The love of his life

During his childhood in Germany, and later, while traveling briefly in Genoa, Italy, Tanzler claimed to have been visited by visions of a dead ancestor, Countess Anna Constantia von Cosel, who revealed the face of his true love, an exotic dark-haired woman, to him. On April 22, 1930, while working at the Marine Hospital in Key West, Tanzler met Maria Elena Milagro “Helen” de Hoyos (1909–1931), a local Cuban-American woman who had been brought to the hospital for an examination by her mother. Tanzler immediately recognized her as the beautiful dark-haired woman that had been revealed to him in his earlier “visions.” By all accounts, Hoyos was viewed as a local beauty in Key West.

On February 18, 1926, Hoyos married Luis Mesa (1908–?), the son of Caridad and Isaac Mesa. Luis left Hoyos shortly after Hoyos miscarried the couples’ child, and moved to Miami. Hoyos was legally married to Mesa at the time of her death. Hoyos was eventually diagnosed with tuberculosis, a typically fatal disease at the time, that eventually claimed the lives of almost her entire immediate family. Tanzler, with his self-professed medical “knowledge,” attempted to treat and cure Hoyos with a variety of medicines, as well as x-ray and electrical equipment, that were brought to the Hoyos’ home. Tanzler showered Hoyos with gifts of jewelry and clothing, and allegedly professed his love to her.

Despite Tanzler’s best efforts, Hoyos died of terminal tuberculosis at her parent’s home in Key West on October 25, 1931. Following Hoyos’ funeral, which Tanzler paid for, and with the permission of her family, Tanzler commissioned the construction of an above ground mausoleum in the Key West Cemetery that he visited almost every night.

The Nasty Details

In April, 1933, Tanzler removed Hoyos’ body from the mausoleum, carted it through the cemetery after dark on a toy wagon, and transported it to his home. He reportedly said that Elena’s spirit would come to him when he would sit by her grave and sing a Spanish song, he also says she would tell him to take her from the grave. Tanzler attached the corpse’s bones together with wire and coat hangers, and fitted the face with glass eyes. As the skin of the corpse decomposed, Tanzler replaced it with silk cloth soaked in wax and plaster of paris. As the hair fell out of the decomposing scalp, Tanzler fashioned a wig from Hoyos’ hair that had been collected by her mother and given to Tanzler not long after her burial in 1931. Tanzler filled the corpse’s abdominal and chest cavity with rags to keep the original form, dressed Hoyos’ remains in stockings, jewelry, and gloves, and kept the body in his bed. Tanzler also used copious amounts of perfume, disinfectants, and preserving agents, to mask the odor and forestall the effects of the corpse’s decomposition.

In October, 1940, Elena’s sister Florinda heard rumors of Tanzler sleeping with the disinterred body of her sister, and confronted Tanzler at his home, where Hoyos’ body was eventually discovered. Florinda notified the authorities, and Tanzler was arrested and detained. Tanzler was psychiatrically examined, and found mentally competent to stand trial on the charge of “wantonly and maliciously destroying a grave and removing a body without authorization.” After a preliminary hearing on October 9, 1940 at the Monroe County Courthouse in Key West, Tanzler was held to answer on the charge, but the case was eventually dropped and he was released, as the statute of limitations for the crime had expired.

Shortly after the corpse’s discovery by authorities, Hoyos’ body was examined by physicians and pathologists, and put on public display at the Dean-Lopez Funeral Home, where it was viewed by as many as 6,800 people. Hoyos’ body was eventually returned to the Key West Cemetery where the remains were buried in an unmarked grave, in a secret location, to prevent further tampering.

Tanzer in Later Life

In 1944, Tanzler moved to Pasco County, Florida close to Zephyrhills, Florida, where he wrote an autobiography that appeared in the pulp publication, Fantastic Adventures, in 1947. His home was near his wife Doris, who apparently helped to support Tanzler in his later years. Tanzler received United States citizenship in 1950 in Tampa.
Separated from his obsession, Tanzler used a death mask to create a life-sized effigy of Hoyos, and lived with it until his death on July 3, 1952. His body was discovered on the floor of his home three weeks after his death. He died under the name “Carl Tanzler”.

It has been recounted that Tanzler was found in the arms of the Hoyos effigy upon discovery of his corpse, but his obituary reported that he died on the floor behind one of his organs. The obituary recounted: “a metal cylinder on a shelf above a table in it wrapped in silken cloth and a robe was a waxen image”.

It has also been written that Tanzler had the bodies switched (or that Hoyos’ remains were secretly returned to him), and that he died with the real body of Elena. There is no evidence that the waxen effigy found in his house at the time of his death contained bones, or any other human material.

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One of the more famous cases of Wendigo psychosis involved a Plains Cree trapper from Alberta, named Swift Runner. During the winter of 1878, Swift Runner and his family were starving, and his eldest son died. Within just 25 miles of emergency food supplies at a Hudson’s Bay Company post, Swift Runner butchered and ate his wife and five remaining children. Given that he resorted to cannibalism so near to food supplies, and that he killed and consumed the remains of all those present, it was revealed that Swift Runner’s was not a case of pure cannibalism as a last resort to avoid starvation, but rather of a man suffering from Wendigo psychosis. He eventually confessed and was executed by authorities at Fort Saskatchewan. Another well-known case involving Wendigo psychosis was that of Jack Fiddler, an Oji-Cree chief and shaman known for his powers at defeating Wendigos. In some cases this entailed euthanizing people suffering from Wendigo psychosis; as a result, in 1907, Fiddler and his brother Joseph were arrested by the Canadian authorities for murder. Jack committed suicide, but Joseph was tried and put to death.

