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Khasekhemwy
unknown till unkown
7. Pharaoh of the 2. Dynasty
 
Pharaonic names:
Nesw-bity:  
Horus: Khasekhem/Khaeskhemwy
Nebty: Khasekhemwy Nebwkhetsen
Golden Horus  
 

Names Sources

Actually, Khasekhemwy, the last king of the 2nd Dynasty is the first one again, who was found all over Egypt, indicating, he was actually the one, re-uniting the country. His name appears on vessels, on seals, in different spellings and variants, in short, he was everywhere. And here begin the problems:
  • While he is everywhere, there is no actual inscription together with Peribsen or Sekhemib. For a long time, he therefore was assumed to have been a son of Peribsen. However, Peribsen as his grandfather, Sekhemib as his father, would make more sense in the line of how Upper Egypt developed the power to subdue Lower Egypt. From Peribsen's claim via the suspicious silence during Sekhemib's time to the power of Khasekhemwy.
  • To make it not too easy, there are names spelled Khasekhem and names spelled Khasekhemwy. And since it is all so long ago, it is hard to bring that in a time order. Were those names used at the same time alternatively? Did Khasekhem change his name to Khasekhemwy after he united Egypt, as some assume? By all means, Khasekhem means "He whose power raises" (also sometimes instead with "raises" translated with "appears") and Kahsekhemwy means "He, whose two powers raise/aapear". Which is consistent with the fact that Khasekhemwy used Hor-Seth Khasekhemwy Netjerwy Hetepimef as Horus name, in fact as a Horus-Seth name in which both deities, the leading cults of Upper and Lower Egypt appear together in his royal title after the re-unification. Nevertheless, there are some Egyptologists musing about the possibility, there would be a Khasekhem and then a son of him called Khasekhemwy. It's a minority, but well ... for reasons of completeness, it should be mentioned.

Manetho, the Palermo Stone and the Royal Annal Actually, Menatho, whose writing about the Dynasties was partially based on sources based on the Palermo stone, without being aware of it, because the stone itself was only discovered after Manetho's time, ends up with a reign of 18 years, 2 months and 23 days, while Toby Wilkinson ends up with 17 1/2 years plus. So, this is basically consistent. However, the Palermo Stone dates into the 5th dynasty, Khasekhemwy lived at the end of the 2nd Dynasty. Compared to the length of Egyptian history this appears as a minor time difference, however, there are about 250 years in between and those years had their chaotic moments. Chaotic moments in history tend to change data by propaganda and simple loss of information. Thus, as with almost all dates in those early dynasties, there is no absolute certainty about them.
Currently, the majority of Egyptologists date Khasekhemwy about 2690 BC. Which in a lot of publications would make him either overlapping back till Peribsen or forward till Djoser. Partially, this is a problem of the rather "wobbly" dating of the kings surrounding him in time. Partiallly, it is of course the inherent problem of the correlation between Egyptian dates and our calendar. It is nice to know, a cattle count happened for example in the 16th year of the reign of King Khasekhemwy, but that doesn'yt help if you can't figure out when his year 1 was in out calendar. This just as a side note to explain some of the problems, Egyptology struggles with.
So, mistakes were inevitable. And Manetho, with fewer sources and lesser knowledge than we have today about Egypt, was prone to make some of them. Because actually, even everyone still uses the term of the dynasties, he defined, because it's easy to work with it, the 2nd dynasty didn't end with Khasekhemwy. The first King of the 3rd dynasty was his son Djoser. So, while we talk archeologically about the end of the second and the beginning of the third dynasty, merely biological it was still one. Manetho divided them by mistake and in the meantime, the mistake is established as standard (so Microsoft wasn't the first going down that road).

