Wierd Stats and Morbid Facts
August 5th, 2007 by Ghostfreehood!
+ The Caribbean Island of Martinique had a rather unusual nickname in the late 1880’s: it was called Le pays de revenants (The Country of the Comers-Back), a handle that specifically references zombies.
+ Olga Baclanova, the actress who plays the villainous Cleopatra in Tom Browning’s Freaks, built her own father’s coffin after his death during the Russian revolution.
+ Doctor assisted suicide is legal in the state of Oregon, assuming the patient is terminally ill, mentally competent or can self-administer the lethal medication. In order for the doctor to provide the drug, the patient must ask twice verbally and once in writing.
+ Francis Ford Coppola once worked as Roger Corman’s assistant, earning 90$ a week.
+ Phonophobia is defined as “a fear of sounds including your own voice.”
+ Phillip Nutman, author of the acclaimed horror novel Wet Work, began his professional writing career at the age of 15.
+ Before modern advances in postmortem examinations it was believed that one could tell if a person was poisoned by opening the stomach of a corpse and tasting the fluids within. If they were bitter, then a murder had occourred.
+ Peter Jackson didn’t always want to be a Director. From the age of eight until his early twenties, he dreamed of working in special effects.
+ Following the public hanging of Leo Frank in Georgia in March of 1913, the rope from the noose and his restraints were cut into segments, which were then handed out as souvenirs.
+ Due to it’s ultra low budget, the crew of The Legend of Boggy Creek was primarily made up of high school students.
+ Some of the ingredients called for in love potions from the days of old include baked doves, finely ground mice feet and the blood of bats.
+ Hans Janowitz, co-screenwriter of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, got his inspiration from the film’s story after discovering he might have seen a murderer leaving the scene of a crime. He later saw the same man again at the dead child’s funeral.
+ In June 2007, a Middlefield, Connecticut woman was found dead in her home after last being seen alive almost eight years earlier by neighbors. The autopsy failed to reveal the year of her death but all the calenders, food products and newspapers found in her home were dated 1999 or earlier.
*all info compiled by Monica S. Kuebler