Fascination with Wendigo psychosis among Western ethnographers, psychologists, and anthropologists led to a hotly debated controversy in the 1980s over the historicity of this phenomenon. Some researchers argued that Wendigo psychosis was essentially a fabrication, the result of naïve anthropologists taking stories related to them at face value. Others, however, pointed to a number of credible eyewitness accounts, both by Algonquians and by Westerners, as proof that Wendigo psychosis was a factual historical phenomenon.

The frequency of Wendigo psychosis cases decreased sharply in the 20th century as boreal Algonquian people came in to greater and greater contact with Western ideologies and more sedentary, less rural lifestyles. While there is substantive evidence to suggest that Wendigo psychosis did exist, a number of questions concerning the condition remain unanswered. [Source]

The Mythology

Among all creatures in Native American legend, the Wendigo is the most feared and powerful. The Wendigo was once a man that broke a tribal taboo and ate human flesh. A malignant spirit possesses the cannibal, and the Wendigo is born.

How does one become the Wendigo? There are numerous ways among the Native American people, but the most common method is for a man to willingly engage in cannibalism. Hunters, campers, and hikers (not necessarily Native Americans) most often travel with a companion, someone with whom they are good friends and are able to trust. Although a rarity, when these people become hopelessly lost and eventually run out of supplies, they inevitably turn on each other. Morality has no part of nature’s law. In the end, only the strongest live and kills the other. The victor then feasts on the flesh of the corpse. This heinous, blasphemous act is all that is needed to summon a malevolent spirit of the forest.

The spirit forcibly possesses the cannibal’s body, forcing the human soul out. The moment the cannibal is touched by supernatural forces, he is overcome by extreme nausea and pain. He starts vomiting uncontrollably, for hours at a time. Eventually, the cannibal loses enormous quantities of blood, and inevitably dies. However, the body undergoes a terrifying transformation. The body grows in strength and height, growing a thick coat of white fur. The human’s strength and weight increases greatly, gaining supernatural powers in the process. The head takes on the features of a predatory beast, including the growth of prominent fangs and sharp teeth. The fingernails and toenails grow into sharpened talons, completing the transformation. The cannibal is then resurrected by the evil spirit, no longer a man, but a bloodlusting beast known as the Wendigo. [Source]

Video Gallery

1. Atmospheric telling of a Wendigo tale (mythology)

Sky burial is a ritual that has great religious meaning. Tibetans are encouraged to witness this ritual, to confront death openly and to feel the impermanence of life. Tibetans believe that the corpse is nothing more than an empty vessel. The spirit, or the soul, of the deceased has exited the body to be reincarnated into another circle of life. It is believed that the Drigung Kagyu order of Tibetan Buddhism established the tradition in this land of snow, although there are other versions of its origin.

The corpse is offered to the vultures. It is believed that the vultures are Dakinis. Dakinis are the Tibetan equivalent of angels. In Tibetan, Dakini means “sky dancer”. Dakinis will take the soul into the heavens, which is understood to be a windy place where souls await reincarnation into their next lives. This donation of human flesh to the vultures is considered virtuous because it saves the lives of small animals that the vultures might otherwise capture for food. Sakyamuni, one of the Buddhas, demonstrated this virtue. To save a pigeon, he once fed a hawk with his own flesh.

After death, the deceased will be left untouched for three days. Monks will chant around the corpse. Before the day of sky burial, the corpse will be cleaned and wrapped in white cloth. The corpse will be positioned in a fetal position, the same position in which the person had been born. The ritual of sky burial usually begins before dawn. Lamas lead a ritual procession to the charnel ground, chanting to guide the soul. There are few charnel grounds in Tibet. They are usually located near monasteries. Few people would visit charnel grounds except to witness sky burials. Few would want to visit these places.

The Process

After the chanting, the body breakers prepare the body for consumption by the vultures. The body is unwrapped and the first cut is made on the back. Hatchets and cleavers are used to quickly cut the body up, in a definite and precise way. Flesh is cut into chunks of meat. The internal organs are cut into pieces. Bones are smashed into splinters and then mixed with tsampa, roasted barley flour.

As the body breakers begin, juniper incense is burned to summon the vultures for their tasks, to eat breakfast and to be Dakinis. During the process of breaking up the body, those ugly and enormous birds circle overhead, awaiting their feast. They are waved away by the funeral party, usually consisting of the friends of the deceased, until the body breakers have completed their task. After the body has been totally separated, the pulverized bone mixture is scattered on the ground. The birds land and hop about, grabbing for food. To assure ascent of the soul, the entire body of the deceased should be eaten. After the bone mixture, the organs are served next, and then the flesh.

This mystical tradition arouses curiosity among those who are not Tibetan. However, Tibetans strongly object to visits by the merely curious. Only the funeral party will be present at the ritual. Photography is strictly forbidden (though this rule is sometimes breached as is apparent through our image gallery). Tibetans believe that photographing the ritual might negatively affect the ascent of the soul. [Source]

The Vultures

The species of vulture involved is apparently the “Eurasian Griffon” or “Old World vulture,” Order Falconiformes, Family Accipitridae, scientific name Gyps fulvus. In places where there are several jhator offerings each day, the birds sometimes had to be coaxed to eat, which in one case was accomplished by a ritual dance. It is considered a bad omen if the vultures will not eat, or if even a small portion of the body is left after the birds fly away. In places where fewer bodies are processed, the vultures were more eager and sometimes had to be fended off with sticks during the initial preparations.

