u/akiwi_intherough

After cutting off his ear in Arles, France, in December of 1888, Vincent van Gogh voluntarily entered the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy several months later.

A former monastery, Saint-Paul had been converted into a psychiatric asylum by Franciscan monks in 1605. Van Gogh entered on May 8th, 1889, and was given two cells with barred windows, as the asylum was only at half capacity at the time.

He continued painting, looking out at and sitting in the asylum’s garden, painting flowers and trees. His life was very limited. Supervised walks were allowed, and he used them to study cypress and olive trees, which he then painted, as well as interpretations of works by other artists from memory.

His style during this period was characterized by dramatic, swirling brushstrokes and increasingly expressive colors. His most famous work, The Starry Night, depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room before sunrise. Still, the village beneath the psychedelic sky is entirely imaginary. There was no village visible from his window. Van Gogh himself was not a fan of the painting, calling it a “failure.”

Van Gogh remained at the asylum for the rest of 1889, cycling in and out of periods of intense depression and suicidality while painting and receiving what passed for mental-health treatment at the time. He was 36 years old and had still not sold a work of art.

While Vincent was isolated in Saint-Rémy, his work, which his brother Theo had been showing around Paris and elsewhere, finally began to receive some recognition, having previously received scant attention and having never sold a painting.

French art critic and artist Albert Aurier, writing in Mercure de France in January 1890, called van Gogh “a genius.” In February, Van Gogh and his work were invited by Les XX, a group of avant-garde Belgian artists, to exhibit at their annual, invitation-only exhibition. Famous French Impressionist Claude Monet reportedly considered Van Gogh’s work the best in the exhibition.

Anna Boch, a member of Les XX, purchased The Red Vineyard for 400 francs, the only painting Van Gogh is known to have sold during his lifetime. Today, The Red Vineyard is estimated to be worth somewhere between $130 and $230 million.

If interested I write about van Gogh here: https://aid2000.substack.com/p/hare-brained-history-vol-123-vincent?r=4mmzre&utm\_medium=ios

After leaving Paris in early 1888, Vincent Van Gogh traveled south to the French town of Arles. His friend, the artist Paul Gauguin, planned to join him, and Vincent hoped their friendship would continue and that together they could finally realize his dream of establishing an artists’ collective.

Gauguin finally arrived in October, and moved in with Vincent. They painted together and visited Montpellier where they viewed paintings at the city’s Musée Fabre.

But their mutual admiration did not make living together particularly easy. Vincent found Gauguin arrogant and loud, while Gauguin found Vincent increasingly difficult to live with. By December 1888, Vincent was entirely fed up with the situation, which he described as being filled with “excessive tension” and heading toward a breaking point.

Despite his frustrations with Gauguin, Vincent seems to have realized that his friend was preparing to leave. And Vincent, who had spent much of his life desperately afraid of being alone, appears to have feared losing Gauguin more than he hated living with him. In the midst of heavy rain, which kept both men inside the Yellow House, Gauguin later recalled that Vincent followed him around and “rushed towards me, an open razor in his hand.” He described Vincent as increasingly unhinged.

On the night of December 23rd, 1888, Gauguin had already left the Yellow House and was staying in a hotel when Vincent began hearing voices. What exactly they said to him is unknown, but Vincent took a razor and severed either a large portion of, or his entire left ear, causing severe blood loss.

Haphazardly wrapping the wound, he wrapped the severed portion of his ear in paper and delivered it to a young cleaning girl, Gabrielle Berlatier, who worked at the brothel he and Gauguin frequented. Vincent passed out on the street soon afterward and was taken to the Hôtel-Dieu-Saint-Espirit, where he was placed under the care of Félix Rey, a young doctor in training.

The horrified Berlatier brought the ear to the hospital, but Rey did not attempt to reattach it; too much time had passed. Van Gogh had no recollection of the event, suggesting that he had experienced some kind of mental break.

Diagnosed with “acute mania with generalised delirium,” Van Gogh continued struggling mentally, experiencing hallucinations and delusions for months.

