The Bleeding House On Fountain Drive

Fourteen-year-old John Hron was a spirited teenager from Sweden who held no tolerance for bullies or racists. Despite attending school with individuals falling into those categories, he remained resolute in his convictions. 

On the afternoon of August 17, 1995, John and his friend Christian were camping by Ingetorpssjon lake near Kode, Sweden. Their peaceful outing took a horrifying turn when four neo-Nazis approached their tent. Among them was Mikael Fjalljholm, a notorious bully from their school whom John recognized immediately. 

John and Mikael had clashed in the past due to Mikael’s racist and cruel behavior. John was known for standing up to him when provoked. This time, however, Mikael was accompanied by three friends: Daniel Hanson, John Billing, and BM, as he was known in the media.

The group approached the tent and launched a senseless attack on John. They demanded that he proclaim his “love for Nazism,” to which John adamantly refused, enduring further beatings. Kicks and punches rained down on him while beer bottles were smashed over his head. The sadistic assailants subjected him to hours of relentless violence, intermittently feigning remorse and offering him drinks before renewing their assault. It was a vicious game of cat and mouse. They even burned him with fire and seared his neck with a scorching piece of wood.

At some point during the ordeal, John managed to break free and plunged into the nearby lake. In response, the group threatened to murder Christian if John did not return. Despite barely clinging to life, John swam back, and the torture continued. When he eventually lost consciousness, they callously tossed his lifeless body into the lake, where he tragically drowned. Christian managed to hitch a ride home and promptly alerted the police, providing them with the names of John’s killers. When John’s body was recovered, the extent of his injuries was likened to those of a train collision victim.

The appalling murder of John shocked the nation, but the sentencing of his killers proved equally distressing. Daniel was released after serving only six years, while Mikael received a five-year sentence in institutional youth care. The other two perpetrators received mere months in prison. 

In recognition of his commitment to free speech and world peace, John was posthumously honored with the inaugural Stig Dagerman Prize.

are chimps as unpredictable and dangerous as people say? I remember there being a famous mauling story from a woman who had one as a pet, but he was drugged with xanax or something similar and was having withdrawals, something like that. Definitely not a normal set of chimp circumstances, so I was wondering if they are usually randomly violent and difficult for humans to predicts

Lets talk about Travis, the tragic chimp that famously mauled Charla Nash.

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Travis was a chimpanzee that was raised in a human household and acted in several commercials in his youth. He was taken from his mother and sold to his owners at 3 days old and lived with them until his death at 13 years of age. What makes us think of Travis as dangerous and unpredictable is that when he was young he was known for being docile, intelligent, obedient, and kind to the humans around him. He even play wrestled with people and was known to stop if his wrestling buddy became overwhelmed or he was told to stop. Travis did not lead a normal or natural life for a chimpanzee by any means; not only was he socialized as human and was raised to do chores and take part in human enrichment (he even knew how to drive a car, which is absolutely not good), but as you can see he was very overweight as a result of eating ice cream, tea, and other human foods instead of the balanced and diverse diets chimpanzees need.

Circumstances escalated with Travis when one of his owners and their only son died, and his remaining owner Sandra Herold became increasingly attached to Travis. The two would sleep in the same bed and bathe together. This was all at a time when Travis was entering adolescence and the divergence between his chimpanzee instincts and human socialization was widening. While human teenagers are able to journal, have conversations, and express themselves in order to process the challenges of puberty, Travis had no outlets for the natural frustration, aggression, and challenges he was facing. This led to the 2003 incident where Travis was on the loose for several hours after a pedestrian threw an empty soda bottle at the car that he was in, which went through a partially open window and struck him while stopped at a traffic light. Travis unbuckled his seat belt, opened the car door and chased his assailant. He also escaped from a police car when apprehended and chased the police officers around the car. Basically, there were warning signs that Travis was becoming too much to handle 6 years before the incident where he mauled, but because he had been a member of the family and community for so long he was allowed to continue to live with Sandra Herold.

The main thing I take away from Travis’ story here, even before the mauling incident, is that Travis’ behavior makes perfect sense for a chimpanzee. Because he was anthropomorphized to the point where his owner essentially thought of him as her son, the media sensationalized the story as a beloved animal “turning” on his loved ones. The thing is though, he didn’t really act unpredictably at all, the signs were there from the beginning and his behavior escalated gradually before it came to a head in 2009, the people around him just ignored the warnings. Even taking xanax out of the question which can have some pretty adverse effects on humans let alone chimps, the 2009 incident began with Travis leaving the house with his owners car keys (his property, as far as he is concerned), and his owners friend Charla Nash trying to lure him back to the house with his favourite toy. Essentially, Travis was leaving his territory when he saw someone who he may not have recognized as a member of his troupe in his territory, with his treasured item. When he tried to defend his territory by attacking her, Herold began to attack him which escalated the conflict. Additionally, chimpanzees are 5-6 times stronger than humans and as he grew up play fighting with humans he was not really capable of conceptualizing how disproportionate his strength was.

