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Mighty_Emperor Divine Wind
Joined: 18 Aug 2002 Total posts: 19943 Location: Mongo Age: 42 Gender: Male |
 Posted: 24-11-2004 22:49 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Mentally ill man killed 'possessed' uncle
23/11/2004 - 13:18:09
A mentally ill man who killed his uncle because he believed he was possessed by the devil was found guilty but insane at the Central Criminal Court today.
John McInerney, 52, from Bell Harbour, Co Clare, was charged with the murder of 82-year-old Sean Daly on April 30 last year.
The jury heard evidence that McInerney was a schizophrenic who had been admitted to psychiatric hospitals on 16 different occasions. On the night before the murder, he became extremely restless when he heard noises in the street outside the home he shared with his uncle and his elderly mother.
He believed the devil was trying to break into the house and armed himself with an axe and a stick with eight notches, which he believed had special powers.
In the morning he was still disturbed and wanted to go to a nearby Friary to explain the experience he had.
His mother became alarmed and left the house, where Sean Daly was still sleeping in bed. McInerney then carried out a frenzied attack on the elderly man, using a hand axe, a splitting axe, the stick with eight notches and a pitchfork.
He told a neighbour afterwards: “I had to do it, I had to do it, the devil was in him.”
After a one-hour trial, the jury returned an instant verdict of guilty but insane. Mr Justice Paul Carney ordered that McInerney be detained in the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, Co Dublin.
McInerney was arrested on the day of the murder and brought to Limerick prison. He was assessed there by two doctors and transferred to the central mental hospital the next day.
The jury heard evidence from Dr Henry Gerard Kennedy, who is a forensic psychiatrist and also the clinical director of the hospital. He interviewed McInerney and examined his records at the hospital and photocopies of his records from the local hospital in Ennis, Co Clare.
Dr Kennedy said McInerney had schizophrenia, which was the most severe of all mental illnesses. He said it affected up to one person in every thousand of the population and caused a severe impairment of mental facilities.
“It leads to delusion and hallucinations and hearing voices when there’s nobody there.
“It’s characterised also by an instability of emotional life, not connecting with what’s going on in the real world,” he said.
He said at the time of the murder McInerney was severely ill, deluded, quite probably hallucinating and in a disturbed emotional state.
Senior counsel for the defence Patrick McEntee, asked Dr Kennedy what McInerney’s mental capacity was at the time of the murder.
“He was labouring under a defect of reason from disease of the mind, the disease being schizophrenia.”
He added that the 52-year-old believed he was doing something right by killing his uncle as he thought his uncle was possessed by the devil.
“He was in such a mental state because of his delusional beliefs that he could not think of any alternative possibility,” said Dr Kennedy.
He added that McInerney had attacked his uncle with a variety of blows. “The extent of the blows is something you see in someone who is in a highly aroused emotional estate, when far more force is used than is necessary.”
Mr McEntee asked him if it would have been possible for McInerney to stop carrying out the attack on his uncle. “I think his capacity to do so was tantamount to being absent,” said Dr Kennedy.
McInerney had disappeared from his home one month before the killing. On St Patrick’s Day neighbours found him standing on a high altar of a ruined monastery holding a pitch fork and a can of “holy water”.
Dr Kennedy said McInerney had been trying to ward off the devil and had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital that day. He was released on April 14 and his condition deteriorated.
He became worried about his dog which he believed to be possessed by the devil. He killed the dog with similar implements to those used in the killing of Sean Daly.
He also began a ritual of placing an axe under the hold bible so that its special religious power would enter the weapon.
Dr Kennedy said that he did not believe McInerney was deceiving him about his condition. He told the jury that the man was now taking a large number of medications including antidepressants, anti-psychotic drugs and tranquillisers.
Gerard Kearns who lived in a house 150 yards away said he had been called to the scene by McInerney’s mother.
“She said she thought John had killed Jack (Sean),” he said.
He brought McInerney into his house and called the gardaí. McInerney then arrived at the house in a distressed state, looking for his mother.
“Oh sure he was nowhere. He was trembling like a leaf and there was all blood on his clothes and shoes,” said Mr Kearns.
“He hadn’t a clue what it was. Just as long as his mother was safe, he was happy.”
He told Mr McEntee there was not a doubt in his mind that McInerney did not know what he was doing or saying. Mr McEntee told the jury that all the evidence pointed towards the fact the McInerney was legally insane.
He said it was a tragic case in which McInerney had killed his own uncle who had moved into the house to protect him after his father died.
The jury should not be concerned that a guilty but insane verdict would allow McInerney to be released prematurely from the central mental hospital.
“They (the patients) will be detained there until such time as ever they cease to be a danger to themselves and others,” he said.
Mr Justice Paul Carney said the usual murder trial would run for three weeks and his concluding address would last for two hours. But he noted that this case was different.
After his short address outlining the option, the jury found McInerney guilty but insane. |
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| Mighty_Emperor Divine Wind
Joined: 18 Aug 2002 Total posts: 19943 Location: Mongo Age: 42 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 28-11-2004 19:37 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Jodi trial shown 'Satanic' jotter
The jury in the Jodi Jones murder trial has been shown her boyfriend's school jotter, which was covered in Satanic slogans.
Luke Mitchell, who is now 16, and denies killing the Midlothian teenager, handed in an essay with references to the Devil, a court heard.
His former teacher told the High Court in Edinburgh she was concerned about an essay entitled Pain and Suffering.
It questioned God's existence and said the world needed Satanic people.
The teenager, who was 14 at the time Jodi died, has lodged two special defences, one of alibi and one of incrimination.
Geraldine Mackie, 41, taught Mr Mitchell in his third year at St David's Roman Catholic High School in Dalkeith.
She expressed concern about his English essay which said: "People like you need Satanic people like me to keep the balance."
Mrs Mackie showed the court Mr Mitchell's English jotter which had the numbers 666 and references to the devil on the front cover.
| Quote: | This is an assortment of rubbish on a kid's jotter, isn't it?
Donald Findlay
Defence counsel |
The word Satan was written across the back of the jotter with the phrase: "I have tasted the devil's green blood."
She told prosecuting advocate Alan Turnbull QC that she referred the teenager to a guidance teacher after he wrote the essay, the first time she had taken the step with a pupil in 15 years as a teacher.
In another essay, Mr Mitchell wrote: "So what if I am a Goth in a Catholic school? So what if I dress in baggy clothes?
