The Midnight Train Podcast

Suicide Pilots

Listener Discretion Is Advised. 

A pilot who intentionally crashes or attempts to crash an aircraft in an attempt to commit suicide, often with the intention of killing other people on board or on the ground, is said to have committed suicide. This is occasionally referred to as a murder-suicide. It is known to have caused some commercial aviation crashes and is likely to have contributed to others. In general, it is challenging for crash investigators to pin down the pilots' intentions since they occasionally take deliberate actions to obstruct recordings or other inquiries. Pilot suicide is therefore sometimes impossible to establish with absolute certainty.

 

Unless there is strong evidence that the pilot was actually committing suicide, investigators do not classify aircraft events as suicide. This proof could come in the form of suicide notes, prior suicide attempts, suicide threats, or a history of mental illness. Eight deaths were determined to be suicides in a study of pilot suicides from 2002 to 2013, and five other cases of unclear causes may have been suicides. To ascertain if the suicide was a terrorist act, investigators may also consult with terrorism experts and look for connections to extremist groups.

 

The majority of pilot suicides occur in small, general aviation aircraft. The lone occupant of the airplane in the majority of these situations is the pilot. A flying prohibition would have ordinarily resulted from the pilot using drugs, most frequently alcohol or antidepressants, in around half of the cases. Many of these pilots have a history of mental illness that they have tried to hide from authorities.

 

As most people know, the strategy of war where pilots will dive bomb their aircrafts into land or sea based vessels has been around since World War 2 so we arent really going to talk too much about incidents such as those. However, the first person credited with doing so was Russian aviator Nikolai Gastello. He was credited with the first takedown of a land based vehicle with his aircraft, although his aircraft had been shot down and was in a rapid partially controllable descent which this is later to be disputed. Other notable incidents are the kamikazes of the Empire of Japan during the Pacific Campaign of World War 2.

 

Now lets talk about cases where pilots had suicidal thoughts or temptations of murder while piloting an aircraft.

 

Hosted by Jonathan Sayre and Logan Sayre

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If you or someone you know is having thoughts of hurting themselves, someone else or they just need some mental assistance, contact the National Institute of Mental Health https://www.nimh.nih.gov or your local mental health facility. 

”Hell’s Belle” Gunness, aka Lady Bluebeard, aka ”The La Porte Ghoul”

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Belle Sorenson Gunness was initially born as Brynhild Paulsdatter Størseth; November 11, 1859, Selbu, Norway – April 28, 1908?, Lwas a Norwegian-Americ

Standing six feet tall (183 cm) and weighing over 200 pounds (91 kg), she was a massive, physically strong woman.

 

Early years

 

Gunness' origins are a matter of some debate. Most of her biographers state that she was born on November 11, 1859, near the lake of Selbu, Sør-Trøndelag, Norway, and christened Brynhild Paulsdatter Størset. Her parents were Paul Pedersen Størset (a stonemason) and Berit Olsdatter. She was the youngest of their eight children. They lived at Størsetgjerdet, a very small cotter's farm in Innbygda, 60 km southeast of Trondheim, the largest city in central Norway (Trøndelag).

 

An Irish TV documentary by Anne Berit Vestby aired on September 4, 2006, tells a common, but the unverified story about Gunness' early life. The story holds that, in 1877, Gunness attended a country dance while pregnant. There she was attacked by a man who kicked her in the abdomen, causing her to miscarry the child. The man, who came from a wealthy family, was never prosecuted by the Norwegian authorities. According to people who knew her, her personality changed substantially. The man who attacked her died shortly afterward. His cause of death was said to be stomach cancer. Growing up in poverty, Gunness took to milking and herding cattle the following year on a large, wealthy farm and served there for three years to pay for a trip across the Atlantic.

 

Following the example of a sister, Nellie Larson, who had emigrated to America earlier, Gunness moved to the United States in 1881 and assumed a more American-style name. Initially, In Chicago, while living with her sister and brother-in-law, she worked as a domestic servant, then got a job at a butcher's shop cutting up animal carcasses until her first marriage in 1884.

 

First Victim

 

In 1884, Gunness married Mads Ditlev Anton Sorenson in Chicago, Illinois, where, two years later, they opened a candy store. The business was unsuccessful, and the shop mysteriously burned down within a year. They collected the insurance, which paid for another home.

 

Some researchers tend to believe that the marriage to Sorenson produced no offspring. However, Neighbors gossiped about the babies since Belle never appeared to be pregnant. Other investigators report that the couple had four children: Caroline, Axel, Myrtle, and Lucy. Caroline and Axel died in infancy, allegedly of acute colitis. The symptoms of acute colitis — nausea, fever, diarrhea, and lower abdominal pain and cramping — are also symptoms of many forms of poisoning. Caroline's and Axel's lives were reportedly insured, and the insurance company paid.

 

A May 7, 1908 article in The New York Times states that two children belonging to Gunness and her husband Mads Sorensen were interred in her plot in Forest Home cemetery.

 

On June 13, 1900, Gunness and her family were counted on the United States Census in Chicago. The census recorded her as the mother of four children; only two were living: Myrtle A., 3, and Lucy B., 1. An adopted 10-year-old girl, possibly identified as Morgan Couch but later known as Jennie Olsen, was also counted in the household.

 

Sorenson died on July 30, 1900, reportedly the only day on which two life insurance policies on him overlapped. Both policies were active simultaneously, as one would expire that day, and the other would begin. The first doctor to see him thought he was suffering from strychnine poisoning. However, the Sorensons' family doctor had been treating him for an enlarged heart, and he concluded that heart failure caused death. An autopsy was considered unnecessary because the death was not thought suspicious. Sorenson died of cerebral hemorrhage that day. Gunness explained he had come home with a headache, and she provided him with quinine powder for the pain; she later checked on him, and he was dead.

 

She applied for the insurance money the day after her husband's funeral. Sorenson's relatives claimed Gunness had poisoned her husband to collect on the insurance. Surviving records suggest that an inquest was ordered. It is unclear, however, whether that investigation actually occurred or Sorenson's body was ever exhumed to check for arsenic, as his relatives demanded. The insurance companies awarded her $8,500 (about $299,838.51 in today’s dollars), with which she bought a pig farm on the outskirts of La Porte, Indiana.

 

Suspicion of murder

 

In 1901, Gunness purchased a house on McClung Road. It’s been reported that both the boat and carriage houses burned to the ground shortly after she acquired the property.

 

As she was preparing to move from Chicago to LaPorte, she became re-acquainted with a recent widower, Peter Gunness, also Norwegian-born. They were married in LaPorte on April 1, 1902; just one week after the ceremony, Peter's infant daughter died (of uncertain causes) while alone in the house with Belle. In December 1902, Peter himself met with a "tragic accident.” According to Belle, he reached for his slippers next to the kitchen stove when he was scalded with brine. She later declared that part of a sausage-grinding machine fell from a high shelf, causing a fatal head injury. A year later, Peter's brother, Gust, took Peter's older daughter, Swanhilde, to Wisconsin. She is the only child to have survived living with Belle.

 

Her husband's death netted Gunness another $3,000 (some sources say $4,000). Local people refused to believe that her husband could be so clumsy; he had run a hog farm on the property and was known to be an experienced butcher; the district coroner reviewed the case and unequivocally announced that he had been murdered. He convened a coroner's jury to look into the matter. Meanwhile, Jennie Olsen, then 14, was overheard confessing to a classmate: "My mama killed my papa. She hit him with a meat cleaver and he died. Don't tell a soul."

 

Jennie was brought before the coroner's jury but denied having said anything. Gunness, meanwhile, convinced the coroner that she was innocent of any wrongdoing. She did not mention that she was pregnant, which would have inspired sympathy, but in May 1903, a baby boy, Phillip, joined the family. In late 1906 Belle told neighbors that her foster daughter, Jennie Olsen, had gone away to a Lutheran College in Los Angeles (some neighbors were informed that it was a finishing school for young ladies). Jennie's body would later be recovered, buried on her adoptive mother's property.

 

Between 1903 and 1906, Belle continued to run her farm. In 1907 Gunness employed a single farm hand, Ray Lamphere, to help with chores.

 

The Suitors

 

Around the same time, Gunness inserted the following advertisement in the matrimonial columns of all the Chicago daily newspapers and those of other large midwestern cities:

 

“Personal — comely widow who owns a large farm in one of the finest districts in La Porte County, Indiana, desires to make the acquaintance of a gentleman equally well provided, with view of joining fortunes. No replies by letter considered unless sender is willing to follow answer with personal visit. Triflers need not apply.”

 

Several middle-aged men of means responded to Gunness' ads. One of her ads was answered by a Wisconsin farmhand, Henry Gurholt. After traveling to La Porte, Gurholt wrote his family, saying that he liked the farm, was in good health, and requested that they send him seed potatoes. When they failed to hear from him, the family contacted Gunness. She told them Gurholt had gone off with horse traders to Chicago. She kept his trunk and fur overcoat.

 

Another one was John Moe, who arrived from Elbow Lake, Minnesota. He had brought more than $1,000 with him to pay off her mortgage, or so he told neighbors, whom Gunness introduced him to as her cousin. He disappeared from her farm within a week of his arrival. 

Although no one ever saw Moe again, a carpenter who did occasional work for Gunness observed that Moe's trunk remained in her house, along with more than a dozen others.

 

Next came George Anderson from Tarkio, Missouri, who, like Peter Gunness and John Moe, was an immigrant from Norway.

 

During dinner with Anderson, she raised the issue of her mortgage. Anderson agreed that he would pay the debt off if they decided to get hitched. Late that night, Anderson awoke to see her standing over him, holding a burning, almost spent candle in her hand and with a strange, sinister expression on her face. Without uttering a word, she ran from the room. Anderson fled from the house, soon taking a train to Missouri.

 

The suitors kept coming, but none of them, except for Anderson, ever left the Gunness farm. By this time, she had begun ordering massive trunks to be delivered to her home. Hack driver Clyde Sturgis delivered many of these trunks to her from La Porte. He later remarked how the heavyset woman would lift these enormous trunks "like boxes of marshmallows,” tossing them onto her broad shoulders and carrying them into the house. She kept the shutters of her house closed day and night; farmers traveling past the dwelling at night saw her digging in the hog pen.

 

Ole B. Budsberg, an elderly widower from Iola, Wisconsin, showed up next. He was last seen alive at the La Porte Savings Bank on April 6, 1907, when he mortgaged his Wisconsin land, signing a deed and obtaining several thousand dollars in cash. Ole B. Budsberg's sons, Oscar and Mathew Budsberg, had no idea that their father had gone off to visit Gunness. When they finally discovered his destination, they wrote to her; she promptly responded, saying she had never seen their father.

 

Several other middle-aged men appeared and disappeared in brief visits to the Gunness farm throughout 1907. Then, in December 1907, Andrew Helgelien, a bachelor farmer from Aberdeen, South Dakota, wrote to her and Belle was all about it. The pair exchanged many letters until a letter came that overwhelmed Helgelien, written in Gunness' careful handwriting and dated January 13, 1908. This letter was later found at the Helgelien farm. It read:

 

“To the Dearest Friend in the World: No woman in the world is happier than I am. I know that you are now to come to me and be my own. I can tell from your letters that you are the man I want. It does not take one long to tell when to like a person, and you I like better than anyone in the world, I know. Think how we will enjoy each other's company. You, the sweetest man in the whole world. We will be all alone with each other. Can you conceive of anything nicer? I think of you constantly. When I hear your name mentioned, and this is when one of the dear children speaks of you, or I hear myself humming it with the words of an old love song, it is beautiful music to my ears. My heart beats in wild rapture for you, My Andrew, I love you. Come prepared to stay forever.”

 

Yikes….

 

In response to her letter, Helgelien flew to her side in January 1908. He arrived with a check for $2,900, the entire savings he had drawn from his local bank. A few days after Helgelien arrived, he and Gunness appeared at the Savings Bank in La Porte and deposited the check. Helgelien vanished a few days later, but Gunness appeared at the Savings Bank to make a $500 deposit and another deposit of $700 in the State Bank. At this time, she started to have problems with her farmhand, Ray Lamphere.

 

In March 1908, Gunness sent several letters to a farmer and horse dealer in Topeka, Kansas named Lon Townsend, inviting him to visit her; he decided to put off the visit until spring and thus did not see her before a fire at her farm. Gunness was also in correspondence with a man from Arkansas and sent him a letter dated May 4, 1908. He would have visited her, but didn’t because of the fire at her farm. Gunness allegedly promised marriage to a suitor Bert Albert, which did not go through because of his lack of wealth.

 

Turning Point

 

The hired hand Ray Lamphere was deeply in love with Gunness; he performed any chore for her, no matter how gruesome. He became jealous of the many men who arrived to court his employer and began making scenes. She fired him on February 3, 1908. Shortly after dispensing with Lamphere, she presented herself at the La Porte courthouse. She declared that her former employee was not in his right mind and was a menace to the public. She somehow convinced local authorities to hold a sanity hearing. Lamphere was pronounced sane and released. Gunness was back a few days later to complain to the sheriff that Lamphere had visited her farm and argued with her. She contended that he threatened her family and had Lamphere arrested for trespassing.

 

Lamphere returned again and again to see her, but she told him to kick rocks each time. Lamphere made thinly disguised threats. Like on one occasion, he confided to farmer William Slater, "Helgelien won't bother me no more. We fixed him for keeps." Helgelien had long since disappeared from the area, or so it was believed. However, his brother, Asle Helgelien, was disturbed when Andrew failed to return home and he wrote to Belle in Indiana, asking her about his sibling's whereabouts. Gunness wrote back, telling Asle Helgelien that his brother was not at her farm and probably went to Norway to visit relatives. Asle Helgelien said he did not believe his brother would do that. He believed his brother was still in the La Porte area, the last place he was seen or heard from. Gunness, being the ballsy bitch she was, told him that if he wanted to come and look for his brother, she would help conduct a search, but she cautioned him that searching for missing persons was an expensive proposition. If she were to be involved in such a manhunt, she stated, Asle Helgelien should be prepared to pay her for her efforts. Asle Helgelien did come to La Porte, but not until May.

 

Ray Lamphere represented an unresolved danger to Belle, and now Asle Helgelien was making inquiries that could very well send her to the gallows. She told a lawyer in La Porte, M.E. Leliter, that she feared for her life and her children’s. Ray Lamphere, she said, had threatened to kill her and burn her house down. She wanted to make out a will just in case Lamphere followed through with his threats. Leliter, the attorney, complied and drew up her will. She left her entire estate to her children and left Leliter's office. She went to one of the La Porte banks holding the mortgage for her property and, not suspiciously at all, paid it off. However, she did not go to the police to tell them about Lamphere's allegedly life-threatening conduct. The reason for this, most historical, true crime nerds agree, was that there hadn’t been any threats; she was merely setting the stage for her own arson.

Joe Maxson, who had been hired to replace Ray Lamphere in February 1908, awoke in the early hours of April 28, 1908, smelling smoke in his room on the second floor of the Gunness house. He opened the hall door to a shit load of flames. Maxson screamed Gunness' name and those of her children but got no response. He slammed the door and then, in his tighty whiteys, leaped from the second-story window of his room, barely surviving the fire that was closing in around him. He raced to town to get help, but by the time the old-fashioned hook and ladder firetruck arrived at the farm at early dawn, the farmhouse was a big ol’ pile of smoking ruins. Four bodies were found inside the house. One of the bodies was that of a woman who could not immediately be identified as Gunness, since she had been decapitated. The head was never found. The bodies of her children were found still in their beds. County Sheriff Smutzer had somehow heard about Lamphere’s alleged threats, so he took one look at the carnage and quickly went after the former handyman. Attorney Leliter came forward to recount his tale about Gunness' will and how she feared Lamphere would kill her and her family and, coincidentally, burn her house down.

 

Lamphere reeeeeally didn’t help his own cause. The moment Sheriff Smutzer confronted him and before the lawman uttered a word, Lamphere exclaimed, "Did Widow Gunness and the kids get out all right?" He was then told about the fire, but he denied having anything to do with it, claiming that he was not near the farm when the blaze occurred. A young lil dude, John Solyem, was brought forward. He said he was watching the Gunness place and saw Lamphere running down the road from the Gunness house just before the structure erupted in flames. Lamphere snorted to the boy: "You wouldn't look me in the eye and say that!"

 

"Yes, I will,” replied Solyem. "You found me hiding behind the bushes and you told me you'd kill me if I didn't get out of there." Lamphere was arrested and charged with murder and arson. Then scores of investigators, sheriff's deputies, coroner's men, and many volunteers began to search the ruins for evidence.

 

The headless woman’s body was a massive concern to La Porte residents. C. Christofferson, a neighboring farmer, looked at the charred remains of this body and said that it was not the remains of Belle Gunness. As did another farmer, L. Nicholson, and so did Mrs. Austin Cutler, an old friend of Gunness. More of Gunness' old friends, Mrs. May Olander and Mr. Sigward Olsen, arrived from Chicago. They examined the remains of the headless woman and said it was’t Belle Gunness.

 

Doctors then measured the remains and, making allowances for the body’s missing neck and head, stated the corpse was that of a woman who stood five feet three inches tall and weighed no more than 150 pounds. Friends and neighbors, as well as the La Porte dressmakers who made her dresses and other garments, swore that Gunness was taller than 5'8" and weighed between 180 and 200 pounds. Remember, she was a large woman who could toss around clothing trunks like they were frisbees. Detailed measurements of the body were compared with those on file with several La Porte stores where she purchased her apparel.

 

When the two sets of measurements were compared, the authorities concluded that the headless woman could not possibly have been Belle Gunness, even when the ravages of the fire on the body were considered. (The flesh was severely burned but intact). Moreover, Dr. J. Meyers examined the internal organs of the dead woman. He sent the stomach contents of the victims to a pathologist in Chicago, who reported months later that the organs contained lethal doses of (dun dun dunnnn)...strychnine.

Gunness' dentist, Dr. Ira P. Norton, said that if the teeth/dental work of the headless corpse had been located, he could definitely ascertain if it was, for sure, Belle Gunness. Enter Louis "Klondike" Schultz, a former miner, who was hired to build a sluice and begin sifting the debris (as more bodies were unearthed, the sluice was used to isolate human remains on a larger scale). What the flying FUCK is a sluice you may be asking your obviously intelligent self. Well, it’s a sliding gate or other devices for controlling the flow of water, especially one in a locked gate. On May 19, 1908, a piece of bridgework was found consisting of two human, canine teeth, their roots still attached, porcelain teeth and gold crown work in between. Norton, her dentists, identified them as work done for Gunness. As a result, Coroner Charles Mack officially concluded that the adult female body discovered in the burned debris was Belle Gunness. Even though NOTHING ELSE LINES UP.

 

Asle Helgelien arrived in La Porte and told Sheriff Smutzer that he believed his brother had met with foul play at Gunness' hands. Then, the new farmhand, Joe Maxson came forward with information that could not be ignored: He told the Sheriff that Gunness had ordered him to bring loads of dirt by wheelbarrow to a large area surrounded by a high wire fence where the hogs were fed. Maxson said that there were many deep depressions in the ground that had been covered by dirt. These filled-in holes, Gunness had told Maxson, were nothing but garbage. She wanted the ground made level, so he filled in the depressions.

 

Sheriff Smutzer took a dozen men back to the farm and began to dig. On May 3, 1908, the diggers unearthed the body of Belle’s stepdaughter, Jennie Olson (who vanished in December 1906). Then they found the small bodies of two unidentified children. Subsequently, the body of Andrew Helgelien was unearthed (his overcoat was found to be worn by Ray Lamphere). As days progressed and the gruesome work continued, one body after another was discovered in Gunness' hog pen: 

 

So, let’s run through these poor, unfortunate souls.

 

Ole B. Budsberg of Iola, Wisconsin, (vanished May 1907);

 

Thomas Lindboe, who had left Chicago and had gone to work as a hired man for Gunness three years earlier;

 

Henry Gurholdt of Scandinavia, Wisconsin, who had gone to wed her a year earlier, taking $1,500 to her; a watch corresponding to one belonging to Gurholdt was found with a body;

 

Olaf Svenherud, from Chicago;

 

John Moe of Elbow Lake, Minnesota; his watch was found in Lamphere's possession;

 

Olaf Lindbloom, age 35 from Wisconsin.

 

Reports of other possible victims began to come in:

 

William Mingay, a coachman of New York City, who had left that city on April 1, 1904;

 

Herman Konitzer of Chicago who disappeared in January 1906;

 

Charles Edman of New Carlisle, Indiana;

 

George Berry of Tuscola, Illinois;

 

Christie Hilkven of Dovre, Barron County, Wisconsin, who sold his farm and came to La Porte in 1906;

 

Chares Neiburg, a 28-year-old Scandinavian immigrant who lived in Philadelphia, told friends that he was going to visit Gunness in June 1906 and never came back — he had been working for a saloon keeper and took $500 with him;

 

John H. McJunkin of Coraopolis (near Pittsburgh) left his wife in December 1906 after corresponding with a La Porte woman;

 

Olaf Jensen, a Norwegian immigrant of Carroll, Indiana, wrote his relatives in 1906 he was going to marry a wealthy widow at La Porte;

 

Henry Bizge of La Porte who disappeared June 1906 and his hired man named Edward Canary of Pink Lake Ill who also vanished 1906;

 

Bert Chase of Mishawaka, Indiana sold his butcher shop and told friends of a wealthy widow and that he was going to look her up; his brother received a telegram supposedly from Aberdeen, South Dakota claiming Bert had been killed in a train wreck; his brother investigated and found the telegram was fictitious;

 

Tonnes Peterson Lien of Rushford, Minnesota, is alleged to have disappeared April 2, 1907;

 

A gold ring marked "S.B. May 28, 1907" was found in the ruins;

 

A hired man named George Bradley of Tuscola, Illinois is alleged to have gone to La Porte to meet a widow and three children in October 1907;

 

T.J. Tiefland of Minneapolis is alleged to have come to see Gunness in 1907;

 

Frank Riedinger a farmer of Waukesha, Wisconsin, came to Indiana in 1907 to marry and never returned;

 

Emil Tell, a Swede from Kansas City, Missouri, is alleged to have gone in 1907 to La Porte;

 

Lee Porter of Bartonville, Oklahoma separated from his wife and told his brother he was going to marry a wealthy widow at La Porte;

 

John E. Hunter left Duquesne, Pennsylvania, on November 25, 1907 after telling his daughters he was going to marry a wealthy widow in Northern Indiana.

 

Two other Pennsylvanians — George Williams of Wapawallopen and Ludwig Stoll of Mount Yeager — also left their homes to marry in the West.

 

Abraham Phillips, a railway man of Burlington, West Virginia, left in the winter of 1907 to go to Northern Indiana and marry a rich widow — a railway watch was found in the debris of the house.

 

Benjamin Carling of Chicago, Illinois, was last seen by his wife in 1907 after telling her that he was going to La Porte to secure an investment with a wealthy widow; he brought $1,000 from an insurance company and borrowed money from several investors as well; in June 1908 his widow was able to identify his remains from La Porte's Pauper's cemetery by the contour of his skull and three missing teeth; $1000 at that time is approximately $31,522.45 today.

 

Aug. Gunderson of Green Lake, Wisconsin;

 

Ole Oleson of Battle Creek, Michigan;

 

Lindner Nikkelsen of Huron, South Dakota;

 

Andrew Anderson of Lawrence, Kansas;

 

Johann Sorensen of St. Joseph, Missouri;

 

A possible victim was a man named Hinkley;

 

Reported unnamed victims were:

 

a daughter of Mrs. H. Whitzer of Toledo, Ohio, who had attended Indiana University near La Porte in 1902;

 

an unknown man and woman are alleged to have disappeared in September 1906, the same night Jennie Olson went missing. Gunness claimed they were a Los Angeles "professor" and his wife who had taken Jennie to California;

 

a brother of Miss Jennie Graham of Waukesha, Wisconsin, who had left her to marry a rich widow in La Porte but vanished;

 

a hired man from Ohio age 50 name unknown is alleged to have disappeared and Gunness became the "heir" to his horse and buggy;

 

an unnamed man from Montana told people at a resort he was going to sell Gunness his horse and buggy, which were found with several other horses and buggies at the farm.

 

Most of the remains found on the property could not be identified. Because of the crude recovery methods, the number of individuals unearthed on the Gunness farm is unknown but is believed to be approximately twelve. On May 19, 1908, the remains of approximately seven unknown victims were buried in two coffins in unmarked graves in the pauper's section of LaPorte's Pine Lake Cemetery. Andrew Helgelien and Jennie Olson are buried in La Porte's Patton Cemetery, near Peter Gunness.

 

So, here’s the even MORE fucked up part… if it’s possible.

 

Ray Lamphere was arrested on May 22, 1908, and tried for murder and arson. He denied the charges of arson and murder that were filed against him. His defense hinged on the assertion that the body was not that of that big ol’ girl, Belle Gunness.

 

Lamphere's lawyer, Wirt Worden, developed evidence that contradicted Norton's identification of the teeth and bridgework. A local jeweler testified that though the gold in the bridgework had emerged from the fire almost undamaged, the fierce heat of the fire had melted the gold plating on several watches and items of gold jewelry. Local doctors replicated the fire conditions by attaching a similar dental bridgework to a human jawbone and placing it in a blacksmith’s forge. The natural teeth crumbled and disintegrated; the porcelain teeth came out pocked and pitted, and the gold parts melted (both the artificial elements were damaged to a greater degree than those in the bridgework offered as evidence of Gunness' identity). The hired hand Joe Maxson and another man also testified that they’d seen "Klondike" Schultz take the bridgework out of his pocket and plant it just before it was "discovered.” Lamphere was found guilty of arson but acquitted of murder. On November 26, 1908, he was sentenced to 20 years in State Prison (in Michigan City). He died of tuberculosis the next year on December 30, 1909.

 

On January 14, 1910, the Rev. E. A. Schell came forward with a confession that Lamphere was said to have made to him while the clergyman was comforting the dying man. In it, Lamphere revealed Gunness' crimes and swore that she was still alive. Lamphere had stated to the Reverend Schell and a fellow convict, Harry Meyers, shortly before his death that he had not murdered anyone but had helped Gunness bury many of her victims. When a victim arrived, she made him comfortable, charming him and cooking a large meal. She then drugged his coffee, and when the man was all fucked up, she split his head with a meat chopper. Sometimes she would simply wait for the suitor to go to bed and then enter the bedroom by candlelight and chloroform the hapless sap. A powerful woman, Gunness would then carry the body to the basement, place it on a table, and dissect it. She then bundled the remains and buried these in the hog pen and on the grounds around the house. Thanks to her second husband’s instruction, Peter Gunness, the butcher, Belle had become an expert at dissection. To save time, she sometimes poisoned her victims' coffee with strychnine. (Um… the first husband) She also varied her disposal methods, sometimes dumping the corpse into the hog-scalding vat and covering the remains with quicklime. Lamphere even stated that if Belle was overly tired after murdering one of her victims, she merely chopped up the remains and, in the middle of the night, stepped into her hog pen and fed the remains to the hogs.

 

Lamphere also cleared up the mysterious question of the headless female corpse found in Gunness’s home’s smoking remains. Gunness had lured this woman from Chicago on the pretense of hiring her as a housekeeper only days before she decided to make her permanent escape from La Porte. Gunness, according to Lamphere, had drugged the woman, then bashed in her head and decapitated the body, taking the head, which had weights tied to it, to a swamp where she threw it into deep water. Then, she chloroformed her children, smothered them to death, and dragged their small bodies, along with the headless corpse, to the basement.

 

She dressed the female corpse in her old clothing, and removed her false teeth, placing these beside the headless corpse to assure it being identified as Belle Gunness. She then torched the house and fled. Lamphere had helped her, he admitted, but she didn’t take off by the road where he waited for her after the fire had been set. She had betrayed her one-time partner in crime in the end by cutting across open fields and then disappearing into the woods. Some accounts suggest that Lamphere admitted that he took her to Stillwell (a town about nine miles from La Porte) and saw her off on a train to Chicago.

 

Lamphere said that Gunness was a rich woman, that she had murdered 42 men by his count, and maybe more, and had taken amounts from them ranging from $1,000 to $32,000. She had allegedly accumulated more than $250,000 through her murder schemes over the years—a considerable fortune for those days (about 10 million dollars, today). She had a small amount remaining in one of her savings accounts, but local banks later admitted that she had withdrawn most of her money shortly before the fire. Gunness withdrawing most of her money suggested that she was planning to evade the law.

Gunness was, for several decades, allegedly seen or sighted in cities and towns throughout the United States. Friends, acquaintances, and amateur detectives apparently spotted her on the streets of Chicago, San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles. As late as 1931, Gunness was reported alive and living in a Mississippi town, where she supposedly owned a great deal of property and lived the life of a respected woman. Sheriff Smutzer, for more than 20 years, received an average of two reports a month. She became part of American criminal folklore, a female Sasquatch, if you will.

 

Gunness’s three children’s bodies were found in the home's wreckage, but the headless adult female corpse found with them was never positively identified. Gunness' true fate is unknown; La Porte residents were divided between believing that Lamphere killed her and that she had faked her own death. In 1931, a woman known as "Esther Carlson" was arrested in Los Angeles for poisoning August Lindstrom for money. Two people who had known Gunness claimed to recognize her from photographs, but the identification was never proved. Carlson died while awaiting trial.

 

So, what the fuck happened to “Hell’s Belle”??

 

The body believed to be that of Belle Gunness was buried next to her first husband at Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois.

 

On November 5, 2007, with the permission of descendants of Belle's sister, the headless body was exhumed from Gunness' grave in Forest Home Cemetery by a team of forensic anthropologists and graduate students from the University of Indianapolis to learn her true identity. It was initially hoped that a sealed envelope flap on a letter found at the victim's farm would contain enough DNA to be compared to that of the body. Unfortunately, there was not enough DNA, so efforts continue to find a reliable source for comparison purposes, including the disinterment of other bodies and contact with known living relatives.

 

As far as we know… Belle Gunness, the wicked Norwegian bitch… got away with So. Many. Murders… including her own.

 

Movies

 

https://deluxevideoonline.org/our-tens-list-faked-deaths-in-movies/

Crazy Sting Operations

www.patreon.com/accidentaldads for bonus content and to support the show AND The Save The Music Foundation!

 

Top police stings

 

A sting operation is a deceitful operation used by law enforcement to apprehend criminals in the act of trying to commit a crime. In order to obtain proof of a suspect's misconduct, a typical sting involves an undercover law enforcement officer, investigator, or cooperative member of the public acting as a criminal partner or prospective victim and cooperating with a suspect's activities. Journalists for the mass media occasionally use sting operations to film and disseminate footage of illegal conduct.

