Four months ago I found and wrote about this article, in which a family clinging desperately to their past fights to get back the mummified baby that is so rightfully theirs. Now, the story concludes...
Judge Orders New Hampshire Man to Bury Mummy Baby Heirloom
CONCORD, N.H. — A judge has ordered a New Hampshire man to lay an unusual family heirloom to rest: a mummified baby that has been passed down for generations.
Judge Richard Hampe said the baby known as "Baby John" belonging to Charles Peavey's family must be buried because there is no DNA evidence proving kinship.
Peavey said Wednesday his family is disappointed, but will not appeal the decision.
"I'm just washing my hands of it," Peavey told the Concord Monitor for its Thursday editions. "I'm disappointed it came to this."
The mummy had been on display on a bureau in Peavey's home until police confiscated Baby John last year. Relatives and friends treated the desiccated infant as a family member, giving it cards during holidays and a dried fish as a pet. Authorities learned of the mummy's existence after Peavey's niece mentioned to day care staffers that her uncle kept a dead baby at his house.
Peavey said his family believes the mummy is the stillborn child of a great-great uncle.
Testing by the state concluded the baby died of natural causes shortly after its birth and confirmed the remains were decades old, but did not determine the mummy's age or origin. Peavey said he cannot afford DNA testing and the state will not release the remains unless there is proof of a family relationship.
"It's one of the few things from our family past that we have left," Peavey had written in a petition to the court. "And when I pass on, I was looking forward to passing it on to another family member, to keep some of the history for future family members."
In court, prosecutor Richard Head raised concerns about the family's treatment of the mummy if it were returned, pointing to Peavey's page on the social networking site MySpace that opens with the "The Addams Family" theme song and makes joking references to Baby John, including a photo of a small crypt and a suggestion that it may hold the remains of Baby John's sister.
Peavey said the page was created as a joke by his niece and he was going to ask her to take it down.
"I do not think this is a joke. I've never treated him like a joke. No weirdness was going on," he said.
Yep! That's it for Baby John! And what a startling conclusion! This latest and hopefully last article drops three bombshells:
1. They gave it greeting cards. Hallmark is finally making Mummified Baby's First Birthday cards. Or maybe they got Baby John American Greetings cards, not like he's going to turn the card over and check.
2. They gave Baby John a little dried fish as a pet. I would bet money the littlest Peavey will author a children's book about the Adventures of Baby John and Cactus, The Dried Fish under a pseudonym in 2037.
3. MySpace page. Addams Family theme. Baby John's sister. There's something Bashir-interview-Michael Jackson-esque about Peavey's assertion that "no weirdness was going on" despite the previous two facts.
God rest you little soul Baby John. You've earned it.
Showing posts with label Dead. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dead. Show all posts
6/1/07
Sometimes I love my job...
This week I took over doing my work's daily human interest...thing...from Todd. It involves going through various sights of varying degrees of credibility and finding stories that are just too gosh-darn-cute to resist. Oldest couple to bungee jump, longest nipple hair, talking horses, you get the idea. Today I came across one of the most amazing stories I've ever read. I tried to sneak it into the human interest mailer but, alas, stories with headlines like this one don't qualify as cute.
N.H. Man Seeks Return Of Mummified Baby
Man Says Remains Have Been With Family For Decades
CONCORD, N.H. -- A New Hampshire man is fighting state law to get back a mummified baby he said is a family heirloom.
Charles Peavey, of Concord, said that the mummy, named Baby John, has been in his family for decades.
"He was in our family for 90-plus years, and now we have to fight for something that's truly ours," Peavey said.
Concord police took the corpse a year ago after a woman reported hearing someone talking about a dead baby. Police said they were uncertain who the child was or how it died. Lab tests recently came back.
"It's believed to be a male child and very young, possibly a stillborn or a newborn," Detective Julie Curtin said.
Peavey said that there is nothing to prove that the baby is related to him, but he's taking his fight to get it back to court. He said that family folklore holds that his great-great-uncle had an affair with a woman who died in childbirth, and the mummy is their child who died.
"My entire family is behind me 100 percent," Peavey said.
On Thursday, Peavey paid $150 to file a petition to have a judge rule on the case.
