Inkwell | The Horror Issue | October 2019

Inkwell ANNIE WRIGHT UPPER SCHOOL

E H T

October 2019

UE ISS

R O H RO

The The

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Letter from the editors Everyone shares the sensation of being scared, whether from a scary movie or a near-death experience. Investigating this sensation and related themes is the essence of our Horror Issue, for as we approach October 31, references to fear and horror are increasingly present in entertainment and American culture as a whole.

This issue explores the different implications of the word horror and its application to politics, psychology, celebration and Annie Wright. Articles in this issue go in depth into the local serial killers Ted Bundy and John Allen Muhammad, deadly diseases, the psychology of fear, and superstitions.

Last minute costume ideas, scary movie and book reviews, the spade's black tie tradition, infographics on teen deaths and the legend of the Annie Wright ghost round out this issue. Enjoy!

ANNIE WRIGHT UPPER SCHOOL

Inkwell OCTOBER 2019

827 North Tacoma Avenue Tacoma, WA 98403 inkwell@aw.org | 253-272-2216 Issue 1 | Volume 58 EDITOR IN CHIEF Abby Givens PRINT EDITOR YoungSeo Jo ONLINE EDITOR Julia Henning ARTS & ENVIORNMENT EDITOR Gabrielle Krieger

Abby Givens Editor-in-Chief

NEWS EDITOR Jade Cheatham

YoungSeo Jo Print Editor

SPORTS EDITOR Kaitlin Tan OPINIONS EDITOR Samantha Salamone REPORTERS Parker Briggs Sebastian Bush Lauren Cook Reagan Easter Emily Simons Laney Sneva

Cover Art By Claire Noh Senior Claire Noh enjoys painting and is currently exploring different media such as digital and 3D art. She intends to pursue art as a career, specifically with movies and animation. She enjoys horror and says that she “loves the creativity and imagination that surrounds the topic as a whole," and has "always been fascinated by every aspect of it.�

Inkwell aims to provide the Annie Wright community with dependable and engaging coverage of school, community and global topics. Inkwell publishes articles of all genres weekly at anniewrightinkwell.org as well as four themed magazines during the course of the school year. Submissions of articles and photographs, correction requests and signed letters to the editor are most welcome.

Please email the editors at inkwell@ aw.org. All published submissions will receive credits and bylines.

anniewrightinkwell.org

Contents

Pumpkins decorated by Hydra dorm group. Photo by YoungSeo Jo.

Your neighbor Ted Bundy Yelm's dark side Terror from Tacoma The curious origins of superstitions What makes a psychopath?

Roll into Halloween with style

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The ghost of Annie Wright Is she real?

by Jade Cheatham The ghost of Annie Wright, the daughter of our founder and namesake of our school, has been an enduring legend for decades.

A light flicker? Probably the ghost. But is it real? Senior Claire Noh believes it is and claims she has seen it for herself.

It was the beginning of her sophomore year. Claire left her room to get some water, and there it was. “I remember seeing it in the hallway in the dorms,” Claire said. She described it as a tall dark figure completely still at the end of the hall. Later she said she saw it in her room near the closet, once again not moving.

Claire also said that she's heard the ghost at night. “In the room next to me someone would be talking all night, and we thought that it was Amethyst who lived in the room next door to us, but then one weekend we heard it, but Amethyst was a five day border so it couldn’t have been her,” Claire said.

So is the ghost real? Send Inkwell details of your Annie Wright ghost sightings at inkwell@aw.org.

This portrait of Annie Wright hangs above the front staircase.

Photo by Jade Cheatham.

Thirteen Minutes a short horror story by Lu Henry-Mitchell from Annie Writers 2

A man wakes up alone on an empty ferry.

His stopwatch reads 13 minutes...and it starts to count down. Visit anniewrightinkwell.org to read the chilling short story.

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3 Spilling salt and the number 13 are considered bad luck.

Both superstitions have roots dating back to the last supper. Photo by Gabrielle Krieger.

Friday the 13th, a date that has been long deemed unlucky, took place in 2019 during a full moon for the first time in 13 years. Only 5 of 18 surveyed students from the Upper School for Girls, however, said they believed in the superstitions surrounding Friday the 13th.

While the exact origin of Friday the 13th’s bad luck is unknown, there are many speculations.

One theory about the number 13 is that it’s unlucky because there were 13 people at the table during the last supper. The bad luck surrounding 13 is also thought to date back to Norse mythology when Loki crashed a dinner of 12 people (making him the 13th guest) and shot Balder, the god of joy and happiness.

Friday was thought to be the day of three major biblical events: the day Jesus was crucified, the day Cain killed Abel, and the day Eve gave Adam the apple.

it’s thought that hundreds of the French Knights of Templar, an order put together to protect Europeans traveling to the Holy Land, were arrested and tortured into falsely confessing to crimes. Years later, they were burned alive.

There have been numerous other tragic events that took place on Friday the 13th.

On Friday the 13th, 1972, a plane crashed in the Andes. The survivors of the crash had to resort to cannibalism to survive.

Another unfortunate event took place Friday the 13th, 2010, at 13:13, when a 13-year-old boy was struck by lightning in the UK. Natural disasters and anomalies have also taken place on Friday the 13th. Some of these include the Black Friday Bushfires in Australia, an unusually timed blizzard in New York, and the Bhola Cyclone in India and Bangladesh.

A quick history of Friday the 13th

by Gabrielle Krieger

Another alleged origin dates back to Friday the 13th, 1307, when

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Halloween around the world

by Laney Sneva

Jack-O-Lanterns and witches are a hallmark of Halloween in America, but this tradition varies in different cultures. Illustration by Michelle Foster.

