Who Killed Kendrick Johnson?

Kendrick Johnson with parents, Kenneth and Jaquelyn.

-This article contains GRAPHIC IMAGES which may not be suitable for some-
On the evening of January 10, 2013, 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson, a sophomore at Lowndes High School did not return home from school. The following day at 9AM, his body was discovered inside a rolled up wrestling mat in the gym of his Valdosta, Georgia high school. The grisly discovery was made by two sisters, daughters of the Superintendent, Wes Taylor. The girls were sitting in the gym near an area full of rolled up mats when they noticed a pair of feet inside one of them. The mat was moved from its vertical position to the floor, horizontally, by teachers at the school. The cause of death was determined to be accidental/positional asphyxia (AKA postural asphyxia), meaning Kendrick’s body was in such a position within the mat that he was unable to breathe and eventually led to his death. According to the medical examiner at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the boy went into the mat head-first to retrieve his shoe, was unable to get out, and eventually died with a pair of headphones still in his hand; However, Kendrick’s parents, along with the majority of the population do not believe what investigators claim happened. The Johnsons hired a private pathologist who easily came to the conclusion after exhuming the young man’s corpse that Kendrick Johnson died due to blunt force trauma to the neck and was rolled into the mat following his death in an attempt to hide the body. Students at Lowndes High School said Kendrick had shared a pair of Adidas for gym class with another student who stated Kendrick would, “Go to the mats, jump up and toss the shoes inside the middle of the hole.”, but the question remains; Why would anyone go inside the mat to retrieve the shoe? Yes, teenagers do dumb things, but the fact is the evidence does not add up. Aside from evidence of blunt force trauma noted in the second autopsy, which was blatantly obvious even to the casual observer in crime scene photos, the shoes he was last seen wearing were found on him, next to his feet.

Kendrick Johnson’s feet and the shoes he was last seen wearing inside gym mat where his body was discovered.

 

Crime scene photo of Kendrick Johnson, postmortem.

If Kendrick Johnson went into the mat after his shoes as the Georgia Bureau of Investigation claims, how did the shoes end up on him? It doesn’t take an FBI agent to figure out there is absolutely no way the GBI’s version of the story is correct. Someone would have had to have placed Kendrick’s shoes inside the mat after Kendrick was inside it. Not to mention, Kendrick Johnson’s shoulders measured 19 inches across, whereas the opening of the mat was only 14 inches wide when the body was discovered. Although signs of postmortem bloat were evident, this was not the cause for the 5 inch difference as his shoulders measured 19 inches across in life. As we know, it is physically impossible for a 19 inch object to fit inside a 14 inch opening; Also, it does not take an FBI agent to figure that one out. During the second autopsy, it was also discovered that Kendrick’s organs had been removed and disposed of, his body was stuffed with newspaper. The funeral home which prepared the boy’s body claims his organs were removed by the GBI’s coroner because they had been, “Destroyed through natural process” and were “Discarded by the prosecutor before the body was sent back to Valdosta [to the funeral home]”. It was determined that while the funeral home did no wrong-doing in filling his body with newspaper, they had not followed the “best practice” (while it is not unusual for organs to be removed from a corpse due to liquefaction of organs, usually the body is stuffed with sawdust, cotton, or some other material less disrespectful to the deceased than old newspapers). The State of Georgia claims, however, they did turn over Kendrick’s organs to the funeral home in question. This is only one of a laundry list of inconsistencies in the case. On the morning Kendrick Johnson’s body was discovered, investigators requested the surveillance video from the school’s motion detecting cameras. These videos were supposed to be handed over that very morning but were not given to police until five days later. In November 2013, 290 hours of surveillance footage from 35 cameras in the vicinity of the school’s gymnasium were released to the public. It was discovered that two of the cameras were missing footage; One had one hour and five minutes cut, the other was missing two hours and ten minutes. Although these cameras were motion activated, the footage was cut out of the tapes, as opposed to the camera failing to record at that time. This is obvious evidence that the tapes were tampered with by the school before being handed over to investigators. What is seen on the tapes is a Lowndes High School student crisscrossing through the hallway outside of the gym on the day of Kendrick Johnson’s murder. Kendrick had previously suffered racial harassment from this student seen erratically crossing the hallway outside the gym, who is even changes his clothing at one point on the video. Complains of harassment were ignored by the school, despite the fact that this student had attacked Kendrick on a bus trip to a football game earlier in the year and on one occasion prior to that. It is said the student in question “had a history of provoking and attacking” and most interestingly of all, this student, Brandon Bell, is the son of a member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. There were also rumors that Kendrick had a sexual relationship with Brandon Bell’s older brother, Brian’s, ex-girlfriend; Allegedly, this prompted GBI member Rick Bell to encourage his two sons and six of their friends to attack Kendrick Johnson on the bus during their football trip. The investigation into Kendrick Johnson’s death was nothing short of corrupt, to say the least and Sheriff Chris Prine has been nothing short of an utter asshole (to put it as nicely as possible) in speaking with those who question the “accidental death” B.S. Police did not wear protective footwear during the investigation, which are worn not to protect the officers’ shoes, but to protect the crime scene from potential contamination. Law enforcement did not allow Kendrick’s parents to ever identify his body, which is routine, and the coroner was not called to the scene for six hours. In investigations led by… anyone, ever, who is not corrupt and trying to hide information, the coroner is called immediately. The coroner who worked the case said the scene had most definitely been compromised, adding that the report they had written on Kendrick’s death was changed by law enforcement. Both failing to wear protective footwear and failing to call the coroner are illegal in the State of Georgia. The coroner also asserted that despite the fact police were notified that the scene should be sealed off as a murder investigation due to signs of bruising on Kendrick’s face and neck, it was ignored and foot traffic in the surrounding area continued as usual. A pair of shoes and Hollister hoodie not belonging to Kendrick was discovered in the gym next to the mat his body was inside, but the items were not taken into evidence and were all but ignored.

