Analogue of Horror
Author Newsletter
This Episode's Found Footage...
- Shadows Are Falling
- Heart Shaped Box (Joe Hill (King)
- Sewing Needle Brain Insertion (Zhu from Zhengzhou) Attempted Homicide
- Peter Kürten German Serial Killer (AKA The Düsseldorf Vampire)
- True Detective Night Country (Series Pick)
- The Dominant One (Coming Soon) to Audible (WATCH OUT!)
- For Every Writer
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SHADOWS ARE FALLING
STANDALONE BOOK 3
The 1980s setting of the fictional town "Fishbone" Montana only adds to the eerie atmosphere surrounding Dr. Robert Qiu, a brilliant yet troubled New England Medical Examiner. Desperate to escape his haunting past, he sets his sights on this small town, unaware of the sinister secrets that lurk within its borders.
But as he delves deeper into the darkness that surrounds Fishbone, he realizes that some ghosts are not so easily laid to rest. As fiendish plans and unspeakable atrocities unfold, a string of gruesome wolf attacks further plunges the town into chaos. The sheriff is forced to enlist the help of Dr. Qiu, who alone holds the key to understanding these horrific events.
As he becomes more deeply involved in the investigation, Dr. Qiu finds himself targeted by unknown forces, putting his life in grave danger. Will he survive the Pack and uncover the truth behind these terrifying events? Or will he become just another victim in this horrifying tale of suspense and terror?
PLOT DEVICE: WHICH WILL MAKE THE FINAL CUT?
The corrupt and disgraced coroner is revealed to be covering up evidence that points to the true killer...
The final showdown between Dr. Qiu and the killer takes place during a full moon, adding to the eerie atmosphere of the story...
Dr. Qiu uncovers a pattern and suspects a serial killer with ties to the town's past...
The local townspeople are skeptical of Dr. Qiu's expertise and believe the murders to be a result of wild animals...
The people of Fishbone are fearful and secretive, not wanting to talk about the murders or wolves...
The murders have both wolf and human DNA...
They are violent in nature and the victims seem to have no connection...
The first victim in Fishbone is a 10 year old local boy...
HEART SHAPED BOX
A Valentine from Hell
Aging death-metal rock legend Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals...a used hangman's noose...a snuff film. But nothing he possesses is as unique or as dreadful as his latest purchase off the Internet: a one-of-a-kind curiosity that arrives at his door in a black heart-shaped box...a musty dead man's suit still inhabited by the spirit of its late owner. And now everywhere Judas Coyne goes, the old man is there—watching, waiting, dangling a razor blade on a chain from his bony hand.
Book Highlights
He understood that the ghost existed first and foremost within his own head. That maybe ghosts always haunted minds, not places.
That was one thing you found out when you were stoned, or wasted, or feverish: that the world was always turning and that only a healthy mind could block out the sickening whirl of it.
Horror was rooted in sympathy, after all, in understanding what it would be like to suffer the worst.
Sounds could suggest shapes, painted a picture of the pocket of air in which they’d been given form.
THE CURIOUS CASE OF ZHU FROM ZHENGZHOU
Doctors believe that the needles must have been deliberately inserted into Zhu’s head when she was very young, because judging by their diameter, they wouldn’t have been able to pierce a fully developed skull. Plus, she has no recollection of any head injury.
The woman, surnamed Zhu, said that she had never experienced any pain or unexplainable headaches, and doctors confirmed that because of how thin the needles are and the area of the brain they are inserted, they are unlikely to cause any problems.
According to Chinese website Sohu, the woman has already reported the findings of the CT scan to the local police. She reportedly has a suspicion as to the origin of the needles in her head, but she did not want to reveal anything at this time.
The 29-year-old woman from Zhengzhou had been involved in a car accident and was advised to get a CT scan to make sure that there was no damage to her head. Luckily, the investigation showed no trauma related to the accident, but it did reveal something much stranger: two needles, approximately 5cm in length and 4.9mm in diameter embedded deep in her brain. The strange thing was that the needles were not related to the car accident, as there was no visible skull or scalp injury, and the woman had no recollection of any serious head trauma at any point in her life.
Note: One of my elective courses in College was Arts of China. There was a case (I can't remember which Dynasty... I wish I still had my textbook) of a wife that would wait until her husband fell asleep and drive very fine needles into his head. He would of course jolt awake in terrible pain. He believed it to be the result of horrible headaches that would cause him this agony and to burst awake. She did this periodically over the years until he at last died. Her crimes were only brought to light when his body was then prepared for ceremony and the preparer noticed his head felt misshapen. So, they decided to cut all his hair off, thus discovering the needles...
