Providentia

Gender-based Temple Controversy Divides India

Months after a groundbreaking Supreme Court decision hailed by female activists,  a political firestorm continues to brew over the right of women to pray at an iconic temple in India's Kerala state.  

Dedicated to the celibate Hindu deity Lord Ayyappan, the Sabarimala Sree Dharmasastha Temple in Kerala draws millions of devotees each year.  But, due to the religious traditions maintained by the temple,  women of childbearing age are banned due to the "impurity" of their menstruation.   As a result, all women aged 10 to 50 have been refused entrance for centuries.  Despite objections by female devotees, the Kerala High Court upheld the ban in 1991 stating that the restriction was reasonable given that it had been in place since "time immemorial."   It was only after the Indian Supreme Court struck down the ban last September that two women, Kanaka Durga and Bindu Ammini, became the first in centuries to enter the temple on January 2 because of this (they had attempted to enter before on numerous occasions but had always been stopped).  Videos of the two women entering the temple have since gone viral,

Since then, however, politically-aligned groups and religious zealots have been actively protesting against women entering the religious premises.  Mobs of Brahmin men and women have clashed with police and actively prevented women from entering the temple.   More disturbingly, Durga and Ammini have been forced to go into hiding due to death threats by hardline Hindu groups.   Durga was even assaulted by her own mother-in-law, outraged over what she viewed as heresy.  Though the two women plan to return home soon, following reassurances from police, sporadic violence continues to break out as more women brave the protests to take advantage of the new freedom.  

The controversy has also sparked a Twitter war with Bollywood movie celebrities weighing in with posts featuring hashtages such as #FakeFeminists and #StupidMedia to uphold the "sanctity of the temple".  But the new Supreme Court decision has its defenders as well.  In one post, historian Hindol Sengupta wrote, "As a writer of history, I have been wondering whether it is possible at all to make an objective, non-partisan assessment of what has (and is) taking place at #Sabarimala, one of Hinduism's most sacred shrines? Let us try. To begin with, let us accept that in a world where, after many centuries, the voices of women are being heard, a shrine that bars women of menstruating age, seems dysfunctional to all of us. The question arises, how can this even be an issue today - after all these years of battling for liberty? This is a vital and important question."

As well as being a battle over women's rights, the controversy is also exposing regional conflicts as well as the ingrained Indian patriarchy.  How it unfolds  remains to be seen.

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Iranian Man Receives Public Hanging For Gay Sex

A 31-year-old Iranian man was publicly executed on January 10 of this year in the city of Kazeroon in southern Iran.  While the still-unnamed man was executed for a litany of crimes, including kidnapping and pedophilia, human rights observers suggest that these charges were invented tacked on to his original charge- gay sex- to avoid the kind of international outrage that has followed previous executions in that country.

Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, a reported 4,000-6,000 have been executed for sex-related crimes given that any type of sexual activity not between married, mixed-sex couples is seen as a criminal offense.  Sex between men is regarded as a capital offense while sex between women only receives the death penalty following the fourth infraction.

The latest execution is very much in the pattern followed in similar cases over the past few years.   In 2016, 19-year-old Hassan Afshar was executed for having sex with another male in a case that generated an outcry in countries around the world.  In speaking about Afshar's execution, Magdalena Mughrabi, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Programme Director at Amnesty International stated that,  “Iran has proved that its sickening enthusiasm for putting juveniles to death, in contravention of international law, knows no bounds. Hassan Afshar was a 17-year-old high school student when he was arrested. He had no access to a lawyer and the judiciary rushed through the investigation and prosecution, convicting and sentencing him to death within two months of his arrest as though they could not execute him quickly enough.”

While then Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad famously announced in 2007 that, “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country,” public executions of men accused of homosexual relations remains disturbingly common with the execution orders being upheld by the Iranian Supreme Court.   

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https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2019/01/man-publicly-executed-crime-gay-sex/

Mary Laid An Egg

It probably seemed like a good idea at the time...

England was in full religious ferment during the first few years of the 19th century.  Joanna Southcott was leading a messianic crusade with countless followers revering her as "the Lamb" who would bring them to salvation.  Other prophets like Richard Brothers had their own crusades  promising the imminent coming of God's kingdom on Earth (the English were considered to be God's chosen people).  Tales of signs and wonders proclaiming the impending Second Coming spread widely.

