Today’s Brutal Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Early morning shoppers at a supermarket in Jeddah were left reeling on March 2, 2008, with some falling unconscious, after a well-built Syrian man clinched a knife and decapitated his 15-month-old nephew in front of his mother in the store’s fruit and vegetable section. In a brutal murder that has shocked the city, the 25-year-old man beheaded the boy, who was out shopping with his mother — in full glare of shoppers and staff at Al-Marhaba supermarket on Sari Street around 9.30 a.m. The man, who is the boy’s maternal uncle, apparently killed the boy following a dispute with his sister and brother-in-law. Eyewitnesses said that the man picked up a knife from inside the store and severed the boy’s head. The mother and a shopper standing close by fainted, while several other stood in shock and disbelief over what had happened. A police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Arab News, “The murderer was in a dispute with the boy’s mother and her husband. He chopped off the boy’s head in front of the mother to get back at her.” He added that the mother has been left traumatized and is in hospital. The boy’s father was at work at the time of the incident.
Culled from: Samir Al-Saadi
Generously submitted by: Katchaya
That’s really rude to do that sort of thing in front of the fruit and vegetable section. Think of all the vegetarians he may have grossed out! Decapitating babies should only ever be done in front of the meat section. Sheesh.
Facts
Well, my brush wasn’t death affiliated, but it was awesome! Me, my girlfriend, cousin, and ex-friend (good reasons) were down at a place called ‘The Point’ – a stretch of road leading to a recreational park thing. We sat down there in my girlfriend’s car until we got bored and started to screw around. She started pulling out of the parking lot (pretending to leave us there). Well, we all jumped on the car and she started driving. She must have been doing about 20 when my ex-friend deciding to jump off halfway to the end of the stretch and lost his footing. His head hit the pavement and bounced. It sounded like a watermelon being dropped on the ground. We turned around and witnessed him having one hell of a seizure. Foaming at the mouth, eyes rolled back, convulsing and blood, lots of blood! The only words he could manage were ‘Oh f*ck…. oh… fuck!’ It pretty much rocked! We live in a small town in PA, so it was in the newspaper. Oh, and unfortunately he’s ok.
Ty is a real philanthropist, can’t you tell?
More brushes can be found at the My Brush With Morbidity page and archives on The Asylum Eclectica. If you have a morbid tale to tell, by all means send it to The Comtesse.
Brush
I love the e-mail that I get. It’s always filled with fun little atrocious things like this.
Thanks for the picture, Pamazon!
Ghastly!
Shauna sent me an interesting (and somewhat ghastly) link to the review of an infanticide case in Australia
This is an interestingly gory murder of a newborn, complete with post mortem pics of the baby as well as the female parts the father removed.
Why did the father remove the female parts? Why ask why?
Queen vs. Raymond Ali
Ghastly!
Today’s Sulfuric Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
The Izu Islands are a group of volcanic islands stretching south and east from the Izu Peninsula of Honshu, Japan. Administratively, they form two towns and six villages, all part of Tokyo. The largest is Izu Oshima, usually called simply Oshima. Because of their volcanic nature, the islands are constantly filled with the stench of sulfur. Residents were evacuated from the islands in 1953 and 2000 due to volcanic activity and dangerously high levels of gas. The people returned in 2005 but are now required to carry gas masks with them at all times in case gas levels rise unexpectedly.
Culled from: ListVerse
Generously submitted by: Magnoire
I don’t care if it’s dangerous and smelly (I’ve been to Sulfur Works at Lassen Volcanic Park on many occasions so I think I can handle it), I want to go to this island! Check out the interesting sights to see on this gemhunter’s blog:
Anorthite and Native Brass
Facts
Katie has a Wretched Recommendation of the non-fiction variety:
The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father’s Nazi Boyhood
by Mark Kurzem
Katie says:
I read the most unbelievable book last week. It was quite morbid in parts. I finished it in about 8 hours, it was so riveting. Best read I have had for awhile.
It certainly sounds fascinating! Here’s the synopsis from Amazon:
When a Nazi death squad massacred his mother and fellow villagers, five-year-old Alex Kurzem escaped, hiding in the freezing Russian forest until he was picked up by a group of Latvian SS soldiers. Alex was able to hide his Jewish identity and win over the soldiers, becoming their mascot and an honorary “corporal” in the SS with his own uniform. But what began as a desperate bid for survival became a performance that delighted the highest ranks of the Nazi elite. And so a young Jewish boy ended up starring in a Nazi propaganda film.
After sixty-three years of silence, Alex revealed his terrible secret to his son Mark. With his son’s help, Alex retraced his past in search of answers and vindication. His story is at once a terrifying account of survival and its psychological cost as well as a brutally honest examination of identity, complicity, and memory.
More disturbing non-fiction reflections on warfare can be found in the Wretched Warfare aisle of The Library Eclectica.