The Re-Unification of Egypt

As pointed out in the articles about Peribsen and Sekhemib, Egypt was divided before Khasekhemwy. Nevertheless, already under Peribsen, there was a claim of the Upper Egyptian kings to all the country. With Khasekhemwy, we find, by the spread of his name over the country, the royal titulary and a lot of other indications, a untied Egypt at the end af his reign. Actually, we don't know, did he march against Lower Egypt in his first year or in his eighteenth or maybe in his fifth year. Actually, we don't even know how it happened. And as usual, when we know that little, there are a lot of theories:
  • The most frequently promoted theory seems to be the idea, there was a civil war between followers of Horus and followers of Seth. Since Hoeus was an originally Upper Egyptian deity and Seth more Lower Egyptian, Khasekhem, the Upper Egyptian King won that civil war and becamse as Khasekhemwy King of Upper and Lower Egypt.
    Well, yeas, that is one of those nice and neat theories. The problem is, already Peribsen had transported Seth also to Upper Egypt. So, Seth wasn't exclusively Lower Egyptian anymore. And if that would have been a war between religions/cults, the last thing, the winning King could have done is, to add Seth to his Horus name makking it actually a double kingdom, acknowledging the power of a deity whose followers, he had just killed as haeretics ... so, from where I stand, this theory is a no go. A king, who just won a war is under the pressure of his subjects expectations. Whatever Khasekhemwy may have thought about things, but the moment, he would have given a defeated opponent that kind of equality, his own people would have rioted against him.
  • Another theory says, he came back from a campaign against Nubia and, having troops at hand, put out Seth-Peribsen out of his misery. Out of Khasekhemwy's misery, that is. Well, yeah ... this would be some killer-maneuver. Since Sekhemib's seals are in the entrance of Peribsens tomb and there is no inscription mentioning Khasekhem and Peribsen together, it is even doubtful, they were really contemporaries. Which would place Khasekhem in the postion to dig out Peribsen before he can coup against him. And since Peribsen's seals were all found in Upper Egypt, he was an Upper Egyptian king, despite the fact, he had this Seth animal in his Serekh. So the whole idea of an Upper Egyptian general defeating an Upper Egyptian King doesn't add up to become also King of Lower Egypt in the first place. Even if Khasekhem maybe kicked Peribsen out of his palace (and don't overestimate that term for this early period), he would have still sat in Upper Egypt and needed to conquer Lower Egypt to re-unify the country. So, this theory doesn't make too much sense to me.
  • Time for some thoughts of my own. He built a lot. In fact, that much, that I would like to dedicate an own section to it. For the moment, the interesting aspect is, he had time to build and he had the resources to do so. This contradicts the idea of a civil war, which would have caused severe damage to the economy. Even more, in his tomb, earlier grave robbers missed a lot of items found then by Amélineau, who excavated Tomb V, and detailed by Petrie. We find in this list the king's scepter, beautifully made small stone pots with gold leaf lid coverings, copper tools and vessels, more pottery, small glazed objects with unknown purposes, carnelain beads, model tools, basketwork and numerous seals.
    The significant part are the small stone vessels and the copper vessels. Egypt was basically somewhat between stone and bronze age. Copper had more value than gold because it was not that much more available but needed much more for tools for example. What we have here, with both kinds of vessels, is a step forward in production techniques. A nation coming out of a bloody civil war doesn't make progress in the development of pots. Add to that, that the two known forts, Khasekhemwy built are in Nekhen and Abydos, both far from Lower Egpyt, he allegedly just conquered, and we don't see any military need to keep the pressure on an unwillingly occupied part of Egypt.
    Bottom line: There was maybe a civil war, but it was over fast. There was maybe a sudden ambush after Khasekhem returned with an army from Nubia, but the reistance can't have been more than formal. There is no indication, that there was any greater damage to the country, any of the cities or the economy as would be inevitable as consequence of an extended civil war. Whatever happened, it happened fast, probably surprising.
    Actually, it had to be so surprising, even his own people, the Upper Egyptians, didn't realize it before it was already over. There was no time to build up expectations in his subjects of being now the victory power. That was the reason, Khasekhem could become Khasekhemwy and add Seth to his Horus name. Only if his own Upper Egyptian population had no time to build up expectations on the spoils of victory, he could go and unite both parts og Egypt equally or at least almost equally into one.
  • But now, the drama had just started. Because now, he sat on one throne over two realms that had been for at least three generations competing powers and were still split by different religious main deities. And that second split wasn't following the border between Upper and Lower Egypt but went also right through Upper Egypt because Peribsen had already imported not only Seth but also other Lower Egyptian deities. It can't have been an easy job to form out of that one nation under how many Gods ever.

