Christopher Wilder: "The Beauty-Queen Killer" Pt. 2

Welcome back!  Today we explore the first half of Christopher Wilder's rampage of across the country and his first three murders.

There's plenty of dispute over exactly how many people Wilder killed.  After his capture and subsequent incarceration, a variety of murders, rapes, and missing persons cases were attributed to Wilder, though he was not convicted for them.  I will not be discussing these cases here today, but rather the first four victims of his cross-country spree.  In total, Wilder was ultimately tried for his attacks against ten women, two escaping with their lives.  We'll explore the harrowing story of one of the survivors today.

The following is divided into sections for each of Wilder's victims.  Remember to take your time, as part of my job is trying to humanize Wilder's victims, and thus these articles may be emotionally exhausting.  Each story, whether detailed or vague, is heavy enough in its own right.

Murders in Miami:  Rosario Gonzalez and Elizabeth Kenyon

Rosario Gonzalez

It all began on February 26, 1984 with the disappearance of Rosario Gonzalez.  At the time Gonzalez had been employed at the Miami Grand Prix as a model, handing out free samples of aspirin, and was acquainted with Wilder.  The 20-year-old had actually been present at a previous race when Wilder had placed 17th, winning $400.  On the day of her disappearance, Wilder was a contestant at the track.  Later, around noon, she was seen leaving with a man who matched Wilder's description.  She was never seen again.  Her body was never found.

What connection existed between Wilder and Gonzalez previous to her disappearance varies between accounts.  In the book Human Monsters, David Everitt claims that Gonzalez had posed for a book cover during a photography session with Wilder.  With aspirations of a modelling career, and a previous run in the Miss Florida contest, it seems reasonable that Gonzalez might have taken Wilder up on such an offer.  In other accounts, the relationship between Gonzalez and Wilder is that of extremely casual acquaintance: Wilder raced at Gonzalez' place of work, they had run into each other a few times.

Considering that Wilder matched the description of the 'older man' Gonzalez was last seen leaving the race-track with, he was considered one of the first suspects in her disappearance.

Elizabeth Kenyon

Next came Elizabeth (Beth) Kenyon.  At 23, she taught 'emotionally disturbed' children at the Coral Gables High School, south of Miami.  But, like Gonzalez, she had aspirations of a career in fashion modelling.  In fact, Kenyon had been a finalist in the Miss Florida contest of 1982, and won the title of Orange Bowl Princess.

On Monday, March 5th, Elizabeth Kenyon disappeared.  The day previous, she had visited her parents in Pompano Beach, a weekly ritual, and her father had noticed bruises on her arms and legs (according to Bruce Gibney in his book The Beauty Queen Killer).  Kenyon had brushed off her father's questions, explaining the marks as the result of breaking up a schoolyard fight.  She went to work on Monday, and then was never seen again.  On Tuesday, the school called Kenyon's roommate to check on her whereabouts, and her roommate informed them that Elizabeth had not come home on Monday.

Parents and colleagues called around, trying friends and hospitals, desperately attempting to find anyone who had seen Kenyon since Monday afternoon when she left her job.  Eventually they filed a missing person's report.  After several days with no response, Bill Kenyon, Elizabeth's father, hired a private investigator to try and track down his missing daughter.  The investigator uncovered the fact that among several other casual dating relationships, Kenyon sometimes had dinner with a former boyfriend, a photographer, by the name of Christopher Wilder.

Kenyon had said that Wilder had been a gentleman on their first date.  Unlike other photographers, he hadn't asked her if she would pose nude for him.  After a few more dates, though, Wilder had made a more intense proposal: that of marriage, which Kenyon had turned down.  Two years hence, they had remained friends.  When the investigator asked Kenyon's parents about the various boyfriends, it turns out that Elizabeth had mentioned Wilder the Sunday just before she vanished.  It seems Wilder had offered her a modelling job, making good money.

However, when Wilder was contacted, he claimed not to have heard from Kenyon in a month.

As the other two men dating Kenyon were ruled out, it seemed that the case was coming to a dead end.  That is until another one of Kenyon's former boyfriends stopped at a local gas-station to show Elizabeth's photo around.  Surprisingly, two of the gas-station attendants said they had seen Kenyon on Monday afternoon, the day of her disappearance.  According to the witnesses, Kenyon had stopped by for gas and was seen leaving with a man easily identified as Christopher Wilder - saying they were heading toward the airport.  Kenyon had given no indication that she planned to take a trip, but when authorities searched for her: they found Kenyon's car in the airport parking lot with no trace of Elizabeth in sight.

On March 16, the Miami Herald ran a story how a Boynton Beach racecar driver was wanted for questioning in the disappearance of two local women.  On March 17, Wilder went on the run.  He tearfully told his partner in the construction firm that he "not going to jail", dropped his three dogs off at a kennel, and drove north out of town in his '73 Chrysler.

Indian Harbor, FL:  Terry Ferguson

Terry Ferguson

Two hours north of Boynton Beach, Terry Ferguson, 21, disappeared from a shopping mall in Indian Harbor, Florida.  This sandy coastal area, a series of beaches developed along Florida's barrier islands guarding against the Atlantic, is south of Cape Canaveral.  

On March 19th, Ferguson had been seen at several stores in the Merritt Square shopping mall.  Her stepfather found her car in the parking lot.

An hour after Ferguson was last seen at the mall, Christopher Wilder called a tow-truck.  He had gotten his Chrysler stuck along a state road near Canaveral Groves.  It was a lovers-lane on the mainland near where I-94 meets Rt. 528, a deserted stretch of sandy road.  Wilder was alone; claimed he had gotten lost.  He paid for the tow with his partner's stolen credit card and continued on his way.

On March 23rd, Terry Ferguson's body was pulled out of a snake-infested canal in Polk County, FL.  She was identified by her dental records.

 Indulge the following geographical speculation: It seems that after abducting Terry from the mall in Indian Harbor, Wilder had driven north up the coast to Cape Canaveral, then taken a left on 528.  His first attempt at finding a secluded location on the state road near Canaveral Groves was thwarted by nature.  It is unclear whether Terry Ferguson was dead or alive in his trunk at this point, but it certainly was not where her body was dumped.  After getting his car removed from the sand, Wilder continued along 528, west, until it turned into I-4, eventually entering Polk County where he dumped Ferguson's body.

Tallahassee, FL to Bainbridge, GA: The Co-Ed Who Escaped

*Warning: The following contains a particularly brutal account of torture and some sexually explicit content.

Florida State mascot: The Seminole

On March 20, a 19-year-old Florida State student was lured away from a Tallahassee mall.  When a man approached her, saying he was a photographer looking for a model, saying she had a fresh face, saying that he'd pay her $25 dollars for less than an hour's work, she had no idea of the hellish ordeal she was in for.

