German troops trying to rescue a French soldier from sinking in a mud hole, 1916

   

German troops trying to rescue a French soldier from sinking in a mud hole, 1916

Germans helping a French wounded soldier, 1916.

The picture was taken during the Battle of Verdun, one of the deadliest battles of the Great War. The concentration of so much fighting in such a small area devastated the land, resulting in miserable conditions for troops on both sides. The shells turned up the earth and left gigantic craters that would then fill with water in the unbelievably heavy rains.

 Many parts of the western front essentially became mud holes, where you could often have 6-10 ft (2-3 m) of thick mud before hitting dry earth. Falling in some of these places would be equatable to slower, thicker, stickier quicksand.
Once soldiers were trapped in it often it was impossible to extract them. Soldiers would beg their friends to shoot them and spare them the agony of slowly drowning in the mud.
At a basic level, Verdun was intended to bleed France’s armies. Falkenhayn, the commanding German officer, hoped to capture a number of French positions, forcing the French to counter-attack to retake them, leaving them open to bombardment from German artillery positions.
Falkenhayn hoped to recreate the devastation wrought on the French forces that the German artillery had inflicted during a series of battles in the Champagne region the year before.

 The offensive began in February 1916 and by May, more than 200,000 German and French soldiers had become casualties. This casualty rate was particularly troubling for the Germans. While the French rotated their units out of the lines and replaced them with fresh ones, the German units were kept in the line and suffered continuously.

 The continued back and forth continued until December of 1916 when hostilities in the sector finally subsided thanks in part to the Battle of the Somme which required Germany to divert forces to repel the British offensive.
Even by the First World War standards, the horror that the men faced at Verdun was extreme. Flamethrowers were used for the first time as was phosgene gas, the artillery barrages were continuous and absolutely massive and the casualty rates are among the worst suffered. It also became a symbol of the French resistance.
The French armies had largely been humiliated and on the backfoot until Verdun and their victories there, no matter how small or costly, symbolized their devotion to resisting German aggression.
Verdun did do enormous damage to the French forces. It saw the real beginnings of discontent in the French armies which would eventually lead to outright mutiny in some areas.

 Even today the Verdun battlefield is a vast graveyard, where the mortal remains of over 100,000 missing soldiers remain where they fell unless discovered by the French Forestry Service and laid in the Douaumont Ossuary.

Photo authenticity disputed

According to some sources, the above picture may come from a film by Léon Poirier dating from 1928 named Verdun: Visions of History. The movie portrays the battle of Verdun, primarily by recreating the battle on its location, but also with the use of newsreel footage and dramatic scenes.
Most of the people in the film are actual French and German World War I veterans. However, it’s impossible to prove whether the above image is staged.

KKK Members Reacting to Life Sentences!

 In the annals of history, certain individuals emerge as harbingers of hatred, their actions forever altering lives and communities. The haunting stories of those driven by bigotry and violence paint a chilling portrait of the darkness that can lurk within the human heart, reminding us of the insidious nature of prejudice and its devastating consequences.

One of the most notorious cases in American history revolves around the enigmatic figure of Edgar Ray Killen, a man whose seemingly benign exterior belied the malevolent intentions that lay beneath. Hailing from the lesser-known Philadelphia, Mississippi, the year was 1964, a time marked by fervent Civil Rights activism. Edgar Ray Killen, a sawmill operator and part-time Baptist minister, was about to etch his name into infamy.

Behind closed doors, Killen donned a sinister mantle – that of a Ku Klux Klan leader. The Civil Rights Act of the era cast a harsh light on KKK activities, making their pursuits increasingly perilous. Killen’s involvement with the Klan set a grim stage, where violence and hate would converge. The tragic victims of his fanaticism were James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, brave souls fighting for equality.

Arrested under the pretext of speeding, these young men found themselves in the clutches of an unforgiving fate. Released from jail, they faced a grim destiny orchestrated by Killen and his cohorts. The harrowing discovery of their lifeless bodies and their torched vehicle sent shockwaves through the nation.