Shoe NOT belonging to Kendrick Johnson found in gym. Blood splatter is visible on the toe.

Blood on the scene was also looked past by investigators. Blood could be clearly seen beneath the mat in which Kendrick’s body was discovered and blood was on the shoe he had supposedly dove in to retrieve. More blood was found on a vertical beam inside the gym and a trashcan in the gym’s restroom was full of bloody paper towels. Investigators and school employees dismissed the blood saying it had come from a female student who had injured herself in the gym the day before. The blood in the trashcan was tested and found to not be Kendrick’s, yet there was no further investigation into who the blood did belong to. No female student ever came forward to say she was this “female” who had reportedly injured herself.

Blood on vertical beam in gym, evident in crime scene photos.

Regardless of whether or not the blood belonged to Kendrick, when blood is present at a crime scene, in actual investigations, those sort of things are not overlooked, no matter how inconsequential they may end up being to the investigation. Police on the case claim 25 students from the wrestling team, including Brandon Bell, were not at the school when Kendrick went missing due to a competition in Macon, Georgia. They claim the wrestling team members were excused from classes at 11:32 AM on January 10th to make the 152 mile trip, which would have taken approximately 2 hours and 11 minutes. However, there is video evidence that at least some of these 25 wrestlers, including Brandon Bell, were at the school cafeteria from 11:32-12:02 and three separate school documents show evidence that the wrestling team actually departed at 4:00pm. The school did eventually admit the bus was running late and did not leave for the wrestling competition until 12:30 PM (noon) on January 10, which confirms they had, for some reason, attempted to convince police and the public that the bus had departed immediately following lunch, one half hour prior than it actually did (according to their story now, which may be subject to change as most the information from LHS on this case has). According to police, the wrestling coach’s cell phone records indicate the team was in Cordell, Georgia at 1:53pm, which is 85 miles north of the school and more than an hour away. Quite frankly, all that indicates is that the wrestling coach’s cell phone was in Cordell, Georgia at 1:53pm, or perhaps that the investigators working on this case pulled that out of their ass like much of the “evidence” presented in an attempt to validate the offensively false claim that Kendrick’s death was accidental.

Shoe which Kendrick Johnson allegedly went into the rolled up gym mat to retrieve, covered in his blood.

Following his death, many African-American students at Lowndes High School were instructed by school staff to not speak with police. These students were threatened that if they did, they would not be allowed to graduate, despite the fact that most Caucasian students at the school were required to speak with police regarding their memories of that day. In fact, Brian Bell and his brother Brandon, a graduate of Lowndes High School, were the only Caucasian students who were forbidden from speaking with police due to their FBI daddy, Rick Bell, swooping in and threatening hell and high water if anyone made his spoiled brat boys do anything they didn’t want to do- like speak to police about a murder in which they appear incredibly suspicious. Luckily for Brian, Brandon, Rick, and mother, Karen Bell, being a spoiled brat with racist tendencies is not a crime, but as more information is uncovered in this case, there may only be so much having a father in the FBI can do to protect you. Afterall, take a look at Robert Durst; Money and Power can take you a long way in America, but there’s only so far you can go until enough of the public takes notice and begins to demand law enforcement does the dame instead of turn a blind eye.

Wounds and blood clearly visible on Kendrick Johnson’s fingers.

One person who has most certainly not turned a blind to this case is Adam Floyd, who was a teacher at Lowndes High School when Kendrick Johnson was murdered and left the school shortly afterwards to work at the Valdosta Daily Times has become the lead writer on the Kendrick Johnson story. Jaquelyn and Kenneth Johnson, Kendrick’s parents, filed a $100 million dollar civil suit on January 12, 2015 against local and state federal officials, Wes Taylor (School Superintendent of Lowndes County), Valdosta-Lowndes crime lab, Police Chief of Valdosta and multiple Sheriff’s deputies, state medical examiner, Georgia Bureau of Investigations and its five agents, FBI agent Rick Bell, and three of Kendrick’s classmates [names undisclosed, most likely the Bell Brothers and a friend involved in the bus trip attack]. Quite frankly, the investigation (or lack thereof) into the BLATANTLY OBVIOUS MURDER of Kendrick Johnson disgusts me in ways I cannot express. I sincerely hope Kenneth and Jaquelyn Johnson are successful in their lawsuit against any and everyone involved in their son’s death and the coverup which followed it. Hopefully in the process, the true story of what happened to Kendrick Johnson will come to light and he will receive justice.

