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Man Flees Police; Beheaded On Iron Fence (Atlanta, 2003)

MaxMolyneux

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/!\ Warning - graphic pictures in link.

Weird

http://www.snopes.com/photos/decapitate.asp

If he was decapitated onthe fence then how does his head stay stuck to the fence? Wouldn't his neck have landed on the fence cutting it off leaving both his body and head on the groud?

Must of been his dreads keeping his head like that because a decapitated head doesn't usually stay in that position.

Site says it's real but what do you think?

Warning picture of headless person.

[Emp edit: Adding a warning before the link]
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You really ought to put a warning on that. :cross eye

I don't quite get it myself...how could there be enough force to separate his head from his body?
 
Warnings there. :p

The link says he fell 35 feet on it so that must be enough force.
 
It looks more like someone decapitated him before then stuck his head on the fence because the parts that the head is stuck onto are going through where the head and the neck were connected, if he fell I would have expected him to be impaled through his body or face, or if he landed in as standing up position through his jaw into the roof of his mouth.
 
also, what else is odd, after looking at it again, there is no blood on the fence, the blood most probably was drained before it was stuck on the fence.
 
disgruntledgoth said:
It looks more like someone decapitated him before then stuck his head on the fence because the parts that the head is stuck onto are going through where the head and the neck were connected, if he fell I would have expected him to be impaled through his body or face, or if he landed in as standing up position through his jaw into the roof of his mouth.

also, what else is odd, after looking at it again, there is no blood on the fence, the blood most probably was drained before it was stuck on the fence.

Maybe they stuck his head like that for the Cameras?
 
If you hit it hard enough there is no reason it couldn't happen - odd things happen at high velocity and impact - I remember two stunt sky divers colliding hard enough that one guy sliced the other guy's legs clean off (the force of the impact killed the slicer).

I've also updated the title and added in a warning before the link (a lot of people tend to click first and read later).
 
If you hit it hard enough there is no reason it couldn't happen - odd things happen at high velocity and impact - I remember two stunt sky divers colliding hard enough that one guy sliced the other guy's legs clean off (the force of the impact killed the slicer).

Man,he mus tof been diving through the air fast toslice the guys leg off! How would it of killed him though slicing through a guys leg?

I've also updated the title and added in a warning before the link (a lot of people tend to click first and read later).

I put one there though. :p
 
MaxMolyneux said:
If you hit it hard enough there is no reason it couldn't happen - odd things happen at high velocity and impact - I remember two stunt sky divers colliding hard enough that one guy sliced the other guy's legs clean off (the force of the impact killed the slicer).

Man,he mus tof been diving through the air fast toslice the guys leg off! How would it of killed him though slicing through a guys leg?

I'm unsure how it happened in this case but the impact can do it - shake something loose, stop your heart (like that recent cricket-related fatality where my cousins son was next up to bat), etc. You could potentially be killed by hydrostatic shock or energy transfer without anything actually penetrating the body:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stopping_power

However, human beings tend not to smack into each other at a hundred mph so I doubt there has been a lot of case studies done ;)

MaxMolyneux said:
I've also updated the title and added in a warning before the link (a lot of people tend to click first and read later).

I put one there though. :p

Ahhhhh yes but after the link. Although we've done no formal study into this in the past we have found people tend to click the link and then read on so the warning needs to be first. ;)
 
Years ago, I read that sailors who were climbing up ladders (up the sides of ships I think) during the Pearl Harbour attack, were killed by the force of the blasts, which 'blew' them through the rungs of the ladders, even though they weren't touched by flames or shrapnel or anything else. Basically, they must have been sliced into parts by the ladders' rungs.
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
MaxMolyneux said:
If you hit it hard enough there is no reason it couldn't happen - odd things happen at high velocity and impact - I remember two stunt sky divers colliding hard enough that one guy sliced the other guy's legs clean off (the force of the impact killed the slicer).

Man,he mus tof been diving through the air fast toslice the guys leg off! How would it of killed him though slicing through a guys leg?

I'm unsure how it happened in this case but the impact can do it - shake something loose, stop your heart (like that recent cricket-related fatality where my cousins son was next up to bat), etc. You could potentially be killed by hydrostatic shock or energy transfer without anything actually penetrating the body:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stopping_power

However, human beings tend not to smack into each other at a hundred mph so I doubt there has been a lot of case studies done ;)

MaxMolyneux said:
I've also updated the title and added in a warning before the link (a lot of people tend to click first and read later).

I put one there though. :p

Ahhhhh yes but after the link. Although we've done no formal study into this in the past we have found people tend to click the link and then read on so the warning needs to be first. ;)

Least I put a warning there eventually. :p

Basically, they must have been sliced into parts by the ladders' rungs.

Most likely.
 
Im of the opinion that his head was placed there after it was seperated from his body, the position of the head is practically impossible to be the point of impact.

Where the spike goes through the neck is almost where the brain stem is located, the spike would have had to have penetrated his body in another place first and be long enough to go through his torso and neck and still have enough force to take his head clean off.

Also there is very little blood splatter around the floor or surrounding area of the body, the only blood that is there is from where the torso lies, indicating again that the head was removed before being placed on the railings.
 