Decades later, justice was finally meted out. Killen, then in his 80s, faced trial for his role in the brutal killings. The courtroom became a crucible of accountability, as testimonies unveiled the extent of his hatred. Despite the gravity of his actions, Killen’s conviction was for manslaughter rather than murder. Sentenced to 60 years behind bars, he would never see the full extent of his term, passing away at the age of 92.

From one chapter of hate to another, the tale of the racist Trinity – Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael, and William Bryan – emerges. In the sunshine of a February day, their racism morphed into a chillingly violent act. Ahmed Aubry, an innocent jogger, became their target. The McMichaels, one a police officer, and Bryan saw him as a threat solely based on his ethnicity.

Tragedy struck as gunfire shattered the peaceful day, leaving Aubry mortally wounded. Their actions spoke volumes of a poisoned worldview that sought to justify prejudice through violence. The subsequent trial, though arduous, upheld the principle of justice. All three men were found guilty, sentenced to life imprisonment for their malicious deeds.

But hate’s corrosive power transcends any one community or ethnicity. In the heart of Portland, Oregon, Jeremy Christian’s bigotry erupted with horrifying force. A tirade of racial slurs escalated to a gruesome act, leaving two innocent individuals dead. Christian’s trial exposed a chilling web of hatred, his actions reflecting the danger posed by unchecked prejudice.

As the gavel fell, Christian faced a lifetime behind bars, a somber reminder of the price society must pay for its failure to confront hate. This stark contrast between prejudice and justice echoed throughout the courtroom, underscoring the imperative of unity over division.

The narrative takes another grim turn with Russell Courtier, a symbol of the dark forces that lie dormant within humanity. A seemingly ordinary dispute spiraled into a heinous crime, as Courtier’s white supremacist ideology erupted into a horrific murder. His victim, Larnell Bruce Jr., fell prey to a wave of bigotry that would forever alter lives.

Courtier’s actions expose the frightening underbelly of racial hatred, demonstrating how deep-seated prejudices can fuel acts of extreme violence. Sentenced to life imprisonment, he stands as a chilling testament to the dangers of intolerance.

The cycle of hate spares no one, as Corey Ali Muhammad’s story reveals. His brutal rampage, driven by a violent animus towards white individuals, left a trail of death and destruction. His victims, innocent and unsuspecting, found themselves caught in the crosshairs of his delusional bigotry.

Muhammad’s heinous acts defied all semblance of reason and humanity, leading to a staggering sentence of 206 years in prison. His legacy stands as a stark warning against the corrosive nature of hate, a call to vigilance in the face of intolerance.

These stories serve as a haunting testament to the depths to which humanity can descend when driven by prejudice and hatred. As we confront the darkness within, we must remember that justice, unity, and compassion have the power to triumph over even the most insidious forces. The courtroom becomes a battleground where justice and accountability confront the horrors of bigotry, reminding us that the struggle for a better world is far from over.

Surviving prisoners from Andersonville prison camp, America's death camp, 1864-1865

Surviving prisoners from Andersonville prison camp, America's death camp, 1864-1865

Andersonville also known as Sumter's camp was a Confederate-run concentration camp during the American Civil War. It was in operation for the last 14 months of the civil war. Andersonville held approximately 45,000, and 13,000 died due to their internment in Andersonville. 

Andersonville had several problems which led to high death rates. It is easier to compile them into a list.

1. The water supply was heavily contaminated. Andersonville had one tiny river flowing through it, in which Confederate soldiers would dump faeces and urine upstream so it would spread disease in the camp. 

2. Diseases such as scurvy, diarrhoea, and dysentery were widespread. Parasites such as hookworms were common too. Many prisoners died from disease as there was very little hygiene being practised. 

3. The defences around the camp were tough to escape from. A high 19-foot stockade made it difficult for anyone to climb out of the centre. Guards from platforms called pigeon roosts shot anyone they saw trying to escape. 

4. Food quality was very poor at the camp. Cannibalism was common, and any food with good nutritional value was rare. 

5. Social structure played a vital role. Prisoners often found themselves in groups. Each of these groups played a different role in the prison hierarchy. Examples of these groups were the Anderson Raiders and the Regulators. The raiders would raid other groups and steal food, supplies, and clothes. The regulators were set up to combat the raiders and even held court sessions, in which six raiders were hanged by prisoners for their crimes toward other inmates.

