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Famous Last Words of Serial Killers, Murderers & Celebrities

29/7/2016

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The average human being has roughly ten thousand words in their vocabulary, daily we probably use barely a third, and most of which - if we're honest - are euphemisms, abbreviations or expletives. And yet, out of a whole lifetime of verbal communication the two sentences we have next-to-no control over fascinates everyone the most - our first words... and our last. 

My first words were "corrugated iron". Why? I have no idea. I just hope I can muster something more witty and imaginative for the final words than "Bus? What bus?!" (splat). 

But what follows is a fabulous list of famous last words by some of the world biggest celebrities, familiar references to murder in popular fictions, as well as some (un)inspirational quotes by the world's most notorious murderers. Well, this is Murder Mile after all. 
​Famous Last Words: 
  • Elvis Presley - “I’m going to the bathroom to read” (he died on the loo, having a poo)
  • Composer Jean-Philippe Rameau objected to a song sung at his bedside. He said “what the devil do you mean to sing to me, Priest? You are out of tune”
  • George Orwell (author of 1984 and Animal Farm), his last written words were, “At fifty, everyone has the face he deserves.” He died at age 46.
  • Nostradamus predicted, “Tomorrow at sunrise, I shall no longer be here.” He was right.
  • Leonardo daVinci (genius, inventor, artist) modestly said “I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have” 
  • Louise-Marie-Thérèse de Saint Maurice, Comtesse de Vercellis let one rip while she was dying. She said, “Good. A woman who can fart is not dead”. My kind of woman. 
  • Drummer Buddy Rich died after being prepped for surgery, a nurse asked him, “Is there anything you can’t take?” Rich replied “Yeah, country music.”
  • Johnny Ace (R&B singer) died in 1954 while playing with a pistol during a break in his concert set. His last words were, “I’ll show you that it won’t shoot.”
  • Richard Feynman (physicist, author, musician, professor), died in Los Angeles in 1988. His last words were “this dying is boring”
  • Murderer James W. Rodgers was put in front of a firing squad in Utah and asked if he had a last request. He replied “bring me a bullet-proof vest.”
  • John Arthur Spenkelink was executed in Florida in 1979. He spent his final days writing these last words on various pieces of mail: “Capital punishment means those without the capital get the punishment”.
  • Convicted murderer Thomas J. Grasso used his last words to complain about his last meal. He said “I did not get my Spaghetti-O’s; I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this”
  • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, (creator of Sherlock Holmes) died at age 71 in his garden. He turned to his wife and said, “You are wonderful,” then clutched his chest and died.
  • When Groucho Marx was dying, he let out one last quip: “This is no way to live!”
  • Actress Joan Crawford yelled at her housekeeper, who was praying as Crawford died. Crawford said, “Damn it! Don’t you dare ask God to help me!” 

(Un)Inspirational Quotes by Serial KIllers:
  • John Wayne Gacy - “Surely a clown can get away with murder?”
  • Edmund Kemper - “Even when she was dead, she was still bitching at me. I couldn’t get her to shut up!”
  • Peter Kurten (known as The Vampire of Dusseldorf) - “After my head has been chopped off, will I still be able to hear, at least for a moment, the sound of my own blood gushing from my neck? That would be the best pleasure to end all pleasure. “
  • Edmund Kemper - “I just wanted to see how it felt to shoot Grandma”
  • Jeffrey Dahmer - “I carried it too far, that’s for sure“,
  • Albert Fish - “I like children, they are tasty.”
  • Richard Ramirez (The Night Stalker was smart and could have done much good in the world if he’d had a decent childhood.) - “Big deal, death comes with the territory. See you in Disneyland.”
  • Jeffrey Dahmer - “I’ve got to start eating at home more”
  • Charles Manson - “Believe me, if I started murdering people there’d be none of ya left”
  • Carl Panzram (Panzram confessed to 22 murders, and to having sodomized over 1,000 males. He was hanged for having murdered a prison employee at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in 1930.) - “Today I am dirty , but tomorrow I’ll be just dirt.” 
  • John Wayne Gacy - “The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlour without a license.”
  • Richard Ramirez -  “Even psychopaths have emotions, then again, maybe not.”