Cultures around the world have their own take on Halloween. Some celebrate other holidays that are often mistakenly associated with Halloween. Here are examples from four countries.

United Kingdom

Halloween is not as widely celebrated in the UK as it is in America. Trick or Treating is not very popular, and Halloween decor outside of houses is kept to a minimum. An event called “Guy Fawkes Day” (held on November 5) has been more popular than Halloween. This event has its roots in Catholicism in the 17th century, and the failed Gunpowder Plot, which was an attempt to blow up the Parliament by the Roman Catholics in 1605. Lately, however, Halloween has become more prominent.

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Australia

In Australia, people celebrate Halloween much like we do here, only it isn’t as popular. They still consider it an “American thing,” and because not everybody participates, those who have treats (or tricks) place an orange balloon at their doors. One major difference is that only kids dress up in Australia, whereas in the United States even adults dress up in costumes and go to parties.

In addition, Australians avoid the scary, ghoulish part of Halloween and focus more on having fun with costumes.

China

Although Halloween is not celebrated in China, there are multiple Halloweenlike celebrations and holidays. In the Chinese Lunar calendar, the 7th month is called “Ghost Month” because of the belief that ghosts are traveling around

the country. People avoid doing activities that could be dangerous, like being alone at night, because it is believed that the ghosts are active. On the last day of this month some people burn paper money or clothes for the ghosts to use when they return to their society, and others light lanterns and float them on a river to guide the ghosts back. A less ghoulish tradition is “The Qingming Festival” or “Tomb Sweeping Day.” This festival is celebrated in early April (on the 4th or 5th) and involves restoring and cleaning up graves of deceased loved ones. Adding flowers and decorations and cutting the grass near the grave are common for this holiday.

Mexico

Mexicans celebrate Halloween, but it is not very common. Many people misinterpret the Day Of the Dead as a Mexican version of Halloween. In reality, the Day of The Dead is a threeday festival starting October 31 that focuses on remembering loved ones. It isn’t a spooky event; rather it is usually celebrated with music and dancing. It is a holiday to remember those who have passed, and celebrate life. It is also common to decorate loved ones’ graves and stay overnight in the cemetery.

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Your neighbor Ted Bundy

by Samantha Salamone

Locations where Bundy murdered his victims. Graphic by Samantha Salamone.

Infamous serial killer and necrophiliac Ted Bundy grew up in Tacoma, Washington, and committed heinous murders around the Seattle area, Oregon, Colorado, Utah and Florida between 1974 and 1979.

Ted Bundy was born in Burlington, Vermont, and lived with his mother, Eleanor Louise Cowell, and his stepfather, Johnnie Bundy. His biological father remains unknown.

Bundy was raised by his grandparents at first, and he believed that they were his parents and his mother was his sister.

His grandfather was violent and abusive, leading him and his mother to eventually move away to Tacoma.

From that point on, Bundy is said to have a fairly normal childhood, though at a very young age developed an interest in death and graphic depictions. He later developed an interest in knives, which, strangely enough, didn’t alarm people.

During his teenage years, he attended Wilson High School and did fine academically. Some people reported that he began to look into people’s windows as a teenager. Tricia Lafrois, a member of his class at Wilson, however, describes him differently.

“I double dated with him…," she said.

"He was known as a nice guy. Not real

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outgoing, but friendly enough, and smart… He was clean cut, nice guy, wasn’t mouthy or anything, like a lot of them are.”

Bundy graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle with a psychology degree in 1972. He was then accepted into law school in Utah.

While Bundy was living in Seattle, multiple young women began to go missing around the University of Washington campus and nearby King County.

The day he abducted two women at Lake Sammamish, a number of other women he attempted to lure into his vehicle remembered his description, and gave it to the police: a young, attractive man with his arm in a sling. They described his vehicle as well, a brown Volkswagen Bug. Four people contacted the police with the name Ted Bundy after this incident, but the police were thrown off and practically dismissed him as a suspect, given that he was a clean-cut law student with no adult criminal record.

first time he was arrested, he got pulled over by the police, who searched through his car and found that he had possession of suspicious tools - a crowbar, a face mask, handcuffs and a rope. The police then started to link him to far more sinister crimes.

In 1977, Bundy was on trial for the murder of a young woman in Colorado.

For this trial, he decided to be his own lawyer, giving him the privilege to go the courthouse library on occasion, under the surveillance of an officer. On one trip to the library, he managed to jump out of the window, making his first prison break.

He was found eight days later.

Later that year, he escaped from his prison cell by making a small hole in the ceiling, climbing through, and escaping through the ventilation. This was his second escape from custody, and his last.

Women in Oregon began to go missing at an alarmingly rapid rate as well.

After this escape, Bundy made it to Tallahassee, Florida, where he attacked four young women at the Chi Omega sorority house, killing two of them, in January 1978. His last victim was a 12-year-old girl, Kimberly Leach, murdered on February 9 the same year.

He was pulled over by the police later that month and arrested for the last time.

In Utah, women began going missing after he moved there for law school. The

Bundy would rape his victims and then strangle or bludgeon them to death.

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Bundy helps crack Green River Killer case Ted Bundy helped crack the case of another local serial killer, Gary Ridgeway, the “Green River Killer,” three years prior to his execution.

Bundy offered the police suggestions as to what Ridgway’s thoughts and motivations were, and also suggested that, like himself, he was probably returning to the sites of the bodies to engage in intercourse with the corpses. The information Bundy gave to them soon led them to evidence they would use to track Ridgeway down.

He would then decapitate their bodies, and sometimes even keep their heads on display in his apartment. As a necrophiliac, Bundy strategically hid the bodies, or took them with him so he could have sexual relations with the corpses.

