Who is the REAL Gene Rosen?
Out of all the key players involved in the Sandy Hook saga, few have been written about more than Gene Rosen- the Good Samaritan (according to the mainstream media) who harbored six young survivors of the Sandy Hook massacre inside his home. Conspiracy theorists claim that Rosen was an actor, and some Sandy Hook Truthers allege that Rosen was a member of the Screen Actors Guild. In this installment of our exploration of the "Sandy Hook Conspiracy", we'll examine the allegations made by the Truthers as well as the details provided by the media, and attempt to discover the "true identity" of this key figure.
The Official Narrative:
(As reported by the Huffington Post on 1/15/13)
On the morning of the shooting, Gene Rosen was feeding his cats when he discovered four children hiding out in his driveway. They told him their teacher was dead, and he listened to their account of the massacre still going on at nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School. The Huffington Post states that Rosen is a 69-year-old retired psychologist and, in the article, he is quoted as saying [to Salon.com]: “There must be some way to morally shame these people, because there were 20 dead children lying an eighth of a mile from my window all night long. And I sat there with my wife, because they couldn’t take the bodies out that night so the medical examiner could come. And I thought of an expression, that this ‘adds insult to injury,’ but that’s a stupid expression, because this is not an injury, this is an abomination.”
(As reported by the Daily Mail (UK) on 1/15/13)
"Last month, Rosen said he had just finished feeding his cats and was heading from his home near Sandy Hook Elementary school to a diner on Friday morning when he saw six small children sitting in a neat semicircle at the end of his driveway.
A school bus driver was standing over them, telling them things would be all right. It was about 9.30am, and the children, he discovered, had just run from the school to escape a gunman.
Rosen, 69, granted numerous TV interviews after the shootings and emotionally described sheltering the students on who fled Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14 after 20 of their classmates and six adults were murdered there.
He became one of the most public faces of the grief in Newtown, Connecticut, weeping openly on camera - and without embarrassment.
Gene Rosen looked after the children for a number of hours, giving them toys to play with."
It's clear to see why Mr. Rosen would be a conspiracy theorist's wet dream. Here we have a man who has spent several years as a psychologist (which means he has more experience in grief counseling than 99% of the general public) weeping openly in not one but in several television interviews which he had himself granted to the media. Is Rosen merely an overly-emotional person, or an actor who can turn on the waterworks whenever a reporter turns on a camera? Why did six children and one bus driver run an eighth of a mile to the home of Gene Rosen- a 69-year-old male who conveniently had a stockpile of children's toys? And why does the Huffington Post report that Rosen found 4 children, while the Daily Mail (and numerous other websites) lists the number as 6?
Rosen defended himself by saying "this is not an injury, this is an abomination." With all due respect to Mr. Rosen, many people would find it remarkably difficult to take his story at face value. What are the odds of six children escaping from a classroom (which may have been under lockdown at the time) during a shooting, finding an adult bus driver and, instead of getting on a bus, running one-eighth of a mile... only to wind up at the home of a 69-year-old man who happened to have a stuffed Dalmatian (among other children's toys)? We're not mathematicians, but we'd assume that the odds of such a string of events would be the equivalent of winning the lottery and getting struck by lightning on the same day.
Fortunately, the Daily Mail's article answers some of these questions.
Rosen had children's toys in his possession because he has two young grandchildren. The six children he sheltered were students of Victoria Soto, who is believed to have shielded some of the kids in the early stages of the shooting. This would indicate that they had managed to escape before any lockdown measures were enacted, and this corroborates the story given by Rosen, who claims that the children told him they had seen their teacher die.
Rosen is also quoted as stating that "They [the children] said he had a big gun and a little gun." While the article attributing this statement to Rosen appeared Jan. 15, the Connecticut State Police released a statement on Jan. 23, describing the guns found inside the school. These guns include a Bushmaster .223 caliber model XM15-E2S rifle (big gun) with high capacity 30 round clips, a Glock 10-mm handgun and a Sig-Sauer P226 9mm handgun (little guns). If the gunman, Adam Lanza, had one of the two handguns tucked inside his clothing, then this would confirm the story which Rosen had given to the press.
There is one glaring piece of misinformation, however, that should not be overlooked.
