I'd like to keep this image of David Carradine in my mind...as opposed to the kook in Kill BIll.
Far be it from me to let this David Carradine story go by without commenting on it. Naturally, I wish the Carradine family much peace at this horrible time. But he died of what? How? Where? What? Huh? As a product of the swinging 70’s, my sexual proclivities were quite risque, as were most people’s then, thanks to Quaaludes. If you never did one, it is hard to describe. You took a Lude and ended up in someone else’s bed. Period. My friend Nancy was known to say, “That tree is beginning to look sexy” and off she’d go to hump the maple. When I hear about most dark, kinky, sex acts, it doesn’t astonish me. Well…except the whole auto-erotic asphyxiation thing…I mean…what?!? I try to imagine the scenario. But I stop at the tying of a rope around the neck. Fine, call me a prude. I’ve been called worse, and happily so, in this situation. First and foremost, here’s a lovely ditty: the practice of auto-erotic asphyxiation has been documented since the early 1600s. It was first used as a treatment for erectile dysfunction and impotence. You mean to tell me that if Viagra was around in the old days, we could have save thousands of lives? Go figure. While researching other famous auto-erotic asphyxiation deaths, I came up with a couple of doozies.
The Saga of Sada Abe.
The story of Sada Abe (no relation here) from Japan in May 1936 is beyond intense. She (Sada) asphyxiated her lover Kichizo Ishida, then cut off his genitalia and carried them, wrapped in magazine paper, in her purse for days before giving herself up. She told police, “After I had killed Ishida I felt totally at ease, as though a heavy burden had been lifted from my shoulders, and I felt a sense of clarity.” Now you see, this where we differ, ’cause I’d sooner take spiritual aerobics, a.k.a. Intensati class with Patricia Moreno to get clarity.
Hutchence loss was a bloomin' shame.
The first recorded auto-erotic asphyxiation murder case was Frantisek Kotzwara in London, 1791. Kotzwara visited a prostitute named Susannah Hill. After dinner with her in her lodgings, Kotzwara paid her (get this) two shillings and requested that she cut off his testicles. Hill refused to do so. Kotzwara then tied a ligature around the doorknob, the other end fastened around his neck, and proceeded to have sex with Hill. After it was over, Kotzwara was dead. FYI…she got off…as in not found guilty, I mean.
In the case of Michael Hutchence from INXS, though it was determined that his death was a suicide, analysis of the witness statements in the Coroner’s report such as the lack of a suicide note and other anecdotal evidence, the fact that Hutchence was found nude, has led some to suggest that the death may have resulted from auto-erotic asphyxiation. Well, it’s clear to me.
Any thoughts y’all?
