Headless Corpses

So, err, if you started to find headless corpses around the place, each body drained of all it's blood, what would you think had started to happen? Might you think there was a little chicanery going on? A touch of naughtiness perhaps? Well done, full marks:

Six grisly murders in Togo in which the victims were decapitated and drained of their blood have raised fears of a resurgence of ritual killings ahead of parliamentary elections in the West African state next month.

The serial killings occurred last weekend in the southern Vo and Lacs prefectures, east of the capital Lome. The victims included a 12-year-old boy and a 63-year-old woman and their severed heads were carried off by the killers.

The discovery of the headless corpses has shocked Togolese and triggered a wave of speculation that the killings were ritual murders. This is a practice still found in parts of Africa in which people kill to obtain body parts and blood in the belief they will bring social success and political power.

Yup, it's far worse than that, it's not voodoo zombie killers, it's not an outbreak of madness or of stark staring terror. Nope, it's worse than that, it's politics.