    Family and Friend

    From inscriptions, we know, he had one queen with the name Nimaethap. It appears as if this was his only wife. The couple had two children, Djoser and Hetephernebti. And then, there was someone named Sanakht ...
    Well, it's time for some explanantions. Sanakht appears for example in Manetho's lists as the real founder of the 3rd dynasty. Which would put him in before Djoser. But in Khasekhemwy's tomb, seals with Djoser's name, not with Sanakht's name were found, indicating, Djoser bureid Khasekhemwy and became king as successor of his father ... but then, Sanakht again appears on relief fragments from Wadi Maghare, on the Sinai. And there, he is depicted in the typical pose of Egyptian kings smashing enemies with his war mace. Which appears to prove, someone names Sanakht was a real king during the third dynasty. But how to position him? Before or after Djoser. Because if he would have ruled before Djoser, then not Djoser but Sanakht was Khasekhemwy's son. Or both ere, but Djoser was the younger brother.
    Now, lets bring some order in the chaos. We know, Khasekhemwy was king, so we have some kind of anchor point. We know where his tomb is, it's Tomb V in Abydos, the last royal tomb in this necropolis.
    So, something changed either still at the time of Khasekhemwy or short after his death. At some point, Djoser started to work on his famous step pyramid at Saqqara. But, lesser known, there is also a mastabe in Beit Khallaf, one of two. K1, the bigger one is the one attributed to Djoser, the other one, K2, is attributed to Sanakht. Inside, the remains of a man of 1.90m (74.8 inches) were found. That's tall, even taller back then in comparison when people were smaller on the average. This discovery was connected to an anecdote of Manetho who tells of a king named Sesochris (Manetho used Hellenized names).
    So, Sanakht was a king, but were in the order of the 3rd dynasty. We know, Djoser married his sister Hetephernebti. This was a dynastic strategy to "keep the royal blood pure" or technically, to avoid later spreading claims on the throne. And by all means, neither Khasekhemwy nor Djoser could know, that Manetho more than two-thousand years later would introduce a dynastic break between them. From their point of view, they were one family, one dynasty, not two. So, if Khasekhemwy married his son and his daughter, he did so to block other claims on the throne. This was usually political, not quite a love marriage. So at this time, and while Khasekhemwy was still alive and ruling (he ruled 18 years, marriages were arranged about 12-13 years of age for the girls), Djoser was clear marked as heir of the throne. Only under this condition, it made sense to marry him with his siter. If there would have been an older brother, Sanakht, it would have been Sanakht who would have been married to the sister Hetephernebti. So, Sanakht wasn't Djoser's older brother.
    Sanakht also is no ruler between Khasekhemwy aqnd Djoser. Djoser has his seals all over Khasekhemwy's burial. Of course, some claim, that shows only, Djoser perfomred rites at this tomb, not that he buried Khasekhemwy. But significant is here, that there are no seals of Sanakht. So actually, we know, who didn't bury Khasekhemwy and took officially over from him.
    Now, there are other theories. Some believe, there was a king called Mesochris by Manetho and think, he would have maybe ruled between maybe Teti and Huni, later in the third dynasty. And of course, the mysterious Weneg pops up in this discussion, but by all we know, if he was a king, he was an earlier one during the second dynasty. Adn then, some others identify him with Nebka, Teti, Khaba or other pharaohs of the third dynasty. We will come back to this more than often enough, but since this section is dedicated to Khasekhemwy's family, I would like to explore the idea that Sanakht was part of this family.
    What indicates, he was part of Khasekhemwy's family? First of all, the vicinity in time. Second, a parallity of actions. I mentioned already the mastaba K2 in Beit Khallaf. So, there is a big one, K1, that belongs to Djoser (who was later buried in Saqqara in the step pyramid) and K2, a smaller but not actually small one. That thing is in fact also pretty big. So, Beit Khallaf was, aside of those two mastabas, never royal necropolis. That makes me think, those two mastabas were built at a time, none of them, neither Djoser not Sanakht was king. Prince tombs. Since Egyptians married early, it is highly unlikely any of Khasekhemwy's children were sired only after he ascended to the throne. And he ruled eighteen years. So, would any responsible Egyptian prince wait with starting the construction of his own tomb till the old man dies. The old man seemed to be at good health for most of the time and life wasn't as secure as today, not even for a king. Egyptian nobles, that includes of course princes too, started to build tombs as early as they could and we know from mastaba tombs of nobles of the time, those tombs were often during the construction phase extended the more their owner climbed in rank and wealth. So, here we have two mastabas, one of Djoser of whom we know, he became LATER king and started to build the step pyramid. And one of Sanakht. Two princely brothers, not kingly brothers!