Saying that she only had to accompany him to a nearby park, Wilder lured the woman to his car.  At the last minute, her instincts told her to get out of there, and she declined the job.  Wilder punched her hard in the stomach, hit her in the face, and pushed her into his car.  With the wind knocked out of her, she didn't have a chance to recover before Wilder had the car on the road, driving fast.

Soon, Wilder stopped in a wooded area.  He bound her hands and covered her mouth with duct tape.  A little further down the road, Wilder stopped again and moved the woman to the trunk.  She laid there for hours.  Eventually the car stopped, Wilder removed her from the trunk, wrapped her in a blanket, and carried her into a motel room.  They had arrived in Bainbridge, Georgia.

In the motel room, Wilder ordered the woman to strip naked.  He said that if she did not remain quiet that he would kill her.  He shaved her pubic hair.  He put a knife to her groin to see how she would react.  He masturbated next to her.  He made her perform sex acts and then raped her twice.  The whole time, the woman said, Wilder was also watching television.

She hoped this would be the end of it.  Sadly, this was only the beginning of Wilder's entertainment.  At this time, he produced an electrical cord that had been cut in the middle and fashioned with an on/off switch.  He attached the ends of two copper wires to the girl's feet, and proceeded to shock her.

After this was over, he attempted to superglue her eyes shut.  He forced them closed and with an applicator applied the glue.  He used a hairdryer to try and harden the glue faster, but did a poor job.  The woman was still able to see through small slits in her eyelids.

Wilder then turned the TV to an aerobics show and ordered the woman to get up and dance like the women on screen.  Mostly blinded, still hooked to the electrical cord, she complied.  When she didn't perform to Wilder's standards, he would shock her into obedience.

Eventually, Wilder seemed to loose interest with his victim, becoming mesmerized by the television.  At this time, the woman made a move toward the bathroom.  Wilder came at her, using the hairdryer to hit her in the head, screaming that he would kill her if she tried to escape.  But she fought him.  Struggling, she made it to the bathroom and locked him out.  One of her eyes gouged and bleeding, she turned to the wall that separated her room from the neighbor's and began to pound and scream at the top of her lungs for rescue.

In the bedroom, she heard fumbling and then the slamming of the door.  She hoped Wilder was gone.  She waited a half hour before venturing out, wrapping a bed sheet around herself, and making it to the motel's office in search of help.

The sheriff sent out an APB for all patrol cars to be on the look-out for a cream-colored Chrysler, and alerted the FBI.  Unfortunately, nobody spotted Wilder's car.

He made it all the way to Texas.

In our next installment (I'm having to space these out, woof), we'll get to the psychological foulness of what Wilder did to Tina Marie Risico, his other kills, and how he met his end at the hands of the police.

-Joanna

Christopher Wilder: "The Beauty-Queen Killer" Pt. 1

Wilder at a Las Vegas fashion show.

You know what we haven't covered here yet?  Serial Killers!

Now, we've certainly written about murders, death, and mysterious goings-on, but we haven't actually broached the subject of serial killing directly.  Mostly, this has been because there are so many, many amazing and creepy true-life things to discuss and we just haven't gotten around to serial killers.  

Before we begin, I would like to offer a few words about serial killer content and how I plan to cover it.  

#1: You know, sometimes you just don't want to read about human beings being raped and murdered.  I totally get that.  Please feel free to continue on and read something that makes your life happy.  I, personally, like to look at pictures of opossums if I'm having a bad day.

A magical-looking all-white 'possum named Snoopy.  You're welcome.

#2:  If you're fascinated by serial killers, good!  Here's where I'm going to explain what I'm up to.  If you fall into this category, you're probably an odd duck like myself and have spent A LOT of time reading or watching content about serial killers.  After a while, all the stories start to sound the same.  An endless litany of young women with forgettable names, kidnapped, brutalized, and left in shallow graves.  Killers that lack a particular flair or gimmick quickly begin to sound like lesser-known baseball players having their batting averages recited.

And that bothers me.  Serial killers are scary because of their reality.  The statistics-based numbing of their stories feels wrong.  It seems to make the deaths of their victims meaningless.  I want to find a way to reverse the trading-card feel of serial killer discussion.  And, mind you, there are several talented true crime writers out in the world who do a great job at this.  But, there's only so many books one can research and write.

Therefore, I plan to cover serial killers that haven't broken into the collective consciousness.  Perhaps, like Joe Metheny, their crimes verge on the strange and comical in a way that people don't believe at first, and thus are laid by the wayside.  Or, perhaps their kill-counts aren't very high, or their methodology mundane.  I want to revisit the stats of their crimes and find what is chilling, interesting, and ultimately humanizing about their stories.  This may make these blog posts emotionally exhausting, but I feel like there's value to doing this.

One of the main ways that I intend to do this is by focusing heavily on the killer's lives BEFORE they began murdering.  I believe that a comprehensive understanding of the background that led up to the killer's crimes is extremely useful.  It gives context to their kills, and perhaps might help us come to terms with the horrors they wrought.  And, just maybe, by showing that these killers are human, we can also remember that their victims were human too, not merely the names, dates, and school photos they are reduced to by the endless litany.

To start, I've picked Christopher Wilder.  (Who isn't particularly obscure in serial-killer circles, I know, but bear with me: I'm easing into this.)

Background

Christopher Wilder

Christopher Wilder was born in 1945 in Australia to an American naval officer and an Aussie.  He almost died at birth, and later almost drowned to death at the age of two.  At the age of three, he went into convulsions in the back of his parents car and had to be resuscitated.  

In 1962 (or 1963, I'm not sure why records aren't clearer on this date), he plead guilty to participating in a gang-rape at a Sydney beach.  Despite the violent and sexual nature of the crime, the seventeen-year-old Wilder received one year of probation with a provision for mandatory counseling.  At this time, he underwent a course of electroshock therapy.

A few years later, in 1968, Wilder married.  His wife left him after one week.  She complained of sexual abuse and left Wilder after finding someone else's panties and photos of nude women in a briefcase in Wilder's car.  

In November of 1969, Wilder used nude photographs of a nursing student to extort sex from her.  The student complained to the police, but the charges were dropped when she refused to testify in court.

In 1970, he emigrated to the United States, settling in Boynton Beach, Florida (just south of West Palm Beach).  There, Wilder found success in the construction and real estate business, collecting a small fortune.  He lived in a mansion.  He was described as being handsome and well-tailored, taking ski-trips in Vail and driving race-cars for fun.  Living the playboy dream, Wilder was quoted in a 1981 dating-service video (think OKCupid for an earlier age) as saying that he "want[ed] to date and enjoy the company of women, women with depth.  I'm looking for a long-term relationship, but not marriage."  

