Mini Coffins of Edinburgh

 Have you ever wondered if you discover coffins on a quest to find rabbits?

And that also not of humans but of small dolls?

Well, this is what happened in Edinburg in 1836,

While playing in Arthur's seat, a group of boys stumbled upon a small cave in the rocks. They found seventeen mini coffins inside the cave, each containing a mini-doll.

Yes, dolls, and if you don't believe me check out the National Museum Of Scotland.

Eight of the seventeen coffins that survived are displayed there.

Unique collection to be kept safely in a museum right!

Now coming, to the question why are these coffins are so famous? Could they be a foul joke? or something a child did while playing?

Nah!

Things are never so simple!

Let's start with the dolls, each of the dolls is dressed differently and could be differentiated from one another. They are assumed to be originally small wooden soldier toys. The coffins are so tiny that some of the toys have their limbs removed to fit in. 

Coming to the coffin, each one is approximately 95mm in length and has carvings on their surface that also seem to be different from one another. They were arranged in three tiers, two tiers of eight and one solitary coffin on top.

Though most researchers think that all the coffins are made by the same person the question still remains!

 Why? why would someone make coffins of dolls and why hide them in Arthur's seat of all places?

Let's dive into the different theories behind these Lilliputian coffins.

Since these were discovered in the 1800s of course one of the first theories published in newspapers would be witchcraft and demonology!

How intuitive!

They must have thought something like "These look similar to voodoo dolls so blame the satanic cults!"

This was one of the theories published in The Scotsman on 16th July 1836.

Almost a month later, the Edinburgh Evening Post suggested a new theory. It mentioned an ancient custom of Saxony, where friends who were lost in distant lands were buried in effigy.

Caledonian Mercury, Talked about the existence of a superstition, where sailors lost in the sea were buried in effigies by their wives to give them a Christian Burial.

But these two theories still raise questions why seventeen coffins? or why bury them at a Volcanic hill?

Obviously, no answer was found.

The coffins disappeared for some time after being auctioned off. They reappeared in 1901 when they were donated to the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Society somehow concluded that the coffins could be honorific burials.

But the case didn't stop there!

Of course, if it stopped there with such a simple theory, we Mystery seekers wouldn't have anything to discuss.

Besides, if they were honorific burials why make these dolls so creepy, that the children almost destroyed them.

Five years later in 1906, The Scotsman published another interesting but absurd story. 

The story was relayed by a woman who lived in Edinburgh, her father, was visited by a daft man. who had once drawn on a piece of paper three coffins with dates 1837, 1838, and 1840. following that incident in the autumn of 1837 a relative of her father died, in 1838 his cousin demised, and in 1840 his own brother. After the funeral, the daft man again appeared glaring at him, and then disappeared forever. Even if the article hinted that the daft man could be the original creator of these Arthur seat coffins. But they could also be a mere series of coincidences.

In 1976 Walter Havernick, director of the Museum of Hamburg History, came up with a new theory. according to a German superstition of keeping mandrake roots or dolls in tiny coffins as talismans, he postulated that these coffins could be lucky charms for sailors. Even though charms were still used in 19th-century Scotland, no evidence of such seafaring tradition was found.

I guess you are tired after reading so many theories,

So, now let's discuss the most interesting theory!

The Mystery of Murder Dolls.

Edinburgh became renowned for medical science by the early 1800s. The field of medical science is based on understanding the body's mechanisms, so of course, anatomy plays a vital role in this honorable study. We all know anatomy requires a human body to be dissected. With a rise in medical schools and students, fewer criminals punished with the death penalty, and diseases being treated better, there soon became a shortage of cadavers for anatomical studies.

The news of this soon spread like wildfire among criminals, who saw it as an opportunity, and body snatching from churchyards became a common thing. Thus, most of the criminals shifted to suppliers of dead bodies for medical schools. Among these suppliers, two soon attracted the attention of people, as the bodies they supplied seemed not to come from the graveyards.

The two Irish immigrants William Burke and William Hare ran a boarding house in Edinburgh. One day one of their elderly lodgers accidentally died still owing them money. To make up for their losses they sold the body to Dr. Robert Knox. This is how their murderous business started. 

Why murderous?

Because the rest of the bodies they sold none of them were accidental death anymore.

At first, Burke and Hare started abducting travelers then they became sloppy and started murdering townspeople who were easily recognized by others. The small mistake became their doom and William Burke was hanged after Hare confessed to his crimes. In the 10 months of their murder journey, they killed 16 people. After Burke died his body was also dissected and used for anatomical studies. 

How ironic!

Interestingly, a lot of people were admitted to the hospital that day just to observe his body.

So 16 victims and one of their murderers: could this be the answer we are looking for?

Could someone have felt pity and buried the people, murdered in cold blood who never got a proper funeral in this way?

The only logic against this theory is that their victims were predominantly women but toys were male.  Then again premade soldier toys.

Or is there some other story behind the miniature coffins? feel free to comment below.

If you don't know Arthur's seat is associated with the legendary King Arthur, not only that it was the home to the Celtic Voltadini Tribe in 400AD. 

