August 26, 2003
Come for the killing fields, stay for the fun!
There's a fine line between love and hate, as they say. A woman in Alabama almost got away with murdering her husband to benefit from his will, had it not been for her stepdaughter's instance that something was amiss. Love was presumably not in the air when a Philadelphia man, 2 weeks out of prison, set fire to the home of the ex-girlfriend that wouldn't take him back. While he failed to kill the woman, he did manage to burn her four kids to death. It would also seem that motherly love did not play a role when a German woman decapitated her son in his playpen in front of her other two children.
A Texas man killed two prostitutes, forcing at least one of them to perform oral sex on him after he'd stabbed her; he's been convicted and is awaiting sentencing. At least when another Texas man held his mother hostage for four days while dismembering his stepfather, he managed to take some time out to care for his dog:
As he fled an intense manhunt prompted by the discovery of Raleigh William "Bill" Baird's dismembered body in Baird's southwest Harris County home on Wednesday, Andre Williams, 53, drove his Rottweiler to his ex-wife's home in the Dallas area, detectives said."He just said he did something bad, and he had to go, and would she mind watching the dog," Harris County sheriff's Sgt. T.E. Kiser said Saturday.
If a lunatic like that can still love a dog, then what the hell is running through the mind of a serial dog poisoner in North Carolina?
While it's probably in bad taste for Russian organized crime syndicates to promote World War II-era grave robbing, and just plain moronic to sell someone's remains to a thrift store accidentally, combining evil with stupidity usually leads to the worst decision-making. For example, a Canadian probation officer probably shouldn't have been pen-pals with convicted sex offenders, nor should their letters have been about rape and torture fantasies involving family members. It's also probably not a good idea to write out the lyrics to a song you're working on if it accurately describes how you butchered your classmate, as was the case of an Australian teen who dismembered his best friend and wrote a rap about it. As a side note, I'm not really sure what the Herald Sun is implying by pointing out that among the kid's collection of horror flicks, porn, and Eminem CDs, police also confiscated a Britney Spears video.
Despite these compelling cases, nowhere was the troublesome combination of evil and stupidity more stunning recently than in the revelation that the Cambodian government is planning to turn Khmer Rouge death camps into tourist attractions. Honestly, how many idiots had to approve of and support this idea up until now? How can they sleep at night?
Posted @ 10:21 PM
August 22, 2003
"My daddy killed my whole family"
There's nothing quite like the allure of crack (or so I'm told). The New York Times [free registration required] has an article about a Latin teacher at a private catholic high school who knifed his crack-buddy to death. Two lesbians killed their transgendered roommate for crack money, and when sentenced, the only thing that one of the accused had to say for herself was: "All I want is my methadone." Crack and smack - the drug cocktail of choice for discriminating murderers.
Other transgendered victims are in the news - two black transgendered people have been murdered in D.C.; it's unclear if this is a coincidence or the opening moves of a serial killer with very specific tastes. A suspect for the first murder was in custody when the second murder took place, so we can still hope that this isn't part of a pattern.
I'll agree that workplace shootings seem to be more common now than ever, but after a man in Ohio killed some of his co-workers over a dispute about vacation time, the reaction of his mother makes it seem too routine:
Shadle's mother, Rose Shadle, said her son was distraught over a long-term medical condition that could have cost him his leg."He always said, I'll kill myself first,' " Rose Shadle said. "I always told him never to take anyone with him - but he did. That's the worst thing about this."
Also in Ohio, not only does a mother who was "tired of living" decide to kill herself and take her children with her, but a 14-year-old stands accused of stabbing his 34-year-old aunt to death.
Speaking of kids killing relatives, a Las Vegas teen killed his grandfather after deciding it was just "his time to go". On the other hand, you've got kids killing complete strangers, as was the case when a 17-year-old in Pennsylvania who kidnapped, raped, and killed a 6-year old and may have been the case when a pair of teens beat a homeless man to death.
Some people think that male teens fighting is inevitable and part of their nature; if only a 14-year-old boy, punched to death by his mother knew that - maybe he could have fought back. The worst stories are about the ones who can't fight back, like a child tortured to death in Philadelphia, or four kids in Detroit who were attacked by their shotgun-toting father. Three of the four were killed; the surviving little girl could only say to rescue workers, "My daddy killed me. My daddy killed my whole family."