Vincent left hospital care on January 7th, but he was still in a bad way mentally. By March, 30 townspeople signed a petition calling for him to be removed from the town. They referred to him as le fou roux, “the redheaded madman.”

The police forced him out. Vincent returned to the hospital and then moved into a room owned by Doctor Rey. In June, he voluntarily entered the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy.

Before leaving Arles, he gave Doctor Rey a portrait he had painted of him. Rey hated the painting so much that he reportedly used it as part of a chicken coop before eventually giving it away. Today, that same painting is worth tens of millions of dollars.

If interested I write about van Gogh here: https://aid2000.substack.com/p/hare-brained-history-vol-123-vincent?r=4mmzre&utm\_medium=ios

In 1950, South Dakota-born, decorated World War II Captain William Henry Parker III became chief of the LAPD. The department was notoriously corrupt, and Parker set out to change that.

He militarized the department, establishing a standardized police academy, adopting military methods, cutting corrupt officers, and shifting from foot patrols to police cars. Rather than waiting for crime, officers went looking for it, stopping possible criminals based on their demeanor or appearance.

Parker also centralized power under the chief of police, himself. He also understood the power of Hollywood, helping produce The Thin Blue Line and supporting Dragnet, which presented a sanitized, professional image of policing while leaving out many of the abuses occurring under his watch.

Parker declared a “war on crime” and took an increasingly aggressive approach to winning it. The LAPD faced continual criticism for brutality, particularly from Black and Latino communities.

Officers actively went looking for crime, meaning young people of color were frequently stopped, hassled, beaten, and sometimes arrested for resisting. Many officers Parker recruited came from the American South and shared his enthusiasm for being “tough on crime,” and, well, being racist.

Parker himself described Mexicans as “not being too far removed from the wild tribes of the inner mountains of Mexico.” On live television, he warned:

“It is estimated that by 1970, 45% of the metropolitan area of Los Angeles will be Negro. . . . If you want any protection for your home and family, you’re going to have to get in and support a strong Police Department. If you don’t, come 1970, God help you.”

And then, on August 11, 1965, a drunk-driving arrest and confrontation between police and civilians helped ignite the Watts Rebellion. Within hours, Watts was burning.

The uprising lasted five days. Rioters battled police, looted businesses, and targeted many white-owned establishments seen as exploitative or discriminatory toward Black residents. Parker responded by calling in the National Guard and treating the uprising as an insurgency, comparing it to the Viet Cong and advocating a paramilitary response.

Parker imposed mass arrests, established blockades, and threatened deadly force. One sign reportedly read:

“Turn left or get shot.”

If interested I cover the Watts riots here: https://aid2000.substack.com/p/hare-brained-history-vol-122-the?r=4mmzre&utm\_medium=ios

On August 8, 1969, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian, members of the “Manson Family,” arrived at 10050 Cielo Drive. Watson claimed that Charlie Manson had instructed him to “totally destroy” everyone inside, “as gruesome as you can,” ostensibly in hopes of provoking the coming race war Manson foresaw.

Inside were pregnant actress Sharon Tate, her friend and former boyfriend Jay Sebring, writer Wojciech Frykowski, and Abigail Folger, heiress to the Folger coffee fortune. Roman Polanski was away filming. The Family murdered all four on the night Manson and members of the Family murdered Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. Spahn Ranch stuntman Donald Shea was also later murdered after Manson suspected him of being a snitch.

The Family's arrest came almost by accident. A raid on Spahn Ranch shortly after the murders, conducted over unrelated auto-theft charges, initially failed because of a paperwork error. Later, a completely unrelated investigation into stolen vehicles and vandalism at Death Valley's Barker Ranch led authorities to Manson and his followers.

In jail, Susan Atkins began talking. A fellow inmate told police what Atkins had said, and investigators eventually learned of her involvement in the Hinman murder and her connection to Manson. Further interviews helped investigators piece together the Tate and LaBianca murders.