Obivously, a story like this will attract a lot of creative attention. Ian Ranking, wrote  in his thriller book 'Fall', "Plenty of people over the years have come up to me with their excited notions of plots for my next book. I’ve found precious few of them to be helpful, or viable, but I was intrigued by these ‘little dolls’… which is how I made the acquaintance of the Arthur’s Seat coffins… As soon as I saw them, I knew they would make a great story, especially as no one had come up with an incontrovertible interpretation of their meaning. In other words, there was a story to tell about them…"

In 2006 the novel was adapted for television, and replicas of the coffins were produced. These replicas often replaces the originals when they were required to be presented somewhere else.

The mystery continues...

In December 2014, the museum received a beautiful replica of the coffin cryptically named XVIII, attached to it was a note which quoted the climax from a chilling short story 'The Body Snatcher' by Robert Louis Stevenson.

These tiny coffins will continue to attract more attention in the future. We can just hope for this mystery to be solved one day.

Blue rose belles

( Archie) 

Who was the Blood Countess? Who bathed in blood for youthness?!! ||Criminal world ep. 3||

Have you ever heard of the "Blood Countess"? 

The infamous lady who took baths in blood and had " Vampiric"  behavior? The vampire psycho lady? 

You have? Good. I think you have. She is popular. Like gossip girl popular. Read this article to reconfirm your knowledge and tell me where did I go wrong. I can be dumb sometimes( not really, shushhh... I have a small attention span. Lmao). 

You don't know who Blood countess is? Read on to find out! Might make you throw up.. So that must be fun. 

Blood countess or Elizabeth Bathory was born on the 7th  August 1560,in Nyírbátor, Hungary. She was born into the Bathory Bloodline, which was an incredibly powerful noble family of 

Hungary. 

Early life of Elizabeth Bathory was not exactly normal. Then again it was the 1500s -1600s, what can we except? Since Elizabeth was born into wealth and influence, she was given education, respect and was rich, everything girls in those (who weren't born into royalty) didn't have.

She was said to suffer for seizures and epilepsy from a very young age. For this reason she apparently used to smell and drink human blood. Yep! You read that right. Yummm...right? Now, it the 1500s, the medical or healthcare system was not at all developed. So, the doctors thought drinking human blood might cure epilepsy. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️. 

Even though the aesthetic of 1500s was pretty thank god I wasn't born in that era. God knows what the fuck they will do to you if you suffered from any disease. 

Elizabeth was engaged at the age of 11,to another very influential family of Hungary,  Nasady. 

Now something scandalous (in terms of 1500-1600s. Elizabeth Bathory is said to have given birth to a baby out of wedlock with a lower class lover at the age of 13. I mean it will still be quite scandalous right? Like sex at 12-13?!

It is said that her lover was castrated and then fed to the dogs. Talk about gruesome violence. Her baby daughter was given away to a servant who was paid handsomely to run away with the baby and never to give away this information. 

Elizabeth was married of to Count Ference Nasady two years later when she was 15 years old and her fiance was 19.

Her husband gifted her a castle for her wedding. Now it is said her husband made a "torture" Chamber in the castle just for Elizabeth so that she can implement her sadistic nature onto others. People get yourself a husband like that, who understands your needs.Every need, even if it is killing and torturing young women. It is true that the castle had a torture chamber but no evidence is found whether her husband had anything to do with it. 

 It is also interesting to note that Elizabeth didn't take up her husband's surname. Since Elizabeth was on a higher social status than her husband, she didn't take her husband's name but his husband took Bathory into his name. Girl power!! Yaay! 

Her husband was a very ambitious soldier and he used to away for most times. So, Elizabeth apparent had a series of lovers and bore her husband four children. I wonder if those lovers were castrated and fed to dogs... 

Also, why did the count accept this kids as his own? If he did, why the hell did he send away Elizabeth's first born? 

The torture of Bathory started around 1560. She started killing young peasant girls who used to work for her. She also abducted daughters of those servants who used to work for her. Maybe she chose girls at her castle so that her husband couldn't cheat on her, since most men at that were douchebags. Also not I said "most men" Not "all men".

She had around four people who were really loyal to her. They used to help Elizabeth abduct those young peasant girls. 

She used to to lock them up for days in her torture chamber without food or water. She used to beat them with leather floggers and stinging needles and of course after she stripped them naked. She used to freeze them for days. Sometimes she used to burn them and immediately used to put them into an ice bath. She used to cut off parts of there bodies and then feed it to the victim herself. She used to multilate the girls vagina and breasts making the form of torture of a sexual nature. She used to tie them up on a table and cover them in honey and left them like that. Ants used to crawl up all over there bodies along with other insects and bees. This resulted into the mutilation of the bodies. She is said to bathe and drink those girls' blood. 

On January 4,1604 , Elizabeth's husband died after years of disability. After that, Elizabeth's torture had no bounds. 

She soon got bored of the lower caste peasants girls and upgraded to the noble caste girls who used to go her gynaecium to learn etiquette. 