Which brings us to Mary Bateman (a.k.a. "The Yorkshire Witch").  Born Mary Harker on a small farm in North Yorkshire in 1768, Mary had few choices but to go into service (much as Joanna Southcott did).  Unfortunately, Mary was not a particularly good servant and quickly acquired a reputation for petty thieving which got her fired.  As a compulsive liar, thief, confidence artist, and all-around crook, Mary never managed to hold any job for long.  She was a very good actress however and managed to impress people with her claims of supernatural powers.  By 1788, she had set herself up in Leeds as a dressmaker and part-time fortune teller.  Her marriage to John Bateman nearly ended when her husband discovered his wife's criminal past.  On one occasion, she tricked him into going to his home town to see his father who was supposedly ill.  While he was away, Mary sold her husband's clothes to pay off a debt and avoid prison. He eventually joined the militia to get away from his treacherous wife but  later returned.   The two of them would then settle down into a larcenous life together (they had four children and Mary was the main supporter of the entire family).

With no other source of income, Mary became a full-time fortune teller and con artist.  Posing as "Mrs. Moore", a seventh child of a seventh child, Mary carried out elaborate schemes to trick victims into handing over their savings to her.  She developed quite a reputation as a local miracle worker who could accomplish amazing things with her powers.  She was also a keen observer of new trends and always trying to find ways to exploit them for her own profit.  When Joanna Southcott's began "sealing" her followers in 1802 (giving them a special token to mark them as being among the 144,000 to be saved according to the Book of Revelation), Mary managed to get one of the markers herself.  It was then that she began one of her most notorious (and profitable) schemes.

Although her reputation as a fortune-teller had begun to suffer (too many of her victims complained), Mary played on her status as one of Southcott's "sealed" to make an amazing announcement. Like many other country women of her time, she kept several hens to supply her with fresh eggs and she claimed that one of them had laid an egg with the inscription "Crist is coming."  Mary announced that she had been granted a vision which told her that her hen would lay fourteen special eggs and that the last one would mark the beginning of the Apocalypse.  As word of this marvel began to spread, more eggs bearing religious inscriptions were laid and crowds quickly gathered (she charged them a penny each to seen her marvelous hens). Not only did the eggs proclaim Christ's coming, but they announced that it would happen very soon which added to the growing hysteria.  Along with making money from displaying the chickens, Mary also began providing pilgrims with special "seals" (a piece of paper bearing the initials "JC") which would guarantee its bearer admission into Heaven following the Apocalypse.  Thousands of visitors came to be saved. 

It's hard to say how long this would have gone on but a skeptical doctor managed to examine one of the eggs and found that the inscription had been written in ink.  When authorities were notified, they staged a raid on the tavern where Mary lived with her chickens.  They caught her red-handed (so to speak) inserting one of her special eggs up the chicken's egg duct so it could be "laid" later.  Mary was arrested and the resulting scandal forced Joanna Southcott to stop sealing her own followers because of the stigma.  

A little thing like public exposure didn't stop Mary Bateman for long.  She simply switched to becoming a practitioner of folk remedies (as well as being an abortionist).  Her services were in high enough demand that the inevitable rumours about the people buying her "medicines" didn't deter other customers.    Two Quaker sisters named Kitchen sought out her services until one of them sickened and died after taking "medicine" that Mary had provided.  When the mother of the two women arrived to deal with her daughter's death, she ended up sickening and dying as well along with her surviving daughter.  All three of them were buried in the same grave.  Although Mary insisted that all of the Kitchen women had died of the plague, authorities quickly became suspicious.   After their creditors investigated what property was remaining, they found scarcely any furniture or belongings left in the Kitchen sisters' house. 

Amazingly, Mary was able to continue with her frauds despite the suspicion that she had crossed the line from theft to murder.  The previous death of another woman, Rebecca Perigo, was also being investigated after her husband complained to authorities in 1808.  It was the husband, still being fleeced by Mary two years after his wife's death, who arranged for a meeting at which she was arrested by two officers.  A search of Mary Bateman's house turned up items that had belonged to Rebecca Perigo and the Kitchen sisters.  The various ingredients that went into her "remedies" were also found, including poison.  After going on trial at York in 1809, Mary was quickly found guilty of murder despite her repeated claims of innocence.  Desperate to escape hanging, Mary even tried "pleading her belly" (claiming to be pregnant) although a medical examination proved otherwise.

With all her legal options exhausted, Mary Bateman went to the gallows on March 20, 1809.  More than five thousand people turned out for the hanging including many who still believed in her supernatural powers and were convinced that the "Yorkshire witch" would somehow save herself from death.  As the Annals of Yorkshire later described the hanging, Mary "was launched into eternity with a lie upon her lips having denied her guilt to the last".   As was the common practice of the time for executed murderers, her body was turned over the the local medical school for dissection.  There was enough public interest in Mary's corpse for the local hospital to charge money to see the body (more than 2500 people paid threepence each).  Her skin was also tanned and cut into pieces so they could be sold as souvenirs.  Believers in the powers of the ``Yorkshire Witch`` used the skin pieces as talismans (it would have galled Mary to know that she wasn`t making any money from her corpse).