Now, lets turn to talk about another chimp. Meet September: 

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Like Travis, September started her life as a pet. She was raised as a human child would be, and when she reached adolescence her owners recognized that she was too large and strong to safely keep in the house, and began keeping her in a cage in their backyard. Luckily, her owners recognized that this was no life for a chimp and surrendered her and two other chimpanzees to Save the Chimps, a sanctuary in Florida in 2002 when September was 23. She is now 42 years old, and despite having tragically similar circumstances to Travis, is thriving. Due to her history as a pet, September found it very difficult to become accustomed to living with other chimps, even the two other chimpanzees that lived with her when she was a pet, but has become a member of a troupe and spends her days painting, braiding strips of fabric, and exploring her island home.

Basically, there are no bad chimps, only tragic circumstances. Even when chimps in the wild are violent there are rational explanations for their behavior such as territorial disputes and interpersonal conflicts. They are only difficult to predict if you expect them to act like humans, and not chimpanzees.

This picture belongs to Jewel, "I have written in the past concerning the image of my 9-yr old twin's caught w/ the digi cam. This is no joke and there has been no tampering with the photo. The spooky thing is...she swear's she was alone when this image was captured and I for one believe her because My Camera is off limit's and I know who’s in my house. The camera is new and there's no way she would use it around someone. We have tried to figure out who the image is...guess what, were still trying. My family and I are all really spooked. It's just really phenomenal that it's real & we know it's real because when thing's happen none of us are the cause. TV's come on by themselves, thing's move & there is no one near them to touch them."

Source

Were there ever any Western depictions of the himantopodes? They became popular in the Middle East but I've never seen any European art of them...

i've never heard of them before and i don't remember seeing anything like that, but i'll keep an eye out for them. i'm not an expert though. maybe some professional art historians/medievalists etc know more?

for context (from the wikipedia article on iranian folklore): "Himantopodes (davālpā): an evil creature that uses its flexible, leather-like legs as tentacles to grip and capture human beings. The captives will be enslaved and forced to carry the creature until they die of fatigue."

Here's a more in-depth lexicon entry

"Chimpanzees are wild animals. Animals that make good pets like dogs and cats, have been domesticated for thousands of years. There has been selection on them against aggression, which is why a dog, unlike a wolf, will not automatically tear you to pieces. Anyone who has a pet chimpanzee for long enough will eventually no longer be able to control them and will either get a body part bitten off or will have to use extreme force to control them. Chimps live to be 50 years old and grow almost as big as a human male. They have extremely powerful muscles and are 5-10 times stronger than a heavy weight boxer." - Sheril Kirshenbaum - Conservationist.

On the 16th of February, 2009, a 200-pound male chimpanzee by the name of Travis, escaped his owner's home in Stamford, Connecticut, and became very irate. The owner, Sandra Herold, called her friend over, 55-year-old Charla Nash, to help her control the 14-year-old primate. When Travis saw Nash holding a Tickle-Me-Elmo toy, one of his favourite toys, he flew into a rage. He lunged at Nash and began to tear apart her face and hands, severely mauling her and eating parts of her while she was screaming in agony. Herold attempted to stab her chimp with a butcher's knife, but this only made him even more angry. Herold immediately phoned 911 and begged for responders to come with a gun, stating "He is eating my friend!".

The police came and ended up shooting and killing Travis. Despite Nash's severe and horrendous wounds, she survived. Nash was rushed to hospital where she underwent a long, 7-hour surgery with 4 teams of surgeons working overtime to save her life. The state of Nash upon arrival was so disturbing, the hospital offered counseling to its staff. Charla has done interviews and made public appearances since the incident, and has stated "I never gave up hope to live."

Judy Garland rose to an unimaginable fame at just 17-years-old when she starred as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. However, from the age of 13, Garland had starred in other MGM productions beforehand. Garland developed an eating disorder and a drug addiction courtesy of MGM who had branded her a “fat little pig with pigtails.” 

MGM put her on a strict diet and would even go as far as to physically remove food from her possession so that she could not consume it. She was only a young teenager when she developed an eating disorder, living on a diet of chicken soup, coffee, and cigarettes.

Garland had a gruelling schedule, sometimes even working up to 18 hours a day. To combat fatigue and hunger pangs, she would be piled with amphetamines and barbiturates. To help her sleep, she would be given sleeping tablets. It’s not much of a shock that Judy Garland became addicted to drugs and ultimately, they would cause her untimely demise at the age of 47.

The Crimes of Kate Webster & Murder of Julia Thomas

June 19, 2023

In a two-storey villa in Richmond, London, a former teacher named Julia Martha Thomas lived. Having been widowed twice, she had lived on her own at 2 Mayfield Cottages in Park Road since 1873, after her second husband died. 

