J.P. Orville Butcher was born on October 17th, 1974 to a small family located deep inside the dilapidated farm country of Jordan, Minnesota. His father was a quiet man employed as a butcher at the nearby Portsmouth Slaughterhouse while his mother was bedridden due to suffering from severe psychosis, or at least that's what the townspeople were told. It was not until many years later after the birth that the public, or anyone else, found out the couple had given birth to a baby boy.

          When rumors started that the odd couple living in the broken-down farmhouse on Highway 17 had a child in their house, people started questioning how the mother could care for the child while the father was working long hours at the slaughterhouse. In October of 1993, nineteen years after the birth, the truth to the rumors began to unfold when local townspeople began reporting sightings of a strange man committing questionable and unsavory acts during the cool autumn nights. One farmer told police he was plowing the north-east corner of his corn-field when he noticed a strange looking young man crouched in a nearby Oak tree gnawing on what appeared to be the leg of a dog. The farmer grabbed his rifle behind the seat but when he turned to fire, the strange man was gone. The next morning, Sheriff John Antern discovered the mutilated remains of a stray dog near the field. Teeth marks found embedded in the remaining bones and the missing right leg seemed to confirm the farmers eerie story.

         Ms. Carrie-Ann Merrin reported another incident on October 31, 1993. She told authorities she had stayed up late to enjoy an all-night horror marathon that was airing to celebrate Halloween. She thought she heard sounds coming from the large living-room window behind her but kept insisting to herself that the films were just making her jumpy. She soon fell asleep and was awakened around 2:00 A.M. by a loud thump outside the nearby window. This time she knew there was something outside and reluctantly peeked over the couch to see what, or who, was outside her window at such an early hour. At first she saw nothing except the blackness of the night because her eyes were attempting to focus through the large pane of glass. All at once her eyes snapped into focus and she saw a man with large, crazed, eyes transfixed on the television using a rusty meat cleaver to methodically and randomly slash through his own flesh. She later told police that he must have been there all night mutilating himself due to the amount of blood everywhere (some dried and coagulated) and the wounds she had reported would've taken hours to inflict. She also told police that the strange man didn't even seem to notice when she started screaming and backing into the nearby bedroom to call for help. He just stood there staring with a blank face at the television while bleeding down the side of her house. The next morning they found a large amount of dried blood, feces and tangled hair outside the window.

          After this second incident, the rumors that had started over 19 years earlier suddenly sprang back to life. Perhaps there was someone, or something, more than the townspeople had originally thought, living inside the decaying farmhouse on Highway 17. Both incidents occurred within a mile of the farmhouse and motorists claim to have seen a shadowy figure lurking in the woods around the area and on Highway 17. Throughout the winter of 1993-1994 the sightings suddenly stopped and people were left to their gossip.

         The following summer, police decided to take action after numerous complaints of a foul odor from the house. When detectives went to ask questions they quickly recognized the nauseating stench wafting from the house as rotting flesh. They reported being able to hear the sound of buzzing when they came within 10 feet of the house, which was later discovered to be from the thousands of flies and maggots that infested the residence. The farmhouse was a complete horrific mess. Years of rotten food, miscellaneous junk, human excrement, urine, insects and broken furniture cluttered the crumbling rooms which gave the odor of decaying flesh and an antiques shop. Downstairs, the 20-year-old J.P. was found in the cellar staring at a filthy brick wall, covered in his own feces and quietly humming "Jesus Loves the Little Children." They detained the man while a forensics team was called in. Soon after, they found the remains of his mother under approximately three feet of miscellaneous clutter in the closet of an upstairs bedroom. The autopsy revealed she had been savagely beaten and decapitated approximately 11 years prior, presumably by her husband who had gone about his life working at the slaughterhouse during the day then physically, emotionally and psychologically abusing his family throughout the night.

