been incorrectly assumed that the streets were named for either some of the crash victims or survivors. The names were in place for years before the disaster, but the ghosts came after!
Not wanting to be blamed for adding to what some consider an urban legend, I decided to visit the area and investigate the stories over a period of time as lectures and seminars brought me into San Antonio. While there are lots of haunted places there and many with more colorful and interesting histories, I could not escape my own interest in this odd case.
In the late 1980s I met an elderly man who I will call Blair. He and his family lived in the area near the tracks for years. Blair was fifteen years old when the children were killed, but had sketchy memories of the incident. His father was one of the first people on the scene after the bus was hit by the train, but never spoke much about what he saw. Blair's connection to the event came in 1951, two years after the crash.
His father had just started to work on the engine of an older vehicle the family used for local errands and some hauling. Blair thinks it might have been a 1935 Dodge pick-up. In what was a very hot summer, the engine kept over-heating near the railroad crossing. Given the change in grade, the rough crossing boards and the age of the truck, no one thought there was anything unusual about that. But before his father could get very far with the repair job, a call came from an uncle who lived about fifteen miles away. His uncle needed his father to make a local delivery of some farm machine parts he had sold. Blair's father was paid for these runs and the extra money came in handy.
The father and his seventeen year old son headed out in the old dusty pick-up. When they got to the crossing, the pick-up coughed and the gears were grinding, but the old truck made it over the tracks and just beyond before dying. Because they were now on an up grade, Blair's father put the truck in neutral and told the teen to keep his foot on the brake until he yelled for him to take it off. His father was going to try and push the pick-up just off the road to see what could be done to get it started.
While Blair's father headed around the back of the pick-up, Blair felt a sudden jolt. He wondered why his dad hadn't told him to let his foot off the brake? Blair's father thought the engine was coming to life and headed back to the cab jumping into the driver's seat. Blair scooted over and both wondered what happened? Over the next few seconds they felt two more jolts and the pick-up started rolling uphill!
As the vehicle arrived at the top of the grade, Blair's father tried to start the pick-up and the engine groaned to life. They drove off somewhat puzzled, but focused on the errand at hand. After arriving at the uncle's house, Blair went around the back of the pick-up to make room for the parts they were to deliver and made an unusual discovery. A number of small hand prints appeared on the rear gate and sides of the vehicle. There were no young children in their household. As far as they knew, kids stayed out of their yard because they had a mean watch dog. The last kids to visit their property were relatives who had come there several years before the incident.
It's impossible to say if this amazing local phenomenon had it's origin in Blair's story, but People still line up today to have their vehicles pushed up the grade by small unseen hands that leave prints on dirty cars and trucks. Some people even sprinkle the rear of their vehicles with baby powder to authenticate the tiny handprints. I have experienced this phenomenon myself and others have taken photographs of the area which show odd anomalies.
So called ORBS appear in nighttime photos over and near the tracks. Many believe orbs to be a sign of the presence of ghosts. But more then orbs have been seen by people living near the tracks. In the 1990s an elderly woman came out to one of my San Antonio Seminars. Bringing a few friends with her, they spoke to me before and after the lecture. Nervous and a bit hesitant to tell her story, Mary said she lived in a house on one of the streets with children's names when first married in 1950. They rented the house from a distant relative who had never mentioned anything about the bus accident or children.
While sweeping out the home on a comfortable spring day, Mary saw a young girl standing at her screen door. She guessed that the girl was about eight or nine years old. She opened the door and heard the child say that something bad had happened over at the railroad crossing. Before she could ask what happened, the child ran away and around the corner. Upset, she asked some neighbors about it? They told her to forget about the whole thing and seemed unconcerned. Perhaps this was some prank that local kids played on newcomers?
Less then a week later, it happened again. Mary was sitting out in front of the house enjoying the fresh spring air when she saw the same little girl round a corner and come towards her. Standing not three feet away, the child said, "I'm Emily. Is my Mommy home?" Mary asked where she lived? The little girl pointed to the home Mary and her husband were renting. Just as she was going to offer a response, the little girl said, "Please, Ma'am, watch out for the railroad crossing." Then the child vanished before her eyes!
