Abit of my own stuff

I've just realised its been a long time since I posted my own artwork on here, and in the last couple of months I have done a few pieces that i am really happy with, so I thought i'd share them

Haunted Air

I recieved the most beautiful book yesterday, 'Haunted Air' by Ossian Brown, A collection of Anonymous Hallowe'en photographs, America 1875-1955.

It has a stunning black fabric cover and the photos are reproduced perfectly in their original size.
Its such a stunning book.

"The photographs in Haunted Air provide an extraordinary glimpse into the traditions of this macabre festival from ages past, and form an important document of photographic history. These are the pictures of the dead: family portraits, mementoes of the treasured, now unrecognisable, other. Torn from album pages, sold piecemeal for pennies and scattered, abandoned to melancholy chance and the hands of strangers."
-The Random House Group











I hugely recomment that you buy this treasure of a book

Christmas Time

Its Christmas day! I've had a pleasant, chilled out day. My parents are watching the Doctor Who Christmas Special, which I don't like, so I decided to share my Christmas pressies on here.
I got two amazing postmortem pictures from my dad, so Chuffed with them.





The Man who sold these photographs said they were both of the same child. This could well be true, the children appear to be the same age and the wreath of flowers round the head on the one picture does look alot like the wreath resting on the childs lap in the other picture.
The only thing is I wonder why the two set ups are so different in background, the one in white with wallpaper behind, the other completely surrounded by Dark fabric. the mounts are also different, why would only one mount have the photographers stamp on it? I guess we'll never know for sure.

Morbid Attraction

Have any of you ever ventured into the London Dungeons 'Creepy Crypt' exhibition? Sounds interesting, if not slightly cheesy. The exhibition has come up in the news this week after one of the prop skeletons on display there was found to be genuine human remains, It is believed the bones could have been there since the attraction opened in 1975. I personally think this is fascinating! You'd think someone would have noticed this sooner, but I guess these 'props' can be very life like!


Its is thought the remains could date from the early days of anatomical research when bodies were regularly smuggled in from the Far East, or maybe a victim of grave robbing to supply scientists and doctors. Staff at the dungeons now believe a second skeleton which they call Twiggy may also be real, staff have decided to get their 'props' checked as real human remains have to be licenced by the Human Tissue Society for up to £2,000 a year.


I find it fascinating that real human remains have been unknowingly veiwed by hundreds of people at a tourist attraction. The story reminded me of another incident I remembered hearing about in which a real preserved corpse was used unknowingly as a prop in a haunted house attraction at a fair.

The incredible story was discovered when a television company was filming at the 'Laff in the Dark' funhouse in Long Beach California. A member of the cast accidently knocked the arm off what he thought was a spooky dummy, but on closer inspection he saw a bone inside the arm and realised this was a real corpse!
More interestingly when the body was being examined a 1924 penny was found inside its mouth along with a ticket from Sonney Amusement’s Museum of Crime in Los Angeles.

These artifacts helped piece together the corpses story and indentify him as Elmer Mccurdy.
Mccurdys story began with his birth in Maine in 1880, from here he moved to the Midwest where he lived as a drifter before enlisting in the army in 1910 where he did little of interest. After his time in the army he became a train robber.
He was shot dead after a standoff with the police on October 7 1911.

His body was not claimed, so it ended up in a funeral home in Oklahoma where the owner mummified him as a display piece (this was actually quite common at the time)
In 1916 A man came to claim him, saying he was a family member wanting to give him a proper burial, this man was in fact from the 'Great Patterson Shows' and then took the body to be displayed as the 'oklahoma outlaw' in his show.
For the next 60 years he was passed between shows and carnivals once even ending up in a theatre lobby for opening night of a gangster film.
In the 1940s he ended up in a museum of crime, by this time his true nature had been forgotten and he was thought to be a macabre waxwork. Sold on as a waxwork in the 1970s to a museum and ending up in the California Funhouse where his indentity was discovered.