Around 1604 rumours about Elizabeth Bathory was spreads. Since daughters from noble families were missing, an investigation was launched. 

More and more witnesses were found. All of them sweared that Elizabeth Bathory was torturing and killing all those girls. 

In 1610, enough evidence was found and Elizabeth Bathory was arrested for the murder of 650+ girls. 

Since she was from a noble family, executing her or punishing her was off the table. 

It was later decided that she would be imprisoned in her own castle for the rest of her life. Now some sources say that she was imprisoned in a bricked room while others say she had free movement inside her palace. Nobody knows for sure. 

On the evening of 20th August, 1640 Elizabeth complained of cold hands and her guards suggested her to lie down. She was found the next morning. She was 54 at the time of her death. 

So that my friends was the tale of Countess Elizabeth Bathory aka the blood countess. 

I hope you all enjoyed this story. Please don't forget to follow us and leave me a comment telling me what you thought about this story. 

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With much love Anisha ❤

Criminal world EP- 1 "Youngest serial killer?!!"

           Kids are known to be the purest beings on earth. A child is known to be incapable of doing anything inhumane, cruel, or anything that might remotely hurt anybody ever. They are known to have the innocence of a rose, not tainted. 

But in this case, this information was bunked by a thousand miles, since the hands of this child were tainted with blood. 

Amardeep Sada was born in the year 1988 in the begusarai district in bihar, India. He was the older child of his parents. The family later moved to the Mushahari district in Bihar, India, where other members of the Sada family resided. The family was extremely poor and spent most there days in extreme poverty.  Sometime in late 2005 or early 2006, the family welcomed their second child, Amardeep's younger sister. Her name Or birthday is kept a secret. 

Amardeep was known to an odd duck in his village. People found his behavior to be icy. 

On May 30, 2007, a call was made to the Bhagavanpur police station in Bihar by the villagers of the Mushahari district. The villagers told the police that they have captured a deadly killer and that the police must immediately arrest that killer. 

The police went down to the village to find that the villagers captured an eight-year-old kid. 

When the villagers questioned, they said that eight years old killed a six-month-old girl named khushboo, who was Amardeep's neighbor's daughter. 

Allegedly, the mother of khusboo, Chun Chun Devi, left her sleeping six months old girl, in the front yard of a primary school. She then went home to do some chores and when she came back her daughter was missing. Some reports said, that some villagers saw Amardeep with Khushboo. Although this can't be confirmed. 

Later when the villagers asked Amardeep about Khusboo, he confessed to the crime of murdering the baby without showing any remorse. He said, that he saw khubsoo lying in the front yard of the school and he picked her up and took her to an empty field. There he strangled her and later beat her face with a brick multiple times. Then he buried her fragile dead body in the field and covered the area with leaves. 

The villagers then called the police to hand him over. 

When the police questioned him, he confessed to the police again without showing any remorse. The police arrested the eight-year boy after he confessed and took him to the police station. 

At the police station, he kept giving icy glares to the police officers. Some officers said that the glares gave them chills and it definitely didn't feel like an eight years old child's gaze. 

At the station, Amardeep confessed that Khusboo wasn't his first victim. 

His first victim was his six-month-old maternal cousin. He said that he took the baby from the house and took her to a field, killed her strangulation, and buried her body. He similarly killed his cousin as Khusboo. 

Amardeep's second victim was his eight-month-old sister. She was sleeping on her mother's lap when Amardeep came and cradled her, picked her, and went outside. Amardeep took her to the same field and bashed her face repeatedly with a brick until she stopped breathing. Then he buried her body among dirt and leaves. Later, when he returned home without his sister, the parents questioned him and confessed to killing his sister and his cousin. He even took his family to the place where he buried the body.

Amardeep's family knew about his killing spree and they didn't say this to anybody in a lousy effort to protect him and told everybody that the disappearance of Amardeep's sister and cousin was a "private family matter".

He showed the places he buried the bodies. 

By the time, the police arrested Amardeep, his parents fled the village. 

During the questioning, Amardeep showed no remorse for the killings and said that he was hungry and wanted to eat biscuits. 

The police asked a criminal psychiatrist to check on Amardeep because they suspected that he was mentally unwell. 

The psychiatrist said he was a "sadist". It basically means that Amardeep felt joy in his killings. Some other experts said that he suffered from what is known as a " Conduct disorder ", a mental state where the patients feel gratification from inflicting on others. Even though this condition could be treated with proper treatment. 

Since Amardeep was just 8 years old at that time, he was placed in a juvenile home where he was kept isolated from everybody else there. 

Amardeep Sada is known as the youngest serial killer in the world. He was only seven years old when he committed his first murder. 

Now some people said that he was released at the age of 18 from the home and he lives among us with a different name so that his new life will not be out shadowed by his past. But no information about his whereabouts is to found after his arrest. 

I hope you guys liked this story. If you guys are interested in stories like this and are a seeker of mystery and dark stories, I highly suggest you subscribe to this blog. Don't forget to leave your thoughts in the comments. 

Stay safe and I will see you guys the next time. 

With love, Anisha ❤