A pig—the eldest of the Little family—was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted of murdering and eating a local wolf, reports said.

Mr Little—nicknamed the “Cannibal of Shanklin” for the village where the grisly crime was committed—was on trial for boiling Mr B.B. Wolf alive and then consuming his remains. Little was given a life sentence with no chance for an appeal.

Little’s defence attorneys, however, thought they had an ace up their sleeve. Mr Wolf, up until his horrific murder, had been considered the prime suspect in the disappearance of Mr Little’s younger brothers. The week prior, Mr Wolf had left court and never denied seeing them before their mysterious vanishing act.

“I’d seen both of them building new homes on my way from Shanklin to Merry-Garden. I welcomed them to the neighbourhood.” Mr Wolf said outside court. The reports said that both pigs homes had been flattened, one made of straw and the other of sticks, as if blown over by a strong gust of wind. However, with no bodies or physical evidence to link him to their disappearance, Mr Wolf walked away.

“I’ve been let go, and rightfully so. I did not take, nor harm those poor Little pigs.” Mr Wolf had declared to the media outside Shanklin Courthouse. “Thank you for all your support.”

This week, Mr Little had just finished building his brick house when he allegedly spotted Mr Wolf stalking around. “I saw him outside and by the hair on my chiny-chin-chin, that’s where he’d stay!” Mr Little stated. “Then he threatened to blow my house down. I sweary-swear-swear it!”

In court, Mr Little’s testimony painted a darker picture of the popular local, Mr Wolf. After threatening to blow his house down, Little testified that Mr Wolf on no less than three separate occasions tried to lure him from his home. “I think he wanted to eaty-eat-eat me, even after he found out my housey-house-house was sturdier than theirs.”

Mr Little detailed the events where Mr Wolf allegedly invited him along to Mr Smiths to pick some turnips, followed by an invitation to pick some apples in Merry-Garden until finally inviting him along to the Shanklin Fall Fair.

“Seems odd for Mr Wolf to invite Mr Little to such a public event if he was just going to try and eat him.” Mr Smith, owner of Homefield Turnips said on the court’s steps this week. “He’d never tried to eat me, not even once! And he’d had me alone with him plenty of times!”

Mr Little had been seen at the fair alone and made a single purchase, a butter-churn, before rushing back to his home.

Ms Merry owner of Merry-Garden shook her head as she answered questions. “When I’d seen Mr Little, he’d been acting suspiciously. Looking over his shoulder. Then he bought the butter churn and left without saying so much as hello or goodbye.” She wiped the tears from her cheeks. “It wasn’t until this all went down that I realised Mr Wolf was probably already dead. I assume it’d take a lot of butter to prepare a wolf for eating.” As she waved away reporters, her tears got the best of her. “Mr Wolf was such a kind local.”

Mr Little initially denied knowing Mr Wolf’s whereabouts, until police uncovered some tufts of fur in his chimney. Once they checked the stew pot over the fire, it was only then they recovered Mr Wolf’s remains. Mr Little’s story began to change immediately.

“He came down the chimney to eaty-eat-eat me and when he fell into my boiling pot, I trapped him for feary-fear-fear of my life!” Mr Little had told the officers on the scene. As the information was read out in court, Mr Little cried as the prosecutor questioned him.

“So, let me get this straight. Mr Wolf climbed up, onto your roof, in broad daylight, to come down your chimney and eat you?”

“Yessy-yes-yes, that’s exactly what happened!”

The prosecution continued. “So… you ate him then, in self-defence?”

Mr Little’s mother, Sow Little, cried out as the grisly details came to light.

“I couldn’t afford to keep them all home, so I had no choice but to send them out into the world.” Mrs Little said, outside court. “They were all so smart and resourceful. This town has always been kind to me.” Her voice cracked as she struggled to continue. “I can’t believe he’s done this… it’s not how I raised him.”

After the trial that shocked Shanklin to its very core handed Mr Little his life sentence, rumours immediately began to swirl about his possible connection to the disappearance of his brothers.

“If he ate Mr Wolf, why couldn’t he have eaten them too?” Ms Merry asked.

Mr Smith had questions of his own. “How does one pig get enough to build a house from brick and mortar, when his brothers could only afford straw or wood? It just doesn’t add up.”

Unfortunately, with no trace of the other Little pigs, it seems Mr Little will only be serving the one life sentence. However, Mr Little’s actions have shocked this small community to its very core and left a legacy that will long outlast the pig who ate the wolf.

 

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So, for those of you who don’t follow me on any of my social media (first, get on it @thetjedwards on everything), you’ll have missed the fact that I’m doing a class on The Art of Storytelling with Neil Gaiman as the tutor. It’s a do at your own pace kind of class and thus far it has been fabulous. It is making me think outside the box and find new avenues for inspiration and creativity.

The above story burst forth from one of my writing assignments: Take a fairytale and write a news article detailing the events. As you can see, I had a lot of fun with it and painted the final Pig as the culprit, while we all know that Mr Wolf was certainly the villain and got his comeuppance at the very end.

On a side note, I tweeted about this very story and the teacher himself liked my Tweet. It’s a small brush with fame, but one that made me giggle like a schoolgirl and wake up my wife, to which she replied, “Who’s that?” She was half asleep, but still! Anyway, someone commented that they’d like to see it and after a few little edits here and there, here it is!

I hope you all enjoy!

-TJ