It was during this time that Wilder took up his fascination with photography.  Moving from the possession and use of nude photographs, Wilder now began to take them himself as a means of exploiting women.  Along with a jacuzzi, his house featured a private photo studio.

In 1971, Wilder was picked up in Pompano Beach for soliciting women to pose nude for him.  He bargained down to a plea of disturbing the peace, and was let off with a small fine.  

In 1977, Wilder coerced a female high-schooler into performing fellatio on him, threatening to beat her if she refused.  He was jailed, and confessed the crime to his therapist.  But, such a confession was inadmissible in court, and Wilder was later acquitted.

In June of 1980, Wilder escalated further, his modus operandi developing.  On the 21st, he lured a teenage girl into his car.  He claimed to be a photographer and promised her a modelling contract.  He then drove her to a rural area where he raped her.  He plead guilty to attempted sexual battery and got five years probation with court-ordered therapy.  

In December of 1982, while visiting his parents in Australia, Wilder was charged with another photography-based crime.  He kidnapped two 15-year-old girls from a beach in New South Wales, and forced them to pose for him.  His parents paid his bail of $350,000, allowing Wilder to return to America, and court delays prevented the case from being heard until after Wilder's death two years hence.

After his death, two girls from Boynton Beach (aged 10 and 12) identified Wilder's mugshot as the man who had kidnapped them.  In June of 1983, Wilder had abducted the girls from a park, taken them to some nearby woods, and forced them to fellate him.   

Throughout the year of 1983 there are numerous kidnappings, disappearances, and murders that have been connected to Wilder posthumously.  

At the age of thirty-eight, Chris Wilder greeted 1984: the year of his cross-country killing spree.

Thoughts

Before Christopher Wilder ever killed anyone, he was clearly a serial rapist.  As we'll see in Part II, Wilder's killing spree is the stuff of nightmares, especially his treatment of Tina Marie Risico.  But prior to ever picking up a knife, Wilder left a string of ruined lives in his wake.  I think it's important to note the background that led up to Wilder's spree in early 1984.  Instead of throwing around the facts of Wilder's early life in a vague and dismissive way, looking at them closely allows us to understand his spree in context.

For example, we can already see that Wilder has a thing for young girls and the power that comes from photographing them.  We see his penchant for kidnapping as a means of exerting control over his victims.  And with the incident in 1980, it's clear that Wilder was already working out his story for how to lure women into his web (with lies about modelling contracts).  The groundwork was laid long before Wilder transitioned from kidnapper/rapist into murderer.  His spree was not just the dark consequence of a man suddenly snapping, but the logical progression of a life of sexual violence.  

One can't help but look on in despair at the number of times Wilder was caught and allowed to get away with his crimes before 1984.  I wonder what effect this might have had on his thoughts in preparation for his murders.   I also wonder at how many other individuals have slipped and slid through the legal system, never developing into killers, but nonetheless wreaking a trail of destruction.  Or, if not for his murderous rampage, would Wilder ever have been brought to justice?

And since I'm on the topic of hypotheticals, a look at Wilder's life before his last year also gives us plenty to chew on in terms of brain damage.  It's very common for serial killers to have experienced some manner of brain damage or head injury early in life.  While this is obviously not the only predictor for becoming a murderous psychopath, it certainly crops up in a lot of case studies.  In Wilder's case, it seems his brain underwent plenty of stress in his early years.  From the possible oxygen deprivation due to his drowning, and the under-reported incident of his seizure in his parents car, it seems something dire was going on with Wilder's brain.  Others have theorized about what kind of heinous effects his course of electroshock therapy might have had on his mental development, but I squint at this.  Firstly, he participated in a gang-rape BEFORE undergoing the treatment.  Secondly, electroshock therapy has enough of an undeserved bad reputation that I don't feel content piling on.  At any rate, it is interesting to note these incidents and faff about the unknowable condition of Wilder's brain, and whether it caused him to do what he did.

Further, we can speculate about what Wilder's fascination with photography indicated.  It seems pretty plain to me that Wilder got off on having power and control over women.  What kind of power did he feel when looking at his photographs?  What was it in the activity of photographing women that fulfilled him so?  And how was this psychological relationship different from other famous photographers like BTK?  Much to ponder...

In Part II, I'll tell you all about Wilder's murders and the girl that got away.  Stay tuned next Monday!

-Joanna

Emily Davison's Gruesome Death

When I first drafted this post, I began with "in today's internet age..."  I wanted to talk about the prevalence and availability of gruesome, hideous death footage.  Not just life-scarring videos available on youtube, but the worst kind of images only a Google-search away.  The Dnepropetrovsk maniacs video, the Station House Fire - the internet has made watching the moment of death easier than ever.

But then I realized this isn't a symptom of the darker corners of internet:  The Walter Scott video played on every major news station for days.  Sure, Mr. Scott wasn't tortured to death up close with a hammer, but his violent death was shown over and over and over and over again, every hour for countless hours as news anchors gave stern-faced warnings about "graphic content."  

This set me to thinking: when did this phenomenon begin?  When did this habit we have of turning snuff into news start?  The Vietnam Conflict saw it being leveraged for a good cause, revolutionizing how war-time reporting was conducted.  But it had to be earlier than that...

Then, one night as I was watching the updated documentary series Time to Remember on Netflix (a BBC production filled with earliest newreels), I witnessed the sudden, brutal injury of Emily Davison.  

In 1913, the British Suffragette movement was in full swing.  And, mind you, this wasn't just some Girl-Scout-cookie, chanting-with-signs affair.  Suffragettes were routinely beaten, imprisoned, and, when they went on hunger strikes, were force-fed gruel to ensure they didn't 'become martyrs'.  Physical brawls weren't uncommon between the police and the women, leading some to take up martial arts for self-defense.  And, not all suffragettes were angels: there was definite militant sect to the movement, responsible for things like arson and bombings.

Emily Davison, for example, was of the militant variety.  She was jailed 9 times, and force-fed an astounding 49 TIMES.  While I can't attest to how many fires she set in her time, she's better known for her last act of protest: stepping onto the track at the Epsom Derby on June 4th, 1913.  

As a clump of horses barreled past, Miss Davison stepped out, reaching for King George V's horse, Anmer.  As she grabbed at the reins, the horse struck her, then trampled her.  The horse tripped, sending its jockey flying as Miss Davison tumbled, crushed under the flying hooves of the massive animal.  She was immediately knocked unconscious and rushed to the hospital.  She never regained consciousness. 

She died four days later.

The race was being filmed that day for posterity, and captured the moment.  If you'd like, you can watch below.  