"Just because I am more violent than others and cut myself, does that justify some pompous git of a teacher to refer me to a psychiatrist?
"Just because I have chosen to follow the teachings of Satan doesn't mean I need psychiatric help."
Defence advocate, Donald Findlay, QC, suggested that Mr Mitchell was just another rebellious pupil.
Mrs Mackie said: "Well, from my point of view I was quite concerned about him and the nature of his rebellion."
A passage in an essay read: "How can anyone be good because without evil there can be no good, so it must be good to be evil."
Four-letter insults
Mr Findlay said: "It seems to be pretty thoughtful for his tender years."
The QC showed the court words scrawled on the back of Mr Mitchell's school jotters which included four-letter insults levelled at the Queen and the world and another profane demand that people "stay out of my mind".
Mr Findlay asked: "This is an assortment of rubbish on a kid's jotter, isn't it?"
Mrs Mackie replied: "Yes."
The court also heard extracts from Jodi Jones' diary where she'd written she thought she was in love with Luke Mitchell.
Michelle Tierney, 17, a former classmate of Mr Mitchell's, told the court he said he had imagined himself getting "stoned" and killing someone.
She said Mr Mitchell said it would be funny, before he stubbed a cigarette out on his hand.
Mr Mitchell denies murdering his 14-year-old girlfriend Jodi last June.
The trial before Lord Nimmo Smith continues.
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Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4042321.stm
Published: 2004/11/25 17:56:20 GMT
© BBC MMIV |
| Quote: | JODI JONES MURDER TRIAL: YOU NEED SATANIC PEOPLE LIKE ME TO HELP BALANCE
Nov 26 2004
Accused's essay worried his teacher
By Gordon Mcilwraith
MURDER accused Luke Mitchell wrote a disturbing school essay praising Satan, it was revealed yesterday.
It was supposed to be a short story about the end of the world for his English class.
But the teenager referred to shaking hands with the Devil and described Lucifer as a fallen angel.
He also wrote: 'People like you need Satanic people like me to keep the balance.'
His teacher was so worried about the essay - written six months before Jodi Jones was killed - that she suggested Mitchell should get help.
And in another essay he said: 'Whose business is it anyway if I cut myself just because I am more violent than others.'
In several jotters he scribbled his favourite quote from the late Nirvana rock star Kurt Cobain: 'The finest day I ever had was when tomorrow never came.'
The High Court in Edinburgh also heard that Mitchell, now 16, told a girl he could imagine himself getting stoned and killing someone and how funny it would be.
But Donald Findlay, QC, defending, suggested some of Mitchell's words contained sound ideas and were thought-provoking.
He believed they might have been merely the writings of a rebellious teenager.
Geraldine Mackie, 41, who teaches English at St David's High School in Dalkeith, said Mitchell was a third year pupil in her class.
She described him as being 'quite rebellious' and became concerned when he handed in an essay in January last year.
She continued: 'Some of the tone I found worrying. It was the first time I had ever referred on a piece of writing to the guidance staff.
'Quite a few things in it I found a little bit disturbing.'
Advocate depute Alan Turnbull, QC, prosecuting, then read part of the essay which said: 'If God forgives everyone then why the need to be sent to Hell?
'If you ask me, God's just a futile excuse at most for a bunch of fools to go around annoying others who want nothing to do with them.
'Are these people insane? Open your eyes.
'People like you need Satanic people like me to help the balance.
'Once you shake hands with the Devil you then have truly experienced life. Lucifer is a fallen angel.'
Mrs Mackie agreed he had has also written several other things on the cover of jotters including '666', 'SATAN' and 'Master Lead Us Into Hell.'
Mr Turnbull then produced another of Mitchell's jotters which had written on it: 'I offer my flesh, blood and soul to the dark god of Hell.' On yet another he wrote: 'I have tasted the Devil's green blood.'
Mrs Mackie said on a separate occasion she had asked the class to write an essay discussing whether geriatrics should be allowed to die.
This time, part of Mitchell's work said: 'So what if I am a Goth at a Catholic school.
'So what if I dress in baggy clothes and like different music. Whose business is it other than my own if I cut myself? Just because I am more violent than others does that justify some pompous git of a teacher referring me to a psychologist.
'Just because I have chosen to follow the teachings of Satan doesn't mean I need psychiatric help.
'Just because my favourite saying is 'the finest day I ever had was when tomorrow never came' doesn't qualify me as having a troubled life.'
Cross-examined by Mr Findlay, she agreed that some of Mitchell's essay on the end of the world was quite thought-provoking, especially for a 14-year-old boy.
Mr Findlay said: 'We seem to have a young man who, on a view of it, raises challenging views and original questions about the worth of a belief in God.'
She also accepted his description of what was written on Mitchell's jotters as an 'assortment of rubbish.'
Earlier, 17-year-old Michelle Tierney recalled a remark Mitchell made when she and a friend met in a park early last year. She said: 'He said he could imagine himself going out and getting stoned and killing someone and how funny it would be.
'I didn't think it was funny at all. He didn't go into any detail or anything.'
Mitchell, who was smoking a cigarette, then stubbed it out on the back of his hand.
Fellow pupil Richard Travers, 16, who was in Mitchell's form class, remembered once seeing him playing with a knife.
Mitchell made a hand movement across his neck and remarked that was the way to slit a person's throat.
Mitchell denies murdering 14-year-old Jodi on June 30 last year at an area near Roan's Dyke path in Dalkeith, Midlothian, by slashing her with a knife.
He has lodged defences of alibi and incrimination to the murder allegation.
Mitchell has also pleaded not guilty to carrying a knife or knives and supplying cannabis.
Jodi's mum, Judith, is expected to give evidence today. |
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| Anonymous |
| Posted: 10-12-2004 19:09 Post subject: mortal talk |
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we are all mortals, we live and life is us.
if we wanna understand why things happen, that
dont in our life... we must bring our life to those things. |
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| Mighty_Emperor Divine Wind
Joined: 18 Aug 2002 Total posts: 19943 Location: Mongo Age: 42 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 10-12-2004 20:22 Post subject: |
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Pardon?
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Anyway onwards:
| Quote: | Shaman admits poisoning seven clients seeking fortune
National News - December 09, 2004
Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post/Cirebon
Police disclosed on Wednesday that the police had discovered the motive behind the deaths of seven people seeking good fortune via supernatural means in Tegal regency.
