Brittany Warman
Documentation Related to Case #688: E9-1 to E9-6
Detective Robert Sanland—For Immediate Processing
E9-1
Case #688
“Of Gods and Cameras: Interview with Tom Boland, Creator of the Chimera Photograph Manipulation Series” (excerpt)
By Kathy Harkness : Text & Pictures Magazine
09/05/2026
[Unpublished; redacted due to events of 10/26/2026-11/05/2026]
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Tell me about how you got starting taking pictures? Did you always like it?
I’ve always loved taking pictures, ever since I was a kid. The precision of framing things just right, the satisfying click of a shutter, it’s all a kind of taming of magic and horror to me and that’s… exciting I guess. It always has been. Here, let me give you the world anew, let me give you the same thing but different. Let me show you how things really are. That’s how I got into photo manipulation—at some point it got to not be enough to just give people more of the same, more of what was actually there, I wanted to find some way to see beyond what was before my eyes and reach some deeper, more terrifying truth. Something beyond sight. A core truth, I guess.
And then?
Well yeah, so that’s when I starting blending and merging the pictures with my computer. The first one I did was this woman I was on a train with who was complaining and complaining about her commute. I thought it sounded like barking, her whining and nagging, so I gave her the mouth of my neighbor’s dog, whose picture I’d taken just after he had stolen a slice of meat from one of the picnic tables at the park across the street. I switched her eyes with the buttons of my wool coat because she didn’t see anything around her but her own problems. I gave her the boots of the man sitting three seats down from her, because the greatest thing anyone could ever give her would be to walk a mile in his shoes for a change.
It’s a stunning image you’ve created, so lifelike. Really all of them are. What would you say your favorite one is?
Um, well, that’s a hard question, I mean, most of them are so… horrific. They’re really the stuff of my nightmares [laughs]. That’s what they should be though, right? I mean, art is supposed to provoke change. I think the most satisfying one though is the one that started as a picture of my boss at the awful job I had before the pictures started taking off. I replaced his head with the head of a hyena, laughing without joy at everything. I gave him the bottom half of the girl who worked in reception… because it was the only thing he ever seemed to notice about her, despite how insanely pretty her eyes were, especially each day around 4:30PM when the sun hit the windows in this specific way. They would light up, you know, I guess partially because she just had to wait that final half an hour before she could go home. I hated that he was always just checking out her ass. So yeah, I made him ridiculous, but I did give him the tail of one of the scorpions at the zoo too… the man could certainly still sting when he wanted to and he knew it.
I think that really gets to the heart of the… unsettling nature of your work. They aren’t just parodies of people, they strike the audience as really biting, powerful commentary on the truth of their souls, of our own souls.
Well, thanks, I mean, I want people to see that. I want them to be uncomfortable. This is who we are, these mash ups of objects and people and animals and whatever. We’re not really more than that.
Don’t you ever worry that you’re misrepresenting the people you “re-create”? Certainly there’s more to the dog smile woman, for example, than just the complaints you heard. Perhaps she was just having an off day?
No, yeah, I mean… yeah. Maybe. A photograph is just one second in time, one moment. The mix of things we’re made up of is always changing, isn’t it? That woman may have gotten home as a totally different person, all kneading cat paws and knitted blankets, who knows? But I like to think I revealed a truth deep inside her, a truth no one really wants to see. And those are the ones we have to expose, as artists. And anyway, it’s just moments, just photographs.
You sound kind of sad about that?
Do I sometimes wish my chimeras were more than photographs of things from my imagination? Sure, what artist doesn’t want to live in the world they create? Plus, if you became what you projected, don’t you think people would think more about what they put out in the world? I mean, it would be horrible and wonderful at the same time wouldn’t it?
I think I’d lean toward horrible myself! [laughs]
Yeah. Yeah, I guess so [smiles]. But it would change the world.
Mr. Boland’s photographs can be seen in the Stiller Gallery on 5th Ave from October 25th to December 31st.
E9-2
Case #688
“Chaos in Central Park: Sutherland Body Found in Gruesome State”
CCC News Corporation
10/26/2026
[First Incident]
Police are now confirming that the body discovered this morning by an eight-year-old child is indeed that of well-known political analyst Barbara Sutherland. Mutilated almost beyond recognition, Ms. Sutherland’s remains were found in the Conservatory Gardens on the east side of the park.
Though the incident has been officially ruled a suicide, rumors from those on the scene attest that the corpse’s eyes were removed and replaced with large black buttons, while her mouth was slit almost from ear to ear. Both injuries are inconsistent with self-harm and authorities are reportedly questioning the series of events that led to the famous commentator’s death.
