January, 2008
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January 1, 2008 A Most Mirthfully Morbid New Year, everyone! Let's hope this is the year that all of our wildest dreams come true... just like the stars of... Today's Sadomasochistic Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Three men accused of operating what police described as a sadomasochistic "dungeon" that included castrations have been sentenced to jail time. Richard Peter "Master Rick" Sciara, his partner of 20 years Michael Mendez, and the man they called their slave, Danny Carroll Reeves, pleaded guilty to felony castration and maiming. Superior Court Judge Dennis Winner said it was difficult to call the dungeon's willing patients "victims," but he said six castrations performed there were certainly a crime. "I think this is a type of perversion that cannot be tolerated by society," Winner said during a sentencing hearing. In plea bargains, Sciara, 62, was sentenced to a year in prison, though he has served all but two weeks of that time. Reeves, 50, was sentenced to eight months in prison, and Mendez, 61, received four months. Reeves and Mendez have already served their sentences and will enter four and two months of house arrest, respectively, and three years of supervised probation. In exchange for the pleas, the state dropped charges of misdemeanor practicing medicine without a license and conspiracy. Prosecutors said the men ran a sadomasochistic "dungeon" fashioned from an enclosed carport in 2004 and 2005 at a house in a quiet neighborhood near Waynesville in western North Carolina. Six men, some from as far away as South America, came to the home for castration, while others went seeking other types of body-modification surgery, prosecutors said. Sciara had worked as a physician's assistant at the Colmery-O'Neil VA Medical Center in Topeka, Kan., from February 1976 to June 1999. Culled
from: The Associated Press ********************************************************************** Morbid Lyric Du Jour! I remember the first time I heard the All-American Jewish Lesbian Folksinger, Phranc. I walked into the local record shop and heard a lovely acoustic guitar and then a sweet woman's voice sang, "And one thing's for sure I won't die like Belushi, I won't have Noguchi cutting on me". It was love at first listen! Here are the full lyrics to Phranc's lovely ode to the former L.A. County Coroner: "Noguchi" by Phranc He's got
a big mouth, he likes the attention Cadavers
were stacked and jewelry was stolen He worked
for the city, he worked for the county The board
was behind him, but the grand jury fired him It's a
dirty job, but someone's got to do it He's got
a big mouth, he likes the attention And one
thing's for sure, I won't die like Belushi
******* Morbid Interview Du Jour! John sends a link to an interview with the head of the University of Tennessee Body Farm, Bill Bass. It's always fun to read about this place. Sigh... what I wouldn't give for a tour... |
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January 2, 2008 Today's Extremely Cruel Yet Truly Morbid Fact! In Franche-Comté (that's in Eastern France, for we geographically-disadvantaged Americans - DeSpair) during the years 1657-1659, a judge named Boguet sent more than a hundred people to their deaths for witchcraft before his excesses were stopped by papal authorities. Stressing the sexual element, including male homosexuality, he quoted the maxim that the devil is inerested only in those past puberty. Still, he condemned young children, believing that, once possessed, no one could struggle free of the devil's hold. Boguet is best known for his extreme cruelty, insisting on burning some victims alive (that is, rather than strangling them first) and lashing and burning children. One frantic woman, Claude Janguillaume, tore herself free from the stake three times, only to be dragged back each time by the executioner. Culled
from: Witchcraze ********************************************************************** This is interesting to me because I never realized they strangled people before they burned them at the stake. It makes me wonder... how much better is a death by strangulation than a death by flame? I mean, it obviously sounds like it would be better, but has anyone really done the research? Yes, these are the thoughts that keep me awake at night!
