Toa Payoh ritual murders

The Toa Payoh ritual murders took place in Singapore in 1981. On 25 January, the body of a nine-year-old girl was found at a block of public housing flats in the town of Toa Payoh, and two weeks later, the body of a ten-year-old boy was found nearby.

The murders were masterminded by Adrian Lim, a self-styled healer who pretended to have supernatural powers and scammed people for years. He had also been sexually assaulting female clients, often preying on younger women from impoverished backgrounds. Two clients later engaged in a relationship with him. They were: Tan Mui Choo, who he married, and Hoe Kah Hong, who was his "holy wife"—a term he used to manipulate women into having sex with him. Lim subjected them to extensive physical, sexual, mental and financial abuse, including forcing Tan into prostitution, for years before instigating the killings in which they participated.

In 1980, Lim drugged and raped a woman who filed rape charges against him. To derail police investigations, Lim decided to kill children, and made Tan and Hoe help him. Lim also sexually assaulted the girl victim. The trio were arrested after the police found a trail of blood leading from the body of the boy to their flat. Although the case name suggested ritualistic murders, the defendants said they did not conduct prayers, burning of joss sticks, ringing of bells, or any other rituals during the killings.

The 41-day trial was the second longest to have been held in the courts of Singapore at the time. None of the defendants denied their guilt. Their appointed counsels pleaded diminished responsibility, arguing that the accused were mentally ill and could not be held entirely responsible for the killings. Their experts, doctors and psychologists, analysed the defendants and concluded that they had exhibited schizophrenia, and depressions of the psychotic and manic order. The prosecution's expert, however, refuted testimonies and argued that all three individuals were in full control of their mental faculties when they planned and carried out the murders. The judges agreed with the prosecution's case and sentenced the trio to death. While on death row, the women appealed to the Privy Council in London and pleaded for clemency from the President of Singapore to no avail. Lim did not seek any pardons. The three were hanged on 25 November 1988.

The murders shocked the public in Singapore. Reports of the trio's deeds and the court proceedings were closely followed and remained prominent in the Singaporean consciousness for several years. Twice, movie companies tried to capitalise on the sensation generated by the murders by producing motion pictures based on the killings; however, critics panned both films for indulging in gratuitous sex and violence, and the movies performed poorly at the box office. The actions and behaviour of the three killers were studied by academics in the criminal psychology field, and the rulings set by the courts became local case studies for diminished responsibility.

## Belief in spirits and mediums

There are people who believe in spirits, gods and deities. Certain people claim that they could communicate with these supernatural beings through rituals in which they danced and chanted; they are known as spirit mediums—tang-kees and bomohs. They may invite the beings to possess their bodies and dole out wisdoms, blessings, and curses to their believers.

## The murders

For several years, a medium in Block 12, Toa Payoh Lorong 7, had been performing noisy rituals in the middle of the night. The residents complained several times to the authorities, but the rituals would always resume after a short time.

On the afternoon of 24 January 1981, nine-year-old Agnes Ng Siew Heok (traditional Chinese: 黃秀葉; simplified Chinese: 黄秀叶; pinyin: Huáng Xìuyè), a student of Holy Innocents Chinese Girl School, disappeared after she was last seen by her sister and friend at a Toa Payoh church where she was attending religious classes. Hours later, the child's naked body was found in a bag outside a lift in Block 11, less than a kilometre (five-eighths of a mile) from the church. The girl had been smothered to death; the investigation revealed injuries to her genitals and semen in her rectum. Although the police launched an intensive investigation, questioning more than 250 people around the crime scene, they failed to obtain any leads.

On 7 February, the naked body of ten-year-old Ghazali bin Marzuki, a student from Henry Park Primary School, was found under a tree between Blocks 10 and 11. He had been missing since the previous day, after being seen boarding a taxi with an unknown woman. Forensic pathologists on the scene deemed the cause of death as drowning, and found on the boy suffocation marks similar to those on Ng. There were no signs of sexual assault. There were burns on the boy's back and a puncture on his arm. Traces of a sedative were later detected in his blood.

The police found a scattered trail of blood that led to the seventh floor of Block 12. Stepping into the common corridor from the stairwell, Inspector Pereira noticed an eclectic mix of religious symbols (a cross, a mirror, and a knife-blade) on the entrance of the first flat (unit number 467F). The owner of the flat, Adrian Lim, approached the inspector and introduced himself, informing Pereira that he was living there with his wife, Tan Mui Choo, and a girlfriend, Hoe Kah Hong. Permitted by Lim to search his flat, the police found traces of blood. Lim initially tried to pass the stains off as candle wax, but when challenged claimed they were chicken blood. After the police found slips of paper written with the dead children's personal details, Lim tried to allay suspicions by claiming that Ghazali had come to his flat seeking treatment for a bleeding nose. He discreetly removed hair from under a carpet and tried to flush it down the toilet, but the police stopped him; forensics later determined the hair to be Ng's. Requesting a background check on Lim, Pereira received word from local officers that the medium was currently involved in a rape investigation. Lim overheard them and became agitated, raising his voice at the law enforcers. Hoe also started getting agitated. Their actions further raised the investigators' suspicions that the trio were deeply involved in the murders. The police collected the evidence, sealed the flat as a crime scene, and took Lim and the two women in for questioning.

## Perpetrators

### Adrian Lim

Born on 6 January 1942, Adrian Lim (traditional Chinese: 林寶龍; simplified Chinese: 林宝龙; pinyin: Lín Bǎolóng; Jyutping: lam4 bou2 lung4) was the eldest son of a low-income family. Described at the trial by his sister as a hot-tempered boy, he dropped out of Anglo-Chinese School. He worked in a variety of jobs, including as an informant for the Internal Security Department.

In 1962, he joined the cable radio company Rediffusion Singapore where he worked for 14 years. For three years, he installed and serviced Rediffusion sets as an electrician before being promoted to bill collector. In April 1967, Lim married his childhood sweetheart with whom he had two children. He converted to Catholicism for his marriage. Lim and his family lived in rented rooms until his 1970 purchase of a three-room flat—a seventh floor unit (unit number 467F) of Block 12, Toa Payoh.

Lim started part-time practice as a spirit medium in 1973. Lim usually preyed on vulnerable girls and women, often much younger than him, from abusive or impoverished backgrounds, and with troubled lives. He rented a room where he attended to the women—most of whom were bargirls, dance hostesses, and prostitutes—introduced to him by his landlord. Lim's customers also included superstitious men and elderly females, whom he cheated only of cash.

Lim had learned the trade from a bomoh called "Uncle Willie" and prayed to gods of various religions despite his Catholic baptism. The Hindu goddess Kali and "Phragann", which Lim described as a Siamese sex god, were among the spiritual entities he called on in his rituals. Lim deceived his clients with several confidence tricks; his most effective gimmick, known as the "needles and egg" trick, duped many to believe that he had supernatural abilities. After blackening needles with soot from a burning candle, Lim carefully inserted them into a raw egg and sealed the hole with powder. In his rituals, he passed the egg several times over his client while chanting and asked her to crack open the egg. Unaware that the egg had been tampered with, the client would be convinced by the sight of the black needles that evil spirits were harassing her.

Claiming he had supernatural powers to solve their problems through rituals, he used the pretext of a massage to sexually assault his female clients. He would have the woman strip together with him, and would knead her body — including her genitals — with Phragann's idol, and proceed to rape her. Lim's treatments also included an electro-shock therapy based on that used on mental patients. After placing his client's feet in a tub of water and attaching wires to her temples, Lim passed electricity through her. The shocks, he assured her, would cure headaches and drive away evil spirits.

Lim used his fake powers to threaten and intimidate his female partners. He also used various types of abuse, such as isolation from family members and threats, to control the women, break them, and keep them trapped. The women tended to be much younger than Lim, came from abusive childhoods, and had little education. Lim was extremely physically violent towards his partners; he would slam their heads against the wall, kick them and pull their hair. He also tortured them by electrocuting them. Lim would also get money from them, including when he was living with Tan and Hoe. He pressured 18-year-old Malaysian student Christina Chong into becoming a prostitute and took about \$120,000 from her over two years, from 1979 to 1981.

### Tan Mui Choo

Born in 1953 or 1954, Catherine Tan Mui Choo (traditional Chinese: 陳梅珠; simplified Chinese: 陈梅珠; pinyin: Chén Méizhū; Jyutping: can4 mui4 zyu1) was the eldest of four children. She was neglected by her parents who focused their attention on her brothers and sent her away at 13 years old to a vocational centre.

At 17 years old, Tan lost her grandmother, the only family member whom she was close to and was devoted to. Estranged from family, and young with little education and skills, the teenager started working at a bar to earn a living. At 20 years old, she was referred by a coworker to Lim for help with depression and other ailments. Tan started visiting him regularly.

In 1975, Lim, then 33 years old, insisted that the 21-year-old moved into his flat, where he was then living with his then-wife and two children. Lim lied to his wife that he was not having an affair with Tan, swearing an oath of denial before a picture of Jesus Christ. However, the wife discovered the truth and moved out with their children a few days later, divorcing Lim in 1976.

Lim quit his Rediffusion job and became a full-time medium. He enjoyed brisk business, at one point receiving S\$6,000–7,000 (US\$2,838–3,311) a month from a single client. In June 1977, Lim and Tan registered their marriage.

Lim was extremely abusive towards Tan, regularly torturing her with electric shocks, beatings, threats, and lies. Lim sexually exploited and financially abused Tan: he forced her into becoming a prostitute and a stripper, and took her earnings. She went into further depression, experiencing suicidal thoughts and a sense of worthlessness. Lim made Tan convince young female clients to sleep with him.

Lim's horrific abuse extended to Tan's younger siblings. Lim forced Tan's younger sister into having sex with him and Tan, and forced the girl into prostitution too. Demanding Tan to have sex with younger males to preserve her youth, Lim pressured her into having sex with her 16-year-old brother regularly for over one year. He also forced her into having sex with another teenager.

