Madness on the homefront

UnknownEntity · Post by **UnknownEntity** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 12:57 pm

I recently discovered that there had been a fairly horrific murder perpetrated in my quiet little town. I also found out that the bodies were burned in a barbeque pit in a local park. The one I frequently bike through. At night. Which means I never get to bike through there at night ever again... and explains all the ghosts I had been seeing...

Have any of you discovered something horrific that hit a little too close to home? Ever find out you're related to a serial killer, or that Mrs. Winthrop died on the very spot where you like to nap now and again? Ever wander somewhere you had a bad feeling about, then find out something spooky afterwards? I'd love to hear from you.

Magnus Nordlander · Post by **Magnus Nordlander** » Sun Jul 06, 2014 12:07 am

An ancestor of mine back in the 17th century was a minister who was the driving force behind the largest witch trial in Sweden, the Torsåker witch trials. His name was Laurentius Hornæus, but he has since become known as "the evil chaplain". A total of 71 people (65 women, 2 men and 4 boys) were beheaded and then burned, which was every fifth woman in the parish. Hornæus was infamous for using threats and violence to force children to testify in the trials.

Wikipedia has a nice write-up linked above, so I'm quoting from it:

The priest had two boys stand at the door of the church to identify the witches by an invisible mark on their forehead as they went in. On one occasion, one of these boys pointed at the wife of the priest himself, Britta Rufina; people gasped but she (as she told her grandson who wrote down the story) then slapped the boy, and he quickly apologized when he saw who he had pointed at, and said he had been blinded by the sun. This could very well have been true, as he would not have dared to point at the wife of a priest if he had recognised her.

Hornæus was a priest with a terrifying reputation; the witnesses of the witch trial were mostly children, as the main accusations of the witches was that they had abducted children on the sabbath of Satan, and Hornaeus had several methods to get them to give the testimony he wanted. He whipped them, he bathed children in the ice cold water of a hole in the ice in the lakes in winter, he put them in an oven, showed them fuel and pretended that he would light the fire in the oven and boil them. His grandson, Jöns Hornæus, who wrote down the story in 1735 after it was dictated by his grandmother, Laurentius Hornæus' wife Britta Rufina, was quoted as saying: "I remember some of these witnesses, who by these methods were in lack of health for the rest of their lives". He adds that children were still, sixty years afterwards, afraid to go near the house where his grandfather lived.

In another witch trial, which he was also involved with, his own mother was also executed as a witch. Neither he nor his brother gave any testimony to her favor.

So... Child abusing serial killing priest ancestor. Can anyone beat that?

Keeper Jon · Post by **Keeper Jon** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 2:52 am

Holy shit, Magnus! Swedes don't suffer a witch, do they?

caddy1071 · Post by **caddy1071** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 7:55 am

Wow! It's going to be a hard time topping that one, but I'd like for folks to try! :p

I do have some gruesome events from the northwestern counties of Illinois, but I'd have to do some research to recount them - they were from my younger times. :p Definitely a flickering and sputtering candle compared to the evil parson, but I'll do my best! :p

Great thread, all - hope we get some more entries - great stuff.

tty!
Cory