 

Sting procedures are prevalent in many nations, including the United States, but are prohibited in others, like Sweden and France. Certain sting operations are prohibited, such as those carried out in the Philippines where it is against the law for police enforcement to act as drug traffickers in order to catch purchasers of illegal substances.\

 

Examples

 

• Offering free sports or airline tickets to lure fugitives out of hiding.
• Deploying a bait car (also called a honey trap) to catch a car thief
• Setting up a seemingly vulnerable honeypot computer to lure and gain information about hackers
• Arranging for someone under the legal drinking age to ask an adult to buy an alcoholic beverage or tobacco products for them
• Passing off weapons or explosives (whether fake or real), to a would-be terrorist
• Posing as:
• someone who is seeking illegal drugs, contraband, or child pornography, to catch a supplier (or as a supplier to catch a customer)
• a child in a chat room to identify a potential online child predator
• a potential customer of illegal prostitution, or as a prostitute to catch a would-be customer
• a hitman to catch customers and solicitors of murder-for-hire; or as a customer to catch a hitman
• a spectator of an illegal dogfighting ring
• a documentary film crew to lure a pirate to the country where a crime was committed.

 

Whether sting operations constitute entrapment raises ethical questions. Law enforcement might have to be careful not to incite someone who wouldn't have otherwise committed a crime to do so. Additionally, while conducting such operations, the police frequently commit the same crimes, like purchasing or selling narcotics, enticing prostitutes, etc. The defendant may raise the entrapment defense in common law jurisdictions.

 

Contrary to common belief, however, laws against entrapment do not forbid undercover police personnel from pretending to be criminals or deny that they are police officers. Entrapment is normally only a defense when suspects are coerced into confessing to a crime they probably would not have otherwise committed. However, the legal meaning of this coercion differs widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Entrapment might be used as a defense, for instance, if undercover agents forced a possible suspect to manufacture illicit narcotics in order to sell them. Entrapment has often not taken place if a suspect is already producing narcotics and authorities pretend as purchasers to apprehend them.

 

Operation Entebbe

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commandos successfully carried out Operation Entebbe or Operation Thunderbolt, a counterterrorism hostage-rescue mission, at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on July 4, 1976.

A week earlier, on June 27, two members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - External Operations (PFLP-EO) (who had previously split from the PFLP of George Habash) and two members of the German Revolutionary Cells hijacked an Air France Airbus A300 jet airliner carrying 248 passengers. The declared goal of the hijackers was to trade the hostages for the release of 13 detainees in four other countries and the release of 40 Palestinian terrorists and related prisoners who were detained in Israel. The flight, which had left Tel Aviv for Paris, was rerouted after a stopover in Athens through Benghazi to Entebbe, the country of Uganda's principal airport. The ruler Idi Amin, who had been made aware of the hijacking from the start[10], encouraged the hijackers and personally greeted them. The hijackers confined all Israelis and a few non-Israeli Jews into a separate room after transferring all captives from the plane to a deserted airport facility.  148 captives who were not Israelis were freed and taken to Paris over the course of the next two days. Ninety-four passengers—mostly Israelis—and the 12-person Air France crew were held captive and threatened with execution. 

Based on information from the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, the IDF took action. If the demands for the release of the prisoners were not granted, the hijackers threatened to murder the hostages. The preparation of the rescue effort was prompted by this threat. These strategies included getting ready for armed opposition from the Uganda Army.

It was a nighttime operation. For the rescue mission, Israeli transport planes flew 100 commandos to Uganda over a distance of 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles). The operation took 90 minutes to complete after a week of planning. Out of the 106 captives still held, 102 were freed, and three were murdered. In a hospital, the second captive was later slain. Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, the unit leader, was one of the five injured Israeli commandos. Netanyahu was Benjamin Netanyahu's elder sibling and the future Israeli prime minister. Eleven Soviet-built MiG-17s and MiG-21s of the Ugandan air force were destroyed, and all five hijackers and forty-five Ugandan troops were killed. Idi Amin gave the command to attack and kill Kenyans living in Uganda after the operation because Kenyan sources supported Israel. 245 Kenyans in Uganda were killed as a consequence, and 3,000 left the nation.

In honor of Yonatan Netanyahu, the commander of the force, Operation Entebbe, which had the military codename Operation Thunderbolt, is occasionally referred to retroactively as Operation Jonathan.

 

Operation Valkyrie

Senior Nazi military officers and Adolf Hitler convened in the Wolf's Lair in Rastenburg, Eastern Prussia, on July 20, 1944. Hitler's body was discovered scattered across the table as the Nazi military chiefs sat down to plan troop deployments on the Eastern Front when an explosion burst through the steamy meeting room. With the Führer's death, the Nazi threat to Europe could have been lifted. or so it seems at first.

 

Claus von Stauffenberg and his accomplices believed they had turned the course of World War II and maybe saved thousands of extra lives for a brief period of time in history. The July Plot, also known as Operation Valkyrie, was the most famous attempt to have Hitler killed, although it was ultimately unsuccessful for a variety of reasons, some of which are still unknown to this day.

The July Plot Is Hatched

Many Germans, including some of the country's top military figures, had begun to lose faith in Germany's ability to win the war by the summer of 1944. Hitler was widely held responsible for ruining Germany. The Wolfsschanze was one of Hitler's military headquarters. A number of prominent politicians and senior military figures devised a plan to murder the Führer by detonating a bomb at a conference there in order to spark political unification and a coup. Operation Valkyrie was the name of the strategy. The plan was that after Hitler's death, the military would assert that the murder was the result of a Nazi Party coup attempt, and the Reserve Army would take significant buildings in Berlin and detain senior Nazi figures. Carl Friedrich Goerdeler would become Germany's new chancellor, and Ludwig Beck would become its first president. The new administration wanted to negotiate a peaceful conclusion to the war, ideally with benefits for Germany.

The main conspirators' motives varied, according to Philipp Freiherr Von Boeselager, one of the last remaining participants in the July Plot. Many of them only saw it as a means of avoiding military defeat, while others hoped to at least partially restore some of the nation's morals. They chose Claus von Stauffenberg, a young colonel in the German army, to carry out the assassination. Despite not being a member of the Nazi party in the traditional sense, Stauffenberg was a devoted German patriot. In the end, he came to think that if Germany was to be saved, it was his patriotic duty to expel Adolf Hitler.

Hitler, though, had experienced assassination attempts before. Assassination attempts against Hitler had been more frequent since his spectacular ascent to the top of Germany's political scene in the late 1930s. Hitler, who was becoming more and more paranoid, frequently altered his plans without warning and at the last minute.

What Went Wrong

Stauffenberg entered the bunker at Wolfsschanze on July 20, 1944. The conference was planned to take place in a concrete, windowless subterranean bunker that was closed off by a large steel door. By making sure it happened within one of these facilities, the detonation would be confined and anyone nearby the explosive device would die quickly from the shrapnel.

The conference was moved to an above-ground wooden bunker with better air circulation on July 20 due to the oppressively hot weather, according to Pierre Galante's Operation Valkyrie: The German Generals' Plot Against Hitler. Numerous windows, a wooden table, and other beautiful furniture were all present in the area, which meant that the potential explosion would be much diminished since the energy of the blast would be absorbed and diffused.

Stauffenberg was aware that this was the case, but he nonetheless proceeded, assuming that two explosives would be sufficient to destroy the room and kill everyone within.

Stauffenberg excused himself when he arrived, saying that he needed to change his clothing, and went to a private room. The two explosives needed to be armed and primed. However, he only had time to arm one of the two devices due to an unexpected phone call and a quick knock at his door. Thus, the possibility of a greater blast was cut in half.

Stauffenberg realized that in order to cause any kind of harm, the explosive device needed to be placed as near to Hitler as possible. He was able to get a seat as near to Hitler as possible with only one other person between them by claiming that his hearing was impaired due to his wounds. Placing the bag as near to Hitler as possible, Stauffenberg then left the room pretending to take a personal call.

The briefcase was accidentally shifted to the opposite side of a large wooden leg that was supporting the meeting room table as another official was taking a seat.

The Aftermath

Panic broke out after the device exploded at precisely 12:42 pm. Twenty individuals were hurt, including three cops who subsequently died from their injuries, and a stenographer was instantaneously murdered.

Stauffenberg and his assistant Werner von Haeften leapt into a staff car and bluffed their way past three different military checkpoints to flee the mayhem at the Wolfsschanze complex because they believed that Hitler was indeed dead.

Hitler, however, along with everyone else who was protected by the large wooden table leg, only suffered a few minor cuts and an eardrum perforation. He had fully torn-up pants, and the Nazi leadership would subsequently utilize pictures of them in a propaganda effort.

Ian Kershaw, a historian, claims that during the explosion, contradictory news concerning Hitler's fate came. In spite of the disarray, the Reserve Army started detaining senior Nazi officials in Berlin. The entire scheme, however, was eventually thwarted by delays, unclear communication, and the announcement that Hitler was still alive.

The conspirators were all given the death penalty in a hastily called court martial the same evening by General Friedrich Fromm. In the courtyard of the Bendlerblock, a makeshift firing squad murdered Stauffenberg, von Haeften, Olbricht, and another officer, Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim, while Ludwig Beck committed himself. At Berlin's Plötzensee jail, Berthold Stauffenberg was gently strangled while the incident was being recorded for Hitler to see.

Hitler's life was ultimately saved that day by a number of interrelated reasons, but the conspirators were right that Germany was headed for disaster. Less than a year later, the Nazi leader and his closest advisers committed suicide.

Operation Iceman

Ever wonder what its like working undercover with an alleged murderer? Well, let's just say it's not hard to get a stuffy nose around this case…

In fact, serial killer Richard Kuklinski's preferred method of murder involved using a nasal spray bottle to spritz cyanide into the faces of his victims. As a result, undercover agent Dominick Polifrone was never more on guard than during the 18 months he spent building a case against the so-called Iceman.

“No matter where I went with him, I wore this leather jacket with a pocket sewn inside containing a small-caliber weapon,” recalls Polifrone, who gained his target’s confidence and taped dozens of their conversations. “I knew that I was somewhere on his hit list. If he’d pulled out that nasal spray, I’d have to protect myself.”

The streetwise New Jersey officer acquired enough proof before Kuklinski had suspicions, preventing that situation from occurring. Finally, the enormous 6-foot-4 gangland killer was apprehended thanks to his evidence.

“I’ve met hundreds of bad guys, but Kuklinski was a totally different type of individual,” he tells The Post. “He was coldhearted — ice-cold like the devil. He had no remorse about anything.” 

Kuklinski was captured by Polifrone in a combined operation between the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and the office of the New Jersey attorney general. The criminal, who was a leading suspect in the murder of a mobster whose body was found two years after his disappearance, was posing as a respectable businessman residing in suburban Dumont, New Jersey.

The reason the medical examiners discovered ice in the muscle tissue was because Kuklinski, who earned his notoriety for frequently freezing the bodies of his victims and then defrosting them, erred that time.

Police made an indirect connection between the deceased man and Kuklinski, who was charged with a number of previous homicides. 

“We had to get something nobody knew,” recalls Polifrone.

The sting only appears briefly on screen in the film. In order to gain Kuklinski's trust, Polifrone, a resident of Hackensack, New Jersey, pretended to be a "bad person" for a whole year and a half.

They met in parks and rest areas along highways and discussed the horrific killings Kuklinski had carried out, including a Mafia hit in Detroit for which he was paid $65,000.

Additionally, there were "statement killings." To put a dead canary in the mouth of a victim as a warning to other victims, one mafia leader paid him extra.

Another occasion, Kuklinski made light of the fact that he saw a gang member consume an entire cheeseburger laced with cyanide before passing away while joking with Polifrone.

Recalls the cop: “He told me that cyanide normally works real quick and easy, but that ‘this guy has the constitution of a God damn ox, and is just eating and eating. 

“He said he almost ate the whole burger and then, bam, he’s down!”

Polifrone knew exactly how to play his role. “I laughed, of course,” he shrugs. “That’s what bad guys do.” 

Paradoxically, Kuklinski was a committed family man. He led a Jekyll-and-Hyde existence. 

“He never socialized, gambled or messed around with other women,” adds Polifrone. “He lived for his wife and kids.”

One minute he’d be repairing his daughters’ toys, the next, dismembering a body with a chain saw and stuffing it into an oil drum.

“He would come home and completely shut off this murderous component and seek security and love from his family,” says “Iceman” director Vromen. “He fulfilled the need to provide for them by killing.”

Polifrone finally nailed Kuklinski after tricking him into buying what he thought was pure cyanide. A team of feds and ATF officers arrested him in December 1986.

Twenty-eight years later, he reflects on the man who died, apparently of natural causes, in Trenton Prison in 2006 at age 70. Eyebrows were raised because he was due to appear as a witness at the trial of a Gambino family underboss.

“I hope he died a slow death because of what he did to families and individuals,” concludes Polifrone. “He had no mercy. And if it was foul play, that’s OK with me.”

So let’s talk about some controversial sting operations you may or may not have heard of.

 

ACORN Sting

 

Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is known as ACORN. ACORN was a group of neighborhood-based organizations in the US that supported low- and middle-income families. They also offered details on affordable housing and voter registration. James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, two young conservative activists, published recordings that had been edited with care in 2009. The two pretended to be a pimp and a prostitute before using a hidden camera to get unflattering answers from ACORN workers that seemed to give them advice on how to hide their prostitution business and avoid paying taxes.The plea for assistance in obtaining funding for a brothel didn't appear to deter the ACORN employees either. This sparked a national debate and led to a reduction in financing from public and private sources. ACORN declared on March 22, 2010, that it was disbanding and shutting all of its connected state chapters as a result of declining funding. Interesting fact: On January 25, 2010, James O'Keefe and three other people were detained on felony charges for allegedly tampering with the phones at Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu's office in New Orleans. O'Keefe stated that he was looking into claims that Landrieu's staff had dismissed constituent phone calls over the health care issue. O'Keefe recorded the action as they pretended to be telephone repairmen.In the end, they were accused with breaking into a government building under false pretenses, a misdemeanor. Following his admission of guilt, O'Keefe received a three-year probationary period, 100 hours of community service, and a $1,500 fine.

 

Operation West End

The largest undercover news story in Indian journalism has been described like this. In order to expose the alleged culture of bribery inside the Indian Ministry of Defense, a well-known newspaper from India by the name of Tehelka—which translates as "sensation" in Hindi—started its first significant undercover operation, "Operation West End" in 2001. Two reporters from the publication pretended to be London-based armaments dealers from a fake firm. In the undercover film, numerous politicians and defense officials are shown discussing and accepting bribes in exchange for assisting them in obtaining government contracts, including Bangaru Laxman, secretary of the ruling BJP party. Laxman and Military Minister George Fernandes (shown above) resigned following the release of the tapes, and a number of other defense ministry employees were placed on administrative leave.

 

Interesting Fact: Instead of initially acting on the evidence from the sting operation, the Indian government accused the newspaper of fabricating the allegations. The main financial backers of Tehelka were made targets of investigations, and the newspaper company was almost ruined. In 2003, Tehelka was re-launched as a weekly newspaper, and was funded by faithful subscribers and other well-wishers. In 2007, Tehelka shifted to a regular magazine format.

 

Senator Larry Craig

On June 11, 2007, an undercover police officer conducting a sting operation targeting males cruising for sex at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport detained Idaho Senator Larry Craig. Sgt. Dave Karsnia, the arresting officer, claimed that just after noon, the suspect entered a restroom and shut the door. Craig then moved into the stall next to him and propped his suitcase up against the stall door's front. By obscuring the front view, this is frequently done in an effort to hide sexual activity. Several minutes later, the officer claimed to have noticed Craig looking into his stall through a gap, tapping his right foot repeatedly, then moving it till it brushed Karsnia's. Craig then passed his hand under the stall divider into Karsnia’s stall with his palm up and guided it along the divider toward the front of the stall three times. Karsnia then waved his badge back, to which the senator responded, “No!” The senator pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and paid a fine, but changed his mind after word of his arrest later became public. Craig claimed he just had a “wide stance”, and he only pleaded guilty to avoid a spectacle.An appeals court rejected his request to change his mind about entering a guilty plea. Craig completed his time in the Senate but was unable to have his case dismissed by the Senate Ethics Committee. Craig departed office on January 3, 2009, having not to run for reelection in 2008. Fascinating Fact: Soon after Craig was arrested, the men's room started to resemble a tourist destination, with people coming to seek directions and take photographs. Even restroom tissue may be purchased on eBay. Listen to the conversation between Senator Craig and Sgt. Karsnia immediately following the arrest here.

 

7

Sarah Ferguson was victimized by Mazher Mahmood, a reporter for the tabloid daily "News of the World," in May 2010. In order to set up a meeting with Ferguson, Mahmood pretended to be a wealthy international businessman. The Duchess, who was discreetly recorded throughout the encounter, offered to connect the "tycoon" with Prince Andrew's influential inner circle. "500,000 pounds when you can, to me, open doors," Sarah Ferguson is heard saying on the video. She may also be seen removing a briefcase that is holding $40,000 in cash. After the event was reported, Ferguson's spokesman claimed she was both "devastated" and "regretful." She said that she had been drinking before asking for the money and was "in the gutter at that point" in an interview with Oprah Winfrey. Mazher Mahmood, the guy who pretended to be the tycoon, is referred to as the "Fake Sheikh" and has conned several famous people. No one is certain if that is his true name or what his real history is since he likes to make things as mysterious as possible. The journalist denies ever allowing his face to appear in any of his pieces and claims to have received several death threats. He also avoids public appearances.

 

Bait Cars

The Minneapolis Police Department employed the first bait cars in the 1990s. The largest bait car fleet in North America is now situated in Surrey, British Columbia, which is widely regarded as the continent's "auto theft capital." The cars are carefully modified, equipped with GPS tracking equipment, audio/video surveillance, and an engine-disabling remote control. It has helped to lower car theft by 47% when it was introduced in Surrey, British Columbia, in 2004. In one of the more contentious bait vehicle stings, a lady was murdered nearly instantaneously after a robber driving a bait car drove into her in Dallas, Texas, in 2008. To resolve the litigation, $245,000 was given to the victim's family. Fact: The key to determining whether police are utilizing a bait car improperly and would result in entrapment is if they left it in a way that would tempt someone who would not ordinarily commit a crime. Here, you can view one of the more eye-catching (to put it mildly) bait vehicle stings. Many others will undoubtedly have the same thoughts as I had. “Where the heck was the kill switch?”

 

Marion Barry

A well-known politician and former mayor of Washington, D.C., Marion Barry. Police were going to conduct an undercover narcotics transaction with former Virgin Islands official Charles Lewis on December 22, 1988, but they were turned back when they discovered Mayor Marion Barry was in Lewis's hotel room. This prompted a grand jury inquiry into potential mayor meddling in the narcotics probe. Barry testified for three hours in front of the grand jury before telling reporters he had done nothing wrong. Then, on January 18, 1990, Barry was arrested in a Washington, D.C. hotel after using crack cocaine in a room with his former girlfriend, who had turned informant for the FBI. This was the result of a sting operation put up by the FBI and D.C. Police. Barry said the now-famous phrase, "Bitch set me up," which has come to be linked with him. Following his arrest and subsequent trial, Barry made the decision not to run for mayor again. He was charged with 14 charges by a grand jury, including suspected grand jury perjury. The mayor could have spent 26 years in prison if found guilty on all 14 counts. Barry was only given a six-month prison term after the jury found him guilty of using cocaine. Barry campaigned for municipal council after being let out of prison. He garnered 70% of the vote due to his widespread popularity and the perception held by many that Marion Barry was the target of a political witch hunt by the government. Then, in 1995, Barry won a fourth term as mayor of Washington, D.C. Barry is currently back in his position on the D.C. city council. Regardless of your opinion on Marion Barry, you have to respect his perseverance and drive to help the people of Washington, D.C. The aforementioned occurrence is only a small portion of his remarkable life. A documentary titled "The Nine Lives of Marion Barry" was produced by HBO. 

 

Joran Van der Sloot

Dutch national Joran Van der Sloot is a key suspect in the case of Natalee Holloway, who vanished on May 30, 2005, while traveling to Aruba to celebrate her high school graduation. On March 29, 2010, Van der Sloot got in touch with Beth Twitty Holloway's mother's attorney John Q. Kelly, reviving the case. Van der Sloot promised to provide details about Holloway's demise and the whereabouts of her remains in exchange for a total of $250,000 with a $25,000 down payment. After Kelly and Twitty made contact with Alabama law enforcement, the FBI launched a sting operation. On May 10, Van der Sloot accepted a wire transfer of $15,000 to his Dutch bank account along with an additional cash payment of $10,000. He drove Kelly to the location of Holloway's remains in exchange for the cash. He indicated a home, saying that his father had assisted in burying the body in the foundation. The home had not yet been constructed when Holloway vanished, therefore this turned out to be untrue. Later, Van der Sloot informed Kelly through email that the entire incident was a fraud. At this point, police might have detained Van der Sloot for wire fraud and extortion, but they chose to wait while they worked to establish a case of murder against him. Van der Sloot was not only let free, he was also given permission to depart Aruba and travel to Bogotá, Colombia, and then Lima, Peru, with the money he had made from the operation. He met Stephany Flores Ramirez, a 21-year-old University of Lima business student, in a casino hotel in the city. Ramirez and Van der Sloot are seen entering a hotel room together on security footage, but only Van der Sloot is seen exiting. On June 2, Ramirez was discovered dead in the hotel room that Van der Sloot had booked, her neck broken and she had been battered to death. On May 30, 2010, precisely five years after Natalee Holloway vanished, Ramirez passed away. A person arrested Van der Sloot He admitted to the murder on June 3 and June 7. Fascinating fact: Van der Sloot is presently detained at Peru's Miguel Castro jail, where murder charges have been brought. He apparently now claims that if he is permitted to move to a jail in Aruba, he would tell the whereabouts of Natalee Holloway's remains.

 

Perverted Justice Stings

Perverted-Justice is a group that uses volunteers to masquerade as juveniles online, often between the ages of 10-15, and wait for an adult to message or email the decoy back. If the topic becomes sexual, they won't actively reject it or support it. Then, in order to set up a meeting, they will attempt to identify the males by acquiring their phone numbers and other information. The group then provides law enforcement with the information. Additionally, Perverted-Justice has worked with the American reality show "To Catch a Predator." In Murphy, Texas, one of the more contentious instances took place in 2006. Louis Conradt (seen above), a district attorney in Texas, pretended to be a 19-year-old college student and had sexually explicit internet conversations with a person he thought was a 13-year-old kid. They hired an actress to portray the youngster on the phone when Conradt demanded images of the boy's genitalia. Conradt stopped returning phone calls and instant messages, so police and the reality program decided to conduct a search warrant operation at his residence. A gunshot was heard as the police entered the scene to make an arrest. Conradt was inside with a self-inflicted wound when they arrived, and he eventually passed away at a hospital. 23 people were taken into custody for online solicitation of minors as a consequence of the sting operation in Murphy, Texas. Due to inadequate evidence, none of the 23 instances were prosecuted as of June 2007. Conradt's family launched a $105 million lawsuit against Dateline's To Catch a Predator series. The dispute was ultimately resolved outside of court. All next episodes' development was halted by the network in 2008.

Rachel Hoffman

On February 22, 2007, a traffic stop in Tallahassee, Florida, resulted in Rachel Hoffman being found in possession of 25 grams of marijuana. Then, on April 17, 2008, police searched her flat and found 4 ecstasy tablets and 151.7 grams of marijuana. Police allegedly threatened to put her in jail unless she worked as an undercover informant for them, according to her account. She was then dispatched untrained to an undercover gathering to purchase a weapon and a significant quantity of narcotics from two alleged drug traffickers. The suspects relocated the drug purchase while she was there. When she departed the buy place in the car with the two suspects, the police officers who were keeping an eye on the sting lost sight of her. The identical gun she was intended to purchase was used to kill her by the two suspects while they were in motion. Two days later, her corpse was discovered close to Perry, Florida. One of the murder suspects was convicted of first-degree murder and given a life sentence without the possibility of parole on December 17, 2009, which would have been Rachel Hoffman's 25th birthday. Trial for the second murder suspect is set for October 2010. Interesting Fact: On May 7, 2009, a law called “Rachel’s Law” was passed by the Florida State Senate. Rachel’s Law requires law enforcement agencies to (a) provide special training for officers who recruit confidential informants, (b) instruct informants that reduced sentences may not be provided in exchange for their work, and (c) permit informants to request a lawyer if they want one. 

 

Mr. Big

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police created Mr. Big, sometimes known as "the Canadian method," in the early 1990s in response to unsolved killings. It is employed in Canada and Australia, but many other nations, like the United States and England, view it as entrapment. The technique works something like this: An undercover police unit poses as members of a fictitious gang, into which the suspect is inducted. The suspect is invited to participate in a series of criminal activities (all faked by the police). In addition, the “gang members” build a personal relationship with the suspect, by drinking together and other social activities. After some time, the gang boss, Mr. Big, is presented to him. The police have a fresh interest in the first crime, and the suspect is instructed to provide the gang with further information. They clarify that Mr. Big might be able to affect the course of the police investigation, but only if he confesses to the full extent of the crime. He is also warned that if he conceals any other previous offenses, the gang could decide against working with him in the future since he would be a burden. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are shown in the picture above carrying the hats of the four officers who were killed in Edmonton, Canada, in 2005 at a memorial service. Two of the men serving prison sentences for the murders made confessions to Mr. Big operatives.Interesting Fact: In British Columbia, the technique has been used over 180 times, and, in 80% of the cases, it resulted in either a confession or the elimination of the suspect from suspicion. However, cases of false confessions and wrongful convictions have recently come to the public’s attention, and many are starting to question the controversial technique. In 2007, a documentary was made, called Mr. Big, that was very critical of the procedure.

 

You can’t talk about undercover operations without talking about the mob. Here are five badasses who infiltrated the mob.

 

In law enforcement, working as an undercover officer carries the high risk of discovery by criminal suspects, leading to violence, torture and death. But the rewards can be huge, with wire recordings and eyewitness testimony that can result in arrests and convictions. A trained officer knows how to strategize, win the confidence of their targets and get them to reveal what’s needed to build a case to take to trial. It requires an unusual kind of person, able to work under stress, stay focused, pull off the character he or she is playing and be prepared to tell many lies.

What follows here is a list of five remarkable individuals whose undercover operations, despite real dangers, resulted in the convictions of leaders and associates of organized crime, over almost a century. This list leaves out many other famous undercover officers, whom we would like to recognize in the future. Perhaps because of the gravity of the investigations, and the financial resources required, all of these undercover officers worked for agencies of the U.S. government.

MICHAEL MALONE

Mike Malone worked undercover for the Treasury Department’s Intelligence Unit. In the late 1920s, he infiltrated Al Capone’s Chicago Outfit and helped convict the crime boss of tax evasion.

Michael Malone had all the makings of an undercover agent who would successfully infiltrate Al Capone’s Chicago gang for nearly two years. Malone, whose parents came over from Ireland, grew up in New Jersey and meshed well with its European immigrants, eventually learning to speak Gaelic, Italian, Yiddish and Greek. With his “black Irish” dark hair and skin, he resembled someone from southern Europe. After finessing his way into Capone’s inner circle in 1929, Malone proved invaluable to his superiors in the Treasury Department pursuing a tax evasion case against the Chicago crime boss. Despite the danger, Malone kept an iron will. Blowing his cover would have proved fatal. But given his skills, it didn’t happen.

While Malone kept up the charade, he delivered information that proved incriminating not only for Capone, but for his top enforcer, Frank Nitti (aka Nitto). Malone remained disguised within Capone’s bootlegging band even for a time after the feds filed tax charges against Capone, Nitti and Capone’s brother, Ralph, in 1931.

When Capone’s jury trial commenced, and the Treasury Department removed Malone from his undercover job, the agent gained a bit of respect from the embarrassed gang chief himself. In the Chicago courthouse, Malone happened to enter an elevator where Capone stood with his defense lawyers.

“The only thing that fooled me was your looks,” Capone is said as to have remarked to Malone. “You look like a Wop. You took your chances, and I took mine. I lost.”

From 1929 to 1931, Malone fed intelligence about Capone that would culminate in the historic conviction of the nation’s most notorious Mob boss. His fascinating story began after his service in World War I. With law enforcement his career goal, Malone joined the Treasury Department’s Intelligence Unit later known as the “T-Men.” Early on, in the 1920s, Malone appreciated how donning disguises brought him closer to the suspects. He posed in everyman roles such as garbage man and shoe shiner.

Elmer Irey, chief of the Intelligence Unit, had worked with undercover agent Malone on Prohibition cases. Once, Irey enlisted Malone to smash a West Coast version of “Rum Row,” rumrunners selling contraband Canadian liquor from ships off the coast of San Francisco. Malone posed as gangster from Chicago in hiding, with money to invest in illegal booze. He devised a nighttime sting operation. Agents posing as bootleggers drove speedboats out to the booze-laden mother ship and, after money changed hands, Malone fired off a flare, signaling the U.S. Coast Guard, which boarded the mother ship and arrested the astonished bootleggers.

President Herbert Hoover entered office in March 1929, a few weeks following the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago, where seven men associated with Capone’s bitter rival in bootlegging, George “Bugs” Moran, died in gunfire. Hoover conferred with Irey and urged him to compile a team of special agents to “get Capone” on tax charges. Meanwhile, another team of Prohibition Unit agents in Chicago, headed by Eliot Ness, would attack Capone on violations of federal liquor laws under the Volstead Act.

Irey appointed Special Agent Frank Wilson, Malone and several others to the get Capone team. Meanwhile, a group of wealthy business executives in Chicago, called the Secret Six, donated large sums of money for expenses to assist the feds in getting Capone. Malone used their largess to purchase some expensive clothing to look the part of a well-heeled hoodlum that Capone would envy.

Malone set about infiltrating Capone’s underworld at its core – the Lexington Hotel, where the boss and his men lived. Wearing a fancy suit, purple shirt and white hat, Malone sat in the lobby, reading newspapers for days on end. He spoke in an Italian accent, introduced himself as “Mike Lepito,” met Capone men playing craps and played the part of a mobster. He mailed letters to friends in Philadelphia, who wrote back. Capone’s guys broke into his room, noted his pricey checkered suits and silk underwear. They opened his mail from Philadelphia, read the letters written, impressively, in underworld lingo they understood. They informed Capone.

