Decidedly Grim

A Wretched Recommendation

Fatal : The Poisonous Life of a Female Serial Killer
by Harold Schechter

Harold Schechter is my favorite historic true crime writer. He seeks out the most interesting cases, researches them thoroughly, and then pens fascinating tomes that accomplish that rare goal of keeping me interested from the first page to the last. Fatal is about “Jolly” Jane Tappan, a spinster nurse who poisoned at least 31 people – probably more – between 1891 and 1901, becoming one of America’s most prolific serial killers in the process.

Jane is a fascinating character. Her mother died when she was young, leaving her and her sister to be raised by their neglectful and abusive drunken father who turned them over to an orphanage. Back in those days, orphanages lent out their charges to be indentured servants to the families who housed and fed them. Jane grew up as an outwardly smiling, joking, and “jolly” girl – while internally seething in bitter jealousy at her foster sister who had everything that Jane wanted: a well-off family who cared for her, a boyfriend, a high social standing.

In her early 20′s, she embarked to nursing school, where her dysfunctional upbringing began to express itself in a desire to make other people sick so that she could care for them and then bring them back from the brink of death, thus making herself feel powerful and needed. Or sometimes she might just let them die… a process that she found even more exhilarating (as she later admitted, even sexually so). And so her career of murder – first in hospitals and later in private houses – began.

Luckily for Jane, medical science in the late 19th century was still in the Dark Ages, so a series of doctors failed to recognize that her victims had been poisoned, and ascribed laughably inaccurate causes of death ranging from “cerebral hemorrhage” to “fever”. It wasn’t until her mania to kill grew so great that she was taking out entire families in a matter of weeks that suspicion began to fester and autopsies were finally performed on her victims… and then her true monstrous nature was revealed for all to see.

Unlike the average morbid book (which peters out after the crime spree or tragedy has ended), I found the last few chapters of Fatal even more fascinating than the earlier ones. Jane’s jailhouse confession (given to the court appointed alienist who analyzed her) is jaw-dropping for its frankness. (I mean what woman in 1901 would admit to experiencing sexual satisfaction through laying in bed with a dying woman?) And the final couple of chapters depicting the final few years of her life in an asylum I found the most interesting of all. Throughout the book I found myself feeling both sympathy and derision for this complex, confounding woman. Highly recommended. (5/5)

More books about bad, bad people like Jane Tappan can be found in the Maniacal Monsters aisle of The Library Eclectica.

Library

Today’s Calculated Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

A few weeks before she was expected to deliver a girl, Rosemary Newman held on to hope that she eventually would reconcile with her estranged boyfriend. But on the Saturday night that Newman drove to a south suburban restaurant to work things out with Deandre Minkens, the father of her unborn child, he had a plan to kill her. Minkens, 20, of Calumet City, and Shante Thomas, 19, of Chicago, a longtime couple who worked together at a fast-food restaurant, appeared in a Markham, Illinois courtroom Friday (April 29, 2011) on charges of first-degree murder and intentional homicide of an unborn child. The couple are accused of conspiring for weeks to kill Newman, 18, of Alsip, so Minkens wouldn’t become a father. “They put together a plan that was as cold as you want to hear,” said Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart. On Saturday, April 23, 2011, Minkens drove to meet Newman for dinner in Crestwood as Thomas hid in the trunk. As Minkens and Newman, left the restaurant in his car, Minkens played a song titled “I Hate You” on the stereo. Then he turned up the volume, signaling to Thomas to crawl out of the trunk. Thomas choked Newman with a cell phone cord and Minkens hit and punched Newman. When they arrived at a forest preserve near Calumet City, the couple beat and choked Newman until she died, then they left her in the woods and went to a nightclub. On Sunday morning, a jogger found Newman’s body. She was nine months’ pregnant. “This was very cold-blooded. Very calculated. Very, very tragic,” Dart said.

Culled from: Chicago Tribune

So what would YOUR murder cue song be? “Die Die My Darling” by Misfits comes to mind immediately, but that might be too obvious… “Kill You” by Eminem, perhaps?

Facts

A staged photograph of a Union soldier receiving anesthesia during the Civil War.