Iskandar, a shaman and the main suspect in the case, has confessed to police investigators that he put poison in the 'magic potions' he gave his victims, who were his clients,
According to Iskandar, 42, he had decided to kill the clients as he was fed up with their attitude. He claimed that the clients had repeatedly reminded him of his earlier promises that he could make them very rich. The clients also demanded that he return their money, amounting to Rp 10 million (US$1,111) per client. The shaman had earlier requested the money from his clients, saying that he would return Rp 1 billion each to them.
The murders began when nine clients, from various parts of Tegal regency, Central Java, met the shaman on the evening of last Wednesday in Kupu subdistrict, where Rofi'i, a client, lives. During the meeting, the nine were requested by Iskandar to participate in various rituals and to drink the potion, which had been "blessed" by him.
The magic potion had to be consumed on Thursday night (a sacred time for the Javanese), said Iskandar.
The clients drank the beverage separately in their homes a day later, and five of them, including a husband and wife, died as a result. Two others, Suwirjo, 53 and Ning Tati, 50, another husband-and-wife couple, were found dead later on Thursday near the local cemetery in Kejambon subdistrict, Tegal regency. Two others survived the poisoning attempt after being admitted to the local hospital. |
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| Anonymous |
| Posted: 10-12-2004 21:35 Post subject: |
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| sorry... random quips of a daft mortal |
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| Mighty_Emperor Divine Wind
Joined: 18 Aug 2002 Total posts: 19943 Location: Mongo Age: 42 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 07-02-2005 21:49 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | 'devil told me to kill'
A DEVOTED husband strangled his wheelchair-bound wife because he thought she was the devil.
'Demonic voices' drove Brendan Courtney, 50, of Heeley Road, St Annes, to kill his wife of more than 25 years, Preston Crown Court heard.
Courtney, a paranoid schizophrenic, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at a hearing last year.
Today, he was ordered to be indefinitely detained under the mental health act.
Passing sentence, Judge Peter Openshaw QC, said Courtney killed his wife in 'brutal and terrible circumstances.' He added: "The reality is he (Courtney) may be detained for very many years and it may never be safe to release him."
Howard Bentham QC, prosecuting, told the court that Courtney, a former postman, was devoted to his wife and acted as her full time carer when she was hit by a muscle wasting disease.
The disease left Mrs Courtney, 47, dependant on others and while the couple's two adult children did what they could, it was their father who bore the brunt of the caring responsibilities.
But this put a lot of stress on the defendant and he would regularly empty drawers and clean the house for no reason as he struggled to come to terms with his own illness, the court heard.
On the morning of July 19, the couple's daughter, Louise, went to the family home to check on her parents and found her father sat in the front room next to her mother, whom he said was sleeping.
Mrs Courtney looked pale and had blood on her nose and lips so Louise called the police and ambulance. She was pronounced dead at the scene and Mr Courtney was arrested.
A Home Office pathologist found Mrs Courtney had been strangled and had a number of other injuries to her body.
Mr Bentham told the court that in his police interview, Courtney denied killing his wife and spoke of three demonic voices in his head.
He agreed that he had put his arm across her throat but said it was not his wife, it was a devil.
Mr Bentham said: "Courtney said it was not his wife, he said it was a very evil person and that his wife was not dead, just sleeping."
John Jones QC, defending, told the court: "The defendant loved his wife dearly and dedicated his life to her care and wellbeing.
Chaos
"Quite clearly he was unable to cope.
"Where others perceived complete chaos in the house, his perception was that he was organising cleaning and looking after his wife.
"Nothing could be further from that."
After reading detailed medical reports Judge Openshaw added: "Mr Courtney has a long psychiatric history and has for a number of years suffered gross delusions and intrusions on his mental state.
"On the night of July 18/19 subject to the delusion that his wife was possessed by a devil he killed her in the most brutal and terrible circumstances."
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07 February 2005 |
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| MrRING Android Futureman Joined: 07 Aug 2002 Total posts: 4196 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 26-02-2005 03:30 Post subject: |
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Just saw a special on filmmaker Allen Ross, killed by his girlfriend who was the leader of something called the Samaritan Foundation, which believed in dowsing the future...
| Quote: | The Story of Allen Ross
In 1995 Chicago-area filmmaker Allen Ross disappeared. For about five years his body went undiscovered, and the mystery of his disappearance went unsolved. A long-time collaborator and friend of Ross, Christian Bauer worked to make a documentary about his friend and to uncover clues in a case that had gone cold.
The following offers a brief recounting of Allen Ross’s life and the events following his murder. If you have followed the press coverage closely, then this piece probably will not tell you anything new. But if you are looking for some background, then this story will provide a quick overview.
Beginnings
Allen Ross was born in 1953 and raised in Naperville, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. He first discovered filmmaking during his senior year at Naperville Central High School, and he later studied it at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Ross went on to a fairly successful career. He worked as an editor for Wild Kingdom, and he directed his own projects such as Ordinary Conversations about Extraordinary Matters (1993). In 1976, along with several others, he founded the Chicago Filmmakers and taught film classes in windy city.
Ross also worked as a camera operator for other directors, including German documentarian Christian Bauer. The two met in 1988 while working in a documentary about Chicago, and they eventually worked on seven films together.
Uprooting
While teaching a film class, Ross met Linda Greene, whom he quickly married and with whom he moved to Guthrie, Oklahoma, in 1993. This came a surprise to people close to the filmmaker, who had not been married before and who had called the Chicago area home for most of his life.
Linda Greene was no ordinary woman. She founded the Samaritan Foundation, an organization suspected of having connections with David Koresh and the Branch Davidians. Before her marriage to Ross, she had had five other husbands. Friends suspect he got pulled into Greene’s bizarre cult.
In 1995 the couple moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Missing
On October 16, 1995, Ross called his father from St. Louis, where he was working on a feature-length documentary about the Mississippi River for German television. After that, he was never heard from again.
It took two searches almost five years apart to find the body.
The police first searched the house at 303 E. 17th in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1995 at the suggestion of Denis Greene, Linda’s former husband before Ross. They turned up nothing and eventually the case went cold and unsolved for almost five years.
Searching
In May 2000 Christian Bauer and Gaylon Emerzian began making Missing Allen. Since the case of Ross’s death had not been solved by police at that point, the filmmakers hired private investigators to help them. The film became a quest to solve the mystery.
Bauer funded the film with money from his own pocket and from a German film foundation. At one point MSNBC showed interest in the documentary, but those plans fell through, along with hopes for funding.