Mary Bateman`s skeleton is still on display at the Thackray Medical Museum in Leeds, England.  Visitors seeing her there can appreciate her presence as a strange sort of testimonial to the power of human gullibility and how easily it can be exploited. 

Nigerian Father Kills Children Suspected of Witchcraft

A Nigerian man was arrested on Wednesday for poisoning two of his children after he accused them of being witches.  A third child narrowly escaped being killed as well.  Samuel Sunday Otasi, a 42-year-old resident of Nigeria's Bayelsa State, tied his three children to a tree and poisoned them with a common household insecticide.  He was assisted by his younger brother,  Levai Ayah.   While the eldest child, 14-year-old Success managed to survive, the other children, 12-year-old Miracle and 10-year-old Godstime died at the scene.  

According to investigators, Otasi began abusing his children after a prophet told him that the children were responsible for his illness which they had brought about through witchcraft.  The children's mother had divorced Otasi some months earlier and he believed that she had bewitched the children.  Though Otasi denied the allegations and insisted that he had told his brother to return the children unharmed, police said that he had already confessed to the crime.

When interviewed in hospital by reporters, the surviving child, Miracle, told reporters that he had survived because he managed to escape. "My father came to take us from our grandmother and told us that we were going to a church in Yenagoa," he said.   "When we got to the road, he and his brother took us to the bush and tied me and my younger brothers to trees and gave us 'Sniper' pesticide to drink,” he added.   "I managed to come to the road after I used my legs to untie the rope and people saw me and took me to the hospital "  Doctors have since reported that he is responding well to treatment.  

Otasi is receiving support from other villagers who maintain that he was correct to kill the children and that the witchcraft allegations were true.  Belief in witchcraft remains strong in many parts of Africa and the killing of suspected witches continues to occur despite government crackdowns.  

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UK Court Awards Damages in Bizarre "Owl Phobia" Exorcism Case

A U.K. woman reporting lingering psychological problems from the religion-based treatment recommended by her physician has been awarded more than $16,000 in a damage claim.   Sally Brayshaw, a 54-year-old Staffordshire resident, stated that her problems with the plaintiff,  Dr. Thomas O'Brien, began in 2012 when she first saw him due to post-operative pain.   Though he offered her a way of "healing without medication", Ms. Brayshaw agreed because, as she told the judge, "I thought he meant acupuncture or something like that,"

Apparently guided by his own Pentecostal beliefs, Dr. O'Brien subjected his patient to months of religious indoctrination, including taking her to religious services, giving her gifts of a religious nature, and setting her television to the Gospel channel to "soak her in religious content."    On one occasion, the plaintiff took Ms. Brayshaw to a religious service during which the preacher told a disturbing story about a witchdoctor sacrificing an owl.   In describing this meeting, Brayshaw stated that "O'Brien asked me to come to the front of the room to heal me and Percy (the preacher) asked me to hold my hands out as I could pass out," she said.  "Percy blew on me and was commanding demons to leave my body. I let out a roar...there were nearly 100 people there at the testimony and it was played on the TV screen in the building."

As she further added in her testimony, Ms. Brayshaw (who was raised as a Catholic) was so traumatized by her experience that she becomes terrified whenever she sees a picture of an owl.  She is also reporting ongoing problems with depression and anxiety symptoms due to what she described as prolonged emotional abuse from Dr. O'Brien, his wife, and several other members of the Freedom in Christ ministry.   While her husband and other members of her family were suspicious of the treatment she was receiving, they "put up with it" due to Dr. O'Brien's medical background.   It was only after Ms. Brayshaw saw a psychiatrist (which Dr. O'Brien repeatedly advised her against) that the full extent of the abuse was revealed. 

While freedom of religion is enshrined in U.K. law, the General Medical Council has already investigated Dr. O'Brien and he was struck off the register in 2015.   In awarding damages, the presiding judge, Mr Justice Martin Spencer, stated that it was "foreseeable" for the plaintiff to "react adversely" to the religious indoctrination she received.  He also added that, "By reason of his zealous promotion of the religious aspects, [Dr O'Brien] became blind to the medical aspects and thereby caused or contributed to the deterioration in the claimant's mental health."

While O'Brien did not appear in court and his whereabouts are currently unknown, the court also ruled that the medical clinic where he had practiced is not liable.

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Do Curses Work?

Belief in malignant supernatural forces causing illness or misfortune is a common tradition in cultures around the world.   The concept of "black magic", the "evil eye", curses, witchcraft, bringing down disaster on unwitting victims has inspired a host of ritual practices designed to protect users from harm. 

My mother, bless her heart, has an all-purpose prayer that she uses to protect family members against the malocchio (evil eye).  Passed down in her family for generations, the prayer can only be taught at the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve.   While such beliefs seem harmless enough, fear of malignant cursing has inspired horrendous episodes of anti-witch hysteria through the centuries (and still does today).