Finally, Capone sent a cohort down to the lobby to ask “Lepito” about his business in town. “Keeping quiet,” Malone replied in his Italian inflection. In the coming days, over drinks, Malone told the guy he was on the lam for burglary in Philadelphia. That got Malone invitations to play poker and trade gossip with the gang, then dinner at their hangout, the New Florence, and then to attend the birthday party Capone planned for Frank Nitti at the Lexington. Malone met Capone at Nitti’s party. The secret agent’s new acquaintances included big-shot hoods Nitti, “Machine Gun” Jack McGurn, Jake “Greasy Thumb” Guzik, Paul “The Waiter” Ricca, Murray “The Camel” Humphreys and Sam “Golf Bag” Hunt. Malone was in.

He discreetly phoned Wilson about what he’d overheard within the gang. Wilson and his aides traced signatures on bank checks while pursuing tax evasion cases against Nitti and Guzik. A federal court in Chicago convicted Guzik, who got a five-year sentence. But Nitti skipped town. Malone, assigned to find him, followed Nitti’s wife to an apartment building in Berwyn, Illinois. There, the cops nabbed Nitti, later sentenced to 18 months in prison for tax evasion.

Then the police pinched Al himself following his 1931 indictment on tax charges. “Mike Lepito” was there at the Lexington when Al Capone arrived back, triumphant about his release on $50,000 bail. Malone listened and reported to Wilson about Capone’s scheme to bribe and fix the jury in his favor. The feds moved quickly and a judge created a new list of jurors. Malone then reported Capone’s plot to hire five gunman from New York to kill four federal officials in Chicago – including Wilson. With safety measures in place, Capone ordered the gunmen to leave town.

Capone’s trial, after a judge refused to plea bargain with the Mob boss, started in October 1931. Four days afterward, Malone finally gave up the act. The news spread fast to Capone and his men. Malone had heard that Phil D’Andrea, Capone’s bodyguard, planned to bring a concealed gun into the courthouse. Malone and another agent frisked and disarmed D’Andrea, and had him arrested. A jury Capone could not fix found the boss guilty on 22 criminal counts. The judge gave him 11 years in the federal pen and a $50,000 fine, plus court costs.

Months later, in early 1932, the Intelligence Unit had Malone, Irey, Wilson and Special Agent A. P. Madden probe the kidnapping of aviator Charles Lindbergh’s son. The team’s persistence paid off within two years, with the capture (and conviction) of suspect Bruno Hauptman, who still had some of the marked currency the agents convinced Lindbergh to use as ransom money.

Malone had other notable cases. In 1933, Irey assigned him to find fugitive New York gangster Waxey Gordon, wanted for tax evasion. Malone located Gordon in a remote cottage in the Catskill Mountains. Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey took the case, and the court put Waxey away for 10 years. A year later, Malone infiltrated Louisiana Governor Huey “Kingfish” Long’s crooked crew. After Long’s assassination, the IRS won a tax fraud conviction against Malone’s target, Long’s close aide, Seymour Weiss.

In his last undercover operation before his death, the Intelligence Unit gave Malone a large amount of cash and a Cadillac to use in Miami Beach, disguised as a rich syndicate man. He found and reported what the agency wanted – details of a coast-to-coast illegal abortion ring.

After Malone’s death in 1960, Wilson described him to a news reporter as “the best undercover agent we ever had.”

JOSEPH PISTONE

Joe Pistone is one of the FBI’s most celebrated undercover agents. Using the name Donnie Brasco, he infiltrated the New York Mafia and helped produce 200 indictments. Courtesy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In New York City during the mid-1970s, the FBI investigated a rash of truck hijackings happening each day. The agency assigned agent Joseph “Joe” Pistone to go undercover for six months to find out where the Mob-connected thieves took the stolen cargo. His adopted name was “Donnie Brasco.” He was so effective as a wiseguy that the FBI let him keep it up. No one knew how far the investigation would lead, or what it would mean for Pistone, who started as an agent in 1969.

His experience would eventually prompt the mobsters in New York to put out a $500,000 contract for his murder, but it never happened. In the end, the evidence and trial testimony he provided in the 1980s produced 200 indictments of Mob associates and more than 100 convictions. His work decimated the Bonannos, one of New York’s five major crime families.

Pistone’s journey while undercover, impersonating a mobbed-up jewel thief, would last an incredible five years, from 1976 to 1981, during which he penetrated the upper levels of the Bonnano organization. No FBI agent had made it inside the Mob like that. The agency beforehand had to rely on informants.

Pistone took a class to learn about jewelry to make his affectation believable. In Brooklyn and Manhattan, he roamed bars and restaurants frequented by Mob types. He communicated using the street smarts he absorbed growing up as a working-class Italian-American kid in Paterson, New Jersey, where he went to Italian social clubs and encountered local hoods. Years in, he had the Bonanno circle so convinced that it moved to have him a “made” man shortly before the FBI ended his assignment.

At first he befriended low-level mobsters. He wore a wire to record conversations, and committed to memory names and license plates since taking notes would obviously raise red flags. By 1976, he’d won the trust of important Bonnano members, notably family soldier Benjamin “Lefty Guns” Ruggiero, said to have killed 26 people, and capo Dominick “Sonny Black” Napolitano. Ruggerio recommended him so that he could join the clan. Pistone’s Mob activities centered in New York and Florida, taking him away from his wife and young daughters for extended times. Pistone even had to vacation with his demanding cohorts. He moved his family members out of state for their protection.

As “Donnie Brasco,” Pistone helped Ruggerio transfer stolen goods and sell guns. He engaged in loansharking, extortion and illegal gambling. Once, while pretending to be an expert in burglar alarms, angry Mob associates intent on committing burglaries demanded he reveal the name of a mobster who would vouch for him. The FBI used an informant to quell their suspicions.

In the 1997 film Donnie Brasco, undercover agent Joe Pistone is played by Johnny Depp, left. Al Pacino, right, plays Benjamin “Lefty” Ruggiero.

In 1981, the situation intensified again when the crime family commanded him to kill an adversary. The FBI pulled him out of the sting. It was time to start making cases, and for him to testify in open court as himself. Starting in 1982, Pistone’s testimony over the next several years in racketeering cases sent more than 100 mobsters to long prison terms. Prosecutors considered him crucial to convicting 21 defendants in the “Pizza Connection” case of pizzerias used to traffic in heroin and launder money for the Sicilian Mafia.

Pistone went into hiding and later retired from the FBI, unscathed, in 1986. In the 1990s, Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, former underboss for the Gambino family who turned FBI informant, said the embarrassment from the “Brasco” case drove bosses in New York’s crime families to suspend the Bonanno group from its board of directors.

But Pistone couldn’t stay retired. In 1992, at age 53, he requested reinstatement with the FBI, which agreed only if he would enter the agency’s strict training class, lasting 16 weeks at its base in Quantico, Virginia. Pistone endured the rigorous course alongside recruits in their 20s. He passed and the FBI rehired him, at least until the mandatory retirement age of 57.

Pistone’s 1988 book on his undercover experiences, Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia, was a bestseller. Based on the book, actor Johnny Depp portrayed Pistone in the 1997 feature film Donnie Brasco, with Al Pacino as Ruggerio.

JACK GARCIA

Jack Garcia was an FBI undercover agent of Cuban descent who convinced members of the Italian-American Mafia that he was Italian. He took part in more than 100 undercover investigations over a 26-year career.

Before he succeeded in infiltrating New York’s Gambino crime family, FBI agent Joaquin “Jack” Garcia had to go school. That is, the FBI’s “mob school,” where he received an education in how to hit the ground running with veteran mobsters. His teacher was special agent Nat Parisi. First off, Parisi said, do not carry a wallet – wiseguys carry wads of currency, often bound by the kind of rubber band grocery stores use to keep broccoli together. Also, correctly pronouncing Italian food matters – as Tony Soprano might say, those long pasta shells are not “manicotti,” but “manicote.” Another valuable lesson he learned is that his Mob brethren loved compliments – his favorite one: “Where did you get those nice threads? You look like a million dollars.”

In his 26-year career as an FBI agent, Garcia took part in more than 100 undercover investigations, from Miami to New York, Atlantic City and Los Angeles, targeting mobsters, drug traffickers and corrupt politicians and cops. He participated in the highest number of undercover cases in FBI history. In many of his capers, he impersonated a mobster, using the name “Jack Falcone” (in honor of the Italian judge Giovanni Falcone, killed by the Sicilian Mafia in the 1990s). As a backstory, he told his Mob marks about having a Sicilian pedigree (actually he’s a native of Havana and grew up in the Bronx) with an expertise in stealing and fencing stolen goods, with jewelry as his specialty. Sometimes, he had to run several undercover roles at once. He took advantage of his fluency in Spanish and Italian, being careful not to mix things up when the phone rang.

In the early 2000s, the FBI chose Garcia for what would be the most fruitful infiltration of an organized crime family since Joe Pistone’s in the 1970s. While undercover as “Jack Falcone” with the Gambino’s family’s chapter in Westchester County, New York, for two years, he flashed cash, Rolex watches, diamond rings, flat-screen TVs and other supposed stolen property (items seized in other FBI cases). Much of the cash he held went to pay for expensive dinners – mobsters, he said, are notoriously cheap when the check comes. He gained 80 pounds over the two years.

One mobster in particular who liked his money and goods, and would become his almost daily companion, was Gambino capo Gregory DePalma. An “old school” hood who in 2003 finished serving 70 months for racketeering, DePalma right away threatened violence and extorted owners of Westchester-area construction firms, strip joints, restaurants and other businesses. Garcia said he witnessed DePalma commit a crime almost every day.

The FBI had Garcia pose as a wiseguy seeking to invest in a topless bar in the Bronx. Garcia’s inquiries led him to meet DePalma in 2003. By providing stolen property for DePalma to sell for cash, Garcia convinced him that “Jack Falcone” was an experienced jewelry thief and fencer from Miami. When Garcia hung out with DePalma over the two-year period, he wore a body wire, and the FBI planted bugging devices at DePalma’s hangouts. Garcia gave DePalma a cell phone that the talkative mob capo used prodigiously, not knowing the FBI had bugged it.

The operation yielded 5,000 hours of recorded conversations used to implicate DePalma and other Gambino men in racketeering. In 2005, DePalma planned to honor “Falcone” by rendering him “made” within the Gambino family. In a recorded conversation, Garcia as “Falcone” replied to DePalma, “I’m honored for that,” he said, in the tape later used in court. “I will never let you down either.”

But it wasn’t to be. After Garcia witnessed a Gambino soldier beat another member with a crystal candlestick, the FBI shut down the undercover operation. (Garcia and Pistone are the only law enforcement officers ever nominated to be “made.”)

Garcia’s efforts inside the Gambino crew paid off big time. The evidence he delivered for the FBI resulted in the arrest of 32 Gambino members and associates, including DePalma, Gambino boss Arnold “Zeke” Squitieri and underboss Anthony “The Genius” Megale. DePalma went to trial in 2006. Garcia, who retired from the FBI two months before the trial started, agreed to testify in federal court in Manhattan. The jury found DePalma guilty on 27 counts, and the judge gave the 74-year-old a 12-year prison term.

Like Pistone, Garcia’s undercover career is chronicled in a memoir, Making Jack Falcone: An Undercover FBI Agent Takes Down a Mafia Family.

KIKI CAMARENA

Kiki Camarena was an undercover agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Mexico. After contributing information that led to major drug busts, he was tortured and murdered by drug cartel bosses in 1985.

Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, the late Drug Enforcement Administration agent assigned to investigate drug trafficking in Guadalajara, Mexico, in the 1980s, is famous as one of the most heroic DEA agents ever. But he is more well-known in death than in life. His torture-murder in Mexico in 1985 took place at the hands of drug cartel bosses with the complicity of high-level Mexican government officials, law enforcement and, allegedly, the CIA.

At the time, the Reagan administration was secretly training and supplying Central American guerilla fighters, known as the “Contras,” against the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. The U.S. government allegedly granted the cartel bosses free rein to traffic drugs – to the point of using CIA-recruited American pilots to fly cocaine into the United States to sell for cash so the cartel could make donations to buy more weaponry for the Contras.

Camarena, born in Mexicali, Mexico, in 1947, moved with his impoverished family to Calexico, California. He served as a firefighter in Calexico, and with a strong desire for police work, joined the Imperial County Sheriff’s Department, moving up to its narcotics task force. The experience led to his career in the DEA starting in 1975. Assigned to the DEA office in the “narco paradise” of Guadalajara in 1980, Camarena was a convincing undercover officer with his appearance and ability to speak Spanish and barrio “street” language to fit in with the drug underworld. His target was the powerful Guadalajara drug cartel (which later evolved into the Sinaloa cartel).

In the early 1980s, in what he called “Operation Padrino,” Camarena arranged for U.S. agents to seize international bank accounts held by wealthy cartel drug lords. He developed evidence of major marijuana plantations in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, based on informants and overflights in a plane flown by his DEA pilot, Alfredo Zavala Avelar. In November 1984, from his background work, Mexican federal police and the DEA raided enormous pot-growing operations on a ranch in Zacatecas that employed thousands of field hands. The task force confiscated 20 tons of marijuana, burned the crop and made 177 arrests.

The bust cost cartel figure Rafael Caro Quintero about $50 million. Caro Quintero believed his operation had the protection of the Mexican army, and the CIA, since he owned a farm used to train the U.S.-backed Contras. He vowed revenge against Camarena. Meanwhile, a DEA force organized by Camarena seized a large cache of cocaine shipped by cartel boss Miguel Felix Gallardo’s operation to New Mexico and Texas. Gallardo also believed he had CIA and Mexican official protection.

During the fall of 1984, Quintero held meetings with top cartel traffickers Gallardo, Ernesto “Don Neto” Fonseco Carrillo and Ruben Zuno Arce. Also present, thanks to rampant corruption bought by the Guadalajara cartel, were Mexico’s minister of domestic affairs and DFA chief Manuel Bartlett Diaz, plus Mexico’s defense minister, the head of Mexico’s Interpol office and the governor of the state of Jalisco. The agenda was to kidnap Camarena and get him to reveal his informants and other information. Zuno Arce gave the order. Fonseca only intended to scare and release him, but Quintero wanted to kill the DEA man.

On February 7, 1985, Quintero and Gallardo directed their henchmen to kidnap Camarena off a street in Guadalajara. As the agent walked from the U.S. consulate to meet his wife for lunch, they forced him at gunpoint into a car and drove him to a residence used for cartel rendezvous. They bound and blindfolded him, turned on a tape recorder and questioned him, during which he was severely beaten and tortured. The lead interrogator was the crooked head of the secret police in Guadalajara, Sergio Espino Verdin. The cartel men wanted to know what Camarena knew about them, their dealings with Mexican officials and the CIA’s involvement in drug trafficking. The gangsters also brought in and beat up Zavala, Camarena’s pilot. Both men died about two days later, angering Fonseco, who told Quintero not to kill Camarena.

Camarena’s wife reported him missing and Washington launched what would be the largest manhunt in the history of the DEA. The cartel had the two men’s bodies buried, then dug up and relocated to a farm in another state, where Mexican police found them in early March. During his funeral a week later, Camarena’s family interred his ashes in Calexico.

His slaying triggered an international incident. U.S. officials ordered all cars from Mexico at the border searched, effectively closing it. The investigation revealed the CIA connection, leading to bitter clashes between CIA and DEA agents. A federal court in Los Angeles charged 22 defendants in the murders of Camarena and Zavala. Under pressure, Mexican authorities acted, arresting 13 men. Mexican courts convicted Fonseco, Quintero and Espino, and sentenced each to 40 years, although Quintero won early release on a technicality in 2013. U.S. officials are still seeking Quintero to face federal charges. Mexican police arrested Gallardo in 1989, and he received 40 years. A court in Los Angeles found Zuno Arce guilty in the murders in 1990, sentenced him to two life terms in prison, where he died in 2012.

In Camarena’s honor, in 1985 the National Family Partnership started the National Red Ribbon Campaign, a volunteer anti-drug use and education effort that urges youths to recite a pledge to refrain from drugs, and celebrates “Red Ribbon Week” on drug awareness each October.

Camarena’s is featured as a character, played by actor Michael Pena, in a chapter of the Netflix series Narcos: Mexico, about on his actions with the DEA.

JAY DOBYNS

Jay Dobyns went undercover with the Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle gang for 20 months in Arizona on behalf of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. His work led to 16 arrests.

For Jay Dobyns, fitting in with the infamous biker gang the Hells Angels for almost two years meant adhering to his undercover alter ego, Jay “Bird” Davis, to the point of obsession. To maintain his cover, he had to divert his mind away from his wife and kids. And it all would be worth it – at least that’s what he thought at the time.

Dobyns had hit on his best clandestine ruse yet while in Arizona in 2001, after 15 years of service as an undercover special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. While working undercover cases in the late 1980s for the ATF, he’d been injured twice – from a gunshot wound to the back from a suspect in Tucson and when gunrunners hit him with a car during an attempted getaway in Chicago. He took part in investigations of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Other undercover roles of his ended in the arrests of a Mexican drug boss and members of the Aryan Brotherhood gang. Altogether, he served in more than 500 undercover operations disguised as a hitman and Mob debt collector. He infiltrated organized crime groups and gangs engaged in drug and arms smuggling.

In 2001, to gather intelligence as “Davis” for the ATF in northern Arizona, Dobyns worked in the Bullhead City area, posing as a gun seller and an enforcer for a nonexistent collections agency. But his operation was interrupted in 2002 with the now-famous riot and shootout among members of the Angels and a competing biker gang, the Mongols, at the Harrah’s casino in nearby Laughlin, Nevada, during the annual River Run motorcycle rally. Two Angels and one Mongol died and dozens of people were injured.

The ATF brass soon redirected him to penetrate the dangerous Hells Angels club. Dobyns certainly had the physical part down with his beard and six-foot, one-inch frame he used as an all-conference football player for the University of Arizona. Later, an Angels member would apply tattoos covering his upper arms.

Dobyns teamed with another ATF agent, two other undercover officers and a pair of paid informants. The idea was to create a fake biker gang with the aid of one of the informants who once served in a motorcycle gang based in Tijuana, Mexico. The gangster informant and Dobyns would run the gang, called the Solo Angeles, promote it as a pro-Hells Angels crew and request to join the Angels as a “nomad” chapter. The ATF named the setup “Operation Black Biscuit.” As a convincer, Dobyns and his fellow agent feigned an execution of a Mongol member, tying up an agent, placing cow’s brains and bloody Mongol clothing on him and taking a photo. Based on the picture, the Angels took the bait and let them hang out and ride with them. They trusted him so much they offered to make him a member of the Angels’ Skull Valley Chapter. He was the first law enforcement officer to infiltrate the Angels. His undercover penetration of the Angels lasted more than 20 months, one of the longest ever for the ATF.

His work ended with 16 arrests from the Angels gang. But the criminal case, amid problems between the ATF and Justice Department lawyers, fell through in federal court. Federal prosecutors blamed the ATF, saying the agency did not reveal evidence from informants. In 2006, the feds dropped racketeering enterprise charges – the most serious — against all but four of 42 Angels charged in the Laughlin riot.

Dobyns’ battle with his own employer, the ATF, soon began. He filed suit in federal court against the agency alleging it did not protect him while he was on duty. He won a $373,000 settlement in 2007. The next year, Dobyns’s wife and two kids barely escaped after someone firebombed the family home in Tucson. The ATF investigated Dobyns himself as a suspect in the arson. Investigators cleared him. In 2014, the year he retired after 27 years with the ATF, he filed another suit, for $17.2 million, saying the ATF failed to safeguard his family amid death threats. A judge awarded him $173,000. During an appeal, the judge voided the monetary judgment, but recommended discipline for ATF personnel and barred seven Justice Department attorneys from the case. He ordered a special master to investigate government actions in the case, and possible misconduct by the feds in the arson investigation. But the judge died of cancer. The special master in a report said that the first case was fair enough and required no further probe into the federal government. A new judge accepted the recommendation.

Dobyns has authored two books, one on his undercover experiences, another on his travails with the ATF. These days, he delivers lectures on his life to audiences at universities and law enforcement associations nationwide.

And now some of our infamous quick hitters:

 

1. Donald Duck decoy

 

Police in Fort Lee, New Jersey used a Donald Duck costume as a decoy to catch drivers who failed to yield to pedestrians. Drivers who didn’t stop for the cartoon duck were ticketed. One woman, Karen Haigh, fought her $230 ticket.

 

"They told me that I was getting a ticket for not stopping for a duck," she told Eyewitness News. "But it scared me. I'm a woman. This huge duck scared me." 

2. Coco the Clown

 

These old clips from the show COPS show a strange undercover police sting, and proves the adage that clowns are usually scary or just creepy. One cop dressed up as Coco the Clown, an outfit that kind of resembles John Wayne Gacy, to catch women working as sex workers. Spoiler: he pretty much sprays all of them with silly string and the whole thing is sad to watch.

3. Amish woman

 

At least one cop from the Pulaski Township Police Department in Pennsylvania dressed up as an Amish woman in an attempt to catch a sexual predator. Sgt. Chad Adams of the Pulaski Township Police Department wandered the streets for two months in 2014 after police were tipped off that a predator was masturbating in front of children, according to the Associated Press. He posted on the department’s Facebook page, “Hey friends, sometimes being a police officer means going undercover and doing what you have to do to catch the bad guy. Now that our investigation is complete I'll share with you this photo! Back in January we had an individual preying on Amish children walking home from school. The male individual was pulling up to the children and getting out of his car and masturbating in front of them. Although we did not apprehend the individual we believe he was caught in another county. I wanted to share with you that we will use all means available to try and protect our children. That includes dressing up as an Amish woman to attempt to apprehend a pervert! Thanks goes out to the Neshannock police and New Wilmington police in assistance with the investigation! Sincerely, Sergeant Chad Adams.”

 

Sadly, the sting didn’t work, but police believe it is because the culprit moved into another county.

 

4. DVD Prize sting

 

Police in Phoenix, Arizona set up a sting to catch people with outstanding warrants, mostly DUIs, in 2002. The people were told they won a DVD player. People thought they were showing up to pick up their prize. Instead, they walked right into their own arrest. Watch as these suspects went from excited to shocked to sad.

5. Panhandling trick

 

In 2015, undercover cops in California posed as panhandlers to ticket distracted drivers. They stood on the side of the road, posed as panhandlers and holding signs that identified them as police officers. The pieces of cardboard they were holding also stated that they were looking for seatbelt and cellphone violations. For those drivers who weren’t paying attention, they didn’t read that and they ended up paying the price.

 

6. Horse sex

 

Police in Arizona responded to an online ad posted by suspect Michael Crawford in 2015. He was soliciting a willing horse owner who would let him have sex with his horse.  Investigators in the Animal Crimes Investigations Unit chatted with Crawford via e-mail and the phone, posing as willing horse owners, according to USA Today. The exchanges “graphically detailed” exactly what Crawford allegedly wanted to do to the horse.

 

The sheriff overseeing it all? The controversial Joe Arpaio, who has announced his run for the U.S. Senate in Arizona in 2018, according to the New York Times. He’s known for his severe correctional tactics and his hardline stance on immigration.

Movies! Best undercover movies

https://screenrant.com/best-movies-about-undercover-agents-ranked-rotten-tomatoes/amp/

Creepy Uganda

Creepy Uganda

 

So Logan and I saw that we were rising through the ranks of Uganda's listeners for the show and thought: “Hey!  We should show our love and support to these wonderful people”. So, in order to do it right,  we are going on a trip! To Creepy Uganda. 

 

Aside from rituals, ancient vengeful deities, and some rather haunted locations found throughout the wonderful country, there's actually quite a few beautiful areas that, as a tourist, would be something to see! Beautiful Lakes, Mountains and rich cultures are just some of the many things that are strewn about Uganda. So without further adieu, Let’s Get Creepy.

 

The East African nation of Uganda, formally the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked nation. Kenya borders the nation on the east, South Sudan on the north, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the west, Rwanda on the south-west, and Tanzania on the south. A sizable piece of Lake Victoria, which Tanzania, Kenya, and the rest of the country share, is located in the southern region of the nation. The African Great Lakes area includes Uganda. The climate in Uganda, which is also part of the Nile basin, is variable but usually modified equatorial(Characteristics of Modified Equatorial Climate have a range of 4 to 27 degrees celsius). There are about 42 million people living there, 8.5 million of them reside in Kampala, the country's capital and largest metropolis.

 

Uganda was given its name after the kingdom of Buganda, which ruled over a sizable area of the country's southern region, including the capital city of Kampala, and whose language, Luganda, is extensively spoken today.

 

The United Kingdom began to govern the region as a protectorate in 1894, establishing administrative law throughout the realm. (A Protectorate is state that is governed and guarded by another independent state is known as a protectorate. It is a dependent region with local autonomy over the majority of internal matters that yet recognizes the authority (much like our relationship between the US and Puerto Rico) of a more powerful sovereign state without being that state's actual possession.) On October 9, 1962, Uganda declared its independence from the UK. Since then, there have been other bloody wars, including an eight-year military dictatorship under Idi Amin.

 

Their Constitution stipulates that "any other language may be used as a medium of instruction in schools or other educational institutions or for legislative, administrative, or judicial functions as may be authorized by law," despite the fact that English and Swahili are the official languages. Many more languages, including Ateso, Lango, Acholi, Runyoro, Runyankole, Rukiga, Luo, Rutooro, Samia, Jopadhola, and Lusoga, are also spoken in the Central and South Eastern portions of the nation.

 

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the president of Uganda at the moment, came to power in January 1986 following a lengthy six-year guerrilla conflict. He was able to run and win the presidency of Uganda in the general elections of 2011, 2016, and 2021 as a result of constitutional revisions that eliminated the president's term restrictions.

 

Uganda’s varied terrain includes volcanic hills, mountains, and lakes. The average elevation of the nation is 900 meters above sea level. Mountains line Uganda's eastern and western borders. The Ruwenzori mountain range is home to Alexandra, the highest peak in Uganda, which rises to a height of 5,094 meters.

 

One of the largest lakes in the world, Lake Victoria, which has several islands, has a significant effect on most of the country's southern region. The most significant cities, including Kampala, the capital, and Entebbe, a neighboring city, are found in the south, close to this lake. The country's largest lake, Lake Kyoga, located in the middle of a vast marshy landscape. Uganda is a landlocked country, although it has a lot of big lakes. Lake Albert, Lake Edward, and the smaller Lake George are additional lakes to Lakes Victoria and Kyoga. The Nile basin encompasses practically the whole country of Uganda. On the border with Congo, the Victoria Nile flows from Lake Victoria via Lake Kyoga and into Lake Albert. South Sudan is reached by continuing northward. The Suam River, which is a component of Lake Turkana's internal drainage basin, drains a region in eastern Uganda. The Lotikipi Basin, which is mostly in Kenya, receives water from the far north-eastern region of Uganda.

 

There are 60 protected areas in Uganda, including ten national parks. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Rwenzori Mountains National Park are both UNESCO World Heritage Sites. What in the hell is UNESCO? It stands for Unidentified Neural Electron Sexual Conspiracy Organization and of course that’s incorrect and stupid. It ACTUALLY stands for The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. A specialised agency of the United Nations aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture.The Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is home to a group of mountain gorillas, the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is home to gorillas and golden monkeys, and the Murchison Falls National Park is home to those evil fucking hippos.

 

The military in Uganda is known as the Uganda People's Defense Force. There are about 45,000 soldiers on active service in Uganda's military. Only the United States Armed Forces are deployed to more nations, according to analysts, than the Ugandan army, which is actively engaged in a number of combat and peacekeeping missions in the area. Uganda has troops stationed in the Central African Republic, Somalia, South Sudan, and the northern and eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

 

The landscape and wildlife of Uganda are the main attractions for tourists. In 2012–13, it contributed 4.9 trillion Ugandan shillings (US$1.88 billion or €1.4 billion as of August 2013) to Uganda's GDP, making it a significant source of employment, investment, and foreign money. Photo safaris across the National parks and wildlife reserves are the primary draws. Other highlights are the mountain gorillas, which may be found in Uganda's aforementioned Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP) and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park (MGNP), which are two of the continent of Africa’s oldest cultural kingdoms. With more than 1073 species of birds reported, Uganda is an ornithologist’s paradise, ranking fourth among bird species in Africa and sixteenth worldwide. The Great Rift Valley and the white-capped Rwenzori mountains are only two of Uganda's many landscapes.

 

Unfortunately like everywhere else, Uganda has a plethora of things that have happened there that aren’t exactly what some may consider “pleasant”. For lack of a better term and because we’re adults, let’s just say some Pretty fucked up shit had happened, actually. Genocide being a fairly big thing. But we want to dive into the lesser known side of Uganda.

 

Like maybe some cryptozoology? Hmmmmmm?

 

A large cryptid bird named Bagge's Black Bird was once sighted in Uganda's Lake Bujuku, which is located south of Mount Speke in the Ruwenozori Mountains. They were purportedly observed in large numbers in 1898 at a height of 9,000 feet, according to Stephen Salisbury Bagge, a guide for the government. Bagge described them as black birds the size of sheep with an alarm call resembling that of a bull. Not much else to go on here since this was the only sighting allegedly of the creature. But who knows! Maybe it was a pterodactyl, or better yet, a rather large black bird that was living rather well and just so happened to be bigger than the rest.

 

Denman's bird was another cryptid bird that Canadian mountaineer Earl Denman purportedly claimed to have seen diving "swiftly and nearly vertically in the high mountain air" in Uganda's Ruwenzori Mountains. Ben S. Roesch speculated that they could have been Verreaux's eagles, which are common in the region and frequently observed diving to grab hyraces (rock rabbits) and hares (the thing that doesn’t grow on my head) when hunting in pairs.

 

The irizima, also known as "the thing that may not be spoken of," was a cryptid that was seen in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo near Lake Edward. One of the least well-supported of the African neodinosaurs, it has been compared to both the mokele-mbembe and the emela-ntouka.

 

Neodinosaurian cryptids like the mokele-mbembe or li'kela-bembe have been seen mostly in the Republic of the Congo and Cameroon, where it is thought to live in marshy or swampy wetlands, lakes, and rivers. Several other bodies of water have also reported seeing it, but the Likouala region and Lake Tele are particularly linked to it. Many cryptozoologists have long assumed that the mokele-mbembe is a big amphibious animal with a bulky body, a long neck and tail, and a small head. However, a wide range of different reptilian and mammalian identities have also been proposed.

