In A Chilling Case Reminiscent Of The “Swedish Josef Fritzl,” Martin Trenneborg, A 38-year-old Doctor,

Cursed Petrified Wood

The Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona has always attracted people with its beautiful fossilized logs of trees that existed over 200 million years ago. Even though it is prohibited to take specimens from the park, people nonetheless steal pieces of petrified wood all the time. But what has also been reported, as far back as the 1930′s, is that those who take anything from the park are equally cursed with bad luck. The museum at the park has an entire room dedicated to the confessions from these thieves, usually written as letters sent to the park along with the pieces of petrified wood that were stolen. There is also a “Conscience Pile” of fossils that sits at one of the entrances to the park, where countless thieves have quietly returned the fossils they stole. The rocks are not put back in the park, and merely sit as a monument to the curse of the petrified wood.

Albert Fish

March 30, 2023

***Trigger Warning: Lots of graphic nature and abuse of children***

Albert Fish was born Hamilton Howard Albert Fish on May 19, 1870 in Washington, D.C. to Randall and Ellen Fish. Randall was 43 years older than Albert’s mother Ellen, and was 75 years old when Albert was born. The pair had multiple children together, with Albert being the youngest. 

Albert began using the name Albert as a child, named after his dead brother so that his peers would stop calling him “Ham & Eggs” a childhood nickname he despised. 

Many of Albert’s family members suffered from different mental illnesses. Albert’s mother, Ellen, had what was known as “aural and/or visual hallucinations.” Albert’s father, Randall, had a heart attack and on October 16,1875 he died when Albert was only 5 years old. 

Ellen, being overwhelmed with her husband now gone placed Albert in the Saint John’s Orphanage where Albert was abused regularly. Albert would later begin to enjoy the pain he endured at the orphanage, the beginning of him experiencing sexual pleasure during pain or inflicting pain. 

In 1880, Ellen got a better paying job and was able to get her son back from the orphanage. In 1882, Albert had begun a relationship with a boy who introduced Albert to drinking urine and eating feces. Albert also began visiting public baths where he could watch young boys undress. 

Albert also began to write obscene letters to women who he would see their names in classified ads in the papers. 

In 1890, at the age of 20, Albert moved to New York City where he was a male sex worker and began to rape and molest boys, most of whom were under the age of 6. In 1898, Albert married a woman named Anna Mary Hoffman, who was 9 years younger than him. This was an arranged marriage Albert’s mother had set up. Albert and Anna had 6 children together: Albert, Anna, Gertrude, Eugene, John and Henry. 

In 1903 Albert was arrested for grand larceny and incarcerated in Sing Sing. Albert later said he had gone to a wax museum with a male lover once and became fascinated by the bisection of the human penis, which led to an obsession with sexual mutilation. 

In 1910, Albert met a man named Thomas Kedden. It was said that Thomas was intellectually disabled. The two began a sadomasochistic relationship, it is unclear whether Albert forced Thomas to do any of the acts. After 10 days, Albert took Thomas to an old farm house where he tortured him for two weeks, tying him up and cutting off half of his penis. 

Albert’s original plan was the kill Thomas and cut up his body. Albert feared he would be noticed if he tried to bring Thomas’ body back to his house, so he poured peroxide over the wound, wrapped it in a Vaseline-covered handkerchief, and left him $10. 

Albert never contacted or tried to contact Thomas again and does not know what happened to him after that. 

In January 1917, Albert’s wife left him for another man who had been boarding with them. Albert was then left to raise his children on his own, saying that his wife had taken almost everything they owned with her. 

Albert often began having auditory hallucinations, once wrapping himself in a carpet saying he was following instructions from John the Apostle. 

Albert began to self harm by embedding needles into his groin and abdomen areas. After he was arrested, the X-rays showed that Albert had at least 29 needles in his pelvic area. He would also hit himself with a nail studded paddle and would put wool covered in lighter fluid into his anus and light it up. 

It was never reported that Albert ever abused his own children physically, however it is said that Albert would encourage his children and their friends to hit him in the buttocks with the nail studded paddle. 