But is is actually possible for belief in curses to kill victims?  In a now-classic paper titled "Voodoo Death", physiologist Walter Cannon (of Cannon-Bard hypothesis fame) explored that very question.    First published in 1944 in American Anthropologist, Cannon coined the term "voodoo death" to describe the phenomenon of sudden death brought about by emotional shock, especially fear.  Citing numerous examples from anthropological literature, Cannon presented a series of case histories including deaths occurring among Brazilian tribesmen after being cursed by local "medicine men".  One memorable citation from Arthur Glyn Leonard's classic book on the lower Niger described the phenomenon in action:

I have seen more than one hardened old Haussa soldier dying steadily and by inches because he believed himself to be bewitched; no nourishment or medicines that were given to him had the slightest effect either to check the mischief or to improve his condition in any way, and nothing was able to divert him from a fate which he considered inevitable. In the same way, and under very similar conditions, I have seen Kru-men and others die in spite of every effort that was made to save them, simply because they had made up their minds, not (as we thought at the time) to die, but that being in the clutch of malignant demons they were bound to die.

Being cursed was often the result of violating various cultural taboos or otherwise incurring the wrath of tribal chiefs or shamans.   The means by which a curse could be laid could vary from simply applying the "evil eye" to formal rituals such as the use of "pointing-bones" among Australian Aborigines.  Cannon also raised the possibility of chiefs or sorcerers reinforcing their reputation for laying curses through the discreet use of poison. 

Given the herblore available to many traditional shamans, this is not particularly farfetched although many of the cases that Cannon discussed involved curse victims wasting away even when poison or other medical explanations were ruled out.   Even in those cases where an autopsy was performed on the curse victim, no clear medical cause for death could be found (except for the curse victims who wasted away from refusing to eat or drink). 

For victims in the final stage of their illness, only the timely intervention of the sorcerer or shaman lifting the curse could save them from death.   Shamans persuaded to lift their cause often use an elaborate ritual and, in many cases, presented the victim with a visual "proof" of the curse being lifted (usually in the presence of the victim's family to impress them with his/her power).   Once the crisis is passed, recovery is usually rapid and complete.  The involvement of the victim's extended social network seems to be the key in many of the cases that Cannon reported.   Those victims who are cursed typically lose all support as family and friends distance themselves.    Once ostracized, the curse victim becomes a pariah with no real options besides death or exile.   "Shunning" of curse victims, often perceived as being responsible for their own predicament, is an effective weapon to reinforce the power of the shaman who laid the curse.  Since being part of the greater tribal community remains the cornerstone of the individual's existence in many societies, it's hardly surprising that the loneliness that can result from being cursed can be so deadly.

But is there a physical basis for "voodoo death"?  Again, Cannon outlined some common characteristics in the cases that he discussed.  The effect that extreme fear and anger can have on the body is well-documented.  Cannon reviewed the "fight or flight" reaction and the opposing roles of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems in preparing us to deal with crises.   Arousal of the sympathetic nervous system results in pupil dilation, rapid heart rate, increased lung capacity and respiration, inhibition of digestion, shaking, sweating, and other autonomic responses.   Essentially, the body is prepared for action.  If that action is delayed or if we are unable to respond to the stressful situation in a timely fashion however, we experience exhaustion and become vulnerable as a result.  As Cannon himself states:

All these changes render the animal more efficient in physical struggle, for they supply essential conditions for continuous action of laboring muscles. Since they occur in association with the strong emotions, rage and fear, they can reasonably be interpreted as preparatory for the intense struggle which the instincts to attack or to escape may involve. If these powerful motions prevail, and the bodily forces are fully mobilized for action, and if this state of extreme perturbation continues in uncontrolled possession of the organism for a considerable period, without the occurrence of action, dire results may ensue

Cannon also described research on sham rage produced in decorticated laboratory animals following intense stimulation of the sympathetic-adrenal system.  The rage leads to rapid sweating, rapid heartbeat, heightened emotionality, and motor activity.  Even when the animal appears visibly calm afterward, death can result after a few hours due to exhaustion.  Sham rage has also been observed in humans, especially in cases involving damage to the temporal lobe and associated limbic system structures.  Along with other physiological effects of sham rage, large amounts of adrenaline are also produced.   Prolonged adrenaline release may lead to persistent constriction of the blood vessels which, in turn, leads to reduce blood volume and inadequate blood supply to the body's organs.    Catastrophically reduced blood pressure, in conjunction with reduced food or fluid intake, can be linked to many of the reported voodoo deaths in the medical literature. 

It is probably not surprising that sudden death has also been observed in cases involving severe shock.  Even when other medical causes have been ruled out, death can still occur.  Loss of appetite, sweating, rapid heartbeat, and other signs of autonomic distress can be important signals that the body is on the verge of exhausting its resources.  Cannon described several examples of patients who died of apparently minor injuries following emotional trauma.  While postmortem examinations may turn up evidence of brain hemorrhage, this is usually a consequence of the condition rather than a direct cause of death.    

