Monday, November 02, 2015

Top Ten List of: The Devil Made Me Do It- K.A. M’Lady





Thanks so much for inviting me to your Realm, Roxanne!  I really thought long and hard about what type of top ten lists I wanted to share with your readers today.  It is after all, the week of Halloween.  The typical, top ten scariest possession movies were an option, or the top ten cases of reported possession.  And believe me, there is some pretty wacked out stuff to report on and share.  The research behind the dark arts is vast and growing by the day.  Theology and religion is actually a very interesting topic to discuss among your friends – if you’re brave enough and open minded enough not to push your own beliefs or disbeliefs off on other people; but, to sit back and just listen and learn… 

You can’t write a book on Angels and demons without doing a bit of research.  So, whether it’s on possession, the Angels themselves and their traits, the gifts that God bestowed upon them, or the fall of Satan and brethren, there is a plethora of information to learn.  One topic of fascination is the legality of it and the plea of “the devil made me do it.”  Once the candy is had for the taking, the body count is totaled, all arrests have been made and the evidence collected, it begs to question:  can this claim hold up in court?

Top Ten List of:  The Devil Made Me Do It

The Devil in Salem

In 1638, the Massachusetts Bay Colony hanged Dorothy Talbye for murdering her three-year-old daughter, Difficult Talbye, at the Devil’s direction. In his journal, Puritan Governor, John Winthrop recorded the tale, which predates the Salem witch trials by fifty years.

A long member of the church of Salem, Talbye had been of good esteem for her godliness; but, falling at difference with her husband, through melancholy and spiritual delusions, she sometimes attempted to kill him, and her children, and herself, by refusing meat, and saying it was so revealed to her. After much patience…the church cast her out… Soon after that, she was so possessed with Satan, that he persuaded her (by his delusions, which she listened to as revelations from God) to break the neck of her own child, that she might free it from future misery.

At her trial, the court determined that although Mrs. Talbye thought she had been hearing the voice of God, she had actually killed her daughter while possessed by the Devil. As the law dictated, death was the only allowable punishment for the murder of Difficult Talbye.

 When Demon Dogs HowlThe Son of Sam Killings  

After his capture in 1977, David Berkowitsz, a.k.a. the Son of Sam, New York police had six women dead and seven others wounded.  When asked why he committed the murders, Berkowitz claimed that although he pulled the trigger he was acting under the orders of something else. That “something” was Harvey; a neighbor’s black Labrador that Berkowitz believed was possessed by an ancient evil which constantly cried out for “blood and death.” 

For a year he taunted law enforcement and the media with claims that he was, among other things, Beelzebub, Mr. Monster, and the Son of Sam.  After his capture, the New York police searched Berkowitz’ apartment, finding phrases like “In this hole lives the Wicked King,” and “Kill for my Master” scrawled on the walls. Perhaps even creepier were Berkowitz’s admissions concerning his attempts to kill the possessed dog. In order to break its hold over him, he threw a molotov cocktail at it and finally shot it.  The dog survived all attempts on its life, helping Berkowitz to believe the animal was protected by supernatural forces.

Black Hands Gave Me the Gun -- The Amityville “House of Horror”

            On November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot and killed his mother, father, and four siblings while they slept in the family home. During his trial, DeFeo claimed that although he murdered his family, he wasn’t alone that night. As part of his insanity defense, he claimed that he’d heard voices telling him to kill.  He also stated that a figure with black hands handed him a rifle and followed him throughout the house as he killed his family.
Although, DeFeo also claimed that he believed the voices he heard were messages from God, and alternatively that he was God.  Despite his testimony, the jury did not believe that DeFeo was insane and instead found him guilty. Since his conviction, DeFeo has recanted much of his previous testimony, saying that he lied in an attempt to create a better insanity plea.  He is currently serving six life sentences in a New York prison, one for each of his murdered family members.

Stranger Danger… (Still unsolved)

            Want some candy, little girl?  On August 26, 1982, Rachael Runyan was playing with her 10-year-old brother in a school playground in Sunset, Utah.  A black, mustached man between 25 and 35 was hanging around the park for about 15 minutes, talking to other children before he finally approached Rachael. He offered her gum and candy; she followed him to his car. Twenty-four days later her naked body was found in a stream.

Twice, when Rachael’s father has visited her grave, an unexplained black rose has been found upon the marker. Then, two and a half years after the murder, the following message appeared on a stall door in a 24-hour Laundromat: “I’m still at large . . . I killed the little Runyan girl! Remember Beware!!!!” Below it was an inverted cross with three number sixes, one at each arm and the head of the cross. Psychologists associated with the case said the real killer quite possibly wrote it.

