Early Putrefaction: Signs of bloating and marbling [see Stage 4: Livor Mortis] in corpse. Photo and observations courtesy of Strange Remains (author’s image credit: The Wellcome Collection)
The fifth stage of decomposition, Putrefaction, is brought on by the early effects of true decomposition. It is the time that proteins begin to be broken down by bacteria into smaller and smaller elements until tissues are no longer cohesive and most organs turn to liquid. Putrefaction is when “rotting flesh” becomes evident both in appearance and smell. Before this stage, most of the excess gas build up is contained within internal organs. While they may release through the same avenues they do in life (windpipe, anus, vagina), it is during putrefaction that the body has softened to the point that these gasses begin seeping through the blood vessels and throughout the body, causing severe bloating of the torso and limbs. Generally, there is a purge of fluids which appear similar to blood, through the nose and mouth. Skin will often begin to rupture, creating a lesion for the bacterial gasses to escape through. Putrefaction causes the tongue to swell and protrude from the mouth, at this point identification of the body becomes difficult, if not impossible. When a body is in advanced stages of putrefaction, it is impossible to determine the cause of death unless there are signs of poisoning, gunshot wounds, or fractures.
Advanced Putrefaction: Open abdominal cavity, purge of fluids exiting mouth and skin slippage [see Stage 6: Decomposition] visible on corpse. Eyes which were previously shut appear to be bulging from the sockets. Photo and observations courtesy of Stange Remains (author’s image credit: The Wellcome Collection)
During putrefaction there is also quite a bit of postmortem peeing, pooping and farting. Sometimes, uterine elapse or even a phenomenon known as “Coffin Birth” can occur in which a deceased, pregnant woman gives birth with the aid of bacterial gases escaping the vaginal canal. Larval infestations are common during this phase of decomposition if the body is left to the elements. Putrefaction can take place as long as the temperature is above 50 degrees Farenheit (10 degrees Celsius) and below 118 degrees F (48 C). It is optimum at 70-100 degrees F (21-38 degrees C). When between 88-100 degrees F (31-48 degrees C) the rate at which putrefaction takes place will usually double. As with the previous stages of decomposition, there are many factors that influence putrefaction. Moisture is necessary to the process, and rapid drying can bring putrefaction nearly to a halt. The body being exposed to air helps the process along, mostly because it allows microorganism and insects, which are an integral part of the process, to easily access the cadaver. Clothing will initially speed up the process because it aids in keeping the body at optimum temperature to produce bacteria for a longer period of time. Tight clothing, however, will restrict the blood and tissue, preventing the escape of gas and also the entry of insects and microorganisms. Children tend to putrify more rapidly, while the elderly putrify slowly. Obese corpses putrify much faster than lean bodies due to the excess tissue which holds in more moisture and heat, creating and sustaining optimal conditions for bacteria to multiply for longer periods of time. Eyes slide outwards from the sockets, or “pop out”, causing the facial features to become distorted. If the deceased is buried in a casket shortly after death, buried in sandy soil,and/ or buried deeper than 6 1/2 feet (2 meters), where the body is protected from moisture and insects, less putrefaction will take place. It will be rapid in damp, marshy environments, or if the body is buried in a shallow grave, without a coffin and/or clothing to protect the corpse from the elements. This stage of decomposition will begin quickly if the body is exposed to water contaminated by raw sewage with extremely high levels of bacteria. As in Livor Mortis, a cadaver in water will begin to show signs of putrefaction on the face, then neck, upper extremities and chest, abdomen, and finally the lower extremities. Signs of decomposition consistently appear in this order when a body is floating in water because the corpse is constantly in motion. Once the body has been removed however, putrefaction will speed up, being helped along by all the moisture the deceased body has absorbed.
Climbing the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest, is on the bucket list of countless adventurous individuals. Part of The Himalayas, Mount Everest’s peak towers at 29,029 feet (8,848 meters) above sea level and marks the border between the countries of Nepal, to the south, and Tibet to the north. In Nepal, Everest is known as “Sagarmatha” and in Tibet call the mountain “Chomolungma”. The cost of climbing Mount Everest is $25,000 – $60,000 (16,660 – 39,700 pounds) but ultimately, some pay with their lives.
In recent years, Mount Everest has become notorious for an area known as “The Death Zone” which is the final resting place for over 200 climbers who lost their lives during their attempt to reach the mountain’s peak.
