We continue with part two of the Death of Caroline of Anspach with…
Today’s Ruptured Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
King George II of England’s wife Caroline of Anspach was dying from late complications of an umbilical hernia caused during the birth of her youngest daughter, fourteen years previously, which, out of embarrassment, she had refused to have treated. Even now the royal surgeon was summoned only when her bowels finally ruptured, expelling their contents into the abdominal cavity. Despite these dire circumstances, Caroline displayed the sense of humour for which she was justly famous: the sight of Ranby, her surgeon, bending over her abdomen, his wig set alight by a candle flame, sent the queen into such paroxysms of laughter that she begged him stay his scalpel until she had recovered her composure. For twelve days her agony continued, prompting a cruel couplet from Alexander Pope:
Here lies wrapt in forty thousand towels
The only proof that Caroline had bowels
Culled from: Death: A History Of Man’s Obsessions and Fears
And tomorrow we’ll have the tragicomic conclusion of the Death of Caroline of Anspach.
Facts
Today’s morbid fact is so long, yet so compelling, I feel the need to share it in several parts… Let’s begin with…
Today’s Irascible Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Britain grew great in spite of King George II (1683-1760), a man known more for his infidelities than for his kingship. His long-suffering queen, Caroline of Anspach, predeceased him by 23 years and made an undignified exit, dying of ‘Mortification of ye Bowels’, exacerbated by a surfeit of royal pride. Despite suffering dreadfully painful bouts of colic, Caroline refused to take to her bed for fear of annoying her irascible husband. Eventually, with increasing pains and vomiting, she was persuaded to seek treatment. Her family gathered around her, Princess Caroline weeping copiously between nose-bleeds. George II visited his sick wife and alternated between tearful sympathy and carping criticisms. (“How can you stare like that?” the king said at one point. “You look like a calf that has just had its throat cut.”) A famous death-bed exchange had the queen encouraging George to marry again after her death. The sobbing monarch replied, “No – I shall have mistresses.” “Ah! my God!” exclaimed Caroline. “That won’t stop you.”
Culled from: Death: A History Of Man’s Obsessions and Fears
Facts
Diane Edwards was a 19-year-old West St. Paul waitress who was raped and murdered by serial killer Joe Ture in 1980. Grant Hart of Hüsker Dü wrote a creepy song about her murder from the killer’s perspective. How fortuitous that when you scream “Diane” it sounds like “Dying” or “Die Ann”.
Sundry
The Beginning Of The End
It was 25 years ago today that the space shuttle Challenger exploded exactly 73 seconds after launch. Where were you when you heard about it? I was in a college algebra class. (Yes, the Comtesse is a product of the Catatonian higher education system.) I remember arriving back at The Castle DeSpair to watch the footage and finding the tragedy both fascinating and appalling to witness. Specifically, it was the footage of Christa McAuliffe’s mother watching the launch that disturbed me. The abrupt change in her face from joy to despair as the realization of what just happened sank in – it still causes pain to my withered black heart to think of it now.
Anyway, without further ado, let’s revisit a favorite object of morbid fascination for…
Today’s Explosive Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
The flight of the space shuttle Challenger, and the astronauts’ lives, did not end at the point of exposion, 73 seconds after launch. After Challenger was torn apart, the pieces continued upward from their own momentum, reaching a peak altitude of 65,000 feet before arching back down into the water. The cabin hit the surface 2 minutes and 45 seconds after breakup, and all investigations indicate the crew was still alive until then. What’s less clear is whether they were conscious. If the cabin depressurized (as seems likely), the crew would have had difficulty breathing. In the words of the final report by fellow astronauts, the crew “possibly but not certainly lost consciousness,” even though a few of the emergency air bottles (designed for escape from a smoking vehicle on the ground) had been activated. The cabin hit the water at a speed greater than 200 mph, resulting in a force of about 200 G’s — crushing the structure and destroying everything inside. If the crew did lose consciousness (and the cabin may have been sufficiently intact to hold enough air long enough to prevent this), it’s unknown if they would have regained it as the air thickened during the last seconds of the fall. Official NASA commemorations of “Challenger’s 73-second flight” subtly deflect attention from what was happened in the almost three minutes of flight (and life) remaining AFTER the breakup.
Culled from: MSNBC.Com
Can you imagine if they were conscious all the way down? What would they have been thinking and saying? Can you imagine knowing that you’re going to die soon and not being able to do anything about it? Yes, thoughts like this keep me up at night…
Facts
It is hard to believe that in 2011 such atrocities are still committed in the name of an ancient “God”. Humans sicken me. Where’s the Zombie Apocalypse when you really need it???
Shocking Footage Of Taliban Stoning Couple To Death For Adultery
Ghastly!
Today’s Slight Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Two-hundred and eight-two children (i.e., 17 years old or younger at the time of the crime) have been executed in America, including 10 females, according to Victor Streib, a professor of Law at Cleveland State University. As recently as 1944, a 14-year-old boy was executed in South Carolina. George Stinney, the 14-year-old black son of a sawmill worker, confessed to beating Betty Binnicker, 11, and Mary Thames, 8, to death with a railroad spike. The little white girls were picking flowers, and the older one apparently refused his sexual advances. Stinney’s lawyer – who was running for office – never filed an appeal. The Associated Press reported that “the guards had difficulty strapping the boy’s slight form into the wooden chair built for adults” and he was so small “it was difficult to attach the electrode to the right leg.” Stinney was the youngest person executed in this country during the 20th century.
Culled from: An Underground Education
Facts
Today’s Pondering Yet Truly Morbid Fact
The gravestone of John Linning, who died 1824 in Devon, England, has a rather ponderous epitaph:
Stop, reader! stop and view this stone
And ponder well where I am gone.
Then, pondering,
take thou home
this rhyme –
The grave next
opened may be thine.
Culled from: Eccentric Epitaphs by Michelle Lovric
Facts
Today’s Notorious Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Jack Sheppard, a notorious housebreaker who had perviously escaped from two London gaols, was eventually recaptured and confined in Newgate Prison. There he was fettered about the ankles, the iron rings being about one inch thick. Connecting the rings was an inch and a half thick bar, fifteen inches long, from the middle of which three large links extended upwards to fasten to a chain about his waist. Despite these restrictions, their weight of about twenty pounds, and the fact that the crossbar was padlocked to a staple in the floor, Sheppard managed to pick the lock with a nail and snap a link of his chains. Via chimneys and across roofs he made his escape and, hiding in a field near Tottenham Court Road, he persuaded a cobbler to chisel through his fetters. Alas, celebratory drinks and overconfidence led to his downfall in more ways than one, for he was hanged at Tyburn on November 16, 1724.
Culled from: Rack, Rope and Red-Hot Pincers
Well, who among us hasn’t suffered a downfall at the hands of celebratory drinks and overconfidence?
Facts
Today’s Poisonous Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
In 1819, strychnine was first extracted from the seeds of the Asian vomit button tree (Strychnos nux vomica).
Culled from: The Poisoner’s Handbook
Facts
William II was King of England from 1087 until 1100. His death occurred when he was out hunting with his friend, Walter Tirel. He urged Tirel: “Shoot! Walter, in heaven’s name!” Tirel did shoot… and his arrow pierced the king’s lung and killed him.
Culled from: Weird Wills & Eccentric Last Wishes
Facts
