The Real Mason Verger:
The Man Who Fed His Face to the Dogs
By
This case
was presented at the
Mason Verger was a fictional character in the novel “
This scenario was literarily taken right
out of my textbook entitled, Practical Homicide Investigation: Tactics, Procedures and
Forensic Techniques 2nd, 3rd and 4th editions,
by Mr. Harris without acknowledgement or citation of source and is actually
based on a case that the author investigated as a commander in the NYPD.
It was one of the most Bizarre Self-Mutilations that the author has
ever seen. It concerned a young man named Michael who was high on PCP “Angel
Dust”, which is phencyclidine. PCP is a powerful psychedelic and anesthetic
drug known for its dissociative effects at higher doses. It is also associated
with the strange and sometimes violent behaviors of people under its influence.
Self-Mutilation,
Self-Injury, Self-Harm
The deliberate injury inflicted by a person upon
their own body without suicidal intent.
The illness is listed in the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) as a symptom of borderline
personality disorder and depressive disorders.
Cutting one's skin with razors or knives is the most common pattern of
self-mutilation.
Deviant pathological self-mutilation is the deliberate
alteration or destruction of body tissue without conscious suicidal intent. Major self-mutilation can be found in persons who are extremely
intoxicated or psychotic.
The Subject Michael
While under the influence of the PCP, Michael had
taken his clothes off at a woman’s apartment.
He began to act
strange and was quote unquote “talking nonsense.” PCP gives a feeling of being disconnected from
one's body and environment.
PCP has potent effects on the nervous system,
altering perceptual functions (hallucinations, delusional ideas, delirium
and/or confused thinking. The
drug has been known to alter mood states in an unpredictable fashion, causing
some individuals to become detached, and others to become animated. Intoxicated
individuals may act in an unpredictable fashion, driven by their delusions or
hallucinations. Included in the portfolio of behavioral disturbances are acts
of self-injury including suicide, and attacks on others or destruction of
property.
After his actions with the woman in the
apartment, another male neighbor asked him to leave and help direct him back to
his basement apartment.
Michael apparently continued to use the PCP,
which obviously induced a psychotic state.
There was evidence that he had smashed a mirror, which he then used to
mutilate himself. The analgesic properties of the drug can cause users to feel less pain
and persist in violent or injurious acts. Our investigation revealed that Michael had literally peeled off his face
and fed it to the dogs that were in the basement. He gouged out one of his eyes
with a piece of glass from the mirror that he had smashed.
THE
INVESTIGATION
The investigation began with simultaneous calls
from
The Crime Scene had been secured by the Patrol
Sergeant, who reported that they had also locked some dogs in a back room of
the basement.
Detectives were able to determine that the actual
cutting took place in the living room area, specifically on a reclining leather
chair. There was blood soaked into the
chair and pieces of a smashed mirror on the floor with blood drops as well as
bloody fingerprints.
One shard of mirror glass had been used by the
victim to peel his face and had a partial print on it. These fingerprints were matched to the
victim’s prints, which were on file from previous drug arrests.
Examination of the crime scene revealed that
after the victim had peeled his face, he had apparently laid down on the
basement floor with the three dogs.
Detectives located the dog’s owner who gave them permission to remove
the dogs to A.S.P.C.A. for forensic examination.
The author contacted The ASPCA and requested to
have a doctor available to examine the adult female German shepherd and the two
puppies. The veterinarian induced
vomiting, which resulted in the recovery of human tissue consisting of pieces
of the victim’s lips, skin, and nose.
Investigation at the
Hospital
The investigation continued at the hospital. The
Emergency Room was filled with doctors and nurses attending to the mutilated
victim. The man’s face had been wrapped
with moistened gauze strips and the medical personnel were administering an IV
as he was being monitored.
Detectives photographed the victim and his
injuries and informed the Emergency Room doctors of what had transpired at the
scene as well as the medical operations at A.S.P.C.A. Detectives noticed that the victim had gouged
out one eye and the other eyeball was sitting on his face like a Cyclops. The detectives had brought the pieces of
flesh that the A.S.P.C.A doctor had removed from the dog’s stomachs to the
Emergency Room. However, these materials
were in no condition for grafting.
Detectives advised the doctors that they would
try to get a statement from the subject in their presence. The doctors were
requested to remove the gauze from the victim’s mouth so that the subject could
attempt to talk. As one of the detectives got real close to him, he spoke into
the subject’s ear. “What happened to you”? Suddenly,
he began to mumble and then shout “AYAH, AYAH, AYAH, AYAH, AYAH over and over
again with his mouth and teeth opening and closing like a mechanical box.
The Medical Aspects
The man had actually survived even though he had peeled his
face from his skull. Apparently, the PCP had provided the victim with an anesthetizing effect during his
self-mutilation. However, the amount of
drugs he had ingested had also damaged his brain function. He became a “Ward of the State.” He also became the plastic surgeon’s
nightmare and major project as doctors began to implement reconstructive
surgery using a pectoral flap procedure.
The pectoral (chest) muscle is removed and
implanted at another site on the victim’s body.