“The Death Zone” is located 26,000 feet (7,925 meters) above sea level where oxygen is so scarce, all but the most experienced climbers must breathe with the assistance of air-filled canisters. Only 1/3 of the oxygen available at sea level is present in the Death Zone; Therefore, climbers who attempt to summit without the aid of an oxygen bottle or those who run out will face oxygen depletion which can eventually lead to death. Oxygen depletion causes hallucinations and fatigue, often climbers suffering from a lack of oxygen will sit down and give up for no apparent reason, only to die hours later.
Mount Everest partially punctures the stratosphere creating an environment which is in a constant state of subzero temperatures and can drop to -100 degrees Fahrenheit (-73 degrees Celsius). Jet stream winds reach speeds of 200 miles/hour (320 kilometers/hr), literally blowing climbers off the face of the mountain, never to be seen again.
Any exposed skin will immediately become frostbitten which can lead to gangrene and in many cases, amputation. Due to the incredibly severe conditions this high above sea level, when a climber is in danger, not much that can be done to help. Often times, assisting a fellow climber in a deadly situation could led to your own death.
In 2006 the death of British climber David Sharp caused quite a bit of controversy in the media. Despite the fact that at least 40 people climbing the mountain that day passed directly by him on their way to the summit while he was still alive, only a few stopped to help. He was severely frostbitten and suffering from oxygen depletion. According to those who stopped to tend to him, he was far beyond help. Eventually, he had to be left behind on the mountain to die. The media called the actions of these climbers who left David Sharp “callous”. While it is certainly easy to sit in a temperature-controlled environment in judgement of those who left a fellow summiter to die, only those who were there will ever know if anything could have been done to save him. Conditions on the mountain are so deadly, each hopeful summiter must sign a “body disposal” form which asks the preferred choice for your body, should you die at any point during your climb; Return home, return to Kathmandu (capital of Nepal) or remain on the mountain.
Surprisingly, many choose for their body to remain on the mountain where they died. In fact, when local Sherpas, who believe leaving dead bodies on the mountain to be disrespectful to the mountain gods, attempted to remove several of the deceased, two families came forward asking that their loved ones remain where they met their demise. Many times, those who were with them on their fatal climb will return to give the body a “burial”, usually moving the body out of view from the mountain’s path or concealing their corpse with large stones.
Many times, bodies cannot be recovered from the Death Zone. A recovery attempt would require 5-10 highly experienced Sherpas, even then, recovery may be impossible and the effort could easily claim another life. It costs approximately $30,000 to return a corpse to its native country.
The south side of the mountain is considered to be “cleaner”. Most bodies on the southern, Nepalese side of the mountain have, at the very least, been removed from the main path. Only recently, helicopters have become able for use in the recovery of bodies; However, the body must be moved as far as a base camp on the south side of the mountain. The north side, which is controlled by the Chinese government, does not allow helicopter use for any purpose. The north side is notorious for being the more dangerous route with a far higher death rate than the south. On the northeastern side of the mountain lies “Rainbow Valley”. Despite its Care Bear-esque name, the area was dubbed as “Rainbow Valley” for the numerous corpses dressed in multicolored down jackets which line the main path.
David Bashears, five time summiteer of Everest confessed, “There had been nothing in my training to prepare me to pass through the open graveyard waiting above.”
Did You Know?
On May 29th, 1953 Sir Edmond Hillary and his Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, became the first known people to reach Mount Everest’s summit. When Hillary died, his family wished to have his cremains scattered from atop the mountain, but the Nepalese government intervene and would not allow it.
On June 11, 1963 amidst what became known as the “Buddhist Crisis” a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk known as Thich Quang Duc self-immolated (committed sacrificial suicide) at a busy intersection in Saigon. While Malcolm Browne’s Pulitzer Prize winning photo of Thich Quang Duc during self-immolation is one of the most famous and powerful photographs to this day, many people do not know what led the monk to end his life in protest.