Curiously, the boots Sutherland was wearing were visibly several sizes too large.
Sutherland’s office could not be reached for comment.
E9-3
Case #688
911 Call from Christine Roberts [transcript]
10/31/2026 – 10:57PM
[Third Incident – Note that details of the second incident are classified at this time due to the high-profile nature of the victim]
911 Dispatch: 911, what’s your emergency?
Roberts: Please, please help, my husband, he’s… oh my God…
911: Ma’am I’m going to need you to calm down and tell me what’s happening.
Roberts: I’m in the bathroom, the door’s locked but I can hear him, he’s in pain, I don’t know what’s happening to him. I hear him outside, he’s… his whole body was… I think someone else is out there? Oh my God, he’s screaming, please send help!
911: Where are you?
Roberts: I’m at [REDACTED]
911: Police are on their way. Please try to remain calm.
Roberts: Oh my God, oh my God…
E9-4
Case #688
11/02/2026
[Public Safety Announcement]
THE FOLLOWING PUBLIC SAFETY ANNOUCEMENT APPLIES TO ALL AREAS OF CENTRAL MANHATTAN
On 10/26/26, 10/31/26, and 11/02/26 three incidents similar in nature occurred in the immediate Central Park area. Police are on high alert this evening and suspect the events are connected. Citizens are advised to stay indoors if at all possible and avoid the park while police investigate.
Anyone with information regarding these crimes is encouraged to call the NYPD tip line at 212-555-TIPS.
IF YOU KNOW OR SUSPECT YOUR PHOTOGRAPH IS PART OF THE TOM BOLAND EXHIBIT CURRENTLY APPEARING AT STILLER GALLERY PLEASE CONTACT THE POLICE IMMEDIATELY
E9-5
Case #688
“The Unbearable Weight of Artistic Inspiration”
11/04/26
[Boland Personal Statement on Blog]
I likely have very little time to post this and I doubt all that many people will read it before forming their own opinions. I expect the police will be able to put together the pieces of the puzzle quickly, but mystery was never a goal of mine. Indeed I want the facts known. I want to be recognized for what I really am. I am only the beginning.
Artistic inspiration is a terrible burden. It eats away at your soul while the rest of humanity wanders freely from fast food restaurant to movie theater, from shopping trip to picnic. The urge to create something lasting, something powerful… it devours you. And nothing satisfies it, once you’ve fixated on a creation—it haunts your dreams until you can bring it to life in the way you imagine. Anything less is simply not good enough. This is art, its curse and its beauty. Nothing can grip a human life more, not even love. We are all selfish creatures really.
You’re likely following my blog because of your interest in my photographs, but this is not my art. This is nothing. Blurry, ephemeral images of seconds in a day cannot possibly create the effect I truly intended, an effect that is lasting, something that changes humanity. A photograph you can forget. A human body transformed into its truth… that no one will ever forget. That is art.
Death and art have always walked hand in hand. All art is dead, is it not? If it is ever to have any chance of living, for even a moment, sacrifice is necessary. But often death was my project’s choice, not mine. They were unable to see the beauty in what they had become, the sacrifice they had made for the betterment of the world, they only saw the horror. Yes, there was pain—for them, for me—but I have created thirteen masterpieces and my legacy will be unmatched. My gift demanded nothing less.
When you hear the stories, when you see the pictures now… now perhaps you’ll think twice about what you have decided to be. We are all made up of so many different, changing things, but maybe you’ll want to be one of the beautiful chimeras, not one of mine. My art will change the world. There is no other way. I have always seen the real you and I am not the only one.
E9-6
Case #688
“Tom Boland: Serial Killer or Inspired Prophet?” (excerpt)
The New York Times
11/10/26
[Editorial; Anonymous Writer]
The events of late October to early November have undoubtedly rocked the nation in numerous ways. The circumstances of the death of Mr. Boland at the hands of the NYPD on November 5th, 2026, combined with the horrific states of his alleged victims’ bodies, are not likely to be soon forgotten. There remains too, of course, the matter of the seven as yet unidentified victims mentioned in the artists’ blog.
But I don’t want to talk about Mr. Boland’s crimes. I don’t even want to talk about how he was able to accomplish them, though that too remains in question. I want to talk about why he did them. We are a culture that values both artistic expression and violence. Is it any wonder that those things would eventually combine? Is it any wonder that Mr. Boland saw himself as an inspired artist, a prophet bringing the truth to the masses?
No. And I, for one, won’t be surprised when it happens again. For we are mutilated, chimerical creatures at heart. We are uglier than we appear. Showing the world what we’re really made of… what could possibly have a greater chance of changing the world than that?
P is for Photography
