Black Eyed Kids

If you look this up on Wikipedia it’s summarised the phenomenon of Black Eyed Kids (BEK’s) as urban legend, but is there more to this than simple campfire tales?

Websites generally attribute the start of the BEK legends to be around November 1998, a mailing transcript was sent out by Brian Bethel who describes an encounter with two children in Abilene, Texas and had found a second person with a similar encounter in Portland, Oregon. He recounted the story for ‘Monster and Mysteries in America’, a TV show and maintains his believe that it was legitimate.

The basics are that Brian was in his car, he saw two teenage boys staring at him from the street and during the encounter only one of them spoke. He felt frightened by them for no real reason and they wanted a lift to their home. Brian states that the encounter just felt wrong and at one point his hand was straying to the door subconsciously but he stopped himself just in time.

When the strange spell broke he realised their eyes were completely black, no pupils, no iris just two whole black orbs on each face.  During the whole encounter both children were insistent and kept saying they needed to go home and see their mother, a normal request but the whole thing was just too odd. Brian felt utterly convinced if he had let them in that they would have killed him.

Outside of this mention little else came to the forefront about the incident or anything after it, but skip to 2012 and BEK are back on the rumour circuit. A Kickstarter horror, Black Eyed Kids, and an MSN feature in 2013 for the Weekly Strange helps bring the subject back up.

Snopes haven’t updated their perspective on this matter since the 2013 article and leave it to the status of legend.

2014, Birmingham Mail, from the UK reported about BEK’s in the Cannock Chase area. A local paranormal investigator, Lee Brickley, opened an investigation into the sightings after a woman described her experience. The woman heard what she thought were screams, she followed the noise and came across a wandering, sightless spectre.

She did not see a child until she turned around, they saw a girl of around 10 years old with her hands over her eyes. The witness tried to speak to her to ask if she had been screaming, this prompted the child to drop her hands and the girls eyes were pitch black. The witness left with her daughter and when she did turn around the girl was gone.

I looked around a little more, according to the ‘journal of the bizarre’ website article there is an explanation. Someone who got referred to as Onizuka claimed to have been a BEK and claims to them that the black eyes come from drugs and 99% of the sightings are people on drugs and into the Lolita fashion. Whilst his claims might seem odd to some people it might explain some cases.

www.journalofthebizarre.com/2013/04/black-eyed-children-finally-explained.html

Be it Creepypasta, true event of something to be explain, I am still confused. What do they actually want?

 

ref; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_eyes_by_megamoto85_(cropped).jpg#/media/File:Black_eyes_by_megamoto85_(cropped).jpg

Collyer Brothers

Sources: Find a Grave, Atlas Obscura, The Milwaukee Journal, coned.com, youtube, British Psychology Uk, Actually going to school < yes I can say this for once!

Homer Lusk Collyer – 6^th November 1881 -21^st March 1947

Langley Wakeman Collyer – 3^rd October 1885 to approx. 9^th March 1947

The brothers became infamous for their bizarre natures and their obsessive-compulsive hoarding. They lived at 2078 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, New York City in the USA. Fifth Avenue is one the most expensive streets in the world, Upper Fifth Avenue is known as Millionaire’s Row. The brothers lived there but these days it is Collyer Brother Park, in their memory and the property is long gone. It was a Harlem brownstone property, the material was very popular at the time and examples are widely seen around Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware for example.

The brothers were the son of Dr Herman Livingston Collyer, 1857-1923, and his first cousin, Susie Gage Frost Collyer, 1856-1959. They had their first child, a daughter, in 1880 called Susan, who died when she was only four months old. Following that tragedy, they had Homer Lusk, born 6^th November 1881. 3^rd October 1885 and Langley Wakeman was born, both brothers went on to attend Columbia University. Homer earned a degree in admiralty law, Langley studied both engineering and chemistry. Langley was also an established concert pianist and in 1909 Herman moved the family into 2078 Fifth Avenue.

Dr Collyer was eccentric himself and sometime in 1919 the married couple separated, I was unable to locate an exact reason for it, I found her memorial online and it said she was buried 27^th January 1929 of Carditis (inflammation of the heart). The two brothers stayed with their father, and it is also worth noting that in this era separation was very unusual, it would have likely caused gossip in the area. When Dr Collyer died, he left everything to his sons, they brought all of his possessions back to the home, including medical instruments and when Susan died she left them the property, they continued to live there for the rest of their lives. They socialised for about four years after that and Homer practised law whilst Langley worked as a piano dealer.