Thich Quang Duc
Thich Quang Duc was born as “Lam Van Tac” in 1897 in Hoi Khan in the Van Ninh District, Khanh Hou province of Vietnam to Lam Huu Ung and Nguyen Thi Nuong. One of several children, Thich Quang Duc left his family at the age of eight to begin studying Buddhism under his uncle and spiritual master, Hoa Thuong Thich Hoang Tham, who raised him as though he were his own son. When Thich Quang Duc was fifteen, he took his Samanera (novice) vows and changed his name to Nguyen Van Khiet. At twenty he became an ordained monk and was given the name “Thich Quang Duc”. “Thich” (short for “Thich Ca”) is the surname given to all Mahayana Vietnamese Buddhist monks and nuns. The name means “Sakya” and indicates they are “sons of Sakyamuni the Buddha”. “Quang Duc” is a Dharma name which is traditionally chosen by one’s spiritual leader and is descriptive of the person’s admirable attributes. Once he became an ordained monk, Thich Quang Duc chose to travel to a mountain near Ninh Hoa to live in solitude; Afterwards, he opened the Thien Loc pagoda near the mountain on which he had spent three years as a hermit. In 1932 Thich Quang Duc was appointed as an inspector of monks for the Buddhist Association in Ninh Hoa, later being appointed as inspector to his home province of Khanh Hoa. Duc devoted two years to studying the traditions of Theravada Buddhism in Cambodia. He spent much of his life spreading the teachings of Buddhism throughout southern Vietnam and in his lifetime, was responsible for the construction of 31 Buddhist temples; One of them being the Quan The Am pagoda in the outskirts of Saigon. The street the temple sits on is now named after Thich Quang Duc in honor of his work and the sacrifice he made for the Buddhist population through self-immolation.
Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem
Vietnam’s first President, Ngo Dinh Diem was a devout Roman Catholic who took office in 1955. While the Roman Catholic minority had long been favored by French colonists in the area, Diem was well-known for severely persecuting the Buddhist population within the country. At the time, 70%-90% of the population was Buddhist and had been suffering mass discrimination during Diem’s presidency. Many Roman Catholic priests had formed their own armies which were instructed to brutalize the Buddhist population and force them to convert their religion under threat. The government refused to intervene while Buddhist pagodas were being looted and destroyed by these Catholic troops. The Buddhist flag had been banned in Vietnam and on May 8, 1963 during a protest regarding the ban, nine unarmed Buddhist protestors were shot and killed by government guards in the city of Hue. While Ngo Dinh Diem blamed communist terrorists, it was perfectly clear he had a hand in the shootings. On June 10 a spokesperson for the Vietnamese Buddhist population quietly informed a U.S. journalist covering the Buddhist Crisis that “something important” would happen the next day on the road outside the Cambodian Embassy in the city of Saigon. Three-hundred and fifty Buddhist monks and nuns carrying protest banners marched down the street that day while Thich Quang Duc and two other monks rode in a car.
The car Thich Quang Duc rode in to his June 11, 1963 self-immolation.
Once they were near the busy Saigon intersection, Thich Quang Duc and his companions exited the car as the protesters surrounded them in a protective circle. One monk placed a cushion in the road for Thich Quang Duc to sit on. He sat on the cushion in the lotus position before taking out his wooden holy beads and chanting, “Nam mo A di da Phat”, a prayer to Amida Buddha.
One of the monks accompanying him retrieved a 5 gallon petrol can from the vehicle and began to douse Thich Quang Duc in petroleum. After the prayer was finished, Thich Quang Duc self-immolated with the aid of another monk who lit the match.
David Halberstam, who witnessed the event wrote, “I was to see that sight again, but once was enough. Flames were coming from a human being; his body was slowly withering and shriveling up, his head blackening and charring.
In the air was the smell of human flesh; human beings burn surprisingly quickly. Behind me I could hear the sobbing of the Vietnamese who were now gathering. I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered to even think…
As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him.”.
It took approximately 10 minutes for the 66-year-old monk to completely self-immolate. Once the fire that had consumed Thich Quang Duc began to burn out, monks covered his smoldering body in yellow robes and placed his corpse inside a wooden coffin. The monks were unable to straighten his charred body; One arm protruded from the coffin as his remains were carried to the Xa Loi pagoda.
Astoundingly, despite being “re-cremated” at his funeral, the heart of Thich Quang Duc remained unscathed and was placed in a glass chalice where it, along with his ashes, remained at the Xa Loi pagoda. Photos of Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation circulated the world, putting more pressure on President Ngo Dinh Diem to reform his policies as he had previously promised the citizens of Vietnam.
