In 1905, Augustus Rugan worked as a carpenter. One afternoon as he was working on a revolving saw, he leaned into the blade and gashed his abdomen. Fortunately for Mr. Rugan, he wasn’t completely disemboweled and was later sent home from the hospital. [Source]
Unlike Rugan, the following cases of disembowelment do not end happily.
1. Went from Pig Sticking to Man Killing
John Murphy, a worker at a meat packing plant in Massachusetts lost his shit one day and went from carving up pigs to slicing his coworkers.
The 1909 article reads:
“According to the workmen, Murphy had been acting peculiar for some days, but when he returned from dinner today he was apparently normal.
“Shortly after 2 o’clock he suddenly uttered a blood curdling scream and sprang at Dr. Hayes, waving his fifteen-inch razor-edged knife. He cut a deep gash in Hayes’s neck, stabbed him over the heart and practically disemboweled him. The terrified workmen rushed for the door, but Murphy followed them down the stairs, cutting some one at every landing. He was [eventually caught and] beaten into submission.” [Source]
2. Butchered Her Children
If we dig further back in the newspaper archives, we come across a horrendous story about a 23 year old mother who slaughtered her children in 1883.
According to one article:
“The children are all girls, the eldest 4 years, the next 20 months, and the youngest 4 months old. The dingy apartment where the deed was committed is a terrible sight. On the bed and on the scanty, dirty clothes lay the prostrated forms of the three girls, forming a ghastly group. The little bodies were nude, and cut up in a terrible manner. The eldest had a large number of gashes all over her body, and the arms of the second were cut off near the shoulders. The lower extremities hung to the body by thin shreds of flesh, and the body was completely disemboweled. The body of the baby was cut into 6 pieces, and the extremities completely severed from the trunk.
“Near the foot of the bed a young woman, partially dressed and with disheveled hair, was crouched on the floor, held down by strong men. Upon the table the remains of a frugal meal lay, and carelessly thrust among the cups and saucers lay an ugly looking butcher knife, and a cooper’s knife, or scraper, the handle of which was also smeared with blood…
“When asked what caused her to do the fearful deed, she replied, ‘I read it in the book.’ Her insanity is of a religious form [and] she thinks she made a great sacrifice…” [Source]
3. Fell from an Ice Truck
Accidents that ended in disembowelment were once very common, as was hopping on the back of wagons for a free ride. In 1903, West Virginia, a 12 year old boy fell from an ice wagon and was then hit by a street car.
The article reads:
“Little Moravia Powell was hanging on to the rear step of one of the Clarksburg Consolidated Ice Company’s delivery wagons. Just as a street car was passing the ice wagon, the little fellow swung from the hanging step onto the track directly in front of the car. The motorman shouted at him, and frantically endeavored to stop the moving car. The boy fell on the rail on the right side, and was caught under the forward wheel and literally disemboweled before the car could be brought to a stop.” [Source]
4. Miner Dynamited Himself
Miners were often getting disemboweled in the past. This mostly happened by accident, but the case of a 28 year old man from Montana was very deliberate.
In 1909, at 2:30 in the morning, Lawrence J. took a stick of dynamite and went off to an abandoned drift. He laid down, put the dynamite on his stomach, and lit the fuse.
The other miners heard the blast and a search party was sent to discover the cause of the noise.
“The dynamite had completely disemboweled him and his intestines were scattered along the floor of the drift, as well as on the walls and top.” [Source]
5. Two Teenage Boys
In that same year, there was yet another incident involving dynamite.
In Dallas County, Texas, two 18 year old boys got a number of dynamite cartridges from a powder house and put them in their pockets. As they were walking along the railroad, one of them set off a firecracker which in turn set off the cartridges in their pockets.
The explosion was heard over a distance of ten miles. When the boys were found, it was reported that:
“An arm of Charles Barnes was torn from his body, he was disemboweled and otherwise terribly mangled. His death was instantaneous. The other youth lingered a few minutes before death relieved him of his sufferings. His body was also badly disfigured.” [Source]
6. Caught Between Two Freight Cars
Trains were another popular way to get disemboweled. In Nevada, during the fall of 1909, George Manning was coupling cars when all of a sudden the train’s conductor heard him scream.
The conductor grabbed his lantern, rushed to Mr. Manning, and discovered him wedged between the draw heads of two cars. Manning died as the conductor and other men worked his body out from between the cars. It was discovered that Manning had been disemboweled in the accident. [Source]
7. Disemboweled Himself
Finally, we have one of the most gruesome things I personally have ever read. The article was published in 1889, and states:
“The most horrible suicide in the record of San Francisco occurred this morning when a young Slavonian literally disemboweled himself while insane from pain. He was suffering from intussusception of the bowels caused by the entry of the smaller intestines into the larger, and also from peritonitis. In his agony this morning he went to the room of a friend and asked to stay with him. The friend fell asleep, but was awoken soon after by hearing heartrending groans. The sight that met his gaze paralyzed him with horror. Standing naked in the middle of the floor was the young man. His lower extremities were bathed in blood, and across his abdomen was a gash fully 4 inches in length. It was bleeding fearfully and the young man’s hand was crowded into the wound tearing out his vitals. The friend rushed for aid and secured two police officers. When they returned, the young man was tearing out his vitals, cutting them off, and throwing them on the floor. After a desperate struggle he was handcuffed and taken to the hospital. Three or four feet of his bloody vitals dragged upon the floor. A doctor trimmed the intestines off and did what he could to relieve the sufferer. The young man died shortly thereafter.”[Source]