Photos courtesy The Valdosta Daily Times, New York Daily News and CNN.
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The Genesee Hotel Suicide

 On May 7, 1942 Russell Sorgi, a photographer for the Buffalo Courier Express in Buffalo, New York was on his way back to the office from an assignment. Having taken a different route than usual, Sorgi was passed by police cars when he decided to follow them. The cars pulled up to the Genesee Hotel at 530 Main Street where Russell Sorgi noticed a woman “sitting on a ledge outside an eighth-floor window” on the corner of Gennesee and Pearl Street. Sorgi’s recalled, “I snatched my camera from the car and took two quick shots as [the woman] seemed to hesitate… As quickly as possible I shoved the exposed film into the case and reached for a fresh holder. I no sooner had pulled the slide out and got set for another shot than she waved to the crowd below and pushed herself into space. Screams and shouts burst from the horrified onlookers as her body plummeted toward the street. I took a firm grip on myself, waited until the woman passed the second or third story, and then shot.”. The woman who committed suicide from jumping out the eighth-story window that day was thirty-five year old Mary Miller.

The body of Mary Miller, surrounded by investigators. “She waved to the crowd below… her body plummeted toward the street.”. Photo courtesy of Cultural Ghosts.

Ms. Miller checked into the hotel under the name “M. Miller” and claimed she was from Chicago. She immediately went into the hotel’s communal women’s restroom, locked the door, and stepped out onto the ledge through the window. Mary Miller was a resident of Buffalo who lived with her sister and had checked into the Genesee Hotel after telling her sister she was traveling to Indiana to visit relatives. Although there is not much information on Mary Miller available, what is known is that her sister was absolutely shocked by Mary’s suicide. The photo, which was titled “The Despondent Divorcee”, has no basis in fact as Mary Miller was not, nor was she ever, married. What makes her case so disturbing is that there is no known motive behind the suicide, no note was ever discovered and she waved to the crowd immediately before ending her life.

Postcard of the Genesee Hotel showing the window from which Mary Miller jumped. Photo courtesy of Cultural Ghosts.

In addition to The Buffalo Courier Express, the photo was published the next day in the May 8, 1942 edition of the New York Times and later, LIFE magazine. In the photo, a police woman can be seen entering the hotel in what was most likely an attempt to reach Mary Miller before she could kill herself; Perhaps seeing the officer enter the building prompted Mary to jump when she did, before she could be deterred. The photo is not only intriguing due to the suicide in progress captured; In 1942 most men were fighting in World War II and women had only just begun to join the workforce. The police woman seen running inside the Genessee Hotel was most likely one of the first woman to work in law enforcement in Buffalo. Two men in the coffee shop, seemingly unaware of the panic occurring on the street outside are seen next to a World War II propaganda sign displayed in the window which reads, “Give till it hurts Hitler”.

 The sign hanging from the side of the building advertises room rates at the Genese Hotel as “$1.00 and up” per night (but you have to share a bathroom, of course) and sandwiches at the coffee shop downstairs only cost customers 10 cents in 1942. The Genesee Hotel was erected in 1882, but this historic building has since been demolished.

Genesee Hotel in 1978, abandoned and boarded up for demolition. Photo courtesy of Cultural Ghosts.

The famous photo, generally referred to as “The Despondent Divorcee” but more correctly referred to as “The Genesee Hotel Suicide” was used in a psychological study. It was found that 96% of participants in the study did not notice Mary Miller falling to her death upon first examination of the photo.

Former site of the Genesee Hotel as it appears today. Photos courtesy of Cultural Ghosts.

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Cause of Death: Spontaneous Human Combustion & Other Stories of SHC

The body of Robert Francis Bailey

Robert Francis Bailey

At 5:19am on September 13, 1967 emergency services were called when a concerned citizen walking to work noticed a bright light coming from inside an abandoned home at 49 Auckland Street in Lambeth, South London. When the fire department arrived at 5:24am they discovered the burning body of Robert Francis Bailey, a local homeless alcoholic. One of the responding firefighters reported, “When we entered the building he [Robert Francis Baily] was lying on the bottom of the stairs half-turned on his left side and his knees were drawn up as though he was trying to bend the pain from his stomach”. Baily had been conscious as he burned to death and there was evidence to suggest he had been convulsing in agony as the fire consumed him. He had bitten into the post on the stairs which was made of solid mahogany and his teeth were embedded so deeply into the wood that his mouth had to be pried open by the fire department in order to remove his body. The firefighter described what he had witnessed, “There was about a four inch slit in his stomach and the flame was emanating from that four inch slit like a blow torch. It was a blue flame. The flame was actually coming from the body itself. From inside the body. He was burning literally from the inside out. And it was definitely under preassure. And it was impinging on the timber flooring below the body, so much so that the heat from the flame was charred into the woodwork.”. The only fire damage in the house was on the floor, directly below where the body had been burning. Aside from the abdomen where the fire had originated, Robert Francis Bailey’s clothes were intact and unaffected by the fire. The fire department put out the flames almost immediately, originally believing Bailey may still have been alive; The job required the use of several fire extinguishers and was incredibly difficult. Robert Francis Bailey’s original cause of death was determined to be “asphyxia due to inhalation of fire fumes” but after reviewing the case further his death was deemed to have been due to “unknown causes”.