On trial, Bundy made the decision to defend himself and dismiss any advice or help from lawyers, practically sabotaging his outcome. Finally, in 1979, he was ordered multiple death sentences for different trials, and was sent to death row in Florida.

Carole Ann Boone, a former girlfriend, was convinced that Bundy was innocent, and helped him throughout his trials. They even got married during a trial in Florida, where marriage is legal and official in the presence of a judge. They conceived

a child during one of her visits with him in the Florida State Prison. Not much is known about the child, Rose Bundy, now 37. One can assume this is because she doesn’t want people to associate her with her biological father, America’s most infamous serial killer.

In 1989, ten years after being ordered to death row, he was executed in the electric chair. Crowds of people gathered to celebrate his death.

He confessed to killing 30 young women, all with the same profile: Caucasian brunettes with a middle part. It is said that this stereotype reflects a former girlfriend.

Though he only confessed to 30, many sources believe the true amount of victims is closer 100.

Yelm's Dark Side

by Gabrielle Krieger

Ramtha, a cult located in Yelm, Washington, holds members to secrecy by contract. Those who have violated it by making public accusations have been brought to court. Graphic by Gabrielle Krieger.

Washington state has a legacy of cults that’s still alive today.

A large cult still active is Ramtha's School of Enlightenment.

Its leader, JZ Knight, claims that she channels Ramtha, a 35,000-year-old warrior spirit. Knight has been involved in numerous court cases amid intense controversy. During

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a video leak of one of JZ Knight’s talks, she was caught drunkenly saying racist and homophobic slurs. Some of the allegations against the cult are rape during wine ceremonies, underage drinking at said wine ceremonies and the forcing of members to drink lye.

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An infamous criminal case that relates back to Tacoma, Washington, is the Washington DC sniper attacks, a series of random shootings that occurred in October 2002 for three weeks in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan area

by John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo.

In addition, shootings were linked to Muhammad and Malvo in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas and Washington in the months leading up to the attacks. Altogether, they killed 17 people and injured 10.

Muhammad and Malvo chose their victims randomly, shooting them at gas stations, bus stations, in their yards and in parking lots. Due to the randomness of the attacks, fear spread quickly among the public, causing people to take precautions

from becoming the next victim. People hid behind their cars while pumping gas, gas stations put up tarps to make people feel safer, various government buildings were on heightened security, schools went on lock-down and armed police started guarding school gates.

After the arrest of Muhammad and Malvo, officials figured out the logistics of the attacks. The snipers modified their car, a Chevrolet Caprice, to serve as a “mobile sniper vehicle.” They changed the back seat to allow easy access to the trunk area, where once inside, Malvo was able to lie on his stomach and shoot from a small hole purposely cut out of the trunk.

Muhammad and Malvo lived in Tacoma before the attacks. Officials believed that the attacks originated in Tacoma where the pair shot and killed their first victim on February 16, 2002.

Inkwell spoke to British journalist Anne Dixey, who was living in Washington, DC, during the attacks while working for The Times of London and BBC radio, about her experience during the agonizing weeks of terror.

Terror from Tacoma

by Kaitlin Tan

Inkwell: What was the public atmosphere like during the attacks?

Dixey: It was tense. Everyone was on edge. 9/11 and the

anthrax scare had happened, so the previously unthinkable was now possible.

Inkwell: What precautions did you take to ensure that you or your family would be safe during the attacks?

Dixey: I actually went to the places where people had been shot to do interviews. I carried on as normal for myself. But I was more careful when I was with my kids. I didn’t take them to gas stations or open places and was more watchful of people and vehicles in the neighborhood. I would also shut the blinds at night…before the sniper, I would leave them open.

Inkwell: Did you ever structure your routine so that you would reduce the time you or your family went outside?

Dixey: I stopped using parks, but carried on using my own and my friends’ backyards.

Inkwell: Did you ever have the feeling that you would be the next victim?

The snipers targeted random people in the DC area.

Graphic by Kaitlin Tan.

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Dixey: No, but I didn’t want any harm to come close to those close to me, so I felt I had to face the threat and act accordingly.

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Read, watch, SCREAM! Inkwell's scariest movies and books

by Reagan Easter

Movies

feel safe. That is why The Shining has earned its place as number 1 on our list of scariest movies and books.

1st Place: The Shining, Stanley Kubrick (1980)

2nd Place: Hereditary, Ari Aster (2018)

Even if you have never seen this Stanley Kubrick masterpiece, you are still probably familiar with Jack Nicholson’s famous line, “Here’s Johnny!” If you have seen it, perhaps if you are handed the keys to room 237, you decide to high tail it out of there before it is too late.

What makes this movie so scary: The tone of the entire movie feels evil, from the chilling performance by Jack Nicholson as a crazed man that descends into murderous insanity to Danny navigating the winding hotel corridors on a trike. This movie never lets its audience

In this feature film, Toni Collete stars as a mother of a grieving family, as the death of her own mother has caused much strife throughout their home.

What makes this movie so scary: Nowhere in the two hour duration does this film allow you to take a breath. Every shot of miniature dioramas feels like a threat to the viewers’ safety and every uncomfortable conversation between the teens leaves a sickening feeling in your stomach. Hereditary is a marathon of modern horror that will leave you spiraling after its shocking third act.

Timeline of violent crimes in Tacoma Chinese Expulsion Act: White residents of Tacoma, led by Mayor Jacob Weisbach, expelled several hundred Chinese residents via trains to Portland.

In the next two days, many homes that belonged to the expelled Chinese were burned down.

