Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Son Sacrificed Mother in 'Aztec' Ritual

On the frigid morning of January 27, 1958, the savaged head of Edna Burns was found in the vestibule of the Immaculate Conception Church in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

The culprit was the woman's own son, Bobby Joe Burns. The 28 year old man with a history of paranoid schizophrenia and drug abuse claimed his mother agreed to the decapitation as part of an Aztec ritual. The victim had garnered the release of her son from a state mental facility the previous year.

After leaving her head at the church, Burns crossed over into Oklahoma and spent the night sleeping in a field.

During his interrogation, the clearly disturbed Burns snacked on candy bars and drank sodas. At one point, his brother brought him some cigarettes and said, "We don't blame you for what happened."

The family, it seems, had tried to convince Edna Burns to send Bobby back to the hospital, but she seemed to think he was well enough to handle himself on the outside.

Eventually, the courts had Bobby Joe Burns recommitted to the hospital where he spent the remaining decades of his life. He died there sometime in the 1980s.

Monday, January 26, 2015

Michigan's Fire Breathing Man

A. William Underwood (1855) was a young African-American man from Paw Paw, Michigan who many believed could breathe fire.

Pyrokinesis one might call it in the parlance of parapsychology. In 1882, Dr. L. C. Woodman, a local physician, investigated the man's uncanny talent, eventually publishing an article in the Michigan Medical News.

Of his peculiar ability, Woodman had this to say:

"I have a singular phenomenon in the shape of a young man living here, that I have studied with much interest, and I am satisfied that his peculiar power demonstrates that electricity is the nerve force beyond dispute.  [Underwood's] gift is that of generating fire through the medium of his breath, assisted by manipulations with his hands. He will take anybody's handkerchief, and hold it to his mouth, and rub it vigorously with his hands while breathing on it, and immediately it bursts into flames and burns until consumed."

Despite Woodman's claim of rigorous testing, skeptics believed otherwise. Some, such as Dr. R. Thomas of De Pere, Wisconsin, suggested Underwood hid small pieces of phosphorus (which burns at temperatures as low as 86 degrees Fahrenheit) in his mouth that would ignite under the heat of his breath and rubbing hands. Given its volatile nature, phosphorus seems like a dangerously unstable thing to keep in one's mouth for the sake of a 25 cent sideshow routine. And how was it missed when Underwood's mouth was thoroughly checked during Woodman's investigation?

Was Underwood a genuine talent or a skilled hoaxer?

Monday, January 5, 2015

Psychic Dream Saved Six


In November 1852, Captain George Yount (Yountsville, CA is named for him) accompanied Henry Horn on a hunting trip in the mountains. One night, Yount had a dream about a party of nine immigrants trapped in a snow storm through the Carson Valley Pass. So certain was he that the dream was prophetic, he told his companion he was heading back to town to gather a rescue party. For three days the men searched without success, but as they approached the pass proper they discovered deep snow everywhere, as if an avalanche had occurred. Soon they spotted a 16 year old immigrant boy who told them that his party of nine was trapped in the snow not far away. The rescue party was able to save six of the nine travelers. Yount could offer no explanations for his dream. Did someone in the party send out a psychic distress call? Or did some force on high direct his thoughts to the plight of the trapped travelers?