Bomber's Head
Dave Kappl
WSU has about 19 miles of steam tunnels under the campus.
These tunnels were there to keep the ice off the streets and
sidewalks in the winter months. They also contained phone
lines, cable, net, and power. For this reason, the steam
tunnels were off limits to anyone but maintenance because
of the instance for vandalism and possible injury. These
tunnels also had entrances to some of the oldest buildings
on campus. If you were caught in the steam tunnels, you
were expelled.
I met this guy (Doug) that lived across the hall from me
that had lived in the dorm (9th floor Orton Hall) the previous
two years. He said that the year prior, he, two of his friends,
and a guy named Bomber found themselves partying pretty hard one
night and decided to go exploring the steam tunnels. Bomber
apparently had planned on doing this for some time because he
knew of an entrance that was not locked. How he found the entrance,
Doug did not know. It was a grate under a bush that would have
been extremely hard to locate if you did not know where to look.
After decending, there was a light switch about every 100 feet
or so that would turn on lights just in the 100 feet between
the switches. Doug said this was pretty scary because one
guy had to be 100 feet in front and the last guy had to be
100 feet behind to turn the lights off after the others had passed.
They came upon several entrances to buildings that were
obviously locked, but after about an hour they found one
that was open.
When they entered, they did not know what building it was
until they found two cadavers, a fore arm with the skin
pulled away floating in a try of solution, and a head floating
in a tupperware cake container full of formalihyde. This was
Merill Hall - the premed lab. Needless to say, this scared
the hell out of them and they took off running back into the
steam tunnel and back to the dorm.
After getting back to Doug's room, Bomber pulled out a
microscope he had took from the lab on the way out. After a
couple more beers, Bomber kept suggesting that they go back
to the lab - for the head. Doug said he entertained the
thought for about 5 seconds and said no way. The other two
of his friends reluctantly agreed to return with Bomber.
The next day, Doug got in touch with his friends and they
had stories of putting the cadavers in sexual positions for
the staff to find, and they did admit to taking the head.
Doug said he didn't believe a word they said but, after visiting
Bomber's room he was a believer. He said that Bomber had the
tupperware cake container on his desk, and when he broke the
seal he saw a glimpse of old leathery skin and matted hair.
The smell of the formaldehyde almost made him puke.
Several days later, everyone in the dorm knew Bomber had the head.
He was charging a buck for people to take a peek and the news
was spreading like wild fire. Doug said at one point, there
were people lined up at Bomber's room waiting for their turn to look.
The police finally got wind of it and approached one of Doug's
friends that went with Bomber. This friend denied they had
touched any cadavers or had taken the head. The police had
several witnesses to actually seeing the head in Bomber's room
so they knew the guy was lying.
This friend managed to get to Bomber before the cops did and
informed him that the cops were hot on his trail, so Bomber
grabbed the tupperware container, drove to a field and threw it.
When the police finally apprehended Bomber, he denied ever
going back to Merill Hall and taking the head. He said that
it was an old teetherball ball with a wig on it floating in a
preservative he got from the bio lab. When the police asked
to see it, he admitted to getting rid of it in a field.
The cops did not believe his story, there were too many people
that claimed to have seen it. They insisted Bomber take them
out to this field were he ditched the head. He did. They
found the tupperware container and had to some looking for
the head because it must have rolled on impact.
They finally found the head and it was indeed a
teatherball wearing a wig. Everyone that looked at
it never really looked at it that close because it gave
them the creeps so bad! There's one born every minute.
Bomber was the only that got into trouble. He was arrested
for stealing the microscope and got a few months probation.
I told this story many times to new freshman, but I'd
always leave off the part about the teatherball and the wig!
There is evidence of this story even today. In both
elevators in Orton Hall just below the floor number 9,
the word "Headhunter" is scratched in the brushed metal.
Dave