Mary Mary quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row.

Nursery Rhymes are frequently based on unspeakable historical horrors. Children, I fear, may be essentially evil. They regularly and with much glee recite little rhymes filled with subject matter that would give pause to even the most graphic horror writer.

“Mary, Mary Quite Contrary” the familiar English rhyme is a choice example. The rhyme alludes to Mary Tudor, or Bloody Mary.

The daughter of Henry VII  was a staunch Catholic responsible for a repressive policy against practitioners of the Protestant faith. Her ‘garden’ referred to in the rhyme was a euphemism for the graveyards which, under her harsh supervision, filled up quickly with Protestant martyrs.

Silver bells and cockle shells were colloquialisms for instruments of torture.  ’Silver bells’ were  thumbscrews. This simple vice with protruding studs or spikes on the interior surfaces was placed on the victim’s thumbs and slowly tightened until the victim gave a confession. The ‘cockleshells’ were supposedly instruments which were attached to the genitals and tightened in much the same way.

Beheading in Bloody Mary’s time was problematic. The one who was to be beheaded frequently refused to cooperate and had to be chased around the scaffold. Often, multiple blows were needed to sever the head. Simple executions turned into drawn out and complicated public spectacles. The guillotine solved these problems. A common nickname for the the guillotine was the maiden. The ‘pretty maids all in a row’ refers to the collection of guillotines used to get rid of the troublesome Protestants.

Mary was indeed contrary. In spite of that, children have, for generations, embraced her and sung her praises. Doesn’t this seem suspicious? I suspect those cute little cherubs are actually monsters waiting for us to drop our vigilance for just one second.

You’ve been warned.

*** Thank you to Amanda Spaid for permission to use her stunning art work. You can check out her website here

Posted by: Kate Jonez

Medical science is a wonderful thing.  Plagues no longer wipe out entire cities.  Surgery prolongs lives that would have been lost in the age of leech therapy. These marvelous advances in medicine required a great deal of research.

In the Nineteenth Century doctors who wanted to explore human anatomy had a very limited supply of cadavers.  Only the bodies of criminals could be  used for research.  As medical research began to reveal the answers to more and more of the medical mysteries that had puzzled doctors for centuries, the shortage of research subjects became a problem.  For professor Robert Knox who practiced the French method of anatomical study – one student – one cadaver, the problem was especially troubling.  So when a couple of fellows showed up on professor Knox’s doorstep with a corpse to sell, the professor didn’t ask questions.  He paid their fee without hesitation.

William Hare didn’t set out to become a resurrection man. The opportunity just presented itself.  Hare owned a boarding house in a poor section of Edinburgh Scotland.  One night an elderly boarder expired at his dinner table.  Mr Hare was not especially moved by the death of the old pensioner. He was, however, outraged that the old man had dared to die while still owing £4 in rent.  With the help of William Burke, another of his boarders, he weighted the old man’s coffin with tree branches and hid the body until the authorities removed it.  Once they were gone, the men were in the clear to do as they wished.  They stuffed the old man in a sack and spirited him off to the anatomy school where they sold the body for £7.

Misters Burke and Hare were thrilled with the easy money.  A few days later, another boarding house resident became sick. Burke and Hare gave him whiskey to make him feel better.  Although Joseph the Miller was not nearly as old as the first boarder or nearly as ill, the two businessmen decided that he was close to death and the only humane thing to do would be to put him out of his misery.  They continued feeding Miller whiskey until he was unconscious then covered his mouth and nose until he died.  In no time at all Burke and Hare collected the second installment from the doctor at the anatomy school.

Burke and Hare waited and waited but to their dismay no other boarders became sick.  Unwilling to so easily give up their new and lucrative source of income they decided on a more proactive method of supplying the school.  On a balmy April morning in an Edinburgh tavern William Burke met with Mary and Janet a pair of 18 year old prostitutes.   After consuming copious amounts of alcohol Burke was able to convince the two young women to return to his house for breakfast.  Mary quickly fell asleep at the breakfast table.  Burke and Janet continued drinking until they were surprised by Burke’s wife Helen.  For some reason Helen was upset by the presence of the young women in her kitchen.  She screamed at her husband and pelted him with assorted kitchen implements.  After much excitement and emotional upheaval Burke put his wife out of the house.  Janet, upset by the intrusion of Burke’s wife, escaped through a side door.  She left her sleeping friend Mary behind.  When Janet came back Mary was no where to be found.

As he paid Burke and Hare, Dr Knox commented on the freshness of the latest female specimen.  Many students were surprised to see the familiar face of the prostitute on the autopsy table, but no one said anything.   Burke and Hare, emboldened by their success, became ever more fearless in their pursuit of their quarry.

