5:06pm:
Questions about Ken C Rix
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* Why did Ken kill himself?
* Where/when/how did Ken kill himself?
* What were Ken's actions the day of his death?
* Were any changes apparent in Ken's personality near the end of his life?
* Was Ken into drugs?
* Was Ken in some kind of cult?
* Who were Ken's parents?
* What happened to Ken's mother?
* Where did Ken grow up?
* Where did Ken go to college?
* What sports teams did Ken like best?
* What recording artists did Ken like?
* When did Ken move out to California?
* Where did Ken live at the time of his death?
* What games did Ken like to play?
* What is "Socko, Skyoptica, scspp, TCOL, Fuzz 20 and The Hazy Green Elixor?
* Who are the Higher Ones of Dichotomy?
* Who are Omptaphobai , 28YOAT, The Screw, the Novice and Father Rix?
*
Why did Ken kill himself?
One can speculate endlessly, but no one will ever know for sure why Ken killed himself. Ken left no suicide note, however he left countless clues in the recorded and written material he left behind. This is especially true of the tape recorded telephone conversations, where Ken discusses his feelings about suicide with several different people. I must apologize for the fact that the present offerings are samplings from but a few of the 100 or so cassette tapes that Ken had made since 1989.
*
Where/when/how did Ken kill himself?
The Orange County Coroner estimated that Kenneth Christopher Rix died about 2:00 PM PST on Sunday, June 11th, 1995. He hung himself from an old Sycamore tree in Irvine Regional Park. On the ground below his body was the store bag containing the sales receipt for the rope that Ken had just used with such efficiency. The rope had been purchased about an hour earlier at a nearby Home Depot store - the receipt said 12:33 PM. His body was found hanging from the Southward arm of the large Y-shaped tree about 3:00 PM. Ken had parked his Toyota pickup nearby, and had left his wallet in the front seat wrapped in newspaper. The Coroner's deputies did not keep the piece of newspaper, so I don't know if it had any significance. You never know with Ken - anything could have had significance.
*
What were Ken's actions the day of his death?
Sunday morning June 11, 1995 - Costa Mesa, California. Warm, sunny, clear skies, 85-90 degrees F. David, one of Ken's two roommates on Drake St., said that he remembered seeing Ken watching Tennis in the living room about 7:45 or 8:00 AM. It was the Finals of the Men's French Open. Ken's other roommate Carol said she herd him start up his motorcycle about 9:30 AM. He then showed up at work, presumably riding his motorcycle. The card-key log showed that he came in the front gate at 9:56 AM, and then entered the R&D facility at 10:08 AM. He apparently didn't do much at work because the only file that had been altered on his computer on that date was his screen-saver. He had a large report that he had to present at some sort of review first thing the coming Monday. He had mentioned it to me on Thursday (the last day I ever saw him), and had said he was very much behind schedule and would likely have to work all weekend. I was therefore not surprised when I didn't hear from Ken all weekend.
He may have gone in to work actually intending to prepare his material for Monday only to then decided to leave without doing anything, or it is equally possible that he already new he would never live to see Monday morning, but just came in for one last look at his place of employment (I believe the later). I checked the phone log for his extension to see if he had made any phone calls from work that day, but there had been none. His roommate said he was back at Drake St. before 11 AM. He then walked to a small local park about two blocks away carrying his Alvarez acoustic guitar. Carol's brother, who lived next to the park, said he saw Ken sitting in the park playing his guitar. Sometime after that, Ken walked back to the house, put away his guitar, got into his new 1995 Toyota pickup and left - never to return.
*
Were any changes apparent in Ken's personality near the end of his life?
As anyone who knew Ken can attest, He was always acting in a way that someone could consider bizarre or strange. Ken was not usually concerned with how his actions appeared to others, but only with the outcome of his actions. This made for some very interesting scenes. He also had a very unusual religious system, involving Hyperdimensional beings known as the Dichotomous Lords, or more formally, The Higher Ones of Dichotomy. Ken would pray and offer praise and worship to the Higher Ones, often in public.
