# What's the black thing on Radovan Karadzic's head? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 23, 2008, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-black-thing-on-radovan-karadzics-head/457514 "2008-07-23T18:53:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-black-thing-on-radovan-karadzics-head/457514/1 "2008-07-23T18:53:51Z")
In pictures of him recently captured, with long white beard and hair, there is [some strange thing on his head](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/world/europe/23karadzic.html) . What is it? Is it his hair in a topknot? Supposedly he had been practicing “alternative medicine” – was it something related to that? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-black-thing-on-radovan-karadzics-head/457514/2 "2008-07-23T19:05:40Z")
Looks like simply the last remaining vestige of hair color. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-black-thing-on-radovan-karadzics-head/457514/3 "2008-07-23T19:20:55Z")
Really? It looks like a big bump to me. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-black-thing-on-radovan-karadzics-head/457514/4 "2008-07-23T19:23:14Z")
The price tag? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-black-thing-on-radovan-karadzics-head/457514/5 "2008-07-23T20:00:12Z")
I think it’s a wick. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-black-thing-on-radovan-karadzics-head/457514/6 "2008-07-23T20:10:56Z")
Looks like a pony tail or something for his hair. ---
**Author:** ![fortytwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f9ae1b/32.png) [@fortytwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fortytwo)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-black-thing-on-radovan-karadzics-head/457514/7 "2008-07-23T20:18:08Z")
From the Guardian:[The healer on the 73 bus, Europe's most wanted man | Radovan Karadzic | The Guardian](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/23/radovankaradzic.warcrimes2?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront) > [@](#): > > In his life as Dragan David Dabic, he began to seek a new audience for his musings on alternative medicine. He built on his training as a psychiatrist and embellished it with oriental-inspired theories of “the life force”, “vital energies” and “personal auras”. He told people his plaited top-knot drew in different energies from the environment. ---
**Author:** ![mutantmoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@mutantmoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mutantmoose)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-black-thing-on-radovan-karadzics-head/457514/8 "2008-07-23T23:40:54Z")
D’you think he’ll shave off the beard now he’s been caught or will he try and pretend he grew it for aesthetic reasons? ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-black-thing-on-radovan-karadzics-head/457514/9 "2008-07-24T00:13:19Z")
I’ve been asking myself the same question as the OP, so thanks to **Vetch** for providing the answer and some very interesting reading. That knot makes him look like a new-age guru, which I guess was the whole idea. Actually, I’m surprised at how “typical” Karadzic’s disguise was. If you ask a random person what they would do if they suddenly found themselves an internationally wanted fugitive and didn’t want to be recognized, the first thing they’d say is probably that they’d grow a beard and started wearing glasses (if they are currently an unbearded male without glasses). Well, that’s exactly what Karadzic did (plus the new hairstyle and the hat), and it really made him almost unrecognizable. Maybe the Serbian government had some idea where he was and what he was doing, but the average citizen of Belgrade wouldn’t have had any idea it was him. Now that the question’s been mostly answered, can I append a different general question about Karadzic to the thread? For some reason I’ve been asking myself if Karadzic is a citizen of Serbia. He’s apparently born in Montenegro, and spent most of his adult life in Bosnia before being going in hiding. But he’s an ethnic Serb, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Serbia’s citizenship law was strongly tied to ethnicity, so maybe he is a citizen of the country after all. I guess his alter ego is, but fraudulently, so I don’t think it counts. Does anyone know? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-black-thing-on-radovan-karadzics-head/457514/10 "2008-07-24T03:10:58Z")
I gotta say, that is the biggest 'stash I seen since [Gimli, Son of Glóin](http://snagwiremedia.com/consolepatrol/lotr_movie_gimli.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-black-thing-on-radovan-karadzics-head/457514/11 "2008-07-24T09:16:35Z")
[QUOTE=ratatoskK] In pictures of him recently captured, with long white beard and hair, there is [some strange thing on his head](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/world/europe/23karadzic.html) . What is it? Is it his hair in a topknot? Supposedly he had been practicing “alternative medicine” – was it something related to that? [/QUOTE] From your very link: > [@](#): > > He was hiding behind an enormous beard, white ponytailed hair topped with an odd black tuft, and a new life so at odds with his myth as to deflect suspicion. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-black-thing-on-radovan-karadzics-head/457514/12 "2008-07-24T09:51:29Z")
[QUOTE=ratatoskK] Really? It looks like a big bump to me. [/QUOTE] As an alternative medicine guru, it might have been [an intentional look](http://images.google.com/images?num=100&hl=en&safe=off&q=buddha%20head&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi) BTW, I find it amazing that not only was he living in the open, he was giving public lectures and distributing them on videotape. ---
**Author:** ![LionelHutz405](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lionelhutz405/32/536_2.png) [@LionelHutz405](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LionelHutz405)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-black-thing-on-radovan-karadzics-head/457514/13 "2008-07-24T12:25:24Z")
[QUOTE=mutantmoose] D’you think he’ll shave off the beard now he’s been caught or will he try and pretend he grew it for aesthetic reasons? [/QUOTE] [He shaved it off](http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/466370) ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-black-thing-on-radovan-karadzics-head/457514/14 "2008-07-24T12:29:08Z")
It’s the **Turd of Death** ---
**Author:** ![Oswald\_Bastable](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oswald_bastable/32/214_2.png) [@Oswald\_Bastable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oswald_Bastable)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-black-thing-on-radovan-karadzics-head/457514/15 "2008-07-24T13:50:47Z")
Completely unrelated to the OP, but when I first saw his picture plastered over the BBC News website I wondered why they were making such a big deal out of finally catching the Archbishop of Canterbury… OB ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-black-thing-on-radovan-karadzics-head/457514/16 "2008-07-24T14:04:17Z")
> [@](#): > > by **Hypnagogic Jerk** > For some reason I’ve been asking myself if Karadzic is a citizen of Serbia. He’s apparently born in Montenegro, and spent most of his adult life in Bosnia before being going in hiding. But he’s an ethnic Serb, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Serbia’s citizenship law was strongly tied to ethnicity, so maybe he is a citizen of the country after all. I guess his alter ego is, but fraudulently, so I don’t think it counts. Does anyone know? Serbia and Montenegro were once ruled by different royal families, but they are both ethnically Serb. Last I heard, they were still unified. I would imagine his passport reads “Yugoslavia” on it. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-black-thing-on-radovan-karadzics-head/457514/17 "2008-07-24T16:23:18Z")
Yugoslavia doesn’t exist anymore. Does anyone honor their passports? ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-black-thing-on-radovan-karadzics-head/457514/18 "2008-07-24T17:28:42Z")
Serbia and Montenegro are actually **not** unified anymore; Montenegro became independent in 2006. I’m sure Karadzic’s last valid passport described him as a citizen of Yugoslavia, but as said, Yugoslavia doesn’t exist anymore. I’m wondering what country (if any) he’s a citizen of **now**.