### Hoe Kah Hong

Born on 10 September 1955, Hoe Kah Hong (traditional Chinese: 何家鳳; simplified Chinese: 何家凤; pinyin: Hé Jiāfèng; Jyutping: ho4 gaa1 fung6) was the third of six children. At eight years old, when her father died, she was sent away from family to Penang, Malaysia, to live with her aunt. She returned to the family at 15 years old, and worked as a seamstress, factory-hand and a production operator for Hewlett Packard.

In 1978, Hoe married Benson Loh Ngak Hua.

In 1979, her mother brought 24-year-old Hoe and her sisters to get treatment from Lim. Lim used his usual tricks to convince them that he had supernatural powers.

Lim desired to make Hoe one of his "holy wives". To isolate Hoe from her family, Lim started a campaign of lies, intimidation and emotional abuse. He claimed to her that: she was an illegitimate child; her family were immoral people who practised infidelity; her husband would force her into prostitution. Hoe eventually underwent a mock wedding with Lim who declared her as his "holy wife". Three months after first meeting Lim, Hoe moved in with him and Tan.

Loh sought out his wife at Lim's flat. He stayed to observe her treatment and was persuaded to participate in the electro-shock "therapies". In the early hours of 7 January 1980, Loh sat with Hoe, their arms locked together and their feet in separate tubs of water. Lim applied a large voltage to Loh, electrocuting him to death, while Hoe was stunned into unconsciousness. Loh was 25 years old.

Lim made Hoe lie to the police that Loh was electrocuted when switching on a faulty electric fan. The coroner recorded an open verdict, indicating the circumstances of his death were unclear. The police made no further investigations. Lim later said he killed Loh so he could retain Hoe. He also blamed Hoe for the death, claiming an evil spirit in her had jumped out and killed Loh.

Hoe was deeply affected by Loh's death. She fell into depression; she started hearing voices and having hallucinations of Loh. At the end of May she was admitted to the Woodbridge Hospital for psychiatric treatment. Psychologists diagnosed her condition as schizophrenia and started appropriate treatments. By the first week of July, Hoe was discharged. Hoe moved back in with Lim, who would torture her with electric shocks.

She continued having follow-up checks at Woodbridge Hospital. Because she did not complain and did not show symptoms at the sessions, she was assessed as being in remission at the time of the killings.

## Rape charge

Lim continued his trade, tricking more women into giving him money and sex. He would use Tan and Hoe to help convince the women. By the time of his arrest, he had 40 "holy wives".

In late 1980 he was arrested and charged with raping Lucy Lau Kok Huang, a door-to-door cosmetic salesgirl, who had met Lim when she was promoting beauty products to Tan. On 19 October, Lim told Lau that a ghost was haunting her, but he could exorcise it with his sex rituals. Lau was unconvinced, and Lim decided to drug and rape her instead. Lim secretly mixed two capsules of Dalmadorm, a sedative, into a glass of milk and offered it to her, claiming it had holy properties. Lau became groggy after drinking it, which allowed Lim to rape her. For the next few weeks, he continued to abuse her by using drugs or threats.

Lau later filed a police report. Lim was arrested on charges of rape, and Tan for abetting him. When out on bail, Lim told Hoe to lie that she was present at the apartment when the rape happened but did not see any crime committed. This failed to stop the police enquiries; Lim and Tan had to extend their bail, in person, at the police station every fortnight. Lim described this as an inconvenience. He also could not accept that he was accused of rape as he saw himself as a "ladies' man" who was adored by women.

## Murders

Frustrated, Lim plotted to distract the police with a series of child murders. Moreover, he believed that sacrifices of children to the Hindu goddess Kali would help him escape the rape charge and other issues. Lim pretended to be possessed by Kali, and told Tan and Hoe that the goddess wanted them to kill children to wreak vengeance on Lau. He also told them that Phragann demanded that he have sex with their female victims.

Lim made Hoe find suitable victims. Hoe brought in three children separately on three occasions but Lim rejected them. The first of the three, a 10-year-old Indian girl, was rejected by Lim due to her race and that one of the gods he worshipped is Hindu; the second girl, a Chinese girl residing in Clementi, was also rejected because she was too skinny. Lim panicked when he saw the third target call a friend, and the girl had also told Lim that the friend she was calling had seen her walking away with Hoe.

On 24 January 1981, nine-year-old Agnes Ng was waiting at the Church of Risen Christ in Toa Payoh for her sister when Hoe took her. Lim had told Hoe that Agnes would grow up to be evil like Hoe's mother and cast spells on others unless she was killed. The trio gave Agnes food and drink that was laced with Dalmadorm. After Agnes became groggy and fell asleep, Lim sexually abused her. They pricked her finger and each of them took a sip. When Agnes went to the toilet, they killed her there. "I immersed her head in the tub of water. Lim stepped on Agnes' body while Catherine held her legs," said Hoe. Finally, Lim used his electro-shock therapy device to "make doubly sure that she was dead". They stuffed her body in a bag and dumped it near the lift at Block 11.

Lim then instructed Hoe that he wanted a boy next, and to find someone with money so he could collect ransom before the murder. Hoe said she chose Marzuki as he resembled her late husband Loh.

On 6 February, 10-year-old Ghazali was at a playground with two cousins when Hoe approached him, asking for help to collect some things from a friend's house. Ghazali agree to help, and followed her into a taxi. That was the last time he was seen alive. At the flat, Ghazali was drugged but he took a long time to fall asleep. Lim decided to tie up the boy as a precaution; however, the boy awoke and struggled. He was then knocked out. After drawing his blood, they proceeded to drown their victim. Ghazali struggled, vomiting and losing control of his bowels as he died. Blood kept streaming from his nose after his death. While Tan stayed behind to clean the flat, Lim and Hoe disposed of the body. The three tried to clean as much bloodstains as they could before sunrise. The police followed a trail of blood leading from Ghazali to the flat, and arrested the three.

## Trial

Two days after their arrest, Lim, Tan and Hoe were charged in the Subordinate Court for the murders of the two children. The trio were subjected to further interrogations by the police, and to medical examinations by prison doctors. On 16–17 September, their case was brought to the court for a committal procedure. To prove that there was a case against the accused, Deputy Public Prosecutor Glenn Knight called on 58 witnesses and arrayed 184 pieces of evidence before the magistrate. While Tan and Hoe denied the charges of murder, Lim pleaded guilty and claimed sole responsibility for the acts. The magistrate decided that the case against the accused was sufficiently strong to be heard at the High Court. Lim, Tan, and Hoe remained in custody while investigations continued.

### Judiciary, prosecution, and defence

The High Court was convened in the Supreme Court Building on 25 March 1983. Presiding over the case were two judges: Justice Thirugnana Sampanthar Sinnathuray, who would deliver judgment on serial murderer John Martin Scripps 13 years later, and Justice Frederick Arthur Chua, who was at the time the longest serving judge in Singapore. Knight continued to build his case on the evidence gathered by detective work. Photographs of the crime scenes, together with witness testimonies, would help the court to visualise the events that led to the crimes. Other evidence — the blood samples, religious objects, drugs, and the notes with Ng and Ghazali's names — conclusively proved the defendants' involvement. Knight had no eyewitnesses to the murders; his evidence was circumstantial, but he told the court in his opening statement, "What matters is that [the accused] did intentionally suffocate and drown these two innocent children, causing their deaths in circumstances which amount to murder. And this we will prove beyond all reasonable doubt."

Tan, with Lim's and the police's permission, used \$10,000 of the \$159,340 (US\$4,730 of US\$75,370) seized from the trio's flat to engage J. B. Jeyaretnam for her defence. Hoe had to accept the court's offer of counsel, receiving Nathan Isaac as her defender. Since his arrest, Lim had refused legal representation. He defended himself at the Subordinate Court hearings, but could not continue to do so when the case was moved to the High Court; Singapore law requires that for capital crimes the accused must be defended by a legal professional. Thus Howard Cashin was appointed as Lim's lawyer, although his job was complicated by his client's refusal to cooperate. The three lawyers decided not to dispute that their clients had killed the children. Acting on a defence of diminished responsibility, they attempted to show that their clients were not sound of mind and could not be held responsible for the killings. Had this defence been successful, all three defendants would have escaped the death penalty but be sentenced to either life imprisonment, or up to 10 years in jail for a reduced charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder (or manslaughter) instead of murder.

### Proceedings

After Knight had presented the prosecution evidence the court heard testimonies on the personalities and character flaws of the accused, from their relatives and acquaintances. Details of their lives were revealed by one of Lim's "holy wives". Private medical practitioners Dr. Yeo Peng Ngee and Dr. Ang Yiau Hua admitted that they were Lim's sources for drugs, and had provided the trio sleeping pills and sedatives without question on each consultation. The police and forensics teams gave their accounts of their investigations; Inspector Suppiah, the investigating officer-in-charge, read out the statements the defendants had made during their remand. In these statements Lim stated that he had killed for revenge, and that he had sodomised Ng. The accused had also confirmed in their statements that each was an active participant in the murders. There were many contradictions among these statements and the confessions made in court by the accused, but Judge Sinnathuray declared that despite the conflicting evidence, "the essential facts of this case are not in dispute". Lim's involvement in the crimes was further evidenced by Fung Joon Yong, a witness who vouched that just after midnight on 7 February 1981, at the ground floor of Block 12, he saw Lim and a woman walk past him carrying a dark-skinned boy.