    And it goes on. West of the step pyramid is another unfinished complex, often labelled as "The Great Enclosure" or by it's Arabic name "Gisr el-Mudir". This area of 600 by 300 meters (1968 by 984 feet) is in fact even bigger than the enclosure around Djoer's pyramid. Between those two structures is another pyramid visible or mostly invisible, is the "buried Pyramid" the unfinished tomb of Sekhemhet, also known as Djoserty. Who was most likely Djoser's son and therefore Khasekhemwy's grandson. Now, we know the architect. His name was Imhotep. He left his name on Djoser's pyramid and on Djoserty's.
    And now, we are at "friends". Imhotep, counselor, physician, preist, architect and re-organizer of the written Egyptian language, was one of the most remarkable figures in Egyptian history. Probably in all history. As genius as genius gets and then some. To give an impression: He used as first physician in the world some derivate of a penicilline cure on a Theban princess - about 4500 years before Americans discovered penicilline and based merely on empiric observation. No kidding! But he also eanred himself glory as architect. Now, we will later see, that Khasekhemwy's tomb is the first one in which was built with quarry stone in a significant amount. It is not the first in which quarry stone instead of bricks was used, that goes, according to the latest findings, already back to the 1st dynasty. But it was rare and here a wall, there a wall or column. With Khasekhhemwy starts the use of stone in construction in the big style. Alreade Djoser's pyramid is already almost complete stone. And so is the great enclosure. So, same family, same court, same material, same architectural thinking, that smells like the same architect. And yes, the great enclosure is no burial place. The wall was finished, that would have made the construction of a pyramid virtually impossible. But similar enclosures were found in connection to 2nd dynasty tombs for example at Abydos. It is widely assumed, they symbolized a palace, the dead king could take with him to the herafter in the same way, he could take beer and wheat with him. So ... Khasekhemwy, Djoser and probably also Sanakht lived at the change from the second to the third dynasty and while it wasn't really a change of the biological dynasty, it was a political and technological change. Khasekhemwy's tomb and the great enclosure are both 2nd dynasty examples, Djoser is clearly third. So ... who would get a 2nd dynasty style tomb in this phase in Saqqara? Look around in the neighborhood: Djoser's son played laready third dynasty style, but he is part of the neighborhood. Otherwise we find kings from later dynastys, for example Userkaf, on that end of the Necropolis. The other tombs are already further to the South. In other words, we have here two 3rd dynasty tombs from the same family and one hint on a 2nd dynasty burial from the time of the change between 2nd and 3rd dynasty. And the great enclosure is too far from the step pyramid to be part of that complex. And all three structures carry all hallmarks of the same architect, Imhotep. The conclusion is clear: There was a 2nd dynasty tomb planned and maybe even begun. Not a pyramid but one of the subterannean half-mastabas on the way to something bigger. Chances are, this one was built for Sanakht. He had obviously his princely first tomb next to Djoser. But it appeared, he died before this tomb was finished and thus, he was buried in K2 in Beit Khallaf. Adding all this together, chances are, Sanakht was not a later pharoh but a younger borther and maybe for a time, co-ruler of Djoser. By all means, Khasekhemwy had just united the kingdom again. People like Khasekhemy, Imhotep, Hesy-Ra and Merit-Ptah (also polymaths and physicians) serving as counselors at Djoser's and probably already Khasekhemy's court, were sworn to uphold this new unity. The last tihng, any of them would have provoked would have been a splitting of throne claims. And Khasekhemwy, who had done the job for many years must have known, how hard it was for just one king to rule this now double sized kingdom. The idea of a co-rulership appears under these aspects logical and consistent with the two mastabas in Beit Khallaf and the great enclosure plus the step pyramid in Saqqara. Thus, as it looks to me, the story is not so dramatic as stealing thrones form each other (some novels were based on that idea), but far more pragmatic in a Khasekhemwy and Djoser style. Which means, Khasekhemwy and Nimaethap had in fact three kids, or lets say surviving kids: Djoser, Sanakht and Hetephernebti.