 

A neodinosaurian cryptid known from the rainforest swamps and rivers of the Republic of the Congo and the southwest Central African Republic, the emela-ntouka (Bomitaba or Lingala: "killer of elephants" or "eater of the tops of trees") is described as a horned animal and has been likened to rhinoceroses and ceratopsian dinosaurs. It is often used as a synonym for the older but now less well-known chipekwe water rhinoceros from Zambia, as well as the ngoubous from Cameroon, the ntambue ya mai from the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and certain accounts of forest rhinoceroses. The morphology of the emela-ntouka has been described as well-defined but puzzling. It is described as an amphibian with an elephantine, rhinoceros-like appearance, a big horn on its nose, and a bulky tail resembling a crocodile. The emela-identity ntouka's has historically been the subject of two extremely divergent conflicting theories: either it was a big semi-aquatic rhinoceros or, primarily due to its bulky tail, a living ceratopsian dinosaur. Many cryptozoologists no longer subscribe to the latter notion, as the emela-ntouka is now thought of as a mammal. One ethnic group, the Aka, refers to the emela-ntouka as mokele-mbembe, a practice that has generated considerable misunderstanding.

 

Now that we understand those two similar cryptids we go back to the irizima. It was initially brought up by Captain William Hichens, who said that there were two conflicting accounts of the creature, including a "gigantic hippopotamus with the horns of a rhinoceros" and an animal with hippo-like legs, an elephant-like trunk, a lizard's head, and an aardvark's tail. Hichens said that such a creature had been spotted by an unknown big game hunter, who then told Herbert Francis Fenn about it, inspiring him to look for neodinosaurs in the Congo. A Brontosaurus, described by Hichens as "a massive marsh animal, ten times as big as the biggest elephant," was discovered in a Congo swamp by a "madcap man" who had been searching for the monster, according to Hichens. Hichens, according to Bernard Heuvelmans, mistook information about the Great Brontosaurus Hoax and Captain Leicester Stevens' excursion for information about Lake Edward. Also, it sounds like they found the funny mushrooms.

 

The brontosaurus hoax was pretty interesting as well. Allegedly, the news paper in the area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo wanted Captain Stevens to find this cryptid found in the marshes of Lake Edward. The twist is that the original reports were of a ceratopsian dinosaur not a brontosaurus that was written in the news.

 

Hunter Roger Courtney later made reference to the Lake Edward monster, describing it as a huge, black beast that spews tremendous waves and spouts. When the hunter persuaded his companions to aid him onto the water, the monster had already dove, according to Courtney, who claimed that a Dutch hunter had spotted the animal from the shore of Lake Edward. In addition, Courtney had heard rumors about "dinosaurs" from the adjacent Ituri Forest, which he took to be true.

 

According to E. A. Temple-Perkins, who studied the irizima in Lake Edward, the monster—especially as it was described by Courtney—may have originated as a local legend intended to explain why waterspouts naturally occur. Given the lack of reliable material from Lake Edward, Bernard Heuvelmans believed that Captain Hichens had accidentally introduced the Lepage-Gapelle fake monster there, leaving Roger Courtney's brief report as the only description of the Lake Edward monster. Karl Shuker, however, asserts that these two contradictory descriptions demonstrate that the term "irizima" is likely used to describe both of the two primary African neodinosaur types found in Lake Edward, the long-necked mokele-mbembe type and the horned emela-ntouka type. Shuker hypothesizes that the irizima, which Hichens described as having numerous horns, may be the same animal as the emela-ntouka and the ngoubou, which resemble Arsinoitherium (a large two horned mammal that went extinct and resemble rhino but the horns being on its brow instead of its snout).

 

A group of semiaquatic cryptids known as water lions, water leopards, or jungle walruses have been found in rivers and occasionally wetlands throughout tropical Africa, particularly in the Central African Republic. The majority of the time referred to as huge cats , they can be identified by their protruding fangs or tusks and their penchant for hippopotamus slaughter, so they’re not all bad. A number of competing theories exist, and some water lions have also been identified or confused with neodinosaurs, water rhinoceroses, and pseudodeinotheria. Ingo Krumbiegel and Bernard Heuvelmans theorized that water lions represent a surviving species of sabre-toothed cat adapted to an amphibious lifestyle and that sounds terrifying. The majority of water lion sighting reports were gathered in the 20th century, however reports of the n'gooli or “water panther”, continue to come from Cameroon.

 

The Nandi bear, also known as the chemosit (Kalenjin: "devil"), is a cryptid that has been seen in western Kenyan highlands as well as Uganda. It is described as a deadly creature with a matted mane that resembles a bear. Cryptozoologists have determined that the Nandi bear is a fusion of several different cryptids, including maybe two real unknown animals: a huge hyena and a giant baboon, however identities of a living chalicothere (the weird horse/gorilla looking thing) and an unknown bear have also been proposed. Since the 20th century, there have been few or no sightings, and it has been hypothesized that the Nandi bear, if it ever existed, is now extinct. Maybe another version of the sasquatch? 

 

Hope the Cryptids were a little more easy going because now we dive into some… shit.

 

Sir Edward Frederick William David Walugembe Mutebi Luwangula Mutesa, often known as Kabaka Mutesa II, led a fascinating life. He ruled as Buganda's 36th kabaka (king) from 1939 until his passing on November 21, 1969. In addition, he served as Uganda's first president from 1963 until 1966, when he was ousted and taken into exile by Prime Minister Milton Obote.

 

Following the passing of his father, King Daudi Cwa II, he succeeded to the throne of Buganda in 1939. He was overthrown twice: once by the colonial governor-general Sir Andrew Cohen in 1953 so that he could be replaced by his half-brother, whom Cohen believed he could better control; and once more in 1966 when Prime Minister Obote forced him to leave for Britain, where he died in exile. Following his first exile of two years, Mutesa II was permitted to reclaim the throne as part of a negotiated agreement that established him as a constitutional monarch and granted the Baganda the opportunity to choose delegates for the kingdom's parliament, the Lukiiko. He had thirteen wives and eleven children by marriage and six through other means.

 

Initially joining forces to demand self-rule, Sir Edward Mutesa II, KBE and Prime Minister Milton Obote went on to win the 1962 election. Mutesa II was named non-executive president, primarily serving in a ceremonial capacity, but after independence, their relationship started to sour. Obote allegedly instructed Idi Amin-led soldiers to raid his stronghold in 1966. Mutesa II had to escape to the UK once more. Obote declared himself president and assumed total control while he was overseas.

 

The largest of Uganda's several ethnic groups, the Baganda, were led by Mutesa II as monarch. Despite taking advantage of it, Obote used his position of power to get rid of both the traditional kingships and the independence of the province administrations because Buganda had only agreed to join the state if it had a high degree of autonomy. In 1993, Mutesa's son was elected as the 37th kabaka under a revised constitution. Within Uganda, Buganda is currently a constitutional monarchy. In Uganda, Mutesa II attended King's College, Budo. As a student at Magdalene College in Cambridge, England, he enlisted in an officer training corps and received a captain's commission in the Grenadier Guards. Buganda was then a part of Uganda's British rule. Many of the traditional leaders or kings served as the British's representatives in Uganda. The late fourteenth century is when the Buganda kingly line began. Oddly enough, Obote was deposed in a coup in 1971 by none other than Amin, the head of his own army and closest supporter.

 

At the age of 45, Mutesa II passed away from alcohol poisoning at his London apartment in 1969. The British authorities determined that he committed suicide, despite his followers' claims that Obote regime assassins were responsible. In 2009, four decades after Mutesa II's passing, a family friend and fellow Ugandan exile living in London told the BBC, "We got warning, people used to write and say somebody has been sent, be aware, take care."

 

According to JM Kavuma-Kaggwa, an elder from Kyaggwe, Mukono District: “There were rumours that Obote was spending Shs 250,000 per week (a lot of money then) to track down the Kabaka. Their mission had completely failed until luck struck when the late Oscar Kambona of Tanzania who fell out with President Nyerere and fled into exile in London, organised a birthday party in November 1969 in Sir Edward Mutesa’s honour.”

 

“Also in attendance was a beautiful Muganda girl who had reportedly been recruited by the GSU to go to London, befriend Sir Edward, be close to him and poison him. She came close to the Kabaka during the party. It was reported that the Kabaka invited the girl to this birthday party and that was the time she managed to poison him because she was the one in charge of the Kabaka’s drinks that evening.”

 

After Obote was overthrown in 1971, Mutesa II's remains were brought back to Uganda and given a formal funeral by the new president, Idi Amin, who had led the attack on Mutesa's palace in 1966 as the army commander.

Definitely an interesting story to say the least. This next event is a little more… unsettling.

 

On the last night of her life, Rose Nakimuli shut down her little hair salon in rural Uganda at around nine o'clock. The 27-year-old made her way back down to the neighborhood bar for a late-night beverage after walking home to change and turning on her porch light for the evening. Later, while she was strolling along a country road next to a two-lane highway on her way home, a friend leaned out of his small bar to greet her. The following morning, a neighbor discovered her dead; slouched behind banana trees in front of her house. Nakimuli was stripped and forced to kneel on her knees. Her vagina had been penetrated with a cassava stick. Her spouse recognized her by the maroon sweater that was hanging from a tree close by. Considering the porch light was still on suggests that she never actually made it home.

 

Nakimuli is one of 23 women who have died mysteriously and horribly on the outskirts of Kampala, the expanding metropolis of quickly urbanizing Uganda, from May to November of 2017. The murders have caused fear in the neighborhood, sparked doubts about the nation's dedication to protecting women, and increased scrutiny of the police force, a potent institution criticized for acting with impunity and serving as an extension of the government's ruling political party, the National Resistance Movement.

 

All of the victims were female, ranging in age from 19 to 38. Four of the individuals have been recognized as sex workers, along with a number of traders and a high school student. Many of the victims had no nearby family and lived alone. Three of the women, at least, are yet unidentified. Many of the murders, according to the police, were committed by witchcraft practitioners who sought financial gain through human sacrifice. Others, according to them, are the result of spousal abuse, drug use among unemployed youth, land disputes, and lone women who fail to take the necessary safeguards. 

 

Twelve or more suspects have been taken into custody. Some have apparently been tortured into confessing. However, not much evidence connecting the suspects to the crimes has been made public.

 

Locals and activist organizations charge the police with being overburdened and conflicted over the murders of over twenty women.

 

“What makes me to feel that there is an element of injustice is that it took Rose to die in order for somebody to move,” said Nakimuli’s husband, Anatoli Ndyabagyera.

 

Community watch groups have been established, a curfew has been implemented to prevent women from travelling alone at night, and the local informal economy has collapsed in the interim. Some of the safety measures have not been applied since Idi Amin's regime and the civil conflict that ensued after his overthrow in 1979.

 

Interior Minister Jeje Odongo blamed a couple of businesspeople at the head of a vast criminal network connected to "the Illuminati" in September 2017 for most of the killings. According to Odongo, the guys, Ivan Katongole and Phillip Tumuhimbise, performed rituals using the victims' blood and body parts in order to increase their wealth.

 

In Uganda, magic and mysticism still have great power. The rituals that these beliefs usually take the form of can occasionally become more evil. In the past, killings for ceremonial purposes have often involved children in particular.

 

Jordan Anderson, a researcher who has studied magic in East and Central Africa, claims that the latest killings of women, however, have little in common with conventional ritual homicides. One reason is that it's unusual to preserve a sacrificial body.

 

“You are killing the person because, in the first sense, you want to use that body part in the ‘medicine’ or the potion that you are going to put together,” he said. “It’s the particular part of the person you want, not the death per se."

 

Black magic can also be useful cover for a murderer trying to hide their tracks or an easy scapegoat for incompetent security forces.

 

“If you have this motif in the media, people can pick it up and copycat it,” Anderson said. “If there’s insecurity in this area, if there are murders taking place, this is a great excuse for the politicians, the police and, above all, the people doing the murders.”

 

In an interview at one of the clubs where she was last seen alive, her husband noted that Nakimuli was regarded as being "extremely sweet." She was unable to stand by as a child sobbed. He couldn't bring himself to clean up her house for two months following her passing.

 

In small communities like the one where Nakimuli passed away, rumors are easily disseminated, and Ndyabagyera is still dubious of the police's version of what happened to his wife. He thinks Nakimuli's cousin may have set her up as part of a long-standing vendetta.

 

The small village of Katabi, where Nakimuli and 11 other women were murdered, is located along the main road from Kampala to Entebbe, which is home to the president of Uganda's palace and the country's primary airport on Lake Victoria. Museveni frequently travels this route on his way from his residence to the capital. He didn't go to the town, however, to pay his respects to the deceased until late September.

 

Museveni interviewed the victims' friends and neighbors during the unexpected visit while keeping a clipboard in his hand and taking careful notes.

 

The majority of the twelve slain women in the Katabi area were brutalized in ways akin to Nakimuli. Many had been assaulted with cassava sticks, stripped naked, and strangled.

 

On the opposite side of Kampala, 20 miles north, the bodies of an additional 11 women were found during the same time frame. There, victims were allegedly sexually assaulted and strangled, yet there were no sticks in their genitalia.

 

An individual named Ibrahim Kaweesa, a chicken dealer who had previously served ten years in prison for robbery, has been connected to those killings. Which seems like a huge escalation. The interior minister claimed that Tumuhimbise, a teenage shopkeeper, employed Kaweesa to murder a dozen women "for ritual performance to protect or improve his wealth."

 

As part of a loose network supporting law enforcement, 40-year-old Charles Waswa assisted in the arrest of Kaweesa and claimed, "They removed the blood."

 

Kaweesa resided two-thirds of the way down a short row of apartments, surrounded by women cooking outside and shrieking children. He was labeled by his neighbors as an arrogant and dangerous womanizer.

 

Kaweesa's neighbor Annette Namkose, 29, stepped in to prevent them from dating. She alleged through a translator that in response, he threatened to kill her, saying, "I'll kill you like I did the ones in Entebbe."

 

She declared, "He's not a neighbor you want to be with.

 

Police said that after being detained, Kaweesa swiftly confessed to the crimes. He allegedly led detectives around a number of the crime scenes without being asked.

 

“I don’t believe we have arrested each and every person who knew about this matter,” said Kasingye, the police spokesman.

 

“I cannot say 100% there isn’t going to be any (more) crime because it has never happened anywhere in the world. But at least it (the arrests) shows us we can stop criminals. We can arrest them, we can prosecute them and we can do this throughout the whole country.”

 

Unfortunately cases like these happen too much in many places around the world. Uganda seems to be trying to get ahead of the curve with the installment of the Anti-Human Sacrifice and Trafficking Task Force following the Anti-Trafficking Act in 2009. 

 

Although reports have shown that the task force has been severely underfunded for a while, we do hope that things start to turn around.

 

Speaking of human sacrifices, this is a report from only a few weeks ago:

 

Human sacrifices continue unabated in the remote and rural areas of the landlocked East African country of Uganda despite authorities enacting tough laws and threatening death sentences.

 

According to officials, 132 incidents of human sacrifices have been recorded in the last three years. The numbers have spiked from 22 sacrifices in 2019, 45 in 2020 and 65 in 2021.

 

Most victims of such “ritual sacrifices” are children, apparently because they are easier to abduct and seen as “pure” and so of "higher ritual value".

 

Anadolu Agency quoted authorities as saying on Sunday that the sacrifices are being carried out by witch doctors or local traditional healers, dotting rural areas.

 

Admitting that human sacrifice is a big problem, Lucas Oweyesigire, the police spokesman for the Kampala region, said most such practices take place in rural areas.

 

The so-called leader of traditional healing and witch doctors, Mama Fina, has also condemned human sacrifice and described those recommending the sacrifice of human beings as “fake”.

 

Taking advice from witch doctors

 

Police spokesman Fred Enanga said only last month they "arrested a man identified as Musilimu Mbwire on suspicion of killing his two sons in human sacrifice.”

 

According to preliminary investigations, a rich man had paid Mbwire money and convinced him to sacrifice his two sons at the instructions of a witch doctor.

 

Superstitions lead people in rural areas to seek help from witch doctors, who in turn offer weird prescriptions, including human sacrifices to turn around their luck.

 

A more worrisome part of the superstition is to undertake human sacrifice to put the body at the foundation of a building to bring good luck.

 

Timothy Mukasa, a local leader in Kampala’s suburb of Kireka, said many multi-storey buildings in the town have been built on a human body.

 

“The witch doctors tell owners to put a human body at the foundation of the construction of the buildings,” he said.

 

In 2014, authorities apprehended and later sentenced a tycoon Kato Kajubi for sacrificing a child and then putting his body in the foundation of a building that he was about to construct.

 

David Musenze, a journalist who studied psychology, said there are not many qualified counsellors to attend to psychological and mental issues of people, which makes them take advice from witch doctors.

 

"People go to witch doctors to help them get jobs, be promoted at jobs, or kill their enemies, along with many other problems," he said.

 

So, what about hauntings, you might be thinking to yourself. Well, we found a story from someone living in Uganda from the “your ghost stories” website.

I had always thought this sort of nightmare was happening to me alone until I have come across this site. I always took my suffering silently especially the unexplained sickness which always followed devil attacks.

 

It all started on 28th November 2004 one hour to midnight. Whilst walking home after branching off from the main road. I heard footsteps of someone walking behind me and whoever it was seemed to have been in a hurry, I glanced back and stepped aside to see who it was and let him/her pass as I was in a narrow path.

 

I saw a hazy form I can't clearly explain here, my hair stood on my head like when you encounter something fearful. A cold shiver enveloped me and a gust of chilly wind wrapped my entire body, like I was putting on a cloak. I let out a silent incoherent scream and ran towards home which was just nearby. That occurrence signalled the beginning of my suffering to date.

 

Since then, whenever I sleep I am woken up by something touching my foot or a feeling of a being lying beside me, in the morning I find scratches on my body and at first I thought it was me scratching myself during asleep so I used to trim my nails, but the scratches continued.

 

During the attacks, I fall in a sort of hypotonizing stance. I neither can move nor make any sound except my feet which I use to struggle and try to shrug of the being.

 

In the past two years the demon has turned sexual, it would turn in a woman form, hugging me in bed trying to initiate sexual intimacy, when I wake up my reproductive organ feels so cold and shrunk. There's pain also in the pelvic area for most of the day.

 

I have tried all sorts of remedies e.g. Blessed water, salt, prayers etc. But none seems to work, Any suggestions on how to get rid of this demon is welcome.

 

And lastly, the Haunted Palace of Kabaka

Kabak’s Palace, also known as Idi Amin’s Torture Chambers or Haunted Mansion or Lubiri Palace is located in Lubiri area of Kampala on Mengo Hill Road. It was the home of the Bugandan kings but these days it largely remains unoccupied due to the horrific events that took place under the rule of Idi Amin and President Milton Obote. President Idi Amin built his torture chamber here where hundreds of people were reportedly tortured to death. Their spirits are believed to have haunted the palace which is closed to the public these days for repair and clearing it from the so-called spirits.

 

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The F’n Electric Chair

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An American-developed method of execution known as the "electric chair" involves strapping the condemned individual to a specially constructed wooden chair and electrocuting them using electrodes attached to their head and leg. Alfred P. Southwick, a dentist from Buffalo, New York, proposed this form of execution in 1881. It was developed during the 1880s as a purportedly merciful substitute for hanging, and it was first used in 1890. This technique of execution has been utilized for many years in the Philippines and the United States. Death was first thought to arise from brain injury, but research in 1899 revealed that ventricular fibrillation and ultimately cardiac arrest are the main causes of death.

 

Despite the fact that the electric chair has long been associated with the death sentence in the United States, lethal injection, which is generally regarded as a more compassionate mode of execution, has replaced the electric chair as the preferred method of execution. Except in Tennessee and South Carolina, where it may be used without the prisoner's consent if the medications for lethal injection are not available, electrocution is only still permitted as a second option that may be selected over lethal injection at the request of the prisoner in some states. In the states of Alabama and Florida, where lethal injection is an alternate technique, electrocution is an optional method of execution as of 2021. Inmates who are condemned to death for crimes committed before March 31, 1998 and who elect electrocution as their method of execution no longer have access to the electric chair; instead, they are put to death by lethal injection, as are those who do not pick electrocution. In the event that a judge rules that lethal injection is unlawful, electrocution is also permitted in Kentucky. If alternative methods of execution are later determined to be unlawful in the state where the execution is taking place, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma have permitted the use of the electric chair as a backup method. On February 8, 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the state's constitution prohibits "cruel and unusual punishment," which included electric chair execution. As a result, Nebraska, the only state that continued to use electrocution as the exclusive form of death, stopped carrying out these kinds of executions.

 

Newspaper stories about how the high voltages used to power arc lighting, a type of brilliant outdoor street lighting that required high voltages in the range of 3000-6000 volts, were published one after another in the late 1870s and early 1880s. It was a strange new phenomenon that appeared to instantly strike a victim dead without leaving a mark. On August 7, 1881, one of these mishaps in Buffalo, New York, resulted in the invention of the electric chair. George Lemuel Smith, a drunk dock worker, managed to get back inside the Brush Electric Company arc lighting power house that evening and touch the brush and ground of a large electric dynamo in search of the excitement of a tingling feeling he had felt while holding the guard rail. He died instantaneously. The coroner who looked into the matter brought it up before a Buffalo-area scientific group that year. Alfred P. Southwick, a dentist with a technical background who was also in attendance at the talk, believed the strange event may have some practical use.

 

Southwick participated in a series of studies that involved electrocuting hundreds of stray dogs alongside doctor George E. Fell and the director of the Buffalo ASPCA. They conducted tests using the dog both in and out of the water, and they experimented with the electrode kind and location until they developed a consistent procedure for electrocuting animals. After publishing his theories in scholarly publications in 1882 and 1883, Southwick went on to argue for the employment of this technique as a more compassionate alternative to hanging in capital cases in the early 1880s. His work gained widespread attention. In an effort to create a system that might be scaled up to operate on people, he developed calculations based on the dog experimentation. Early on in his plans, he used a modified dental chair to confine the condemned; this chair would later come to be known as the electric chair.

 

There was growing opposition to hangings in particular and the death penalty in general following a string of botched executions in the United States. A three-person death penalty commission was established in 1886 by newly elected New York State Governor David B. Hill to look into more humane ways of carrying out executions. The commission was chaired by the human rights activist and reformer Elbridge Thomas Gerry and included Southwick and lawyer and politician Matthew Hale from New York. There was growing opposition to hangings in particular and the death penalty in general following a string of botched executions in the United States. A three-person death penalty commission was established in 1886 by newly elected New York State Governor David B. Hill to look into more humane ways of carrying out executions. The commission was chaired by the human rights activist and reformer Elbridge Thomas Gerry and included Southwick and lawyer and politician Matthew Hale from New York. They also went to George Fell's dog electrocutions, who had collaborated with Southwick on early 1880s tests. Fell continued his research by electrocuting sedated, vivisected dogs in an effort to understand how electricity killed a victim. The Commission suggested execution in 1888 utilizing Southwick's electric chair concept, with the convicted person's head and feet hooked to metal wires. With three electric chairs put up at the jails in Auburn, Clinton, and Sing Sing, they further suggested that the state execute prisoners rather than the individual counties. These ideas were incorporated into a measure that was approved by the legislature, signed by Governor Hill on June 4, 1888, and was scheduled to take effect on January 1, 1889.

 

The New York Medico-Legal Society, an unofficial organization made up of physicians and lawyers, was tasked with assessing these criteria because the bill itself did not specify the kind or quantity of electricity that should be utilized. Since tests up to that point had been conducted on animals smaller than a human (dogs), some committee members weren't sure that the lethality of alternating current (AC) had been conclusively proven. In September 1888, a committee was formed and recommended 3000 volts, but the type of electricity, direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC), wasn't determined.

 

At this point, the state's efforts to develop the electric chair were mixed up with the conflict between Thomas Edison's direct current power system and George Westinghouse's alternating current-based system, which came to be known as the "war of the currents." Since 1886, the two businesses had been engaged in commercial competition. In 1888, a sequence of circumstances led to an all-out media war between the two. Frederick Peterson, a neurologist who served as the committee's chair, hired Harold P. Brown to serve as a consultant. After numerous people died as a result of the careless installation of pole-mounted AC arc lighting lines in New York City in the early months of 1888, Brown embarked on his own war against alternating current. Peterson had assisted Brown when he publicly electrocuted dogs with AC in July 1888 at Columbia College in an effort to demonstrate that AC was more lethal than DC.  Thomas Edison's West Orange laboratory offered technical support for these experiments, and an unofficial alliance between Edison Electric and Brown developed. On December 5, 1888, Brown set up an experiment back at West Orange as Thomas Edison, members of the press, and members of the Medico-Legal Society, including Elbridge Gerry, the head of the death sentence panel, watched. Brown conducted all of his experiments on animals larger than humans using alternating current, including four calves and a lame horse, which were all operated under 750 volts of AC.  The Medico-Legal Society advocated using 1000–1500 volts of alternating electricity for executions based on these findings, and newspapers emphasized that the voltage used was just half that of the power lines that run over the streets of American cities. Westinghouse denounced these experiments as biased self-serving demonstrations intended to constitute an outright attack on alternating current, and he charged Brown of working for Edison. Members of the Medico-Legal Society, including electrotherapy specialist Alphonse David Rockwell, Carlos Frederick MacDonald, and Columbia College professor Louis H. Laudy, were tasked with determining the specifics of electrode placement at the request of death sentence panel chairman Gerry. They resorted to Brown once more for the technical support. Treasurer Francis S. Hastings, who appeared to be one of the key figures at the company trying to portray Westinghouse as a peddler of death dealing AC current, tried to acquire a Westinghouse AC generator for the test but discovered that none could be acquired. Brown requested that Edison Electric Light supply the equipment for the tests. They ultimately used Edison's West Orange facility for the animal testing they carried out in the middle of March 1889. Austin E. Lathrop, the superintendent of prisons, petitioned Brown to create the chair, but Brown declined.  Dr. George Fell created the final designs for a straightforward oak chair, deviating from the suggestions of the Medico-Legal Society by moving the electrodes to the head and the center of the back.  Brown did accept the responsibility of locating the generators required to run the chair. With the aid of Edison and Westinghouse's main AC competitor, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, he was able to covertly purchase three Westinghouse AC generators that were being retired, ensuring that Westinghouse's equipment would be connected to the first execution. Edwin F. Davis, the first "state electrician" (executioner) for the State of New York, constructed the electric chair.

 

Joseph Chapleau, who had been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of killing his neighbor with a sled stake, became the first victim of New York's new electrocution legislation. William Kemmler, who had been found guilty of killing his wife with a hatchet, was the next prisoner on the death row. Kemmler filed an appeal on his behalf with the New York Court of Appeals, arguing that the use of electricity as a manner of execution amounted to "cruel and unusual punishment" that was in violation of both the federal and state constitutions of the United States. Kemmler's petition for a writ of habeas corpus was rejected by the court on December 30, 1889, according to a long decision by Judge Dwight: 

“We have no doubt that if the Legislature of this State should undertake to proscribe for any offense against its laws the punishment of burning at the stake, breaking at the wheel, etc., it would be the duty of the courts to pronounce upon such an attempt the condemnation of the Constitution. The question now to be answered is whether the legislative act here is subject to the same condemnation. Certainly, it is not so on its face, for, although the mode of death described is conceded to be unusual, there is no common knowledge or consent that it is cruel; it is a question of fact whether an electric current of sufficient intensity and skillfully applied will produce death without unnecessary suffering.”

 

On August 6, 1890, Kemmler was put to death in Auburn Prison in New York; Edwin F. Davis served as the "state electrician." Kemmler was rendered unconscious after being exposed to 1,000 volts of AC electricity for the first 17 seconds, but his heart and respiration were left unaffected. Edward Charles Spitzka and Carlos F. MacDonald, the attending doctors, stepped forward to examine Kemmler. Spitzka allegedly said, "Have the current turned on again, quick, no delay," after making sure Kemmler was still alive. But the generator required some time to recharge. A 2,000 volt AC shock was administered to Kemmler on the second attempt. The skin's blood vessels burst, bled, and caught fire in the vicinity of the electrodes. It took roughly eight minutes to complete the execution. A reporter who witnessed the execution reported that it was "an horrible scene, considerably worse than hanging," and George Westinghouse subsequently said, "They would have done better using an ax."

 

Following its adoption by Ohio (1897), Massachusetts (1900), New Jersey (1906), and Virginia (1908), the electric chair quickly replaced hanging as the most often used form of execution in the country. Death by electrocution was either legal or actively used to kill offenders in 26 US States, the District of Columbia, the Federal government, and the US Military. Until the middle of the 1980s, when lethal injection became the method of choice for carrying out legal executions, the electric chair remained the most popular execution technique. 

 

It appears that other nations have thought about employing the technique, occasionally for unique motives. From 1926 to 1987, the electric chair was also used in the Philippines. In May 1972, Jaime Jose, Basilio Pineda, and Edgardo Aquino were killed there in a well-known triple execution for the 1967 kidnapping and gang rape of the young actress Maggie de la Riva. Lethal injection was used instead of the electric chair when executions resumed in the Philippines after a break in 1976.

 

Some accounts claim that Ethiopia tried to use the electric chair as a means of capital punishment. According to legend, the emperor Menelik II purchased three electric chairs in 1896 at the urging of a missionary, but was unable to put them to use since his country did not have a stable source of electricity at the time. Menelik II is rumored to have used the third electric chair as a throne, while the other two chairs were either utilized as garden furniture or gifted to guests.

 

During the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment, the results of which were released in 1953, the United Kingdom explored lethal injection in addition to lethal injection, the electric chair, the gas chamber, the guillotine, and gunshot as alternatives to hanging. The Commission came to the conclusion that hanging was preferable to the electric chair in no specific way. In the UK, the death penalty was abolished for the majority of offenses in 1965.

 

In 1894, serial killer Lizzie Halliday was given a death sentence via electric chair; however, after a medical committee deemed her crazy, governor Roswell P. Flower reduced her death sentence to life in a mental hospital. Maria Barbella, a second woman who received a death sentence in 1895, was exonerated the following year. On March 20, 1899, Martha M. Place at Sing Sing Prison became the first female to be put to death by electric chair for the murder of her stepdaughter Ida Place, who was 17 years old.

 

Ruth Snyder, a housewife, was put to death in the electric chair at Sing Sing on the evening of January 12, 1928, for the murder of her husband in March of that year. Tom Howard, a news photographer, sneaked a camera into the execution chamber and captured her in the electric chair as the current was put on for a front-page story in the New York Daily News the next morning. It continues to be among the most well-known instances in photojournalism.

 

On July 13, 1928, a record was set at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, Kentucky, when seven men were put to death in the electric chair one after the other.

 

George Stinney, an African-American boy, was electrocuted at the Central Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina, on June 16, 1944, making him the youngest person ever to be put to death by the electric chair. In 2014, a circuit court judge annulled his sentence and reversed his conviction on the grounds that Stinney had not received a fair trial. The judge found that Stinney's legal representation fell short of his constitutional rights as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment.

 

Following the Gregg v. Georgia ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976, John Spenkelink was the first person to be electrocuted on May 25, 1979. He was the first person to be put to death in this way in the United States since 1966.

