Today’s Weakened Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Instances of military floggings resulting in fatalities in 19th century Britain are too numerous to recount, as are those that occurred in the navy, whether administered by the cat-o’-nine-tails or the rope’s end. Many reports were entered in ships’ logs, one example being: “A man in the Theseus was severely and repeatedly punished until at last he could not walk. He was, however, brought up on deck in this weak condition, laid upon a gun, as he could not stand, and again flogged. He died almost immediately afterwards.”
Culled from: The Book Of Execution
Facts
Today’s Levitican Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Thomas Granger (1625? – September 8, 1642) was the first person hanged in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (the first hanged in any of the colonies of New England) and the first known juvenile to be sentenced to death and executed in the territory of today’s United States. He was a servant to Love Brewster, of Duxbury, in the Plymouth Colony of British North America. Granger, at the age of 16 or 17, was convicted of “buggery with a mare, a cowe, two goats, divers sheepe, two calves, and a turkey”, according to court records of 7 September 1642. Granger confessed to his crimes privately to local magistrates, and upon indictment, publicly to ministers and the jury, being sentenced to “death by hanging until he was dead”. He was hanged on September 8, 1642. Before Granger’s execution, following the laws set down in Leviticus 20:15 (“And if a man shall lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast”), the animals involved were slaughtered before his face and thrown into a large pit dug for their disposal, no use being made of any part of them. An account of Granger’s acts is recorded in Gov. William Bradford’s diary of Plymouth Plantation 1620-1647. Granger’s crime represents the colonies’ first recorded act of bestiality.
Culled from: Wikipedia
They killed the animals too? Talk about blaming the victim!
Facts
Today’s Crappy Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
GG Allin was determined to become the most outrageous rock performer of all time. He was known for his stage performances and for finding an expressive use of excrement, never failing to defecate or urinate at least one time before the show was over. Allin took laxatives, drank heavily, and shot up to make sure he could crap on cue. To increase the audience’s sensory experience, he rolled in his dung, injured himself, and taunted the most aggressive in the crowd, which many times nearly resulted in a riot. At this point in his career, because of the damage he did to sound equipment and other venue property, the plug was pulled often after only one or two songs. By the late 80′s he was drawing crowds by promising to commit suicide on stage, philosophically believing you should go to heaven at your strongest. He also got arrested frequently for indecent exposure and assault and battery, and was once charged with rape and torture. Psychologists examined GG and deemed him “not psychotic,” and of at least average intelligence, though with narcissistic and masochistic tendencies. His oddness, or perhaps his father’s premonition, got him appearances and coverage on numerous talk shows including The Jerry Springer Show and Geraldo. During his last performance in New York City, in 1993, they yanked the power after the second song. He trashed the club and left in a rage, walking the streets naked and covered in feces. When he went back to his friend Johnny Puke’s flat, on Avenue B, Allin overdosed on heroin and died. He was 36. Strung out groupies showed up, and not thinking he was dead, only severely dosed, propped GG up for pictures. At his open-casket wake, he was dressed in a black leather jacket and a jock strap, with one hand holding the neck of a bottle of Jim Beam.
Culled from: Genius and Heroin: The Illustrated Catalogue of Creativity, Obsession, and Reckless Abandon Through the Ages
Facts
Jennifer Daniel had a great idea. She took the lips from dead Playboy centerfolds and displayed them along with the cause of death. Now, this is what I call art.
Dead Sexy
Thanks to Katchaya for the link.
Art
I want to go here so frickin’ bad…
The Bone Chilling Catacombs of the Capuchin Monks
Thanks to Bill for the link.
Sightseer
Sorry I’ve been away. Work ate my life for awhile. I doubt that ever happened to Thomas Parr… He knew how to live.
Today’s Satisfying Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Thomas Parr of Winnington, Shropshire, was 152 years old when he died in the 17th century. He married at 80 and was compelled to do penance for adultery at the age of 105. Seven years later he married a second time, ‘to the stated satisfaction of his new wife’. Forty years later he finally succumbed to rich food, strong drink and the sulphurous air of London.
