Hi, I’m Rory; I read loads of books and watch too many TV shows to be healthy. I love reading stories on the internet as they are always so original. I am also a mega fan of graphic novels of any kind. I also love all kinds of music and always enjoy reading whilst listening to my music. Hey guys, I’m a person and I wanted to stay anonymous but SOMEBODY said I couldn’t, so here I am. So, you want to know about me? I love music. And TV shows. But only the good ones of course. I also like to read, but, I have to admit, I don’t do it very often. But you guys should. If you want to grow up educated and not write for a cheap library magazine.
Hey guys, my name is Chris. In the future, I would like a pair of Asian babies.
My name is Max and I enjoy reading and writing novels. I enjoy watching University Challenge and am frequently told that I look like a mix of Ron Weasley and Harry Potter.
Hi, I’m Christopher.
Occasional supervisors: Ms Ferramosca and Ms Mavin. Yes, we look this glamorous in reality too!
Welcome to the Edge. We are excited to reveal the first issue of our magazine and we hope you will enjoy it. We have put a lot of time and effort into creating the best and most interesting magazine for your enjoyment. We have lots of interesting features for you and my personal fave must be the page completely dedicated to Pussy Pawn (they’re cat videos OK! Don’t judge us) by our very own Krissy K. Alongside, his other interest of the macabre has driven him to find the most gruesome true murder stories for anyone who has a twisted enough mind to enjoy… (we are definitely skirting the edge of madness with this one). I would have to say that the best/ most well written page is the Edge of Horror - you should defo check it out; maybe give it a good Yelp review. I will also give a shoutout to Hounam who drew our cover art; u should totally hit him up on Insta and Snapchat. You should also send some love to his beautiful assistant Christopher Commander who put a really good filter on our magazine and gave us tooootally useful “constructive criticism”. Now somehow Max A-B has managed to sneak into the majority of the school talks in the last term (too much time in his hands? Power of ubiquity?). Keep up with him if you can! We have some ‘sick ass beats’ (as the kids are saying on the streets these days) on the Edge of Music, which have been personally selected by our resident music guru, who may or may not be a coke junkie (make of that what you will—no sponsorships btw) on the down low, I’m not totally sure he even goes to this school. I would also like to thank our awesome librarians who gave us the drive we needed to finish this project by giving us a quota and trapping us within the library until we were done; Ms Ferramosca has even used cattle prods on us. Send help. Please.
By Rory Stewart
‘Footsteps’ by 1000vultures This is long, so I apologize for that. I’ve never had to tell this story with enough detail to actually explain it all the way, but it is true and it happened when I was about 6 years old. In a quiet room if you press your ear against a pillow you can hear your heartbeat. As a kid, the muffled, rhythmic beats sounded like soft footsteps on a carpeted floor, and so as a kid almost every night – just as I was about to drift off to sleep – I would hear these footsteps and I would be ripped back to consciousness, terrified. For my entire childhood I lived with my mother in a fairly nice neighbourhood that was in a transitional phase – people of lower economic means were gradually moving in, and my mother and I were two of these people. We lived in the kind of house you see being transported in two pieces on the interstate, but my mom took good care of it. There were a lot of woods surrounding the neighbourhood that I would play in and explore during the day, but at night – as things often do to a kid – they took on a more sinister feeling. This coupled with the fact that, due to the nature of our house, there was a fairly large crawlspace underneath filled my mind with imaginary monsters and inescapable scenarios which would consume my thoughts when I was awoken by the footsteps. I told my mom about the footsteps and she said that I was just imagining things; I persisted enough that she blasted my ears with water from a turkey baster once just to placate me, since I thought that would help. Of course it didn’t. Despite all the creepiness and footsteps the only weird thing that ever happened was that every now and then I would wake up on the bottom bunk despite having gone to sleep on the top, but this wasn’t really weird since I’d sometimes get up to piss or get something to drink and could remember just going back to sleep on the bottom bunk. This would happen once or twice a week, but waking up on the bottom bunk wasn’t too terrifying. But one night I didn’t wake up on the bottom bunk.