    Building and more building

    Khasekhem's name is on a fort in Nekhem. Nekhen is better known as Hierakonpolis, the old capital of the predynastic and early dynastic times in Upper Egypt. Now, actually, this is another enclosure and similar to other enclosures. Thus, several authors insist, it had no military function and was rather a pendant to the enclosures found in the necropolis of Abydos. The idea is, they served rituals of kingship and burial cults.
    This idea has more than oen catch. First of all, Egypt and in later phases also Meroe/Nubia, was full of similar enclosures. They served a number of purposes, mostly depending on where they were. An enclosure in a necropolis served really probably ritualistic purposes. But Khasekhemwy's "is not part of a necropolis. There are tombs around, but those are all from pre-dynastic times, at the time, Khasekhemwy had this enclosure built, about a five-hundred years old. So, what Khasekhemwy did was building a big rectangular wall basically into the desert.
    The problem is, form my point of view, that the number of available structures was limited. What could Egyptians have built to fortify a place. In Khasekhemwy's times? Well, they hadn't as of yet developed the technology to build tovers. Building in multiplatform scenarios occured for the first time with Djoser's step pyramid. So, the only choice was a wall. Egyptian forts in Nubia, thousand year later were also just walls with some huts inside. And since the huts were light buiilds from reed mostly, nothing of them was left to be found. Bottom line: Not the fact of a rectangular wall but the place tells us about the purpose.

    Now, there was a second "Fort" at Abydos. That one is bigger than Nekhen and evidence of two chapels, benches, incense and beer jars were found. So, well, this time, the rectangular structure sits in the middle of a necropolis and the evidence points out ritualistic use. Which makes sense because the dead godkings those sacrifices were made to were buried nearby, a factor not applying to Nekhen. The logic is here a little too simplified. Churches have walls, my home has walls, nevertheless, my home is no church. Walls serve a lot of purposes.

    Some supect, he could have been even the one ordering the construction of the Gisr el-Mudir in Saqqara, the afore mentioned great enclosure. The reason is simple. He was second dynasty, the construction is in its style second dynasty and it looks as if Imhotep had his fingers in it. Now, Imhotep had his fingers also in the construction of the step pyramid. This part is no prove for anything. But while a younger borther of Djoser would have had reason to build at Saqqara because that is where Djoser built, Khasekhemwy had no reason. His burial is in Abydos. Saqqara became only active necropolis again after he was already dead. So why would he built there?

    The last especially notable construction connected to Khasekhemwy is el-Kab or known as Nekheb in ancient times. Nekheb was a center in the early dynastic period, some remains of temples are still visible and became mostly important in times of the 18th dynasty and again in the Ptolemaeic period. At the end of the 2nd dynasty, the time of Khasekhemwy, Nekheb wasn't noteworthy at all while opposite on the other side of the Nile, Hierankonpolis (Nekhen) was a growing city. Khasekhemwy had alread built the enclosure at Nekhen, so why did he built also on the other side of the Nile? Actually, it made no sense or wouldn't, if the enclosure on the other side would be ritualistic in its purpose. But it makes of course sense for a military troop in any kind of bastion next to a river to have a foothold also on the other side. Basically, Egypt is a small stripe of land and a lot of desert to both sides. At Khasekhemwy's time, predacious nomads were still a problem and those came from the desert. And not noteworthy translates for a real leader often also to "unused - yet".