November 1885

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May 24, 1935

by Kaitlin Tan

Ted Bundy killing spree: Bundy was convicted of murdering 30 girls and women in 7 states, including Washington. (See page 5 for more about Ted Bundy.)

Weyerhaeuser Kidnapping: 9-year-old George Weyerhaeuser, the heir to a large fortune, vanished on his way home from school. That evening, a letter arrived and demanded $200,000 within five days.

The kidnappers ordered the senior Weyerhaeuser to check in at the Seattle Ambassador Hotel, drive to the highway, and leave his car running with the ransom money in the seat. George was later returned.

February 1974 February 1978

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Books:

3rd Place: Exorcist, William Friedkin (1973) This movie follows the account of Regan, a daughter of a successful movie actress who decides to hang out in a basement and against all better judgment, play with a Ouija board. Using the Ouija board as a gateway, a new guest possesses the little girl, and it is none other than the exorcist, a character that has captivated horror cinema history.

What makes this movie so scary: This movie is visceral, unpredictable, and anxiety inducing. This is a horror movie that no one would actively say they enjoyed, yet will re-watch over and over, to simply feel the sheer terror of William Friedkin’s gruesome masterpiece in all of its grievous glory.

July 1982 January 1998

This slow-burn novel is regarded as one of the most chilling books of 2018. Its full of nauseating descriptions and existential themes. This book follows four families who become inexplicably trapped in an expanse of grass and blue skies. This book will without a doubt complement the shorter days and darker nights.

2nd Place: Bird Box,

by Josh Malerman (2014) This novel is an intense fabrication of a world that begins to crumble as people fall into a murderously insane state

Trang Dai Massacre: five men shot and killed five people at the Trang Dai Karaoke Cafe and Bar.

Green River Killer killing spree: serial killer Gary Ridgway murdered 48 girls and women in the SeattleTacoma area.

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1st Place: I Am Behind You,

by John Ajvide Lindqvist (2018)

July 5, 1998

after seeing “mysterious creatures.” As the world collapses the horrific images Malerman constructs will leave the reader defenseless. This edge-of-yourseat horror thriller is a masterpiece of suspense. In addition, Netflix released a movie adaptation in 2018 that carries over the propulsive effects from the brilliantly imaginative Malerman.

3rd Place: It, by Stephen King (1986) Mastermind Stephen King takes the reader on a whirlwind in this disturbing horror fiction. This novel follows seven children as they are hunted by an evil entity that uses the fears of its victims to disguise itself while rampantly terrorizing them. In 2017, a movie adaptation was released, and it is equally haunting.

Attack on Northwest Detention Center: a man described as an anarchist and an anti-fascist attempted to firebomb the detention center in hopes of igniting a propane tank. He was shot and killed by police.

November 20, 2005 Tacoma Mall shooting: an attempted mass murder left six people injured.

July 13, 2019

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Psycology of fear

Anxiety is often confused with fear, clouding judgment. Illustration by Michelle Foster.

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Psychology of fear

By YoungSeo Jo and Abby Givens

Inkwell spoke with psychiatrist Dr. Kris Peterson, who specializes in treating children and adult military personnel, to dissect the psychology of fear.

expressed in forms of panic attacks.

According to Peterson, it is important when faced with sudden fear to distinguish between fear and anxiety.

According to Peterson, fear is a significant and a normal response to the environment. If a person were to be absolutely fearless, he or she would be more likely to die, while a fearful person lives another day.

“Fear is normal, while anxiety is an abnormal or a heightened emotion to a fearful stimulus.”

He pointed out the clouding of judgment that comes with either being too fearless or too fearful. “Even if the person is fearless, there should still be some judgment in situations where it is dangerous,” he said. On the other hand, people who are too fearful actually face something entirely distinct from traditional fear: anxiety.

“Anxiety is feeling fearful when there is no need to be fearful or fearing something you shouldn’t fear as much as you do,” he said.

Anxiety comes in two different forms: anxiety that formulates into specific phobias or general anxiety disorder.

Both of these types of anxiety can be

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Supporting people with fear and anxiety also requires different approaches.

In terms of how fear should be understood, Peterson spoke of soldiers in combat as an example. In situations when lives are in danger it is reasonable to feel fear. “If you’re in kind of situations when you are afraid, it’s important to take stock of the situation and see what’s the right thing to do and not necessarily let fear dictate,” he said. “So if you are a soldier and you are being shot at or if in a dangerous situation, it is normal to feel fear.”

He emphasized how, in combat, letting fear take over might be comprehended as cowardice, but in appropriate situations, “it can be looked at as a time to retreat and get out of there because it's a dangerous situation.”

Anxiety should be dealt with differently. Peterson recommends facing that fear and overcoming it.

“You can’t avoid the thing that is causing anxiety, because if you avoid it, you condition yourself to continually avoid it,” he said.

Peterson gave an example of a child being afraid of crossing the street.

If the child fails to cross the street and goes back into the house, he or she feels a sense of relief, reinforcing anxiety. The child must face his or her fear. “You come out, you feel anxious, you look, there’s no car, you cross the street and at the other side of the street you feel relief, and that’s how you deal with anxiety,” Peterson said.

Peterson also emphasized the importance of giving people appropriate methods to battle anxiety.

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“You have to give people the right tools. You have to teach people how to relax; you have to spend time with them when they are not anxious,” he said.

Giving people a transitional object is another option. Transitional objects “represent the protector, represent that something is securing, and help them deal with it,” he said. For example, transitional objects for children can be stuffed toys or blankets.

Supporting people with anxiety also needs an approach that involves a series of stages. “If you expose them to the pieces of that fear gradually in a stepwise manner, you set them up for success,” Peterson said.