To see how the story ends, scan the QR code.
My Review When I read this story, I was sceptical; it was the first short story I had read on the internet and it was of the horror genre, which requires a lot more effort to gain that sense of realism which is invaluable in when reading. However after reading this story (which the writer claims is entirely true) I was hooked, I read the sequels to this within an hour and once I’d finished I quickly gained a sense of appreciation for the amount of effort and work many of the writers put in to the creation of these stories, many of them even intertwining with the real world as the internet provides an entirely new and unappreciated platform for immersive storytelling, and I hope you enjoy “Footsteps” the first part of a six part series known as Pen-pal. Enjoy
Competition recommendations Anyone who wants to submit their own short horror stories should head over to: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep And if you would like to enter your work to a competition for a chance to win prizes you should definitely check out: http://www.creativewritingink.co.uk/writing-competitions/ OR https://www.iggy.net/writingprize/
Horror Recommendations With all horror movies being all the hype nowadays I’ve found that the quality of horror has gone down. But fear not, I’m here to help; here are my Top 5 Horror Related recommendations:
INSIDIOUS 3
While I would say that the previous Insidious movies were both fairly average, this film exceeded even my high expectations what it lacked in plot it completely made up for with a masterful use of suspense that left me on the edge of my seat.
ALIEN: ISOLATION
Any game that has anything to do with the horror movie classic “Alien” is already good in my books, however this game took fear to the next level, you find yourself in the boots of Amanda Ripley who is trapped aboard a spaceship filled with murderous cyborgs and horrific aliens, obviously Horror ensues.
THE EXORCIST BY WILLIAM PETER BLATTY
The book that inspired the cult classic “The Exorcist” and the recent TV shows has a lot to live up to but this book definitely deserves it label as one of the best horror works of all time, rivalling the works of Steven King’s ‘IT’ this book will keep you awake at night and have you glancing over your shoulder at every corner.
WYTCHES BY SCOTT SNYDER
A graphic novel created by the writer of the Batman comics and other works this amazing book boasts both amazing art and a captivating story displaying the sacrifices people will make to help themselves and the relationships between a family but I must warn you once you’ve read this book you’ll never be able to look at the forest (or anyone else) in the same way.
LORE
This podcast is less scary and more interesting, every episode it picks apart common horror tropes and find the truth behind the fiction, making it unique and enjoyable and a perfect way to pass time.
After all this horror...a moment of relaxation B T B T S K Q E S P F L X O W D X X S L K R U D T
F O I H A E K T S M Y S B O A X B Y R T F E D A A
J G X E K V X X J I E D W S E R A X J R C D U L A
D X U E P J M X Z L W L C Y S M M G G N Y R B M R
N Y C X M A L X G R Q E M C I G U L Z P L U D J W
V F L O D Z U U I W A O R S B H O K G F V M J B C
M Y D R H I Q O X U A E G S P L K J Y W E H P H N
C C O C R B D A Q T A T P V G T X S D M E T I J V
S S S I F J N Q V M Z L H E D E E Y U I M I P Q N
X G D S A A X N Q A E W E O W T V L R N P W M L H
G F N T L O L U E K R Q T C R Q P T Z U I Y V U B
O N O I V Z E U W V M F P G W R Q D Z O J A E C J
W B Z X H E J I B Y S G D N Y E B B N A G W R Z U
T F M F N T X C S X A I G Z P R H D U B R A K A X
N S X S B F R K J U L E W O H D F T W O I T U H Y
Z A N V X B S E A S P D S S V J V E B I B E L H M
S T R U R W J O G E I Y T U B K P G M R O G Q V G
L C Z C U S W Y R N L Y V M Q B R F P I V O R U F
Z Q R Q M F Y N W P A M C H L D H Y B Y U T W M G
D E V E B L G G D V M R G A T I D O E P B W Y G J
K Q N X A P B T L M U Y T R B F G I I T P O L I L
T C R W J M D L U N H L S S K C Z F P T Y H S B I
R H M L S N A I C I G A M E H T W P L F E Q V I X
P L L I L B K G S P O U M V X A F D Z S Y S X U O
HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER SCREAM SCREAM QUEENS STRANGER THINGS THE EXORCIST THE MAGICIANS
N M S Z Q S G S E O O Y Y M M W W M F A F T Y Q S
Article by That guy
Looking for something new to try? Well stop your search right here. Every issue, we want to introduce you to something you never would have tried before. And everyone loves music. So here you can find a selection of songs of different genres and hopefully (with a little nudge from us) you’ll enjoy them and be a little less hesitant to try new things in the future. And if that’s not convincing enough, below, with each song, you can learn a bit about the artist and what they had in mind when writing the song.