In 1933, Homer lost his eyesight due to having haemorrhage in the back of his eyes. This started the withdrawal from society as Langley left his job in order to care for his brother. They then ended up with more things to consider, they were fearful of changes in the area as their own neighbourhood was suffering from the Great Depression; they also seemed to be uncomfortable with the new African American community coming into nearby empty apartments. When asked about their self-imposed exile it was Langley who stated, “we don’t want to be bothered.”

With the rumours of local interest in the brothers growing there were now crowds coming to look at the property, no doubt adding to their growing sentiment stated above. The Milwaukee Journal reported on that fact that local teenagers had thrown rocks at their windows and this prompted them to sure up the property even more, to try and stop burglary and crime against them they then booby trapped the house and used all the things they had hoarded to make warrens and tunnels through it. It had got to the point they were making nests to stop in around the place.

Langley told a reporter he had to bath, groom and read to his brother and that he would play piano as part of looking after him. Homer was being cared for by diet and rest, as both men seemed resilient to the idea of any doctors intervention, even to the point that they did not seek any medical advice when Homer was left paralysed by inflammatory rheumatism, he was now blind and paralysed in the property and solely dependent on Langley. They had been brought up by a doctor and they felt they already knew enough to handle it all.

At some point Langley turned to going out after midnight, avoiding the crowds and witnesses so that he could get food and water from the garbage, or to collect from butchers and grocers who were throwing food away. He would bring it all back for this brother and by the early 1930’s the house was in disrepair and then in 1937 the telephone was disconnected. They had failed to pay their bills so the gas, electricity and water were disconnected in 1938, so they warmed the house with a small kerosene lamp (sounds safe…) and then the water had to be collected from a water pump in the local park. Their only connection to the outside world was a crystal radio. The home-made radio was created by Langley and they are sold these days as an educational toy.

The neighbours and shopkeepers would explain that whilst he was polite and clam, he was also ‘crazy’. Langley was fiercely protective of his brother and spent $7,500 on the property next to them when he found out it was being used to spy on them. There was a small fire in 1941, Langley would not let firemen speak to Homer when they were called out to extinguish it. 2077 Fifth Avenue, the neighbours place, was repossessed in 1943. Langley said as they had no income they should not pay income tax, there were rumours that they were sat on piles of cash, they didn’t trust depositing it, but this seems to be unfounded.

They came under public scrutiny again, workers from Consolidated Edison were sent to the home in 1939 to remove the gas meters, they were met with hostility. In November 1942, Bowery Savings Bank began eviction procedures and sent a clean-up crew to the place.  Neighbours summoned the police over Langley yelling at the workers, the police tried to force their way in and got met by the wall of junk, they found Langley in there who wrote a cheque for $6,700 without comment, then he ordered them all off the property.

21^st March 1947, and a man identifying himself as ‘Charles Smith’ phoned the police about there being a dead body in the property. The caller said there was a smell of decomposition, a squad of emergency workers had to basically begin removing trash and goods from the property to get inside. It took five hours to get through the door by removing the obstruction from the door, they finally found Homer’s body there with his head resting on his knees. The medical examiner said the older brother had been dead for 10 hours, the ME confirmed his identity then said he had died of starvation and heart disease. At this stage it was believed that Langley had left the property and his neighbour was identified as the caller using ‘Charles Smith’, then a policeman was posted at the property to wait for his brothers return.

Langley did not show up after his brother’s funeral on the 1^st April. A manhunt was set for him, sightings for the man were made across nine states and the police continued to clear the property as they waited for news. On the 8^th April they found the body of Langley Wakeman only 10 feet away from his brother, the smell of decomposition had been caused by his body and not that of Homer, it was estimated he may have died about 9^th March. The theory posed, and most widely accepted, was that he had been attempting to get to his brother when he set off one of his own booby traps and was crushed by debris. It seemed that with this both men’s fate had been sealed.

The property then had to be cleaned out, some sold, some passed to the hands of collectors and around 120 tons of rubbish and objects were removed. The obsessive-compulsive hoarder objects were mostly disposed of and eventually the property was demolished. Modern firefighters have been known to use the term Collyer’s Mansion when dwellings are dangerous due to hoarding, there have been TV shows, plays and stories that use their case as influences in their creaton.