Around 1919, Albert had stabbed an intellectually disabled boy in Georgetown. Fish claimed he would go over intellectually disabled or African-American people because he did not think they would be missed. 

On July 11, 1924, Albert saw 8 year old Beatrice Kiel playing alone on her parent’s farm in Staten Island, New York. Albert offered the little girl money to come help him look for rhubarb. Beatrice was about to leave the farm when her mother chased Albert away. Albert later returned to the Kiel farm where he tried to sleep in their barn, but was discovered by Beatrice’s father. 

During 1924, Albert was suffering from psychosis and claimed God was commanding him to torture and sexually mutilate children. Three days after the Kiel’s, Albert murdered Francis McDonnell on Staten Island. 

Francis McDonnell

On July 14, 1924, 9 year old Francis McDonnell was reported missing when he did not return home from playing with friends. A search began and his body was found, hanging by a tree in a wooden area near his home. 

Francis had been sexually assaulted and then strangled with his suspenders. His left hamstring had been almost entirely stripped of flesh. Albert denied responsibility for this but did say he planned to castrate the boy but heard someone approaching so he ran off. 

Francis’ friends told police Francis had been taken by an elderly man with a grey moustache. A neighbour also claimed to have seen Francis with a similar looking man walking towards the woods. 

Anna McDonnell, Francis’ mother, said she also saw that man earlier in the day, claiming he had been coming up the street mumbling to himself and making motions with his hands. Anna said the man appeared faded and grey, this description eventually leading to “The Grey Man” nickname Albert was dubbed. 

Francis McDonnell’s murder went unsolved until Grace Budd. Albert denied the charges until March 1935, after the trial of Grace Budd’s murder, where he admitted to killing Francis and another boy, Billy Gaffney. 

Billy Gaffney

On February 11, 1927, 4 year old Billy Gaffney was playing in their apartment hallway with two other boys, ages 4 and 12. When the 12 year old left, the two smaller boys disappeared. 

The 4 year old, a boy named Billy Beaton was found on the roof of the apartments. Beaton said that the “bogeyman” had taken Billy Gaffney. Gaffney’s body was never recovered. A man named Joseph Meehan, a motorman on the Brooklyn trolley eventually recognized a picture of Albert, claiming that was the man he saw on the day Billy went missing. 

Meehan claimed the man had been trying to quiet a little boy on the trolley. The boy was not wearing a jacket and was crying for his mother. It was found that Albert had been working a few miles from the location Billy was taken at the time. 

Albert later confessed he had taken the boy, tied his hands and feet, and gagged him. He burned his clothes and left. The next day he went back with his tools and whipped Billy, cut off his ears, nose and slit his mouth from ear to ear. Albert also gouged out his eyes, and drank his blood. Albert cut off the head, arms, hands, legs and feet, and threw them in sacks with stones, throwing them into water. 

The rest of the boy Albert took home with him and ate. Billy’s mother travelled to Sing Sing to ask Albert about her son’s death but he refused to speak with her. Albert began to weep and asked to be left alone. After two hours of asking questions through his lawyer, Billy’s mother gave up and was not convinced he had killed her son. 

Grace Budd

On May 25, 1928, Albert saw an ad in the paper by a young man who wanted work. The young man was 18 year old Edward Budd, who lived at 406 West 15th Street. 

On May 28, Albert went to see the Budd family in Manhattan, claiming he wanted to hire Edward but was really planning to tie him up and mutilate him. Albert introduced himself as Frank Howard, a farmer from Farmingdale, New York. Albert told Edward he would take on him and his friend Willie, and would come back for them in a few days. 

Albert never showed up a few days later, sending a telegram that apologized to the family, setting up a new date for when he would return. 

When Albert came back, he met Edward’s little sister Grace, who was 10 years old at the time. Albert knew he immediately wanted to take Grace instead of Edward, so made up a story about going to his niece’s birthday party, asking Delia and Albert Budd if Grace could come along with him. 

Albert took Grace to an abandoned house, a house he had previously picked out for his next victim, before his plans changed and he took Grace instead. Albert murdered Grace Budd and claimed he ate her after as well.  

