Mummified Body of WWII Pilot Discovered 66 Years Later

 

On February 21, 1943, two P-40 fighters and five Hurricanes (British single-seater fighter aircraft) took off from the Soviet Military air base in Chupa on a World War II mission to halt an attack by the German Luftwaffe.

 

 

One of the Hurricanes was piloted by 22-year-old Boris Alexandrovich Lazarev from the 760th IPA. During the mission, he encountered German pilot Oberfeldwebel Rudolf Muller of 6 Jagdgeschwader, 5the fighter squadron Luftwaffe (German Air Force) “Expertenstaffel” and his squad of four Bf 109G fighters. Lazarev was shot down by Muller near a railway station in Polyarnyi-Krug.

His remains were not discovered until 1998 after Jury Rybin, a military history, discovered details of the dogfight while searching through archives. A swamp nearby where Lazarev’s Hurricane was shot down was searched and the plane wreckage was discovered with the 66-year-old mummified remains of Boris Lazarev still inside. The anaerobic conditions of the swamp, as well as the gasoline and oil present in the area from his crashed craft aided in preserving the body as well as personal belongings of the deceased.  
The body was almost entirely intact; His feet were cut off at the ankles, most likely caused by the force of the crash and his face showed signs of blunt force trauma caused the pilot’s head slamming into the instrumental panel on impact.
  
Inside the cockpit, found alongside Boris’s severed feet, were flying goggles and a handmade knife with the inscription, “Friend Bors in the second year of the war.”
Inside his suit pockets were two letters, Komsomol cards, a book on the ‘Red Army’ and bullets
from a TT pistol which was still in his belt. 
  Also discovered was a knife from a German paratrooper, German coins, Soviet medals and various documents. From his position, with hands at his straps, it is believed Boris was attempting to leave the aircraft by opening the canopy and using his parachute. Most likely after his aircraft was struck, he decended in altitude too quickly for him to manage an escape and died on impact due to a blow to his chest caused by the strong kick of the control panel. Boris Lazarev would be the last pilot Rudolf Muller would shoot down. Ironically, on April 19, 1943 Muller’s own aircraft was shot down and he was sent to a Soviet prison camp. Rudolf Muller was executed on October 21, 1943, exactly eight months after the death of Lazarev, while attempting to escape the facility. Boris Lazarev was buried with military honors in the cemetery in Chupa, Kareloan Republic and the remnants of his crashed aircraft are housed at the Central Milotary History Museum at Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow. To this date, no living relatives of Boris Lazarvez have been found.   

The Post-Mortem Post is now on Pinterest! 

From the same demented mind that brought you The Post-Mortem Post: FREAK

If you love The Post-Mortem Post, please consider contributing on Patreon.com! 
Follow us on Twitter @PostMortem_post & Like The Post-Mortem Post on Facebook
If you enjoyed this article, you might also like George Leigh Mallory’s Preserved Body Discovered on Everest 75 Years After Death, Pray the Decay Away: Incorruptible Corpses and Other Forms of Natural Postmortem Preservation, The Bombing of Guernica and Mother Murders All Four Children in Bizarre Hanging 

 

The Most Beautiful Suicide

‘The Most Beautiful Suicide’, originally released on May 12, 1947 in LIFE Magazine

Sixty-nine years ago today, May 1st 1947, Evelyn McHale committed suicide by jumping from the 86th floor observation deck at the Empire State Building around 10:40 AM. The 23-year-old woman landed on a United Nations Assembly Cadillac Limousine that was parked on 34th Street approximately 200 feet (61 meters) west of 5th Avenue. Despite having fallen 1,050 feet (320 meters), her body appeared to be intact, even serene, as though she were sleeping. Her ankles are folded in a lady-like pose appropriate for the time, a gloved hand clutching her pearls, the only sign of damage is a tear in her hose. In contrast, the limousine her body rests on is crushed and broken glass surrounds the young woman. A patrolman named John Morrissey spotted a scarf drifting down from the Empire State Building which was shortly followed by Evelyn’s body. Her body landing atop the car created a cacophonic crash which alerted bystanders to the spectacle. Photography student Robert C. Wiles was across the street when he heard the loud, crunching of metal marking Ms.McHale’s suicide. In awe of her body’s unscathed appearance and leisurely posture, he snapped a photo approximately four minutes after her death. The photo was entitled “The Most Beautiful Suicide” and originally appeared on a full-page spread in the May 12, 1947 edition of Life Magazine with the caption, “At the bottom of the Empire State Building the body of Evelyn McHale reposes calmly in grotesque bier, her falling body punched into the top of a car.”. Unfortunately, not much is known about the life of Evelyn McHale, nor is there much known as to why she felt the need to take her own life.

