On more than one occasion I have read the phrase “ground into mincemeat” while skimming through newspaper articles in the National Archives.
So, today I decided to do a search on the phrase and, oh my. The things I turned up are unsettling and downright scary.
And since I had to read them, I am going to share the worst of the worst with you.
1. A Rather Awful Incident
In 1884, it was reported out of Portland, Dakota that “a threshing machine was in operation and the band cutter accidentally cut the feeder’s hand. The feeder snatched a knife and stabbed the band cutter, completely opening his abdomen, leaving his bowels exposed. The band cutter, seeing that he had been fatally stabbed and knowing that he had but a few moments to live, grabbed his murderer, and in his desperation, hurled him into the cylinder of the machine where he was ground into mincemeat, falling back himself dead.” [Source]
2. Berlin Butcher
A few years later, in 1892, Berlin, it was reports that “a servant in the family of a butcher of this city has been convicted of a horrible crime. The girl, having given birth to an illegitimate child, sought to conceal her shame by killing the infant and destroying all trace of its remains. She accordingly put the body of the child into a sausage machine in her master’s shop and ground the flesh to mince meat. The crime was discovered, however, by the butcher, whose experienced eye detected in the meat a small fragment of bone. He was led to investigate matters and soon obtained a confession from the unhappy murderess.” [Source]
This was not the only account of human meat making its way into the butcher shop.
3. Cement Plant
However, the majority of mincemeat events happened at mills and on the railroad tracks. For instance, in 1903, Indiana, a 47-year-old man fell into the crusher at the cement plant. As the article states, “he was literally ground to mincemeat.” [Source]
4. Head Begone
As for railroad tracks, there are plenty of mincemeat reports in the archives. For example, in 1904, Ohio, “the front brakeman on freight train No. 85 had orders to take siding at Canterbury to let passenger train No. 16 pass… [W]hen he got off to open the switch while his train was yet in motion, [he] in some way slipped and fell with his head directly across the rail. The entire train passed over him, and not only was the poor fellow’s head completely severed from his body, but it was ground to mincemeat.” [Source]
5. Too Descriptive
This report on mincemeat is one of the most gruesome descriptions I have read in the old archives.
The incident happened in Ohio, 1904. The report states:
“Ground into a shapeless mass was the fate of an unknown man who was killed by the Canton-Akron car that started north from this city last night shortly after 10 o’clock. The car was running at a high rate of speed and when near the infirmary lane the motorman saw a man step upon the track and face the light. The whistle was blown, the motorman says, but the man made no effort to escape. The car was so close upon him that it was impossible to stop, and struck the man with frightful force.
“The car ran on some distance and was stopped. The train men and passengers dashed out of the car and began to look for the victim of the accident. What had been the man was found to be a shapeless mass of flesh and clothing lodged in around the trucks of the car. It was a frightful sight. The man had been literally ground to mincemeat with the exception of his head. His body, both arms and both legs were mixed up in one conglomerate mass: bones, flesh and clothing being mixed together.
“Aside from a gash in the forehead, his face was not injured and both feet were left intact. From one the shoe had been torn and the other was still encased in the shoe. People who saw the sight turned away sickened.
“It was necessary to send to the city for jack screws to raise the car up in order to get the body out from under the trucks.” [Source]
6. Corn Shredder
Also in 1904, a Kentucky farmer met with an ugly incident, but fortunately he survived:
“Dawson Turner caught his right arm in a corn shredder Saturday. The arm was taken off at the elbow, passing through the machine, coming out ground into mincemeat. His arm was amputated at the shoulder by physicians.” [Source]
7. Thumb in the Mincemeat
And here we have another survivor, but we are once again back at the butcher shop.
This time, the incident happened in Portland, Washington, 1907.
“Ground up in five pounds of mincemeat at a butcher shop is the first joint of the left thumb of Frank Shelland, butcher, and he is in St. Vincent’s hospital, receiving attention for the injury. Shelland was operating a chopping machine in his butcher shop and talking to a customer at the same time. Thoughtlessly he dropped his thumb from its place above the handle of the machine and at the next turn of the hasher the member was severed by the blade.” [Source]
8. The Northwestern Train
And finally we have a farmer who met with a train in Nebraska, 1911.
“Abel Schaffer, aged 32, was literally ground to mincemeat under a Northwestern passenger train… His eyes, jawbone, and hands were found by different persons and placed in a sack. Every one knew Schaffer, but was unable to identify the remains until a cap was found this morning and his mother reported him missing.” [Source]
And that’s all I have for now. I will soon be back with more gore and more stories from the newspaper archives.