Michael Faherty

The home of Michael Faherty

Seventy-six year old MichaelFaherty was found dead in his home in Clareview Park, Ballybane, Galway, Ireland on December 22, 2010 after his neighbor, Mr.Mannion was awoken by a fire alarm and noticed smoke coming from Faherty’s house. The official cause of death for Michael Faherty was “spontaneous combustion.”. Quite frankly, of all claims of SHC I find it very odd that this is the one investigators chose to officially name as a real case of spontaneous human combustion.

The body of Michael Faherty

While no accelerants were found and the fire that consumed Mr. Faherty had only damaged the floor directly beneath and the ceiling directly above the body, he was found with his head next to an open and active fireplace. A lead official working on the case stated, “The fire was thoroughly investigated and I’m left with the conclusion that this fits into the category of spontaneous human combustion for which there is no adequate explanation.”.

Dr. John Irving Bentley

From 1925-1953 John Irving Bentley had worked as a family physician in Coudersport, Pennsylvania. He had suffered a fractured hip in 1947 which affected his mobility and had caused him to be infirm in his senior years. Dr. Bentley remained in Coudersport where he was friendly with many residents which he had served as physician to before his retirement. On December 4, 1966, ninety-two year old John Irving Bentley received visitors who left at around 9pm that evening.

The home of Dr. John Irving Bentley

The following morning, Don Gosnell, meter reader with the North Penn Gas Company arrived at Dr. Bentley’s two-story home on Main Street and let himself in, as usual due to the ninety-two year old’s immobility. When he entered the house, Don Gosnell noticed a light blue smoke and a strange smell which was “somewhat sweet, like starting up a new oil-burning system.”. After going into the basement to read the meter he saw there was a pile of ash on the floor. Concerned about the strange conditions in which he found the home, he set off to search for Dr. Bentley. Don Gosnell found the upstairs bedroom filled with smoke and in the bathroom he discovered the doctor’s remains.

The body of Dr. John Irving Bentley

All that was left of John Irving Bentley was the lower half of his right leg, still wearing a slipper and his walker on top of a 2 1/2 by 4 foot hole burned into the floor. Dr. Bentley’s ashes had fallen through this hole and into the basement. Terrified, Don Gosnell ran back to the gas company screaming, “Doctor Bentley’s burned up!” and coworkers later said, “He [Don Gosnell] looked as white as a sheet.”. Aside from the hole burned into the floor, there were few signs of fire damage. The nearby tub was nearly unscathed and the rubber tips on Dr. Bentley’s walker were intact. Found inside the bathtub was Dr. Bentley’s burned robe and in the toilet were the remnants of “what was apparently a water pitcher.”. The official cause of death was recorded as “death by asphyxiation and 90 percent burning of the body”. It is theorized that Dr. Bentley had set fire to himself in his bedroom with his pipe and went into the bathroom in an attempt to extinguish the flames, becoming unconscious before he could do so. While this theory is plausible considering Dr. Bentley was an avid pipe smoker and his robe showed signs of multiple previous accidents with hot ash, his pipe was found sitting neatly in its stand by his bedside as though it had not been used anytime recently. The fire which consumed Dr. Bentley is estimated to have burned at 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, a common element of supposed cases of spontaneous human combustion.

Helen Conway
On the evening of November 7, 1964 Helen Conway was babysitting the two children of her daughter and son-in-law overnight at her home in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. The following morning at 8:42am Helen Conway’s granddaughter, Stephanie delivered a book of matches to her invalid grandmother upstairs upon request. Very shortly thereafter, Helen Conway’s neighbor who was leaving for church noticed an odd glow coming from inside the upstairs window of 527 Argyll Road and came to the house to investigate. The heat was so intense she was unable to make it upstairs and called the fire department. As firefighters searched the smoke-filled room at 8:48am one of them stuck his hand “into something greasy” which tuned out to be the remains of Helen Conway.

The body of Helen Conway

All that was left of her were her legs from the knee-down. Her lower legs and feet were unburnt but blistered. Two blisters broke on her leg during examination; they were wet but did not leak fluid. This is a clear indication that the 51-year-old widow was alive as she burned. Her left arm, which had burned down to the bone still had a bracelet eerily dangling from it. The only major signs of fire damage was on the chair Helen Conway sat in as she burned to death. A telephone sitting on a nearby table had begun to melt but a pack of cigarettes on the same table were not affected. Sheets on the bed in the adjoining bedroom were spotless but the television set sitting on a dresser had melted while a highly flammable doll sitting next to the TV was nearly untouched. Helen Conway was a very heavy smoker and was a bit careless with her cigarettes. Multiple cigarette burns were found on furniture in her bedroom. One theory suggests Helen Conway lit herself on fire while smoking. As the chair she sat in became progressively charred the top broke off and fell backwards, taking the upper portion of Helen Conway’s body with it. Investigators believed “The Wick Effect” was the cause of her death. The Wick Effect is a commonly use to explain potential spontaneous human combustion. Under this theory, the human body is basically an inside out candle with clothing acting as the wick and human fat as the ignition. While it has been proven to be an explanation for some believed cases of SHC, it takes seven hours to destroy a human body. Obviously, this explanation would be highly feasible if it weren’t for one teeny tiny little detail… The fire that consumed the majority of Helen Conway’s body and burned at 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit began and ended in six minutes. No accelerants were used; Her death was originally considered to be foul play due to the rate and intensity at which the fire burned.

