The Wuxuan cannibalism frenzy, China 1966

In 1968, during the cultural revolution in Wuxuan of Guangxi, a case of widespread cultured cannibalism occurred. This is a quick post compiling the best quotes from Consuming Counterrevolution: The Ritual and Culture of Cannibalism in Wuxuan, Guangxi, China, May to July 1968 (1995). This paper is itself heavily based on the book Scarlet Memorial: Tales of Cannibalism in Modern China (1993).

Wuxuan in 1966 was a fairly remote county reporting a population of 221,786.

From May to July, struggles were held in all or the great majority of the 114 brigades (villages and streets [jie]), and no fewer than 90 had one or more struggle meetings that terminated with on-the-spot execution. Of a total of 524 executed, 64 (later amended to 75 or 76) were eaten throughout the county's municipality and nine communes, according to the official investigation (Zheng 1993:58, 96). 

His second chapter is closely based on the official report of what happened, dated May 1987, and a separate list of 64 victims, dated July 4, 1983. Fifty-six had their heart and liver cut out; 18 were completely consumed (down to the soles of their feet), 13 had their genitals eaten, one was decapitated after being eaten, and 7 were actually cut up while they were still alive (Zheng 1993:96).

Only 15 were punished by jail sentences, for only up to 14 years.

Pointless Notes: Murder and Complex Analysis

Theodore John Kaczynski, BA (Mathematics, Harvard University, 1962), PhD (University of Michigan, 1967), is famous for being a series bomber, but to mathematicians, he's also known as a complex analyst. Not a (mathematically) famous one, but a competent one at least, and some also said he was brilliant. In 1969, he resigned as an assistant professor at Berkeley.

There was a news article about his math, and it contained the usual kind of flailing about how research level math is too hard for layponies. No need to be so dramatic about it... 

I was amused by this:

Writing in the first person plural is common in mathematics, said Kenneth Ribet of UC Berkeley. So in hindsight, the Unabomber's manifesto may provide an obscure hint at its alleged author's former profession. 

The mathematician's habit of writing in the Royal We has been exposed!