Culled from: Death: A History of Man’s Obsessions and Fears
Facts
Today’s Indoctrinated Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
The historical roots of militarism in Japanese schools (which was used to indoctrinate young boys to become efficient killing machines during the World War II era) stretched back to the Meiji Restoration. In the late 19th century the Japanese minister of education declared that schools were run not for the benefit of the students but for the good of the country. Elementary school teachers were trained like military recruits, with student-teachers housed in barracks and subjected to harsh discipline and indoctrination. In 1890 the Imperial Rescript on Education emerged; it laid down a code of ethics to govern not only students and teachers but every Japanese citizen. The Rescript was the civilian equivalent of Japanese military codes, which valued above all obedience to authority and unconditional loyalty to the emperor. In every Japanese school a copy of the Rescript was enshrined with a portrait of the emperor and taken out each morning to be read. It was reputed that more than one teacher who accidentally stumbled over the words committed suicide to atone for the insult to the sacred document.
Culled from: The Rape Of Nanking
Facts
Today’s Dignified Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
The procession of English and Scottish kings and queens offers up few examples of dignified death and burial. Perhaps this is because medieval kings frequently met violent ends – by torture, murder, death in battle or execution; or when they did die natural deaths, lurid descriptions of their terminal agonies have come down to us. In such a pageant of ignominy and commonplace, the paradigm for a noble death was given by a queen who conspired to die in the manner in which she had endeavoured to live. Queen Victoria (1819-1901) died with regal dignity, going down “like a great three-decker ship”.
Victoria died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, surrounded by many members of her large family – including her son Bertie, later king Edward VII, and her grandson the German kaiser. The queen lapsed in and out of consciousness but retained her mental functions to the last. When awake she would ask to have her Pomeranian, Turi, up on the bed beside her. Her children would come and go and at each visit would announce themselves to Victoria, who had long since been virtually blind. Finally the kaiser’s presence was revealed: “Your Majesty, your grandson is here; he has come to see you as you are so ill.” The queen smiled and understood. To everyone’s relief the kaiser behaved impeccably. Sinking by slow degrees, Victoria seemed free of pain, her expression calm and dignified “like that of an old Roman”. She would apologize for the trouble she was causing and would address the dressers as “my poor girls”.
At about 6:30 p.m. on January 22nd the family were summoned for a final time by Sir James Reid, the royal physician. The queen was supported in bed by Reid on the one said and the kaiser on the other. Victoria turned her eyes and gazed at The Entombment of Christ, hanging over the fireplace. And thus she died.
Culled from: Death: A History Of Man’s Obsessions and Fears by Robert Wilkins
Facts
Today’s Less Than Human Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Thousands of black men and women met a cruel death by lynching in the American South during the late 19th and early 20th century. Varying only in degrees of torture and brutality, these execution rituals were acted out in every part of the South. Sometimes in small groups, sometimes in massive numbers, whites combined the roles of judge, jury, and executioner. Newspaper reporters dutifully reported the events under such lurid headlines as “COLORED MAN ROASTED ALIVE,” describing in graphic detail the slow and methodical agony and death of the victim and devising a vocabulary that would befit the occasion. The public burning of a Negro would soon be known as a “Negro Barbecue,” reinforcing the perception of blacks as less than human.
Culled from: Without Sanctuary
Facts
Today’s Incessant Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Derived from both the belladonna and datura plants, atropine has been employed throughout history – particularly in India – as a particularly deadly poison. In Victorian America it was used, like morphine, both as a painkiller and as a treatment for dozens of ailments: asthma, earache, night sweats, rheumatism, seasickness, tetanus, whooping cough, and many more. Its symptoms, however, are very different from – and in some cases diametrically opposite to – those produced by morphine. The mouth and throat grow parched, and the pupils widely dilated. Victims lose control of their muscular coordination and reel around like drunks. They are possessed by a strange sense of giddiness that soon passes into a wild delirium. They may babble incoherently, burst into maniacal laughter, or emit constant, anguished groans. Perhaps the most grotesque symptom of all is their incessant picking at real or imaginary objects. They pluck at their clothing – pull at their fingers and toes – snatch at invisible objects in the air. Even when they lapse into their final stupor, they continue to mutter feverishly and make constant spasmodic motions, clutching at the bedclothes or grasping at phantoms floating over their heads.
Culled from: Fatal: The Poisonous Life of a Female Serial Killer
Facts