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Unusual phenomenology of autoerotic fatalities
1Institute of Legal Medicine, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Butenfeld 34, D-22529 Hamburg, Germany. mudrack@uke.uni-hamburg.de
Abstract:
Between 1983 and 2003 forty accidental autoerotic deaths (all males, 13-79 years old) have been investigated at the Institute of Legal Medicine in Hamburg. Three cases with a rather unusual scenery are described in detail: (1) a 28-year-old fireworker was found hanging under a bridge in a peculiar bound belt system. The autopsy and the reconstruction revealed signs of asphyxiation, feminine underwear, and several layers of plastic clothing. (2) A 16-year-old pupil dressed with feminine plastic and rubber utensils fixed and strangulated himself with an electric wire. (3) A 28-year-old handicapped man suffered from progressive muscular dystrophy and was nearly unable to move. His bizarre sexual fantasies were exaggerating: he induced a nurse to draw plastic bags over his body, close his mouth with plastic strips, and put him in a rubbish container where he died from suffocation.
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