At the time there was some confusion as to why Miss Davison stepped out onto the track.  Some believed it was a suicide, others a martyrdom.  What we do know is that Miss Davison had purchased a return ticket from the race, as well as a ticket to a suffragette event later that evening.  It appears death was not on her mind.  Close inspection of the footage corroborates the narrative that Davison was merely attempting to attach a suffragette ribbon to the King's Horse: a risky and high-profile act of protest.

What can't be disputed is that as long as humanity has been filming itself, it's been capturing all aspects of life.  Even unto death.

-Joanna

La Mancha Negra - The Black Blob of Venezuela

In 1992, a news article originally published in the Chicago Tribune by Gary Marx swept across America.  It described the strange case of a mysterious black blob oozing from the roads in Venezuela.  Multiple theories have been put forward to explain the substance, but let us begin with the facts of La Mancha Negra, The Black Stain.

La Mancha Negra first appeared in 1987.  A mere smudge 50 yards long, it was noticed by work crews as they patched the 30-year-old asphalt on a highway between Caracas and its airport.  They didn't think much of it at the time, but soon the blob spread.  100 meters, a mile, soon 8 miles of highway were covered with an unknown material that contracted and expanded with the weather.  It grew when conditions were hot and wet, yet shrunk when cold and dry.  It seemed to prefer tunnels and the uphill slopes outside the airport.

Venezuelans described driving on La Mancha Negra as "a grand prix" that required extreme caution, turning the roads "slick as ice".  It seems that despite its gummy texture, the blob rendered the roadway extraordinarily unsafe, causing vehicles to crash into one another or run off the road.  But, come on, we've never heard of this!  It seems like just a big, out-dated nuisance, right?  Wrong.

By the time the article came out in 1992, there were 1,800 DEATHS attributed to La Mancha Negra over the past five years.

Obviously, somebody had to do something.  So, the government stepped in, claiming that it devoted "millions of dollars" to investigating the problem, even consulting experts in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.  They tried spraying the stain away with pressurized water, but this didn't work.  They tried scrubbing it away with detergents to no avail.  They even repeatedly scraped away the top layer of the roads, resurfacing it, only to watch La Mancha Negra reappear.

Finally, the government poured tons of pulverized limestone over the stain to 'dry it up'.  This seemed to work for a while, but created a different problem.  The roads then became so dusty that drivers and local residents complained that the air was unbreathable.

And, as far as I can dig on the internet, that is where the story ends...

There are various theories as to what the blob is and who created it.  The most common theory was that La Mancha Negra is oil that's seeping from sub-standard asphalt.  Somebody in Venezuela got rich, in other words, by providing poor quality materials to the road company.  Par for the course for a government many thought to be hopelessly corrupt.  Others believe that La Mancha Negra was the result of countless leaky, old cars spraying their fluids over the roadway.  Still others believe that the blob was a concerted effort on the part of President Carlos Andres Perez's enemies to ruin his cabinet's reputation.  Finally, some believed that raw sewage from nearby slums was running downhill, under the asphalt, and causing a chemical reaction that broke the roads down.

And then, of course, there are people who believe it's aliens.

"Note to self: Never visit Caracas in the summer..."  -Tasha Yar

From some cursory internet-investigation into asphalt, it was difficult to find any industry sources that could comment on exactly what La Mancha Negra might have been.  At best, asphalt providers remind the public to properly seal their surfaces, and that oil and brake fluid can cause the binders in asphalt to deteriorate.  So, it does seem like the "leaky cars" theory might hold a bit of water.

However, I think the most disturbing things about La Mancha Negra are all the other problems it indicates, but bypasses.  Firstly, it's incredibly difficult to get any recent information about La Mancha Negra.  There is a short blog post by a tourist in 2008 who noted how a taxi driver refused to take a particular route, citing fears of La Mancha Negra.  And then there's an article in Mundo Esoterico y Paranormal which mostly rephrases the original Chicago Tribune article, even going so far as to cite the events of La Mancha Negra as beginning "five years ago", which cashes out to mean 2007 instead of 1987.  The comments on the MEP article are very interesting though, with some Venezuelans exclaiming that they'd never heard of La Mancha Negra.

The point being: for a phenomenon that has killed 1,800 people (and that's only in 1992, God only knows what the count is today), why do we know so little about it?  Is this just something that the people of Venezuela have gotten used to?  Has it been solved?  If the Venezuelan government spent millions of bucks on it, then why didn't they issue a press release letting anybody know they figured out the cause?!  Even worse: how horrible are the slums that they melt the roads?!

I wish I had a means of learning more about this strange phenomenon, but short of visiting Caracas myself, I'm not sure whether that'll ever happen.  Suffice to say, the world is a strange place.

-Joanna

Cotard's Delusion: Walking Corpse Syndrome

In 1880, French neurologist Jules Cotard treated a middle-aged woman now known only as Mademoiselle X.  She claimed she was missing several vital body parts.  No brain, no nerves, no chest, no stomach, and no intestines, she said.  She didn't believe there was a God or a Devil, and yet believed she was condemned to eternal damnation - and thus couldn't die a 'natural' death.  She also claimed she was "eternal and would live forever."  As such, Mademoiselle X didn't see the point in eating and soon starved to death.

Cotard published his description of this delire des negations, and it was widely circulated, eventually leading to the disorder being named after him.  However, delusions of missing organs and immortality are only two of the ways in which Cotard's delusion may manifest itself.

Patients suffering from Cotard's delusion may believe:
-They are already dead, do not exist, or self-identify as a dead body or zombie.
-That they are missing any number of organs or body parts (or deny the existence of those parts).
-That the things around them are dead (animals or trees).
-That the world will soon be destroyed.
-That they have been taken to Hell.
-Patients may have an increased fascination with death and the macabre, frequently wishing to visit graveyards so they do not feel so alone.
-That doctors or other medical professionals are deceiving them with regard to their non-existent parts.  (A woman who didn't believe she possessed blood, would accuse her doctors of this when they took blood samples or checked her blood pressure.)

 Cotard's delusion often presents alongside migraines, psychotic depression, hypochondria, and sometimes schizophrenia.

Unfortunately, Cotard's delusion is so rare that there has not been a large amount of study devoted to its pathophysiology.  However, the current theory is that it is caused by a misfiring in the fusiform gyrus and amygdalae.  The fusiform gyrus is thought to be responsible for facial recognition; the amygdalae, the emotions related to those faces.  When damaged or impaired, this can lead to not recognizing the people in one's life, oneself, and a sense of derealization about the world in general.  Capgras delusion (the notion that everybody in your life has been replaced by an exact replica) is another disorder associated with damage to these areas of the brain.  There is also some study that suggests Cotard's delusion is linked to lesions of the median frontal lobe.

As observed, Cotard's delusion goes through three stages.  The "Germination stage", where the patient first observes the feelings of the self-negating delusion, depression, or hypochondria; the "Blooming stage" wherein the disorder develops fully; and the "Chronic stage", characterized by ongoing delusions and depression.

