Today’s Brave Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Let’s have another jolly story of Christian Martyrdom from the classic of the genre, Fox’s Book of Martyrs (1848). This incident allegedly occurred during the Eighth Persecution, under Valerian, A. D. 257.
At Utica, a most terrible tragedy was exhibited: 300 Christians were, by the orders of the proconsul, placed round a burning limekiln. A pan of coals and incense being prepared, they were commanded either to sacrifice to Jupiter, or to be thrown into the kiln. Unanimously refusing, they bravely jumped into the pit, and were immediately suffocated.
Culled from: Fox’s Book of Martyrs
Sexual Deviant Du Jour!
The Sexual Criminal is a 1949 criminology textbook written by infamous Los Angeles County criminal psychiatrist J. Paul De River that is jam-packed with all the sexism and homophobia common to its era. I thought I’d share some of the case studies with you.
Case H. R.
The following case will illustrate a homosexual homicide. This subject brutally killed his victim at the culmination of wild sexual orgy. The victim had befriended the subject.
Case Study 109. H.R., age twenty, white male; he has completed the ninth grade of school; occupation: rancher and farm hand.
Family History: His mother died when he was two years old. Cause of death is unknown. His father was killed in an automobile accident ten years ago. He has one brother, twenty-seven years of age, whom he has not seen for some time. There is a negative history of insanity, epilepsy, and all constitutional diseases.
Past History: He has had the usual childhood diseases. He states his health has always been good. H. R. was raised by various relatives, and he left home at an early age and worked on farms. He states he started to masturbate about the age of nine. About this time, an older man committed the act of pederasty on him. Since that time he has had homosexual affairs, most of which were in the nature of passive pederasty. He also occasionally indulged in acts of fellatio. H.R. states he had his first act of sexual intercourse with a girl when he was sixteen. He has had four hetero love affairs.
At seventeen he had a serious love affair with a man forty, and when he was twenty, he had another love affair with a man about his own age. He states that he enjoys sexual acts with men more than he does with women, and that acts of sodomy give him the greatest pleasure. He still indulges in the act of masturbation. He states that he has noticed in the past few years that he has difficulty in reaching the acme of sexual satisfaction. Sometimes it takes him forty-five minutes to one hour. He states that he only likes girls now as friends. He prefers men as his sexual companions. He states, “I like muscular, virile type of men with well-developed sex organs.” During his life on the farm he indulged in acts with other men and boys and he admits acts of bestiality with horses and cows.
He denies ever having syphilis or gonorrhea. He uses tobacco and alcohol, but denies the use of narcotics.
Somatic Examination: He is a well-developed and well-nourished white male, athletic schizothymic physique, sandy brown hair, blue eyes, fair complexion. His face is of the steep egg-shaped variety, short chin; there is la lack of hair growth over the face. His skin is in good condition. He has a tattoo mark on his left forearm — heart and arrow. He had much dried blood coagulated over the right and left chest. His hands are large, long, and thick. There is a recent wound, about a quarter of an inch long — proximal joint of the right little finger. Heart and lungs are negative. The bony, muscular, and glandular systems are negative. There is a tendency towards a barrel chest. The right side of the chest is larger than his left. There is a lack of hair distributed over his body and under his arm pits. The genitalia are well-developed, the testicles are large. In the examination of the central nervous system, the pupils are equal and react to light and acommodation. The deep and superficial reflexes are present and within the norm. There are no disturbances of sensibility noted.
Psychic Examination: He is well orientated as to time, places, dates and person. His reaction time is prompt. His general knowledge is fair; his wealth of knowledge is good for one of his education. He performed the backward and forward test and the test for the opposites correctly. There is no disassociation noted. He states he gets along well with people. He knows the difference between right and wrong and is able to define such. He is affectively cold and lacks outward feeling. There are no delusions, illusions, or hallucinations.
Statements Relative to His Present Offense: The following questions were asked of the subject and the following answers received:
Q: Are you sorry for what you have done?
A: I am very worried over what happened and I feel very badly. I realize it wasn’t right to kill a man, but I was angry and I couldn’t control myself, once I started I just kept going.
Q: What did you do with the weapon you used?
A: I threw the knife over the bridge.
Q: Were you able to eat and sleep all right after the murder?
A: I slept very well, and there’s nothing wrong with my appetite.
Q: How long before you realized what you had done was wrong?
A: Right after I killed the fellow I realized what I had done was wrong.
Q: How did you come to kill this man — what caused you to get angry at him, as you put it?
A: I knew the fellow about two days. He gave me a lift in his automobile along the highway en route down here. We stopped and bought two quarts of wine. We then went to a hotel in a nearby town and arrived there about dusk. We got a room and got undressed and went to bed. We indulged in the act of mutual masturbation and an attempt of sodomy was made after fooling around for some time and drinking and quarreling. Then everything seemed to go blank on me. I can remember standing over him —he was bleeding. Somebody came to the door and got in, and said, “My God!” and they ran downstairs for help. I left for I thought I’d better get out. After I left the place I hitch-hiked. A fellow gave me a ride in his car, and I fell asleep in the car, and I guess he got suspicious of me and the way I looked, for while I was asleep he drove me to the jail. I guess it was about daylight.
Q: Can you tell me anything more about what happened?
A: We had been drinking about two quarts of wine, and the knife had been lying on the table. I do remember hitting him on the chest. Then I stabbed him and he hollered, “My God, you’ve stabbed me.” Then he began yelling for help, and I kept beating him. Then I realized that I’d better get going when someone came to the door. I went out the window by the fire escape.
Q: Did you intend to kill him?
A: Not in the beginning, but when I got started, I couldn’t stop.
Q: Do you feel sorry that you’ve killed him?
A: I feel sorry because I don’t know what’s going to happen, otherwise I don’t worry.
Analysis and Conclusion: This subject is medically and legally sane. This subject is the product of a poor home and early seduction is the cause of his homosexual practices. He is temperamentally cold, perverted, and hyper-sexual. He brutally murdered his victim during a homosexual sex orgy, by beating him on the head with a wine bottle, and stabbing him with a knife.
He showed little remorse during questioning for what he had done, which is characteristic of the sadist, who pumps up affectivity for the purpose of murdering his victim, as a means of satisfaction for his pent-up sexual impulse.
(This man was tried, found guilty, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.)