The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton by Hugh Turley & David Martin

Author:Hugh Turley & David Martin
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9781548077389
Publisher: McCabe Publishing
Published: 2019-09-08T04:00:00+00:00

The two clothes racks are standing at a right angle to one another parallel to the walls. They appear to be made of metal, possibly aluminum. They are similar in design to the one pictured above.

The photographs show that Merton is very close to the clothes racks where his habit is hanging. The sleeve of Merton’s habit is touching his head, and his left shoulder is just under the bottom rod of the clothes rack. It is unlikely Merton slid under the clothes rack after he fell on the floor. It is more likely that the rack had been placed just over Merton’s left shoulder. The rack may have been knocked over during a struggle and then set up by the assailant, who placed the fan on Merton. The haphazard placement of Merton’s habit on the rack also suggests that the rack had been knocked over and then stood up again.

Merton is wearing large white shorts with a tight pattern of black spots. The fan crosses his body diagonally from the middle of his left thigh to his right side as depicted in the Weist drawing. The fan crosses the bottom hem of his shorts at the middle of his left thigh and falls across his crotch to the waistband of the shorts on his right side. There is a white box on the shaft of the fan coming down from the area behind the rotary blades.

At the area where the white box part of the fan is resting on Merton’s side, just above his waistband, is a dark area where he was badly burned.

This somewhat curved rectangular box appears to be about 16 inches long and 3 by 4 inches around. It appears to be made of white plastic. The fan looks modern for 1968, and, as we have noted, witnesses said it was manufactured by Hitachi.

The point where the box extends up from the shaft is resting on Merton’s pelvis and farther up the edge of the box is at Merton’s ribs. The fan’s rotary blades are over the floor, to the right of Merton’s right arm that is lying on the floor. His hands are palm down.

One photograph by Say was taken near the base of the fan, looking up from Merton’s feet that are not pictured. The base of the fan was lying to the left of Merton’s left ankle. The second photograph was taken facing Merton’s right side and the face of the fan is facing the camera. The fan face is closer to the camera, to Merton’s right, to the right of Merton’s right arm.

The proximity of Merton’s body in the corner of the room by the clothes racks suggests that he may have been attacked while facing the corner and removing his habit. He would have been most vulnerable when pulling the habit off over his head.

The photographs by Say are not at all how people might have imagined that Merton was found, based on the false stories that he was naked and stepping out of a shower.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.