These stages might be better described via examining the case of Haley Smith, an Alabama teen, who was diagnosed with Cotard's Delusion and found treatment through therapy and Disney movies.  According to Smith, she was having a hard time dealing with her parents' divorce, and in English class one day, she was struck with the sensation that she was dead.  The school nurse was unable to find anything wrong with her, and sent her home.  On her way, she wanted very much to stop by a graveyard, but was unable and continued home to sleep the feeling off.  It worked.  The sensation went away for several days.

Then, as Smith entered the Blooming stage, the sensation was not solved with sleep.  One day when out shopping, her whole body went numb and she ran home, reeling under the severity of the feeling.  It didn't go away this time.  It took her two years of coping with the syndrome before seeing a psychiatrist, who quickly diagnosed her.

Thankfully, with the help of her therapist, her boyfriend, and classic Disney movies, Haley's condition improved.  As she put it: "Watching Disney films gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling...  I asked my boyfriend, Jeremy, 'How can I be dead when Disney movies make me feel this good?'"  Thus, Smith was able to stave off the third stage: Chronic Cotard's delusion.

Certainly, not everyone gets such a happy ending.  Don't forget about poor Mlle. X.  But, compared to many other extremely rare disorders, those with Cotard's tend to respond very well to treatment.  However, this doesn't undo the creepiness of the experience.  With no markers for predisposition, anyone could be struck with Cotard's delusion.

-Joanna

Creepy Twins - Part 2! The Eriksson Twins

Warning: Video footage below contains elements that may be disturbing.  View with caution.

Way back in January, I did the first installment of Creepy Twins with the Gibbons sisters.  Today I bring you part two, the even creepier, definitely more insane, Eriksson twins, Ursula and Sabina.  The documentary above "Madness in the Fast Lane" details the events that took place on May 17th, 2008 when Sabina and Ursula flung themselves into the busy traffic of the MG motorway.  Police were alerted when witnesses saw the sisters attempting to cross the motorway, acting strangely and erraticly.  Once stopped on the side of the road by officers, the twins spoke briefly to the police before Ursula, without warning, dashed and ran into the side of a 40 ton truck traveling 56 miles per hour.

Moments later, Sabina ran into traffic and was hit by a Volkswagen.  Amazingly, both women survived.  Ursula was immobilized as her legs had been crushed but after being unconcious for 15 minutes, Sabina began to fight paramedics and police officers screaming, "They're going to steal your organs" and "I recognize you - I know you're not real."  Sabina punched a female officer and ran into traffic again on the other side of the motorway.  She was finally caught and restrained by emergency workers and sedated in an ambulance.

This story takes a more ugly and disturbing turn a day later.  Sabina was released from police custody without a full psych evaluation.  She began to wander the streets of England before being stopped by two men, one of which was Glenn Hollinshead.  Sabina stopped to pet their dog and they had a brief conversation.  Although noticing her odd behavior, Hollinshead offered Sabina a room for the night.  Sadly, the next morning, Sabina stabbed Hollinshead five times and killed him.  Sabina then ran out of the house with a hammer, hitting herself in the head repeatedly.  The police were notified and Sabina was again chased before jumping off of a 40 foot bridge, breaking several bones in the fall.  She was charged with murder and gave no explanation for her behavior despite repeated questioning.

Folie a deux is a French term for "A madness shared by two."  In other words, a shared psychosis, a psychiatric syndrome in which symptoms of a delusional belief are transmitted from one individual to another.  The defense council in Sabina's trail claimed that she was a secondary sufferer of folie a deux, influenced by the presence of her sister Ursula, the primary sufferer.  The defense claimed Ursula had a history of mental illness which then transferred to the weaker personality of Sabina.  The defense also tried to assert that Sabina suffered a case of bouffe delirante or "puff of madness" where a perfectly sane person will lose their mind for a small time and then return to normal.  Sabina was sentenced to five years in prison on the plea of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The most recent updates on the Eriksson twins is that Sabina was released from prison but her current whereabouts are unknown.  Ursula is thought to be living in America looking after Sabina's two children.  Ursula also underwent an exorcism at her local church to help drive away the demons that forced her onto the motorway back in 2008.

As strange and horrific as their actions were, we will never know the true reason the Eriksson twins ran across that motorway, what possessed them to fling their bodies into oncoming traffic, one right after the other.  Were they possessed by supernatural forces?  Did they suffer from undiagnosed mental illness?  Are folie a deux and bouffe delirante plausible excuses?  If Ursula's legs had not been crushed resulting in a multiple week hospital stay, would she have joined her sister in killing even more people?  If Sabina were truly suicidal, why did she not turn the knife on herself instead of killing an innocent man?  There are too many questions unanswered that I don't even believe Sabina and Ursula would be able to clarify themselves.  Unfortunately an innocent life was lost in this tragic and confusing story and Sabina and Ursula are both still out in the world today.  There have been no further widely known reports of criminal activity from the Eriksson twins, so perhaps they truly have been exorcised or healed of their psychosis.  Maybe a "puff of madness" truly can make an average day take a horrific turn.

-Amanda

Stone Man Syndrome - Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva

In yet another Joanna-is-way-too-interested-in-weird-medical-conditions entry, I present you with an extraordinarily rare genetic disease: Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP).  For the handful of people stricken with this malady, the most casual of injuries can cause their body to transform into a prison of bone.  

A genetic mutation that affects the body's repair functions causes muscle, tendons, and other connective tissues to grow back as bone.  Something as simple as a bump on the head, a bruised knee, or merely time itself, can cause an individual with FOP to grow spurs of bone amid their flesh, or find their joints permanently locked in place.  

Of course, this is a disease which is extremely rare, only affecting 1 in every 2,000,000.  That means there are only ~4000 people on the PLANET who suffer from FOP.  Despite the fact that FOP is an autosomal dominant condition (meaning only one parent has to carry the gene for their child to get FOP), it is usually the result of a random mutation- neither parent will have the condition.  

The first warning sign that a child might be inflicted with the disease is a newborn's big toes.  They are shorter than the other toes, and curved in towards the rest of the foot in a deformation known as a valgus deviation.  

Later in life, as the child collects the usual bumps and falls of youth, the disease presents small tumor-like nodules over the back, neck, and shoulders.  They are painful, and often go unexplained for a time.  Sometimes they even retreat back into the body.  Mostly, though, they harden into bone during a process known as heterotopic ossification.  

Over time, spurs of bone grow from the child's head down, just as bones grow during fetal development.  They creep through the muscle of the back, over the shoulders and through the abdomen.  Eventually the hands and feet are frozen in place.

