The world may never know

June 1, 2008 4:57 PM

Who put Bella in the witch elm?

This murder mystery, unsolved since the discovery of the unidentified victim's body in a wych elm (or hazel) trunk in 1943, is the more haunting for the persistence of the graffiti.

Was she a murdered spy, a pregnant lover discarded, or just a woman in the wrong place with the wrong man? One professor, Margaret Murray, claimed that the murder was a black magic sacrifice to obtain a Hand of Glory, a robber's charm, although she could find pagan significance in anything that stood still long enough.

Bonus not recommended Youtube video: WHO BUT BELLA IN THE WYCH ELM.

posted by Countess Elena (11 comments total)

Has then ever been a proven witchcraft/Satanic murder in modern Western society?
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 5:15 PM on June 1, 2008

Has then ever been a proven witchcraft/Satanic murder in modern Western society?

The disappearance of the WMDs from Iraq, of course.
posted by Pants! at 5:20 PM on June 1, 2008

Has then ever been a proven witchcraft/Satanic murder in modern Western society?

Of course not, Satan always uses his evil powers to cover them up.
posted by burnmp3s at 5:36 PM on June 1, 2008

Has then ever been a proven witchcraft/Satanic murder in modern Western society?

Well there was this episode of Buffy...
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:25 PM on June 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

Has then ever been a proven witchcraft/Satanic murder in modern Western society?

Depends on what you count as Satanic. There have been crazy people who killed other people because they wanted to be vampires or whatever. Does that count or are they just crazy? And if they're just crazy, what kind of non-crazy person is going to kill for the devil?
posted by Justinian at 7:13 PM on June 1, 2008

Has then ever been a proven witchcraft/Satanic murder in modern Western society?

Why, I was murdered by Satanists just last week.
posted by MrVisible at 7:19 PM on June 1, 2008

Has then ever been a proven witchcraft/Satanic murder in modern Western society?

Rikki Neave was very close... creeped me out then, still creeps me out now.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:07 AM on June 2, 2008

Has then ever been a proven witchcraft/Satanic murder in modern Western society?

"In 1993, Øystein Aarseth was fatally stabbed by Vikernes. According to official reports Aarseth received a total of twenty-three wounds: two to the head, five to the neck, and sixteen to the back. According to Vikernes, however, a majority of the wounds resulted from Aarseth repeatedly falling on broken glass.

There is much speculation regarding the motive for the murder, but Vikernes has stated that the stabbing was motivated mostly by self-defense. Vikernes is currently serving a 21 year sentence at Tromsø maximum security prison in Norway for the murder of Øystein Aarseth."
posted by ymgve at 7:36 AM on June 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

Interesting couple of guys, but it doesn't seem like the kind of ritual murder I was getting at. It's a case of a pagan killing a Satanist, but to those in the know it's obvious that the culprit is black metal.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 8:25 AM on June 2, 2008

Has then ever been a proven witchcraft/Satanic murder in modern Western society?

Unfortunately, yes.

When I first moved to Santa Monica, this story was big news. I was young, and I had a few friends who were gutter punks and weekend runaways staying in the squats down around the Third Street Promenade (the squats were mostly buildings that had been condemned after they were damaged in the Northridge earthquake, but hadn't been torn down). A lot of the people in that particular sub-community knew Shevawn, and the moment that her death was announced everyone had a pretty good idea who was responsible for it.

I'm not saying that this sort of thing is normal, or that it's anywhere near as prevelant as certain religious groups would have you believe, but there are psychopaths who will latch onto any sort of belief system and carry it to extremes, and it would be incredibly naive to believe that Satanism of all things would be immune to this.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 8:25 AM on June 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

One professor, Margaret Murray, claimed that the murder was a black magic sacrifice to obtain a Hand of Glory

I was under the impression that to make a Hand of Glory you had to cut the left hand from a murderer who had been left to hang for no less than three days. If I find out that I could have just grabbed one off of any old woman off the street, I'm going to be extremely peeved about the amount of superfluous work that I had to put into the whole process.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 9:42 AM on June 2, 2008 [2 favorites]