Overall it is worth remembering that OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder, is an issue that can come about in many forms. Quite often it is thrown out as a term for someone who is very meticulous and orderly, it is a concern when those things begin to affect your every day life. Around 2.3% of the diagnosed population are known to have this to a life-affecting level, self-diagnosis is not counted in these figures (and nor should it – get help if you think you have it). OCD is linked to trauma, there are differential diagnosis that also come into play, anxiety, depression and eating disorders along with OCD Personality Disorder come under this complicated bracket. It is also known that OCD affects men more often than women.

The reality is that these two men lived in dangerous conditions, the inability to know they needed help led them to be shut off from the world and they were in sub-par living conditions. Could they have been helped? Could Homer have lived longer if he had been found sooner? Ultimately there is no answer for this, but I do think it’s worth keeping an eye on how someone lives and if you are concerned discuss it with them if you think you can. Have I seen Hoarders? Yes, did I like it? Well actually I found it very hard to watch the TV show because I do keep lots of things that might be seen as unnecessary, and I also try to say things like “I might need it.” How have I learnt to try and reduce that threat? I have a rule that if it is not “used” or of true sentimental value then I shall remove it and sent it to charity or pass it on… and with that note I am off to clean my desk for the fourth time since starting to write this blog!

Briarhurst Manor

The manor is also known as William A Bell House, it is a pink sandstone house in Manitou Springs, Colorado. Construction started in 1872, he went off to marry a woman in England who said she would live with him in Colorado as long as she could have her children in England. In 1973 it was added to the nationa; Register of Historic places.

In 1886, one night Dr Bell was away on business and Mrs Bell woke up to a room full of smoke. Embers had escaped from a fireplace and fortunately the children, and herself, got out along with the servants. The gardener also managed to help her save a painting by Thomas Moran but the rest of their belongings were lost.

The family returned in 1887, constructing a second manor, with a school room, conservatory, cloister and library with a special alcove so they could display the saved painting.

There have been eye-witness reports of people hearing chimes, of being bumped or touched. Strange noises have been heard, mystery footprints seen and objects moved.

There have been reports of apparitions too, a young girl with curly red hair, Mrs Bell and more oddly a skeletal woman in white who roams the estate.

By <a href=”//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:ERoss99″ title=”User:ERoss99″>ERoss99</a> – <span class=”int-own-work” lang=”en”>Own work</span>, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Junko Furuta

I have posted this on Halloween because I am of the honest opinion that the worst horrors are those committed by humans to humans, with actual sentient intent on them. When I looked into the Hello Kitty Murder (blog link) I was also asked if I had heard about the case of Junko Furuta and so I am going to outline this one. Again it is true crime and some of it is disturbing so please do not read if you think this will not be to your taste.

There are no photos for this one, I don’t think it’s right for this subject.

Furuta was a Japanese high-school student who was abducted, raped, tortured and murdered in the late 1980’s. Her case was named “Concrete-encased high school murder case”, as her body was found in a concrete drum.

She was born 18th January, 1979 and died, aged 17 at Adachi, Tokyo, Japan. Four teenagers were involved, Hiroshi Miyano, Jo Ogura, Shinji Minato and Yasushi Watanabe. Miyani Hiroshi was born in Adachi, Tokyo on 30th April 1970 and was arrested/apprehended 23rd March 1989. It seems about 100 people knew what had happened or had been involved but no-one said anything or did anything about it. Most of the people involved were friends of the four low-ranking Yakuza teenagers.

There is a film about her plight, from 1995 and called Concrete Encased High School Murder Case: Broken Seventeen Year Olds. I haven’t seen it myself but there you go, if you are interested that is what it is called. The film’s director Katsuya Matsumura and the listings for his IMDB credits seem to suggest that this is his area of interest and the last update was for a film he did in 2015.

From all online accounts I could see Junko Furuta was a decent young woman, she was a student who lives with her family. She worked as a part-time employee and one of her schoolmates, Hiroshi Miyano, asked her out on multiple occasions. She turned him down each time as she was not after a relationship and he took exception to that; he was Yakuza and he was now out for revenge. There are reports she’d not drank, smoked or done drugs, here was a boy who was a bully and not used to the idea of being told no.

