After a fierce bidding war the Killville Historical
Museum Of The Strange has acquired a plaster dental impression of infamous
western Massachusetts cannibal Charles "Choppers" McGee. The mold
was taken on the eve of Choppers' 1893 execution and is believed to be one
of only three in existence.
Charles McGee was found guilty of 14 murders that occurred at the end of the
nineteenth century. He was the prime suspect in over twenty more, but due
to a lack of evidence and a lack of remains, these murder/disappearances remain
unsolved
McGee's real teeth along with the rest of him were cremated and carted off
to the local pig farm for slop seasoning so these impressions are all that
remain of the "Cummington Cannibal".
McGee, a civil war veteran had been a prisoner of war at Andersonville Prison
Camp in Georgia where it is estimated that between that nearly 13,000 of the
45,000 men who entered it's gates, died of starvation and disease.
But McGee did not starve. It is thought that
this is where he first developed his taste for human flesh out of necessity
and most likely it was also the place where he went quite mad.
He came home in 1865 and retired to the family farm in the hills.
He led a hermit-like existence, coming to town
occasionally for supplies and no one paid too much attention to him until
a gruesome trail of human remains led authorities to his farm in the fall
of 1892. The subsequent trial was a sensation, drawing reporters from as far
as Europe. McGee was quickly found guilty and sentenced to death. The public
understandably wanted swift retribution and the sentence was carried out in
due haste. Whatever happened to the twenty other victims and wherever their
bodies might lie will never be known. McGee took those secrets to the grave.
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