Attempted Decapitation

[Wickerman]

She says that if someone was really trying to take off a head with a knife and failed for whatever reason, 9 times out of 10 the tip of the blade should have been between the vertebrae......

Agreed, this is exactly what I was alluding to in my first comment..

I would expect Phillips to have referred to the cartilage between the bones rather than the muscle at the side of the neck.
Unless the recorder misunderstood Phillips' words.

Regards, Jon S.

Evidence of penetration would have been noted in the cartilage between the cervical vertebra.

Regards, Jon S.

[Damaso Marte]

Again, all this talk of "if he wanted decapitation, he would have surely done x" is based on several assumptions. The assumption that offends me is that the killer was an expert who knew the proper way to decapitate a human being with a knife.

[Errata]

Again, all this talk of "if he wanted decapitation, he would have surely done x" is based on several assumptions. The assumption that offends me is that the killer was an expert who knew the proper way to decapitate a human being with a knife.

I'm not sure why it offends you as opposed to simply puzzling you, but okay.

There is no proper way to decapitate someone. With any weapon. But if someone is going to decapitate someone with a knife, their experience is going to be pretty similar. They will cut through the flesh of the neck to the spine. When confronted with the spine they will see bones, cartilage, nerves, tendons and muscles. Likely anyone would cut through the muscle and tendons surrounding the spine. Now you have to cut through the spine to get the head off. The cervical spine has thinner disk spaces, and more bone. So Somehow you have to get a knife in between two vertebrae, and cut through the disk and the spine. Disks are not easy to cut through, and the vertebrae of the cervical spine tend to cover part of the vertebra below it. So you have a couple of options at this point.

A: Twist the head around like The Exorcist to break the spine and tear the disk away from one of the vertebra. But that didn't happen.

B: Cut away the bone until you have a clear access to the spine. That also didn't happen. I mean, it's bone. Surely that did not escape his notice. He would need a chisel.

C: Wedge the blade between vertebrae and wiggle it around until you get enough room to cut through the disc and the spine. This is the option that breaks the tip of the blade.

D: in desperation, pick up a rock and break the neck bones, then sever the spinal cord and any other connective tissue. This also didn't happen.

He had options. He even had options that would have gotten him the head. But he didn't get the head. Which means that either he never wanted it, or he never wanted it bad enough to exercise all of his options. Which likely would have meant he would have had to give up abdominal mutilation time, and maybe he didn't want to trade that for a head. Even if he didn't have the slightest idea how to do it, he could have done it. Others have done it. Maybe he gave up because it was too hard. But even that means, he didn't want it that badly.

[lynn cates]

desires

Hello Errata.

"he never wanted it bad enough to exercise all of his options. Which likely would have meant he would have had to give up abdominal mutilation time, and maybe he didn't want to trade that for a head. Even if he didn't have the slightest idea how to do it, he could have done it. Others have done it. Maybe he gave up because it was too hard. But even that means, he didn't want it that badly."

And I can live with that.

Cheers.
LC