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8. Family of the deceased

Source

1. Images of a burial

But according to the tenets of the some faiths, there is a way to thwart the process of decomposition. For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church held that individuals of the purest faith remain in a lifelike state after death, their bodies resisting the decay of the grave.

There are a number of documented cases in which people have been exhumed years after their deaths and were found inexplicably preserved. Even more amazing, some of these people have remained preserved for centuries. The church viewed this as a measure of sanctity, and incorruptibles — people whose bodies mysteriously thwart decay — were canonized into the tenets of Catholic mysticism. Incorruptibility became a component of beatification — the process of becoming sainted. This process also included the prospective saint appearing in visions to people after death and performing miracles, either after or during life. [Source]

Mummification Versus Incorruptibility

There are a few techniques wherein human remains can become preserved. One, of course, is mummification. In this method, pioneered by the pharaonic Egyptians, internal organs are carefully removed and body cavities are filled with herbs and other natural materials that combat decay. The body is then bathed in oils and wrapped tightly in linen. The mummified remains of Egypt’s early dynastic rulers can be found intact and on display around the world today, thousands of years after their deaths.

This is not the case for some of the incorruptibles found around the world — their existence baffles scientists. While the preserved remains of mummies are generally found in states of rigor mortis-like petrifaction, incorruptible corpses are pretty pliable. Their skin is supple, even years after their deaths. They appear, for all intents and purposes, to be sleeping or only recently dead. What’s more, these corpses don’t show signs of having been embalmed. And the local conditions don’t appear to have had a preservative effect on them. While they remained in a perfect state of composition, other corpses interred nearby were degenerating like normal.

Scientific Theories

The argument for a physical cause includes a belief that the corpse has been subjected to environmental conditions such that decomposition is significantly slowed. There are a number of ways of retarding decomposition, but the mechanism commonly stated is that of saponification. Another environmental condition that can be the cause of retarding decomposition is a burial ground that is cool and dry. The retardation of decomposition also occurs if the ground is composed of soil that is high in certain compounds that bring the bodies’ moisture to the surface of the skin. It is also suggested that bodies with low amounts of muscle and body fat tend to resist decomposition better.

The Odor of Sanctity

The Odour of Sanctity or Odor of Sanctity, according to the Catholic Church, is commonly understood to mean a specific scent (often compared to flowers) that emanates from the bodies of saints, especially from the wounds of stigmata or the corpse of an incorruptible. Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint Maravillas of Jesus (a Spanish Discalced Carmelite) were reported to have emitted heavenly scents immediately after they had died. Reputedly, Teresa of Avila’s scent emanated throughout the whole monastery the moment she died. Saint Thérèse de Lisieux (known as “the Little Flower”) was said to have produced a strong scent of roses at her death, which was detectable for days afterward. Likewise, Padre Pio’s stigmata allegedly emanated the smell of roses.

Video Gallery

1. Exhumation of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina and discovery of his incorruptibility (died 1968)

2. Incorrupt body of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes (died 1879)

3. Incorrupt body of Saint Vincent de Paul (died 1660)

Image Gallery

1. St Pio of Pietrelcina (died 1968)

2. St John Vianney (died 1859)

3. St Bernadette of Lourdes (died 1879)

4. St Vincent de Paul (died 1660)

5. St Silvan (died 350 AD)

6. St Veronica Giuliani (died 1727)

7. St John Bosco (died 1888)

8. St Teresa Margaret (died 1770)

9. Blessed Imelda Lambertini (died 1333 – 12 years old)

10. St Catherine Laboure (died 1876)

11. St Clare of Assisi (died 1253; best friend of St Francis of Assisi)

12. St Agnes of Montepulciano (died 1317)

13. St Margarita María Alacoque (died 1690)

14. St Rita of Cascia (died 1457)

15. St Francis Xavier (died 1552)

16. St Maria Goretti (died 1902)

The practice of Famadihana is on the decline due to the expense of silk shrouds and opposition from some Christian organizations. Evangelical Protestants discourage the custom, although the Catholic Church no longer objects because it regards Famadihana as purely cultural rather than religious. As one Malagasy man explained to the BBC, It’s important because it’s our way of respecting the dead. It is also a chance for the whole family, from across the country, to come together. The festival represents for the peoples of the central highlands a time of communion with the dead and a means of avoiding or reducing guilt or blame. It is considered a serious transgression not to hold a famadihana when one is financially able to do so.

The Festival

The Famadihana is one of the most popular festivals in Madagascar. It is a traditional festival and is celebrated in both urban and rural areas of the country, though it is especially popular among the tribal communities. The Famadihana is also held to give respect to the dead through the transference of the bones to a permanent dwelling place. The family of the razana saves funds all year to celebrate the festival. The burial tomb is constructed with much care and it is considered to act as the link between the dead and the living. The relatives of the dead dress themselves well and go to the tomb to see the remains of the deceased. Relatives, friends and other near and dear ones are invited to the event. The event is organized to occur every 2 to 7 years.

The festival also consists of animal sacrifices and various traditional forms of celebration. The meat of the slain animal is distributed among the relatives and the friends. There are traditional song and dance performances which are performed by the family members or from the favorites of the razana (the dead). The main motive behind the festival originated from the belief of the local people that the dead return to God and are again reborn. Dead people are highly respected in the local communities as they are considered to be directly related to God.