Some people enjoy the sense of fear. For example, adrenaline junkies: people who have near death experiences for the thrill. Peterson commented that these people assess the overall situation as being safe. They enjoy the “natural response to exposing yourself to a fearful situation which is having adrenaline pump through your body and their brain interpreting it in a positive way.”

Peterson emphasized that there is nothing psychologically wrong with people who enjoy adrenaline and points out the difference between the so called “adrenaline junkies” and people suffering from anxiety disorder.

Spiders

Ghosts

Clowns

College/ IB

Being alone

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Drowning

“There is nothing pathologically wrong with [adrenaline junkies], but those people have a higher risk of getting hurt or killed, and that’s the opposite spectrum of having anxiety."

Death Zombie Apocolypse

Deep Ocean

Height

What is your biggest fear?

Being Watched

Blood

Upper School for Girls responses to survey conducted on September, 2019

Dark

Crowds

Love Pain

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Black is the new green Digging deep into the story of the missing spade article and photos

by Parker Briggs The spade, which is over 128 years old, is the focus of some of the Annie Wright’s oldest traditions. Even 88 years ago it was referred to as the school's “oldest and most cherished possession” by student Elizabeth Emerson from the class of 1931.

Originally employed for the ceremonial planting of trees, the spade’s use has since changed significantly. At the end of each year, the graduating class loops a tie of their color around the handle. With this being practiced since the tradition’s inception, the spade is today more silk than shovel.

A dense curtain of red, yellow, green, and blue drapes down from the handle.

But two dark ties stand out from the others, adding to the palette an ominous shade of black. The story behind these two anomalies has to do with a second tradition: the annual hunt for the spade.

In 1902, two members of the graduating class, Millie Hubbard and Mary Kantz, hid the spade for the next year’s seniors to find. They also developed a set of precepts to guide the search in future years. The spade was to be “found previous to mid-nite of Hallowe’en,” and

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One dark facet of the spade's history hangs down from the handle, daintily recorded on a hand-embroidered ribbon.

be “hidden over a floor and under a roof.”

A tradition was born that even today is conducted with plenty of enthusiasm; if the seniors don’t uncover the spade in time, they never receive their class privileges.

Included in that list of lost privileges is the prerogative to even identify with their own class color, meaning they must assume thereafter the distinctive title of “black tie.” Come their graduation, it is with a black ribbon they must adorn the handle of the spade. Upper Schools also equate the black tie class with a black cat, a symbol of bad luck.

As evidenced by the episodes of recent years, there seems to be quite a bit of fate involved in acquiring the designation of “black tie.” In 2011, for the first time in half a century, the graduating class, who were green ties, failed to find the spade before Halloween. And for the first time ever, they were unable to find it before their graduation. No one, not even those who hid it, could find the missing spade.

The next year, as a modern replica took its place, the tradition resumed, but a piece of the school’s heritage, its “most cherished possession,” remained missing.

Three years ago, however, the school received an anonymous tip that opened back up the then-cold case. Soon after,

The spade was to be found "previous to midnite of Hallowe'en," and be "hidden over a floor and under a roof." to the elation of the seniors and students who had known the spade before its disappearance, the spade was finally tracked down, lying among the rafters of the attic above the Middle School music room.

While much remains unanswered about the affair’s nebulous details, part of the story behind its disappearance has been revealed: the treasured spade, packaged in a Fed-Ex box for intra-school transportation, was mistaken for an outgoing package and handed to the delivery man.

How it ended up in the attic, however, remains a mystery. Whatever the mischief behind the mysterious incident, lessons have been learned: replaceable, plastic shovels are now used in the annual hunt for the spade. Today, the spade itself is enjoying its well-deserved and thankfully uneventful retirement in the administrative hallway, watching students and teachers walk by from the safe environment of its glass display case.

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Hitler's regime was responsible for the death of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust. Photo by Reagan Easter.

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Deadliest dictators in history

by Reagan Easter

1. Adolf Hitler 1889-1945 Hitler is most notoriously known for the death of over 6 million Jews. As leader of the Third Reich, he was closely involved in military operations throughout World War II and was central to the orchestration of the Holocaust. Hitler's actions and ideology are almost universally regarded as evil. Hitler and the Nazi regime were responsible for the killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war. As a result of military action in the European theatre, an additional 28.7 million soldiers and civilians died.

The number of casualties caused by Hitler's reign was unprecedented in warfare. In 1945 Hitler committed suicide.

2. Saddam Hussein 1937-2003 Saddam Hussein was president of Iraq for more than two decades. He

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aided in the development of Iraq's first chemical weapons program and took extreme measures to guard against coups, such as creating a security apparatus, which frequently used torture, rape and assassination, to achieve its goals. In 1980 Saddam ordered his forces to invade Khuzestan in Iran, which led to the beginning of an all-out war. After years of intense conflict, hundreds of thousands were left dead. On December 30, 2006, at Camp Justice, an Iraqi base in Baghdad, Saddam was hanged.

3. Mao Zedong 1893-1976 Mao was a communist revolutionary who founded the People’s Republic of China, in power from 1946 to 1976. He ruled with an iron fist and led a cultural revolution referred to as the “Great Leap Forward.” He proclaimed land reform prohibiting private farming, and even private land holding, by 1958. As a result, China suffered a great famine, during

which approximately 36 million people died. Mao’s policies were met with extreme criticism and protests.

Anyone found guilty of protesting was imprisoned. His time in power, known as the “Maoist Catastrophe,” caused a total of 47,263,517 deaths.

4. Joseph Stalin 1878-1953 Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1952. His rule was in some ways similar to the Chinese Maoist Revolution in that it was an attempt to move the nation away from agricultural practices towards industrialization. Farmers who did not cooperate with the collectivization of farmland were killed. On top of that, millions of individuals died as a result of famine.