MONSTERS RUELLE
Monsters are in the world, whether it’s fictional or metaphorical. Ruelle puts this concept into a tune by warning you not to make mistakes you will regret or they will back to get you and attack when you least expect it.
SO GOOD
LOUISA JOHNSON Louisa Johnson makes an appearance with her debut solo single. With violins and her powerful voice, Louisa Johnson sings about her guilty pleasure of partying when she has work the next day, but spending her time drinking and partying just feels so good.
DEAD
PHOEBE RYAN
With her happy-yet-morbid songs, Phoebe Ryan sings about how great her life is even though she’s not a good person. The only good thing in her life has gone and there’s no way she thinks she deserves to live on earth anymore.
PRAY (EMPTY GUN) BISHOP BRIGGS
With their catchy opening hook, you’ll pray you’d have found this song earlier. Flipping between a heavy instrumental of music to hiphop-like drums in the build up to the chilled drop, this tune will never bore you.
DEAD TO ME MELANIE MARTINEZ
Melanie Martinez ‘wants to kill you’ with this alternative pop hit. Trying to get over her ex, she approaches this in the most gruesome way to show that she really is over him...standing over his grave, that is.
HAPPY LITTLE PILL
TROYE SIVAN
Troye Sivan will have you hooked on this hit tune. But hidden behind the layered, dark tune is the true meaning of the song, which was written to help his friend who was suffering from depression.
THUMBS
SABRINA CARPENTER
Starting off with powerful, upbeat orchestral strings, ‘Thumbs’ gives a modern ‘70s vibe as it progresses. Sabrina Carpenter talks about how the world works, and how everyone in the world is, in one way or another, the same. She is not afraid to be different and make a stand to tell everyone to be themselves, and that life doesn’t have to be the stereotypical life everyone knows.
GHOST HALSEY
Halsey will haunt you with one of her most popular singles yet. This meaningful track is about a relationship in which the partner is physically present, but not mentally, leaving her with a ghost…
BLOW YOUR MIND (MWAH) DUA LIPA
Dua Lipa brings to you a sassy tune that’ll blow your mind. Overflowing with confidence, rebellion and the onomatopoeic sound of a kiss, the echoing drums and the general tune will have you partying until you drop. Enjoy…Mwah x.
Article by That guy
Music not for you? Check out our selection of TV shows. Varying from bookbased to comic-based to ‘made-up-on-the-spot’, you’ll never fall short of something exciting to watch. Just choose one you like the look of, and you’ll be on your toes waiting to see what happens next. For more info, follow the QR code to our IMDB page.
THE MAGICIANS IMDB RATING: 7.5/10
Imagine… A modern world filled with magic you never even knew existed. And a school, in one of many magical dimensions, that plucks you from reality to give you a test that will determine your magical abilities. A TV show that seems innocent, but gets progressively darker, taking you through alleyways with unexpected twists and turns, and drops the cliché ‘main character is the saviour’ act, delving into a darker side of magic. Based on the novel by Lev Grossman.
