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Title: Horrifying coincidence in [Canadian bus] beheading (Canadian Windigo Possession Folklore)
Source:
edmontonsun.com
URL Source: http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Col ... ew/2008/08/11/6408951-sun.html
Published: Aug 11, 2008
Author: ANDREW HANON
Post Date: 2008-09-09 22:05:02 by Destro
Keywords: Canada, Windigo
Views: 400
Comments: 11
Mon, August 11, 2008 Horrifying coincidence in beheading By ANDREW HANON Nathan Carlson has barely slept since July 30. "Ever since it happened, I haven't been able to get it out of my head," Carlson says haltingly. "I just don't know what to think of it, quite frankly." The Edmonton ethno-historian is one of the world's leading experts on Windigo phenomenon, and the recent horrific beheading and alleged cannibalism on a Greyhound bus bound for Winnipeg from Edmonton rocked him to his very core. As the grisly details of Tim McLean's last moments on Earth came to light in the following days, Carlson sank deeper and deeper into a fog of horror and revulsion. Vince Weiguang Li is accused of abruptly attacking McLean, who by all accounts he didn't even know -- while McLean slept on the bus. Up until a few days before the killing, Li held a part- time job delivering newspapers in Edmonton. He was well thought-of by his boss and considered a nice guy, if a bit quiet and shy. On July 20 -- just 10 days before the killing -- Li delivered copies of the Sun that contained an extensive interview with Carlson about his research into the Windigo, a terrifying creature in native mythology that has a ravenous appetite for human flesh. It could take possession of people and turn them into cannibalistic monsters. The two-page feature talked about how, in the late 1800s and into the 20th century, Windigo "encounters" haunted communities across northern Alberta and resulted in dozens of gruesome deaths. In one case, a Cree trapper named Swift Runner was hanged after admitting to killing and eating his wife, children, brother and mother in the woods northeast of Edmonton in the winter of 1878-79. Prior to being charged with murder, he had suffered screaming fits and nightmares, which he attributed to being possessed by a Windigo. In several other cases, people banded together and killed individuals they feared were possessed by a Windigo. Often, they would decapitate the corpse and bury the head separate from the body in order to keep it from rising from the dead. Carlson documented several cases in northern Alberta communities where people believing they were "turning Windigo" would go into convulsions, make terrifying animal sounds and beg their captors to kill them before they started eating people. In last month's bus case, Li allegedly butchered McLean's body, brandishing the victim's severed head at the men who trapped him on the bus until police could arrive. He was later accused of eating McLean's flesh. When he appeared in a Portage La Prairie courthouse on charges of second-degree murder, the only words Li reportedly uttered were pleas for someone to kill him. A lot of his reported behaviour eerily mirrors the Windigo cases recounted in the newspaper feature that Li helped deliver to Edmonton homes just days before McLean was killed, one of the most gruesome slayings in modern Canadian history. Several media reports called McLean's killing unprecedented - an unspeakable, random attack the likes of which has never been seen in Canada. But Carlson knows better. "There are just too many parallels," he says. "I can't say there's definite connection, but there are just too many coincidences. "It's beyond eerie."
Poster Comment: "He walked up to the door and put the head right up to my face through the glass and waved the knife at me. He turned around and put the head down on the floor in front of me so I could see," Mr. Alguire said. It was the man's dark eyes that struck him most. "They were empty. It was like staring into a black hole." http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080903.TRUCKER03/TPStory/National
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#2. To: Destro, scrapper2, Original_Intent, ALL (#0)
Very interesting, thank you. I thought this was a curious coincidence as well: Lughnasad: July 31st, Day of the celebration of being the predator not prey. The murder occurred on July 31st.
The Windigo And The Beheading I lived in Northern Alberta for 10 years. Never saw a Windigo though.
I don't want to get into advocating 'the devil made me do it' arguments for criminal - especially criminally insane behavior. But I do consider myself a Fortean, and Charles Fort would have catalogued this incident for sure. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fort
"I offer the data. Suit yourself." So long as any evidence is ignored — however bizarre or unlikely the evidence might seem — Fort insisted that scientists' claims to thoroughness and objectivity were questionable. 'agnostic scepticism' "But my liveliest interest is not so much in things, as in relations of things. I have spent much time thinking about the alleged pseudo-relations that are called coincidences. What if some of them should not be coincidence?" I like that, thank you very much for the link.
#6. To: wudidiz (#5)
Minor note of interest to word origin lovers: Charles Fort created the word 'teleportation'.
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