I'm not real good at Halloween, but it's comin up fast, and I figured in the spirit, I'd regale everyone with a few of the more or less gruesome tales *I've* ever heard, in true Gangsta style.

• The classic tale, of course, is that of dancer Isadora Duncan, who was strangled to death by her own (apparently extremely long,) scarf while driving her Amilcar. The part of the tale that usually doesn't usually get told is that in the wake of the incident, the final nail was driven into the coffin for automobiles with chain drive. If you've never taken a good close look at a "veteran," or "Brass Era" car, that is, one from around the turn of the 19th century, the chain drive mechanism is usually all exposed, running along one side of the car or the other. It's a wonder more people didn't die with a setup like this, given the Edwardian-era penchant for dressing with flow.
  
  
• And, of course, the tale I've told before, about early automobile racer Camille Jenatzy, who piloted the French "Ne Jamias Contente," in the same era as Henry Ford's "999" racer, and the early exploits of Barney Oldfield, Louis Chevrolet, and others. It seems M. Jenatzy and a friend were hunting wild Boar in the Alps, when Camille imitated a Boar's mating call; apparently, his mimickry was so convincing that his friend mistook him for an animal and shot him to death. With friends like that.......
  
  
• And, of course, there is Queen Olga, who ruled in pre-Byzantine-era Russia. Olga's husband had apparently gone off to conquer other lands and gotten killed in the act, but apparently, his troops still managed to vanquish their foes. In the wake of such a result, Olga demanded audience with negotiators from the overthrown regime. The other country sent a party by caravan, and when they arrived, Olga refused to have audience with them until they had bathed. With all the members of the party in the bath house, Olga's troops barricaded all the doors and burned the bath house down. And it gets better. After a while, of course, the leaders of the other country wondered what had happened to the party they had sent. Olga claimed they had never arrived, and demanded that a new party be sent by ship. The leaders of the other country complied, and when the ship arrived, Olga's troops met the ship in the water, carrying it ashore on their shoulders, where they once again set fire to it. She had a thing for fire, didn't she?! And anyone who tried to escape, of course, was killed. All of which makes you wonder:
  1) Was Olga satisfied in the end, and,
  2) Did the leaders from the other country EVER get the hint? Sounds like early relatives of George Bush, but that's just me talkin......
  The big moral here, of course, is Hell hath no fury......you know the rest.
• THE FOLLOWING IS FROM VLADTHEIMPALER.COM
  Vlad the Impaler, a.k.a. Vlad III, Dracula, Drakulya, or Tepes, was born in late 1431, in the citadel of Sighisoara, Transylvania, the son of Vlad II or Dracul, a military governor, appointed by Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund. Vlad Dracul was also a knight in the Order of the Dragon, a secret fraternity created in 1387 by the Emperor, sworn to uphold Christianity and defend the empire against the Islamic Turks. Transylvania, along with Moldavia, and Wallachia, are now joined together as Romania. The name Dracul can be interpreted in two ways, the first translation from Romanian would be "Dragon", but it sometimes also means "Devil". Vlad was not called Tepes, which means ""spike" in Romanian, until after his death; instead, he was known as Vlad Dracula, the added "a" meaning "son of", so essentially, throughout his life, he was known as the "son of the Devil". While growing up with such a name would normally present problems for most of us, Vlad certainly did not seem to mind, as he really did live up to his title; but before we look upon the exploits of the son, let us learn a bit more about the father. In 1436, Vlad Dracul took over the throne of Wallachia, taking up residence in the palace of Tirgoviste. It was there young Vlad Dracula would get his first taste of the opulent lifestyle, and perhaps also where the beast within would begin to grow. Merely two years later, in a strange turn of events, Vlad II betrayed the Order of the Dracul, forming an alliance with the Turks. He even went as far as allowing Sultan Murad II to keep his two sons, Vlad Dracula, and his younger brother Radu, as "insurance" that he would not plan to strike against the Turks. In the winter of 1447, Vlad Dracul was assassinated in a coup orchestrated by one of his relatives, John Hunyadi, who had devoted his life to fighting the Ottoman Turks, and did not approve of Vlad Dracul's pro-Turkish policy. Vlad Dracula was granted his freedom following his father's death, but Radu decided to stay behind. In addition to learning of his father's demise, Vlad was also told his older brother, Mircea had had his eyes gouged out, and been buried alive by the boyars of Tirgoviste. While in captivity, Vlad had grown resentful, and vowed to have his revenge. The throne of Wallachia, which would have normally been reserved for Vlad Dracula, was now occupied by the boyars. The still teenaged Vlad Dracula, with the help of Pasha Mustafa Hassan' Turkish cavalry, defeated the boyars, reclaiming the throne for a very short period of time, as Hunyadi would soon thereafter appoint Vladislav II to the post. Vlad Dracula formed an alliance with Hunyadi, in the hopes of persuading him he was the rightful heir to the throne, but it wasn't until 1456, that Vlad Dracula would make his move, killing his father's murderer, and defeating Vladislav II, to take over as the new ruler of Wallachia. In 1469, following an Easter Sunday feast, Vlad Dracula had all the boyar families who had been attending arrested. Those who were in good health were condemned to a life of slavery, and put to work on the construction of his Poenari Castle on the Arges river. Those who were old and weak were impaled for all to see. Thus began Vlad the Impaler's reign of blood and terror. Construction of the castle was difficult work, and many of the slaves died in the process. Many were forced to work naked, for their clothes had fallen off from wear. Needless to say, Vlad Dracula in no way considered these people human beings, and he treated them worse than animals, severely punishing and torturing his captives, whether or not they had done anything to provoke him. He abhorred weakness of any kind, and was determined to be the ruler of a Kingdom which would only be host to the rich and powerful. One day, Vlad Dracula decided to cleanse his Kingdom of those he considered to be lazy and unproductive, those who suffered from illness, a handicap, or were simply born in poverty. He decreed that no one should go hungry in his Kingdom, and invited all the poor, unfortunate souls who tainted his concept of what society should be to a banquet in the great hall in Tirgoviste. Once he felt his "guests" had been well fed, not to mention drunk and complacent, Vlad made his appearance, asking them how they would enjoy never having to feel the pain of hunger ever again, or if they wished to never have to worry about anything ever again, to be without a care in the world. Of course, their reply was enthusiastic, so he obliged, ordering his men to board up the hall, which was then set ablaze. No one escaped. Vlad Dracula's treatment of his own subjects paled in comparison to the atrocities he committed against his enemies, and any who opposed him. On St. Bartholomew's Day, he impaled 30,000 merchants for disobeying trade laws, having their bodies left to rot outside the city walls as a reminder of what would happen to any who disobeyed him. Rumours abound that Vlad also ate the flesh, and drank the blood of his enemies, often holding dinner parties next to the freshly impaled. He was very proud of his work, and anyone who showed disdain while looking upon the thousands of putrefying corpses would soon suffer the same fate. Vlad liked to arrange the impaled in circular patterns, the length of the stakes determined by the victim's rank; this way, wealthy, or powerful opponents would plainly see they were not above the law. Impalements were carried out in a variety of ways, During his reign, Vlad Dracula also had people decapitated, had their eyes gouged out, had them skinned alive, boiled, burnt, dismembered, eviscerated, or sometimes just physically disfigured for his own amusement. In one particular incident, Turkish ambassadors who had refused to remove their Phrygian caps in his presence were asked why they insulted him in such a manner. When they replied it was because their hats had to remain on their heads according to custom, he graciously honored their tradition by ordering their hats permanently nailed to their heads, never to be removed again.
  
  Feel free to drop a line if you have a good tale to share.