******* Morbid Link Du Jour! Here's an interesting article about India's bone trade. I have been well aware of this for years from my days as a physical anthropology student in Catatonia - where all of the bones we analyzed were graciously (and unknowingly) donated by the peasants of India. Bookish beast that I am, I always thought it was a dignified way to spend your afterlife. http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/15-12/ff_bones Thanks to Eleanor for the link. ******* Morbid Drink Du Jour! I'm sure most of you are already aware of this delightfully named beer, but Patrick wanted to make absolutely sure of it: "I
was making my own six pack at World Market when I encountered a wonderfully
morbidly named beer called 'Dead Guy Ale'. To
quote the information found on the [Rogue Brews website]:
http://www.rogue.com/brews.html#deadguy
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January 3, 2008 Today's Terminal Yet Truly Morbid Fact! The comedian
Stan Laurel (June 16, 1890 – February 23, 1965) stuck up a terminal
banter with his nurse shortly before he expired: Culled
from: Death:
A History Of Man's Obsessions and Fears ********************************************************************** Atrocious Artwork! E. sends a link to the website for the latest exhibition by everyone's favorite demented genius photographer, Joel-Peter Witkin: http://www.baudoin-lebon.com/fiche-oeuvre1.php?num=20337 ******* A Revolting Review! So, I just finished "reading" the book Trauma Code by Sonny Shepherd and, sadly, my losing streak on morbid books continues. This is a collection of black and white photographs of fire and rescue trauma scenes accompanied by some brief text explaining the obvious... very poorly. Here is a book that is positively SCREAMING for an editor! From the first paragraph, it's obvious that Sonny boy has a rather difficult relationship with the English language. His comments are often baffling and frequently laughable. Here's a typical example of his attempts to be profound: "The modern automobile when driven improperly has become one of the most dangerous weapons ever placed in the hands of humans. We often forget that it's the improper use of the motor vehicle that takes us to our final destination on this earth, Our Grave." Huh? Does it always? Sonny is especially vexed by the mystery of the comma. From the blurb on the back of the book: "Trauma Code, takes a sobering look at the horrors Fire and Rescue workers face everyday - Violent Death. Rescue workers experience first hand, the tragic impact violent death has on victims and their families." This sort, of writing, drives me insane! However, let's be honest: we don't purchase books like Trauma Code for the poetry. We buy them so we can take a peek into Violent Death... and the book does offer a few good images for the money. Sadly, however, many of the images are out of focus to the point where you can't really tell what you're looking at (though, I suspect, even if they were in focus some of them would be rather difficult to fathom), and all are in dull black and white. Although there were a few images that made me wince, most of the images are on the tame side, and they are hardly worth the $24.95 cover price. Sadly,
I'd have to give Trauma Code an amateurish 2 skulls out of 5.
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January 4, 2008 Today's Reclusive Yet Truly Morbid Fact! A man cut off his own head with a chainsaw after stabbing his 70-year-old father to death in their apartment in the German city of Cologne. The body of the offender, 24, was found headless when police raced to the apartment after an emergency call, apparently from the dying father, had been broken off in mid-sentence. Alf Willwacher, a senior prosecutor, said an electric chainsaw was next to the son's body. "We do not believe any third party was involved,'' he said. Neighbours said the father and son had been reclusive since the death of the mother, allegedly by suicide, several years ago. Culled
from: The Sydney Morning Herald ********************************************************************** I know it's a little early to be breaking resolutions, but... I'm going to be out of town for a couple of days, so the facts will be on hiatus until Monday. Stay morbid in my absence! ******* Although I myself do not read fiction very often, I thought I'd give you fiction readers a heads-up on a new French novel that sounds quite intriguing. The
Power Of Flies Here's the review from Publisher's Weekly: "Salvayre's fifth novel to be translated into English is a tightly introspective series of first-person confessions by an arrogant murder convict whose life was transformed by reading Blaise Pascal. By turns angry, tricky and despairing, the narrator offers a disjointed narrative about his life leading up to the murder of his father. He begins by recalling the absurdities of his work as a guide at Pascal's abbey at Port-Royal, and how his reading of Pascal began to unlock memories of the horrific dynamic between his parents. His parents met at the Argèles camp for Spanish Civil War refugees; his mother, at 16, a half-starved rebel from Catalonia, was seduced by his father, a Communist under General Lister, and she became pregnant. Life under her tyrannical husband robbed the narrator's now-dead mother of her joie de vivre, and the narrator concludes that his mother's death actually began the moment she met her husband. Gradually, the narrator's hatred for his father takes on an all-devouring power of flies. The novel seethes in a classically dark, French way." Anything that seethes in a classically dark, French way can't be bad! ******* Morbid Sightseeing! For those of you heading to Vermont, don't forget to pay Timothy Clark Smith a visit. Seems Mr. Smith had a bit of a phobia about being buried alive, so he arranged to be buried with his face beneath a six foot tube that led up to plate glass window. He also had a bell in his hand so he could ring to let people know that he was alive. Of course, he didn't think it out very well - I mean, who could hear a bell under six feet of dirt anyway? - but at least he'd have some light while he died a slow, suffering death. If you'd like to visit Timothy, he's been at the Evergreen Cemetery in New Haven, Vermont since 1893. http://www.vermonter.com/evergreen.asp Thanks To Amos Quito for the link.
