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shyscyberchamber.com
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THE ATTIC
:
Bludgeoning |
Date
Added
AUG 2002 |
This is the method of killing
most associated with unpremeditated attacks - murderous assaults carried out
during moments of blind passion when the first heavy implement that comes to
hand becomes the instrument of death, the notorious 'blunt instrument'.
Bludgeoning is frequently encountered in acts of homicide, and almost every
conceivable blunt instrument has at one time or another been used to kill.
Battering is rarely fatal unless it involves the head, for the greatest damage
is inflicted where a vital organ is so directly under the bone. However, it is
not a simple matter to kill with a single blow, and often a rain of blows will
make ruin of the head, creating as it does so a very bloody
scene of the crime, which is likely to have heavily stained the assailant
with
blood.
The laceration wounds caused by bludgeoning are characteristically ragged, with
strands of skin, tissue and blood vessels deeply impacted into the bone, which
may be smashed or may show depressed fractures; indeed, it is often possible to
judge the nature and shape of the implement which cause the fracture from the
wound it leaves.
Death after bludgeoning of the head almost always results from brain injury.
When the skull is badly fractured, splinters of bone become embedded in the
brain, and if the hole created is large enough an area of brain tissue might be
pulped by the weapon itself. However, even in cases where the skull remains
intact the hemorrhaging of blood vessels beneath the bone will result in
internal bleeding between the skull and the durra, or membrane covering the
brain.
The nature of the weapon and the circumstances under which it is normally used,
predispose the crimes to be brutal, lacklustre affairs, frequently the result of
a bungled burglary or a mugging that went wrong. However, two of the most
enduring mysteries of true crime are the as yet unsolved murders of
Sir Harry Oakes and of Marilyn Sheppard. Oakes, an American born millionaire was found burned and
bludgeoned to death in his home in the Bahamas in 1943. The case is still
shrouded in conspiracy theories and accusations of official cover ups; even the
nature of the blunt instrument has never been established. Ten years later in
Cleveland, Ohio,
Mrs Marilyn Sheppard went to bed alone one night while her surgeon husband
slept off the results of a supper party, on the downstairs couch. Same Sheppard
claimed that he had awoken to hear his wife screaming, and as he ran to her room
was knocked unconscious by an intruder. When he came round,
Dr Sheppard found his wife lying on her blood soaked bed, her head savagely
smashed by a blunt weapon. Sheppard was tried for his wife's murder in 1954,
found guilty and sentenced to life. At a second trial in 1966, the former
conviction was overturned and Sam Sheppard was released. Although he regained
his license to practice medicine, he never recovered his practice, and after two
more marriages and a spell as a professional wrestler,
Dr Samuel Sheppard died in 1970. |
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