Visitors to Edinburgh vanished never to be seen again.  As Burke and Hare became more expert in their art, even the locals began to disappear.   William Burke became so bold as to convince a team of police officers that he knew the drunken woman they were escorting home.  The policemen allowed Mr. Burke to take the woman off their hands.  The next day she was on the autopsy table and Burke was £10 richer.

The cavalier attitude of the two men proved to be their undoing.  18 year old James Wilson who was known as “Daft Jamie” was a local fixture who haunted the streets of Edinburgh.   He entertained children with games and riddles. Early in October William Hare discovered Jamie wandering the streets.  He convinced him to come to his house.  Jamie wasn’t a drinker and Burke and Hare’s usual ploy of plying their victims with alcohol didn’t work on Jamie.  Jamie fought back.  He proved to be remarkable strong and was able to pin Hare and nearly escape.  The two men were eventually able to regain control of the situation.  They delivered the body of the boy to the anatomy school the next morning.

Jamie’s mysterious disappearance and his mother’s constant inquiries about his whereabouts aroused the suspicions of the authorities.  Many of the students at the anatomy school recognized the body of the boy but Dr. Knox denied that the corpse was Jamie’s.  The body was however, quickly dissected and all features that could have identified him were eradicated.

The final episode in Burke and Hare’s gruesome tale began the morning of Halloween. Burke  managed to lure an Irish woman to the boarding house on the pretense that they were related. By this time Burke and Hare’s wives were in on the scheme and did all they could to help.  In order to “entertain” the woman Burke needed to get a pair of troublesome boarders the Gray’s out of the way.  At his own expense and persuading them with some sort of fanciful story he convinced them to stay elsewhere for the night.  The couple’s suspicion of this strange request brought them back to the boarding house first thing in the morning.  They poked around. To their horror they found the corpse of Mary stashed under a bed.  Burke and Hare tried to bribe the couple but they instead ran to alert the authorities.  Burke and Hare move quickly to remove the body to the anatomy school.  When they returned home the police were waiting with their wives.   Burke and Hare had cooked up an explanation. They’d agreed on the time they would tell the police that Mary left. The authorities became wary when Mrs. Burke claimed Mary left at 7pm and her husband said 7am.

Under interrogation the ghastly story came to light.  The foursome was arrested.  William Hare and his wife turned King’s evidence and ratted out their co-conspirator in exchange for leniency.  The court could not prove Mrs. Burke’s guilt.  Of the four William Burke was the only one to be punished.  He was hanged on Jan 28,1829 in front of a large crowd which chanted‘ Burke him, Burke him’. William Burke’s body was donated for dissection shortly after his death.  His skin was used to make a pocket book which is on display at Police Museum on the Royal Mile. His skeleton hangs to this day in University Medical School.

Charges were never brought against Dr. Knox or the anatomy school.  Although the Doctor’s popularity waned in the years following the incident.  He ended his undistinguished career working long hours in a crowded London hospital.

Posted by: Kate Jonez

On December 16, 1916 the mystic Grigori Rasputin was lured to Prince Felix Yusopov’s Palace with the promise of a party. A group of Russian nobles, afraid that Rasputin was becoming too influential with the Tsarina, had decided to kill him off. They served him cakes and wine laced with a large dose of cyanide. According to legend, Rasputin wasn’t killed by the poison even though he had consumed enough to kill ten. Yusupov, to ensure that Rasputin wouldn’t recover, shot him in the back. When the Russian nobles returned to dispose of the body, Rasputin opened his eyes, jumped to his feet, attacked Yusupov and ran away. In a panic, the nobles shot him three more times. As they approached the body, Rasputin stirred. They clubbed him until he lay still. They then wrapped him in a sheet and threw him into a river. Three days later, when Rasputin’s body washed up on shore, doctors declared drowning and hypothermia as the cause of death. Some say that Rasputin was a supernatural creature. Some disagree. But if a man is poisoned, shot, beaten, shot again, then drowned, I think something supernatural could be involved.

Posted by: Kate Jonez

A compelling villain can make an ordinary story exceptional. Sometimes I like to read about villains from history to get insight.

Vera Renczi was born in 1903 to an aristocratic Hungarian family. When she was a young woman, her friends and family thought her spoiled rich-girl attitude caused her relationship troubles. Her problem, however, had much deeper roots and more serious consequences. Unlike most female serial killers who kill for financial gain, Vera killed because she believed men could not be trusted. She was obsessed by the need for total loyalty and devotion from her lovers. Before she was caught she poisoned 2 husbands, one son, and as many as 35 lovers. When the authorities searched her home they found 32 corpses in her wine cellar each stored in their own personalized coffin.

To learn more about Vera Renczi

BBC Infamous Poisoners

The Discovery Channel Deadly Women

Wikipedia Vera Renczi

Posted by: Kate Jonez

When deciding on an appropriate villain for my novel “Candy House” I wanted to learn about all the best villains in fiction and history.

