A California judge has determined that a 27-year-old mixed martial arts fighter accused of killing his friend and sparring partner "by ripping his still-beating heart from his chest after gruesomely beating and torturing" him is mentally fit to stand trial. Prior to the attack, the two had consumed mushroom tea. There have been an awful lot of news stories like this one, this week. (thanks, @mattbors)

  • http://jeremyjarratt.com/ x jeremy jarratt

    somebody hold me

    • MrWednesday7

      >>hugs<<

    • http://www.plan8.tv Roanhouse

      hey if i hold you … can i nibble on your brain then?

  • Ito Kagehisa

    Just so did Demoxenes destroy Creugas.  Well, except the eating the heart part.

    I wonder how much the US government’s constant war talk and terror-mongering has to do with this sort of thing.  You can’t walk a mile without seeing a testimonial to the greatness of soldiering, which is understood even by children to entail killing without remorse.  Support the troops, we say, even if you oppose the war – what’s the message there?

  • http://profiles.google.com/joshuabardwell Joshua Bardwell

    Stop. Just stop. I don’t want to hear any more stories about people eating each other.

    UNICORN CHASER PLEASE.

  • dolo54

    I guess shrooms aren’t for everyone. I’ve heard of a few ‘jumper’ incidents on shrooms, but never this kind of psychotic violence.

    • Ipo

       I’ve never had that kind of shrooms.  For sure. 

      • artaxerxes

        Okay, since the MMA creep story has been coming up every dad-burned minute since the face-eatey incident, I will summarize news articles and  clarifying comments I’ve read in the wake of the  Zombie Apocalypse meme:

        1. The MMA guy and his friend had been ingesting cocaine and meth for several days before they ingested mushroom tea. They thought it would “bring them down.” Oh, erowid, where were thee? They had not slept in 3-4 days.

        2. The MMA, who naturally, was quite muscular, owed his hyper-developed physique to a combination of training and a multiple year regime of random, illegal and extremely potent STEROIDS. He devised his own steroid regimen and was not renowned for his deep respect for research and education. 

        So, cocaine + meth + extreme sleep deprivation until the shadow people are visible. News articles reported that the men had been using cocaine and meth for 3-4 days without an interval of sleep. Ingestion of way too much psylocibin by under-educated drug users. 

        They entered into a prolonged, intense conversation about the devil being in the house with them “trip.” The MMA  fighter’s growing conviction that his friend WAS the devil resulted in him attacking and dismembering his friend.

        Would such a perfect storm of danger have evolved had the guys taken Valium instead of a random, but hefty, dose of psylocibin? Who knows?

        The point is, and many people who’ve used psylocibin might concur, that the media’s focus on ONE (& certain the least physically, if not psychically, destructive) substance that contributed to this horror is cynical, pandering and irresponsibly deceptive.

        tl;dr MMA dude suffered a combo of ‘roid rage and hallucinations after by 3-4 days of meth and coke use and the sleep deprivation brought about by those drugs. The guys dosed a huge (and recklessly untitrated) amount of psylocibin in an effort to “come down.” 

        Steroids + cocaine + methamphetamine + 3-4 days sleep deprivation + shadow people + religious background (argument re: God v. Devil aka Satan) + shrooms = Really Bad Shit. 

        Research and education are our friends.

        • teapot

          I agree with all of that equation except the shrooms bit. Any time I’ve taken them I just see colours that previously didn’t exist, inanimate objects breathing and the feeling of oneness with everything… But then I’m not a roid-raging, meth head MMA retard and I don’t take drugs with people who wanna talk literally about god or the devil.

  • sata blank

    Every time I hear one of these stories now it makes me think of this music video …

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xqKPe9w5bUs

    • JProffitt71

      You are awesome, thank you.

      • sata blank

         Thanks. I do what I can …

  • http://twitter.com/akaSatellite Jeff Lowy

    Sounds more like a combo of LSD and steroids…

    • http://www.xeni.net/ Xeni Jardin

      I wonder, also. Shrooms are seldom linked to this sort of thing, no?

      • GlyphGryph

        Neither is LSD, for that matter.

        Drug interactions can go to strange places, though – if it was shrooms, I doubt it was the only thing he was taking.

        • http://www.xeni.net/ Xeni Jardin

          Exactly.

        • http://boingboing.net/ The Life Of Bryan

          But if ’shrooms were the only illegal thing he was taking, then that’s what made him crazy.

          • dragonfrog

            Even if the crazy part was a pre-existing mental illness – the shrooms travelled back in time and made him crazy.

        • artaxerxes

          The MMA fighter suffered a combo of ‘roid rage and hallucinations brought about by 3-4 days of meth and coke use and the sleep deprivation brought about by those drugs. The guys dosed a huge (and recklessly titrated) amount of psylocibin in an effort to “come down.” 

          He’d been using steroids for years, self-administered, without having done research on the substances he was using. He also neglected to follow an informed schedule or plan while administering those substances.

          In addition, from what I have learned from steroid users, he wasn’t exactly taking protein powder: the drugs he was taking were very powerful and very dangerous, not least because they contributed to potentially-fatal side-effects when combined with other substances.

