Another crime blog

[funeral]

Morgue at Johns Hopkins Medical School

[livelymorgue]

Oct. 18, 1977: “A four-alarm fire that sent flames roaring at least 50 feet above roof-level in Greenwich Village Monday night, raining embers over a wide area, was under investigation yesterday ‘because of the large volume of fire on arrival of the first equipment’ at the former warehouse,” reported The Times. The building had been set to be converted from lofts to apartments under the new owner, Roy Kalimian. “Mr. Kalimian, owner of the burned building, is a brother and partner of Abi Kalimian, owner of 12 Jones Street, also in the West Village, which went up in another spectacular blaze last January, just before conversion from lofts to apartments, a conversion that is still under way.” Photo: Paul Hosefros/The New York Times

[morbidology]

In February, 2016, a fisherman found a yacht adrift off the coast of the Philippines. When he boarded the seemingly abandoned yacht, he came across a grim scene: the mummified remains of a man slumped over in his chair. Using documents found on board, they identified the man as 59-year-old Manfred Fritz Bajorat from Germany. While it appeared that he had been dead for a prolonged period of time, his autopsy revealed that he had only been dead for a week. Due to the salt air and dry wind, mummification was advanced. While his cause of death was never determined, it was believed he had suffered a heart attack. He had been travelling the world on his yacht, Sayo, for the past twenty years.

[1000corpsesdoll]

[to-the-lost-ones]

If you’ve ever watched a crime scene drama like CSI, you’ve probably asked yourself, “Is that what really happens?” German photographer Patrik Budenz wondered the same thing, but unlike most of us, he decided to put in the time to find out.

To sate his curiosity, Budenz spent months convincing the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences in Berlin to give him full access to their facilities. For years after, he was constantly around cadavers. The results are two photo series: search for evidence (published as a book in 2011) is about forensic scientists and post mortem (published as a book this year) covers all the places dead bodies visit after death — funeral homes, crematoriums, etc.

“I wanted to confront myself with death and develop my view on the topic more fully with post mortem,” says Budenz. “Instead of shooting photos from a distance [like in search for evidence] I reduced the physical and mental distance in post mortem.”

While far from the only photo project on the subject, the tone and balance of Budenz’s projects stand out. They convey a peaceful acceptance of mortality that can be uncomfortable at first and then calming. Part of the discomfort is due to his unwillingness to pull many punches. With full access to these various institutes of death, Budenz was witness to some shocking visuals. He’s made photos of people sawing into heads, photos of people pulling brains out of bodies, photos of people smiling while they work with human body parts, and one particularly horrifying photo of a 13-year-old girl with her chest cut open.

Realizing most people would be taken aback by scenes like this, Budenz says he tries to be as sensitive but also as truthful as he can. The forensic scientists sawing open bodies to conduct investigations while smiling, for example, is a real part of a process most of us prefer not to think about. Dealing with human body parts is a serious job, but just like any job, it becomes routine over time.

“For most of these people, this becomes just a normal workplace,” he says. “Like other people who work in offices, they talk about what happened the day before or what happened that evening, typical chatting. At the same time, they also have a certain sensitivity because of where they are.”

So far, the reaction to the work has been positive. Some people think the photos go too far, and some people have to warm up to them, but he says “curiosity usually takes over.”

In the post mortem boom, the only text he includes is an email from a woman in China who titles her message, “i really like your photos of the dead.” In the message she talks about how hard it was to confront her grandfather’s death, but ends by saying, “i was shaking that night when he passed away, i didn’t even fall to sleep. i couldn‘t sleep alone for three years after he passed away. now i can sleep alone.”

Budenz says he included that email because he thinks it gets right to the point of the photos. Death is hard to deal with, but with time it can become more approachable and a little easier to understand.

All photos: Patrik Budenz

[morbidology]

Lividity, also known as livor mortis, is the post-mortem settling of blood within the skin due to gravitational forces. Note that areas of skin which are exposed to pressure do not develop lividity. The decedent in the image above was found lying on their back, hence no lividity on the back.

[racheljoyscotts]

Richard Castaldo (2013)

[megatha-christie-deactivated202]

School Shootings - Alexis de Tocqueville lycee Shooting

‘Give a man a mask and he’ll become his true self’, was the disturbing caption Kylian Barbey, 16, gave to his Facebook cover photo, a picture of the joker. This was not the only disturbing image Barbey displayed on his social media. He also changed his profile picture to a dark gothic-themed image. This was the last image Barbey had uploaded before going on a shooting rampage at the Alexis de Tocqueville lycee, Grasse, in France.  

On the 16th of March 2017, Barbey walked into his high school armed with two handguns, a rifle and a backpack filled with fake explosives. It is believed he was targeting the headteacher Herve Pizzinat. Barbey shot Pizzinat, before shooting indiscriminately. Miraculously, no one died during this rampage, but four were left injured. The shooter was arrested at the scene.  

