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shyscyberchamber.com
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THE ATTIC
:
Dismemberment |
Date
Added
OCT 2002 |
It has been said that in
1726, when Mrs Catherine Hayes killed her husband and cut off his head to
confound identification, she set a fashion in dismemberment which has continued
in popularity to the present day. Of course, Mrs Hayes was not the first to
decapitate her victim, but the case is the first of its kind to be so well
documented, and illustrates perfectly the problems that arose in those days
before police forces, and before an organized medico-legal profession. When John
Hayes' head was recovered from the Thames by a startled boatman there was no
possible means of identification than visual recognition - in consequence, the
grisly relic was impales upon a pole and set to public view in St Margaret's
churchyard, Westminster. To be fair, it worked - poor Hayes's features were
indeed recognised by a horrified friend.
Although headless bodies still turn up periodically, the forensic sciences have
developed to the stage where few corpses, intact or otherwise, remain
unidentified for long. This, in combination with vastly more sophisticated
murder investigation techniques, has helped the clear up rate for murder - in
Britain at least - to top ninety five percent. This despite the best efforts of
a sometime ingenious killer to cover their tracks and to render their victim
unidentifiable.
Frequently the dismemberment of the body is the result of a purely practical
requirement to make a large heavy corpse more manageable - to make up into
smaller parcels for disposal elsewhere - in rivers, rubbish bins, under bushes,
in the fire... or to make it fit better into some packing case or trunk to be
deposited far from the
scene of the crime. All have been tried, most have failed. |
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