Evelyn McHale

Evelyn was born on September 20, 1923 in Berkley, California to Vincent and Helen McHale. She was the 6th child born to a family of 7 children. When she was still very young, Evelyn’s mother, Helen, left the family for “material reasons” and her parents got a divorce. Her father retained full custody of the children and moved them to Washington, D.C. where he worked as a bank examiner. The family later moved to Tuckahoe, New York where Evelyn attended high school. After graduation, she joined the Women’s Army Corps and was stationed in Jefferson, Missouri. Eventually, she made her way back to New York State, living with her brother and sister-in-law in Baldwin, Long Island and got a job as a bookkeeper. Evelyn met Barry Rhodes, who was attending Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania and had recently been discharged from the Air Force. They became engaged and were set to be married in June 1947 at Barry’s brother’s home in Troy, New Jersey. McHale had even been a bridesmaid in Barry Rhode’s younger brother’s wedding. On April 30, 1947 Evelyn took the train from New York to Easton, PA to visit Barry on his 24th birthday. On the morning of May 1, everything seemed normal, according to Barry Rhodes. He took his fiancé to the train station, kissed her good-bye, and at 7AM she boarded a train heading to Penn Station in New York City. Barry later told investigators, “When I kissed her goodbye, she was happy and as normal as any girl about to be married.”. Less than four hours later, Evelyn McHale was dead.

1947 article on the suicide of Evelyn McHale. Though her age is listed as ’20’ she was in fact, 23.

Detective Frank Murray discovered a few personal items belonging to Evelyn which were left behind on the observation deck: a tan (or gray, reports vary) cloth coat which was neatly folded and placed n the observation deck wall, a brown make-up kit filled with family photos, and a black pocketbook containing a suicide not. The note Evelyn McHale left, the only explanation of why she leapt to her death read, “I don’t want anyone in or out of my family to see any part of me. Could you destroy my body by cremation? I beg of you and my family- don’t have any service for me or remembrance for me. My fiancé asked me to marry him in June. I don’t think I would make a good wife for anybody. He is much better off without me. Tell my father, I have too many of my mother’s tendencies.”. Despite her near perfect appearance, according to reports, when her body was moved she “fell apart”, the impact having liquefied most of her organs. Ultimately, her body was identified by her sister, Helen Brenner. However, her final wishes were respected in that she was cremated, and there is no grave for Evelyn McHale. Whether she would be pleased by it or not, the entire world remembers Evelyn McHale, as she was immortalized for her serene suicide. Evelyn was the 12th person to ever jump from the Empire State Building since its completion in 1931. She was one of five people who jumped from the building in a three week period, an event which prompted the construction of a 10 foot tall (3 meters) wire mesh barrier, and the employment of guards trained to spot jumpers, in an effort to prevent any more suicides at the location.
If you enjoyed this article, please donate $1 to The Post-Mortem Post so we can make massive improvements to the site; If everyone who reads this article today donates just $1, we will surpass out goal.

‘The Most Beautiful Suicide’, colorized

Check out the NEW BOOK by The Post-Mortem Post’s Head Writer ‘Horrible History: Mass Suicides’ AVAILABLE NOW on Amazon Kindle!