On 13 April, Lim took the stand. He maintained that he was the sole perpetrator of the crimes. He denied that he raped Lucy Lau or Ng, claiming that he made the earlier statements only to satisfy his interrogators. Lim was selective in answering the questions the court threw at him; he verbosely answered those that agreed with his stance, and refused to comment on the others. When challenged on the veracity of his latest confession, he claimed that he was bound by religious and moral duty to tell the truth. Knight, however, countered that Lim was inherently a dishonest man who had no respect for oaths. Lim had lied to his wife, his clients, the police, and psychiatrists. Knight claimed Lim's stance in court was an open admission that he willingly lied in his earlier statements. Tan and Hoe were more cooperative, answering the questions posed by the court. They denied Lim's story, and vouched for the veracity of the statements they had given to the police. They told how they had lived in constant fear and awe of Lim; believing he had supernatural powers, they followed his every order and had no free will of their own. Under Knight's questioning, however, Tan admitted that Lim had been defrauding his customers, and that she had knowingly helped him to do so. Knight then got Hoe to agree that she was conscious of her actions at the time of the murders.

### Battle of the government and private psychiatrists

Of the fact that Lim, Tan, and Hoe had killed the children there was no doubt. Their defence was based on convincing the judges that medically, the accused were not in total control of themselves during the crimes. The bulk of the trial was therefore a battle between expert witnesses called by both sides.

Dr Wong Yip Chong, a senior psychiatrist in private practice, believed that Lim was mentally ill at the time of the crimes. Claiming to be "judging by the big picture, and not fussing over contradictions", he said that Lim's voracious sexual appetite and deluded belief in Kali were characteristics of a mild manic depression. The doctor also proclaimed that only an unsound mind would dump the bodies close to his home when his plan was to distract the police. Countering this, the prosecution's expert witness, Dr Chee Kuan Tsee, a psychiatrist at Woodbridge Hospital, said that Lim was "purposeful in his pursuits, patient in his planning and persuasive in his performance for personal power and pleasure". In Dr Chee's opinion, Lim had indulged in sex because through his role as a medium he obtained a supply of women who were willing to go to bed with him. Furthermore, his belief in Kali was religious in nature, not delusional. Lim's use of religion for personal benefit indicated full self-control. Lastly, Lim had consulted doctors and freely taken sedatives to alleviate his insomnia, a condition which, according to Dr Chee, sufferers from manic depression fail to recognise.

Dr R. Nagulendran, a consultant psychiatrist, testified that Tan was mentally impaired by reactive psychotic depression. Her depression, which started before meeting Lim, worsened with the extensive abuse she suffered over the years. The use of drugs also caused her to hallucinate and be susceptible to Lim's lies. On the other hand, Dr Chee felt that Tan was happy with her life with Lim: later during cross-examination by J.B. Jeyaretnam, he admitted disregarding how Tan was physically abused by her husband, but insisted that Tan was mentally sound during the killings.

Both Dr Nagulendran and Dr Chee agreed that Hoe suffered from schizophrenia long before she met Lim, and that her stay in Woodbridge Hospital had helped her recovery. Dr Nagulendran noted that Hoe appeared cheerful after her arrest. He also said that Hoe was frightened and sad to see the children electrocuted, which triggered memories of what she went through. Dr Nagulendran's diagnosis was that Hoe was mentally ill at the time of the killings. On the other hand, since the Woodbridge doctors thought she appeared well during her follow-up checks (16 July 1980 – 31 January 1981), Dr Chee evaluated she was well at the time of the killings. Were Hoe as severely impaired by her condition as Dr Nagulendran described, she would have been unable to work. But she had a job. Dr Chee also believed that a mentally ill person is more likely to resist being controlled than a healthy person can, and did not think that Hoe was controlled by Lim.

### Closing statements

Cashin declared that Lim was a normal man until his initiation into the occult, and that he was clearly divorced from reality when he entered the "unreasonable world of atrociousness", acting on his delusions to kill children in Kali's name.

Jeyaretnam pointed out that Tan had depression for a long time. On top of that, she was living in fear of Lim who had abused not just her but her family members too. These made it hard for her to feel able to say no to Lim.

Isaac concluded, "[Hoe's] schizophrenic mind accepted that if the children were killed, they would go to heaven and not grow up evil like her mother and others." Isaac criticised Dr Chee for failing to accept Hoe's symptoms as schizophrenia.

The prosecution started its closing speech by drawing attention to the "cool and calculating" manner in which the children were killed. Knight also argued that the accused could not have shared the same delusion, and only brought it up during the trial. The "cunning and deliberation" displayed in the acts could not have been done by a deluded person. Urging the judges to consider the ramifications of their verdict, Knight said: "My Lords, to say that Lim was less than a coward who preyed on little children because they could not fight back; killed them in the hope that he would gain power or wealth and therefore did not commit murder, is to make no sense of the law of murder. It would lend credence to the shroud of mystery and magic he has conjured up his practices and by which he managed to frighten, intimidate and persuade the superstitious, the weak and the gullible into participating in the most lewd and obscene acts."

Knight described that Tan helped with the killings because "she loved [Lim]", and that Hoe was misled and did not have a mental illness.

### Verdict

On 25 May 1983, crowds massed outside the building, waiting for the outcome of the trial. Due to limited seating, only a few were allowed inside to hear Justice Sinnathuray's delivery of the verdict, which took 15 minutes. The two judges were not convinced that the three defendants were mentally volatile during the crimes.

They found Lim to be "abominable and depraved" in carrying out his schemes. Viewing her interviews with the expert witnesses as admissions of guilt, Sinnathuray and Chua decided that Tan was an "artful and wicked person", and a "willing [party] to [Lim's] loathsome and nefarious acts". The judges found Hoe to be "simple" and "easily influenced". Although she suffered from schizophrenia, they opined that she was in a state of remission during the murders, hence she should bear full responsibility for her actions.

All three defendants were found guilty of murder and received mandatory death sentences, which was the only available punishment allowed for murder under Singapore law at that time. The two women did not react to their sentences. Lim beamed and cried, "Thank you, my Lords!" as he was led out.

### Appeals from Tan and Hoe

Lim accepted his punishment and gave up his right to appeal, but the women appealed against their sentences. Tan hired Francis Seow to appeal for her, and the court again assigned Isaac to Hoe. The lawyers asked the appeal court to reconsider the mental states of their clients during the murders, charging that the trial judges in their deliberations had failed to consider this point. The Court of Criminal Appeal reached their decision in August 1986. The appeal judges which consist of Chief Justice Wee Chong Jin, Justice Lai Kew Chai and Justice L P Thean reaffirmed the decision of their trial counterparts, noting that as finders of facts, judges have the right to discount medical evidence in the light of evidence from other sources. Tan and Hoe's further appeals to London's Privy Council and Singapore President Wee Kim Wee met with similar failures.

### Final days and hanging of the murderers

While on death row at Changi Prison, the trio were counselled by Catholic priests and nuns.

Lim refused to see a counsellor for most of his time on death row.

Tan and Hoe had Sister Gerard Fernandez as their spiritual counsellor. Tan was already known to Sister Gerard who operated the vocational centre that Tan attended as a youth. In 1983, Sister Gerard reached out to Tan who wrote, "Sister, how could you love me after what I have done?", signing off as a "black sheep". The nun converted both women to Catholicism. Tan began to spend hours in prayer, while Hoe was baptized.

The week before the execution date, Lim joined in, asking for repentance. He asked Australian priest Father Brian Doro for absolution. In their final days, all three of them received a Holy Communion. On 25 November 1988, the trio were given their last meal and led to the hangman's noose. Lim smiled throughout his last walk to the gallows. At 6 am in that same morning, the trio were executed by long drop hanging and later pronounced dead. After the sentences were carried out, the three murderers were given a short Catholic funeral mass by Father Doro, and cremated on the same day.

### Commentaries years later

In 2021, Justice Choo Han Teck, who was Cashin's associate during the case, said that in the 1980s, "People on the Government side (the Woodbridge) saw it as an almost defensive mechanism to disagree everything with the private psychiatrists". He also pointed out that it was difficult to even find private psychiatrists to testify in court; Wong Yip Chong was the only one to do so and Dr Nagulendran came along later.

Even in the short period of time interacting with Lim for the trial, Choo, Cashin and Wong found Lim volatile and difficult.

## Legacy

The trial on the Toa Payoh ritual murders was closely followed by the populace of Singapore. Throngs of people constantly packed the grounds of the courts, hoping to catch a glimpse of Adrian Lim and to hear the revelations first-hand. Canon Frank Lomax, Vicar of St. Andrew's Anglican Church, complained to The Straits Times that the gory and sexually explicit reports of Lim's crimes could have a corrupting effect on the young. Others welcomed the open reporting, considering it helpful in raising public awareness of the need for vigilance of crime.

Books, which covered the murders and the trial, were quickly bought by the public on their release. The Straits Times journalist Alan John wrote about the case in his book Unholy Trinity. He was, and still is, one of the few voices in Singapore pointing out how Singapore's society and system, by believing that domestic violence is a private family matter, had enabled the extreme domestic violence in this case to go unchecked. All royalties from the 1989 edition went to suicide prevention agency Samaritans of Singapore, royalties from the 2016 edition, went to domestic violence prevention agency Pave.

As of 2021, there still has been no public discussion about whether the two women, who suffered torture and other abuses for years leading up to the killings, should indeed have been held fully responsible. There has been no investigation, at least none made public, about how Tan and Hoe were physically abused for years without any intervention from the police. There has also been no mention about how Tan's younger siblings who were sexually abused and sexually and financially exploited, were provided state support. There has been no discussion or investigation as to why the system failed the young people, and what must be done to prevent such things from happening again. Despite the trial findings, there has been no public follow-up on what happened to the dozens of victims that Lim had scammed and assaulted over at least eight years, and how Lim was able to get away with his crimes for nearly a decade.

Revelations from the trial had cast Lim as evil incarnate in the minds of Singaporeans. Some citizens could not believe that anyone would willingly defend such a man. They called Cashin to voice their anger; a few even issued death threats against him. On the other hand, the case boosted Knight's career. He handled more high-profile cases, and became the director of the Commercial Affairs Department in 1984. He was later found guilty of corruption and convicted seven years later.