The New York Daily News claims that Victoria Soto had 16 children in her class . According to the Hartford Courant, six of Soto's students tried to flee but were shot by Lanza. The story continues: Later, in their search for survivors, police found the remaining seven of Soto's students still hiding in the closet. This does not add up.
If there were 16 children and six were killed, that would leave ten survivors. If seven of those survivors were found in a closet, as stated by the police, that means only three children should have appeared on Gene Rosen's driveway- not four as stated by the Huffington Post, and not six as claimed by Mr. Rosen. If six of Soto's students did show up at Rosen's home, that means only one survivor would have been found in the closet, and not seven as stated by the police. Let's suppose not all of the sixteen students were in class. If one was absent, that would leave nine survivors- seven in the closet and two on Gene Rosen's driveway, or that would mean 6 would have gone to Rosen while only three could have been in the closet. If the police account and Rosen's account were both correct, there would have had to have been 19 students in the class, not 16 as stated by the New York Daily News.
But what if the survivors found in the closet were the same survivors who escaped and made their way to Gene Rosen's home? This would contradict everyone's story, especially Rosen's, because the statement about the children witnessing the murder of Victoria Soto therefore could not possibly be true. If so, this would mean that a dead woman put children in a closet. No matter how you try to add it up, it does not make sense.
By viewing an aerial photo of the neighborhood, one can see that Rosen's home on Riverside Road would be the first logical place for anyone fleeing on foot to stop. So why did a bus driver and six children run down the street instead of getting on a bus and driving away?
On Dec.18, the New York Daily News' story on the death of substitute teacher Lauren Rousseau states that the teacher’s 2004 Honda Civic- parked outside the school- was riddled with bullets when authorities removed the vehicle. One can see from an aerial photo that this would have occurred in close proximity to where the buses would have been parked and, given the rapidity with which the shooting is supposed to have taken place, this would have made any bus unsafe as cover. Fleeing on foot would have been the best option. Given the geography of the area, the route taken by the bus driver and six fleeing children would have been the most logical route.
And what of Gene Rosen's connection to the Screen Actors Guild?
The source of this rumor appears to be this YouTube video, in which the uploader films himself performing an Intelius search on "Gene Rosen", which produces 17 results, one of which is a 62-year-old man with the same name who has lived in California, Texas, and New Jersey and who happens to be a member of the Screen Actors Guild. The Intelius results also show that Rosen has worked for Xerox and a company called Photogenic Design LLC.
This "evidence" is laughably absurd. If Rosen was an actor paid by the government to take part in Sandy Hook, why would he use his real name on camera? Surely the government would have been smart enough to give his character a different name. If Laura Phelps (the mother of one of the victims) is in reality an actress named Jennifer Sexton (as many Truthers claim), then why is Gene Rosen, well, Gene Rosen? Also, the Intelius search did not produce any pictures- just seventeen people who happen to be named Gene Rosen. The search results also did not show that the "actor" named Gene Rosen had any training in psychology, even though the official narrative maintains that Rosen is a 69-year-old retired psychologist. Coincidentally, if you perform an Intelius search on Eugene Rosen, guess what comes up? An address located just a block or two away from Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The Truthers also argue that Gene Rosen's interviews are filled with contradicting information. We thoroughly analyzed 15 video clips of Mr. Rosen (some were duplicates, but edited) and found a total of 42 discrepancies. However, virtually all of these discrepancies are a matter of semantics or minor details, and do not compromise Mr. Rosen's account of key events. On two occasions, we found that some of the details were given in a different order, but these details had nothing to do with the shooting and are irrelevant.
As a control, we compared this to 5 short video clips of comedian Daniel Tosh performing a standup routine. Although the same routine/joke was featured in 5 different shows in different cities, we uncovered a whopping 127 minor variations in the telling- and this is from an experienced top-level performer who has probably performed this particular routine hundreds of times. By comparison, Rosen's narrative is extremely accurate.
In conclusion, we at Journal of the Bizarre believe that if Sandy Hook was a hoax or conspiracy, Gene Rosen was not part of it. The key points of his story are consistent, and he was able to describe the weapons found inside the school as told to him by one of the children days before the Connecticut State Police confirmed it. By looking at aerial photos of the neighborhood, Rosen's home would be a logical rest stop for those fleeing on foot from the school. While many questions about Sandy Hook remain to be answered, we consider the Truthers' allegations about Gene Rosen to be groundless and devoid of concrete evidence.