Murderously Fun Quotes in Popular Fiction:
  • “It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” ― Voltaire
  • “Nobody owns life, but anyone who can pick up a frying pan owns death.” ― William S. Burroughs
  • “The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.” ― William Shakespeare, King Henry VI
  • “Men should think twice before making widowhood a women's only path to power.” ― Gloria Steinem
  • “I’ve always felt that the best place to hide a body is in the trunk of a cop car, with a note affixed to the body that reads, “I’m sorry.” ― Jarod Kintz, There are Two Typos of People in This World: Those Who Can Edit and Those Who Can't
  • “When the Fox hears the Rabbit scream he comes a-runnin', but not to help.” ― Thomas Harris, The Silence of the Lambs
  • “If it weren't for greed, intolerance, hate, passion and murder, you would have no works of art, no great buildings, no medical science, no Mozart, no Van Gough, no Muppets and no Louis Armstrong.” ― Jasper Fforde, The Big Over Easy

Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a writer, crime historian and tour-guide who runs Murder Mile Walks, a guided tour of Soho’s most notorious murder cases, hailed as “one of the top ten quirky & unusual things to do in London” and featuring 18 murderers, 3 serial killers, across 21 locations, totalling 75 deaths, over just a one mile walk.
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How Safe Am I In My Own Home, On The Street, At Work?

26/7/2016

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Switch on your television, pop on the radio, or open any newspaper, and you’ll be confronted with a plethora of horrifying images of war, murder, genocide, death, disease and terrorist atrocities, many of which are abroad, some of which occur in your own country, and a few even happen “just down the road”. Which begs the question – “how safe am I?”

Well, safer than you think. According to the Office of National Statistics, the odds on a western citizen being involved in a terrorist attack is 1:20,000,000 (one in twenty million), the odds of being murdered is 1:400,000 (one in four hundred thousand), and the chance you’ll be a serial killer’s next victim is 1:98,000,000 (one in ninety-eight million), with the odds of winning the national lottery being 1:14,000,000 - I know which one I'd prefer. 

In 2015, in the United Kingdom, roughly 300 people (out of a population of 64 million) were murdered, a figure that year-on-year is steadily falling, with the vast majority of murders not being premeditated, often involving alcohol or drugs, and – if you are a sex-worker - you are forty-two times more likely to be killed than anyone else. So, how safe are you? Well, very safe.

With these odds, you might live forever, just as long as you don’t go outside, go to work, take a shower, drink any water, eat any food, or breathe any air… the result of which will kill you. Life is a very dangerous pursuit, by simply being awake we take our lives in our hands. But how dangerous is life? Very… if you’re not careful.
What follows is a list of statistics on the most likely ways that the average human being will die (which I hope will dispel any ridiculous notions that, just because the news is full of horrible stories, that we should all “stay in, to stay safe”). The top three are of course:
#1 - 1:3 Odds on dying from cancer, diabetes or heart/lung-disease
#2 - 1:4 Odds on dying by hereditary illness, communicable disease or bad nutrition
#3 - Odds increased by an additional 1:10 of dying by #1 is you smoke tobacco