During the course of filming, Devin Williams, a production assistant, found Ross’s 16mm camera. This discovery led police to search the Cheyenne house again.
On July 17, 2000, police repeated the search and found the body buried in the dirt and concrete of the crawlspace. Ross had been shot in the head and had massive skull fractures. According to Police Lt. Bill Stanford, “The first clue was a shoe poking up from the dirt.” Stanford has no explanation for why nothing was found the first time.
Identifying the body was difficult. The police first tried to match dental records, but there was only one tooth, so it only provided a preliminary match in late October 2000. DNA testing provided the final proof.
Allen Ross was buried next to his father, Laurdis.
Closure?
So who killed Allen Ross?
According the Denis Greene, Linda confessed to him killing Ross in 1996. Nothing came of those allegations, and Linda Greene died March 18, 2002, at age 50 of natural causes.
Cheyenne police later charged Julia Williams with being an accessory after the fact. She purportedly helped bury the body and hide the murder weapon, which still has not been found.
Bauer’s film Missing Allen screened at several festivals, including Hot Docs, Montreal International Festival of New Cinema and New Media, and San Jose Cinequest. It was met with positive reception, though the film currently is not available on home video.
By 2001 Bauer had made 29 documentary films, but he insisted that Missing Allen would be his last. “Anything else,” he says, “would be a step back.”
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http://www.realityfilm.com/allenross.php |
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| Mighty_Emperor Divine Wind
Joined: 18 Aug 2002 Total posts: 19943 Location: Mongo Age: 42 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 07-03-2005 14:23 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Henk gets life sentence
BY LEAH THORSEN / Lincoln Journal Star
PAPILLION — He didn't want to give the murderer another chance to grandstand. So when Cass County Attorney Nathan Cox addressed the judge on Friday, he asked that the proceedings move quickly.
Ivan Henk
They did. The 10-minute hearing ended with Sarpy County District Court Judge William Zastera sentencing Ivan Henk to life in prison without parole for murdering his 4-year-old son, Brendan Gonzalez.
The shackled Henk said little as his sentence was handed down.
When he walked into the courtroom, he looked at Brendan's mother, Rebecca Gonzalez, and said he'd never see her again.
"Thank God," she shot back.
Later in the hearing, the judge offered Henk a chance to speak.
"No, thanks," Henk replied, mumbling that he was ready to go to prison.
Brendan, who last was seen with Henk, vanished Jan. 6, 2003, from Plattsmouth.
That June, Henk led police to a Bellevue apartment trash bin where he said he had dumped Brendan's body. DNA tests performed on dried blood found in the bin showed the blood was Brendan's.
That bin was emptied into the Sarpy County landfill.
Searchers spent seven weeks combing the landfill in the hopes of finding Brendan's remains but never found the boy's body.
As part of an agreement hashed out last month, Henk pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for prosecutors agreeing not to pursue the death penalty.
"I thought I was going to feel much better," Gonzalez said after Friday's sentencing.
Nothing will be better until Brendan's remains are out of the landfill, she said.
"That truly would be the end," agreed Plattsmouth Police Chief Brian Paulsen, who also attended the sentencing.
Paulsen said he's certain Henk decapitated Brendan.
But he still has many questions for Henk and plans to write him in prison to ask for a meeting.
Most of all, Paulsen said, he wants to know how Henk could have killed a 4-year-old child.
Henk's attorney, Jerry Soucie, on Friday offered some explanation for his client's actions.
Henk was abused as a child, the attorney said. His mother died when he was 10, and his father was a paranoid schizophrenic, Soucie said.
These factors would have been used as a defense had the case gone to trial, he said.
Soucie has 30 days to appeal the sentence but said he did not know if he would file such an appeal.
Henk's mental condition has long been in question.
In April 2003, he shouted in a crowded courtroom that he'd killed Brendan because the boy was the Antichrist and had "666" tattooed on his forehead.
According to court documents, Henk believed his son had the power to sap his strength and make demons circle his bedroom.
Henk also believed he'd been subjected to "weird injections" as a small child, the documents stated.
Gonzalez said she didn't buy any of that — lots of people have rough childhoods and never kill their children.
She said Henk was calculating and manipulative but certainly not crazy.
And now, she said, it's time to look forward.
Later this month, she'll graduate with a 4.0 grade-point average from the ITT Technical Institute in Omaha with an associate's degree in applied science in electronics.
And she'll continue her fight to begin another landfill search, though authorities have said another such search is unlikely.
But she's undeterred and said she plans to mount a nationwide campaign to drum up support to keep searching for her son's body.
Said Gonzalez: "I owe it to Brendan." |
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| Mighty_Emperor Divine Wind
Joined: 18 Aug 2002 Total posts: 19943 Location: Mongo Age: 42 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 16-04-2005 13:33 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | No jail for Santeria priestess
BY CHRISENA COLEMAN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A Santeria priestess who accidentally killed a Bronx woman by setting her ablaze during a ritual cleansing was sentenced to five years' probation yesterday, despite cries from the victim's family for jail time.
"My sister's life was taken away, and she is never coming home," said Miriam Perez. "We spend each day empty inside and crying endless tears."
"It's just not right for the defendant to walk," she added. "It's upsetting knowing she will walk out [on] the streets and is free to do this to someone else."
Mildred Sanchez, 62, of the Bronx pleaded guilty to one count of criminally negligent homicide in the Feb. 24, 2004, death of 32-year-old Minerva Perez.
Perez, who was HIV positive, was killed during a Santeria ritual that involved the use of a candle, highly flammable Florida Water cologne and a combination of vodka and perfume that Sanchez used to ward off demons.
Perez was naked and bathing in the flammable liquid when it ignited. She sustained second- and third-degree burns over most of her body. The medical examiner ruled the cause of death was a combination of an asthma attack from smoke inhalation and the burns.
Bronx Supreme Court Justice Troy Webber called Perez's death a tragic accident and said Sanchez "will be monitored by probation to ensure it will not happen again."
Sanchez sat nervously through her sentencing. Her attorney, Ed Dudley, said Sanchez "is sorry for what happened and has taken responsibility" for her actions.