Thank you painy, you basically verified what I said, also the body is in, the wrong position, it is on the wrong side of the fence and it is facing the wrong way, as in it should be underneath the head and the fles under the head doesn't look as ripped.
 
painy2 said:
Im of the opinion that his head was placed there after it was seperated from his body, the position of the head is practically impossible to be the point of impact.

Where the spike goes through the neck is almost where the brain stem is located, the spike would have had to have penetrated his body in another place first and be long enough to go through his torso and neck and still have enough force to take his head clean off.

Also there is very little blood splatter around the floor or surrounding area of the body, the only blood that is there is from where the torso lies, indicating again that the head was removed before being placed on the railings.

This was discussed on the snopes message board at the time. One of the members there is a firefighter in Atlanta, and he asked his colleagues who were called to the scene about it:
General consensus of the witnesses was that the guy tried to jump from the overpass to the roof of a funeral home across a narrow side street. The jump was poorly executed, and he fell in a sort of "reclined" position. It is supposed that when the fence penetrated the neck/spine area, that it started the seperation process, and gravity finished it.

Really, there’s very little to speculate on here: this was an incident with multiple witnesses; it was reported in the press at the time; snopes, a respected and reliable investigator of these things for several years, spoke personally to members of the Atlanta fire department who were called to the scene, and who verified the details as accurate. Any reasonable standards of proof would appear to be satisfied.
 
disgruntledgoth said:
Also the decapitated head is meant to be able to recognise there name.

Yeah they would know there own name but why wouldn't people think they wouldn't?
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
MaxMolyneux said:
If you hit it hard enough there is no reason it couldn't happen - odd things happen at high velocity and impact - I remember two stunt sky divers colliding hard enough that one guy sliced the other guy's legs clean off (the force of the impact killed the slicer).

Man,he mus tof been diving through the air fast toslice the guys leg off! How would it of killed him though slicing through a guys leg?

I'm unsure how it happened in this case but the impact can do it
The survivor's name is Dana Bowman - his story is here. The word "courage" doesn't begin to cover it.


[nasty description follows]


Footage (no pun intended) of the accident has been shown a fair few times on TV - from the ground you just see them fly at speed into one another, and a big cloud of what looks like red smoke, actually blood, surrounds them, then an unconscious Bowman, the legs of his jumpsuit empty and flapping landing (his 'chute opened automatically).

The bizarre thing isn't that Sgt Aguillon, his co-jumper, died, but that Bowman survived.
 
Footage (no pun intended) of the accident has been shown a fair few times on TV - from the ground you just see them fly at speed into one another, and a big cloud of what looks like red smoke, actually blood, surrounds them, then an unconscious Bowman, the legs of his jumpsuit empty and flapping landing (his 'chute opened automatically).

My understanding, from seeing the footage and subsequent telling of the story was that, in fact, his legs were not sheared off, but mangled so badly from the impact that he later had to have them amputated.

Of course I could be wrong..
 
Another fence beheading (nay 'orrible pic though)

There is a tale round these parts here (Bolton, Lancashire) that goes like so-
In a wee hamlet called West Houghton up the road from the main area of Bolton there was once a cow that got it's head stuck through a fence. This being an expensive/ ornate fence the folks round about took it upon themselves that the best solution to this problem was to saw off the poor cows noggin rather than damage the fence. West Houghton is now called 'Cow yed city' in homage to how thick they are up there.
i figure this is one of those 'the neighbours are inbred haw haw' type tales and wonder wether it has been used in orther parts of the country to discredit smaller neighboring communities ( Springfield / Shelbyville stylee )
 
I was brought up in Howfen and I can vouch that we're all in-bred retards.
 
they've got computers now????
Well that's it, all we need now is for darwen to get the light bulb and master the 'stick' and the whole area will be in tatters..... like it isnae already, right citizens??!!
 
Thank you painy, you basically verified what I said, also the body is in, the wrong position, it is on the wrong side of the fence and it is facing the wrong way, as in it should be underneath the head and the fles under the head doesn't look as ripped.

The Snopes article has been updated (perhaps multiple times) since this 2005 discussion.

The current edition of this article:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wrought-iron-fence-decapitation/

... states the vertical fence post entered the back of the man's head as he fell, and the body effectively sheared itself from the head.

In other words, the head as photographed is the head as it was located following the man's fall.

It also addresses the lower body's position and explains how it's not impossible for the body to have come to rest in the pictured position.
 
This was the very thread and image I was thinking of when i just read the other decapitation thread about Cyclists. I think there were others images linked too, one of which showed a decapitated motorcyclist. Not only that but his body (wearing leathers) had passed through a high tension wire barrier and been sliced into 3 or 4 pieces.
 
I have personally seen a human body sliced quite neatly in half lengthwise (!). The individual concerned was flung at high speed against a strong, taut cable (details munged deliberately).

As to decapitation under the circumstances in the OP: entirely plausible. The UK used to publish a weight/drop distance chart for hangmen to avoid the felon being inadvertently decapitated during execution. Thirty-five feet onto a spike would do the job nicely.

maximus otter
 
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