All of which we can do something about, but – more often than not – we choose not to. To be honest there’s a wealth of unremarkable ways (courtesy of the National Safety Council) that the average person dies every year, and almost all of them are entirely preventable:
  • Odds of 1:7399 – Dying of Hypothermia (not occurring, as you might think in frozen wastes of the Arctic tundra, but within a single mile of our own homes, having not dressed appropriately for the weather or sea).
  • 1:6174 – Dying of Heatstroke (as above, lack of sunscreen, hat or shade can result in your skin's inability to effectively cool your core body temperature down, which kills you).
  • 1:6115 – Falling from a building (and yet the odds of dying by parachute jump being 1:100,586, puts into context how dangerous simple jobs like window-cleaning can be).
  • 1:5981 (USA) or 1:47800 (UK) – Being accidentally shot, with the odds on dying by deliberate shooting (in the USA) being just 1:300. 
  • 1:5682 – Air/Space travel (including civil, military and commercial, meaning that statistically with the odds of dying in a car crash being 1:272, it’s 21 times safer to fly, than to go by road, although if you’re still worried, travel by rail, the odds of dying are 1:225,879)
  • 1:4404 – Choking on food… so remember to chew.
  • 1:4238 – Falling out of a bed/chair… yes you read that right (mostly in the over 65’s).
  • 1:4147 – Bicycle accident… decreased if you don’t run a red-light or wear a helmet
  • 1:1523 – Medical complications… although most people die NOT getting medical help
  • 1:1235 – Flames/Fire/Smoke… get smoke alarms as inhalation can kill in just 3 minutes
  • 1:1073 - Drowning… learn to swim, it’s good fun
  • 1:802 – Motorbike accident… the vast majority by reckless driving, excessive speed and bad maintenance
  • 1:623 – Walking across a busy street… so, “look left, look right, and cross carefully”
  • 1:289 – Drug addiction… yes drugs like heroin and cocaine are bad for you, but you are more likely to die by misuse of prescription painkillers or sleeping pills, than any other drugs, including alcohol.
  • 1:272 – Car accident… with teenagers accounting for a whopping 30% of these deaths
  • 1:184 – Falling, tripping or slipping… of any kind
  • 1:139 – Accidental drug overdose or poisoning… so, always read the label
  • 1:115 – Self-harm… a person attempts suicide every 15 minutes in the UK,
  • 1:85 – Any land vehicle (cars, bikes, trucks, off-road, etc, all combined)

With, as we’ve seen, the top three odds being 1:28 Stroke, 1:7 Cancer and 1:6 Heart Disease. But that’s not the complete list. Of course there’s Malaria which kills 800,000 people per year, natural phenomenons (tornadoes, tsunamis, volcanoes, etc) which kill 150,000 each year, as well as:
  • Being struck by lightning – 24000 deaths annually
  • Hippo attack – 2900 deaths annually
  • Auto-erotic-asphyxiation – 1000+ deaths annually
  • Scalded by tap water – 355 deaths in the USA alone
  • Cow stampeed – 157 deaths annually
  • Falling coconuts – 150 deaths annually
  • Falling icicles – 46 deaths annually
  • Champagne corks – 24 deaths annually
  • Death by vending machine – 2.18 deaths per year
And, then there’s being left-handed – although this can’t be statistically proven, it is said that 2500 left-handers are killed each years using products designed for right-handers, but it is tru that left-handers are five times more likely to die in an accident.
But even that doesn’t cover the really dangerous pursuits in life, including: snowboarding with the odds on dying being 1:2million, skiing 1:1.4m, swimming 1:1m, running 1:1m, bungee-jumping 1:500,000, cycling 1:140,000, sky-diving 1:100,000, scuba-diving 1:34000, boxing 1:2200, hand-gliding 1:560, Grand Prix racing 1:100, and base-jumping 1:60.

​And neither does it cover some of the real oddities, such as: death by computer game 1:100million, death by nuclear explosion 1:10million, drowning in your own bath 1:685,000, an earthquake 153,587, an accident at work 1:43500, and… having a dinner party, the odds of you dying is 1:100,000 (including alcohol/food poisoning, accident, electrocution and drowning).

So, how safe are you, really? As safe as you want to be. But you’ll be no safer, sitting inside your own home, watching the news, and worrying about all the horrible things which could – but probably won’t – kill you. Instead... book a ticket to Murder Mile Walks. Hoorah!

Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a writer, crime historian and tour-guide who runs Murder Mile Walks, a guided tour of Soho’s most notorious murder cases, hailed as “one of the top ten quirky & unusual things to do in London” and featuring 18 murderers, 3 serial killers, across 21 locations, totalling 75 deaths, over just a one mile walk.
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Who is Britain's Deadliest Family?

14/7/2016

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So, who is Britain's deadliest family? Obviously, by "deadly" I don't mean the stereotypical set of chav's who dine on a daily diet of chips, crisps, crack, fags and Red-Bull, dress in matching terry towelling tracksuits, drip in Lizzie Duke gold(plated) chains, and have almost as many brain-cells as they have teeth, whose snaring pit-bull is their intellectual equal, who wear a sovereign ring on each finger to stop their knuckles scraping on the floor, whose social high-point was "kicking off" in a (let's be honest, "pre-rehearsed") spiteful spat on Jeremy Kyle, and who most of their neighbours avoid because they're a little bit "shouty". No, by "deadly" I mean a family with whom death has become synonymous, almost as if death follows them about. 
Maybe you're thinking of Sawney Bean, the 48 strong clan of cannibals who reportedly murdered over 1000 locals in East Lothian during the 1500's, feeding on their limbs, torsos and brains (as if the contents of a haggis wasn't bad enough)? 

Perhaps it's the hideous West's who have popped into your mind; Fred & Rose West, the serial killer couple who, from 1967 to 1987 murdered 12 young women and girls, including their own daughters? ​
Or perchance, having just watched the excellent Tom Hardy in Legend (an awful title but a highly watchable film), it's the East End's terrible twosome, those terrifying twins, Ronnie & Reggie Kray who fits the bill? Well...?
Sorry, it was not either of them​. 

You see, in Britain we have a population of over sixty-four million people, but - thankfully, unlike America - we have an incredibly low murder rate, which averages out at roughly three hundred people per year, just over one person per day (a high proportion of which are sex workers*). And yet, if you were to look at your family tree, it's very unlikely that any of your families will befall a colossal personal tragedy, such as one murder every two or three hundred years. 

Where-as Britain's deadliest family 
has a higher mortality rate than most others when it comes to murders, executions, assassinations, and mysteriously unexplained deaths. So, who are they? They are, of course, The British Royal Family - a dynasty beset by tragedy. 

​Unnatural Deaths in the British Royal Family (1000BC to today)
  • 31 August 1997 - Princess Diana - unexplained car accident / murder
  • 13 June 1981 - Queen Elizabeth II - assassination attempt by Marcus Sarjeant
  • ​29 April 1970 - Queen Elizabeth II - assassination attempt in Lithgow, Australia
  • 20 January 1936 - King George V -  died by lethal injection 
  • 17 July 1918 - The Russian Royal Family - murdered by the Bolshiviks
Note: One of the nine children of Queen Victoria was Alice who married Louis IV Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, one of whose seven children was Alexandra, who married The last Czar of Russia, Nicholas Romanov II.
  • 21 January 1919 - Prince John - epileptic seizure (an excellent documentary - Prince John: The Windor's Tragic Secret, who was hidden from the public)
  • Seven attempts to assassinate HRH Queen Victoria in 1840, 1842 (twice this year), 1849, 1850, 1872 and 1882. 
  • 25 October 1760 - King George II - dies drinking hot chocolate on the toilet
  • 8 March 1702 - King William II & III- died of pneumonia, having fallen from a horse
  • 19 January 1600 - King Charles I - guilty of treason and beheaded
  • 8 February 1587 - Mary I "Queen of Scots" - guilty of treason and beheaded
  • 12 February 1554 - (Queen/Consort/Lady) Jane Grey - guilty of treason and beheaded, she is England's shortest serving monarch, hence she's known as the Nine Day Queen
  • 13 February 1542 - Queen Katherine Howard - beheaded on the orders of Henry VIII
  • 19 May 1536 - Queen Anne Boleyn - beheaded on the orders of Henry VIII (again)
  • 2 April 1502 - Prince Arthur of Wales - died of "sweating sickness" five months after his wedding to Catherine of Aragon, the illness remains a mystery to this day
  • c 1483 - King Edward V & Richard, Duke of York - dubbed "The Princes in the Tower", both were imprisoned in the Tower of London, supposedly on the orders of King Richard III, the date and causes of their deaths remain unknown 
  • 21/22 May 1471 - King Henry VI - imprisoned in tower of London and murdered
  • 21 February 1437 - King James I - assassinated by a Scots group by Sir Robert Graham at the Friars Preachers Monastery in Perth
  • 14 February 1400 - King Richard II - imprisoned in Pontefract Castle, where he was either murdered or starved to death, no-one actually knows
  • 21 September 1327 - King Edward II - was supposedly murdered by having a metal tube and a red-hot poker inserted into his anus by Sir John Maltravers of Dorset (I bet you £50 that Sir John went to Eton, just saying)
  • 19 March 1286 - King Alexander II - assumed he fell from his horse riding home
  • 2 August 1100 - King William II - mysteriously killed by an arrow through the heart on a hunting trip with some "close friends"
  • 12 November 1094 - King Duncan II - killed by Máel Petair of Mearns