Millions more were sent to forced labor camps, where they were killed. In the 1930s Stalin initiated the “Great Purge” campaign as an attempt to get rid of anybody he felt was a threat. His leadership resulted in roughly 13,038,405 deaths.

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Why did the black cat cross the road? the curious origins of everyday superstitions article & photos by Parker Briggs

Thus spilled salt held a connotation to sinning against God. In DaVinci’s painting The Last Supper, Judas is even shown knocking over a salt-cellar. To protect from the evil summoned by this ill omen, people would throw a pinch of salt into the eyes of the devil, who, according to medieval folklore, always approached from behind and from the left.

Walking Under a Ladder In Ancient Egypt, triangles represented the trinity of gods, made up of Osis, Isis and Horus. A ladder leaning against a wall formed this sacred shape and walking through it was akin to desecrating a holy shrine, bound to turn the gods against you.

Though not a true clover, Oxalis tetraphylla always has four leaves, making it a lucky plant for landscaping.

According to a recent survey, Annie Wright Upper School boys are 26% more likely than the national average to believe in superstitions.* But where did such peculiar beliefs come from in the first place? Here are the origins of 10 common superstitions: Four Leaf Clovers According to medieval extra-biblical folklore, four leaf clovers were once endemic only to the Garden of Eden. During Adam and Eve’s banishment from the Garden, Eve picked a four leaf clover as a souvenir, introducing it to the outside world. This clover became the progenitor of all similar ones found today.

Superstition aside, only one out of an estimated 10,000 white clover shoots has four leaves, meaning it truly is lucky to pick one out of a patch.

Black Cats In Ancient Egypt, cats were regarded as manifestations of the divine. A feline walking before you was a sign that the gods were acting in your favor. This belief spread to Greece and Rome, where similar pantheistic beliefs were common. During the age of medieval Europe, however, black cats were believed to be the animal form of shape-shifting witches, tainting their reputation to such a degree they still have yet to recover.

Opening an Umbrella Indoors During Victorian times when the umbrella was still a new invention, it had not yet achieved its sleek, modern design.

With sharp-tipped ribs and ferrules to be feared, opening an umbrella indoors could pose a major safety hazard. More than just toppling a potted plant, it could put out someone’s eye.

Breaking a Mirror Romans believed that one’s image in the mirror was not just a reflection, but a person’s very soul. Thus, breaking a mirror with one’s reflection in it could cause serious spiritual harm. The Romans also believed that luck renewed itself after seven years, so breaking a mirror would curse one’s soul for the duration of that period.

Wishing on a Shooting Star Ancient Greeks believed that occasionally the gods would peer down from the firmament to observe the mortal world. In doing so, they would often knock down stars from the sky. These “falling” stars alerted the Greeks that the gods were paying attention, providing a perfect opportunity for casting petitions.

Tossing Salt Over One's Shoulder In verse 5:13 of the Book of Matthew, Jesus says Christians who lose piety are like salt that loses its saltiness - fit only to be thrown to the ground and “trampled upon by men.” *When asked of belief about black cats, the number 13, and head-side-up pennies being lucky, unlucky, or neither. National average from statista.com.

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Opening an umbrella indoors used to pose a major safety hazard.

INKWELL | OCTOBER 2019

Knocking on Wood The ancient Celts’ pagan culture has brought us fairies, elves and most salient to our civilization, the hallowed Renaissance Faire. According to Celtic mythology, spirits inhabited the trunks of trees, and could be summoned to provide supernatural protection by a polite knock. Due to either laziness or a shortage of trees, this practice eventually evolved into simply knocking on wood, what once was a tree trunk.

Breaking a Wishbone Etruscans, the cultural antecedents of Rome, believed that birds were able to see into the future. By drying out and gently stroking a bird’s bones, the power of clairvoyance could also

be extended to humans. The Romans adopted the superstition, but began cracking the bones to release more of the supposed power contained inside them. Eventually, this power evolved into the ability to grant wishes.

Rabbit’s Foot Because goblins were so seldom seen, Celtic tribes were of the general consensus that they lived in underground lairs. Rabbits, who every night retreated into their burrows, were seen as having a connection to these supernatural creatures. After a rabbit was shot, the feet were preserved as good luck charms.

These diseases don't play around the 8 creepiest diseases you can get article and graphic by Emily Simons

Pica

A mental disorder that makes people crave items that are usually not thought of as food, such as dirt, paper, glue, etc.

Morgellons Disease

The feeling of having the constant presence of fibers, crawling, biting or stinging underneath unbroken skin.

Apotemnophilia

A disorder that causes an intense desire for amputating a specific and healthy limb.

"Alien Hand" Syndrome A syndrome where it’s as if limbs are in control of themselves, without conscious movement of them.

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Hairy Black Tongue

A temporary, harmless oral condition that makes the tongue appear dark and have a furry appearance. This can occur with poor oral health.

Werewolf Syndrome The excess production of hair throughout the body or in one specific area.

"Tree Man" Disease Development of bark-like growths on the hands and feet.

These can then spread into long, bark-like tumors around the body.

Elephantiasis

A condition where a limb can swell to several times its normal size, resembling an elephant limb, and the area around it develops dry, tough skin.

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What makes a psychopath?

by Julia Henning

a conversation with psychology professor Jill Nealy Moore

by Julia Henning

Elements of what makes psychopaths and their lack of empathy for others.

Graphic by Julia Henning.

Mass shootings in public places such as malls, theaters, stores, restaurants and schools have become increasingly common. This rise in large scale hate crimes leads us to ponder: What is going on in the mind of the person that wants to hurt innocent people. And how does it change the lives of the victims and survivors?

