yorkdispatch - Children trick-or-treating Thursday at a Newberry Township mobile-home park got a terrible fright when they discovered a man who had committed suicide on his front stoop, police said.
"I'm sure it was very upsetting to the children who saw him -- and to their families," Newberry Township Police Chief John Snyder said. "To me, it's something they're probably going to remember for the rest of their lives. I wish an adult would have found him before the kids did."
Police were called to Lot 113 of the Conewago Valley Mobile Home Park, at 800 York Road, about 6:20 p.m. after the trick-or-treating children found the man and reported it to a neighbor, Snyder said.
The man used a handgun to fatally shoot himself, the chief said; it appeared it was a head wound.
"We don't know when he committed suicide," Snyder said, or how long the man was lying on his stoop.
"I'm confused as to why no one during the day saw it," he said. "I assume people thought he was a (Halloween) decoration. The way he was lying there, you wouldn't have known if he was just taking a nap or if he was a decoration."
Quickly covered: Responding officers covered the man with a sheet as soon as they could and blocked off the area of his home from other trick-or-treaters, Snyder said.
The man was 68 years old, according to the York County Coroner's Office; no autopsy is planned.
"He was very ill ... and he didn't want to go to a hospital or a (nursing) home," Snyder said. "I just wish he'd have done it somewhere else. When people commit suicide, they don't think about the people around them -- they only think about themselves. It's one of the most selfish things you can do."
There was only a small amount of blood visible at the scene, the chief said; the man wasn't really visible from the street so it's likely not too many children saw him.
"Don't get me wrong -- it's still not a good thing for children to see," he said.
Gun: The handgun was still on the stoop, half hidden between the man's legs, according to Snyder.
"Unless you looked for it, you wouldn't have seen it," he said.
Snyder said the man lived alone and, based on the inside of his home, was a very clean, tidy person. That might have contributed to the man's decision not to kill himself inside his trailer, the chief said.
Snyder said because the man was found shortly after trick-or-treat started, it limited the number of children exposed to the scene.
"That's some consolation," he said, adding that officers spoke with the children who did witness the suicide scene.
"We did our best to talk to them," Snyder said. "It was bad timing all around."
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Pub Ghost Scares Staff
timesandstar - A ghost at a Workington pub is spooking bar staff, its landlord has said.
Just in time for Hallowe’en, staff at the recently taken-over Brewery House, on Main Road, in High Harrington, claim to have reported sightings of a ghost which inhabits the cellar and front bar.
They say they think it is the ghost of a man who died in the pub several years ago.
Regular drinkers – no strangers to spirits – say he sits in the same seat, under the TV in the front bar.
But, the pub says, he is spooking barmaid Natalie Taylor, 21, who is so terrified of his presence in the cellar that she refuses to go there alone.
She started working at the pub in August, but said she had known about the ghost for a number of years.
Natalie said: “Years ago a friend of mine lived in this pub and she warned me.
“Stuff would move from one place to another or go missing without any explanation.
“The cellar gives me the creeps. It’s damp, cold and has a weird atmosphere, a definite presence. There’s something not right down there.”
Landlord Shaun Gardner wants to find a medium to bring into the pub to find out if there is a spirit – of the other world – hanging around in the cellar.
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17th-Century Book Details Gruesome Exploits of the Witchfinder General
metro - The journal chronicles some of the often dubious witchcraft trials brought by Matthew Hopkins during the Civil War.
One includes the case of a young woman who apparently confessed to having sex with the Devil and others with females said to be ‘suckling imps’.
Hopkins, who was the subject of the 1968 film Witchfinder General, starring Vincent Price, appointed himself to the role and brought terror to eastern England between 1645 and 1647.
The journal, put together by Puritan writer Nehemiah Wallington, includes details of some of the 112 women hanged for witchcraft – often after confessing following torture.
A passage on suspect Rebecca West states: ‘When she was going to bed the Devil appeared unto her again in the shape of a handsome young man, saying that he came to marry her.’
The book is now being put into digital form by a team from Manchester University.
Staff at Tatton Park in Cheshire, where the original has been kept, hope to put the new version on display to the public.
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Lesson Learned: Don't Get Hitched When You Don't Understand the Language - GRAPHIC TEXT / SUBTITLES
For many couples looking to tie the knot somewhere more exotic than the local register office, the turquoise seas and golden sands of the Maldives hold a particular allure. But an important lesson can be gleaned from the experience of one unfortunate pair who renewed their vows there recently: always make sure you know exactly what you're saying "I do" to.
A luxury hotel in the island nation was forced to apologise today after a couple who thought they were being blessed at an idyllic beach ceremony were in fact being roundly abused in the local tongue. The Vilu Reef hotel said police were investigating after a staff member conducting the renewal of marriage vows instead read out a series of extreme sexual and religious slurs in the Dhivehi language spoken in the Maldives. A public relations disaster unfolded after a video surfaced showing the ceremony supervisor mocking and insulting the hapless couple, calling them "swine" and "infidels" amid a string of bizarre insults.
"Before buggering a chicken, check if the hole is clean. That is because the people of the countries that you are from are familiar with the taste of the arseholes of chicken," he chants. He later says: "You are swine. The children that you bear from this marriage will all be bastard swine. Your marriage is not a valid one. You are not the kind of people who can have a valid marriage. One of you is an infidel. The other, too, is an infidel – and we have reason to believe – an atheist, who does not even believe in an infidel religion."
According to the Maldives News Service Minivan News, the video of the ceremony was uploaded on YouTube on Sunday by a member of staff. Vilu Reef's manager, Mohamed Rasheed, said that the staff member who uploaded the video did it as "a joke", without "realising the seriousness of the potential consequences". Sun Investments PVT, which operates the resort, issued a statement saying: "The corporate management of the resort is deeply saddened by this humiliating event and expresses its serious concerns over the incident, including the content shown in the video and the unforgivable conduct displayed by the staff involved in the incident."
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