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January 7, 2008 Today's Fiery Yet Truly Morbid Fact! The British warship Queen Charlotte was engulfed in flames on March 17, 1800 soon after some hay stored on the deck caught fire. The 700-man crew was unable to extinguish the fire, which soon spread to the rigging and burned through the decks. Nearly all of the crew drowned when the frigate finally sank. Culled
from: The
Pessimist's Guide To History ********************************************************************** Aimee has a book recommendation for us that sounds like my cup o' tea! "Just
read your underwhelmed review of the book on Great Lakes tragedies and
the book sounds like a waste of time and money. But here's a book that's
packed witha lot more morbid info: 'Mighty Fitz' by Michael Schumacher.
It's the true story of the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, made famous
by the Gordon Lightfoot song. The book not only goes into a lot of detail
about that one particular wreck, it also touches on several other Lake
Superior shipwrecks and the brutal conditions you can expect if your
boat ever goes down on the lake. Excellent read." ******* Morbid Sightseeing! I've finally put together a travelogue on my brief visit to the rather odd Davis Memorial at the Mt. Hope Cemetery in Hiawatha, Kansas back in 2005. I hope you find it interesting. http://morbidsightseer.com/us/ks/mthope.htm
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January 8, 2008 Today's Alarming Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Mary Ann Leneghan (January 1989 - May 7, 2005) was a sixteen-year-old English girl from Reading who was raped and murdered by a six-strong gang of drug-dealers and thieves in May 2005. Five of the gang were native-born blacks, while the other was an Albanian Muslim who had remained illegally in Britain after a failed claim for asylum. Leneghan and an unidentified eighteen-year-old female friend were abducted by the gang outside a pub in Reading on the night of 6th May 2005 after its leader, Adrian Thomas, 20, decided Leneghan had set him up to be robbed. The two young women were taken to room 19 of the Abbey House Hotel and subjected to three hours of sexual assault and torture with an iron bar, knives and boiling water mixed with sugar. They were also forced to smoke heroin and crack cocaine and told repeatedly that they were going to be murdered. During the early morning of 7th May the gang took the two young women to Prospect Park in Reading, where Leneghan was stabbed to death as her friend watched. Her friend was then shot in the forehead at point blank range. However, the bullet fragmented and although knocked unconscious she was not fatally injured. When she regained consciousness she raised the alarm. The judge sentenced the gang to 23-27 years in prison before being considered for parole. Culled
from: Wikipedia ********************************************************************** Boiling water mixed with sugar??? Is there something special about putting the sugar in the water that makes it even more torturous? I think I'm missing something here...
