Anyone who thinks 100 years ago was a blissful paradise hasn’t read the newspaper reports published during that time.
And so today, we are going to take a look at the bodies found in sacks.
1. Woman’s body parts in the River Seine
Let’s begin with the case of the missing head.
It was in Paris, France, 1921, when a young girl playing by the river saw two arms floating by.
Three days later, a fisherman discovered a sack, miles away from where the arms had been found.
He gingerly opened the sack and discovered the nude torso of a woman. All the limbs and head had been removed.
In yet another location along the river, another fisherman also pulled out a sack. This one contained legs.
Was her head ever found? There were so many bodies, including sacked bodies, pulled out of the Seine River that I am still seeking the answer to this. [Source]
But, don’t worry. I have more sacked bodies for you.
2. Cut into 13 pieces
From out of California, 1914, we find that a woman’s body was cut into 13 pieces and sewn into a gunny sack. The sack was found in the waters of Trapper Slough.
Upon police investigation, a barber shop owner was arrested. They believed the man enticed the woman to travel to him, after which she promptly disappeared.
Bloodstains were found on the wall and floor in the corner of his shop. [Source]
3. Head crushed in
Women weren’t the only ones being sacked. In Michigan, 1908, a man’s body was discovered in a sack.
According to the article, “The almost nude body of an unknown man was found in a sack near Michigan Avenue. The man’s throat was cut ear to ear, there was a bullet hole in one temple, and the back of his head was crushed in.”
It was estimated the man had been dead about three weeks before being found. [Source]
4. Found in sack on balcony
Children were also found in sacks, and while I hate to cover these types of stories, we should never skip over history just because it makes us uncomfortable.
In New York, 1919, the body of Ruth Wheeler, 15, was found inside a gunny sack on a fire escape.
She was a recent graduate of a business college and had been lured to the location by the prospect of a job.
According to the article:
“She has been strangled with a short end of a 3/8-inch rope, hacked with a knife, burned beyond recognition and thrust carelessly out of doors like so much rubbish.
“Identification was only possible by shreds of clothing and fragments of jewelry, but there was abundant evidence of how the murder was done. Around her neck were the charred fibers of manilla burnt into the flesh. The apartments reeked with the odor of kerosene. There were oil stains in the front of the newly painted fire board that hid an open grate. Fully dressed, the girl’s clothing and hair had been saturated with kerosene, the fire board had been removed, and the body thrust up the chimney standing. When the match touched her she burned like a torch.
“Probably the murderer hoped for an opportunity to remove the body under cover of night, but when the girl’s disappearance raised such an uproar, and he began to suspect that he was being shadowed he packed and fled in terror.
“This afternoon a neighbor living on the same floor of an adjoining house noticed a lumpy bundle outside his window, and thinking it was refuse he poked it off the fire escape and into the back yard with a broom.
“The bundle moved obstinately and fell with a crash. His curiosity aroused, the neighbor investigated and called the police.” [The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.), 27 March 1910.]
5. Headless boy
And finally, let’s end with this horrible gem from 1916.
In Illinois, the headless body of a 3-year-old boy was discovered in a sack near his home. He had been kidnapped from his father’s bakery ten days previous. [The day book. (Chicago, Ill.), 13 Oct. 1916.]
