It’s an age-old story of sibling rivalry.  Two sisters get into a fight and next thing you know, someon’s bitten off someone else’s nose.  That’s what happened to 28-year-old Sandra Smith.  Police say her sister, 27-year-old Bobbie Smith, bit off over one-third of her sister’s nose.  Bobbie finds herself in Jackson County Jail on $5000 bond.  But hey, at least police found the bitten-off nose!

I mean, the nose-biting is weird, but check this part out.  Bobbie Smith faces the charge of mayhem, which sounds awesome.  Under a 1931 Michigan law, mayhem is the act of mutilating someone’s nose, and it carries with it a felony sentence of up to 10 years in prison.  Doesn’t that strike you as oddly specific?  Like, what happened in 1931 that made Michigan pass a specific anti-nose-mangling law?  There’s got to be a story there!

The traditional definition of mayhem comes from jolly olde England, where it was defined as, “the intentional and wanton removal of a body part that would handicap a person’s ability to defend himself in combat.”  It was later widened to cover any sort of unwanted mutilation.  Still, why did Michigan not pass an anti-mayhem law until 1931?

Image: Megan Duffy

Tags: Napoleon Township, Michigan, woman bites off her sister’s nose, mayhem, unusual crimes, Bobbie Smith, Sandra Smith, law and order, sibling rivalry, nose-biting

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