Library
Thanks to Joseph sending me a link to a Mark Morford column, I just learned about the creepy Dyatlov Pass Incident. Ever heard of it? Here’s a summary: In February, 1959 nine experienced Russian mountaineers set off on a cross-country skiing expedition in the Ural mountains. When they failed to arrive to their destination, a search expedition was sent out and discovered their camp, abandoned. They had apparently built a camp for the night in an unplanned location due to inclement weather. Their tent had been cut open from the inside and their clothing and equipment was left behind.
The abandoned campsite. The tent had been cut open from the inside.
Eventually, they found two bodies, barefoot and in their underwear, in a forested area 1.5 kilometers downhill from the camp. There was evidence that the men had tried to build a fire and had attempted to climb a tree to locate the campsite. Three more bodies were found near the forest heading towards the camp. Although one of these bodies had a fractured skull, the official cause of death for all five was determined to be hypothermia.
It took two more months before the other four bodies were discovered, buried under deep snow in a ravine. All four bodies had signs of traumatic injury: one had a crushed skull, two had broken ribs, and the third was missing her tongue. There were reports of high radioactivity found on the bodies, and even reports of apparent blindness in some of the victims.
So, the legend began: what caused these nine experienced mountaineers to hastily leave their tent in the middle of the night and run out into the snow in -25 F cold in their underwear? Why did they cut open the tent rather than opening the ties? What caused the injuries? You can imagine where people’s imagination went… to a world of UFOs, Yeti, and other unexplained phenomenon.
Yet, Brian Dunning of Skeptoid put together a perfectly feasible explanation that doesn’t require anything supernatural. As usual. I tend to think his explanation is the closest to the truth (because let’s face it – our world is too boring for UFOs or abominable snowmen), but nobody really knows why those nine people died on that strange night in 1959. What’s your theory?
Read more about the incident here:
Fortean Times: The Dyatlov Pass Incident
St. Petersburg Times: Mysterious Deaths of 9 Skiers Still Unresolved
Pass Djatlova (in Russian)
Description and Analysis of the Dyatlov Pass Incident
Sundry
Today’s Sadistic Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Dr. Walter Freeman performed 228 transorbital lobotomies during a two-week period in 1952 At Spencer State Hospital in West Virginia, through a state-sponsored lobotomy project dubbed “Operation Ice Pick” by newspapers. Frontal lobotomies were performed by inserting a two-pronged device in the orbit of the eye, and with a sharp blow, driving it into the brain. The promised result – relief or change from the person’s traumatic mental condition. One account says Freemen did nearly 800 such surgeries in WV, while hundreds of others were performed not by surgeons, but by ordinary doctors with little or no surgical training. Former employees of Spencer State Hospital claim the surgery was crudely done by a staff doctor and “a thrown-together staff of hospital workers.” Many of the 1200 Spencer patients in the 1950s were unwanted individuals and children. They were cared for by three doctors and 150 psychiatric aides. In an interview published October, 1980 in the Charleston Gazette, Dr. Thomas C. Knapp, superintendent at Spencer when the first frontal lobotomies were performed, called it “a grim time for our profession.” Dr. Freeman, known as the father of lobotomies in America, just “dropped in” to Spencer State Hospital “without prior announcement,” Knapp recalled. “He was a big name in neurology and he had all the proper papers and signatures-all I could do was watch. It was a real grisly thing.” Knapp recalled that Freeman forgot the surgical hammer he used to pound the spikes into the brain. “We finally found a wooden mallet in the kitchen and that’s what he used,” said Knapp. “I was never convinced that the operation was helpful and it appeared to me we were dealing with a sadistic bastard,” he told the reporter. The purpose of performing a lobotomy was to sever the nerve tracks from the frontal lobe of the brain, where ideas originate, and the mid-brain, the seat of the emotions.
Culled from: The Hur Herald
Generously submitted by: Elizabeth
I always shudder quite intensely when I read about lobotomies because, let’s face it, if I were born two decades earlier, I surely would have been a recipient.
Oh, BTW – “Operation Ice Pick”. Great band name, or what?
Facts
Check out the amazing photography of Arnold Odermatt, a Swiss police photographer who turns car crashes into incredible works of art. This is a trailer for a documentary entitled Crash Course: The Accidental Art of Arnold Odermatt. I haven’t been able to find any information about the movie though – I guess it must not be out yet, even though this trailer is a couple years old. (Love the song too - Bowie’s “Warszawa”.)
Thanks to Katchaya for the link.
Art
Wait til you see the REST of me!
Those of you who adore disturbing dolls – and I think that’s probably all of you, if I’m not mistaken – might find these strange creations by a Russian dollmaker enthralling. (The dolls do feature some ‘unmentionables’ so it’s definitely NSFW!)
N00kiee’s Live Journal
Thanks to Cathy for the link!
Art