November 25th, 1988, Miyano and his friend Nobuharo Minato were in her neighbourhood and looking for women to rob and rape. They spotted her around 8.30pm that night as she was heading back on her bicycle from work. Minato was ordered by Miyano to kick her off, which he did, and they fled the scene. He then returned to her an innocent bystander and he offered to walk her to her home for the sake for her safety.  She hadn’t realised that Miyano was guiding her towards a warehouse where he decided to tell her about his gang connections.

He raped her in the hotel and then the local hotel, from the hotel he called the other three. Ogura reportedly asked for him to keep her there so they could have their fun. The group had a history of gang rape, they had released their last captive. Around 3am he took her to the nearby park so his friends could get involved and they outright told her they knew where she lived and they would kill her family if she tried to escape. She was then dragged to a house owned by Minato’s parents to continue their fun. It became a regular hideout and in order to forestall the police the gang had her call her mother to say she’d ran away.

Her parents contacted the police, 27th November, they made their daughter call home to say to stop the police investigation and when Minato’s parents were around she forced her to pretend to be the girlfriend of one of them. It later became a pretence they dropped when it was clear Minato’s parents were not going to make any report to the police. Neither his parents or brother dared to do anything because of his Yakuza connections and for 44 days the girl suffered at the hands of any number of the sadistic ‘friends’ invited over.

One of the people who got involved was Koichi Ihara who claimed he was bullied into the rape of the victim, he came home and confided in his brother about it. Koichi Ihara’s brother told his parents and they bravely went to the police. Two officers were despatched and they were told there was no one at the house, they even declined an invite to look inside, they were dismissed and after the truth came out about their negligence.

In December she tried to call the police herself, but Hiroshi got to her and when the police tried to call back Miyano told them it had been a mistake. Her death came on 4th January 1989, the four boys challenged her to a game of Mahjong and despite her terrible condition she somehow managed to win. Eventually after another round of torture the poor young lady succumbed to her wounds and died.

Nobuharu, Minato’s brother called him to say Furuta appeared dead and now they were afraid they’d be caught for murder so they got a travel bag, wrapper her in blankets, stuffed her in and then put her body in a 55 gallon drum. It was all filled up with wet concrete, then around 8pm that night they put the drum in a cement truck in Koto, Japan.

23rd January 1989 and Hiroshi Minayo and Jo Ogura were talking and hinting about Furuta when speaking to the police, but the police were talking about another case after they had been arrested for another gang rape. The police interrogation started out confusing until they matched up the case and then found the body the following day, she was identified by her fingerprints and on the 1st April Ogura was arrested for another crime and then re-arrested for the murder. Yasushi Watanabe, Nobuharu Minato and his brother were all arrested too.

The four boys identity was originally a secret and sealed by the courts as they were juveniles but journalists from a magazine – Shukan Bunshun, worked it out and published them as they considered it such a severe case they felt they did not deserve anonymity. All four of them admitted to committing bodily injury that resulted in death, but not for murder. It will wasn’t over however, Furuta’s mother suffered a mental breakdown upon hearing just how badly her daughter had been treated. Many felt the sentences were too light, regardless of the boys ages.

July 1990, Hiroshi Miyano, the alleged leader was given 17 years and tried to appeal to Tokyo High Court, but they added three years to the sentence. In 2004 he tried to get parole, but due to an incident It was declined. In January, 2013 he was arrested for fraud but there wasn’t enough evidence. Does anyone want to give this man another chance? I’m not sure, it sounds like he won’t learn and it is probably not the last incident he will end up involved in.

Nobuharu Minato got 4-6 years and on appeal was re-sentenced to 5-9 years. He was 16 at the time, his parents were not charged, neither was his brother. Furuta’s parents sued, they won their civil case and after his release he went on to live with his mother, he has not worked since.

Yasushi Watanabe got 3-4 years and again he got an appeal which elevated him to serve 5-7 years. After his release he married a Romanian woman.

Jo Ogura was given 8 years in a juvenile prison and released August, 1999. After his release he was said to have boasted about his involvement. In 2004 he was arrested for assaulting Takatoshi Isono, after his release he tracked Isono down, beat him and shoved him into his truck. The man was beaten and threatened for four hours, he got 7 years for that, his mother (another monster in my opinion) went to Furuta’s grave and vandalised it for ruining her son’s life.

2nd April, 1989 her funeral was held and her work uniform was placed in the casket. I am only left saddened by this case, and angry because her poor mother had to suffer hearing all the terrible things this young lady endured. These monsters have continued on with their lives and hers was cut brutally short, their blatant disregard for her life left me feeling horridly empty about how they even got to walk free, but I don’t control any justice system and I am sure it cannot be easy for those that have to work within in to remove their personal feelings when they have to enter into these decisions.