Mary Reeser
Around 8am on July 2, 1951 Pansy Carpenter went to deliver a telegram and a cup of coffee to her tenant Mary Reeser. After discovering the doorknob to her home was burning hot, Pansy asked for the help of two painters working nearby to assist in opening the door. When they finally entered, the three were met with a gust of hot air. The home showed some signs of fire but Mrs. Reeser was nowhere to be found. There was a bit of a bit of smoke and a small fire still burning on a beam which separated the bedroom from the kitchenette. Emergency services were called and discovered the body of Mary Reeser. All that remained of her was her left foot still wearing a black satin slipper, a charred liver fused to a fragment of vertebrae and a shrunken skull which was approximately the size of a teacup.

The remains of Mary Reeser

The 170lb. woman had been reduced to a pile of remains weighing less that 10lbs. Dr. Wilton Krogman, the leading American forensic expert on the subject of death by fire at that time was called in to study the case. In 25 years of working in his field, Dr. Krogman was baffled by the shrunken skull. In deaths by burning, the skull expands from the heat and literally explodes. While it is not uncommon for the skull to shrink in claims of SHC (one of many elements that makes these cases so intriguing), it is absolutely unheard of in any burning deaths outside of these rare phenomena. The chair Mary Reeser was sitting in at the time of her death had been burned until all that was left of it was some coils from its interior but a nearby pile of newspapers was untouched by the fire. A mirror on the wall had cracked due to the intense heat and many appliances in the home had melted; Otherwise, the home was generally unaffected by the fire which is estimated to have burned at 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Local investigators in St. Petersburg, Florida were so stumped by the case that Police Chief J.R. Reichert sent a box of evidence to J. Edgar Hoover containing glass fragments found in the ashes, a section of carpet, the unburnt shoe from Mrs. Reeser’s remaining foot and six “small objects thought to be teeth” along with a note which read, “We request any information or theories that could explain how a human body could be so destroyed and the fire confined to such a small area and so little damage done to the structure of the building and furniture in the room not even scorched or damaged by smoke.”. The case of Mary Reeser was so astounding J. Edgar Hoover even discussed the case with President Harry S. Truman before replying to the St. Petersburg Police. On August 8, the FBI ruled Mary Reeser’s death to have been due to “The Wick Effect” saying that Mrs. Reeser had taken her regular dose of sleeping pills and fell asleep while smoking a cigarette in her armchair. They claimed the rayon nightgown, robe and bedroom slippers she was last seen alive in the previous evening by her son and a neighbor acted as a wick and her body fat kept the fire going until she had been completely consumed. Those who worked on the case up-close-and-personal strongly disagreed with the FBI’s explanation. Experts asserted there is no way a fire started by a cigarette could create a blaze of that intensity. Dr. Wilton Krogman vehemently protested the FBI’s theory and said throughout his life that the case, particularly the shrunken skull, haunted him. As previously mentioned, the Wick Effect takes seven hours to consume a body. While there is no way to know for sure when the fire that killed Mary Reeser began, we get a pretty good idea from a clock in the room which stopped at 2:26am, presumably due to the heat from the fire. Pansy Carpenter, Mrs. Reeser’s landlady said she awoke that morning to the smell of smoke at around 5:00am. She believed it to be caused by the water pump in the garage overheating again. She got up, turned it off, and returned to bed. If the fire began shortly before 2:26am and raged on until just before Pansy Carpenter entered Mrs. Reeser’s apartment, that would be approximately seven hours; However, the FBI’s theory doesn’t quite add up. If Mary Reeser took sleeping pills on a regular basis, one would assume she took them quite a bit earlier in the evening.

Mary Reeser

Remember, this was a 67-year-old woman in 1951 whose landlady delivered coffee to at 8am. Unfortunately, there are no records of what time Mrs. Reeser’s son and neighbor left her home that evening, but the details given by Pansy Carpenter imply that Mary Reeser was up and out of bed by 8am every morning. For that to be possible when using medication to sleep, Mrs. Reeser would have to take her pills by midnight each evening, no later. If she had, in fact, taken the pills at her usual time and fallen asleep while smoking it would mean the ember which supposedly fell into her clothes remained inactive for about two hours before starting a fire which grew to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Some put the time of the clock stopping between 4:00am and 4:20am (we’re going with 2:26 because that time is cited in books and I trust books more that the internet) and if that is the case, there certainly would not have been enough time for Mary Reeser’s body to be destroyed to the point it was by way of the Wick Effect. More bizarrely, why would J. Edgar Hoover consult the President on the matter, not simply inform him of it. All these little details that don’t quite make sense in addition to the fact that no one working on the case outside of the FBI agreed with the Wick Effect theory in the case of Mary Reeser makes it one of the most intriguing examples of SHC to this day. One theory considered in an attempt to “logically” explain her death was that Mary Reeser was murdered… using cremation equipment; However, that theory was let go when it left no explanation for the melted appliances.
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Survivors of Spontaneous Human Combustion