Video Gallery

1. Famadihana de Tana

2. Series of videos of the event

3. Photos to music

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Further Reading

1. Famadihana: a personal experience
2. BBC article on famadihana

The Disorders

Jerusalem Syndrome

The Jerusalem syndrome is a group of mental phenomena involving the presence of either religiously themed obsessive ideas, delusions or other psychosis-like experiences that are triggered by, or lead to, a visit to the city of Jerusalem. It is not endemic to one single religion or denomination but has affected Jews and Christians of many different backgrounds.

The best known, although not the most prevalent, manifestation of the Jerusalem syndrome is the phenomenon whereby a person who seems previously balanced and devoid of any signs of psychopathology becomes psychotic after arriving in Jerusalem. The psychosis is characterised by an intense religious theme and typically resolves to full recovery after a few weeks or after being removed from the area.

During a period of 13 years (1980-1993) for which admissions to the Kfar Shaul Mental Health Centre in Jerusalem were analysed, it was reported that 1,200 tourists with severe, Jerusalem-themed mental problems were referred to this clinic. Of these, 470 were admitted to hospital. On average, 100 such tourists have been seen annually, 40 of them requiring admission to hospital.

Paris Syndrome

Paris syndrome is a transient psychological disorder encountered by some people visiting or vacationing in Paris, France. Japanese visitors are observed to be especially susceptible. From the estimated six million yearly visitors the number of reported cases is significant. It is characterized by a number of psychiatric symptoms as acute delusional states, hallucinations, feelings of persecution (delusional belief of being a victim of prejudice, aggression, hostility to others), a derealization, a depersonalization, anxiety, and also psychosomatic manifestations such as dizziness, tachycardia, sweating, etc..

The four main factors to cause the disorder are:

1. Language barrier – few Japanese speak French and vice versa. This is believed to be the principal difficulty and is thought to engender the remainder. Apart from the obvious differences between French and Japanese many everyday phrases and idioms are shorn of meaning and substance when translated adding to the confusion of some who haven’t previously encountered such.

2. Cultural difference – the authors state that the large difference between not only the languages but the manner in which Latin populations communicate on an interpersonal level in comparison to the rigidly formal Japanese culture proves too great a difficulty for some Japanese visitors. It is thought that it is the rapid and frequent fluctuations in mood, tense and attitude especially in the delivery of humor that cause the most difficulty.

3. Idealized image of Paris – it is also speculated as manifesting from an individual’s inability to reconcile a disparity between the Japanese popular image and the reality of Paris.

4. Exhaustion – finally, it is thought that the over-booking of one’s time and energy, whether on a business trip or on holiday, in attempting to cram too much into every moment of a stay in Paris along with the effects of jet lag all contribute to the psychological destabilization of some.

Florence Syndrome

Also sometimes referred to as Stendhal Syndrome, Florence syndrome is a psychosomatic illness that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to art, usually when the art is particularly beautiful or a large amount of art is in a single place. The term can also be used to describe a similar reaction to a surfeit of choice in other circumstances, e.g. when confronted with immense beauty in the natural world.

It is named after the famous 19th century French author Stendhal (pseudonym of Henri-Marie Beyle), who described his experience with the phenomenon during his 1817 visit to Florence, Italy in his book Naples and Florence: A Journey from Milan to Reggio.

Although there are many descriptions of people becoming dizzy and fainting while taking in Florentine art, especially at the Uffizi, dating from the early 19th century on, the syndrome was only named in 1979, when it was described by Italian psychiatrist Graziella Magherini, who observed and described more than 100 similar cases among tourists and visitors in Florence. The syndrome was first diagnosed in 1982.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. Text is derived from Wikipedia.

Bog Bodies can be found in various states. Some are merely skeletons and can only reveal a limited amount of information to scientists. Others are partially preserved and may still hold some clues as to who they were or how they died. Finally, there are those that have been completely preserved with their clothes still intact and their facial expressions the very same as they had been when they were buried. The most intriguing thing about these intact Bog Bodies is what the reveal about the manner in which they died.

A large number of the Bog Bodies that have been unearthed did not die of natural causes. Some scientists believe that the Bog Bodies may have been the victims of ritual sacrifices. There are some Bog Bodies that leave no question as to whether or not they were murdered. Here are a few examples of them.

Notable Examples

The Hildremose Woman was found in Denmark. She is suspected to have died between 160 BC and 340 AD. Her body was mutilated so badly that one of her arms was completely cut off.

The body of a sixteen-year-old girl was found in Holland. She most likely died between 170 BC and 230 AD. Her body showed signs of strangulation. Indeed there was a length of rope still around her neck.

The Elling Woman was found in Denmark. She probably died between 160 BC and 340 AD. She was hanged and the noose that was used to kill her was still around her neck when she was discovered.

The Tollund Man is probably the most disturbing of all the Bog Bodies.His face is perfectly preserved and life like. He could almost be sleeping, were it not for the unnatural color of his face. He still wears a hat that was on his head at the time of death. He was between 30-40 years old when he died. He was hung, similarly to the Elling Woman. The noose remains as well.

How They Are Preserved

The Bog Bodies are able to be so well preserved because of where they are buried. Though it is important to note that they were not actually buried, they were placed in the bog water and covered with branches. The bogs in which these bodies were placed are near saltwater. The peat moss in these bogs collects the salt from the air and releases acid into the bog water. The water then permeates throughout the cells in the corpse.

