UPDATE:
A chilling breakdown of the events involved before and during the attack.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/03/slenderman-stabbing_n_5439667.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
These girls remind me of people who want to believe something so much they convince themselves that it's necessary to convince others to produce proof.
I'm not the only one: At the end of this article someone comments:
"I would say these girls had big imaginations and believed [in Slenderman] too much," McCann said. "[It] reminds me of the Salem witch trials -- it all started with a story [and] then got out of hand."
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Original post below:
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They had something to prove to someone they found on a ghoulish website. So, two girls allegedly lured a third girl into a wooded area in Milwaukee over the weekend and stabbed her 19 times, police in Wisconsin said.
The suspects allegedly left the victim to crawl to her own rescue. The three girls, all 12 years old, were friends, according to a criminal complaint.
A bicyclist found the wounded girl alive Saturday, lying on a sidewalk in the city of Waukesha, Police Chief Russell Jack said. She was in stable condition at a hospital on Monday.
The girls were trying to impress a certain "Slenderman," the complaint read. One of the girls encountered the name on a website known as Creepypasta Wiki, which posts horror stories.
Slenderman is the site's supposed leader, and to climb up into his realm, a user must kill someone, one of the suspects told police.
The fictional Slenderman character is an internet meme that often appears in horror stories, videos and images.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/03/justice/wisconsin-girl-stabbed/?hpt=hp_t1
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The Journal Sentinel reported the victim screamed: "I hate you. I trusted you."
The attackers in question had been planning this stone cold murder since February. They invited their friend--and future victim--to a slumber party, then took her out for a walk in the woods.
One of the victim's stab wounds came within a millimeter of her heart.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/06/03/pre-teen-girls-accused-of-stabbing-slumber-party-friend-19-times-to-please-mythological-creature/?tid=pm_pop
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Sad, but true. It's disconcerting how impressionable youngsters can be. I remember hearing back when I was a child living in Houston about some kid braining another kid with a baseball bat because he'd seen Bugs Bunny do it in a cartoon.
It's ironic how seductive the concept of joining a "selective group" can be. From high school clubs to Special Forces units people like to be a part of a "select group".[footnote]Counting the posts until the pertinent XKCD strip is posted.[/footnote] As such I can't claim surprise that in a nation of 330 million that a couple of stupid 12 year old girls got wrapped up in some online stories and acted on it in a disturbing and horrific way.
Even so, I can't wrap my head around such a thing like this. I knew better than this back before I attended kindergarten.
Still, I wonder what my fellow Escapists think about this sad incident.
[small]P.S. For those who wonder about such things nothing has been said in the news about the Slender Man video game, mind you. I don't think that this news story will go that way, especially given the lack of guns, blood, and graphic violence in the Slender Man game.[/small]
A chilling breakdown of the events involved before and during the attack.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/03/slenderman-stabbing_n_5439667.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
These girls remind me of people who want to believe something so much they convince themselves that it's necessary to convince others to produce proof.
I'm not the only one: At the end of this article someone comments:
"I would say these girls had big imaginations and believed [in Slenderman] too much," McCann said. "[It] reminds me of the Salem witch trials -- it all started with a story [and] then got out of hand."
**********
Original post below:
**********
They had something to prove to someone they found on a ghoulish website. So, two girls allegedly lured a third girl into a wooded area in Milwaukee over the weekend and stabbed her 19 times, police in Wisconsin said.
The suspects allegedly left the victim to crawl to her own rescue. The three girls, all 12 years old, were friends, according to a criminal complaint.
A bicyclist found the wounded girl alive Saturday, lying on a sidewalk in the city of Waukesha, Police Chief Russell Jack said. She was in stable condition at a hospital on Monday.
The girls were trying to impress a certain "Slenderman," the complaint read. One of the girls encountered the name on a website known as Creepypasta Wiki, which posts horror stories.
Slenderman is the site's supposed leader, and to climb up into his realm, a user must kill someone, one of the suspects told police.
The fictional Slenderman character is an internet meme that often appears in horror stories, videos and images.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/03/justice/wisconsin-girl-stabbed/?hpt=hp_t1
**********
The Journal Sentinel reported the victim screamed: "I hate you. I trusted you."
The attackers in question had been planning this stone cold murder since February. They invited their friend--and future victim--to a slumber party, then took her out for a walk in the woods.
One of the victim's stab wounds came within a millimeter of her heart.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/06/03/pre-teen-girls-accused-of-stabbing-slumber-party-friend-19-times-to-please-mythological-creature/?tid=pm_pop
**********
Sad, but true. It's disconcerting how impressionable youngsters can be. I remember hearing back when I was a child living in Houston about some kid braining another kid with a baseball bat because he'd seen Bugs Bunny do it in a cartoon.
It's ironic how seductive the concept of joining a "selective group" can be. From high school clubs to Special Forces units people like to be a part of a "select group".[footnote]Counting the posts until the pertinent XKCD strip is posted.[/footnote] As such I can't claim surprise that in a nation of 330 million that a couple of stupid 12 year old girls got wrapped up in some online stories and acted on it in a disturbing and horrific way.
Even so, I can't wrap my head around such a thing like this. I knew better than this back before I attended kindergarten.
Still, I wonder what my fellow Escapists think about this sad incident.
[small]P.S. For those who wonder about such things nothing has been said in the news about the Slender Man video game, mind you. I don't think that this news story will go that way, especially given the lack of guns, blood, and graphic violence in the Slender Man game.[/small]