The police arrested a man named Charles Edward Pope on September 5, 1930 for the murder of Grace Budd after his estranged wife accused him. He spent months in jail and was his trial began on December 22, 1930. He was found not guilty. 

In November 1934, an anonymous letter was sent to the Budd family, claiming that whoever wrote the letter had murdered Grace and detailed how they had tortured her and then taken 9 days to eat her body. The letter did say that Grace had fought back, and that the writer, who was obviously “Frank Howard” had let Grace die a virgin. 

The letter eventually led police back to Albert Fish, who did not deny the murder of Grace Budd. He actually told police his original plan was to kill her brother, Edward. Albert claimed he had no intention of raping Grace, but when he was strangling her he had two involuntary ejaculations. 

This was used in trial to determine Grace’s kidnapping was sexually motivated, and it avoided the cannibalism. 

Albert’s trial for the murder of Grace Budd started on March 11, 1935. The trial lasted 10 days, where Albert pleaded insanity, claiming he heard God telling him to kill children. It was said that Albert was a “psychiatric phenomenon” and that there was no other individual in medical records who had this many sexual abnormalities. 

The jurors all believed that Albert Fish was insane, but they believed he should be executed anyway. So they found him sane and guilty and he was sentenced to death by electrocution. 

Albert Fish was executed on January 16, 1936, in the electric chair in Sing Sing. It was said that Albert had actually helped the executioner position the electrodes on his body before he died. He last words were, “I don’t even know why I’m here.” 

According to a witness, it took two jolts before Albert died, and rumours circulated that it was due to the needles that he had inserted into his body for years. These rumours turned out to be untrue, as it was claimed that many individuals in the electric chair take more than just one jolt to die. 

After Albert’s execution, his lawyer, James Dempsey said he had Albert’s final statement, which was multiple pages of hand-written notes that Albert had written hours before his death. When journalists asked Dempsey to say what Albert had written, he replied, “I will never show it to anyone. It was the most filthy string of obscenities that I have ever read.” 

"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."

“The Hands Resist Him” - a haunted painting.

According to Stoneham this painting is of himself as a five year old boy. Those spooky hands on the door depict another world with other lives and possibilities. The glass panes represent the thin veil of separation between this world and the world of dreams. The doll is a guide who will take the boy through the veil to the other world.

In February 2000 the painting appeared for sale on eBay.com with a lengthy description detailing that the painting had been found abandoned, behind a building. The seller then went on to claim that whilst the painting was in their house, the family’s daughter started to see the boy and girl moving inside the painting, they soon took to leaving the painting, and appeared to be fighting. The owners then set up a motion detector camera, which happened to show the movement.

If the couple is to be believed, the characters in the painting became animated in the night, sometimes even left the canvas! The boy and the doll, however, didn’t disappear from the view. The painting doesn’t just affect the owners. Even those who saw the painting online reported that they started feeling sick and nauseated. Some claim that the children who saw the painting ran away screaming; while others were said to be touched by an invisible force. A person who tried to print the image had his printer malfunction.

Stoneham didn’t help the legends by adding that the gallery where the painting was originally displayed and sold at, and a Los Angeles Times critic, who reviewed the painting in an article both ended up dead within a year of the showing.

Many people report strange feelings and strange events after seeing the picture, some have reported children freaking out when seeing the painting or prints of it.

Follow @mecthology for more spooky lores and myths. DM for pic credit. https://www.instagram.com/p/CSha_bTImRg/?utm_medium=tumblr

Perry Smith and Truman Capote shared a profound and intimate connection, leading to speculation that Capote harbored romantic feelings for Smith during their years of prison visits while working on “In Cold Blood,” a seminal work of non-fiction detailing the Clutter murders, for which Smith was one of the perpetrators. Smith, expressing a desire for Capote’s presence, requested him as a witness to his impending execution. 