 

Lynda Lyon Block was the last person to be put to death in the electric chair without having the option of a different execution technique on May 10, 2002 in Alabama.

 

On the day of the execution, the condemned prisoner's legs and head are both shaved. The condemned prisoner is led to the chair and placed there before having their arms and legs firmly restrained with leather belts to prevent movement or struggle. The prisoner's legs are shaved, and electrodes are fastened to them. A hat covering his head is made of a sponge soaked in saltwater or brine. To avoid presenting a gory scene to the onlookers, the prisoner may wear a hood or be blinded.

 

The execution starts when the prisoner is told the order of death and given the chance to say one last thing. Alternating current is delivered through a person's body in several cycles (changes in voltage and length) to fatally harm their internal organs. The initial, stronger electric shock (between 2000 and 2,500 volts) is meant to induce instantaneous unconsciousness, ventricular fibrillation, and eventually cardiac arrest. The goal of the second, weaker shock (500–1,500 volts) is to fatally harm the essential organs.

 

A medical professional examines the prisoner for signs of life once the cycles are finished. If none are found, the medical professional notes the moment of death and waits for the body to cool before removing it to prepare for an autopsy. The doctor alerts the warden if the prisoner shows signs of life, and the warden would often order another round of electric current or (rarely) postpone the execution (see Willie Francis).

 

The reliability of the first electrical shock to consistently cause rapid unconsciousness, as proponents of the electric chair sometimes say, is disputed by opponents. According to witness accounts, electrocutions gone wrong (see Willie Francis and Allen Lee Davis) and results of post-mortem investigations, the electric chair is frequently unpleasant during executions.

 

The electric chair has drawn criticism since in a few cases the victims were only put to death after receiving many electric shocks. As a result, the practice was called into question as being "cruel and unusual punishment." In an effort to allay these worries, Nebraska implemented a new electrocution procedure in 2004 that required the delivery of a 15-second application of electricity at 2,450 volts, followed by a 15-minute wait period during which a representative checked for signs of life. The current Nebraska protocol, which calls for a 20-second application of current at 2,450 volts, was introduced in April 2007 in response to further concerns voiced about the 2004 procedure.

 

Before the 2004 protocol revision, a first application of current at 2,450 volts for eight seconds, a one-second interval, and then a 22-second application at 480 volts were given. The cycle was performed three more times after a 20-second rest.

 

Willie Francis tried to escape the electric chair in 1946 and reportedly screamed, "Take it off! Let me Breathe!" when the current was turned on. It turned out that an inebriated jail officer and convict had illegally set up the portable electric chair. In a case titled Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber, attorneys for the convicted person contended that, although not dying, Francis had indeed been put to death. Francis was put back in the electric chair and killed in 1947 after the argument was rejected on the grounds that re-execution did not violate the double jeopardy provision of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

 

Allen Lee Davis, who had been found guilty of murder, was put to death in Florida on July 8, 1999, using the "Old Sparky" electric chair. Pictures of Davis' injured face were taken and afterwards uploaded to the Internet. According to the results of the study, Davis had started bleeding before the electricity was turned on, and the chair had performed as planned. According to Florida's Supreme Court, the electric chair is not "cruel and unusual punishment." When flames sprang from Pedro Medina's skull during his execution in Florida in 1997, it stirred much debate. Medina's brain and brain stem were damaged by the initial electrical surge, which caused him to pass away quickly, according to an autopsy. A court determined that "unintentional human error" rather than any flaws in the "apparatus, equipment, and electrical circuitry" of Florida's electric chair was to blame for the occurrence.

 

The Louisiana legislature modified the manner of death in 1940; as of June 1, 1941, electrocution was the only option left. At first, Louisiana's electric chair was moved from parish to parish to carry out executions since it lacked a permanent location. Typically, the electrocution would take place in the jail or courtroom of the parish where the condemned prisoner had been found guilty. The first person to be executed with an electric chair in Louisiana was Eugene Johnson, a black man who was found guilty of stealing and killing Steven Bench, a white farmer who resided close to Albany. Johnson was killed at the Livingston Parish Jail on September 11, 1941. 

 

To house all executions in Louisiana, it was decided to construct an execution chamber in the Louisiana State Penitentiary in 1957. Elmo Patrick Sonnier, the prisoner who served as the inspiration for the movie Dead Man Walking, and Willie Francis were notable executions on the chair (the only inmate to survive the electric chair; he was ultimately executed after the first attempt failed). Lethal injection was chosen by the State of Louisiana as the only execution technique in 1991 as a result of new law. Andrew Lee Jones was the last person put to death aboard "Gruesome Gertie" on July 22, 1991. Eighty-seven executions took place using "Gruesome Gertie" during the course of its fifty-year lifespan. The Louisiana Prison Museum presently houses it.  Death row convicts referred to the electric chair in Louisiana as " Gruesome Gertie."  It is also well-known for being the first electric chair execution to fail, when Willie Francis was put to death. As mentioned earlier.

 

The electric chair used in New Jersey's state prisons, known as Old Smokey, is displayed in the New Jersey State Police Museum. Richard Hauptmann, the person responsible for the Lindbergh kidnapping, was the chair's most well-known victim.

The electric chair in Tennessee and Pennsylvania both went by this moniker.

 

Alabama in the United States has an electric chair called Yellow Mama. From 1927 through 2002, executions were held there.

 

The chair was first put at Kilby State Prison in Montgomery, Alabama, where it was given the moniker "Yellow Mama" after being sprayed with highway-line paint from the nearby State Highway Department lab. The chair was created by a British prisoner in 1927, the same year that Horace DeVauhan was executed for the first time.

 

Lynda Lyon Block, who was executed in 2002, was the final person to be executed in Yellow Mama. Since then, the chair has been kept at the Holman Correctional Facility in an attic above the execution room.

 

Since the introduction of lethal injection in 1979, which is now the standard procedure in all U.S. counties that permit capital punishment, the usage of the electric chair has decreased.

 

Only the American states of Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee still allow the use of the electric chair as a method of execution as of 2021. The laws of Arkansas and Oklahoma allow for its application in the event that lethal injection is ever ruled to be unlawful. It or lethal injection are the only options available to inmates in the other states. Only prisoners convicted in Kentucky prior to a specific date may choose to be executed by electric chair. In the event that a judge rules that lethal injection is unlawful, electrocution is also permitted in Kentucky.

 

Tennessee was one of the states that offered convicts the option of the electric chair or a lethal injection; nevertheless, the state approved a statute enabling the use of the electric chair in the event that lethal injection medicines were unavailable or rendered inadmissible in May 2014.

 

The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled on February 15, 2008, that the Nebraska Constitution forbids "cruel and unusual punishment," which includes death by electrocution.

 

Before Furman v. Georgia, Oklahoma witnessed the last legal electrocution in the US. This occurred in 1966. The electric chair was used relatively regularly in post-Gregg v. Georgia executions throughout the 1980s, but as lethal injection became more popular in the 1990s, its use in the United States steadily decreased. The most recent US electrocution, that of Nicholas Todd Sutton,  who was responsible for murdering two acquaintances and his own grandmother in North Carolina and Tennessee from August to December 1979, took place in Tennessee in February 2020. A handful of states still give the death penalty option to the convicted, allowing them to choose between lethal injection and electrocution.

https://www.listal.com/movies/electric%2bchair

The Setagaya Family Murders

Welcome back passengers! Tonight we dive deep… too deep.. Into our bread and butter… we are diving back into unsolved murders. Hold on to your skivvies and make sure you have a drink and a magnifying glass because we are gonna talk about the Setagaya Murders. Bum bum buuuuuuummmmmmmmmm!!!!!!

 

Typically, New Year's Eve is a happy occasion. It indicates that things are changing and making room for something new. It's a time to rejoice in a brand-new beginning, typically with your family and close friends.

 

This day, known in Japan as Omisoka, is regarded as one of the most significant ones of the year. There are traditions and conventions connected, which are often observed. In Japan, New Year's is regarded as the most prestigious celebration, unlike in America where it is frequently associated with revelry and midnight kisses.

 

The holiday season, however, was permanently tarnished by a tragic occurrence that happened around the turn of the century. For almost 20 years, what happened on this night in the Tokyo neighborhood of Setagaya has baffled detectives to no end.

 

In contrast to other cultures, Japan celebrates a century's conclusion. Japan rang in the new millennium a full year after we did in America with the opening of 2001, while most of us did so with the notorious Y2K fear.

 

By most accounts, the Miyazawa family was a normal Japanese household.

 

The father, Mikio Miyazawa, age 44, was employed by the London-based marketing company Interbrand. It is unknown what type of work Mikio performed for the company, but it was a sizable one with locations in more than twenty nations and experience working on significant marketing campaigns for organizations like Microsoft, Nissan, Xerox, and many more. In fact, Interbrand was the organization in charge of branding the phrase "Wi-fi" the year prior, in 1999.

 

Interbrand coworkers characterized Mikio as "congenial." They said he was "the kind of man that got along with everyone - definitely not the kind to create enemies."

 

The family's mother and wife, Yasuko Miyazawa, was forty-one years old and similar to her husband. She was a teacher who spent a lot of time with the couple's two children, Rei, 6, and Niina, 8, and was universally regarded as sensitive and gentle.

 

The daughter, Niina, was in second grade and appeared to be your average young lady: she was lively, she was fun, and she loved ballet and soccer, two activities in which she was actively involved.

 

Rei, the family's youngest member, had recently been experiencing a problem: His speech handicap had been causing the family quite a bit of worry. It appears that they had begun to look for expert assistance, but it was still quite concerning to them.

I 

In 1990, Mikio and Yasuki Miyazawa moved into their house in Setagaya. It was a growing neighborhood with over 200 households at the time, and it seemed like a pleasant enough place to raise a family.

 

The second biggest of Tokyo's twenty-three districts, Setagaya is situated immediately southwest of the central city. Setagaya is a fairly residential-looking neighborhood that sticks out from its hectic, crowded surroundings and is within a short distance from Tokyo Bay.

 

Even by itself, the Miyazawa family house was intriguing.

 

The house was a two-story, communal structure. On the exterior, it appeared to be a single house, but in reality, it was more like a duplex. It made it possible for the Miyazawas to be neighbors with Yasuko's family, mostly her mother but also her sister and brother-in-law who were also living with her at the time.

 

Seven family members may now reside in this joint home, even though there was no interior link between the two homes. You must exit the building and enter through a different entrance to get from one side to the other.

 

The park directly back the house, however, was the feature that had the greatest impact. Although the park had been present for some time, the city had planned to enlarge it. This indicated that the majority of the Miyazawa's neighbors had been vacating their properties recently to make room for this growth.

 

The neighborhood, which had formerly been home to more than 200 people, had now been reduced to just four: the Miyazawas, their cousins who lived next door, two other families who resided on their block. Aside from that, the neighborhood was a ghost town.

 

The skate park directly behind the Miyazawa family house was where the majority of local activity was taking place. The Miyazawa family had some difficulties because this was the busiest area of the rapidly developing park. See, the only thing separating the skate park and the home was a fence.

 

Mikio had addressed some rowdy and annoying teens at the skate park the week before New Year's Eve for making too much of a ruckus. A witness claimed to have seen him encounter a group of teenage rebels who belonged to the Bosozoku, a form of Japanese motorcycle gang, at about the same time.

 

The Miyazawas were among the last households to begin making arrangements to move because of the park's growing foot traffic and the city's intentions to expand it further. In only a few months, they would be relocating to another house in the neighborhood, and it was December 2000. Therefore, all they had to do to stop worrying about it was rough out the skate park hooligans for a few months.

 

Sadly, they would never have the opportunity.

 

In addition to Mikio's run-ins with hooligans throughout the week leading up to New Year's Eve, the Miyazawa family will also encounter some other peculiar events.

 

The locals had reportedly begun to see some of the area's animals being physically abused over the summer. There are claims that neighborhood cats, most of which are stray, had been tortured and that rats had been discovered dead. One witness remembered witnessing a nice stray suddenly emerge one day without a tail. 

 

Yasuko informed her father-in-law that a strange automobile had parked in front of their home on Christmas Day, December 25. Despite the fact that there was alternate parking nearby that wouldn't need the person parked to hop over a fence to enter the park, this has occurred more than once.

 

An eyewitness saw a guy who was thought to be in his forties going near the Miyazawa family home two days later, on the 27th. A apparently benign item that, in hindsight, appears suspicious. The neighboring park assures that people will be in the neighborhood for a number of reasons.

 

A guy was sighted in the adjacent Seijogakuenmae Station on December 29, just a few days before the start of the new century, not far from where the Miyazawa family was residing. Due to the weather, one eyewitness remembered this man's "skater"-style clothing as being peculiar and believed the man, who was also sporting a rucksack, appeared to be significantly underdressed.

 

Police suspect a guy fitting this general description bought a sashimi knife from the same retail center on this day, the 29th. It was quite simple to track down because it was the only one bought at this grocery on this particular day.

 

A man matching that description was sighted on December 30 about a mile from the Miyazawas' home, in the vicinity of Sengawa Station. This unsub, who was described as being between 35 and 40 years old, was moving steadily toward the Setagaya residence of the Miyazawa family.

 

Unbeknownst to them, the Miyazawa family's final day would be on Saturday, December 30.

 

They carried on with their usual activities while getting ready for the next holiday. Due to the approaching New Year and the fresh start of a new century, there was a celebratory mood in the air.

 

The family reportedly went shopping around about 6:00 PM in the early evening. Although we can't be certain if all four of the family members attended, a bystander remembered seeing them in a local mall around that time. This tale has credibility because a neighbor who was driving by their house that evening remembered seeing the family automobile disappearing at about 6:30 PM.

 

Yasuko contacted her mother who lived next door at approximately 7:00 that evening. The families spoke to one another over the phone frequently since they considered one another to be neighbors. The topic of the discussion was probably something unimportant, most likely Yasuko asking her mother if she wanted to see her granddaughter.

 

Niina walking next door to watch a taped TV show till 9:30 PM or so confirms this. Everything for the Miyazawa family had been quite routine up until this point in the night.

 

An accessible email that was viewed at roughly 10:38 that evening is the final activity we have of the Miyazawa family. It was Mikio reading a business email that was password-protected, indicating that he was most likely the one who opened it.

 

At least one member of the Miyazawa family was last known to be alive at this time. And their residence, which was often peaceful and calm, was about to turn into a house of horrors.

 

A witness heard what sounded like an altercation inside the Miyazawa house that evening at approximately ten o'clock while walking along the park trail behind the home. They couldn't recall any especially ear-shattering shouts or loud physical noises, but they claimed it just sounded like a couple arguing.

 

A neighbor of Yasuko's family would notice a loud pounding sound coming from the Miyazawa side of the building around an hour and a half later. They didn't know the precise time, but they were able to estimate it later using the current television programming schedule.

 

This happened at the same time that a witness or maybe a neighbor reported seeing a guy rushing along the sidewalk near to the family's home.

 

These were the only three indications that something wasn't right in Setagaya that evening. It would take hours before anybody realized how terrifying the Miyazawa house had become.

 

Three passengers were being picked up by a taxi driver not far from the Miyazawa residence. All three of these passengers, who will stay unnamed for this story due to the cab driver's oversight, were middle-aged males who kept to themselves the entire time.

 

It was far after midnight when the three guys were being dropped off at a neighboring station, something the taxi driver remembered as being quite unusual for the time.

 

A bloodstain from one of the individuals who appeared to have a wound was seen on the backseat of the taxi.

 

Yasuko's mother attempted to contact her daughter's family the next morning on New Year's Eve to arrange preparations for later that day. Unexpectedly, her call wouldn't even connect, much less ring.

 

She was unaware that someone had cut and purposely unplugged the phone lines in the Miyazawa family home hours earlier.

 

She went outside and made her way to the house where her daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren lived. When the doorbell went unanswered, she used her set of keys to allow herself in, according to the police report she would later submit.

 

There was no sound to be heard within the home itself. The moment Yasuko's mother walked inside the house, she would have realized something was wrong. As she entered the family's home, she quickly realized the reality as she came face to face with Mikio Miyazawa's body at the foot of the stairs.

 

The family's father, who was 44 years old, was found dead at the bottom of the stairway leading to the second storey after having been stabbed several times.

 

Yasuko's mother remembers trying to find out what had happened to the rest of her family by walking upstairs to the second storey. The remains of her granddaughter Niina and daughter Yasuko, who had both been viciously stabbed hundreds of times, would be waiting for her at the top of the stairs. Their suffering far surpassed that of Mikio's body.

 

Yasuko's mother recalls placing her hands on the corpses of her daughter and granddaughter in an effort to check for signs of life, either out of grief or even hope.

 

Her granddaughter Niina, with whom she had just finished watching a television show, and Yasuko, her daughter, with whom she had reared and been close for more than forty years. They were both now dead and icy, loved ones turned into corpses by an unidentified murderer.

 

The last catastrophe would be revealed to Yasuko's mother in an adjacent bedroom: six-year-old Rei, who had been struggling with a speech impediment in an effort to satisfy his parents, was still in bed. He had been strangled to death, which led detectives to believe that he was the family's first victim.

 

It goes without saying that Yasuko's mother—this devastated grandmother—would call the police. However, what she had witnessed was irreversible, and nothing could replace the family she had just lost.

 

When the event occurred, Tokyo Police were as appalled by the crime scene as Yasuko's mother had been. They were aware that this case would shock everyone in the neighborhood: witnessing a whole family being murdered by an unidentified intruder in the middle of the night is arguably the most terrifying scenario one could conceive.

 

Police started investigating the incident and piecing it together at the spot. Yasuko's mother, sister, and brother-in-law, who were all there when the crime took place next door, remembered anything peculiar or unusual that may have transpired that evening.

 

The only thing that sprang to mind for them was the loud thud that had happened at about 11:30 that evening; the timing was supported by a TV schedule that showed the thud happened during the broadcast of a certain program. When Mikio, the father, approached the alleged murderer, the police instantly assumed that the thud may have happened then. They assumed that he had fought with the person who had attacked Yasuko's family based on the injuries on his body, and that the loud thud Yasuko's family had heard could have been him being thrown to the bottom of the steps.

 

Mikio had been stabbed several times, with the majority of the wounds being to his neck. They would deduce that the sashimi knife that had been abandoned in the family's kitchen was what had caused the stab wounds. But the knife had somehow broken when Mikio was being attacked.

 

Investigators instantly hypothesized that the broken knife had been merely one of two murder weapons based on the evidence they had at the site. The killer also used a knife he had discovered in Mikio and Yasuko's very own kitchen to murder the two ladies upstairs.

 

The fact that Mikio's body was still in his day clothes—business-casual dress that he would typically wear out and about—was what was most peculiar about its discovery. 

 

As for the bodies of Yasuko and Niina, however, the home was constructed so that a ladder leading to a third-story loft was located at the top of the stairs going to the second level. Many people have speculated that because the third-story loft contained a bed and a TV, Yasuko and Niina were both there when the killings took place, maybe in bed or watching TV.

 

Both Yasuko and Niina's bodies, which had been repeatedly stabbed, were discovered at the bottom of the ladder leading to the third-floor loft. Investigators determined that both individuals had been stabbed well past the point of death because of the excessive number of knife wounds. This gave rise to several speculations suggesting that the murderer had some type of hatred for women or at the very least had some anger toward them. Sadly, this is not an attitude that is particularly unusual in these homicides, but it would become important in the investigation that followed.

 

Rei, the family's son, was discovered murdered in bed. When police started to piece together the facts, they realized that Rei was the first member of the family to be slain, which explained why he had avoided a horrific stabbing death like the rest of his family. 

 

About six hours after the deaths were found that afternoon, a young guy was brought into a hospital in Tobu Nikko Station. The Miyazawa family's neighborhood in Tokyo, Setagaya, is a few hours north of Tobu Nikko Station, and there are several connecting trains that run between the two.

 

This individual, whose age was given as thirty, was accepted without disclosing his identity or the nature of his injuries. A hand wound that was allegedly serious enough to have revealed bone was the actual damage. Staff members at the scene were astonished by how casually the man was treating the wound and thought him to be fairly suspect, which is why they had a good memory of the specifics.

 

This man was dressed in a black down jacket and pants and appeared to be well into his forties. The medical personnel had no idea what had transpired just hours earlier, yet the man was treated and then released despite not providing any information about himself.

 

The crime scene was completely covered with evidence of what had occurred in the early morning hours of December 31st, much to the investigator's amazement.

 

First and foremost, by locating the murder weapons right away, the authorities had found the key to any inquiry. Both knives were quickly discovered there, still covered in blood.

 

In contrast to many police investigations that falter in the absence of a murder weapon, the police in this case found two within the first few minutes of their inquiry.

 

But in addition to the blades, the Miyazawa family house turned out to be a gold mine of information that helped the police put together what had transpired that night.

 

The family's first aid box had been unlocked, perhaps by Yasuko and Niina, at some point during the actual assault, they would discover. Blood from eight-year-old Niina was discovered on several of the first aid kit's bandages.

 

Disgustingly, authorities would uncover unflushed excrement in the upper bathroom. This was reportedly left by the murderer, who was either too proud of his ability to get away with it or too ignorant of DNA testing. Investigators would find traces of a meal with string beans and sesame spinach that had presumably been consumed somewhere else.

 

Since then, internet websleuths have described this dish as relatively "boring," similar to what a mother might serve her kid. This has become a popular hypothesis about a man who continued to live at home with his mother.

 

The footprints of the presumed intruder were all over the home, strewn around in blood and mud. It will soon be generally recognized that these shoe patterns belonged to a particular kind of Slazenger footwear. At this time, Slazenger shoes were accessible all throughout Japan, but the shoeprint they left behind was for a very particular size that wasn't available there. Many ideas concerning the killer's ethnicity were sparked by the fact that this shoe size was a Korean shoe size and the shoe would have most likely only been found for sale in South Korea.

 

In addition to the bandages from the first aid kit used by Niina; towels and women's sanitary towels were also discovered with unidentified amounts of blood on them. This was a surprising discovery for the police since it supported the theory that Mikio had engaged the attacker on the steps, presumably injuring him and forcing him to seek immediate medical assistance.

 

Police would have to send the blood samples for testing, which is a process that will take some time to complete. They would have to continue looking for evidence until then, which the murderer had purposefully left behind.

 

The most shocking evidence found throughout the inquiry was a range of apparel and belongings that the killer (or killers) brought before leaving them behind. It appeared as though the murderer intentionally left the garments behind or at the very least paid no attention to doing so.

 

The attire that the murderer had most likely worn to the crime site was described as being suitable for a skater. The goods included a black AirTech jacket, a white and purple long sleeve shirt (which has alternately been referred to as a hoodie and a long sleeve shirt), black Edwin gloves, a multicolored scarf with no tags that is almost unrecognizable, and a black handkerchief.

 

The blood stains found on the long-sleeved shirt made it the most notable of the pieces. Even if it wasn't the proper size, the clothes weren't in the same style as anything the family members would have worn. Only Marufuru stores, a retail chain that also offered the style of gloves and hat discovered at the crime site, carried the white shirt with purple sleeves.

 

The handkerchief was also notable in its own right because the police learned that it had been ironed before use. Simply said, very few individuals would go to the trouble of ironing a handkerchief, thus this was strange. Internet theorists have said that the handkerchief being ironed is another more indication that the suspected killer lived at home with a mother figure because the thought of a young skater using a handkerchief is already a peculiar one.

 

Forensic experts would find traces of the male perfume Drakkar Noir on the handkerchief. 

 

It was discovered that every piece of clothing had been cleaned in hard water, which meant that the water used to clean the clothes was rich in minerals and vitamins that aren't often present in water that naturally occurs. Japan has traditionally employed a soft water system, which simply means that the water is water with some sodium added. Given that Korea has a hard water system and that the clothing were cleaned the manner they were discovered, this would be a point in the killer's favor if they were identified as having Korean ancestry.

 

However, in addition to the clothing, the murderer also left behind further evidence in the form of personal possessions. A "hip-bag," which resembled a cross between a messenger bag, a tiny backpack, and a fanny pack, was the first and prominent of these accessories. 

 

Although the hip-bag itself had a relatively innocent appearance, it did include certain bits of information that would help detectives approach the case in the future. A piece of grip tape used on skateboards served as the first piece of proof. The second was the Drakkar Noir fragrance traces that were discovered on the handkerchief. The most surprising discovery was sand, which was the final item removed from the hip-bag.

 

The location of the sand, which pointed to the Southwestern United States, allowed the identification of the material contained in that hip-bag. Specifically, the vicinity of Edwards Air Force Base, a military facility located roughly 100 miles north of Los Angeles.

 

This shocking piece of information, which may connect the murderer to a military facility hundreds of miles away, has probably thrown the entire investigation into a loop. Many people have interpreted this as evidence that the murderer was maybe an airman stationed in Tokyo or a certain category of contractor who conducted business internationally. Some have even attempted to connect this information to the handkerchief that has been ironed as a symbol of military bearing as the military does encourage ironing as a component of its standard behavior.

 

Despite the fact that there was a ton of evidence on the scene, the investigation was far from over. There would still be new information to emerge in the investigation, and there was still no strong indication of a suspect.

 

Days started to transform into weeks, which eventually changed into months. Police made a plea for anyone with information about the apparel while presenting the public with the evidence they had. Several pieces of clothes could be traced back to their owners, but the majority of the goods the murderer left behind at the Miyazawa home were ordinary. It was impossible to find every owner of the apparel because thousands of each had been sold in Japan in the few months before the deaths.

 

About a hundred days after the killings, at the beginning of April, authorities made an intriguing discovery. They had found a little Buddhist statue that was first brought in as evidence not more than a mile from the Miyazawa residence.

 

Jizo is a Buddhist god who guards children in the afterlife, and that statue was made in his likeness. Jizo, an embodiment of Buddhism in Eastern Asia, is thought to guard children who pass away before their parents in the afterlife from demons as they ascend to the spirit realm.

 

When the police first brought this in as evidence, they reasoned that possibly the murderer had left it behind as a token of regret or guilt.

 

Regardless of who put it there, it serves as a sorrowful reminder of the atrocities against the Miyazawas in the Setagaya province adjacent to the family home.

 

Police had outlined a sequence of events that led to the family's murder as they continued to piece together the evidence and test the forensics against their expanding database, which at the time of the family's murder in 2000 was still fairly recent in the world of crime-fighting.

 

The killer most likely entered the house through the second-story bathroom window, which was just above a fence separating the home from the park and was accessible from the rear of the house. This would be a somewhat physically demanding act that would need for the murderer to have at least a modicum of upper body strength.

 

They believed that after entering the house, the attacker had targeted the unfortunate six-year-old Rei first, going into his bedroom and strangling him while he was still asleep.

 

From there, the course of events slightly fragments, with investigators having doubts regarding the killer's future moves. They believe that as Mikio was working on his computer in the study below, the disturbance coming from above diverted his attention, and when he walked up the stairs, he came across the murderer. A fight broke out there, and Mikio fell to the ground, where he would be discovered hours later.

 

According to this sequence of events, Yasuko and Niina were the next to be approached by the assailant, who either assaulted them upstairs in the third-floor loft or at the bottom of the ladder leading to it. Niina used the first aid kit at some point to try to bind some of her own wounds, thus it's likely that the murderer attacked them with his broken sashimi knife, realized it couldn't be used, and fled to the kitchen to grab another. Yasuko and Niina attempted to obtain her medical treatment during this lull since they thought the murderer had abandoned them forever.

 

If this scenario is correct, the killer then returned with his new weapon to kill the family off, murdering the two at the foot of the ladder leading up to the loft.

 

Possibly around this point, Mikio heard a scuffle upstairs and hurried up there in an effort to distract the murderer from his family, not realizing that Rei had already been killed. The murderer managed to inflict Mikio's fatal wounds there, but not before breaking his murder weapon and becoming hurt himself. Their fight had brought them to the stairs.

 

The murderer, who was now not far from the family's kitchen, went inside to get his new murder weapon, then returned upstairs to kill Yasuko and Niina, who were attempting to treat Niina's wound with bandages from the first aid kit. Perhaps they were moving toward the loft in an effort to elude the murderer, expecting that the ladder would be lowered behind them.

 

However, police would find out during their reenactment of the incident that the murderer had remained after killing the four members of the family. He would eventually spend hours inside the house of the family.

 

Police concluded based on evidence that the murderer chose to remain in the home as an uninvited house guest rather than leave right after killing the Miyazawa family. He hadn't even bothered to cover the remains of the four family members when he made the decision to settle down for the evening.

 

One of the more peculiar events in the narrative itself was that the unsub had allegedly taken a nap on the family's sofa in the living room. Typically, suspects leave the scene as quickly as they can since each minute increases the likelihood that they will be found, but this killer seems to have relished the closeness of spending the night at his victim's house.

 

The murderer of the Miyazawa family treated himself to ice cream from the refrigerator. Police would soon find four ice cream wrappers with the alleged killer's prints on them; they were also known as popsicle wrappers in certain accounts. These fingerprints matched those that were left all around the house by people who weren't members of the family in attendance.

 

The family's PC was in the downstairs study and this unsub had also utilized it. A few hours or so after the family was probably killed, on December 31st, around 1:18 AM, they noticed that the computer had been accessed. The unsub had gone to the Shiki Theater Company's website, which Mikio had already bookmarked. Because theater was a love of Mikio's, you see, so one has to question if this was some kind of twisted joke on the part of the perpetrator, or if the family was indeed slain hours after many people thought they were.

The odds are still very much in favor of the murderer doing it since someone had visited that website at 1:18 in the morning and attempted to purchase performance tickets online.

 

Hours later, at around 10:05 in the morning, the murderer reportedly allegedly signed on to examine the websites of Mikio's business, Interbrand, and the university Yasuko taught at. Interestingly, the murderer only visited websites that the family had bookmarked, maybe in an effort to enjoy the closeness of their home.

 

The murderer had only used the computer for 10 minutes total before unplugging it from the wall.

 

The killer had amassed the family's credit and ID cards throughout the course of the evening; they were all discovered organized in the family's living room, next to the sofa where the unsub had slept. Many people have argued that this was an extremely peculiar attempt by the killer—or killers—to try and guess the PIN numbers required to use the cards. He left them behind since he knew he wouldn't try to keep them guessing and risk being found out.

 

A strange assortment of the family's possessions and trash were also gathered by the unsub before departing and dumped in the bathtub for some reason. The majority of these items were trash, like ice cream wrappers or torn-up flyers, but they also included some of Mikio's work receipts, Yasuko's school records, and even feminine hygiene products stained with the murderer's blood. Many have speculated as to why the murderer would leave such a strange collection of trash in the bathtub, but have come to the conclusion that he may have intended to use them for anything and simply forgot. Unaware that he had left boats worth of evidence behind, he may have intended to let the goods soak before being discovered.

