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On a frigid night during one of the coldest winters in Londons history, a young poet named Sylvia Plath lay down in front of the oven and turned on the gas. Since then, Sylvia Plaths death and her morbid novel and collections of poems have captivated generations of readers.A gifted writer from a young age, Plath started writing and publishing poems before she even reached her teens. She attended Smith College, won a guest editorship at Mademoiselle magazine, and was awarded a Fulbright Grant to study at Cambridge in London. But beneath Plaths sterling literary credentials, she struggled with severe mental health issues.Bettmann/Getty ImagesSylvia Plath was just 30 years old when she died by suicide in London.Indeed, Plaths inner struggles seemed intertwined with her prolific prose. While rising through the literary ranks, Plath also suffered from severe depression that resulted in psychiatric care and suicide attempts.By the time Sylvia Plath died in 1963, both her mental health and her literary career had reached a nadir. Plaths husband, Ted Hughes, had left her for another woman leaving Plath to care for their two children and Plath had received a number of rejections for her novel, The Bell Jar.This is the tragic story of Sylvia Plaths death, and how the young and talented poet died by suicide at the age of 30.The Rise Of A Literary StarBorn on Oct. 27, 1932, in Boston, Massachusetts, Sylvia Plath showed literary promise at a young age. Plath published her first poem, Poem, in the Boston Herald when she was just nine years old. More poetry publications followed, and an IQ test Plath took at the age of 12 determined that she was a certified genius with a score of 160.But Plaths early life was marred by tragedy, too. When she was eight years old, her father Otto died from diabetes. Plath had a complicated relationship with her strict father which she later explored in her poem Daddy, writing: I have always been scared of you, / With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygook.Smith College/Mortimer Rare Book RoomSylvia Plath and her parents, Aurelia and Otto.And as Plath grew up, her literary gifts and inner darkness seemed to play dueling roles. While attending Smith College, Plath won a prestigious guest editorship at Mademoiselle magazine. She moved to New York City for the summer of 1953, but described her experience working and living in the city as pain, parties, work according to The Guardian.Indeed, Plaths inner struggles had begun to intensify. The New York Times reports that Plath had a mental breakdown following a rejection from a Harvard writing program, which the Poetry Foundation writes led the poet to attempt suicide at the age of 20 in August 1953. She then received electroshock therapy as treatment.It is as if my life were magically run by two electric currents: joyous positive and despairing negativewhichever is running at the moment dominates my life, floods it, Plate later wrote, according to the Poetry Foundation. Yet despite her struggles, Plath continued to excel. She won a Fulbright scholarship and moved to London to study at Cambridge University. And, there, Plath met her future husband, Ted Hughes, at a party in February 1956. During their intense initial encounter, Plath bit Hughes cheek, drawing blood. Hughes later wrote of the swelling ring-moat of tooth marks/That was to brand my face for the next month/The me beneath it for good.SothebysSylvia Plath and her husband, Ted Hughes, had an intense and tumultuous relationship.It is as if he is the perfect male counterpart to my own self, Plath wrote. To her mother, she added that Hughes was: the only man Ive met yet here whod be strong enough to be equal with such is life, according to the Washington Post.But though they married after just four months and had two children together, Frieda and Nicholas, Plath and Hughess relationship swiftly soured.Inside Sylvia Plaths Death In LondonSmith CollegeSylvia Plath showed literary promise from a young age but also struggled with depressive episodes.By the time Sylvia Plath died in February 1963, her marriage to Ted Hughes had crumbled. He had left Plath for his mistress, Assia Wevill, leaving her to care for their two young children during one of the coldest winters in London since 1740.But Hughes betrayal was just one of many of Plaths problems. Not only was she dealing with relentless flu, but multiple American publishers had sent rejections for Plaths novel, The Bell Jar, which was a fictionalized account of her time in New York and subsequent mental breakdown.To be quite honest with you, we didnt feel that you had managed to use your materials successfully in a novelistic way, an editor from Alfred A. Knopf