Even in prison, Lim was hated; his fellow prisoners abused and treated him as an outcast. In the years that followed the crime, memories remained fresh among those who followed the case. Journalists deemed it the most sensational trial of the 80s, being "the talk of a horrified city as gruesome accounts of sexual perversion, the drinking of human blood, spirit possession, exorcism and indiscriminate cruelty unfolded during the 41-day hearing". Fifteen years from the trial's conclusion, a poll conducted by The New Paper reported that 30 per cent of its respondents had picked the Toa Payoh ritual murders as the most horrible crime, despite the paper's request to vote only for crimes committed in 1998.

During the 1990s, the local film industry made two movies based on the murder case, the first of which was Medium Rare. The 1991 production had substantial foreign involvement; most of the cast and crew were American or British. The script was locally written and intended to explore the "psyche of the three main characters". The director, however, focused on sex and violence, and the resulting film was jeered by the audience at its midnight screening. Its 16-day run brought in \$130,000 (US\$75,145), and a reporter called it "more bizarre than the tales of unnatural sex and occult practices associated with the Adrian Lim story". The second film, 1997's God or Dog, also had a dismal box-office performance despite a more positive critical reception. Both shows had difficulty in finding local actors for the lead role; Zhu Houren declined on the basis that Adrian Lim was too unique a personality for an actor to portray accurately, and Xie Shaoguang rejected the role for the lack of "redeeming factors" in the murderer. On the television, the murder case would have been the opening episode for True Files, a crime awareness programme in 2002. The public, however, complained that the trailers were too gruesome with the re-enactments of the rituals and murders, forcing the media company MediaCorp to reshuffle the schedule. The Toa Payoh ritual murders episode was replaced by a less sensational episode as the opener and pushed back into a later timeslot for more mature viewers, marking the horrific nature of the crimes committed by Lim, Tan, and Hoe.

Also, in the aftermath of the case, Lim's flat became vacant from the day he was arrested. For six years, there was no one living in it given the traditional Asians' fear of haunted places at the crime scenes that involved unnatural deaths or murder. It was only in 1987 when a Catholic family moved into the flat. The neighbourhood area originally resided by Lim itself was also redeveloped over the years and while the flat remained there, its neighbouring infrastructure were replaced with newer, taller buildings.

In July 2015, Singapore's national daily newspaper The Straits Times published an e-book titled Guilty As Charged: 25 Crimes That Have Shaken Singapore Since 1965, which included the Adrian Lim murders as one of the top 25 crimes that shocked the nation since its independence in 1965. The book was borne out of collaboration between the Singapore Police Force and the newspaper itself. The e-book was edited by ST News Associate editor Abdul Hafiz bin Abdul Samad. The paperback edition of the book was published and first hit the bookshelves in end-June 2017. The paperback edition first entered the ST bestseller list on 8 August 2017, a month after its publication.

28 years after the executions of the killers, on 25 November 2016, the New Paper interviewed Ghazali's mother, 66-year-old Daliah Aim, who agreed to speak about her son's death after 36 years since Ghazali's murder. Daliah told the reporters that even till today, she remained heartbroken over her eldest child's death and could not get over the unfortunate fate that befell on Ghazali, and she reportedly wept a few times while speaking to the reporters. The mother of three also told the paper that when she received news of Ghazali being killed, she was so full of grief that she had to be sedated, and often, for the next 34 years until 2014, she suffered from frequent fainting spells. Daliah said that her family members tried to persuade her to let go of the past, but she said she could not and told them they would never understand the anguish she had over her son's demise. One of Daliah's four grandchildren, a 19-year-old student, also said in the interview that he only get to know about the connection of his family to his uncle Ghazali when ten years prior, his mother told him about her brother Ghazali as they were watching a television crime show which re-enacted the Adrian Lim murders. He stated he was angered at the way his uncle died and regarded Adrian Lim and Lim's two women as monsters. Daliah similarly expressed that she never forgave the three murderers for blatantly taking away her son's life.

## See also

- Capital punishment in Singapore
- Andrew Road triple murders
- Kovan double murders
- Murder of Nonoi
- Oriental Hotel murder
- List of major crimes in Singapore

1981 series of murders and rapes in Singapore


The Human Centipede (First Sequence)

The Human Centipede (First Sequence) is a 2009 Dutch independent body horror film written, directed and co-produced by Tom Six. The film concerns a deranged German surgeon who kidnaps three tourists and conjoins them surgically, mouth to anus, forming the eponymous "human centipede". It stars Dieter Laser as Josef Heiter, the creator of the centipede; and Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, and Akihiro Kitamura as Heiter's victims.

According to Six, the concept arose from a joke he had made with friends about punishing a child molester by stitching his mouth to the anus of a "fat truck driver". Other sources of inspiration were Nazi medical experiments performed during World War II, such as those performed by Josef Mengele at the Auschwitz concentration camp. When approaching investors to fund the project, Six did not mention the premise of the film for fear of putting off potential backers; financiers did not discover the full nature of the film until completion.

The film held its premiere at the London FrightFest Film Festival on 30 August 2009. It received a limited theatrical release in the United States on 30 April 2010. Despite a mixed critical reception, the film won several accolades at international film festivals. Two sequels that were also written and directed by Six—Full Sequence and Final Sequence—were released in 2011 and 2015, respectively. The entire trilogy was combined into a single film in 2016, titled Complete Sequence, which Six described as a "movie centipede" due to each Sequence leading into its successor while simultaneously working as a separate standalone film.

## Plot

Lindsay and Jenny, tourists from New York visiting Germany, get a flat tire on their way to a night club and seek help at the house of misanthropic, psychopathic surgeon Dr. Josef Heiter. He drugs the women with Rohypnol and kidnaps them to a makeshift medical ward. Heiter kills a kidnapped truck driver after Heiter informs him he is "not a match". Heiter also abducts Japanese tourist Katsuro. Heiter is a retired world-renowned expert at separating Siamese twins, but dreams of making new creatures by sewing humans together. He says he will surgically connect his three victims mouth-to-anus, so that they share a single digestive system. His prior experiment, the 3Dog, conjoined three Rottweilers into a "Siamese triplet"; all three dogs died following the operation. Heiter has moved on to using human subjects.

After Lindsay tries to escape and fails, Heiter decides to make her the middle part of the centipede, the most painful position for the healing process, as punishment. Heiter performs the surgery, placing Katsuro at the lead, Lindsay at the middle and Jenny at the rear; he removes both the upper and lower front teeth and lips of Lindsay and Jenny, and mutilates the buttocks of Katsuro and Lindsay to provide access to the rectums. He severs the ligaments of his victims' knees to prevent leg extension, forcing his victims to crawl.

Once the operation is complete, Heiter takes the centipede to his living room, takes photos, and passes a mirror around for the segments of the centipede to view their new form. Heiter attempts to train his centipede as a pet by caging the centipede in a dog kennel, forcing Katsuro to eat dog food at dinner, and belittling Katsuro with racist insults and beating him with a crop when he becomes rebellious. When Katsuro defecates after apologizing to the girls, Lindsay is forced to swallow his excrement. Heiter becomes irritated after being kept awake by the screaming of a caged Katsuro (who, as the front part of the centipede, has his mouth free and is still able to speak, but in Japanese) and by the constant moaning of the women, threatening to remove their vocal cords. When the centipede attempts to escape while Heiter is swimming, all three segments are beaten with the crop. Heiter is displeased with the realization that Lindsay is constipated. He proposes to use laxatives on Lindsay. However, before he can do this, he discovers that Jenny is dying from sepsis (suggesting that Lindsay may have already defecated into her mouth off-camera, which led to infection).

Two detectives, Kranz and Voller, visit the house to investigate the disappearance of the three tourists. Heiter comes up with an idea to add them as replacements for Jenny in a new creation: a four-segment centipede. He offers the detectives water spiked with Rohypnol. After being given the drugged water, the detectives become suspicious and obtain a search warrant for his home. When the detectives leave Heiter's home, the victims attempt to escape. Katsuro attacks Heiter. Their attempt to escape fails. Katsuro confesses to Heiter that he deserves this fate because he treated his family poorly, then takes his own life by slitting his throat with a glass shard, trapping the girls.

Upon returning to Heiter's home, the detectives conduct separate searches as Heiter, injured, hides near his swimming pool. Kranz finds the ward along with Heiter's victims. Voller begins to feel ill from the earlier drugging, and Heiter stabs him with the scalpel pulled from his foot during Katsuro's attack. Upon finding Voller dead, Kranz is shot by Heiter with Voller's sidearm. Kranz responds by fatally shooting Heiter in the head before succumbing to his wounds. Back in the house, Jenny and Lindsay hold hands as Jenny dies. Lindsay sobs as she is left alone in the house, trapped between her deceased fellow captives.