          The area in which J.P. had been detained his entire life was found in the barn behind the house. From the day his mother was murdered (J.P. was 9) he was chained to a rusty tractor near the back of the barn where he had to learn to survive. His mentally deranged father stole a goat once a month from the slaughterhouse and let it loose in the barn. In order to eat, J.P. had to learn how to lure the animal near him so that he could quickly grab it and break its neck. With hunger and the survival instinct kicking in (not to mention the beginnings of major psychological problems), he would eat every last piece of the animal. The meat, innards, skin, brain and even the genitals were consumed throughout the month. The bones were then used for tools and, after sharpened, self-mutilation. The self-mutilation began after the years of seclusion, and beatings from his drunken father, caused his mind to snap. This began his fascination with gore and violence toward himself, and later towards others.

          The local townspeople started reporting sightings of J.P. in October of 1993 when he managed to escape from the chain around his neck. His father, dying of cancer, had no way of catching him due to his weak state. J.P. didn't go far though... only far enough to explore the surroundings of the farm and to find food, which contained mostly dogs and small rodents. But, after hunting and exploring he'd always return to the only home he had ever known, the small farm on Highway 17. It's suspected that around this time J.P. murdered his father and disposed of his corpse somewhere in the woods behind the farm. His remains have still not been found. Psychologists evaluated J.P. at the nearby psychiatric hospital and determined he was too unstable from suffering severe mental psychosis to be present at trial. He was found not-guilty on all accounts due to reason of insanity and placed in Shady Acres Mental Hospital just outside the city limits.

          Doctors who evaluated J.P. through the last few months of his life reported he had a strange fixation with the night he stood outside Ms. Carrie-Ann Merrin's window 2 years earlier. There are detailed reports of J.P. reenacting scenes from the horror films he saw through the window that night. J.P. managed to escape the security of the facility approximately 3 months after arriving by murdering his nurse while on a walk through the yard and fleeing into the woods. Jordan police mounted a massive manhunt which lasted 28 days until J.P.'s decomposing body was found deep in the Jordan forest, dead from an apparent suicide. His corpse was shipped to the Scott County Morgue where medical examiner, Dr. Francis B. Gross, determined his death a suicide by hanging before noting the victim had inscribed the word "horror" into his chest before taking his life. Approximately 20% of the body had been eaten or dragged away by scavengers, most noticeably the genital area that was completely missing, leaving a large crater between his hips. (See crime photo.) The mangled body was placed in cooler #13 while authorities were trying to decide what to do with the remains. The next day, an intern at the morgue was doing her daily check of the bodies in the coolers when she discovered the body in cooler #13 was missing. After contacting her supervisor the police were called and a full investigation was conducted. The only evidence ever recovered was the ragged fragments of fingernails left with the scratches on the cooler door. Nothing could be seen on the security cameras and the incident was soon forgotten.

- View the Coroner Report -

- View the Death Certificate -

          Local townspeople feel they know exactly what happened to J.P. Orville Butcher. Through the years, some have claimed to see his shadowy figure (that many had become accustomed to seeing) slowly walking back and forth in the barn of the old decrepit farm on Highway 17. But now, it seemed there was something different from the past sightings-- the figure seemed to be illuminated by a screen of some kind. The local children nicknamed the land where the atrocities occurred "The Flesh Farm." Authorities have been asked to search the abandoned house and barn but even the police seem to shy away in fear.

          Jordan, Minnesota continues to fear that lonely stretch of Highway 17. Cars will quickly speed past, children will stand outside daring each other to go in, people still report sightings. "The Flesh Farm" is now legend in the small community in which it was made famous.

          It was later discovered in 1997 that someone had created a website entitled "The Flesh Farm." The pages were filled with information dealing with some of the most notorious, violent and flesh-filled horror films ever to be unleashed onto the planet. Many believe this madness has been created by the missing J.P. Butcher, sparked by that windy night on Halloween four years earlier when nothing in the world existed besides J.P. and his newly found obsession--horror. Perhaps this collection of the grotesque is what illuminates the lonely shadow that paces the The Flesh Farm and its tortured halls.

- Meet J.P. Butchers Hero -