Today’s Unconventional Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Instead of more conventional items, like baseball cards and comic books, little Jeffrey Dahmer collected roadkill. According to neighbors, he also liked to nail bullfrogs to trees and cut open live fish to see how their innards worked.
Culled from: The A to Z Encylopedia of Serial Killers
Today’s Windblown Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
In early October of 1825 a fire of unknown origin began deep in the vast woods of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. A long season of drought had baked the forests as dry as tinder, and the fire spread relentlessly. Heat and smoke from the advancing flames eventually reached the town of Fredericton, but no one even guessed the extent of the blaze then. Finally heavy winds swept through the area on October 7, carrying torrents of burning cinders and driving flames into the towns of Fredericton and Newcastle. Houses were instantly incinerated, killing many people in their beds. Those fortunate enough to have time to escape fled onto the Saint John River in boats, canoes, and log rafts. There they were pelted by windblown cinders, and some boats burned on the river. Meanwhile, the night sky was lit with the reflection of fires extending for miles into the distance. Before the fire finally burned out, the smoke burned the eyes and lungs of people as far away as Montreal and even Baltimore. Some 160 people died in the flames, and four million acres of forest were destroyed.
Culled from: The Pessimist’s Guide To History
I often think of how we’ve lost a certain spontaneity in modern times, with our satellites and rapid communication systems that warn you of incoming peril. Imagine what it was like to not know that a hurricane was hitting until… it hit! Or not knowing that a fire was approaching until… it incinerated you in your sleep! (Well, I guess that sort of thing still happens… witness the recent gas line explosion in San Bruno.)
Oh, and I can’t see the term “Fire Of Unknown Origin” without thinking of this:
Carson pointed out to me that the American Experience episode on the father of the Lobotomy, Dr. Walter Freeman, is available to watch online at the PBS website. I just watched it and it’s a fascinating, horrifying, documentary that explores the history of psychiatric care, and Freeman’s tragic legacy.
Today’s Hierarchical Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Michael Stone, a forensic psychiatrist from Columbia University, researched hundreds of killers and their methods and motives to develop a hierarchy of “evil.” The scale ranges from Category 1, those who kill in self defense, to Category 9, psychopathic jealous lovers, to the “most evil” Category 22, serial torturers and killers.
The Scale Of Evil
Culled from: Wikipedia
Generously suggested by: Mist
Hmmmmm… so if I were to kill my upstairs neighbors for annoying me (which I would never even think of doing, of course), I’m thinking that would place me in category 8. But maybe I flatter myself as “non-psychopathic”? Perhaps I might really be a 13? But never a 14! Definitely not.
by Emlyn Williams
I just finally finished this book, which I have been anemically gnawing on for weeks now. It’s a “classic” true crime book about the infamous Moors Murderers, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. There are many rave reviews about this book on Amazon, so maybe I just don’t “get it”… but I didn’t get it.
There are few crime cases that I am more interested in than these two monsters… but after reading the book, I really don’t feel like I know much more than I did before I started, mainly because the writing style of Emlyn Williams absolutely aggravated me. He tells the story by slipping into writing in a lower-class English accent and mocking up dialogue: “I fancy a fringe, Mrs. ‘Owells, an’ what’s more I’m sick o’ bein’ dark. I don’t think it’s me image, could I ‘ave a root tonin’? If I won the pools, I’d buy a car, I may still emigrate, I’m fed oop.” etc. It’s a pet peeve of mine when writers make up dialogue in non-fiction works. Just tell the facts as they are known, don’t go all ‘creative writing’ on us!
The most annoying thing about this book, from a morbid-enthusiast perspective, is that Williams doesn’t mention the crimes in any detail until the police investigation is discussed, and then it’s rushed through in the last quarter of the book. And most of the goriest and most disturbing details were left out. Yeah, I know, it’s an old book… that’s probably how they wrote them back then. But still… come on. I feel like I wasted 2/3 of the book waiting for the story to be told… and then I was cheated by a weak pay-off.
Williams also adds some God-talk editorializing at the end as well, when he wishes that God would have killed Brady and Hindley (“If only the God of the Old Testament had come back into His own!”). Sheesh. Yeah, and I wish that the Flying Spaghetti Monster would have strangled them with his noodly appendages, but let’s get back to reality, shall we?
Oh, and also… no PICTURES! This is a case where photographs taken by the killers were used to find the bodies. Photographs are CENTRAL to the case. And yet… not a single photo. (At least in the 1968 version I have… maybe they were added to modern additions.) Thanks a lot, Emlyn! I feel like I just read this entire book on the Moors murders and now I have to go look it up in my Crime Encyclopedia to find out anything about the crimes thanks to the awful writing and lack of illustration.