SCREAM
IMDB RATING: 7.3/10
You thought the movie was scary enough? Just wait till you watch the TV show. With more death in Lakewood than a morgue, the suspense and tension is never short, with a twist at every corner. The gruesome deaths. The mysterious killer. Everyone is a suspect. And you don’t know who to believe. The killer could be standing right next to you, for all you know. And anyone – everyone – could be their next victim…
THE EXORCIST IMDB RATING: 8.4/10
Demons and priests. Bibles and death. Scary movie. Scarier TV show. Although it’s new, tension is already building. Although a modern concept, it still embraces the originality of the book and movie and, within the first few episodes, there are already demonic possessions, dozens of gruesome deaths and unexpected plot twists. But we don’t recommend this for the weak-minded, as you will be haunted at night, and most probably never sleep the same again…
SCREAM QUEENS IMDB RATING: 7.2/10
Moving to a more comedy-horror genre, Emma Roberts brings to life a horribly hilarious character running a sorority, with each girl within it slowly being killed off by the ‘Red Devil’. It’s a perfect blend of comedy, horror and mystery with a thick storyline and bucket loads of tension. And of course, Denise Hemphill is never far away from trouble…
HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER IMDB RATING: 8.3/10
Annaliese Keating runs a class called ‘How to Get Away with Murder’ in a law school, teaching students how to win every single case possible, whether the victim is guilty or not. However, when she recruits five students to work with her and help her find evidence to win cases, trouble begins to rise, first with conflict between the students, but this is then forgotten when they are somehow involved in a murder. But the question remaining is not who, what, where, when or why, but more how will they prevent anyone from finding out.
STRANGER THINGS IMDB RATING: 9.0/10
Focusing on the life of a group of ten-year-old nerds in 1987, everything seems normal. Then, one day, one of the boys just disappears without a trace. With insanity slowly creeping up on his mother, the sheriff trying to build his life back up and the adults mourning the boy, it’s up to his friends to track him down and save him before it’s too late. And before they know it, their lives are turned ‘upside-down’ when a strange girl turns up out of nowhere, pleading them for help. Could she somehow be involved in all the chaos?
By M. A.-B.
‘Riverkeep’ by Martin Stewart
Book Review
The mention of fantasy instantly conjures images of Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Pullman’s His Dark Materials and Rowling’s Harry Potter. The reader may therefore think, on picking up Martin Stewart’s newly published Riverkeep, that he will struggle to live up to such illustrious company. ‘If it were so’ and here I quote Shakespeare, ‘it was a grievous fault’. Riverkeep chronicles the exploits of 15-year-old Wulliam, who, a week before turning sixteen, suddenly has the responsibility of managing the wild Danék River, a responsibility held by his father until he is possessed by an evil spirit which slowly consumes him. As Wull begins to give up hope, he learns that a cure for his father resides inside a mythical creature, the mormorach. The ‘Quest’ is a classic narrative device, and is the staple of fantasy genre, used by authors from Eoin Colfer to Neil Gaimen. On this particular journey, Wull meets such varied characters as a woman who loses her son then finds a wooden replacement buried under a tree, a tiny girl with hidden strengths, a man who ate his own boots and a second Frankenstein, a man put together from other people’s bodies, who is being chased by villains for stealing a mandrake. This might be expected to mire the reader in a sea of confusion, but Martin Stewart manages to keep the story flowing smoothly, despite including highly detailed descriptive passages, an expected occurrence since it originates from a 2000 word short story.
Stewart has created the perfect atmosphere to compliment the rich detail of the River Danék and its austere setting, with passages reminding me of the barge journey up the Volga in Gorky’s My Childhood. Nonetheless, left to itself, this portrayal could become too sombre and reduce the novel to an extended essay on how to describe a bleak setting. However, the characters provide, one could say comic, interludes, interspersed with in depth discussions about what it means to be human. The openings of each chapter are also pleasant intervals, giving information about an element of Wull’s fantasy world, each snippet artfully crafted to distance this work from novels in which the reader is presented with a parallel world and is expected to simply accept it. One thing the particularly astute critic may notice about the four authors I mentioned at the beginning of this review is that they all ended up writing series: His Dark Materials is a trilogy, Tolkien had both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter is an eight book series. It is therefore to be both expected, and hoped, that the publishing world may soon encounter another novel by Martin Stewart. Overall, this is a potent and emotive tale about growing up and the responsibilities coming of age brings. It is a deep and thoughtful, and asks many of the questions that have been waiting for an answer for centuries.