What punishment this crime?

The Devil’s in Texas

            Accused of  bashing in the head of a teenage girl with top of a toilet tank as an offering to the devil, after he’d already stabbed her in the head with a screwdriver and gouged out her eyes while she was screamed and begged for her life; eighteen year-old Jose Reyes, stood trial in Texas.

            Prosecutors claimed the fifteen year-old died as an offering to Satan.  Reyes and another teen beat raped and hit her so hard there were pieces of porcelain embedded in her face.  "Whether or not the devil was involved, what happened in that apartment was sadistic and inhumane," he told distressed jurors, some of whom cried.


Satan’s Sacristy

On May 11, 2006, retired Roman Catholic Priest, Gerald Robinson was convicted of the murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl.  He was convicted of strangling and stabbing Pahl in the sacristy of the chapel. At seventy-one, the priest presided at her funeral Mass four days after her death. She had been stabbed 31 times, including nine times in the shape of an inverted cross. Prosecutors considered that this shape was deliberate and intended to humiliate the Sister in death.   She had been found covered in an altar cloth, her clothes and body arranged to suggest she had been sexually assaulted, although it was not clear that she had been.

Although he was questioned, Robinson was not originally charged.  From 1980 until 2003 the case remained unsolved.  The Police received a letter from a woman who claimed that Robinson had sexually abused her when she was a child in a series of satanic rituals and abuse that also involved human sacrifice.  "Survivor Doe", also filed a civil lawsuit seeking financial damages.  The case was dismissed in 2011 due to having been filed too late.
The accusations however, were sent to the prosecutor's cold case unit. Using new forensic test and techniques results indicated that a sword-shaped letter opener that had been found in Robinson's apartment and stored without detailed examination were consistent with the weapon that inflicted the wounds found on Sister Phal; in the words of the prosecutor's expert, it could "not be ruled out".  Imprints on the altar cloth were found to closely match the letter opener. Prosecutors also found three witnesses who said they had seen the priest near the chapel around the time of the killing.

The case against Robinson went to trial on April 24, 2006. He was found guilty on all counts on May 11, 2006. This was the second conviction for homicide of a Catholic priest in the United States.

I Put a Spell on You

In nineteen forty-five in Quinton, England, Charles Walton was found murdered in a ritualistic way, involving witchcraft. When his body was found on February 14, 19455, villagers were shocked at the scene of the brutal and ritualistic murder. Charles' had been found with a hook embedded in his throat, his body pinned to the ground by his pitch fork, and a large cross had been carved into his chest.

Previously documented case, such as this, include people murdering those they believe have put them under a spell. In these cases, the victim - believed to be the witch or warlock that hag cast the spell - was often given the sign of the cross by the person taking their revenge. Police think that someone thinking they had been hexed by Walton had murdered him to "break the spell".

Corn-fed Demons

Sioux City, Iowa, 1981:   Satanists Randolph S. Bugh, age, twenty-one  and Jason B. Darah, age seventeen, received seventy-five years in prison, each for the Spring Equinox rape of a 15 year old runaway.

Fellow Satanist Jayme Moore, age twenty, received twenty-five years for his role. The trio had crashed a party, chatted the girl up.  Later she went with them to an all night store to steal cigarettes. After that, they took her to a Catholic cemetery, beat her, raped her repeatedly, urinated on her, and hit her head against a tombstone. During the episode, the three chanted "spells". All of them had been well known in the community to have been involved in black magic.

            After the rape, they drove back to the store and ordered her to steal more cigarettes. When she got inside, the terrified girl told the store manager what happened, who notified police. At the booking, when asked his religion, one rapist replied, “Satanism! I just want to kill somebody!”  Read more in Raising Hell: An Encyclopedia of Devil Worship and Satanic Crime by Michael Newton

The Devil’s MC

In nineteen eighty-four, Narcotics officers in Granbury, Texas got more than they bargained for when they seized eight jars along with two infant skeletons from Satanist Timothy Newsome. Newsome told police he stole the items from a cult of Satanist bikers in Lake County, Indiana. Indiana Police found the Biker's club house and questioned them. The bikers of course denied the items were theirs, and were not arrested.

No Sleep for the Wicked

On the Virgin Islands of St. Thomas, St. Clair Daniel was arrested tried and convicted for two human sacrifices. In nineteen eighty-nine, Daniel hacked to death, Genevieve Lewis, age fifty-three, and Steve Cornish, twenty-nine, with a machete, on a beach, in broad daylight, in front of several horrified beach goers.