Dr. Jill Nealy Moore, a psychology professor at the University of Puget Sound, spoke to Inkwell to weigh in on these questions. The discussion covered the mental state from birth and adolescence to the moment that a person decides to use a weapon for harm, and the effects on the victims.

Inkwell: Under what conditions

does someone choose to hurt another person?

Nealy Moore: There are

a number of ways that people can arrive at that point. Usually, they really have to be in a state where they are disconnected from reality. A big part of

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that is being disconnected from feelings of empathy, because in order to hurt someone else you can’t be feeling what they’re feeling. Empathy is the thing that stops us from harming others.

When people lack empathy that’s a bad thing. The core feature of people that we consider sociopaths or psychopaths is lacking empathy. Lacking empathy could be something you have as a characterological traits, permanently, or it could be something that in the moment, your convictions, or your need for whatever it is, overrides your sense of empathy in the moment.

Inkwell: What is the difference

between a sociopath and a psychopath?

Nealy Moore: There isn’t

actually one. Diagnostically, they’re the same thing. The media tends to gravitate towards the word psychopath because it’s more dramatic and you think of people wielding a knife. We tend to think of a sociopath as someone who is more calculating and rule-breaking, but really it’s the same thing.

Inkwell: How can someone develop into a psychopath?

Nealy Moore: People don’t

wake up and say, ‘You know what? I think I’m going to do a school shooting today’. If you look at history, people do have psychotic breaks, and sometimes that is the cause, although typically there is some kind of social fueling. In almost every case, it’s like someone’s systems have failed and they’re not feeling powerful and they’re not feeling validated and important and no one is reaching out to them. Again, usually there’s somebody, but when that fails and you get people who feel really isolated, it opens up this whole other line of thinking. When we’re not getting feedback and we’re feeling out of touch with other humans, then it is hard to stay in touch with our own humanity.

Inkwell: Do you believe nature or

nurture is the primary force that causes people to take these extreme actions?

Nealy Moore: If we’re looking at personality, it’s almost always right

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about 50/50. Now, that’s just the basic personality of is someone capable of hurting others...From a biological perspective, there are individuals whom empathy is hard for. They have a hard time taking others’ perspectives and putting themselves in other people’s shoes, and there are biological components to that for sure. But then you have kids like that whose parents are saying, ‘Oh no, don’t push that boy off the swing; that makes him feel bad.’ All of this learning and constantly socializing so as to not be that way. You have to have, personality wise, some sort of underpinning that makes someone capable of that and then a whole bunch of other social stuff. I actually think the social stuff, the nurture, is far more important than the nature because there’s so many more opportunities to rescue someone from their nature.

Inkwell: What are the signs?

Nealy Moore: For a good

amount of people who committed acts of violence, there were signs of it [before], if you look, because they told some people and they made some threats.

There are some situations where no one knew anything, and again those are the true sociopaths where there is a lot of calculation. They intentionally didn’t say something to someone because they didn’t want someone to stop them. I think there are signs that are not all that dissimilar from signs of depression, so people are kind of withdrawing and pulling back. I think it takes that and some kind of component of threats or comments that are made.

Inkwell: What are some lasting effects of being a victim?

Nealy Moore: The big thing

there is going to be is PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder). A good portion of people are going to have some degree of post-traumatic effects. There are a couple of risk factors that make someone

INKWELL | OCTOBER 2019

more likely to actually develop PTSD. One of the most interesting ones is when your understandings of the world or your expectations of the world are severely violated. The very fact that there are so many school shootings in the news makes [students] more open to the idea that that kind of thing happens and makes it less likely that you will get PTSD. A lot of that research came out of people who had wartime trauma. People who came from pristine backgrounds were more vulnerable than people who had lived on the wrong side of the tracks and knew that people could be bad. The biggest risk factor though is really whether [the victim], pretty quickly, can talk about [the event] and get those feelings out and make meaning of it. We know this from neuroscience that if your brain doesn’t have the answer to something, it’s going to keep working on it, and it’s going to keep trying to complete that puzzle. There’s something about sitting down and talking about it; it’s less likely to affect you later. This is why we’re often like ‘let’s get [victims of school shootings] talking to counselors.’ Bottling it up and trying to deal with it later is a bad idea.

"When we’re not getting feedback and we’re feeling out of touch with other humans, then it is hard to stay in touch with our own humanity."

Inkwell: What are some

misconceptions of psychopaths?

Nealy Moore: One of them is the idea that they are born bad.

This gets into what we call Factor 1 psychopathology versus Factor 2

psychopathology. Factor 1 is the more biologically based version and Factor 2 is the person who may have started out with empathy but jumped into a gang early and their parents weren’t there to guide them. All sorts of bad things happened to them and so they closed off feelings of empathy to others. Whereas, Factor 1’s law-breaking is really about sensation seeking. One thing we know about that person is that their brain operates at a lower level of stimulation and they are literally under-stimulated, so they’re seeking out dangerous situations and thrills and pushing limits. People think ‘oh it’s just a terrible persona and they must of had a terrible life,’ but really it’s their factor 1; they may have had a lovely life. I’m not an expert on Ted Bundy, but I understand that his life wasn’t terrible. I’ve heard that his mom was a nice person, and he did not have a terrible upbringing, but again, he was a Factor 1. We would have really done a lot of social cushioning to control that.

Inkwell: What can others do to

help people suffering from depression or wanting to hurt others?