And then came the trial. Manson was initially allowed to represent himself, but that permission was revoked after a series of increasingly bizarre pretrial motions. The trial began on June 15, 1970, and almost immediately became a spectacle.

The Family loitered outside the courthouse in their hippie clothing, sometimes carrying sheathed hunting knives, and some attempted to intimidate or prevent former members from testifying. Manson himself appeared in court with an X carved into his forehead, explaining that he had “X’d myself from your world.” His followers copied him.
The courtroom theatrics only escalated. On October 5, after being denied permission to question a prosecution witness, Manson lept over the defense table and attempted to attack Judge Charles Older. Bailiffs wrestled him to the ground and removed him from the courtroom. The female defendants then rose and began chanting in Latin.

When the defense rested, Atkins, Krenwinkel, and Van Houten wanted to testify that they had committed the murders themselves and that Manson had not ordered them. Their attorneys refused to put them on the stand, believing Manson was manipulating them into taking the blame for him.

They were still standing by Charlie. Manson himself eventually testified, but with the jury excluded. He denied ordering the murders, saying, “Why blame it on me? I didn't write the music.”

On January 25, 1971, Manson, Atkins, Krenwinkel, and Van Houten were convicted of murder and conspiracy. The jury returned death sentences for all four, and on April 19, Judge Older formally sentenced them to death.
Then, California abolished the death penalty.
In 1972, the California Supreme Court's decision in People v. Anderson invalidated existing death sentences, commuting to life imprisonment.

If you're interested in the Manson Family, I cover the entire story here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-121-the?r=4mmzre&utm\_medium=ios

Mínghūn (冥婚), literally "underworld marriage," or ghost marriage, is an ancient Chinese practice that still exists today. It is the symbolic marriage of two people, one or both of whom are deceased.

The practice is rooted in traditional Chinese beliefs. Drawing from Confucian ancestor veneration, Daoist cosmology, and Buddhist ideas about the afterlife, death is understood not as an ending but as a transition. The dead remain connected to the living and must be honored with offerings and remembrance. If neglected, they were believed capable of becoming restless spirits, bringing illness, misfortune, or harm to their families.

Ghost marriages served several purposes. They ensured the deceased would not spend eternity alone while preserving family lineage and ancestor worship, two of the most important obligations in traditional Chinese society. They were often said to have been requested by the dead themselves through dreams or other supernatural signs.

The ceremonies often mirrored ordinary weddings. Dowries and bridewealth were exchanged, though when both bride and groom were deceased these were usually elaborate paper offerings burned so the couple could use them in the afterlife. Poorer families might simply exchange a hóngbāo (red envelope), the familiar red packet associated with weddings, prosperity, and protection from evil spirits.

There are documented cases of families placing one in the middle of a road before hiding nearby. When an unsuspecting passerby stopped to pick it up, the family would emerge and announce that they had just accepted a proposal to marry one of their deceased relatives.

The tradition has not entirely disappeared. In recent years, reports have documented a black market in stolen corpses, and in a handful of cases, women have even been murdered so their bodies could be sold as ghost brides.

If interested, I wrote a deep dive into the history, beliefs, ceremonies, and modern reality of ghost marriages: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-120-ghost?r=4mmzre&utm\_medium=ios

On April 8, 1942, members of the ragtag Polish Armed Forces in the East, met a young Iranian boy in Hamadan with an unusual pet: an orphaned Syrian brown bear cub. At the urging of one of the civilian refugees, the soldiers bought the cub for a Swiss Army knife, a chocolate bar, and a tin of beef.

The bear was remarkably friendly and traveled with the Poles to a refugee camp outside Tehran. It quickly became obvious that a refugee camp was no place for a growing bear.

Where was? An artillery company, apparently.
In August 1942, the cub was adopted by the 22nd Artillery Supply Company and given the name Wojtek. He became the unit's mascot and was spoiled with fruit, honey, marmalade, syrup and beer. Wojtek loved beer so much that he'd stare mournfully into his empty mug until someone refilled it.