To make the curse even more bitter, any attempts by doctors to remove the patches of bone are met with more of the body's twisted method of healing: even more bone grows back in its place.  As such, there is no known cure for FOP, only treatment to give the people who suffer from it as much mobility and quality of life as possible.

However, the study of this disease has actually led to a variety of useful discoveries that can be applied to other bone-based diseases.  Even common problems such as fractures and aftercare for hip-replacement patients had benefited from the work done to understand this extraordinarily rare disorder.  Much of this work has been spurred on by the International FOP Association, founded by Jeannie Peeper (a sufferer of FOP herself).  To read more about Jeannie Peeper's awesome story, see the article linked below the jump.

So the next time you bash your knee into the coffee-table, amid your cursing just remember: at least your bruise won't grow back as bone.

-Joanna

The Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic of 1962

Still from Laughology (2009). 

You may have heard of the Tanganyika (now Tanzania) Laughter Epidemic of 1962 already.  It was the subject of an amazing episode of Radiolab, was included in the 2009 documentary Laughology, and has been featured on plenty of websites.  And with good reason: it makes a great story.

However, with the exception of Radiolab, the epidemic is usually treated as an amusing oddity, or even a positive, if silly, experience.  "Isn't laughter great!?  Can you imagine whole villages laughing for months?  Crazy, huh?  How fun!"  I bet you can see where this is headed...

Here at HoJ Horror, we strive to view things through a creepier lens, peeling back the fluffy exterior of the world and staring at its more gruesome contents.  By the time we get to the end, I hope you'll be able to see how the Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic is terrifying in two ways.  Spooky in itself, and also spooky for what it means.

Let's start with the facts:  On January 30, 1962, three girls started laughing in a mission-run boarding school in the village of Kashasha.  On the western shore of Lake Victoria, near Uganda, the laughter spread through the school, afflicting another 95 students.  While the teaching staff remained immune, the girls between the ages of 12 and 18 would laugh and cry uncontrollably for hours.  The 64 children unaffected by the laughing were unable to concentrate during classes, and on March 18th of that year, the school was closed down entirely.

Once the school closed, the girls were sent home, and the laughter spread.  In the village of Nshamba, 217 children and young adults came down with the laughter in April and May.  In June, the laughing hit another girls' school in Ramashenye.

As the condition spread, it soon began to infect adults of all ages, men and women.  Entire villages would suffer from the hysterical condition for days on end.  Sometimes the laughing would ebb away, only to return days later.  This continued for 18 months throughout the north-west corner of Tanganyika until the middle of 1963.  It is said to have affected up to 1000 people.

It is important to note that the symptoms of the laughing sickness were not limited to giggling.  Pain, fainting, respiratory problems, attacks of ceaseless crying, and random screaming were all a part of the 'laughing'.

Here is an excerpt from Laughology, the aforementioned documentary.  Despite its attempt at light-heartedness, it comes off as a nightmare.

But why did these people laugh, cry, and scream for hours upon hours, stretching into days?  The first approach is to compare it to other instances of 'mass hysteria'.  Most of these episodes strike young women between the ages of 15 and 20.  Consider the Salem Witch Trials or, more appropriately, the "Strawberries with Sugar Virus" of 2006.  Indeed, the Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic did start with adolescent girls, but it eventually spread to include adult men.  Besides, it's super-condescending to chalk this up to "teen girls are just hysterical."

Another point to be made is that this episode differs from other incidents of madness that can be attributed to environmental factors.  I've got some articles in the works examining the effects of Ergotism and Kuru, but the epidemics associated with these maladies are clearly traceable to biological factors.  The Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic, on the other hand, shows no evidence of toxic exposure or disease.  As Christian F. Hempelmann noted in this article for the Chicago Tribune, the Epidemic qualifies as a legit Mass Psychogenic Illness (MPI).  Meaning, it was an affliction caused entirely by the minds of its victims.

However, we're still faced with the question of why?  Well, to draw on some conclusions Hempelmann has made, it was likely connected to the immense changes that Tanganyika was going through at the time.

Tanganyika declared its independence from the British on December 9th, 1961, only weeks before the epidemic began.  As the nation transitioned, the people were subject to incredible social upheaval.  When the government switched to Socialism, it not only rearranged the economy, but also outlawed many of the local tribal religions (supplanted by Christianity).  Faced with such sweeping changes, the rural villagers of Tanganyika were under significant stress.

To quote Hempelmann: "There is an underlying shared stress factor in the population.  It usually occurs in a group of people who don't have a lot of power.  MPI is a last resort for people of a low status.  It's an easy way for them to express that something is wrong.

In other words, the people caught up in the Epidemic couldn't find any other way to release their anguish.  When they failed to cope, they were left with nothing but humorless, hysterical laughter that exhausted their bodies.  Laughter that took turns with inconsolable crying and screaming.

Words failed them, so they laughed.

-Joanna



For more content about the Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic, and a great theory about caterpillar ghosts, check out this episode of Radiolab:  http://www.radiolab.org/story/91595-contagious-laughter/

Tiny Mummies - Part Two!

As a follow-up to my original post on Aleshenka located here, I bring you today the stories of two more small alienesque mummified creatures: Pedro the Mummy and the Atacama skeleton.

Meet Pedro.

Located in the Rocky Mountains, the Nimerigar are a race of little people characterized as aggressive, who liked to shoot poisoned arrows from tiny bows.  In October of 1932, while digging for gold in the San Pedro mountains of Wyoming, Cecil Mayne and Frank Carr came across a small room in which they found the mummy of a tiny person.  There was instant skepticism surrounding the mummy but x-rays were performed 18 years later in 1950 and it was discovered that there was a fully formed man-like skeleton inside.

Pedro was 14 inches tall, sitting with crossed arms and legs.  His cranium was flat and his eyes bulged and you could even see little fingernails on his fingers.  The x-rays on Pedro provided further enlightenment - several of his bones were broken including his spine, collarbone, and skull.  He also had some congealed blood at the top of his skull, insinuating a violent death.  Pedro was examined by Dr. Henry Shapiro, a biological anthropologist from the American Museum of Natural History, where it was determined that the man was approximately 65 years old at the time of his death.

Plot twist: There was a second mummy found, a female, in roughly the same area where Pedro was discovered.  This mummy was brought to Dr. George Gill for examination.  She was only four inches high and it was determined that she was a prematurely born baby or a child with anencephaly.  Dr. Gill also believed Pedro was an infant rather than an adult and that both mummies were a result of malnutrition of babies born to a tribe still adapting to the harsh conditions of the area. 

To give some more background on the Nimerigar, they lived in the San Pedro Mountains and fought constantly with the average sized humans in the area.  Apparently, when one of their own became sick or old, they were killed by their own people with a blow to the head.  The Nimerigar were believed to be bad luck to anyone who found them and are referred to as "tiny people eaters."  Many considered this all folklore and urban legend until Pedro was discovered.

