Decidedly Grim

Today’s Virtually Exterminated Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Before the invasion of non-natives, California was a virtual paradise for the people living there. A pleasant climate, a variety of plants, and plenty of fish and game made life fairly easy for the natives. The tribes bartered and intermarried with each other and violent conflict of any kind was relatively rare. But once the Spaniards arrived in California, life as the natives knew it was over. They were enslaved by the Spanish, then by the Mexicans, and finally they were virtually exterminated by the Caucasians. The Native Americans of California were hunted down and slaughtered like animals. Thousands were assassinated or lynched for no reason other than the color of their skin. For instance, in the spring of 1863, a group of ranchers from Butte County lost some of their horses and immediately blamed the loss on Native Americans. They captured the first Native Americans that they found and hung them from a large oak tree in Helltown. The next day, the horses – which had merely wandered off to forage in the hills – came walking back to their barns. Until the mid-1970’s, a Yuba City tavern proudly displayed a large photo of dozens of Native Americans hanging by their necks from a tree, like a macabre Christmas tree.

Culled from: California Justice: Shootouts, Lynchings and Assassinations in the Golden State

This fact was taken from the above referenced California Justice by David Kulczyk, which I recently finished reading. It is a fascinating collection of lynchings, shootouts, and assassinations that occurred in California spanning the 1850’s to the modern era. As a native Californian, I recognized many of the communities discussed, which gave the book an added interest, but the morbid tales are interesting enough to appeal to those who have never visited the state. Even more interesting are the historic lynching photographs that accompany many of the stories. Horrifying and fascinating. (More morbid book selections can be found at The Library Eclectica.)

Incidentally, back to this particular fact, Helltown is located very near Paradise, California – the town where I spent my “formative” years. Being familiar with the area, I somehow think that the modern residents might not be particularly appalled by the actions of their forebears, if you know what I mean…

I just got back from a trip back “home” where I took many photographs to document my wretched (okay, sometimes nice, but mostly wretched) life there. I took a drive up past Helltown and came across a rather creepy memorial to a murdered man, complete with a can of Coors as an offering:

Perhaps you can see why I moved away from the area?

Oh, and for those of you interested in more of my depressing and trivial, and trivially depressing, musings – my full “Where I’m From” series is located here.

Facts

Today’s Carbonized Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

The biggest volcanic eruption ever recorded in human history took place nearly 200 years ago on Sumbawa, an island in the middle of the Indonesian archipelago. Mt. Tambora’s explosion was 10 times bigger than Krakatoa and more than 100 times bigger than Vesuvius or Mount St. Helens. Approximately 100,000 died in its shadow. An enormous cloud of gas released by the eruption created a veil over the earth. This resulted in the “year without summer” in 1816 when hundreds of thousands of people died due to famine and disease brought on by the markedly cooler temperatures. For more than two decades, Haraldur Sigurdsson, a volcanologist, has been gathering information from the Indonesian island. While he was digging, Sigurdsson discovered artifacts and remains carbonized when Tambora erupted. He calls his excavation site “The Lost Kingdom of Tambora” — a find he also refers to as “The Pompeii of the East.” “I have studied deposits in Pompeii and Herculaneum, from the great destruction of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. [It's] the same mode of destruction, the same mode of death. But [the] difference here [is] that the human remains are much more carbonized—almost entirely carbonized,” Sigurdsson says. “The bones are a piece of charcoal,” he says. That tells scientists that it was a much bigger explosion — with much higher temperatures. The explosion was hot enough to melt glass, and it happened so fast, Sigurdsson says, that people living on the island had no chance to escape. The carbonized remains of one woman recovered at the site confirm this. “She is lying on her back with her hands outstretched. She is holding a machete or a big knife in one hand. There is a sarong over her shoulder. The sarong is totally carbonized, just like her bones,” Sigurdsson says. “Her head is resting on the kitchen floor, just caught there instantly and blown over by the flow.”