Once again, Mary sought some advice from her neighbors. Most feigned ignorance, but a woman who lived several houses down from her told Mary what she knew. She had also seen Emily, as had most of the neighbors. In each case the child warned them to beware of the railroad crossing and did so in broad daylight. Mary was even more shocked when she found out that her landlord had a daughter named Emily that had been killed in a Bus accident at the crossing!
The people that I spoke to regarding the ghost children seemed sincere and told their stories to me well before the incident gained any sort of national attention. The two stories I have mentioned were collaborated by friends, neighbors and relatives of the witnesses who say they have told the same stories over many years without changing a thing. There are many others with stories to tell, but I found these two to be some of the earliest that could be researched and collaborated. It's interesting to note that after some repairs were done to make the rail road crossing less treacherous in the mid-1950s, Emily stopped appearing to people. But if you park your car just off the tracks, you will still get a free push courtesy of the unknown.
Rather then offer an opinion or endless speculation on the ghost children of San Antonio, I will just wish them peace.
Author: Bill Knell Author's Email: billknell@cox.net Author's Website: http://www.billknell.com Terms To Use Article: Permission is granted to use this article for free online or in print.
The Haunting History Of Ghosts
October 24, 2011 | Bill Knell
Tragedies, unexplained events or sickness were blamed on evil or mischievous spirits. Anyone who claimed to be able to commune with spirits faced the danger of being blamed for calamities attributed to them. Even people chosen as religious leaders could quickly fall from favor if signs appeared that evil spirits were at work in the community. These signs could be normal events in nature like an eclipse or harvest moon. Melted footprints in the snow that became misshapen might make people think that devils were afoot. Milk that soured too quickly, a well that went dry or a sudden outbreak of sickness could also be interpreted as being the work of evil spirits.
As cultures grew, their religions became more complicated. Mythologies and folktales were developed or incorporated into belief systems. The rewards offered by deities were no longer just temporal, but eternal. In some cultures the afterlife became another world with it's own complicated system of government, rules and regulations. In others, it was merely a continuation of life. But if there were rewards, there would also be punishments. People who committed evil deeds or failed to practice their religion would be punished in some spiritual way. The miscreant might be sent to a lower realm or be earthbound after death. With this change, came the idea of ghosts. Unlike spirits which are generally considered to supernatural beings, ghosts are thought to be disembodied humans. Those enjoying their heavenly reward might come back with an encouraging message, while earthbound souls might appear to taunt or seek vengeance on the living.
There are several theories to explain what ghosts are. Most people believe that ghosts are visual manifestations of humans in the afterlife. Others say that ghosts are merely the replaying of events and people recorded through some unknown process in nature. Some believe that ghosts are proof that living humans have the ability to see images from the past or future in the present. There is a certain amount of evidence available to support all these explanations.
People who believe that ghosts are disembodied humans point out that they are sometimes interactive being able to channel through mediums, appear and speak with the living, cause physical phenomena and display changing behavior patterns. Much of what is believed about ghosts as humans in the afterlife comes from the Spiritualist Movement.
In 1848 the Weekman Family of Hydesville, New York, reported a series of strange knocks at their door when no one was there. An eight year old living in the home said she felt an unseen hand running up and down over her bed sheets. Just a few weeks after the Weekmans moved out, the Fox Family moved in and also reported hearing the knockings. With the help of their brother, Margaret and Katie Fox worked out an alphabetical code that allowed them to interpret the knockings. The messages seemed to be coming from a man murdered in the house some time ago. A skull was later unearthed in the basement.
The incident convinced the sisters that communication with the dead was possible and, in 1849, Margaret Fox demonstrated her abilities to channel messages from the dead. The next twenty years saw the birth of Spiritualism as a religion. Spiritualist Ministers who either felt, saw or channeled with disembodied humans offered their congregation messages from dead friends and relatives.
Spiritualism had strong supporters and powerful enemies. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, best known for his Sherlock Holmes stories, became an avid believer and gave his first lecture on the subject in 1917. Doyle's friend, famous magician Harry Houdini, wanted to believe, but became a strong foe of Spiritualism when he came across several mediums who were complete fakes. As more fake medium hunters followed in Houdini's footsteps and traditional religious leaders spoke out against it, The Spiritualist movement lost much of its momentum.
