A
Anonymous
Guest
i found this quite interesting,
The following story, which took place in Liverpool in the 17th century, is a cautionary tale about the dangers of jumping to conclusions.
In the year 1627, a farmer named Jeremiah Malins was ploughing his field, which was situated near what is now Huyton. Farmer Malins noticed something out the corner of his eye; it was a woman running through the woodland which bordered the field. The farmer watched as the woman disappeared into the woods and noticed that she had left a bundle of some sort at the base of a tree. He left his plough and went to see what the bundle was. It was a newly-born baby swathed in old rags. The farmer, who was a widower, took the baby to the farmhouse and saw that it was a baby girl. He decided to adopt the girl, and named her Anna after his late wife.
Anna grew into a young woman of breathtaking beauty, and every male she met, young and old, was enchanted and infatuated with her. Anna didn't seem to be aware why she was being ogled, as there was no mirror in the farmhouse, so she was not aware of her beauty, but almost everyday some love-struck knave proposed to her.
One chilly afternoon on the Christmas Eve of 1647, Anna, who had now turned twenty, left the farmhouse to gather wood for the fire. She never returned. Farmer Malins expressed his concern about Anna's safety to a neighbouring farmer and a two woodsmen, but they assured him that Anna was probably seeing a secret boyfriend and would soon return.
By midnight, there was still no sign of the girl, so Farmer Malins lit a torch and went into the woods. He found a piece of Anna's torn dress and picked it up. He shouted the girl and scoured the woods and the countryside until the sun came up. Anna was still nowhere to be found.
Three days later, the gossipers of rural Liverpool started rumours that Jeremiah Malin had raped his adopted daughter and killed her after making her pregnant, and these cruel whisperings spread like wildfire through the community until they reached the ears of a Colonel Birch, a power-mad military commander stationed in the Tower of Liverpool. Birch and his soldiers visited Malin at his farm and the colonel accused the farmer of rape and murder. Malin protested and was so outraged he punched Birch in the face. To make matters worse, Birch had found the piece of Anna's skirt on the table with buttons on it. Then an old woman called Mrs Todd came forward and said she had seen the farmer kissing and molesting the girl in the woods by the light of the moon on Christmas Eve.
Colonel Birch had heard enough, and decided to extract a confession out of the farmer. He had him chained to the underside of a hay-cart which was pulled by horses for two miles. At the end of the journey, Malins as unchained and Birch saw that the farmer's back had been badly scraped and was dripping with blood. Malins still wouldn't confess to killing Anna. Birch had the farmer transported to the Tower of Liverpool in Water Street.
Malins was stripped naked and put on the rack. Then he was slowly stretched until his shoulder was pulled out of its socket. The farmer yelled out in agony, shouting, "Please have mercy!" Then his ankle ligaments snapped. Birch was a renowned sadist, and stood there drinking wine and sighing with pleasure. He had the farmer removed from the rack and tied into a chair. The farmer's hands were bound to the arms of the chair, and a masked man entered the chamber with a hammer. He put long 3-inch tacks under the nails of Malins' fingers and tapped them in with the hammer. Malins screamed out for the man to stop. But the masked man then whacked Malins' kneecap with the hammer.
"You killed Anna didn't you?" said the drunken Colonel Birch, and he gave the farmer an ultimatum: "Say you did and you'll be tortured no more."
"I didn't kill her, by almighty God, I swear I didn't." groaned Farmer Malins, with blood trickling from his fingers. The records of what happened next are fuzzy and unreliable, but one version of events says something unparalleled in the history of torture took place. Jeremiah Malins was squashed between two panels of wood which were nailed together, so that the farmer could hardly breathe. Then the two chief carpenters of the Tower were ordered to saw down the length of the sandwiched panels with a long wood-cutters saw. As the blade was inches from the farmer's skull, he allegedly confessed to killing Anna, probably just to buy time, but Colonel Birch told the carpenters to continue, and despite the horrific screams, they sawed downwards through the farmer's head, cutting it exactly into two halves. Birch told them to keep on sawing until they had cut the body in half, and the carpenter's did this. A mob outside the Tower cheered when they heard the news of the farmer's execution, and demanded to see the bisected body, which was shown to them later.
Then on New Years Day, 1648, the missing girl Anna turned up in the best of health at the farmstead. The shocked community listened to her account of where she had been since that fateful Christmas Eve. Anna said that she had been travelling with a band of gypsy folk she had met in the woods. They had taken her to a fair in Chester town that Christmas Eve and exhibited her in a sideshow as a direct descendant of Cleopatra. The gypsies paid Anna for taking part in the sideshow, and one young gypsy who was besotted with Anna took the girl on horseback to her stepfather's farm, but wouldn't hang about because he said he sensed a tragedy had taken place in the area.
When Anna was told that Farmer Malins had been tried with her murder and executed, the girl fainted. Colonel Birch sent a messenger to Anna with an apology and then arrested old Mrs Todd, the woman who said she had seen the farmer molesting his daughter. Mrs Todd was taken to the Tower, and a trainee executioner, a young boy of fifteen, was allowed to practice his beheading technique on the old woman. She was carried to the chopping block trembling with fear. Two soldiers positioned the old woman's head over the chopping block. The young boy hit her neck with the axe, and her head flew across the room. The head still seemed alive, and it bit the floor of the chamber and its tongue squirmed about. Colonel Birch picked up the head and said, "See how the gossiper's tongue still flaps, even in death?"
could this storie really be true? is it an early UL the author claims it to be a true storie, what do you think and do you have any similar stories you feel people may be interested in.
