The Blisland Massacre: A New Beast of Bodmin?

How to start the first post of a new blog?

This is something I’ve never attempted before, and its passing is made all the more difficult by the fact that I am literally trembling with rage.  I started this blog to talk about the news story, published on the BBC website, regarding the Blisland Massacre that occurred across Saturday the 5th and Sunday the 6th of August 2009. Not only do I want to discuss the events of this truly horrifying episode, but I’ve also got to rant about what details were released on the somewhat bizzare aftermath, as well as the reporting – and aspersions cast therein – of the Blisland Massacre as a whole.

Blisland?

Blisland is – was- an idyllic Cornwall village situated about 5-6 miles North of Bodmin and right on the cusp of Bodmin Moor. A map can be found here. To find Blisland you’ll need zoom in on Bodmin a couple of clicks and then look to the north. In case you’re unfamiliar with the Bodmin region, the area has made the national news before with reports of the phantasmal Beast of Bodmin Moor.

Blisland itself is a small village with a population of about 600 souls. It boasts a large village green and an ancient Norman Church dedicated to the saints Protus and Hyacinth. If you were to conjure an image of a small, rural English village then you would probably produce an image not far from the reality of Blisland.

The Blisland Massacre.

So what happened at Blisland? How did so many people die and how was the slaughter allowed to go on for almost 36 straight hours?

Response

At about 1pm on Saturday the 5th of September, the Bodmin police station started receiving wild and desperate phone calls. The recordings of these calls have so far been withheld from the public “pending internal investigation”. A single recording was played for a few members of the press. Though an embargo is currently in place regarding the exact nature of the content, the press have been allowed to describe aspects of it:

“The call was made by a mother in obvious distress,” reports the BBC. “Her voice is hushed but hysterical as she makes repeated pleas to send help. A barely audible argument is taking place in the background and the stifled crying of a nearby infant  – assumed hers-  can be heard throughout the 18 second duration of the recording. She failed to give either her name or the address to the operator before the line went dead.”

A Village in Ruin

When policemen from Exeter finally arrived at 9:44pm the next day, they found “horrifying scenes of devastation” and “brutal [...] mass murder.” Over 100 “bodies in varying states of decomposition” were discovered bearing “multiple wounds, many of which …[suggest]… savagery beyond comprehension,” including “several cases of total dismemberment.” Many of the bodies were found around of the Methodist church, and much of those within the building itself, which had been “transformed into an abattoir”. Many bodies were discovered on the green and the area surrounding the hotel. One particularly “grisly tableaux” was to be found within a home on the cul de sac of Plash Meadow.

“The door was found forced from its frame and several windows smashed from the outside. Five bodies, thought to have died variously from blunt force trauma and blood loss, were found locked in the living room, with furniture used to barricade the door and the broken window… hazardous material outfits were required to explore the first floor and the attic, such was the nature of the deceased. Details are sparse, but Sgt. Collings of the forensic department had the following to say:

“I can confirm that the remains of eighteen individuals have been confirmed so far, of which, six have been positively identified as belonging to the residents, the Horley Family. We suspect that other residents had taken shelter there with them, but I’m afraid I can confirm nothing as yet.”

“The Horley family, Robert (40), Anne (41), Edward (11), Cara (11), Michael (7) and Lydia (4 months), were well known and loved within the community and will be sorely grieved.”

Of the 100+ bodies recovered only 40 to 50 of them were were found around the general village. The “majority” were found in the grounds of the norman church. “Of the thirty eight bodies found in the grave yard and around the church, thirty one have been confirmed as residents of Blisland”. Of the “thirteen found within the building,” which were chillingly used to barricade the door, “one has been confirmed as a resident”. 52 people were found inside “visibly shaken, but otherwise unharmed.”  They had nothing to say to either the police or the BBC’s correspondent.