A teenager in Missouri received a 5-year sentence for his apathy; his 16-year old drinking buddy died with a blood-alcohol level of .402 after a night of drinking and popping Xanax, and he plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter for failing to call anyone and just watching the kid die.
From not caring at all to caring just a bit too much: a British man obsessed with a pop star was thrown in jail for 6 months for stalking when he threatened to hack her to death and displayed plenty of other bizzare behavior. At least a California man who stole and stockpiled over 150 pounds of human remains didn't include anyone else in his odd behavior (anyone alive, that is).
In Singapore, the forensic evidence seems to show that a man kept beating a woman in the head with a hammer as she was crawling to escape, but when a school worker is accused of decapitating a 6-year-old child on school grounds in a ritual murder and the school subsequently gets burned down by rioters, then you know you're in Uganda.
The "church" of Scientology asked for over US$2 million in punative damages and US$50,000 in compensatory damages from a lawyer who named the head of the organization as a co-defendant in a wrongful death case, claiming it harmed their reputation. They were awarded no punative damages and only $4,500 in compensatory damages.
Faring much better in court was an Australian man who was awarded AU$300,000 after he killed his brother's fiancee, as compensation for the state releasing him from a mental institution too soon. (In an attempt to restore some common sense to their legal system, the Australian government is appealing.)
What's up down under? This wasn't the only evidence of craziness in Australia that we've seen recently; in addition to your run-of-the-mill charred bodies in drainpipes, you've got the current escapades in local politics.
When a Casey counsellor found out that Olivia Watts, a Wiccan, was running for a council seat, he promptly declared that a satanic cult was trying to take over his town. When the Pagan Awareness Network president David Garland went on a local radio station to be interviewed about the ignorance of the counselor, the counselor demanded equal time - and used his on-air appearance to publicly question Watts' sexual preferences.
Ahh, politics.
Posted @ 07:28 AM
August 18, 2003
Just the right amount of stupefaction
It's a conversation that we (the maintainers of this site) have had a few times already - are we being too preachy? Too flippant? How do we find the right balance? On one hand, we don't want to come across as pretentious moralizers, but on the other hand, we really don't feel like being misconstrued as glorifying the behavior we post about. I guess this is our way of saying that we're still trying to find our voice, so please bear with us.
On to the news: Italian tourists in Florida last week got an unwelcome surprise - they discovered a body, wrapped in chains, that had washed up on the shore. Houston police were also unpleasantly surprised to find the dismembered corpse of a 71-year old man in a freezer with a chainsaw nearby. And no one is pleased with the prospect of dealing with a copycat of the Washington, D.C.-area sniper that may be operating in West Virginia.
Some common interests in a relationship shouldn't be explored. A married couple in Washington is accused of killing off their boarders and a boyfriend/girlfriend in Maryland have been convicted of killing another couple just for fun. To top it off, a pair of teens in Washington state may finally be brought to justice for bludgeoning one of their families to death (including an autistic girl).
This muder/suicide in Indiana seems pretty clear-cut, but it's impossible to know if a Japanese woman and her two daughters seen hugging on a train track before being hit and killed were willing partners, or if the children were coerced.
Let's hope more can be learned about these child deaths - a 6-year old boy in California who was strangled to death after being sexually assaulted, and a 2-year old boy in Georgia who died 6 days after sustaining supposedly "accidental" injuries - then perhaps justice will be served.
What's the point of being a Satanist these days, now that it's been revealed that the mysterious Mr. Cho (now to be referred to only as "the Almighty") defeated Satan in 1980? This triumph naturally led him to form a cult in Korea known as the Eternal Life Church. Apparently, the name is more for effect than anything else, as several members of the cult have been discovering that their lives are ending somewhat short of eternity - investigators now believe many members of the cult were killed and buried secretly.
Despite Satan's stunning loss to Mr. Cho, self-proclaimed Satanists (and vampires) still exist, some of whom are wrapped up in a murder investigation in New Orleans. It appears that the stereotypes associated with their Goth appearance aren't helping them, since it's adding validity in some people's minds to the theory that the murder was some sort of evil rite.