    Tomb V

    By measures of architecture and technology, Khasekhemwy's tomb is not special. It is, in its basic idea a second dynasty tomb, subteranean, with a main burial chamber, some storage rooms and mainly a long stretched tunnel with siderooms. But in this case, demosntrating the greatness, the meaning of this king who re-united Egypt, this "typical" grew into the humungous. The whole structure is trapezoid and about 70m long (230 feet) and at the northern end 17m (56 ft) wide. At the southern end, it is still 10m (33ft) wide. The central burial chamber is almost completly constructed form quarry stone and was for a long time considered the oldest mason work in the world, but latest discoveries found, that already in 1st dynasty tombs occasionally stone was used. Not for the complete construvtion though.
    The whole was divided in a total of 58 rooms. Grave robbers plundered the tomb already in ancient times, but it was so big, they overlooked still a lot of items as mentioned earlier. Beads, pottery, exquisite stone vessels, copper and flint tools and last but not least, the king's scepter made from gold and sard. Of course, it doesn't look like a scpeter of a medieval king in Europe. This one is more of a stick, actually a copper core surrounded by copper, gold and carnelian beads. Anyway, the archaeologically interesting parts are the vessels and tools, that give us some insight into the technology of the time.
    Tomb V is the last royal tomb build in Abydos/Umm el Qa'ab. Only in the sixth dynasty, Pepi I would built a funeral chapel there again which would, over uncounted phases of building develop into the great Osiris Temple and only in the 18th dynasty New Kingdom pharaohs would built more chapels. With Khasekhemwy, the history of Abydos as royal necropolis was finished for a long time. His son built his pyramid at Saqqara and so did his probably grandson. Why?
    The reason, why Manetho wrongfully assumed, there was a new, the third dynasty, is easy to see from the hindsight. Egypt changed. After generations of division, it was one kingdom again. Things were difficult, a new adminsitration had to be organized able to govern the whole country. New letters, a whole new script was developed to make writing, one onf the most important things for any form of administration, easier and faster. The House of Life became the first university of the world, if we take the term at its original meaning. Writing, adminstration, even politics and history were taught as well as medicine, mathematics and architecture. It was necessary, because they had to build a nation and in this case, that meant literally building. The 3rd dynasty is a leap forward in every aspect and of course, we all heard the names connected to this leap, mainly Djoser, the first pyramid-builder (who actually built nothing, but he paid for it) and Imhotep, his chancellor, architect and doctor of all things. But the base for that leap was created by Khasekhemwy, who not only re-united the country, but who was the one getting Imhotep on the court in the first place. The raise of Egypt to its first time as ancient superpower begun with Khasekhemwy who laid the foundantion, just like Sekhemib had probably laid the foundation for Khasekhemwy's military strength. But because the result became only visible under Djoser, it was the son, not the father, who gained glory for the history books. Khasekhemwy was forgotten for a long time. He, who had founded the united Egypt was still a second dynasty king and while he literally created the third dynasty (which was actually the same by mere biological matters), he didn't become part of what he had started. His tomb is old, traditional, by architecture, technology and also by the choice of its location in Umm al Qa'ab. After his death, new traditions begun and it was in almost all aspects a break. To change the royal necropolis to Saqqara was only one part of tht break, a demonstration, something new had begun - right after the old times died with Khasekhemwy.

... back
Tue, May 17, 2016
12:00 AM CT

Daniel Lee Siebert
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Fri, Dec 18, 2015
12:00 AM CT

Christman Genipperteinga
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Thu, Oct 22, 2015
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Gerard John Schaefer
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Thu, Sep 24, 2015
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Royal Russel Long
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Mon, Aug 17, 2015
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The Wyoming Rodeo Murders
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Wed, Jul 15, 2015
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Joseph Vacher, the French Ripper
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Sat, Jun 20, 2015
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Sat, May 16, 2015
12:00 AM CT

The Beauty Queen Killer
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Thu, Apr 16, 2015
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Burton W. Abbott
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Mon, Mar 16, 2015
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Darren Deon Vann
Ha is basically the usual garden variety strangler case if it wouldn't be for the early warnings statistical data cretated about serial killer activity in Gary/Indiana. Now he is in our collection.