******* Alas, it's too late for the holidays, but Elizabeth sends a very entertaining version of the Twelve Days Of Christmas sent by an employee for the NYC Department Of Health. Everybody sing! 12 Candied
Condoms ******* Morbid Sightseeing! The next time you rich morbids are staying in Boston, why not stay at the Liberty Hotel - which used to be an infamous jail? I would if I could! Here's an article about it from the Associated Press, sent to me by Katchaya: The elegant iron-railing balconies were once catwalks where guards stood watch over the inmates to make sure they didn't try to break out. If you look closely, you can still see the outline of the holes from the iron bars on the windows. At the newly opened Liberty Hotel, it's hard to escape what this building once was: a decrepit jail where Boston locked up its most notorious prisoners. But that's just the point. After a five-year, $150 million renovation, the old Charles Street jail is now a luxury hotel for guests who can afford to pay anywhere from $319 a night for the lowest-priced room to $5,500 for the presidential suite. The hotel, at the foot of Boston's stately Beacon Hill neighborhood, opened in September. Architects took pains to preserve many features of the 156-year-old stone building and its history. The old sally port, where guards once brought prisoners from paddy wagons to their cells, is being converted into the entrance to a new restaurant, Scampo, which is Italian for "escape." In another restaurant, named Clink, diners can look through original bars from cell doors and windows as they order smoked lobster bisque or citrus poached prawns from waiters and waitresses wearing shirts with prison numbers. The hotel bar, Alibi, is built in the jail's former drunk tank. Instead of con men, counterfeiters and cat burglars, the guests now include Mick Jagger, Annette Bening, Meg Ryan and Eva Mendes. The old clientele included Boston Mayor James Michael Curley, who served time for fraud in 1904 after he took a civil service exam for a friend; Frank Abagnale Jr., a 1960s con artist played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie "Catch Me If You Can;" a group of thieves who pulled off the Great Brinks Robbery in Boston in 1950; and a German U- boat captain who was captured in 1945 and killed himself with shards from his sunglasses. Boston also has a luxury hotel called Jurys in the former Boston police headquarters building in fashionable Back Bay. The hotel bar is called Cuffs. The transformation of the Charles Street Jail is stunning to some of those who spent time in the notorious lockup. "It's a magnificent place," said Bill Baird, an activist locked up for 37 days in 1967 for breaking a Massachusetts law prohibiting the distribution of contraceptives to unmarried people. His arrest led to a landmark 1972 Supreme Court decision legalizing birth control for unmarried people. "How you could take something that was so horrible and turn it into something of tremendous beauty, I don't know," said Baird, who visited the new hotel in October, on the 40th anniversary of his conviction. When the
jail opened in 1851, it was hailed as an international model for prison
architecture. Built in the shape of a cross, the granite jail had a
90-foot-high central rotunda and four wings of cells. But over the years, the jail fell into disrepair and became filthy, overcrowded and prone to riots. Joseph Salvati, who spent 10 months in the jail in 1967 and 1968 after he was charged in a gangland slaying, said everything was covered with pigeon droppings. "They
had a crew every morning that would come down with hot water hoses and
brushes to scrape it off the floor and seats," he said. Salvati, who was exonerated after spending 30 years in various prisons, said he gets a kick out of seeing the jail turned into a luxury hotel. It is now "very classy-looking," he said. In the 1970s, the inmates sued over the squalid conditions. After spending a night at the jail to see things for himself, a federal judge in 1973 ordered the place closed. But it took until 1990 for a new jail to be built and the last inmates to be moved. The property was bought by Massachusetts General Hospital, next door, which invited proposals for preserving the building's historical character. Cambridge developer Richard Friedman said the architects tried to retain some original elements while not reminding people too much of its dark past. "How do you transform that into a joyous place where people have fun and a good time?" Friedman said. "We tried to use a sense of humor." Charlene Swauger of Albuquerque, N.M., who stayed at the hotel for a long weekend in October, said the designers preserved elements of the old jail without crossing the line into bad taste. "I thought it was very clever. I didn't discover any ghosts or anything," she said. Eighteen
of the hotel's 298 rooms are built in the original jail. Max Stern, the chief lawyer for the inmates whose lawsuit led to the jail's closing, said some aspects of the project - such as calling the restaurant Clink - are too lighthearted. "I
thought they could have been a little more objective about what it really
was like," he said.
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January 10, 2008 Today's Yellow Yet Truly Morbid Fact! The only electric chair not nicknamed "Old Sparky" is the one in Alabama, which is affectionately known as "Yellow Mama". First installed at the now-demolished Kilby State Prison in Montgomery, Alabama, Yellow Mama acquired its yellow color when painted using highway-line paint from the adjacent State Highway Department lab. The chair was built by a British inmate in 1927 and was first used to execute Horace DeVauhan that same year. (Previous executions in Alabama had been by hanging.) Yellow Mama is now stored in an attic above the newly reconstructed execution chamber at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. The last execution to occur using it was that of Lynda Lyon Block on May 10, 2002. Following her execution, a bill was passed that would allow for execution by either lethal injection or electrocution. Culled
from: Wikipedia
and Last
Suppers: Famous Final Meals from Death Row ********************************************************************** Thank you to everyone who wrote to explain to an easily confused old Comtesse exactly why those torturing creeps from the other day's fact would have boiled sugar and water and used it as a torture device. Apparently, sugar and water boil at a much higher temperature than just plain old water, thus increasing the torture - and sealing it in with sticky caramelized goodness too! Good to know... ******* Now, HERE is some stylish vandalism! I always say, if you're going to deface public property, why not at least do something artistic? The Decapitator does just that... with a delightfully morbid flourish. Enjoy! http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_decapitator/sets/72157603480986566/ Thanks to Shifter for the link. ******* Morbid Trinket Du Jour! Delight your psychotic, Jeffrey Dahmer-to-be nephew with some plush, lovable road kill plush toys! http://www.roadkilltoys.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,213/ Thanks to twistedprincess69 for the link.
