Man Mutilates Self to Save Soul

Woodbury: A Discord man's belief in the supernatural resulted in his death on March 10th, 1997. Virgil Humbert, 58, was found dead in his home by his wife, Linda, at 6:15 in the evening of that day.

     What she saw must have been gruesome, indeed. Humbert's body was in the garage, where the carpenter did most of his work. But the body was not in one piece.

     Discord police officer Marvin Hecht was the first to respond to Linda Hunbert's 911 distress call. "The sight was horrible," he says. "Humbert's body was lying face-up on the floor and his eyes stared wide at the ceiling. Though he was laying in a pool of blood, I couldn't tell at first why. Then I noticed that his hands had been lopped off just above the wrist." Humbert's hands were found on the low-lying bench that supported a large circular table saw. The coroner's report stated that all wounds were unequivocally self-inflicted. Cause of death was recorded as blood loss.

     But why would someone inflict such injury upon themselves? The answer, or at least part of the answer seems to be contained in Humbert's suicide note, found at the scene. Linda Humbert has been gracious enough to allow Third Eye Over Iowa to reprint a portion of that note.

     Dearest Linda and all else concerned,

     This life had, on the whole been good to me...I thank my family for supporting me during my formative years, and I want you to know that nothing I do today is designed to hurt you. While speaking of family, consider the following my last will and testament:...

     And now I suppose you deserve an explanation for what happened to me today. I will attempt to make sense, and hope not to appear mad.

     All my adult life, I have worked with my hands. I've built chairs that you have sat on, tables at which you have eaten. And in all these years, I have felt that my ability has improved, and I had taken pride in my work.

     Ah, but is not pride a sin? We often forget this, I am afraid, and do not remember to be humble. I had always thought that pride meant boasting and bragging, but now I know that God only sees self-lauding as a symptom of the problem. And God has punished me.

     He has put melachim and seraphim in my head, to torture me in my work. They tell me I am not a good carpenter, that I should aspire to create furniture that is a testament to God. And when I finish a piece, these beings take control of my hands and make me dismantle that which I have built. I have not finished a project in three months.

     The melachim and seraphim scream that I am not pious, that I only worship the physical, like my hands and the wood that they shape. They say I have forsaken the holy, the spiritual.

     I hear them all the time, and I know that I will never create with wood again. My entire life's work has been wasted, brought to nothing. It is for this reason that I must appease the seraphim and melachim, as well as God, by atonement. I will remove my source of pride.

     Love always,

     Virgil

    

     Funeral services for Virgil Humbert were held on March 12th, at 12:00 noon, at Lovely Glade Episcopal Church. Those who viewed the open casket remarked that Humbert had died with an expression of extreme serenity on his face.