June, 2005
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June 10, 2005 Today's
Explosive Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Culled
from: Morris-Turnberry News ********************************************************************** As the
Dickeys says, "That blows!" Morbid Recommendation Du Jour! I have received an anonymous recommendation of a film entitled "Black Robe": "It's about jesuit missionaries and features scenes of torture. It's an eerie film and worth watching just for the incredible lonely scenery: trees and trees and trees." Here's
the Amazon link to the DVD, which sounds quite interesting: Asylum Update! Speaking of The Library Eclectica, I've done a bit of an upgrade (I hope) to the site, especially the homepage, so please feel free to check it out and hate it immensely. http://asylumeclectica.com/asylum/library/ ******* Morbid Sightseeing Update! Well, isn't this just nauseating. In continuing one of my least-favorite trends, the historic Franklin Castle in Cleveland, Ohio is being taken over by one of those horrible, snobby private clubs: http://franklincastleclub.com/ Yes, you too can pay exorbitant sums of money to get exclusive access to one of the coolest (and allegedly haunted) historic buildings in the midwest! A generous person would have turned it into a bed and breakfast or a restaurant so that the "little people" could enjoy it too, but not this elitist bastard. But I'm not bitter... Thanks to MilsapsPro for the link. |
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June 11, 2005 Today's Cracking Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Fernand Meyssonnier, like his father, was an executioner. For 21 years, from 1947, he helped to guillotine the heads off more than 200 people - the vast majority of them Arabs - in French Algeria. During the war there he was taking off five or six a month. He knows what it is like to hold a human head. He has seen the gore. "The blood spurts like two glasses of red wine chucked three metres," he says with a quick double-flick of the wrist. He has never spoken publicly about his experiences before. But at 72 he is ill with cancer, and this month he is bringing out a book - An Executioner's Tale - in which he answers all the questions. Fernand started off as a junior assistant, with the task of tying the convict's ankles and thighs with fishing-wire. Then his hands were handcuffed behind his back and his elbows trussed together. "This has the effect of making the head stick out, which was what we wanted," he says. Later he was promoted to first assistant, whose job it was to stand at the top-end and pull the convict's head through the wooden hole known as the "demi-lunette," or half-lens, and then hold it as the blade came down. Because he was looking at the convict through the demi-lunette, the first assistant was also known as the "photographer." "You must never give the guy time to think. Because if you do he starts moving his head around, and that's when you have the mess-ups. The blade comes through his jaw, and you have to use a butcher's knife to finish it off. So I would say 'Go, father!' and - crack! - the head is in my hands, and I put it in the bucket." Culled
from: BBC News ********************************************************************** For most
of us, "helping Dad" entailed nothing more glamorous that
holding the hubcap while he changed the tire. Some people... Morbid Trinkets Du Jour! Check out this amazing collection of vintage monster toys! http://thegalleryofmonstertoys.com/ Thanks to zale for the link. ******* "My [Grandpa's Wartime] Brush With Morbidity" by Kainlane "My grandfather was an airplane mechanic on one of the tiny islands in the South Pacific during WWII. The normal sights they would deal with were grisly enough, seeing all the shot-up planes and what-not, but there were a couple especially grisly events. First I will give you some background on the mechanics of one of the planes. I am sorry that I can't recall the name but it was a type of bomber that had rotating .50 caliber turrets in various places. Well, the way they work is they can hold down the trigger and fire at a plane that is flying around them and the guns automatically stop firing as the turret would come in line with its own airplane body. That way they could hold down the trigger and keep following the enemy plane as it went on the other side. Well, with one particular plane that came in the stopping mechanism broke and the turret continued firing into its own belly completely demolishing anything and anyone inside. When the plane came into the base my grandpa was part of the volunteer clean-up crew that took care of the mess of blood and body parts. He mentioned that there was absolutely nothing left of them. Another instance that he saw was a fighter plane that was shot up pretty badly (this time by enemy fire) and nearly made it to the runway. Well, of course, that didn't happen: just before it made it the plane nose dived right into the ground. When they went to look at the wreckage the pilot was so messed up one of his arms was found in front of the firewall by the engine. They never could figure out how it got in front." WWII veterans are known for their stoic reluctance to discuss disturbing details from the war with their families, so bravo for Kainlane's grandpa for spilling the goods!