6. The prisoners were given no clothes, and this left inmates in their uniforms, which became tattered as the months went on and exposed the inmates to the elements. 

The union also had prison camps that saw similar conditions. Both sides treated prisoners terribly on different occasions. 

Man Who Killed Toddler In Hit And Run Gets Surprise He Didn’t Expect Days Later

 

Ethan Maldonado (left), Robert Falcon (right)

Ethan Hernandez was killed in East Austin when, police said, Ethan was legally crossing the street with his family when he was fatally hit by a truck.

“The light turned red, and the walking signal turned for us to cross. Then my kid ran across, the pickup didn’t yield and hit my kid and dragged him underneath,” explains Carlos Hernandez, Ethan’s father.

The toddler was taken to Dell Children’s Medical Center and pronounced dead less than an hour after the incident, police said.  His body was taken to Affordable Burial and Cremation Service.

Robert Falcon, who owns Affordable Burial and Cremation Service, has buried many people and helped families through this most difficult day of saying goodbye to a loved one. Although he’s seen more than his fair share of tragedy, this 3-year-old’s death hit him particularly hard, especially when he saw the little boy’s photo that was to go on display at his service.

Falcon had just spent the last several hours consoling the child’s family and preparing the little boy for burial when he was overcome with emotion and felt something needed to be done about it.

Knowing that Ethan’s killer was still at large as he sat with the boy’s mourning mom who would never get her toddler back, Falcon turned to social media with a strong message for the person who took this kid’s life.

“We shouldn’t have had to been there, we shouldn’t have had to been in a church, there shouldn’t have had to been a 3-year-old boy laying in a casket, there shouldn’t have to have been a mom and dad lamenting and bargaining with God and in pain,” Falcon said in part on Facebook, of this boy’s senseless death because of another person’s actions.

Photos from Ethan’s funeral. Funeral director Robert Falcon (center)

“I spent most of the night Monday and Tuesday morning getting this child ready for his mother and father to see him in a casket because of you. I want you to see these pictures, and I want you to know how much it pains me to know that you would run over a child and not stop to render aid,” Falcon wrote.

Ethan’s family gave permission for Falcon to post pictures of their son’s casket with the public message to his murderer. “I want that person to see the reality of what they created, it was not a pretty situation, and it wasn’t intended to be pretty at all,” Falcon said.

Falcon says he decided to offer a $2,500 reward after a week went by and no one was arrested.

“This is about a family who lost a son and it’s about finding that person who did this. You know who you are and you know what you did and all I’m asking you do is please come forward and give this family some closure,” he said.

Falcon’s friend then decided to offer an additional $2,500. They say they just want justice.  

The search for the driver attracted considerable attention, especially after Robert Falcon personally organized the $5,000 reward for information on the truck’s driver.

After asking for the public’s help in finding the driver, police received an anonymous tip that someone in Pflugerville had spotted a white Chevrolet Silverado pickup like the one that hit Ethan. That tip led them to the truck’s owner and eventually to a man named Escalante-Vasquez.

The tipster provided police with a license plate number that returned to a truck matching the suspect truck description.

Detectives contacted the registered owner of the truck, who took police to its location in the 1100 block of Walnut Canyon in Pflugerville. Police confirmed it was the same truck involved in the crash that killed Ethan.

Ramiro Escalante-Vasquez (Austin Police Department Photo)

The owner of the truck told police Ramiro Escalante-Vasquez, 41, was driving the truck the day of the crash. Police arrested the man at his apartment complex, where Escalante-Vasquez confessed to driving the truck that killed the three year old and leaving the scene of the crash.

The man was charged with fail to stop and render aid, a second degree felony. His bond has been set at $100,000.

If it wasn’t for the remarkable actions of Robert Falcon, this crime may have never been solved.  He went above and beyond his call of duties and helped bring a grieving family some much needed closure. 

Cynthia Dike: Lady Raped And Killed In Imo, Nude Body Dumped In A Bush

 

This is really sad. A young lady identified as Cynthia Dike was gruesomely killed by some hoodlums who disguised themselves as commercial motorcyclists in Imo state. It was gathered that the deceased was on her way to her house in Imo state after visiting her aunt in Port-Harcourt, Rivers state before she met her untimely end at the hands of the hoodlums.