wrote, according to The New York Times.Another wrote: With [the protagonists] breakdown, however, the story for us ceases to be a novel and becomes more a case history.Plaths friends could tell something was off. As Plaths friend and fellow writer Jillian Becker wrote for BBC, Plath was feeling low. Visiting Jillian and her husband, Gerry, on the weekend before she died, Plath expressed her bitterness, jealousy, and anger about her husbands affair.When Gerry drove Plath and her children home on Sunday night, she started to cry. Gerry Becker pulled over and tried to comfort her, even insisting that she and the children return to their home, but Plath refused.No, this is nonsense, take no notice, Plath said, per Beckers book Giving Up: The Last Days of Sylvia Plath. I have to get home.The next morning, Feb. 11, 1963, Plath got up at around seven a.m. and tended to her children. She left them milk, bread, and butter so that theyd have something to eat when they woke up, put extra blankets in their room, and carefully taped the edges of their door.Then, Plath went into the kitchen, turned on the gas, and lay down on the floor. Carbon monoxide filled the room. Before long, Sylvia Plath had died. She was only 30 years old.Her family, ashamed of her suicide, reported that shed died of virus pneumonia.Sylvia Plaths Enduring LegacyTed Hughes later wrote of hearing the news of Plaths death: Then a voice like a selected weapon/ Or a measured injection,/ Coolly delivered its four words/ Deep into my ear: Your wife is dead.'Indiana University BloomingtonSylvia Plath died at the age of 30 in 1963 but her literary legacy has endured.But though Sylvia Plath died on that frosty February morning in London, her literary legacy had just begun to bloom.While the Bell Jar had been published in the United Kingdom under a pseudonym shortly before her death, it would not be published in the United States until 1971. And during the darkest days of her depression, Plath had produced a number of poems that would make up her posthumous collection, Ariel, which published in 1965. Plath was also awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1982. Today, she is considered one of the greatest female American poets of the 20th century. Her legacy has not been without controversy, however. After Sylvia Plaths death, her husband assumed control of her estate. According to History Extra, he later admitted to destroying parts of her journal. And Plaths history of depression was apparently inherited by her son Nicholas, who died by suicide at the age of 47 in 2009.Today, Sylvia Plath is remembered in two ways. Certainly, shes remembered for her prolific creative output, which resulted in such works as The Bell Jar and Ariel. But Sylvia Plaths death informs her legacy as well. Her despair, suicide, and bitter poems from that era are part of her larger legacy. The writer A. Alvarez wrote that Plath made poetry and death inseparable. As the poet herself wrote in her poem Lady Lazarus:Dying/ Is an art, like everything else/ I do it exceptionally well/ I do it so it feels like hell.After reading about Sylvia Plaths death, go inside the shocking suicide of Virginia Woolf. Or, read about the tragic suicide of Kurt Cobain, the Nirvana frontman who died at the age of 27.The post The Haunting Story Of How Sylvia Plath Died And The Tragic Events That Led Up To It appeared first on All That's Interesting.

In 1992, 19-year-old Fabienne Witherspoon was walking to a friends apartment in Charleston, West Virginia when she came across a disheveled man under an overpass holding a sign that read I will work for food. The man showed her a picture of his wife and kids, and, feeling sorry for him, Witherspoon invited him home with her so she could give him some food.But once they got inside, the man grabbed a knife, locked them in, and attempted to rape her. Witherspoons survival instincts kicked in. She hit him over the head, grabbed the knife, and stabbed him repeatedly before he finally managed to smash a piano stool over her head, knocking her out.The next thing she knew, she was waking up in the hospital, having just received surgery for a severe head wound and hand laceration. Her attacker was in the ICU and under police custody. Witherspoon had nicked his liver and kidneys and sliced his testicle.Wikimedia CommonsTommy Lynn Sells, the Coast to Coast Killer, is responsible for as many as over 70 murders across the country.I just wanted to get away, and I didnt realize I had stabbed him, Witherspoon told 20/20. It was very, very, very hard to know that I had the capability of hurting someone like that I always felt if something like that ever happened to me I would just I would faint and die. I would not fight. But I found out that I was somebody