Ultimately, Cannon didn't attempt to provide a final explanation for why voodoo death occurs and simply suggested a hypothesis for researchers to explore.   He also recommended that physicians monitoring potential cases watch for warning signs of shock including low blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, and perspiration.  In (semi) tongue-in-cheek fashion, he ended his paper by saying:

If in the future, however, any observer has opportunity to see an instance of "voodoo death," it is to be hoped that he will conduct the simpler tests before the victim's last gasp.

While voodoo death cases relating to actual curses have become rare (although anti-witch hysteria is still going strong),  research has confirmed many aspects of Cannon's ideas concerning the role of sympathetic arousal on the human body.    In a reevaluation of Cannon's voodoo death paper, Esther Sternberg expanded Cannon's model by stressing the role of the hormonal system, particularly those hormones released by the pituitary and adrenal glands when the human body is confronted by stressors.  These include catecholamines (unknown in Cannon's time) which open calcium channels, including in the heart muscle.  She also discussed the role that the amygdala plays in mediating threat responses (she referred to this as the "vision-to-fear" or "auditory-to-fear" pathway depending on how the threat is perceived).    In cases of abrupt shock, cardiac arrhythmia, chronic wasting, and disease can all occur when the body's own resources are exhausted.  

Cases of sudden cardiac death linked to psychosomatic factors continue to be reported in the clinical literature, especially in patients suffering from preexisting conditions such as chronic depression or anxiety disorders.   The complex relationship between cardiac arrhythmia and emotional stress often forms a "vicious circle" which is potentially deadly.   Increased risk of cardiac failure has also been noted following natural disasters as survivors cope with the stress of dealing with loss.   Although anthropologists still dispute Cannon's interpretation of existing cases (with some arguing that voodoo death should be considered a culture-bound syndrome), Walter Cannon's 1944 paper remains a classic in the field of psychosomatic medicine and psychophysiology and continues to inspire research into the role that emotional factors can affect the body. 

So, can curses kill?  You be the judge.

Schizophrenic Man Beaten to Death in Exorcism to Cure Him of "Evil Spirits"

Police in Azerbaijan have arrested six men for their role in the beating death of a schizophrenic man during an attempted exorcism.  The battered body of 25-year-0ld Murad Soltanov was found in an apartment in the Azeri town of Shabran, located not far for the nation's capital city, Baku.   The apartment had been rented for the purpose of the exorcism by  Shahin Soltanov, the father of the deceased and is there that the six men charged carried out the exorcism.    The deceased man had been recently diagnosed with schizophrenia accompanied by seizures.   Though he was receiving treatment, his condition had deteriorated and his father apparently decided that his illness was caused by demons that needed to be exorcised.  After a previous exorcism failed to cure his son,  Shahin Soltanov apparently decided on more extreme measures.  

Not telling anyone of his plans, the father then took his son from their home town of Mashtaga to nearby Shabran for the exorcism.   Among the men he consulted was Fizuli Garibov, an Islamic mullah who apparently "specialized" in exorcisms.  After paying Garibov ₼400 ($240) for the exorcism, Shariv Soltanov then brought the cleric and his helpers to the apartment.  He then watched as they beat his son with pomegranate branches to "drive out his inner demons.".   According to a statement provided to police following the interrogation, Soltanov began screaming and crying when the beating began but nobody came to his aid.  Later, when he began coughing up blood, the exorcists referred to it as a positive sign that the "demons were leaving his body."  Even after begging them to stop, the men insisted that "it was not him speaking;  it was the demon."

By the time police discovered Murad Soltanov's body, it was reportedly black and blue from the numerous bruises along with evidence of vomited blood.    Pictures of the deceased have been circulated online along with pictures of Soltanov when he was alive.   The six men have been charged with "inflict­ing fatal injuries and using forbidden treatment methods resulting in death."    When asked to comment, one of the men charged insisted that the method used was a common one.   “We have treated him this way before, but during the last session Soltanov suddenly died," he was quoted as saying.

While psychiatric treatment is becoming more widely available worldwide, the stigma surrounding most forms of mental illness often lead to families seeking more unconventional forms of treatment.   Since belief in demonic possession remains strong in many parts of the world, cases of mental patients being killed during attempted exorcisms continue to be reported.    

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Are Criminal Brains Different from Non-Criminal Brains?