In a poignant telegram sent on the eve of his execution, Smith implored Capote, stating, “Am anticipating and awaiting your visit. Please acknowledge by return wire when you expect to be here.” However, Capote failed to appear, citing the overwhelming emotional toll that witnessing the execution would exact upon him. The publication of “In Cold Blood” propelled Capote to unprecedented fame, yet he never completed another book thereafter.

"S'Accabadora" is a figure from Sardinian culture. Until a few decades ago, euthanasia was practiced in Sardinia. It was the task of the female "accabbadora" to bring death to people in agony. Detailed studies and analyses of documentation found in Sardinian curiae, dioceses, and museums have confirmed the existence of this figure.

The "s'accabadora" was a woman who, called upon by the relatives of a terminally ill patient, would provide a compassionate death, ending their suffering. It was an act of mercy towards the dying person and also a necessary act for the survival of the family, especially for the less privileged social classes. In the rural areas of Gallura and in small towns far from a doctor, it served to avoid prolonged and excruciating suffering for the patient.

The "s'accabadora" would arrive at the house of the dying person always at night. After the family members who had called her had left, she would enter the room of death. The door would open, and the dying person, from their bed of agony, would see the "s'accabadora" dressed in black, with her face covered, and understand that their suffering was about to end.

The patient would be suffocated with a pillow, or the woman would deliver a blow with "su mazzolu" causing death. The "s'accabadora" would then leave quietly, as if she had completed a mission. The family members of the patient would express deep gratitude for the service she had rendered to their loved one, often offering her agricultural products in return.

Usually, the blow was directed at the forehead, which likely gives rise to the term "accabbadora," from the Spanish word "acabar" meaning to finish, literally giving a blow to the head.

"Su mazzolu" was a kind of specially constructed stick that can be seen in the Gallura Ethnographic Museum. It is a 40-centimeter-long and 20-centimeter-wide piece of olive wood, with a handle that allows for a secure and precise grip. The "su mazzolu" found in the Gallura museum was discovered in 1981. The "s'accabadora" had hidden it in a dry stone wall near an old farmhouse that had once been her home. The Su Mazzolu in questione see here is made from a single piece of wood (probably a fig tree) and is manageable and robust at the same time. It bears three notches engraved in the upper part, probably referring to the number of victims.

The practice of the "s'accabadora" existed in Sardinia until a few decades ago, mainly in the central-northern part of the island. The last known cases of "accabbadura" occurred in Luras in 1929 and in Orgosolo in 1952. In addition to documented cases, there are numerous stories passed down through oral tradition and family memories. Many people remember a grandfather or great-grandfather who had some connection with the woman dressed in black.

In Luras, in Gallura, the "s'accabadora" killed a 70-year-old man. The woman was not condemned, and the case was closed. The Carabinieri, the Public Prosecutor of Tempio Pausania, and the Church all agreed that it was a humanitarian act. In fact, everyone knew, and everyone remained silent. No condemnation seems to have ever been carried out against this missionary woman who physically and morally took it upon herself to end the suffering of the sick.

Her existence was always considered a natural fact. Just as there were midwives who assisted in childbirth, there was the "s'accabadora" who helped in dying. It is even said that they were often the same person, distinguished by the color of their clothing (black if bringing death, white or light if bringing life into the world).

This figure, representing a socio-cultural and historical phenomenon, is the practice of euthanasia. In the small rural communities of Sardinia, it was linked to the Sardinian approach to death. In the Sardinian community's culture, there has never been a real fear when facing the final moments of a person's life. It can be said that Sardinians had their own personal management of death, considering it a natural cycle of life.

In December of 1927, 12-year-old Marion Parker, who was the young daughter of banker, Perry Parker, was abducted from her school by William Edward Hickman. Over the next few days, Hickman contacted Parker and sent multiple ransom notes. Parker agreed to pay the $1,500 and met the man in a parked car. When Parker paid to ransom, he was allowed to see his daughter who was sitting on the passenger seat. She appeared to be wrapped up in a blanket up to her neck, rendering her unable to walk. Or so Parker thought.. Hickman threw the little girl out of the car and sped off with the money. It was immediately discovered that the little girl was already dead. When she was unwrapped from the blanket, he was horrified to see that her arms and legs had been cut off and she had been disembowelled. Her eyes had also been wired open. Hickman later admitted to strangling and slitting the throat of Marion and confessed that she was still alive while he disembowelled her. Hickman was quickly apprehended and hanged in 1928.