A pretty deadly family wouldn't you say? And there's probably a whole heap of other murders, mischief, misery and mysteries I haven't uncovered as I've mostly focused on the Monarchs, the Queen, their kids, and anyone who happened to "cark it on the carzi" or died with "a red hot poker up their arses". But if you know of any others, please let me know in the comments section below. Now that's a family history I bet they don't tell on a guided tour of Buckingham Palace?

* Sex-workers in the UK are 42 times more likely to be murdered than the average person
** yes, I know it isn't Linda McCartney, this is called sarcasm

Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a writer, crime historian and tour-guide who runs Murder Mile Walks, a guided tour of Soho’s most notorious murder cases, hailed as “one of the top ten quirky & unusual things to do in London” and featuring 18 murderers, 3 serial killers, across 21 locations, totalling 75 deaths, over just a one mile walk.
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Serial Killers with an Abnormally High or Low IQ / Intelligence

12/7/2016

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Murder is a truly abhorrent act; so unforgivable, so shocking and so primal in its execution, that surely any civilised, modern and/or educated person in our enlightened world - where knowledge is power, information is key and our glorious grey matter is held as highly as gold - must see murder as an act committed solely by those with an abnormally low IQ? Surely all killers are a bit thick? Aren't all murderers missing a few vital cogs? And doesn't every serial killer put a big 'X' in crayon where there name should be? Well, no. 

According to a study into the IQ levels of 4086 of the world's most prolific serial killers by Radford University - a PDF of the study is attached here - there is a very definite correlation between a serial killer's IQ level and the method they use to kill. 
Before we start, let's put IQ levels into context. According to IQ Research, the average IQ of a British person is 100, an American is 98, with a score from 90 to 105 considered "average intelligence". And yet, the average IQ of a serial killer was 94.7 - a surprisingly average score. Which is not to say that all of them were stupid. Yes, many had subnormal IQ's, most had average IQ's, but quite a few were blessed with impressively high IQ's. But that begs the question, why did they end up a serial killers? 

As always, this is not a comprehensive or complete list, and will be updated as and when new data comes to light, if you have any new info, share it via my Twitter account @mmiletours. Mx

Like true-crime podcasts? Check out Ep1 of the Murder Mile, featuring 300+ untold, unsolved and long-forgotten murders, all within one square mile. Click PLAY on the media player below.