He was finally laid to rest and buried in Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie, Oklahoma. To make sure his corpse stayed put, 2 cubic yards of cement were poured over the coffin before the grave was closed.


Elmers story is one of the most Bizarre and Amazing things I've ever read. I wonder what he would have made of the amazing journey his body was to go on!

This brings to mind another story I've recently read from another part of the world, in Northern Mexico, in a city called, Chihuahua we find the legend of 'La Pascualita'.

75 years ago a dummy appeared in a Bridal shop in Chihuahua, locals peered through the windows at the veiny hands and sinister smile and remarked how the dummy resembled the owner of the shop and over time her legend grew.


rumours began going round that she was infact the preserved corpse of the shop owners daughter, who had died from a black widow spider bite on her wedding day. She was receiving abusive phone calls accusing her of hiding her daughers death and embalming her body. She issued a formal denial, but the story stuck.


In more recent years stories have been told of the figure shifting position in the window in the dead of night, and that her eyes follow customers round the shop.
Some of the shop workers are too frightened to change her dress, with one reporting that she has varicose veins on her leg! The shop assistants certainly feel that she is a real person, she is always changed behind a curtain to retain her modesty.
Tourists come to the shop from all around the world and leave offerings by the window to La Pascualita'. Candles, rosaries, sugar skulls and flowers are left there, especially on mexico's day of the dead.



When asked about her true Nature the current shop owner simply shrugs and says 'I could't say'.

Who knows where she came from, but the legend that has built up around her is amazing. I wonder if any more 'props' will be discovered to be just a little too convincing to be fakes.

Recent Additions

The lastest addition to my postmortem family is this little baby

Trying to be more active on here

Its been a while since I posted here, not sure I still even have active followers, ah well, I'm going to attempt to be active again, cause I do love this blog.

I am still avidly collecting post mortem photos, hoping to get some this christmas in fact!

I've been doing loads of research into serial Killers, as I tend to do periodically through my life. This time I've been looking at Richard Ramirez 'The Night Stalker'

heres some more info on the case
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/ramirez/satan_2.html

I spent a while trawling the internets huge amout of horrific crime scene photos, I found the pictures from the Night Stalker Case easily. It is so weird to actually see something I'd read so much about. It seems odd to me that its so easy to get hold of the photographs from most of Americas notorious murder cases, can't help but wonder what the victims families think!

Ramirez apparently giggled in court when the graphic photos were shown.








The way he's looking at that woman in the last picture is seriously terrifying.

This picture is the most powerful of the crime scene photos in my opinion, something about the milk carton lying there, makes it look almost artistic, I believe this woman was smashed around the head with a tyre iron.

New Flickr

I've set up a flickr for my collection of vintage and antique photos if anyone wants to see them here is the link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hettybubble/sets/

Easter Monday Flea Market

I've just got back from the Easter Monday Flea Market, picked up some more photos for my collection, I also got an Easter present from my boyfriend of the most amazing post mortem baby in a crib, so a good Easter for me.

A Lovely Edwardian Baby in a heavy frame



Creepy looking Siblings, especially the blurred girl, they kind of remind me of the twins from the shining



Stunning Postmortem of a baby in a crib, in what appears to be his or her Christening gown and bonnet



A stereoview of a mother and child playing 'this little piggy went to market'

New Additions to my Photo Collection

I have 3 new additions to my Vintage Photo Collection, the first two I bought for 50p each from an Antiques market in Oxford, the third one is an Etsy find

This one is a Christmas card with the message handwritten on the back, I find it so beautiful



This one seems to be a little novelty picture done at seaside resorts where you had a photograph taken with your weight on the top as you stand on Scales, kinda weird, but I guess people weren't so bothered by their weight in those days



and finally a print from an old glass negative of a dead child

My Book Collection

Heres some amazing images from my book collection, just thought I'd share afew

These are from the found photography books 'anonymous' and Being Human







afew from the book 'Secret Games'





Wisconsin death trip

Missed Call

I'm passing this on from www.postsecret.com cause its totally heartbreaking, the message was sent to postsecret along with this email
"This is the last thing I heard from my girlfriend in January of 2009. It was right before she took her own life. I didn't answer the phone because I was in class, and have regretted it ever since."