THE DUSSELDORF VAMPIRE
The Dusseldorf Vampire
The Dusseldorf Vampire
The Dusseldorf Vampire
Kürten was born into extreme deprivation and poverty in Köln-Mullheim, a suburb of Cologne, Germany on May 26, 1883. The eldest of 13 children, his father was an alcoholic with sadistic tendencies, who brutalized both wife and children, in the one room apartment that they all shared, for the duration of Kürten's childhood.
This daily subjection to sexual violence must have had an immense influence on the boy who, aged 9, formed an unhealthy relationship with a dog-catcher living in the same building, who introduced him to the practice of bestiality, carried out initially on dogs.
Kürten claims to have drowned two school friends at the age of 9. Having pushed one overboard, the second dived in to his rescue, Kürten held both under water until they had suffocated. At the time the event was dismissed as a tragic childhood accident.
As Kürten matured sexually, his bestiality extended to sheep, goats, and other farmyard animals, with the teenager discovering particular pleasure when the animal was stabbed during intercourse.
By 1899, at the age of 16, Kürten had progressed to petty crime and ran away from home to escape the continuing violence. Shortly after his departure, his father was arrested for incestuous relations with Kürten's 13-year old sister, and he was jailed for three years.
Kürten's petty crime soon led to the first of many short prison sentences, for various misdemeanors, that punctuated his existence over the following years. The appalling conditions within the prisons confirmed his sadistic tendencies, which he now transferred from farm animals to humans.
During his periods of release between prison spells, Kürten was responsible for various sexual assaults, but his first documented murder victim was 10-year-old Christine Klein. Klein was sexually assaulted and stabbed in her home in Cologne, on May 25, 1913, while her parents worked in their pub below her bedroom.
Kürten was called up for military service following the start of World War I, but military discipline did not suit him, and he deserted from his barracks. He was jailed when captured and remained in prison until 1921, his longest sentence to date, and his rage at this injustice intensified.
Following his release from prison, he moved to Altenburg, where he met and married a former prostitute, who had been jailed for the murder of her fiancé. He spent the next four years living a life of relative normality and found work as a molder (his father's profession), even becoming active in the trade union.
This normality was short-lived, however, and Kürten found himself inexorably drawn to Dusseldorf, where his criminal tendencies escalated, from petty crimes to arson attacks, and then to sexual attacks, four of which are certainly attributable to him in the period up until early 1929. One unlucky victim, Maria Kuhn, survived repeated stabbing by Kürten that caused 24 individual wounds.
This crime escalation reached its peak in the killing of 9-year-old Rosa Ohliger, on February 9, 1929. She was stabbed 13 times by Kürten, who climaxed during the brutal attack, before he dumped her body under a hedge, then attempted to set fire to her remains to destroy the evidence.
Rosa was the first of a number of victims that included young girls, women and even men, over the next 15 months. A 45-year old mechanic named Scheer followed, five days later, the victim of multiple stab wounds. Kürten again returned to the scene of the crime to relive the moment, even speaking to detectives about the murder.
Sensationalist German press covered the attacks extensively, and when they discovered that investigators believed that the attacker might be drinking the blood of his victims, he was immortalized in print as the "Vampire of Dusseldorf." The search for the killer received a major setback, however, when a learning-disabled individual, named Stausberg, accused of similar crimes, inexplicably admitted to all of the so-called vampire killings. He was committed to an asylum, and the police were convinced that the case was solved.
By August 1929 it became apparent that their conviction was premature; a series of strangulations and stabbings occurred, culminating in the brutal fairground murder of foster sisters, 5-year old Gertrude Hamacher, and 14-year old Louise Lenzen. The next day Kürten assaulted another woman, Gertrude Schulte, who survived the attack, and gave police a description of her attacker as a pleasant-looking male, around 40 years old.
Attacks became more frequent and were widely publicized, throwing the population of Dusseldorf into a panic as the victim count rocketed. Ida Reuter was raped and killed in September, and a servant girl named Elizabeth Dorrier was battered to death on October 12, 1929. Two other victims, named Meurer and Wanders, were fortunate to survive brutal hammer attacks, but the very nondescript appearance of Kürten, as described by his victims, made it difficult to narrow down the list of potential suspects.
Kürten enjoyed the mass hysteria and horror enormously, feeding off the press attention, even going so far as to contact a newspaper, on November 9, 1929, with a map detailing the position of the body of his latest victim, Gertrude Albermann, a 5-year-old he had stabbed to death two days before, dumping her body under some rubble.
Kürten's attacks continued into that winter, and the spring of 1930, but none were fatal, serving only to escalate the horror. Harrowing survivor attacks provided lurid copy for newspapers, an antidote to the growing economic deprivations being inflicted by the Great Depression. Public condemnation of the authorities, for failing to catch the killer, was widespread.
