A long time ago my old room mate "Bunkie" was staying overnight at a lake cabin with some friends, and they spent part of the evening watching a documentary about Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole.  According to the program (as Bunkie recounted it), Ottis was captured after being arrested for indecent exposure while walking through a small town somewhere with a bag over his head, naked.  Late that night, Bunkie got up for a drink of water, and assuming that everyone would be asleep, did not bother to put any clothes on -- however, much to her embarrassment, her friend was in fact awake, reading a book, and from that day on among that particular group of friends she acquired the nickname "Ottis."

Years later I was looking through the true crime section of a bookstore and discovered a book about Henry and Ottis that contained the incredibly grisly picture of Ottis found at the end of the Cult of Ottis web page.  Just for fun, I faxed it to Bunkie at her new office in California, autographed "To BunKy aLL my Love, Ottis."

My housekeeper at that time was a very sweet, young  undergrad with braces, who was called "Susie Hitler" because she had said she wanted to start a punk rock band.  When she saw the picture of Ottis, she was very impressed and waxed a little too enthusiastic over the idea of putting it in a picture frame and making a cult out of it.

In the mean time, I was on an Internet listserv for the discussion of personal beliefs, where I first unveiled something like the current text of the manifesto.  A couple of list members subsequently declared themselves Ottis worshippers, and the rest was history.

I still have the original Visage, over a decade later.  It's now housed in an old-fashioned spice cabinet with doors, containing a "Five Wounds of Christ" rosary, a miniature (airline style) bottle of Jack Daniels, a small pile of very tiny plastic naked baby dolls, a straight razor with dried stage blood, an antique glass hypodermic syringe, and many other vaguely shocking and disturbing items.

So I don't mean to demystify the Cult of Ottis too much -- not like I want to spoil the effect, or anything -- all this is just to hopefully dispel any lingering doubts the reader may have as to the motives of our founders and the extent to which we may or may not pose a danger to ourselves or others.

Return to OTTIS.

N.B.   Hospital emergency room statistics as reported by the United States Government record over 36,000 injuries from shaving implements in the year 1995 alone.   Fatalities from shaving accidents are not separately reported.