"I've been collecting silver since I was 15 years old, and it was to go to my niece, Jennifer," Peavey said. "And she said, 'Just sell the silver. I'd rather have John.'"
His niece, Jennifer Arizmendi, said that she was next in line to get the mummified baby. She said she's just as committed to getting it back.
"They've taken something away that they don't have a right to take away," she said. "Regardless if he's blood-related or not, he's been in our family. He's been passed down."
If Peavey doesn't get the body back, he can have it buried, and a cemetery has offered to bury the baby for free.
Where. To. Begin?
There's a picture here, if you want to.
The guy's name is Peavey, which rhymes with skeevy which is just what this story is. Aside from awkward laughter (which I've had all day when thinking about this story), this is straight up grody.
The grodiness comes from the fact that they aren't even sure if it is their relative. This allegiance to a mummified newborn comes soley from family tradition. My family has a football game every Christmas called The Hoppage Bowl (named after my great-grandmother). This family has a mummified baby corpse named Baby John. Baby. John. So this just flat out says that this nut bag family knows exactly what they have. "What? We thought that was an old chicken!" Nope, can't use that argument. It's in the name. Baby John. And, of course, Baby John has his own folklore. Of course! I guess they had to rationalize keeping a mummified baby around for 90 years and "looks good next to the deer head" wasn't cutting it.
Now, one has to wonder, if it's an heirloom that surely (SURELY) never leaves the house, how did someone find out about it? Because a woman overheard the family talking about their dead baby. Wow. So not only do they keep this lil' bugger around ninety years after...ugh...they talk about it! "How's Little John today?" "Oh, you know, same ol' same ol'! I swear, that is one lazy baby corpse!" What?! If you are stupid enough to keep a mummified baby as an heirloom, stupid enough to name it, then you are stupid enough to brag about it in public.
Lastly, I admire (?) the sick devotion the family has towards Baby John. I mean, the niece was next in line to get the dead baby and is (rightfully?) pissed that she won't get to join in on the fun of having a tiny carcass as a conversation piece on the coffee table. She said "just sell the silver. I'd rather have John." Just sell the silver (silver, really, these people are pirates) that can buy you, uh, I dunno, things that are alive or can keep you alive. I'd rather have....Baby John. The Peavey's need their own reality show, stat. Or at least an episode of Cribs.
If a dead baby is what they brag about, who knows what they keep hidden in the basement.
N.H. Man Seeks Return Of Mummified Baby
Man Says Remains Have Been With Family For Decades
CONCORD, N.H. -- A New Hampshire man is fighting state law to get back a mummified baby he said is a family heirloom.
Charles Peavey, of Concord, said that the mummy, named Baby John, has been in his family for decades.
"He was in our family for 90-plus years, and now we have to fight for something that's truly ours," Peavey said.
Concord police took the corpse a year ago after a woman reported hearing someone talking about a dead baby. Police said they were uncertain who the child was or how it died. Lab tests recently came back.
"It's believed to be a male child and very young, possibly a stillborn or a newborn," Detective Julie Curtin said.
Peavey said that there is nothing to prove that the baby is related to him, but he's taking his fight to get it back to court. He said that family folklore holds that his great-great-uncle had an affair with a woman who died in childbirth, and the mummy is their child who died.
"My entire family is behind me 100 percent," Peavey said.
On Thursday, Peavey paid $150 to file a petition to have a judge rule on the case.
"I've been collecting silver since I was 15 years old, and it was to go to my niece, Jennifer," Peavey said. "And she said, 'Just sell the silver. I'd rather have John.'"
His niece, Jennifer Arizmendi, said that she was next in line to get the mummified baby. She said she's just as committed to getting it back.
"They've taken something away that they don't have a right to take away," she said. "Regardless if he's blood-related or not, he's been in our family. He's been passed down."
If Peavey doesn't get the body back, he can have it buried, and a cemetery has offered to bury the baby for free.
Where. To. Begin?
There's a picture here, if you want to.
The guy's name is Peavey, which rhymes with skeevy which is just what this story is. Aside from awkward laughter (which I've had all day when thinking about this story), this is straight up grody.