American President John F. Kennedy commented on the photo saying, “No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one.” Still, the Buddhist Crisis of Vietnam continued. In August of 1963 Diem arrested over 1,000 Buddhists in the cities of Hue and Saigon and conducted massive raids on Buddhist pagodas including Xu Loi. During the raid, two monks managed to escape with the urn containing the martyred monk’s ashes. Unfortunately, Duc’s heart was confiscated by government forces. Many Buddhist monks across Vietnam were killed, others chose to join Duc in self-immolation to ensure their death would matter. Finally, on November 2, 1963 a coup was staged on President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother/advisor, Ngo Dinh Nhu, who many believe may have been behind most of the anti-Buddhist policies across Vietnam. After being arrested and promised safety in return for their surrender, Diem and Nhu were assassinated in the back of a truck while being transported to military headquarters. It began when Nhu was stabbed with a bayonet 15-20 times by one of the arresting officers (who Nhu had been insulting during transport) while the truck was stopped at a train crossing.
Body of President Ngo Dinh Diem after his assassination.
Diem was then shot in the head with a revolver at point-blank range. When it was noticed Nhu was still barely clinging to life, he too was shot in the head and killed. The assassinations of President Diem and his brother, Nhu, proved to be a huge turning point in the Vietnam War. Before his self-immolation, Thich Quang Duc documented his final thoughts in a letter, “Before closing my eyes and moving towards the vision of the Buddha, I respectfully plead to President Ngo Dinh Diem to take a mind of compassion towards the people of the nation and implement religious equality to maintain the strength of the homeland eternally. I call the venerables, reverends, members of the sangha [meaning “association”/”community” in Sanskrit and usually referring to ordained monks and nuns] and the lay Buddhists to organize in solidarity to make sacrifices to protect Buddhism.”.
The heart of Thich Quang Duc
Thich Quang Duc’s heart was recovered and is now kept in the Reserve Bank of Vietnam; It is considered to be a holy relic. Due in part to the miraculous preservationof Thich Quang Duc’s heart, he was deemed a Bodhisattva, “Enlightened Being”.
The following is news footage of the Buddhist Crisis in Vietnam and the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc on June 11, 1963 in Saigon. If you only wish to watch the self-immolation, skip to 6:00 minutes.
The phenomenon of Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC) has baffled open-minded scientists for centuries. One of the earliest claims occurred prior to April 4, 1731 when details on the death of Countess Bandi of Cesena (Italy) were published. Remains of the sixty-two year old Countess were discovered by her maid the morning after her demise when she failed to emerge from her room at her usual time. All that was left of Countess Bandi was three fingers, two legs from the knee down (still wearing stockings), a charred skull (parts of which had burned away completely) and a pile of ash. A foul-smelling, greasy, yellowish fluid was found dripping from the windows in the room and evidence suggested the Countess had calmly gotten out of her bed while on fire and walked several feet before succumbing to the flames. This case is most likely one of the many false accounts of spontaneous human combustion as the Countess was well-known for lathering herself in camphor oil, a highly flammable substance. Two burned-out candles were noticed near the bed when the Countess’s body was discovered. Unfortunately, due to the large volume of blatantly false claims of SHC skeptics tend to ignore evidence which suggests it is possible and jump to the conclusion that every case was caused by the victim standing too close to a candle or falling asleep while smoking a cigarette. In the 1700s and 1800s, spontaneous human combustion was a very popular writing topic; Many famous authors including Charles Dickens and Herman Melville mentioned this mysterious cause of death in their stories. In the 1800s, the belief was that spontaneous combustion became possible when a person drank so much liquor that their body was completely saturated in alcohol, causing the person to become flammable. Those with religious inclinations believed that it was “divine retribution” and victims of SHC had angered God and been struck down with a lightning bolt. Another less-popular theory at the time was that mystical lights referred to as “will-o’-the-wisps” which were sometimes seen rising from stagnant marshes were to blame. Astoundingly, the will-o’-the-wisps theory is closest to the truth. These strange lights, often mentioned in folklore, were caused by methane gasses being released from decomposing vegetable matter underwater. Humans and animals also produce and release methane, hydrogen and phosphate through bacterial action in the digestive system. Luckily, if and when these gasses come into contact with a flame, you will not spontaneously combust; If that were the case, people would be catching fire right and left. However, diphosphane, a substance related to phosphorus, would cause a person to spontaneously combust under the right conditions. Until rather recently, it was believed that human production of diphosophane was highly unlikely. In 2000 German researcher John Emsley published his findings on spontaneous human