Conversation with Author Tim Bowler On Thursday 29th September celebrated author Tim Bowler, 1997 Carnegie Medal Winner, conducted a question and answer session with the new Lower School and Middle School. Your reporter was there to hear what was said. The most interesting and instructive questions are listed here.
Q: How do you start getting a book published? A: The first stage in the publishing process is to send the book off to the editor. The editor will then hopefully say ‘Tim, your book is excellent’. If they don’t, they will underline lots of things in red and make suggestions. Once they are satisfied the book will go to the copy-editor, who also underlines things in red and makes suggestions. A new development that has revolutionised the world of publishing is Amazon. Amazon has made electronic publishing and selling of books much easier. If has also made it possible for authors to self-publish their own books.
Q: Roald Dahl had a shed in his garden; do you have a special place to write? A: I live in a village in Devon, and I few years ago I decided that I needed a bolthole. I wandered around the village and found a couple who had recently moved in. They offered me the use of an outhouse at the bottom of the garden, which I have been using ever since. I like it because it is secluded, somewhere where I can be aware from everyone else.
Q: Do you have any tips on writing for any prospective writers in this school? A: Above all, never give up. Firstly, you need to get started. Just dive in, it doesn’t need to be perfect. When you have an idea in your head, you just need to get them down on paper. When you are writing, always focus on the moment; make sure that every event serves a purpose. Always have questions that need to be answered, then the reader will never be able to put your book down.
Q: At what age can you first publish a book? A: Most publishers tend to avoid younger authors, they usually prefer to invest in older, more established, more experienced writers. However, some publishers will trust a young talent, reasoning that they will flourish later on.
By M. A.-B.
On Tuesday 4th October Christopher Campbell, journalist, writer and former defence correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph came to give a talk in Collyer Hall about Peenemünde (the area first used for the development of the Nazi V2s) and Bletchley Park. Christy Campbell has recently published a new book: Target London: Under Attack from the V-weapons During WWII. In it he beautifully depicts the quest of the British to discover the truth about these weapons. On the day Collyer Hall was interspersed with history teachers, parents and pupils all hoping to learn something new. Christy Campbell obliged to perfection. His PowerPoint included many excerpts from real documents. We learnt that one of the most important pieces of intelligence during the war was overhead in a coffee shop by a Swedish spy working for the British. At the end of the talk came the bombshell. It was shockingly revealed that Winston Churchill himself considered the use of poison gas on the Germans, and that the plan was only averted at the last moment. This piece of information was unknown to me, and all the more horrifying because of it. After the talk, there was time for some questions. Firstly, a father asked if there were many Swedish spies, because he had never heard that the British Swedish spy. Christy Campbell’s response was that there was certainly several stories that had yet to be told, considering that it took until the 1970s for the full story of Bletchley Park to emerge. Christopher’s final piece of advice to me was to not trust what my teachers tell me, and always to be inquisitive. Then he left, leaving me with a single question rolling around my head: Has Bletchley Park influenced the way we see problems now.
Insight Into the Life of a Physicist Professor Jerome Gauntlett On Tuesday 20th September Professor Jerome Gauntlett, Chair in Theoretical Physics at Imperial College, came to give a lecture to the new Lower Sixth on String Theory: specifically, gravity waves. The Theoretical Physics consultant on The Theory of Everything gave a very thorough and thought-provoking talk, which left the listeners feeling as if they really understood the topic. After the lecture, held in the Fitzpatrick Reading Room, I spoke to Professor Gauntlett who was more than ready to answer my questions.
Q: How did it feel working on The Theory of Everything as the physics consultant? A: It was very enjoyable. Obviously as the scientific consultant I wasn’t given the whole script, just the parts that dealt with the physics. I was then allowed to submit my comments and adaptations to the producer, some of which were included in the film, some of which were not.
Q: How did you first get into physics? What led you into choosing physics as a career? A: As a young boy I wanted to be a palaeontologist, studying dinosaurs and then, at about 14, I was given a telescope and first became interested in astronomy as I lived in an area of Australia where the stars were very clear. At school I loved maths, and everything continued from there.