The following story, which took place in Liverpool in the 17th century, is a cautionary tale about the dangers of jumping to conclusions.
In the year 1627, a farmer named Jeremiah Malins was ploughing his field, which was situated near what is now Huyton. Farmer Malins noticed something out the corner of his eye; it was a woman running through the woodland which bordered the field. The farmer watched as the woman disappeared into the woods and noticed that she had left a bundle of some sort at the base of a tree. He left his plough and went to see what the bundle was. It was a newly-born baby swathed in old rags. The farmer, who was a widower, took the baby to the farmhouse and saw that it was a baby girl. He decided to adopt the girl, and named her Anna after his late wife.
Anna grew into a young woman of breathtaking beauty, and every male she met, young and old, was enchanted and infatuated with her. Anna didn't seem to be aware why she was being ogled, as there was no mirror in the farmhouse, so she was not aware of her beauty, but almost everyday some love-struck knave proposed to her.
One chilly afternoon on the Christmas Eve of 1647, Anna, who had now turned twenty, left the farmhouse to gather wood for the fire. She never returned. Farmer Malins expressed his concern about Anna's safety to a neighbouring farmer and a two woodsmen, but they assured him that Anna was probably seeing a secret boyfriend and would soon return.
By midnight, there was still no sign of the girl, so Farmer Malins lit a torch and went into the woods. He found a piece of Anna's torn dress and picked it up. He shouted the girl and scoured the woods and the countryside until the sun came up. Anna was still nowhere to be found.
Three days later, the gossipers of rural Liverpool started rumours that Jeremiah Malin had raped his adopted daughter and killed her after making her pregnant, and these cruel whisperings spread like wildfire through the community until they reached the ears of a Colonel Birch, a power-mad military commander stationed in the Tower of Liverpool. Birch and his soldiers visited Malin at his farm and the colonel accused the farmer of rape and murder. Malin protested and was so outraged he punched Birch in the face. To make matters worse, Birch had found the piece of Anna's skirt on the table with buttons on it. Then an old woman called Mrs Todd came forward and said she had seen the farmer kissing and molesting the girl in the woods by the light of the moon on Christmas Eve.
Colonel Birch had heard enough, and decided to extract a confession out of the farmer. He had him chained to the underside of a hay-cart which was pulled by horses for two miles. At the end of the journey, Malins as unchained and Birch saw that the farmer's back had been badly scraped and was dripping with blood. Malins still wouldn't confess to killing Anna. Birch had the farmer transported to the Tower of Liverpool in Water Street.
Malins was stripped naked and put on the rack. Then he was slowly stretched until his shoulder was pulled out of its socket. The farmer yelled out in agony, shouting, "Please have mercy!" Then his ankle ligaments snapped. Birch was a renowned sadist, and stood there drinking wine and sighing with pleasure. He had the farmer removed from the rack and tied into a chair. The farmer's hands were bound to the arms of the chair, and a masked man entered the chamber with a hammer. He put long 3-inch tacks under the nails of Malins' fingers and tapped them in with the hammer. Malins screamed out for the man to stop. But the masked man then whacked Malins' kneecap with the hammer.
"You killed Anna didn't you?" said the drunken Colonel Birch, and he gave the farmer an ultimatum: "Say you did and you'll be tortured no more."
"I didn't kill her, by almighty God, I swear I didn't." groaned Farmer Malins, with blood trickling from his fingers. The records of what happened next are fuzzy and unreliable, but one version of events says something unparalleled in the history of torture took place. Jeremiah Malins was squashed between two panels of wood which were nailed together, so that the farmer could hardly breathe. Then the two chief carpenters of the Tower were ordered to saw down the length of the sandwiched panels with a long wood-cutters saw. As the blade was inches from the farmer's skull, he allegedly confessed to killing Anna, probably just to buy time, but Colonel Birch told the carpenters to continue, and despite the horrific screams, they sawed downwards through the farmer's head, cutting it exactly into two halves. Birch told them to keep on sawing until they had cut the body in half, and the carpenter's did this. A mob outside the Tower cheered when they heard the news of the farmer's execution, and demanded to see the bisected body, which was shown to them later.
Then on New Years Day, 1648, the missing girl Anna turned up in the best of health at the farmstead. The shocked community listened to her account of where she had been since that fateful Christmas Eve. Anna said that she had been travelling with a band of gypsy folk she had met in the woods. They had taken her to a fair in Chester town that Christmas Eve and exhibited her in a sideshow as a direct descendant of Cleopatra. The gypsies paid Anna for taking part in the sideshow, and one young gypsy who was besotted with Anna took the girl on horseback to her stepfather's farm, but wouldn't hang about because he said he sensed a tragedy had taken place in the area.
When Anna was told that Farmer Malins had been tried with her murder and executed, the girl fainted. Colonel Birch sent a messenger to Anna with an apology and then arrested old Mrs Todd, the woman who said she had seen the farmer molesting his daughter. Mrs Todd was taken to the Tower, and a trainee executioner, a young boy of fifteen, was allowed to practice his beheading technique on the old woman. She was carried to the chopping block trembling with fear. Two soldiers positioned the old woman's head over the chopping block. The young boy hit her neck with the axe, and her head flew across the room. The head still seemed alive, and it bit the floor of the chamber and its tongue squirmed about. Colonel Birch picked up the head and said, "See how the gossiper's tongue still flaps, even in death?"
could this storie really be true? is it an early UL the author claims it to be a true storie, what do you think and do you have any similar stories you feel people may be interested in.