Today’s Anesthetized Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Although in its infancy, anesthesia, even at the onset of the American Civil War, was routinely employed – contrary to the commonly held misconception today and at the time that amputations were performed without anesthesia. Indeed, a soldier undergoing surgery without anesthesia was the exception rather than the rule, and it generally occurred only when supplies were exhausted. Chloroform and ether were first used by U.S. troops during the Mexican-American War in 1847. Chloroform was used at least 75% of the time since it was nonflammable, more easily transported, and more readily attainable than ether, especially in the blockaded South. Ether was also found to worsen shock and lower blood pressure and is now known to be a potent vasodilator. Records collected after the war show that of 8,900 examined cases of anesthesia administration, only 43 deaths could be attributed directly to the anesthetic. This 0.4% mortality rate was remarkable considering the lack of monitoring equipment and supplemental oxygen. The low death rate was ascribed to the open-drop technique, wherein the anesthetic was applied to a cloth held over the patient’s nose and mouth and withdrawn after the patient was off to sleep. More than 80,000 cases of anesthesia were reported, a testament to its widespread use. In addition to anesthesia, opium was used for pain control, not only for injuries but for painful dressing changes. The typical way of administering opium was by pill form or by dusting it on the wounds. It is much less effective in the latter form. Near the end of the war it was also being given by hypodermic injection, a much more effective but less common technique.

Culled from: Orthopaedic Injuries of the Civil War

Facts

Today’s Muddy Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Between February, 1864 and April, 1865 it is estimated that 45,000 Union prisoners were confined in the Confederate stockade, Camp Sumter, near Anderson Station, Georgia, forever to be remembered as Andersonville. Of that number, approximately 25,000 men survived their prison experience and returned home to tell their tale of suffering. It is unknown how many survivors, with their health and lives shattered, died as a direct result of their captivity after returning to civilian life. Close to 13,000 Union soldiers did “give up the ghost” at Andersonville, and it was the ghost of Andersonville that haunted the survivors for the rest of their lives.

The following is an excerpt from the account of Private George Weiser, who arrived in Andersonville on May 25, 1864:

Through the center of the prison was a ditch of water about one foot deep and three feet wide… On both sides of the ditch the ground was low and muddy; the mud in some places was knee deep. The men could not stay on this low land. All who tried to live there would soon get sick and die… This low muddy ground was used by the sick men who could not reach or get to the sink or ditch. In fact, many of the men were so sick that they could not walk down to the low land, and they had to dig little holes in the ground, and after using them they would cover them over, and these holes, thousands of them, would get full and by the effect of the hot sun and rain they would boil over and run down the hill. This was the cause of creating millions of maggots, and when we would lay down to sleep hundreds of these maggots would crawl over us. Some of them would crawl in our ears and in our mouths.”

Culled from: Andersonville: Giving Up The Ghost

Incidentally, I visited Andersonville back in 2003 and wrote a travelogue on my experience: Anderson Vile!

Facts

I’ve been sick with allergies the last few days, hence my absence. Have I mentioned lately that I despise spring? Anyway… on with…

Today’s Sightless Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

A man who gouged out his eyes while in Miami-Dade County jail has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for gouging his wife’s eyes after he was released. Eugene Roman pleaded guilty Monday, April 19, 2011 to aggravated battery and kidnapping charges in the May 2006 attack. Roman’s estranged wife was left blind in her right eye and partially blind in her left. Roman was also sentenced to 10 years probation. The 50-year-old cried in court and asked for forgiveness. His wife told The Miami Herald she wanted him kept away from her and her children. Roman gouged out his eyes while serving a 364-day sentence for attacking his wife and police officers inside the couple’s home in 2005. He was released early when his wife agreed to take him back.

Culled from: The Boston Channel
Generously submitted by: Katchaya

Never trust a man who gouges his eyes out, that’s what I always say!

Facts

Today’s Faithful Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Charles Freeman was a 19th century farmer who lived in the town of Pocasset, MA with his wife, Hattie, and two young daughters – six-year-old Bessie Mildred and four-year-old Edith, her father’s favorite. Freeman was a devout member of the Second Advent Church, a millenialist sect that had been gathering adherents in New England. He had frequently spoken of the need to prove his faith through sacrifice and in the latter half of April, 1879 he became convinced that God required the ultimate test of his faith. On the night of April 30, 1879 he told his wife, “The Lord has appeared to me. I know who the victim must be – my pet, my idol, my baby Edith.” Weeping, his wife tried to dissuade him, but Freeman replied, “The Lord has said it is necessary.” His wife finally relented: “If it is the Lord’s will, I am ready for it.”