In 2013 a 9-day-old infant, “Baby Rahul”, made headlines when his mother, Rajeshwari Karnan admitted him to a local hospital in India to seek treatment for his burns which she claimed were caused by spontaneous combustion. Rahul was discovered lying in his bed, on fire, by a neighbor who heard the child’s screams. Professor R. Jayachandran, Rahul Karnan’s pediatrician believed his burns may have been caused by gasses expelling through his skin and theorized it may be a genetic condition. Twenty-five year old Rajeshwari has an older daughter, Narmatha, who has never suffered a believed instance of SHC. Since Rahul’s initial incident, Rajeshwari claims her son has spontaneously ignited on three other occasions. In January 2015 Rajeshwari Karnan admitted Rahul’s 10-day-old baby brother to Kilpauk Hospital in India after his feet supposedly caught fire while she was in the bath. The unnamed baby’s had burns covering 10% of his feet and had to spend over one month in the hospital recovering. The hospital was incredibly reluctant to release the newborn from the believing one of the parents, most likely Rajeshwari, was suffering from Munchausen by proxy syndrome and had set fire to her own children for attention. “Munchausen Moms”, mothers who harm their children to gain attention and sympathy (usually by way of slowly poisoning their children) have gained infamy in the past few decades as this mental illness which can affect either parent, but usually the mother, has seemingly become more widespread. Hospital dean Narayana Babu stated, “All tests reveal he [unnamed Baby Karnan] is completely normal. The parents went through psychiatric counselling and were found to be normal.”. The Karnans told reporters their community has ostracized them after the repeated burnings of their two children.

Frank Baker claims he has survived repeated instances of “partial spontaneous combustion” which he was diagnosed by a doctor. The doctor who supposedly diagnosed Frank with “partial spontaneous combustion” has never come forward or been mentioned by name. The first time Frank burst into flames, it was witnessed by a close friend. Frank claims he has spontaneously combusted three times since the initial incident. For several years, Frank Baker has been soliciting money for “Spontaneous Combustion Research”. I am not convinced, but here is his story in his own words.

Jack Angel is probably the most well-known survivor of SHC when in fact, he never experienced spontaneous combustion nor did he claim to. On November 12, 1974 Jack Angel was taking a shower in his mobile home in Savannah, Georgia when the water suddenly stopped flowing. When he went to check the water pressure, he was sprayed with scalding hot water. Jack Angel filed a civil-action suit in the Fulton County Superior Court over the burns which he received after being sprayed by the faulty water tank. Somehow, the accounts of this run-of-the-mill lawsuit has morphed into a wildly false story of surviving spontaneous human combustion. Today, people claim Jack Angel fell asleep on a water mattress and awoke to find a hole burnt in his stomach but his clothing intact. During the lawsuit with the water mattress company a doctor confirmed at the trial that Jack Angel had burned from the inside out.
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So I Married the Oldest Axe Murderer: 100 Year Old Hacks Wife to Death in Her Sleep, Commits Suicide

