Harold Hart Crane

 

Harold Hart Crane (July 21, 1899 – April 27, 1932) was an American poet. 

Provoked and inspired by T. S. Eliot, Crane wrote modernist poetry that was difficult, highly stylized, and ambitious in its scope. 

In his most ambitious work, The Bridge, Crane sought to write an epic poem, in the vein of The Waste Land, that expressed a more optimistic view of modern, urban culture than the one that he found in Eliot's work. 

In the years following his suicide at the age of 32, Crane has been hailed by playwrights, poets, and literary critics alike (including Robert Lowell, Derek Walcott, Tennessee Williams, and Harold Bloom), as being one of the most influential poets of his generation.

Crane visited Mexico in 1931–32 on a Guggenheim Fellowship, and his drinking continued as he suffered from bouts of alternating depression and elation. 

While en route to New York aboard the steamship Orizaba,

Just before noon on April 27, 1932, Crane jumped overboard into the Gulf of Mexico.

 Although he had been drinking heavily and left no suicide note, witnesses believed his intentions to be suicidal, as several reported that he exclaimed "Goodbye, everybody!" before throwing himself overboard.

His body was never recovered. A marker on his father's tombstone at Park Cemetery outside Garrettsville, Portage County, Ohio includes the inscription, "Harold Hart Crane 1899–1932 lost at sea".

 

On the River

by 

Guy de Maupassant

François Villon

 

François Villon ( c. 1431 – after 1463) is the best known French poet of the Late Middle Ages. 

He was involved in criminal behavior and had multiple encounters with law enforcement authorities.

 Villon wrote about some of these experiences in his poems.

Céline

 

Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches (27 May 1894 – 1 July 1961), 

better known by the pen name Louis-Ferdinand Céline ) was a French novelist, polemicist, and physician

His first novel Journey to the End of the Night (1932) won the Prix Renaudot but divided critics due to the author's pessimistic depiction of the human condition and his writing style based on working class speech.

Beasts bounding through time.

 

Van Gogh writing his brother for paints
Hemingway testing his shotgun
Celine going broke as a doctor of medicine

the impossibility of being human

Villon expelled from Paris for being a thief
Faulkner drunk in the gutters of his town

the impossibility of being human

Burroughs killing his wife with a gun
Mailer stabbing his

the impossibility of being human

Maupassant going mad in a rowboat
Dostoevsky lined up against a wall to be shot
Crane off the back of a boat into the propeller

the impossibility

Sylvia with her head in the oven like a baked potato
Harry Crosby leaping into that Black Sun
Lorca murdered in the road by the Spanish troops

the impossibility

Artaud sitting on a madhouse bench
Chatterton drinking rat poison
Shakespeare a plagiarist
Beethoven with a horn stuck into his head against deafness

the impossibility the impossibility

Nietzsche gone totally mad

the impossibility of being human

all too human
this breathing
in and out
out and in
these punks
these cowards
these champions
these mad dogs of glory

moving this little bit of light toward us

 
impossibly

Jeff and Jesus

 

Shortly after completing his lengthy confessions in 1991, Dahmer had requested to Detective Murphy that he be given a copy of the Bible.

 This request was granted and Dahmer gradually devoted himself to Christianity and became a born-again Christian. 

On his father's urging, he also read creationist books from the Institute for Creation Research.

 In May 1994, Dahmer was baptized by Roy Ratcliff, a minister in the Church of Christ 

This service was conducted in the prison whirlpool.

Following Dahmer's baptism, Ratcliff visited him on a weekly basis.

The two regularly discussed the prospect of death, and Ratcliff later divulged that, in the months prior to his murder, Dahmer had questioned whether he was sinning against God by continuing to live. 

Referring to his crimes in a 1994 interview with Stone Phillips on Dateline NBC, Dahmer had stated: "If a person doesn't think that there is a God to be accountable to, then what's the point of trying to modify your behaviour to keep it within acceptable ranges? That's how I thought anyway."

 According to Dahmer's family, he had long been ready to die, and accepted any punishment which he might endure in prison.

 In addition to his father and stepmother maintaining regular contact, Dahmer's mother, Joyce, also maintained regular contact with her son. Prior to his arrest, the two had not seen each other since Christmas 1983.^[Joyce related that in her weekly phone calls, whenever she expressed concerns for her son's physical well-being, 

Dahmer responded with comments to the effect of: "It doesn't matter, Mom. I don't care if something happens to me."

Jeff says 

 “there has to come a point where a person has to become accountable for what he’s done. You can’t go around making excuses, blaming other people”. 

“I’ve since come to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the true creator of the heavens and the earth…and I have accepted him as my Lord and Saviour, and I believe that I as well as everyone else will be accountable to him”.

“if a person doesn’t think there’s a God to be accountable to, what’s the point in trying to modify your behaviour to keep it within acceptable ranges?” 