Those who claim that hauntings are merely events from the past being played back in the present point out that many ghosts show no sign of interaction with the living. Dressed in clothes from a particular period in history, ghosts seem to be go about their normal business just as living people would. A ghostly priest walks across a room in an ancient abbey. Ghostly soldiers talk and play cards in the room of an old fort. A long dead Victorian family is seen picnicking under a tree. In each case there is no interaction with living persons present, just a very natural scene from the past.
Believers in precognition (seeing visions of the future) and retro-cognition (seeing visions of the past), say that ESP is the answer to the ghost phenomenon. They believe that anyone can see a glimpse of the past or future at any time. They may be right. I met a man in 1988 who had recently purchased and moved into a home near Chicago. As a person known to investigate the paranormal, he called me because he kept seeing a woman walk down various hallways in his house and then vanish! The mysterious figure looked real, but disappeared several times right before his eyes. He made drawings of the woman for me so I would know what she looked like. As a matter of course, I spoke to some of his neighbors. I asked if any of them had seen a woman that looked like the one in the drawings? None had. Although the man lived alone, I also met with several of his family members to see if they knew anyone that looked like the mysterious woman. They did not. Unable to offer an explanation, I lost touch with the man for several years.
While presenting a seminar in Chicago during 1994, the same man called me at my hotel and invited me over his house. I wanted to see if anything had come of the case, so I agreed to come over. When I arrived, the man invited me in and we proceeded to his family room. I was stunned when I saw a woman sitting on the couch who matched the exact description of the drawing that had been made years earlier. Before I could speak, the man introduced the woman as his wife. They had met six months before and been married just one month. Prior to that and during the time of the odd visions, he had not known or yet met the woman. Without knowing it, the mysterious figure walking through his home as an apparition in 1988 began a real woman who he met and married in 1994. It was clearly a case of seeing a future event in present time.
It's likely that these popular explanations for ghosts may all be a part of what we think of as paranormal activity. Science has been set up as a means to explain every aspect of our world using theory and conjecture, and to do so without apology. When a theory or hypothesis doesn't work out, they just throw it out and make up another. The failure of science to examine paranormal activity without trying to debunk it, leaves us with only two choices regarding the unexplained. We can either totally ignore everything odd that goes on and assume it has some scientific or physical explanation, or we can make guesses based on the available evidence.
Ghosts may be nothing more then the result of a human desire to exist beyond the grave or the ultimate gag that the Universe is playing on us. Whatever else ghosts maybe, they are a question lacking an answer. As humans, we owe it to the satisfaction of our own curiosity to try and find that answer.
Author: Bill Knell Author's Email: billknell@cox.net Author's Website: http://www.billknell.com
The Ghost Of Julie Dodge
July 24, 2011 | Bill Knell
Although most people thought of St Pete as a town full of retirees, there was still a significant population of young families and lots of kids. Most of the homes on our block were owned or rented by young couples with children. Although it took some getting used to, I really enjoyed the change that our move to Florida had brought. Even the local Church we attended was a welcome distraction from the cold, closed, cathedral style building where we had worshipped in New York. It was open, airy and bright. And the people just seemed more friendly. Not that New Yorkers aren't friendly. There just scared! When you live in any big city area it's a must to keep a sort of protective distance between yourself, your family and everyone else. You want to be friendly, but you also want to be careful.
It was the third weekend in October of 1971 and the weather was great! I woke extra early that Sunday morning and walked up to the 7-11 that was just two blocks from our house. I loved to surprise my parents with the Sunday Paper and enjoyed buying myself some treats. There's nothing like coke and candy early in the day! But on this morning everyone in the store seemed a bit somber. I shrugged it off and walked back to the house enjoying the fresh morning air. My folks weren't up yet, so I watched some TV. Like most kids, I hated the news. But while flipping channels, I heard something that made me pause.
