
Why Do Severed Goat Heads Keep Turning Up in Brooklyn? - r721
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/03/mystery-of-the-prospect-park-goat-heads.html
======
IvyMike
A friend I knew pledged an MIT frat in the 80's. The upperclassmen realized
that you could get goat heads for like 50 cents a pound at one of the local
stores. For one of their hazing pranks, they gave each pledge a goat head and
instructions to hide the goat head on campus, which whichever head was hidden
the "best" would get a prize.

The resulting kerfuffle and news articles on the incident (including
allegations of satanism on the MIT campus) is definitely something that frat
will be proud of forever.

~~~
nervousvarun
Goat be-headings are an issue in New Orleans now as well (it's also frat
related):
[http://www.nola.com/pets/index.ssf/2015/03/report_of_goat_bo...](http://www.nola.com/pets/index.ssf/2015/03/report_of_goat_body_leads_poli.html)

------
CPLX
How unoriginal. I was in Brooklyn long before the goat heads showed up, and I
can tell you the whole "ritual sacrifice" thing has been kind of done for a
while now. I hear all the real cutting edge indie mutilations are in
Ridgewood, Queens anyways.

~~~
T_Rex
It's Ridgewick, not Ridgewood, and it's Quooklyn, not Queens.

------
exar0815
Well maybe they are just fans of a certain Football(as in "Soccer") club. Here
in Germany, they often lay goat heads infront of the stadium of their rivals
before matches, cause the rival's mascot is a goat, and they even have a
living goat in their ttadium.

------
partisan
I for one welcome our new satanic overlords.

In all jest, it is probably someone trying to scare people out of a
gentrifying neighborhood. That's as malicious as I can imagine it being.

------
sunyata
Could it just be that there is a Halal butcher in the area who doesn't want to
pay disposal costs for older goats whose heads are not as prized as the young
ones for culinary usage?

~~~
zhemao
It takes some effort to hang goat heads from a telephone pole. You wouldn't do
that if all you wanted to do was throw them away.

------
deckar01
This should be the plot for the next season of "True Detective" starring Danny
DeVito as Marcos Quinones.

~~~
jksmith
Nah, too mild for True Detective - maybe severed babies' heads, or dead babies
wearing severed goats' heads.

This would be more of an x-file, IMO. And wherever you could place DeVito
would be entertaining.

------
omilu
When I was a teenager I was trying to impress some girls so I showed them the
head of this goat I had shot hunting, it had an impressive rack. I was storing
it in the fridge wrapped up in a trash bag because I wanted to show it to my
dad who was away on a trip.

Anyway they were kind of impressed cause they never saw that kind of thing
before being sheltered city girls. Then I had the inspiration to take the goat
head and sneak into the public pool and leave it in the life guard tower, the
girls were super excited like it was the funnest thing they ever did. It was a
great night. Don't know what ever happened with the lifeguard that found it.

The whole thing didn't have anything to do with satanism or ill will, just a
teenager trying to impress some girls and it worked.

------
Tunecrew
When I lived in Miami in the late 80s/early 90s there was a story about how
the main courthouse in Dade County had to clean up various parts of chickens,
goats, etc. most mornings from around the property. Allegedly, these were
sacrifices from practitioners of various Afro-Caribbean religions (just like
the article says) seeking to influence ongoing court cases.

It sounds a bit crazy, but at that time there were fairly frequent stories in
the news about Santeria, etc. followers being arrested for sacrificing goats
in their backyard and so on.

I stepped into an elevator in an office building once and there was a (live)
rooster in it...

------
Semiapies
Just as a side note, I like reading a report about something where it's clear
the author did their homework and pounded the pavement.

------
crmd
My neighbor's dog found a cow tongue full of nails hammered through in
prospect park. I saw the pic this morning, it was pretty gross.

------
curiously
so with all the surveillance in the city they don't know who's been putting
these things up?