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January 11, 2008 Today's Crushing Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Crushing by elephant was for thousands of years a common method of execution for those condemned to death in south and southeast Asia, and particularly in India. Elephants employed in this manner were used to crush, dismember, or torture captives in public executions. The use of elephants to execute captives often attracted the horrified interest of European travellers, and was recorded in numerous contemporary journals and accounts of life in Asia. The practice was eventually suppressed by the European empires that colonised the region in the 18th and 19th centuries. Elephants could be trained to execute prisoners in a variety of ways, prolonging the agony by subjecting captives to a slow death by torture or killing the victim quickly by stepping on his or her head. Most importantly, they were under the constant control of a driver or mahout, enabling a ruler to grant a last-minute reprieve and thus display his or her merciful qualities. Culled
from: Wikipedia ********************************************************************** I'm not sure how the elephants felt about being used in this way, but it sure beats kicking beach balls into a crowd of idiot tourists! ******* During an interview years ago, recently deceased talk show host and media mogul Merv Griffin was asked what he would like on his gravestone. "I will NOT be right back after this message," was his witty reply. Although I don't believe that has actually come to pass (from what I could in some preliminary research anyway), someone mocked up a nice facsimile! We need more humor and wit on gravestones, dammit!
Thanks to Amos Quito for the link.
******* Morbid Link Du Jour! Well, it's about time that they (ie. the University of Michigan and the University of Sheffield) created Death Maps: world maps that are colored and morphed based on the number of different types of deaths in each continent. Oh, poor Mother Africa... Thanks to J. Current for the link.
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January 12, 2008 Today's Cannibalistic Yet Truly Morbid Fact! An aspiring horror novelist was arrested after police discovered his girlfriend's torso in his closet, a leg in the refrigerator and bones in a cereal box. Jose Luis Calva told police he had boiled some of his girlfriend's flesh but that he hadn't eaten it. Calva told police he was a writer and poet - officers found the draft of a novel titled "Cannibalistic Instincts". Investigators were trying to determine if chunks of fried meat found in a pan in the apartment were human. Police came to Calva's apartment in October, 2007 after neighbors reported a fetid smell. They discovered the dismembered body of his girlfriend Alejandra Galeana in a closet. A leg and pieces of an arm were in a refrigerator and there were bones inside a cereal box. Calva is being investigated in the killings of two other women, including an ex-girlfriend, also a pharmacy worker, whose dismembered body was found in 2004, and an unidentified prostitute who was killed earlier this year. Calva tried to run from police to avoid arrest, but was struck by a car and is still hospitalized. Culled
from: The Associated Press ********************************************************************** Man, if they really put human bones in cereal boxes, I would still - even at MY age - open up the box as soon as I got home and stick my hand in there, fishing around the sugary goodness for the toy! "Oooh, I hope I get the skull this time! Damn it... a phalange again..."
******* Hmmmm... I'm still not positive if Merv Griffin really has a gravestone that says, "I will NOT be right back after this message" but evidence is mounting that it is legit. John wrote to let me know that Find-A-Grave has been updated with an image of the tombstone. I had read that he had been cremated and interred in the mortuary, which is one of the reasons I didn't think the gravestone was legit, but perhaps it is after all. I hope so. Does anyone have concrete proof?