Speaking of psuedo-Satanic rituals, it seems likely that the people who murdered this cat in a drainpipe with "666" painted in it were trying to perform one, but it's not as clear why someone in Georgia would want to kill a cat by removing its head and front legs, and then repeat the process with a dog (although Satan has been mentioned as a possible accomplice in these crimes too). Japan thinks that committing acts of animal cruelty is a sign you're going to be a more serious criminal; we just think it's completely abhorrent.
Posted @ 01:37 PM
August 13, 2003
I have a feeling this is *not* what Ted Williams had in mind...
I'm not even sure Ted wanted to be cryogenically frozen. And, I'm pretty damn sure he didn't intend for his head to be separated from his body and then put into something resembling a lobster pot after repeated temperature fluctuations caused ten nasty cracks.
I can't believe people really do this.
Here's the column that prompted the above article.
Posted @ 12:31 PM
Disposable people
Institutionalized disregard for the wishes of family members has occured in Australia, where they're not sure if they had permission to take ~12,000 body parts for medical research.
Complete apathy toward the well-being of others has reared its ugly head in Ohio, where a drunk mother passed out, allowing her baby to drown in the bathtub. Not much better is the story of a Guatemalan girl whose baby was discovered wrapped in plastic with a bloody tissue stuffed in the back of its throat. Not to be outdone, the French have proved that they can torture kids to death just as well as Americans. When you consider that these people's chances to care for their children is a lot more of an opportunity than this pregnant woman (found dead and naked in an abandoned Philadelphia lot) and her child got, or how the parents involved in a shocking death of an otherwise healthy baby, poisoned by having arsenic put in its bottle while at a party must feel, it makes these stories all the more tragic.
All of these stories convey a lack of basic respect for human life (to some degree or other). But what happens when a person becomes so self-centered, so convinced that other people exist simply for their amusement (and ultimately, when they are through with them, their disposal) that they become sociopathic? The person (or people) who glued an 18-year-old's eyes shut before sodomizing and killing him might have the answer, but if I really wanted to know, I have a feeling I should ask the man who was caught by his common law wife while raping his 8-year-old daughter and as a result, killed them both.
Posted @ 08:45 AM
August 10, 2003
Abuse, neglect, and its effects
Several severe child-related incidents have popped up in the news recently.
It's completely mind-boggling that a presumably intelligent man - a faculty member at UC-Irvine - could use the defense "I didn't realize he was there" when his baby died from extreme heat in the back of his sealed car.
It's a sad day when a simple bludgeoning of a baby seems merciful when compared to the discovery of a bruised, burned 13-month-old in South Carolina or the obscene, systematic torture of a 6-year old child in Colorado that has to be one of the purest evils exposed in recent memory. Both were described by police involved as the worst cases of child abuse they had ever seen.
The mother who inflicted that torture was convicted, but justice doesn't always work as cleanly as we'd like. In a form of indirect child abuse, a man who had been arrested over 30 times duct-taped and shot 6 people in the head in front of a 3-year-old, killing 4 of them.
Make no mistake - we here at stupefaction.net strongly believe that people are responsible for their actions regardless of their personal history. Still, even though there's not a direct cause/effect relationship, we wouldn't be surprised to discover that abuse and/or neglect was in the past of the kids who videotaped themselves using stun-guns on homeless people given the amorality and lack of respect for human life in general they exhibited. When combined with peer-pressure and a mob mentality, those same traits can lead to a gang of teenagers beating a fellow party-goer to death (among other things). However, it's likely that greed was the primary motivator behind a Madison, WI triple-murder that the accused student allegedly committed to get out from under some gambling debts.
Referring to a murder-suicide in which a 7-year-old was orphaned, the words of Sheriff Bob Hertz puts a point on it - "The problem with people nowadays is conflict resolution... I certainly hope that somebody would come up with an answer to this."
Posted @ 09:55 AM
August 09, 2003
Think globally, act locally
Today in history: The Manson cult kills Sharon Tate in an effort to set off "Helter Skelter", a global revolution (we think).
Are you having some differences with your soon-to-be ex-husband over assets and custody? Do you teach biochemistry? Why not recruit a former student to help you stun-gun your husband, put him in a barrel, and pour acid on him?