At the time, Julia was about 54 years old, and was described as well dressed and eccentric. She would often leave and travel around, and her friends would have no idea where she was for periods of time. These periods could last for a couple weeks or even months. 

Though Julia was not extremely wealthy, it is said she would often wear jewellery to make people believe she had money. It was also said that Julia was not the nicest employer, often making it hard for her to keep a live-in domestic maid for long periods of time. 

On January 29, 1879, a woman named Kate Webster was employed as Julia’s servant. Kate was born around 1849 in Killanne. There is not much information known about Kate’s life, but it was believed that she had claimed to have been married to a sea captain called Webster and had 4 children with him. Kate said that both her husband and all of her children had died.

Kate had also spent time in prison in Wexford in December 1864 for larceny (stealing) around the age of 15. Kate came to England in 1867, and was sentenced to 4 years of penal servitude for larceny in Liverpool in February 1868. 

It is often hard to know much about Kate’s life because it appears her reputation is one full of deceit. Kate claimed to have been released from prison in January 1872, and later became friends with a family named Porter. On April 18,1874, Kate gave birth to a son, but the father is unknown as she named 3 possible men that it could be. 

Kate moved around quite a bit and used a number of aliases, including Webb, Gibbs, Gibbons and Lawler. She was again convicted of larceny in May 1875, facing 36 charges. Again, in February 1877 she was convicted and sentenced to 12 months in prison for larceny. Her son was taken care of by her friend Sarah Crease during the times Kate was in prison. Sarah worked as a charwoman for a woman named Miss Loder.

In January 1879 Kate took over for Sarah when she became ill and while working, Miss Loder who knew Julia was looking for a servant, recommended Kate. It is believed that when Julia met Kate she did not ask any questions about her past. 

It didn’t take long for the two women to begin despising one another. Julia would often complain that Kate’s work was not satisfactory, and it got to the point where Julia would try to get friends to stay in the house with her because she did not like being alone with Kate. About one month after beginning to work for her, on February 28, Kate was fired. 

However, Kate had convinced Julia to allow her to work for a few more days until March 2. 

On March 2, Julia and Kate got into a big argument as Kate had made Julia late for her service at the local church. When Julia returned home from church around 9pm, Kate later confessed that they had fought more and Kate ended up throwing Julia from the top of the stairs to the bottom. Kate then choked her.

Julia hitting the ground made a large thud, which neighbours did hear, but they ignored it as they believed it to only be a chair falling over. Kate then began to dismember and boil and burn Julia’s remains. 

Within the next couple of days, Kate cleaned Julia’s house and clothes. She also began packing the remains into a black Gladstone bag and a corded wooden box. There was not enough room for the head or one of the feet, so Kate threw the foot into a garbage heap and buried the head under the stables, close to Julia’s house. 

On March 4, Kate went to see her old neighbours, the Porter’s, who she had not seen in 6 years. She was wearing Julia’s clothes and was carrying the black bag that she had put some of Julia’s remains in. Kate called herself “Mrs. Thomas” and told the Porters she had married, had a child and was widowed. She also told them she had been left a house in Richmond. 

Kate asked Porter and his son if they wanted to go to a pub, and while doing so she assumingly dropped the bag of remains into the River Thames, where it was never found. She also asked Robert, the son, if he would help her carry a heavy box to the station. Kate then dropped the box into the Thames. 

The next day, on March 5, the box was washed up next to the river bank. The man who found it originally believed there to be items of a burglary and when opening the box he found what appeared to be body parts wrapped in brown paper. A doctor was called immediately to determine the remains appeared to be that of a woman. 

Around this time, a foot and ankle were found in Twickenham, where Kate had thrown the foot that wouldn’t fit. The remains were all believed to be from the same person but there was no way to identify said person. The remains were burned on March 19 and there was speculation that the remains had been used for anatomical purposes. 

Kate kept living at Julia’s house, posing as her, and on March 9, she made an agreement with a man named John Church to sell Julia’s furniture to him for his pub. 

By March 18, neighbours suspicions kept raising as they realized they had not seen Julia around for almost 2 weeks. Julia’s neighbour asked who had Julia’s furniture removed from the property and they replied that it was Julia herself, indicating Kate. Kate, now knowing that her charade was up, fled back to Ireland. 

Police were called to the property and found blood stains, burned bones and a letter left by Kate that had her home address on it. A wanted notice was put up and detectives soon found Kate and her son back in Ireland. 

Kate was arrested on March 29, after the head constable in Wexford recognized her to be the same person they had arrested 14 years prior for larceny. 

Kate’s trial began on July 2, 1879 at the Central Criminal Court. The case was huge – people from all over were very interested in Kate and her crimes, with the trial attendance being crowded. Kate had actually tried to implicate John Church and her friend Porter, though both men had solid alibis. 