Barbey was the son of far-right politician Franck, who was a member of the Rally for France party. It was reported that Barbey was bullied at school, with fellow students describing him as a loner. Like several school shooters, authorities found the shooter had a disturbing interest in the Columbine high school shooting. A YouTube account linked to Barbey contained a folder labelled ‘Columbine’, which included videos on notorious American school shootings.

[morbidology]

In 1980, 28-year-old Californian, John Reed, left home to travel to Brazil in an attempt to discover the lost city of Akakor. It is said that Akakor is an ancient underground civilization that has remained undiscovered deep in the Amazonian jungle. Reed had read about this lost city in The Chronicle of Akakor, written by Karl Brugger. Brugger wrote this book after learning about the city from a Brazilian jungle tour guide by the name of Tatunca Nara, who is photographed above on the left. He had claimed that he was chief of the tribe 3,000 years ago.

Tatunca lived in a village by the name of Barcelos and ran a business in which he led tourists into the jungle in an attempt to search for Akakor. Reed met up with Tatunca and went on one of his expeditions into the jungle. He left behind his plane ticket in his hotel room and never returned. Eventually, it was discovered that Tatunca Nara was actually a German man by the name of Gunther Hauck. He always declared that Reed had ran off in the jungle and he never saw him again, but it was revealed that Reed was not the only person to disappear on these expeditions - two other people went to the jungle with him and never returned.

It was also revealed that Karl Brugger was shot dead in Rio in 1984. Authorities have always believed that Gunther Hauck was responsible for his murder and also the three disappearances but sadly there is not enough evidence for a conviction.

[dingdongyouarewrong]

since polygraphs aren’t admissible in court because they’re nonsense junk science, a primary purpose they serve in interrogations is essentially using them as a prop to ramp up the pressure on a suspect. it’s all a big performance and no one should ever submit to one if they have the option not to

[memecucker]

Also since cops can lie to you during interrogations about anything that isn’t directly about the law (never agree to interrogation without a lawyer) a fun thing they often do is administer a polygraph and then proceed to inform the suspect that the test says they are being deceptive even when the machine says otherwise. So yeah their function is entirely as an intimidation tactic

[onsomekindofstartrek]

So you know NONE of this is common knowledge among Americans, right? We’re pretty much led to believe that they ARE reliable and ARE admissible in court.

And while some of us know they’re not reliable, most people think, this being the fucking US and all, that they are admissible regardless.

This is going to be news to a lot of people, and good news at that.

[misehry]

sext: i don’t ignore you as much as i ignore other people

[killmankind99]

The blood stains of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris

[truecrimeinvestigation]

“I don’t believe in hate. To me it wastes too much time. People who hate waste so much of their life hating that they miss out on all the other stuff out here.”

Jaycee Dugard - 2016

[love]

The Lovers of Valdaro, discovered by archaeologists at a tomb in San Giorgio near Mantua, Italy. The couple have been holding one another for 6,000 years.

[truecrimeinvestigation]

“I am damaged by what you have done to me. I am damaged. But I am not destroyed.” - Susan Kuhnhausen; violent assault/home invasion/hitman survivor

[megatha-christie-deactivated202]

Women on Death Row - Brittany Goldberg 

A knee injury saw Brittany Holberg slowly become addicted to prescription painkillers, which soon progressed to hardcore drugs. In order to support her habit, Holberg turned down the dark path of prostitution which led her to sit on death row today. On the 13th of November 1996, A.B Towery, 80, allowed Holberg into his home in Amarillo, Texas, to make a phone call. Whilst inside, Holberg brutally stabbed around sixty times and savagely beat the elderly man with several weapons, including an iron, penknife and skillet. The savagery did not end there; Holberg shoved a lamp five inches down his throat. After the horrific attack, Holberg cleaned herself up and robbed Towery of his money before splashing out on cocaine binges and hotel rooms. However, Holberg claims the attack was in self-defence after Lowry had attacked her with a pan whilst she had her back turned.

In 1998, Brittany Holberg was sentenced to death.

[morbidology]

Standing at 4′6″, 11-year-old Robert Sandifer earned the nickname “Yummy” because of his love for cookies. His old bedroom in his grandmother’s house looked like your average Chicago child’s bedroom – posters of Michael Jackson and Disney characters hung on the wall, but Yummy was anything but your average child.

Born in 1983, his mother, Lorina, was arrested over 30 times for prostituting and his father spent most of Yummy’s short life behind bars for various drug and weapon charges. Before the age of 2, he was already known to the Department of Children and Family Services. His body was often riddled in cigarette burns as well as bruises. At just 22 months old, he was brought to the hospital with scratches and bruises.

On one occasion, his sister came to the emergency room with burns on her genitals. Lorina claimed she had fallen on the radiator: something the nurse said was impossible due to the severity and position of the injuries. When Yummy was just 3-years-old, he and his six siblings were removed from his drug-addicted mother and sent to live with their grandmother. By the age of 8, Yummy had given up on school and resorted to a life of crime. He soon began to steal cars and break into houses.

Yummy’s life would end at just 11-years-old, shot to death by two other children.

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞:

https://morbidology.com/too-young-to-kill-too-young-to-die-robert-yummy-sandifer/