Text|Science Wormhole
Diogo Alves was a murderous maniac who took 70 lives in 3 years. However, after his death, his head was kept in a glass jar for 180 years in the laboratory of the University of Lisbon.
Murder for money
810, Galicia, Spain, Diogo Alves was born in an ordinary family. At the age of 13, his peasant parents sent him to Lisbon, Portugal, to earn a living.
Lisbon was seen as a good place to improve life in the eyes of Galicia people at the time. Alves worked as a servant for wealthy families here.
He seldom wrote letters to his family, and he didn't even contact them later. Parents began to think that their son had suffered misfortune. But in reality, Alves, bored with his work, has indulged in drinking for pleasure.
On the one hand, Alves couldn't bear the hardships and changed jobs frequently; on the other hand, alcoholism and gambling all needed money as support. So, he moved his brain.
At the age of 26 (836), Alves came to work in a house beside a river, the famous "water of freedom"aqueduct, which was also the place where he later committed crimes.
"Aqueduct" is a waterway bridge. Its main function is to build a ditch to guide water across the river valley and solve the problem of water supply in some areas. "Water of Freedom" was originally built to meet Lisbon's water needs.
748, the aqueduct, although not fully built, has begun to supply water. It is considered to be one of the most outstanding works of Portugal in the 18th century, and even an 8.9-magnitude earthquake seven years later failed to destroy it.
The most common use of this waterway bridge is basically those poor businessmen and farmers who go to the city to sell agricultural products or work through the bridge .
Unfortunately, from one day in 1936, these people who were running for their lives were targeted by Alves.
Alves would hide on the bridge, waiting for the merchants who had closed their stalls in the middle of the night to come home, followed them, found the right time to knock them down, and scavenged their money.
After the robbery, in order to avoid being identified, Alves would take unconscious victims to a 65-meter-high bridge and throw them off, creating the illusion of accidental death.
The crime of Diogo Alves
Over the next three years, Alves killed 70 people in the same way. The criminal investigation technology at that time was relatively backward, and the police could not find out why, so they explained the cause of death of the deceased as "imitation suicide".
Arrested and brought to justice
However, as the so-called "retribution is unhappy", Alves is still imprisoned after all, but the reason for his arrest is not the serial murder of the aqueduct.
The movie "The Crimes of Diogo Alves"
It turns out that the police temporarily closed the bridge in order to stop the "wave of suicide". As a result, merchants and farmers could not enter the city, and Alves had no source of money.
He didn't wash his hands because of this, but made other crooked ideas. Alves formed a robbery gang, targeting the city's wealthy residents, including the wealthy families he once worked.
Alves in court | Movie "The Crimes of Diogo Alves"
One night, the Alves gang broke into the home of Dr. Pedro Andrade, robbed and killed 4 people. The case attracted great attention from the police, and a group of people were eventually detained and had to be tried by the court .
Alves was sentenced to hanged , on February 19, 1841, he died on the gallows in front of everyone.
Generally speaking, hanged corpses are buried at will, but the head of this murderer is kept in the laboratory, why is this?
The head was preserved for 180 years.
When it comes to the preservation of body organs after death, we can easily think of some great people, such as Albert Einstein, whose brain was preserved for research after his death.
But what is the research value of the head of Alves, a murderer?
This has to mention the popular "phrenology" at that time.
Phrenology originated at the end of the 18th century and was formally proposed by German neuroanatomist Gall (Franz Joseph Gall), but it was his collaborator Spursheim who popularized this theory .
Phrenology believes that the shape of the human skull determines psychological and personality traits. With traveling and preaching, Spursheim spread phrenology to Britain, the United States and other countries. In addition, factors such as politics have contributed to the fact that phrenology has affected many people.
In 9th century , phrenology was once prosperous, and even gave birth to industries such as "phrenology evaluation": The evaluation expert stroking your head and looking at it, and then presented a report of more than ten pages.
Even, phrenology has also affected political elections, mate selection, company recruitment, education and so on. There are special schools that are set up to take in children who are assessed as poorly qualified.
Children who received phrenological assessment
Phrenology gradually declined due to a series of loopholes in the doctrine, and gradually disappeared in the early 20th century. In the 1840s, however, its influence was still strong.
Alves, who held many lives in his hands, is undoubtedly a good research material and has special research value in the eyes of phrenology experts.
So, after Alves was hanged, his head was treated differently – it was transferred to a laboratory at the University of Lisbon for preservation. To this day, the head is still soaked in a glass jar.
Phrenology is a "pseudoscience". Although it has played a certain positive role in the research of other theories, it has not been scientifically confirmed and is a subjective speculation.
Later, Alves' story was made into a movie called The Crimes of Diogo Alves. There are two versions of the film, the first version was released in 1909 and was the first feature film in Portugal, but only 7 minutes; the second version, released in 1919, was 23 minutes long and added some storylines.
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