The Organ Donor

A series of bizarre murders are occurring in Arkham. Unusually, each victim has received donations of organs from the body of a Catholic man – and every single murder victim has the relevant body parts extracted – eyes, heart, bone marrow, whatever they received from the dead man. It may be that this man is not as dead as he seems, and is seeking a complete body, in order to enter heaven.

Possibilities

1 The murders are committed by the dead man himself, who has returned as a zombie-like revenant who seeks to reconstruct his own body after his wife went against his wishes by donating his organs.

2 The donor was not as good a Catholic as was suggested. He was a sorcerer, and his knowledge is much desired by another sorcerer who can resurrect the dead, as in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. However, to avoid getting “the liveliest awfulness” of his victim, he requires all his body parts and has set out to regain every single one.

3 The murders are committed by the donor’s wife. A medium has contacted the victim in the spirit world, where his ghost is trapped because he lacks his complete body. To reassemble the corpse, his wife is stealing the organs from their recipients.

Inspired by the story Donor, from the X-Files comics.

© James David Beard