The victim who was coming back from Port-Harcourt by nine in the night, entered the suspects’ bike at Ulakwo junction. .The hoodlums took her to Umueme Ngor, where she was kept hostage, raped, robbed of her cash and eventually murdered and her nude body was dumped in a forest at Umueme Ngor-Okpala. .

Through intelligence gathering, David Ndubuisi , 24 , of the Ngor Okpala Local Government Area, Chinonso Akabisi, 26 , of the Isiala Mbano LGA, and Christian Chukwuka , 24 , of the Oguta LGA were arrested for their involvement in the kidnap and killing of Cynthia Dike of the Ngor Okpala LGA on June 15 , 2018 .”

According to the commissioner of police,Dasuki Galandanchi, one motorcycle , two knives, one hand bag and mobile phones belonging to the victim and other kidnap victims were recovered .

The suspects who were paraded along with other criminal elements - will be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.

Katyn Massacre, mass execution of Polish military officers by the Soviet Union during World War II.

Katyn Massacre, mass execution of Polish military officers by the Soviet Union during World War II.

The discovery of the massacre precipitated the severance of diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the Polish government-in-exile in London.

After Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union concluded their Nonaggression Pact of 1939 and Germany invaded Poland from the west, Soviet forces occupied the eastern half of Poland. As a consequence of this occupation, tens of thousands of Polish military personnel fell into Soviet hands and were interned in prison camps inside the Soviet Union. But after the Germans invaded the Soviet Union (June 1941), the Polish government-in-exile (located in London) and the Soviet government agreed to cooperate against Germany, and a Polish army on Soviet territory was to be formed. The Polish general Władysław Anders began organizing this army, but when he requested that 15,000 Polish prisoners of war whom the Soviets had once held at camps near Smolensk be transferred to his command, the Soviet government informed him in December 1941 that most of those prisoners had escaped to Manchuria and could not be located.

The fate of the missing prisoners remained a mystery. Then on April 13, 1943, the Germans announced that they had discovered mass graves of Polish officers in the Katyn forest near Smolensk, in western Russian S.F.S.R. A total of 4,443 corpses were recovered that had apparently been shot from behind and then piled in stacks and buried. Investigators identified the corpses as the Polish officers who had been interned at a Soviet prison camp near Smolensk and accused the Soviet authorities of having executed the prisoners in May 1940. In response to these charges, the Soviet government claimed that the Poles had been engaged in construction work west of Smolensk in 1941 and the invading German army had killed them after overrunning that area in August 1941. But both German and Red Cross investigations of the Katyn corpses then produced firm physical evidence that the massacre took place in early 1940, at a time when the area was still under Soviet control.

The Polish government-in-exile in London requested that the International Committee of the Red Cross examine the graves and also asked the Soviet government to provide official reports on the fates of the remaining missing prisoners. The Soviet government refused these demands, and on April 25, 1943, the Soviets broke diplomatic relations with the Polish government in London. The Soviets then set about establishing a Polish government-in-exile composed of Polish communists.

The Katyn Massacre left a deep scar in Polish-Soviet relations during the remainder of the war and afterward. For Poles, Katyn became a symbol of the many victims of Stalinism. Although a 1952 U.S. congressional inquiry concluded that the Soviet Union had been responsible for the massacre, Soviet leaders insisted for decades that the Polish officers found at Katyn had been killed by the invading Germans in 1941. This explanation was accepted without protest by successive Polish communist governments until the late 1980s, when the Soviet Union allowed a noncommunist coalition government to come to power in Poland. In March 1989 this government officially shifted the blame for the Katyn Massacre from the Germans to the Soviet secret police, the NKVD. In 1992 the Russian government released documents proving that the Soviet Politburo and the NKVD had been responsible for the massacre and cover-up and revealing that there may have been more than 20,000 victims. In 2000 a memorial was opened at the site of the killings in Katyn.