He also drank coffee, wrestled soldiers, chased oranges during grenade drills, learned to march and salute by copying the men around him, and even smoked cigarettes, usually swallowing them whole after taking a puff or two.

When the Polish II Corps was transferred to Italy, the British Army refused to allow pets aboard troop transports. The Poles refused to leave Wojtek behind. They officially enlisted him in the Polish Army as Private Wojtek, issued him a service number, and put him aboard the MS Batory bound for Italy.

At the Battle of Monte Cassino, where the Polish II Corps played a decisive role in capturing the ruined monastery after months of brutal fighting, Wojtek reportedly helped carry 100-pound crates of artillery shells to waiting trucks. While debated, at least one British soldier later confirmed the story, and the feat is certainly plausible, after the war, Wojtek was known to carry fence posts because everyone else was doing it.

After the campaign, Wojtek was promoted to corporal, and the 22nd Artillery Supply Company adopted a new insignia: a bear carrying an artillery shell.

If you'd like the full story, I wrote a much more detailed history here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-118-wojtek?r=4mmzre&utm\_medium=ios

On April 8, 1942, members of the ragtag Polish Armed Forces in the East, met a young Iranian boy in Hamadan with an unusual pet: an orphaned Syrian brown bear cub. At the urging of one of the civilian refugees, the soldiers bought the cub for a Swiss Army knife, a chocolate bar, and a tin of beef.

The bear was remarkably friendly and traveled with the Poles to a refugee camp outside Tehran. It quickly became obvious that a refugee camp was no place for a growing bear.

Where was? An artillery company, apparently.
In August 1942, the cub was adopted by the 22nd Artillery Supply Company and given the name Wojtek. He became the unit's mascot and was spoiled with fruit, honey, marmalade, syrup and beer. Wojtek loved beer so much that he'd stare mournfully into his empty mug until someone refilled it.

He also drank coffee, wrestled soldiers, chased oranges during grenade drills, learned to march and salute by copying the men around him, and even smoked cigarettes, usually swallowing them whole after taking a puff or two.

When the Polish II Corps was transferred to Italy, the British Army refused to allow pets aboard troop transports. The Poles refused to leave Wojtek behind. They officially enlisted him in the Polish Army as Private Wojtek, issued him a service number, and put him aboard the MS Batory bound for Italy.

At the Battle of Monte Cassino, where the Polish II Corps played a decisive role in capturing the ruined monastery after months of brutal fighting, Wojtek reportedly helped carry 100-pound crates of artillery shells to waiting trucks. While debated, at least one British soldier later confirmed the story, and the feat is certainly plausible, after the war, Wojtek was known to carry fence posts because everyone else was doing it.

After the campaign, Wojtek was promoted to corporal, and the 22nd Artillery Supply Company adopted a new insignia: a bear carrying an artillery shell.

If you'd like the full story, I wrote a much more detailed history here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-118-wojtek?r=4mmzre&utm\_medium=ios

On the night of 24 July 1943, 791 Royal Air Force bombers took off from Britain for Hamburg, beginning Operation Gomorrah, the largest Allied area bombing campaign to that point in the war.

Hamburg was Germany's second-largest city and one of the Reich's most important industrial and shipbuilding centers. The operation had two goals: cripple German industry and hurt German morale. The reality was that achieving both meant killing civilians, and a great many of them.

The first raid on the night of 24–25 July killed around 1,500 people despite the efforts of Hamburg's 40,000 firefighters, who largely prevented a citywide conflagration. It was only the beginning. Over the next week, roughly 3,000 Allied bombers dropped 9,000 tons of bombs on Hamburg. Around 250,000 homes were destroyed or severely damaged, and nearly one million people fled the city.

The worst night came on 27–28 July. 787 RAF bombers returned, this time concentrating on Hamburg's densely packed working-class neighborhoods. After weeks of unusually hot, dry weather, the city had been seasoned like kindling. Thousands of incendiary bombs ignited almost simultaneously while high-explosive "blockbuster" bombs shattered water mains, collapsed buildings, and blocked roads, preventing firefighters from reaching the growing inferno.