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June 12, 2005 Today's
Horrific Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Culled
from: Scotsman.Com ********************************************************************** You know
what is unfair? The fact that this juror was given such an AMAZING case
to hear, and couldn't hack it. Now, you just KNOW that if any of us
morbid types were put on a jury we'd be hearing some boring embezzlement
or drug trial. Some people just can't appreciate a good thing when it's
on video right in front of their face... Morbid Recommendation Du Jour! Wilf sends the following recommendation: "You might like to check out the books by Bernhardt J Hurwood whose 'Vampires' is an excellent overview of the history of vampirism, its origins, film history and modern vampires. His 'Erotica' isn't bad either." Thanks
for the heads-up. For those interested, here's the link to Vampires: And for
you pervs, here's the link to his Golden Age Of Erotica as well: Speaking
of erotica, one of my favorite books is a collection of vintage erotic
pictures entitled "The Rotenberg Collection: Forbidden Erotica".
This one is definitely worth its weight in mirth! Morbid Rhyme Du Jour! In the spirit of the "Little Willie" poems that I featured awhile back, here are some lovely song lyrics by Tom Lehrer that Bonnie thinks we all should be exposed to! The Irish Ballad (Rickety-Tickety-Tin) About a
maid I'll sing a song, One morning
in a fit of pique, Her mother
she could never stand, She set
her sister's hair on fire, She weighted
her brother down with stones, One day
when she had nothing to do, And when
at last the police came by, My tragic
tale, I won't prolong,
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June 13, 2005 Today's Freakish Yet Truly Morbid Fact! The little girl's body was placed in a container of formalin, from where it is still gazing at the world with the only one big blue eye. The weird baby looked at the world with its only eye, took a breath of air with the trunk that was growing on its forehead, and died. Doctors of one of St.Petersburg hospitals said that it was an absolutely normal woman that gave birth to the incredible mutant-baby, which could be compared to a Cyclops. The female creature was covered with thick hair; it had only one eye in the center of its forehead and a small trunk that was growing on the head above the eye. The middle-aged mother of the unusual child had a preterm delivery. Doctors would not have time to take her to the maternity hospital. The woman gave birth to the baby girl at home. Doctors' hair stood on end when they saw the seven-month-old fetus. Thick hair was growing on the girl's shoulders and back. Locks of hair were growing on the baby's head too. The little girl has a big blue eye on the forehead. The child had no nose: there was something strange growing on the head right above the eye. Doctors believed at first that it was a penis, although they determined later that it was a small trunk, through which the baby could breathe. The mutant child died almost instantly. The doctors tried to take life-saving efforts, but they brought no result. It is hard to imagine what kind of shock the child's parents had to survive. They were dreaming about a baby for long, but their dream ended with a nightmare. The deceased infant was sent to a morgue, where professional experts of forensic medicine thoroughly examined the little body. The hairy, one-eyed girl had a number of other physical defects, which would not let her live even for several days. Culled
from: Pravda **********************************************************************
******* Urban Exploration Link Du Jour! You know how I love those urban ruins - and so do the fine folks at Dark Passage. Enjoy their "urban post-mortems" here: Thanks
to Pam for the link. Morbid Trinket Du Jour! I've been looking for one of these wonderful "Black Death European Tour" t-shirts for several years, since I saw someone wearing one. Imagine my delight when Jennifer sent me a heads-up! http://www.northernsun.com/cgi-bin/ns/1618.html Though I do think white or red lettering would look better than orange...