A thirteen year old girl had been found dead in her home yesterday. Julie Dodge was stabbed to death by an older teen neighbor who became obsessed with her. He waited until her parents went shopping, came over to her house and entered through the unlocked kitchen door. Julie was sitting in the kitchen having a snack when he entered the room. Surprised, but not frightened by him, Julie asked the boy what he wanted? He sat down and started talking with her. They had been neighbors for several years and the boy had done odd jobs for the family on several occasions, so there seemed no reason for Julie to be concerned. But then, the boy started making unwanted advances toward her. She became scared and started screaming.
Neighbors heard Julie's screams through the screen door and called the police. A man working in his garage up the street also heard the screams and ran toward Julie's house. As he approached the kitchen door, the teenage boy ran out and away from the home. A woman who was also walking towards the house saw him run out the door as well. They both recognized the teen as a neighbor. The man and woman looked in through the screen door and were horrified to see Julie's body lying on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood with a large kitchen knife nearby. The police arrived moments later and entered the house. Julie was dead, having been stabbed multiple times by her teenage neighbor.
The boy was apprehended later that day at a friend's house. It seemed that he had a history of odd behavior that his parents had successfully concealed from their neighbors. Problems at school included threats against teachers and damage to school property. On more then one occasion he was seen talking with girls between the ages of twelve and thirteen. He was sixteen. Most of those girls were smart enough to avoid him, but one had complained that he once touched her in an inappropriate way.
Because all this had happened on Saturday afternoon, most people were not aware of it until they watched the Sunday Morning TV News or read Monday's newspaper. There were no special reports or break-ins for local events in those days unless something of national or international importance occurred. If there was a Saturday evening local news report, I doubt anyone watched it. And with the event happening so late in the day, the Dodge murder never even made into Sunday's paper.
I sat stunned while watching the tragedy unfold on TV. There was film of the murder scene, pictures of the suspect being brought to jail and a photo of Julie during happier days. A school picture revealed her to be a beautiful young girl with red hair, freckles and a terrific smile. And I wasn't the only one affected by the murder. Our Pastor spent his entire sermon talking about Julie's death and why bad things can sometimes happen to good people. The entire town went into a state of shock and mourning. How could something like this happen in St Pete?
Things were different after Julie's murder. People starting closing their garages, locking their back doors and became very security minded. It was the only positive thing to come out of any otherwise senseless and tragic death. It took weeks before people started to move past Julie's murder. But even then, the crime had changed things in St Pete. That Halloween was a very muted one. Police spokespeople appeared on TV for days before warning potential trick or treaters to be careful, go out in groups or with their parents.
The only solace that our family could gather from the terrible event was that it had happened way on the other side of town and nowhere near us. Still, it was a different experience for me coming home from school everyday. I was almost ecstatic when my parents agreed to let a nine year neighbor's daughter and eleven year old neighbor's son stay in the house with me after school until their parents got home from work. I was glad to have the company. Thinking as a kid, I figured the bad guys might get one of us, but not all three. That gave us a fighting chance!
A few years earlier, I had become very interested in the paranormal. Not from the standpoint of involvement, but rather as an interest area. Although many books about UFOs, Aliens and various areas of the paranormal were written to take advantage of interest in the subject and had little to contribute in the way of new information or hard facts, there were exceptions. Books by Frank Edwards and John G. Fuller were well-written paranormal case studies injected with as much objectivity and science as possible. By the age of thirteen, I can truthfully say that I had read well over a hundred books on the subject. This gave me a curiosity which later turned my interest into an investigative hobby.
When it came to giving me rides to paranormal seminars, my father usually got the duty. He was a former Air Force Officer who had little to say on the subject and only sat through one of the many seminars that I insisted on attending. I understood how he felt. I started going to these events around the age of eleven, and even at thirteen I must have looked out of place among the crowd of mostly college students and senior citizens. But that didn't lessen my enthusiasm and most of the speakers were more then willing to tolerate a few minutes of conversation with me after the presentation. I learned much from the ghost hunters, parapsychologists, journalists, UFO researchers and authors who gave these talks.