Outside the Village

In a further twist, a short way outside of Blisland are two prehistoric stone circles, the Trippet and the Stripple stones. Arranged on and within these circles were more bodies, reports suggest a number between 20 and 30, as well as “evidence of direct conflict” and ” the tracks of several vehicles heading towards Blisland.”

And finally…

“…though the prevalence of bodies around the churches and the standing stones could suggest cult activity, perhaps drawing on and perverting the rich druidic traditions inherent to Cornwall. The Police, who refused to comment, have seized a farm in the nearby Hawkstor Downs area belonging to Terrence Gauld, a hermit and alleged pariah surrounded by much rumour. His body was amongst those found on the Blisland village green.”

You can find the full story on the BBC website. The article in question resides at this address: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/8239734.stm

Rant Time.

Oh bravo, BBC. Bravo indeed. I mean, druids? You bring druids into this just because it’s in Cornwall? I have to point out that this is in no way characteristic of the BBC. Unlike in America, where news readers have been known to openly laud their bias, the BBC tends to do a fantastic job of delivering stories in a stirring but objective fashion. To slip up now, in the midst of the most horrendous event to take place in England for generations, is outright unforgivable. The BBC is perhaps the largest and most trusted news network in our country -a benchmark of uncensored honesty- if they put druids anywhere near the Blisland Massacre, people are going to listen, they are going to wonder and they will convince themselves that that’s how it happened; that the druids did it.

I won’t pretend to be a great fan of druids, nor any neo-paganistic religion. Personally I’m a firm believer that anyone who wants to follow a thoroughly romanticised ideal of a long extinct religion, which was wholly spoken in tradition and thus died with the last of its adepts centuries ago, is a complete, unquestionable twat. But, and there is a massive but, they’re a twat with the best intentions. While I openly mock the practises of neo-pagan religions, I tend to agree with the ideals at their core. To in any way attach, however tenuously, druidism – who basically just want health and happiness to all and the world in which they live, to something like Blisland -the diametric opposite- is a fucking travesty and the BBC should be ashamed of themselves. Besides, while evidence links ancient druids to human sacrifice, there is nothing to suggest they approached anything like this scale, nor that they needlessly handled the bodies afterwards, so why would they leave corpses “in varying states of decomposition” scattered around a village?

Where were the Police?

Did you notice? The Bodmin police received the distress call in the early afternoon on the Saturday but it was the Exeter police that showed up almost 36 hours later. What the hell? Just how the hell did that happen? Exeter has got to be a good 45 miles from Blisland whereas Bodmin is a mere 5. Where were Bodmin? Alright, so the situation lead to over a hundred corpses, but even a small, fast responding police presence may have prevented some of them. Even if you take Bodmin out of the equation, there must be several police stations within a 10 mile radius, not to mention the city of Plymouth within 20. So why Exeter? And why did it take so long. The 45 miles between Exeter and Blisland could be navigated in 3 hours at the very worst.

Secondly, why are the recordings of Blisland’s emergency calls being so tightly controlled. Is the “internal investigation” surrounding them something to do with the poor response time or has something more questionable taken place. It’s unlike the police to hold back this much, and completely unlike our press to let such unexplained control of information go unpunished.

WTF!?!

Forgetting everything else for a moment. Someone, for whatever reason, has been collecting corpses, for a while by the sounds of it, only to transport them all into a small Cornish village, scatter them about the place, and then proceeded to slay the residents of that village. WHAT THE FUCK? How? Why? What possesses someone, because I can’t imagine more than one person would be twisted enough to do this, to do something like this? How broken of mind do you have to be?

Well, the little word count jobby at the bottom of my page is telling me I’ve rambled on for over 1500 words. There’s still so much to talk about, Terrence Gauld, what happened in the stone circles and why 400 people cowered in the village hall instead of fighting (details in the BBC’s full report) to name but a few. But this is a blog, and there’s plenty of days in which to talk about the details. It’s early yet so I’m not going to suggest any sort of cover up… but somethng is definitely amiss.

Taz