May 14, 1930 saw the start of a chain of events that would result in Kürtens eventual capture. He offered a young unemployed woman, Maria Budlick, somewhere to stay, and took her to his apartment, hoping to have sex with her. When she refused, he agreed to find her somewhere else to stay, but on returning her to the train station, he took her into the nearby forest and raped her before letting her go.
Throughout Kurten’s reign of terror he maintained a fond attachment to his wife and, recognizing that he would eventually be caught for the rape of Budlick, now that the police knew his identity, he devised a plan to ensure her financial security following his arrest. He confessed to her that he was the "Dusseldorf Vampire," detailing all the killings and attacks, and he insisted that she would be paid a large reward for turning him over to the authorities.
On May 24,1930, Frau Kürten reluctantly did as her husband advised, and took the police to their designated rendezvous site, a local church, where Kürten surrendered quietly.
Throughout Kurten’s reign of terror he maintained a fond attachment to his wife and, recognizing that he would eventually be caught for the rape of Budlick, now that the police knew his identity, he devised a plan to ensure her financial security following his arrest. He confessed to her that he was the "Dusseldorf Vampire," detailing all the killings and attacks, and he insisted that she would be paid a large reward for turning him over to the authorities.
On May 24,1930, Frau Kürten reluctantly did as her husband advised, and took the police to their designated rendezvous site, a local church, where Kürten surrendered quietly.
Kürten's trial commenced on April 13, 1931, on charges including nine murders and seven attempted murders. To outward appearances a successful businessman in a well-tailored suit, he initially retracted his extensive confession, claiming that he had sought only to ensure his wife's financial security.
However, exhaustive questioning by the examining magistrate, and a damning litany of evidence, over the subsequent two months, caused him to eventually admit guilt while under interrogation. In an emotionless voice, Kürten claimed that his childhood, and the German penal system, was responsible for releasing his sadistic tendencies, and he showed no remorse for his crimes.
The jury took only 90 minutes to return a verdict of guilty on all counts, and Kürten received nine death sentences. He was executed by guillotine on July 2, 1931, in Cologne, Germany.
His last words were reportedly: “Tell me, after my head is chopped off, will I still be able to hear, at least for a moment, the sound of my own blood gushing from the stump of my neck? That would be the pleasure to end all pleasures.”
After his beheading in 1931, Kurten’s head was mummified and sliced open so his brain and inner cranium could be studied in hopes of finding some defect to account for the killer’s perverse sadism. Nothing unusual was discovered.
Today, Peter Kurten’s head can be found in the most unlikely of places: Wisconsin Dells, the self-proclaimed “Waterpark Capital of the World” and one of the top family vacation destinations, hanging on a hook inside the dark confines of Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
TRUE DETECTIVE: NIGHT COUNTRY
True Detective: Night Country is the fourth season of True Detective, premiered on January 14, 2024, on HBO. The season is set in the fictional town of Ennis, Alaska, and follows the investigation behind the disappearance of eight men from a research station that are later found frozen in the ice and snow in a way that furthers mystery and horror. The season stars Jodie Foster and Kali Reis as Detectives Liz Danvers and Evangeline Navarro.
Note: I couldn't take my eyes off the TV screen. Is it supernatural or not? The twists and turns keep one hooked as well as each characters backstory. Written with a deep yet brazen brilliance that resonates with the tone of this series. Eerie, guttural, mysterious, daring.... I could go on. I Will, without question revisit this series. You don't want to skip this...
Great line: It's a long fucking night, even the dead get bored...
Book 2: Audiobook-The Dominant One
Audiobook Sample at Barnes and Noble
Original Work: Break My Bones
A secret never to be shared. A killer seeking vengeance. Is his nightmarish fiction about to become a bloody reality?
Michael Kerrigan is delighted with his success. With his well-received suspense novels putting him on the map, the popular author trades his dark past for meet and greets with adoring fans. But his borrowed peace shatters when a friend he thought he’d buried dead in the ground long ago shows up very much alive… and hellbent on wreaking murderous havoc.
Trapped in a deadly game of cat and mouse, Michael works furiously to uncover the shocking truth while dodging his assailant’s ruthless attacks. And with his sanity splintering as he processes years of suppressed guilt, sacrificing himself may be the only way to protect his loved ones from a crazed enemy’s relentless carnage.
Can Michael undo the sins of yesteryear before he’s the one thrown into a grave?
Break My Bones is a sinister standalone suspense. If you like conflicted heroes, violent plots, and action-packed chases, then you’ll love Michelle Ian’s eerie thriller.
YOU SHOULD BE WRITING.