A little more then a month after Julie's murder, I flew back to New York City with my mom. Her father had passed away a few months before and she wanted to spend that Thanksgiving holiday with my Grandmother and some cousins. My dad had to work and couldn't get away. For me, the occasion was a little more somber then I could stomach. We were Scandinavian and they were always big on death and funerals. They actually took pictures! To avoid spending the next few days looking at pictures I've already seen of Grandpa's funeral and watching everyone sit around crying, I linked up with my older cousin and made some plans. As luck would have it, legendary ghost hunter Hans Holtzer was giving a talk in Manhattan on Friday night.
After riding several subway trains and a bus, we arrived at a large hall packed with Holtzer fans and would-be ghost hunters. Hans came out and spoke for an extended period of time about Manhattan ghosts and haunts. I was especially interested in his work with noted Psychics who helped identify and exercise the spirits. It was absolutely fascinating! Most of the ghost or haunting cases were centered around some sort of tragedy. I took it all in and wrote down many notes. By the time I returned to Florida, much of what Holtzer said was still swirling around in my brain.
The all too brief Thanksgiving holiday was over and I was back in school. Mr. Clark was a favorite among students like me. Once a science professor at a prestigious eastern university, Clark had run afoul of his peers and the administration over his spiritual beliefs, which seemed an odd mix of Christianity and Eastern Philosophy. He didn't believe in evolution, but was convinced that reincarnation was possible and likely. Ultimately, he was forced out and ended up teaching junior and senior high school classes in Florida. For some that might have been unseemly and many steps down, but Clark didn't care. He relished the chance to influence young minds.
In his early thirties, Clark could often be found with any number of female intellectuals and hippies in their late teens and early twenties. They just loved his explanations of eastern mysticism. But he was also kind of a kid at heart and seemed to relate well to teens. More than a few of us attended talks he gave after school on various subjects. On the very day I returned to school he announced to his class that there would be such a talk the following afternoon. The subject would be ghosts! It was more then ironic.
The next day about twenty of us gathered from all his classes and attended Clark's thirty minute, after school discussion. It was informative as he gave us his view on the survival of the soul and spirit after death. But something far more interesting happened after the meeting. Eager to tell Clark about my attendance and take on the Holtzer seminar in New York, I stayed around after the discussion ended and almost everyone had left. Before I could speak, a female student stepped forward and asked Clark for some advice. Her name was Jennifer. She had recently transferred to our school from across town.
It's a small world. Jennifer had lived next door to Julie Dodge for some time before her murder and moved just a month prior to the tragedy. The two girls had been close friends and still regularly spoke on the phone right up until the day of Julie's murder. Shortly after she was killed, Jennifer started having strange dreams about Julie. It was as if Julie was reaching out to her. Then, just before Thanksgiving, Jennifer started feeling cold spots in her home. Florida nights were chilly this time of year, but the family had a modern heater which usually made the home toasty warm. The spots centered around Jennifer's room. One was near her doorway and the other near her bed.
Things came to a head over the Thanksgiving holiday when Jennifer woke up to find herself staring into Julie's face. It was just as real and Julie was smiling just as big as she had on any one of the many sleepovers the girls had enjoyed together. Then she was gone. It had all taken just a matter of seconds. No more incidents had occurred since then, but Jennifer was sure that she felt Julie's presence everywhere in her home.
Mr. Clark thought it was all very interesting, but seemed to hold the opinion that Jennifer was just missing her friend. After all, Julie had never been in the new home that Jennifer moved to. That seemed to go against the norm in days when most haunting cases were poorly investigated and knowledge was limited. I had other ideas.
Instead of speaking with Clark, I left with Jennifer. As we walked out the door, I introduced myself and told her that I thought her ghostly encounter story was fascinating. I enquired about where she lived and found out her house was just a half mile from mine. Like me, she rode her bike to school. Wanting to see what the house looked like, I followed her home with permission. Once at her house, I was about to say goodbye when she invited me in. Her mother was home and seemed happy that Jennifer had made a new friend, even though it was a male one. It turned out that her older sister was the popular one in the family. At sixteen, Christy was a stunning high school beauty. Both girls had long blond hair and great looks, but that's where the similarity ended. While Christy was outgoing and exuded personality, Jennifer was quietly polite, but not shy.