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Originally published on April 15, 2005 |
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| lopaka3 Great Old One Joined: 17 Sep 2001 Total posts: 2154 Location: Near the corner of a Big Continent Gender: Male |
| Posted: 09-05-2005 20:31 Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Case of the Slain Fortuneteller Holds Detective Spellbound
May 8, 2005
Dana Parsons
Tim Vu knows he shouldn't take the job home with him, but when you're a detective working the kind of murder case he's on, it's hard not to. Especially when seasoned detectives from other departments want to know what's going on.
"This is one of those cases you go into homicide for," Vu says.
What he means is that murders often have a familiar plot line — the domestic dispute that goes haywire, the gang grievance that gets settled on the street. But nowhere in his seven years as a detective in the Westminster Police Department had he run across the kind handed to him two weeks ago.
For any detective who thrives on putting pieces together and immersing himself in the world of the victims, the stabbing deaths of Ha Jade Smith and her daughter, Anita Nhi Vo, present a tantalizing puzzle. The investigation has introduced Vu, 34, to a part of Asian culture he didn't know as well as he thought and to characters he never expected to be relying on for help in cracking a double-murder case.
Like, the witches who have contacted him. And the warlock. And the psychic.
They've emerged because Smith, 52, was identified in the days after her death as a fortuneteller. Vu is convinced she also was a witch — meaning she would have been seen by some potential patrons as capable of casting spells. Paying someone to cast a spell could cost as much as $15,000, he says, adding another potential motive for a killer who might have known Smith had that kind of cash in her home or, possibly, was unhappy about a spell that didn't work.
Mind you, Vu isn't touting either of those as a definitive theory. That's because there's also the matter of the white paint that covered both victims' heads and hands. Vu is trying to determine what that means — or even, he says, if it might be a red herring. "Is it something the suspects did just to throw us off?" he asks, rhetorically. "That's in the back of our minds."
What he's telling me, as we're talking on his day off Friday, is that all of these clues — or non-clues — swirl around in his brain. "You walk in and there are these bodies in the house," he says. "Your job is to basically work your way backward to find out what happened to them."
No matter where the trail leads, it already has taken Vu, who emigrated from Vietnam with his family in 1975, on a journey through his own people's culture.
While he's learned a bit more about witchcraft and ritual killings, he says it's mostly been the subject of fortunetelling that has involved him "and how that plays a role in the Asian community. I was under the belief that somehow it was kind of taboo, that people didn't want other people to know they see a fortuneteller."
Instead, he learned, that for some, "It's a societal norm. It's not seen as unusual."
I ask if, as a Vietnamese man, he'd been unaware of that. "I knew it existed, but what I've come to find out in talking to [fortunetelling] customers, is that they get it almost like therapy."
And so while Vu would describe himself as part of a younger generation of Vietnamese who have assimilated into American culture, the investigation also led him to the past. "I understand Asian culture to a certain degree," he says, "but some of what we're talking about is, I guess, old country." In other words, while seeing fortunetellers isn't an anomaly in Vietnamese culture, neither is it thought of as a modern-day tradition.
In that same vein, Vu says, an older man who once taught in Vietnam has given him "quite an education on certain cultural aspects and how that may apply to the significance of white paint. And that's something I did not know about."
Experts told The Times last week that white can signify mourning or rites of passage, but said it had no obvious meaning in a double-murder case.
Vu believes Smith and her daughter, a 23-year-old Orange Coast College student, were not random victims. But he's still thrashing about as to whether the motive was money or jewelry believed to be in the home, which was ransacked, or something more personal.
"This case is unique," Vu says. "I haven't come across anybody else who's had a case in which the victims' heads and hands were covered in paint. I've had calls from colleagues in other departments too. They feel kind of fascinated by that. It's just not something that happens."
That interest must add to the pressure of solving it. Pressure is always there in double-murders, and while Vu comes across as a cool-headed cop, he concedes that this case has approached the 24/7 level of perpetual thought. "It's hard to separate these cases when you walk out the door that day and just forget about them," he says, "because you're constantly thinking about your next move and how you're going to play this thing out."
Sounds like a heartburn formula for a man who wants to maintain a private life with his wife and two young children. "Some days," Vu says, "it's very challenging to try and keep it in perspective. At the end of the day, you still have a personal life and you try your best to separate the two, but sometimes it's difficult, because you get so consumed with your work that you sometimes forget you need to leave some of that at work."
The case is 2 weeks old but Vu doesn't think the investigation is flagging. Anyone with information can phone police at (714) 898-3315, Ext. 529.
Vu knows he has a high-profile whodunit on his hands. He says he has a gut feeling he'll crack it. And yes, he concedes that without the white paint and the fortunetelling angles, the case "probably goes down as just another unfortunate double-homicide, home-invasion robbery that you investigate."
But those angles are there. So, in what is bad news for who did it, this case won't go away.
"The fortunetelling and the witchcraft are interesting," Vu says, "but the bottom line is: We have two people murdered in their home. At the end of the day, that's what we're trying to do, to find out who killed this mom and daughter.
"The other stuff that comes with it might help explain the motive down the road, but our goal is to find out who did this heinous crime and arrest them."
*
Dana Parsons' can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana.parsons@latimes.com.
Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times
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| Mighty_Emperor Divine Wind
Joined: 18 Aug 2002 Total posts: 19943 Location: Mongo Age: 42 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 20-06-2005 23:07 Post subject: |
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This is a weird one (there is also a picture on that page which looks odd):
| Quote: | Beast kills 9, injures 11 in Dedza
by Joseph Langa, 14 June 2005 - 11:10:56
At least nine people have been killed and 11 others seriously injured when an identified wild beast terrorised three villages in Chief Chilikumwendo’s area, Dedza, 70 kilometres south of Lilongwe, in the early hours of Monday, police have confirmed.
Seven of the deceased are 50-year-old man Laison Letela, an eight-year-old girl Mtayizana Kalibande, four-year-old boy Bikoko Gobede, a baby identified as Lunjikani, 45-year-old man Jalasi Joseph, 40-year-old woman Nafokani Machitala and seven-year-old boy Madalitso Yosefe.
The beast also attacked livestock, killed goats and chickens.
Police deputy public relations officer Kelvin Maigwa said in an interview the beast terrorised Chimbola, Mbiyani and Sizinthela villages around 2 AM (0000GMT) and killed six people and wounded 11 others.
Two others died at the hospital while one was killed when the beast, believed to be a rabid hyena, attacked more people near Dzalanyama where it also killed one around 11AM (0900GMT) same day.
An official at Dedza District Hospital said bodies of the nine people were brought to the hospital for postmortem around 10 AM (0800GMT) and later released for burial.