Nealy Moore: We tend to

discount people who are talking about depression or feelings of violence or anger by saying it’s a cry for help. My response is ‘hold on, if someone is crying for help, why not give them help? Why not take that seriously?’ If you take it seriously, and it didn’t turn out to be serious, then that’s something that can be discussed, but why not ask a question? I think people often don’t want to reward it or they’re freaked out by it. I could probably pick on social media here. When we participate in those marketplaces of identity and places of esteem, it doesn’t do good things to us.

One of the things we can do is have more responsibility over that. Those are places where negative things are said, and that does sometimes spread violence. I think we can find ways to be kinder when we are engaged in those.

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Leading causes of teen death article and graphics by Lauren Cook

Teen death rates in the United States reveal deep disparities between genders and among ethnicities. According to the CDC, among Hispanics, non-Hispanic whites and nonHispanic blacks, the demographic with the lowest number of deaths is Hispanic females, with 25 total deaths per 100,000.

The highest death rate is among black males, with 94 deaths per 100,000.

Worldwide, the teen mortality rate is generally around 130 per 100,000 per year (all ethnicities, genders and economic backgrounds). Data is conflicting, but according to the World Health Organization, teenage boys have a much higher death rate than teenage girls. The overwhelming majority of these deaths is due to road injury and homicide. The exception to this is in Africa, where the highest mortality rate is not among teen males, but 10-14 year old females. This is largely due to the presence of human trafficking and coercion.

United States Teen Deaths, ages 15-19, in 2017

Accidental Injuries: 169,936 Intentional Self-Harm (Suicide): 2,491 Assault (Homicide): 1,835 Cancer: 560 Diseases of Heart: 307

Leading Causes of Death in the US vs. Worldwide: World (WHO): 1. Road Injury 2. HIV 3. Suicide 4. Heart Disease 5. Interpersonal Violence

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USA (CDC): 1. Unintentional Injury 2. Homicide 3. Suicide 4. Cancer 5. Heart Disease

INKWELL | OCTOBER 2019

Two haunting mysteries to keep you up at night

by Sebastian Bush

Multiple sources have tried to recreate what happened that night, suggesting that the hikers tried to flee the campsite and start a fire. At this point, the story starts to get hazy, with different groups of hikers splitting off and dying in their own fashion. No one can agree, however, on what made them cut the tents open and run. At the time, officials ruled out a third party of some malicious sort, but after sixty years, it has become clear that something must have chased them away, and made them scared enough to not return.

Malaysia Flight 370

Nine hikers traverse the North Ural Mountains, heading towards what would be their doom. Photo in public domain. Source: CNN

Dyatlov Pass Sixty years ago, nine hikers attempted to traverse the North Ural Mountains, a mountain range in Russia, and ended up dead.

This pass came to be known as Dyatlov pass, named after the group’s leader, Igor Dyatlov. The truth of what happened on this dreadful night is lost to history. However, recently, investigators in Russia have reopened the case.

A month after the hikers went missing, a search and rescue operation began. Six days later, the tents were found, slashed apart and broken, lying in heaps on the snow. A day later, two bodies were found next to a campfire, wearing nothing but their underwear. It would be another week until three more bodies were found. The remaining four were dug up in May of the same year, after the snow had melted.

Russian officials claimed that the hikers were killed by natural means, but the case was classified until 1970. What really happened to them is a mystery. When the final bodies were found, many had severe injuries including fractured ribs and crushed skulls. Overall, three of the nine bodies had sustained fatal injuries, while the rest died of hypothermia.

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It is March 8, 2014 at about 12:30 am. Flight MH370 takes off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on schedule. By 1:00 am, the passengers are mostly asleep, and the pilot, Zahari Shah, makes verbal connection with Kuala Lumpur. At 1:19, MH370 makes its final communication with mission control. Their communication software shows that the radio was turned off...manually. By 9:15 am Malaysia time, the airplane had officially crashed.

According to multiple reports, the flight deviated from its original path, flew back over Malaysia, and traveled south off the coast of Australia for 5 hours, where it eventually ran out of gas. The last satellite connection was at 8:15 am; an hour later, the plane had crashed.

This strange incident began a multi-year search involving three countries and two bodies of water. The black boxes (recordings of the final hours in the cockpit) were never found, despite multiple searches.

Many months after the crash, the first debris, a landing flap, was found off the coast of Madagascar. This shows that the plane likely went into a head first dive towards the ocean, hitting the water so hard, some parts of the plane disintegrated.

The events that occurred between 1:19 and 9:15 am have been the subject of many conspiracy theories. These theories range from aliens and UFOs to the plane landing at an American Base. Some even speculate about the credibility of the pilot, and whether he had a fake ID. Many of these theories have no structure, but they do point out one important detail: however much we speculate, we will never know what really happened on that airplane. We will never understand what horrors the passengers and crew underwent.

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Roll into Halloween with style last minute costumes to get you through the spooky season

article and photo by Jade Cheatham

Sushi

What you will need: white shirt cut out black strip of paper orange cutout of salmon shape

The Bachelorette/Bachelor What you will need: dress or suit red roses

Cactus Cat

What you will need: black clothes cat ears

What you will need: green shirt white pipe cleaners (tape pipe cleaners to shirt)

Pineapple

What you will need: pants Smarties candy (tape the candy to your pants)

What you will need: yellow shirt black marker (Draw triangles on shirt) green headband green paper (cut green paper into leaves and tape to headband)

Skeleton

Glow Stick person

Smartie Pants

What you will need: black clothes black and white face paint

Where’s Waldo

What you will need: red and white striped shirt glasses optional: cane and backpack

What you will need: black clothes glow sticks (tape glow sticks to clothes in the shape of a person)

School girl/boy

What you will need: your school uniform

For the latest in news, sports, arts, student life and opinions, visit Inkwell online @ anniewrightinkwell.org.