## Cast

- Dieter Laser as Josef Heiter, a retired surgeon who specialised in the separation of conjoined twins, but in retirement is more interested in joining creatures together. Casting for the role of Heiter took place in Berlin, and Six intended to cast Laser before he had even read for the part, after Six saw a DVD of one of Laser's previous films. Laser had previously appeared in over 60 mostly German-language films, including Der Unhold and Baltic Storm (he speaks German in parts of First Sequence as well). Upon meeting him in Berlin, Six gave Laser a shot-by-shot explanation of Heiter's scenes, and Laser, impressed by Six's dedication and passion, agreed to take part in the film. Laser contributed considerably to the development of Heiter's character. For example, because Heiter views the "centipede" as his pet, Laser felt that it was important that Heiter appear naked during a scene in which he swam in full view of his victims, because Laser said "you aren't ashamed to be naked" around a pet.
- Ashley C. Williams as Lindsay, an American tourist, a friend of Jenny's, and the central section of the centipede. Auditioning for the roles of Jenny and Lindsay took place in New York City. Six said during the auditioning process, many actresses walked out of readings in disgust after hearing the full nature of the role. Others thought they would be able to take on the role, but found it was "too much" for them once they got onto their hands and knees behind another actor. Williams expressed concern about the nudity expected of her in the film, but took the role when she was assured it would be modest and of a non-sexual nature.
- Ashlynn Yennie as Jenny, an American tourist, a friend of Lindsay's, and the rear section of the centipede. As with Williams, The Human Centipede was Yennie's first major film role. Yennie was one of several actresses to audition for the role, as the producers searched for an actress who would have good on-screen chemistry with Williams. Yennie was able to further develop her relationship with Williams when the pair shared an apartment in the Netherlands during filming. Yennie auditioned to Ilona Six, the film's producer and sister of Tom Six, and did not meet Tom Six, who had viewed tapes of her reading, until fitting for the centipede special effects in the Netherlands. Yennie was drawn to the role by the humanity throughout the story, referring to how the three victims of Heiter are unwillingly forced into their situation. She also said the story was so realistic it scared her.
- Akihiro Kitamura as Katsuro, a Japanese tourist and front section of the centipede. Having already acted in or written for a number of films and television shows (including popular American television series Heroes), Kitamura was a relatively experienced actor compared to other cast members. He auditioned for the role of Katsuro via Skype from Los Angeles after the casting director saw him on television and recommended him for the role. The rest of the cast did not meet Kitamura until the day before shooting commenced.
- Rene de Wit as Truck Driver, one of Heiter's victims. De Wit had previously worked with Six in his 2008 film I Love Dries.
- Andreas Leupold as Detective Kranz, a police officer.
- Peter Blankenstein as Detective Voller, a police officer.

## Production

### Writing

The inspiration for the film's plot came from a joke that writer/director Tom Six once made to his friends about punishing a child molester they saw on TV by stitching his mouth to the anus of an overweight truck driver. Six saw this as the concept for a great horror film, and he began to develop the idea. He has said he was heavily influenced as a filmmaker by the early works of David Cronenberg and Japanese horror films. Six has said he prefers horror films that are more realistic over "unbelievable" monster films, and that he gets "a rash from too much political correctness." A major influence for The Human Centipede was Pier Paolo Pasolini's controversial 1975 Italian drama film Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, which was notable for its scenes depicting intensely graphic violence, sadism, and sexual depravity, as was the work of Japanese director Takashi Miike. Six has also expressed his love of the works of David Lynch. Further inspiration came from Six's previous role as a director on the Dutch series of Big Brother, where he had been able to observe people who "did crazy things when they were alone and thought they were not (being) watched."

Six has stated that The Human Centipede is, to an extent, a reflection on fascism. Dieter Laser, who played the antagonist Dr Heiter, said during the promotion of the film that he felt the guilt of Nazi actions during the war had haunted ordinary Germans for generations, and that as a German whose father participated in the war, he often felt "like a child whose father is in jail for murder." The inclusion of a German villain came from this, with Six citing both the German invasion of the Netherlands during World War II and the Nazi medical experiments as inspiration. Laser stated in an interview with Clark Collis for Entertainment Weekly that he considered the film a "grotesque [parody] about the Nazi psyche". Heiter's name was an amalgamation of several Nazi war criminals, his surname (literally meaning "cheerful" in German) a combination of the names of Nazi doctors Fetter and Richter, and his first name coming from Josef Mengele, who carried out experiments on prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp. World War II also played an influence on the nationality of the other main characters who were American and Japanese. Six includes many horror film clichés in the first act, such as a broken-down car, lack of phone signal and very naïve victims. Six did this in an attempt to lull audiences into thinking they are watching a conventional horror film, therefore making Dr Heiter's treatment of his victims more shocking.

Six placed a Japanese male at the front of the centipede to create a language barrier between the doctor and the centipede. Throughout the film the characters (with the exception of Heiter who for the most part speaks to the centipede in English) speak in their native languages only (subtitled for the viewer into English where necessary). Katsuro, as the front part of the centipede, can only speak Japanese and therefore cannot speak with either the doctor or Jenny and Lindsay. Secondly, Katsuro's position in the centipede sets up the opportunity for the doctor and the male victim of the centipede to fight toward the climax of the film. Six stated in the director's commentary for The Human Centipede that he has a personal fear of hospitals and doctors, so he stretched out the scene where Heiter explains how he will create the centipede and the subsequent procedure to create his "own nightmare."

While seeking funding for the film, Six pitched the idea of a surgeon who sewed people together. He did not initially reveal that the victims would be joined mouth-to-anus, as he believed this idea would stand no chance of receiving investments. His backers felt that the idea of a surgeon sewing people together was original and Six received funding. However, they did not learn the exact details of the film until it had been completed. Six claimed that they were very happy with the finished film. Before signing on, the actors were given an outline of the storyboard rather than a complete script. They were also shown sketches of how the centipede would be formed.

### Filming

Although The Human Centipede is set in Germany, principal photography took place in the Netherlands due to the neighbouring countries' similar landscapes. Heiter's home, where most of The Human Centipede takes place, was a villa in the Netherlands found by the production team. The property was in a residential area and not surrounded by woodland as it appears in the film, but by other houses. This meant the filmmakers had some difficulty ensuring that the other houses did not appear in shot. Some conversion of the property took place prior to filming, such as a home theater which was converted to form Heiter's basement operating room, with real hospital beds and intravenous drips rented from a local hospital. The paintings of conjoined twins that were displayed throughout the house were painted by Tom Six, which he felt contributed to the atmosphere in the house. The hotel room scene near the beginning of the film was filmed in a hotel suite at a location near Amsterdam. The film was shot almost entirely in sequence, which Yennie stated helped the actors to develop their characters throughout the film. The opening scene, which only featured Laser and de Wit, was shot on the last day of filming.

Laser remained in character as Heiter throughout the filming process, often shouting at the rest of the cast on set, and wherever possible staying away from the other actors and crew between scenes to preserve a level of separation. He only ate food he had brought onto the set himself, eating mostly fruit. He contributed dialogue for his character and selected many of his character's outfits from his personal wardrobe. Six claims that the jacket Heiter wore, which was bought by Laser, was a genuine jacket worn by real Nazi doctors. Laser was also happy for the other actors in The Human Centipede to add their own ideas to the film. For example, when Heiter is explaining his procedure to his victims, Katsuro's dialogue was improvised, which pleased Laser. During filming Laser accidentally kicked Kitamura (Katsuro), leading to a fight on set between the actors. The incident contributed to the tension and anger throughout the scene they were filming, in which Heiter sits at his dining table eating while the centipede eats dog food from the floor alongside him. Laser also unintentionally hurt Williams during the scene where Heiter roughly grabs and injects Lindsay, which caused a pause in shooting.

The Nazi influence behind Heiter led to the use of classical music when the doctor is "training" his centipede. The music was deliberately played at low quality to simulate the music coming from a loudspeaker, in much the same way as music was sometimes played in Nazi concentration camps. Many of the sound effects in The Human Centipede were created by manipulating meat. For example, the sound of a nose being broken was made by snapping bones within cuts of raw meat. Due to the discomfort of spending long periods on their hands and knees, the actors playing the centipede were given massages at the end of each day of filming. Yennie stated that she and Williams experienced jaw pain from holding a bit in their mouths during filming, but overall she did not feel that the physical side of filming had been excessively difficult.

### Effects

The Human Centipede contains relatively few gory images; little of the surgical procedure is depicted directly, no excrement is shown on screen, and according to Kim Newman in Empire, it is "never quite as outrageous as it threatens to be." Six stated that he wanted the film to be as authentic as possible and claimed to have consulted a Dutch surgeon during the creation and filming process, resulting in the film being "100% medically accurate." Six said that the surgeon initially wanted nothing to do with his film, as he felt Six was "crazy" and the idea had "nothing to do with medical science." However, the surgeon changed his mind and decided that he liked the idea, and so came up with a method of creating a human centipede. Six has claimed that the central and rear members of the centipede could survive for years by supplementing their diet with an IV drip. The special effects team was led by Rob and Erik Hillenbrink, father and son. They designed the final composition of the centipede from sketches provided by the consulting surgeon. The actors who made up the centipede wore hardened underwear, compared by Yennie to shorts, which had a rubber grip for the actors to wear, and for the actor behind to bite, creating the illusion of the mouth-to-anus connection. Six kept secret how the centipede would be formed as long as possible, and Yennie claimed that even her make-up artist did not know, asking Yennie what kind of "suit" the actors would be wearing.

When Heiter is operating on his victims, Jenny's teeth were digitally removed in post-production. However, other effects were relatively simple to create. Heiter's "three dog" was created by Photoshopping an image of three Rottweilers to create an image of dogs joined together. Colour grading was used extensively throughout the production of The Human Centipede. For example, at the end of the film when Lindsay is left between the dead bodies of Jenny and Katsuro, their skin tones were lightened to further emphasise that they were dead and Lindsay was still alive.

The rain when Jenny and Lindsay's car breaks down was added digitally in post-production. The filmmakers had not been granted permission to film at the roadside location, but went ahead against the authorities' wishes as Six felt the location in the woods was ideal for the scene. When Heiter's window is repaired after Lindsay's escape attempt, the use of a tracking shot through the window pane required the reflection of the crew to be digitally removed from the glass. The film contains a large number of long tracking shots; Six has cited the influence of Takashi Miike who also uses many tracking shots in his films.

