Blogpost #7: Windigo Psychosis Cases

Scrolling through articles in the internet that are associated with cannibalism is not a fun thing to do. I have encountered seeing people slicing through other people's body parts and eating them. But fortunately, I could stomach it all in.

I have read many accounts of cannibalism but I could only pinpoint a few that could be counted or could be suspected as Windigo Psychosis. The most popular and documented account of Windigo Psychosis is the Runner's mass murder case but I've already talked about that in my first blogpost. So here are a two cases that caught my eye.

There was an article entitled, "Vince Weiguang Li" by Juan Blanco in murderpedia.com. The murder of Mr. McLean occured on the evening of July 30, 2008. McLean, a 22-year-old Canadian man, was stabbed, beheaded and cannibalized while riding a Greyhound Canada bus about 30 km west of Portage la Prairie, Manitoba traveling the Trans Canada Highway. On March 5, 2009, McLean's killer, 40-year-old Vince Weiguang Li was found to be not criminally responsible for murder and was remanded to a high-security mental health facility where he currently resides.

According to witnesses, McLean was sleeping with his headphones on when the man sitting next to him suddenly produced a large knife and began stabbing McLean in the neck and chest. The attacker then decapitated McLean and displayed his severed head to other passengers outside who had fled the bus in horror. The driver and two other men had attempted to rescue McLean but were chased away by Li, who slashed wildly at them from behind the locked bus doors. Li then went back to the body and began severing other body parts and consuming some of McLean's flesh.

Li's trial commenced with Li pleading not criminally responsible. The psychiatrist said that Li performed the attack because God's voice told him McLean was a force of evil and was about to execute him. The presiding judge accepted the diagnosis, and ruled that Li was not criminally responsible for the killing. Li was remanded to the Selkirk Mental Health Center. Though he had not fully emerged from the psychotic phase, the psychiatrist said that Li was beginning to realize what he had done, though he could not accept that he cannibalized McLean.

According to the witness Garnet Caton, "There was no rage or anything. He was like a robot, stabbing the guy," and "I got sick after I saw the head thing. Some people were puking, some people were crying, some people were shocked. [The attacker] just looked at us and dropped the head on the ground, totally calm."

The coincidences are uncanny if you compare this crime to Windigo Psychosis. First of, Li seemed like he was possessed by something as he was stabbing McLean's body repeatedly. Caton's statement was that Li was calmly stabbing him like he was a robot. In his interview, he said that he heard the voice of God. Maybe it wasn't God, maybe he was possessed by a malevolent spirit that turns people into windigos. It could be a possibility. Second, after the kill. Li digested McLean's flesh and decapitated his head. Windigo Psychosis makes a person violent and makes a person crave for human flesh. And lastly, Li wasn't put to jail for his crime but he was sent to a mental facility. And Windigo Psychosis is a mental disorder. 

There was another article entitled, "Dictionary of Canadian Biography" by James R. Stevens. Jack Fiddler or Zhauwuno-geezhigo-gaubow was a shaman and leader of the Sucker clan, a group of Cree living in the forest off of Sandy Lake in northwestern Ontario. He was a wendigo hunter who killed people suspected of windigo psychosis because it was a threat to the other tribe members. Along with his brother Joseph, who assisted Jack’s mercy killings.

In early 1907, two members of the North-West Mounted Police visiting Island Lake heard of Jack Fiddler's power against the wendigo from Norman Rae, an in-law of the Fiddlers. Seeking to introduce Canadian law in the North, the Mounties went to the Sucker camp at Deer Lake and arrested Jack and Joseph Fiddler for murder. The elderly brothers were charged with murdering Wahsakapeequay, Joseph's daughter-in-law, the year before. They were held at Norway House to await trial. Meanwhile, newspapers across Canada picked up the story and printed sensational headlines of murder and devil-worship. Across the country, people demanded convictions, while the police conducting the trial saw an opportunity for fame and advancement. On September 30, Jack Fiddler escaped captivity during a walk outside. He hanged himself nearby and was found dead later in the day. Less than a month later, Joseph Fiddler was brought to trial in the court of Commissioner Aylesworth Bowen Perry.

According to Methodist missionary Joseph Albert George Lousley, “He has not the slightest sign of enmity or hatred towards men nor God, no rebellion or unbelief, he is a quiet dignified man who has lived his life with a clear conscience.”

Jack and Joseph Fiddler only wanted to protect their tribe members from their belief of a person becoming a wendigo. But all of the people they have killed were only presumed to have windigo psychosis. There were no actual and relevant proof for them to be executed. But because of their strong beliefs, they have taken away lives at their hands. Which is a valid reason for them to be put to jail.