Before I knew it, I was invited to stay for dinner. Her mom gave me a brief tour of the house, which included the area outside of Jenny's room. It did feel very cold for a reasonably-warm afternoon! After clearing the dinner invitation with my parents, I enjoyed a terrific sit down meal with Jenny's family. Her parents couldn't have been nicer people. After dinner, Jenny and I spent about thirty minutes pretending to play Monopoly in a family room off to the side of the house. In reality, we spoke more about Julie. I shared my own feelings about the murder and Jenny told me more about what a great friend and person the murdered girl had been.
Julie was always very popular and had lots of friends, but Jenny was her best friend. The two were opposites when it came to social matters. Julie fit in everywhere with everyone, while Jenny always took a step back and felt like a bit of an outsider. Like me, she enjoyed studying the world of the paranormal. Julie was always kidding her about it, but she did tell Jenny that if anything ever happened to her, she would come back to make sure Jenny was alright. Then, it became so obvious to me.
The reason for Julie's return had to do with the fact that Jenny was slow to make new friends and Julie may have been concerned about her. In more then a few cases, it was unfinished business or an inability to abandon earthly matters that seemed to keep spirits from moving on. Holtzer had talked about a case in New York City where a stable hand had refused to move on and appeared on a regular basis near what was once some old stables in lower Manhattan. Once contacted by a psychic, it seemed he was worried about a beloved horse. Unable to know time as we understand it, the psychic explained to the spirit that time had moved on and he no longer needed to worry about matters that had been a part of his earthly life. After that, the spirit appeared no more.
I didn't know any psychics, but I had a crazy friend named Dennis who wanted to be the next John Lennon, loved Chopin music and had a sister deeply into doing seances. I wondered how we would ever sell this to Jenny's parents? They were nice, but didn't seem like the types to accept the kind of whacked out plan that I had concocted. Then an unusual opportunity presented itself. Jenny's dad was a high degree Mason. An annual dinner was scheduled for just before Christmas and Jenny's parents needed to attend. At the same time, Christy had signed up for a week long trip to the Bahamas with her class and prepaid. There was no way she could cancel. Since the family had no previous need for a babysitter, they didn't know any. I interjected a thought by telling Jenny's folks about my friend's sister Amber. She could stay with Jenny until her parents returned home from the dinner. I explained that the girl didn't drink or do drugs and was very responsible. Since Amber would be sitting for Jenny, she asked her parents if I could come over and hang out that evening. Amber would drive me home. They agreed.
A week before Christmas, I arrived at Jenny's house with Amber. We said our goodbyes to Jenny's folks and set about contacting Julie. Amber was a pro when it came to seances. She had Jenny take out some items that Julie had given her and began to recite a sort of chant as we sat in a circle in Jenny's bedroom. I'll admit that being a spectator of all things paranormal was far different from being involved. Hearing stories and living one was a totally different experience.
After Amber finished her recitations, she asked Jenny to call for Julie in a very natural way as if she were in the next room. Jenny called out to her several times, and then we waited. It may just have been the atmosphere created by the tension of the moment, but the air seemed filled with electricity. We sat there waiting about ten minutes before a cold breeze seemed to blow by each of us. Then I felt something odd. It was like a warm blanket wrapped around me. We all felt it. Amber said, "Quickly, Jenny, tell Julie that you're alright. She needs to move on. You're happy in your new school and Bill is here as proof that you have already made another good friend in your new school."
Jenny said the words with heart. Another few minutes went by, then Amber announced that we were finished. After straightening things up, we spent the rest of the evening discussing our feelings about the event until Jenny's folks came home. There were no more incidents after that. Jenny and I became very good friends and stayed in contact for years until she died in 1998 of a brain tumor. I visited her a few weeks before she passed on and recall her saying, "Julie is waiting for me and I can't wait to see her again." Sometimes the paranormal just tugs at your heart.
Author: Bill Knell Author's Email: billknell@cox.net Author's Website: http://www.billknell.com Terms To Use Article: Permission is granted to use this article for free online or in print. Please add a link to or print my website address: http://www.billknell.com