Stupefaction hasn't quite made up its mind on the following stories: was Perry Monroe a serial killer in training, or just out for some casual dismemberment? Also, is the son of a politician in South Africa an innocent bystander, or has his sociopathic behavior been part of a long-standing series of political cover-ups?
Is the man accused of being Canada's worst serial killer also a fan of Brick Top in the film Snatch? Canadian police search his pig farm to find out.
Stupefaction's unscientific study shows that women survive suicide pacts more often than men. Cases in point - these two Japanese teenagers attempted to fling themselves to their death, but the boy died and the girl lived. In India, this couple doused themselves with kerosene and lit themselves on fire, yet the wife managed to survive (barely).
And your biohazard fact for the day: In Texas, when you find a house full of dead cats, it's easier just to demolish it than to try to clean it up.
Posted @ 08:52 AM
How far will a father go for his children's success?
A French father was just arrested and charged with administering toxic substances and negligent homicide. His son and daughter are successful tennis champions, but little did they know, their father has been drugging their opponents. Unfortunately, one of their opponents not only lost to the son, but proceeded to pass out in his car and die in a car crash after the match.
Posted @ 08:22 AM
August 08, 2003
More fodder....
I thought it might be interesting to focus partially on capital punishment in various countries. I was surprised to find out that in Japan, capital punishment is carried out by hanging.
Thailand just recently retired their firing squads and will serve capital punishment by lethal injection from now on. Until 1935, all executions were beheadings, performed with a sword.
And then, of course, there's Saudi Arabia, who still performs beheadings.
Though I doubt I'll ever have a lack of material for this blog, this morning two stories in particular glared out at me.
The first is about a 7-year-old disabled girl who died from injuries sustained from a sexual attack. There are no words.
The second is about a man who blamed a two-headed demon named "Legion" for the kidnapping, beating and rape of a woman in South Bend. Thankfully, the jury didn't fall for it.
Posted @ 10:08 AM
August 06, 2003
Ahhh...the first links, and boy do we have some doozies
We thought we might start you all off with some serial killing (human and horse), cult killings and child killings. Might as well kick off this blog with style, eh?
Serial Killings
I'm telling you, Africa is rich in many resources - one of them being accounts of terrible atrocities. Today we're highlighting the story of a woman who was recently found in an area where a serial killer has been active. Poor thing was alive for awhile after the attack.Another serial killing story of note comes from Germany, where 40+ horses were found killed by a serial killer. Most of them were mares - gee, got some issues?
Cult Killings
Yet another story coming from Africa. This one has to do with 10 varsity students who have been charged with the murder of rival cult members. Maybe not the type of ritualistic killing you might be thinking about when you hear the words "cult killings", but one that has to do with cults nonetheless.And then there's the guy in London who has been arrested for the cult killing of 11 children, including his oldest daughter (don't think I didn't notice that he's from Nigeria).
Child Killings
I woke up this morning to read about a woman who was suffering from post partum depression ad killed her infant daughter. I then proceeded to read an article in the Chicago Tribune about how hard it is to prosecute women who kill their babies right after they give birth.If all of that wasn't bad enough, I came across this article on a Utah man who killed his infant son. I'm not sure how much I can believe a man who says he felt so terrible that he wanted to kill himself - not when he manages to fall asleep next to his dead son, moments after suffocating him.
Posted @ 09:26 PM
Prepare to be stupefied
Welcome to stupefaction.net, from the makers of extrasonic.
After looking back on our weblog posts, we realized that we spend a lot of time being disgusted, shocked, and generally disappointed with how low the human race can sink. In short, we were in a constant state of stupefaction. So the idea came to us to start a side 'blog - one that would present our disbelief to you, the readers.
The idea's pretty simple. We'll post links to stories that showcase what is, in our opinion, some of the most socially and culturally unacceptable human behavior in the news and on the web.
If you're a "glass half-full" type of person, then you can use this site to reaffirm your faith in humanity - what better way to test your unflappable belief in the inherent goodness of human nature than to read our posts and see if you remain surprised? If you're a "glass half-empty" person, well, then, the value of this site should be pretty obvious...
Enjoy, and please don't hesitate to contact us with questions, comments, concerns, criticisms, etc. at dan [at] stupefaction [dot] net or desiree [at] stupefaction [dot] net.
Posted @ 08:30 PM