Three innocent-looking photographs are placed in a box. When
the box is next opened, not only are the photographs smeared
with blood, but they are now accompanied by three bloody teeth.
The story: This old box tells quite a tale. It seems that one
Joseph Hothingbottom was a traveling dentist around the turn of
the twentieth century. He went from city to city in central and
southern Ohio, treating patients with the standard filling and
extraction of teeth.
In the fall of 1901, the State Dental Board received a number of
complaints regarding Doctor Hothingbottom’s services, or lack
thereof. The board investigated, finding among the doctor’s
supplies and equipment this box, which they opened with great
interest. Disappointingly, all they found were a few photographs,
which Hothingbottom quickly identified as patients with
outstanding unpaid accounts. The board left after reprimanding
the doctor and warning him to work on his patient relations skills.
A few weeks later, there was a brutal murder in Columbus, Ohio,
noteworthy because the victim had suffered a wicked tooth
extraction just prior to his death. Two days later, Springfield, Ohio
was the scene of another murder with the same characteristics,
and within 36 hours of that killing, a woman in Cincinnati was also
butchered, once again suffering from a tooth being ripped from
her gums. The press immediately dubbed the killer “The Tooth
Fairie.”
By chance, one of the State Dental Board members was reading
in his newspaper an account of the three obviously related
murders and remembered his encounter with Doctor
Hothingbottom. He reluctantly contacted law enforcement
personnel and related his experience with the good doctor.
The police immediately descended on Hothingbottom’s office with
a warrant to search for this box. They found it, along with this pair
of bloody dental forceps, hidden in the bottom of a hamper full of
soiled dental towels and smocks. When they opened the box,
they were repulsed by its worrisome contents: blood-smeared
photographs of the three murder victims, and most disturbing of
all, three bloody teeth.
Little doubt as to the identity of the Tooth Fairie.
What you receive:
Seven photo cards: three of patients, three of the same patients,
each smeared with blood, and one of the dentist
Three bloody teeth
One pair of blood-smeared dental forceps
One special box with a flap
One instruction booklet, printed on parchment-like paper,
complete with suggested patter