## Release

### Promotion

During promotion for The Human Centipede, press materials claimed that the film was "100% medically accurate". Six and the producers frequently stated that the film had been described as "the most horrific film ever made," and many writers, such as Karina Longworth of LA Weekly magazine and Jay Stone of the Calgary Herald, described the film as torture porn. Roger Ebert, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, stated that he felt the film had been "deliberately intended to inspire incredulity, nausea and hopefully outrage." However, writing in The Guardian, David Cox noted that he had been unable to trace the source of this quote as the "most horrific film ever made" and had contacted Six to attempt to ascertain the origin of the judgement. Six claimed that the statement had originally been made by The Sun newspaper in the United Kingdom. However, Cox was unable to trace any article making this claim. When asked by Cox as to what Six regarded as the "most horrific" film, Six stated he in fact believed it to be Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom.

### Theatrical

The Human Centipede was released in the United States without an MPAA rating. It was released theatrically in New York City on 30 April 2010 and had a limited release in the US shortly afterward, distributed by IFC Films. Throughout 2009, the film was included in several film festivals around the world including the London FrightFest Film Festival, Leeds International Film Festival, Sitges Film Festival, and Screamfest Horror Film Festival. Six remarked on how many film festival audiences reacted strongly to the film, sometimes almost vomiting in the cinema aisles. To Six's amusement, Spanish audiences often found the film funny, and laughed throughout screenings. Six claimed that the "buzz" surrounding the film led to several studios approaching him to discuss its distribution. IFC Films has a history of releasing unconventional horror films, having previously distributed the Norwegian Nazi-zombie feature Dead Snow and the 2009 release Antichrist. The Human Centipede's US gross was \$181,467, and worldwide takings amounted to \$252,207.

The film was passed uncut by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and released with an 18 certificate, receiving a limited run in the UK on 20 August 2010. It was distributed by Bounty Films.

### Home media

The Human Centipede was released in the United Kingdom on DVD and Blu-ray on 4 October 2010, and in the US the following day, where, as of July 2023, DVD sales have totalled \$3,750,554.

## Reception

### Critical response

The Human Centipede received mixed reviews. Review aggregator web site Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 49% approval rating based on 97 reviews, with an average rating of 5.15/10; the general consensus states: "Grotesque, visceral and hard to (ahem) swallow, this surgical horror doesn't quite earn its stripes because the gross-outs overwhelm and devalue everything else." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 33, based on 15 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Giving the film three stars out of five, Empire writer Kim Newman stated that "underneath an extremely repulsive concept, this is a relatively conventional horror movie." Variety Magazine writer Peter DeBurge criticised the film's lack of social commentary, stating that it could not "be bothered to expand upon its unpleasant premise, inviting audiences to revel in its sick humor by favoring Dr. Heiter ... and characterizing the victims as shallow expendables." Writing in Entertainment Weekly, Clark Collis was broadly positive about Dieter Laser's performance as the Doctor, and praised Six's direction, saying Six "has put together his nightmare yarn with Cronenbergian care and precision." Collis said The Human Centipede was "without question one of the most disgusting horror films ever made." Writing in The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw gave the film three out of five, saying that, whilst "entirely deplorable and revolting," the film was "sort of brilliant". Total Film writer Jamie Russell gave the film four stars out of five, calling it "Shocking, funny, disturbing... a throwback to the glory days of Cronenberg."

Sukhdev Sandhu of The Daily Telegraph was generally negative about the film, stating, "The Human Centipede has its moments, but they're largely obscured by umpteen holes in the plot as well as by reams of exposition," and that it was "an ultimately underwhelming affair that's neither sick or [ sic ] repellent enough to garner the cult status it so craves." The New York Times review by Jeannette Catsouli noted that whether the film was "a commentary on Nazi atrocities or a literal expression of filmmaking politics, the grotesque fusion at least silences the female leads, both of whose voices could strip paint." Writing in the Chicago Sun Times, Roger Ebert did not assign the film a star rating (not to be confused with awarding it zero stars), stating, "I am required to award stars to movies I review. This time, I refuse to do it. The star rating system is unsuited to this film. Is the movie good? Is it bad? Does it matter? It is what it is and occupies a world where the stars don't shine."

Critics and a doctor have dismissed Six's claim that the film was "100 percent medically accurate" as "ludicrous" and "rubbish". Dr John Cameron, speaking to TV3 News in New Zealand, gave an interview about the feasibility of a human centipede, stating how he believed it would be difficult for a join between different people to heal and form a connection, and how the centipede would quickly die from lack of nutrition. John Martin, a former Hollywood film executive and CEO of Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas, said Six's claims of 100 percent medical accuracy should be viewed with reference to the kind of shock gimmicks that film producers had long used to attract attention. Martin compared Six's claims to those of Kroger Babb and William Castle, who had also made "grand promises" about what they were putting on screen, in a bid to lure audiences.

### Accolades

Despite mixed reviews, the film won several awards in 2009 during advance screenings at various international horror film festivals, including Best Picture/Movie at Fantastic Fest (Austin, Texas), Screamfest Horror Film Festival (Los Angeles), and the Sainte Maxime International Horror Film Festival. Laser won Best Actor in the horror category at Fantastic Fest and the film won the award for Best Ensemble Cast at the South African Horrorfest.

## Sequels

When Tom Six began creating the Human Centipede sequels, he envisioned a trilogy that works as a "movie centipede". Each sequel opens with the ending of the previous film, as the events of that film influence said sequel. Although every film works as a standalone movie, they can all be connected to form a single 4.5-hour-long film.

While promoting The Human Centipede, Six stated that he had started work on a sequel to First Sequence, titled The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence). Shooting on a similar budget to the first film, Six stated the sequel would be a much more graphic, disturbing and even "shittier" film; First Sequence being "My Little Pony compared with part two." Yennie stated at the May 2010 Weekend of Horrors that the sequel would contain "the blood and shit" that viewers did not see in the first film. The plot of Full Sequence involved a centipede made from twelve people, featured a largely British cast, and was given the tag-line "100% medically inaccurate".

The plot of Full Sequence involves a man who, after becoming sexually obsessed with a DVD recording of First Sequence, decides to create his own human centipede. The film had been planned for a DVD release in the United Kingdom. However, upon submitting the film to the BBFC for classification, the film was rejected due to content that was "sexually violent and potentially obscene". The BBFC's report criticised the film as making "little attempt to portray any of the victims in the film as anything other than objects to be brutalised, degraded and mutilated for the amusement and arousal of the central character, as well as for the pleasure of the audience," and that the film was potentially in breach of the Obscene Publications Act, meaning its distribution in the UK would be illegal. Bounty Films, the UK distributor, appealed the decision, and the film was eventually passed with an 18 certificate in October 2011. To achieve the 18 rating, thirty-two cuts were made from the film, removing two minutes and thirty-seven seconds from the original version.

The third and final film in the trilogy, The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence), received a limited theatrical release on 22 May 2015. The film features the largest human centipede in the series, composed of five hundred victims, as Six says, "each film is a reaction to the other. And the film got so big, it was a pop culture phenomenon, and people wanted more: a bigger centipede, helicopters and things... it had to be bigger and bigger. And what I did, I used the idea and almost made a parody on the human centipede films itself." As Full Sequence was intended to make First Sequence look like My Little Pony in comparison, Final Sequence was intended to make Full Sequence resemble a Disney film. The movie features the tag-line "100% Politically Incorrect". Both Dieter Laser and Full Sequence star Laurence R. Harvey returned in starring, albeit different, roles.

The Human Centipede (Final Sequence) was nominated for two Golden Raspberry Awards in the categories of "Worst Director" and "Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off, or Sequel", respectively. It was also named the second worst movie of 2015 by Entertainment Weekly and The A.V. Club. In 2016, a compilation film of the entire trilogy titled The Human Centipede (Complete Sequence): The Movie Centipede was released, running a total of 275 minutes.

## Parodies

A number of parodies of the film have been made. A pornographic parody, directed by Lee Roy Myers and titled The Human Sexipede, was released in September 2010. It starred Tom Byron as Heiter, who joined three people mouth-to-genitals. The South Park episode "HUMANCENTiPAD" saw character Kyle Broflovski unwittingly agreeing to become a part of a "Human CENTiPAD" after failing to read the full details of an Apple user license agreement. The website Funny or Die featured a sketch where the freed victims of a human centipede, now separated, but scarred physically and mentally, argue at a survivors' meeting. The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence) actress Bree Olson starred in a parody of the franchise that was directed by Graham Rich.

## Graphic novel

In January 2016, Tom Six revealed on Twitter that production of a graphic novel adaptation of The Human Centipede was underway, along with posting an image of a test printed copy. It was also stated the graphic novel was going to be available in English, Spanish, German, French, and Japanese. The release for the graphic novel was stated to be in 2017, but it wasn't released that year.

On 27 March 2018, Six again posted on Twitter that the graphic novel was ready, and he is seeking a distributor for it. Later in May 2019, in an interview with Bloody Disgusting, Six said that the graphic novel, along with a behind-the-scenes book of the first film, is set to be released on the 10th anniversary of the series, which he reiterated on Twitter.

The story of the graphic novel will feature the events of the first film but it will display things that occurred before, and an epilogue that will shed light on the fate of the character Lindsay.

## Future

Although Tom Six openly stated he viewed The Human Centipede as a trilogy, he told Bloody Disgusting in an interview that if he had to make a fourth installment he did have some ideas. Six said, "If I had to make a fourth one, which I might do in 20 years from now, who knows, it will be about connecting all starving Africans on the African continent done by a charity organization, to solve the hunger problem. Or about aliens connecting the whole human race!"

Tom Six later revealed that he had written a script for a potential spin-off film titled The Human Caterpillar, a reference to a scene from The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence) where sewed prison inmates had their limbs amputated so they resemble a caterpillar. Furthermore, Six stated that the concept of The Human Centipede would appear in future projects in some form.