I kept many of the actual events of what happened to her for the end of this article because if you have read enough you may wish to stop here. I didn’t even know if I should write them out as it was so awful reading into it in the first place but decided for the sake of completion I would do it this way.

It was already documented above that she had suffered gang rape, this was persistent throughout her ordeal. She was held captive for 44 days, and the four of them alone were said to have done this over 400 times. They had beaten her, used her as a ‘punch-bag’ by hanging her from the ceiling, they’d dropped weights on her stomach, she was forced to eat live cockroaches, drink her own wine and they forced her to masturbate in front of them. They also inserted foreign objects into her vagina and anus, this included a light-bulb (lit) and fireworks, her genitals were burnt out, they tore off her left nipple with pliers and pierced her breasts with sewing needles.

After the police officers failed to save her they carried on, and after her attempt to get the police failed they became more brutal (I shiver writing that). They doused her legs and feet in lighter-fluid, then set her on fire. They forced her into convulsions when they forced a large bottle into her anus, they then thought she was faking a seizure and lit her alight again in punishment. She begged for death, they made her sleep outside on the balcony during winter and they locked her in a freezer. The injuries she sustained were so bad it would take her up to an hour to crawl to the wash-room, she eventually lost control of her bladder and bowels so they beat her for that. The smell and appearance of her was so appalling that they lost sexual interest in her and then set off on their travels to rape someone else.

After the mahjong game she was given a beating and fell on to a stereo, she was convulsing, they then realised she was bleeding and leaking puss so covered their hands in plastic bags before carrying on the inhuman beatings on her.

I don’t know about you but I genuinely don’t feel it matters that they were juveniles, these little monsters knew what they were doing was wrong they just didn’t care. No amount of sentencing or punishment will bring her back or give any sense of justice, they simply feel irredeemable in their actions. I only hope that her soul has some rest, that her mother one day gets her own. It is such a shame she could never reach her potential and yes there was a lot of my own opinion in this one but for once I felt it was only right.

Sources:

Wikipedia, reddit, Japan Times, Japaninsides.com, Tokyo Reporter, Find a Grave, Crime Library and IMDB

10 years – well done you!

Ten years ago, I started my blog thanks to a friend’s suggestion. I have posted semi regularly here as often as I could and enjoyed looking into all sorts of mysteries but what have you all found the most interesting? Well for a start 58,855 clicks went to my humble home page ready for you to start the rabbit hole!

I must also apologise if when you are clicking through you get links that are defunct etc, I must admit the internet being fluid means that things can die like that.

I also want to thank people that send me corrections and updates!

It seems that many of you like to investigate the oddity that is the home-made android, Tara, and her singing. This LINK is my most visited. I tried to keep a fair and just summary of everything I had found and I hope that you continue to enjoy it or anything else I bring to the table. I tried to also debunk some misinformation and centralise a lot of random bits of information and rumours that came about from the internet.

It seems you also like the WKCR Hijacking, LINK, and this one is a fun audio dive, but it really is very loud on the ears so be warned. Someone also used my initial look into this and wrote a great follow up so if you want another look on it you can visit them HERE. I would encourage it as they are actively keeping up their search.

I also found out you like my Jeff the Killer LINK – which came as a bit of a surprise. I wasn’t very positive about the actual story, but perhaps that has helped you to remain interested in it? I, again, tried to debunk some of the silliness around it and if you like the story, I am sorry if I caused you to shake your head at me.

You also seem to find my look at the Sad Satan Mystery, LINK, that was all over the viral internet back in 2015. Wow five years have passed by since that all-consuming rumour and dark web intrigue flooded my social media but I did think it was a fun dive at the time.

And the last of the Top Five for my most visited comes in as Byberry Mental Hospital, LINK, which is a demolished place but has an interesting history. Another lovely blog linked me and I can’t help but think their traffic has generated some for me, I am very grateful to them. (Visit them here)

So really, I just wanted to thank you! From my odd travel reviews, to the deep dives on things like Jack the Ripper and Vampires etc you’ve been here for ten years with me. If you have any suggestions or corrections, I am happy to hear them. I hope you all stay safe!

(Picture taken in 2019 at Pripyat, Ukraine when I humbly got the chance to visit.)