Out of all the key players involved in the Sandy Hook saga, few have been written about more than Gene Rosen- the Good Samaritan (according to the mainstream media) who harbored six young survivors of the Sandy Hook massacre inside his home. Conspiracy theorists claim that Rosen was an actor, and some Sandy Hook Truthers allege that Rosen was a member of the Screen Actors Guild. In this installment of our exploration of the "Sandy Hook Conspiracy", we'll examine the allegations made by the Truthers as well as the details provided by the media, and attempt to discover the "true identity" of this key figure.
The Official Narrative:
(As reported by the Huffington Post on 1/15/13)
On the morning of the shooting, Gene Rosen was feeding his cats when he discovered four children hiding out in his driveway. They told him their teacher was dead, and he listened to their account of the massacre still going on at nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School. The Huffington Post states that Rosen is a 69-year-old retired psychologist and, in the article, he is quoted as saying [to Salon.com]: “There must be some way to morally shame these people, because there were 20 dead children lying an eighth of a mile from my window all night long. And I sat there with my wife, because they couldn’t take the bodies out that night so the medical examiner could come. And I thought of an expression, that this ‘adds insult to injury,’ but that’s a stupid expression, because this is not an injury, this is an abomination.”
(As reported by the Daily Mail (UK) on 1/15/13)
"Last month, Rosen said he had just finished feeding his cats and was heading from his home near Sandy Hook Elementary school to a diner on Friday morning when he saw six small children sitting in a neat semicircle at the end of his driveway.
A school bus driver was standing over them, telling them things would be all right. It was about 9.30am, and the children, he discovered, had just run from the school to escape a gunman.
Rosen, 69, granted numerous TV interviews after the shootings and emotionally described sheltering the students on who fled Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14 after 20 of their classmates and six adults were murdered there.
He became one of the most public faces of the grief in Newtown, Connecticut, weeping openly on camera - and without embarrassment.
Gene Rosen looked after the children for a number of hours, giving them toys to play with."
It's clear to see why Mr. Rosen would be a conspiracy theorist's wet dream. Here we have a man who has spent several years as a psychologist (which means he has more experience in grief counseling than 99% of the general public) weeping openly in not one but in several television interviews which he had himself granted to the media. Is Rosen merely an overly-emotional person, or an actor who can turn on the waterworks whenever a reporter turns on a camera? Why did six children and one bus driver run an eighth of a mile to the home of Gene Rosen- a 69-year-old male who conveniently had a stockpile of children's toys? And why does the Huffington Post report that Rosen found 4 children, while the Daily Mail (and numerous other websites) lists the number as 6?
Rosen defended himself by saying "this is not an injury, this is an abomination." With all due respect to Mr. Rosen, many people would find it remarkably difficult to take his story at face value. What are the odds of six children escaping from a classroom (which may have been under lockdown at the time) during a shooting, finding an adult bus driver and, instead of getting on a bus, running one-eighth of a mile... only to wind up at the home of a 69-year-old man who happened to have a stuffed Dalmatian (among other children's toys)? We're not mathematicians, but we'd assume that the odds of such a string of events would be the equivalent of winning the lottery and getting struck by lightning on the same day.
Fortunately, the Daily Mail's article answers some of these questions.
Rosen had children's toys in his possession because he has two young grandchildren. The six children he sheltered were students of Victoria Soto, who is believed to have shielded some of the kids in the early stages of the shooting. This would indicate that they had managed to escape before any lockdown measures were enacted, and this corroborates the story given by Rosen, who claims that the children told him they had seen their teacher die.
Rosen is also quoted as stating that "They [the children] said he had a big gun and a little gun." While the article attributing this statement to Rosen appeared Jan. 15, the Connecticut State Police released a statement on Jan. 23, describing the guns found inside the school. These guns include a Bushmaster .223 caliber model XM15-E2S rifle (big gun) with high capacity 30 round clips, a Glock 10-mm handgun and a Sig-Sauer P226 9mm handgun (little guns). If the gunman, Adam Lanza, had one of the two handguns tucked inside his clothing, then this would confirm the story which Rosen had given to the press.
There is one glaring piece of misinformation, however, that should not be overlooked.