## See also

- (a similar class of real-world experiments on animals)

2009 Dutch body horror film directed by Tom Six


Red River Trails

The Red River Trails were a network of ox cart routes connecting the Red River Colony (the "Selkirk Settlement") and Fort Garry in British North America with the head of navigation on the Mississippi River in the United States. These trade routes ran from the location of present-day Winnipeg in the Canadian province of Manitoba across the Canada–United States border, and thence by a variety of routes through what is now the eastern part of North Dakota and western and central Minnesota to Mendota and Saint Paul, Minnesota on the Mississippi.

Travellers began to use the trails by the 1820s, with the heaviest use from the 1840s to the early 1870s, when they were superseded by railways. Until then, these cartways provided the most efficient means of transportation between the isolated Red River Colony and the outside world. They gave the Selkirk colonists and their neighbours, the Métis people, an outlet for their furs and a source of supplies other than the Hudson's Bay Company, which was unable to enforce its monopoly in the face of the competition that used the trails.

Free traders, independent of the Hudson's Bay Company and outside its jurisdiction, developed extensive commerce with the United States, making Saint Paul the principal entrepôt and link to the outside world for the Selkirk Settlement. The trade, developed by and along the trails connecting Fort Garry with Saint Paul, stimulated commerce, contributed to the settlement of Minnesota and North Dakota in the United States, and accelerated the settlement of Canada to the west of the rugged barrier known as the Canadian Shield. For a time, this cross-border trade even threatened Canada's control of its western territories. The threat diminished after completion of transcontinental trade routes both north and south of the border, and the transportation corridor through which the trails once ran declined in importance. That corridor has now seen a resurgence of traffic, carried by more modern means of transport than the crude ox carts that once travelled the Red River Trails.

## Origins

In 1812, Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, started a colony of settlers in British North America where the Assiniboine River joins the Red River at the site of modern Winnipeg. Although fur posts were scattered throughout the Canadian northwest, and settlements of Métis fur traders and bison hunters were located in the vicinity of Selkirk's establishment, this colony was the only agricultural settlement between Upper Canada and the Pacific Ocean. Isolated by geology behind the rugged Canadian Shield and many hundreds of miles of wilderness, settlers and their Métis neighbours had access to outside markets and sources of supply only by two laborious water routes.

The first, maintained by the Hudson's Bay Company (in which Lord Selkirk was a principal investor), was a sea route from Great Britain to York Factory on Hudson Bay, then up a chain of rivers and lakes to the colony, 780 miles (1250 km) from salt water to the Assiniboine. The alternative was the historic route of the rival North West Company's voyageurs from Montreal through Lake Huron to Fort William on Lake Superior. Above Superior, this route followed rivers and lakes to Lac la Croix and west along the international border through Lake of the Woods to Rat Portage, and then down the Winnipeg River to the Red. The distance from the Selkirk settlement to Lake Superior at Fort William was about 500 miles (800 km), but Lake Superior was only the start of a lengthy journey to Montreal where furs and supplies would be transshipped to and from Europe.

Neither of these routes was suitable for heavy freight. Lighter cargoes were carried in York boats to Hudson Bay or in canoes on the border route. Both routes required navigation of large and hazardous lakes, shallow and rapid-strewn rivers, and swampy creeks and bogs, connected by numerous portages where both cargo and watercraft had to be carried on men's backs.

But geology also provided an alternate route, albeit across foreign territory. The valleys of the Red and Minnesota Rivers lay in the beds of Glacial Lake Agassiz and its prehistoric outlet Glacial River Warren; the lands exposed when these bodies of water receded were flat plains between low uplands covered by prairie grasslands. At the Traverse Gap, only a mile (1.6  km) of land separated the Bois des Sioux River, a source stream of the Red (which flowed north to Hudson Bay) and the Little Minnesota River, a source stream of the Minnesota River (tributary to the Mississippi, which flowed south to the Gulf of Mexico). The valley floors and uplands of the watercourses along this gently graded route provided a natural thoroughfare to the south. The eyes of the colonists therefore turned to the new United States, both as a source of supplies and an (illegal) outlet for their furs.

## Development of the routes

The rich fur areas along the upper Mississippi, Minnesota, Des Moines, and Missouri Rivers, occupied by Indigenous peoples, were exploited by independent fur traders operating from Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin in the late eighteenth century. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, these traders established fur posts in the Minnesota River valley at Lake Traverse, Big Stone Lake, Lac qui Parle, and Traverse des Sioux. The large fur companies also built posts, including the North West Company's stations at Pembina and St. Joseph in the valley of the Red River. The paths between these posts became parts of the first of the Red River Trails.

In 1815, 1822, and 1823, cattle were herded to the Red River Colony from Missouri by a route up the Des Moines River Valley to the Minnesota River, across the divide, then down the Red River to the Selkirk settlement. In 1819, following a devastating plague of locusts which left the colonists with insufficient seed to plant a crop, an expedition was sent by snowshoe to purchase seed at Prairie du Chien. It returned by flatboat up the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers and down the Red River, arriving back at the settlement in the summer of 1820. In 1821, five dissatisfied settler families left the colony for Fort Snelling, the forerunners of later tides of migration up and down the valley between the two nations. Two years later in 1823, Major Stephen Harriman Long was the first official U.S. representative to reach Pembina; his expedition came by way of the Minnesota and Red Rivers. These early expeditions on the watersheds of these two streams were among the earliest known through trips on the route of the first Red River Trail.

### West Plains Trail

The West Plains Trail had originated with Native Americans, and before the ox cart traffic it connected the fur-trading posts of the Columbia Fur Company. In fact, that company introduced the Red River ox cart to haul its furs and goods. It also developed the trails, and by the early 1830s, an expedition from the Selkirk settlement driving a flock of sheep from Kentucky to the Assiniboine found the trail to be well-marked.

From the Red River Settlement, the trail went south upstream along the Red River's west bank to Pembina, just across the international border. Pembina had been a fur-trading post since the last decade of the eighteenth century. From there, some traffic continued south along the river, but most cart trains went west along the Pembina River to St. Joseph near the border and then south, or else cut the corner to the southwest in order to intercept the southbound trail from St. Joseph. This north-south trail paralleled the Red River about thirty miles (50 km) to the west. By staying on the uplands west of the Red River, this route avoided crossing the tributaries of that river near their confluences with the Red, and also kept out of the swampy, flood-prone, and mosquito-ridden bottomlands in the lakebed of Glacial Lake Agassiz which the river drained.[^1]

In what is now southeastern North Dakota, the trail veered to the south-southeast to close with the Red River at Georgetown, Fort Abercrombie, and Breckenridge, Minnesota, all of which came into existence in consequence of the passing cart traffic. From Breckenridge, the trail continued upstream along the east bank of the Red and Bois des Sioux Rivers to the continental divide at Lake Traverse. Some traffic went along the lakeshore through the Traverse Gap on the continental divide, then down either side of Big Stone Lake, source of the Minnesota River, while other carters took a short cut directly south from the Bois des Sioux across the open prairie through modern Graceville, Minnesota thereby avoiding the wet country in the Traverse Gap.

The trail continued on intertwined routes down both sides of the valley of the Minnesota River past fur posts at Lac qui Parle and downstream locations, and the Upper Sioux and Lower Sioux Indian Agencies and Fort Ridgely, all established in the 1850s. From Fort Ridgely, the trail struck across the open prairie to the Minnesota River at Traverse des Sioux near modern-day St. Peter, Minnesota, where the furs and goods were, at first, usually transshipped to flatboats. In later years, most cart trains crossed to the east bank and proceeded northeast along the wooded river bottoms and uplands to Fort Snelling or Mendota, where the Minnesota River joined the Mississippi. From there furs were shipped down the Mississippi River to Saint Louis and other markets.

Sporadic at first, trade between Fort Garry and the Mississippi became more regular in 1835, when a caravan of traders from the Red River came to Mendota. The efforts of the Hudson's Bay Company to enforce its monopoly only induced the fur traders to avoid the company's jurisdiction by moving across the border to the United States. These included Norman Kittson whose enormous fur-trading and shipping enterprise along the West Plains Trail started with one six-cart train in 1844. In later years, trains consisting of hundreds of ox carts were sent from Kittson's post at Pembina, just inside U.S. territory and safely outside the reach of the Hudson's Bay Company.

Inferior in terrain to other routes, the Woods Trail was superior in safety, as it was well within the lands of the Ojibwa. It was less well used during times of relative calm.

## Commerce

The trails were first used to obtain seed and supplies for the Selkirk colony. They soon became trade routes for local fur traders, and in the 1830s began to be heavily used by American fur traders operating just south of the international border. The Americans acquired furs from Métis fur traders in British North America who were evading the Hudson's Bay Company monopoly on trade within its chartered domain.

The settlement at Fort Garry was isolated and at the end of a 700-mile (1,100 km) water and land route from York Factory, which was served by only one or two ships each year. Orders from Britain had to be placed a year in advance. But from Saint Paul, the settlers could obtain staples and other goods in the span of a single summer. In the face of these relative inconveniences and the economy of shipping over the trails, the Hudson's Bay Company was unable to compel all trade to go by way of York Factory on Hudson Bay, and by 1850 the company's monopoly was broken. In fact, the company itself all but abandoned the York Factory route for heavy trade in 1857, and instead shipped its own traffic in bond through the United States and over the Red River Trails.

The principal export from the Red River settlements was fur, but as the colony passed from a subsistence economy to one producing more than could be consumed locally the agricultural surplus was also sent south by ox cart. The imports were more varied; originally they were seed, spices, and other staples, liquor, tools, implements, and hardware. In midcentury the buffalo herds declined, and traffic in furs began to be replaced by the produce and needs of settlers. As settlement developed the trails became a "common carrier" for all manner of goods that could be carried by ox cart, including lamps and coal oil to burn in them, fine cloth, books, general merchandise, champagne, sheet-metal stoves, disassembled farm machinery and at least one piano, and a printing press and other accoutrements for the first newspaper in the Fort Garry region.