******* Morbid Mirth Du Jour! A friend recently kindly introduced me to this site and now I'd like to return the favor. Welcome to the wonderful world of Monkey Fluids. Quite simply one of the Greatest Things In The World. Josh Addison takes vintage illustrations and supplies brilliant new captions to them. You simply must check them out!
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January 15, 2008 Today's Innocent Yet Truly Morbid Fact! For discussing Protestantism with a friend, Jane Bohorquia of Seville was put to the rack during the Spanish inquisition. She was pregnant at the time, and a week later she died. The Inquisition reported: 'Jane Bohorquia was found dead in prison; after which, upon reviewing her prosecution, the Inquisition discovered her innocent. Be it therefore known that no further prosecution shall be carried on against her...' Culled from: The History Of Torture ********************************************************************** Ah, those old inquisitors - such forgiving hearts! I've been quite busy lately, hence the sporadic facts. So much for that resolution... ******* Okay, I guess the Merv Griffin grave is real after all. Bravo, Merv! Thanks to everyone who wrote to confirm the gravestone's validity. Also, several of you wrote to let me know that the cannibal novelist mentioned in the previous MFDJ hung himself in his cell about a month ago. The world of literature may never recover... ******* Morbid Art Du Jour! Peter Callesen creates amazing works of art out of paper. His paper skeletons and coffins are especially lovely morbid delicacies! http://www.petercallesen.com/index.html Thanks to Ruty Bear for the link. ******* Morbid Mirth Du Jour! Barbie Massacre is a brilliant collection of post-mortem photos of everyone's favorite plastic bimbo. And Ken too! http://barbiecrimescenes.blogspot.com/ Thanks to Danny for the link.
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January 16, 2008 Today's Random Yet Truly Morbid Fact! The Axeman of New Orleans was a serial killer active in New Orleans, Louisiana (and surrounding communities), from May 1918 to October 1919. As the killer's pseudonym implies, the victims were attacked with an axe. In some of the crimes, the doors to the victim's homes were first bashed open with the same tool. Not all of the Axeman's victims died, but the savagery and utter randomness of his attacks terrorized much of the populace. His victims included a pregnant woman and even a baby killed in the arms of its mother. The Axeman also seemed to draw direct inspiration from Jack the Ripper: he (or someone claiming to be the Axeman) wrote taunting letters to city newspapers hinting at his future crimes and claiming to be a supernatural demon "from Hell." "The Axeman" was not caught or identified at the time, although his crime spree stopped as mysteriously as it started. The murderer's identity remains unknown to this day, although various possible identifications of varying plausibility have been proposed. Culled
from: Wikipedia ********************************************************************** Hmmmm... my theory: Jack The Ripper moved to N'Awlins! I think I have a true crime book to write! ******* Here's an excellent quiz to find out what your chances are of surviving a Zombie Holocaust. The Comtesse has only a 22% chance, sad to say... Hopefully you'll do better? http://www.justsayhi.com/bb/zombie Thanks to Anna for the link. ******* Morbid Trinkets Galore! Where, oh where, has Dapper Cadaver been all my life? From coffins and morgue equipment to freak show props and torture implements, if you want it and it's grim, chances are you can find it here! A fun browse guaranteed for all! |
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January 24, 2008 Today's Famous Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Austrian Hans Steininger was famous for having the world’s longest beard (it was 4.5 feet or nearly 1.4 m long) and for dying because of it. One day in 1567, there was a fire in town and in his haste Hans forgot to roll up his beard. He accidentally stepped on his beard, lost balance, stumbled, broke his neck and died! Culled
from: Neatorama ********************************************************************** I apologize for my absence of late. For the most part I've just been very busy... but I do have a semi-morbid excuse for my absence over the weekend. I took part in an all-night ghost hunt at the "haunted" Lincoln Theatre in Decatur, Illinois hosted by Troy Taylor of Ghosts Of The Prairie (http://www.prairieghosts.com/). Of course, nothing as exciting as an actual apparition occurred while I was there (to me or anyone else), although I did have one semi-creepy moment at the top of the spiral staircase backstage where it felt like something was touching my back (probably just a breeze or vibrations from the hand rail though). After awhile, I decided to start conjuring my own ghosts using my camera, so at least I got some nice photographs out of the occasion. Here are the best of the pictures I took - hope you enjoy them! http://morbidsightseer.com/us/il/lincolnghosts/ Our next ghost hunt will be at the Mansfield Reformatory in Ohio - the abandoned prison where they filmed The Shawshank Redemption. I am REALLY looking forward to this one! http://www.deadohio.com/mansfieldreformatory.htm ******* Rotten.Com has long been one of the greatest sites on the web, and they have come up with another historic gem: a digitized collection of steroscopic images of ghastly skin conditions from 1911. Absolutely brilliant! http://poetry.rotten.com/clinic/ Thanks to Libby for the link. ******* Morbid Link Du Jour! Thank goodness for the internet. Without it we would miss out on wonderful treats such as the Skull-A-Day Blog. Yes, a wonderful artist is creating a skull image every day for a year... and what lovely works of art they are! http://skulladay.blogspot.com/ Thanks to Steve O' for the link.
