Isdal Woman

An unidentified woman was found dead in Isdalan Valley (hence her namesake) in Bergen, Norwary on 29th November 1970, even today her death and mystery remain a point of interest.

On the afternoon that she was found it was by a professor and his two daughters, they came across the charred remains of a woman’s torso. Her body was hidden amongst the rocks and with her they found a dozen pink sleeping pills, an empty bottle of liquor, a packed lunch and two more empty bottles which had the smell of gasoline.

A murder investigation was launched and the autopsy showed traces of around 50 or more sleeping pills in her body. On the neck was a bruise, she’d died from burns and carbon monoxide poisoning.

The investigation also found that she had two suitcases left at an NSB train station back in Bergen. Even the labels in her clothes had been removed and tags that might have been able to help identify her, her fingerprints were removed and there was a prescription bottle but the label had been removed so not even a doctor’s name could be traced. In an attempt to identify her they released sketches backed on witnesses and analysis of the body. It was even released via INTERPOL.

A variety of false names had been used by the woman as she travelled around Europe. She had used wigs and the diary entries were cryptic. The codes were deciphered and police concluded that they were of dates and places that she had visited. Dental checks suggested that she had been to a dentist in Latin America.

From witness reports she had spoken several languages, and whilst travelling had got hotel rooms always requesting a balcony. The last report of significance was when the Isdal woman checked out of Hotel Marin from room 407. She left having paid cash and got into a taxi.

Five days before this a man said he had seen her near the area where she was discovered. He stated that she was dressed elegantly, and not for walking, and he thought she seemed to want to say something. He said she was being followed by two men in black coats. The 26 year old man contacted the police when he recognised the sketch but says the policeman he spoke to had told him to forget it. He had said that the case would never be solved and then waited for 32 more years before stepping forwards publicly.

 

(Image seen on google, abovetopsecret, wikipedia and reddit)

Gloria Ramirez the Toxic Lady

This is one of those cases where I am unsure as to what label to give it, medical curiosity?

Gloria Ramirez was born 11th January 1963, and died 19th February 1994, she was a resident of Riverside, California and and is more often known as the ‘Toxic Lady’.

On the night of her death she was brought into the General Hospital suffering from the effects of advanced cervical cancer. She was confused, suffering greatly and the staff injected her with Valium, Versed and Ativan to sedate her. They realised she was responding badly and tried to defibrillate her, reports said that people saw an oily sheen on her body. A nurse tried to draw blood from her arm and said she could smell ammonia from the tube.

Staff treating her hand began to pass out and by several rumoured accounts the staff were ordered to evacuate. A skeleton staff remained to treat her, but she was eventually pronounced dead from kidney failure that related to the cancer.

An investigation was launched, Osaria and Waller were the detectives assigned to the case and found that those who developed symptoms were generally those who had been within two feet of Ramirez. Women were also more affected than the men for some reason. A theory put forwards is that the staff had suffered some sort of mass hysteria.

Two months after her death her body was released for autopsy and burial. An independent autopsy by the family pathologist stated he could not establish a cause of death, because her heart was missing and her organs had been cross-contaminated. The body was also too badly decomposed for him to make any conclusive decisions.

Gloria Ramirez is buried at the Olivewood Memorial Park, Riverside in an unmarked grave.

 

http://discovermagazine.com/1995/apr/analysisofatoxic493 updating this a little. Here is an article from 1995 on the subject.

I have also removed this from the urban legend category as the event has been proven just the how… well that has not.

 

 

Charles Horsfield

Transporting the dead has been one of those things that has to be organised. Alongside the dedicate funeral line in London and other places, there were other options even if they were less grandiose.

Sometimes passenger rail services would carry the coffins in their brake vans. It unfortunately led to one grisly report that happened 21st June 1912. The train from Manchester to Leeds was derailed near Hebden Bridge. A coffin containing Mr Horsfield’s remains was thrown from the brake van and spilt out on to the track.  The 55 year old’s coffin was shattered so he was kept in the signal box until a new one was available.

Halifax Courier’s reporter had this comment: The coffin was found all splintered and the corpse, though unmarked, was pinned under the debris and partly exposed. There was also an untrue rumour at the time that his body was one of those recovered from the Titanic just ten weeks earlier.

It wasn’t until 1988 that British Rail announced it would no longer allow coffins to be transported.

A Knight’s Tale

“The corrupted knight with an uncorrupted body”

He is known in local legend to have sired 11 of his own children and over 30 other illegitimate ones. In 1690 he used the ‘droit du seigneur’ to take a shepherd’s daughter to be his wife. She refused and he killed the shepherd. (A pleasant chap eh? Why on earth would she say no?)

As an aristocrat his word would be taken as gospel and he walked free after pleading not guilty.

Sir Friedrich Von Khalbutz died aged 52,  and in 1783 the last of the line died. In 1794 the church where he was buried was being renovated. The bodies were to be moved and buried in the cemetery. All but Khalbutz had decayed.

The local populace decided that it was down to God’s punishment for the murder. Modern theory suggests that he had suffered an illness that emaciated his body. A possible list would include Cancer, Tuberculosis or a muscular disorder.

(top image – http://historymystery.eu)

(image courtesy of wikipedia)

Spaghetti, the Carny Mummy

In 1911 a carnival worked called Cancetto Farminca was killed in a fight. One of the reports states he was hit by a tent stake during a quarrel. His body was taken to McDougald Funeral Home in Laurinburg, North Carolina. His father came over to the place and paid ten dollars in order to have the body embalmed. He said to the funeral director that he would return with the rest of the money and burial instructions.

That was the last the funeral home ever heard of his father, instead Mr McDougald found himself with a body that kind of stuck around as he hoped he might come back. For a while it hunt from the wall in the embalming room, then it was stored upright in a box in his garage.

The locals were either unable to remember Cancetto’s name or perhaps they could not pronounce it, so instead the unfortunate gent was know as Spaghetti. He became a local tourist attraction and over the course of 60 years he was visited by people from all over the country.

New York Congressman, Biaggi, heard about him in 1972 and managed to raise enough of a fuss about it to get the funeral home to bury the body.  Now he lies in Hillside Cemetery under a marker donated by the funeral home. He is rumoured to be under two tons of concrete as they worried that he might well end up dug up at some point.