Because of the acid, bacteria cannot survive in these bogs, so the bodies do not decompose as they normally would. If there is enough acid in the water the bones of the corpse will disintegrate, leaving only the skin and hair. Calverous bogs will do the opposite and leave only the skeleton. The process that preserves the bodies intact leaves the flesh of the corpse a dark leathery brown. It is believed that only bodies that are dumped in the bogs when the water is frigid, will be preserved.

Northwestern Europe

The oldest of the Bog Bodies dates from around 8000 BC and the youngest from early mediaeval times. The clothing found on some of these bodies is preserved perfectly with them and can tell us a lot about the clothing of their time. Scarves, hats, belts, shoes, capes and skirts have been found on the Bog Bodies. Most of them are made of woven wool or leather. Scientists have also been able to analyze the contents of some of the Bog People’s stomachs. A lot of them seem to have eaten gruel shortly before their death. This leads some to believe that they were given a last meal before they were sacrificed. Other Bog Bodies appear to have been recipients of trepanning surgery.

Bog Bodies have been found in other places, but none are as well preserved as the mysterious Bog People of northwestern Europe. These bodies have given quite a bit of insight into the people of their various times, but still hold many secrets. We can get a good glimpse of the food they ate, the weapons they used and the clothing they wore, but the reason some of them were murdered is still a matter of debate. There are probably many more left undiscovered. Who knows what may be learned about them in the future?

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“In all my travels, the only time I ever slept deeply was when I was with wolves… The days with my wolf family multiplied. I have no idea how many months I spent with them but I wanted it to last forever – it was far better than returning to the world of my own kind. Today, though most memories of my long journey are etched in tones of grey, the time spent with the wolves… is drenched in colour. Those were the most beautiful days I had ever experienced.” Quote from Misha Defonseca, a Jewish orphan who, from the ages of seven to 11, wandered through occupied Europe in World War II, living on wild berries, raw meat and food stolen from farmhouses, and occasionally teaming up with wolves.

Well Known Cases of Feral Children

Wild Peter

The first really famous feral child was Wild Peter, “a naked, brownish, black-haired creature” captured near Helpensen in Hanover in 1724, when he was about 12. He climbed trees with ease, lived off plants and seemed incapable of speech. He refused bread, preferring to strip the bark from green twigs and suck on the sap; but he eventually learnt to eat fruit and vegetables. He was presented at court in Hanover to George I, and taken to England, where he was studied by leading men of letters. He spent 68 years in society, but never learnt to say anything except “Peter” and “King George”, although his hearing and sense of smell were said to be “particularly acute”.

The Wild Girl of Champagne

The wild girl of Champagne had probably learned to speak before her abandonment, for she is a rare example of a wild child learning to talk coherently – although she could remember little of her feral existence, which she thought had lasted two years. When coaxed from a tree in Songi near Chalons in the French district of Champagne in 1731, she was aged about 10, barefoot, and dressed in rags and skins with a gourd leaf on her head. In a pouch she carried a cudgel and a knife inscribed with indecipherable characters. She shrieked and squeaked, and was so dirty (or possibly painted) that she was mistaken for a black child. Her diet consisted of birds, frogs and fish, leaves, branches and roots. Given a rabbit, she immediately skinned and devoured it.

“Her fingers and in particular her thumbs, were extraordinarily large,” according to a contemporary witness, the famous scientist Charles Marie de la Condamine. She is said to have used her thumbs to dig out roots and swing from tree to tree like a monkey. She was a very fast runner and had phenomenally sharp eyesight. When the Queen of Poland, the mother of the French queen, passed through Champagne in 1737 to take possession of the Duchy of Lorraine, she heard about the girl and took her hunting, where she outran and killed rabbits. She was given the name Marie-Angélique Memmie Le Blanc, and later eked out an existence in Paris by making artificial flowers and hawking her memoirs (written by Madame Hecquet). She died, like most of the feral children, in obscurity.

John Ssebunya – the Ugandan Monkey-Boy

One day in 1991, a Ugandan villager called Milly Sebba went further than usual in search of firewood and came upon a little boy with a pack of monkeys. She summoned help and the boy was cornered up a tree. He was brought back to Milly’s village and fed hot food, which made him very ill for three days. He had many wounds and scales, and a lot of hair. His knees were almost white from walking on them. His nails were very long and curled round and he wasn’t house-trained. The villagers removed tapeworms from his behind, some of them reportedly 4ft long.

A villager identified the boy as John Sesebunya, last seen in 1988 at the age of two or three when his father murdered his mother and disappeared. After John was discovered, his father was traced, but was not interested in caring for the wild boy. A few weeks later the father was found hanged, a victim of civil unrest. After his mother was murdered John had fled to the jungle, apparently terrified he would be next.

For the next three years or so, he lived wild. He vaguely remembers monkeys coming up to him, after a few days, and offering him roots and nuts, sweet potatoes and kasava. The five monkeys, two of them young, were wary at first, but befriended him within about two weeks and taught him, he says, to travel with them, to search for food and to climb trees. “I didn’t sleep very well,” he remembers, “head down and bottom in the air… or I would climb a tree.” Some sources say John’s guardians were Vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus æthiops); others say they were black-and-white Colobus monkeys (Colobus guereza).