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June 14, 2005 Today's Shocking Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Hospital officials in Romania are investigating after a doctor was punched by a 'corpse' in the morgue. The doctor had to be treated for shock after he was punched by teenager Bogdan Georgescu. It happened after the doctor thought he saw Mr Georgescu move and bent over to investigate. The youngster, 16, had been taken to the morgue at Brasov County Hospital in Brasov, after collapsing and showing no signs of life. He was declared dead on arrival and his body moved to the morgue. He said: "I woke up and had no idea where I was, I looked to the left and to the right and saw a dead woman on either side of me, and then I saw this man coming towards me in a white coat. I just panicked. I thought he was going to kill me." The youngster, from Fagaras, is now being treated in the neurological ward to find out the cause of his collapse. He said: "The last thing I remember is drinking coffee with my brother, and then I woke up in the morgue." The doctor was allowed to take time off work after being treated for shock. Culled
from: Ananova ********************************************************************** Sure, the doctor is in "shock". The guy's a mortician! Surely he realized that he was likely to stumble across a live one eventually? Sounds like he just saw a convenient excuse for a vacation. ******* Morbid Mirth Du Jour! My buddy Bergie sends this oldie but moldie: A man with no arms and no legs is out lying on the beach one day, enjoying his chance to get some sun. All of a sudden, a beautiful woman walks by and stops. "You poor man," she says. "I bet you've never been kissed have you?" The man has to admit, no, he never has, so she bends down and plants a good one right on the mouth. A few minutes later, another gorgeous babe walks up. "You look like you need a hug," she says. He agrees that would be nice, she gives him a great one, and walks away. A few minutes later, a drop-dead gorgeous girl walks by. She stops, a sultry smile on her face and looks down at him. "Mister", she says, "Have you ever been F*cked?" "No", he says with a hopeful grin. "Well,
you are now. The tide's coming in." ******* Morbid Trinket Du Jour! The oppressive, rotting stench of summer is sadly upon us again so if you're one of those strange sorts who choose to go outside instead of spending your days in mournful isolation (preferably in front of an air conditioner), pining for the return of fall, you just might find yourself at the beach one of these days. And if you DO find yourself at the beach, you can hold onto some shred of dignity by taking this nifty LA County Department of Coroner towel with you! Not only will you look cool, but you may find it has the added benefit of frightening mommies away!
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June 15, 2005 Today's Oozing Yet Truly Morbid Fact! In 1958, Albert Herrlich of the University of Munich described a severe outbreak of smallpox in Bombay, where the majority of the patients had "confluent" smallpox, with pustules clustered so densely that they ran together so that no normal skin was visible, turning the patient's face into a hideous, oozing mask. "The head was usually covered by what appeared to be a single pustule; the nose and lips were glued together," Herrlich wrote. "When the tightly filled vesicles burst, the pus soaked through the bedsheet, became smeared on the blanket, and formed thick, yellowish scabs and crusts on the skin.... Swallowing was so painful that the patients refused all nourishment and, in spite of agonizing thirst, often also refused all fluids... Wails and groans filled the rooms... The patients were conscious to their last breath. Some... just lay there, dull and unresponsive. They no longer shook off the flies that sat on purulent eyelids, on the openings of mouth and nose, and in swarms on the inflamed areas of skin. But they were still alive, and with touching gestures they lifted their hands and begged for help." Culled
from: Scourge:
The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox ********************************************************************** Considerably
worse than the common cold, don't you think? Actually, I read this book
on the plane to and from Topeka, and I was really hoping that it would
focus more on the "Once" rather than the "Future",
but I was sadly disappointed. Although there were a few choice morsels
detailing the suffering that smallpox has caused to poor souls in the
past, and the history of inocculation was also quite interesting, most
of the book discussed the long (and rather boring) history of the global
eradication of the disease, and the current dilemma with smallpox virus
samples being stored in various locations around the world. I mean,
it's not like those topics aren't interesting... but they cannot compare
with what I quoted above. So, I'd have to give this book a 2 1/2 skull
rating on the 5-skull morbid scale. Morbid
Trinket Du Jour! http://www.eathufu.com/home.asp Thanks
to Elizabeth for the link. Morbid Site Du Jour! Well, this isn't really morbid, but it's pretty nifty if you happen to live in Chicago. You can look up the number and type of crimes occurring in any block in the city on this helpful website. I was bored to see that no crimes at all have occurred at either block I've lived in. It's actually typical - I repel excitement. I really should hire myself out to keep air passengers safe from crashes... Anyway, here's the site for any of you who might be interested: http://www.chicagocrime.org/