In September of 1990, the Dugard family moved from from Los Angeles to South Lake Tahoe in California under the presumption it was a safer community to raise a family. Unfortunately, they couldn’t have been more wrong. Jaycee Dugard was close to her mother, Terry, and her half-sister, Shayna. The couple lived with Jaycee’s stepfather, Carl, who was married to her mother. She never knew her birth father. He had no involvement in her life whatsoever.

It was a prickling hot day on 10th of June, 1991, when Jaycee was 11-years-old. On that morning, Jaycee got up for school and left the family home to walk the short distance to the bus stop. However, she never made it. In full view of Carl, who was watching Jaycee from the garage, a man and woman pulled up alongside her in a grey car and rolled down the window. Assuming they were looking for directions, Jaycee walked over. Next, the man produced a stun gun and zapped Jaycee before bundling her into the car. Carl, who didn’t have a car at the time, jumped onto his bike and peddled as fast as he possibly could. It was no use, however, and Jaycee was gone.

Over the forthcoming days, weeks, months, and years, Jaycee was in the forefront of her families mind. Despite an exhaustive search, Jaycee could not be found. As the years passed, hope began to fade that she would ever be found. But then, on the 24th of August, 2009, 18 years after her disappearance, there was a breakthrough. A man and two young girls appeared at the University of California, where witnesses said they were acting very peculiarly and the two girls seemed sullen and extremely pale, as if they hadn’t seen sunlight in a prolonged period. The man told an employee he wanted to hold an event in which he would speak about “God’s Desire Church” which he explained involved mind control. After leaving his name, a background check was ran and it was discovered he was a registered sex offender and on federal parole for kidnapping and rape. The man was Philip Greg Garrido, who in 1976 had kidnapped and raped a young woman. As part of his parole, Garrido could not be around minors.

Thinking something was awry, the employee contacted police who drove to Garrido’s home and arrested him. On the 26th of August, Garrido went to the parole office with his wife, Nancy, and the two girls who had been with prior. Also in attendance was Jaycee who initially claimed her name was “Allissa” and defended Garrido. She was showing signs of Stockholm Syndrome in which she sympathised with her kidnapper. Eventually the truth came out - both Phillip and Nancy had abducted Jaycee on that hot summer’s day 18 years ago. The two young girls were Jaycee’s and were a product of rape from Garrido.

Over the past 18 years, Jaycee had been raped numerous times. Initially, she was kept in handcuffs and had to use a bucket as a toilet. Garrido would often go on methamphetamine binges in which he would tell Jaycee ludicrous tales of him being a chosen servant of god and that she was kidnapped due to “demon angels” granting him permission to use her as a sex slave. By the age of 13, Jaycee was pregnant. She gave birth while locked up and took care of her two daughters with information learned from watching tv. Eventually, Jaycee was granted more and more freedom. The handcuffs disappeared and the bolts on the doors were dismantled. Never did she once mention to anybody her true identity due to Stockholm syndrome.

After her eventual discovery, the Dugard family were ecstatic. While they had never given up hope on Jaycee, as the day’s passed, it seemed more and more unlikely that she would ever return home. Jaycee and her two daughters were in well health despite their living condition. In 2011, Jaycee wrote a book titled “A Stolen Life” in which she details her abduction. Phillip was sentenced to 431 years to life while Nancy was sentenced to 36 years to life.

What is that? Strange figure caught on camera at Amarillo Zoo

The City of Amarillo is asking for help identifying a strange figure seen on surveillance...

KFDA reports security cameras captured the image around 1:25 a.m. on May 21 inside a perimeter fence at the Amarillo Zoo.

City officials said there were no signs of vandalism or attempted entry into the zoo and no animals or people were harmed.

Now, the city is encouraging the public to submit ideas for what the figure could be.