The boy was adopted by Paul and Molly Wasswa, who run the Kamuzinda Christian Orphanage in Masaka, 100 miles from Kampala. He has been studied by a host of experts, who are convinced that he is a genuine feral child. When left with a group of monkeys he avoided eye contact and approached them from the side with open palms, in classic simian fashion. He has a strange lopsided gait and pulls his lips right back when he smiles. He tends to greet people with a powerful hug, in the way that monkeys greet each other. He has, however, learned to wink – something a monkey would never do.

He is now about 21 years old with a fine singing voice, and in October 1999 went to Britain as part of the 20-strong Pearl of Africa Children’s Choir, run by Mr Wasswa’s organisation AFRICA (Association for Relief and Instruction of Children in Africa).

The Gazelle Boy

Jean-Claude Auger, an anthropologist from the Basque country, was travelling alone across the Spanish Sahara (Rio de Oro) in 1960 when he met some Nemadi nomads, who told him about a wild child a day’s journey away. The next day, he followed the nomads’ directions. On the horizon he saw a naked child “galloping in gigantic bounds among a long cavalcade of white gazelles”.

Auger found a small oasis of thorn bushes and date palms and waited for the herd. Three days later, his patience was rewarded, but it took several more days of sitting and playing his galoubet (Berber flute) to win the animals’ confidence. Eventually, the child approached him, showing “his lively, dark, almond-shaped eyes and a pleasant, open expression… he appears to be about 10 years old; his ankles are disproportionately thick and obviously powerful, his muscles firm and shivering; a scar, where a piece of flesh must have been torn from the arm, and some deep gashes mingled with light scratches (thorn bushes or marks of old struggles?) form a strange tattoo.”

The boy walked on all fours, but occasionally assumed an upright gait, suggesting to Auger that he was abandoned or lost at about seven or eight months, having already learnt to stand. He habitually twitched his muscles, scalp, nose and ears, much like the rest of the herd, in response to the slightest noise. Even in deepest sleep he seemed constantly alert, raising his head at unusual noises, however faint, and sniffing around him like the gazelles.

Auger describes how he gradually learnt to decipher the significance of every gazelle gesture and movement, which the boy shared with the herd. There was a complex code of stamping to indicate distance of food sources; and social interaction through exchanges of licking and sniffing, with the boy emitting a kind of mute cry from the back of his throat with his mouth closed. He had one word: kal (khah), meaning stone or rock. One senior female seemed to act as his adoptive mother. He would eat desert roots with his teeth, pucking his nostrils like the gazelles. He appeared to be herbivorous apart from the occasional agama lizard or worm when plant life was lacking. His teeth edges were level like those of a herbivorous animal.

Two years after his stay with the herd, Auger returned with a Spanish army captain and his aid-de-camp, who kept their distance to avoid frightening the herd off. Curiosity eventually overcame them and they chased the boy in a jeep to see how fast he could run. This frightened him off altogether, though he reached a speed of 32-34mph, with continuous leaps of about 13ft. Olympic sprinters can reach only 25mph in short bursts.

His pursuers failed to keep up across the rough terrain, and eventually the herd disappeared as the jeep sustained a puncture. In 1966 an unsuccessful attempt was made to catch the boy in a net suspended from a helicopter; unlike most of the feral children of whom we have records, the gazelle boy was never removed from his wild companions. Auger took no photographs of the boy, being more concerned with protecting him from human interference than providing evidence to convince the sceptics of his existence.

Kamala and Amala

The most famous wolf-children are the two girls captured in October 1920 from a huge abandoned ant-hill squatted by wolves near Godamuri in the vicinity of Midnapore, west of Calcutta, by villagers under the direction of the Rev JAL Singh, an Anglican missionary. The mother wolf was shot. The girls were named Kamala and Amala, and were thought to be aged about eight and two. According to Singh, the girls had misshapen jaws, elongated canines, and eyes that shone in the dark with the peculiar blue glare of cats and dogs. Amala died the following year, but Kamala survived until 1929, by which time she had given up eating carrion, had learned to walk upright and spoke about 50 words.

Most Recent Finds

February 2008, Prava, the Bird Boy

“He just chirps and when realising that he is not understood, starts to wave hands in the way birds winnow wings.” Quote from Social Worker, Galina Volskaya.

The most recent case of Mowgli Syndrome was that of a seven-year-old boy who was rescued by Russian healthcare workers after being discovered living in a two-bedroom apartment with his mother and an abundance of feathered friends. It would appear the small apartment doubled as an aviary with cages filled with dozens of birds. In an interview, one of his rescuers, Social Worker Galina Volskaya, said that his mother treated him like another pet. While he was never physically harmed by his mother, she simply never spoke to him. It was the birds who communicated with the boy

2006: Arthur Zverev, the Wolf-boy

Social workers took three weeks to catch Arthur Zverev, who barks and runs on all fours.

A four-year-old boy who was raised by wild dogs and cats was found living on the streets. He would drink from puddles, roamed the rubbish tip with the pack of wild animals, cuddling up to them in the evenings.

Information and Observations on Feral Children

Many wild children were extraordinarily fast quadrupedal runners – almost ‘superhuman’. We might recall that Atalanta, the bear-suckled heroine of Greek myth, was the most swift-footed of mortals. When first captured, Memmie Le Blanc moved with “a sort of flying gallop” and could out-run game; and the Saharan gazelle-boy was clocked at 7mph faster than the best Olympic sprinter.

A facility for tree-climbing was another common trait. Peter, Memmie, Victor and the Ugandan John Sesebunya were all agile arborialists; the last three were cornered up trees before their capture. The wolf-child of Overdyke in Holland, abandoned during the Napoleonic wars, climbed trees with wonderful agility to get eggs and birds, which he devoured raw. ‘Tarzancito’, the wild boy of El Salvador (1935) slept in trees to avoid predators.