Follow us on Twitter @PostMortem_post & Like The Post-Mortem Post on Facebook
If you enjoyed this article, you might also like Pray the Decay Away: Incorruptible Corpses and Other Forms of Natural Postmortem Preservation, Photographer Captures Couple’s Jump Into Yangtze River, Karl Wallenda’s Fatal Tightrope Fall, Possible Relatives: Tina Enghoff Photographs Homes of the Recently Deceased, Dying with Dignity: One Woman’s Willful Journey Into Death (VIDEO), The Bombing of Guernica and Germanwings Crash: Andreas Lubitz Suicide was a Mere Side Effect to the Murder of 149

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.
Follow us on Twitter @PostMortem_post for the latest breaking news on this story and others.
If you liked this article, you might also enjoy reading Victims of Terror, Last Photo of Mother & Child Taken Aboard Doomed Malaysia Airline Flight MH17 and The Bombing of Guernica

UPDATE: ‘Victims of Terror’, Past-Life Identity of Reincarnated Child Who Remembers Violent Death on 9/11

After writing a previous article entitled, “Victims of Terror”, I became slightly obsessed with the story of Cade, a boy who believes he is the reincarnation of a 9/11 victim. For several weeks, I couldn’t bring myself to focus on anything other than discovering the identity of the man Cade believes he was in his past life. From my research for the previous article, I knew:
-He was a businessman
-He could see the Statue of Liberty from his office window in the World Trade Center
-He either jumped or fell and saw his “brains come out of his head” before being covered by rubble
After searching the deep, dark recesses of the World Wide Web, I was able to find a few message boards Cade’s mother had gone on in hopes of discovering her son’s identity in his past life as well. Through this I learned additional information to aid in my search:
-The explosion occurred above him
-The ceiling on his floor collapsed, blocking the stairwell
-His parents were “abusive drunks” and he hated them
-He got married very young
-He was from New York State, and moved to New York City
-He lived in an apartment or hotel
-He rode a bike or motorcycle to work
-He had been in the armed forces
-He had loved taking ferry rides to the Statue of Liberty as a young man
-He got a dog when he was 25
-His remains are still at the former site of the World Trade Center
Unfortunately, this could describe hundreds of the World Trade Center employees killed in the attacks. Cade did, however, remember one extremely useful piece of information:
-His name was Robert
-His middle initial was ‘E’, for Elliot or Elion, he believes
-His last name, he thinks, might have been ‘Pattison’
There was, indeed, a man who worked and died in the World Trade Center named Robert E. Pattison. Although the ‘E’ stands for Edward, not Elliot or Elion, his parents are convinced this must be the man Cade was in his last life.
Robert E. Pattison was 40 years old when he was killed on September 11, 2001. He was employed by WCBS as a maintenance transmitter supervisor and tended to the transmitters on both the World Trade Center’s North Tower and the Empire State Building. Although most of Robert’s work was done on the 110th floor, on the day of the attack, it is believed Robert Pattison was on the roof of the North Tower. This would mean that unless he chose to jump from the roof sometime after the first plane hit, he would have remained there for over an hour until the North Tower came crashing down. He was one of six children born to a family in Woburn, Massachusetts and it has been said by his siblings that he was a bit of a trouble maker. After joining the air force, he began to straighten his life up. He lived in Boston for several years before moving to New York City, and although no wife is mentioned in his obituaries, through my research I have discovered he may at one point have been married to a woman named Maryellen who he later divorced. While there is not much information to be found about the life of Robert Edward Pattison (due in part to the overshadowing of information on actor Robert Pattison who plays Edward in the Twilight movies), you may have noticed that much of the information that is known regarding Robert’s life does not quite correlate with Cade’s memories of his former life. In fact, aside from the name, many of the memories contradict what Cade has told his parents. While I do not discount this boy’s story, I do discount the accuracy of some of his memories.
Most of us have experienced, at one time or another, a very long and detailed dream which we want to retell. As soon as you wake up, the dream is fresh in your mind and you remember it perfectly only to find later, when you try to tell someone about this crazy dream you had, you’ve forgotten pieces, have forgotten the order in which things occurred, and even forgotten or mixed up important details. “We were somewhere else- I don’t remember where but I think it was a corn field or something, maybe in Illinois or Ohio and I was a farmer… No wait, you were the farmer- anyway, it doesn’t matter- one of us was a farmer. We were in the field, then all of a sudden a crop circle just appeared… No, actually there was a bright light first. Oh no, that was after… Anyway, the space ship was full of people from my office. I don’t remember who all was there, but I remember they were from my office. I think my boss was there… Uhg I forgot what even happened in the dream that made me want to tell you about it. Nevermind.” Now imagine this dream lasted for 20, 40, 60 years or more and you waited five to ten years to tell anyone about it. It would be incredible if you remembered that dream at all, as it is incredible any children are able to recall past life memories at all. We must assume that often times, as in dreams, these children get details mixed up and begin to forget, especially as they get older.
In the case of Cade, while he seemed quite certain his name was ‘Robert’, he was a bit unsure about his middle and last name. ‘Pattison’ may have seemed familiar to him if he had ever heard the name of the actor ‘Robert Pattison’, which is quite likely due to his celebrity status, or he could have known Robert E. Pattison from having simply worked in the same building together, using the same elevator everyday. Cade was also quite insistent that he was born in New York state, whereas this Robert E. Pattison was born and raised in Massachusetts. Although Mr. Pattison was a supervisor, he was an electrician, not a ‘businessman’. If he was on the roof of the building on September 11th when the first plane hit the North Tower, he wouldn’t have been in his office, as Cade recalls and there would have been no ceiling above him to fall in and block him from escape. Even if Robert had not been on the roof that day, as is believed, and was instead on the 110th floor, Cade recalls an explosion somewhere above him. The plane which struck the North Tower ripped a hole spanning from the 93rd to the 98th floor, which suggests he was on or below the 92nd floor. Cade describes in graphic detail witnessing his “brains come out of his head” when he hit the ground. If Robert E. Pattison remained on the roof of One World Trade in hopes of a helicopter rescue and went down with the building as is his assumed fate, he wouldn’t have had the ability to see his “brains come out of his head”, as he left his body because he would have been entirely enveloped by the rubble in the fall. Not to mention, Cade requested his mother begin calling him ‘Robert’ because he didn’t like the name ‘Cade’ when in fact, Mr. Pattison hated being called ‘Robert’ and in life had always gone by ‘Bob’.