The result was a firestorm unlike anything the world had seen. Individual fires merged into one vast blaze. Hurricane-force winds of up to 150 mph fed the flames, temperatures reached 1,470°F (800°C), and more than 8 square miles of the city were consumed.

Eyewitnesses described something approaching hell itself. People burned beneath collapsed buildings, were swept into the flames by the wind, or suffocated in air raid shelters as the fire above consumed the oxygen and filled them with carbon monoxide.

A 1943 Newsweek report interviewing Swedish laborers who escaped the city described the aftermath:

"Inhalation of super-heated air was the prime cause of death... Bodies were dehydrated, and when shelter-tombs were opened, the victims' skins were found to be shrunk and their brains, in some instances, reduced to the size of a man's fist."

By the end of Operation Gomorrah, Hamburg had been devastated. Around 37,000 people were dead, though the true number will never be known.

If you're interested, I wrote a detailed article covering the operation here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-117-operation?r=4mmzre&utm\_medium=ios

The SS Andrea Doria was intended to embody Italian luxury and restore national pride.
The Andrea Doria was essentially a floating luxury hotel. Equipped with the latest radar and enough lifeboats for everyone aboard, she was widely considered one of the safest passenger ships afloat.

On July 17, 1956, the Andrea Doria departed Genoa on her fifty-second voyage to New York with 1,706 passengers and crew, roughly 90% full. Eight days later, as she entered the dense fog off Nantucket Shoals, Captain Piero Calamai reduced speed, sounded the ship's foghorn every 100 seconds, and stationed extra lookouts. It wasn't enough.

Another passenger liner, the Swedish MS Stockholm, had only just entered the fog. The smaller Swedish liner had departed New York that very morning, and for most of the voyage the night had been clear. Visibility was excellent, the moon hung brightly overhead, and there had been little reason for concern. Then, shortly before 11:00 p.m., the Stockholm steamed into the dense fog surrounding Nantucket Shoals.

Its overtired third officer misread the ship's radar, believing the Andrea Doria was much farther away than it really was. At the same time, the Italian officers also misinterpreted their radar. They attempted the unusual maneuver of passing starboard-to-starboard, while the Stockholm prepared for the standard port-to-port passing.

Neither ship understood what the other intended, and neither attempted to make radio contact.

At 11:11 p.m. on July 25, Stockholm's reinforced icebreaking bow struck the Andrea Doria almost at a perfect right angle, driving nearly forty feet into the Italian liner. Forty-six people aboard the Andrea Doria and five aboard the Stockholm were killed.

One of the most extraordinary survival stories in history also began that instant. Fourteen-year-old Linda Morgan had been asleep in her first-class cabin when the Stockholm's bow ripped through the ship, killing her younger sister. Somehow, Linda was lifted from her bed, carried across the gap between the two ships on the Swedish liner's bow, and deposited alive aboard the Stockholm.

Although Stockholm's bow looked destroyed, the damage stopped at a watertight bulkhead, and the ship remained afloat.

The Andrea Doria was not so fortunate.
Five fuel tanks on her starboard side flooded almost immediately. Air trapped in the empty tanks on the opposite side made the port side more buoyant, producing a severe list. That list allowed seawater to spill over the tops of the watertight bulkheads. Worse still, the angle of the ship made the port-side lifeboats impossible to launch.

Had the collision occurred in the middle of the Atlantic, the disaster would almost certainly have rivaled the Titanic. Instead, it happened just 45 miles south of Nantucket, in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. In one of the largest and most successful maritime rescues ever conducted, 1,663 people were saved. Only 51 people died. The damaged Stockholm ultimately rescued 545 survivors.

For nearly ten hours, the Andrea Doria stubbornly remained afloat. Then, at 10:09 a.m. on July 26, 1956, she slipped beneath the Atlantic bow first.

If interested I cover the sinking here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-vol-116-sinking?r=4mmzre&utm\_medium=ios