It is therefor very difficult to define 'normal' behavior for Ken. After a lifetime of coexistence with Ken's absolute eccentricity in practically every aspect of his life, I had learned to just give him plenty of space, and not to question his reasoning. He normally had a very logical explanation for all of his actions - no matter how bizarre they may have appeared to others. Ken was depressed, there's no doubt about that, he had been becoming increasingly despondent over the last two years - since graduating with his MS degree and leaving the U of Illinois campus. So there was no 'sudden' change in his personality that I could really see, just a very slow sort of decline over several years. I believe that Ken planned to kill himself at some point before he even moved out to California. He had apparently discussed suicide with friends as early as 1992. Some of these telephone conversations are available as RealAudio files at the RixSound Page.
I recall we were sitting on the upstairs balcony of my apartment one evening - 6 months or so before his death. Ken seemed very down, and he said something like "I've got problems, man. I've got real problems" or something similar to this. I knew by the way he said it that he meant it, and it was serious. I said "Is there any way at all that I can help you?" I'm sure Ken knew that I was serious, and that I would have done anything physically possible to help him with his problems - whatever they may have been. Ken answered very flatly "no." He never mentioned anything about it again.
*
Was Ken into drugs?
During the last years of his life, Ken rarely consumed alcohol. He never consumed caffeine in any form, or any other medication of any kind, not even aspirin. As a matter of fact, I can't remember him ever seeing a doctor in his adult life, except for the company physical. To the best of my knowledge, Ken never had any involvement with narcotics or prescription drugs. Ken did however smoke marijuana. He had been smoking it on a fairly regular basis since early childhood, with the exception of a three year period of abstinence from 1986 to 89. Ken generally kept his volume of consumption quite small, with frequent self-imposed periods of abstinence in order to avoid the development of tolerance. Because Ken had been smoking the stuff for a majority of his life, I don't feel that his marijuana use was a major factor in his suicide, although some might disagree. I say, if it was pot that made him suicidally depressed, then why didn't he kill himself decades earlier?
*
Was Ken in some kind of cult?
Ken was definitely very deeply involved in a bizarre psycho-religious cult, but it seems that he was the only member.
*
Who were Ken's parents?
When Ken was born to parents John Rix Ph.D. and Françoise Halkin MD in Euclid, Ohio - a suburb on the East side of Cleveland. His father John was an assistant professor of Physics at Case Western Reserve University, while Françoise was an anesthesiologist, working at the Cleveland VA, and other area hospitals. They had met and married in Boston, where John was working towards his doctorate in Physics at Harvard University, and Françoise was performing her residency at Boston General after moving to Boston from Liege, Belgium. John, Françoise and their 2 year old son Peter, moved to Euclid in the summer of 1965 after the Cleveland VA Hospital offered Françoise a position as an Anesthesiologist. Soon after, John joined the Physics Dept. faculty at Case. Ken was born December 5th, 1966.
John had grown up in Bay Village, Ohio. He was the only child of Roy and Ina Rix - good Methodists, and even better Republicans. John apparently received outstanding marks throughout his school career. He began his undergraduate career in California at Caltech, where he studied Physics, and eventually received the NSF Graduate Fellowship to Harvard. Françoise Halkin received her medical doctor's degree in Belgium. While fulfilling her residency requirements, she worked in several Boston area hospitals where she specialized in anesthesiology. Françoise was the fifth of seven children of Leon E Halkin, distinguished Professor of History at The University of Liege, and his wife Denise Daude. Denise , Ken's grandmother, had earned her Ph.D. in Physics in 1929 from La Sorbonne University in Paris. The family lived in a large stone house atop a hill called D' Pery in Liege, Belgium. Liege is in the Southern "Walloon" region of the country, where the language, and culture, are largely French, as opposed to the majority of Belgium, where the Language is Flemish, and the culture much more like that of the Netherlands.