Family and friends told police Daniel had been a practioner of his own brand of island Voodoo and Satanism. At his trial in, Daniel tried to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, but prosecution pointed that by following the ancient voodoo superstition ritual of dismembering a victim so they could not return as a zombie, Daniel had been aware of what he was doing.  He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.


So, that’s the list and I’m sticking to it.  For now, at any rate.  It’s always darkest before the dawn, they say.  How about you?  Got something to believe in?  Going to get a little Faith?






Faith Savage
Demon Huntress Series
7 Novellas
K.A. M’Lady

Series Description:

In the beginning God created the Heavens, the Earth…and Angels. No one is certain when the war started – when the Angels went astray. All that is clear is that war erupted in Heaven and the Angels fell from Grace. Today that war continues.

My name is Faith Savage, and I hunt demons. Some say that God has a master plan for all of us – from an Angel’s first breath to mankind’s final death. Somewhere in between lays the battle for salvation.



Faith Savage: Book 1
Glow

Longer than time, eternal angelic wars have been fought throughout the Heavens -- God's mighty warriors vying for supremacy over Lucifer and his brethren's fall from grace.

Today that war continues, spreading among God's chosen.

My name is Faith Savage, I hunt Demons. I have been to the edge of reason. Spoken with evil and walked the corridors of Hell's dark paths.

To survive the darkness, I made a deal with an angel. But my decision may cost me the one thing most precious to me...

Mojo Castle     Amazon    BN    ARe    Kobo

Faith Savage: Book 2  
Fear No Evil

In the beginning, peace reigned in the Heavens. But when God created man in his image, the love, once held in the hearts of His beautiful angels, changed. Some of God's chosen grew jealous of man and envious of each other. Treachery and villainy spread like a plague. War erupted in the Heavens. Blood was spilled in the House of the Lord.

When the fallen were cast from God's Glory, they vowed to spread the taint of their darkness throughout mankind--spreading their evil and debauchery amongst the innocent like the flood of corruption and sin that it has become today. They swore never to rest until all men rotted in the fires of Hell. Vowed that in the end, rivers would run red, animals would rot in blackened pastures and the earth would become the very essence of the Valley of Death.

My name is Faith Savage, I hunt Demons. I've been to the edge of death--looked in the eyes of darkness. Seen what's on the other side.

Though I may walk through the Valley of Death--I Shall Fear No Evil.


Mojo Castle     Amazon    BN    ARe    Kobo


Faith Savage Book 3
Transgressions

For the humans, the veil between Heaven and Hell, Light and Darkness, grows thinner with each night's passing. On earth the fallen have spread their dark army far into the city of man. In the shadows, the weary tremble and the weak are overtaken.

For the few who walk the dark mile on the trail of suffering's madness, they alone know the strength of a whispered prayer. Because sometimes, even darkness' wrath and hatred can learn to bow before a spirit's faith.

My name is Faith Savage, I hunt Demons. I know that even the strong and righteous suffer the weight from a world filled with sin. For in the end, it is the true believers who know that a loving God forgives you your transgressions.

Mojo Castle    Amazon    BN    ARe    Kobo


Faith Savage Book 4:
When Angels Fall

In the beginning peace reigned in the Heavens and a chorus of angels sang their praise to the Lord. But there was one who coveted God’s power, His beauty and His grace. With desire came rebellion. Violence ensued and corruption followed. For the first time in creation blood was spilled amongst God’s mighty.

Throughout time there are those who have said that in the darkness where cold truths and the ugliness of iniquity reign, evil rides the shadows of vanity’s wants and desire’s yearnings. That temptation began as a whispered kissed. That even God’s mighty Angels were not immune to the devil’s corruption.

Today some say it’s best to leave the shadows to themselves and let the night have its madness for in the end only the Light of the Spirit can see a soul’s true worth. But what happens when the Heaven’s bleed and an Angel’s will is broken? What happens when the truth is immersed in darkness and those, once pure of heart, have no one to call on and nothing left to defend?

My name is Faith Savage – I know what it is to be stalked by darkness. To look in the eye of madness and know you’ve no one to call as friend. It is here, on this dark path to inhumanity and the search for redemption, that I hunt demons. Because when Angels fall only the Light will show the way for the damned to meet their end.

Mojo Castle    Amazon    BN    ARe    Kobo


Faith Savage Book 5  
The Ash Collector

In the beginning, God created man in his image; from dust and ash, hope was cast.

Yet, as far as time remembers, in the scrolls of history’s past, it was written that woman brought temptation to the garden. Woman introduced death unto man. But have you forgotten about the trickster? Was mortal destruction not his master plan?