In the late evening of Sunday April 5, 2015, one-hundred year old Michael Juskin of Elmwood Park, New Jersey murdered his 88-year-old wife, Rosalia, with an axe as she slept in her bed on the first floor of their home at 58 Spruce Street. Afterwards, Mr. Juskin killed himself by slitting his wrists with a knife in the first floor bathroom. The bodies of the couple were discovered the following day around 9:00 AM by one of their sons who had come to the house to check on his parents. Michael and Rosalia had three children together (two sons, one daughter) and were long time residents at 58 Spruce Street. When they moved to their neighborhood, their home was one of only a few in Elmwood Park, then called “East Paterson”. Neighbors described the two as “a nice couple” and despite the fact the Juskins mostly kept to themselves and Michael was, “not the type to converse” their neighbors would see them outside tending to their yard together often. Police say, however, the couple had a history of domestic violence and that Rosalia had called 911 on three occasions over the past three years. In March 2012, police were called to the home when Michael Juskin was displaying “erratic, dementia-type behavior” and was taken to the hospital. A family member commented after the murder/suicide, “Sometimes he [Mr. Juskin] was lucid and sometimes he wasn’t.” Again, in the fall of 2013, Rosalia called 911 after an argument between she and her husband regarding the quality of her cooking, among other things which were undisclosed. According to Mrs. Juskin, the argument between she and her husband turned into “harassment” although no signs of abuse were observed by the police. In January 2015, Rosalia made the most unusual call of all from behind a locked door in the basement of their home. Michael Juskin reportedly ignored his wife’s pleas to be let out of the basement which eventually led her to call emergency services. When they arrived, still no signs of domestic abuse were observed and she insisted it was an accident. It is unclear how Mrs. Juskin came to be locked in the basement in the first place, though it is assumed Michael locked the door behind her. After the murder/suicide one of their sons, Nick Juskin, told investigators, “He [Michael Juskin] wasn’t himself. More times than not, he didn’t know where he was. He had Alzheimer’s. He couldn’t hear worth of shit.”, which may explain why he did not respond to his wife’s pleas to be let out of the basement. Emergency workers who responded to that call commented, “He’s 100 years old and she [Mrs. Juskin] chalked it up to that. She didn’t feel it was purposeful.” but it had been the third call to police in three years. Adult protective services were contacted about the incident but did not see the need to intervene in any way. Long-time neighbors of the couple claim Michael had wanted to divorce his wife for decades and approximately one month before the murder/suicide took place, Mr. Juskin made one last attempt at it. Twenty-four year old Alejandra Gonzales who lived across the street from the couple received a visit from Michael Juskin one day. He was insistent that he needed a ride to Paterson in order to meet with a lawyer about divorcing his wife. Gonzales explained, “He was very unhappy; he thought his wife was taking his pension money… He might have thought she was cheating on him.”. Alejandra’s fiancé complied and drove Mr. Juskin to the town of Paterson where a lawyer told him he was elderly and should just “let it go” and enjoy the rest of his life. Mr. Patterson, however, felt differently. Shortly thereafter, he showed up on Gonzales’s doorstep requesting a ride again; This time, he told the lawyer he was only 93. After the second incident, Alejandra contacted one of his sons, who informed her, “He does this all the time. Just don’t do it [drive him to the lawyer’s office] anymore.”. The couple lived part-time in Gulfport, Florida where their daughter is a full-time resident. The Juskins’ daughter urged her mother to come live with her in Florida, away from Michael, asserting, “We know he’s unstable.”, but Mrs. Juskin refused her daughter’s offer. Next door neighbor, 42-year-old Dorta Biskup told reporters, “He didn’t want medicine [for his dementia], he would sometimes drink vodka.” and that Michael could often be heard, “hollering through the door”. Although it is unconfirmed due to pending investigation, it is believed Michael Juskin is the oldest known murderer in the history of the United States, possibly the world. In 2013, only 0.6% of murders were committed by someone aged 75 or older.
This tragedy could have been prevented. If you are in an abusive relationship, even if it is “just” emotionally abusive, as Rosalia Juskin’s was, there are people who can help; Please get out immediately and seek refuge at your nearest Women’s Shelter.
National Domestic Abuse Hotline: 1-800-799-7233 (1-800-799-SAFE)
If you are living in another country and need assistance finding resources to escape an abusive relationship, please contact me and I will find resources in or near your own community immediately.
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Germanwings Crash: Andreas Lubitz Suicide was a Mere Side Effect to the Murder of 149 People