​Serial Killers & Murderers with the Highest IQs
  1. Nathan Leopold IQ 210
  2. Richard Lobe IQ 169 
  3. ​Ted Kaczynski, IQ 167
  4. Charlene Williams, IQ 160
  5. Kristen Gilbert, IQ 152
  6. Andrew Cunanan, IQ 147
  7. Jeffrey Dahmer, IQ 145
  8. Dr Harold Shipman, IQ 140
  9. Rodney Alcala, IQ 135
  10. Edmund Kempner, IQ 136 & 145​​
Leopold & Loeb; two privileged University students attempted to pull off the "perfect murder" as a demonstration of their supposed intellectual superiority by kidnapping and murdering 14-year-old Robert Franks in Chicago in May 1924 and get away with it. The Leopold & Lobe story was fictionalised in the 1948 film Rope directed by Alfred Hitchcock. 
Ted Kaczynski dubbed the “Uni' Bomber” entered the prestigious Harvard University at just 16 years old, graduated at 20, with a PHD in Mathematics and was the University of Berkley’s youngest professor. Ted Bundy graduated with a BA in Psychology and expertly defended himself in court, having taught himself law. And Nathan Leopold & Richard Lobe, who kidnapped and murdered teenager Robert “Bobby” Franks in 1924, believing they were “Nietzschean supermen” whose vast intellects entitled them to ‘kill for the thrill’ and evade capture", had IQ's of 169 (Richard Lobe) and 210 (Nathan Leopold)*... and yes, they were caught, unsurprisingly they were outwitted by their own arrogance.

​Other serial killer IQ's include: Ted Bundy (136), Joel Rifkin (129), Raymond Morris (120), John Wayne Gacy (118), David Berkowitz (118), John Reginald Christie (128), Ed Gein (106), David Copeland (126), Kenneth Bianchi “Hillside Strangler” (116), Gary Heidnek (148), David Carpenter “The Trailside Killers” (125), Carroll Edward Cole (152), Juan Corona “The Machete Murderer” (130), Michael Gary Hilton (120), Patrick McCullough (120), Derek Ernest Percy (122), Lesley Eugene Warren “Babyfaced Killer” (115), Arthur Shawcross (86/105/107 tested 3 times) and Warren James Bland (107). An IQ of roughly 98-100 is considered normal, so the following fall below that; Richard Chase “Vampire of Sacremento” (95), Robert “Willie” Pickton (86), Jessie James Cummins (81), Gary Ridgeway “Greenriver Killer” (81), Daniel Blank (85), Tommy Lynn Sells “Coast to Coast Killer” (80), Henry Lee Lucas (76-89), Glen Edward Rogers “The Casanova Killer” (76), William K Sapp “The Dreaming Demon” (73), Alton Coleman (72) and John Straffen (tested twice, IQ of 58 and 64). It’s worth noting that an IQ of 70 is classified as retarded. Thanks to University of Radford for the additional information. 

Although not a serial killer, Derek Bentley - who was infamously tried, executed and posthumously pardoned for the murder of British Policeman Sidney Miles in 1952, a crime which brought about the abolition of capital punishment in the UK - had an IQ of just 66. And - although technically a spree-killer - Martyn Bryant who mass-murderer who killed 35 people in the Port Arthur massacre in 1996 - also had an IQ of just 66. 
But what difference should a serial killer's IQ make? Surely killing is killing? Well, not quite. According to Radford University's study into 4086 serial killers across the world, the level of IQ a serial killer has, often defines what method is killing they are likely to prefer. What follows is a list of preferred methods of killing, by serial killers, how many and their average IQ. 
  • Death by Bomb, 3 serial killers, IQ 140.3
  • Death by Strangulation & Gun, 6 serial killer, IQ 105.8
  • Death by Strangulation & Bludgeoning, 8 serial killers, IQ 108.8
  • Death by Poisoning, 1 serial killer, IQ 100.0
  • Death by Stabbing & Gun, 24 serial killers, IQ 96.0
  • Death by Strangulation, 40 serial killers, IQ 96.9
  • Death by Stabbing, 23 serial killers, IQ 92.7
  • Death by Gun, 59 serial killers, IQ 90.8
  • Death by Strangulation & Stabbing, IQ 13 89.5
  • Death by Stabbing & Bludgeoning, 11 serial killers, IQ 85.5
  • Death by Bludgeoning & Gun, 10 serial killers, IQ 82.2
  • Death by Bludgeon only, 10 serial killers, IQ 78.5 
​​Death by bomb (a technical skill) or strangulation (a very manual "hands-on" method of murder) all scoring IQ levels of "above average intelligence", with the bulk of stabbing, shooting and bludgeoning scoring "below average intelligence". ​
And yet, as seen in the Broad Motives of Serial Killers chart, 48% murder for enjoyment, which accounts for the bulk of those with high IQ's, where as the other 52% - with average or below average IQ's - kill for personal needs. 
If you'd like to learn more about the IQ of serial killers, read more at Business Insider, or download Radford University's comprehensive study here, as it goes into great detail into serial killers as defined by - not just IQ - but also by age, geography, wealth, ethnicity, era, how many were in military service (a topic Murder Mile touched on here).