I continued my search for the real ‘Robert’ Cade claimed to be in his last life. I individually researched over one hundred men named ‘Robert’ who had died in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centers, slowly eliminating them based on careers, family history and anything other descriptors I could go off of. Unfortunately, there was absolutely no ‘Robert’ who fit the description Cade had given. Each and everyone had some piece of major information that was opposite of what Cade had recalled. Once again, I do not discredit this young man’s story but unfortunately for Cade, it has proven impossible to determine who he had been in his previous life. Often times, memories of dying in past lives relived through dreams can be just as traumatic as experiencing death everyday. Unless the individual is able to have some form of closure, they may be haunted and hindered by their past life memories in the current life.   Hopefully, as time goes on and people become more accepting of the possibility of reincarnation, there will be more information and resources made available to people who are experiencing past life memories.

Follow us on Twitter @PostMortem_post

If you enjoyed this article and Victims of Terror, you may also like Joshiah: We Are the Creators of Our Universe, Scientists Have Answered the Question: If a Tree Falls in the Forest, Does it Make a Sound?, Evidence to Supports Sixth Sense (PSI) in Humans, and The Bombing of Guernica

Last Photo of Mother & Child Taken Aboard Doomed Malaysia Airline Flight MH17

Fifteen year old Gary Slok and his mother, Petra Langeveld were traveling to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014 for a special vacation arranged for single mothers and their children. Only a few hours after this photo was taken, their plane, Malaysia Airline Flight MH17, which took off from Amsterdam, was shot down with a Buk surface-to-air missile by a group of Pro-Russian separatists. Buk missiles are self-propelled missiles that can be guided from the ground using a radar system and can travel three times the speed of sound, with the capability to reach a target more that 70,000 feet (21,300 meters) in the air. At the time of impact, the Malaysian Airline’s Boeing 777 was traveling at 33,000 feet (10,000 meters). The plane crashed in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board. In the aftermath, the Russian government initially blamed the Ukraine for the attack on the commercial airline; However, it was discovered the missile had come from territory belonging to Russian-backed separatists who had indeed shot down flight MH17. The fate of MH17 ranks as Malaysia Airline’s worst flight incident, and occurred only three months after the disappearance of Malaysia Airline Flight 370, which has yet to be recovered. This final photo of Petra Langeveld and her son, Gary Slok, which was discovered through social media, is a disheartening reminder that death can come even when we least expect it.