One of my favorites is: The Baron von Ungern-Sternberg

Shortly after the Russian Revolution of 1914, a most unusual villain rose to power in Eastern Russia. Baron von Ungern-Sternberg claimed descent from a long line of warriors leading all the way back to Attila the Hun. Some said that the baron was brain damaged. His skull was supposedly cracked open like a nut, with grey matter on display for all to see. Photos of the baron don’t clearly show the back of his head and his cloven scull may just be a legend. There are, however, many reports from his men of veins pulsing from the Baron’s exposed brain when he was mad.

The Baron, it seems, was proud of his abnormal skull. He claimed he could wriggle inside a horse’s stomach. With his miniscule head he was able to enter the beast from either end. Sternberg claimed he did this to gain equanimity and composure. The horse into which he was wriggling, undoubtedly, did not feel as calm.

Sternberg was not a handsome fellow. His expression was lopsided and his grin twisted. On more than one occasion he was compared to a demon escaped from hell. Not only was he ugly, he was also a savage killer. His hobby was to enter a tavern, consume enough vodka to see double and then fire at the patrons. To his astonishment, he consistently hit fifty percent of those he aimed at.

Ungern-Sternberg gained a reputation as a victorious warrior while fighting the Reds during Russia’s civil war. He specialized in floggings and shootings. On his orders, men and women were beaten, hung, beheaded, disemboweled and subjected to countless other tortures that transformed them from living human beings into what one witness called a “bloody puddle.”

The Baron’s violent proclivities brought him success in the Russian army. He earned a promotion to Major General and was rewarded with the “highly desirable” territory of Siberia. Some Russians find Siberia inhospitable. The Baron, however, liked the icy wastelands of Genghis Khan’s homeland. He did not, however, like the events unfolding in Russia. In 1920 Ungern-Sternberg decided that monarchy was the only kind of government for him. He split with the Bolsheviks of Russia who seemed to be going another way. He, with his army, invaded neighboring Mongolia and declared himself King.

The new King had an idea – by killing people he was doing them a favor. If people were so feeble they couldn’t protect themselves they must have bad Karma. Dying would improve their position in the cosmos. He, The Baron von Ungern-Sternberg, was a King and a genius. Even more than that, not just a king and a genius – he was an angel, a holy man, a bringer of enlightenment who had the power to elevate souls. The Baron proclaimed himself god. As leader of the new religion he improved the station of innumerable — followers.

Once in an especially generous state of mind. He asked his men to donate their skeletons for the construction of a multi-jointed Bodhisattva. The soldiers refused. Ungern-Sternberg insisted that they comply. He wept with joy as his men attained Nirvana.

The Baron had many innovative ideas about government. Like his European counterparts later in the 20th Century Ungern-Sternberg concerned himself with the state of bus transportation. Citizens of Urga, the capital of Mongolia, were treated to the “rebirth bus station of the day.” The lucky bus riders, on disembarking were rounded up, suspended from a tree and gently lowered into a fire until their souls were free.

The Baron had progressive and forward thinking policies on crime. Crime was not a moral problem but a disease caused by a virus caught from the Chinese. The good and kind Baron cured thieves with a variety of treatments of his own invention. Treatments ranged from sewing mice into the liver of the ailing criminal to enemas with turpentine. These treatments worked surprisingly well. Few thieves ever stole again.

Like any despot worthy of a place in history Baron von Ungern-Sternberg employed minions. He awarded the rank of Commander of Urga to his loyal follower Colonel Sepailoff. Sepailoff suffered from a condition that caused him to twitch and jerk uncontrollably. He spouted nonsensical or offensive words at random. Sepailoff often sang in his jerky and marginally coherent voice as he killed off the citizens of the kingdom – or elevated their Karma, as the Baron called it.

Another of the Baron’s loyal lackeys, Teapot, came by his name because he was always brewing tea. He had forgotten his real name on the long ride across the Mongolian steppe. Whenever a Mongol applied for a job with the Baron’s administration, The Baron would personally interview the candidate. If the candidate accepted a cup of tea during the meeting, Teapot would creep up behind the job-seeker and strangle him. In The Baron’s court, death did not necessarily disqualify the candidate from getting the job, nor from earning a wage.

Most western governments were reluctant to recognize a governing body run by rotting corpses and mad men. The Baron did, however, gain recognition and financial support from Japan. Japan was perhaps was a little too eager to have a buffer between itself and its powerful Russian and Chinese neighbors.

The Baron’s reign, in spite of his kingdom’s colorful social conventions and political trappings, was short. In 1921 his men turned him over to Russian authorities. Baron von Ungern-Sternberg faced a firing squad shortly after. In a hail of bullets the soul of the enlightened leader was sent packing to a far more elevated state.

Posted by: Kate Jonez