He said almost all the bodies came with parts like legs, stomachs, hands and buttocks missing, while others had heads completely chopped.
“It’s very pathetic. In some cases the police only recovered heads, chests, legs and hands in pieces,” said the official. “We don’t know what sort of creature it is that can attack so many people within the same night.”
He said eight of the casualties were referred to Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe.
When our reporters visited the hospital around 5PM (1500GMT) on Monday, five of the victims were still unconscious.
An eyewitness and guardian to one of the victims, Kazako Lidisoni, said the beast had features of a hyena with a strong smell.
Other guardians said villagers used pangas and spears to try to kill the beast as it was feeding on some bodies but surprisingly it could not be killed.
Assistant director of parks and wildlife Haxwell Jamusana said the situation in the district was tense and that people were living in fear because they believed that the beast will return.
“According to villagers, the beast was breaking the doors and pouncing on anyone in the house before rushing to the nearest house or kraal,” he said.
He advised people to sleep in groups in houses with strong doors, adding that hunters have already been deployed in the area and more would be sent on Tuesday.
Jamusana, who also visited those at the hospital, said some of the casualties had their necks, shoulders, noses or mouth eaten up.
“I have seen someone with whole flesh removed. We believe it is a rabid hyena. That’s typical of its attacks,” he said.
Maigwa said the police have also deployed armed police officers in the area to hunt the beast with assistance from game rangers. |
www.nationmalawi.com/articles.asp?articleID=11110
| Quote: | Dedza beast shot dead 8 victims buried in mass grave
by Joseph Langa, 15 June 2005 - 14:15:12
Scores of villagers in T/A Chilikumwendo’s area in Dedza jubilated on Tuesday evening as the police and game rangers fired over a hundred shots to kill the notorious beast which has killed nine people and injured 13 others. The 13 include two who were attacked on Tuesday.
The beast was killed around 1500GMT after the police and rangers were tipped by one villager that it was biting pails, livestock and anything in sight in Kanjelwa Village.
The police and rangers found the beast hiding in a house where they fired several bullets as the villagers shouted on top of their voices in grief and jubilation.
“Ee! ufe unandiphera mayi anga iwe, unatiphera ana athu iwe!” (Yes! Die you killed my mother, you killed our children), shouted the villagers.
The rangers and police quickly identified the beast as a hyena but the villagers insisted it was not a natural beast but a spirit of one of the villagers (name withheld) “who has resurrected”.
The beast caused uncertainty and fear among the villagers who camped like refugees at the nearby Chidewere Primary School and Village Headman Chombola’s house guarded by police and rangers.
Villagers were spotted on several feeder roads carrying some belongings joining their friends at the school and the village headman’s house.
Headmaster MacKalex Banda said they started camping at the school on Sunday night on empty stomachs because they left all their food stuffs behind.
The villagers could not believe it when they were told that the animal was dead and scrambled to see the digital picture of the dead animal in Nation’s camera.
In Chombola village area, where eight people were killed, some villagers had no choice but to sleep on top of granaries and houses on Monday night for fear that the beast would return.
Stafford Malunga who lost his 18-year-old son said he had no choice but to sleep on top of his maize granary as some of his friends had done because he had a sad experience to see his son dying in his hands.
“My son was attacked on the stomach and I had to hold his intestines the whole morning until he died. He told me that he was dying, but there was nothing I could do. I wished him well and told him this was not an ordinary beast,” said Malunga.
Another villager, Leonard Kadzamira, said he opted to sleep on top of the house with his friends because they believed that the beast would return and did not want to take chances even with the police around.
Villlage headman Chombola, who lost a sister and niece, said he was attacked on the leg as he tried to kill the beast with an axe and a steel bar while it was feeding on a child.
“I tried my best but it could not be killed. Instead it turned on me and grabbed my leg before rushing to the nearest house where it attacked our grandmother and killed two children,” said Chombola who is at Dedza District Hospital.
The beast, which came from caves in the nearby Mpita Hills, returned to the villages in the early hours of Tuesday and attacked two people who were also taken to the hospital.
The eight deceased people were buried in a mass grave in five coffins on Tuesday morning and the villagers had to contribute money for the coffins.
T/A Chilikumwendo and the area’s Member of Parliament Nelson Chuthi described the situation as pathetic, saying it has never happened before.
Police Public Relations officer in Dedza Ramsy Mushani said the police will continue guarding the area until the villagers have settled down.
But the villagers blamed the police and rangers for taking the beast away, suggesting they should have organised a viewing ceremony for the people to see and believe that it was dead. |
www.nationmalawi.com/articles.asp?articleID=11131
Thats an awful lot of people killed and injured. Some of those missing body parts sound like the kinds of things that might be removed for muti - wait for mass hysteria about shape shifting witch doctors. |
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| Mighty_Emperor Divine Wind
Joined: 18 Aug 2002 Total posts: 19943 Location: Mongo Age: 42 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 15-07-2005 04:01 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Murder Defendant Says Victim Told Her He Had Pact With Satan
POSTED: 5:41 pm EDT July 12, 2005
UPDATED: 5:55 pm EDT July 12, 2005
TAVARES, Fla. -- The Lake County mother accused of killing her son-in-law said he told her he had a pact with Satan. Lorri Worley testified Tuesday afternoon.
Worley said she stabbed Josh Blankenship after he gleefully told her about forcing her daughter to overdose on drugs and his pact with Satan. Prosecutors, though, said she killed him to keep her grandchild from being raised by who she thought was a Satan worshiper.
With her chains on her legs, and cuffs on her hands Tuesday, Worley told a jury today about the night she shoved a knife into her son-in-law's chest.
"I said, 'You're not doing it deep enough,' and I pushed it," Worley said in court.
Her daughter had just died from an overdose of cocaine. Kelly and Josh Blankenship used to dress in all black, even at their wedding. He also had a tattoo of Satan.
The day after his wife died, Worley said Josh told her he knocked Kelly out and injected her with the drug. Worley said Josh was cutting himself, was laughing and said Kelly was going to be happy, she was going to be with Satan and he had a pact with her that he was going to go with her, too.
Worley said the words made her heart feel like it was going to explode, so she helped him kill himself. Josh was left with 50 stab wounds.
But, prosecutors made mince meat out of Worley in court. She had told investigators, the night of the crime, that Josh had threatened his baby. The baby, Wednesday, was named after the Adams Family character, but she wasn't home that night. Prosecutors theorize Worley just wanted custody of the baby.