 “I’ve since come to believe the Lord Jesus Christ is truly God”.

people asked if there were any limits on God’s mercy, given the incomprehensible barbarity of Dahmer’s crimes, and how Dahmer’s declaration of repentance could possibly be sincere, given how far he had fell. 

Ratcliff is clear in his responses: “I don’t know of any sins too evil for Christ’s blood to wash away” he told Dahmer during a prison visit in which the killer shared his fear that Ratcliff would tell him he couldn’t be baptised because his sins are too evil. 

He’s equally clear on the question of sincerity: “How unfair that question is! Will God judge the sincerity of our baptism on our pre-Christian lives?”

Jeff Altar

 

Jeffrey Dahmer altar

 

When asked as to why he had preserved a total of seven skulls and the entire skeletons of two victims, Dahmer stated he had been in the process of constructing a private altar of victims' skulls which he had intended to display on the black table located in his living room and upon which he had photographed the bodies of many of his victims.

An illustration provided by Dahmer depicting the private altar he had been planning to create at the time of his July 1991 arrest.

This display of skulls was to be adorned at each side with the complete skeletons of Miller and Lacy. The four severed heads found in his kitchen were to have all flesh removed and used in this altar, as was the skull of at least one future victim. Incense sticks were to be placed at each end of the black table, above which Dahmer intended to place a large blue lamp with extending blue globe lights. The entire construction was to be placed before a window covered with a black, opaque shower curtain, in front of which Dahmer intended to sit in a black leather chair.

When asked in a November 18, 1991 interview to whom the altar was dedicated to, Dahmer replied: "Myself ... It was a place where I could feel at home." He further described his intended altar as a "place for meditation", from where he believed he could draw a sense of power, adding: "If this [his arrest] had happened six months later, that's what they would have found."

Jeffrey Dahmer victims

 

Jeffrey Dahmer killed seventeen young men between 1978 and 1991. 

Twelve were killed in his North 25th Street apartment. 

Three victims were murdered and dismembered at his grandmother's West Allis residence. 

His first and second victims were murdered at his parents' home in Ohio and at the Ambassador Hotel in Milwaukee, respectively.

 A total of fourteen of Dahmer's victims were from various ethnic minority backgrounds, 

with nine victims being black.

 Dahmer was adamant that the race of his victims was incidental to him and that it was the body form of a potential victim that attracted his attention.

These contentions have been supported via an independent forensic specialists' study of Dahmer's victim selection, the anthropological analysis of which revealed his victims shared a "morphological similarity" and suggesting Dahmer was "psychologically attracted to a certain anthropometric body type."

Most of Dahmer's victims were killed by strangulation after being drugged with sedatives. 

His first victim was killed by a combination of bludgeoning and strangulation and his second victim was battered to death, with one further victim killed in 1990, Ernest Miller, dying of a combination of shock and blood loss due to his carotid artery being cut.

Four of Dahmer's victims killed in 1991 had holes bored into their skulls through which Dahmer injected hydrochloric acid or, later, boiling water, into the frontal lobes in an attempt to induce a permanent, submissive, unresistant state. This proved fatal, although on each occasion this was not Dahmer's intention

1978

• June 18: Steven Mark Hicks, 18. Last seen hitchhiking to a rock concert in Chippewa Lake Park in Bath, Ohio. By Dahmer's admission, what caught his attention to Hicks hitchhiking was the fact that the youth was bare-chested. He was bludgeoned with a dumbbell and strangled to death with this instrument before being dismembered. Remains pulverized and scattered in woodland behind Dahmer's family home.

1987

• November 20: Steven Walter Tuomi, 25. Killed in a rented room at the Ambassador Hotel in Milwaukee. Dahmer claimed to have no memory of murdering Tuomi, yet stated he must have battered him to death in a drunken stupor. His body was dismembered in the basement of Dahmer's grandmother's house and the remains discarded in the trash. No remains were ever found.

1988

• January 16: James Edward Doxtator, 14. Met Dahmer outside a gay bar in Wisconsin. Doxtator was lured to West Allis on the pretext of earning $50 for posing for nude pictures. Dahmer strangled Doxtator and kept his body in the basement for a week before dismembering him and discarding the remains in the trash. No remains were ever found.
• 
  
• March 24: Richard Guerrero, 22. Drugged and strangled in Dahmer's bedroom at West Allis. Dahmer dismembered Guerrero's corpse in the basement, dissolved the flesh in acid and disposed of the bones in the trash. He bleached and retained the skull for several months before disposing of it. No remains were ever found.

1989

• March 25: Anthony Lee Sears, 24. Sears was the last victim to be drugged and strangled at Dahmer's grandmother's residence; he was also the first victim from whom Dahmer permanently retained any body parts. His preserved skull and genitals were found in a filing cabinet at 924 North 25th Street following Dahmer's arrest in 1991.