Q: Do you have any tips on how to proceed in following a career in physics? A: The most important thing is to enjoy it and, as the language of physics is maths you need to also be interested in and enjoy maths. To follow physics you really should go to university. As an undergraduate you study exactly how the universe works, and if you do a PhD you need to find a love of researching physics.
Q: Do you have a physics ‘Hero’, if I may put it like that? A: I recently saw Stephen Hawking at a conference and, of course, he is a very inspirational figure, the way he has overcome his physical disabilities and had made such important contribution to physics. I also admire Albert Einstein. He was a very deep thinker and understood the universe very well. He also had a great personality, including the way he conducts himself.
By M. A.-B.
Can Poems Think? Some Perspectives from the Renaissance (Rossetti Society) Dr Michael Hetherington St John’s College, Oxford The Rossetti society, of which your reporter is a member, is an English society at King’s College School-Wimbledon. The society itself is named after the pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti who attended King’s when in its original location in the Strand. Aside from its annual dinner, of which there will also be coverage by this magazine, the society runs various lectures throughout the school year. The lecture of the 1st November took place in Dr Cannon’s classroom, T11, and was given by learned Supernumerary Teaching Fellow in English at St John’s and Lumley Research Fellow at Magdalene Dr Michael Hetherington. Dr Michael Hetherington received his BA, MPhil and PhD from Cambridge University and teaches English Literature of the period 1550-1760. At 4 o’clock the reporter arrived and drank copious cups of tea. At about 4:20, Dr Hetherington arrived and the congregation composed mainly of 6 th formers, with only two lower fifths, the reporter and a friend, began to settle down. Dr Hetherington began by telling us a little about himself and his work, before he got onto the main meat of the lecture. The title of his lecture may seem ridiculous “Can poems think?” and the instant response of any casual reader would be ‘of course not’. However, as he explained to us, poems are the outpouring of the writer’s thoughts, as any learned poet will know, and sometimes they seem more like feelings. Therefore, poems can “think” because every reader interprets a poem in a different way and so poems seem to modify for every reader.
The first example from literature which Dr Hetherington picked out was William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30, which portrays thoughts as objects and that a person only has complete control of their own mind, a theme echoed in Samuel Daniel’s poem ‘To Lucy, Countess of Bedford’. The lecturer then held forth on the correct way to write a poem, giving the listeners different options. He read us an extract from George Gascoigne’s ‘Certain Notes of Instruction Concerning the Making of Verse or Rhyme in English’, turning poetry writing into a simple boring exercise in ticking off rhymes, a principle of which Ben Jonson was an acolyte. This method of writing poetry is satirised in Thomas Dekker’s ‘Satiro-mastix’, a work which Dr Cannon strongly recommended, when a character called Horace (a satire on Ben Jonson) is exhibiting Gascoigne’s method to disastrous results. The best method, we decided on listening to the lecture, was to have a very vague perception of what the poem will try to show, but then let the ideas take over and lead the poem in any direction. The lecture finished with analysis of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 94, one of his most baffling and ambiguous, of which apparently there are 4096 ways of interpretation.
The Origins of ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ On Tuesday 22nd November, Seamus Perry, Professor of English Literature at Oxford University, came into school to give a talk on the famous poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Perry described the formation of the poem, of how it was decided upon during a walk along the Quantock Hills and then revealed a startling revelation that William Wordsworth, with which Coleridge had a close friendship, claimed he had suggested all the ideas in the poems, and the only input which Coleridge gave was to write it. Perry expanded on a key theme of the poem: that nature is educative and experiences can be tutorial. He showed us examples of the works of both Wordsworth and Coleridge, such as ‘The Tables Turned’ in which the idea that nature is a better teacher than a book is a central theme. Perry then described Coleridge’s life, going into detail of a high point in which he gave philosophy lectures in a pub. We then embarked on a deep trail of religion, of how Coleridge was a Unitarian, a religion that believes that God is fundamentally good and therefore cannot countenance evil. The talk was very interesting, because I finally learned where the quote that has always frustrated me: ‘Water, water, everywhere nor any drop to drink’ come from. In addition, some people probably find long poems intimidating, in which case I can thoroughly recommend Gustave Doré’s illustrated version, which Mr Bransfield lent to me.
