Belle Gunness came to this country from a small fishing village in Norway in 1881. Like any other nineteenth-century immigrants, the enterprising young woman found America to be the land of plenty, where she could put her God-given talents to the most profitable use. As it happened, Belle’s particular talent was serial murder. After a fire destroyed her Indiana farm in 1908, searchers found the decomposed remains of at least a dozen people on her property, some interred in the basement of the gutted house, others buried in the muck on the hog pen or planted in her garden. Most of her victims were either prospective husbands or hired hands who doubled as lovers. Their deaths allowed Gunness to cash in on their insurance policies an loot their bank accounts. Like the sow that devours it’s farrows, she also murdered two of her own infant children after insuring their lives. Gunness has gained legendary status not only because of the enormity of her crimes but also because she disappeared without a trace, slipping (like Jack the Ripper) into the realm of folklore and myth.
(via doriandawes)
Necropants in the Holmavik Witchcraft Museum
Necropants are a method that a sorcerer used to get rich in old Iceland. With agreement prior to death, the sorcerer exhumed the corpse of a man and flayed its skin, in one piece, from the waist down. It was believed that the necropants would spontaneously produce money when worn, as long as the donor corpse had been stolen from a graveyard at the dead of night and a magic rune and a coin stolen from a poor widow were placed in the dead man’s scrotum. After tanning, the sorcerer wore the skin like a pair of pants. As soon as he stepped into the pants they will stick to his own skin. A coin must be stolen from a poor widow and placed in the scrotum along with a magical sign, written on a piece of paper. This reputedly attracted more coins and hence the sorcerer became wealthy. Before his death, the sorcerer had to pass the necropants to another. He did this by having the new owner place his right leg in one side of the pants whilst the sorcerer still has his left leg in the other. In this way, the power of the pants would pass from one individual to another.
The Museum of Witchcraft and Sorcery in Iceland has a pair of necropants on display.
(via doriandawes)