On the morning of March 24, 2015 Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 departed from Barcelona, Spain 20 minutes behind schedule. Pilot Patrick Sondenheimer apologized for the delay, telling passengers they would try to make up the time in the air. Unfortunately, the plane never made it to its destination of Düsseldorf. Instead, when suicidal co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz took his life that day, he took the lives of 149 innocent passengers and crew with him. In a pre-meditated aircraft-assisted suicide, Lubitz locked the pilot out of the cockpit and flew the Airbus 320 into the French Alps near Seyne-les-Alpes. Due to the discovery of a voice recorder from the plane, the one and a half hours leading to the fatal crash were caught on tape, revealing to the world the chaos and horror that ensued in the minutes leading to the deaths of everyone aboard. Before take-off, pilot Patrick Sondenheimer mentioned to Andreas Lubitz that he hadn’t had time to use the restroom in Barcelona to which Lubitz replies he can “go anytime”. For the first 20 minutes of the flight, the tone of the conversation between pilot Sondenheimer and co-pilot Lubitz is described as “jovial”. At 10:27am, local time, they reach their cruising altitude of 38,000 feet and Captain Sondenheimer asked Andreas Lubitz to prepare for landing. After this, Lubitz repeats to the pilot, “You can go now.”, a seat moving is then heard on the tape and the pilot responds to his co-pilot with, “You can take over.”. Shortly after this, at 10:29am the air traffic radar detects the plane is beginning to descend. Air traffic control contacted Flight 9525 at 10:32am but received no answer. At this point, an alarm goes off in the cockpit which can be heard in the background warning “sink rate”. Immediately after the alarm sounds, loud banging can he heard on the door of the cockpit. It is Captain Sondenheimer, who then screams, “For God’s sake, open the door!” as passengers also begin to scream for their lives in the background. By 10:35am a metallic banging is heard which is the pilot attempting to break down the door to the cockpit with an axe. At this time, the plane had descended to 23,000 feet, only 90 seconds later, the plane is at 16,400 feet and a second alarm sounds in the cock pit warning, “terrain–pull up!”. The captain screams at Lubitz again commanding him to, “Open the dammed door!”. By 10:38am the co-pilot in the cockpit can be heard breathing steadily, from this we know he was alive and conscious throughout the entire ordeal. The plane had descended to 13,100 feet at this point and at 10:40am, with passengers still screaming, the plane’s right wing is heard scrapping the top of the French Alps just before the tape cuts off and the plane crashes into the mountain, presumably killing all onboard at impact. Since the crash, it has been discovered tha 27 year old co-pilot Andreas Lubitz had suffered a history of severe depression and had sought help from at least three different doctors regarding his psychological illness between Feburary 2015 and the March 24th Germanwings crash. An iPad seized from Lubitz’s apartment revealed he had searched the Internet for information on how to commit suicide and security measures for cockpit doors in the days leading up to the crash. In his garbage, investigators found multiple physicians’ notes excusing him from work including one for the day of the fatal aircraft crash. His 26 year old girlfriend, Kathrin Goldbach, who was aware of his psychological illness and history or depression claims she, “did not know the extent of the problems” and was “optomistic” about their ability to work through them in their relationship. Goldbach, who met her late boyfriend as a teenager when they worked together at a fast food chain is now afraid to return to her and Lubitz’s hometown of Montabaur. Goldbach is afraid of the backlash she may face there due to Andreas Lubitz’s responsibility in the death of 149 innocent people on Germanwings Flight 9525. According to her pupils, Kathrun Goldbach had recently informed them she is pregnant (presumably with Andreas Lubitz’s child) though she has understandably not mentioned this to the media. It was also revealed Lubitz may have been suffering from a condition which would have eventually led to blindness and that it may have played a key role in his decision to end his life. He had recently visited specialists regarding his failing eyesight which obviously would have caused him to be stripped of his pilot’s license. Due to German law, doctors are forbidden from revealing patient information to employers therefore, the decision to inform Germanwings of a history of depression was entirely Lubitz’s decision. According to the flight school Andreas Lubitz attended, he did make note of a period of severe depression he had experienced. He began flight school in 2008 and joined the Germanwings company in 2013 as a first officer. However, 6 years ago his training was interrupted for unspecified reasons, presumably psychological illness. Lubitz had received over 630 hours of flying time and Germanwings claims he had undergone an “extensive psychological review”. In other reports however, Germanwings has asserted their pilots psychological testing is NOT carried out by professionals in the field of psychology, but instead general practitioners during the pilot’s yearly medical assessment and aviation review. Following the crash, Germanwings spoke out on Twitter saying, “We are shocked by the statements from French authorities that the co-pilot deliberately crashed the aircraft.”. The CEO of Lufthanasa, the company that owns Germanwings later remarked, “We have to accept that the plane was crashed on purpose… It seems true that the co-pilot denied the pilot access to the cockpit.”. Lufthansa has set aside 203 million pounds to “deal with” the crash and victims’ families. Germanwings has instructed pilots to now greet each passenger during boarding and give a pre-flight speech assuring their safety in an effort to make up for their lack of concern regarding the mental state of their employees. Brice Robin, French prosecutor assigned to the criminal investigation of the Germanwings crash stated Lubitz’s intent was to “destroy the plane” and that, “If a human takes 149 people to death with him, I will not call that suicide.”. France’s B.E.A. or The French Land Transport Accident Investigation Bureau (Bureau d’Enquêtes sur les Accidents de Transport Terrestre) found from analyzing data on the flight recorder that Lubitz used autopilot to descend the plane and, “several times during the course of the descent, the pilot [Andreas Lubitz in this case] adjusted the automatic pilot so as to increase the speed of the plane as it descended.”. The French magazine Paris Match and german tabloid Bild claim a 15 second video shot from the back of the plane just before the crash was recently discovered. While investigators deny such a video exists, it is possible they are required to deny its existence at this time due to the investigation still being open. Co-editor and Chief of The Paris Match, Regis Lessommier claims he’s seen the video and says it’s one of the most disturbing things he’s ever seen. The publication reported, “The scene was so chaotic that it was hard to identify people, but the sounds of the screaming passengers made it perfectly clear that they were aware of what was about to happen to them.” The crash killed citizens of Germany, Spain, America, Australia, Argentina, Iran, Venezuela, Britain, the Netherlands, Colombia, Mexico, Japan, Denmark, Belgium, Israel and possibly more countries whose deceased have yet to be named. Included in those killed were 16 German high school students returning from a Spanish-language exchange program and Yvonne and Emily Selke, a mother and daughter from America. Emily Selke had recently graduated from Drexel University with honors. As of now, 470 personal items have been recovered from the crash site as well as 40 badly damaged cell phones. Extreme conditions in the crash site location has made recovery efforts difficult and more evidence is sure to be uncovered in the following months. As someone who has struggled with severe depression for years and lost many friends to suicide, I am sympathetic to the plight of people like Andreas Lubitz. It is painfully clear the entire world needs to make more of an effort to help those with psychological illnesses and finally realize that considering depression and suicide as “taboo” in today’s day and age is flagrantly archaic. That being said, in this particular case, I feel no sympathy for Andreas Lubitz’s suicide; Only those he drug to the grave with him against their will. Andreas Lubitz is a murderer who killed 149 innocent people, including minors in his method of ending his own life. This man, who ignored the screams and pleas of 149 people as he flew the plane directly into the French Alps is no better than any callous killer who eventually resorts to suicide. His ex, who wished to only be known as Maria W. says Andreas Lubitz once stated, “One day I’m going to do something that will change the whole system, and everyone will know my name and remember.”. Perhaps the best thing we can do to honor the memory of those who died that day against their will is to make changes to the whole system of mental health and airline safety on their behalf, not that of mass murderer Andreas Lubitz.
Germany has scheduled a national day of mourning for Germanwings crash victims on April 17, 2015. Some of the victims’ profiles are available on The New York Times website.
More details on the story as they become available.
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