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June 16, 2005 Today's Paralyzed Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Anne Gottsdanker was a chipper 5-year-old Santa Barbara girl 50 years ago, when her family doctor gave her one of the first of the newly approved Salk polio shots. Manufactured by Cutter Laboratories in Berkeley, the vaccine came from two batches later found to be contaminated with live polio virus. Gottsdanker came down with a flu-like illness during a family vacation to Calexico, on the Mexican border. She has been paralyzed ever since. The first cases of polio in children who received the tainted vaccine were reported to regulators on April 25, 1955 - two weeks after the nation began a drive to vaccinate millions of schoolchildren. Before it was over, 164 people would suffer permanent paralysis from the Cutter vaccine or from the outbreak of polio triggered by it. Ten others died. For a brief period, the “Cutter Incident” shut down the ambitious vaccination program and threatened to scuttle the effort that ultimately eliminated polio from the United States. The accidental paralysis of those healthy children is now all but forgotten, but University of Pennsylvania pediatrician Dr. Paul Offit called it “one of the worst pharmaceutical disasters in U.S. history.” Culled
from: The
San Francisco Chronicle ********************************************************************** I'm glad they had this whole immunization thing ironed out by the time I was born!
******* Morbid Trinket Du Jour! For those of you who actually carry purses (I find them far too burdensome, myself), you may find Alchemy Gothic's bone-casket handbag to your liking. http://www.darkemporium.com/acatalog/Bone_Casket_Handbag.html Thanks to Zubrovka for the link. ******* Morbid Mirth Du Jour! Andrew graciously submits this link to a particularly enticing episode of the comic strip Roughies: http://www.roughies.com/d/20050421.html
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June 17, 2005 Today's Smelly Yet Truly Morbid Fact! A New Jersey couple is accused of forcing a 13-year-old foster child to repeatedly feed the corpse of an elderly relative who died in the house months previous. Authorities don't have a clear motive in the case, but say the couple from Clark, New Jersey simply did something most of us would consider unbelievable. The family living in the house had a disgusting secret. A decaying body was inside an upstairs bedroom, and one of the couple's foster children was required each night to take food to the dead man. Ted Romankow, Union County Prosecutor, stated, "She didn't want to, I think, object to her responsibility or her role -- that is, to feed grandpa -- because she was concerned that she might not remain there." Apparently the 13-year-old foster girl had to deal with the stench, and swirled the food around in the plate to make it look like her 82 year old step-grandfather had been eating. "She certainly wanted to show her mom and dad down stairs that she was doing what she was asked to do," said Romankow. Neighbors said that during the past summer they smelled a strong odor emanating from that house. And police tell us that at one point in time before his death, the grandfather was found walking on the sidewalk right in front of his house but he was lost. The first floor of the home was well kept, but the upstairs has been described as deplorable. Cops removed the body from the home last August (2003), and say there is no doubt the couple knew that the elderly man had died. Culled
from: ABC
News ********************************************************************** Okay, so
how is this abuse? These parents are just teaching their child to show
respect for the dead. It's a win-win situation! The kid gets desensitized
to corpses, and the grandfather gets to pig out in the afterlife. Anyway,
I guess the "authorities" didn't see it that way, seeing as
they sentenced the parents to 360 days in jail. Oh well... "My [Brother's] Brush With Morbidity" by Rene "My
brother left a party one evening with his wife and 3 kids (about half
an hour after I did, which means I missed everything), and on the highway
he slowed down because he noticed an accident scene up front. The police
got there about the same time as they did, so they hadn't closed any
parts of the highway yet. My brother was looking at the police cars,
and not the road directly in front of him when he drove over a body
(or rather, hopefully it was a body, and not somebody that was still
alive). The next morning his wife got up, and was standing outside when
she noticed the dog was chewing something. It was the jaw of the person
they drove over. In some way the jaw got stuck on the car. They were
too grossed out to touch it, so they just left the dog to finish eating
it." Morbid
Site Du Jour! http://starship.python.net/crew/manus/Presidents/ Thanks to kelshubert for the link. |
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June 18, 2005 Today's
Penny-pinching Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Culled
from: Wikipedia ********************************************************************** See? It pays to be a penny pincher! I must take a drive out to the Bath Disaster Memorial one of these days. You know I live for things like this.