*
What happened to Ken's mother?
Françoise died on April 19th, 1969. Ken was 28 months old. She died in the Rix home in Shaker Heights, Ohio after inhaling a lethal dose of an anesthetic - isofluorane or something similar. She was an anesthesiologist by trade, and had apparently been abusing the drug for some time. The overdose was presumed to have been accidental. Soundtrack - "Hey Jude"
*
Where did Ken grow up?
About a year after Françoise's death, John and his sons began living with a woman named Abigail and her young daughter Tamar. Six months later, they all drove to Berkeley, California in a white Jeep Cherokee (67 or 68 model), and lived in Abigail's house, complete with her collie Una. A few months later, they moved to nearby Albany for about three months, and soon after back to Berkeley to a house on Coventry Dr. Abigail and Tamar moved out of the 'Rix Family' in late 1971, and in 1972, John decided to move back to Cleveland. The Rix Family (father and two sons) moved to Willowick, Ohio - an Eastern suburb of Cleveland, on the shores of Lake Erie. The Rix's moved into the townhouse apartments near the corner of North Marginal Rd and E 305th St. (Soundtrack - "After the Gold Rush"). Ken attended Royalview Elementary School in Willowick. After moving to Willoughby in 1979, Ken attended Eastlake Junior High School. He graduated from Willoughby South High School in 1985.
*
Where did Ken go to college?
Ken majored in Chemistry at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He graduated from BGSU with a B.S. in 1990. He was then accepted into the graduate Chemistry program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Ken did very well at U of I, and was quite successful in his field of research - marine natural products chemistry. However, he was unhappy with his career choice, and decided to leave the program with a M.S. degree in 1993.
*
What sports teams did Ken like best?
Ken loved the Cleveland Indians baseball team. He was absolutely loyal and dedicated to the Indians, both when he lived in Illinois, and in California. He loved sports stats. Ken could always cite the current numbers on any of the top 20 or so pro baseball players from memory. And where the Cleveland Indians were involved, he could cite player stats going back years. During the 95' baseball season, which he spent in California, he was extremely interested in the Indians - he practically lived for them - checking the stats every day, and never missing any televised games. Cleveland was having their best year in 40! At the time of Ken's death (June 11th 1995) there was little doubt that the Indians were going to the World Series. I'm very happy he got to see the Indians as real contenders. Ken also loved football and basketball, and he always pulled for the Cleveland team no matter what.
*
What recording artists did Ken like?
Ken loved David Bowie far above all other recording artists. He constantly praised Bowie, but I almost never actually heard him listen to Bowie. If I would play any David Bowie music, he would often (politely) leave the room. This seemingly bizarre behavior was very puzzling to me when we were young (Ken began his Bowie worship when he was about fifteen). This remained true throughout his life, namely that it was obvious that Ken really loved David Bowie, but would, apparently, not listen to his music. Ken never volunteered an explanation for this behavior, and I never asked him for one.
I think I now understand what Ken had understood when he was fifteen: That is, when you discover a new artist, or a new song or album by a given artist, you experience a great joy as you listen to the work for that initial period of time. Soon, if you are like me and foolishly play the new album morning, noon and night, the material can quickly start to get old - no matter how good it is. You've worn the thing out! Even though you may rediscover the artist at some future point and re-experience some of that initial feeling, we all know that it is never as good the second time. Ken was determined not to let that happen with Bowie. He would make the joy of Bowie last a lifetime; even if it meant only listening to Bowie once every year or two. Listening to Bowie was like a spiritual holiday for Ken. Of course Ken did like many other musicians and styles of music. He had very wide ranging musical interests, as is clear from his journals - but compared with his regard for David Bowie, none of them are worth mentioning.
*
When did Ken move out to California?