Over 100 years ago Lombroso [(1876/2006). Criminal man. Durham: Duke University Press] proposed a biological basis for criminality. Based on inspection of criminals’ skulls he theorized that an imbalance of the cerebral hemispheres was amongst 18 distinguishing features of the criminal brain. Specifically, criminals were less lateralized than noncriminals. As the advent of neuroscientific techniques makes more fine-grained inspection of differences in brain structure and function possible, a new article published in the journal Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition examines criminals’ and noncriminals’ structural, functional, and behavioural lateralization to evaluate the merits of Lombroso’s thesis and investigate the evidence for the biological underpinning of criminal behaviour. Although the body of research is presently small, it appears consistent with Lombroso’s proposal: criminal psychopaths’ brains show atypical structural asymmetries, with reduced right hemisphere grey and white matter volumes, and abnormal interhemispheric connectivity. Functional asymmetries are also atypical, with criminal psychopaths showing a less lateralized cortical response than noncriminals across verbal, visuo-spatial, and emotional tasks. Finally, the incidence of non-right-handedness is higher in criminal than non-criminal populations, consistent with reduced cortical lateralization. Thus despite Lombroso’s comparatively primitive and inferential research methods, his conclusion that criminals’ lateralization differs from that of noncriminals is borne out by the neuroscientific research. How atypical cortical asymmetries predispose criminal behaviour remains to be determined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)

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The Kansas City Bloodsuckers

"For the life of the flesh is in the blood."   Leviticus 17:11 (KJV)

Human beings have always had a fascination with blood.   For as long as we've had medical practitioners, shamans, and spiritual healers. they have attached a powerful significance to blood and its role in health.    Certainly, it's common knowledge that losing too much blood can be fatal, but doctors once believed that different diseases were caused by having an "abundance" of blood.  This meant that people could be cured through bloodletting or with the use of leeches to suck out the "bad blood."    Blood is also a common theme in many religions, including during Catholic and Orthodox masses in which the host is transformed to the "body and blood of Christ" which the faithful could consume.   While Protestant churches rarely go that far, they still acknowledge the symbolism of Christ's blood in the use of red wine.  In Jewish and Islamic tradition, by comparison, the drinking of blood was absolutely forbidden along with the eating of meat without the blood being drained off.   Then again, folklore is filled with examples of malevolent creatures, including vampires, that rise from the dead to consume the blood of the living (often invoked as an explanation for anemia and similar conditions).

Given the macabre appeal of blood drinkers, it's not that surprising that actual cases crop up more often than you might think.   Certainly, the psychiatric literature contains numerous case histories of individuals with a psychosexual fixation on the drinking of blood.  Usually referred to as clinical vampirism (though haematodipsia and Renfield syndrome are two other terms that has been used), examples go all the way back to Richard Krafft-Ebbing in the 19th century.   Today, the popularity of vampires in movies, television, and literature, has helped create an entire subculture of "Sanguinarians" who pursue the "vampire lifestyle" (though they largely subsist on animal blood which is only drunk on special occasions).  Not as popular as some of the more conventional sexual fetishes, the most extreme examples are found in the annals of forensic history with cases such as Peter Kurten and Richard Chase.

But there was an even more bizarre instance of vampirism in U.S. history which has been almost completely forgotten.   Not as glamorous as Dracula and his brides perhaps, but there was nothing fictional about the Kansas City Samaritans.   And it apparently began in  1888 or 1889 when a traveling preacher named Silas Wilcox first arrived in Kansas City, Missouri.  Apparently inspired by that passage from Leviticus quoted above, Wilcox taught that the drinking of blood was a crucial part of curing illness.   Hardly the sort of remedy most medical doctors would advocate (though some have come close), Wilcox still managed to gather about twenty followers as part of a community that he dubbed the "Samaritans."    As part of their regular sharing ritual, Wilcox and his followers regularly visited slaughterhouses where they could collect the blood of freshly-killed cattle for drinking..  

If it had ended there, the story of the Samaritans might not have been all that memorable.  After all, bizarre little cults could be found in many different parts of the United States (especially in the 19th century for whatever reason).    But the story of the Samaritans took a particularly strange turn when Silas Wilcox hit on a novel alternative to cattle blood drinking:  drinking the blood of fellow Samaritans.

While his disciples might have felt a little squeamish about this proposed change, this all changed when Wilcox became so seriously ill that he was no longer able to go with them to the slaughterhouse for the regular blood-drinking.   Instead, he called on the Samaritans to save his life by offering up their own blood for him to drink.  According to one account, a disciple named Nancy Dixon was the first to offer up her own arm and Wilcox began sucking her blood  after making an incision.  The other Samaritans were reportedly amazed to see Wilcox recover almost immediately, something he attributed to the power of drinking blood offered up willingly.

