The herald., 1897-10-07
IMMOLATION
The Result of Religious
Mania
WOULD CRUCIFY HERSELF
THE TERRIBLE PLIGHT OF A
BALLONA WOMAN
Hacked Off Her Finger Joints With
Knife and Hammer in Hopes
of Heaven

frenzied with religious mania. So deep
ly rooted has become her devotion that
she carries her worship to the point Of
fanaticism, with all the horrors of self
Inflicted torture. Already she has
manned her hands hopelessly and driven
nails through one of her feet, laboring
under the insane conviction that these
injuries are certain steps to heaven.
From the nature of the wounds in her
foot it seems that at one time she la
bored under the delusion that she was
Christ himself, ard had tried to cruelty
herself. One of the rooms in her tiny
home is stored with numbers of images
Of all descriptions, representing various
saints, while gaudily embellished pic
lures of biblical scenes adorn the walls.
Mrs. JOS. Falck is the name of the I'M
happy woman, and her husband Is now
ondeavoriEg to have her committed to
an asylum for the insane. She has been
discharged for over a year from the
Highland asylum, but her insanity ar-
pears to have returned.
Mrs. Falck is German woman, about
40 years of age. She and her husband.
have been in America about twelve
years, and have resided near the Ballona
creek for six years or so. They have no
children and work small ranch. Some
time ago she began manlfesting signs of
unusual devotion, and her husband dis
covered that she had collected store of
religious images and pictures. Thesa
she treated with the utmost ceremony,
and it was not very long before she set
apart one end of room as an impro-
vised altar. On table covered with
white cloth she placed the figures They
represented the Savior, the Virgin Mary,
Mary Magdalen and various saints.
Around the walls she hung pictures rep
resenting scenes from biblical history,
and in lieu of frames pasted vari- colored
tissue around the sides. Over the table
she spread a cheese cloth, and before
these images she prayed constantly by
day and by night. Gradually Mrs.
Falck's mania took more violent turn,
and one day she took knife ard delib-
erately hacked at the end of the small
finger on her right hand until she had
cut away the first joint. Soon after she
cut off the first joints of the forefinger
on the same hand and then the joint of
the small finger on the left hand.
Mrs. Falck is a middle sized woman of
commonplace appearance. She was at
the house yesterday when interviewed
about her reasons for her strange acts
She did not manifest any violent symp-
toms of her disease, and on the contrary
was gentle and spoke in simple terms of
her religion.
II am not insane" she explained. my
husband is trying to send me back to
the asylum because 1 won't work in the
fields, like they do in Germany. Why
did I cut my fingers? oh! you see, /
thought that they were unnecessary to
me, and 1 am right. too, because can
do my work just as we'll without them,
and then" she exclaimed, with anima-
ton, ''if / cut off another one l will go
to heaven. Look at them now, don't
you see the crosses?" she added, thrust
ing forward her mutilated hands. Don't
you see my crosses?" Sure enough the
wounds, in healing, had left scars that
were shaped like crosses, and from this
the poor woman reaps the consolation
of the assurance that heaven has put
it's mark of approval upon her injuries.
NO they did not hurt me but once"
she resumed. "That was when / cut
off the little finger on my right hand.
hit the knife with hammer, and 1
had to strike it several times before it
would go through, and that hurt me
some. It's all healed up. though"
Regarding her reasons for driving into
her foot the nail, one used for shingling
purposes, Mrs Falck did not offer such
a clear explanation. In fact, she was
rather vague in her answers and left
the impression that she had driven the
nail through her foot because she could
do it without its hurting much. She did
say, though, that she had walked all
the way to Los Angeles to go to church
and then back to her home the same
day she inflicted the wound on her foot.
AT the time the affair occurred, though.
Mrs. Falck is reported to have said that
she was Jesus Christ and wanted to
cruelty herself as he had done. This is
not now the bent of the womans mania.
She is devout Catholic and can be seen
constantly telling her beads and other
wise worshiping. AT present priest,
dppdieHliy, mas SdiHeu a Dene1clal IN
fluence over her and is preventing the
woman from inflicting any more injury
to herself.
"Oh! yes" she said, II think that 1
will go to heaven If should cut off an
other piece of my finger, but will not do
that, because the priest has told me that
it is sin for me to do so any more"
Among the woman's treasures are a
couple Of little chinaware statuettes
representing the Magdalene with the
cross and another of the Saviour. These
Mrs. Falck seems to prize more than
anything else in the world and carries
them constantly with her about the
house. She has even taken them with
her to the Catholic church on Washing
ton street, and there devoutly kissed
them Whenever she brought them to
the city she would carefully incase the
figures, sometimes the one and some
times the other, in paper and then put
her selection in a little box. But she
does not do this now, because, she says,
the priest told her she must not because
the people laughed at her. Instead she
contents herself with kneeling before
them at home. So devout is the poor
woman that regularly once a week, she
says, she walks to the church in Los
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