On April 7, 2010, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin joined Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk at a ceremony commemorating the massacre, marking the first time that a Russian leader had taken part in such a commemoration. Three days later, on April 10, a plane carrying Polish Pres. Lech Kaczynski to another commemoration ceremony crashed near Smolensk and the Katyn site, killing Kaczynski, his wife, the head of the national security bureau, the president of the national bank, the army chief of staff, and a number of other Polish government officials.

In November 2010 the State Duma (the lower house of the Russian Federal Assembly) officially declared that Joseph Stalin and other Soviet leaders were responsible for ordering the execution of the Polish officers at Katyn.

There was a beautiful girl in a village admired by four men

There was a beautiful girl in a village admired by four men

SINGER

HUNTER

DOCTOR

FISHERMAN

One day, she went to wash her clothes by the river coincidentally the four men where there watching her, All of a sudden a crocodile bit her and dragged her into the water.

The SINGER composed a beautiful song, the crocodile raised its head above the water to listen to the song,

The HUNTER shot it, and it was dead. The girl floated on the water.

The FISHERMAN dived in and brought her out to the shore then,

The DOCTOR treated her and she was well again.

Now who deserves to marry the girl among the four men??

 

German soldiers on guard in a trench in a forest, ca. 1915.

German soldiers on guard in a trench in a forest, ca. 1915.

"January 13 was somewhat calm. But on the 14th the storm continued, and it came without us having a clue. Suddenly we heard shouts to the right of us and terrible rifle fire. We were to flank the attack; swarm forward in a long chain towards a forest, which was held by the French.

. 

We were received by murderous firing, but slowly approached and I didn't see anyone fall. By the edge of the wood we waited. Then we entered with bayonets. Inside the forest we took some 50 prisoners. It hurt to disarm them, by the end my pockets were full of all sorts of knives.

. 

I was hoping to be put on prisoner guard duty, but shortly after we were commanded forward again. I was seperated from my company and joined some Jägers. They were held up by a machine-gun in front of us and thought it dishonorable to storm it. But eventually we went forward towards a castle, where the machine-gun up in a tower forced us to seek cover along the walls.

. 

The French retreated and repositioned themselves on some high-ground. We had to cross the castle garden, but from a house on the edge a machine-gun held up the entire road. We sure got up to speeds and it is beyond me how we escaped it, for the bullets hissed in the gravel around us, we almost stepped on them, but fortunately we advanced past the point and occupied the French position.

. 

Three of us stayed there, for we couldn't bear to run anymore, but we were heavily shelled, so soon we moved. We were joined by the 36th Company and swarmed across the meadow, digging in some 3-400 m from Soissons.

. 

In the evening we backtracked and found a wounded Lieutenant in the woods, whom we carried to safety. At last I made it home, but had barely done a thing before we were commanded to return to the frontlines and defend the position."

THE MOST HORRIFIC EXECUTION METHODS THROUGHOUT HISTORY

THE MOST HORRIFIC EXECUTION METHODS THROUGHOUT HISTORY

Whether involving rats, spikes, or boiling oil, the worst execution methods ever invented prove that humans have mastered the art of torture and death.

If the last few thousand years of human history have shown us to be good at one thing, it’s the art of inflicting painful, humiliating death on one another.

Whether using ravenous animals, scorching temperatures, or endless variations of sharp, pointed implements, the ingenuity that has gone into the act of death by torture is genuinely shocking. You’ll need a strong stomach to make it through this list of the worst execution methods ever used:

Worst Execution Methods: Boiling To Death

A slow and agonizing punishment, this method traditionally saw the victim gradually lowered — feet-first — into boiling oil, water, or wax (although uses of boiling wine and molten lead have also been recorded).

If the shock of the pain did not render them immediately unconscious, the person would experience the excruciating sensation of their outer layers of skin, utterly destroyed by immersion burns, dissolving right off their body, followed by the complete breakdown of the fatty tissue, boiling away beneath.

It seems safe to assume that such a horrendous fate, one of the worst execution methods ever devised, would be reserved for the foulest of murderers, but historical documents refute this.

Emperor Nero is said to have dispatched thousands of Christians in this manner, while in the Middle Ages, the main recipients of the punishment were not killers or rapists but coin forgers, particularly in Germany and the Holy Roman Empire. In Britain, meanwhile, King Henry VIII introduced the practice for executing those who used poison to commit murder.