Martyr or murdered?

To the people of Brittany, that September day in 1440 must have seen like the ending of the world. The magnificent, prodigiously wealthy Baron Gilles de Rais had been arrested and charged with sorcery, sacrilege and the ritual murder of little children.

Even in the brilliant and extravagant court of 15^th century, few careers had been so meteoric as that of Gilles. Heir to the greatest barony of Brittany, he had fought with Joan of Arc against England and was marshal of France at the age of 24. So rich did he become, that the number and splendor of his castles were second only to those of the King.

Then the blow fell. The prosecutors alleged that he maintained an Italian magician, Francesco Prelati, with whose assistance he had kidnapped and murdered large number of children. Their blood was alleged to have been used by Gilles, in fearsome potions, to gain magical powers over his enemies.

On October 21, the marshal confessed to all the crimes with which he had been charged, and explained that his motives were simply to gratify his passions. ‘I tell you there was no other motive. Have I not already told you enough to put ten thousand men to death?’

Gilles was hanged with his associates in Nantes, before the end of October. Few people doubted his guilt. After all, surely no man, not even Gilles, could have achieved so much without the assistance from the devil?

But the trial was held behind closed doors and there were some disquieting doubts. Gilles henchmen were certainly tortured, and the baron may have been subjected to the same treatment himself. Was he the victim of a conspiracy? If so, suspicion falls on John, Duke of Brittany, who stood to gain de Rais’ Lands.

Gilles was an easy target for accusations of sorcery, for he paid scant regard to conventional morality and interested himself in alchemy and astrology. Also, his gluttony, extravagance and sexual activities were notorious. Regrettable, perhaps, but no evidence that he was murdered of children.

Why then, if he was innocent, did he confess to such foul crimes? Perhaps he did so under torture. But there is a more likely explanation.

Gilles knew that once under the power of his enemies he was doomed, and since his life was forfeit in any case, his only concern would be the safety and welfare of his family.

If Gilles denied the charges and was found guilty, his lands and wealth would be confiscated. But, if he confessed and died repentant, then the law provided that at least part of his estate would pass to his children.

And so it happened. Although Gilles castles were granted to the Duke of Brittany, most of his wealth remained with this family who suffered no great disgrace.

Some of them rose to high office in royal service-but none became so dangerously rich and powerful as Gilles himself.

However, many still believe that his confession was real. He himself stated that the first assault to children was in the Spring of 1432 in Champtoce-sur-loire. He then moved to Machecoul were he killed or ordered children to be killed after he sodomise them. 40 bodies are said to have been recovered from Machecoul in 1437.

The first boy that was said to have been kidnapped and latered killed was a boy, named Jeudon. He was 12 years old at the time of his dissaperence. According to the records, the boy was asked by a cousin of Gilles to take a message to Machecoul, when the boy disappeared an investigation was began, but Gilles said he had never arrived, and so he was thought to have been lost in the trail to thieves.

Jean bennedetti wrote a biography about Gilles, in which he says the boys were always invited into the house, dressed like a king and then allowed to eat a feast were they drank alcoholic beverages. Gilles then would take the boy into a private room where he would rape and kill them.

 Gilles' bodyservant Étienne Corrillaut, known as Poitou, was an accomplice in many of the crimes and testified that his master hung his victims with ropes from a hook to prevent the child from crying out, then masturbated upon the child's belly or thighs. Taking the victim down, Rais comforted the child and assured him he only wanted to play with him. Gilles then either killed the child himself or had the child killed by his cousin Gilles de Sillé, Poitou or another bodyservant called Henriet. The victims were killed by decapitation, cutting of their throats, dismemberment, or breaking of their necks with a stick. A short, thick, double-edged sword called a braquemard was kept at hand for the murders. Poitou further testified that Rais sometimes abused the victims (whether boys or girls) before wounding them and at other times after the victim had been slashed in the throat or decapitated. According to Poitou, Rais disdained the victim's sexual organs, and took "infinitely more pleasure in debauching himself in this manner ... than in using their natural orifice, in the normal manner."