Ken first came out to visit me in 1994 when I lived on 10th Street in Huntington Beach. He was living on the U of I campus in Urbana, IL. His plane landed at LAX about 4:00 PM on the Fourth of July - the biggest party day of the year for Surf City. When we got back to my apartment in HB, the streets were filled with bicyclists and drunken revelers, and there were large bon fires of burning furniture at several corners. Large parties had developed at most of the corner houses, and they were having these massive water balloon wars, one house party against another. The police were in riot gear, and were using any and all means to control the situation. The HBPD is notorious for its complete overreaction to this annual party. Ken seemed to enjoy all this immensely. Having just come from a big State college campus, he must have felt right at home. Shortly after that one week visit, I told Ken that there was a position available for a chemist at the pharmaceutical company I worked for. He showed up in late August, and by the end of September he was all set up with a good paying job. Things looked pretty hopeful then. Theoretically at least, it could have been the best time of our lives. After all, we had been about as close as was possible for two brothers in our earlier years, and now we were both living on the beach in Southern California with good jobs and spare cash - but nothing about my life with Ken Rix was as simple as that.
*
Where did Ken live at the time of his death?
The last apartment Ken lived in was on Drake St. in Costa Mesa. He moved there from his previous apartment on the UCI campus in Irvine in May 1995. He lived there on Drake St with two housemates until his death only a month later (June 11, 1995). When I finally did see his apartment - after his death - I found a tiny bedroom with all his belongings in milk crates - stacked neatly in the center of the room. Ken never unpacked his belongings in any of the three places he lived while in California. Everything he owned was always kept carefully packed into crates - as if he was planning to move the next day. The only items he used were a mattress I had given him, which he placed on the floor of the bedroom, a television set (to watch sports - he lived for the Cleveland Indians), and two folding chairs in the living room. He had no dresser because he hung all of his clothes on hangers in the closet - even his socks and underwear. He did not own any dishes or silverware, or even a refrigerator. He ate all his meals at restaurants. At home he ate only snack food, and drank fruit juice and warm cans of caffeine-free soda.
*
What games did Ken like to play?
Ken was very competitive - a Sagittarius, and he loved games of all kinds - card games, board games, video games etc. I think some of Ken's happiest moments since moving out West were in Las Vegas. He enjoyed Roulette and Craps, and liked to bet heavily. He was also known to solicit the services of prostitutes - if he was winning. He told me he never once paid for a call girl with his own money. He would often make ridiculous bets with large sums and win (like splitting two's at blackjack, because he liked the number two - dichotomy of dichotomies you know). Surprisingly, he actually won most of the time. He lived on the $1,500 he won on our first trip together while he waited for his first pay check.
Ken was quite good at pool. He carried his own que around, and spent a lot of time in pool halls and bars while he lived in Illinois. One game I remember he loved to play was Party Jenga, a game in which wooden blocks are assembled into a tower, and then players remove pieces one at a time. Ken had a very large collection of these blocks. One day I found a Jenga set at a garage sale. When I offered him the additional Jenga blocks I had purchased, Ken became very unhappy. He obviously did not want the blocks, and seemed irritated at me for buying them. I told him (without anger, for I had paid only one dollar for them) to throw the blocks away if he didn't want them, which he immediately did.
Ken always loved video games. As a teenager, he would have the high score on every Space Invaders, Asteroids, Pac Man and Donkey Kong machine in the area. In 1995, Ken became very interested in the video game DOOM, by ID Software. I had the game at my apartment, and during the last months of his life, he spent a lot of time playing it. Ken committed suicide a week after finishing the last level of Doom on Nightmare skill (Hey - it was a Really cool game!).
*
What is Socko, Skyoptica, scspp, TCOL, Fuzz 20 and The Hazy Green Elixor?
Ken describes all of these in The Rix Logs.
*
Who are the Higher Ones of Dichotomy?
Go to tape "7-20-93" at the RixSound page.
*
Who are Omptaphobai , 28YOAT, The Screw, the Novice and Father Rix?
Each is an alter ego of Ken.
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Last Updated: 9/2/97
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