## Life on the trail

The typical carters were Métis descended from French voyageurs of the fur trade and their Ojibway spouses. Their conveyance was the Red River ox cart, a simple vehicle derived either from the two-wheeled charrettes used in French Canada, or from Scottish carts. From 1801 on, this cart was modified so that it was made solely from local materials. It contained no iron at all. Instead it was constructed entirely of wood and animal hide. Two twelve-foot-long parallel oak shafts or "trams" bracketed the draft animal in front and formed the frame of the cart to the rear. Cross-pieces held the floorboards, while front, side and rear boards or rails enclosed the box. These wooden pieces were joined by mortices and tenons. The axle was also made of seasoned oak. It was lashed to the cart by strips of wet bison hide known by its Cree name of shaganappi, which shrank and tightened as they dried. The axles connected two spoked wheels, five or six feet in diameter, which were "dished" or in the form of a shallow cone, the apex of which was at the hubs, which were inboard of the rims. The carts were originally drawn by small horses obtained from the First Nations. After cattle were brought to the colony in the 1820s, oxen were used to haul the carts. They were preferred because of their strength, endurance, and cloven hooves which spread their weight in swampy areas.

The cart, constructed of native materials, could easily be repaired. A supply of shaganappi and wood was carried as a cart could break a half-dozen axles in a one-way trip. The axles were unlubricated, as grease would capture dust which would act as sandpaper and immobilize the cart. The resultant squeal sounded like an untuned violin, giving it the sobriquet of "the North West fiddle". One visitor wrote that "a den of wild beasts cannot be compared with its hideousness". The noise was audible for miles. The carts were completely unsprung, and only their flexible construction cushioned the shocks transmitted from the humps and hollows of the trail.

Southbound, the carts were loaded with fur, packed into the 90-pound (40 kg) bundles known in the fur trade as pièces. A cart could handle up to 800–1,000 pounds (360–450 kg). On their return the traders carried staples, trade goods, and manufactured goods unavailable at Fort Garry. In both directions, the cargo was covered with hide or canvas. The carts were lashed together in brigades of ten carts, with three drivers and an overseer. These brigades could join in trains up to two miles (three km) in length. Carts numbering in the low hundreds annually used the trails in the 1840s, many hundreds in the 1850s, and thousands in the late 1860s. These cart trains travelled about two miles (three km) an hour, and about twenty miles (thirty km) in a day.

After breaking camp in the morning, the carters set out across the prairie; transits of the unprotected open prairie between places of refuge were known as traverses''. Streams often had to be forded; where the water was too deep, the carts were unloaded, the wheels were taken off and lashed together or affixed under the cart, the assemblage was covered with hide to form a hull, and the makeshift craft was reloaded and floated across. The traders endeavoured to ford a stream at the end of the day rather than start the next day with the crossing, to allow time to dry out overnight.

Streamside camps offered wood, water, and some protection from the hazards of open land. The prairie could be dangerous in time of native unrest, and trade ceased entirely for a time during the Dakota War of 1862. Prairie fires, driven by winds, were a risk in dry spells. Wet weather turned rivers into torrents, approaches to streams into bogs, and worn paths into morasses. Blizzards could strand traders and threaten them with starvation. Insects harassed both the traders and their draft animals, depriving them of sleep and weakening them.

There were compensations. Game was plentiful and the traders rarely lacked fresh meat. Some saw in the seemingly boundless prairies a colourful ocean of grass, and summer storms could be awe-inspiring, although dangerous. While the prairie had its own grandeur, after weeks of travel over treeless steppe the rivers, lakes, and woods of central Minnesota were a welcome relief.

After six or so weeks on the trail, the brigades reached Saint Paul. There the carters camped on the bluff above the town growing on the riverfront. Not all was harmonious. To the locals, the swarthy-complected carters up on the hill had a "devil-may-care" aspect, with their "curious commingling of civilized garments and barbaric adornments". One trader from the north called his host city "a wretched little village" where "drinking whisky seems to occupy at least half the time of the worth[y] citizens", while the rest were "employed in cheating each other or imposing upon strangers. The economic benefits of trade, and the separation of the carters' camp from the village below, may have helped keep relations civil. After about three weeks of trading, the "wild" carters from the north, now laden with goods, took their leave of the "den of blackguards" that was Saint Paul, returning to what they felt was a more civilized world. Their erstwhile hosts, on the other hand, thought their visitors were returning to an uncivilized and frozen wilderness.

## End of the trails

At times, some ox cart trains did not go all the way through, but were supplemented by river craft. First flatboats and then shallow-draft steamboats ascended the Minnesota River to Traverse des Sioux and upstream points, where they were met by cart brigades travelling the West Plains Trail. In 1851, weekly steamboat service on the Mississippi began between Saint Anthony Falls and Sauk Rapids on the Middle and Woods trails. In 1859, steamboat machinery was carried overland to the Red River where a boat was built, but service was intermittent. The Dakota War of 1862 and the American Civil War delayed further improvements.

After the Civil War, the age of steam came to the region. After Ojibwe title to the Red River Valley had been extinguished on the United States side of the Canada–United States border by the Treaty of Old Crossing in 1863, steamboat service was revived on the Red River, and railways were built west from Saint Paul and Duluth, Minnesota on Lake Superior. A branch of the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad reached St. Cloud in 1866. Its mainline reached Willmar in 1869 and Benson, Minnesota the following year. Each end-of-track town in its turn became the terminus for many of the cart trains. In 1871, the railway reached the Red River at Breckenridge, where revived steamboat service carried the traffic the rest of way to Fort Garry. The long trains of carts drawn by oxen were replaced by railway trains powered by steam, and the trails reverted to nature.

A few traces of the vanished trails still exist. Some local roads follow their routes; depressions in the landscape show where thousands of carts once passed, and even after a century and a half of winters and springs freezing and thawing the land, there are still places where soils remain compacted and resistant to the plow. Some of these subtle artifacts are marked or are visible to those with discerning eyes, but in most places the trails have been obliterated. Their locations are noted at parks and wayside signs, and trail locations near Baxter, St. Hilaire, and West Union, Minnesota are recognised on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

## Significance

The Red River Trails are less well known today than many other pioneer trails and trade routes in North America, and do not occupy as large a place in folklore as the great western trails in the United States and the fur-trading canoe routes of Canada. They were neither fought over nor the locus of battles (with the exception of the Dakota War of 1862), and although hazardous at times, other trails presented greater dangers. It may be that this relative lack of attention is due to the fact they did not lead to annexation of any territory to either of the nations in which the trails were located.

The trails nevertheless were instrumental in the development of central North America. Traffic over the West Plains Trail sustained the Selkirk Settlement in its early years. The trails also gave settlers of that colony and their Métis neighbours a route for migration as well as a highway for trade that was not dependent on the Hudson's Bay Company. As usage grew, old fur trading posts became settlements and new communities were established along the cart routes. The trails pioneered by the fur brigades accelerated development of Minnesota and North Dakota, and facilitated settlement of the Canadian northwest.

The trails had profound political effects during a time of Anglo-American tension. Both Britain and the U.S. were concerned about each other's cross-border influences. Born out of commercial needs and located by the dictates of geography, the trails helped create and contribute to these international influences and the tensions which resulted. The United States sent military expeditions along the route of the trails to assert national interests in the face of the continued British presence in the northwestern fur posts on soil which the U.S. claimed. The Americans were also concerned about the establishment of Lord Selkirk's colony as well as British claims to the Red River Valley. Finally the U.S. wanted to curtail Britain's attempts to get access to the Mississippi, access implicit in the Treaty of Paris ending the American War of Independence, and which Britain sought into the nineteenth century. The United States' assertion of dominion over its new territories parried and reversed the British domination of the fur trade in the upper Mississippi valley, which had continued for decades after the Revolutionary War settlement which had assigned those territories to the new nation.

Later, the economic dependence of the Selkirk Settlement and the Canadian northwest on the Red River trade routes to U.S. markets came to pose a threat to British and Canadian control of their territory. At a time when a sense of Canadian nationality was tenuous in the northwest, that region relied on the Red River Trails and its successor steamboat and rail lines as an outlet for its products and a source of supplies. An active Manifest Destiny faction in Minnesota sought to exploit these commercial ties as a means of acquiring northwestern Canada for the United States. This pressure prompted Canada to take over the Hudson's Bay Company territory in return for monetary and land compensation. It contributed to Canadian Confederation and the establishment of Manitoba. It also led to the decision that there should be an all-Canada route for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Not until completion of that line in 1885 did Manitoba and the northwest finally have reliable and efficient access to eastern Canada by a route located entirely on Canadian soil.

Today, the international border is firmly established and peaceful; there is a greater sense of Canadian nationality, and fears of U.S. Manifest Destiny have all but disappeared. Canada and the U.S. have formalized their trading partnership with the North American Free Trade Agreement, leading to increased trade between the two nations. This trade now coursing up and down the valleys of the Red and Mississippi rivers more than fulfils Lord Selkirk's predictions made nearly two centuries ago; while he first sought access over U.S. territory for the succour of his nascent colony, now commerce in manufactures and commodities goes in both directions. The trade corridor once occupied by the long-gone Red River Trails continues to be employed for its historic purposes.

## See also

- Pembina Trail on the Canadian portion of the trails
- Carlton Trail
- History of Winnipeg
- Territorial era of Minnesota

[^1]: Hess, '' (1989), p. E–3; Gilman, Red River Trails (1979), p. 38.

Network of trails connecting the Red River Colony and Fort Garry in British North America

Historic trails and roads in North Dakota

Historic trails and roads in South Dakota

National Register of Historic Places in Crow Wing County, Minnesota

National Register of Historic Places in Pennington County, Minnesota

National Register of Historic Places in Todd County, Minnesota

Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota