Australian cannibalism! / Mrs. Fields Chocolate Mint Cookies

Top o' the Morbid to ya! In honor of St. Patrick's Day, let's celebrate the exploits of a deranged Irishman with...

Today's Inhuman Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Alexander Pearce, an Irishman, was transported to Australia for seven years after being convicted of stealing six pairs of shoes. He then forged a money order and was sent to one of the British Empire's most savage penal colonies, Macquarie Harbour, on the west coast of Tasmania. In 1822, Pearce escaped with seven other convicts, planning to trek across Tasmania and commandeer a boat to a Pacific island or China. After 15 days, they were on the brink of starvation. Two died of exhaustion. "They quickly ran out of provisions. So they began eating each other," Warwick Hirst, the curator of On the Run: Daring Convict Escapes, told the Sydney Morning Herald. The first man to be murdered, Thomas Bodenham, was felled with an axe, his body cut up, roasted and "devoured greedily," Pearce recounted in his confession. Within nine weeks, he was the last man standing. He made his way to the Derwent River, and joined a band of bushrangers. When Pearce was recaptured, he confessed to cannibalism, but the story was considered far-fetched. Magistrates thought he concocted the account to cover for his companions, believed to be still at large. He was sent back to Macquarie Harbour. In 1823, he escaped again, taking with him a young prisoner called Thomas Cox. When he was recaptured 11 days later, he was carrying an old flour bag containing the half-eaten remains of his mate. "You can't help but feel that he took the other convict with him as a ready store of meat," said Mr. Hirst. In a contemporary report, a horrified official wrote that the body was "cut right through the middle, the head off, the privates torn off, all the flesh off the calves and the legs, which the inhuman wretch declared was the most delicious food." Pearce, 34, was "laden with the weight of human blood, and believed to have banqueted on human flesh," the Hobart Town Gazette reported at his trial. So abhorrent did the colonial authorities view his crimes that after he was hanged, his body was cut into pieces and his skull boiled clean to be kept as a trophy.

Culled from: The New Zealand Herald
Generously submitted by: Elizabeth

**********************************************************************

Morbid Choreography!

If you live in the New York area, you may be interested in a dance production of Edward Scissorhands that is currently running at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It's only playing through the end of March, so if you're interested, grab your opera glasses and run!

For those of us who can't make the trip, here's a nice video to give us an idea of what we're missing.

Thanks to Steve O. for the link.

*******

Morbid Trinket Du Jour!

Searching for the perfect romantic gift for the arachnophile in your life? Why not give the gift that keeps on giving... everyone else around you the heebie-jeebies!!

A spider bracelet!

Available from Shaddow Domain...


Mrs. Fields Chocolate Mint Cookies

Categories: Cookies
Yield: 36 servings

2 2/3 cups All-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking soda
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup Light brown sugar; packed
2/3 cup White sugar
1 cup Salted butter; softened
3 large Eggs
1 teaspoon Pure mint extract
10 oz Mint chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300-degrees. In a medium bowl... combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. Mix well with a wire whisk and set aside. In a large bowl, blend sugars with an electric mixer at medium speed. Add butter and beat to form a grainy paste. Scrape sides of bowl, then add eggs and mint extract. Beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the flour mixture and chocolate chips, and blend at low speed just until combined. Do not overmix. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets, 1-1/2 inches apart. Bake for 19-21 minutes. Immediately transfer cookies with a spatula to a cool, flat surface.