Culled from: NPR

Facts

My friend Natasha (not her real name) once had fun with her sister’s baby. She and a friend were made to babysit the little vegetable and they decided to make the most of the occasion. They took her sister’s camera and started posing the little darlin’ in all sorts of fun ways: holding a spoon and reaching for some rat poison, in a pan in the oven being basted, etc. Needless to say, her sister was NOT amused when she developed the pictures a few months later. Some people just have no sense of humor for these things.

But if you do, perhaps you will enjoy this link?

Do’s and Don’ts With Babies

The images are taken from the book Safe Baby Handling Tips.

Thanks to Desmodus for the link.

Mirth

Today’s Blood-Curdling Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Two German air force sergeants are facing a court martial after trying to mass produce sausages made with the blood of their comrades. The two men, who are based at Fürstenfeldbruck, a fighter squadron headquarters, near Munich had already trialed a traditional receipe using their own blood. But they were caught trying to recruit fellow servicemen and family members to ensure a constant flow of raw materials. One of the soldiers posted pictures of himself on a popular German website siphoning off his blood and adding it to a recipe for the traditional Blotwurst sausage using onions, bacon, spices and breadcrumbs. The incident only came to the attention of senior officers after one of their fellow soldiers reported the fact that he had been asked to donate some blood for the scheme. The man is reported to have said: “I have been asked to give blood for sausage-making and I want to know if this is against regulations.” The sergeants, aged 25 and 29 and identified only as B and G, were suspended immediately last December. The recipe for the sausage, which apparently came from one of their grandmothers, was found in the belongings of one of the men after they were arrested. It read: “Make sure the blood is fresh and the bacon cubes diced finely with a nice proportion of fat to lean. Do not use too many breadcrumbs but if the blood starts to curdle stir in a teaspoon of wine vinegar.” The men are reported to have told investigating officers that they both had an “interest in cookery”.

Culled from: News.Scotsman.Com
Generously submitted by: Magnoire

As if sausage wasn’t disgusting enough…

Facts

Today’s Litigious Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Will Keith Kellogg built a corporate empire with Kellogg’s cereals. When none of his children turned out to be worthy successors, he focused on John L. Kellogg, Jr., his grandson. Will Keith adored his grandson, followed his Cub Scout career, and from as early as the age of 14, groomed him to take over the company. John Jr. worked in the company lab on a project to puff corn, just as Kellogg’s had already puffed rice to create the popular Rice Krispies. When the research work started to show promise, John Jr. tried to sell the corn puffing process to his grandfather, who deeply resented the young man trying to hawk something to him that was developed in a company lab on company time. John Jr. quit in a rage and started his own company, Nu-Korn, to try to market cheese-covered corn puffs. His business faltered the following year and then he tried to sell the puffing process to archrival General Mills in 1937. In yet another legal round for the Kelloggs, grandpa sued grandson, who was then 26 years old and newly married, with his wife expecting their first child. During the litigation, John Jr. – squeezed by mounting bills – committed suicide by “swallowing a shot gun,” as a former company exec put it. Whatever his motive or his guilt, Will Keith Kellogg at his death in 1951 left almost all his money to the nonprofit Kellogg Foundation, which helps children worldwide. Soon after Will Keith’s death, the company finally introduced Kellogg’s Corn Pops.

Culled from: An Underground Education

Incidentally, do you remember when they were called Sugar Corn Pops, in a more honest time? I do…

Facts

Bea Arthur is dead. As someone who adored All in the Family, Maude, and The Golden Girls, this is quite tragic. She was awesome.

Bea Arthur, stage, film star of ‘Mame’ and TV’s ‘Maude’ and ‘The Golden Girls,’ dies at 86

News

“My Red Scare”

“Well, during the end of my freshmen year in high school, I never really hung out with anyone after school. I was always more concerned with getting home to get my work done so I could relax. On June 6, 2006, I decided I’d hang out with this kid I knew and some friends, mostly because I had a final the next day, so I had no work to be done. So, we headed from school to his house, and then to the park. He was riding a skateboard, the rest of us just walked.

