{"id":13901,"date":"2024-10-15T18:13:32","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T23:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=13901"},"modified":"2024-10-15T18:18:02","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T23:18:02","slug":"mfdj-10-15-24-boys-will-be-monsters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=13901","title":{"rendered":"MFDJ 10\/15\/24: Boys Will Be Monsters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s Exciting Yet Truly Morbid Fact!<\/h3>\n

This was written by John Marr in his wonderful 1990’s era zine “Murder Can Be Fun<\/a>“.\u00a0 I’d like to shout out what a splendid bit of writing it is! – DeSpair<\/em><\/p>\n

The classic recreational drowning occurred in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1925. A fine spring afternoon found 9-year-old Johnny Veres and his little pal Milt, who was only 6, goofing off on the bands of the Merrimac River. Undoubtedly, by the time they answered the summons of history, the two young scamps had already run through the complete retinue of childish riverside amusements. Bare toes had wiggled in mud, stones had skipped across the water, fish had evaded improvised hooks. The lads itched for something new, something different. As they later told police, they were ready \u201cfor excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n

They found it by adding a new, original twist to an ancient game. For thousands of years, small boys [and girls!\u00a0 – DeSpair]<\/em>\u00a0have whiled away many a seaside hour by constructing small crude crafts of flotsam and jetsam. After setting them adrift, the youthful rascals gleefully pelt the products of their labors with stones. The game ends when the target has been smashed to kindling, or, better yet, sunk to the accompaniment of children reveling in the joy of destruction.<\/p>\n

Johnny and Milt\u2019s innovation was simple: a living target. Aquatic birds were out; they have an unsporting habit of flying out of range after the first volley. Adult swimmers and mariners are prone to retaliation. This left them but one obvious option.<\/p>\n

Somehow or other, they got their hands on an 18-month-old baby. After stripping the squirming infant of her clothes, they threw her into the river and jovially pelted her with rocks as the current bore her away. Unlike their previous floating targets, it wasn\u2019t necessary for them to score too many direct hits to sink the screaming infant. As she went down, they probably thought exultantly, This is excitement! The quick response of the police, summoned by horrified onlookers, was just an added thrill. However, it was too late for the baby. By the time her body was recovered from the river, she was dead.<\/p>\n

In custody, Johnny and Milt corroborated each other\u2019s stories, save for one small detail. Each admitted to his part in the kidnapping, and they had no compunction about describing how they threw the stones. But when it came to throwing the baby in the river in the first place, it was a plain case of, \u201cHe started it first!\u201d<\/p>\n

Milt was eligible to get away with it by virtue of his age; Massachusetts law at the time presumed that a child under the age of seven was unable to understand the nature of their act. No charges were brought against him, although he was held as a material witness. The picture for little Johnny was far grimmer. He was indicated for manslaughter. At his hearing, he put on a show worthy of his spiritual ancestor, Hannah Ocuish. As the judge, visibly moved, read the indictment that threatened to incarcerate the little boy for the remainder of his childhood, Johnny, with all the carefree innocence of his years, amused himself by playing with a handful of pennies a kindly deputy sheriff had given him. As they led the little killer away from the courtroom, he playfully ran away from the sheriff, but was quickly caught. Security was poor as there wasn\u2019t a set of handcuffs in town small enough for his tiny wrists. When confronted with a jail cell and asked what it was for, he announced, \u201cThat\u2019s where they put the bad men.\u201d Obviously, not the kind of place a small boy who was only playing expected to end up. At last word, the court shipped Johnny to a local psychiatric hospital for sanity observation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nOddly, I couldn’t find a photo of the older boy, John Veres, but I did find this photo of little Milt.<\/em><\/p>\n

And here are a few headlines related to the murder:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\" \"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a> <\/em>
\nCulled from: Murder Can Be Fun #17<\/em> by John Marr<\/p>\n

Post-Mortem Portrait Du Jour!<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThe Twins
\n<\/em>circa 1852
\nsixth-plate daguerreotype
\n3.75″ x 3.25″<\/p>\n

In this highly unusual scene, a woman holds two infants, one living and the other deceased and complete hidden from the viewer in a shroud-like wrapping. The most probably explanation is that this was done in order to conceal signs of advanced decomposition, injury, or illness.<\/p>\n

Culled from: Beyond the Dark Veil: Post-Mortem and Mourning Photography<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

Garretdom!<\/h3>\n

The Scaffolding Gave Way.<\/strong><\/p>\n

LEWISTOWN, Pa., Sept. 26.\u2014While James Banks and James Barr, two painters, were engaged in painting the cornice of the Presbyterian Church yesterday morning the scaffolding on which they were standing gave way and the men were precipitated to the ground below, a distance of fifty feet. Banks was instantly killed, his head striking on a large stone, crushing in the whole top portion of the skull. Barr\u2019s back was hurt and his injuries are pronounced fatal. Banks was thirty-five years old and leaves a wife and three children.<\/p>\n

Culled from the collection of The Comtesse DeSpair
\n1886 Morbid Scrapbook<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s Exciting Yet Truly Morbid Fact! This was written by John Marr in his wonderful 1990’s era zine “Murder Can Be Fun“.\u00a0 I’d like to shout out what a splendid bit of writing it is! – DeSpair The classic recreational drowning occurred in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1925. A fine spring afternoon found 9-year-old Johnny Veres […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facts","category-garretdom"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13901"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13911,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13901\/revisions\/13911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}