CANNIBALS (True Crime) by Ray Black Read Free Book Online

survived. However, because he was so weak and holding them back, the First Relief sent him back to Sutter’s Fort along with the draft animals.
    The First Relief arrived at the camp on Truckee Lake just ten days after Mrs. Eddy had died. The snow was so deep it covered over the top of the cabins and, at first sight, the rescuers feared there were no survivors. All of a sudden, a head popped out of the snow, it was a woman called Lavinah Murphy. She was so pale and gaunt she gave the impression of a ghost, and not sure whether she was dreaming or not she asked the rescuers, ‘Do you men come from California, or do you come from God?’
    The rescue party managed to take out 21 members of the party left at the lake and Alder Creek, and left enough provisions with the remaining ones that were too weak to leave.
    Subsequent rescue efforts brought out the remaining survivors. There were still more deaths at the camp and some died on the torturous trip out of the mountains. Despite their very weakened state, the survivors had to make the journey on foot because the snow was still too deep for horses or mules to negotiate. The last of the survivors reached Sutter’s Fort exactly one year after their original departure from Missouri. In total, of the 87 men, women and children in the Donner party, 46 survived and 41 died.
    George Donner and his wife died at the camp, along with his brother Jacob and his wife, and most of the Donner children. James Reed, having safely reached Sutter’s Fort actually led one of the rescue parties. Reed’s family managed to survive.
    The story of the tragedy spread far and wide, and newspapers started to print outrageous stories of men and women who had gone mad by eating human flesh.
    The site of the Donner Party encampment is now a State Memorial Park, and there is also a museum to commemorate their suffering.

Werewolves Of France
    Werewolves (or wolf-men) have been fabled as supernatural legends in numerous cultures throughout the world for centuries 

     
    Werewolves were always associated with a kind of madness that was exacerbated by the appearance of a full moon. The werewolf in literature is the person who acts out the stereotype characteristics of the wolf in the wild, a mental illness known as Lycanthropy. This name derives from the Greek word for wolf, ‘lykoi’, and for man, ‘anthropos’. Quite literally it is the delusion of turning into a wolf, whether through witchcraft or your own will.
    In European folklore, a werewolf is a man who transforms himself at night into a wolf, both in form and appetite, and then roams in search of human victims to devour. The werewolf must return to his human form at daybreak by shedding his wolf’s skin and concealing it. If this skin should be found and destroyed, then the werewolf would die. A werewolf who is wounded immediately reverts to his human form and can be detected by the corresponding wound on his body.
    Belief in ‘wer’ (or man) animals was common in the Middle Ages, and was probably a relic from early cannibalism. In 16th century France the superstition regarding werewolves seems to have been widespread and prevalent, as is shown by the many trials for murder and cannibalism, all attributed to lycanthropy. However, this belief is now all but extinct.
    When werewolves are portrayed in films or books, they show physiological changes including bone structure, skin texture, and the emergence of fangs. Hair grows over the body, the nose protrudes, fangs enlarge, and pointy ears emerge from the head. The difference between the original werewolf and the werewolf of current films is not its behaviour, because that has changed little, but it is the difference in its physical metamorphosis. Perhaps the real horror of the werewolf is the mystery that surrounds it.
    In France alone, between the years 1520 and 1630, some 30,000 individuals had the misfortune to be labelled werewolves. Many of these people underwent criminal