Literally, the only redeeming thing about this book is its place in Smiths lore. Lines from The Smiths song “Suffer Little Children” litter the book and it’s easy to see how Morrissey would have been influenced by the references to “the Smiths” (Myra’s sister and brother-in-law) in choosing his band’s name. Otherwise, steer clear. What a disappointment…
More foul books about monstrous killers are available for perusal at The Library Eclectica‘s Maniacal Monsters aisle.
“I love your site. I wander around the internet for hours looking for just the most random, off-the-wall, useless, and morbid stories and information. And, I would love it if you featured an article written about me and my family on your site:
Doctors delivered a healthy baby by Caesarean section early today within hours of the mother’s arrival at a Mississippi burn center for treatment of critical injuries. At the adjoining Firefighters Memorial Burn Center the mother, Sheryl Craft (24), was listed in critical but stable condition. Craft, her daughter, Alexandria (2), and the child’s grandfather, Curtis Beasley, were taken to the burn center following a Tuesday afternoon house explosion in Petal, a South Mississippi community. A spokeswoman at the burn center said Mrs. Craft apparently suffered no additional medical problems as a result of the delivery and was receiving treatment for her burns. Authorities in Petal said four members of the family were burned in an explosion, which was triggered by a propane gas leak, but despite the force of the blast, which completely destroyed the family’s home, no one was killed. Earl Ross Craft Jr. (4), was treated and released from the Forrest County General Hospital in Hattiesburg following the blast with only minor injuries. Craft’s daughter, Alexandria, received the worst injuries and remains in critical condition. The father recalls that ‘they have to give her medicine that paralyzes her to keep her from hurting herself.’ Her prognosis is undetermined but grim.
“I’m Alexandria. I’m 25 now. I was burned over 90% of my body, 50 percent of which is 2nd and 3rd degree, which are the kind that leave lasting scar tissue. I have internal injuries of the throat and have chronic respiratory conditions similar to asthma as most of my throat is covered in scar tissue. I’ve had over 65 major surgeries (including more than 100 separate procedures) with more planned in the future. I also had to have a procedure which involved scraping the burned skin off of my body with a razor blade (which occurred twice a day for two months following the fire. That was a blast and a half, I can tell you. Yay for selective amnesia!)
“They told my mother that I had sustained injuries that had killed fully grown firefighters, so they weren’t entirely sure how I managed to survive. They also said that I would never speak, that I would have brain damage, that my right hand would have to be amputated, and that I could very well be blind. I’m happy to say that none of that is true.”
A truly amazing story of survival and perseverance, Alex! Thanks for sharing it with us.
Today’s Final Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
“I can’t sleep.”
James M. Barrie (1860-1937), author of Peter Pan, was wrong.
These were his last words before The Big Sleep.
Culled from: Weird Wills and Eccentric Last Wishes
Okay, which one of you wise guys came up with the idea of offering a free service to photograph dead babies in order to “help” with the “healing process”. A likely story. Sickos.
Thanks to Ingrid for the link.
Fantastic polymer clay choker. It’s NOT just for Halloween!
"Choker??? I nearly KILLED her!!!"
Today’s Relentless Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Howard Unruh was an unemployed WWII Veteran who lived with his mother in her Camden, New Jersey home. He kept his medals in his bedroom and a firing range in his basement. He didn’t get along well with his neighbors who teased the war hero relentlessly. Unruh began logging a diary with everything he thought his neighbors were saying or doing to him. At 3:00 in the morning on September 6, 1949 he came home from a double feature at the movies to find a gate he had made for the front of his house had been stolen. At 8:00, he woke up, dressed in his brown tropical-worsted suit, white shirt and striped bow tie, then with his mother, he had a breakfast of fried eggs. At 9:20, America’s first mass murderer, left his house with his German Luger, a six inch knife, and six tear gas shells. In only twelve minutes he would shoot and kill 13 people with 14 shots. One of his victims was a young blond boy inside a barbershop on a white carousel horse getting his hair cut. Unruh was pronounced insane and resided at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital until his death on October 19, 2009 at the age of 88. Shortly after his arrest, he was reported to have said to a psychiatrist, “I’m no psycho. I have a good mind. I’d have killed a thousand if I had bullets enough.”
Culled from: Huffington Post
Generously submitted by: Steve O’
He killed 13 with 14 shots? Now, that’s some impressive marksmanship!