And in case you're wondering, how safe am I, in my own country, with all these serial killers running around - regardless of how smart or dumb they might be?

Well, you'll be fine, just as long as you live in Norway, Sweden or Denmark (see Serial Killers by Country chart), they're not even listed. Where-as the United States? You must be bricking it.

If you "enjoyed" this blog post, why not take a peek at; Serial Killers as Siblings, Serial Killer's Nicknames, Serial Killers Who Were Never Caught, London's Deadliest & Often Forgotten Disasters, Are More Serial KIllers Born During a Full Moon, Killer's Birthdays / Star Signs, Serial Killers Who Were On TV, Celebrities Who Have Killed, London's Railway of Death, Serial Killers as Kids and the World's Weirdest Death Rituals. ​​

No plans this weekend? Book into Murder Mile Walks, rated FIVE STARS by Time Out magazine. 
Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a writer, crime historian and tour-guide who runs Murder Mile Walks, a guided tour of Soho’s most notorious murder cases, hailed as “one of the top ten quirky & unusual things to do in London” and featuring 12 murderers, 3 serial killers, across 15 locations, totalling 75 deaths, over just a one mile walk.
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Powerful People and their Exceedingly Odd Diets

6/7/2016

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Whether you are a die-hard vegan, a flaky vegetarian, a raw veg' muncher, an ardent lentil-nibbler, a committed carnivore or an "only on special occasions" cannibal, we all have dietary quirks and foodie foibles which - we hope - will make our lives longer, our bodies better, our souls sweeter and our brains... well... not as bunged-up, bungling and bumbling as it normally is. 

But, how does your daily dietary requirements compare with some of the world's most powerful people? Murder Mile blog investigates the extremely odd diets of everyone from captains of industry, to sadistic serial-killers, to the world's most dangerous and deranged despots. 
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Adolf Hitler: Having always suffered from chronic flatulence, Adolf Hitler - an evangelical vegetarian - believed that a meat-free diet could cure this, along with numerous herbal remedies, which his famously quack-ish doctor Theodore Morrell tried to cure using extract of Bulgarian peasants' faeces. Being notoriously paranoid, Hitler had a fifteen strong team of female food tasters on hand at all times, who - only after they had survived a full 45 minutes after tasting his meal - would he allow any food to be served. 
Idi Amin: Uganda's infamous dictator adored a simple goat stew, but his life was shrouded in a cloud of cannibalism after he was quoted saying “I don’t like human flesh… it’s too salty”, and cited by the cook of Jean Bedel Bokassa (Central African Republic) who prepared a human cadaver which was reputedly stuffed with rice and flambeed in gin. But then Idi Amin was an odd man, it is reported that he was so obsessed with HRH The Queen that he once sent her a letter asking for a pair of her knickers.
Nicolae Ceausescu: Whilst being hosted by other leaders, the Romanian Communist party boss insisted he would only drink raw vegetable juice through a straw and avoided all solids, but whilst relaxing at home he loved nothing more than a simple chicken stew, made with breast, beak, feet, the whole lot. Like Hitler, Ceausescu was notoriously paranoid and travelled with a chemist and a fully functioning food testing laboratory. 
Benito Mussolini: Coming from peasant stock (as many dictators did), Mussolini loved nothing more than a big bowl of raw chopped garlic. So much so that his wife couldn’t sleep next to him after he’d eaten his favourite dish as the aroma was simply too overpowering. During WW2, a Nazi doctor examined Mussolini a declared that he was "dangerously constipated", meaning his stools were as likely to move forward as his tanks. 
Muammar Gaddafi: A big fan of couscous and camel meat, Gaddafi was famously flatulent, as recounted in BBC journalist John Simpson's book - 'A Mad World: My Masters' - "I listened (to the recording of the interview). There was absolutely no doubt about it. The personal microphone which Bob had pinned on [Gaddafi] had picked it up very clearly. The wind passage lasted for about ten minutes of our half-hour interview. [Gaddafi] would rise up a little in his seat, the thunder would roll for fifteen or twenty seconds at a time, and then he would sink back into his seat with a pleased expression on his face". 