A number of ferals were hirsute, including Jean de Liège (17th cent), the second Lithuanian bear-child (1669), the Kranenburg girl (1717), the wild boy of Kronstadt (fl.1784), the second Hasunpur wolf-child (1843), the Shajampur child (1898), and the Naini Lal bear-child (1914). A young man caught in woods near Riga, Latvia, in November 1936 was allegedly “covered in long thick hair”.

“Over time all my senses were heightened – my vision, my hearing, even my sense of smell,” wrote Misha Defonseca, the Jewish orphan who wandered through Nazi-occupied Europe. “That hypersensitivity stayed with me for a very long time after I left the forest”.

Feral senses were often more acute than those of socialised humans. Kaspar Hauser and many of the Indian wolf-children, including the Midnapore girls, could see well in the dark. Jean de Liège could recognise his warden by smell from a distance; Kamala could smell meat from one end of the orphanage garden – a compound of three and a half acres – to the other; and many wild children sniffed at objects in the way that cats and dogs do. Victor of Aveyron, the first Sultanpur child (1847), Kamala and Amala had an unusually sharp sense of hearing.

Many wild children had a keen ear for music. Peter was delighted by music, and would clap and sing. Memmie was a perfect mimic of songbirds such as the nightingale. The Overdyke boy named each bird by imitating its cry. A naked youth aged about 15, caught in woods near Uzitza, Yugoslavia, in 1934, could mimic animals and birds as well as run amazingly fast. The Turkish bear-girl responded to music, sometimes bursting into wild, unintelligible songs. John Sesebunya sings in a choir.

Another phenomenon is the wild children’s insensitivity to extremes of temperature, a characteristic shared with desert nomad and gypsy children. This was seen in the Irish sheep-boy, Victor, the Kronstadt boy, the first Sultanpur child, the Midnapore girls, and the Saharan gazelle-boy. The latter was seen to grab a handful of hot embers and hold them for some time without apparent pain, while Victor took potatoes out of a pot of boiling water. At least eight ferals angrily tore off any clothing they were dressed in.

Hardly any of them learnt to laugh or smile and their libidos seemed stunted. Kaspar confused dreams with reality and spoke of himself in the third person. Neither Victor nor Kaspar could recognise their reflections in a mirror; the Turkish bear-girl would sit for hours in her room gazing at herself in a mirror. Auger observed the gazelle-boy looking at his reflection in a pool of water as if it were a stranger.

Skepticism

Many academics regarded the whole phenomenon of feral children with scepticism. Most of the children never learnt to speak, while those that did could recall very little of their wild existence. Similarly, the circumstances of their discovery were by their nature anecdotal, taking place far from habitation and often depending on the testimony of a solitary witness. Many accounts of feral children have been embroidered with fantastic details, inviting academic disdain. Dismissing testimony as superstition and folklore became commonplace in 19th century science, to the detriment of folk wisdom and forteana.

Many examples of ossuaries are found within Europe such as the Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini in Rome, Italy, the San Bernardino alle Ossa in Milan, Italy, the Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic, and Capela dos Ossos (Chapel of bones) in the city of Évora, in Portugal. The village of Wamba in the province of Valladolid, Spain has an impressive ossuary of over a thousand skulls inside the local church, dating from between the 12th and the 18th centuries.

While the idea of an ossuary makes some individuals squeamish, ossuaries have been a part of human life for thousands of years. Some early humans exhumed and moved their dead after a set period of time had elapsed. Some cultures carried their dead with them in portable ossuaries or slings, because they believed that this would make the spirits of the dead more accessible. The construction of solid crypt-like ossuaries has been carried on for centuries, with several fine examples scattered around Europe (as is obvious from the image gallery below).

In the Catholic Church, an ossuary is used to house the relics of saints, and many deeply religious individuals make pilgrimages to the site of ossuaries so that they can look on the remains of saints and other individuals sacred to the church. The Zoroastrian religion also incorporated the use of ossuaries for skeletonizes bone, throwing the bones into a large well. The custom of exhumation and interment in an ossuary used to be a part of Jewish tradition as well, due to limited cemetery space. Some religions, such as Islam, have never had a tradition of exhumation, and the practice is forbidden to Muslims.

Image Gallery

Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini

Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini was designed by Antonio Casoni and built between 1626 and 1631. It comprises a small nave and several side chapels. The chapels are notable as one contains the body of St. Felix of Cantalice and another is the tomb of the Blessed Crispin of Viterbo. The church is most famous as an ossuary, known as the Capuchin Crypt, in which is displayed the bones of over 4,000 Capuchin friars, collected between the years of 1528 and 1870. The bones are fashioned into decorative displays in the Baroque and Rococo style.

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Sedlec Ossuary

The Sedlec Ossuary is a small Roman Catholic chapel, located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints in Sedlec, a suburb of Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic. The ossuary is estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, many of whom have had their bones artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel. [Image Source]

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San Bernardino alle Ossa

San Bernardino alle Ossa is a church in Milan, northern Italy, best known for its ossuary, a small side chapel decorated with numerous human skulls and bones. In 1210, when an adjacent cemetery ran out of space, a room was built to hold bones. A church was attached in 1269. Renovated in 1679, it was destroyed by a fire in 1712. A new bigger church was then attached to the older one and dedicated to Saint Bernardino of Siena. Niches and doors are decorated with bones, in Roccoco style.