combustion in The Shocking History of Phosphorus. In his research he found that human feces contains both phosphate and diphosphane. In incredibly rare cases, diphosphane levels could build up in a person overtime and if it were to encounter oxygen in the body, could ignite a pocket of methane and phosphate causing a person to burst into flames from the inside out. This corroborates with convincing accounts of supposed SHC in which the fire appears to originate in the stomach area. Of course, it would be incredibly rare that this would occur; Brian J. Ford’s theory of what may cause spontaneous combustion is certainly more likely. Humans naturally produce acetone, a highly flammable substance. It is used to break down fat in the body and will evaporate into the air as a person naturally burns fat through exercise or other means. It has a very distinct smell, usually sweet and fruity as was described by Don Gosnell who discovered the remains of Dr. John Irving Bentley. One major fact used by skeptics when attempting to explain away possible cases of spontaneous human combustion is that the body could not burn internally when the human body contains so much fluid; Acetone, however, mixes well with water. Brian J. Ford explains, “There is one highly flammable constituent of the body that can greatly increase in concentration… If the body’s cells are starved (which can occur during chronic illness and even during a workout at the gym), acetyl-CoA in the liver is converted into acetoacetate, which can decarboxylate into acetone. And acetone in highly flammable. A wide range of conditions can produce ketosis, in which acetone is formed, including alcoholism, high-fat low-carbohydrate dieting, diabetes and even teething.”. This makes sense considering most who supposedly parish through spontaneous combustion are alcoholics, seniors and/or over-weight. In order to prove his theory, Ford conducted an experiment in which he created scale models of humans out of pork tissue, marinated them in acetone and clothed them before igniting the models which, “Burned to ash within half an hour.”. Ford went on to describe, “The remains- a pile of smoking cinders with protruding limbs- were exactly like the photographs of human victims.”. Check out the NEW BOOK by The Post-Mortem Post’s Head Writer ‘Horrible History: Mass Suicides’ AVAILABLE NOW on Amazon Kindle!
Laura Belle Devlin, born September 7, 1874 murdered and dismembered her husband in 1947 at the age of 72.
On January 5, 1947 C.G. Butcher, a postman in Newark, Ohio delivered mail to the Devlin residence at 78 King Avenue. That day, seventy-two year old housewife and avid collector of old lace, Laura Belle Devlin, received a letter from relatives in Philadelphia informing her that her 75-year-old husband, Thomas Devlin, had passed away during a recent visit. Made suspicious by the fact that this letter had no stamp and a postmark which was obviously hand-written, C.G. Butcher took the widow to the local police station. When Mrs. Devlin was questioned, she admitted to having murdered her husband, Thomas, in the parlour of their two-story home.
Emotionless, she described the killing, saying she pounded Thomas Devlin with her bare fists until he was unconscious the attempted to break his bones with a sickle. Afterwards, she dismembered the body with a handsaw and burned parts of him in the stove. She scattered the rest of the pieces of her husband’s body in the backyard.
After being arrested on charges of first degree murder, she told police, “[Thomas Devlin] tried to kill me so many times that I decided to end his life.” then immediately asked, “And now can I go home?”. Mrs. Devlin was temporarily incarcerated at the Licking County Jail where she refused to be fingerprinted because, “That ink will make my hands dirty.”. In another attempt to take the 72-year-old killer’s fingerprints while photographers snapped pictures, she simply asserted, “NO!”. When informed of her incarceration, she just shook her head in disapproval of law enforcement’s decision on the matter and later told reporters she “disliked” jail. Despite her feelings on being locked up, she was described as “mild-mannered” throughout her incarceration. On January 11, 1947 Mrs. Devlin was admitted to the Lima State Hospital for the Criminally Insane for a 30 day observation period. There, she was diagnosed with “Senile Psychosis: Confused Type”, which is more or less an old-timey way of saying “Dementia”.
Sadly, on March 29, 1947 Laura Belle Devlin passed away at the Lima State Hospital from a bout of pneumonia which she had been battling for one week after having had an attack of influenza.
More original articles from the Laura Belle Devlin murder below. Photos courtesy Parajail.com
The south side of the mountain is considered to be “cleaner”. Most bodies on the southern, Nepalese side of the mountain have, at the very least, been removed from the main path. Only recently, helicopters have become able for use in the recovery of bodies; However, the body must be moved as far as a base camp on the south side of the mountain. The north side, which is controlled by the Chinese government, does not allow helicopter use for any purpose. The north side is notorious for being the more dangerous route with a far higher death rate than the south. On the northeastern side of the mountain lies “Rainbow Valley”. Despite its Care Bear-esque name, the area was dubbed as “Rainbow Valley” for the numerous corpses dressed in multicolored down jackets which line the main path.
The Post-Mortem Post 