Of course, if you're looking for a list of dictator's foodie favourites, including gastronomic gems such as that Saddam Hussein loved Raisin Bran and Mars Bars, and how Stalin was particular about the ripeness of bananas, click on this link. 
But how different were these dictators to the world's most notorious serial killers, and especially to the cannibals - such as Jeffrey Dahmer - who dined on their victims? Were they ALL meat eaters? Well, as suspected most were meat eaters, but not to an extreme. Only Ted Bundy during his last few years in prison became a vegetarian (after his conversion to Hinduism), and often their eating habits were not listed. Although we do get a fascinating insight into the dietary desires of mass murders, by looking at the final death row meals they requested, courtesy of Henry Hargreaves.
But what if you're not a murderous dictator, or a sadistic serial killer, do you dine on a ominously ordinary dinner just like a regular Joe Blow, or are you as equally messed-up when you masticate a midnight feast of fois-gras and fish fingers on chocolate wafers? Well let's find out. 
Mark Zuckerberg: CEO & Co-Founder of Facebook said in 2011 “this year I've basically become a vegetarian since the only meat I'm eating is from animals I've killed myself. So far, this has been a good experience. I'm eating a lot healthier foods and I've learned a lot about sustainable farming and raising of animals”. His diet regime lasted just one year. 
Steve Jobs: Ironically - the man behind Apple - would famously eat just one single type of food (whether carrots or apples) for weeks on end, as he believed that his very restrictive vegan diet made sure his body was odour-free so he only had to bathe once a week. 
Henry Ford: The automotive tycoon and mass-production pioneer saw his body just like a car's engine which needed fuel, so - never shopping in a grocery store - Ford instead ate the weeds straight from his garden, many of which ended up in sandwiches. Yum. 
Charles Darwin: Explorer & originator of the theory of Evolution was so fascinated by every animal he discovered that he wanted to know what they all tasted like, and ate almost every type, including iguanas, armadillos, owls, rheas and (the almost extinct) giant tortoise. He was patron of the infamous Gourmet Club at Cambridge whose members attempt to eat as many rare animals as possible.
And - with it being Wimbledon at the time of writing this - here's one for you tennis fans. Although tennis ace Novak Djokovic dines solely on gluten-free products, and avoids caffeine, dairy and any refined sugars, he diet does stretch to the truly odd. In 2011, having beaten Rafael Nadal, he dropped to his knees and began munching on the grass of the Centre Court lawn, later commenting that it was "well kept" and that "I wanted to see how it tastes. It tastes good". Hmm. Weirdo. 

Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a writer, crime historian and tour-guide who runs Murder Mile Walks, a guided tour of Soho’s most notorious murder cases, hailed as “one of the top ten quirky & unusual things to do in London” and featuring 18 murderers, 3 serial killers, across 21 locations, totalling 75 deaths, over just a one mile walk.
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    Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a crime writer, podcaster & tour guide of Murder Mile Walks, hailed as one of the best "quirky curious & unusual things to do in London". 

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