Sadly, Pedro the Mummy's story ends in his disappearance.  He was purchased by Ivan T. Goodman for several thousand dollars after being shown as an attraction in a local drug store for several years.  Goodman died in 1950 and Pedro was passed on to Leonard Wadler.  Wadler died in the 1980s and Pedro has not been seen since.

*

Meet Ata.

Ata was discvoered in 2003 in a deserted Chilean town in the Atacama Desert by Oscar Munoz near an abandoned church.  Munoz sold Ata to a local pub owner for the equivalent of $51.00 USD who later sold Ata to his/her current owner, Ramon Navia-Osorio.  Ata is only six inches long, with an irregularly shaped skull and two missing ribs.  It is also believed that Ata is a prematurely born fetus suffering from oxycephaly or a combination of genetic disorders.  Immunologist Garry Nolan speculated that Ata suffered from dwarfism but no genes for dwarfism were found during genetic analysis.  Of course, conspiracy theorists/ufologists have labeled Ata an alien but this speciulation is inconsistent with the human genetic material gathered during evaluation.  The film Sirius is a 2013 documentary directed by Amardeep Kaleka based upon the book Hidden Truth, Forbidden Knowledge by Steven M. Greer.  Sirius features interviews from former government officials as well as images and a DNA analysis of Ata.

I guess my overall feeling about Aleshenka, Pedro, Ata, and likely the many other little mummy aliens out there is creeped out but also quite fascinated.  More than anything, stories like these lead me to realize how easy it is to stumble across a little creature like this, near a church, in a cemetary, while gold digging in the mountains (okay, so that one's not quite as plausible.)  What would I do if I stumbled across one of these creatures?  Scream and run away?  Put it in a box and poke holes in the top?  Nudge it with a stick?  (Does this seem insensitive?)  I mean, what would you do?  Regardless, I can't say what my response would be if I ran across my own version of Aleshenka/Pedro/Ata, but best believe if I did find one, I wouldn't sell it to a pub owner for $51.00.


-Amanda


Source 1
Source 2

Folktale Files: Rokurokubi

Rokurokubi by PEJIE on Deviantart

For centuries, tales of strange women have circulated throughout Japan.  They are the Rokurokubi.  It's said that at night, the heads of these perfectly normal-looking women will snake out on impossibly elongated necks or detach entirely, then stalk the night in search of blood and death.  A man who marries a rokurokubi can expect only misery and despair.

There are actually two kinds of rokurokubi (and depending on what you're reading or who you're talking to, they might be described as different spirits entirely).  There are the nukekubi, whose heads are completely detached when active.  And then there are those with "necks that extend".  These have no extra name, and are simply called rokurokubi.

The Nukekubi

The nukekubi were actually the original type of rokurokubi.  The head of the nukekubi is said to come off at night and fly through the air in search of victims.  They attack people, or sneak upon them in their sleep to drink their blood.

A nukekubi could be killed, however, if one was to locate the body and move it.  The head, missing its body and lost, would never be able to reattach.  Some stories say that at dawn, the monstrous head would be destroyed.

There are other stories that circulate around the nukekubi.  Some say that the nukekubi phenomenon is simply a metaphor for somnambulism (sleep-walking).  There are a number of stories which paint the nukekubi as less-than-terrifying, wherein the head is found wandering around at night by a lone man along the road.  The man draws his sword, and chases the head all the way home.  Inside, the nukekubi wakes up, exclaiming that she had a nightmare about being chased by a man with a sword.

Different renditions present the nukekubi as a modified form of astral projection (so to speak).  In other words, the spirit of the woman leaves her body.  When the spirit does this, it happens to take the form of her head during its ghostly jaunts.  The woman's actual head stays attached to her, but her spirit head floats free in the night.

An essay by Matsura Seizan in "Kasshi Yawa" tells my favorite nukekubi story.  (By the way, if this has somehow been made into a horror movie, even just a short, SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL ME.)  Once upon a time, the story goes, in Hitachi province, a woman fell ill with a dire, incurable sickness.  A travelling peddler told her husband that eating "the liver of a white dog" would heal her.  So, husband goes home and kills the family dog.  The woman eats the liver, and is cured.  But the girl she gives birth to soon after is born a nukekubi.  Later, when the head of the girl is flying around, the white dog reappears, bites the head, and they both disappear.  The end.

A final detail I particularly enjoy about the nukekubi is how one can identify the monster.  It's said that upon waking, a person can see a thin line encircling a nukekubi's neck where the head detaches.  I love this because it reminds me of one of my first favorite ghost stories: The Red Ribbon.

The Rokurokubi

Possibly a deleted still from 100 Monsters

In the Edo period (between 1603 and 1868), tales of the long-neck Rokurokubi began to surface.  The necks of these rokurokubi are often depicted in art of the era as extremely thin, sometimes drawn as a barely discernible line.  Later renditions leave the neck as a consistently long, infinitely extendable organ.  It seems that rokurokubi can elongate their necks at will, and not simply during unconsciousness.  As a result, the stories rationalizing the rokurokubi are distinct from those surrounding the nukekubi.

In another story from the "Kasshi Yawa", a teacher checks on his female student one night and sees a column of steam rising from her chest.  As he continues to look, her head disappears, and is replaced with an image of an extremely long neck rising into the air.  However, when the student turns over in bed, her neck returns to normal.  The teacher dismissed her the next morning.  This story gave rise to the notion that the rokurokubi's neck was an ectoplasmic manifestation of the soul as it leaves the body.  

Elsewhere, the rokurokubi is closely tied to karma.  Like the story of the nukekubi and the white dog, rokurokubi are said to be born as the result of karma destined to punish their parents for past crimes.  

Other stories say that the rokurokubi are simply women afflicted by a particular medical condition.  The cause or mechanism for this condition is not known, but is not believed to be a spiritual phenomenon.  Later, in side shows and magic acts, individuals with slightly longer necks than usual would be displayed to the public (or life-like dolls would be used to simulate the stretched-neck effect).      

The final explanation for the rokurokubi is that they are snakes which have shape-shifted into human form.  Not to be confused with the amphibious yokai known as the Nure-onna.  Nure-onna have snake bodies with female heads and dwell by bodies of water and are completely different.  Japan has a lot of monsters...  

In conclusion, the rokurokubi is a wonderful introduction to the broad and diverse world of Japanese spirits.  They can be creepy or silly, depending on the context, but always weird.

If you'd like more of a yokai fix, I recommend 100 Monsters (if you can manage to find it).  It's a movie that has a few very effective moments of atmospheric horror but is mostly goofy-ass ridiculousness with puppets.  Check out the trailer below.