This comes after testimony from the medical examiner who said it's highly unlikely someone could stab themself anywhere near 50 times, and from someone who recently met with Worley at the jail and said Worley confessed to murder.
Closing arguments should be Wednesday.
---------------
Copyright 2005 by wftv.com. |
www.wftv.com/news/4715010/detail.html |
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| Mighty_Emperor Divine Wind
Joined: 18 Aug 2002 Total posts: 19943 Location: Mongo Age: 42 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 17-10-2005 19:09 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Occult practitioner kills, drinks blood
Indo-Asian News Service
Raipur, October 17, 2005
Witchcraft drove a member of the Chhattisgarh home guards to kill a youth and drink his blood in a bid to cure his mental illness, police said on Monday.
Amit Soni, 28, told police that he had been practising witchcraft for some time and had killed Chhaganlal Sahu in Mahasamund district at midnight on October 12, according to district police chief Dipanshu Kabra.
"Amit, a regular worshipper of goddess Kali, killed Chhaganlal on Wednesday but was arrested after two days. He revealed during police interrogation that he committed the crime and drank Chhaganlal's blood to get over his mental illness," Kabra said.
Soni belonged to a poor family that lived in Mahasamund, 75 km from Chhattisgarh state capital Raipur.
Witchcraft is a common practice in remote areas of Chhattisgarh, mainly among tribals.
The rising crime graph against women in rural areas is often attributed to witchcraft. This prompted the state government to adopt the Witchcraft Atrocities (Prevention) Act in July 2005.
The provisions of the law are very strict and one of its clauses ensures five years of rigorous imprisonment for anyone convicted of branding women as witches and harassing them. |
www.hindustantimes.com/news/7242_1521718,00180008.htm |
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| Mighty_Emperor Divine Wind
Joined: 18 Aug 2002 Total posts: 19943 Location: Mongo Age: 42 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 21-11-2005 17:19 Post subject: |
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Interesting article looking at it from various angles:
| Quote: | Black magic, murder and madness in Satanist South Africa
The fixation with the occult dates back to apartheid, writes Gavin du Venage in Cape Town
November 21, 2005
A CHURCH custodian is murdered in the dead of night and his mutilated corpse, bearing vicious stab wounds to his head and side mimicking those of Jesus Christ on the cross, is left in front of the altar.
On the ground, in the victim's blood, is written the word "Satun" (sic).
The Halloween slaying of 53-year-old Charles Jacobs, janitor at the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints in the quiet, church-going town of Paarl, east of Cape Town, is the latest in a long string of murders that reflect an obsession with Satanism that goes back deep into South Africa's apartheid past.
Jacobs's murder, inevitably dubbed the "crucifixion killing", was probably just a botched burglary, police say. But to relatives in the town, it was the work of the devil.
His brother, Ivor, who found the body, describes the scene at the church as "a place filled with evil. We saw a dark spot on the floor. The word 'Satun' was written in my brother's blood".
In South Africa, where murder is commonplace, the killing's satanic overtones made it exceptional. Official police denials of any occult link, and claims that descriptions of Jacobs's injuries were wildly exaggerated, have been drowned out.
To the police, the lurid crucifixion elements were nothing more than clumsy attempts to disguise the motives for the killing.
"The robbers who broke into the church probably did not expect to find anyone there," said police spokesman Billy Jones.
"It was just a robbery gone wrong. There was no occult involvement."
Two men have already been arrested: a defrocked priest whom Mormon elders fired after they discovered he had lied about being ordained, and a local unemployed man.
The "crucifixion killing" is only the latest to be proclaimed occult-linked and reflects the unique hold Satanism has on the South African psyche. In September this year, Willem Mouers, a deranged Western Cape farm worker, slit his three-year-old daughter's throat, hours after telling neighbours about "dark forces" that haunted him.
Unable to explain his mental breakdown, local residents turned to the only answer they believed would fit: that he was possessed.
When several pet dogs were slaughtered in an affluent Pretoria suburb in June, locals interpreted it as proof that a satanic coven was loose in the capital.
The fact that the pet killings took place at the winter solstice, a high point in the occult calendar, seemed the clincher. "Pets' death linked to Satanism" ran the headline in the Pretoria News.
The belief that malevolent dark forces lurk on the periphery, waiting to strike, runs deep in white South African society. Last year M Web, the country's largest internet service provider, offered a package that would allow users to block internet access to sites that included occult subjects.
The belief of lurking occultism goes back to the apartheid era when a blend of Christian fundamentalism and virulent anti-Communism fostered free-ranging paranoia, particularly among whites. In the 1980s, at the height of the liberation war, wandering preachers would visit all-white schools to warn children of the dangers of Satanism and, through a convoluted logic, its links to Communism.
Using props such as KISS album covers, candle stubs and other paraphernalia "recovered" from covens' lairs, these preachers would frighten and perhaps unintentionally titillate their captive audience with lurid descriptions of black mass, blood sacrifice and uninhibited sex.
Satanism was taken so seriously that the South African police set up an anti-occult unit.
The Occult Related Crime Unit was set up in 1992 under Superintendent Kobus Jonker. Jonker grew legendary as the country's top occult-hunter, dubbed in the press as "The hound of God", "God's detective" and "Donker (dark) Jonker".
The unit was disbanded in 1997 after human rights groups protested that the country's post-apartheid constitution guaranteed religious freedom, a definition broad enough to include Satanists, should they exist.
But the South African police have continued to keep a webpage devoted to Satanism and the occult, and Jonker is still the police's resident occult expert.
He declined to be interviewed.
An ex-colleague, James Lottering, a former detective who ran the occult unit's Eastern Cape branch and resigned after the unit's disbandment, still occasionally consults with his colleague.
These days, Lottering conducts exorcisms from a church in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth. He now calls himself a pastor but his bull neck, cropped hair and penetrating eyes make him seem far more like the cop he was than a man of the cloth.
"A normal policeman cannot really investigate these cases because he does not have the background. So they have consultants to help," he explained.
Building a case against a Satanist is challenging. "If a person commits a crime and says 'Satan made me do it', by law, that person must produce the demon to testify on his behalf in court.
"But that, of course, he cannot do. The court cannot take the word of every person that claims to be demon-possessed."
Instead, Lottering and his colleagues would settle for building a criminal prosecution but also sparing time to try and save the possessed man's soul. "If a person is demon-possessed, ja, I can help him free himself of this thing but I can't help him in court."
