Truth is Strange

Henry Baxter, alleged beheader, definitive tattooer
Sometimes all I need to see is a headline to know an article is going to be right up my alley. Such was the case with

Nashville Man Shoots and Beheads His Adoptive Father, But That’s Not the Weird Part

The original story, over on WKRN Nashville, explains the murder in prosaic—if ugly—terms:

…Baxter took Thompson’s gun and shot Thompson in the head.

He disposed of his body in a garbage can in the backyard.

The following day, police said Baxter took Thompson’s body out of the garbage and decapitated him with a shovel. He then placed the body and the head back into the garbage can.

Wednesday, Baxter took Thompson’s body to the vacant lot off Old Hermitage Avenue and dumped it.

Umm, yeah, so it’s a bit odd to go back and get the guy a day after you kill him in order to behead him. But it’s not unheard of. And, as Gawker says, it’s not the weird part. Nor is the weird part that Baxter, though only eleven years younger than Thompson, was the older man’s adopted son. Nor is it that Baxter identified Thompson’s body from his tattoos, Baxter having been the tattoo artist.

No, what Gawker finds strangest is that both Baxter and Thompson had fathered children with Thompson’s wife.

Me, what I find weird is that this story comes out of Tennessee, not Florida.

Comments

  1. Clare 2e

    I’ve seen a family like that before, but it wasn’t Tennessee or Florida. I think it was in Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

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