-Joanna

Aleshenka

Meet Aleshenka.

Discovered in the village of Kaolinovy, Russia in 1996 by a mentally ill elderly woman, Tamara Vasilievna Prosvirina, Aleshenka, also known as the Kyshtym Dwarf, is an anthropomorphic artifact alleged to be a small human fetus and/or, you know, an alien.  Two Japanese companies, Asahi TV and MTV Japan actually made documentaries about Aleshenka as its discovery and origins were so fascinating and slightly disturbing.  As if its discovery were not unusual enough, the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of its body and the death of Tamara add to the creepiness factor.

An online Russian newspaper gives a recounting of Aleshenka's discovery, which in my personal opinion reads like fan fiction, but how are we to know if it is actually true?  You see, Tamara suffered from "psychiatric disease" and often spent time gathering flowers from graves at local cemeteries and decorating the rooms of her house with these flowers.  One particular night, Tamara heard a strange voice inside her head that requested she visit the cemetery.  It was there that Tamara found Aleshenka's tiny body, unable to speak, but whistling quietly to attract Tamara's attention.  Tamara scooped Aleshenka up and took it home.

 

Aleshenka's appearance was unique and odd: gray-skinned, hairless, small holes for ears, no eyelids, long fingers with small sharp claws, lack of genitals, and no navel.  Tamara took care of Aleshenka for weeks, acting as though it were her own child.  Both Tamara's daughter-in-law and mother allegedly saw Aleshenka but did not report it to the police as they were happy Tamara had a pet/child to take care of and to occupy her time.  However, it was a neighbor who reported Tamara to psychiatrists and thus Tamara was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.  As there was no one in the house to take care of Aleshenka, it died of starvation and dehydration.  Tamara had a friend, Vladimir Nurdinov, who remembered Aleshenka and went to check on it.  Unfortunately, by this time it was too late and Aleshenka's little corpse was passed on to the local police. 

In 1999, Tamara was unfortunately killed an in automobile accident upon trying to escape the hospital.  Tamara was naked and walking along the highway, wearing only green socks.  Eye-witnesses say it looked as though Tamara was reacting to someone calling to her.  Before police were able to intervene, Tamara was hit by two vehicles, thrown over 40 feet in the air, and fell back onto the road, where she died.

Soon after Tamara's death, the remains of Aleshenka disappeared.  There are a plethora of theories of what might've happened.  Aleshenka's body was recovered by a UFO inhabited by members of Aleshenka's species.  Aleshenka's body was bought by a wealthy collector of oddities.  Aleshenka's body was stolen or simply disappeared into thin air.  It was also reported that the investigator assigned to the case handed over Aleshenka's body to a pair of "ufologists" to examine the body.  To this day, no one knows what happened to Aleshenka. 

On April 15th, 2004, genetic experts at the Moscow Vavilov Institute of General Genetics made an official statement that Aleshenka was a premature female human infant with severe deformities.  The Kyshthm Disaster of 1957 greatly polluted the area with radiation, thusly resulting in the potential deformities present in the human fetus.  Interestingly enough, Vadim Chernobrov, a coordinator with the public research center, Kosmopoisk, is quoted as saying, "A gene discovered in the DNA samples doesn't correspond with any genes pertaining to humans or anthropoid apes.  No gene samples available at the laboratory match the gene."

Let me go ahead and add to the creepiness of this case: Mark Milkhiker was an academic who looked into the case of the Kyshytm phenomenon on location and carefully examined the area in which Aleshenka was found.  Soon after, Milkhiker fell ill and died of a sudden heart attack.  Also, Chernobrov, as mentioned above, was diagnosed with a mysterious disease that paralyzed him from the waist down, a disease which doctors were unable to explain.  Coincidence?  Bad luck?  Curse?  Who knows?

SO, all this being said, what are our thoughts on Aleshenka?  Fetus/alien?  Real/fiction?  Are the details surrounding Aleshenka's existence so cloudy and unbelievable that this could all be one big urban legend?  Is it better to be a skeptic and think this is all hogwash or be optimistically curious and perhaps believe Aleshenka's story to be true?

I had originally intended to add Pedro the Mummy and the Atacama skeleton to this post via my sistar Joanna sending me links about them, BUT I realize this post alone is becoming tl;dr (too long, didn't read.)  Therefore, look for Tiny Alien Mummies PART TWO coming up in the next few weeks!

-Amanda

Reference Article #1

Ayano Tsukimi

I have to file the story of Ayano Tsukimi and the ghost town of Nagoro under the 'sweet but creepy' catalogue.

Nagoro is a small village located in the valley of Shikoku, Japan.  Once vibrant with business and families, over time, the village population has dwindled as its residents seek out job opportunities in larger cities.  65-year-old Ayano Tsukimi, a Japanese artist, took it upon herself to create hundreds of large dolls and placed them strategically throughout the village to represent those who have passed away or left the city.  There are currently only 35 residents left in Nagoro and they are outnumbered three to one by the dolls made by Tsukimi. 

See what I mean?  It is doubly heartbreaking and creepy as hell.  She's obviously a sweet woman with a kind heart and a love and respect for her home and people, but I mean, take a look at some of these dolls just chilling in a classroom or lurking in the bushes.  Tsukimi says the dolls bring back memories for her.  She refers to an old lady doll representing a woman who used to come and chat with her and drink tea and an old man doll as a man who used to drink sake and tell stories.  Being that there are only 35 residents left in the town, most of them elderly, there are no youth to raise, thus no need for an elementary school.  Tsukimi has filled the abandoned school with doll replicas of young children and their teachers.

 

Tsukimi returned to her hometown of Naguro initially to take care of her ailing 85 year old father.  She tried her hand at farming when she first moved back.  After discovering her radishes had been destroyed by crows, she built her first scarecrow to keep them away.  It takes a lot of time, effort, and precision to create these dolls/scarecrows/mannequins, but I guess when you live in a desolate village, what else are you really going to do with your time?  Tsukimi even brings one doll along with her on her 90 minute drive to the next nearest big town to buy groceries.

Fritz Schumann made a documentary on Tsukimi which can be seen here: https://vimeo.com/92453765 in which Tsukimi refers to the dolls as "her children."  In a way though, Tsukimi's wish for acknowledgement of her little village has been granted due to her creativity and talents.  Now tourists stop through the village of Nagoro to take pictures and marvel at all of the dolls strategically placed around the village when before they would've passed right by.  The vigor and vitality of Nagoro may never be the same as it used to be, but at least Tsukimi has kept them on the map and brought curiosity and interest to her village due to her unique and creepy hobby.  After all, a 28 year old in southern Virginia is writing an entire blog post about her.  Tip of the hat to you, creepy and sweet Ms. Tsukimi.

-Amanda