Lottering was also once a member of the apartheid Government's feared security police, when hunting Communists, not Satanists, was a priority. To some, the switch from hunting Communists to hunting Satanists is not surprising.
"The only thing worse than having an enemy is not having one," says University of the Witwatersrand psychologist Gavin Ivey, who has published a paper on the phenomenon.
"These guys are just a waste of taxpayers' money."
Dr Ivey points out that Satanism-seeking is an especially Afrikaans phenomenon, and points to a society long accustomed to using religion as its method of interpreting reality.
In the past, Communists were anti-church and therefore the legitimate, and hidden, enemy.
Today -- with Communists sitting as members of the post-apartheid parliament -- Satanists, real and imagined, are the new subversives. Dr Ivey said: "As one enemy disappears, another has to be conjured up." |
www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17308478%255E29677,00.html |
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| Mighty_Emperor Divine Wind
Joined: 18 Aug 2002 Total posts: 19943 Location: Mongo Age: 42 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 08-03-2006 03:25 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Indian cult kills children for goddess
'Holy men' blamed for inciting dozens of deaths
Dan McDougall in Khurja, India
Sunday March 5, 2006
The Observer
A painted image of the Hindu goddess Kali is propped up against a stone in the dirt, her long red tongue goading terrified worshippers into submission. From one of her eight flailing arms a severed head dangles, her neck is adorned by a necklace of bleached human skulls.
There are bloodstains on the cracked wall behind the terrible postcard-size image and, around the dark room, splattered gore on the heavy wooden furniture. These dark marks bear witness to a child sacrificed in the name of the abominable goddess.
Through the doorway, in the distance, colourfully dressed women are bent double, toiling in the fields, their faces worn and wrinkled from the sun, their hands cracked from digging at the dry earth from dawn until dusk.
It's an intolerable life in the remote village of Barha, a squalid collection of mud-bricked farmers' dwellings in the heart of the impoverished province of Khurja, Uttar Pradesh. This corner of rural India is a lawless place of superstitions and deep prejudice. The region, known for its sugarcane, is a tortuous eight-hour drive from Delhi and a lifetime away from the 21st century.
In Bulandshahr, the nearest town of any description, locals whispered darkly of happenings in Barha. Their advice was unanimous: 'Don't go. It is an evil place. The people there are cursed.'
Sumitra Bushan, 43, who lived in Barha for most of her life, certainly thought she was cursed. Her husband had long abandoned her, leaving her with debts and a life of servitude in the sugarcane fields. Her sons, Satbir, 27, and Sanjay, 23, were regarded as layabouts. Life was bad but then the nightmares and terrifying visions of Kali allegedly began, not just for Sumitra but her entire family.
She consulted a tantrik, a travelling 'holy man' who came to the village occasionally, dispensing advice and putrid medicines from the rusty amulets around his neck.
His guidance to Sumitra was to slaughter a chicken at the entrance to her home and offer the blood and remains to the goddess. She did so but the nightmares continued and she began waking up screaming in the heat of the night and returned to the priest. 'For the sake of your family,' he told her, 'you must sacrifice another, a boy from your village.'
Ten days ago Sumitra and her two sons crept to their neighbour's home and abducted three-year-old Aakash Singh as he slept. They dragged him into their home and the eldest son performed a puja ceremony, reciting a mantra and waving incense. Sumitra smeared sandalwood paste and globules of ghee over the terrified child's body. The two men then used a knife to slice off the child's nose, ears and hands before laying him, bleeding, in front of Kali's image.
In the morning Sumitra told villagers she had found Aakash's body outside her house. But they attacked and beat her sons who allegedly confessed. 'I killed the boy so my mother could be safe,' Sanjay screamed. All three are now in prison, having escaped lynch mob justice. The tantrik has yet to be found.
Police in Khurja say dozens of sacrifices have been made over the past six months. Last month, in a village near Barha, a woman hacked her neighbour's three-year-old to death after a tantrik promised unlimited riches. In another case, a couple desperate for a son had a six-year-old kidnapped and then, as the tantrik chanted mantras, mutilated the child. The woman completed the ritual by washing in the child's blood.
'It's because of blind superstitions and rampant illiteracy that this woman sacrificed this boy,' said Khurja police officer AK Singh. 'It's happened before and will happen again but there is little we can do to stop it. In most situations it's an open and shut case. It isn't difficult to elicit confessions - normally the villagers or the families of the victims do that for us. This has been going on for centuries; these people are living in the dark ages.'
According to an unofficial tally by the local newspaper, there have been 28 human sacrifices in western Uttar Pradesh in the last four months. Four tantrik priests have been jailed and scores of others forced to flee.
The killings have focused attention on Tantrism, an amalgam of mystical practices that grew out of Hinduism. Tantrism also has adherents among Buddhists and Muslims and, increasingly, in the West, where it is associated with yoga or sexual techniques. It has millions of followers across India, where it originated between the fifth and ninth centuries. Tantrik priests are consulted on everything from marital to bowel problems.
Many blame the turn to the occult on the increasing economic gap between rural and urban India, in particular the spiralling debts of cotton and tobacco farmers, linked with high costs of hybrid seed and pesticides, that has led to record numbers of farmers committing suicide.
According to Sanal Edamaruku, president of the Indian Rationalist Association, human sacrifice affects most of northern India. 'Modern India is home to hundreds of millions who can't read or write, but who often seek refuge from life's realities through astrology or the magical arts of shamans. Unfortunately these people focus their horrific attention on society's weaker members, mainly women and children who are easier to handle and kidnap.'
Tantriks caught up in the crackdown in Uttar Pradesh say their reputation is being destroyed by an insane minority. 'Human sacrifices have been made in this region since time immemorial,' says Prashant, a tantrik who runs a small 'practice' from his concrete shell of a home on the outskirts of Bulandshahr. 'People come to me with all sorts of ailments. I recommend simply pujas and very rarely animal sacrifices.'
In her squalid home Ritu Singh rocks back and forth, beating her chest in grief. She has been mourning since the day her son Aakash's body was discovered in a sewer outside Sumitra Bushan's home. Her husband, Rajbir, said: 'We expect them to be jailed or fined but they won't spend longer than a few years in prison for what they have done. They were my neighbours, they ate in our house. The Tantrik who made them do this has disappeared, they will never find him.' |
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1723910,00.html |
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