The grodiness comes from the fact that they aren't even sure if it is their relative. This allegiance to a mummified newborn comes soley from family tradition. My family has a football game every Christmas called The Hoppage Bowl (named after my great-grandmother). This family has a mummified baby corpse named Baby John. Baby. John. So this just flat out says that this nut bag family knows exactly what they have. "What? We thought that was an old chicken!" Nope, can't use that argument. It's in the name. Baby John. And, of course, Baby John has his own folklore. Of course! I guess they had to rationalize keeping a mummified baby around for 90 years and "looks good next to the deer head" wasn't cutting it.
Now, one has to wonder, if it's an heirloom that surely (SURELY) never leaves the house, how did someone find out about it? Because a woman overheard the family talking about their dead baby. Wow. So not only do they keep this lil' bugger around ninety years after...ugh...they talk about it! "How's Little John today?" "Oh, you know, same ol' same ol'! I swear, that is one lazy baby corpse!" What?! If you are stupid enough to keep a mummified baby as an heirloom, stupid enough to name it, then you are stupid enough to brag about it in public.
Lastly, I admire (?) the sick devotion the family has towards Baby John. I mean, the niece was next in line to get the dead baby and is (rightfully?) pissed that she won't get to join in on the fun of having a tiny carcass as a conversation piece on the coffee table. She said "just sell the silver. I'd rather have John." Just sell the silver (silver, really, these people are pirates) that can buy you, uh, I dunno, things that are alive or can keep you alive. I'd rather have....Baby John. The Peavey's need their own reality show, stat. Or at least an episode of Cribs.
If a dead baby is what they brag about, who knows what they keep hidden in the basement.
5/28/07
Memorial Day
I didn't even know. I didn't even know that one of my heroes died on Friday. Where have I been? More importantly, why wasn't his death everywhere, making it impossible to miss? What's going on? He died on Friday. Friday!
Charles Nelson Reilly is one of my heroes. You can see his face on my myspace page under the "heroes" section. You can see me dressed like him here. You can visit the cheap webpage I made for him as part of a computer class four years ago here. I can't express how important that man was to me. Ask me about it in person, maybe I can elaborate.
Chuck (as I call him, lovingly) was born in the Brox. I've been to the Bronx a couple times and I'm surprised I survived the experiences. I was always amazed that Chuck survived growing up there, but I'm sure the hardships are what helped form his insane sense of humor. That sense of humor was always on display on Match Game (albeit helped by a couple bottles of various liquors), a show that I came to love and be obsessed with a couple years ago. Chuck's honesty, charisma, and ability to be himself in the 1970s is something I admire. He really didn't let societies hang ups get to him. Of course, it didn't hurt that he was sitting above a raging sexaholic (Richard Dawson) and a host who could never hold his booze. Compared to them and his Flaming Contemporary Paul Lynde (who may or may not have died in bed with a male prostitute after using nasal stimulants), Chuck was a supremely classy guy. Actually, compared to most everyone, he was a supremely classy guy. Chuck's life was filled with blanks, wigs, and ascots, and I think the world of 1970s TV was a better place because of it. He is survived by Patrick Hughes, his partner of 27 years. Twenty seven years.I'm gonna miss you, Chuck.
2/9/07
Rosie's foot tastes like buffalo wings.
It must because she just keeps putting the ranch on it and biting down. Mmm-mmm! Yesterday, a couple hours before The World Changed, Rosie did her usual ranting and raving on The View. She had some fun things to say about Anna Nicole.Oops!
The View was a rerun today but Rosie posted the following on her blog.
Loose Change
CLAIM: SMITH CHOKED ON HER OWN VOMIT…
CBS: Investigators found illegal narcotics, prescription meds in room…Mother Blames Drugs…
Lawyer vows no DNA sample…
Battle Over $1.6 Billion Fortune Brewing…
Autopsy to Be Performed…
She Died Like Marilyn…
Timeline…
Final Footage Sells for Over $500,000…
*VIDEO…
Rosie Rants On Anna Nicole — Hours Before Her Death…
LOOSE CHANGE
Yep.
2/8/07
TrimSpa
Anna Nicole Smith is dead. I first saw this on wikipedia, CNN, and then on Perez Hilton. Perez has a series of posts about it, chronicling minute-by-minute her journey from collapse to hospital to heaven (?). I won't be doing my TrimSpa commercial impersonation for a while out of respect.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
