Surveillance footage from the Cato town garage shows a pickup truck owned by Jody Snyder and driven by her son Allen Holdridge leaving with a trailer loaded with gravel he received there on June 8, 2023.
In Cato, a successful write-in campaign unseated a supervisor and two board members with a combined 77 years of service to the town.
Many of the crystals and stones for sale in Melissa Sell鈥檚 witch-themed gift shop are supposed to have mystical properties. But that doesn鈥檛 mean SHE buys that. "For example, like, obsidian is used for protection, but there's no proof it actually works that way,鈥 she says as her black-and-white cat, Mama Yaga, prowls the floors of Every Witch Way, Sell鈥檚 shop on the main drag in Mount Holly Springs, Pennsylvania. But on some topics, Sell鈥檚 thoughts are crystal clear. Like the Sept. 11 terror attacks? 鈥淚t was our way of getting into the Middle East to finish the war that (President George) Bush Sr. started." What about COVID-19? "I think that the government worked with China to create COVID.鈥 And the 2021 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut? "This screams like a false flag,鈥 she says. 鈥淭his seems so fake." If something piques her interest, the 34-year-old mother of one jots it down in a notebook for future research. There are entries for 9/11, Sandy Hook, John F. Kennedy and 鈥淧izzagate.鈥 鈥淢y husband calls it my `conspiracy journal,鈥欌 Sell says with a chuckle. But don鈥檛 call her a conspiracy theorist; Sell prefers conspiracy `questioner.鈥 "For me? I have my thoughts. I do my research,鈥 she says. 鈥淢y opinions aren鈥檛 hurting anybody." But conspiracy theories have played key roles in the last two presidential elections, culminating in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. And they鈥檙e already at play in former President Donald Trump鈥檚 bid to retake the White House this fall. But Joseph Uscinski, who鈥檚 written books on conspiracy theories, says it would be wrong to just dismiss believers as stupid or deranged.
Executive Editor David Wilcox can be reached at (315) 282-2245 or david.wilcox@lee.net.
Surveillance footage from the Cato town garage shows a pickup truck owned by Jody Snyder and driven by her son Allen Holdridge leaving with a trailer loaded with gravel he received there on June 8, 2023.