 

Police believed the murderer had stolen the family's money, around 125k yen, after he had been sleeping at the Miyazawa house for a few hours. That basically translates to more than a grand in American dollars. However, the fact that the killer had been eating ice cream and using the computer in the family's study where extra money was quickly discovered led the detectives to believe that this wasn't a straightforward heist.

 

Additionally, if this had been a robbery, the murderer may have taken some expensive items, but it appeared that the family's possessions had all been left behind. The only thing that was thought to be missing was a worn-out jacket that had belonged to Mikio.

 

The entrance door was locked when Yasuko's mother entered the crime scene, according to her memory. Police speculated that the killer may have returned through the second-story bathroom window he had used to enter because of this. The door was shut when Yasuko's mother arrived, but over time she has grown unsure of this fact, and it has never been made crystal clear how the murderer fled the scene of these horrible acts.

 

By 2006, forensic science had advanced to the point that sleuths could resurrect this monster. Or, at the very least, extract him from the Setagaya neighborhood's mid-2000s zeitgeist and turn him back into a mortal man with flesh and bone.

 

DNA genome testing was used to determine the precise characteristics of the murderer using the blood found on towels and feminine items at the site. The results were shocking.

 

Police found that the Miyazawa family's suspected murderer was of mixed ethnicity and probably not a citizen of Japan. One of the unsub's parents was of Southern European ancestry, while the other belonged to two distinct cultures, one of which was Eastern Asian.

 

According to a police source who spoke to the publication "Japan Today," the murderer was a guy of Asian descent.  “His DNA carried a marker from his father that occurs in one out of every 13 Japanese; one out of about 10 Chinese, and one in every 5 or so Koreans. Based on mitochondrial DNA, his mother had an ancestor originating from the southern Mediterranean area, probably around the Adriatic.”

 

But in addition to the probable DNA, we also have some additional information about the murderer. By comparing the clothing he left at the crime site, they were able to determine that he is approximately 175 cm tall, or five feet seven inches. His shoes were a Korean size, measuring little about eleven inches, or 27.5 cm, in length. He had blood type A since the blood found at the site did not match that of the victims.

 

Bizarre locations used to shoot in movies

https://www.thetravel.com/25-of-the-most-bizarre-locations-ever-used-to-shoot-a-movie/

World UFO Day Special: A Weird Ass UFO Story

Yep! It's World UFO Day and we wanted to drop a special for you and, BOY, is this special! 

 

LOOK TO THE SKIES, TONIGHT!

 

To all of our American listeners, have a safe and awesome Fourth of July and enjoy the celebration of the US's independence. 

Don't lose any fingers.

 

CHOO CHOO, YOU SEXY BASTARDS!

The Antikythera Mechanism (Nerd Overload)

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Well since last week's episode left Logan up at night with nightmares and I still can't get the stains out of my shorts; we have decided to make this week's episode a little more on the lighter side. So we are diving deep into the wonderful world of politics! You got it, today we are going to discuss The Biden Administrations wonderful and brilliant plans and maybe even get an interview with Brandon himself! HA like that would ever happen. Fuck those guys. We are actually talking about the Antikythera Mechanism, and the mysteries surrounding it.

 

The Antikythera mechanism is a hand-powered orrery( a mechanical model of our solar system) from Ancient Greece that has been dubbed the world's first analog computer since it was used to forecast celestial locations and eclipses decades in advance. The ancient Olympic Games' four-year cycle, which was akin to an Olympiad, could also be followed using this method.

 

In 1901, wreckage from a shipwreck off the shore of the Greek island of Antikythera included this artifact. Archaeologist Valerios Stais recognized it as bearing a gear on May 17, 1902. The gadget, which was found as a single lump and then fragmented into three primary components that are now divided into 82 individual shards following conservation efforts, was contained in the remnants of a wooden box that measured 34 cm 18 cm 9 cm (13.4 in 7.1 in 3.5 in). While several of these shards have inscriptions, four of them have gears. The biggest gear has 223 teeth and is around 13 centimeters (5.1 in) in diameter.

 

Using contemporary computer x-ray tomography and high resolution surface scanning, a team at Cardiff University led by Mike Edmunds and Tony Freeth was able to image inside fragments of the crust-encased mechanism in 2008 and decipher the faintest writing that had once been inscribed on the machine's outer casing. This shows that it contained 37 bronze meshing gears that allowed it to mimic the Moon's erratic orbit, where the Moon's velocity is higher in its perigee than in its apogee, follow the motions of the Moon and Sun across the zodiac, and anticipate eclipses. Astronomer Hipparchus of Rhodes researched this motion in the second century BC, and it is possible that he was consulted when building the device. It is believed that a piece of the system, which also determined the locations of the five classical planets, is missing.

 

The device has been variously dated to between 150 and 100 BC, or to 205 BC, and it is thought to have been devised and built by Greek scientists. In any event, it had to have been built prior to the shipwreck, which has been dated to around 70–60 BC by many lines of evidence. Researchers suggested in 2022 that the machine's initial calibration date, rather than the actual date of manufacture, would have been December 23, 178 BC. Some academics disagree, arguing that the calibration date should be 204 BC. Up to the astronomical clocks of Richard of Wallingford and Giovanni de' Dondi in the fourteenth century, comparable complicated machines had not been seen.

 

The National Archaeological Museum in Athens currently has all of the Antikythera mechanism's fragments as well as a variety of reproductions and artistic reconstructions that show how it would have appeared and operated.

 

During the first voyage with the Hellenic Royal Navy, in 1900–1901, Captain Dimitrios Kontos and a crew of sponge divers from Symi island found the Antikythera shipwreck. Off Point Glyphadia on the Greek island of Antikythera, at a depth of 45 meters (148 feet), a Roman cargo ship wreck was discovered. The crew found various huge items, including the mechanism, ceramics, special glassware, jewelry, bronze and marble statues, and more. In 1901, most likely that July, the mechanism was pulled from the rubble. The mechanism's origin remains unknown, however it has been speculated that it was transported from Rhodes to Rome along with other seized goods to assist a triumphant procession that Julius Caesar was staging.

 

The National Museum of Archaeology in Athens received all the salvaged debris pieces for storage and examination. The museum personnel spent two years assembling more visible artifacts, like the sculptures, but the mechanism, which looked like a mass of tarnished brass and wood, remained unseen. The mechanism underwent deformational modifications as a result of not treating it after removal from saltwater.

 

Archaeologist Valerios Stais discovered a gear wheel lodged in one of the rocks on May 17, 1902. Although most experts judged the object to be prochronistic and too complicated to have been created during the same era as the other components that had been unearthed, he originally thought it was an astronomical clock. Before British science historian and Yale University professor Derek J. de Solla Price developed an interest in the object in 1951, investigations into the object were abandoned. The 82 pieces were photographed using X-ray and gamma-ray technology in 1971 by Price and Greek nuclear researcher Charalampos Karakalos. In 1974, Price issued a 70-page report summarizing their findings.

 

In 2012 and 2015, two more searches at the Antikythera wreck site turned up artifacts and another ship that may or may not be related to the treasure ship on which the mechanism was discovered. A bronze disc decorated with a bull's head was also discovered. Some speculated that the disc, which has four "ears" with holes in them, may have served as a "cog wheel" in the Antikythera mechanism. There doesn't seem to be any proof that it was a component of the mechanism; it's more probable that the disc was a bronze ornament on some furniture.

 

The earliest analog computer is typically referred to as the Antikythera mechanism. The production of the device must have had undiscovered ancestors throughout the Hellenistic era based on its quality and intricacy. It is believed to have been erected either in the late second century BC or the early first century BC, and its construction was based on mathematical and astronomical ideas created by Greek scientists during the second century BC.

 

Since they recognized the calendar on the Metonic Spiral as originating from Corinth or one of its colonies in northwest Greece or Sicily, further investigation by the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project in 2008 showed that the idea for the mechanism may have originated in the colonies of Corinth. The Antikythera Mechanism Research Initiative contended in 2008 that Syracuse could suggest a relationship with the school of Archimedes because it was a Corinthian colony and the home of Archimedes. In 2017, it was shown that the Metonic Spiral's calendar is of the Corinthian type and cannot be a Syracuse calendar. Another idea postulates that the device's origin may have come from the ancient Greek city of Pergamon, site of the Library of Pergamum, and claims that coins discovered by Jacques Cousteau at the wreck site in the 1970s correspond to the time of the device's creation. It was second in significance to the Library of Alexandria during the Hellenistic era due to its extensive collection of art and scientific scrolls.

 

A theory that the gadget was built in an academy established by Stoic philosopher Posidonius on that Greek island is supported by the discovery of Rhodian-style vases aboard the ship that carried the object. Hipparchus, an astronomer active from around 140 BC to 120 BC, lived at Rhodes, which was a bustling commercial port and a center for astronomy and mechanical engineering. Hipparchus' hypothesis of the motion of the Moon is used by the mechanism, raising the likelihood that he may have developed it or at the very least worked on it. The island of Rhodes is situated between the latitudes of 35.85 and 36.50 degrees north; it has lately been proposed that the astronomical events on the Parapegma of the Antikythera mechanism operate best for latitudes in the range of 33.3-37.0 degrees north.

 

According to a research published in 2014 by Carman and Evans, the Saros Dial's start-up date corresponds to the astronomical lunar month that started soon after the new moon on April 28, 205 BC. This suggests a revised dating of about 200 BC. Carman and Evans claim that the Babylonian arithmetic style of prediction suits the device's predictive models considerably better than the conventional Greek trigonometric approach does. According to a 2017 study by Paul Iversen, the device's prototype originated in Rhodes, but this particular model was modified for a customer from Epirus in northwest Greece. Iversen contends that the device was likely built no earlier than a generation before the shipwreck, a date that is also supported by Jones.

 

In an effort to learn more about the mechanism, further dives were made in 2014 and 2015. A five-year investigative program that started in 2014 and finished in October 2019 was followed by a second five-year session that began in May 2020.

 

The original mechanism probably came in one encrusted piece from the Mediterranean. It broke into three main parts shortly after that. In the meanwhile, more little fragments have come loose from handling and cleaning, and the Cousteau expedition discovered other fragments on the ocean floor. Fragment F was found in this fashion in 2005, suggesting that other fragments may still remain in storage, undetected since their first retrieval. The majority of the mechanism and inscriptions are found on seven of the 82 known fragments, which are also mechanically noteworthy. Additionally, 16 smaller components include inscriptions that are illegible and fragmentary. 

 

The twelve zodiacal signs are divided into equal 30-degree sectors on a fixed ring dial that represents the ecliptic on the mechanism's front face. Even though the borders of the constellations were arbitrary, this was consistent with the Babylonian practice of allocating an equal portion of the ecliptic to each zodiac sign. The Sothic Egyptian calendar, which has twelve months of 30 days plus five intercalary days, is marked off with a rotating ring that is located outside that dial. The Greek alphabetized versions of the Egyptian names for the months are used to identify them. To align the Egyptian calendar ring with the current zodiac points, the first procedure is to spin it. Due to the Egyptian calendar's disregard for leap days, a whole zodiac sign would cycle through every 120 years.

 

Now we cannot show you pictures because well you couldn't see them. So we will try to describe them as best we can and we can also post them online. 

 

The mechanism was turned by a now-lost little hand crank that was connected to the biggest gear, the four-spoked gear shown on the front of fragment A, gear b1, via a crown gear. As a result, the date indicator on the front dial was shifted to the appropriate day of the Egyptian calendar. Since the year cannot be changed, it is necessary to know the year that is currently in use. Alternatively, since most calendar cycles are not synchronized with the year, the cycles indicated by the various calendar cycle indicators on the back can be found in the Babylonian ephemeris tables for the day of the year that is currently in use. If the mechanism were in good operating order, the crank would easily be able to strike a certain day on the dial because it moves the date marker around 78 days each full rotation. The mechanism's interlocking gears would all revolve as the hand crank was turned, allowing for the simultaneous determination of the Sun's and Moon's positions, the moon's phase, the timing of an eclipse, the calendar cycle, and maybe the positions of planets.

 

The position of the spiral dial pointers on the two huge dials on the rear had to be observed by the operator as well. As the dials included four and five complete rotations of the pointers, the pointer had a "follower" that followed the spiral incisions in the metal. Before continuing, a pointer's follower had to be manually shifted to the opposite end of the spiral after reaching the terminal month place at either end of the spiral.

 

Two circular concentric scales may be seen on the front dial. The Greek zodiac signs are denoted on the inner scale, which is divided into degrees. A series of similar holes underneath the movable ring that rests flush with the surface and runs in a channel that makes up the outer scale are marked off with what appear to be days.

 

This outer ring has been thought to symbolize the 365-day Egyptian calendar ever since the mechanism was discovered, but new study contradicts this assumption and suggests it is really divided into 354 intervals. The Sothic and Callippic cycles had previously pointed to a 365 14-day solar year, as evidenced in Ptolemy III's proposed calendar reform of 238 BC. If one accepts the 365-day presupposition, it is acknowledged that the mechanism predates the Julian calendar reform. The dials aren't thought to represent his intended leap day, but by rotating the scale back one day every four years, the outer calendar dial may be adjusted against the inner dial to account for the effect of the extra quarter-day in the solar year.

 

The ring is most likely seen as a manifestation of a 354-day lunar calendar if one accepts the 354-day evidence. It is perhaps the first instance of the Egyptian civil-based lunar calendar postulated by Richard Anthony Parker in 1950, given the age of the mechanism's putative manufacture and the existence of Egyptian month names. The lunar calendar was intended to act as a daily indicator of succeeding lunations and to aid in the understanding of the Metonic(The moon phases return at the same time of year every almost precisely 19 years during the Metonic cycle. Although the recurrence is imperfect, careful examination shows that the Metonic cycle, which is defined as 235 synodic months, is only 2 hours, 4 minutes, and 58 seconds longer than 19 tropical years. In the fifth century BC, Meton of Athens determined that the cycle was exactly 6,940 days long. The creation of a lunisolar calendar is made easier by using these full integers.) and Saros(The saros, which may be used to forecast solar and lunar eclipses, is a period of exactly 223 synodic months, or around 6585.3211 days, or 18 years, 10, 11, or 12 days (depending on how many leap years there are). In what is known as an eclipse cycle, the Sun, Earth, and Moon return to about the same relative geometry, a nearly straight line, one saros time after an eclipse, and a nearly similar eclipse will take place. A sar is a saros's lower half.) dials as well as the Lunar phase pointer. Unknown gearing is assumed to move a pointer across this scale in synchrony with the rest of the mechanism's Metonic gearing. A one-in-76-year Callippic cycle correction and practical lunisolar intercalation were made possible by the movement and registration of the ring with respect to the underlying holes.

 

The dial also shows the Sun's location on the ecliptic in relation to the current year's date. The ecliptic serves as a useful reference for determining the locations of the Moon, the five planets known to the Greeks, and other celestial bodies whose orbits are similarly near to it.

 

The locations of bodies on the ecliptic were marked by at least two points. The position of the Moon was displayed by a lunar pointer, while the location of the mean Sun and the current date were also provided. The Moon position was the oldest known application of epicyclic gearing(Two gears positioned so that one gear's center spins around the other's center make up an epicyclic gear train, sometimes referred to as a planetary gearset.), and it mimicked the acceleration and deceleration of the Moon's elliptical orbit rather than being a simple mean Moon indicator that would signal movement uniformly across a circular orbit.

 

The system followed the Metonic calendar, anticipated solar eclipses, and computed the time of various panhellenic athletic competitions, including the Ancient Olympic Games, according to recent research published in the journal Nature in July 2008. The names of the months on the instrument closely resemble those found on calendars from Epirus in northwest Greece and with Corfu, which was formerly known as Corcyra.

 

Five dials are located on the rear of the mechanism: the Metonic, Saros, and two smaller ones, the so-called Olympiad Dial (recently renamed the Games dial since it did not track Olympiad years; the four-year cycle it closely matches is the Halieiad), the Callippic(a certain approximate common multiple of the synodic month and the tropical year that was put out by Callippus around 330 BC. It is a 76-year span that is an improvement over the Metonic cycle's 19 years.), and the Exeligmos(a time frame of 54 years, 33 days over which further eclipses with the same characteristics and position may be predicted.)

 

Both the front and rear doors of the wooden casing that houses the mechanism have inscriptions on them. The "instruction manual" looks to be behind the rear door. "76 years, 19 years" is inscribed on one of its parts, denoting the Callippic and Metonic cycles. "223" for the Saros cycle is also written. Another piece of it has the phrase "on the spiral subdivisions 235," which alludes to the Metonic dial.

 

The mechanism is exceptional due to the degree of miniaturization and the intricacy of its components, which is equivalent to that of astronomical clocks from the fourteenth century. Although mechanism specialist Michael Wright has argued that the Greeks of this era were capable of designing a system with many more gears, it includes at least 30 gears.

Whether the device contained signs for each of the five planets known to the ancient Greeks is a subject of significant controversy. With the exception of one 63-toothed gear that is otherwise unaccounted for, no gearing for such a planetary display is still in existence.

 

It is quite likely that the mechanism featured additional gearing that was either removed before being placed onboard the ship or lost in or after the shipwreck due to the enormous gap between the mean Sun gear and the front of the box as well as the size and mechanical characteristics on the mean Sun gear. Numerous attempts to mimic what the Greeks of the time would have done have been made as a result of the absence of evidence and the nature of the front section of the mechanism, and of course various solutions have been proposed as a result of the lack of evidence.

 

Michael Wright was the first to create a model that included a simulation of a future planetarium system in addition to the existing mechanism. He said that corrections for the deeper, more fundamental solar anomaly would have been undertaken in addition to the lunar anomaly (known as the "first anomaly"). Along with the well-known "mean sun" (present time) and lunar pointers, he also provided pointers for this "real sun," Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

 

A solution that differs significantly from Wright's was published by Evans, Carman, and Thorndike. Their suggestion focused on the uneven spacing of the letters on the front clock face, which seemed to them to imply an off-center sun indication arrangement. By eliminating the requirement to imitate the solar anomaly, this would simplify the mechanism. Additionally, they proposed that simple dials for each individual planet would display data such as significant planetary cycle events, initial and final appearances in the night sky, and apparent direction changes rather than accurate planetary indication, which is rendered impossible by the offset inscriptions. Compared to Wright's concept, this system would result in a far more straightforward gear system with significantly lower forces and complexity.

 

After much investigation and labor, Freeth and Jones released their idea in 2012. They developed a concise and workable answer to the planetary indicator puzzle. They also suggest that the date pointer, which displays the mean position of the Sun and the date on the month dial, be separated to display the solar anomaly (i.e., the sun's apparent location in the zodiac dial). If the two dials are properly synced, Wright's front panel display may be shown on the other dials as well. However, unlike Wright's model, this one is simply a 3-D computer simulation and has not been physically constructed.

 

Similar devices

A first-century BC philosophical debate by Cicero, De re publica (54-51 BC), discusses two devices that some contemporary authors believe to be some sort of planetarium or orrery, forecasting the motions of the Sun, Moon, and the five planets known at the time. After Archimedes' demise at the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC, the Roman commander Marcus Claudius Marcellus took both of them to Rome. One of these devices was the sole thing Marcellus preserved during the siege because of his admiration for Archimedes (the second was placed in the Temple of Virtue). The instrument was kept as a family heirloom, and according to Philus, who was present during a conversation Cicero imagined had taken place in Scipio Aemilianus's villa in the year 129 BC, Gaius Sulpicius Gallus, who served as consul with Marcellus's nephew in 166 BC and is credited by Pliny the Elder with being the first Roman to have written a book explaining solar and lunar eclipses, gave both a "learned explanation" and working demonstrations of the device.

 

According to Pappus of Alexandria (290–c. 350 AD), Archimedes had penned a now-lost treatise titled On Sphere-Making that described how to build these contraptions. Many of his innovations are described in the ancient documents that have survived, some of which even have crude illustrations. His odometer is one such instrument; the Romans later used a similar device to set their mile marks (described by Vitruvius, Heron of Alexandria and in the time of Emperor Commodus). Although the pictures in the literature looked to be practical, attempts to build them as shown had been unsuccessful. The system worked properly when the square-toothed gears in the illustration were swapped out for the angled gears found in the Antikythera mechanism.

 

This technique existed as early as the third century BC, if Cicero's story is accurate. Later Roman authors including Lactantius (Divinarum Institutionum Libri VII), Claudian (In sphaeram Archimedes), and Proclus (Commentary on the First Book of Euclid's Elements of Geometry) in the fourth and fifth century also make reference to Archimedes' invention.

 

Cicero also said that another such device was built "recently" by his friend Posidonius, "... each one of the revolutions of which brings about the same movement in the Sun and Moon and five wandering stars [planets] as is brought about each day and night in the heavens"

 

Given that the third device was almost certainly in Posidonius's possession by that time and that both the Archimedes-made and Cicero-mentioned machines were found in Rome at least 30 years after the shipwreck's estimated date, it is unlikely that any one of these machines was the Antikythera mechanism discovered in the wreck. The researchers who rebuilt the Antikythera mechanism concur that it was too complex to have been a singular invention.

 

This proof that the Antikythera mechanism was not unique strengthens the argument that there was a tradition of complex mechanical technology in ancient Greece that was later, at least in part, transmitted to the Byzantine and Islamic worlds. During the Middle Ages, complex mechanical devices that were still simpler than the Antikythera mechanism were built in these cultures.A fifth- or sixth-century Byzantine Empire geared calendar fragment that was mounted to a sundial and maybe used to help tell time has been discovered. The Caliph of Baghdad commissioned Bani Ms's Kitab al-Hiyal, also known as the Book of Ingenious Devices, in the early ninth century AD. Over a hundred mechanical devices were detailed in this document, some of which may have been found in monastic manuscripts from antiquity. Around 1000, the scholar al-Biruni described a geared calendar that was comparable to the Byzantine mechanism, and a 13th-century astrolabe also had a clockwork system that is similar to it. It's probable that this medieval technology was brought to Europe and had a part in the region's development of mechanical clocks.

 

Su Song, a Chinese polymath, built a mechanical clock tower in the 11th century that, among other things, measured the positions of several stars and planets that were shown on an armillary sphere that spun mechanically.

 

Conspiracy Corner

• The Antikythera Mechanism was thought to have been created between 150 and 100 BCE at first, but recent research dates its development to approximately 205 BCE. It's interesting that this technology seems to have just vanished because comparable items didn't start turning up until the 14th century. But why did the ancient Greeks permit such a significant development to be forgotten over time?
• Posidonius carried on the work of the Greek astronomer Hipparchus by instructing students at an astronomy academy. Posidonius invented a contraption that "in each rotation reproduces the identical motions of the Sun, the Moon and the five planets that take place in the skies every day and night," according to Cicero, one of Posidonius' students. Which remarkably resembles the Antikythera Mechanism. However, when the Mechanism was created in the second century BCE, Posidonius was not yet alive. Hipparchus was, though. Posidonius could have built an instrument based on Hipparchus' Antikythera Mechanism, which he made many years before. What about Posidonius' instrument, though?
• A time traveler from the future may have developed the Mechanism, or it may genuinely be a futuristic gadget that was taken back to ancient Greece and put there on purpose if it dates to the second century BCE and equivalent technology didn't start emerging until decades later.
• Some people think the entire thing is a hoax despite overwhelming scientific proof to the contrary. After all, it is challenging to reconcile the Antikythera mechanism's antiquity with its growth in technology. The Turk, a fictional chess-playing robot constructed in the 18th century, has been likened to the mechanism by some. But scientists easily acknowledge that The Turk is a fraud. Why would they fabricate evidence of the mechanism's reliability? What would they be attempting to conceal?
• Even though it is quite old, the Antikythera mechanism represented an enormous advance in technology. So how did the Greeks of antiquity come up with the concept, much alone construct it? They didn't, according to The Ancient Aliens: “Beings with advanced knowledge of astronomical bodies, mathematics and precision engineering tools created the device or gave the knowledge for its creation to someone during the first century BC. But the knowledge was not recorded or wasn't passed down to anyone else.” Therefore, aliens either provided humanity the ability to make this gadget or the knowledge to do so, but they didn't do anything to assure that we built on it or learnt from it. It seems like the aliens weren't planning ahead very well.
• This theory, like the extraterrestrial one, is based simply on the observation that the Antikythera mechanism seems to be too technologically sophisticated for its period. The mythical Atlantis was a highly developed metropolis that vanished into the ocean. Many people think the city genuinely exists, despite the fact that Plato only described it in a sequence of allegories. And some of those individuals believe the Antikythera mechanism proves Atlantis existed since it was too sophisticated for any known culture at the time; they believe Atlantis, not Greece, is where the mechanism originated.
• According to the notion of intelligent design, a higher power purposefully created many things on Earth because they are too sophisticated to have arisen by simple evolution. Because the Antikythera mechanism is so much more sophisticated than any other artifact from that age, some people think it is proof of intelligent design. If this is the case, you have to question what divine, omnipotent creature would spend time creating such a minute object for such a trivial goal.
• Greece's coast is home to the island of Rhodes. Greek artifacts were placed into the ship transporting the Mechanism, which was sailing for Rome. One explanation for this might be that the Antikythera mechanism was taken together with the spoils from the island of Rhodes. How come Rhodes was pillaged? following a victorious war against the Greeks, as part of Julius Caesar's triumphal procession. Could the loss of one of history's most significant and cutting-edge technical advancements be accidentally attributed to Julius Caesar?
• The Antikythera mechanism may have predicted the color of eclipses, which is thought to be impossible by scientists, according to new translations of texts on the device. Therefore, were the forecasts the mechanism provided only educated guesses, or did the ancient Greeks have knowledge that we do not?
• According to legend, an extraterrestrial species called the Annunaki (possible episode?) invaded and inhabited Earth (they were revered as gods in ancient Mesopotamia), leaving behind evidence of their presence. The Antikythera mechanism could be one of these hints. The Mechanism uses what appears to be distinct technology that was, as far as we are aware, extremely different from anything else that was built about 200 BCE. It estimates when lunar eclipses would occur, which advanced space invaders would undoubtedly know something about.
• An intriguing view on the process is held by Mike Edmunds from Cardiff University. The uniqueness and technological innovation of the item are frequently highlighted in reports about it. However, Edmunds speculates that the mechanism may have been in transit to a client when the ship carrying it went down. If one device was being delivered, might there possibly be others — if not on this ship, then potentially on others from Rhodes? — he asks in his essay. There may have been more of these amazing machines that have been lost to the passage of time or are still out there waiting to be found.

MOVIES - films from the future -

https://filmsfromthefuture.com/movies/

The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel

Ep. 159

Exorcism Of 

Annaliese Michel

 

Do you believe in the devil? Demons? Do you think the devil or demons can possess your body? Does that shit creep you out and keep you up at night? Well, if it does… you're gonna love today's episode! If you've ever seen the exorcism of Emily Rose, you'll at least know this story. The movie was based on the subject of today's episode. It's gonna get kinda crazy today as we discuss the exorcism of Annaliese Michel!

 

Some of you may already be familiar with this story, as it's been discussed on other podcasts and continues to be a pretty famous story in the world of exorcisms, demons, and possessions.

 

Annaliese Michel was born on September 21, 1952, in Leiblfing, Bavaria, West Germany. She was born into a very religious Roman Catholic family. She attended Mass twice weekly with her family and was described as "a vibrant, pretty girl on her way to becoming a gorgeous woman. She had shining black hair, an open, honest face, and a stunning smile." Four years before Anneliese was born, her mother, Anna Michel, gave birth to an illegitimate daughter. This was a source of shame for the Catholic family. After she married and gave birth to Anneliese, she apparently harbored feelings of guilt about her first daughter. Unfortunately, Anneliese's older sister died at the age of eight, but Anneliese reportedly felt like she needed to repent for her mother's sin. She supposedly spent much of her time doing penance for her mother, her sinful youth, and evil priests. Sounds like a great childhood. 

 

All the crazy shit began in 1968, around the time of her sixteenth birthday when Anneliese had the first of several seizures. She lost consciousness during school and was found by her classmate to be in a trance-like state. Later that night, Anneliese woke up claiming she felt something was pressing down on her. She couldn't move, couldn't breathe or speak, and lost control of her bladder. Although the experience frightened her greatly, when it didn't happen again, she just forgot about it. Then, on August 24, 1969, Anneliese suffered another seizure. When examined by neurologist Dr. Siegfried Luthy, her EEG showed "a normal, physiological alpha-type brain activity." Dr. Luthy later explained to investigators, "I judged from the description I was given that this was probably a case of cerebral seizures of the nocturnal type, with the symptoms of a grand mal epilepsy."

 

Tonic-Clonic seizures, formerly known as grand mal seizures, comprise two stages: a tonic phase and a clonic phase. According to John Hopkins Medicine, episodes may begin with a simple or complex partial attack known as an aura, during which persons may experience sensations such as unusual smells, vertigo, nausea, or anxiety. Or my everyday life. During the tonic phase, persons may lose consciousness and experience bodily and respiratory paralysis as the muscles involuntarily contract. Finally, during the clonic phase, the person's face, arms, and legs spasm and jerk uncontrollably and rapidly. When the body relaxes, the bladder may also release. Got all that? I knew you would, you intelligent bastards.

 

Anneliese's symptoms certainly fit the criteria of a Tonic-Clonic seizure, and there's good reason to believe on at least one occasion, she also experienced aura. One day while praying to the rosary, she related smelling a sweetness "wafting about her like the fragrance of violets" and a euphoric feeling that lasted into the next day. She was found by other girls to be in a trance-like state with her hands rigidly outstretched "like you had a cramp or something. Like when my cat stretches her claws," and her pupils dilated, "I thought they were blue. Now they are all black."

 

After her third seizure, Anneliese began experiencing one of the longest-lasting side effects, continuously filling her with fratzen, which is German for "grimacing faces." Another EEG showed "an irregular alpha pattern with some theta and delta waves, but nothing pathological." By 1973, her friends and family reported her behavior had changed—she was irritable and withdrawn, prone to lashing out in anger. Again, my everyday life. 

 

Anneliese fell into a deep and prolonged depression. This depression was severe enough that she contemplated suicide and would later describe it as "This is no longer a depression, this is a condition"; she claimed "someone else is manipulating me" and that "My will is not my own." She mentioned to her psychiatrist that she "could not love sufficiently" that she felt "castrated, ice-cold" and told her boyfriend, "I can't feel any love at all. I am all numb, sort of. I can't feel emotions like that."