After that, the Samaritans stopped visiting slaughterhouses and began the ritual of mutual blood-drinking that was to make them so memorable.  Basically, this involved meeting in a member's house during which, according to one account, “the sick or ailing members ask for assistance from the well ones, and these are detailed to give their blood according to their health and strength. When a member becomes very sick the well ones take turns in supplying him the life-giving fluid.”   Despite attempts by local law enforcement to rein in this practice, the Samaritans insisted that they weren't in violation of any laws.   And they weren't, so long as the blood was being offered up voluntarily.  In fact, Wilcox and his fellow Samaritans insisted that their mutual blood drinking was no different from the regular blood transfusions already being carried out by conventional physicians.  

Interestingly enough, the Samaritans of Kansas City were not the only blood drinkers around.   During that same era, many slaughterhouses across the United States began reporting regular visits from blood drinkers though it remained unclear whether they had any link to the Samaritans.   When newspapers interviewed these various bloodsuckers, they often justified their habit by saying that fresh cattle blood was a tasty alternative to more conventional alternatives, including milk.  It also helped that many slaughterhouses allowed people to drink the blood free of charge, something that likely appealed to the poorest segments of society.   It also helped that blood drinking was believed to cure a range of diseases, particularly tuberculosis (which was a fatal disease at the time).   

As for the Samaritans themselves, virtually all of the news stories that I have been able to find on them were from 1890 alone.   It was around that time that the Secretary of the Kansas City Humane Society reportedly received the following letter in early January of that year (the spelling mistakes are from the original letter):

Mr. Huckett:  There is something that I think that ought to be called to your attenshen at once which I think is bad for a civilized community.  There is John Wrinkle and his two children.  He has been sick and he is crazy on religion.   His little girl, Minnie, is 13 years old and his boy, John, is 11.  Wrinkle has hearn of people drinken blood at sloughter houses and he said that he believed in the bible that it preached that the well should make sacrifices for the sick.   

He did blede the little girl and boy until they are recks and he did drink the blod.  It has leaked out and unless something is done by you, the neighbors will take things into their own hands and that quick too.  He lives on a little piece of land near the new city limits.  

Your respectfully, George West

p.s. send some officers.

After receiving the letter, Huckett immediately passed it along to the Kansas City Police Chief.   An officer was dispatched to investigate and, according to the news story, "he found that the letter to the secretary had not told half of the terrible state of affairs which has obtained in the Blue Valley."    At John Wrinkle's house, the officer found "two emaciated children" along with Wrinkle himself who appeared to be in the final stages of consumption (tuberculosis).   Though Wrinkle and the children denied the bleeding rumours, the officer noted how pale the children were and he also found scars all along their arms.  After being confronted by the evidence, Wrinkle finally admitted to drinking the blood of his children but stressed that it was voluntary,

While Wrinkle was too ill to be moved, let alone arrested, the children were removed from his home and placed in the Children's Home.    As for what happened to Wrinkle, his children, or the entire Samaritan movement, that remains a mystery since there were no follow-up newspapers stories mentioning them.   Though John Wrinkle likely died of tuberculosis not long after his children were removed,  the question of what happened to the Samaritans remains a troubling one.  At least one historian has suggested that the entire story of blood-drinking Kansas may have been an elaborate hoax but, if true, it seems to be a hoax with no follow-up.   As local legends go, it certainly wasn't a popular one since you'd have to do some serious digging to find any mention of the Samaritans at all. 

Whether or not the Samaritans actually existed, blood-drinking certainly enjoyed an odd popularity around the end of the 19th century though, for the most part, it was restricted to drinking animal blood.   Ironically, just a few years after these stories generated national attention, Karl Landsteiner's discovery of the main blood groups in 1900 paved the way for modern blood transfusion.   Though it would take decades for blood banks to become universal, the life of the flesh has indeed become the blood. 

Just not quite the way Silas Wilcox and his disciples imagined.   

 

King William's Rise and Fall

Visitors to the Californa ghost town once known as Holy City would probably not spend much time exploring the place.  Located in an obscure corner of wilderness about ten miles from Los Gatos in the Santa Cruz Mountains, all that remains of the town are some old buildings and several tourist shops.   Anyone unfamiliar with the history of the town would be amazed to discover that it was once a thriving utopian community with its own radio station and a tourism industry.   During the 1930s, billboards proudly proclaimed Holy City to be the "headquarters for the world's most perfect government" and that it "answers all questions and solves all problems."  

To understand what happened to the town and why it is virtually forgotten today, you  would need to know something about the town's legendary founder:  William Edward Riker.   Born in California in 1873,  relatively little is known about Riker's early life (aside from what he provided himself, of course.)   Described as a handsome Californian who was "a favorite with the ladies,"  the self-styled "Professor" first established himself as a palmist and a professional mind reader who toured across the country on the carnival circuit.   

