By, R. D. (1993, May 21). Body of boy found in bag with garbage. New York Times (1923-Current File) Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/109074379?accountid=14902
This New York Times article is a newspaper search for trash bag. In many searches in the WSU database for “trash bag” there are many results that relate to death. Whether it is about killing our environment with all of the waste that humans are producing every day, or finding dead bodies in trash bags. Articles that are referring to dead bodies in trash bags are usually written in a factual sense but it is still relevant to a cultural sense because it is the world around us and how people try dispose of the bodies. Culture has gotten use to the idea that they can dispose of a dead body in a trash bag, or trash can and seem to get away with the murder. In fact there is actually a serial killer that can be known as the “Trash-Bag Killer” because of his repetitive actions of disposing his victims in trash bags. Will trash bags always be connected with dead bodies?
This newspaper article relates to other sources that I have seen only because it relates to death. In my search for trash bags in history, one source included the Bubonic Plague and how the lack of a proper trash disposal system and methods for cities was the main cause for it. Another newspaper search included a result that was about a women dying because of a trash bag, however she wasn’t suffocated because of a trash bag.
Following this article I will try and find when the first recorded dead body that was discovered in a trash bag and why people think we dispose of dead bodies in trash bags. Is it because we see the people as trash or filth? Or are simply finding an easy way to hide what we did?
English 298 