speedminded
05-05-2006, 10:42 AM
Cops love a good story, but this one sent in by serial contributor M.B. and lifted from Zsaru, the Hungarian fuzz's online collection of bizarre crime tales, seems way too good to be obviously true. The ingredients of the story are a barrel containing 300 liters of Jamaican rum, a house on the outskirts of Szeged in sore need of renovation, a team of slow workmen in sore need of drink, and a dead ex-husband. As Zsaru tells it, the builders happened on the man-sized hordó of liquor (left) in the derelict property they were renovating, and helped themselves to it over the months it took to complete the renovation. But the tale really begins after the barrel ran dry.
When the workmen tried to move the "empty" barrel, they discovered it was not empty at all. Curious, they broke open the cask and, to their horror, found the naked and slightly shriveled corpse of a man.
A little detective work by the cops revealed that the property had belonged to an old widower who had once lived in the Caribbean with her husband, a diplomat. Apparently the man had died in Jamaica, and his widow, discouraged by the cost and paperwork of returning his corpse to Hungary through official channels, instead tossed his carcass into a vat of rum and shipped it home via slow boat.
As the woman didn't have many relatives or friends in Hungary, no one bothered to enquire what had happened to her husband. When she finally died some 20 years later, her house was sold to a young couple who in turn hired the thirsty workmen who spent several months drinking the essence of the dead diplomat, probably the last barrel-aged spirit any of them will ever let pass their lips again.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4976754.stm
http://www.pestiside.hu/archives/packing-a-kick.jpg
When the workmen tried to move the "empty" barrel, they discovered it was not empty at all. Curious, they broke open the cask and, to their horror, found the naked and slightly shriveled corpse of a man.
A little detective work by the cops revealed that the property had belonged to an old widower who had once lived in the Caribbean with her husband, a diplomat. Apparently the man had died in Jamaica, and his widow, discouraged by the cost and paperwork of returning his corpse to Hungary through official channels, instead tossed his carcass into a vat of rum and shipped it home via slow boat.
As the woman didn't have many relatives or friends in Hungary, no one bothered to enquire what had happened to her husband. When she finally died some 20 years later, her house was sold to a young couple who in turn hired the thirsty workmen who spent several months drinking the essence of the dead diplomat, probably the last barrel-aged spirit any of them will ever let pass their lips again.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4976754.stm
http://www.pestiside.hu/archives/packing-a-kick.jpg