SCP-3775

Description

SCP-3775 is a memetic phenomenon centered around nonexistent homicides supposedly taking place in the town of Arbutus, Maryland in July 1967. According to the phenomenon, the victims were six elementary school teachers and the murders were committed simultaneously in the local Taranto Schoolhouse by Garrett Evobasa Woleb, a Gambian immigrant who was born in December 1929 and moved to the United States in 1957. No record of Woleb, the schoolteachers, or the named schoolhouse have been found in the town of Arbutus, leading the Foundation to classify SCP-3775 as an anomalous activity shortly after its discovery.

Upon being infected by SCP-3775, persons display numerous changes in personality and behavior centered around the murders. Specifically:

• A continuous obsession with the details of the murders and the lives of the six schoolteachers killed and a strong distaste for the actions of Woleb.
• [In ~35% of subjects] A desire to travel to the town of Arbutus, Maryland to the site of the original murders (an empty plot of land outside the city limits). SCP-3775 infected subjects will always travel to Arbutus in groups of seven.
• [In artistically inclined subjects] A desire to create fictional media centering around the murders, such as novels, screenplays, etc. Media produced by SCP-3775 infected subjects has the same memetic properties as the original phenomenon, though descriptions do not as long as they omit visual material and direct quotes. The character of Woleb consistently disappears towards the end of several documented narratives without any apparent reaction from other depicted characters.
• A strong emotional attachment to the murdered teachers and feelings of extreme anger towards those who deny the murders occurred.

SCP-3775 was first discovered in July 1987 when an Arbutus city council member introduced a resolution to honor the slain victims by designating the 20th anniversary of the murders as "Taranto Teachers' Day". The infection spread rapidly throughout the town and came to the Foundation's attention shortly afterwards; at the time agents arrived, the city was in the middle of a week-long tribute to the victims and a local filmmaker was working on a documentary about their lives. The town was temporarily closed off and all persons issued repeated amnestics over the course of the following weeks.

Examples of Material Produced By 3775-Affected Subjects

Title: What happened to Garrett Evobasa Woleb, the "Butcher of Arbutus"?

Media: Thread posted to the social media site reddit in the /r/UnresolvedMysteries subreddit on 21 Sep 2008. Prior to its detection by Delta-34 and subsequent removal, approximately four dozen comments had been posted (the exact number could not be determined because numerous comments had been removed). All posters tracked down and issued amnestics by MTF Psi-10.

Description: Poster of thread provides brief description of the event and solicits feedback on the possible location of Woleb and his activities after 1967. Several users claim they have never heard of the murders and express confusion about their being no Wikipedia article or contemporary news reports on them, but all accept the validity of the original poster's claim. Others express frustration at several comments in the thread being removed, with one poster claiming their removed comment detailed their theory on Woleb's current whereabouts. When tagged in comments, the moderators claim they have not removed any in the thread and express confusion at the comments' absence. Thread removed at this point.

Title: Wolebshka

Media: Oil painting on canvas, discovered after being briefly listed for sale on eBay; bidding was at $700 at the time the auction was stopped. Amnestics were issued to bidders, viewers, and the original artist after an extensive search and detain mission across North America.

Description: Portrait of seven Russian nesting (or "Matryoshka") dolls, six of which resemble the schoolteachers, removed from their casing and staring at the viewer with looks described as "tortured" and "desperate". The bodies of the persons depicted have all been mutilated by a blunt object, with numerous bleeding wounds seen in the center of the dolls. The seventh and largest nesting doll lacks any features and is painted in featureless bright red. The entire background of the painting is pitch black, with no discernable features other than the seven dolls.

Title: Seven Angry Schoolteachers

Media: 20-minute Adobe Flash video uploaded to YouTube by an account named "Justice Arbutur". The account uploaded no videos before or after this one and was taken taken down by YouTube after several automatically generated DMCA claims from Delta-34. Video had 343 views at time of takedown. Subsequent surge in SCP-3775 manifestations in the months after the video's takedown were attributed to it.

Description: Experimental drama portraying Woleb as a teacher who is employed by Taranto Schoolhouse. The teachers are debating whether or not to approve funding for a staircase to the school's attic, replacing the aging ladder that had been used previously. Woleb and two other teachers oppose the proposal on the grounds that the new staircase's spiral design will give the children nightmares. The confrontation turns violent after one teacher refers to Woleb with a racial slur and questions his employment at the school given his race. The video becomes more abstract after this, intersplicing screams of distress and pain from the teachers with surreal images heavily featuring the color red; this sequence takes up the majority of the runtime. End of the video consists of police discovering the teachers dead within the school house except for Woleb, with one officer stating there is no physical evidence of the killer's identity despite the gruesome scene.

Title: Diary of an Ostracized Killer

Media: First-person narrative presented by the author as the recovered diary of Garrett Evobasa Woleb, self-published as a Kindle ebook on www.amazon.com and listed for sale at $6.99. Title taken down by Foundation agents embedded in Amazon within fifteen minutes of posting and no copies were purchased; one was downloaded for research purposes.

Description: ERROR - DATA CORRUPTED

Title: Garrett Evobasa Woleb Had Something to Hide. Who Else Might?

Media: Editorial written by the Wall Street Journal staff in July 2013, shortly after the NSA disclosures by Edward Snowden. The headquarters of the Wall Street Journal was raided prior to the article's publication and printed copies destroyed; after interrogation, the entire staff was issued Class B amnestics.

Description: Article is a call for increased security and a defence of the surveillance state, using the Arbutus murders as an example of a tragedy that could have been prevented with increased government monitoring. Authors advocate for indefinite renewal of the Patriot Act, a national identity card, and increased funding to the NSA. Foundation memetic analysis of the article's tone indicated unusually high level of preoccupation with persons hiding in places not visible to the naked eye and concern with citizens who do not have up to date documentation.