1990

• May 20: Raymond Lamont Smith (also known as Ricky Beeks), 32. The first victim to be killed at Dahmer's North 25th Street apartment. Smith was a male sex worker whom Dahmer encountered at a tavern. Dahmer gave Smith a drink laced with sleeping pills, then strangled him on his kitchen floor.^[ His skull was spray-painted and retained.

• June 14: Edward Warren Smith, 27.^[341] A known acquaintance of Dahmer who was last seen in his company at a party.Dahmer acidified Smith's skeleton; his skull was destroyed unintentionally when placed in the oven in an effort to remove moisture. No remains were ever found.

• September 2: Ernest Marquez Miller, 22. Miller was a dance student whom Dahmer encountered outside a bookstore. According to Dahmer, he was especially attracted to Miller's physique. He was killed by having his carotid artery severed before being dismembered in the bathtub, with Dahmer storing his entire skeleton in the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet and his heart, liver, biceps, and portions of his thighs in the freezer for later consumption.

• September 24: David Courtney Thomas, 22. Encountered Dahmer near the Grand Avenue Mall; he was lured to Dahmer's apartment on the promise of money for posing nude. Once a laced drink had rendered Thomas unconscious, Dahmer decided he "wasn't my type." Nonetheless, Dahmer strangled Thomas, taking Polaroid photos of the dismemberment process. No remains were ever found.
• 
  

1991

• February 18: Curtis Durrell Straughter, 17. Approached by Dahmer as he waited at a bus stop near Marquette University. Dahmer lured Straughter to his apartment, where the youth was drugged, and then handcuffed and strangled before being dismembered in the bathtub. His skull, hands, and genitals were retained.

• April 7: Errol Lindsey, 19. The first victim upon whom Dahmer practiced what he later described to investigators as his "drilling technique", a procedure in which he drilled holes into the victim's skull, through which he injected hydrochloric acid into the brain. According to Dahmer, Lindsey awoke after this practice, after which he was again rendered unconscious with a drink laced with sedatives, then strangled to death. Dahmer flayed Lindsey's body and retained the skin for several weeks. His skull was found following Dahmer's arrest.

• May 24: Tony Anthony Hughes, 31. Hughes was lured by Dahmer to his apartment upon the promise of posing nude for photographs. As Hughes was deaf, he and Dahmer communicated using handwritten notes. The injection of hydrochloric acid into Hughes's skull proved fatal. His body was left on Dahmer's bedroom floor for three days before being dismembered, with Dahmer photographing the dismemberment process. His skull was retained and identified from dental records.

• May 27: Konerak Sinthasomphone, 14. The younger brother of the boy Dahmer had assaulted in 1988. Sinthasomphone was drugged and had hydrochloric acid injected into his brain before Dahmer left the youth unattended as he left the apartment to purchase beer. When he returned, he discovered Sinthasomphone naked and disoriented in the street, with three distressed young women attempting to assist him. When police arrived, Dahmer persuaded them he and Sinthasomphone were lovers and that the youth was simply intoxicated. When police left Sinthasomphone with Dahmer in his apartment, Dahmer again injected hydrochloric acid into Sinthasomphone's brain, and this proved fatal. His head was retained in the freezer and his body dismembered.

• June 30: Matt Cleveland Turner, 20. On June 30, Dahmer attended the Chicago Pride Parade. At a bus stop, he encountered a 20-year-old named Matt Turner and persuaded him to accompany him to Milwaukee to pose for a photo shoot. Turner was drugged, strangled, and then dismembered in the bathtub. His head and internal organs were put in the freezer and his torso subsequently placed in the 57-gallon drum Dahmer purchased on July 12.

• July 5: Jeremiah Benjamin Weinberger, 23. Met Dahmer at a gay bar in Chicago and agreed to accompany him to Milwaukee for the weekend. Dahmer drilled through Weinberger's skull and injected boiling water into the cavity. He later recalled Weinberger's death to be exceptional, as he was the only victim who died with his eyes open. Weinberger's decapitated body was kept in the bathtub for a week before being dismembered; his torso was placed in the 57-gallon drum.

• July 15: Oliver Joseph Lacy, 24. A bodybuilding enthusiast whom Dahmer enticed to his apartment on the promise of money for posing for photographs. Lacy was drugged and strangled with a leather strap before being decapitated, with his head and heart being placed in the refrigerator. His skeleton was retained to adorn one side of the private shrine of skulls and skeletons Dahmer was in the process of creating when arrested one week later.

• July 19: Joseph Arthur Bradehoft, 25. Dahmer's last victim. Bradehoft was a father of three children from Minnesota who was looking for work in Milwaukee at the time of his murder. He was left on Dahmer's bed for two days following his murder before, on July 21, being decapitated. His head was placed in the refrigerator and his torso in the 57-gallon drum.