That is, until he was forced to flee to Canada after being charged with bigamy.   Having abandoned both of his wives, Riker took advantage of his Canadian exile to found what he described as "the Perfect Christian Divine Way."   This called for total celibacy (at least for his followers), abstinence from alcohol, hard-core white supremacy with total segregation of the races, and communal living.   With this new mission in place, Riker returned to California in 1918 and founded a commune near San Jose.  There was no word on what became of his bigamy charges but presumbly he managed to reach an understanding with his wives.  Those followers who were "born again" to be part of Riker's community were expected to abide by their leader's rules for living but, more importantly, to hand over their life savings as well.  That allowed Riker to buy the land where he had his commune and also ensured that his first thirty followers, mostly elderly people, had little choice but to live the "Perfect Christian Divine Way" or as long as they were under his rule.  

Though his followers were expected to remain celibate, Riker obviously felt exempt from that little rule (it's good to be king).   His new bride, Lillian, was quickly established as his co-leader in the commune which offended some of his early followers, who likely realized that their leader had feet of clay.   One of them, Frieda Schwartz, sued to regain the money she had given Riker but she ended up losing the case.  All this accomplished was to give Riker's commune more publicity than ever and draw in new followers. 

As the commune grew, Riker was able to establish a restaurant, a service station for those newfangled automobiles, a dance hall, a penny arcade, and an observatory for tourists to look at the Moon through a telescope (all in Riker's name).   The revenue from these various businesses, along with a side business selling mineral water, brought him an income of $100,000 a year, even at the height of the Depression.   But that wasn't enough for William Riker.   He also wanted to establish  a major media empire as well.   Not only did he launch a weekly newspaper, but Riker also set up one of California's first radio stations, KFQU, which featured a half-hour show with a Swiss yodeler.   His radio license was revoked in 1931 due to various "irregularities" but that didn't keep the irrepressible Riker down for long.

By the 1930s, Holy City had grown to more than 300 inhabitants, all ruled over by "King William" and "Queen Lillian."   Most of the inhabitants were either elderly followers or out-of-work drifters looking for jobs.  Along with the billlboards proclaiming his message, Riker also declared himself to be the "phantom spokesman of all wise Christians -  God's chosen of all people in the world."   To spread his message of white supremacy and segregation even further, Riker first ran for Governor of California in 1938.   As part of his platform, he called for a ban on businesses in California being owned by non-whites.   In one of his political pamphlets, he wrote that:

The White Man can take care of any and all kinds of business in our own, White Man's California State Home, and no longer will the White Man tolerate your undermining and polluting tactics. Farmers, Business Men and The Workers say: Orientals get out and stay out of our business. Our new Government will see that you get a job. Your polluting, undermining system of business must eternally stop in Our California. And besides this, keep your polluting hands off our White Race Women; they also belong only to the White Race Man. This is the true law of our original White Man's Constitution, these statements explain the real and true spirit of California.

He was never more than a fringe candidate for the Progressive Party and only got 170 votes in the primary.  Still, he obviously felt encouraged enough to run three more times. It was his continuing support of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi policies, even after the United States entered World War II, that really got Riker into trouble though. 

After authorities learned about a series of letters of support that Riker had written to the German leader, "William the Comforter" was arrested in 1943.   Though he retained famed trial lawyer Marvin Belli to represent him during his trial, Riker would become incensed by the way his lawyer repeatedly referred to him as a "crackpot" in his defense.   Despite being acquitted, Riker was offended enough by Belli's comments to try suing him afterward for "defamation of character."   Riker lost his case and was forced to pay court costs.

The final end for Holy City (and Riker's empire) came in the 1940s when the construction  of a new highway doomed the thriving tourist trade.    Since Holy City was no longer on the main route through the Santa Cruz Mountains, businesses closed and many residents were forced to find work elsewhere.  Holy City was disincorporated in 1959 and Riker lost control of his empire in 1960.  Exactly what happened is still a mystery though many of the buildings that made up Holy City were destroyed in a large fire that occurred around that time.  

Even with his empire gone, Riker managed to hang on to the few acres remaining to him.   His white supremacy message had fallen increasingly out of favour, especially with the rise of the civil rights movement, and he had only a handful of followers.   Still, those same followers were likely astonished when William Riker suddenly convered to Roman Catholicism at the age of  93.   Three years later, he died at Agnew State Hospital.  

According to "Father" Riker's obituary, there was only one known survivor of his original disciples still living at the time (no word on what became of "Queen" Lucille).  Still, the loss of his following didn't keep him from his dream of reestablishing his empire. Just a month or so before his death, Riker produced a crayon drawing of a multi-million dollar church that he hoped to build with the right support. 

Though Riker's big dream died with him, there are still traces of Holy City left behind for the determined visitor.   The former post office of Holy City is now an upscale shop selling all types of handblown glass though a neon sign reading "Holy City, California" is still prominently displayed in the window.  That, and the small collection of Holy City memorabilia maintained by the shop's owner are all that remain of William Riker's utopian dream and the ""headquarters for the world's most perfect government."