 

Anneliese stopped associating with her usual group of friends and became drawn to a group of students considered to be religious zealots. That is not a good sign. One of her childhood friends noted, "After her illness, Anneliese was changed. She was quiet and withdrew from her friends. I also noted that she kept wanting to carry on mostly religious conversations." For her part, Anneliese became convinced of her damnation and began warning others of the world's imminent end. She believed she had personal visions and communed with the Virgin Mary and became particularly drawn to the life of Barbara Weigand, a Catholic mystic and "prophetess." She also claimed to experience visions of the Virgin Mary. 

 

In addition to the visual hallucinations, Anneliese also claimed to begin experiencing olfactory hallucinations known as phantosmia: "She started smelling a horrid stench not perceived by others." The nature of this nasty smell changed over time. However, it was later related, "[Anneliese] exuded a stench like Frau Hein had never smelled before, like fecal matter or something burning. Everyone in the bus could smell it." This would seem to indicate that the source of the stench was, in fact, Anneliese herself.

Further evidence supports this from a visit from Father Roth to the Michel household: "Herr Michel received me and took me immediately to the living room. It was filled with a horrible stench, of something burning, and of dung, that penetrated everything. Herr Michel expressly called my attention to it and told me that Anneliese had been in the room just before. In the other rooms of the Michel home and on the outside I could detect no trace."

 

The pungent smell was not, however, present all the time. During the criminal investigation in October 1976, Father Hagiber recalled his first meeting with Anneliese and mentioned nothing of an odor. Father Herrmann, who met with Anneliese about ten times from 1973 to 1975, stated, "From her parents I heard that on occasion she evidenced disrespect toward sacred objects and there was a stench of dung or of something burning in the room where she was. However, these symptoms never occurred in my apartment". Likewise, none of Anneliese's doctors, classmates, or teachers ever complained of a foul odor emanating from or percolating around her. Her boyfriend was utterly unaware of her problem with the smell until she mentioned how it plagued her. Based on what Anneliese revealed to her psychiatrist, we know she was intimate with her boyfriend. One might expect he would've noticed something that smelled like burning doo doo.

 

By 1973, she had depression and began hallucinating while praying and complained about hearing voices telling her that she was "damned" and would "rot in hell ."Michel's treatment in a psychiatric hospital did not improve her health, and her depression worsened. Long-term treatment did not help either, and she grew increasingly frustrated with the medical intervention, taking pharmacological drugs for five years. In addition, Michel became intolerant of Christian sacred places and objects, such as the crucifix."

 

In one instance, her family organized a trip to San Damiano to pray for God to intervene. Annaliese said standing on the shrine's soil made her feet burn, and she refused to drink water from its holy spring. As a result, she could not even walk past sacred icons. The priest accompanying them stated:

 

"She [Michel] approached it [the shrine] with the greatest hesitation, then said that the soil burned like fire and she simply could not stand it… She also noted that she could no longer look at medals or pictures of saints; they sparkled so immensely that she could not stand it."

 

Annaliese was put on several medications, but none seemed to help the situation throughout the early 70s. Finally, between the results of her pilgrimage and her increasingly strange behavior, her parents decided to put their faith in the Church. Oh... and an exorcism. Her behavior had deteriorated to the point where she would at times growl, swear, and blaspheme for no god damn reason (see what I did there?) and even urinate on the floor and lick it up. 

Then, in the spring of 1973, Anneliese began to hear a knocking sound in her room. Dr. Vogt could not find anything wrong with her hearing, so he referred her to a specialist. However, her mother, Anna, began to believe something supernatural was occurring because she and her other daughters could soon hear the same sound, like rapping or thumping in the wardrobe, then above the ceiling and below the floor. In addition, Anneliese was now seeing overtly demonic faces with horns, telling her she would be damned for eternity. Her father, Josef, dismissed these weird-ass happenings as products of hysteria. However, he was disturbed by his wife's account of Anneliese staring at a statue of the Virgin with a malicious expression. Her eyes were black and dilated. Her hands contorted like an animal's paws.

 

On September 3, Anneliese revisited Dr. Lüthy and finally told him of the hideous faces she had been seeing. She also confided that the devil was inside her and that a judgment of fire would come upon everyone. Dr. Lüthy recalled, "She could not get her mind off these things. She had no power of decision, and everything was empty in her." Momma Anna claimed that Dr. Lüthy advised them to see a Jesuit about the demonic faces, but the doctor intensely denied that he had said that shit. It is possible that the doctor made a tongue-in-cheek comment, which he later forgot since Frau Michel was adamant that she had gotten the idea of calling a Jesuit from the doctor. She had never before heard that Jesuits were specialists at exorcisms.

Either way, Dr. Lüthy did not think much of the visions since he prescribed only Aolept (periciazine) drops, a medium-intensity anti-psychotic drug for neurosis in children. That shit is mainly sold in Canada, Italy, Russia, and Australia, and you can't even get it in the states. In his words, "It could not be stated with certainty at the time that there was the beginning of a psychotic symptomatology."

 

Despite continued treatment with Dilantin and periciazine, Anneliese's visions did not go away, and the drugs only seemed to make her tired and depressed. The Michels believed that the images were a particular problem from the seizures and now followed Dr. Lüthy's offhand suggestion to see a priest about them. They first sought Father Habiger, pastor of the Mother of God parish in Aschaffenburg, who examined Anneliese and found only an ordinary, shy girl with no signs of possession. He recommended that she see a physician. The end. 

 

NOPE!

 

The family was able to contact an elderly Jesuit, Father Adolf Rodewyk in Frankfurt, about Anneliese's case. Father Rodewyk was an expert on possession, having published a book on the subject. Still, he could not travel to Klingenberg and recommended the retired Father Herrmann of the Mother of God parish in Aschaffenburg. You got that, right? Two priests, one Church. Gross.

 

Father Herrmann met with Anneliese ten times in his home and found her a nice, deeply religious girl. He recommended that she see a neurologist, but she protested that she had already seen Dr. Lüthy, who could not help her. Nevertheless, father Herrmann did not observe any sacrilegious behavior by Anneliese; she calmly prayed the rosary with him many times without any demons popping out and burning their poop.

 

In September 1973, Father Herrmann visited Father Ernst Alt of the St. Agatha parish in Aschaffenburg. Father Alt had already heard about Anneliese's case from Thea Hein and had long had a deep interest in the paranormal, having conducted studies of extrasensory perception (ESP). This was not unusual at the time, as even nonreligious researchers took ESP seriously in the 1970s. Still, Father Alt also believed himself to have telepathy, precognition, and even dowsing powers. Evidently, he was a big believer in the paranormal, as well.

 

Fr. Alt offered Mass on behalf of the troubled girl he had yet to meet, and while preparing for the consecration, he had another incredible sensation.

 

"All of a sudden, something hit me in the back, the air turned cold, and at the same time, there was an intense stench as though something was burning. I had to lean against the altar. With great effort and only by dint of considerable concentration was I able to speak the rest of the text. I felt deeply distressed as if a negative force were surrounding me, which, however, aside from vexing me, could inflict no real harm."

 

Mmmhmmm

 

After Mass, Father Alt calmly related this experience to another priest. That night, he was unable to sleep, even with the aid of a sleeping pill. He smelled a variety of stenches, alternating from dung to sewage to something burning. Additionally, he heard a thumping sound in his wardrobe. Finally, after praying to Padre Pio repeatedly, he suddenly smelled an intense fragrance of violets. At that time, he noticed that his "field of vision had been very much narrowed," and his "color perception was reduced," but now his eyesight was restored. The following day, he spoke of his experience to his fellow priests, and suddenly they could all smell a burning stench throughout the parish house, though the windows were open.

On July 30, 1975, Peter(boyfriend) visited Anneliese in Klingenberg. They went for a walk, limited by Anneliese's constant exhaustion and sluggish, stiff-limbed gait. However, when Peter suggested they head back home, she was suddenly able to move normally, even gingerly, and she exclaimed happily that she was entirely herself again.

 

The following day they returned to Würzburg, where Anneliese registered for the fall semester. While grocery shopping, however, her face and legs tensed up, yet she did not behave aggressively. When she returned to her room, she stood stiff in front of a crucifix, glaring at it with hatred. Peter later stated:

 

"Her face was totally distorted; she growled like an animal and gritted her teeth so loudly that I was afraid that all her teeth would fall out. I started praying for her in thought, without giving any indication at all of what I was doing. Immediately she ordered me with clenched teeth to stop…"

 

Peter had not been a churchgoing Catholic before meeting Anneliese, much less devout. Nevertheless, he had started going to Mass again for her sake, and now he was squarely facing evidence of the supernatural. For an hour, the recently lucid Anneliese stood transfixed in one spot, strangely bending her upper body away from the crucifix even as her arms reached toward it. She later explained, "I wanted to take the cross in my hand, but against my will I was pushed back, so I couldn't reach it." 

 

It appeared that more than one consciousness was living in Anneliese's body.

 

After this episode, Peter said, "fuck this shit," and has never been heard from since. I'm kidding. He returned Anneliese to Klingenberg, where her condition worsened. At this point, her parents were directly petitioning Bishop Stangl for an exorcism. Father. Alt, "the psychic priest," also wanted to talk to the Bishop, who was on vacation, and finally managed to obtain oral permission to say only the short German form of the exorcism rite. On August 3, the Sunday after Anneliese's return, Father Alt recited the cliffs notes version of the exorcism. Father Roth noted Annaliese's signs of possession were not as strong as when he had last visited her, but she whimpered and moaned throughout the exorcism and at one point pleaded, "Stop! It's burning." When asked where, she said, "In my back, in my arms." At another point, she said, "I am free," suggesting she was free of demons, but then she continued to whimper and moan. The priests were in the house for a total of two hours.

 

Although Father Alt believed Anneliese benefited from his subpar exorcism, her behavior became alarmingly worse throughout August. She was now plagued by insomnia, unable to sleep for more than an hour or two. She would rush through the house, bucking up and down the stairs like a goat. She exhibited compulsive behaviors, repeatedly kneeling and standing in rapid succession until her knees swelled. She sometimes prayed continually from dawn to dusk: "My Jesus, forgiveness and mercy, forgiveness and mercy…." She would constantly scream, except when she would tremble and fall onto the ground, completely rigid. This immobile state could last for days, so her sister would have to try to feed and wash her.

 

Only after the exorcism ritual did Anneliese begin to exhibit apparently insane behavior, which, of course, coincides with classic demonic behavior. Witnesses attested that she displayed almost superhuman strength and would repeatedly kneel and rise at crazy speeds. She felt heat throughout her body and would tear off her clothes to cool herself. She put insects in her mouth, urinated on the floor, and you guessed it, licked it up, and repeatedly tried to strike her family members and destroy sacred objects. 

 

Anneliese saw clouds of flies and small shadowy creatures that, eventually, her family could see. She had visions of the deceased, and stigmata marks appeared on her. These marks were distinct from her other injuries, yet it has long been known that stigmata can be induced by suggestion in emotionally sensitive people, at least in a mild form. 

Stigmata, in Christianity, are the appearance of bodily wounds, scars, and pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ, such as the hands, wrists, and feet. Stigmata are exclusively associated with Roman Catholicism.

 

The local parish priest recommended that Anneliese be taken to see a psychiatrist, the Michels had already had their fill of psychiatrists, and there was no way Anneliese, now a 22-year-old adult, could be persuaded to go to a psychiatric clinic. So they contacted Father Rodewyk in Frankfurt again, and the old priest finally came to see the girl himself.

 

Father Rodewyk saw Anneliese lying on the floor in an apparent hypnotic trance, oblivious to those around her. She was led to the sofa by her parents, and the priest asked, "What is your name?" The response was, "Judas," uttered in a deeper, altered voice. After a while, her muscles were uncramped, and she could speak as herself with calmness and lucidity. This clear manifestation of a dual personality persuaded Father Rodewyk that this was a case of possession.

 

It seems strange that a man's name, Judas, should be given to a demon, yet father Rodewyk claimed that the name Judas was often provided by other possession victims. It is not that the demon was actually the Judas of the Gospels, but rather the name represents the role or function of the demon. A Judas demon attempts to force its victim to imitate the apostle in the betrayal of his Lord, often by preventing victims from swallowing during Holy Communion to steal the host. Anneliese did, in fact, feel resistance to consuming the host, so she allowed it to dissolve in her mouth. She also displayed a compulsion to kiss people while wearing a hostile expression on her face, reminiscent of the "Judas kiss." Father Rodewyk thought these behaviors confirmed his position that she was possessed by a Judas demon.

 

Shortly after father Rodewyk's visit, Anneliese became well again, without any demonic manifestations. She could eat meals regularly again; previously, she explained, she "was not allowed to." So yeah, she was being starved because of her "possession."

 

Meanwhile, based on father Rodewyk and Alt's reports, the Bishop finally granted permission on September 16, 1975, to conduct the complete rite of exorcism. This permission was given to father Arnold Renz, superior of a Salvatorian monastery and pastor of a parish near Klingenberg. He was said to be a pious, intelligent, kind, and trustworthy man. His charismatic personality won Anneliese's respect and friendship in the moments when she wasn't drinking her own urine.

 

Father Renz's account of his first visit on September 24, 1975, found Anneliese to be quite normal on that first day, with "nothing that would have indicated any possession." Nevertheless, he performed the standard rite of exorcism because he had been requested to do so by his fellow priests and the family, including the perfectly aware and lucid Annaliese herself. The ritual involves a fixed sequence of prescribed prayers, followed by direct questioning of the demons, and culminates in direct commands for them to get the fuck out!

 

In the course of the ritual, Anneliese's behavior changed. Calm, cool, and collected at first, her body began to shake violently, and she screamed and squirmed as she was held down by three men to prevent her from biting or kicking others. Sprinkling her with holy water elicited screams, and she occasionally demanded the priest stop doing this. But with many "fuck you's and suck my dicks" involved. The whole session lasted five and a half hours. At the end of it, a very awake and functioning Anneliese said they should have continued because she felt that the exorcism was just pissing off the demons. She fully recalled everything that happened, but her words and deeds hadn't come from her.

 

In Anneliese's case, she retained the memory of what occurred when the others took over her body, but it is unclear to what extent she knew what they thought. As for herself, she felt her own personality suppressed in what she called a "hole," while she helplessly watched what the other entities did to her body and said with her mouth. This would seem to be an authentic, and therefore rare, case of split personality since she did not simply alter her behavior, but rather her actual self co-existed with these other personalities. It would seem, then, that there was more than one mental subject or person in Anneliese's body. Like a weird, less fun mental apartment building.

 

We may learn something about the nature of these other personas from the recordings of the exorcism sessions. They emit hideous screams, growls, and moans and speak in a deep, hoarse voice, uttering curses and mocking the exorcist. But, on the other hand, they seem to understand Latin, though a traditionalist Catholic girl might be expected to know some Latin. Especially when they come from a family as devout as hers. Every now and then, they give evidence of understanding more advanced phrases, like when Father Renz says, "Ut discedas ab hac famula Dei Anneliese," meaning, "May you depart from this handmaid of God Anneliese,." Annaliese's reply, "No, no, she belongs to me…."

 

Would you like to hear some of these recordings? Fuck yes, you would. So here ya go... but do me a favor. Turn those lights off... let's get REALLY creepy.

 

(PLAY RECORDING)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3aI8kpHxDM

 

Renz tested the linguistic ability of the demonic-speaking person by questioning it in Chinese. The demon would not oblige this obvious search for proof of its nature and later said, "If you want to ask something, ask it in German," but followed with a taunt, "But I do too understand it." Finally, however, the demon responded to a Dutch question, "Is there anything in your family that has any relation to the case and should not become public?" The answer: "There is nothing like that." 

 

Ok, the demon speaks dutch, german, and Latin but not Chinese. Got it.

 

As another test, Father Renz filled five bottles with water, some with tap water and others with holy water. Though the bottles were unmarked, the "demons" somehow knew to scream only when the holy water was used.

 

A common form of engagement with the demons was to recite prayers or Biblical readings to test their response. They hated any invocation of St. Michael the Archangel and seemed to fear the Blessed Virgin Mary. They dreaded any mention of guardian angels and screamed in horror during the Litany of the Five Sacred Wounds, a fact possibly related to the appearance of stigmata. The demons claimed that they had oppressed Anneliese while she was studying for her exams, but only with heavenly permission, and that she passed her exams anyway only because the Lady willed it. Some Biblical passages left no impression on these malevolent entities, as they apparently did not recognize themselves as referenced. Mentioning the beast in Revelation 13 left them unmoved, as did the Gospel story of casting out a mute demon.

 

Direct questioning of the demons is a must by the Roman rite. This involves asking the names of the demons and how long they intend to keep their asses in their host. By learning the name and identity of a demon, the exorcist hopes to gain a sort of leverage or power over it. He uses this name in the formulas urging it to leave. This questioning gave up several characters, and as each name was revealed, the demon was forced to manifest its personality. We have already mentioned Judas, but there were others. There was Cain, Hitler, and Pastor Fleischmann. Again, these are names of men, not of demons. Cain said very little, while Hitler only offered some muffled 'Heils.' Judas said of Hitler, "He, he only has a big mouth but nothing to say," which could mean he was stripped of all power.

 

The Pastor Fleischmann character was based on an obscure medieval priest in distant Ettleben, where father Alt was now pastor. According to the parish records, this Fleischmann was a womanizer, drunkard, and brute who had beaten a man and a woman nearly to death. When father Alt visited the Michels in the fall of 1975, he mentioned to the family that a previous pastor of his parish had killed a man. At that moment, Anneliese gave a terrible scream, though they were not performing an exorcism at the time. Several weeks later, he visited Anneliese, accompanied by her boyfriend Peter, and asked her why she was frightened by the name Fleischmann, upon which she screamed again. Her face alternated between smiles and hideous contortions. She immediately apologized, "Please, don't take it too hard; I can't help it." That evening, while Fr. Renz performed the rite of exorcism, a demon identified itself as Fleischmann and gave many biographical details that Fr. Alt never mentioned in Anneliese's presence. Fr. Alt confirmed that the archivist in Würzburg had always possessed the medieval Ettleben parish records while she was in college there, so there was no way Anneliese could have seen them.

 

By October 4th-6th, two weeks after Fr. Renz had begun the exorcisms (performed every two days or so), the demonic personalities weakened and spoke less frequently. They rarely responded with the usual ferocity toward the ritual, yet they never left. This lethargic behavior by the alter egos, apparently bored by the exorcism yet sticking around, is atypical of possession cases, suggesting perhaps some other factor prevented these personalities from manifesting themselves. On October 7, Dr. Kehler issued another Tegretol prescription for Anneliese, and that same evening the demons returned in full force, even uttering a hoarse scream and high-pitched laugh simultaneously. This reinforces the suspicion that the prescription drugs may have been having an effect, though it is unclear whether they enhanced or suppressed demonic manifestations.

 

Still, a taped conversation between Fr. Renz and a doped-up Anneliese that evening makes clear that she was coherent most of the time and was even studying for her exams. Her mother and sister Barbara insisted she had no more physical problems, except for the jerking motion during the exorcisms. She did not try to attack people anymore, and though her appetite was weak, Anneliese insisted that the demons were not preventing her from eating. However, she slept on the floor; otherwise, the demons would force her to sit in bed. Her torments were now purely psychological, she stated, "with that frightful anxiety, with a mood of annihilation." She said she has had this feeling since the tenth grade, and it is now weakening her memory and her concentration. She felt sick if she tried to go to Church, and her mysterious tormentor caused her pain when the sign of the cross was made over her during the exorcism. When asked where he was, she replied, "That differs. Usually, he is all around, but sometimes either back there or down low." 

 

On October 13, a strange new development occurred. Anneliese began receiving messages from the Virgin Mary. At first, she and her family were skeptical of this, which she wrote down in a diary, suspecting a demonic trick. Yet the demons cursed the writings, attributing them to the Virgin by indicating a religious portrait.

 

Upon learning of Anneliese's written messages, Father Renz thought of Barbara Weigand, a seer from Schippach who was respected by the Michels and had a similar practice of writing heavenly messages. Renz offered Anneliese a copy of Weigand's writings, and immediately her notes from the Virgin encouraged her to complete the mission of the deceased woman. That woman's sufferings inspired Anneliese to perceive meaning in her own torments, and on October 29, she wrote that Barbara Weigand told her she must suffer a great deal.

 

Regarding these visions, Anneliese said, "I don't hear voices, exactly. I am only given to understand." Though she depicts the visitations with visual imagery, she writes, "I see nothing." Thus these inspirations cannot be adequately attributed to auditory or visual hallucinations, the ordinary signs of schizophrenia. Instead, they were purely spiritual or intellectual in nature.

 

By October 16, Anneliese received messages from the Blessed Virgin that she would "become entirely free in October," a Marian month. However, she was also told that a terrible judgment was coming, and even the demons attested to this, saying it would be "worse than the last two" (presumably the world wars), and would take place in Europe. So now the demons were predicting a new world war. Jeesh.

 

Anneliese was also repeatedly visited by the spirit of Father Roth's nephew, who died at the beginning of the month. He told her he was in Heaven and there to encourage her in her tribulations.

 

She also recorded messages supposedly from Christ, though she repeatedly expressed doubts and fears that these messages might be tricks by the devil. In one message, she was told, "You will become a great saint," and was forced to cry to prove that she heard correctly. In another, the "Savior" tells her: "You are going to get married, Anneliese… In this one way you are not going to be like Barbara Weigand. But you are going to be like her in every other way, in suffering and in sacrifice…." 

 

In the last week of October, Anneliese continued to receive mesages from "the Savior," urging her to bear her suffering patiently for the salvation of other souls. The presence of the Blessed Virgin was also apparent, as the demons claimed during the October 29 exorcism that she ordered them to leave by Friday, October 31. This is confirmed in Anneliese's diary entry on the 29th.

 

Accordingly, everyone expected that the demons would be driven out on October 31. That morning, Dr. Kehler wrote another Tegretol prescription. Father Renz then conducted an exceptionally long exorcism, preserving four and a half hours of it on audio tape. Some notable points were:

 

• Early in the session, Anneliese shrieks in her own voice, saying, "We are not leaving."

• Later, she uses a low growling demonic voice to taunt the priest and resist him.

• The demons, which now include Cain, Judas, Lucifer, Nero, and Fleischmann, try to stall for time, saying they have the "Lady's" permission to stay and that they will not leave until ten o'clock, one after the other.

• Then there's a message from the Virgin: "She is happy about all of you. Because you kept on praying. You are to continue as much as you can." When everyone there began to pray, they were forced to stop because of an especially horrific, nausea-inducing bout of screaming.

• At ten o'clock, each demon departed (though with shit ton of verbal resistance and screaming), saying "Hail Mary full of grace," as commanded by the priest upon exiting. The human personages admit their crimes in life, and Lucifer is the last to depart.

• With all the demons gone by 10:40 pm, everyone sings the Te Deum in German to celebrate.

 

The success of the exorcism is short-lived, however. As the priest and family start to sing a Marian hymn, a demonic growl and scream interrupt them, saying, "I have not gone out yet." This demon will not give his name, saying he had not revealed his presence before. Father Renz continues trying to cast him out for three more hours, but the fucker refused to go.

 

Despite the persistence of this less talkative "demon," Anneliese was able to return to school a week later, cram for an examination, and pass with a good grade. Most of the time, however, she seemed apathetic, according to her classmates, though she was attentive and pleasant to them.

 

Anneliese continued to receive communications from "the Savior," strongly encouraging her to be patient, to pray for herself and others, to keep a humble silence, to trust in His grace with steadfastness, to struggle against temptation and not to judge others. "I will give you my grace. You will be true unto death." 

 

On a November 9 exorcism session, the demon identifies himself as Judas, saying that he and four others returned shortly after being expelled, with the Lady's permission. For the rest of the year, Anneliese continued leading a double life and renewed her Tegretol prescriptions. She rarely demonstrated demonic behavior outside of exorcism sessions at her family's home. She continued her studies at Würzburg, with most of her school companions utterly unaware of her state of "possession." On one occasion in January, however, Anneliese's face contorted, and she struck her boyfriend, Peter. She returned to normal after he threw holy water on her, at her request.

 

The exorcism sessions in January were shorter (around two hours), as the demon was more subdued and just bored participating. In a tape-recorded session on February 1, Anneliese told Father Renz that she had recently begun to experience compulsions, so she was no longer permitted to eat or to cover herself from the cold. She felt that her prayers were unheard and that her suffering for the sake of others was far more difficult than she expected. She also felt the need to bang her head against the wall, strip, and go to bed. Sometimes the voices were verbal, like a sweet voice telling her that she must always wear the same pair of shoes.

 

On March 3, Anneliese had an episode of stiffness when trying to visit home, so she stayed in Würzburg. She was unresponsive to yet, another exorcism. However, she soon recovered, started eating more food, resumed her studies, and was examined by the school's general practitioner Dr. Wolfert on the 9th. She told him about her epileptic history but not about her possession. He thought she appeared exhausted yet "psychologically normal," and he renewed her Tegretol prescription.

 

In early April, while visiting home, Anneliese begged Thea Hein to promise to tell her if anyone thought of sending her to a physician. She also warned that there would soon be a powerful burning stench, and immediately they both smelled an unbearable stench in the car that endured for ten minutes after opening the windows.

 

On the night of April 13, the Tuesday before Easter, Anneliese felt the urge to stay kneeling in the school's chapel until the next morning. The following day, however, she could discuss her thesis with her advisor, exhibiting sound critical thinking when talking about relevant literature.

 

On the night of April 15 (Holy Thursday), Anneliese felt a terror and a great weight pushing down on her while kneeling in the Church to pray. She believed she was experiencing "the death agony of the Savior," and felt the pains of the stigmata. At the end of the Good Friday service the following day, Anneliese remained standing rigidly for hours, unable to move. The next day, her sister Roswitha came to nurse her as she lay in bed. Anneliese would become rigid again whenever someone tried to get her out of bed and dress to go home to Klingenberg.

 

By the last week of April, Anneliese had again started refusing to eat. Some friends suggested calling a physician, but she wouldn't do it. None of them were aware of the possession or exorcisms except Anna Lippert, who called Father Renz and Father Alt on April 30, after Anneliese had started screaming loudly. On the morning of May 1, she was her usual self again, casually chatting with Roswitha and Peter over breakfast. When Father Alt arrived that day, Anneliese asked him if she could work on her thesis at the parish house in Ettleben, so he would be on hand to perform an exorcism if needed. On the way to Ettleben, she told Peter that she had told Father Alt that her suffering would be over in July.

 

That afternoon, Anneliese urged Peter to let her see the renovated Church. Once inside, her face stiffened, and she became emotionless. When Peter tried to move her, she felt too heavy. Just like on April 15, a short prayer was enough to snap her out of it, but she returned to her state when she was brought to bed. In the early days of May, she got worse, refusing to eat, sleep, or even lie in her bed. Roswitha and a local elderly woman were soon summoned to help care for Anneliese while the parish housekeeper prepared meals. Roswitha injured her foot a week later, so the Michels brought Anneliese home to Klingenberg on May 10.

 

In Klingenberg, Anneliese's condition continued to worsen. She raged, screamed, struggled violently (requiring at least two men to hold her down), struck, and bit herself. Father Renz repeatedly visited to recite the exorcism rite, but no demons responded. During some sessions, she would exhibit compulsive behaviors, such as constantly kneeling and rising hundreds of times. Finally, on May 20, she could stay coherent for five hours, dictating a four-page outline of her thesis. Other than those moments, she was incapable of ordinary conversation.

 

The only physician to see Anneliese in this weakened state was Dr. Richard Roth, a friend of Father Alt who visited on May 30. Dr. Roth would later testify that he showed up out of scientific curiosity, not as a physician. On June 2, Father Renz reported to the Bishop that Anneliese's left cheek was severely swollen and had bruises around her eyes from her self-inflicted blows. Dr. Roth denied seeing any of these injuries. However, his testimony was inconsistent and implausible on several points, and he was likely trying to exonerate himself from a charge of criminal negligence.

 

According to the other witnesses in the house (the Michels, Peter, and the priests), Dr. Roth did see Anneliese from the front, remarking on her stigmata wounds, and afterward promised to Fr. Alt that he would come in case of a medical emergency. He suggested treatments for her bruises but considered her general condition untreatable by a physician, allegedly saying, "There are no injections against the devil." We must say that Dr. Roth was a reasonably respected physician, published in medical journals, and had no prior attachment to belief in exorcism. However, his new experience with exorcism led him to start going to Church.

 

On June 8, the last time Fr. Alt saw Anneliese, she had a sunken face from malnourishment. However, she drank fruit juices and milk, according to her parents, and on one occasion drank nearly two liters. When they tried to force-feed her, she would spit out the food or firmly press her lips. In addition, she chipped her teeth from biting the wall, repeatedly bit herself, and struck at others.

 

Meanwhile, the exorcisms were consistently unsuccessful in getting demons to speak. Instead of intelligible words, Anneliese repeatedly made mechanically unnatural-sounding voices taped on June 7. Fr. Renz later believed to be a "penance possession," where the possessed endures suffering in reparation of someone else's sins. Yet, he admitted he could not understand the meaning of the penance.

 

By June 18, Anneliese's injuries had healed, except for an open sore on her knee and nosebleeds from rubbing. Nevertheless, she still compulsively knelt and rose dozens of times until exhausted. She screamed and raged in bed, even as her mother attempted impromptu exorcism prayers. She still had many cognitive periods when she could converse normally with her family and Peter. She told them she expected all would be over by July and repeatedly told them not to call a doctor. On the last such occasion, on June 30, she told Roswitha that a physician could not help her and feared being sent to the state mental institution at Lohr, where she did not belong.

 

On June 27, Anneliese had a fever, but it subsided after cold compresses were applied. She refused to have a physician visit, although her father did call Dr. Roth to write another note extending her leave from school. Before the exorcism on June 30, her temperature was measured at 38.9oC (102.0oF). During one exorcism rite, she insisted on repeatedly kneeling, though her family cushioned her movements, placing a pillow on the floor. Her last words to Fr. Renz were, "Please, absolution," requesting the absolution part of the rite, which he then gave. With the rite completed, Peter and Fr. Renz left, while her parents remained with Anneliese. Anna Michel went to bed a short while afterward. Anneliese then started screaming and throwing herself around. Her father was still in the room, and as it was midnight, he told her that he commanded the demons to leave in the father's name since it was now July and they had to leave, so she could recover. After that, she turned quietly on her right side and went to sleep.

 

The following morning, at seven o'clock, Mr. Michel looked into Anneliese's room and saw her apparently sleeping, so he headed out to work. An hour later, his wife called and told him that Anneliese was dead.

 

Damn…. What an ordeal. The previous information was taken from an exceptional article(albeit a little biased at times) from arcane knowledge.org

 

The autopsy report declared the cause of death "advanced emaciation" due to severe malnutrition and dehydration. When asked why medical intervention had not been sought, Father Alt stated that he never considered the woman dangerously ill and that if he had, he would've immediately called for medical assistance.

 

Like a bitch, Father Renz said, "The exorcism ritual expressly states that the clergymen should not burden themselves with medical matters." In this, Father Renz was correct, as the rite of exorcism they were using at the time, the 1614 "De exorcizandis obsessis a daemonio" from the Rituale Romanum, said nothing about the priest's responsibilities for the physical well-being of the possessed. Instead, it suggested, "The exorcist should guard against giving or recommending any medicine to the patient, but should leave this care to physicians." In the case of Anneliese Michel, there were no physicians. One would expect that good judgment (if not pity) would have motivated the priests to act. Father Renz testified that he had written to the Bishop before Annaliese's death that her condition was deteriorating but had received no response. Bishop Stengl explained that neither he nor Father Rodewyk had any direct contact with Anneliese or her parents during the nine months of exorcisms and were unaware that she was not receiving medical treatment.

 

Author and cultural anthropologist Felicitas Goodman argued, "There is sufficient evidence to support the contention that Anneliese was indeed not sick, that she was not an epileptic, that what looked to the uninformed like symptoms of a disease were actually manifestations of a religious experience". These mystical or religious experiences are known as altered states of consciousness (ASC), periods of wakefulness that are pretty different from normal. Some have disagreed with Goodman's claim saying there was sufficient evidence that Anneliese did not have temporal lobe epilepsy. Goodman's argument seems predicated on the fact that multiple EEGs, in addition to the autopsy report after her death, failed to indicate anything abnormal with Anneliese's temporal lobe: she had no anatomical defects, tumors, or scarring. However, this is not unusual. In roughly one in four cases of temporal lobe epilepsy, the cause remains unknown. Many factors may cause temporal lobe epilepsy, including infections such as encephalitis or meningitis, malformations of the blood vessels in the brain, or genetic mutations.

 

Additionally, there is reason to believe that Anneliese may not have taken her medication as prescribed. This is something Goodman contradicts herself on, stating that "Anneliese continued taking the drugs conscientiously." "Roswitha remembers that Anneliese often took less than the three tablets per day (of Tegretol) when her prescription was beginning to run out, and then made up for it as soon as it was renewed by taking more than the prescribed dosage." If this were true, the question of why despite the anticonvulsants and the mood stabilizers, Anneliese's behavior and mental state continued to decline, and she continued to have seizures, becomes less mysterious. 

 

The following is a description of the trial that followed from a 1978 Washington Post article:

 

When she died, Anneliese weighed 68 pounds. The autopsy report said that her death was caused by the malnutrition and dehydration that resulted from almost a year of semi-starvation during the rites.

 

The state prosecutor, after an investigation, said the women's death could have been prevented even one week before she died. Instead, he charged all four defendants with negligent homicide for failing to call a medical doctor.

 

A series of doctors who have testified at the trial have all told the court that the woman died of a combination of epilepsy, mental disorders and an extremely religious environment which, in the words of Professor Hans Sattes of Wuertzburg University, added up to "a spiritual sickness and heavy psychic disturbance.

 

Both priests have told the court they remain convinced that the woman was possessed and that her death finally freed her. The parents also remain confident that she was possessed, but not that she was released. The parents ordered their daughter's body exhumed from her grave after they said a nun told them she had a vision that their daughter's body was still intact, proof of the possession.

 

The exhumation, which authorities said showed normal body decay, was attended by hundreds of curious spectators, and the trial also drew intense interest.

 

Throughout the trial, Anneliese's father, 60-year-old Josef Michel, sat impassively, his stocky frame tilted close to a unique amplifier to help him hear. His wife, Anna, 57, took notes steadily, pausing only to moan, "Oh, dear God," when some doctor alleged that her daughter was possessed of a mental disorder rather than the devil.

 

The priests were defended by church-paid lawyers. The parents were defended by one of Germany's top lawyers, Erich Schmidt-Leichner, who has also defended numerous persons in Nazi war crimes trials.

 

Schmidt-Leichner has claimed that exorcism is legal and that the German constitution protects citizens in the free exercise of their religious beliefs.

 

The accused were convicted of "negligent homicide" and were given suspended prison sentences in April 1978 and were "ordered to share the costs of the proceedings." The sentences have been described as "stiffer" than requested by the prosecutor, who had asked that the priests only be fined and that the parents be found guilty but not punished. The Church approving such an old-fashioned exorcism rite drew public and media attention. According to John M. Duffey, the case was a misidentification of mental illness.

One more little fun fact: On June 6, 2013, a fire broke out in the house where Anneliese Michel lived, and although the local police said it was a case of arson, some locals attributed it to the exorcism case!!!

 

Movies about possession

 

https://www.ranker.com/list/best-demonic-posession-movies/ranker-horror

Unsolved: The Chicago Tylenol Murders

Today on the train we figured we'd go back to the land of unsolved true crime as we like to do, on occasion.  So, as with all these unsolved true crime episodes, we like to bring these crimes back into the limelight and bring the stories back into the conversation. Once these stories stop getting talked about any chance of solving them goes by the wayside. This one is a strange one for sure. We're talking a look at what are called the Chicago Tylenol murders. 

 

The Chicago Tylenol murders were a series of poisoning deaths resulting from drug tampering in the Chicago metropolitan area in 1982. The victims had all taken Tylenol-branded acetaminophen capsules that had been laced with potassium cyanide. To date, no suspect has been charged or convicted of the poisonings.

 

The incidents led to reforms in the packaging of over-the-counter substances and to federal anti-tampering laws. The actions of Johnson & Johnson to reduce deaths and warn the public of poisoning risks have been widely praised as an exemplary public relations response to such a crisis.

 

There were 7 victims total from the original incident with even more deaths resulting from copycat incidents after the fact. 

 

Let's first take a look at the victims.

 

MARY KELLERMAN

 

September 29, 1982

 

The first victim was 12-year-old Mary Kellerman, a seventh grader at Addams Junior High School in Schaumburg and living in Chicago’s northwest suburbs. She enjoyed horseback riding and earned extra money after school babysitting for neighborhood children.

Mary woke up early in the morning hours of September 29, 1982. Feeling ill, she took an Extra Strength Tylenol to help with a runny nose and sore throat. At 7 am, her parents found Mary unconscious on the bathroom floor. Her parents rushed her to the hospital where Mary was pronounced dead by 9:30 am. Her death was first assumed to be a stroke, but the toxicology report and connection to other deaths soon proved it to be a murder. 

She left behind her parents Dennis and Jeanna M. Kellerman. Mary Kellerman was laid to rest in the Saint Michael The Archangel Catholic Cemetery.

 

ADAM, STANLEY AND THERESA JANUS

 

September 29, 1982

 

Twenty-seven-year-old Adam Janus was the next person to die after taking Extra Strength Tylenol. He was the father of two young children, and living in Arlington Heights. The day of his death, Adam thought he was coming down with a cold. He stayed home from work that day. On his way home from picking up his children from preschool, he stopped at a Jewel grocery store and purchased a bottle of Extra Strength Tylenol.

 

"After taking several capsules, he walked into his bedroom, collapsed and fell into a coma. He died in the emergency room at Northwest Community Hospital." — SARA OLKON, The Chicago Tribune

 

After the death of Adam Janus, his family gathered at his home to mourn and begin making funeral arrangements. Stanley, Adam's brother, and his wife Theresa (Adam's sister-in-law), were visiting with family when they complained of headaches and looked for a nearby remedy. In Adam's bathroom cabinet, they found the same bottle of Extra Strength Tylenol. Moments after taking the disguised cyanide capsules, Stanley and then Theresa collapsed. 

Fearing carbon monoxide poisoning, the rest of the Janus family was taken to hospital for observation. They were given their last rites, but did not die. 

The Januses were survived by Janus parents Tadeusz "Ted" and Alojza Janus, niece Monica Janus, brother Joseph Janus, Theresa's brother Robert Tarasewicz, her mother Helena Tarasewicz, and a host of other bereaved family members and friends.

A joint funeral was held for the three Janus family victims on October 5, 1982, with the Archbishop Joseph Bernardun presiding. Adam Janus was laid to rest at Maryhill Catholic Cemetery & Mausoleum in Niles, Cook County, Illinois. Stanley and Theresa Janus were laid to rest at Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery in Naperville, DuPage County, Illinois.

 

MARY REINER

 

September 29, 1982

 

Mary Reiner was happily married to her husband Ed, and the couple had just welcomed their fourth child into the world. She used Tylenol to relieve symptoms of post-birth discomfort. 

Like the other victims, Mary Reiner collapsed shortly after taking the fatally disguised dose of cyanide. Mary's daughter, Michelle Rosen, was just eight years old when she witnessed her mother's poisoning, collapse, and death. Mary's husband arrived at the scene shortly after:

"I came home right after she had fallen on the floor. An ambulance came [and rushed her to Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield]. I’m not gonna say a whole lot more than that." — Ed Reiner, as quoted by Chicago Magazine

"Mary Magdalene Reiner grew up in Villa Park and was "100 percent Irish." Rosen remembers her being a good cook and preparing corned beef and egg noodles for the family. She also loved playing softball, the drums, and bowling." — James Sotonoff, Daily Herald

 

Her death left husband Ed Reiner to mourn, and four children, including an infant son to grow up without a mother.

 

MARY MCFARLAND

 

September 30, 1982

 

Thirty-year-old Mary McFarland was working at her job at the Illinois Bell in Lombard, when she felt a bad headache coming on. According to her brother Jack Eliason, Mary took Tylenol in the back room of her workplace, and died shortly after. He told the Associated Press:

 

"...she went in the back room and took I don't know how many Tylenol — at least one, obviously — and within minutes she was on the floor." 

 

She was a single mother, working and raising two young sons at the time of her death. Her two boys Ryan and Bradley McFarland, now grown, survive Mary McFarland. She was also survived by parents John and Jane Eliason, brother Jack Eliason and sister-in-law Nancy Eliason, and siblings. A granddaughter she never had the chance to meet was named Mary in her honor. 

 

PAULA PRINCE

 

October 1, 1982

 

Paula Jean Prince, 35, was a flight attendant who worked for United Airlines. On the day of her death, she flew from Las Vegas to O'Hare International Airport. She purchased Tylenol from a Walgreens on her way home. An ATM surveillance camera captured the purchase. 

Exhausted from a long flight, Paula took Tylenol to relieve the symptoms of a cold as she got ready for bed. She was found dead in her apartment, and an open bottle of Tylenol was found on her bathroom counter. While other victims of the Tylenol Scare were from the suburbs of Chicago, Paula was the only victim to live in the city.

The deaths of Mary Kellerman, Adam Janus, Stanley Janus, Theresa Janus, Mary Reiner, Mary McFarland and Paula Prince shared many similarities. All turned to Tylenol, a trusted, safe and common over-the-counter drug, to relieve minor ailments, and lost their lives. Their stories are almost universally relatable. Who hasn't taken a Tylenol for quick relief from a headache, cold or other aches and pain? The ordinariness of the circumstances coupled with the heinousness of the crime created a wave of panic in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Paula's funeral was held in Omaha at the same time as the Janus family victims, on October 5, 1982. She was laid to rest at Calvary Cemetery in Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska. She was survived by her father Lloyd Prince, mother Margaret Prince, and siblings Carol Lisle, Margaret Conway and Robert Prince. 

 

All of the victim information was taken from an article on beyondthedash.com

 

Next up let's look at the suspects…what few there actually were!

 

First up is James William Lewis. Here is what we know about Lewis as it pertains to this case:

 

Worked as a tax accountant

 

Also known to be a fraudster

 

Handwriting was positively matched to that of two letters sent to Johnson & Johnson and the White House, the Johnson & Johnson letter demanding an end to the poisonings, The White House letter threatening to bomb it and continue the Tylenol poisonings

 

Was at New York City with his wife during the time of the murders, left the Chicago area in the early days of September 1982.

 

Was able to show the authorities how an offender could, hypothetically, tamper Tylenol pills with Cyanide. Claimed he did it for helping out. This is typical of other offenders, such as Ted Bundy

 

An unidentified man seen in a CCTV footage of one of the affected drugstores bears a striking resemblance to him. The man appears to have been watching victim Paula Prince, who is also shown in the footage, buying the tainted pills.

 

Sentenced to 20 years in prison for extortion and letter and credit-card fraud, but served only 13 years of the sentence and was paroled in 1995

 

In February 2009 his Cambridge, Mass., home was raided by the FBI; agents were seen leaving with boxes of evidence and an Apple computer.

 

In 2010, Lewis, then 63, and his wife, Leann, appeared at a closed hearing at the Middlesex Superior Court Wednesday to determine whether they have to submit to the grand jury's subpoena, which was a request to submit DNA, according to sources close to the case.

 

The judge ordered them to comply with the subpoena and both James and Leann Lewis turned over samples, according to investigators. 

 

But Lewis has always maintained his innocence in the actual poisonings of the Tylenol capsules. When asked about the drawings, he has claimed he was only trying to be a "good citizen" by giving authorities detailed sketches depicting how someone might go about injecting cyanide into Tylenol capsules.

 

"I could tell you how Julius Caesar was killed, but that does not mean I was the killer," Lewis told the Chicago Tribune in a 1992 jailhouse interview.

 

Pressed as to why he and his wife would have been subpoenaed for DNA if they are innocent, Lewis declined to comment. 

 

According to the Daily Herald in Chicago in in 201⁰0 new scientific technology available to analyze a smudge on one of the original Tylenol bottles could help establish a link between Lewis and the crimes.

 

The paper, quoting an ex-state official involved in the original investigation whose name was not mentioned because he agreed to speak only with a guarantee of anonymity, said that "advances in DNA and fingerprint technology may make the 'smudge' evidence relevant today."

 

In receding to whether all of the evidence collected could've bring about a trial:

 

       "The evidence investigators presented to prosecutors so far remains circumstantial, but it could be bolstered by statements from potential witnesses who have declined to sit for interviews, according to sources close to the investigation.

 

So far, however, no decision has been made on whether to give the grand jury a green light. Sources say both state’s attorneys from Cook and DuPage counties have been briefed on the evidence. The investigation, handled by an FBI-led task force of law-enforcement agents, still centers on the same man: James W. Lewis, sources tell the Sun-Times."

 

In a lengthy chronicle of the case for the Reader, Joy Bergmann paints Lewis as a suspicious character… but not, aside from his extortion, necessarily suspicious as the Tylenol killer:

 

Lewis maintained he was a "political prisoner," a "scapegoat," and an "all-purpose monster…fathered by the wild-eyed hyperventilated imaginations of two brutal men, Tyrone Fahner and Daniel K. Webb," who simply "blew" the Tylenol investigation thanks to "bureaucratic blundering incompetence."

 

McGarr had already listened to Dan Webb reiterate Lewis's biography: the violence toward his parents, the mental hospital commitment, the Raymond West murder charge, the Kansas City fraud schemes for which he was convicted in May of 1983 and sentenced to ten years, the fugitive flight, the extortion conviction, the breadboard schematic, the grandiose and quick-to-explode temperament, the innumerable aliases and deceptions.

 

Years later, some still show skepticism towards Lewis as the killer:

 

Superintendent Brzeczek

It wasn’t James Lewis. James Lewis was an asshole, an opportunist. He tried to extort some money from Johnson & Johnson, and he went to jail. He was in the joint a long time. When someone is in the penitentiary, you can go and talk to him, with or without his lawyer present. In all those years, all the work on James Lewis to put it together: nothing.

 

Attorney General Fahner

Do I think James Lewis was involved? I did, and I do. And the head of the FBI office here at the time—I can’t speak for him, but I think he felt as I did. But we could never put him in the city, in the places, at the right time.

 

August Locallo

Lieutenant with the Chicago Police Department

I was the top man in violent crimes. [Lewis] had lived in Chicago, and that’s why they zeroed in on my unit. He was in custody in New York, and I was assigned to go to New York to interview him. Basically, the FBI had him in custody, and by the time we got to New York, he had his attorney and he wouldn’t talk to us. That was a futile effort. He’s a con man. Strictly a con man. And he’ll do anything to get to his goal. I really believed he might have killed somebody, but they couldn’t put anything on him.

 

Interesting to say the least. Why would this guy straight up insert himself in the crime for no reason? Did he really think an extortion letter would work?

 

Interesting either way!

 

There were a  couple more suspects besides Lewis.

 

Roger Arnold:

 

Roger Arnold was a 48-year-old dock worker. He was overheard saying some “suspicious things” about the Tylenol murders in a bar. While the police were questioning him, they found several connections. He worked at a jewel warehouse with Mary Reiner’s father, Adam Janus bought his Tylenol from a Jewel convenience store, Mary Reiner bought her bottle from a store that is right across from the psychiatric ward where Arnold’s wife was.

 

The officers found “How-to” crime books in Arnold’s home and there was evidence of “chemistry” as well. The evidence of “chemistry” included beakers and other equipment, along with a bag of powder that turned out to be potassium carbonate.

 

Arnold refused to take a polygraph and there was never enough evidence to prosecute him.

 

Arnold went on to have a nervous breakdown from the attention in the media. He blamed everything on a bar owner, Marty Sinclair. In 1983, during the summer, Arnold shot and killed a man named John Stanisha, he thought Stanisha was Sinclair. Roger Arnold received a 30-year sentence for second-degree murder but only served 15 years of it. He died in June of 2008.

 

Laurie Dann:

 

Not much evidence to tie her to the murders but an interesting case with this one.

 

Laurie Dann  shot and killed one boy, Nick Corwin, and wounded two girls and three boys in a Winnetka, Illinois elementary school. She then took a family hostage and shot another man, non-fatally, before killing herself.

 

Dann was born in Chicago and grew up in Glencoe, a north suburb of Chicago.

 

She met and married Russell Dann, an executive in an insurance broker firm in September 1982, but the marriage quickly soured as Russell's family noted signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder and strange behavior[2] including leaving trash around the house.[3] She saw a psychiatrist for a short period, who identified her childhood and upbringing as a cause of her problems.[3]

 

Laurie and Russell Dann separated in October 1985.[2] The divorce negotiations were acrimonious, with Laurie claiming that Russell was abusive. In the following months, the police were called to investigate various incidents, including several harassing phone calls made to Russell and his family.[3] In April 1986, Laurie Dann accused Russell of breaking into and vandalizing her parents' house, where she was then living. Shortly after, she purchased a Smith & Wesson Model 19 .357 Magnum, telling the salesman that she needed it for self-defense. The police were concerned about her gun ownership and unsuccessfully tried to persuade Dann and her family that she should give up the gun.[2]

 

In August 1986, she contacted her ex-boyfriend, who was by then a resident at a hospital, and claimed to have had his child. When he refused to believe her, Dann called the hospital where he worked and claimed he had raped her in the emergency room.[3][5]

 

In September 1986, Russell Dann reported he had been stabbed in his sleep with an icepick. He accused Laurie of the crime, although he had not actually seen his attacker. The police decided not to press charges against Laurie based on a medical report which suggested that the injury might have been self-inflicted, as well as Russell's abrasive attitude towards the police and his failed polygraph test.[2][3] Russell and his family continued to receive harassing hang-up phone calls, and Laurie was arrested for calls made to Russell's sister. The charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.[3]

 

Just before their divorce was finalized in April 1987, Laurie accused Russell of raping her. There were no physical signs supporting Laurie's claim, although she passed two polygraph tests.[3] In May 1987, Laurie accused Russell of placing an incendiary device in her home.[2] No charges were filed against Russell for either alleged event. Laurie's parents believed her claims and supported and defended her throughout. By this time, Laurie Dann was being treated by another psychiatrist for obsessive-compulsive disorder and a "chemical imbalance"; the psychiatrist told police that he did not think Laurie was suicidal or homicidal.

 

In the summer of 1987, Dann sublet a university apartment in Evanston, Illinois. Once again, her strange behavior was noted, including riding up and down in elevators for hours, wearing rubber gloves to touch metal, and leaving meat to rot in sofa cushions. She took no classes at the university.

 

In the fall of 1987, Dann claimed she had received threatening letters from Russell and that he had sexually assaulted her in a parking lot, but the police did not believe her. A few weeks later, she purchased a .32-caliber Smith & Wesson Model 30-1 revolver.[2]

 

With her condition deteriorating, Dann and her family sought specialized help. In November 1987, she moved to Madison, Wisconsin, to live in a student residence while being observed by a psychiatrist who specialized in obsessive-compulsive disorder. She had already begun taking clomipramine, a drug for OCD, and her new psychiatrist increased the dosage, adding lithium carbonate to reduce her mood swings and initiating behavioral therapy to work on her phobias and ritualistic behaviors.[3] Despite the intervention, her strange behavior continued, including riding elevators for long periods, changing television channels repetitively, and an obsession with "good" and "bad" numbers. There were also concerns about whether she was bulimic.

 

Dann purchased a .22-caliber Beretta 21A Bobcat at the end of December 1987. In March 1988, she stopped attending her appointments with the psychiatrist and behavior therapist.[3] At about the same time, she began to make preparations for the attacks. She stole books from the library on poisons, and she diluted arsenic and other chemicals from a lab. She also shoplifted clothes and wigs to disguise herself and was arrested for theft on one occasion. Both her psychiatrist and her father tried to persuade her to enter the hospital as an inpatient, but she refused.[3]

 

Dann continued to make numerous hang-up phone calls to her former in-laws and babysitting clients. Eventually, the calls escalated to death threats. An ex-boyfriend and his wife also received dozens of threatening calls. In May 1988, a letter, later confirmed to have been sent by Laurie Dann, was sent to the hospital administration where her ex-boyfriend then worked, again accusing him of sexual assault. Since the phone calls were across state lines, the FBI became involved, and a federal indictment against Dann was prepared. However, the ex-boyfriend, fearful of publicity,[2] and concerned about Dann getting bail and then attempting to fulfill her threats against him, decided to wait until other charges were filed in Illinois.[3][5][6] In May 1988, a janitor found her lying in the fetal position inside a garbage bag in a trash room. This precipitated a search of her room and her departure back to Glencoe.

 

During the days before May 20, 1988, Laurie Dann prepared rice cereal snacks and juice boxes poisoned with the diluted arsenic she had stolen in Madison. She mailed them to a former acquaintance, ex-babysitting clients, her psychiatrist, Russell Dann, and others. In the early morning of May 20, she personally delivered snacks and juice "samples" to acquaintances, and families for whom she had babysat, some of whom had not seen her for years.[2][3] Other snacks were delivered to Alpha Tau Omega, Psi Upsilon, and Kappa Sigma fraternity houses and Leverone Hall at Northwestern University in Evanston.[2][3] Notes were attached to some of the deliveries.[7][8][9] The drinks were often leaking and the squares unpleasant-tasting, so few were actually consumed. In addition, the arsenic was highly diluted so nobody became seriously ill.[2]

 

At about 9:00 a.m. on the 20th, Dann arrived at the home of the Rushe family, former babysitting clients in Winnetka, Illinois, to pick up their two youngest children. The family had just told Dann they were moving away.[3] Instead of taking the children on the promised outing, she took them to Ravinia Elementary School in Highland Park, Illinois, where she erroneously believed that both of her former sister-in-law's two sons were enrolled (in fact, one of Dann's intended targets was not even a student at the school). She left the two children in the car while she entered the school and tried to detonate a fire bomb in one of the school's hallways. After Dann's departure, the small fire she set was subsequently discovered by students, and quickly extinguished by a teacher. She drove to a local daycare attended by her ex-sister-in-law's daughter and tried to enter the building with a plastic can of gasoline, but was stopped by staff.

 

Next Dann drove the children back to their home and offered them some arsenic-poisoned milk, but the boys spat it out because it tasted strange to them. Once at their home, she lured them downstairs and used gasoline to set fire to the house, trapping their mother and the two children in the basement (they managed to escape).[2][3][10] She drove three and a half blocks to the Hubbard Woods Elementary School with three handguns in her possession. She wandered into a second grade classroom for a short while, then left. Finding a boy in the corridor, Dann pushed him into the boys' washroom and shot him with a .22 semi-automatic Beretta pistol. Her Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver jammed when she tried to fire it at two other boys, and she threw it into the trash along with the spare ammunition. The boys ran out of the washroom and raised the alarm.[2] Dann then reentered the second grade classroom where students were working in groups on a bicycle safety test. She ordered all the children into the corner of the room. The teacher refused and attempted to disarm Dann, managing to unload the Beretta in the struggle. Dann drew a .32 Smith & Wesson from the waistband of her shorts and aimed it at several groups of the students. She shot five children, killing eight-year-old Nick Corwin and wounding two girls and two boys before fleeing in her car.[3]

 

Dann was prevented from leaving the area by car because the roads were closed for a funeral cortege. She decided to drive her car backwards down the nearby street, but the road dead-ended into a private drive. Abandoning her car, she removed her bloodstained shorts and tied a blue garbage bag around her waist. With her two remaining guns she made her way through the woods and came upon the house of the Andrew family. Dann entered the house and met a mother and her twenty-year-old son, who were in the kitchen. She claimed she was raped and had shot the rapist in the struggle.[3][11] The Andrews were sympathetic[11] and tried to convince her that she need not fear the police because she had acted in self-defense. Mrs. Andrew gave Dann a pair of her daughter's pants to wear. While she was putting them on, Philip Andrew was able to pick up and pocket the Beretta. He suggested that she call her family. Dann agreed and called her mother, telling her she had done something terrible and that the police were involved. Philip took the phone and explained Dann's story about the rape and shooting, suggesting that Mrs. Wasserman come to get Dann; Mrs. Wasserman said she could not come because she did not have a car.

 

Mr. Andrew arrived home, and they continued to argue with Dann, insisting she give up the second gun. Dann called her mother again and this time Mr. Andrew spoke with Mrs. Wasserman, asking her to persuade Dann to give up the gun. While Dann spoke with her mother, Mrs. Andrew left the house and alerted the police. Mr. Andrew told Dann that he would not remain in the house if she did not put down the gun, and also left the house. Dann ordered Philip to stay. Just before noon, seeing the police advancing on the house she shot Philip in the chest, but he managed to escape out the back door before collapsing and being rescued by the police and ambulance personnel.

 

With the house surrounded, Dann went upstairs to a bedroom. The Wassermans and Russell Dann were brought to the house. At about 7:00 p.m., an assault team entered the house while Mr. Wasserman attempted to get Dann's attention with a bullhorn. The police found her body in the bedroom; she had shot herself in the mouth.

 

Soooooo yea…there's that…she did try and poison people and she was definitely crazy…

 

So there's pretty much everything known in this case .. Which is to say…

Not a ton. It's an interesting case that remains open to this day. And while it seems Lewis is a strong suspect as they kept after him  as late as 2012…still no one has been charged.

 

The aftermath literally changed the way medication is sold. 

 

McNeil Consumer Products, a subsidiary of the health care giant, Johnson & Johnson, manufactured Tylenol. To its credit, the company took an active role with the media in issuing mass warning communications and immediately called for a massive recall of the more than 31 million bottles of Tylenol in circulation. Tainted capsules were discovered in early October in a few other grocery stores and drug stores in the Chicago area, but, fortunately, they had not yet been sold or consumed. McNeill and Johnson & Johnson offered replacement capsules to those who turned in pills already purchased and a reward for anyone with information leading to the apprehension of the individual or people involved in these random murders.

 

The case continued to be confusing to the police, the drug maker and the public at large. For example, Johnson & Johnson quickly established that the cyanide lacing occurred after cases of Tylenol left the factory. Someone, police hypothesized, must have taken bottles off the shelves of local grocers and drug stores inJohnson & Johnson developed new product protection methods and ironclad pledges to do better in protecting their consumers in the future. Working with FDA officials, they introduced a new tamper-proof packaging, which included foil seals and other features that made it obvious to a consumer if foul play had transpired. These packaging protections soon became the industry standard for all over-the-counter medications. The company also introduced price reductions and a new version of their pills — called the “caplet” — a tablet coated with slick, easy-to-swallow gelatin but far harder to tamper with than the older capsules which could be easily opened, laced with a contaminant, and then placed back in the older non-tamper-proof bottle.

 

Within a year, and after an investment of more than $100 million, Tylenol’s sales rebounded to its healthy past and it became, once again, the nation’s favorite over-the-counter pain reliever. Critics who had prematurely announced the death of the brand Tylenol were now praising the company’s handling of the matter. Indeed, the Johnson & Johnson recall became a classic case study in business schools across the nation. the Chicago area, laced the capsules with poison, and then returned the restored packages to the shelves to be purchased by the unknowing victims.

 

In 1983, the U.S. Congress passed what was called “the Tylenol bill,” making it a federal offense to tamper with consumer products. In 1989, the FDA established federal guidelines for manufacturers to make all such products tamper-proof.

 

Copycats:

 

Hundreds of copycat attacks involving Tylenol, other over-the-counter medications, and other products also took place around the United States immediately following the Chicago deaths.[1][25]

 

Three more deaths occurred in 1986 from tampered gelatin capsules.[26] A woman died in Yonkers, New York, after ingesting "Extra-Strength Tylenol" capsules laced with cyanide.[27] Excedrin capsules in Washington state were tampered with, resulting in the deaths of Susan Snow and Bruce Nickell from cyanide poisoning and the eventual arrest and conviction of Bruce Nickell's wife, Stella Nickell, for her intentional actions in the crimes connected to both murders.[28] That same year, Procter & Gamble's Encaprin was recalled after a spiking hoax in Chicago and Detroit that resulted in a precipitous sales drop and a withdrawal of the pain reliever from the market.[29] In 1991 in Washington state, Kathleen Daneker and Stanley McWhorter were killed from two cyanide-tainted boxes of Sudafed, and Jennifer Meling went into a coma from a similar poisoning but recovered shortly thereafter. Jennifer's husband, Joseph Meling, was convicted on numerous charges in a federal Seattle court regarding the deaths of Daneker and McWhorter and the attempted murder of his wife, who was abused during the Melings' marriage. Meling was sentenced to life imprisonment and lost an appeal for a retrial.[30][31]

 

In 1986 a University of Texas student, Kenneth Faries, was found dead in his apartment after succumbing to cyanide poisoning.[32] Tampered Anacin capsules were determined to be the source of the cyanide found in his body. His death was ruled as a homicide on May 30, 1986.[33] On June 19, 1986 the AP reported that the Travis County Medical Examiner ruled his death a likely suicide. The FDA determined he obtained the poison from a lab in which he worked.

 

There you have it…the Tylenol murders! Crazy shit for sure!

 

Top ten medical horror movies

 

https://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/17726/1/top-ten-medical-horror-films