There are those who say death is a celebration. One soul’s defiant, heavy passing; another’s gentle ease into the Light. Commemorations for the departed. Forgiveness of old transgressions. A final rest for pity, the end to immortal strife. But is death just the beginning? And who comes to collect you when you pass?

What happens to the worthy if the Light turns against them? Do they stand their ground – Stay and fight? What about those who seek no forgiveness? Do the deceiver’s minions scurry from the darkness? Come and collect their next eternal victim? Is everlasting damnation the deceased’s future plight?

My name is Faith Savage. I know what it is to walk the dark shadows at the edge of destruction. To feel the presence of The Collector in the night. I know what it is to bleed the dust of life’s possibilities, to sift through the ash of mankind’s hopes and dreams. To seek the evil that makes souls rot. It is here in this impossible darkness that I hunt demons, searching for my own answers and retributions, in the battle for the Light.

Mojo Castle    Amazon    BN    ARe    Kobo

Faith Savage Book 6:
Wicked's Kiss

Some Hungers Burn Hotter Than Hell...

There are those who say that we are all God’s children. That the Blood of Christ released us from sins. But there are others that hold to the original sins. Temptations purchased for a copper, a penny, a fine golden coin. Even the priests bought and sold lies with the silver kisses of thieves; might cost you a stoning – ten pence for a whore.

Some have written that from a garden God created the first cast-off demon; a viper feigned in the guise of a woman. Her kisses, once given, led to eternal damnation. And, from one sacred garden to our Christ’s last temptation, a kiss by the wicked brought about mankind’s salvation. Bought and paid for by greed, perhaps even envy – all impugnable transgressions.

But when is a kiss just a kiss in the game of redemption? What price does a man pay for the ultimate betrayal? Is the cost greater than the price of his soul?

My name is Faith Savage. When dealing with matters of faith, God, religion and demons, I’ve found there are no easy answers. I’ve stumbled my way through Hell’s treacherous dark byways seeking God and the answers to these and many other questions. I’ve learned that nothing is as it seems when dealing with demons and Angels. And sometimes, love and faith creates just another way to burn.

Mojo Castle    Amazon    BN    ARe    Kobo


Faith Savage Book 7
Sinner

It was written that each soul would have a Guardian. A Warrior of Light to watch over it. Protect it. Be its shield against the darkness, its sword against the fallen. But the days grew dark. Man’s souls darker still. Many turned away from the Light of God, cast aside His word and His love. And the Guardians rebelled.

Some say that this was his second transgression. What led to his ultimate betrayal. Others say that he too was but pawn in God’s glorious manipulation. A means to an end of man’s dark days. One thing is certain, only God knows the truth of his story. Only He knows a soul’s true worth and its fate.

My name is Faith Savage. In this game of good and evil I’ve met the Guardian that God sent me. His story I am just beginning to learn. His history, I am told, has marked him as damned. But, everyone knows Christ died for the sinners. The only question that remains is, could we forgive him if we controlled his fate?


Mojo Castle    Amazon    BN    ARe    Kobo


 Book 8 – Messenger - Coming Soon
There’s also a short story

About the Author:

Author K.A. M’Lady lives a few stone throws from corn fields, chaos and congestion; all lying on the outskirts of the many burbs of Chicago. KA M'lady spends her days calculating life expectancies, mortality and the certainty of death and taxes while in her free time the dead wander freely, buy shoes, homes, the occasional odd business or two and, if you even think of charging them too much in taxes…well, let’s just say the tax man may never come back. But if he does he might just shamble a bit.

An All Romance eBooks bestselling author, K.A. M'lady's work has been described as scary, descriptive, beautiful, dark, frightening, prosaic, addictive, sexy and believable. She loves to read paranormal romances, watch horror movies, westerns on Sundays with her husband, play fetch with her pocket beagle, Chevy and buy weird shoes. Her friends call her eccentric, her family refuses to comment. She’s been lost in the world of fiction since she was a small child, and frankly, never wants to be found—at least not any time soon.

“Myth and magic builds dreams and inspirations – and in an insane world, it is our dreams that spark the revolution of change. No matter which world is being conquered. Within our dreams – all things are possible.”










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1 comments:

K.A. M'Lady said...

Thanks so much, Roxanne for all of your hard work and for letting me share my Faith Savage series with all of your readers. I greatly appreciate it. Last day to sign up for your chance to win your copy of this dark and intensely sexy series.... Messenger is coming!!
The message is a matter of interpretation . Belief is in the hands of Faith.
Blessing - K.