The AFU and Urban Legend Archive
Medical
Organ Theft
 gland thieves




From: lrudolph@panix.com (Lee Rudolph)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Harvesting Rumors
Date: 19 Feb 1997 13:35:06 -0500

bradham@panix.com (Bo Bradham) writes:

>Of course not. In fact, you may not have noticed (I almost didn't
>myself) but this is a new mutant strain:
>
>They're after testicles now.

Yep, Mr. Statman's forwarded Texas Travel Agency warning ends:

:This is not a scam or out of a science fiction novel, it is real. It is
:documented and confirmable. Its believed that wealthy Asians are
:targeting Mexicans in order to attain their sexual prowess. If you
:travel or someone close to you travels, please be careful.

And that's true: it's not out of a science fiction novel, it's out of a satire on Hollywood, "Cin\'e-Ville", written in Spanish by Ram\'on G\'omez de la Serna and translated into French by Marcelle Auclair, away back when, in 1928. (Which is not to say that tales of testicle theft might not have had a folk existence before G. de la S. wrote one down.) Here is my off-the-cuff translation of Auclair (I haven't been able to find a copy of the original).

The crimes in Cine-ville are fantastic. Thus, one often sees gland thefts, committed by _gland thieves_.

The _gland thieves_, voracious [I am not making this up], impassive, with no idea of their duties as children of their surroundings and their century, share our epoch's passion for glands, particularly for those that are difficult to extract.

To the gland thieves, every man is rich, powerful, and carries his fortune with him. The poorest man, if he is still young, has the fabulous capital of his glands, neither metallic nor diamantine, white, raw, compact flesh.

The gland thieves operate in the parks around Cine-ville; they leave their victims good-for-nothing, suddenly tamed, with a painful wound and deprived of the purse with two priceless coins.

In secret nooks, with the help of rapid management by the gland thieves, old men recover their youth and pay for it with gold.

Good sighting, Statman. That's no "new mutant strain", that's the grandpappy of them all.

Lee "IHNB^WJ, IJLS `the purse with two priceless coins'" Rudolph

Legman has this to say about Cine-ville:

From: lrudolph@panix.com (Lee Rudolph)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Las Vegas and Missing Kidneys
Date: 1 Apr 1996 17:12:10 -0500

Unable to wait for the facts to catch up with castratory fantasy, the Spanish journalist, Ram\'on G\'omez de la Serna, in his _Cin\'e-ville_ (French translation, Paris, 1928), a fake expos\'e of a purely mythical Hollywood of the sex-orgy period, includes a hilarious hoax, p. 177 ff., concerning `gland stealers' in Los Angeles parks, for the supplying of human transplant-organs for rejuvenation operations on aging movie stars. (G. Legman, _Rationale_ of_the_Dirty_Joke_, Second Series)

Lee "new glands for an old tale" Rudolph


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