In his own confession, Gilles testified that “when the said children were dead, he kissed them and those who had the most handsome limbs and heads he held up to admire them, and had their bodies cruelly cut open and took delight at the sight of their inner organs; and very often when the children were dying he sat on their stomachs and took pleasure in seeing them die and laughed”.

Poitou testified that he and Henriet burned the bodies in the fireplace in Gilles' room. The clothes of the victim were placed into the fire piece by piece so they burned slowly and the smell was minimized. The ashes were then thrown into the cesspit, the moat, or other hiding places. The last recorded murder was of the son of Éonnet de Villeblanche and his wife Macée. Poitou paid 20 sous to have a page's doublet made for the victim, who was then assaulted, murdered, and incinerated in August 1440.

In 1438, according to testimony at his trial from the priest Eustache Blanchet and the cleric François Prelati, de Rais sent out Blanchet to seek individuals who knew alchemy and demon summoning. Blanchet contacted Prelati in Florence and convinced him to take service with his master. Having reviewed the magical books of Prelati and a traveling Breton, de Rais chose to initiate experiments, the first being in the lower hall of his castle at Tiffauges, to summon a demon named Barron. De Rais provided a contract with the demon for riches that Prelati was to give to the demon at a later time.

As no demon manifested after three tries, the Marshal grew frustrated with the lack of results. Prelati responded the demon summoned, named Barron, was angry and required the offering of parts of a child. De Rais provided these remnants in a glass vessel at a future invocation.

Now you decide….

 

Hollywood Superstitions

Every one has one or two things that we sort of believe in, something that we do for good luck. A lucky pen that we take our tests with, a lucky charm we carry everywhere. Dice in our car to keep accidents away (even thought we can't see through them).

I was wondering about the superstitions the great and powerful in Hollywood have. I mean if anyone bases their carrer in luck and talent, its them. why do some become great when their acting is mediocre and some stay behind when their acting is great? could it be all just luck?

Lets look at some charms and superstitions in Hollywood.

First night telegrams, congratulating actors ont their performances, are usually stuck on dressing room mirrors. if they turn yellow quickly, it is considered a sign that a production will enjoy a long run.

When the show closes, each telegram must be taken down after each actor's last entrance on teh final night. some are torn up, especcially if the show has not been a success. Others are kept in the hope that the 'good luck' will continue.

Wishing an Actor "A good run" or to say "good luck" is considered a jinx. but wishing the actor a "great opening" or saying "Break a leg" is considered good luck.

Did you know that if an actor uses an used soap that belongs to a "lucky" colleague they believe that that luck will rub off on them. but is a lucky Actor forgets the soap, the luck will run out, and they may never be employed again?

good luck charms is something that most of us have, or believe in. cats are usually unlucky for most people, but for actors they are good luck. The British actor John Mills had a lucky black cat that he took every where and was kept in his dressing room.

Hollywood star John Wayne always used the same six-gun he used in his first western. and James Stewart wore the same hat all through out his career. 

John Wayne and his six-shotter

Like I said cats are considered bad luck every where except in the theater and Hollywood. but should one of those cats run across the stage during a performance it is considered bad luck, which makes sense. can you imagine a roman empire scene where the emperor's wife is dying in his arms, and all of the sudden a cat runs across the stage? I would say that would be bad luck.

opening an umbrella on stage is bad luck, dropping a comb on stage is asking for trouble. and if someone is knitting anywhere near the stage the actors should expect trouble to be on its way. (maybe because the person does not find their acting interesting enough to watch) 

The worst omen possible for actors however is inside their dressing room. should someone whistle in a dressing room it means that one of the casts will soon be out of a job. the person who whistled must leave the dressing room, turn around three times, and knock three times before re-entering to vanish the bad omen. 

If a director wants his play to succeed the last line of the play must never be rehearsed. A good problem free dress rehearsal must mean that the opening night will be a failure, however it is considered good luck if there are lots of problems during the rehearsal. 

so to you actors out there I would just like to say, may your cat stay in dressing room, may you break a leg and may your dress rehearsal always be disastrous.