Missed Phone Call by eflore7

Anneliese Michel

I just finished watching 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose' and thought i'd look into the 'true' story behind the film.
Anneliese Michel (1952–1976) was a Catholic woman from Germany who was said to be possessed by six or more demons , including Lucifer, Judas Iscariot, Nero, Cain, and Hitler.



In 1968, when she was 17, Anneliese began to suffer from convulsions. It was then that a neurologist at the Psychiatric Clinic Wurzburg diagnosed her with Grand Mal epilepsy.

Soon, Anneliese started experiencing hallucinations while praying and she carried out a number of highly disturbing actions. She licked her own urine off the floor and ate flies, spiders, and coal. She bit off the head of a dead bird. In one instance, she crawled under a table and barked like a dog for two days. She could often be heard screaming through the walls for hours.
An exorcist from a nearby town examined Anneliese and concluded that she was demonically possessed.

In 1975, her parents gave up on the doctors from the psychiatric clinic. They chose to rely solely on the exorcisms and the church for healing.
Anneliese endured 67 rites of exorcism over a period of 10 months. Over time, the ligaments in her knees ruptured due to the 600 genuflections that she performed obsessively during each exorcism session.



According to the autopsy, on July 1, 1976 Anneliese Michel succumbed to the effects of severe dehydration and malnourishment.

At the time of her death, she weighed only 68 lbs. from almost a year of semi-starvation during the rites of exorcism. She was also suffering from pneumonia and a high fever.

She was buried next to her illegitimate sister Martha at the outer edges of the cemetery. This area is normally reserved for illegitimate children and suicides.

During the trial in 1978, there were four defendants. They were Father Arnold Renz, Pastor Ernst Alt, and Anneliese Michel's parents, Josef and Anna. All four were found guilty of negligent homicide and sentenced to six months in prison, suspended with three years' probation.

Was she really possessed?

This video plays the some of the tape recordings of the exorcisms

Sleeping Beauty 3

So it arrived, my amazing book, sleeping beauty 3, I love it soo much, its signed by Stanley Burnes. Its a smaller that the previous ones, but I quite like its small size, kinda like a childrens book, but a terribly sad one.







It came with a postmortem CDV thats so wonderful and delicate, the perfect parcel arriving this morning, has made my day :)

The boy in the box

One of the saddest stories I've come across in a long time is that of the boy in the box


"His given name has eluded police for 43 years, along with the way he met his death.



In life, almost nothing is known about the small child found decades ago in a dumpsite. But in death, he would be embraced by homicide investigators who had seen it all -- except a boy in a box, surrounded by trash and rusty car parts. And generations of Philadelphians would be drawn to him long after he was in the ground. Some still pray for his soul.

The cardboard box -- the first of what would come to be his three graves -- held him only briefly, perhaps a few days or weeks. After months on a cold slab in the city morgue, he was buried in grave No. 191 in a potter's field alongside prisoners, unclaimed bodies and body parts.

He came to his final resting place in 1998, when his body was exhumed for DNA testing and then reburied in a private cemetery.

At first glance, the man who spotted the body thought it might be a discarded doll. But it was of a boy of about 4, left in a box marked "fragile" and "handle with care," dumped in a rubbish-strewn lot in a desolate wooded area on the city's northern fringes. The nude, badly bruised body, covered by a blanket, wasn't even big enough to fill the box."

His original gravestone simply read "Heavenly Father, Bless This Unknown Boy."






For more information on the case visit - http://americasunknownchild.net/