By Chris Kamm
In 1922, on the Hinterkaifeck ranch, 60 miles north of Munich, Germany, a family of five and their housemaid were brutally murdered. The family consisted of Andreas Gruber, his wife Cazilia, their widowed daughter Viktoria and her children Cazilia and Josef. Before the murder, strange things had begun to happen to the family. Six months previously, the former housemaid had left, claiming that the farm was haunted. A few weeks before the murder, Viktoria had withdrawn all of her money from the bank – it is thought that she was going to invest in the farm. According to some witnesses, supernatural noises were heard from the attic. A foreign newspaper, which the family had ever taken, was found on the table. There was an attempted break-in of the tool shed, and a set of the family’s keys went missing. On the morning of Tuesday 4th April, some neighbours formed a search party to investigate why no members of the family had been seen in a couple of days. The postman also noticed that mail had piled up since the previous Saturday. Cazilia hadn’t been seen at school on either Saturday or Monday, and Viktoria, who was a popular member of the church choir, did not attend church on Sunday, which was especially peculiar. The six bodies were found by the search party, four of which were piled on top of each other in the barn. The maid and the son Josef were found dead in their beds. Most of the victims were dressed in nightclothes, so the murder had probably taken place in the evening. The murder weapon was declared to be an axe (hence the name of the murders). The murder had delivered precise and fatal blows to the head of each victim, so he was conjectured to have been fairly confident with the weapon. The murder was determined to have taken place on Friday, March 31st 1922. However,
claimed that they had seen smoke coming from the chimney that day. In addition, the cattle were well fed and had recently been fed, and meals had been consumed. So what was the motive? A thief would not have stayed in the house for long, and the mother’s valuable jewellery was mainly untouched. Also, the perpetrator must have known that the family would not receive any visitors while s/he stayed there. The main suspects are: Karl Gabriel - Viktoria’s ex-husband, Karl Gabriel, was assumed to have died in the trenches during World War One. However his body was never found, and two people later claimed that they spoke to a German-speaking officer who admitted that he was the Hinterkaifeck killer. Josef’s father – Josef’s mother Viktoria claimed that Lorenz Schlittenbauer was the father, and Lorenz constantly changed his story on whether he believed this to be true. Shortly before her murder, Viktoria was planning to sue Schlittenbauer for child payments. Lorenz was also one of the members of the initial search party, and he reportedly moved the bodies around, and was in no way upset by the situation, even when he handled the corpses. Other members of the search party report that while they were objecting to him moving the bodies, he was saying that he needed to find ‘his boy’. Perhaps he wanted to remove or contaminate any evidence. However, why would Schlittenbauer move the bodies to hide evidence in front of witnesses, when the killer had plenty of time to do so when they stayed in the house following the murders? The Hinterkaifeck murders will probably never be solved. The Munich Police have re-opened the case twice following the lack of clues which had led to the initial closure. The farm itself is no longer there, and all that remains is a monument.
Who do you think was the murderer?
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Morose (3)
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The Old Man and the Sea (6)
15.
Egg egress (5)
19.
Hannibal’s nemesis (6)
18.
Maiden name (3)
20.
Afternoon –, English tradition (3)
19.
Therefore (2)
21.
Sherwood Forest outlaw (4)
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Data storage (2)
1.
Join Merton Public Libraries
Use this fantastic opportunity to download your own personal apps for ebooks, audiobooks, digital magazines and so much more. We can create a public library card and account for you even if you do not live in Merton! Ask the librarians for info.
Author’s visit for World Book Day (2nd March)
In conversation with‌ Sarah Mussi Join brilliant teen author Sarah Mussi at lunchtime in the library for an information Q&A session. From the publishing process to the writing experience, discover the behind-the-scenes of authorship. Buffet lunch provided.
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