******* Morbid
Trinket Du Jour! A
neck broken/dislocated after a hanging! A
skull with multiple arrows in the head! A
child with a steak knife in the head! And other fun stuff. Wouldn't these look awesome in a lightbox? One of these days... Thanks
to Damon for the link! Morbid Recommendation Du Jour! Jen has a classic morbid gaming recommendation for us: These are pretty old games, so I'm not sure if they are still available or playable for a lot of people any more, but what about Sierra's Phantasmagoria series? The first has a haunted mansion and a demented husband, the second some bondage scenes and general mind disturbance. They were quite controversial when they first came out, and I still find them pretty shiver-inducing. These were two of my favorite games. A link to a fan site with synopsis of both games: http://anthonylarme.tripod.com/phantas/phantas.html And here's an Amazon.Com link to the boxed set that collects both games: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00001LDC2/theasylumeclecti
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June 19, 2005 Today's Grave Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Twenty Zimbabweans, who hitched a lift on the back of a truck in December, 2004, found themselves forced to dig up a grave at gunpoint at a well-known Harare cemetary. The passengers were picked up by a truck supposedly on its way to Harare's satellite town of Chitungwiza, around 20km south of Harare, but instead made for Harare's Granville cemetary. When the truck stopped, three men jumped out of the cab and ordered the passengers off. "The men ordered everyone off the vehicle at gunpoint and some men were ordered to carry shovels and picks that were in the vehicle," a council official said. The passengers were force-marched to a grave, which they were ordered to dig up. "They took turns to dig the grave until they reached the coffin - a casket - which they were told to carefully unearth," the official said. He said the passengers were told to empty out the coffin and load it onto the truck. The 20 were then left stranded at the graveyard. In Zimbabwe there is believed to be a brisk trade in stolen coffins, which are expensive and highly sought after. Culled
from: IOL ********************************************************************** Morbid Site Du Jour! For those of you who just can't get enough of on-screen fatality, Cinemorgue is the website for you! Click on the name of your favorite thespian (far more actresses than actors, which makes me think the guy who runs it is fulfilling a little fantasy of his own), and receive a list of their onscreen demises. http://www.cinemorgue.com/index.html Morbid Trinket Du Jour! Okay, maybe the starting bid was a little steep (ahem), but wouldn't it be nifty to have one of THESE in your garage? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=12&item=7313736727&rd=1 Thanks to Elizabeth for the link.