different.What she didnt know at the time was that she had just survived an attack by a serial killer.Kanawha County Prosecutors OfficeNineteen-year-old Fabienne Witherspoon is one of only two known survivors of serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells.Tommy Lynn Sells was already an experienced killer by the time Witherspoon met him. And after he served five years in prison for malicious wounding following her attack, he would go on to kill many more.The Early Life Of Tommy Lynn SellsTommy Lynn Sells undoubtedly had a rough upbringing. He was born in Oakland, California on June 28, 1964, one of seven kids to a single mom. He and his twin sister Tammy Lee contracted spinal meningitis at just 18 months old. Tammy died, but Tommy survived. According to the Office of the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney, at age seven, Sells was drinking alcohol from his grandfathers stash. By eight, he had a relationship with an adult man who Sells said molested him at the encouragement of his mother. And by 10, he was smoking marijuana.Three years later, when Sells was 13, he crawled naked into his sleeping grandmothers bed, leading his horrified family to allegedly leave him for good at their Missouri home without saying goodbye. Sells was left to fend for himself. Enraged over this abandonment, Sells soon embarked on a cross-country crime spree that would span more than 20 years.The first time I did a shot of dope, it was the best feeling I ever had in my life. The first time I killed somebody, it was such a rush, Sells would later tell ABC News. It was just like that, a shot of dope every time I did it, it was that rush again. And I started chasing that high.The Many Murders Of Tommy Lynn SellsFor more than two decades, Tommy Lynn Sells travelled across the country, taking odd jobs, indulging in various substances, and committing heinous crimes along the way. He took to calling himself the Coast to Coast Killer.In the end, Sells was only convicted of two murders. But he confessed to dozens more, and police believe he committed a total of 22. Sells claimed he was responsible for over 70. ZUMA Press Inc / Alamy Stock PhotoTommy Lynn Sells was convicted of only two murders out of the over 70 he claims he committed.According to the Associated Press, retired Texas Ranger John Allen said, We did confirm 22 I know theres more. I know theres a lot more. Obviously, we wont ever know.Here are a few of the murders police can confidently link to Sells.The CordtsIn July 1985, Tommy Lynn Sells was working at a carnival in Missouri, where he met Ena Cordt and her 4-year-old son Rory. According to Sells, Ena invited him back to her house, where they had sex. Sells claims when he woke up, Ena was attempting to steal from his backpack. He then beat her to death with her sons baseball bat and killed Rory, too, as he would be a potential witness. The bodies of Ena and Rory Cordt were found three days later, after Sells had left town.Suzanne KorczIn May 1987, Suzanne Korcz disappeared after leaving a bar in Rockport, New York, alone. Her body was found near Niagara Falls eight years later. Sells confessed to the murder in 2004, according to research by Radford University.Stefanie Kelly StrohIn October 1987, 21-year-old Stefanie Kelly Stroh was last seen hitchhiking through Nevada. Sells said he picked her up and offered her a ride to Reno. According to Sells, he strangled her and dumped her body in a hot spring. Her body was never found.Joel KirkpatrickIn October 1997 in Lawrenceville, Illinois, 10-year-old Joel Kirkpatrick was stabbed to death in his bedroom while he was asleep. His mother, Julie Rea-Harper, said she ran to her sons bedroom and found a man wearing a ski mask. She fought him off, and the man fled, leaving a steak knife from the kitchen on the floor outside Joels bedroom.But authorities didnt buy Rea-Harpers story at first. There were no signs of the struggle she described, or of forced entry into the house. They named her as the primary suspect, and in 2000, she was charged with first-degree murder. Prosecutors argued that Joel was the center of a bitter custody battle between Rea-Harper and her ex-husband. While the case against her was almost entirely circumstantial, she was convicted of the murder and sentenced to 65 years in prison.University of Illinois SpringfieldJoel Kirkpatrick with his mother, Julie Rea-Harper, who was originally convicted of his murder before being exonerated by Sells confession.By the time Rea-Harper was convicted, Tommy Lynn Sells was already on death row for another murder. Diane Fanning, a true-crime writer working on a book about Sells, wrote to him in prison. To her surprise, he wrote back with details about the crime he couldnt have known unless hed