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January 27, 2008 Today's Unusually Cool Yet Truly Morbid Fact! The evening of July 26, 1805 was unusually cool in Naples, Italy. Then large waves suddenly appeared on the sea. People walking in the surf and on the beach felt the odd sensation of the ground falling away beneath their feet, while fish rose to the water's surface and splashed wildly. All at once the first of several mighty tremors struck the city, ringing church bells and stopping the town clocks at precisely 9:57 p.m. Anxious residents noticed an enormous column of smoke rising above the nearby volcano Mount Vesuvius and could hear two weak explosions within the crater. Several more shocks jolted Naples, Calabria, and surrounding towns that night, knocking down or damaging thousands of buildings. In Naples, where 4,000 homes and buildings were demolished, frightened survivors spent the night on the streets or in open fields. Many inland towns and villages were completely destroyed, their inhabitants crushed beneath their collapsing homes. Some 26,000 people lost their lives. Culled
from: The
Pessimist's Guide To History ********************************************************************** John Santerineross creates intricate, faintly morbid, works of photographic art. Well worth a browse. Thanks to Annushka for the link. ******* Morbid Mirth Du Jour! Here's another excellent installment of The Chopping Block: http://choppingblock.org/d/20080116.html Thanks to Paradox for the link.
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January 30, 2008 Today's Fried Yet Truly Morbid Fact! A Brazilian housewife was convicted and sentenced to 19 years in prison Friday, March 23, 2007 for killing her husband, chopping his body into small pieces and frying it. Rosanita Nery dos Santos, 52, drugged her husband in his sleep, then stabbed him to death two years previously in Salvador, about 900 miles northeast of Sao Paulo, said police spokesman Idmar Bonfim. She then hacked Jose Raimundo Soares dos Santos' body into more than 100 pieces, which she boiled and fried before hiding in plastic bags beneath a staircase in her house, Bonfim said. He said police discovered the body parts after receiving an anonymous phone call. Bonfim said the killing was either part of a black magic ritual or an attempt by the wife to collect life insurance worth about $34,000. Citing testimony from the woman's relatives, he said she may also have committed the crime "to avenge many years of humiliation from her husband." He did not provide further details. Santos denied killing her husband but said she chopped up his body, Bonfim said. "She claims masked assailants entered her house, killed her husband and then forced her to cut up the body and fry it because that would prevent the stench of a decomposing body from alerting neighbors," he said. Culled
from: The Associated Press ********************************************************************** Now, why would you go to all the trouble of chopping up and cooking your husband, then leave the bags on the premises? If you weren't going to dispose of him properly, why not just roll him up in plastic bags and toss him in the basement? I tell you - I just don't understand people... ******* Morbid Anatomy is a wonderful blog which claims to "Survey the Interstices of Art and Medicine, Death and Culture." Sounds like a worthy endeavor to me! One of the recent articles concerns a collection of photographs from the archives of the National Museum of Health and Medicine that can be found on Flickr. Definitely a fascinating browse! http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2008/01/national-museum-of-health-and-medicine.html Thanks to Eleanor for the link. ******* Morbid Mirth Du Jour! Recently we discussed Merv Griffin's gravestone with it's classic "I will NOT be right back after this message" epitaph. Joe writes to remind us of another Hollywood gravestone that is, perhaps, even better - Jack Lemmon.
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