FRINGE DIVISION CASE FILE #118-42809
FRINGE EVENT: Syphilis bacteria-based contagion
CLASSIFIED CASE CONNECTION(S): David Robert Jones/ZFT/Pattern cases
AGENTS ASSIGNED: Dunham, Francis
SUPERVISING AGENT: Broyles
FILE ARCHIVED BY: Sirol Leo, Barbara Butler
WITNESSES/CONTACTS: Valerie Boone (suspect), Dr. Nicholas Boone (deceased)
LOCATION: Weymouth; the Cavern club, Boston, MA
VICTIM(S): Bob Dunn, John Doe
CASE REPORT SUMMARY:
A John Doe and Bob Dunn (33) were found on consecutive nights in Boston, mutilated by bite marks well in excess of the jaw strength of a normal human being. Dr. Bishop performed autopsies and found their spinal columns had been completely drained of spinal fluid. He also found residual traces of treponema pallidum, an extinct strain of syphilis bacteria, on the victim's neck and back, most likely from the killer's saliva.
- Project 1109 - Exploration 1 -
Syphilis! Such a beautiful name for such an awful affliction. Reminds me of a girl named Phyllis whom I courted briefly in 1974. I took her to the annual crawfish boil. I'm sure I wasn't her only paramour; Harvard was a wild place back then. I suppose I'm lucky to have caught neither Phyllis nor syphilis.
Curiously, this altered strain has none of the usual external markers. No chancre, no rash on the palms; it seemingly progresses directly to the tertiary stage with a devastating attack upon the nervous system.
Dr. Boone is convinced that his wife contracted the disease through a deliberate dosage, not via sexual contact. I have no reason to doubt him. All her victims died during their liaisons, after all, with no chance to infect others.
Yet she did leave a residuum behind, on their exposed spines -- HAH! A venereal disease transmitted merely by necking! No prophylactic for that, I'll wager! Might this "ZFT" have an abstinence agenda? A cautionary tale for the youth, in the form of a syphilitic spinal vampire?
Mrs. Boone's need to refuel creates a hunger for cerebrospinal fluid, which she slakes by actually suckling the exposed spinal column. Much as a Cajun would! For as any true crawfish connoisseur knows, proper consumption of
Phyllis sometimes smelt of orange, too. A coincidence, I'm sure.
The crustacean should be followed by a cold fermented beverage, preferable a lager. The fermentation process -- oh! The penicillin's fermentation must be nearly complete. Killing a bacterium with a fungus! Pathogen vs. pathogen! Marvelous. Fleming, you accidental genius.