# On snuff films and Jack Kervorkian **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [July 4, 2000, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-snuff-films-and-jack-kervorkian/24595 "2000-07-04T23:30:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2000, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-snuff-films-and-jack-kervorkian/24595/1 "2000-07-04T23:30:40Z")
cecil there is a snuff film that exists: one that Dr. Jack Kervorkian made for 60 Minutes and to drum up support for phycisian-assisted suicide. It backfired; the film was used to put him to jailhim in jail. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2000, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-snuff-films-and-jack-kervorkian/24595/2 "2000-07-05T00:18:23Z")
The Kevorkian video is debatable. Definitely a deliberate death, but was it seems to me that the primary purpose was political, not entertainment or commercial. I’ll let Arnold add the reference; poor guy doesn’t have a lot to do in this group. ---
**Author:** ![gerry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c77e96/32.png) [@gerry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gerry)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2000, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-snuff-films-and-jack-kervorkian/24595/3 "2000-07-05T01:22:23Z")
Cecil wrote: "Ted McIlvenny, director of the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality and caretaker of what is probably the world’s largest collection of sex movies–289,000 films and 100,000 videos–says that in his 25 years of following the porn business he’s seen exactly three films in which someone was killed on camera. In two cases the death was unintended: (1) a guy died of a heart attack while being beaten during an S&M scene; and (2) a man accidentally strangled himself during an autoerotic asphyxiation. " Anyone know what the third death was? Presumably it _was_ intended. Gerry ---
**Author:** ![CircusBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CircusBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CircusBoy)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2000, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-snuff-films-and-jack-kervorkian/24595/4 "2000-07-05T02:51:18Z")
[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5\_258.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_258.html) It was a hunchbacked kid, torn apart by wild horses. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@The\_Tof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tof)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2000, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-snuff-films-and-jack-kervorkian/24595/5 "2000-07-05T05:36:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gerry \* > \*\*Cecil wrote: > "Ted McIlvenny, director of the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality and caretaker of what is probably the world’s largest collection of sex movies–289,000 films and 100,000 videos–says that in his 25 years of following the porn business he’s seen exactly three films in which someone was killed on camera. In two cases the death was unintended: (1) a guy died of a heart attack while being beaten during an S&M scene; and (2) a man accidentally strangled himself during an autoerotic asphyxiation. " > Anyone know what the third death was? Presumably it _was_ intended. > > Gerry > \*\* Immediately after the paragraph you stated above comes this one… “Anomalous weirdness. McIlvenny says the third film involving an actual death was a bizarre religious number from Morocco in which a hunchbacked kid was torn apart by wild horses while men stood around and masturbated. Sick, but not intended as commercial pornography” There ya go… 🙂 Screeme ---
**Author:** ![gerry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c77e96/32.png) [@gerry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gerry)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2000, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-snuff-films-and-jack-kervorkian/24595/6 "2000-07-05T10:15:38Z")
Thanks, people - I should have read it properly. All I can say is, whatta way to make my first post 🙂 Gerry ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2000, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-snuff-films-and-jack-kervorkian/24595/7 "2000-07-05T15:29:35Z")
Please include a link to Cecil’s column if it’s on the straight dope web site. To include a link, it can be as simple as including the web page location in your post (make sure there is a space **before** and **after** the text of the URL). Cecil’s column can be found on-line at the link provided by **CircusBoy**. The column ( **including** Slug Signorino’s illustration) can also be found on pages 258-260 of Cecil Adams’ book “[_Triumph of the Straight Dope_](http://www.straightdope.com/otheroutlets/books.html)”. ---
**Author:** ![Beakeroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@Beakeroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beakeroni)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2000, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-snuff-films-and-jack-kervorkian/24595/8 "2000-07-07T03:06:29Z")
My question is: What religion in Morocco would film a hunchbacked child being torn apart by horses while men masturbated? Cecil needs to do a follow up here, I think. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2000, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-snuff-films-and-jack-kervorkian/24595/9 "2000-07-07T12:35:59Z")
The First Church of the Martyred Hunchback Kid, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2000, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-snuff-films-and-jack-kervorkian/24595/10 "2000-07-10T21:21:57Z")
Wow CircusBoy, that was a brilliant flippant response. Too bad it was true.