Olympia Springs meat shower - 1876

At 2 Pm, March 03rd (Friday) Allen Crouch sat in his living room of his Family farm in Kentucky, when screams from his wife arose him to action. His Wife had been busy outside making soup when all of the sudden chunks of fresh meat began to fall on her.

The meat shower continued for 3 to 5 minutes before the sunny, windless afternoon returned to its precious calm state. what was left were chunks of meat and blood splattered all over the ground. The rain had covered the Farm the size of a football field.

People from the town came as soon as they heard of the event to collect the fallen flesh, or what was left of it since the animals of the farm where already in the process of eating it.

The towns people found the situation so intriguing that some of them decided to cook it and eat to figure out what it might be.  those who tasted the meat later told the New York times that it tasted like Venison. One of those adventurous Americans was Benjamin Franklin Allington a bear hunter, and he proclaimed that the meat was most certainly bear meat.

Samples of the meat where shipped to universities to try and figure out what it was, and perhaps how it had come to fall from the sky.

All of the scientific tests where inconclusive, although theories of what the meat actually was range from Horse lungs, Human babies, Human beings, and perhaps regurgitated animal meat from flying buzzards. (I do hope that the poor folks who tasted the meat didn't hear that theory)

Other theories about the cause of the meat rain were that perhaps some one got caught in a tornado holding a knife, cut themselves into tiny little pieces, and when the tornado finished its course the pieces fell from the sky. This theory does not make sense how ever because it was only flesh that fell from the sky, and not bone. 

Another theory is that Buzzards had feasted on horse meat and just as they were passing the farm, they all decided to regurgitate the meat at the same time, which also does not make sense because why would they all decide to regurgitate the meat at the same time? and how many Buzzards would have to vomit to cover the size of a football field? and if there happened to be hundreds of birds flying at the same time, how come no one saw them? 

Another theory states that if fallen stars and rock fall from the stars why not cosmic meat? This theory I don't even have to try to discredit because its just retarded and I cant believe a scientist came up with it. The theory states that just a worlds hundreds of millions of miles away explode and the rock from these worlds fall from time to time on our world, so can the citizens of such world disintegrate into little pieces and fall on our world, except that it happened in a small farm, and only once in the history of human kind. right...

Here is my theory...ready?

Pissed off wive sees her husband drinking lemonade in the cold shade of the house, gets angry that she is outside making meat, fat and bone into soap while he stretches his legs, decides to grab the load and throw it in a fit of madness. She then realizes that everyone will be talking about her, and since its 1876 her husband will probably also give her a good spanking for her trouble. So, she makes up a story that the meat just fell from the sky.  

What about the witnesses you say? well it all happened in the crouch family farm, the only witness was a slave and mrs. Crouch who could have told him that if he speaks he dies. 

What do you think?

  

Bananas with a twist

You're in the store, and as a last item you pop some bananas in your cart. You come home, hang out with the wife and kids and reach for one of those bananas. When all of the sudden you see a swarm of spiders cascade out of the yellow fruit. Sounds like a horror movie?

Well for Jamie and Crystal Roberts from Hednesford, Staffordshire that is exactly what happened. On a day like any other Jamie had purchased a bunch of Bananas from the onestop around the corner, he had noticed a white patch on them before he purchased the Bananas but dismissed as a bit of dirt or moss.

He deposited the Bananas by a window sill, and when he went to get one he noticed hundreds of little spiders swarming the bananas and by this time his window.

He called up the store manager who told him to get out of the house and call pest control. Probably a really good idea since after doing some research on the web Crystal realized that the spiders where Brazilian Wandering Spiders, or if you wish to call them by their scientific name "Phoneutria Nigriventer"

In Greek, phoneutria means the murderess. This name was given due to the highly deadly venon these spiders contain, the bite of one can conduce to heart failure, and even death on a human. 

Thankfully the couple's children Georgina 7 and Joshua 5 were not harmed by the spiders. 

To make matters worse Jamie suffers from arachnophobia, which is the fear of spiders, so I doubt he will be buying any Bananas soon.