“A conflict started to erupt. My friend Eric threw my friend Chris’ hat into a sprinkler. Chris, attempting to get revenge, threw Eric’s skateboard towards the sprinkler. I was standing by the sprinkler, and I heard someone yell ‘watch out!’. I started to look up, but I didn’t even get to look all the way up. The skateboard hit me right on top of the head, towards the front left, about a thumb’s length above my left eyebrow, in my hair. I stumbled, but I was okay… I just thought it was a nasty knock. I jumped a handrail and asked them if I was bleeding or anything, and I looked down so they could see. I’ll neve forget what I saw next. As I looked down so that they could see, a large amount of blood fell from my head, splashing on the black playground mats and forming nice, small puddles. I thought I was gong to die. I was standing…my brother almost passed out in panic, my friend grabbed my bloody phone out of my pocket, screamed to my mom, and my friend Eric tried to console my brother as Chris called 911. They told me to sit down and put pressure on it, so I had to sit amongst the puddles of my own blood with my school shirt on my head. I had blood all over my face and hair, in my mouth, just all over the place. I was totally calm…I felt more peaceful than ever, but I assume that was shock. Soon enough, a crowd formed, and this lady said to me ‘Are you okay? You look pale!’ No, I regularly bleed out of the top of my skull… Thanks….

“So, the ambulance came, I was put on a flatboard and a stretcher, given oxygen. taken to the hospital (by this point my head was throbbing) and there I received two shots of anethesia in my bruised and bleeding head. Then came 6 stitches, soon followed by 7, count ‘em, SEVEN, staples. Now, into a bruised and bleeding head, already tortured by 2 needles and 6 stitches….staples HURT. But, they then sent me to clean up, and I was almost shocked to see just how much blood I was covered in.

“So, I went home, and that night Chris called me to apologize…I forgave him and such. But he still refers to it…although in a more humorous manner, but I can tell that it’s affected him. They all told me that it’s one of the most haunting things they’d seen. My friend Eric went home, and was pale and shaking. His father ended up calling me and asking me if I was okay and if there was anything he could do.

“It was most definitely a morbid experience.

“Even worse, I couldn’t wash my hair for a week, until the wound closed. Therefore, I was stuck with matted hair, covered in dried blood for a week. Not a good time. I went to get the staples removed, and the doctor who was supposed to do it was about 6′6″ and 300 pounds. His fingers were too big to handle it the tweezers. I was scared, needless to say.

“Thankfully, the young nurse interjected, and, despite the fact that she was shaking, nervous about hurting me, I will always be grateful for that. She actually did really good too, so it worked out well.”

More stories of pain and woe are available at the My Brush With Morbidity Archives.

Brush

Today’s Buried Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Relatives of Eunice Workman had no idea where the elderly woman had gone when they reported her missing seven years ago. They finally found her—under a pile of debris in her own home. Workman’s daughters were cleaning out the two-story north Oakland home when they discovered the body. Her remains were in a second-floor bedroom. Workman had lived in the house for a decade before she went missing.

Culled from: MercuryNews.Com
Generously submitted by: asm1976

Hmmmm… Now, this is just me, but… if my mother lived in a house with that much debris in it and she went missing, I think I would do some “sniffing around” to find her. Wouldn’t you?

Facts

Here’s a splendid morbid trinket: the Dismember Me plush doll! I think you’ll agree it’s a fetching toy for children of all ages.

Available from Think Geek

Thanks to twistedprincess69 for the link

Trinkets

Today’s Infectious Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

In 1895, New York pediatrician Henry Heiman infected a 4-year-old boy whom he called “an idiot with chronic epilepsy” with gonorrhea as part of a medical experiment.

Culled from: EMR Services Of Canada Blog
Generously submitted by: twistedprincess69

Facts