The surgeons leave the artery and veins intact. The muscle is then
“flapped” to the site and sewn into place where it eventually grows a new blood
supply. Michael had two pectoral flaps done one from each side of his chest to each side
of his face. Once the muscles were established in their new location the
surgeons would cut and revise the grafts to create a new face for the subject.
Apparently Art Does Imitate Life.
When Thomas Harris’ book “
The character and story had obviously been taken
from Practical Homicide Investigation: Tactics, Procedures and Forensic
Techniques. CRC Press, LLC.
The author contacted Mr. Harris and requested an
explanation for this obvious plagiarism. “Your character Mason Verger, who fed
his face to the dogs is from an actual case from my textbook, which falls under
U.S. Copyright Laws. Please be assured
that this letter is not a prelude to some sort of legal action, But a request
that you properly acknowledge a published work. The caveat that…”Any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, events, or locals is entirely coincidental,” is a bit
disingenuous to say the least in relation to your character Mason Verger.
His response was
Dear Mr. Geberth,
“Thank you for your letter, which I received
yesterday. I have asked my publisher to
cite your excellent book in the acknowledgements of
Sincerely,
Thomas Harris.”
The Saga
Continues
The Issue is still not resolved according to some self-appointed experts.
Snopes.com web posting. http://www.snopes.com/horrors/drugs/facepeel.asp
“We’re not going to claim that the photograph ands its explanation is all
phony, but some of the details sound a bit odd to us.” The web site then goes
on to describe an account of this incident from a 1989 book written by a Dr.
Joseph Sacco, who described his own version of events.
“A man smoked dust one day and then surprised
his friends by politely excusing himself to the bathroom brining along his two
Doberman pinschers.” “In the bathroom he removed a straightedge razor, cut off
his own facial features one by one and fed them to his dogs.” He emerged from
his bathroom with no ears, nose, eyelids, lips or cheeks and two happy looking
dogs.” “The man lost face, the surgeons tried to save face.”
Dr. Joseph Sacco wrote a novel entitled, “Morphine, Ice Cream and Tears: Tales of a
In the author’s opinion, it is quite apparent that Dr. Sacco was aware of
this bizarre case. After all it was the talk of the Hospital. However, it is even more apparent that Dr.
Sacco, who was probably one of the many attending interns, was not even
remotely aware of the Facts of the Case or the police investigation.
His account of the event is completely erroneous and without Basis in
Fact. Sacco’s book was biographical in
nature and his inclusion of this event was an obvious attempt at humor to
illustrate the trials and tribulations of Big City ER work.
Snopes.com Web Site
Posting
“Some of the details differ between the two versions For Example “The
victim using broken pieces of mirror vs. a straightedge razor.” And it sounds
as if BOTH of the people quoted may not have been directly involved in the case
but were instead reporting second-hand information.
Given this and some other incongruities of the story, were not quite
ready to put it in the “True” column yet.”
More Misinformation
A reader sent me this picture (warning: it is very gruesome!) and
proposed that it was the inspiration for Mason Verger. I cannot verify that
claim because I don't know where the picture came from. It's just as likely that "
I forwarded the picture to my brother who is a doctor, and he said that
the caption was not written by medical people.
My brother the doctor said that the story is extremely unlikely… and that
he believed the man's face was most likely blown off by a shotgun or some other
kind of blast.
Yahoo Web Site Posting http://hannibal.hannotations.com/mason.html
“I have found the source of this
picture. It's in Practical Homicide Investigation by Vernon J. Geberth, a retired
Lieutenant Commander of the NYPD. The captions are essentially the same but in
his book, Geberth says that he was the one who directed the veterinarians to
pump the dog’s stomachs. Harris mentions
Geberth's book in the acknowledgements to the paperback version of
Conclusion
In any event, the presentation I conducted at the
LEARNING OBJECTIVE:
After attending this presentation the attendees will
appreciate the impact of an overdose of hallucinatory drugs. This overdose resulted in a bizarre and
unique case of self-mutilation involving a man under the influence of PCP. The
goal of this presentation is to present to the members of the forensic
community a bizarre and unique case of self-mutilation involving a man under
the influence of PCP. The man literally
sliced off his entire face with pieces of broken mirror and fed the flesh to
the dogs. The man survived due to the analgesic properties of the drug phencyclidine, which can cause users to feel less pain, as well as the excellent medical care he
received which included facial reconstruction using a pectoral flap procedure.
IMPACT STATEMENT:
This presentation will impact the forensic community by examining
this highly unusual case and demonstrate the need to conduct a complete and
thorough investigation to ascertain the entirety of the circumstances
surrounding such a bizarre event. The
principle of taking each point to its logical conclusion proved invaluable when
unexpectedly this self-mutilation became a theme in an award winning Hollywood
movie entitled, “
KEYWORDS: Drug induced Self-Mutilation, PCP, Crime Scene Investigation and
Sources:
AAFS Proceedings Annual Scientific Meeting Denver, Colorado February
16-21, 2009 pages 22-23. This material is U.S. Copyright 2009 by AAFS.
Geberth,
Geberth,
Geberth,
Harris, Thomas.
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/drugs/facepeel.asp
Sacco, Joseph M.D. Morphine, Ice Cream
and Tears: Tales of a