          Research and education in the interest of harm reduction are still ignored or treated with contempt (or arrest) by media sources and law enforcement. 

      • Ipo

         Totally unlikely for shroom tea to cause this. 

        • GlyphGryph

          What if it was taken with bath salts? :P

      • http://profiles.google.com/joshuabardwell Joshua Bardwell

        I have heard of a few other cases of people “going primal” with violent results on shrooms. It seems more common than than on LSD, to my (admittedly anecdotal) viewpoint.

        I maintain that each drug has a personality of its own, but it interacts with the person who takes it, and so you can’t just look at a single incident and determine the characteristic of the drug based on that. 

        Would this guy have done this if he had been sober? Probably not. But that doesn’t necessarily mean we should blame the drugs for what he did. Lots of people take mushrooms without eating anybody’s heart. I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here…

        I am resistant to arguments like, “that’s so not characteristic of mushrooms,” because, who the heck knows? Maybe every time this guy took mushrooms, he got violent. Like I said–it’s about the drug’s interaction with the person, not the drug itself.

        Even when we talk about characterizing the drug in the most general sense, it can be more difficult than it at first appears. Human physiology is so varied that individual chemicals don’t affect us in the same way. For example, people with ADHD become calmer and more focused when they take amphetamines, the opposite of what people without ADHD do.

        Bottom line: drugs are weird. People are weird. Drugs + people = 2xweird.

        • ocker3

           True, perhaps the real problem was they didn’t arrange for someone to watch over them during the imbibing session

      • travtastic

         It’s normally PCP, especially when cannibalism is involved.

        • Antinous / Moderator

          So PCP is like MSG for cannibals?

          • travtastic

            I only eat all-natural cannibals.

          • http://redesigned.com redesigned

            yes, but i prefer local free range children.

  • Alan Ball

    Why do all these articles say “Friend” WHAT KIND OF FRIEND EATS ANOTHER FRIENDS STILL BEATING HEART?? >:(

    • http://boingboing.net/ The Life Of Bryan

      Is this a trick question?

    • Robert Cruickshank

      The kind of friend you’ll have for the rest of your life. 

    • Antinous / Moderator

      Friends don’t let friends’ hearts get cold and soggy before eating.

    • http://profiles.google.com/marc.k.mielke Marc Mielke

      The early Hawaiians held Captain Cook in the greatest esteem, and it didn’t stop them from eating his heart. 

  • sarahnocal

    Hey that’s our local news! Hi!

    • http://twitter.com/ejbythesea ejbythesea

       I am so proud. Let this be a warning to the outside world. The north coast is crawling with zombies and other human flesh eaters.

  • http://www.facebook.com/mjohnson.mike Michael Johnson

    Where’s a heart surgeon here? I have to assume (hope?) it takes some serious work to get to the heart. My heart at least…

    • outer rower

      I’m not the heart surgeon you’re looking for, but I can attest to the fact that the heart is not easily accessible. Reading the article, clearly the victim had been eviscerated, but I suspect that there is some journalistic licence in the description of him having had his still-beating heart removed. 

      Beyond that, I agree with all those who suggest that the major culprit here is an imbalance in the aggressor’s psyche, not the influence of ‘shrooms. Although they may have been one factor. Still, blame the comically poorly-researched psychoactive component of the story rather than anything else, as usual.

      I would love to see some really well-documented (no, not you, Dr Leary) well-designed research on the psychoactive pharmaceuticals. It’s about time. (And space, man).

    • penguinchris

      It’s really not that difficult, guys (skip to 2:53 if it doesn’t automatically)

  • ewoksoup

    I’m only 27 for 10 more days, is it bad that I read stories like this and wonder what i have accomplished with my life?

  • BarBarSeven

    Cannibal Cat! Cannibal Cat! He knows where he’s at! Cannibal Cat!

    “Hey Cannibal Cat! What do you think about that guy in Florida who was high on mushrooms & ate his friends still beating heart?”

    “I love wet food, but… THIS IS RIDICULOUS!”

  • http://www.facebook.com/jaytraveller Jay Sanchez

    what is this? cannibal week? then the next shark week its going to be a bit more lively this year.

  • overlypersonalthrowaway

    I keep reading these comments and thinking of something to say, because I grew up in Crescent City. I knew both of these guys (personally or by reputation). I went to school with the girl that was there. I could mention things about personalities and blah blah blah.

    But, honestly. Looking at everyone’s responses and how this is making me feel just made something really sink in – no matter how bizarre a story, no matter how awful and distant some of this stuff is, that was a person with a life that that happened to. It affects so many people, and there are so many sides not told in news.

    I hung out with Taylor in junior high. 
    He was the person that introduced me to Final Fantasy 7. 
    He was always an incredibly nice guy. From what I’ve heard, he asked the other two people to leave when Jarred started wigging out just so nothing bad would happen. Jarred was known for being fucking violent and trying to start fights whenever he could.

    There’s probably little reason for me to post this, but every time I remember this happened, it makes my skin crawl. I felt like there should be something else said besides the normal commentary, I suppose.

  • anechoic

    give a pitbull PCP and watch the madcap hijinks ensue