Singing praises to the Lord, Freeman grabbed a large sheath knife and entered his daughter’s room. He silently prayed that Edith not awaken and that God might stay his hand at the last moment, as Abraham’s had been stayed. He lowered the bedclothes covering Edith and raised the knife high above his head. At that instant, Edith opened her eyes and gazed at her father. The look on her face did not stay Freeman’s hand nor did divine intervention. He drove the blade deep into her side. “Oh, Papa,” she gasped. A moment later, she was dead. Climbing into bed beside his child’s corpse, Freeman took her into his arms as though lulling her to sleep and remained there until daybreak. He suffered “a good deal of agony of mind” which eventually was overtaken by a great feeling of peace, even exultation. He had been tested and found worthy. He had done God’s will!

The following day, several dozen of Freeman’s neighbors were summoned to his home to share in his revelation. After an hour long sermon, he drew back the covers and revealed to his neighbors the glorious sacrifice that he had made at God’s behest. Freeman assured them that they need not be concerned for the child. In three days, Edith would rise again. Her resurrection would be a sign that the Son of Man had come!

The next day, Freeman was arrested and eventually he would be declared insane and sent to the asylum at Danvers. Contrary to his expectations, his slaughtered child did not return to life. Three days after her murder – on the morning of her promised resurrection – the dead girl disappeared forever into the sod of Pocasset cemetery. A plaque on her coffin read: “Little Edie – lived only 57 months. She shall surely rise again – John vi. 39“.

Culled from: Fatal: The Poisonous Life of a Female Serial Killer

Facts

Today’s Shattering Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Harold Baumgarten, M.D., on landing in Normandy, France on D-Day, June 6, 1944:

Sergeant Barnes got shot down right in front of me, and Lieutenant Donaldson; Sergeant “Pilgrim” Robertson, from my boat team, had a gaping wound in the upper right corner of his forehead. He was walking crazily in the water, without his helmet. Then I saw him get down on his knees and start praying with his rosary beads. At this moment, the Germans cut him in half with their deadly crossfire, which was coming from pillboxes, and what I thought was a reinforced building overlooking the beach. I saw the reflection from the helmet of one of the snipers and took aim and later on, I found out, I got a bull’s eye on him. It was the only time that rifle fired, due to the bullet that hit my rifle. It must have shattered the wood, and the rifle broke in half and I had to throw it away.

Culled from: Day Of Destiny: The Photographs Of D-Day

Facts

Hey, if you’re gonna play Jesus for a day, you might as well do it RIGHT! (Lovely photos at the link.)

Filipinos are CRUCIFIED in grisly re-enactment of Jesus’s death as Christians around the world mark Good Friday

Ghastly!, News

Today’s Wet Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Woman Breast Feeding, 1845

How and what an infant should be fed has long been one of the great controversial medical topics, beginning in the 19th century and persisting even today. Quality of feeding may well be the most important factor in an infant’s surviving the first year of life, so the superiority of mother’s milk versus wet nurses’ milk, animal milk, and prepared “formulas” has been hotly debated. It is now known that breast-feeding offers not only the benefits of nourishment and natural immunization passed on from the mother to her offspring, but a profound direct contact that promotes the psychological health of both mother and child. In past times, however, wet nurses were commonplace, freeing lower-class mothers to go out and earn a living and liberating wealthy mothers from the time and hormonal effects of nursing so they could have more children. Unfortunately, any disease the wet nurse might have could be passed to the baby; thus, syphilis and other deadly maladies were often spread this way. Furthermore, in the 19th century, cows’ milk was frequently infected with tuberculosis and other deadly diseases, as there was no regulation of the animals or of the means of production or delivery of their milk. Thus, summer diarrhea and tuberculosis, responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of children, were spread through cows’ milk and infected bottles. Infant mortality in the United States ranged from 30-50% in that era.

Culled from: A Morning’s Work: Medical Photographs from The Burns Archive & Collection 1843-1939

Facts

The title of this article says it all.  Just check out the pics!!

Mouthless Meth Salesman Busted For Slangin’ Meth

Ghastly!