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Paris Catacombs

The Catacombs of Paris are a famous underground ossuary in Paris, France. During the 18th century, the growing population of Paris resulted in the saturation of existing cemeteries, raising public health concerns. Towards the end of the 18th century, it was decided to create three new large cemeteries and to condemn the existing cemeteries within the city limits. Remains were progressively moved to a renovated section of the abandoned mines beneath Paris that would eventually become a full-fledged ossuary. The entrance is located on present day Place Denfert-Rochereau.

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The person performing the exorcism, known as an exorcist, is often a member of the clergy, or an individual thought to be graced with special powers or skills. The exorcist may use prayers, and religious material, such as set formulas, gestures, symbols, icons, amulets, etc.. The exorcist often invokes God, Jesus and/or several different angels and archangels to intervene with the exorcism.

In general, possessed persons are not regarded as evil in themselves, nor wholly responsible for their actions. Therefore, practitioners regard exorcism as more of a cure than a punishment. The mainstream rituals usually take this into account, making sure that there is no violence to the possessed, only that they be tied down if there is potential for violence.

The Exorcist

Most people are unaware of the fact that all ordained Catholic priests are officially exorcists, though permission must be given by the local Bishop for an exorcism to take place. These days, before that permission is granted, a thorough investigation (including psychological testing) is performed on the possessed to ensure that there is not an earthly reason for the person’s behavior. This permission is seldom given but occurrences are on the rise. The Vatican has a chief exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth, 82, who performs exorcisms daily in Rome and is dean of Europe’s corps of demon-battling priests. He also founded the International Association of Exorcists, a Roman Catholic organization that was founded by Father Amorth and five other priests. Although the membership is restricted and exclusive by 2000 there were over two hundred members. A priest must have permission of his bishop to join and they meet bi-annually in Rome. The association sends out a quarterly newsletter where members can tell of particularly difficult or interesting cases.

The Ritual

In Roman Catholic dogma exorcism is a ritual but not a sacrament, unlike baptism or confession. Catholic exorcism is still one of the most rigid and organized of all existing exorcism rituals. Things listed in the Roman Ritual as being indicators of possible demonic possession include: speaking foreign or ancient languages of which the possessed has no prior knowledge; supernatural abilities and strength; knowledge of hidden or remote things which the possessed has no way of knowing, an aversion to anything holy, profuse blasphemy, and/or sacrilege. The act of exorcism is considered to be an incredibly dangerous spiritual task. The ritual assumes that possessed persons retain their free will, though the demon may hold control over their physical body, and involves prayers, blessings, and invocations with the use of the document Of Exorcisms and Certain Supplications. Here is a sample of the text used in the ritual:

I command you, unclean spirit, whoever you are, along with all your minions now attacking this servant of God, by the mysteries of the incarnation, passion, resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the descent of the Holy Ghost, by the coming of our Lord for judgment, that you tell me by some sign your name, and the day and hour of your departure. I command you, moreover, to obey me to the letter, I who am a minister of God despite my unworthiness; nor shall you be emboldened to harm in any way this creature of God, or the bystanders, or any of their possessions.

Depart, then, transgressor. Depart, seducer, full of lies and cunning, foe of virtue, persecutor of the innocent. Give place, abominable creature, give way, you monster, give way to Christ, in whom you found none of your works. For he has already stripped you of your powers and laid waste your kingdom, bound you prisoner and plundered your weapons. He has cast you forth into the outer darkness, where everlasting ruin awaits you and your abettors.

Notable Exorcisms

1. Anneliese Michel was a Catholic woman from Germany who was said to be possessed by six or more demons and subsequently underwent an exorcism in 1975. Annelise died from malnutrition and dehydration during the exorcism, and both her parents and two priests were charged with manslaughter resulting from negligence. Two motion pictures, The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Requiem are loosely based on Anneliese’s story. A recording of Anneliese’s exorcism is below. Anneliese is pictured to the right.

2. A boy identified by the pseudonym “Roland Doe” was the subject of an exorcism in 1949, which became the subject of The Exorcist, a horror novel and later film written by William Peter Blatty. Blatty heard about the case while he was a student in the class of 1950 at Georgetown University. The exorcism was partially performed in both Cottage City, Maryland and Bel-Nor, Missouri by Father William S. Bowdern, S.J. and a then Jesuit scholastic Fr. Walter Halloran, S.J.

3. Mother Teresa allegedly underwent an exorcism late in life under the direction of the Archbishop of Calcutta, Henry D’Souza, after he noticed she seemed to be extremely agitated in her sleep and feared she “might be under the attack of the evil one.”

Image Gallery

1. Anneliese Michel (the real Emily Rose)

2. Unknown exorcist

3. Unknown exorcist 2

4. Exorcism in Russia

5. Another Russian exorcism

Video Gallery

1. Documentary Promo

2. 1987 Exorcism by Bishop McKenna

3. Bishop performing an exorcism

4. Description of an exorcism

5. Vatican chief exorcist discusses the subject

Audio Samples

WARNING: These audio recordings are quite horrific. If you are alone or prone to fainting spells, you may want to think twice before playing them.

1. Listen to a Russian exorcism
2. Listen to the real recording of the exorcism of Emily rose (Anneliese Michel)

Further Reading

1. Possession and Exorcism
2. Exorcism Forums
3. Catholic Encylopedia Article
4. The entire ritual