been there. Fanning brought the letter to a Texas Ranger who had worked on the Sells case, and in 2003, authorities interviewed Sells about Joel Kirkpatrick. He confessed to the murder, corroborating details of Rea-Harpers story. Rea-Harpers conviction was overturned after shed spent two years in prison. Prosecutors attempted to retry the case against her, but her defense showed Sells taped confession in court, and she was found not guilty.Sells was never formally charged with Joel Kirkpatrick murder.The Dardeen FamilyIn November 1987, Tommy Lynn Sells was invited into the Ina, Illinois home of the Dardeen family after befriending the father, Russell Keith Dardeen. There, he committed perhaps his most heinous murder. After killing Russell, he raped Russells wife Ruby Elaine and beat their three-year-old son Peter to death with a bat. Tragically, Ruby Elaine was seven months pregnant at the time of the murders. Sells bludgeoned her so brutally that she gave birth during the attack. After she was dead, Sells turned to the newborn baby girl and beat her to death, too. Mary Beatrice PerezOn April 18, 1999, 9-year-old Mary Beatrice Perez was kidnapped from the annual Fiesta festival in San Antonio, Texas. A week later, police found her body in a creek. She had been raped and strangled to death with her T-shirt.Tommy Lynn Sells pleaded guilty to Perezs murder in 2003 and was given an additional life sentence on top of his previous death sentence.Kaylene Katy Harris, The Murder That Sent Tommy Lynn Sells To Death RowCourtesy of the Surles Family, via CBS NewsTen-year-old Krystal Surles recovers at a hospital in San Antonio after having her throat slashed by Tommy Lynn Sells.On Dec. 31, 1999, in Del Rio, Texas, Tommy Lynn Sells brutally murdered 13-year-old Kaylene Katy Harris in her trailer home. He broke in, sexually assaulted her, sliced her throat, and stabbed her 16 times.Sells had befriended the Harris family after meeting them at a local church, and had visited their trailer home several times; he had known Katys father would be conveniently out of town that night.What he hadnt realized was that Katys friend, 10-year-old Krystal Surles, would be at the Harris home for a sleepover that night, sleeping in the top bunk above Katy. When Sells realized she was there, he turned on her and sliced her throat, too but Krystal survived.He reached over and cut my throat, Krystal said, according to Crime Library. I just lay there and pretended I was dead. If he knew I was alive, he would come back and kill me for sure.Sells left, thinking both girls were dead. Krystal got up and walked a quarter of a mile with a severed trachea to a neighbors house to get help. She was flown to a San Antonio hospital and rushed into surgery.While Krystal Surles injuries were severe, she recovered well and soon helped police create a sketch of Sells to be distributed to family and friends. Sells was identified and quickly arrested.It took just 10 minutes for Sells to uproot our family, Terry Harris, Katys father, told The Kansas City Star, as reported by Crime Library. He stole our daughters accomplishments, every birthday, every holiday It eats me up that I tried to help Tommy. I talked with him. He was a guy down on his luck that I tried to help. He repaid me by killing my daughter.Texas RangersKrystal Surles helped a forensic artist create the sketch that would identify Sells as her attacker.Tommy Lynn Sells Conviction And Death SentenceIn 2000, a jury convicted Tommy Lynn Sells of the murder of Katy Harris and sentenced him to execution in Texas. His reign of terror was finally at an end.Soon after, he pleaded guilty to the 1999 murder of Mary Beatrice Perez, receiving an additional life sentence. He also confessed to dozens of other crimes, though many of the murders he confessed to were never officially linked to Sells or even confirmed to have happened.Sells was executed by lethal injection at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville on April 3, 2014. Krystal Surles attended his execution, along with members of the Harris and Perez families.While Sells declined to make a final statement, his feelings about his crimes were made in clear in an interview with ABC News in 2010.I am hatred. When you look at me, you look at hate, he said. I dont know what love is. Two words I dont like to use is love and sorry, because Im about hate.After reading about Tommy Lynn Sells reign of terror, read about the true stories behind some of historys worst serial killers. Or, read some of the most chilling quotes from serial killers.The post The Disturbing Story Of Tommy Lynn Sells, The Sexual Psychopath Who May Have Killed 70 People appeared first on All That's Interesting.

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