She pleaded not guilty, and the defence argued she could not be capable of murder due to her having a young son. After only an hour and 15 minutes of deliberation the jury decided that Kate was guilty of murder and it had been premeditated. Kate actually pleaded and said she was pregnant, trying to avoid the death penalty. 

Kate was taken in for an examination to determine if she truly was pregnant, and it was said that she was not “quick with child” though that meant she could still be pregnant. 

Right before she was executed, Kate made a statement stating that the father of her child was the one who participated in the murder of Julia and was the reason she had lived a life of crime to begin with. On July 28, the night before her execution, she recanted the statement, taking responsibility, and also stating that John Church, Porter and her child’s father were not to blame. 

On July 29, 1879, Kate Webster was hanged at 9am at Wandsworth Prison. She was buried in an unmarked grave in one of the prison’s yards. The crowd waiting at her execution cheered when a black flag was raised over the prison, meaning the execution had gone through. 

Julia’s property was auctioned off, the day after Kate had been executed. John Church managed to still get Julia’s furniture, as well as the knife that she had been dismembered with. Julia’s house was unoccupied until 1897, and even then, servants did not really want to work there given the history. 

There have been folktales of a “ghostly nun” that has been seen over the place where Julia is buried. 

In 1952, Sir David Attenborough and his wife Jane bought a house by the Mayfield Cottages and the Hole in the Wall pub. The pub had closed in 2007, but was going to be redeveloped. On October 22, 2010, workmen doing an excavation at the rear of the old pub uncovered a woman’s skull. 

It had been buried underneath the foundations and was immediately believed to be the skull of Julia Thomas as her head was never found. Carbon dating estimated the skull to be from sometime between 1650 and 1880, though it was on top of a layer of Victorian tiles, suggesting it was from the end of this estimate. 

The skull had fractures that matched with someone being thrown down stairs, and also had low collagen levels, possibly from being boiled. In July 2011, it was confirmed that it was the skull of Julia Thomas, 132 years after she had been murdered. 

Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme came from different worlds. Pauline’s father managed a fish shop while her mother, Honora Mary Parker, took in lodgers to make ends meet; Juliet’s father was a famous British physicist and her mother a marriage counsellor. Nevertheless, the two young girl were drawn to each other, perhaps due to their similarities in temperament.

Pauline’s education had not been of the highest of standard, but she was a gifted and imaginative writer, and Juliet was deeply sensitive to the point of being psychologically fragile. Over time, what started out as a friendhip became much, much more. The two adolescent girls - Pauline was 15, Juliet 16 - began to explore their sexuality with one another. As Juliet would later say, when they were together it was “better than heaven.”

Unfortunately events were conspiring to bring their relationship to an end. Juliet’s mother divorced her father, and the young girl was deeply traumatized when she caught her mother in bed with a new man. Soon after, her father announced that he was returning to Britain to take up a new post, and Juliet would be sent to live with relatives in South Africa where it was hoped her health would improve.

Both girls were devastated at the idea of being separated, but Honora Parker made no secret of her relief. She had grown suspicious of their friendship and the strange hold Juliet had over her daughter, so when Pauline begged to be allowed to go to South Africa too, she refused. In doing so she became the focus of the girls’ frustration and anger.

If Pauline was orphaned, they reasoned, there would be no-one to stop her joining Juliet in South Africa. As Pauline wrote in her diary on February 13, 1954, “Why could mother not die? Dozens of people are dying, thousands are dying every day. So why not mother and father too?” It would be one of the many diary entries that eventually helped convict her.

On June 22, not long before Juliet was due to leave, Honora Parker took the girls to Victoria Park for tea and cakes. After the treat, the three strolled in the park and when they reached a secluded spot, Mrs Parker bent over to pick up a stone that had attracted her attention. As she did, a stocking loaded with a brick crashed into her skull. Over and over, the teenage girls took it in turn to beat Pauline’s mother to death. And when they were sure that she was gone, they ran back to the tea kiosk, screaming for help and crying, “Mummy’s been hurt!”

Police found the stocking and brick close by Honora Parker’s body and the two girls were arrested. Both admitted that they had helped in the grisly task of killing Mrs. Parker and both were found equally responsible. After a sensational trial unlike any New Zealand had ever seen, the two girls were found guilty of murder on August 29, 1954, and - in view of their ages - sentenced to five years in prison each with the added condition that when they were released they could never see each other again.

Saponification is the process of the human body partly or completely turning to soap. The fatty tissue and the liquid from putrefaction gradually form into adipocere, which is also known as grave wax. This process can happen to embalmed and non-embalmed bodies. It is most common with those who are overweight. The photograph above is of “The Soap Lady” who is housed at the Mutter Museum. She is entirely composed of grave wax.