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June 20, 2005 Today's Posthumous Yet Truly Morbid Fact! A unique heart memorial was contrived for Johannes Wepfer. When this great anatomist died, his friends decided to honour the man, who was the first to describe the link between damage to the cerebral blood vessels and strokes, by bringing out a posthumous edition of his works in 1727. The book began with an illustrated account of the author's autopsy, and in a drawing captioned "Memoria Wepferiana," the cause of Wepfer's death is plain to see, since the dissected heart and blood vessels show gross hardening of the arteries. Culled
from: Death:
A History of Man's Obsessions and Fears ********************************************************************** Rather touching, don't you think? I'd love a copy of this book. ******* Morbid Sightseer Update! I've added a travelogue to The Morbid Sightseer of my trip to Saint Louis Cemetery Number One in New Orleans back in 2002. (Yeah, I know, took me long enough!) http://asylumeclectica.com/asylum/sightseer/us/la/stlouis1.htm *******
jess recommends the fiction book "Sleep No More" by Greg Iles: "Very weird, morbid, disturbing, etc." The description sounds pretty interesting: "Eve Sumner has an uncanny resemblance to a long-dead woman with whom John Waters was once obsessively in love. The successful Mississippi oilman's college affair with Mallory Candler ended long before she was killed, but the mysterious Eve knows things about that affair that only Mallory could have known. That's more than a coincidence, since Eve is actually Mallory's reincarnation—or, at least, she's the corporeal body into which Mallory's restless soul seems to have migrated. Long before the bizarre denouement of this supernatural thriller--a departure for Iles, whose previous thrillers have been much more straightforward--the reader's sympathies have been engaged by Waters, a decent man whose best friend may be his worst enemy and whose past may destroy his future." http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0451208765/theasylumeclecti
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Today's
Appealing Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Synopsis generously submitted by: Dwayne ********************************************************************** Dwayne also points out that this infamous case has inspired both a book and a movie. The book:
I'll definitely
have to check these out! Morbid Book Du Jour! Bergie writes to let us know about a reissue of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" (timed to coincide with the release of the Tom Cruise flick) with illustrations by the late, much lamented, Edward Gorey: http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/popcandy/2005-06-14-pop-candy_x.htm Here's
the Amazon.Com link to the book: Morbid Poetry Du Jour! A few days ago, I featured a grandfather's brush with morbidity, when he had to clean-out the remains of soldiers from planes as a maintenance man in World War II. Stephen sends a follow-up. "The brush with morbidity in today's MFDJ (a reader's grandfather's memories of his WWII airplane maintenance and cleaning duties) reminded me of "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" by Randal Jarrell: "From
my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
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June 30, 2005 Today's
Rough Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Culled
from: Rack,
Rope, and Red Hot Pincers by Geoffrey Abbott ********************************************************************** I must admit that this is what I'm always looking for whenever I enter a deserted building. Alas, I've discovered no skeletons, as of yet. Incidentally, here is a wonderful picture of the castle. I must visit someday! http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Europe/Germany/photo87471.htm ******* Strangely enough, it wasn't the chapters of the book that discuss Holmes that I found most interesting. Rather, it was the work of Daniel Burnham and Frederick Olmsted, as the construction supervisor and landscape architect of the fair, that I found fascinating. The fact that they were able to pull off the fair and turn the desolate, muddy wild that was Jackson Park into the glorious, sparkling White City in such a short period of time is truly amazing. Especially when you learn of all the things that went wrong during the construction! And the World's Columbian Exposition itself is such a subject of fascination for a nostalgic soul like myself. So many things that we take for granted today originated or were popularized during this fair: Cracker Jacks, the Ferris Wheel, the carnival midway, shredded wheat, AC electricity, even that exotic little snake-charmer melody that goes, "There's a place in France where the naked ladies dance..." It's a fascinating chronicle and I highly recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in history. "The
Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson Morbid Site Du Jour! Since the
Texas Department of (in)Justice decided to take down their "Last
Meals" website, there has been a hole in my morbid heart. Thank
goodness Dead Man Eating has come along to suture up that wound! Yes,
at this simple website you can still read the final meals of death row
prisoners, along with a synopsis of their (alleged) crimes and their
final words. And ever since I saw the documentary "The Thin Blue
Line" I've tended to believe the ones that say they are innocent...
Thanks
to Karen for the link. Morbid Mirth Du Jour! I'm sure you've heard the shocking news by now, but in case you haven't seen the footage, behold the gruesome power of Scientology! Thanks to Kayle for the link.
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