Wed, Mar 4, 2015
12:00 AM CT

Apologies!
Due to technical problems, the March article was up late. Take my apologies for this glitch.

Mon, Feb 16, 2015
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Affaire of the Poisons
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Mon, Dec 8, 2014
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Joseph Bryan
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Fri, Nov 7, 2014
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The Trailside Killer
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Tue, Oct 7, 2014
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The Vampire of Duesseldorf
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Fri, Sep 12, 2014
12:00 AM CT

The Grim Sleeper
Lonnie Franklin aka The Grim Sleeper has been added to our serial killer collection

Thu, Aug 14, 2014
12:00 AM CT

Michael Lee Lockhart
... and with a little delay, another serial made it into the serial killer collection. Michael Lee Lockhart, not so much interesting for his "achievements" but because his case appears as if he became a psychopath only after a serious head injury.

Tue, Aug 12, 2014
12:00 AM CT

A Game of Daggers
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Pope Urban II has called for a crusade, but this news has yet to reach Cornwall. And people there have anyway to deal with other problems from storms to wreckers on their coast and when some murdered men are discovered on the beach, nobody guesses, this is only the prelude to much greater events coming to the so remote shores ...

Sat, Jul 5, 2014
12:00 AM CT

Ivan Hill
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Sun, Jun 8, 2014
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Raya and Sakina
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Thu, May 1, 2014
12:00 AM CT

Dagmar Overbye
The infamous Danish baby farmer has been added to our Serial Killer Collection.

Thu, May 1, 2014
12:00 AM CT

Pharaoh Djoser added to the Egyptian Collection
I finally came around to add a new pharaoh to our collection: Djoser, 1st Pharoh of the 3rd Dynasty.

Fri, Apr 4, 2014
12:00 AM CT

The Green River Killer
This month, we added Gary Ridgway to our serial killer collection, a case, not so much interesting for the profiling but for the lessons about case organization to be learned from it.

Tue, Mar 4, 2014
12:00 AM CT

Manson Family
The "Manson Family&quo; has been added to our serial killer collection. Especially interesting for those who think, brain washing isn't possible.

Fri, Feb 7, 2014
12:00 AM CT

Hans van Zon
Dutch serial killer Hans van Zon joined our serial killer collection. Not entirely voluntarily though.

Mon, Jan 6, 2014
12:00 AM CT

The Syracuse Dungeon Master
John T. Jamelske aka the Syracuse Dungeon Master has been added to our Serial Killer Collection. While not a seria killer but a serial rapist, Jamelske represents a similar psychopathology as some OCD type serial killers, for example Dahmer and therefore is some valuable object for studies.

Thu, Jan 2, 2014
12:00 AM CT

Khasekhemwy
The last of the 2nd dynasty pharaohs, the man who re-united Egypt, is now also in the Egyptian collection.

Thu, Dec 12, 2013
12:00 AM CT

Pharaoh Sekhemib added to the Egyptian Collection
I finally came around to add Pharaoh Sekhemib to the collection, the sixth of the 2nd Dynasty. So, with some luck, I can finish this year the 2nd dynsty, only one, Khasekhemwy is left.

Tue, Dec 10, 2013
12:00 AM CT

The Riha disappearance
In 1969, Dr. Thomas Riha disappeared and in the subconsequent series of events, Gloria Tannenbaum was arrested for forgery and under suspicion of two other homicides. She plead not guilty by reason of insanity and got away with it. The case has now been added to our serial killer collection.

Mon, Nov 4, 2013
12:00 AM CT

Richard N. Clarey jr.
Clarey is one of the lesser known serial killers, skirting the definition a little. Still, for some reasons an interesting case.

Wed, Oct 2, 2013
12:00 AM CT

Now in the collection: William E. Cosden
A garden variety sexual predator, notable only because his existence shows, how wrong the idea of 1 monster at 1 time in 1 area is.

Copyright if not otherwise mentioned Peter and Diane Brendt 2010-. All copies, also in parts, demand the written consent of the copyright holders