The New York Daily News claims that Victoria Soto had 16 children in her class . According to the Hartford Courant, six of Soto's students tried to flee but were shot by Lanza. The story continues: Later, in their search for survivors, police found the remaining seven of Soto's students still hiding in the closet. This does not add up.
If there were 16 children and six were killed, that would leave ten survivors. If seven of those survivors were found in a closet, as stated by the police, that means only three children should have appeared on Gene Rosen's driveway- not four as stated by the Huffington Post, and not six as claimed by Mr. Rosen. If six of Soto's students did show up at Rosen's home, that means only one survivor would have been found in the closet, and not seven as stated by the police. Let's suppose not all of the sixteen students were in class. If one was absent, that would leave nine survivors- seven in the closet and two on Gene Rosen's driveway, or that would mean 6 would have gone to Rosen while only three could have been in the closet. If the police account and Rosen's account were both correct, there would have had to have been 19 students in the class, not 16 as stated by the New York Daily News.
But what if the survivors found in the closet were the same survivors who escaped and made their way to Gene Rosen's home? This would contradict everyone's story, especially Rosen's, because the statement about the children witnessing the murder of Victoria Soto therefore could not possibly be true. If so, this would mean that a dead woman put children in a closet. No matter how you try to add it up, it does not make sense.
By viewing an aerial photo of the neighborhood, one can see that Rosen's home on Riverside Road would be the first logical place for anyone fleeing on foot to stop. So why did a bus driver and six children run down the street instead of getting on a bus and driving away?
On Dec.18, the New York Daily News' story on the death of substitute teacher Lauren Rousseau states that the teacher’s 2004 Honda Civic- parked outside the school- was riddled with bullets when authorities removed the vehicle. One can see from an aerial photo that this would have occurred in close proximity to where the buses would have been parked and, given the rapidity with which the shooting is supposed to have taken place, this would have made any bus unsafe as cover. Fleeing on foot would have been the best option. Given the geography of the area, the route taken by the bus driver and six fleeing children would have been the most logical route.
And what of Gene Rosen's connection to the Screen Actors Guild?
The source of this rumor appears to be this YouTube video, in which the uploader films himself performing an Intelius search on "Gene Rosen", which produces 17 results, one of which is a 62-year-old man with the same name who has lived in California, Texas, and New Jersey and who happens to be a member of the Screen Actors Guild. The Intelius results also show that Rosen has worked for Xerox and a company called Photogenic Design LLC.
This "evidence" is laughably absurd. If Rosen was an actor paid by the government to take part in Sandy Hook, why would he use his real name on camera? Surely the government would have been smart enough to give his character a different name. If Laura Phelps (the mother of one of the victims) is in reality an actress named Jennifer Sexton (as many Truthers claim), then why is Gene Rosen, well, Gene Rosen? Also, the Intelius search did not produce any pictures- just seventeen people who happen to be named Gene Rosen. The search results also did not show that the "actor" named Gene Rosen had any training in psychology, even though the official narrative maintains that Rosen is a 69-year-old retired psychologist. Coincidentally, if you perform an Intelius search on Eugene Rosen, guess what comes up? An address located just a block or two away from Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The Truthers also argue that Gene Rosen's interviews are filled with contradicting information. We thoroughly analyzed 15 video clips of Mr. Rosen (some were duplicates, but edited) and found a total of 42 discrepancies. However, virtually all of these discrepancies are a matter of semantics or minor details, and do not compromise Mr. Rosen's account of key events. On two occasions, we found that some of the details were given in a different order, but these details had nothing to do with the shooting and are irrelevant.
As a control, we compared this to 5 short video clips of comedian Daniel Tosh performing a standup routine. Although the same routine/joke was featured in 5 different shows in different cities, we uncovered a whopping 127 minor variations in the telling- and this is from an experienced top-level performer who has probably performed this particular routine hundreds of times. By comparison, Rosen's narrative is extremely accurate.
In conclusion, we at Journal of the Bizarre believe that if Sandy Hook was a hoax or conspiracy, Gene Rosen was not part of it. The key points of his story are consistent, and he was able to describe the weapons found inside the school as told to him by one of the children days before the Connecticut State Police confirmed it. By looking at aerial photos of the neighborhood, Rosen's home would be a logical rest stop for those fleeing on foot from the school. While many questions about Sandy Hook remain to be answered, we consider the Truthers' allegations about Gene Rosen to be groundless and devoid of concrete evidence.