Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

A suitcase stuffed with body parts

Today in mysterious body parts: a suitcase was found on 11th street, stuffed with human body parts.  At least one bit was a torso.  It was a roller bag.

The story remains cryptic at this time, without a full criminal hypothesis in play.

[SFPD spokesperson Off. Albie] Esparza said. "We are trying to determine what happened and was this body dumped. Did it happen nearby? Did it happen in San Francisco?"...

The case is currently under investigation with the cause and manner of death pending.

What could this be, organlegging?  Body disposal gone wrong?  An Infocult-style art project? A clever attempt to make one's bag stand out from all the others?

There are some interesting tidbits:

• More bits nearby: "Police then made another gruesome discovery shortly after when they uncovered more body parts within a three-block radius."
• A surveillance angle: "The fact that the suitcase was left in such a high traffic area has at least one man speculating. "The person who did it has got to want to be caught, this is a camera gulch right here," said one man."

(photo by Trevor Butcher (seriously, that is his name, at least on Flickr))

The first zombie cat appears

The zombie plague took a shaking step closer to reality this week, as a cat in Florida (of course) clawed its way back to life after being interred.

the most likely – if extraordinary – explanation is that the cart was only unconscious, came to in the ground and clawed his way out, before hiding for a few days until he returned home hungry. [owner] Hutson reportedly claimed he was “sure” Bart had been dead.

Here is one sad, not too disturbing photo:

Local news has video:

A more gory photo can be found here.

More from Snopes.

(thanks to Jesse Walker and others for the pointer; via the very great Florida_Man Twitter feed, too)

Creepy dolls make a move in Ohio

Here's a small, quiet, and ominous creepy doll story from Ohio.  It started when "a resident opened his front door and found two Barbie heads without bodies."

One of the doll heads had long blonde hair, while the hair on the other head had been cut off...

There were no footprints in the snow around the residence other than those left by the homeowner, according to the report.

More: "his wife, who has blonde hair, felt like the severed doll heads were directed toward her." 

It's a fine mix of the poetic and the creepy.  Well played, Ohio!

(thanks to Barbara Sawhill on Twitter)

Cannibal zombie tweet alert

What does an apocalyptic hospital Twitter update look like? Gothic tweet of the month:

 

(thanks to Infocult's mysterious wife)

Transylvanian tweet of the year

One fine tweet:

Fair ground built deep in abandoned salt mine in Transylvania, awesome...

Here's the attached image:

Twitter continues to provide us with this tiny, evocative glimpses of larger, creepy worlds.

(thanks to Steven Kaye)

Scary Streetview

Google Streetview is certainly a giant artwork.  Some of it can be deeply disturbing, like so:

And:

(All credit goes to Infocult's dark daughter)

Death by roller coaster

Suicide by rollercoaster: that was the subject of a recent grad student's design work.  It hasn't been built (yet), but here's the concept:

First the rider would face a long, slow climb up to more than 500 meters, giving him or her a few minutes to think back on life and contemplate the decision. At the top, there would be time to say a prayer or blow a kiss to relatives (or bail) before pressing the “fall” button and plummeting into the long steep plunge followed by the first 360-degree loop. That’s where most riders would die. According to Urbonas, traveling at 100 meters per second, the person would experience a G-force-induced loss of consciousness due to cerebral hypoxia (lack of oxygen reaching the brain), which often causes a sense of euphoria. Just in case that first one didn’t do it, six more consecutive loops would finish the job.

This would make a fine feature for a restarted Action Park.

(thanks to Christel Broady)

Murder by hand sanitizer

A criminal conspiracy sought to assassinate a powerful figure by using poisonous hand sanitizer.

Said conspiracy consisted of fourth graders, and the figure was their teacher, apparently.  This occurred in upstate New York, and the kids thought the teacher was mean.  Real mean.

(thanks to Jason K)

Death by scary mannequins

A man working in an ad agency suddenly became terrified of nearby mannequins.  In an ecstacy of fear he leaped from a window to his death.

“They’re after me! They’re after me!” David Caquais, 43, shouted while frantically pointing at the blank-faced dummies in the Garment District offices of Catch NY around 9 p.m. Jan. 2.

“This guy’s running around . . . he’s kicking the window panes. He’s using his fists, his elbows, trying to get one window pane open,” said a worker at Avalon hotel across the street.

“He’s yelling all kinds of things . . . He goes to a fourth window, and that’s when he gets enough room to get his body through . . . and he jumps,” the witness said.

Every day the world belongs to Thomas Ligotti a little bit more.

(thanks to Jesse "The Canny Valley" Walker for the link; photo by quinet)

Fearing New York City in the 1970s

Back in the bad old 70s a group of New York City union leaders and others produced a pamphlet to scare off tourists.  It was a political ploy to influence the mayor, but Infocult readers might be more interested in the sheer horror of its approach, starting with the front page:

Welcome to New York City, kids!

That sets the tone nicely for the rest of the publication, like page 2:

"Good luck." "Don't go out alone." New York City Gothic, ladies and gentlemen.

(thanks to Jesse "The Crypt Keeper" Walker)