While scanning some link farms for titillating news of perversion, PervScan happened to notice a link titled “Autoerotic Fatalities with Power Hydraulics.” Now how can you pass up something with a title like that? The link pointed not to a news story but to the abstract of an article — co-authored by a guy who also wrote a piece with the winning title “Television-inspired Autoerotic Asphyxiation” — that appeared over a decade ago in the Journal of Forensic Sciences. Here is the abstract:

We report two cases in which men used the hydraulic shovels on tractors to suspend themselves for masochistic sexual stimulation. One man developed a romantic attachment to a tractor, even giving it a name and writing poetry in its honor. He died accidentally while intentionally asphyxiating himself through suspension by the neck, leaving clues that he enjoyed perceptual distortions during asphyxiation. The other man engaged in sexual bondage and transvestic fetishism, but did not purposely asphyxiate himself. He died when accidentally pinned to the ground under a shovel after intentionally suspending himself by the ankles. We compare these cases with other autoerotic fatalities involving perceptual distortion, cross-dressing, machinery, and postural asphyxiation by chest compression.

Unfortunately the journal doesn’t make this article available for download. Ever the intrepid reporter, PervScan then went to a local medical library to try and track the article down — but unfortunately this particular library did not carry the Journal of Forensic Sciences. Now there are half a dozen other quality libraries here in New York, but with the Republican National Convention in town you can’t expect PervScan to fight his way through the traffic to find some old article about people who killed themselves by jerking off. But you can expect PervScan to perform due diligence on Google, and fortunately that seems to have turned up the meat of the story.

Here’s the juicy part of the first case:

A 42 year-old Asian man was found hanging by the neck, suspended by a rope attached to the raised shovel of a John Deere Model JD410, diesel powered, backhoe tractor…The decedent was suspended in a semi-sitting position by a cloth safety harness strap wrapped around his neck and clipped to a rope that was hooked to the raised shovel of the backhoe tractor. A towel was between the loose fitting strap and the victim’s neck. A long piece of plastic pipe was connected on one end by conduit tape to the hydraulic control lever of the shovel in the operator’s compartment of the tractor. A broom stick was taped to the other end of the pipe and was partially under the decedent’s buttocks. The hydraulic shovel could be easily raised or lowered by slight pressure applied to the broomstick. The decedent was fully clothed, and his genitals were not exposed. No pornographic materials, women’s clothing items, or mirrors were at the scene… He had no known psychiatric illness.

And here is a summary of the second case:

Found dead in his barn, pinned under the hydraulic front scoop of a John Deere tractor. A neighbor found him lying prone on the ground with the scoop of the tractor on his back. The tractor engine was no longer running, but the ignition was still in the on position. Victim nude except for a pair of red women’s shoes with eight-inch heels and knee-high nylons. Duct tape was wrapped around ankles. Ankles were bound to a four-foot-long segment of pipe such that legs were spread. A yoke was attached to the center of the pipe, which was attached to the front loader bucket by a chain. Two ropes led from the victim to the tractor’s control lever for raising and tilting the bucket. Fully raising the hydraulic bucket would have caused complete suspension of his inverted body by the ankles. He died when accidentally pinned to the ground under the shovel after intentionally suspending himself.

That’s all pretty fascinating, but unfortunately it leaves in the dark what may be the most interesting part of the case: the fact that the first guy actually “developed a romantic attachment to a tractor, even giving it a name and writing poetry in its honor.” You can understand how it might occur to someone interested in asphyxiation to hang himself from the bucket of a tractor, but to fall in love with the machine? To write poetry in its honor? You imagine the guy penning little haikus of love:

Rope around my neck
Green metal John Deere tractor
I love your bucket

Hydraulic levers
Ecstasy without breathing
Hydraulic lovers

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